Disney Extinct Attractions: Mickey’s Nutcracker

Welcome to Disney Extinct Attractions. My name is Cole, and I’ll be your Rat King on today’s journey into the world of the Nutcracker.

In true Disney fashion, we here at Laughing Place are celebrating the holiday season a bit earlier than people normally do, but there is a great excuse for it this time around. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms hits theaters on November 2nd, so the Christmas season will be upon us almost as soon as Halloween ends, just like it is in the Disney Parks.

To celebrate The Nutcracker, we are in the midst of a 12 Days of Christmas celebration. Each day for the 12 days until November 2nd, we’ll have a special tribute to something Nutcracker-related on Laughing Place, and today, we are lucky enough to get a chance to revisit a former Disneyland show themed all around the classic story.

Mickey’s Nutcracker made its home in the Videopolis Theater in 1991 and 1992. At the time, there were no overlays in the park, so this show added a little boost that helped the park’s holiday spirit feel more all-encompassing.

Unfortunately, there is very little information about the creation of this show or any of the other shows that I’ll discuss today, as the holidays shows are not frequently talked about in the park’s history. They tend not to be as flashy as the mainstream shows, but I’m here to tell you that there is still a lot to love about them.

Below, you’ll find the video of Mickey’s Nutcracker in all of its glory.

The most interesting part of this attraction was that it actually got a full TV special in 1991 where a recorded version of the show was broadcast live (which is what the clips above are from). Very few Disney shows, especially recently, have gotten a full showing on television, so the fact that this show did showcases its uniqueness.

Now, in terms of the actual content of Mickey’s Nutcracker, the show takes most of its cues from the ballet, The Nutcracker, as one might expect.

The show was definitely on the cornier side, but I really enjoyed that aspect of it. Having no real background with the story, I really liked the idea of a Rat King whose only poison was sweets. It was super simple, but at the same time, a very Disney move. The Rat King’s song was also a borderline rock opera, which didn’t really fit at all, but somehow fit perfectly at the same time. The show also came out around when Roger Rabbit did, so he made an appearance and even got his own song, so you have to give the show a bit of extra credit for that.

Other than those two parts, I thought the show was pretty normal, but still provided a lot of Christmas spirit. I know that I would have tried to catch it at least once a holiday season while it was there.

Mickey’s Nutcracker only lasted two Christmas seasons before calling it quits. After the show, the Videopolis Theater never saw another Christmas show (though the Fantasyland Theater did), instead keeping to shows based off of Pocahontas, Snow White and more.

This idea is purely conjecture, but I believe that a large part of the lack of Christmas shows was the emergence of holiday overlays like it’s a small world holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday. These attractions continually have some of the longest lines during the Christmas season and help with crowd control in a way that no show would be able to do.

Well, that brings our trip today to a close. It was a short trip, but don’t worry because I’ll be back next week with a new post based on these clues.

1. These parades both appeared at overseas parks.
2. One of these parades revolved all around the movies.
3. The other parade was a nighttime spectacular that graced Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris.

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!