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Hello everyone,
Today I wanted to share with you all my personal thoughts on the upcoming 90s Nite at Disneyland park at the Disneyland Resort in California.
Since Disney announced the night, and subsequently put tickets on sale - which have since sold out - there has been much speculation online about what to expect from the event. I see a lot of people posting on social media about all sorts of crazy characters that they some how expect to appear, but honestly, I think we need to just be a little realistic. I, and I am sure many of you, would rather be surprised than disappointed.
First of all, I want to make it clear that while this is an opinion piece, I am not deliberately trying to be negative - I want to be objective and point out some key factors involved here.
First of all, this event is a four hour event that cost $99 per person. That's about what the Halloween parties cost. It should be repeated again that this is a four hour event, from 9pm until 1am.
For $99 it isn't going to be all out extravagance. You have to figure that some of that money will not go towards characters. Disney has said there will be merchandise and food offerings, as well as special fireworks and themed backdrops. There will also be a collectable Indiana Jones card, a free guidemap, a free fanny pack, and a free Disney Afternoon map. These things cost money to produce, and whilst merch and food items will be at an extra cost to guests, there is no guarantee to Disney anyone will buy them - the initial outlay for these items has to come from somewhere. They won't purely rely on sheer hope that someone will buy them. So, already we have money out of our ticket price for specially produced fireworks, the free items, food offerings and merch items.
Next, we come to the fact that Disney have released a downloadable playlist of sorts for the evening. While there is no real evidence that these songs reflect the exact offerings of the night itself, Disney are always careful with what they say and do, and these songs had to have been approved by someone in-the-know to feature on the official 90s Nite page as a download recommendation.
Let's take a look at the full playlist:
- A Goofy Movie - On the Open Road
- The Lion King - Hakuna Matata, I Just Can't Wait To Be King, Circle of Life, Can You Feel the Love Tonight
- Disney Afternoon Theme
- Tarzan - Trashin' The Camp, Strangers Like Me
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye
- Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers Theme Song
- Aladdin - One Jump Ahead, A Whole New World
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Topsy Turvy
- Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
- Tale Spin Theme
- Mulan - I'll Make a Man Out of You, True to Your Heart, Reflection
- Hercules - Go the Distance, I Won't Say (I'm In Love)
- Pocahontas - Just Around the Riverbend, Colors of the Wind
- Beauty and the Beast - Be Our Guest, Beauty and the Beast, Belle
- Darkwing Duck Theme
- Duck Tales Theme
- Fantasmic!
At a glance we could say there are some fairly good selections there. But which characters are we likely to see? Well, the obvious ones from movies such as The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are Rafiki and Timon, Belle, Beast and Gaston, Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie and Jafar, and perhaps at a stretch maybe the hyenas (Lion King). There has never been any evidence to suggest Disneyland has or would put out characters such as the Sultan (Aladdin), and they wouldn't go to the expense of flying them in from Disneyland Paris just for a four hour $99 ticket price.
The Goofy Movie is an interesting one because it could see Goofy in his Goof Troop sweater, which we know exists. John Smith (Pocahontas) was out just recently at Disneyland, so he could appear, perhaps alongside Pocahontas and Meeko, and at a stretch maybe Governor Ratcliffe.
Mulan is obvious since Disneyland are already using Mushu in a promo image on the main 90s page, and Disney Afternoon characters will certainly include Darkwing, because he's in a photo on the official page, too. Other fairly easy Disney Afternoon characters that they could have out are Chip 'n Dale in their Rescue Ranger outfits (which have been used in recent years), Launchpad and Scrooge (which again have both been out for various things relatively recently, and appear daily in WDW right now for the Dinobash). There is nothing to remotely suggest they'll dig out the likes of Monty or Gadget - they haven't been seen in many, many years in the US parks, and again, they almost certainly wouldn't bring them in from another resort for a four hour event.
There are a couple more intriguing ones. Their song choice for Hunchback is Clopin's song, which suggests they are being very careful to only represent him, and not get anyones hopes up of anything beyond that. Hercules could easily see Hercules, Megara and Hades - they have used them all off and on for several events in recent years, including having Hades at the Halloween parties, so that would not be difficult. Roger Rabbit is a cool one for sure, and certainly doable since he was out daily for several weeks for their spring event a couple of years back.
I think you get the idea of where I'm going with this, and I think that we all need to just stay grounded in the fact it is a four hour event for $99 - Disney are going to make it as accessible and easy as possible for themselves and for guests.
People online also seem to be very caught up in thinking this is almost exclusively a Disney Afternoon event - it's 90s Nite. Realistically the 90s could include things like Toy Story and even The Phantom Menace! Just some food for thought.
I think that it'll be a fun event for sure, and completely nostalgic for everyone who has fond memories of the 1990s. I do think though that most diehard character fans will not really get anyone new, though perhaps some more unusual ones they haven't seen in a while. Casual fans and guests will get a lot out of it because they are the kind of people who come to these things with the exact expectation of the bar Disney is setting here - which is great, and I am glad they will be able to fulfil some dreams, but for us diehard fans, it might not be quite to that level.
I look forward to being there, and I look forward to perhaps being proved wrong about my predictions, but I am just trying to stay realistic, and would rather be surprised than disappointed.
I'll leave you with some fun images of mine of the characters we can expect from the night that have been available publicly at the parks/events in recent years.
Have a great day everyone,
Dan. |