Tuesday, 3rd April 2012

We’re back! All the magic of Disneyland Paris’ 20th Anniversary launch weekend is coming!

Wow, what a weekend! From Friday through to Monday, DLRP Today was at Disneyland Paris for the 20th Anniversary launch weekend, collecting over 2,000 photos and several hours of high definition videos (using a brand new camera bought just for the occasion). Amongst the sights, sounds and surprises we’ve got lined up to share with you: no less than THREE high definition videos of Disney Dreams!, including the real World Premiere on Saturday evening and a spectacular up-close view of the very first public performance on Sunday with a fantastic crowd.

We also had the honour of being present for both the morning and evening inauguration ceremonies, featuring the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors, Philippe Gas, Salma Hayek, Zinedine Zidane and Fabienne Bergmans, winner of the Dutch version of The Voice Kids, who sang the new parade theme “Magic Everywhere!” live. Speaking of which, two videos of Disney Magic on Parade! are also on their way: both the premiere performance on Saturday and the opening day performance the following day. We’ve also taken video and photo tours of the beautiful Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! decorations and the temporary Meet Mickey Mouse in Frontierland.

Mickey Mouse during Disney's 20th Anniversary Celebration TrainMeet Mickey Mouse

Speaking of which, we were lucky enough to be given a “hard hat” tour of the real Meet Mickey Mouse, in Fantasyland, by Imagineer Laurent Cayuela. No photos or videos were allowed there, as it still technically a construction site, but we were all impressed by the new interior for this meet ‘n’ greet experience — we’ll tell you all about it in vivid detail soon!

Finally, we had the privilege of joining a special presentation at Plaza Gardens Restaurant given by Kat de Blois, Katy Harris and none other than Steve Davison himself! Even better, we recorded the full 45-minute question and answer session on video, so you can see it too — including the official reaction to the question: “When did you decide to remove Central Plaza Stage?” It’s coming…

This week, we take YOU to the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris!

Sunday, 25th March 2012

Giant ’20’ completes Main Street Station transformation as lights twinkle to life

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay

Tinker Bell — and a very bold ’20’ — have arrived at Main Street Station to complete its 20th Anniversary look for the Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! overlay. And with Tink’s added pixie dust, the whole thing has suddenly sparkled to life. Looking good!

The three special golden arches were installed at the front of the station late last week, featuring a swirling pattern and more embedded LED lights. The original “EDLRR” arches, with a rather more convincing late 19th Century look, thankfully remain beyond, simply repainted gold. Standalone stars, also embedded with LEDs, have been delicately scattered across the façade and railings above. The paint job of the entire façade appears fresh and clean in these photos by @InsideDLParis.

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlayMain Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay

For added effect, the castle silhouette on the four golden plaques is illuminated from behind to create a glow around the icon itself. Less successful, if we can pass one criticism, are the well-integrated but rather dull golden swirls which have replaced the four “EDLRR” roundels on the railings. Were they really necessary to complete the look? An overlay should be exactly that: it should never remove nice details, not unless the replacement can match the quality.

As for the gold paintwork, the wall extending out from the two furthest pillars (pictured in the first photo at the top) appears to be missing gold paint on top, creating an odd mix. Nevertheless, with the original “test pillar” over on the far left of the station now back to its original stone colour, the golden repaint has probably not turned out as dramatic as some expected (or feared).

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay

Only needed now to complete the transformation is the sparkling glow of Tinker Bell’s pixie dust trail, which circles around the giant ’20’. Small dots can be seen all along its length, which will presumably be lit to give an effect similar to that used for the 15th Anniversary‘s Tinker Bell statue atop Sleeping Beauty Castle. Hopefully this one won’t outstay its welcome quite the same.

PHOTOS @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

Saturday, 24th March 2012

Main Street Paris imports California’s new music loop featuring “Up”, “Hello Dolly”

Main Street, U.S.A.

Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Paris won’t just look a little different for its 20th Anniversary year, it’ll sound different too. A new background music loop is now playing during daytime, swiftly imported from Disneyland in California. Introduced at Walt’s original kingdom on 9th January this year, the new loop was noted not just for its fresh new recordings of many Main Street ragtime “classics”, but the addition of brand new music, including a suite of music from Disney-Pixar’s Up. All were newly recorded especially for the park by Dean Mora and his Orchestra.

The changeover suffered a flaky start on Wednesday, when the new music reportedly played through until 4pm followed by a long silence, returned for five minutes, then faded out for the regular afternoon loop. Disneyland Paris will thankfully retain its unique feature over the other parks of having two background music loops on Main Street, a lively “AM” loop played from opening to 4pm, and a gentler, more sentimental “PM” loop played from 4pm to park closing. This new loop replaces the former “AM” loop only, and is perhaps somewhat calmer than that frenzied mix. As well as the new suite of “Married Life” from Up by Michael Giacchino, it introduces “Put on Your Sunday Clothes”, that famous “Hello Dolly!” song memorably used in Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E, to Paris’ Main Street loop.

Upon announcing the new loop for California, the Disney Parks Blog noted that this was the first time the famous street’s music had changed in 20 years — the last time being when, shortly after the opening of Disneyland Paris, new recordings made for our park were brought over to Anaheim to update their soundtrack. It seems fitting, then, that in the 20th Anniversary year, a new music loop should cross back over the Atlantic; a birthday gift from one Magic Kingdom to another.

Listen to a live recording of the loop and find a full tracklisting below… Read More…

Thursday, 22nd March 2012

Main Street Station 20th transformation continues as leaked concept reveals final plan

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay (C) DisneyGazette.fr

Main Street Station‘s new marquee, which appeared yesterday, really is the final product and will be in place for a least a year, through the whole 20th Anniversary celebrations. But it’s also only the start of the station façade’s transformation into a glittering, golden entrance to the park. Today, the changes continued at pace with the addition of golden plaques on each of the freshly-painted golden columns and static golden bunting across the top of its windows.

The bunting is fixed in place by buttons decorated with stars, and the whole lot will sparkle with LED lights thanks to those wires currently tied up at each side.

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay (C) @InsideDLParis

Featuring the original 1992 silhouette of Sleeping Beauty Castle, which was once a part of the Euro Disney logo and branding, the plaques on the columns down below are a nice throwback to the park’s history. But they have a modern twist: more embedded LED lights!

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay (C) @InsideDLParisMain Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay (C) @InsideDLParis

Less technically advanced is the method for making the trees inside Main Street, U.S.A. itself sparkle: circular hanging mirror discs, strewn across their branches. Currently looking a little cheap, they’ll hopefully work better when leaves begin to grow and they catch the glint of the springtime sun.

Back on the station, and as well as these additions there are also quite a few things missing. Besides the original red marquee, four of the “EDLRR” roundels have been taken away and, as of today, the three iron arches at the front of the concourse. It appears that simply repainting these gold won’t be enough: the arches here will be replaced by a whole new design, incorporating a swirling star pattern. The station’s final appearance after all these changes was revealed in a leaked concept art today:

Main Street Station 20th Anniversary overlay concept art

In the context of that giant “20”, the plain “Disneyland Paris” on the main marquee (rather than any reference to Main Street) perhaps makes a little more sense, simplifying the introduction. The star designs replacing the “ELDRR” symbols are disappointing, however, and the swirly arches, replacing the refined originals, give a nightmarish vision of what if Disney dropped immersive, relatable worlds like Main Street in its parks and instead covered everything with generic pixie dust patterns.

But the enormous, three-dimensional “20” makes a grand welcome and the entire vision is far and away the best transformation of Main Street Station we’ve ever seen. That’s not much of a compliment, given some of the travesties it has seen in its 20 years, so let’s say instead that, for a temporary overlay, it looks really quite delightful indeed.

PHOTO 1 DisneyGazette, PHOTOS 2-4 @InsideDLParis (Twitter), CONCEPT RadioDisneyClub

Wednesday, 21st March 2012

Main Street Station’s golden 20th Anniversary overlay introduces new entrance marquee

Main Street Station celebrates (C) RadioDisneyClub

How many guests stepping inside Disneyland Park today noticed this change, then? As the ongoing Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! overlay of the eponymous street continues with daily progress, golden bunting now covering the majority of the street, here’s something to stop you in your tracks: a new sign on Main Street Station. In the place of the original, maroon sign this morning was this cream-coloured marquee. A temporary change while the regular signage is refurbished or altered, or a brand new addition? The rate things are changing, perhaps we should wait until tomorrow to see.

The new marquee’s all-over cream design takes some getting used-to compared to the more fanciful, bolder original sign. And then there’s the nomenclature: for now, just “Disneyland Paris”. Guests have already just walked under a “Disneyland Park” marquee on the other side of Disneyland Hotel, so by this point they should really be heading into Main Street, U.S.A., not reminded of the resort’s title. The regular sign had the compromise of “Main Street, U.S.A. – Disneyland Paris”, in place since 1994.

Main Street Station celebrates (C) RadioDisneyClubOriginal Main Street Station marquee

Also an oddity is the illustration of the castle which replaces the “EDLRR” symbol on the bib at the top of the sign. Pretty enough, surrounded by a burst of stars but, as you can see in the close-up provided by RadioDisneyClub here, it has been mirrored to face the wrong way round — though this certainly isn’t the first time in its life it has been altered to appear as such.

Main Street Station celebrates (C) RadioDisneyClubMain Street Station celebrates (C) RadioDisneyClub

The controversial repainting itself took a major step forward yesterday when guests arrived to find the four centre columns at the front of the station painted in alarming yellow undercoat. Today, the columns had already received a coat of gold paint on top, though the tone is much darker, closer to red or orange, than the gold used elsewhere in the street’s overlay. One whole series of five iron brackets underneath the station’s concourse have now received their golden paintwork, in a much more pleasing tone similar to the existing gold elements of the “EDLRR” symbols.

Golden bunting continues to manifest itself all around the street, including here on Main Street Station. Meanwhile a rather different — rather intriguing — form of bunting was spotted by @InsideDLParis running along the railings at the front of the station…

Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! (C) @InsideDLParisMain Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! (C) @InsideDLParis
Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! (C) @InsideDLParis

This metal cable-run, painted the same green as the railings, is expected to be used for the finishing touch of the station’s overlay: a glittering display of golden lights!

PHOTOS 1-2, 4-5 RadioDisneyClub, 6-8 @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

Monday, 5th March 2012

Main Street’s golden 20th grows with railroad station ironwork turning gold, new bunting

Even more Main Street, U.S.A. addresses have now been decked out in gold for the 20th Anniversary. At Cable Car Bake Shop and The Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour (above), the regular semi-circular fans of white and golden fabric have been supplemented with a different, more extravagant style of bunting with great swathes of fabric hung around the balcony and the rooftop of the buildings respectively. Like several other “businesses” along the street, Gibson Girl spent much of 2011 under scaffolding for a complete refurbishment and recolouring of its palette; switching its green-striped window shades to red, for example. The gold additions give a dressy flourish to its spotless refreshed façade.

Meanwhile Main Street Station continues to intrigue with its dramatic 20th Anniversary repaint, which looks to “emboss” the landmark of the Disneyland Park entrance in gold for the occasion. Previous colour tests had stuck precisely to one side of a single column at the front of the railroad station, but now we have the sight of ironwork underneath the platform — including those famous “EDLRR” (Euro Disneyland Railroad) initials — being completely repainted in gold.

This seems to confirm that it won’t just be stonework, nor the front-facing façade of the station, that will see a golden overlay. The solid metallic gold effect takes away some of the intricacy of the previous two-tone colour of the arches, but does manage to catch the glow of the lights along the concourse, making those infamous outdated initials even more of a feature.

With lights (presumably new LED effects) said to play a part in the wider Main Street, U.S.A. Celebrates! overlay, this golden glow could be a preview of what’s to come.

VIA @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

Sunday, 4th March 2012

‘Disney Dreams!’ to premiere 31st March… broadcast live online at MyTF1.fr

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…

Sunday, 4th March 2012

Early 20th sparkle for Sleeping Beauty Castle as Peter Andre films new commercial

We all know 1992 as the year that saw Disneyland Paris open its gates, but what other tentative beginnings is that fateful year famous for? Why, the launch of British-born pop singer Peter Andre‘s career, when he released his first single in Australia, of course! Whether this was the smart thinking behind asking him to present what appears to be a new commercial for the 20th Anniversary, or the fact that he has more recently appeared in a string of ITV reality shows, remains to be seen, but Sleeping Beauty Castle was ready to put on an extra sparkle for his arrival yesterday.

The news spread on Twitter with Andre himself tweeting “Back at work today, filming my first ever TV commercial for Disneyland :)) it’s cold cold cold in Paris” in the early afternoon. After darkness fell, he posted the two photos featured here, showing him appearing with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Sulley in front of an illuminated castle, holding a 20th Anniversary-branded microphone. The anniversary logo was also projected onto the façade of the castle as spotlights criss-crossed the sky, creating quite a spectacle from Main Street, U.S.A. for regular guests.

Below, two Instagram photos shared by @pka13 of the filming and the castle, which was lit by the colour-changing embedded LED lights first installed for the Princess Aurora’s Christmas Wish show last year.

Since we’ve already seen numerous versions of the main TV advertising campaign for the anniversary, Peter Andre’s “commercial” filming will presumably be for a special one-off broadcast closer to the 1st April launch date itself, perhaps as part of a promotional segment within a TV show or as a one-of commercial spot. Meanwhile, Pat Sharp is still waiting for his call-back…

VIA @MrPeterAndre, @pka13 (Twitter)

Friday, 2nd March 2012

Full-length Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary trailer revealed with Big Ben cameo

From Spanish to English to French, the multilingual advertising campaign for Disneyland Paris’ 20th Anniversary expands across Europe and all leads to this: the full-length 40-second TV spot, featuring all the scenes in one commercial. Like the New Generation Festival TV spots, new character animation has been specially produced just for these adverts. Notably, as seen above, Peter Pan appearing across the tower of Big Ben in London. That particular scene is currently running as a short 10-second teaser in the UK, with the 40-second trailer only arriving nearer the launch date itself. Meanwhile France will see this full-length advert running from this Monday, 5th March — but you can watch it in HD below.

What do you think — does the ad do a good job selling the events?

Full Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary TV spot follows… Read More…

Monday, 27th February 2012

20th Anniversary TV spots launch with Disney characters projected across Europe

Disneyland Paris has launched its TV advertising for the 20th Anniversary in the UK, beginning with 10-second teaser adverts that show an animated Peter Pan projected across London’s Big Ben. It’s all part of the campaign that sees various Disney characters miraculously appear on buildings and European landmarks, hinting at the effects to be experienced with Disney Dreams! from 1st April. These “tactical” spots, designed to create awareness and intrigue with their short running time, will later turn into full-blown 40-second TV spots nearer the launch date itself.

Meanwhile, following the earlier Spanish commercial, a new 30-second English trailer has appeared using different scenes and angles, as well as a much nicer endboard featuring the castle. Ending with “click here”, it appears to be intended for online video-on-demand players. Buzz Lightyear opens the advert, appearing on a modern skyscraper, while scenes in the park show Lightning McQueen flying through the sky and a computer-enhanced Soundsational Parade travelling down Anaheim’s Main Street. Well, Disneyland Paris adverts have never been ones for accuracy.





Watch the new English TV spot below… Read More…

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