Last chance to catch Playhouse Disney show

This weekend marks the final curtain for the forgettable cast of characters in the current Playhouse Disney stage show at California Adventure.

Starting Feb. 12, the Playhouse theater at the Anaheim theme park will go dark for a month to expel Stanley, JoJo the Clown and Bear in the Big Blue House for a better-known cast of Disney Channel characters including Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Handy Manny and the Little Einsteins in a show scheduled to open March 14.

The new 20-minute puppet show encourages the predominantly-preschooler audience to sing, dance and clap along. An identical version of the show recently debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida. (Watch the video at Laughing Place).

Spoiler alert!
The story line for the new show follows the gang from “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” as they plan a surprise birthday party for Minnie Mouse. Goofy is charged with baking a cake while Donald Duck must compose a song and Daisy Duck create a birthday sign. Quite naturally, trouble ensues and Mickey calls on the Mouseketools for help — enlisting the casts of “Handy Manny,” “Little Einsteins” and “My Friends Tigger and Pooh.” (See more photos at Screamscape.)

While I found the puppets to be fun, particularly Manny’s tools, the patchwork of story lines felt as forced together as a shotgun wedding.

On the other hand, my 7-year-old daughter, Hannah, liked the show just fine — singing along with the music and marveling at the puppetry. And she’s much closer in age to the target demographic.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photos: Disney]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under Disney's California Adventure, Family & Kids, San Diego, Southern States, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.