Apr 22, 20122 min read

Magical or Sorcery?

This was sent as by request to @DisneyBlueFairy – you can decide if it’s Magical or Sorcery…

In 1996, the Disney-MGM (I won’t call it Hollywood) Studios had a pretty good thing going with the Breakfast with Characters at the Soundstage Restaurant. Themed as if you were eating on a real live movie set (like ones starring Lily Tomlin & Bette Midler… I KNOW!), the eatery really made headway when it turned over into the ‘set’ of Disney’s Beauty & The Beast. This soon gave way to additions from Aladdin & Pocahontas. It was a great place for a photo op with Aladdin & Jasmine or Belle & Beast. Other stars of this dining experience included Genie, Meeko, Jafar, Rafiki, and sometimes Winnie The Pooh.

That summer, Disney was preparing for the release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the restaurant was planning a ‘Topsy Turvy’ celebration. This part is another story for another time. The other big news for the restaurant was that the breakfast hours would be expanded until park closing.

One problem – in 1996, guests liked their characters with breakfast. As a result, if Jiminy Cricket was a character at the Soundstage Restaurant, he wouldn’t be the only cricket you’d hear from about 2pm on….

The Genie and the gang tried to make the most of it. They turned each song on the background music loop into an event. They may have even been banned from doing the ‘Macrarena’ to ‘Under the Sea’ because of the hip gyrations. They also might have turned ‘Circle of Life’ into ‘Dance of the Buffet Fruit’ where Simba was a pineapple (with all due respect).

The best thing the character gang did on occasion was at the end of the night. The restaurant had emptied and the pre-Fantasmic nighttime show ‘Sorcery in the Sky’ was about to light up Hollywood Boulevard. They would sneak out into the Animation Courtyard and sit on the ground, giving the show its absolute focus. Inevitably, families would come to surround them, sit down beside them, and watch the event with their Disney pals.