I'm Going To Disney World! - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Because of its iconic status, the "I'm going to..." phrase has been parodied or copied many times in films, TV shows and live interviews, including:

• In a Full House episode where Joey Gladstone supposedly won a $100,000 slot machine jackpot, Stephanie Tanner exclaims "I'm going to Disneyland!" but then quickly corrects herself saying that she was going to buy Disneyland.
• Bruce Springsteen ended his Super Bowl XLIII halftime performance by saying "I'm going to Disneyland!" to the camera.
• In the movie Con Air, when asked what he intended to do next after having hi-jacked a prison plane, John Malkovich's character, Cyrus the Virus says, sardonically, "We're going to Disneyland."
• Near the end of the 1991 film Hot Shots!, fighter pilot Lt. Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is cheered by his fellow pilots and carrier crew after completing a mission to bomb Iraq:
  • Reporter: "Hey Topper Harley, now that you've killed the bad guy and made the world safe for democracy, what are you going to do to cash in on your newfound fame?"
    Harley: "I'm going to Disneyland!" He then receives a large stack of cash and cheers loudly.
• The phrase appears in the Timbuk 3 song "Disneyland (Was Made For You & Me)" from their 1991 album Big Shot in the Dark, and the song "Dizz Knee Land", a 1993 hit by Dada.
• Midway through Disney's 1992 animated film Aladdin, Genie asks Aladdin, "You've just won the heart of the princess; what are you going to do next?" (as "When You Wish Upon a Star" swells in the background). Aladdin does not respond. While holding a script, Genie attempts to prompt him by saying, "Your line is 'I'm going to free the Genie.' "
• In the 1993 movie "The Thief and the Cobbler" the thief says the phrase while removing the third golden ball from the top of the minaret.
• In the Married...with Children season 8 episode "Luck of the Bundys", Jefferson Darcy shouts the phrase after a winning poker hand.
• In the 1997 television episode of Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres' character came out as a lesbian, she quipped "I'm going to Disneyland" when asked by a psychologist what she planned to do next.
• Several episodes of The Simpsons, including:
  • "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday": After winning the Super Bowl, a football player shouts, "Woo! I'm going to Disneyland!", to which a travel agent replies, "Really? You know, I'm a travel agent and I've heard nothing but bad things."
• In the 2007 comedy Balls of Fury, protagonist Randy Daytona says "I'm going to Disneyland" just before he collapses after tripping over a barrier in the Olympic ping-pong semifinals. This phrase comes back to haunt him when ping-pong patron Feng acknowledges Daytona with the question "How was Disneyland?"
• In the 2007 film The Game Plan, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson proclaims after winning the Super Bowl that he is "Going to.... take my daughter home," a spin off to the Disney World line.
• After winning UFC 1 Royce Gracie when asked on how he was going to spend the money he had won responded "I go to Disneyland".
• In one episode of the TV show series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", Will exclaims the phrase after winning his first basketball game.
• As Wichita and Little Rock pull up to Pacific Playland in Zombieland, Wichita asks her sister "You have just survived the zombie apocalypse and drove halfway across the country. Where are you going to go?", which Little Rock replies to with an exuberant "I'm going to Pacific Playland! Whoo!"
• In Animaniacs, a common running gag was that a character would be asked by a reporter (usually Mary Hartless), "What are you going to do next?" The character would then seem to be about to respond with the classic Disneyland phrase, but then change it at the last minute. For example, in Hurray for Slappy, Slappy Squirrel responds: "I'm going to...bed."
• Disney itself spoofed the campaign with the actual song in a promo for The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC in 1997. In it, a kid is seen doing his homework. When he gets finished, his response to the narrator's question is "I'm going to the living room."
• TV Land lampooned the campaign in 1999 after Malcolm Bondon won the network's Ultimate Fan Search game show contest. A different narrator asks Bondon "You've just become TV Land's Ultimate Fan! What are you going to do next?", to which the latter responds "I'm going to TV Land! Wooooooo!"
• At the WWE payperview event, Night of Champions (2012), in a backstage segment, after Daniel Bryan and Kane attempt to reconcile after becoming WWE Tag Team Champions, Kane is asked if he has anything to say to Bryan. He walks off, but returns with a keg of Kool-Aid and dumps it over Bryan, exclaiming, "Do I have anything to say? I'm going to Disneyland!".