Over the past weekend, the Fantasy Land Theatre at Disneyland debuted a new live stage show entitled Mickey and the Magical Map. Since I couldn’t make it out to the park to check it out for myself, I decided to do the next best thing…wait for the YouTube video to show up. Here it is…

I love being able to watch YouTube on television via my Blu-ray player. It’s almost as good as being at the Fantasy Land Theatre. This new show does not disappoint. They use music from Jungle Book, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog and two original tunes that help tie the story into the other musical numbers. In some ways, this show reminds me of Mickey’s Philharmagic at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Only, this show involves live action, in an outdoor theatre, without the 3-D of Philharmagic. However, much like Donald Duck in that show, Mickey starts off with a rather innocent intent…paint the last dot on the map. Before you know it, Disney magic ensues. The visuals of this show left me wanting to see it live. Disney Imagineers have come up with something truly amazing in that, at times, you can’t tell if Mickey is live or part of the animation in the backdrop. Mickey goes in and out of being live.

The musical numbers are as fantastic as you’d expect in a Disney theme park show. I loved the Jungle Book and Princess and the Frog numbers because of the live trumpet player. As a former Trumpet performance major in college, I can totally appreciate the skill of the guy playing trumpet in these songs.

Anyways, seeing Mickey and the Magical Map on YouTube, has me wishing I could rush out to Disneyland and check out the show. What about you? If you have the opportunity to catch this show this summer, I’d highly recommend it (even though I haven’t seen it at Disneyland yet). You just know, when I’m at Disneyland this summer, I will be making time to watch.