Is it just by chance that a number of Disneyland Paris fans appear to have booked into Disneyland Hotel this month, or has the flagship hotel at the gates of Disneyland Park suddenly seen a last-minute flurry of reservations, as fans stake out its park-view balconies with a hope of being the first to catch a glimpse of Disney Dreams! preparations? After the first look at the spectacular fountains over the weekend, the latest previews come from a Facebook page titled Disney WorldGlobe, which posted a short video taken from the hotel showing projection tests taking place on Sleeping Beauty Castle. While the majority of this video simply shows a golden Mickey Mouse silhouette shape with pixie dust trailing around it, something remarkable does happen at about four seconds in, as the castle suddenly cycles through a number of different projection effects. The first and most stunning is captured in the screenshot above: what a appears to be a gorgeous, multi-coloured series of galaxies swirling across the castle, which has light emanating out from its top window, where the Second Star to the Right will ultimately appear, glittering, in physical form. A few other fun effects appearing to involve that all-important star can also be glimpsed in the few seconds during which the projections switch over. Below left, it appears to cast a blue glow across the castle from above, highlighting its rooftops and casting other walls into shadow. Below right, an ethereal blue and green strobe radiates outwards from the top window.

Another, perhaps quite startling, effect appears to show the main window and archway of the castle engulfed by flames, above left. While a final effect, above right, creates a feeling of something rather more “Maleficent”, as the castle takes on the blue body, pink mouth and snarling yellow nostrils of a certain ferocious, animated dragon… perhaps? Meanwhile, the multi-coloured prism theme of Disney Dreams! will be extended even to its laser effects, which are truly state-of-the-art, according to the latest update from Steve Davison himself:

“Lasers! Lasers! Everywhere. I love full color lasers! Now Paris Disneyland has the most current, brightest show lasers in the world! They are the newest generation. Look at all tha[t] color! Simply amazing. Plus, we have the world’s best programmer who also worked on WOC [World of Color]!”

So all eyes on April, to see “what the World of Color team did next…”

VIDEO STILLS Disney WorldGlobe