Japan Gone Brazilian

As a child growing up in the 1990’s, I saw the Surprise Celebration Parade during the 1991 Christmas season, back when all of Walt Disney World reveled in its 20th anniversary celebrations. A year before I saw this Magic Kingdom procession (actually over a year before), sister park Disneyland utilized a somewhat similar parade, Party Gras, for its 35th anniversary revels, as did Tokyo Disneyland a year later. The glorious heydays of the 90’s were speckled with Carnival color, as well as Disney magic. The parades displayed an eclectic mix of Mardi Gras, Rio, Calypso, and Venetian themes, signs of those halcyon days before Pixar celebrities even toed the resorts.

I for one have not been to Tokyo Disneyland, but one show in the Carnival theme shown on YouTube really caught my attention – in it, a dozen men who are wearing a cross between Ponchinello costumes and bishops’ vestments carry those long, white-feathered staffs. A porta-bandeira (a woman in a ballroom dress who carries a huge flag, usually representing her samba school) and a mestre-sala are present in the footage, as well as the male dancers in their puffy arm sleeves and female dancers in costumes adorned with feathers. Save for Mickey (in a king costume with a garter), Jose, Panchito, the Fantasia ostriches, and King Leondas, the Disney characters (Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Chip, Dale, Fiddler Pig, Fifer Pig, Practical Pig, the Big Bad Wolf, and the Jungle Book monkeys wear costumes fit for a pre-Lenten revel in Rio, with puffy arm sleeves galore. The piped music in the background is spiked with samba rhythms, which add to the tropical and festive (albeit not too colorful) performance. One YouTuber uploaded his footage of the show in question, Mickey Mouse Carnival – Hot! Hot! Hot!, and as I can tell from the costumes, music, and choreography shown in this video, the park seems as if it has been transformed into a samba school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, meaning that it is heavily influenced by the city’s carnivals.

That video footage delighted me that I decided to show it to the folks down at MiceChat. One Tokyo Disneyland visitor remarked that the street party occurred in autumn 1991 and its theme has been released on 3 CDs. It was pretty short at that time, but luckily the YouTuber struck gold and uploaded it for Rio carnival enthusiasts and Disneyphiles alike.

Update: The full show can be found in two parts:

Part 1

Part 2: