News / 20th Anniversary Launch

Join Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors for a special one-off Park Opening Ceremony at 10am on 31st March 2012 to launch the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris!

Features a live performance of the new Disney Magic on Parade! theme song “Magic Everywhere!” by Fabienne Bergmans, winner of The Voice Kids Netherlands, before actress, director and producer Salma Hayek cuts the ribbon to launch the celebration — but not before Chip and Dale arrive with the all-important scissors!

• Enjoy a complete gallery of original photos from the event at Photos Magiques!

But first, without further ado… The main event of the 20th Anniversary itself!

Watch our exclusive original video of the Disney Dreams! World Premiere right here. Filmed at 10.30pm on Saturday, 31st March in 1080/50p High Definition with 5.1 channel surround surround, this video gives you the whole experience as if you were there: standing right at the centre of Central Plaza, watching the fireworks, fountains and fire fly into the sky as projections transform Sleeping Beauty Castle like we’ve never seen before.

Find the video on YouTube here and be sure to share it with your friends — this is one spectacular event no-one should miss!

• Enjoy a complete, definitive gallery of spectacular pictures from the show at Photos Magiques!

As previously noted, we’re working to share the majority of our new videos online first, before we go back to provide more in-depth, chronological reports of all the events over the launch weekend.

This has been one amazing build-up, with over 50 news stories in March alone, but now here we are: our final post before the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris officially begins! So, for this grand finale, we reserved one special story: the story of Disney Dreams! itself.

No doubt you can precisely list every single technical element of the show by now, so what are the characters, films and “dreams” these special effects are bringing to life? They’re a diverse mix of eras and styles, from Peter Pan all the way to Tangled. Here’s your full show programme:

• Introduction
• Tinker Bell & Second Star To The Right
• Peter Pan & Wendy
• Be Our Guest (C’est la fête) from “Beauty and the Beast”
• Rémy from “Ratatouille”
• Friend Like Me from “Aladdin”
• Out There (Rien qu’un jour) from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Step In Time from “Mary Poppins”
• I Wan’na Be Like You from “The Jungle Book”
• I See The Light from “Tangled”
• Friends On The Other Side from “The Princess and the Frog”
• Captain Hook
• Peter Pan & Wendy
• You Can Fly & Second Star To The Right

According to some sources, the entire show weighs in at a clever 20 minutes and 20 seconds.

It all begins on a starry night, as Peter Pan and Wendy look up at the Second Star to the Right. But then, leaping free from his body, Peter Pan’s shadow escapes and hits the star, causing its special dreaming pixie dust to pour over the castle. What follows is a series of musical set-pieces, following the songs above, as Peter Pan chases his shadow across a timeline of Disney dreams which were wished upon the star, from Quasimodo to Rapunzel and more besides.

Things, as they always do in any good nighttime spectacular, turn spectacularly sour with Dr Facilier’s “Friends On The Other Side” and the arrival of Captain Hook. Will Peter Pan be able to battle his nemesis, recapture his shadow and restore the dreams to their rightful place inside the Second Star to the Right, causing it to shine brightly over the land again?

Well, you’ll have to wait to find out…

• Join DLRP Today next week as we report back from the 20th Anniversary Launch with news, photos and brand new High Definition videos of all the events! In the meantime, follow us on Twitter and ‘like’ our Facebook page for updates over the weekend and subscribe to the DLRP Magic! YouTube channel to be the first to see our 1080p HD video of Disney Dreams! as soon as it goes live.

Phew. Last March, when DLRP Today was invited by Disneyland Paris to preview the year-long programme of refurbishments planned ahead of the 20th Anniversary, this much-anticipated year seemed so far away. Now, after twelve months of constant, unrelenting work and investment across the entire resort, it’s almost ready for its close-up again. The final projects are wrapping, construction walls coming down and everything being made “neat ‘n’ pretty” for the year ahead. So for one final hurrah, let’s round up these final pre-20th refurbishments with help from @InsideDLParis… Read More…

Shhh… Whisper it, but the 1st April 2012 showing of new nighttime spectacular Disney Dreams! won’t actually be its first performance. The odd Sunday launch date might have given it away, or the fact that Disneyland Paris has a history of premiering its new events exclusively for the press a day beforehand, but now it’s confirmed: the so-called world premiere of Disney Dreams! will take place Saturday, 31st March 2012. This will be part of a wider, private 20th Anniversary press event to take place over the 31st March/1st April weekend. But even the press won’t be the absolute first to see the completed show; no, that honour naturally goes to the resort’s thousands of Cast Members, who will get their very own private performance on 29th March.

But here’s an interesting development: thanks to a tie-up with French television network TF1, the 31st March premiere performance will also be broadcast live online, via their MyTF1.fr website. The website is currently running a contest for four French viewers to win passes to the press event and assist in the broadcast, which will be hosted by station personality Sandrine Quétier. On the night of 31st March, the main TF1 channel will broadcast three special promotional spots with Sandrine to introduce the winners of the contest and count down to the premiere of Disney Dreams!, which will apparently then be broadcast live online at the MyTF1 website from 10.30pm.

It has been pointed out that this broadcast, although certainly a giant spoiler for the show, may well be edited or missing segments due to rights issues. It’s also not known whether this particular live stream would be available to view outside of France. Toy Story Playland had a similar live online broadcast on its opening day, hosted on the official Disneyland Paris website, featuring a tour of the attractions and interviews with Imagineers and guests.

And if you can’t make it to any of these premieres? You’re invited to join us for our full HD video of the show, to premiere just a few days later on DLRP Magic! Video, our YouTube channel and of course embedded right here on DLRP Today!

Press release (in French) follows… Read More…