Why has it been so quiet on Fanboy Planet lately? I let people know on the Fanboy Planet Facebook page and forgot to transfer the information to Fanboy Planet itself. I had a fairly last minute opportunity to visit Tokyo, and that included a few days at the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. As it’s the first Disney resort I’ve been to outside of Anaheim, the following was an attempt to cut through my being overwhelmed and focus on the parks themselves.
A slightly different version of this appeared on my personal Facebook page, and this is just Disneyland. DisneySea will come later.
In no particular order, these are the rides and attractions I encountered. As in the U.S., rides go down for maintenance and I ran into a bonus issue of snow on my first day there, which shut down a few additional attractions. Still, nothing like walking up to the Beast’s castle during an actual snowfall. We don’t get that in Anaheim… for now.
Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek: Yes, there IS a Monsters, Inc. attraction at California Adventure, but this one has a different layout, a purposeful show building instead of a rehashed “sound stage,” and an interactive portion as riders play “hide and seek” with flashlights to shine on the Monsters, Inc. logos throughout the ride and thus trigger new actions. Silly but fun, and Monsters, Inc. holds a special place in my heart because it came out when my daughter was about the same age as Boo. So it always makes me misty.
Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast: Holy crap, is this an amazing attraction. The ride itself is over 7 minutes long, and that’s AFTER a gorgeous introduction to the story with terrific visual effects and animatronics. We rode it twice and I recorded it — you can watch here.
On my second day wandering while my wife went to see Taylor Swift, it unfortunately broke down at my “Premium Pass” time so I didn’t get to go a third time. Still, I was super super satisfied. It’s 100% in Japanese. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Be Our Guest” sung in Japanese. It’s just as good as Shakespeare in the original Klingon. But it also proves that the key to a great attraction is storytelling that transcends spoken language. (And a great attraction always has great storytelling.)
The Country Bear Jamboree: Still lives here in Tokyo, with all patter in Japanese but some songs in English. I’m not sure why the back and forth, because I would have been intrigued to learn “Blood on the Saddle” in Japanese.
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!”: Stitch (pronounced “Stitchy” here) crashed outside the Tiki Room. Lilo has put up signs outside for her “lost dog,” and despite everything spoken in Japanese, it’s clear the birds are nervous about this new “big kahuna” that is lurking around. They open with “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” and the birds all have native Hawaiian names here instead of the international parrots of Anaheim. True to its promise, Stitch does invade the show, and it occurs to me that huge black eyes scare the eff out of me. Also, Stitch seems much larger in real life than he does in the cartoons.
The Happy Ride with Baymax: Essentially the same ride as Mater’s Jamboree in California Adventure, but it has turned into a weird happy rave. I mean the audience. Sure, the riders are having fun, but it’s the people standing outside the ride dancing to all the songs — somehow they know all the moves, and I mean guests, not cast members. It must be experienced. (Mix of English and Japanese) As I type this at breakfast in my hotel, the app says the wait is already 130 minutes. Baymax is HUGE here. (I bought a Baymax pancake griddle — photos when I test it out back in Burbank.) Watch the ride here.
The Haunted Mansion: All in Japanese, but hey, I know this ride inside and out. OR DO I?
Tokyo also just launched “Story Beyond” for 3 months, which added a scavenger hunt element AND a ton of merchandise.) It IS different in many ways, but those ways may echo Florida’s mansion, which I’ve never been on. The entryway has a slowly aging portrait (check out the Fanboy Planet Instagram), the stretching portrait room works the same way, but getting to the Doom Buggies is a bit different. The attic is closer to how I remember it in Anaheim as a kid (the Bride is a faceless ghost, and the pop up ghosts are still fast enough to be scary.) No Hatbox Ghost, but give it time. Also took a video of this, so later…
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey: Pretty much the same as Anaheim, but all in Japanese which made it fun. I think there are a couple of little touches that are different including life-size gingerbread cookies that are donkeys — a whole darker fate at Pleasure Island. And as others have noted in general, the audio-animatronics are a notch up (or a notch more recent), with an effectively life-like Blue Fairy. Unless that really WAS the Blue Fairy… I swear I have a strict “no drinking alcohol in a Disneyland” policy, even if Disneyland doesn’t.
Snow White’s Adventures: I’m informed management considered sanitizing this as they did in Anaheim, but ultimately decided against it. Which is good, because this is all about the Evil Queen and I am here for it. All in Japanese, but I’m pretty sure it ends with her killing us all.
Mickey’s PhilharMagic: We have one in Anaheim, but the building there has been used for 3 or 4 different attractions. This one is specifically built for this show, and it’s fun. Plus I got to compare “voices” in Japanese — Mickey and Donald translate well into Japanese; Goofy sounds close but recognizably different.
Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions: All in Japanese, but I assume the jokes are all still there and work well because my fellow passengers were laughing hard. The scenes are in a different order than Anaheim, and the boat heads in a different direction. It also has a scene going into a flooded sacred temple that isn’t in Anaheim. What also isn’t in Anaheim are the original scenes depicting “natives.” So be aware — in Japan, let us say they don’t have the same attitude toward world history we do in the U.S. and I can’t pretend otherwise.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Pretty much the same as it originally was, with the movie overlays of Barbossa and Jack Sparrow.
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin: Just like the original in Anaheim — the voice of Jessica sounds so much like Kathleen Turner that I wonder if she speaks Japanese and did it herself. My wife says probably not.
Bonus on food and merchandise: They have a store called Big Pop that sells, yes, popcorn, but more importantly all the souvenir buckets that are throughout the park. I appreciate it’s all in one place for collectors — and limited in how many you can purchase. Same with the Haunted Mansion merch — I had to get a reservation to go through the one store that had it all, was limited in how much I could buy (I wanted to get a raven for both my wife and me but it was one per customer) AND they scanned my ticket so I couldn’t do it again. As a collector who hates the secondary market that makes it hard to get things the first time around, I appreciate that the Japanese culture ALSO seems to have the same issue I do and takes steps to fight it.
Also, popcorn flavors are wild here. My wife introduced me to curry flavored popcorn and I love it. You can buy “pop it at home” kits for an old-fashioned movie night; it’s not microwaveable. I also tried soy sauce and butter, which was great. I was going to get pistachio, but the park closed early so when I walked back by that stand, they had already cleaned it up and shut down. I did not get around to black peppercorn popcorn, but did try the milk tea popcorn, which was pretty good.
Let’s also talk price. The exchange rate right now is excellent for U.S. travelers, but compared to prices for the parks in California and Florida, admission would overall be less expensive anyway. You do still need to make advance reservations, but once in, food and souvenirs are reasonably priced. Japanese portion size is generally and thankfully smaller than we do it in the U.S.
