Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun (1990) DVD Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Tonight I'm just here to do a quick little DVD review. I watched Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun on DVD last night and I decided that I want to talk about it. I had originally planned on talking about all three versions of it that I've owned over the years (2 VHS editions and the one DVD edition), but I decided that I would just go for something simple tonight. So let's get into it.

Disneyland Fun is something that I've watched so many times. I grew up watching it on VHS, I've watched it on YouTube several times before I got physical copies of it again just a few years ago now, and I can honestly say it is one of my favourite Disney Sing-Along Songs volumes of all time. My all time favourite Disney Sing-Along Songs volume though is The Bare Necessities, with this one being second to it.

Disney released this on DVD in 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland, which happened in 1955. As I mentioned in my Disney Sing-Along Songs overview series, Disneyland Fun was one of the few volumes from the series to get a DVD release in the 2000s. I shouldn't say few though, because really 17 out of the 32 is quite a bit. Only two of them were DVD only releases, and the other DVD releases had VHS releases previously. 

Disneyland Fun is great. I originally owned it on VHS when I was a kid and I love watching it on that format, but I love watching it on DVD too. For the DVD release they kept the Disney Sing-Along Songs title card originally introduced in 1994 with the third wave of VHS releases, but they replaced the 1994 Disney Sing-Along Songs closing promo, which used the second wave VHS covers, with the original music only version of the second wave closing promo from the original 1990 VHS release, which just had the titles of the previous six wave two releases appear similar to the wave one releases from the late '80s. Some closing promos from wave two included a voiceover by Ludwig von Drake, but the closing promos were changing all the time since new volumes were being released all the time.

I actually find it interesting that they decided to change very little, if anything, for these releases. And it was all arbitrary too because, like with the VHS re-releases, for those that had them, they wouldn't change anything, not even the title card, but others they'd remove a song, or even add songs. I'll get into this when I talk about the DVD release for The Bare Necessities, which will happen at a later time.

What makes this a real throwback is the rides at Disneyland. This was filmed in 1989, which was about four years before my family and I would go to Disneyland during our week in Los Angeles in January, 1993. So, even though Mickey's Toontown hadn't opened yet, they might not even have started building it yet, the rest of the rides were exactly the way they were when my family and I were there in 1993. Now, I didn't get to ride Star Tours when I was there, seeing some of it on screen, in its original form, was weird. Especially because there's a shot of R2-D2 and C-3PO as part of the footage used during "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah". Also, being that this volume was released two years after Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out, Roger is all over the place in this volume. It's been a little over 31 years since we were there, but I don't remember how often Roger was walking around in 1993. I don't actually remember meeting him, not even in Toontown, and he's pretty much gone from the parks now. He was definitely prominent in 1989, when this volume was filmed, and in 1990, when it was released. 

I remember going on the It's a Small World ride when I was there, so seeing part of that in this volume, while "It's a Small World" was being sung. Same goes with the teacup ride as well. And they're both featured in Disneyland Fun. There were a couple of other things in this volume that I remember experiencing when I was at Disneyland in 1993. The Jungle Cruise and Main Street, U.S.A. are both things in this volume that I experienced when I was there in 1993.

Honestly, this is a great DVD to try and get your hands on. None of the Disney Sing-Along Songs volumes have been re-released since the DVD re-releases/releases of the early to mid 2000s happened. None of them are available on Disney+ either. Which is a shame, because they're great to go back and revisit, whether you have the DVD releases or any of the VHS releases. I have three of the DVD releases (The Bare Necessities, Disneyland Fun, and Beach Party at Walt Disney World) and four of the VHS releases (Disneyland Fun, Be Our Guest, Circle of Life, and Beach Party at Walt Disney World), and I love putting them on every once in a while and revisiting my childhood, because the VHS releases were a huge part of my childhood. We owned three (Heigh-Ho, The Bare Necessities, and Disneyland Fun), and rented a bunch of the other ones from You Can Fly! to Colors of the Wind and they entertained my siblings and I for hours. So I highly recommend picking these up if you can get your hands on them.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for tonight. I'll be back soon with more blog posts. I've only got two chapters left of The Fellowship of the Ring, so expect that review on Wednesday. I think I'm going to do part 2 of my Star Wars Legends overview series on Friday, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime though have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.