News / 15th Anniversary

First impressions of the Thomas Cook brochure aren’t good – there’s no mention of the anniversary at all. Luckily, this is effectively the Leger brochure in reverse, since as soon as you turn to the contents the 15th hits you in the face… almost.

Front Cover / Contents

The “Signature” line of Thomas Cook brochures is meant to appear more select and higher class than their usual brochures, using colourful and crisp images in a minimalist design. I can remember their brochures looking great a few years ago, but unfortunately, since the design hasn’t been majorly updated for a few years, it all just looks a little bleak, not the colourful, exciting, anniversary sell we’d like for a Disney resort.

15th Anniversary

The 15th Anniversary page is good for information, almost too good. There’s a lot of text for a brochure people would usually casually flick through, and the design again looks quite tired. Are you noticing a pattern with the brochures? The same images, the same text – Disneyland Resort Paris have certainly made it clear what they want presented, it’s just a shame no-one has done better than Thomson in presenting it yet.

Seasons / Magical Extras

A special mention to the Seasons page of this brochure, though. Lots of information, lots of emphasis and some good pictures. Oh, and they even confirm that Wishes will be returning as the 15th Anniversary fireworks display!

Walt Disney Studios Park

Finally, it’s good to see that Thomas Cook have followed Thomson by adding details of the 15th Anniversary to each park page (maybe another tip from DLRP?), so anyone who skipped over the first few pages still has another chance to realise there’s an important event next year. It’s not a very exciting brochure, but they’ve got almost everything covered so marks lost mainly for no anniversary mention on the cover. Thomson is still the one to beat!

Celebration Score: 6/10

If you’re in the UK, you can order the brochure right here.

Whilst we’re talking 15th Anniversary brochures, there’s good news for anyone in the UK – the official 2007 brochure is now available to order! We’ll have a review of the entire brochure as soon as possible, but until then – if you’re outside the UK and you’ve spotted another unofficial 15th Anniversary brochure, please get in touch and send in scans, so we can see how the celebration is being advertised elsewhere.

Leger have specialised in coach visits to Disneyland Resort Paris for over 14 years, but also sell Eurostar, air and self-drive packages. They waste no time in mentioning their many awards, including Best Group Operator 2006 from Disneyland Resort Paris itself.

As for the brochure, it all begins, as usual, with the front cover. They’ve chosen the nighttime Dumbo visual, an image with beautiful colours and a nice composition. Perhaps it’s strange the 15th Anniversary logo has been replaced by a generic Disneyland Resort Paris one, but the cover is still eye-catching and pretty.

Front Cover

Unfortunately, the removal of that 15th logo was a sign of things to come. Open up the brochure, and… it’s a normal Disneyland brochure. Turn the page, another page, more pages, further and further… where is the 15th Anniversary? Not a single mention, anywhere.

They’re selling packages for 2007 alright – right up to Halloween 2007, infact. A double check of the cover reveals this is indeed their November 2006 to December 2007 edition. But after searching the entire brochure again and again, I have still yet to find a single mention of the new parade, two new attractions, or anything to do with the resort’s biggest event (and biggest selling point) since Walt Disney Studios opened.

Disneyland Park page

There could be a logical reason behind the non-inclusion of the anniversary, but as it stands, this is a brochure selling packages right up to October 2007 without a single mention of the reason everyone will be going to the Paris resort next year. Leger obviously have access to the marketing material, since it’s displayed right across the cover. Where is the rest of the celebration, then? Stuck on a Leger coach on the M1?

Hopefully Leger will put this right with a second edition of the brochure (which is actually rather colourful and pretty) before the end of 2006. Until then, they won’t be gaining any celebration sales for themselves or the resort.

Celebration Score: 1/10

If you’re in the UK, you can order the brochure for yourself here.

These two new visuals were likely intended to make their debut with the official 15th Anniversary brochure, but, as Disneyland Resort Paris have learnt all too much recently, no secrets are safe with the internet.

The two visuals focus on two different floats in the new parade. The first, which looks to be part of a larger advertisement design, features the parade’s first float: Dream of Imagination. We released a profile-angle concept art of this float back in July, but now we can get an even better glimpse at how the float will look as it makes its way down the Parade Route in 2007. The sun-shaped hot air balloon is now revealed to have a beaming face at the front, whilst the balloon features a “15” plaque and the heavily stylized moon brings memories of the slightly abstract designs of Disney Cinema Parade.

The second visual is much larger and features a view of float 4, Dream of Fantasy, as if you’re watching it approach from the curb with Pluto. The float features Captain Hook’s pirate ship at the front, followed by Wendy’s house (with Peter Pan on the roof), Big Ben and the London skyline, and finally Mary Poppins’ carousel at the rear. Mr Smee and the pirates follow the float along, whilst silhouettes of float 6, Dream of Adventure, and float 8, Dream of Romance, can be seen the background.

Antoine, who published the DLRP.fr article featuring the visuals, also gives some extra details about the parade. Float 2 – Dream of Fun and Laughter, features a giant Alice stuck in a Wonderland house, and it appears her head will measure no less than 2.5 metres high, giving some sense of the grand scale of this parade. Several puppets will indeed be featured throughout the parade, controlled by artists inside the floats, whilst an odd new rumour is that each float will be joined by special aromas and scents as it passes along the Parade Route, a first for a Disney parade.

Are we dreaming here, or is this really happening?

The trailer has now appeared on DailyMotion, likely imported from a press CD given at the event or through other means, but should certainly not be viewed as a final 15th Anniversary commercial – it is simply a preview for press and travel companies only. Whilst the beautiful greyscale shots and modern blue text sections are all brand new, the character, attraction and parade shots inbetween have all been dug out from the resort’s archives.

The video:

This trailer has been distributed to travel agents and resort parters for use in a similar way to the “Where?” trailer seen a few years ago – simply to present and give a “feel” for the products on offer. A better-flowing and longer English version has also been distributed, featuring vastly improved mixing, more greyscale shots and speech in various European languages from the people featured.

The text in the French version reads:

“You’re invited to dream… like never before”
“In 2007, get ready…”
“For the biggest celebration in our history”
“With new attractions”
“A new parade”
“Even more characters”
“All year long”
“So that the magic is more affordable than ever”
“It’s our 15th Anniversary…”

Each week we’ll feature a different travel company brochure and compare how well they’re selling the 15th Anniversary experience. Disneyland Resort Paris’ advertising campaign for the 15th will be their biggest ever, but the brochures are where the bookings come from, and outside travel companies give the resort a huge amount of business year after year. Many people also pick up an “unofficial” brochure before then booking direct with the resort anyway, providing a nice piece of (almost) free advertising.

Since I’ve only got access to UK brochures, if you’re reading this on the continent and have spotted the 15th Anniversary in your local brochures, send them in! The 15th will hopefully be a Europe-wide event, so it’d be good to get a bigger picture on how they’re doing. You can send images direct to today@dlrpmagic.com, and I’ll be sure to credit you if they’re featured.

This week, its Thomson, one of many companies owned by TUI AG of Germany, and their October 2006 to November 2007 brochure.

Front Cover & Contents

It was only recently that Disneyland Resort Paris began to allow outside travel companies to use the Fab 5 (except Mickey) in their brochures and advertisements – previously they were stuck with generic children, Princesses and “lesser” Disney characters, with key visuals for parades and shows altered to replace Mickey with, say, Chip and Dale. Now, though, the rules appear to have been relaxed and Thomson are wasting no time in using the classic characters to market their products. The Donald Duck key visual we presented on Thursday is used to create a beautiful, very striking cover that is totally different to Thomson’s other more restrained covers. They’ve kept the cover free of anything other than their logo and the brochure dates, so all emphasis is on Donald, the castle and the large “15”. Great stuff.

The contents page is nice and simple again, and features the 15th Anniversary key visual with a small piece of text about the events – even though this is the first brochure we’ve seen, you’ll notice throughout that the anniversary is mentioned absolutely everywhere. It’s a bigger marketing push, perhaps, than even the opening of Walt Disney Studios.

15th Anniversary & Tailor Made Dreams

The most important page for this – the 15th Anniversary double spread. It’s got all the visuals and the creative texts and generally does the job well. It puts emphasis on the great “Kids Under 7 Go Free” offer (available throughout next year) and even mentions Extra Magic Hours. It could have been designed better though, since the Once Upon a Dream Parade and Cars Race Rally images are on the opposite pages to their descriptions and the wavy edging of the images removes some of their professional style.

The Tailor Made Dreams page uses a nice image of Mickey and Minnie, but the lengthy text isn’t very inviting – a quick summary at the top of what this programme is all about would have been better. The logo for Tailor Made Dreams is featured again on each hotel page, though, which is a nice touch.

Park Introductions

Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade is featured again on the Shows & Events page, but its on the Park Introduction pages that Thomson score points, since both pages feature a summary of the 15th Anniversary events on offer at each park. Unfortunately, they do have small mistake on the Walt Disney Studios page – Crush’s Roller Coaster? Not good.

So, as our first brochure, it doesn’t do too badly at marketing the 15th. Even if the page design is a bit clumsy and the information not very readable, the nice front cover should draw people in to this one and make sure they know what’s going on in Paris. Hopefully, the constant presence of the anniversary throughout the entire brochure will be be a trend through all the brochures. The year to live your dream is the year Disneyland Resort Paris really need to see some positive financial results, and Thomson have kicked off their anniversary advertising well enough.

Celebration Score: 7/10

If you’re in the UK, you can order the Thomson brochure here.

On the visuals released by Disneyland Resort Paris in early July, the third spire of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant was occupied by Winnie the Pooh, who was assumed to have floated to this position using the large purple balloon in his right hand. As a character to which Disney only own a license and not the full copyright, Winnie was never featured as one of the “spotlight” characters in these visuals, which are to be used by travel companies and the press next year as brochure covers and marketing material. Pinocchio however, despite not actually being featured on the castle itself, did receive two visuals, the daytime version of which can be seen below.

Now, over three months since we first presented the original visuals, there’s been a quick design change and update the Character Castle Makeover, with A.A. Milne’s “outsider” Winnie character being replaced by the “in-house” Pinocchio and Figaro. Every time Disney uses a character or creation from the world of the Hundred Acre Wood, they must credit the author at the same time, which would surely make presenting the original visuals much more complicated. And so, either as an easy option or for his newfound popularity with the resort (Pinochio is currently starring in both Halloween parades for the first time) Pinocchio and Figaro have pushed Winnie from the castle. Well, at least the Silly Old Bear had a balloon to float him gently back down to earth!

The new visuals also present another change, this time for every single character. Whilst in the original visuals the characters held fifteen bare wax candles, these new visuals show an extra dip into the 15th money pot, with new, stylised candles for each of the Disney classics. Whilst the wax now features a curling fringe all the way up to the flame, the biggest change is the addition of a shiny gold candle holder at the base, with a spiked end.

The updates also include the addition of spotlight visuals for the Disney VIPs, with Donald, Goofy, Minnie and Pluto now receiving their own, personalised images, giving us a closer look at the designs for their castle statues.

Whilst these visuals are, of course, simply for promotional purposes, the quick change of these two elements without doubt suggests a change for the decorations themselves, as designs are finalised for our spectacular 15th Anniversary year. A glance at these visuals gives an immediate feeling of quality and style for the celebrations. There’s no giant birthday cake or bright jester hats, for once Disney have produced castle decorations that are subtle, elegant and more than welcome.

You can find out more about the 15th Anniversary here, or see the full collection of original visuals here.

All visuals © Disney.

The attraction in question is Stitch Encounter, an attraction which opened on 13th July 2006 at Hong Kong Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. It uses the same technology as Turtle Talk with Crush at Disney’s California Adventure and Epcot (a video of which can be seen here), which allows an audience to interact in real time with Stitch through a highly advanced computer animation system. After a question or respose from the audience, Stitch’s animation and (mostly alien) speech is then generated and selected by a hidden Cast Member.

The following quote from Wikipedia describes the Hong Kong attraction, which is presented in Cantonese, English and Putonghua:

Guests are invited to visit Space Traffic Control for a tour. Space Traffic Control (or STC) is the nerve center for this quadrant of the galaxy and where all space traffic is closely monitored. The tour goes as planned until the host is interrupted by Stitch, a fluffy blue mischievous alien known also as “Experiment Number 626” in a ‘borrowed’ space ship. Stitch interacts in real time with the guests, plays games with the kids and even teaches everyone how to speak Hawaiian. Ultimately, Stitch’s nemesis, Gantu shows up and wants his ship back. It is up to the guests in the audience to help Stitch escape! The show is a combination of action and comedy, and never the same show twice.

And the location of this new attraction for Walt Disney Studios Park? Not Toon Studio as you might guess, but instead the old Zapping Zone production stage of Walt Disney Televison Studios Tour, which has been occupied by an interactive Art Attack exhibit for the past two years. La Rouqine on Disney Central Plaza forum confirms the rumours, which originated with this forum post, by stating there will be 4 shows per hour, presented in French, English and Spanish. A budget of 5 million euros will apparently be required to complete the installation.
Largely criticised since its opening with the park on 16th March 2002, the Walt Disney Television Studios attraction quickly lost some of its excitement when the actual, live Disney Channel production stage for Zapping Zone closed in its first year of operation. In late 2002, however, the Disney Channel CyberSpace area opened, offering interactive computer arcade games and the popular CyberSpace Mountain, allowing guests to create their own simulated roller coaster ride.

With the opening of a second attraction-within-an-attraction at this location, it would seem possible the attraction will become similar to Disney Animation at Disney’s California Adventure or The Living Seas at Epcot, which both feature Turtle Talk with Crush in a free-roaming attraction experience, allowing guests to choose which section of the attraction they wish to experience. Currently, the Walt Disney Television Studios gives guests a very brief “tour” through the “backstage” of the Disney Channel before they are allowed to enter either the CyberSpace or Art Attack stages. It remains to be seen whether this tour section will still be included in the updated attraction.

Whilst only an “attraction-within-an-attraction”, though, Stitch Encounter could definitely be marketed by Disneyland Resort Paris as a full new attraction, and will bring yet another highlight to the incredible lineup for the resort’s 15th Anniversary. With Toon Studio getting its first luscious greenery and Walt Disney Television Studios rumoured to be finally getting something worth seeing, it looks like the Imagineers are well on their way to ticking off every box on their “How to Improve Walt Disney Studios” checklist…

After casting sessions earlier this month at Lyon and Montpellier in France, casting moved to the UK last week and is headed for Poland next. The sessions have also given us some more clues and details about the final parade…

Poppy the Monkey posted the following information on our magicforum yesterday:

They are casting in the UK this week also for the new parade. Glasgow was on Sunday, Leeds was yesterday and they are at London today.

After talking earlier to Daniel (Parade Casting), he said they have no idea about dancers for the new parade, and most the anniversary celebrations are still in early planning, as final budgets have only recently been allocated. But they have been been told to recruit more people then normal – as next year the character presence over the whole resort will be “raised considerably”.

The floats will arrive in Paris in January, and rehersals will begin early February. Musically the parade will feature an upbeat, but classical sounding track, with character voices for each float. There will be musical variations for each float too.

And today, on TheDisneyFamily.com forum, more information was given, again from Poppy the Monkey:

I was in Leeds on Tuesday, and was able to sit in on the audition with the panel. They recruited 4 people that day (2 boys and 2 girls) with 10 on a waiting list ready to be called up.

The man who plays the Bouncy Carnival Seagul was on-hand, to trial juggling, stilt walking, flag throwing and Puppeteering. All the people trialed were complete novices, but all 14 new employees are to be trained in these skills over this winter, in preperation for the new parade.

They also found an amazing new Jasmine at the Leeds auditions, look out for her next month – she looks fantastic! The auditions move to Poland next week!

You can also see an official UK casting announcement here.

It seems that, in addition to featuring a huge range of performers (from puppeteers to stilt walkers and many more), Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade will feature a huge mix of performers from right across Western and Central Europe, bringing the continent together to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of its own Magic Kingdom.