News / It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland

Just like that, the nights are dark and the leaves are falling. And since the Saturday just gone, 4th October, Disneyland Paris is back in the Halloween spirit for — with great coincidence — its 13th season.

So what’s new? For the past two years the festival had to coincide with the eternal 15th Anniversary celebrations. This year, it has to battle Mickey’s Magical Party for airtime. In this great big roundup of all things Halloween, we’ve quotes from DLRP Magic!.com‘s interview with festival director Emmanuel Lenormand and some fresh videos pulled from YouTube along the way.

This is Halloween – let’s hope we’ve no need to scream.

Jack Skellington & Sally move to Cottonwood Creek

The Nightmare Before Christmas pair were so popular during their inaugural season in 2008 that they’ve had to be given a wider area than Phantom Manor‘s Boot Hill. This year, they’re over by Cowboy Cookout Barbeque instead…

Halloween Opening Parade

…but do again appear in the rather dull-titled “Halloween Opening Parade”. The pre-parade to Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade this year features lots of Pumpkin Men (or Pumpkinfolk), a horse and cart carrying the couple and the old Carollers/Snow White/Seasonal float carrying Cruella, Gaston, Stitch and other “Villains”, all set to the music of Florida’s HalloWishes fireworks “This Is Halloween”/”Grim Grinning Ghosts” remix.

Here’s the pre-parade moving past (40 seconds in):

And a show stop on Town Square:

Anything to add? Oh yes, definitely don’t look at Hong Kong’s Halloween parade.

It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends… and the Disney Villains

…and a Ridiculously Long Name. This is only one performance mind — the first three shows of “It’s Party Time…” each day run as normal, with only the final show (currently at 7pm) being given a light Halloween touch.

Emmanuel Lenormand wasn’t being modest when he described it as “only a camera” in his recent backstage interview. Just as the show is wrapping up, thunder claps and the usual Halloween sound effects herald the arrival of Maleficent via the stage lift usually reserved only for Mickey.

(jump 5 minutes 35 seconds in)

Apparently the witch is there because she’s upset not to be invited to Mickey’s Magical Party (clearly she hasn’t had to stand through “It’s Dance Time…” like the rest of us). The purpose of her arrival will be lost on a vast majority of guests, however, since she speaks only French. Yes, it’s Goofy’s Summer Camp all over again. Not all that long ago, Entertainment would have ensured a mixture of languages and then possibly a repetition of what’s happening from each language.

But huh, who cares. Soon enough, rather than doing something, er, “villainy” as you might expect, the now collection of baddies suddenly begin to take part in yet another rendition of the so-called “Mickey Dance”. You can’t deny it’s funny to see the Old Hag from Snow White bopping away to the rock-pop theme song, but for the past few years the festival was been built around a centrepiece show here on Central Plaza. Now that focal point is just a silly dance.

A touch which feels more special, though, is the addition of pyrotechnics to the stage as Mickey disappears towards the end (which can be seen at 10 minutes 15 seconds in the video above). They produce a whole lot of smoke but make for a great finale. Apparently they were meant to be there for every show, since April.

It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland

Though not marked on the Programme as being part of Halloween, Emmanuel Lenormand does comment: “There will also be a similar cameo at the end of It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.”. Naturally, we’re all expecting Gaston and Cruella De Vil going wild to the show’s quintessentially Disney number “Shake Your Booty”, and nothing less.

If you’ve seen the real “cameo”, do comment below.

Minnie’s Halloween Party Train

Now on version number 2,561 of this meet ‘n’ greet train, the park has redecorated the carriages with thorny vines and pumpkins, adding Halloween sound effects over the already saturated soundtrack. The bigger change, though, is that the train now only makes it as far as Town Square, doing a loop around the Gazebo before stopping for the characters to step down.

There’s a bit of a blunder with the introduction, however, as the train is announced as the old “Disney Characters Express”, yet later, Minnie’s ear-piercing voice of 2009 continues to play, so guess away at how that mix-up happened. D’oh! And to think Minnie’s Party Train so nearly got away with guests thinking it was a “brand new” event!

Disney Witches Dancing Spells Party

The difficult name might not exactly inspire, but from Emmanuel’s words this new show on the temporary Trick or Treat Stage near Cowboy Cookout Barbeque sounds like it might be the hit of the season. The stage has been redressed, given a proper set — even special effects. Maleficent and the Old Hag from Snow White battle it out with the help of placed audience members.

“In this show, Maleficent and the Old Hag from Snow White arrive in a cemetery during the night to have fun with their cauldrons and spells to invent new potions. Four children/dancers passing by are going to be choreographically transformed according to the Hag’s and Maleficent’s potion ingredients.

“For that show, Jérôme Picoche came up with some superb scenes, with the transformation of the tombs into cauldrons, with effects everywhere, and a cool ambiance!”

Unfortunately nothing appears to have made its way online yet, so we’ll keep you posted.

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties

This year, the extra-ticketed events take place on 9th, 16th, 23rd and 27th October and have thankfully been extended beyond Fantasyland to also include Frontierland and Pirates of the Caribbean. Last year, everyone was kept inside Fantasyland for the duration.

Emmanuel elaborates: “It was such a success last year that we decided to fully open Central Plaza and Frontierland for the occasion. There will be a brand new show in front of the Castle with Disney Characters, in which each good character with confront his or her evil counterpart! And again, there will be lots of candy and sweets handed out.”

“There will also be a Disco Party in Frontierland. The whole place will be filled with dance and fun everywhere! With all of our dancers and Disney Characters, it’s going to be terrific!”

Disney’s Halloween Party (31st October 2009)

And on the big night itself… there’ll be not a bang in the sky. The big talking point for 2009 is what amounts to the cancellation of the usual Halloween Soirée fireworks show. Over the years, they’ve been good and they’ve been underwhelming, changing almost every year. But this year, there’ll be nothing at all after midnight.

Instead, Emmanuel has been helping to prepare a brand new “Light and Sound Show”. Getting that sinking feeling? Don’t judge too soon — as Emmanuel revealed, “we’re going to revisit the elements that made last year’s show such a success — projections, dancers, etc — but enhanced a million times! You’ll have up to 60 artists, projections, pyrotechnic effects and the Castle transformed into a stage itself!”

Last year’s finale show, in case you didn’t catch it online or in the park, was one of the most impressive to date, using the old Central Plaza stage for dancers and a very rare appearance by Sorcerer Mickey — who even did his special pyrotechnic trick usually reserved for Fantasmic! in the States.

Beyond possible noise or cost issues, there’s one good reason to scrap fireworks in the unwelcome early closures it brings to the whole back half of the park. “The idea is to have Mickey confronting the forces of evil with lots and lots of surprises: black light effects and lots of projections.”

“In fact, we’ve got a new projection system which is really effective, so you’ll be able to see giant characters and news ways to animate the walls and the windows of the Castle. It’ll look really different.” All things considered, maybe this kind of imaginative, one-off show is actually better than the same old low-level squibs we’d see otherwise.

And finally…

The Decorations

Oh, Halloween at Disneyland Paris. It’s love/hate. You’ll mostly see the same old things around the park this year — that means Main Street trashed by orange paint and Frontierland turned to Halloweenland with a hodgepodge of items from across the years. At worst, these creations still unfortunately treat Disneyland like a lifeless canvas, rather than actually complementing its themes and bringing extra life to the lands.

However — the poorly-judged (or quite simply poor) Pink Witches are entirely gone, as are most of their most awful remnants (the astonishingly bad “Travel Agency” desk, for example). Jack and Sally have begun to be represented in several places, most notably on the former “Pink Witches Academy” arch, and several other assorted new pieces have popped up that are really rather pleasing. Some of the older items, like the crypt arch, have been repainted in nicer new designs, finally incorporating purple into the colour scheme.

It seems like they finally know the direction to take Halloween in, but the issue yet again is money. For such a key season, now one of, if not the most important season for markets like the UK, Halloween in Paris is sorely under-funded when it comes to decorations. Everything is rehashed over and again. Hopefully sometime next decade they’ll finally be given the cash to invest in proper, comprehensive overlays in the more sensitive style of those seen in California.

And what about Halloween at Walt Disney Studios Park? After all, even Tokyo DisneySea launched a “rival” Halloween event to its next-door neighbour this year with great success. Well, Emmanuel is posed that very question — but isn’t exactly forthcoming.

• Read the full interview with Emmanuel Lenormand here!

• Buy your tickets for the Halloween Party Nights at www.disneylandparis.com!

This new Mickey’s Magical Party CD album was first confirmed in DLRP Magic.com‘s exclusive interview with Director of Music Vasile Sirli back in July, with an expected release for August.

Well, they certainly kept us anticipating — the new album, in a shiny foil cardboard sleeve, began appearing in the resort’s stores in the very last week of the month. Here it is…

On the disc you’ll find pretty much the full original score of the centrepiece show It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends, plus two new versions of the ‘Mickey’s Magical Party Time’ theme song by Scott Erickson and the ‘He’s a Pirate’ (a track from the original Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl soundtrack) remix heard at the start of It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.

Rounding out the collection are a few oddities. We’ve got a track by The Hill Billy Trio (‘How Many Biscuits Can You Eat’) and another by The African Tam-Tam. Considering these two were both previously available on Frontierland en Musique and Disneyland Resort Paris en Musique releases respectively, are they there to provide a pause from the very modern, pop-tempo Magical Party tracks, or do they smell like filler? Let’s leave that to you…

Finally, a more surprising deviation is the full, 13-minute soundtrack of the Once Upon a Time Sleeping Beauty “happening” from Fantasyland’s Castle Courtyard. Again, this has little relation to the theme year celebrated by the album, but the music plays well on CD, almost sounding better than it does through the speakers in that area of the park. Very unusually for a Disneyland Paris CD, the full introduction spiel is included. (Unusual and rather annoying, since we’ve yet to ever see anything this complete for far more worthy events like Fantillusion, don’t you think?)

Can’t get to the park just yet? Wondering how all these new tracks sound? Ahh, let DLRP Today.com bring the Storybook Store listening post to you! Here’s an exclusive collection of excerpts from the CD…

The full tracklisting is as follows:

1. Mickey’s Magical Party Time – Instrumental (04:08) *
2. Following the Leader (01:50) *
3. The Bare Necessities (01:53) *
4. Tigger Medley (01:32) *
5. Hakuna Matata (01:44)
6. Peter Pan Medley (01:50) *
7. Mickey – Finale (01:00) *
8. La Fête Magique de Mickey (03:46) (French version by Georges Costa) *
9. Mickey’s Magical Party Time (01:45) (Main Street, U.S.A. version) *
10. Mickey’s Magical Party Time (06:10) (Remix)
11. He’s a Pirate (05:38) (Remix) *
12. The Hill Billy Trio – How Many Biscuits (03:33) *
13. The African Tam Tam (05:00) *
14. Il était une fois, la Belle au Bois Dormant (12:50) *

Total time: (53:48)

Tracks marked with an asterisk (*) are included in the preview above.

With a running time of just over 50 minutes and over 20 of those taken up by the final filler tracks, it’s still notable what this CD celebration of the year’s events fails to include — besides the Mickey’s Magical Party Time song itself, which you’ll have to buy on the separate CD single.

Still we’ve no ‘Tous en Train’ theme song from Minnie’s Party Train and Disney Characters’ Express, nor any music from the new attractions over at Walt Disney Studios Park. Playhouse Disney is excusable since the rights are held elsewhere, but a ‘Roll out the Red Carpet’ mix from Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars could have been a good inclusion, perhaps the ‘Showbiz Suite’ version previously released for the parade at Walt Disney World.

Goofy’s Summer Camp has also provided another remix of the main theme song played before the show begins in a laid-back country style, which may well have been cut too late to make the master.

But, who cares? Have you listened to those preview clips above yet, or seen the ‘Party Time’ show in the park itself? The score of this show, particularly the opening and finale, is a sensational piece of work from Vasile Sirli. Incorporating musical styles and instruments from across Europe to give the classic Disney themes a fresh and vibrant new feel, not to mention a glorious, rich orchestral version of the theme song, it’s one of the best Disney entertainment scores of the decade. And now, we can own it.

The CD is priced at €15.00, and now available for sure at The Storybook Store and The Emporium, though may well have found its way to more locations. Grab it quick, though — we’re nearly half way through the year already and in its first days on sale (particularly over the final weekend of August), the small displays at these stores were being emptied each day.

• If you’ve already got the CD, now is the perfect time to discover Jeremie Noyer’s interview with Vasile Sirli all about the main show score itself. Learn the inspirations, the instruments, the ideas and more as you listen… (Click here)

• You can also order the CD via the resort’s official mail order service. Email dlp.mail.order@disney.com for more details.

Pictures: DLRP Today.com; Music: © Disney.

That shiny new image used to launch the resort’s print advertising campaign for this year’s events was just the first of many, DLRP Today can now reveal.

Floating in a calm blue sky was a silver balloon “reflecting” an image of It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends, the new signature Central Plaza show. It was certainly a different approach to the saturated, really quite garish marketing images we’d seen earlier.

Now, there are three more images in the same style — is Mickey’s Magical Party being magically re-marketed before it even begins?

The first image, above, is the original image used in the magazine advertisements, featuring “VIPs” Donald Duck and Goofy alongside Mickey Mouse on the stage, rather than the secondary Timon and Aladdin of the earlier visual.

Below, Minnie’s Party Train gets another Photoshop re-imagining, this time adding more polka dots and plenty more characters to its carriages.

Though, as yesterday’s early preview in the park confirmed, the actual final design of the train is still rather different indeed.

Finally, Stitch gets another fairly nondescript visual to advertise It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland, continuing to show it more alike a modern, rock concert atmosphere than the actual scfi-kitsch of the real show.

It’s interesting that these visuals are available from Disneyland Resort Paris alongside the earlier poster-style images — they haven’t been replaced, but they certainly look rather less appealing than these new designs above.

Just a shame, perhaps, that these weren’t available sooner, when the original brochures for this year went to press, rather than two weeks before the event begins…

Images © Disney.

Travel trade partners visiting Disneyland Resort Paris earlier this week for an “educational” trip were also given a special surprise as part of that product education — an exclusive first look at the key events of Mickey’s Magical Party. Since these are the people who’ll be trying to sell the resort and its new celebration over the next year, the organisers pulled out all the stops for an in-depth event-by-event preview.

First up, after the revelation of Mickey’s flashy new costume for It’s Party Time, the first presentation: It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.

Lights dimmed and Stitch suddenly appeared as a silhouette at the far end of the stage, rushing up toward the real DJ’s decks only to be intercepted by the event’s master of ceremonies and the upcoming show’s director, Emmanuel Lenormand…

As the crowd were whipped up in anticipation, the music began and those pink and blue-dressed sci-fi-like dancers we’ve seen before came parading onto the stage with a hugely energetic routine. Each section of the show introduced new dance steps for the audience to retrace.

The music, as anyone familiar with the California or Florida resorts will instantly recognise, comes straight from Block Party Bash, including the Motown classic “Dancing in the Streets” and… “YMCA”. Whilst the dancers’ costumes suggested the show might be tailored a little more to its Discoveryland location than we first expected, the soundtrack — at least for this preview — doesn’t quite fulfil that hope.

Toward the end of the 11-minute performance, the live host encouraged the crowd in the convention hall to repeat a chant back to the cast. Stitch, wearing an orange baseball cap, remained silent for the whole presentation. It’s expected — but not confirmed — that he will speak in the show, whereas no thought before now was given to the possibility of a live human host.

Since these presentations aim to just give a “feel” for the events and lack the actual stages and performance cues of the real shows, we’ll have to wait and see come 4th April just how much of this preview is true to fact.

Video by PhotosMagiques.com.

Despite his disadvantages, Mickey Mouse stormed to victory when a guest challenged him to a breakdance battle in Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Resort Paris recently. Don’t believe us? The evidence is online for all to see!

Take a look:

Amazing skills for an 80-year old mouse in smart dress, right?

Now, it goes without saying this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day at Disneyland Park. In fact, it’s probably the first time Mickey Mouse has ever danced like this in his long life — but it’s all for a good cause. The video isn’t shot by chance by an amateur, and the battle wasn’t started by accident.

This bizarre display you’ve just seen is actually a viral video produced by (or for) Disneyland Resort Paris themselves, a video created with the intention of it causing a stir on websites like YouTube and ultimately providing the resort with inadvertent advertising and word of mouth without people feeling like they’re watching a marketing creation.

So far, it seems to be a big success — the video has already had over 20,000 hits in just two days! As a concept it is also far stronger than the resort’s previous attempt at viral marketing, which saw a dog elongated by stepping into The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, since it links in well with the strong theme of dance throughout the Mickey’s Magical Party events.

Just don’t expect to see the Mouse giving this kind of display on your next visit…

It seems like this final week in February has become an annual time to see the latest marketing campaigns and TV commercials of Disneyland Resort Paris being premiered. Exactly one year ago today, we saw The Celebration Continues… Big Time! unwrapped on our TV screens, whilst two years ago, the ever-beautiful advertisements for the 15th Anniversary itself unravelled.

This year, the TV spot is… floating onto our screens, naturally filled with hundreds upon hundreds of colourful balloons to advertise Mickey’s Magical Party.

The lively spot begins with a stunning shot of balloons flying above the clouds, mountains in the background, with a strong yellow tint. As the second shot appears, of balloons flying around the side of a bushy, clearly sun-drenched hill toward a noticeably distant city from most of North West Europe, it looks like those balloons have reached further than any of us could have predicted…

Indeed, to film this new commercial, production was taken all the way to… South Africa! According to admin Kristof on magicforum, even the It’s Dance Time DJ podium and a replica of one corner of the new Central Plaza stage were taken, along with all the characters and costumes you see, to then only be filmed in front of green-screen with the real Disneyland Resort Paris backdrops inserted later!

This practice isn’t uncommon though, as member experiment627 adds, “a lot of commercials are being shot in South Africa, for there are landscapes that resemble Europe quite a bit and you pretty much got sun and blue skies most of the year.”

As the balloons reach the city streets, one bumps right into a young boy running home from school.

He grabs hold of it, pulls the invitation from its string…

And opens up the envelope to reveal a Mickey shape and the Mickey’s Magical Party logo.

Miraculously, he’s then transported immediately to Disneyland Resort Paris!

The voiceover of the TV spot is different again to previous years, with a clearer and more placid voice beginning “This year, it’s Mickey’s Magical Party, and Disneyland is expecting an extraordinary hero… you!”.

“Discover DJ Stitch’s first fantastic show,” he continues, as shots of the new Dance Time podium and its blue and pink-dressed cast in front of Space Mountain play, with several other guests dancing on the multi-coloured dance mats.

“…The new attraction, Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!,” continues the announcer, with shots of the Playhouse Disney puppets…

…the young boy laughing along, and a full depication of the stage (though likely not the real thing), as if set up for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse scene…

The advert reaches its conclusion as another balloon sweeps across the screen to reveal a lively Mickey Mouse running across the new Central Plaza stage — another green-screen creation.

The voiceover adds “…and Mickey and friends’ exciting new show, and many more surprises”.

Here we see Mickey and Goofy dancing on a recreation of the stage, with brightly-dressed dancers behind, mostly in white and red colours, with the men wearing orange shirts.

Notice also that the Castle has been touched-up with its recently-revealed overlay of new decorations. Here, though, the “Mickey & Friends” plaque covering the main window appears to match its oval shape, rather than the uncomfortable circle seen in the concept.

Mickey shows us some moves, then we suddenly cut to the generic Disney Parks endboard…

As with the commercials of the previous two years, it seems Disneyland Resort Paris are required to use this generic branding to end their TV advertisements, featuring a bizarre mélange of all the Disney castles but now with added ballons.

The endboard is clear and the colours do work well with the red of Mickey’s Magical Party, but the overall effect is probably slightly jarring to the viewer, being so different to the footage just seen — and featuring a Castle that, as anyone knows, doesn’t exist anywhere — especially not Disneyland Resort Paris.

Please, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, can’t we have the real Castle for each resort?

Click here to watch the full advert.

It’s a lively, colourful, sunny and very well-produced TV spot, though, and it’s certainly brilliant to see real Disneyland Resort Paris locations used for once, if only via green-screen. You’ll probably notice two large elements of the party are entirely absent, however. Well, one major element and one not-so-major: Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars and Minnie’s Party Train.

To skip the Party Train is obviously no surprise, but many fans would agree they’d have expected to see something of the Studios’ large new parade event in the TV spot. Looks like the resort’s old fear, of mentioning the existance of Walt Disney Studios Park in a TV commercial, lives on…!

The TV spot is playing now in the UK, international versions will appear from next month.

Screencaps © Disney.

What’s more surprising — that, for once, a Disneyland Resort Paris television commercial features the actual locations and landmarks of the Parisian park, not Florida or California’s, or that, to achieve such a visual, the production crew apparently headed all the way to South Africa, taking those kitsch costumes and Stitch’s brand new DJ podium with them?

Still, with a spot of green-screen special effects, you’d never know, and the sun is almost guaranteed… unlike Paris. And so, here it is — the large, colourful, apparently jet-powered podium which will roll into Discoveryland for the new show It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland, Stitch standing atop scratching up the dance tracks on a set of mixing decks.

The podium is like a small parade float in its construction, expected not to remain in Discoveryland all day long but to only roll into the land specifically for each show time, similar to the High School Musical shows at Walt Disney Studios Park.

You’ll notice those circular shapes with different coloured quarters all over it, too — as mentioned in several previous articles, guests will be invited to step onto the circular dance mats shown above and follow the colour-coded dance steps. Quite how these will be announced to a multi-lingual audience remains to be seen, but the bright primary colours certainly won’t be easily missed amongst the bronze and turquoise tones of Discoveryland.

So, has the new advert revealed the location of the show, too? Almost certainly not — well, not unless the Entertainment department are planning to bring complete chaos to the land by blocking a main thoroughfare and the entrance to Space Mountain: Mission 2. It’s likely this location was simply chosen because it looks so good on camera.

Will it go over by Star Tours as rumoured then? Don’t be too sure of that either — the fences were taken down just this weekend to reveal…

…a relayed floor. Brighter, no longer full of holes — yes. But no clues whatsoever that this is where the show will be presented. Keep watching this space (and preparing your dance moves), Stitch fans…

Screencaps © Disney; Photo © Disneytheque.com.

Is this an advance preview of what we can expect when ‘It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland‘ premieres on 4th April 2009? This week, several fans spotted a film shoot taking place just outside Videopolis in the land, looking very likely to be a TV spot or trailer for Mickey’s Magical Party.

Featuring Stitch, two children and a group of dancers, the filming last Tuesday, 17th February saw the group dancing to the cameras as a crowd of regular park guests watched, caught on camera by DisneyGazette:

Stitch wore an orange baseball cap, whilst the dancers appeared in some wonderfully kitsch new pink and blue costumes we’ve not yet seen before — the final costumes for ‘It’s Dance Time’, perhaps? Well, space-age chic is certainly more fitting for the location than the hip-hop street style we might have expected…

That this filming in Paris will become the final TV advertisement can’t be guaranteed yet, however — the two commercials for the 15th Anniversary and The Celebration Continues were both filmed in the USA and produced by the same team as Walt Disney World’s TV spots. Filming did take place in Paris just over a year ago, but only became the rather poor “Happy Day” trailer we saw on a few Disney DVDs.

Even more interesting, though, is the review of events on the Mousekingdom Blog, which actually does link in well with this being a TV spot for the new celebration — and its theme of invitations arriving by balloon.

Photo: Mousekingdom Blog

“In a first scene one can see the children, a young girl and boy, attached with ropes on a metal pole,” Mousekingdom writes. “Two crew members would lift the pole up, leaving the two children hoovering above the street. Once the word “action” came from the director the crew moves forward putting the children down, back on their feet.”

So, can we expect that, rather than the animated red carpet knocking on children’s doors to invite them to Disneyland, the children will this year be flying directly into the park using those colourful balloons we’ve seen everywhere, landing perfectly at each of the new events?

Well, that’s one way to enjoy “Kids Go Free”.

Photos as credited.