Clarabelle Cow isn’t your usual Disney headliner. She’s not one of the Fab Five. She didn’t rate a golden statue for the 50th anniversary of Disney World. She doesn’t appear very often in the theme parks. But when she does, she really knows how to make an entrance.
Clarabelle made a triumphant return to the Magic Kingdom last week, taking center stage in “Mickey & Minnie’s Very Merry Memories” during Disney’s Very Merriest After Hours.
The new show puts our heroine exactly where she needs to be: in the spotlight. Clarabelle rides in on a sleigh, escorted by a quartet of reindeer. Decked out in her silver holiday best, Clarabelle returns to once again shimmy across the stage, belting out the Mariah Carey Christmas hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
The 15-minute show has been trimmed down from years past to really put the focus on characters, and not just Clarabelle. Of course Mickey and Minnie are the stars of the show, but the Three Caballeros also get a star turn, as do Pluto and Santa Goofy. But Clarabelle gets the biggest crowd reaction, and she really seems to be mooooved by her adoring fans.
Who is Clarabelle Cow, outside of her holiday appearances? She debuted alongside Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Steamboat Willie in 1928. She has been in more than 30 films over the years, but mostly in bit parts. Her appearance in “Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration” in 2016 made her a breakout star of the holidays.
If you can’t get enough of Clarabelle, she also appears in the Christmas parade, baking gingerbread and spreading the sweet smell of her kitchen along the way, as she has in years past.
If you’re planning to attend Disney’s Very Merriest After Hours, you can catch Clarabelle in Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade twice each night (at 9:45 p.m. and 12:05 p.m.) and in Mickey & Minnie’s Very Merry Memories stage show four times a night (at 9:25 p.m., 10:35 p.m., 11:45 p.m. and 12:50 a.m.).
