Area Cinderella Castle Soft opening date May 26, 2014 Area Cinderella Castle | Status Operating Opening date May 29, 2014 Status Operating | |
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Similar Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort, Main Street Electrical Parade, Tokyo DisneySea, Fantasmic! | ||
Once Upon a Time is a nighttime spectacular at Tokyo Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. Similar to Celebrate the Magic and Disney Dreams!, the Tokyo show premiered on May 29, 2014, and utilizes fireworks, lasers, fire, projection mapping, and searchlights during the 19-minute presentation. The Magic Kingdom version is shorter and excludes the use of fire and lasers.
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Tokyo Disneyland
In October 2013, Tokyo Disney Resort announced that Once Upon a Time, a new nighttime entertainment at Tokyo Disneyland, would premiere on May 29, 2014. This nighttime entertainment uses projection mapping technology to produce a three-dimensional effect by projecting images in a way that fits the contours of buildings and other structures. This is the first time for this technology to be used in an entertainment program at Tokyo Disney Resort.
The show soft opened on May 26, 2014. Due to inclement weather that evening, a majority of the fireworks were not produced. The show also had performances on May 27 and 28 before the actual opening date.
To avoid overcrowding problems,the show features ticket systems for special viewing areas.
Frozen edition
On January 13, 2015, Tokyo Disneyland presented a winter event called Anna and Elsa's Frozen Fantasy. During the period, Once Upon A Time features a special winter edition, featuring the scenes and songs of Frozen, replacing Snow White and Winnie The Pooh scenes, including "For The First Time In Forever" and "Let It Go". The event ended on March 20, 2015 and will be held again in winter 2016. Although the event ended, the show was over popular. Therefore, the park decided to extend the show's ending date til July 5, 2015. After that, the original show will still continue.
Magic Kingdom
On October 26, 2016, it was announced that the show would be coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom on November 4, 2016, replacing the previous projection mapping show on Cinderella Castle, Celebrate the Magic.
Show summary
Hosted by Mrs. Potts, the show is framed as her telling bedtime stories to Chip, including sequences showcasing Alice in Wonderland, Tangled, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and finally Beauty and the Beast which culminates in the battle between Gaston and Beast fighting out on the castle itself and Beast's transformation back into the Prince kicking off the finale. The finale montage includes brief appearances by characters from Frozen, Aladdin and The Lion King.