The
first Mickey's Halloween Party of the year is this Friday. I got to
go to that thing in 2013. It wasn't as mind-blowing as the
advertising (and price tag) would have you believe, but it was fun
enough. There honestly wasn't that
much going on that there wouldn't be on any normal Disneyland
evening, it's just that on this occasion, it was Halloween-themed.
Speaking as a grown-up, the best part was getting to wander around
Disneyland in a costume. (I
was the “it's a small world” Clock Tower.)
The “candy stations” were nothing to write home about and I don't
usually go in for rave dancing.
And then there was the unique live entertainment, which I would
describe as a mixed bag. The “Cadaver Dans”—i.e. The Dapper
Dans with ghoulish makeup and a spooky song repertoire—were a lot
of fun. The “Halloween Screams” fireworks show is fantastic, and
I think it's practically criminal that they only show it at the
party. The parade, though—”Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade”—was
rather disappointing. It just felt very thrown-together, with cheap
floats, uninspired music and dancing, and an overall lack of
imagination and effort.
Orlando's
Magic Kingdom, by contrast, has a Halloween parade—Mickey's
Boo-To-You Halloween Parade—that's pretty dang slick..but rather
than simply wish to have theirs imported over here,* I thought I'd
Armchair Imagineer a better one from scratch! Inspired by the
wonderful A
Christmas Fantasy Parade,
I would make this parade an elaborate, tightly themed spectacle that
really brings across the spirit of the holiday in all its facets (or
at least all the facets that are family-friendly enough for
Disneyland). Accordingly, rather than spamming the most marketable
characters, I would choose characters and IPs that actually reflect
aspects of Halloween...while still including plenty of crowd-pleasers
so the average guest can still find a favorite!
Disneyland Dilettante readers, I give you...the Hooray For Halloween
Parade!
General
The
parade is held after dark, as Halloween events generally ought to be.
Since the very youngest kids are usually in bed by then, it can be a
little
spookier than typical Disneyland fare, but nothing gruesome or truly
horrific will be in the offing.
The music, in the tradition of the best Disneyland parades, consists
of an original theme song plus an appropriate medley for each unit,
all interwoven for seamless transitions as the parade progresses down
the route. The main theme is peppy and alternates between major and
minor keys in order to give the impression of spookiness without
sounding threatening.
Unless their normal appearance is already Halloween-worthy,
characters appear “in costume”—some of them show up for
meet-and-greets in suitable costumes as it is during this time of
year, and there's no reason not to use the same fuzzy suits in the
parade.
Opening
Unit: This Is Halloween!
For
our opener, who better to lead the parade than Jack Skellington?
(It's better than having him spend Halloween vandalizing the Haunted
Mansion with Christmas decorations, that's for dang sure.) Actually,
he's not quite at the
head of the procession. First comes an assortment of spooky Disney
characters from a variety of sources—the Lonesome Ghosts (from the
1937 short of the same name), Witch Hazel (“Trick or Treat,”
1952), the skeletons of 1929's “Skeleton Dance” (riding the
Dapper Dans' four-seat tandem bike), and not least, Mickey Mouse and
the gang in their Halloween costumes.
Why not the Headless Horseman? For two reasons. First, I thought it
would be dicey to have one person on horseback amid several on
foot/bicycle. I've had my foot stepped on by a horse before, and even
under ideal circumstances (you're not in the middle of doing anything
and it doesn't hurt you) it kind of brings the world to a screeching
halt. Second, Walt Disney World may choose to start their Halloween
parade with a bang and more power to them, but my model here is to
start small and friendly and increase the grandeur as the parade goes
along.
So
these relatively harmless, comical characters serve as the vanguard
for a Nightmare Before Christmas
float that is itself not too fancy, yet. Made to look like the film's
iconic Spiral Hill, with a huge glowing moon propped overhead and
lots of jack-o-lanterns around the base, it features the Jack
Skellington and Sally face characters, plus simple animatronics of
other key characters from the film. Jack boisterously waves and
greets the crowd; Sally is a bit more restrained, fitting her more
subdued personality.
The music for this unit mixes the parade's main theme with the
melodies of “This
is Halloween” and “Oogie
Boogie's Song” from the film.
Scream
Along With Monsters, Inc.
I've griped about the overuse of Pixar in Disneyland more than once,
but there's a time and a place for everything. When you have a cast
composed of monsters who have literally made a career out of scaring
humans, that's plenty Halloween-ish in my book.
First up is a troupe of dancers in cute monster costumes, something
like this, but in both men's and women's versions (and a variety of
color palettes):
We could maybe do without the "sexy face" for our purposes, you think?
Or
perhaps the costumes from the Pixar Play Parade could be repurposed.
Either way, their dance moves involve lots of stomping and “claw
hands” (shades of the Thriller dance, maybe?) and mock-snarly
faces. The music draws from the Monsters,
Inc.
score and the song “Monster
Mash.”
The float is a mock-up of a Monstropolis city block, with apartments,
street lights, a STALK/DON'T STALK signal, etc. Jack-o-lanterns are
placed on the window and door sills and carved to resemble the
scariest thing of all, to a monster: human children. Sully, Mike
Wazowski, and other characters from the film are present, miming
along to a voice track where they encourage the crowd to scream and
“Power the city!” The float's lights are hooked up to microphones
that detect the crowd noise, so that they literally flare up in
response to the screams.
Princesses'
Masked Ball
There has to be a Princess unit. It's, like, the rules or something.
I like to think this is at least more interesting than the usual
approach.
The unit is headed by Cinderella's coach, looking more pumpkin-like
than usual. The Fairy Godmother walks alongside, occasionally
breaking away to interact with children in the crowd. She can tell
the ones in costume their fairy godmother did a wonderful job, etc.
Also present are Cinderella's mice friends, pushing themed
handcarts—one features a giant book open to a page labeled
“Halloween Costume Pattern” and the other is piled with outsized
sewing supplies.
This is followed by a dance troupe of men and women in autumn-themed
ballroom attire, each carrying a matching masquerade mask on a wand.
The rest of the included Princesses can be found on the main float,
which takes the form of a ballroom floor decked out for the fall
harvest—sheaves of wheat and corn, garlands of autumn leaves,
draping fabric in autumnal colors, and pumpkins carved with regal and
fairytale designs such as castles, crowns, and jewels. The Princesses
are wearing autumnal variations on their usual gowns—Belle's is
yellow-orange rather than golden yellow, Aurora's is a darker shade
of lavender than usual, etc. They are also equipped with masquerade
masks, each in a unique personal design—Tiana's resembles a Mardi
Gras mask with feathers and sequins, Ariel's is decorated with sea
shells and coral, etc. The Princesses alternate between waving to the
crowd and playing peek-a-boo with their masks, and dancing to a
three-quarter time version of the parade theme.
Sugar
Rushing Through the Candy Corridor
Wreck-It
Ralph
needs more love. It's hard to think of a really slam-dunk way to
create a permanent attraction based on it, but the fact that most of
it takes place inside a candy-themed video game makes it a good
candidate for a trick-or-treat motif. There's even a racer based on
Halloween candy: Gloyd Orangeboar.
So
for this unit, Vanellope and Gloyd lead the way in their signature
karts, accompanied by dancers in candy corn and gumdrop costumes. The
music samples from the Sugar
Rush theme song, “Trick
or Treat”
from the 1952 Disney short, and “I
Want Candy.” Behind them is the main float, a Sugar Rush-styled
landscape forested with candy corn, black licorice, and “apple
trees” composed of single giant caramel apples. Wreck-It Ralph and
Fix-It Felix are aboard, carrying trick-or-treat buckets designed to
appear as though made out of pixels. Parts of the float are
collapsible so they can take turns “wrecking” and “fixing”
the landscape. (This has nothing to do with Halloween in itself, but it gives them something in-character to do.)
I have toyed with the idea of having a few parade performers actually
throw small wrapped candies to the crowd, but not all parents would
appreciate having sugar foisted on their children without their prior
consent. Probably best to leave that sort of thing to the small-town
parades.
Madam
Leota Calls Out the Spirits
You
knew we'd get to the Haunted Mansion unit eventually, right? I choose
to believe it's because it's a great idea and not because I'm that
predictable. Mickey's Boo-To-You has an awesome
Haunted Mansion unit, from which I will be borrowing ideas, but
copying the entire thing wholesale is beneath me.
The
music will naturally be a cover of “Grim Grinning Ghosts,”
perhaps sampling from “The
Headless Horseman” in order to keep it from being too
straightforward. Dancing to this are my big “thefts” from the
Orlando parade—a troupe of dancing gravediggers and another of
ghostly ballroom dancers. The latter wear UV-reactive costumes and
makeup so that they glow faintly under the black lights lining the
parade route.
Also
included are a few individual Mansion characters, walking along and
interacting with the crowd. By this point in the parade, the spook
factor is in high gear. I think the guests can handle things like a
Constance Hatchaway with a glowing heartbeat under her gown and a
bouquet that transforms into an axe (via retracting flowers), or a
Hatbox Ghost with a mechanical head in his hatbox (the performer's
real face is screened from view with black morphsuit fabric).
The
float for this unit is the longest in the parade. A model of the
Haunted Mansion, perhaps twelve or fifteen feet high, adorns the
front, with mysterious lights flashing in its windows. Behind it, a
giant version of Madam Leota's crystal ball rotates on its table, so
that she faces everyone in turn while delivering her spiel. (Like the
smaller one on the ride, it functions via interior projection
mapping.) The rear of the float is a graveyard scene with Singing
Busts and less high-profile (but still recognizable) ghost characters
played by live performers.
The
Hitchhiking Ghosts trail the float on foot, as if trying to catch a
ride with it but constantly getting distracted with guest
interactions.
That
would make a fine finale all on its own, but I've got it in me for
one more Halloween treat!
Villains'
Frightful Finale
Disney
theme park Halloweens tend to heavily feature the Villains...or at
least the ones everyone recognizes. The events lean toward the corny,
probably in the interest of not terrifying young children. But we've
already come this far; why not go all the way in terms of
Disney-level scariness?
Although
other Villains are included, this unit revolves around Chernabog and
the Night on Bald Mountain sequence from Fantasia.
Leading the unit are several puppeteers in black bodysuits, wielding
gauzy “ghosts” like the ones seen rising from their graves in the
film. Next comes a troupe of dancers in garish harpy
costumes (minus the visible nipples, since this is Disneyland after
all). The music is of course a medley of themes from Mussorgsky's
“Night on Bald Mountain."
The
float depicts a grim, jagged landscape upon which various Villains
ride. The terrain rises toward the back, which represents the peak of
Bald Mountain itself. A massive puppet of Chernabog gesticulates atop
the mountain, while more ghosts swirl around its slopes (some puppets
on rotating tracks, others mapped projections).
A
spectacle like that speaks for itself, so the Villains have no lines
of dialogue. Helpfully, this also means that whichever Villain
costumes are handiest may be pressed into service—if Captain Hook
is being cleaned, the Queen of Hearts can take his place, and so
on.**
And
there you have it—a Halloween parade worthy of the course between
Town Square and “it's a small world”! What do you say—would you
wait on the curb for upwards of an hour in order to watch this baby?
*
For one thing, their
parades are designed for their
parade route. Compare maps of the two parks and you should see why
that matters.
**
These are only examples. I would actually prioritize less comical,
more genuinely threatening, Villains for this float.
No comments:
Post a Comment