Theme Park Bits: Shanghai’s ‘Toy Story’ Land Opens, Neil Patrick Harris Pays A Pretty Penny For Props From Disney
In this edition of Theme Park Bits:
First up this week: Toy Story Land is now open at Shanghai Disneyland. Disney CEO Bob Iger was there for the grand opening and Disney Parks Blog ran acover storyabout it with a neat gallery of photos showcasing the new land and its rides, shops, decorations, and characters.
In Florida, the Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is getting closer to its grand opening, as well. This week, we got to see ourfirst photo of the entrance signalong with another new photo giving a view inside the land, which opens June 28, 2025.
Every day is Earth Day, as the saying goes, but the holiday celebrated on April 22 had some participation from Universal Studios Hollywood this year. On its YouTube channel, the park posted a short reminder from Doc Brown ofBack to the Futurethat he has been “carbon neutral since 1985.”
In other Universal news, theFast & Furious Supercharged ridehas now officially opened at Universal Orlando. You can read about how the ride differs from its California counterparthere.
The first event hasn’t taken place yet, but citing “unprecedented demand,” Disneyland After Dark has already fast-tracked the sequel, as it were, to Star Wars Nite. Asecond night of the eventwill now be held on May 9. Tickets go on sale May 1, while the first night is still scheduled to begin on May 3 and carry over into the early hours of Star Wars Day 2018.
Since the “May the Fourth be with you” option will have expired, guests attending the second night of the event may be required to utter an awkward, post-midnight greeting of, “May the Tenth be with you.” No one has stipulated that this will be a requirement, per se, but let’s use the Force to make it happen. Hashtag it, people. #MayTheTenthBeWithYou
Due to unprecedented demand for the Disneyland After Dark –#StarWarsNite event, we have added a second celebration of Star Wars at the@DisneylandResort on May 9! Details:https://t.co/JA1ugfSkGTpic.twitter.com/uV1vjBYuu7
— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks)July 19, 2025
How much would you be willing to spend for an authentic Disneyland prop? Would it be an amount more or less than the dues for aClub 33 membership?
For Neil Patrick Harris, the answer was $172,500. The actoroutbid Amazon CEO Jeff Bezosfor an original painting from the Haunted Mansion’s stretching pre-show room. Now he owns a piece of Disney history.
Neil Patrick Harris Spent $170k on Haunted Mansion Prop, Outbidding Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoshttps://t.co/3XoT2oVCGB#hauntedmansion,#neilpatrickharrispic.twitter.com/ayxbhmgwFl
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT)July 15, 2025
If you’re a Haunted Mansion fan like Harris, but $9.95 is more in your price range, you may always purchase the bookTales from the Haunted Mansion Volume III: Grim Grinning Ghosts. Itcomes out on July 3,but if you pre-order it and/or the newDisney Parks Presents Jungle Cruisevolume on Amazon, maybe you’ll be doing your part to help Bezos win the next auction.
Over at Disney California Adventure, we’ve got our first look now at the Incredicoaster ride vehicle.
Here’s a first look at the new Incredicoaster trains debuting this summer at Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure park!https://t.co/Ge0fxCl1azpic.twitter.com/dimY3DrEKj
— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks)August 09, 2025
Thor and Loki now have a presence at Epcot. No, not the Marvel characters, but the original Norse gods on which they were based. An exhibit called"Gods of the Vikings"started this week at the Stave Church Gallery in the Norway Pavilion.
A new solar farmnear Disney’s Animal Kingdom will produce enough energy to power two whole theme parks. Epcot already has one other farm near it, and when you factor in the needs of the resort’s various hotels, this means Walt Disney World will boost its overall solar capacity to 25%. There’s a reason they call it the Sunshine State …We first reported last year on theStudio Ghibli theme parkcoming to Japan. This week, we also shared news ofthe park’sfirst concept artbeing released.More full-size versions of the concept images are up onKotakuif you want to scope them out over there. Be sure to come back here thoughandcheck out /Film writer Hoai-Tan Bui’s feature on thelegacy of the late Isao Takahata,“the underappreciated half of Studio Ghibli.”
Last week, we shared avideo from WDW News Todayof Tokyo Disneyland’s new 35th-anniversary parade, Dreaming Up. In its review of this parade,Disney Tourist Blogproclaimed, “at worst, Dreaming Upis the second-best daytime parade we’ve ever seen.”
The video last week was shot somewhat far back from the parade route, however. There’s a lottery right now for tickets to access a special parade viewing area in the park’s central Plaza. Tokyo Disneyland does get crowded and Dreaming Up is still in its frenzied opening weeks, but this week I myself was able to get up close and personal with the parade when my good-luck-charm fiancee and I won the ticket lottery.
So here’s my own personal contribution to the well of offbeat theme park news this week. Being in the front row with the world’s first full-sizeBig Hero 6parade float and others looming over us in larger-than-life fashion, I was able to get some decentiPhone X pics of Dreaming Up at Tokyo Disneyland(even though it was actually raining lightly). Since this was my first time seeing the parade, I was taking more wide shots that would show whole floats as opposed to individual performers.
It wasn’t until later — when I zoomed in on some fishy female characters in pics I was weeding out — that my fiancee and I began havingAustin Powersmoments where we realized: “It’s a man, baby!” Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan … they were very clearly men in wigs and heavy makeup. But since the parade never stops moving and the park’s guests won’t usually get a close look at their faces, Tokyo Disneyland has apparently seen fit to perpetuate Japan’s all-malekabukitradition with select female characters in its parades.
The evidence is purely anecdotal, so it’s probably best to file this story underDisney urban legendsfor now. Who knows, maybe Tokyo Disneyland was just short-staffed that day. Japan’s population is 98.5% ethnically Japanese; it’s a country with fewer Western women than others. Performers sometimes have to be shipped over from Australia and the American Disney parks. Keep in mind, also: Tokyo Disney Resort is actually run by Oriental Land Company, which has a licensing agreement with Disney.
You’d never see these kabuki shenanigans in Florida or California … or would you? You never know. Drag-queen princesses: coming soon to a Disney park near you?
