Image above from an OTL commercial for the park's 50th anniversary.
Festivities began with a ceremony held at the park's central hub on May 5, hosted by Disney chairman Barry Diller. Art Linkletter and Julie Andrews were on hand to give speeches to commemorate the milestone. Linkletter co-hosted the televised grand opening of the park back in '55 while Andrews was the official ambassador for the 18 month long celebration. A new rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" was sung by Harry Connick, Jr. A special song for the milestone, dubbed "Remember When," was written by Richard Marx and sung by Alicia Keys.
Also on that day, Disney's Imagineering department unveiled new renderings of a completely rebuilt and expanded Riverfront Square in St Louis. Riverfront Square's footprint will stretch southward from its current southern boundary on Walnut Street down to Clark Ave. On the southeast corner of Walnut and 8th Street will be a new parking garage, which should help solve parking issues that plagued Riverfront Square from its opening. The expansion of Riverfront Square will commence upon completion of the new Cardinals ballpark, starting in 2006. Completion should be around 2009 or 2010. What should be the 40th Anniversary of Riverfront Square in 2006 will be dedicated to planning ahead for the 50th in 2016.
BELOW: The Riverfront Square expansion site IOTL. Blocks 200, 300, 400, 500, 700 and 800 encompass RS's expansion. Blocks 100 and 600 will be used for RS parking.
New at Disneyland Anaheim this year are refurbishments of classic attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain.
T2-3D: Battle Across Time and the
Matrix virtual reality experience move from Horizon Spaceport to Cinemagic Park's new Hemdale Backlot. Also at Horizon Spaceport,
Back to the Future,
Star Tours and the
ET Adventure get much needed facelifts, with the former two upgraded with randomized ride sequences. Mission to Mars is replaced by a west coast version of
The Alien Encounter: Predators vs. Xenomorphs, licensed by New Line Cinema.
Another part of the 50th Anniversary celebration, a new nighttime spectacular called
World of Color, taking its title from the anthology series. For this special extravaganza, the Sherman Brothers come out of retirement to write new songs, including a reworked version of the
Wonderful World of Color theme. Mist screens are used to project the images, similar to the World of Color show that played at California Adventure IOTL.
Other than that, very little has changed at Disneyland since the 40th anniversary ten years ago.
New at Cinemagic this year is The Neighborhood of Make Believe, licensed by the estate of Fred Rogers. Daniel Tiger, rather than Prince Tuesday or King Friday, serves as the new realm's character ambassador.
There was also a television special that aired on the night of July 17, 2005 on NBC and Disney Channel simultaneously.
Host: Art Linkletter
Special Guest Stars
Weird Al Yankovic
Julie Andrews
Tom Hanks
Conan O'Brien
Rachel Stone
Ewan McGregor
Justin Timberlake
Johnny Depp
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Venus Terzo
