Mickey and the Magical Map Opens at Disneyland
Disclosure: I received tickets to Disneyland through a promotion on the Disneyland Parks blog, however I was not asked to blog about this event and all opinions are my own.
My kids are crazy about Disneyland, which is probably why they were so mad at me for going without them last Friday night.
I did take this little girl, although she was more interested in eating everything in sight because since our last trip to Disneyland she has decided she is horribly afraid of all rides except “It’s a Small World” . . . which she loves with a passion.
Every time we go they have one question for me though (and by one question a mean they start asking it the second we walk into the park and bring it up every few hours throughout the entire day).
They want to know, “Why isn’t there a Mickey ride?”
My oldest son read a biography about Walt Disney from the Childhood of Famous Americans series last year (if your kids have not discovered this series yet I highly, highly recommend you get them hooked on it this summer) and learned that Mickey Mouse was the very first character that Walt Disney came up with. Apparently Mickey Mouse was based on a real mouse but you’ll have to read the book for the full story.
So it seems illogical to my kids that there is not a Mickey Mouse ride at Disneyland.
Fortunately for them, there IS now a Mickey Mouse show. Mickey and the Magical Map is now taking center stage at the Fantasyland Theatre and this innovative show, featuring a massive three-tiered LED screen, does not disappoint.
With a Disney show, you expect singing dancing characters . . . and those are certainly there. But these characters are interacting with this massive screen (that is almost a character into itself) and allows for another level of showmanship that just isn’t possible on a normal stage.
The map acts as a living backdrop as the characters paint it, jump into it, and interact with it throughout the show. And of course, there was Mickey himself.
Mickey is an apprentice map maker who desperately wants a chance to prove himself. This is a much more old-school Mickey resembling more Fantasia and less Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I loved how sweet the story line was. Mickey tries to paint an unfinished dot on the map and is shocked when the dot bounces away from him revealing a personality all it’s own.
Mickey is transported to some amazing places filled, of course, with lots of singing and dancing and a few of our favorite Disney characters.
In the end, Mickey comes to the realization that some things are perfect just the way they are — something that I thought was sweet given the media messages to the contrary that we are bombarded with every day.
If you have a trip planned to Disneyland, definitely be sure and check out Mickey and the Magical Map. My one year old was thrilled with the show (and she doesn’t have much of an attention span) and I know my older kids would have loved it as well.
