Down your spine you feel a chill…

A grim and ghastly tribute to the tricks, terrors and
triumphs of the Disney Villains’ dark history, with Stitch lending a
devilish paw or two!

From the mansion on the hill, shrieks of laughter
break the still… Disney Princess Parade has been commandeered! The noble
procession of classic Disney royalty has been replaced by the Disney
Villains and their new accomplices – the Pumpkinmen, the Pink Witches and
Stitch, who are preparing themselves to take you into their world of
Halloween horrors and never-ending darkness!

Keep your wits about you and don’t do anything
stupid.  Just keep smiling and waving – let the grim ghouls and scary
sights pass by, you might make it through the whole performance without a
single scream!

Pre-Parade: Pink Witches

As the Disney Villains commandeer the parade
backstage, their associates, the Pink Witches, run riot right along the
parade route, turning everyone to their dark ways and preparing the guests
for the ghouls ahead!  They make their way from Main Street to
Fantasyland, where they join the start of the parade and continue their
haunts between each villainous act…

1: Pumpkinmen on Parade

As a wicked welcome to this perilous parade, the
Pumpkinmen invade the parade route and raise a scream or two with their
energetic dance moves and cheeky sidesteps.  Watch out for their
paintbrushes!

2: The Disney VIPs & Stitch!

A float overflowing with thick orange paint has become the Halloween home of
all seven Disney VIPs, joining the fun and laughter with patchwork clothes
and paintbrushes at hand!  In the centre of the float, Stitch jumps up
and down inside a giant orange paint pot, wearing a special Pumpkin mask and
causing havoc with every chuckle!

3: Classic
Disney Characters

Worried about the creeps still to come?  Don’t
be!  The classic Disney characters are all here, joining the fun of
Halloween with all their colour and innocence.  Alice, Peter Pan,
Pinocchio and more give you a gentle introduction to the horrors ahead!

4: Ursula & Slimy Sea Creatures

Ursula arrives atop a giant conglomeration of
undersea life and entangled fish, as those poor unfortunately souls – the
sea creatures she has been nurturing for this special occasion – dance
around in fear before her. Snorkelling Pumpkinmen become entangled in the
sea weed as Ursula continues laughing in villainous glee…

5: Captain Hook, Gov. Radcliffe & Ghostly Pirates

Straight from a haunting on the waters of Caribbean, this gang of ghostly
pirates makes its way down the parade route with a swagger before pouncing
on the most innocent victims in the sea of faces in the crowd. Captain Hook
and Governor Ratcliffe also make an appearance in this nightmarish mirage of
marauders.

6: Gaston & The Mob

Kill the Beast! Kill the Beast! This
unruly mob of villagers from the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast is led
off on a journey of evil by their arrogant leader Gaston, who stands atop of
Pumpkin dinner party whilst encouraging them to hold their pitchforks high
into the air and scare the unsuspecting crowd with their brutish force.

7: Jafar & Iago accomplices

Jafar soars high into the sky on his stolen Magic
Carpet with his faithful henchman Iago on his shoulder, spreading
unhappiness and cruelty across the Pumpkin-topped rooftops of Agrabah. His
reptilian alter-ego curves around the night-time moon above him, breathing
fire at intervals to deter any potential Arabian heroes!

8: Queen of Hearts & Pumpkin Cards

Her majesty the Queen of Hearts brings a royal
flare the procession, but doesn’t forget to add her own style of
unforgettable frights. She’s got a new pack of loyal cards with her, wearing
bright orange Pumpkins and dancing around waiting to obey her every command.
Will she have them “painting the roses orange” for Halloween?

9: Maleficent & Dragons

A shocking finale to the parade is guaranteed, as
Maleficent arrives on her Pumpkin-decorated dragon float, with the Cruella
De Vil and Hades lurking behind her, waiting to pounce on innocent
bystanders! A set of shifty-looking dragons encircle the float, making sure
there aren’t any unwanted interruptions as the Disney Villains bring their
ghastly salute to all things grim to a horrorific end!

Finding a Place to Watch

The parade enters the Parade
Route from next to “it’s a small world” and leaves at Town Square (next to
Discovery Arcade), so plan your viewing position accordingly.

If you don’t particularly want to watch the
parade on Main Street USA or have a view of the castle, then a good place to
watch the parade is near the archway into Fantasyland opposite the Pizzeria
Bella Notte. Here you are near the start of the parade route so you won’t be
waiting a long time for it to arrive, and it is also usually far less
crowded than the rest of the route.

It’s best to find a place on the parade route at
least 20 minutes before the parade is due to begin, though on more
frightfully busy
days finding your place anything up to 45 minutes before the parade
begins can be a good idea if you want one of the more popular spots. 
Also remember that the Pink Witches’ Pre-Parade begins before the parade, so
arriving early is essential to catch this petrifying prelude!

Taking Part

Let out a scream! Join
in the fun by dancing, singing and clapping along to the parade and waving
to all the characters. You’ll have a great time and you’re also more likely
to get a wave back from the Disney stars!  Just don’t do anything to
anger the short-tempered Disney Villain stars!

 “It’s
Halloween-Lo-Ween” is the popular theme song which can be heard during
the Disney Villain Parade and throughout Disney’s Halloween. The song was
created exclusively for the park in 2003, when the smaller “Halloween
Happening” mini-parade and the usual daytime Disneyland Park parade were
replaced by one single, larger Halloween parade for the duration of the
season… the Disney Villain Parade!

Since the second official year of Disney’s
Halloween in 1998, the theme song for Disney’s Halloween and the “Halloween
Happening” mini-parade was the slower-paced

“Halloween-Halloween”. For the Disney Villain Parade’s introduction in
2003, however, the decision was made to commission a new, faster-paced
parade theme song – almost a Halloween version of the well-known daytime
parade song
“Dancin’
(A Catchy Rhythm)”. The song was created by successful collaborators Jay
Smith and Vasile Sirli, who had before written such hits as
“All Around
The World”,

“Halloween-Halloween” and later
“Chante, C’est
No�l !”. It was first released as a CD Single in early October 2003 and
instantly became another huge success story for the musical team, with the
CD selling so well during the 2003 season that it was subsequently
out-of-stock in many of the resort’s boutiques the following year.

In October 2004, brand new remixes of the song were
used during a further expanded and improved Disney’s Halloween, such as a
Country & Western version for Frontierland atmosphere, and a full-on rock
version for the Halloween Party Night fireworks. It was not until early
September 2005 that many of these remixes were first released on a new
version of the
“It’s
Halloween-Lo-Ween” CD Single.

New in 2006, the Pink Witches’ Pre-Parade
streetmosphere uses the song “Boo To You” from Magic Kingdom Walt Disney
World’s Halloween celebrations.

A ghoulish parade has always been a part of
Disney’s Halloween, but over the years since the festival’s creation in 1998
there have been many changes to the festival’s parade. From a small
mini-parade to the park’s main daytime parade and a multitude of other
additions and alterations, the history of the Halloween parade is coming
back to haunt you…

Between 1998 and 2002, Disney’s Halloween Festival
featured only a small mini-parade called “Halloween Happening”, which was
performed either early in the morning or in the evening. The parade featured
mainly dancers and characters, with some very small “floats” and props such
as giant witches and skeletons that would be animated when pushed along by
the dancers, and an oversized tricycle decorated with a massive skull.

After a few minor changes through the years, such
as changing the parade’s performance time from the evening to the early
morning, 2003 brought the biggest change to the parade to date. The
Halloween Happening was effectively mixed with The Wonderful World of Disney
Parade to create The Disney Villain Parade. The classic brightly coloured
floats of The Wonderful World of Disney Parade (also known as
Disney
Princess Parade) were transformed into sinister and dark floats to host
the Disney villains through the addition of Pumpkins and other props along
with masks for major characters such as the Beast.

The Snow White float, a
float redecorated for The Princess Parade in May 2003, was redecorated
again, albeit temporarily, into the Pumpkinmen’s Paint Workshop. The float
was given an orange paint well, painting easels and orange paint dripping
down the sides to make sure the new Pumpkinmen characters (which were also
introduced in 2003) were represented strongly in the parade.

The whole team of dancers were given brand new
costumes relating to the villain they were dancing for, such as bright red
birds for Jafar & Iago and vicious purple dragons for Maleficent. New
character sections were added to the parade to make sure all the well-known
Disney villains were featured. The Queen of Hearts & her pack of Pumpkin
cards, Shan-Yu & his warriors and Captain Hook, Governor Ratcliffe & a
not-so-merry gang of ghostly pirates were all added to the parade to make it
one of the biggest parades ever seen on the Disneyland Park parade route.

The parade proved to be a huge success with guests
during the 2003 Halloween season, and so it returned for the 2004 season
without any major changes. For the start of the 2005 season, however, the
Shan-Yu & Warriors section had to be removed due to budget restraints on the
large parade, but there the addition of many new Pink Witches throughout the
whole parade helped to balance the loss.

In 2006, the giant inflatable roll-along pumpkin
seen in previous years was no longer featured, but extra Classic Disney
Characters have been added to the parade to provide some friendlier faces
amongst the vicious villains.  The Pumpkinmen were ousted
by the Disney VIPs and Stitch from their Paint Well float (act 2) and a brand new
pre-parade was presented by the Pink Witches.