News / 20th Anniversary

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Entering our third month of 20th Anniversary Disneyland Paris Pin Trading releases, May 2012 sees the start of what could be two new monthly pin series for the occasion.

Mickey’s 20th Anniversary Train is the classic idea of a series of carriages, each featuring different characters, joining up to form a complete set. Whilst Mickey’s engine will cost you €19.99, the subsequent carriages appear to require a monthly investment of €12.99, all limited to just 600 editions. Similarly limited is the Jeu de Pins 20 ème Anniversaire, a €39.99 board game with collectible additional pins, all in the fabulous new “Retro” merchandise style. The first additional pin, also limited to 600 editions, features Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain in a retro style, for €14.99.

Slightly more affordable are the quirky “robot” pins, featuring Mickey, Donald and Stitch, available now at €8.99. A new souvenir Pin Trading collectors’ bag, in the 20th Anniversary “Signature” merchandise style, will set you back €44.99. Will you be picking up any of these new Pin Trading items?

Still, all a drop in the ocean compared to the prices (£160 and upwards) that the limited 12th April 2012 pins have been sold for on eBay. Those pins, released on the morning of the big date itself last month, were limited to 1,000 editions but still sold across the resort within hours. Reports from fans who attempted to buy the pins, risking missing the events themselves, suggested that there was no sales limit initially enforced for the €12.99 pins, leading some enterprising folk to buy whole handfulls in one sale, giving one of the few sour points to an otherwise exceptionally managed day.

Neatly timed to coincide with the celebrations of 12th April 2012, Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a special behind-the-scenes “documentary” on Sunday, 15th April giving a unique look at the preparations for the 20th Anniversary. Titled Making the Magic: Disneyland Paris – 20th Anniversary, it will be available to watch on the online Demand 5 player until March 2013, but only within the UK.

Not wanting to let such a great promotional piece for the resort go unseen for everyone else, we managed to record the whole show from a DVR box. Quality isn’t perfect (no need for 720p), but hopefully it’s good enough to enjoy. (And yes, Walt Disney built his first park in 1955, not 1957!)

The show naturally focuses mainly on Disney Dreams!, with exclusive input from Steve Davison, Katy Harris and technical director Chuck Davis, but Disney Magic on Parade! is also featured with Kat de Blois and two British parade Cast Members preparing for the parade’s changeover. We get to see “Team Dreams” making last minute preparations on the same day Steve, Katy and Kat took time out to attend a Q&A session with fan sites, making us even more grateful for that opportunity. Added drama comes as Steve drops into the Dreams control room to announce: “There’s a big blue square which appears in the middle of Jungle Book, which I’ve never seen..!”

Knowing the promotional tie-up between Channel 5 and Disneyland Paris before the launch of the 20th Anniversary, this show is clearly more of a glossy promotional piece than a true “documentary” — but it’s also 22 minutes of the best British TV promotion seen for the resort in years. No CGI, no greenscreen, just letting the magic — and the people behind the magic — speak for themselves.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, French viewers recently got to enjoy the far less glossy but rather more revealing “Disneyland et ses Secrets” feature-length documentary on France 3, which can also be found in full on YouTube.

Videopolis Theatre in Discoveryland saw a packed house at 10.45am on 12th April 2012, as the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors welcomed legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter to the stage for a one hour discussion of its history, creation and progress “from concept to reality”. From broader points about the challenges his team faced in bringing a Disney park to Europe, he went on to discuss his favourite hidden details in the park, anecdotes of meeting Walt Disney, and even shares his very own version of the contested Phantom Manor storyline…

Couldn’t make it there yourself? We’re proud to present our own, exclusive video of the entire event for you now, above — including the special appearance of all the worldwide Disney Ambassadors from every resort to pose questions to Tony himself.

Disneyland Paris president Philippe Gas, the Disney Characters, two thousand Cast Members and even the French Air Force stunt display team came together at 9.45am on Thursday, 12th April 2012 to celebrate exactly 20 years to the day that Disneyland Park — then Euro Disneyland — opened its gates to the public. Experience the whole event, including the welcome speech, the spectacular flashmob dance to “Magic Everywhere!” and the truly epic walk along the purple carpet, cheered along by Cast Members from every department, as if you were there with our exclusive original video.

• More videos, reports surprises from 12th April 2012 to come, including Tony Baxter’s ‘Disneyland Paris: From Concept to Reality’ discussion at Videopolis!

If you’ve already enjoyed our video of the Disney Dreams! World Premiere, filmed from the middle of Central Plaza, then prepare for a whole new angle on the dreams. The next evening, for the show’s 1st April Opening Night and first two public performances, we waited with the eager crowds for almost an hour before the show began to grab a spot right on the front row.

Standing here, at the foot of the bridge to Sleeping Beauty Castle, the projections are clearer than ever, the pyrotechnics thrillingly close and the fountains towering overhead! And with the gasps and cheers of the larger crowd, our second complete 1080p HD video of the show gives you a whole different atmosphere with the 20th Anniversary nighttime spectacular, too. The view isn’t necessarily “better” than elsewhere, just different. That’s the beauty of this show: you get a great view from anywhere in front of the castle, and there’s space for around 15,000 people. It’s huge.

So sit back as we invite you there, to the Opening Night of Disney Dreams!.

Bright blue skies came out on 1st April for the first official public performance of Disney Magic on Parade!, which you can watch in our exclusive video right here. Just a day earlier, the special premiere performance had gone out under thick clouds with a sharp chill in the air as the “press event curse” struck again — that unwritten Disney park rule which means any major organised event will be struck by less-than-perfect weather.

This opening day performance was also thankfully missing the over-abundance of parade guards the previous day, almost overpowering the floats themselves. And if you’d have been there, you could have breathed in the scents of each float again, missing the day before; a unique feature of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade which was thankfully revived just in time.

Donald Duck, rather than Tinker Bell, ended the parade on its first day, and it seems the two will continue to share the role depending on the fairy’s availability — no doubt being very busy with a certain nighttime spectacular right now.

After Disney Characters’ Express, Minnie’s Party Train and Disney All Stars Express, this is our fourth consecutive video of the character train rounding the corner of Main Street, U.S.A. beside Town Square. A popular annual tradition, or a daily nuisance? You be the judge of that. But, as Katy Harris confirmed in the 20th Anniversary roundtable discussion, it’s incredibly popular with regular guests, who “just love” being able to meet the characters in this way, which they normally only see fleetingly passing onboard parade floats. And this year, as you can see in our video above, the rumours were true: even Mickey is willing to get mobbed on Central Plaza, all in the name of the 20th Anniversary.

• Watch a video of the train’s official premiere arrival here.

When Disneyland Park re-opened its gates at 9.40pm on 31st March, a magical glow had already fallen upon the land. Stepping into Main Street, U.S.A., the twinkling new Main Street Station greeted invited guests — as did some extra-special invitees: the giant, illuminated World of Color pre-show puppets, brought over especially for the occasion! This video takes you to “A Night in Disneyland” for the 20th Anniversary Dedication Ceremony as if you were there.

Everything is included: from walking into Town Square, to the ceremony itself with Philippe Gas, footballer Zinedine Zidane and Mickey Mouse (at 10:00), to the epic, emotional walk up Main Street, U.S.A. prior to the Disney Dreams! World Premiere (at 16:00), when Cast Members from every land and every attraction lined the street to wave and cheer guests along with cries of “Joyeux Anniversaire!” as golden confetti in the shape of the number ’20’ rained from above. Truly an exceptional and unforgettable ending and beginning to these chapters in Disneyland Paris history.