Main Street, U.S.A. and Frontierland have begun their transformation by ghosts and pumpkins respectively, ahead of Disney’s Halloween Festival beginning in just ten days. Decorations arriving in the two Disneyland Park lands look broadly similar to recent years, following the festival’s gradual reinvention from 2010 onwards. Today’s latest photos by InsideDLParis show the ghosts introduced to Main Street in 2012 returning with modest changes. Unlike the Pumpkinmen, who from 2003 painted the street orange with complete disregard for its storyline, one of the best things about the popular ghosts is that they reference numerous Main Street locations — including the Dr Bitz Dental School on Town Square, below.

Plenty of banners and “funky pumpkins” are already present, too. Over in Frontierland, the Pumpkinmen actually had a slight reprieve, returning as “Harvest Festival” decorations alongside sunflower bunting and softer autumn colours. Their slightly menacing, jagged grins these days replaced by softer smiles, their context here is much more fitting than Main Street, even if the way some are bolted to the ground on large visible plates still seems a little “un-Disney”.

A minor revision in Frontierland sees the banners changed from orange and yellow to orange and black, as in Main Street. One bigger change for 2014 is the scene on Royal Castle Stage. Previously briefly home to Mickey’s Halloween Treat in the Street show, now superseded by Mickey’s Halloween Celebration parade, the unused Le Théâtre du Château has lost its giant Mickey Mouse-shaped pumpkin, replaced by a smaller sunflower centrepiece.

The green vines entwining its towers have also yet to return, so it looks likely, without any show to present, that the stage overlay will now remain more low-key. The introduction of a more “Harvest” style of spookiness is perhaps in line with rumours that Disneyland Paris will look to extend the Halloween season in coming years, perhaps having it begin earlier in September. Helping to spread the popularity of the season into an otherwise empty month, this would also support plans to invest more in new and better annual seasons, such as Swing into Spring, in favour of tiresome year-long “non-festivals” such as 2011’s Disney Magical Moments Festival.

PHOTOS @InsideDLParis (Twitter)