Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing quite well today. So I'm sort of killing two birds with one stone with this post. Not only is it a review of the third, and final, Disney Sing-Along Songs tape that I had when I was a kid, but it's also the first review in a series of reviews that I'm going to be doing on the live action Disney Sing-Along Songs tapes that came out sporadically between 1990 and 1999. Aside from the tape I'm reviewing today, Disneyland Fun, I didn't grow up with these tapes. I've seen them since then, but I don't have any nostalgia for these tapes like I do for Disneyland Fun. As Professor Owl says at the beginning of the tape, let's have some Disneyland fun!
Watching Disneyland Fun in 2021 is like hopping into your preferred time machine, be it TARDIS, DeLorean, or a starship slingshotting around the sun, and spending a day at Disneyland in 1990. For everyone else. For me, it feels like going back to January 27th, 1993 when my family and I spent a day at Disneyland while we were on vacation in Los Angeles. Not a whole lot changed in the park in the three to three and a half years between when this was filmed and when my family and I were there. Assuming this was filmed in the summer of 1989 or the winter of 1990, as the tape was released on August 14th, 1990, there had to be a turnover of six months to a year (or longer) from when this was filmed, to when it was first released on VHS. I don't know for sure though because most of these tapes are made through editing footage from the various movies, TV shows and theme park attractions that make up these tapes, and adding new sound for the host segments, and the title cards.
An example of this is during "Follow the Leader", from Peter Pan, there's footage of the Jungle Cruise. Of course my family and I went on the Jungle Cruise when we were there in 1993 and nothing changed. According to Wikipedia, the boats were repainted in 1993 but I think that was later in the year since from what I remember from my trip in 1993 the boat we were on looked exactly like the one shown on this tape.
Unlike the regular Sing-Along Songs tapes, the live action ones usually had some kind of story to them. Disneyland Fun is the exception since it's just a day at Disneyland for everyone. Though I guess, the Disney characters getting the park ready for opening at the beginning of the tape could be considered to be a plotline. As I mentioned, the tape opens with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Roger Rabbit, Chip and Dale, and Pluto getting the park ready to open for the day. Obviously in reality, these characters aren't the ones who prep the park for the day, but within the context of the Disney characters being "real" people, Disneyland is their home, with the attendees being their visitors, so it would make sense for Mickey and the gang to get the park ready for the day. While they do this, they sing "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is the first song on the tape.
After "Step in Time" from Mary Poppins, "I'm Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street U.S.A." from the attraction, Disneyland Is Your Land, which ran at Disneyland from 1980 until 1985, is sung, with various Disney characters dancing down Disneyland's Main Street with the crowd on either side of the street, watching. After this is the aforementioned "Follow the Leader", where Donald Duck leads some kids through Adventureland, including a ride on the Jungle Cruise. After that he hands the kids off to the Country Bears for "The Great Outdoors" which they sing after jumping on a raft to Tom Sawyer's Island. Next is "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South, but this is the more 90s version with the "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Rap". What's cool about this song is that it shows footage from the Star Tours ride, including a shot of R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars Trilogy. Which is really bizarre considering Disney wouldn't own Lucasfilm for another twelve years after this tape was released.
Next is my favourite song on this tape, "Rumbly in my Tumbly" from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, sung by Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh. Apart from "Whistle While You Work" this is the only song sung by a Disney character. All the other songs are sung by various people. While he sings, Pooh is looking for food around the park, which is pretty fun to watch. Next is "It's a Small World" with footage from the ride of the same name. We sang this song as part of our Disney themed Christmas concert at school when I was in either Junior Kindergarten or Senior Kindergarten, so I have fond memories of this song. After that is the song "Making Memories", sung over montage footage of people at Disneyland, some with cameras, including Minnie Mouse. One of the significant shots in this footage is of the wishing well at Snow White Grotto in Fantasyland, which is one of the places that my family and I went to when we went to Disneyland in 1993. So that was cool.
After that is the spookiest song on the tape, "Grim Grinning Ghosts" sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, and it takes place at the Haunted Mansion at night as one of the kids, Danielle, imagines what happens there after the park is closed and everyone has left for the night. This song isn't actually scary, it's just very atmospheric and spooky, which is fun. While this isn't my favourite song on the tape, I still really enjoy it. It scared me a little bit as a kid because I was already afraid of the Wicked Queen from Snow White when she's in her old hag disguise and seeing it in live action like that freaked me out a little, especially since the face doesn't move so it's got a creepy expression on it.
Next is "The Character Parade" which is sung over footage of one of the Disneyland parades. The parades are something I didn't get to experience when we were at Disneyland in 1993. I was six years old and sitting through a parade would not have been possible at that time. Plus we were only there for a few hours so there are many things I didn't get to do. The song is cool though. And finally we get a rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio, which is sung over footage of the kids saying goodbye to the Disney characters as the fireworks go off above Sleeping Beauty's Castle, ending a fun day at Disneyland and a fun Sing-Along Songs tape. I don't have to say anything more about that song since it's basically the Disney anthem at this point.
I had the 1994 re-issue of the tape. Sort of. The earliest I would've gotten the tape was Christmas 1996. The tape itself has the Walt Disney Favorite Stories preview and the Winnie the Pooh: Learning preview that the 1994 re-issue has, but there's an added preview for the Spot the Dog videotapes and I haven't been able to find any information on whether it's just an earlier printing of the 1994 re-issue, or a later printing since the first tape in the Spot series, Where's Spot? (which I had), came out in 1993. The version of Disneyland Fun came packaged with a blue Mickey Mouse microphone and every listing I've seen for it says 1994. In fact, just hang on a moment while I look something up...
...okay so, there's the packaging above, and according to the Amazon listing, it came out on June 21st, 1994, almost two months after the first printing came out on April 22nd of that year. So that clears that up. That still leaves me with a question though. Is this printing exclusive to this set or did it come out without the microphone too? None of the collectors on YouTube seem to have this edition even, so is it that rare then?
Regardless, I loved this tape when I was a kid. I was a bit older when I first got it as, like I said, the earliest I would've gotten it was Christmas 1996. In fact, Disneyland Fun is my second favourite Disney Sing-Along Songs tapes, besides The Bare Necessities. I think it's because it isn't just recycled footage edited together with brand new audio. It's something filmed specifically for this tape, and it uses a good range of songs, some which don't appear on any of the other Sing-Along tapes. Though there's still plenty of songs that appear on at least one of the other tapes. Oh and one of the kids on the tape is Candace Hutson, who voiced Cera in The Land Before Time, and it's first three sequels. So I thought that was cool. In case you're wondering, she's the blond girl that appears a couple of times.
Like I said, this was my favourite Sing-Along Songs tape after The Bare Necessities. I watched it all the time when I was a kid. I probably watched it way more than I watched Heigh-Ho, because like I said in my review of that tape, I didn't like it quite as much as I did The Bare Necessities and Disneyland Fun.
Alright guys that's gonna it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday with my review of the pilot episode of Superman & Lois and then a comic book review on Friday I'm thinking. I'm not sure when I'll have the next Disney Sing-Along Songs tape review up, but it'll probably be next week or the week after, so I'm spacing them out. Then again, it might be later this week, depending on what I feel like doing. The next tape I'll be talking about is The Twelve Days of Christmas. I know, it's February, but it's the only Christmas tape in this lineup, and it just happens to be the very next live action Sing-Along tape that was produced. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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