PHOTOS: ‘Happiness Is Here’ Parade from Tokyo Disneyland
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This Monday, April 15, the Tokyo Disney Resort will officially kick off its year-long celebration of its 30th anniversary. One of the exciting new elements joining the line-up is a brand new parade titled ‘Happiness is Here,’ with massive and dynamic floats designed by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily. Although the parade doesn’t officially start until Monday, Tokyo Disneyland has been offering a soft opening to guests, inviting them to preview things to come.
There have already been some videos out there since the parade began, so I opted to take photos of the parade when I had my chance to see it yesterday morning. Below are some of the images from ‘Happiness Is Here.’ Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger version of the image.
For more fun from my ongoing visit to Tokyo Disney Resort as well as the Tokyo area in general, be sure to follow @stitchkingdom on Twitter.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: Happiness Is Here, Japan, Parades, TDR, Tokyo, Tokyo Disney Resort, Tokyo Disneyland
‘Star Tours: The Adventures Continue’ at Tokyo Disneyland to Open May 2013
‘May the 7th be with you,’ is probably something you won’t be hearing a lot of next year, but just a few days after The Walt Disney Company announced its intentions to acquire Lucasfilm to produce new Star Wars films, the Tokyo Disney Resort has announced it will hold its grand opening for ‘Star Tours: The Adventures Continue’ on May 7, 2013 — just a few days after ‘Star Wars Day’ on May the 4th.
At a price tag just north of US $87 million, the updated attraction brings the same 3D randomized experience to Tokyo Disneyland as it has already done for both Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
‘Star Tours: The Adventures Continue’ is just one more reason the Tokyo Disney Resort will just get happier as it begins celebrating ‘The Happiness Year’ in April 2013, commemorating its 30th anniversary. The attraction will offer FASTPASS and will have a height restriction of 41″ (105 cm) and an age minimum of 3.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: Attractions, Star Tours, Star Wars, TDL, TDR, Theme Parks, Tokyo, Tokyo Disney Resort, Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disney Details Toyville Trolley Park Offerings for ‘Toy Story Mania!’ Opening
As previously reported, Toy Story Mania! will be opening at the Tokyo DisneySea Park at the Tokyo Disney Resort on July 9. The attraction, already immensely popular at other Disney theme parks, will be the focal point of the all new Toyville Trolley Park, an old-fashioned amusement park in New York. Guests will enter the attraction via the mouth of a 26-foot tall sculpture of Woody’s face.
Toyville Trolley Park will also be home to: the Toy Box Playhouse, where the audio animatronic Mr. Potato Head will reside; Slinky Dog’s Gift Trolley; and Bullseye’s Carnival Corral where guests can enjoy three types of old-fashioned carnival games featuring characters from the Toy Story films. Guests can see their funny reflections in Manic Mirrors, run as fast as they can at Blazin’ Buckaroo, and bring a miniature carnival scene to life at Woody’s Wonder Wagon, for heartwarming fun with the entire family.
From July 9 through August 31, the Resort will offer the ‘Toy Story Mania!’ Challenge in which guests are challenged to solve a crossword puzzle by looking for the names of the Toy Story Mania!
characters, along with locating a specific Cast Member who can provide them with a special hint. When participating guests successfully reach the goal, they will receive a medal of friendship featuring Woody, Buzz and other Toy Story characters. (A separate fee of ¥500 is required to participate in this program.)
Also through August 31, the restaurants and lounge at Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta will offer special menus themed to the new Toy Story Mania! attraction. Desserts will come with cookies designed with Woody and the Little Green Men.
Beginning July 5, approximately 75 items such as snacks, straps, memo pads and more will be offered designed with the attraction logo and featured characters to commemorate the opening. Food menus will salute the opening of Toy Story Mania! with a sausage pastry themed to Slinky Dog, as well as bottle cappers designed with Woody and Mr. Potato Head. At the popcorn wagons, a souvenir bucket featuring the characters from the Toy Story films will also be offered.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: DisneySea, Toy Story Mania!, TSM, TSMM
Tokyo Disney Anime Anniversary Ad Chronicles Lifetime of Disney Memories
On April 15, 2013, the Tokyo Disney Resort, owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company (OLC), will celebrate its 30th anniversary. To help commemorate creating a generation of memories in Japan, the Resort has produced a television ad in the anime style. The ad follows the life of a woman as she visits Tokyo Disneyland for the first time as a child, falls in love at the park as a young adult, gets married in the park, brings her child to the park for the first time and is eventually seen as (presumably) a grandmother.
Although Cinderella is featured in the ad as a character being met by the very young protagonist, no Disney characters’ faces are represented in the style throughout the ad.
UPDATE: According to Anime News Network, the woman featured throughout the ad is called Yumeno Maihama, taking her name in part from Maihama, where Tokyo Disney Resort is located. A Google search yielded only one other match for the name and it’s not likely to be of Disney origin. The character is introduced on the Tokyo Disney page here.
Via Cartoon Brew
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: TDL, TDR
Goofy’s Paint ‘n’ Play House to Open at Tokyo Disneyland August 24
The Tokyo Disneyland Resort announced that it will open its newest attraction, Goofy’s Paint ‘n’ Play House on August 24, 2012 in the Toontown area of the Tokyo Disneyland theme park.
Goofy’s Paint ‘n’ Play House will allow up to eight guests to redecorate Goofy’s room in a unique and toony fashion with what seems like real paint.
Groups of guests work together to colorfully paint a room in Goofy’s house using special paint applicators, called Toontone Splat Masters. To paint areas of the room, guests aim the Splat Master at the wall or furniture they wish to color and simply activate the applicators.
The attraction features beach, jungle and other remodeling themes, as well as various types of Toontone Splat Masters, so guests can enjoy a different experience each time they visit.
Toontown is sponsored by Kodansha Ltd.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: Goofy's Paint 'n' Play House, TDL, TDR
‘Toy Story Mania!’ to Open at Tokyo Disneyland Resort on July 9, 2012
Oriental Land Company, Ltd., owner and operator of the Tokyo Disney Resort, has announced that on July 9, 2012, it will welcome the 3D attraction ‘Toy Story Mania!’ based on the popular Toy Story franchise from Disney/Pixar to the Tokyo DisneySea theme park.
The 3D attraction, a first for the resort, will be located in a new area of the park, Toyville Trolley Park, themed to an old-fashioned amusement park. Guests will enter the attraction through the ‘wide open mouth’ of Woody whose face will measure more than 26 feet in height. Once inside the attraction, the queue will appear full of ‘oversized’ toys and board games, similar to that of the queue at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. At this time there is no mention of the troubled Mr. Potato Head interactive audio animatronic found at both the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort (Disney California Adventure) locations.
According to OLC, ‘Toy Story Mania!’ comes to the DisneySea theme park at the staggering cost of nearly $150 million, almost twice as much as what the original attraction is reported to have cost to design and build. It will be FASTPASS enabled and be supported by the ‘Slinky Dog’s Gift Trolley’ merchandise location.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: DisneySea, OLC, Oriental Land Company, Toy Story Mania!, Toy Story Midway Mania, TSM, TSMM
‘Star Tours 2.0′ to Launch at Tokyo Disneyland in 2013
Oriental Land Company, owner and operator of Tokyo Disneyland, has announced that it will be following in the footsteps of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts and will be updating its ‘Star Tours’ attraction in Tomorrowland. With an estimated cost of 7 billion yen (approximately $91 million US), ‘Star Tours: The Adventure Continues’ is expected to open in spring 2013.
From the initial announcement, it does not appear that the attraction will differ from that of the recent makeover at the Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. Just yesterday, the attraction redo was recognized by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and will receive a Thea Award for its refresh.
‘Star Tours’ opened at the Tokyo Disneyland Resort in July of 1989. It will close April 2, 2012 to receive the upgrade.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: Attractions, Star Tours, Star Wars, TDL, Tomorrowland
Tokyo Disneyland: Heck No, EO Won’t Go!
Despite original intentions to return ‘Captain EO’ back to the vault on June 30, 2011, the Tokyo Disneyland Resort today announced that the attraction will instead remain at the park indefinitely, forcing the permanent closure of the attraction it displaced, ‘MicroAdventure!’
Tokyo Disneyland, which is owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company under license of The Walt Disney Company, has been the only Disney Resort to acknowledge an end date for the attraction which has returned to Disneyland, Walt Disney World’s Epcot and Disneyland Paris.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: Captain EO, TDL
The Walt Disney Company, Disney Parks Issue 2010 Corporate Citizenship Reports
The Walt Disney Company today released its second Corporate Citizenship report detailing Disney’s progress on environmental and social impacts. The report also includes the Company’s first set of comprehensive citizenship commitments and goals, aligned around three core principles:
- Act and create in an ethical manner and consider the consequences of our decisions
- Champion the happiness and well-being of kids, parents and families in our endeavors
- Inspire kids, parents, employees, and communities to make a lasting, positive change in the world
“Being a respected global citizen isn’t just good for our employees and the communities in which we operate, it is critical to the growth and success of our business,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney President and CEO. “Our next step is to build upon our existing programs and initiatives by clarifying our commitments and expanding our efforts to track and measure our progress.”
Highlights of the 2010 Report include:
- Announcement of a comprehensive set of commitments and metrics that address Disney’s worldwide business impacts and opportunities.
- Global expansion of programs aimed at inspiring kids, parents, and communities to make a difference in the world. Disney Friends for Change, now in 19 countries, has rallied 2.5 million kids to take pledges for the environment. Disney Magic of Healthy Living, launched in September, partners with parents and kids to make healthy choices simple and fun.
- Investment of $15.5 million in carbon offset projects around the world as part of Disney’s Climate Solutions Fund, the Company’s internal carbon pricing program.
- Release of Disney’s Human Rights Policy Statement, with the aim of more clearly articulating the Company’s commitment to respecting human rights.
- Detailed data and progress updates on Disney’s supply chain and environmental footprint
- Corporate charitable contributions of $198 million, and more than 548,000 hours of VoluntEARS service contributed by Disney employees.
The interactive multimedia report, now available online only at www.disney.com/citizenship2010, includes comprehensive coverage of eight key areas: family entertainment, inspiring kids and communities, nature conservation, environment, community, workplaces, supply chain, and human rights. An interactive map provides insights into Disney’s activities around the world. The report follows the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The citizenship report anchors a broader suite of publications. Six additional reports provide information on local impacts of our Parks & Resorts segment.
‘Jasmine’s Flying Carpets’ to Open at DisneySea on July 18, 2011
The Tokyo Disneyland Resort has announced that Jasmine’s Flying Carpets will officially open at Tokyo DisneySea on July 18, 2011. The attraction is fashioned a la Dumbo and has sixteen vehicles in the form of a magic carpet, each capable of holding four guests. Guests are able to control the height and tilt of their carpets. For friends and family not riding the carpet, an elevated viewing platform will be offered.
The attraction is sponsored by NTT Communications Corporation and will be located in the Arabian Coast area of the Tokyo DisneySea park.
Mickey’s PhilharMagic opens later this month, on January 24, at the Tokyo Disneyland theme park.
Categories: Theme Parks, Tokyo Disneyland Tags: DisneySea, Jasmine's Flying Carpets, TDL
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