Happiest Homecoming on Earth

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The Happiest Homecoming on Earth or the Happiest Celebration on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration (May 5, 2005 through September 30, 2006) of the 50th anniversary of the

Disney Parks resorts (Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
) used the "Celebration" name.

Happiest Homecoming on Earth (Disneyland)

Sleeping Beauty Castle with its 50th Anniversary Overlay
Lamp post with 50th Anniversary decor.
Flowers outside Main Street, U.S.A. train station during 50th celebration

Disneyland's 50th anniversary was July 17, 2005, but the celebration was launched on May 5, 2005 in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

May 4, 2005

Disneyland Park was actually closed to the public on this date, the first planned closure of the park in decades for a special media preview. Disney allowed guests staying at the three Disney-owned hotels to become "extras" for all the media filming going on, though they only were notified by a letter delivered in the middle of the night, so they had no advance notice.

May 5, 2005

The Happiest Homecoming on Earth ceremony officially began with a dedication from then-Disney CEO

It's A Small World and all the four theme parks and Mary Poppins
joined the sing-along singing in their own language.

Before the ceremony, at a media presentation in

Monsters, Inc.: Mike and Sully to the Rescue and Turtle Talk with Crush
.

July 17, 2005

The actual day of

Disneyland Park
opened at 7:00 a.m., although it took several hours to admit the crowds that showed up that morning.

Preparations

In 2004, Disneyland Resort President Matt Ouimet and hundreds of cast members posed for an aerial photo above Disneyland, with each person holding a nine square foot photograph of a Disneyland cast member. When seen from above the placards formed an image of Mickey Mouse, making it the largest photographic mosaic ever created. This initiated the Happiest Faces on Earth in which over thirty giant mosaics of Disney tableaus were displayed at locations around Disneyland and California Adventure composed of photos submitted by guests from the past fifty years. All the mosaics were created by California artist Roy Feinson.

Many classic Disneyland attractions re-opened in 2005 after lengthy refurbishments, such as

50 Hidden Mickeys
, golden Mickey Mouse heads with "50" displayed in the middle, sometimes disguised as part of the surrounding theme.

Other refurbishments took place around Disneyland with many areas being re-painted and refurbished to their former glory. The second phase of the re-paint of Tomorrowland commenced after the base silver and blue scheme was laid.

Main Street USA and Sleeping Beauty Castle were repainted, and the castle was specially decorated for the celebration. The celebration brought record numbers of guests to the parks, numbers unmatched since the fall of 1996, when mass crowds flooded the park to catch a glimpse of the Main Street Electrical Parade
before it went into permanent retirement until 2017.

Into 2006

In the second half of the celebration, in 2006,

Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opened at Disney's California Adventure. On July 7, 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had its world premiere on the Rivers of America, as did the first film in the trilogy in 2003. On the same day of Dead Man's Chest premiere, the Pirates of the Caribbean
attraction officially reopened after lengthy refurbishments to include characters from the movie trilogy in the attraction's storyline. The 50th anniversary celebration at Disneyland ended on September 30, 2006, and was succeeded by the Year of a Million Dreams. The idea was somewhat revised for the Disneyland Diamond Celebration promotion that was used for the 60th anniversary 10 years after the kickoff for the homecoming.

Theme song

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, the official anthem song was written by

Grammy-winning artist LeAnn Rimes. It reflects on how you can never be too old to enjoy life and childhood dreams one has had. It was played immediately after the "Remember... Dreams Come True
" fireworks spectacular presented throughout the 18-month anniversary celebration at Disneyland.

Happiest Celebration on Earth

Beyond simply celebrating the 50th Anniversary at Disneyland alone, festivities were held at all Disney owned Theme Parks and cruise throughout the world.

Walt Disney World Resort

The Walt Disney World Resort introduced at least one new attraction or show at each of its four theme parks:

Tokyo Disney Resort

This celebration succeeded its 20th anniversary that ended in 2004:

  • Tokyo Disneyland: The Rock Around the Mouse summer stage show in front of Cinderella Castle, a tribute to rock 'n' roll and Californian culture from the period that Disneyland opened; and a Golden Fiftieth Mickey at the base of the Partners statue in the hub, acknowledging its sister park's milestone.
    • Rock Around The Mouse was a temporary stage show for summer of 2005 only.
  • Tokyo DisneySea: The Raging Spirits roller coaster opened in June, and the new Tower of Terror opened (it has its own new back-story, and is not themed to The Twilight Zone).

Disneyland Resort Paris

  • Disneyland Park: Space Mountain received a makeover, and is now known as Space Mountain: Mission 2, with new effects and ride configurations throughout.
  • The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror
    opened.

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

The fifth worldwide resort opened as part of the celebration, in September 2005, with one theme park and two hotels.

Disney Cruise Line

The Disney Magic sailed to the West Coast in the summer of 2005, where it offered 12 one-week cruises from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera with port calls at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán and Cabo San Lucas. Afterward, the ship returned to its original Caribbean itinerary alongside the Disney Wonder.

Attraction duplication

Walt Disney World Resort advertised the celebration by noting that the Florida property imported popular attractions or shows developed for Disney's other parks around the world.

  • Magic Kingdom received an abridged version of Cinderellabration from Tokyo Disneyland using the 2003 soundtrack as Tokyo revamped the soundtrack in 2004.
  • Epcot received Soarin' from Disney's California Adventure.
  • Disney-MGM Studios received Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show from the Walt Disney Studios Paris.

Three Walt Disney World Resort attractions recently have been duplicated at four of the other Disney parks.

  • Tokyo DisneySea has opened its version of the
    Tower of Terror
    .
  • Disneyland Paris duplicated The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror from Disney's California Adventure.
  • Disneyland Paris staged a compressed version of the Wishes fireworks developed for the Magic Kingdom for two weeks in July 2005.
  • Disney's California Adventure duplicated Turtle Talk with Crush from Epcot.
  • Disneyland (2005) and Disneyland Paris (2006) duplicated Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters from both Tokyo Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.

Season timeline

Legacy

  • Bob Cummings
    .
  • July 18, 1955 - Disneyland public opening day, when the gates opened to the public at 10 AM PDT, and had about 50,000 guests purchase tickets.
  • October 1st

50th Anniversary

References

  1. ISBN 978-1595800909
    .
  2. The Los Angeles Times
    . p. E4. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
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