There's always something new at Disneyland to enjoy, but when the 70th anniversary starts next year, the highlights will be things we've seen before.
If there is one thing that Disneyland knows how to do well, it’s throw a party. The Disney 100 celebration almost two years ago included some excellent new entertainment, and with 2025 marking the 70th anniversary of the iconic park, expectations were high since the park’s 60th and 50th-anniversary celebrations were both high caliber.
Fans were not disappointed. The lineup of major entertainment offerings for the 70th anniversary, which will start in May 2025, is an impressive list of events. Having said that, I am one fan who is personally a little disappointed, because considering everything we are getting, there are a few items that would have fit perfectly among them that I wish we could have seen as well.
Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary Is A Greatest Hits Of Modern Classics
If you’ve been to Disneyland Resort in the last 10 years, then you’re likely to appreciate what the 70th anniversary of Disneyland has to offer. It’s a combination of brand-new entertainment, as well as some recent classics.
The highlight for me has to be the return of the Paint the Night parade. This spiritual successor to the Main Street Electrical Parade is an amazing nighttime parade with great music and incredible floats. It debuted a decade ago as part of the park’s 60th anniversary and has only made a couple of small return appearances.
More recently, as part of the Disney 100 celebration, Disneyland Park got a brand-new fireworks show, Wondrous Journeys. The show had an incredible piece of original music, Baymax flying above Sleeping Beauty Castle, and included projection map sequences from every Walt Disney animation movie ever made. After closing for the holiday season at the end of August 2022, the show only made a brief return in the spring of 2023, so seeing it get a longer run is very welcome.
This past summer, Disneyland Resort ran Pixar Fest, and the highlight of that, in my opinion, was Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration, a spiritual successor to one of my other favorite parades, the Pixar Play Parade at Disney California Adventure. It’s great to hear it will make a return soon.
Two Of Disneyland’s New Additions Could Become All-Time Classics
In addition to bringing back some fan-favorite shows, two brand new attractions will also arrive. Disney California Adventure’s nighttime spectacular World of Color will see a new edition, World of Color - Happy. Since there has never been a bad version of World of Color, odds are the new version will be as good as the others.
The biggest new addition to Disneyland isn't technically part of the 70th anniversary, but it will fittingly debut on the first day of the celebration. Walt Disney - A Magical Life will include a fully functional, and technologically advanced audio-animatronic of Walt Disney himself. Needless to say, such a thing is a huge swing for Walt Disney Imagineering. It’s a controversial decision, but one that could be truly special.
If that’s all that will come with the Disneyland 70th anniversary, it’s a pretty impressive lineup, all things considered. It's very much the lineup I was expecting to see. However, there were also a couple of other additions I was expecting, and I'm a little bummed didn’t get announced.
Bring Back Mickey And The Magical Map
When the global pandemic closed Disneyland for a year, we lost a lot. Live entertainment was one of the areas that was hardest hit, so when the fantastic Disneyland stage show Mickey and the Magical Map didn’t reopen with the park, it was understandable, if still disappointing.
However, the show never returned at all, and save for a run of less than 18 months for the Tale of the Lion King show, the Fantasyland Theater has been criminally underused. Starting in April, the theater space was used for Pixar Fest character meet and greets, and it’s currently home to Santa Claus, but it hasn’t been a theater with a show in far too long.
Mickey and the Magical Map was an amazing show that brought together numerous Disney characters to perform a medley of popular songs. It also included some truly impressive stage effects. Bringing the show back for a special engagement for the 70th anniversary, even if only for a year, would have been the perfect way to celebrate it.
The Mad T Party Tease From D23 Needs To Be Realized
This past August, I was seated in the ninth row of the Honda Center for the Disney Experiences presentation at D23. Considering the announcements we were all expecting, it was sure to be the highlight of the weekend for me, and it absolutely was. However, the first thing to blow me away happened before the show officially started.
On a secondary stage in the middle of the Honda Center, the Mad T Party band appeared and played a complete set, just as they once did at Disney California Adventure. The band, made up of Disneyland Cast Members dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton live-action version), performed classic rock and contemporary pop music starting back in 2012, but they hadn’t been seen in the park since Disneyland’s 60th anniversary celebration ended in 2015.
So what were they doing performing, in full costume, at D23 nearly a decade after they were last seen? Surely this was the lead-up to an announcement. Obviously Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro was going to walk out on stage and open the show with the announcement that the Mad T Party Band would be making a return, perhaps for the 70th anniversary celebration.
Not so much.
The 70th anniversary of Disneyland was mentioned that night, but without any specifics regarding what it would entail. Maybe this was just a special one-off performance after all, a little something extra for the crowd of diehard Disney fans who would appreciate it. But I held out hope that when DIsneyland’s 70th anniversary lineup was officially announced, it would include the return of the Mad T Party. Thus far, my hopes have been dashed.
It’s technically possible that these shows are still forthcoming. Disneyland’s official reveal of the 70th anniversary does state that there is still more to announce. But it seems unlikely that these particular attractions wouldn’t have been included in the announcements we got if they were happening. I will continue to hold out hope; Disneyland is where dreams come true, after all.
