3.  Blast to the Past

Image: Disney

The 1970’s and 1980’s seemed to have a certain nostalgia factor for the 50’s and 60’s.  With popular movies and TV shows like Grease, American Graffiti, Dirty Dancing, Stand by Me, Back to the Future, The Wonder Years, and Happy Days set in the “good old days” it makes sense that Disneyland would also jump on the bandwagon in the form of a 50’s themed parade back in 1988.

The Blast to the Past parade started with a series of bright pink and green numbers dancing to the music, followed by floats and dancers representing retro records, record players, television sets, and cars.  Following that were dancers dressed up as popular television characters, such as the Three Stooges, Lucille Ball, Dezi Arnaz, the Mousketeers, and even Superman.  The soundtrack had its own theme song, intertwined with popular songs like “Barbara Ann,” “The Twist,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and, of course, “The Mickey Mouse March.”

The parade ended with a retro futuristic space rocket float, with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale dressed in their best future space costumes, perhaps symbolic of the new interest in the space race.  The parade was colorful and fun, although it did lack a lot of the classic Disney images.  However, the parade only lasted a year, ending in 1989.

4.  Dinosaurs Live!

Image: ABC

In the 1990’s, Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios) often had parades promoting their newest films, such as Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story, Hercules, and Mulan.  Besides this, MGM Studios also created a mini-parade based on Dinosaurs, the television show on ABC.

This parade could be considered more of a moving stage show.  It consisted of two floats, one with a camera crane carrying a “director” and one that was a large, two story float with the entire Sinclair family, who are presented to the crowd as the “surprise family of the day.”  They are “filming” a movie, which includes the dinosaurs singing and dancing with a marching band.  Most of the parade included the floats and performers circling in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre before eventually stopping for the main dance portion and eventually making it's way up Hollywood Blvd.  Much of the soundtrack is the Dinosaurs voice actors exclaiming how excited they are about to be in Disney World, along with the song “Walk the Dinosaur” by the band Was (Not Was).

Although it may not be considered a full parade, it did certainly have unique floats and costumes.  It was also unique in the fact that the entire show was used to promote one television show, which was cancelled just a few years later. 

5.  The World According to Goofy

Image: Disney

Has anyone ever wondered what it would look like if Goofy decided to tell the history of the world?  Someone at Disneyland did, so in 1992 “The World According to Goofy” parade came to life, including various parts of history retold from Goofy’s viewpoint.

The parade started with Ludwig Von Drake rapping about how Goofy has a different interpretation on history.  This is followed by the first story – Caveman Goofy opened a tar pit bath resort, which trapped all the dinosaurs (including a “Goofasaurus”) and lead to their extinction.  Other stories in the parade include “King Putt,” a Goofy-looking Egyptian pharaoh who invented golf, an Italian Renaissance painter who invented pizza, and a modern day Goofy who is running for president of Disneyland (by literally running on a treadmill).

As strange as a concept this was, it was presented well with great costumes and floats, plus a bunch of fun songs.  Each story or section of the parade was proceeded by a float shaped like an open book, giving a brief description of the next section.  Every section was full of great puns and Goofy jokes.  Unfortunately, the parade only lasted for five months before being replaced by an Aladdin themed parade the following year.