Disneyland (35th Anniversary Bumpers)

(1990)

Bumper: We start with an image of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle at dusk. Little dots of light start flying into the castle entrance, while the camera zooms in on it as the inside glows white. We then cut to a black background, where the dots merge together and shine to form a white "35". As the camera zooms out, the light purple text "YEARS OF MAGIC" and a golden Disneyland logo zoom out from off screen and settle below the "35", while multicolored rectangles and triangles also zoom out come and form a stylized castle. Finally, four fireworks go off behind the logo before cutting to black.

Variants:

• There is a shorter variant in which the animation is sped up, and only three fireworks go off before cutting to black.
• There's an even shorter "warp speed" variant that cuts out the castle scene completely and starts with the "35" forming.
• When the Disney Channel aired inserts covering the park's anniversary celebrations, the logo was preceded by an additional bumper. On a black/blue gradient background with falling confetti, the gold words "The Disney Channel" (with "Disney" in its corporate font) are at the top and a golden Disney Channel logo is in the middle. Below it, the red word "Celebrates", in a cursive font, writes itself in. The camera then zooms through the Mickey Mouse icon in the logo to reveal the start of this bumper (the short version), which plays as normal.

Trivia: This bumper celebrated the 35-year anniversary of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California.

Technique: The dots of light flying into the castle, the camera zooming into the castle, the dots forming the "35", the next and shapes zooming in and settling, and the fireworks going off.

Audio: An orchestral rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" that starts off low and finishes triumphantly.

Audio Variants:

• On the short version, a different, quicker rendition of the theme plays. On the "warp speed" variant, the theme is truncated.
• On the Disney Channel variant, the long version of the theme plays throughout both bumpers while an announcer (Jerry Bishop) says "Disneyland celebrates 35 years of magic!"

Availability: This was seen before the 1986 Walt Disney Home Video logo on two Disney's Sing-Along Songs tapes from 1990; the full version appeared on Under the Sea, while the short version appeared on (appropriately enough) Disneyland Fun. The "warp speed" variant was spotted at the end of a January 1990 airing of DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers in syndication (replacing the Buena Vista Television logo). The Disney Channel variant appeared at the beginning of inserts between programs that featured highlights of the park's anniversary celebrations throughout the year.

Legacy: This bumper should please those with a fondness for Walt Disney's original magic kingdom.