A
Day at the Happiest Place on Earth is a very special item for me. This video
was released in 1993, when I was 7 years old. Our family visited Disneyland
that year, and I was just old enough to ride everything and have the absolute
time of my life. On the way out, of course, we bought this video tape, which
acted as a “This year at Disneyland” type of video souvenir. Of course, back in
the day, Disney would make different videos with original content, whereas now
they practically either copy what they did last year or simply leave the same
version on the shelf for five years. But make no mistake, these videos were
heaven on earth before the YouTube generation. This was LITERALLY the only
place to get ride-through coverage of attractions in video form, save your own
personal home movies. So every time we see a ride-through of Pirates or even
Snow White, we giddied with excitement! This video particularly stood out
because Fantasmic! was not yet a year old, and it was mind-blowing to everyone
in all the right ways. Getting home to watch the video, we were astonished and
delighted to see the extended video coverage of Fantasmic! at the end of the
presentation, which helped us relive our joy and wonder from our trip. I adored
this video and practically wore it out. I was surprised to find it in such good
condition when I finally digitized it a few weeks ago.
Rather
than write several paragraphs on each of these vacation planning early-1990s
videos (I practically said most of what I had to say in our last installment),
I’ll go over the highlights of the video:
·
It always makes me smile when Mickey knows
everyone’s name, including Cast Members. As a symbolic entity he always shared certain
similarities with Santa Clause, and in this case I always felt him as the
omni-benevolent overseer of Walt’s theme parks. He can walk the park and know
everything that’s going on and he knows everyone’s name instinctively. And he’s
not above self-deprecation! Notice how he laughs at himself when he tells the
CMs there’s five minutes until park open but realizes he only has four digits
on his hand!
·
Quite a bit of this video is a nostalgia romp
(check out the original DL parking marquee), but an underrated aspect of this
is the fact that we get to see all the old Costumes! I think the old parking
costumes are my favorite. Would you like fries with that?
·
It makes me smile whenever we hear Jack Wagner’s
soothing tones. He makes all the park announcements throughout this video,
including park close. Most unexpected: he makes the opening safety announcement
for Fantasmic!
·
For whatever reason, the voiceovers for the attraction
characters in the video are just horrific. The replacement voices for Disney
direct-to-video sequels are better. That sounds NOTHING like Jose! Paging Dan
Castellaneta!
·
TAHITIAN TERRACE COVERAGE! TAHITIAN TERRACE
COVERAGE! NERD ALERT LEVEL 10!
·
Is Goofy guilty of copyright infringement for
literally stealing all the skipper’s jokes on his ride through the jungle? I’d
get sued for that. But his mosquito veil is hilarious and causes him to hit the
little kid in front of him with his binoculars multiple times.
·
This video has a lot of strange examples of
characters riding certain attractions that don’t really make sense
thematically. Roger Rabbit on Big Thunder Mountain? I guess? Pluto on Space
Mountain? Maybe? Chip and Dale on Mansion? Did they get lost coming from
Toontown? At least Smee and Hook on Pirates of the Caribbean makes sense. Hook
even complements them on such a “splendid job of pillage and plunder.”
·
The Splash Mountain segment has the most hilarious
example of anti-continuity in the whole show. First Brer Bear is the only
character in the log, with 4 Guests sitting in front of him. Then Brer Fox
suddenly pops in when they go into the main show building. Then they both
disappear. Then they come back seated in different positions. Then Brer Rabbit
appears in the boat going down Chick-A-Pin, and the Guests have all vanished! Then
Brer Bear and Brer Fox get off the ride and curse that “next time we’ll get
that Brer Rabbit.” He was sitting in your log! How incompetent of a cartoon
villain do you have to be?! And then for some reason Mickey’s standing at the
exit and forces them into the Country Bear Playhouse! What is going on?
·
Yes, the SKYWAY’s here too and gets some great
photo coverage from many parts of its ride path! And it’s the old super-technicolor
Small World!
·
A good tour of the Fantasyland Classics (sans
Toad, how dare they), but what the hell background music is being played
through the Pinocchio and Snow White segments? That music has absolutely
nothing to do with the source material? Why aren’t they just playing the
original music content? IT’S DISNEY’S MUSIC! Am I missing something?
·
We get a very cool tour of the new Toontown
and a peak into every attraction (except for Roger Rabbit, which possibly hadn’t
opened yet), including the fully-working Jolly Trolley!
·
That Matterhorn ride is good but has some hilarious
fake screams. Like Rollercoaster Tycoon-level bad. But seriously, that ghostly
fingerprint of Harold as we ride past is LEGIT.
·
The old Tomorrowland tour is great, but like
the last video I wish it was longer in hindsight. We do get to see the old
Autopia, the old Subs, PeopleMover, Star Jets, the old Space Mountain Speedramp
entrance, and the old TLT, complete with character dancing! And Launchpad
McQuack!
·
In the Space Mountain footage, WHAT ON EARTH
IS THAT LIFT HILL? It’s 100 times better than the pre-1998 lift hill we had.
Why didn’t they just do THAT?!
·
Remember those “Mickey in the weeds” t-shirts
from the 90s that were as ubiquitous as the “thinking Mickey” cups? Me too.
·
MSEP gets some good footage here, but again,
WHAT IS THIS MYSTERY MUSIC? This is not the music of the parade! And
furthermore, what the h is Prince John dancing to? That’s not Disney
appropriate!
·
The extended Fantasmic! coverage is the
E-Ticket of this video. They practically go through the entire show, albeit in
a cliff-notes version. But seriously, in the days before YouTube, this was
absolute heaven. You could WATCH FANTASMIC! IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME.
WHENEVER YOU WANTED! WOW!
·
Remember to order your Day at Disneyland by
calling this now-long-out-of-service number! Operators were standing by but
they’ve been abducted by Doc Ock and the Sinister Syndicate. Due to the recent
unpleasantness caused by Doc Ock and his gang of villains, we will be closed
until further notice, or at least until Spider-Man can make our city safe
again.
--ParkScopeJeff (@ParkScopeJeff)
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**Send Jeff a line at HamGamgee@gmail.com. We appreciate your feedback!
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