Monday, 26th December 2016

Disneyland Paris launches “sparkle in their eyes” 25th Anniversary campaign

Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary media campaign TV commercial advert

Disneyland Paris has launched the media campaign for its 25th Anniversary celebrations, with new video advertising across international audiences on TV and online. Read More…

Tuesday, 1st November 2016

“New-look” Mickey Mouse in glorious new Disneyland Paris 2017 promotional video

New Mickey Mouse character at Disneyland Paris

Exclusive First Look — As Disneyland Paris gets ready to sparkle again in 2017, Mickey Mouse and all his friends old and new have sent out a special message in a brand new, official promotional video for the 25th Anniversary year. Read More…

Saturday, 22nd October 2016

First Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary trailer teases “sparkling celebration”

First Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary trailer teases Illuminations, Stars on Parade

After a non-stop week of Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary news and reaction, excitement for next year’s celebrations has stepped up another gear with the release of the resort’s 2017 brochure. Hidden inside the online version, the very first video trailer for the year, with new animated graphics offering a look at what’s to come.
Read More…

Thursday, 25th August 2016

“This is the place where Star Wars lives” – Watch the Disneyland Paris Season of the Force TV spot

"This is the place where Star Wars lives" - Watch the Disneyland Paris Season of the Force TV spot

“For everyone that lives Star Wars,” announces the new Disneyland Paris commercial revealed today, “this is the place where Star Wars lives.” And like that, this resort finally “owned” the most valuable movie franchise in our galaxy. Read More…

Monday, 16th June 2014

Watch – Ratatouille: The Adventure TV spot launches with thrilling Ratmobile ride

Here we go — Disneyland Paris launched the official Ratatouille: The Adventure TV spot today online and on television, taking viewers on a simulated 30 second Ratmobile ride through the new attraction. Watch the French version for the first time above now.

Focusing purely on the ride experience of Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, without mention of the land or Bistrot Chez Rémy, the commercial does a fine job of quickly and simply conveying the concept and scale of the attraction – big and small.

Beginning in a live-action Gusteau’s restaurant dining room, we see Rémy invite a family into his world by shrinking them into the Ratmobile. The trackless ride vehicle then careens around the kitchens, encountering several known obstacles and story points from the actual ride such as the serving trolley and a fiery oven. Though relatively faithful to what’s expected of the final experience, it’s worth noting all the footage is simulated and not real ride footage.

Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert
Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advertRatatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert
Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advertRatatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert
Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advertRatatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert
Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert
Ratatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advertRatatouille: The Adventure Disneyland Paris ride TV spot commercial advert

Being an advert, it of course takes numerous liberties both with the storyline of Ratatouille and the ride itself — there are no 3D glasses to be seen, for a start.

But from start to finish, this is without doubt one of the most polished and effective TV spots Disneyland Paris has produced in its history.

It’s also refreshing to see that the commercial doesn’t — as yet — finish with any promotional discount offer. Et voilà: an investment like Ratatouille: The Adventure sells itself.

• Discover Ratatouille: The Adventure on the DLP Guide mini-site!

Friday, 7th March 2014

Ratatouille ride opening dates: what’s rumoured, what’s reported, what’s realistic?

Ratatouille Disneyland Paris ride opening date

Ratatouille: The Ride will open, that’s about as close as we can get to an official opening date right now. But today Belgian tabloid newspaper SudPresse appeared to break ranks by publishing an article (above, and in full below thanks to DlrpExpress.fr) which states quite clearly and confidently that the date will be 15th July 2014.

Upon closer inspection (or even from a great distance), it seems quite likely that this article hasn’t been anywhere near the Disneyland Paris press department for authorisation — besides the author logging on to transcribe their latest press release.

Because though the text — date aside — sticks quite closely to the resort’s official copy, the images do anything but. The map of Walt Disney Studios Park which appears to show the attraction is a widely circulated, fan-created image superimposing Epcot’s France pavilion map onto the back of Toon Studio.

The concepts of a “Ratmobile”, unearthed as part of the ride’s planning application, have only ever been published publicly by the Disney Central Plaza forum, whose watermark can still be seen on the image. When it came to show the Ratmobiles during last month’s shareholders meeting, Tom Fitzgerland had much more final, official-looking renders.

Ratatouille Disneyland Paris ride opening date

And finally, the photo of the tunnel with a bust of Chef Gusteau comes, uncredited, directly from fansite DLP.info, circa 2010, who weren’t so lucky with their watermark — covered over by the newspapers own caption! There is no way Disneyland Paris would sign off the use of any of these images, so why would they give this publication an exclusive with a date?

SudPresse is apparently well known for such questionable reporting — a search even brings up an “exclusive” from June 2012, recirculating the fansite rumour of the time that a Spider-Man theme would replace Armageddon: Les Effets Speciaux.

What remains odd is that the paper plumped for Tuesday, 15th July 2014, when the most widely circulated rumour so far has been the 14th July — France’s national “Bastille” day.

Bastille Day looks great on paper, of course: opening an attraction based on French love letter Ratatouille, plus an adjoining restaurant, with endorsement from Chef Paul Bocuse, at Disneyland Paris, on the French national day itself; the concept of such a thing is so French the whole of France might just implode.

But is one of the busiest days of the year really the best time to open such a desperately awaited new attraction? And would the French press (not to mention all the extra technical and support staff required for a press event) really want to leave their families and traditional celebrations to cover an event happening on 14th July itself? Besides, Disneyland Paris press events usually only take place over a Friday, Saturday, Sunday weekend.

Ratatouille: The Ride - Disneyland Paris - Concept Art Models Construction

Elsewhere, one quite credible rumour has been that Cast Members could be given a preview of the attraction on Monday, 23rd June, followed by “Soft Opening” beginning on Saturday, 28th June. Soft Opening is the period of a few weeks where Disney opens new attractions for guests as a kind of “dress rehearsal”, giving a chance to tweak the experience and spot problems without the attraction officially being “open”.

Meanwhile June’s park opening hours were published yesterday, with a couple of clues that something might be afoot at the Studios, as reported on DLRPMagic.com. Notably, Saturday 21st June sees the park close at 6pm, rather than the usual 7pm. Indeed, this the first and only Saturday of the year so far that the park will close at this earlier time on a Saturday.

Disneyland Paris wouldn’t cut opening hours on a busy weekend lightly, so this must suggest some kind of private event — for Cast Members, for the press, for someone else? It’s usually good manners to give Cast Members first preview of an attraction, so if this were to be a press event date for the opening of the ride, it might put that 23rd June date in doubt.

Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy

Late June would make a far more sensible date to assemble the press for a showy grand opening, though: before the French summer holidays (and abandonment of Paris) begin, and giving enough time for them to draft their footage, reports and articles in time for a big media push on… 14th July? This could be particularly successful outside of France where, rather than the usual samey Eiffel Tower footage, news reports could show the implosion of French-ness on La Place de Rémy as a perfect populist tie-in to the national date.

Disneyland Paris always separates its press grand openings from its public inaugurations. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, for example, opened to the public on 22nd December 2007 but didn’t have its big grand opening event until 5th April 2008.

That would leave Bastille Day itself as more a simple ribbon-cutting date for the public; indeed, the date on paper — the date that goes down as the day Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy finally, officially opened its doors. It’d be perfect. Even though, as is always the way with Disney attraction openings, it wouldn’t necessarily be true.

At this point, it’s really a shame Disneyland Paris won’t just do the sensible thing and make an announcement, if only so that us fans can stop obsessing over a date, book our summer trips with confidence and start focusing instead on what a seriously cool and spectacularly unique new addition this is shaping up to be — perhaps the best thing to come to Disneyland Paris since the hallowed date of 12th April 1992 …or should that be 11th April?

Saturday, 8th February 2014

Watch the latest Disneyland Paris TV spot, featuring “that” Disney parade flyover

Disneyland Paris 2014 TV Commercial - Parade Aerial Flyover

Wait, did they finally retire the Roger Rabbit float?! The latest Disneyland Paris TV commercial to hit the internet, via a Danish travel agency, features a brief glimpse of the all-new Disney Magic on Parade aerial “flyover” footage, painstakingly shot over a whole day last summer.

This scene will at last replace the over two decades-old footage of Walt Disney World‘s 20th Anniversary Surprise Celebration Parade that Disneyland Paris has been using in countless trailers and promotional films since before the park’s 1992 opening.

Besides that well-choreographed shot, this TV spot just happens to be an all-round solid production. There’s footage of actual rides (!), real hotels (!) and of course a Disneyland Paris parade genuinely travelling down the true Parisian Main Street.

Disneyland Paris 2014 TV CommercialDisneyland Paris 2014 TV Commercial
Disneyland Paris 2014 TV CommercialDisneyland Paris 2014 TV Commercial
Disneyland Paris 2014 TV CommercialDisneyland Paris 2014 TV Commercial
Disneyland Paris 2014 TV Commercial

It uses a familiar concept of transporting people from the “real world” into a more magical Disney setting, but those clips last mere milliseconds. The recent “30 Yes Days” commercials for example, like far too many of the resort’s TV ads, dawdle endlessly on setting up a “concept”, when Disneyland Paris should probably just be using their precious airtime to show footage of the parks, like this.

We can even let the family off for apparently sneaking into the Newport Bay Club pool.

Watch the new Disneyland Paris commercial embedded below…

VIA @PlazaGardens (Twitter)

Monday, 11th February 2013

New “Brave”, “The Lion King” scenes confirmed for Disney Dreams! from April 2013

Stills from Brave, The Lion King (Pixar, Disney)

Hurry, you’ve not got long left to see Disney Dreams! — the original show that is. Disneyland Paris has now confirmed that the show will be updated for its first anniversary with two brand new scenes based on the Pixar film “Brave” and classic Disney animation “The Lion King”. The new segments are believed to be replacing the original “Mary Poppins” and “The Jungle Book” numbers respectively, so you’ve only until around the end of March to sing along with “Step In Time” and “I Wan’na Be Like You” in person as fountains and projections fill the air. However the rest of the scenes — certainly the Peter Pan-themed “bookends” which tie together the various segments — are expected to remain the same.

Further information came to light today when it was revealed that the song featured from The Lion King will be “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”, certainly an ideal choice to replace the similar earlier Jungle Book hit. Six young finalists from the Dutch TV talent show The Voice Kids were given the chance to record it exclusively for the show at Abbey Road Studios in London (pictured below), where this time last year the entire Disney Dreams! soundtrack was recorded by Joel McNeely.

'The Voice Kids' finalists at Abbey Road Studios, London

Meanwhile the Brave segment will be the first for a single film that isn’t a musical. A short Ratatouille scene was included in the original show, but is really little more than a transition.

Steve Davison, who masterminded the show, was at Disneyland Paris along with Chuck Davis, Senior Technical Director, during the heavy snowfall last month, making it a strong possibility they were working on the new scenes.

Premiering on 31st March 2012 to worldwide acclaim, Disney Dreams! has scored an impressive 93% guest satisfaction rating and is now confirmed to be continuing daily at Disneyland Park until at least the end of September 2013, when the extended 20th Anniversary celebrations close.

Update: InsideDLParis reports The Lion King scene will come first in the show and be made up of three songs — “Circle of Life”, “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” and “Hakuna Matata” — while the Brave scene will utilise two parts of the film’s score by Patrick Doyle — “Remember to Smile” and “Fate and Destiny” — along with “Touch the Sky”, the original song by Julie Fowlis. It’s likely the scenes will officially premiere on 1st April 2013 but may be introduced shortly before then as a “soft opening.”

Watch our 4 different complete videos of the original Disney Dreams! here

• Watch the scenes rumoured to be replaced: “Mary Poppins” and “I Wanna Be Like You”

VIA Disneyland Paris Press, @HyperionPilot, @DisneylandNL, @Jorienvh_

Monday, 7th May 2012

‘Making the Magic’ TV show reveals backstage preparations for Dreams, Magic on Parade

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.

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…

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