This review was originally posted on April 19th, and has been updated with official photos and videos of the show.

It was just over a year and a half ago when we were first teased about Tokyo Disneyland’s new stage show—Mickey’s Magical Music World—as part of the massive New Fantasyland expansion of the park. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the show never made its April 15th, 2020 premiere. Instead, it was almost a year later, on April 1st, 2021, when we finally got to bask in the newest addition to Tokyo Disney Resort’s near-perfect show repertoire. And true to its name, the show is quite magical.

Warning: Spoilers for Mickey’s Magical Music World are ahead.
ミッキーのマジカルミュージックワールドのネタバレです。ご注意ください。

Staged in the brand-new (and gorgeous) Fantasyland Forest Theatre, Mickey’s Magical Music World takes Guests through various worlds of beloved Disney films in order to find the missing song from a magic music box. The Oriental Land Company has offered official photos and video clips to us, so we will use them to describe the show.

Plot

The show opens with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy encountering a massive music box in the forest. When they turn the key on the box, which is an absolutely monstrous set piece, a few Disney characters appear, including Snow White, Woody, and Pinocchio, accompanied by their musical motifs.

But after a bit, they find that one song is missing, so they split up to search for it.

The music box turns around (the center of the stage is on a rotating platform, think Hamilton) and splits apart when Lumière appears, leading us into the world of Beauty and the Beast (appropriate for the E-ticket attraction next door), where Lumiere and friends serenade Mickey and Minnie in a round of “Be Our Guest”. Belle, Alice, and Mary Poppins appear later.

After, we find ourselves in the jungle with King Louie and Baloo, who treat the audience to a round of “I Wan’na Be Like You”.

Transitioning to Timon brings us into “Hakuna Matata” while six acrobat dancers swing and dangle back and forth off poles in front of a neon Pride Rock.

Next, Jiminy Cricket appears to the tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star” as three mini-roll onto the rotating platform. An extremely talented dancer holds an umbrella that uses projection effects to simulate a shimmering star for Guests to wish upon.

This begins our personal favorite scene in the show, when one of the mirror-like boxes bursts open to reveal Cinderella singing “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”. As her first verse of the song ends, another box bursts open, revealing Rapunzel singing “I See the Light”. Finally, the last box bursts open and we see Jasmine performing “A Whole New World”.

As beautiful jeweled lighting descends over the performers, the stage begins to rotate again as the three princesses begin a beautiful harmony of their three songs.

Almost feeling too soon, the projected curtain descends with Mickey and the gang returning to the stage, disappointed that their search hasn’t yielded the missing song yet. They begin searching the other songs in the music box, leading to brief cameos by Winnie the Pooh and Elsa with their iconic theme songs, before Judy Hopps comes out and leads the audience in a short round of clapping along to “Try Everything”.

The final song they investigate leads to projected water flooding the stage and tentacles destroying the music box frame, revealing the evil Ursula, complete with massive and impressive tentacles commanded by stage technicians, as she attacks both the Disney friends and a ship on stage to the tune of “Poor Unfortunate Souls”.

This ends rather quickly, with the ship on stage turning into the Jolly Roger, commanded by none other than Captain Hook and his crew singing “Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me”. As the crew attempts to round up the Lost Boys, one of whom hangs off the side of the ship’s lantern, more acrobatics, Tick-Tock the Crocodile can be heard approaching the ship. Hook and his crew flee as Mickey and friends appear, revealing that it was really Peter Pan and a good old alarm clock all along.

Although Peter can’t tell them where to find the new song, he gives the gang a novel idea—make their own song for the music box!

The ship rolls away, leaving the gang on stage alone. A semi-transparent curtain descends, allowing projection effects to appear in front of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. They each attempt to create a melody, which fails spectacularly on the first try. But they don’t give up and, instead, bring the powers within them together to create a beautiful song.

Empowered, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey disappear through an opening in the curtain covered by a section of the music box, instantly reappearing in gold, black, and white outfits when the curtain lifts. And Minnie? If you’ve ever seen Frozen on Broadway, you’ll recall the magnificent transition of Elsa during “Let It Go”, and the same technique is used here to transform Minnie’s costume right before the audience’s eyes. All of the non-villain characters seen in the show then return in matching outfits, along with Daisy, Chip, and Dale, to sing the grand finale song “It’s Your Song”.

Review

It’s important to note how accurate this art is to just about everything that appears in the show. They really didn’t hold back. Mickey’s Magical Music World represents an evolution, we believe, in the traditional Disney IP showcase stage shows that we all know and love. Particularly in the vein of the extremely popular One Man’s Dream II: The Magic Lives On which came to an end in 2019. The music and acrobatics in the show are all excellent, projection mapping is balanced evenly with physical sets (a complaint we have about Out of Shadowland and Song of Mirage at Tokyo DisneySea as both relied almost exclusively on projections), and we were absolutely blown away by the Princesses scene. Plus the finale song will be in your head for the rest of the day, as it has for both times we’ve seen it.

The only real criticism we have is that there’s virtually no suspense in the show, with Ursula’s brief 90-second appearance seemingly the highest level of tension. It feels rather linear and predictable, whereas 2019’s Song of Mirage at Tokyo DisneySea’s Hangar Stage is great specifically because it keeps the audience wondering what will happen next. Perhaps it’s unfair to expect surprises from what boils down to a classic Disney IP showcase-style show, but we feel like there was a point where there could’ve been even more tension.

All in all, is Mickey’s Magical Music World worth your time? Yes, 100%. We still would put it as our second favorite stage show playing at Tokyo Disney Resort, right between Song of Mirage and Big Band Beat, and we look forward to seeing it over and over in the years to come!

Mickey’s Magical Music World plays 4-5 times daily at the Fantasyland Forest Theatre in Tokyo Disneyland. As of now, all seats require a win via the Entry Request lottery system. Guests may enter for only one performance daily. Are you excited to someday see Mickey’s Magical Music World? Have you seen it already? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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Spencer Lloyd