Disneyland’s Oogie Boogie Bash is peak millennial nostalgia

If a full-grown adult knocked on your door on Halloween, your first thought definitely wouldn’t be: “They’re trick-or-treating! Let me give this person some candy.” But there I was, holding out my treat bag, and people were dropping handfuls of sweets and snacks into it. 

It’s true what they say. At Disneyland, anything is possible. At least it is in this case, when the “anything” in question is feeling like a kid again during Halloween. This year’s Oogie Boogie Bash, Disneyland Resort’s annual Halloween party which takes over Disney California Adventure Park on select nights in September and October and requires a separate, pricey ticket to attend, definitely makes that happen.

Maybe you’re thinking, “So what? The whole point of Disneyland is that you can feel like a kid while you’re there.” And you have a point. But this year’s Oogie Boogie Bash doesn’t feel like a Halloween event designed to appeal primarily to today’s kids. It feels like an event designed to hit adults in all the nostalgia feels — and let me tell you, it works. 

The biggest draw for Oogie Boogie Bash is the “treat trails,” which combine character encounters with trick-or-treating. You enter a path that eventually leads to a villain not usually seen inside the parks during regular hours, like Agatha Harkness from “WandaVision,” Ernesto de la Cruz from “Coco,” Madam Mim from “The Sword in the Stone” and the ghoul of the hour, Oogie Boogie from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Along the way, you hit several stations where you trick-or-treat, amassing handful after handful of candy, savory snacks and sometimes (if you can’t manage to dodge them) fresh fruits and veggies. 

This year, there are two new villains at the event, neither of which has ever been seen in the park before. One of them is Judge Doom, the big bad from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the 1988 Disney movie that saw Roger, a cartoon rabbit, trying to clear his name from a murder charge and unwittingly saving all of Toontown from capitalism-driven destruction.

The other is Yokai, the villain from “Big Hero 6.” This one makes sense as a way to highlight San Fransokyo, the new retheme of the area of the park formerly known as Pacific Wharf, now designed to reflect the world of the 2014 film. But Judge Doom? Bringing a villain from a 35-year-old movie into the parks for the first time can only mean one thing: millennial nostalgia. 

To be fair, Disney has always done an excellent job of appealing to all generations, keeping some older, even opening-day rides, while also updating others using modern films and characters. But this year’s Halloween party hits different, and not just because of one villainous toon. As I walked through the party on opening night, I kept thinking to myself: “This feels just like my childhood.” As much as I enjoy the parks, it’s not a feeling I often have while I’m in them.

It was there in the character interactions — when you get to the end of the treat trail, you can talk to the characters, and take photos with them. Sid, the bully who made terrible Franken-toys from the 1995 “Toy Story,” was the same. He was standing there, sneering at people and making comments about the dreaded packets of grapes some stations were giving out. “That’s not candy,” he angrily said. “This is Halloween.”

It was there in the parade, when Jack and Sally from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” followed the Mayor of Halloweentown and enormous dancing vampire puppets. Villains like Dr. Facilier from “The Princess and the Frog,” and the Evil Queen from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” followed, but given that it’s Oogie Boogie’s party, it only makes sense that there’s a little extra love for that movie’s main characters. 

And it was definitely, definitely there in the trick-or-treating. I didn’t realize it until I was walking up to a cast member, bag in hand, holding it out for a treat like I hadn’t done since I was in middle school. “Happy Halloween!” one said cheerfully. “Trick or treat!” 

It hit me right in the nostalgia feels, scratching an itch I didn’t even know I had until that moment. And it was exactly what I wanted the party to be.

Oogie Boogie Bash tickets sold out for 2023 during the summer. If you want 2024 tickets, start watching Disney social media in June for an on-sale announcement.