News / Shows

Here it is, the press release in full. We’ll be introducing Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Parties in a separate article, and be sure to read below for a full re-cap of the news and much more information…

Disney’s Halloween Festival at Disneyland Resort Paris

The logo — for just one more year…

Marne la Vallée, July, 2008, from October 4, 2008 to November 2, 2008, guests are invited to discover the unmissable colourful Halloween season in Disneyland® Park that will be full of surprises.

During the month long celebration, Disneyland Park will offer a range of new Halloween entertainment to make the whole family scream with laughter. The spirit of Halloween is up for grabs for the delight of all, Pumpkin Men and Ladies will lead the fest which takes place on Main Street, U.S.A., Central Plaza and Frontierland®, transformed in Halloweenland for the occasion. And for the first time Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties in Fantasyland and not forgetting the now famous Halloween Party on October 31st.

Halloween invades Main Street, U.S.A.®

Guests, entering Disneyland Park, will discover a ‘˜spook … tacular’ Main Street, U.S.A., covered with blotches of orange paint left behind by the Pumpkin Men and Ladies.

The Disney Villains’ Halloween Showtime presented by Minnie dressed in Halloween fashion line and surrounded by Pumpkin Men and Ladies will take place several times daily on Central Plaza, followed by a giant ‘Meet’N’Greet’ with Disney Villains.

The Halloween Disney Characters’ Express will several times daily go back and forth on Main Street, U.S.A. with beloved Disney Characters on.

The Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade which features famous moments from the most beloved Disney stories ever, will be preceded by a special Halloween pre parade featuring the Disney Villains, Pumpkin Citizens and for the first time, Tim Burton’s Nightmare before Christmas characters Jack Skellington and his friend Sally.

New advertising graphics.

Halloweenland: the heart of this scary, good humoured celebration

Once through the gateway of Fort Comstock a walk along Halloweenland’s pathway will offer guests loads of surprises.

There will be regular shows on the Trick or Treat stage:

‘¢ Minnie & the Bat Boys will appear with live music and a host of singing classic Disney Villain songs.
‘¢ Goofy and the Magic Pot, an exhilarating and energetic show where children can learn to make pumpkin soup and dance alongside Goofy himself!

At the Phantom Manor boot hill cemetery, guests may meet Jack the skeleton and his friend Sally, from Nightmare before Christmas.

Children will enjoy the traditional Halloween Piñata for the chance to grab some sweet treats several times daily.

Disney’s Halloween Party in Disneyland® Park*

New image to advertise the Halloween Party.

On the night of Halloween, Disneyland Resort Paris lets all the friendly ghosts in for a special Halloween Party from 8.30pm to 1.00am in Disneyland Park. Night owls in their most spectrrrraaaaacular costumes can enjoy family friendly and ghostly nights filled with fun and laughter.

As always guests will be able to experience a wide variety of Halloween entertainment:

‘¢ The Disney®’s Fantillusion Parade, where the world of darkness meets the enchanted world in a fantastic twilight spectacular
‘¢ A Special Fireworks display with the fangtangulous backdrop of Sleeping Beauty Castle
‘¢ Spooktackular Stage Shows on the Trick or Treat Stage (Halloweenland) and The Disney Villains’ Halloween Showtime in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle
‘¢ A Spooky DJ Party on Main Street, U.S.A

*Disney’s Halloween Party ticket will be available at 29€ .On October 31, 2008 attendance is limited in order to ensure premium experience, we recommend to buy tickets in advance on www.disneylandparis.com or to call +33 1 60 30 60 53. The Party ticket holders can benefit of entering the Park as early as 5.pm. The Party can be modified, or cancelled without prior notice, notably for inclement weather.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Let’s begin with the most interesting announcement of it all — real, live meet ‘n’ greet versions of Jack Skellington and Sally will be arriving on Boot Hill next to Phantom Manor for the duration of the festival! These characters have never before been featured in Paris, and only officially debuted for the first time at Hong Kong Disneyland last year.

The ongoing, if not elevating, popularity of Tim Burton’s stop-motion classic can be seen at the resort even today by the amount of merchandise both being sold, bought and worn around the parks.

Phantom Manor will not be getting an overlay in the style of the ‘Haunted Mansion Holiday’ from California and Tokyo, but the Nightmare Before Christmas theme will certainly become a strong part of the Halloween Festival, as the couple pop up again in the pre-parade of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade. The new daytime parade will again not be made-over for the festival as the park’s old parade was, as the entertainment directors stick to a short cavalcade to precede the event and keep the popular parade intact.

One element of the 15th Anniversary that WILL be given a makeover this year, however, is Disney Characters’ Express, now to be known as the Halloween Disney Characters’ Express with special decorations and rather more villainous characters on-board.

Stitch leaves, new villains arrive, Minnie gets a new outfit.

Last year’s popular new Disney Villains’ Halloween Showtime event on the Central Plaza Stage will also be expanded with a couple of new villains — Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas and Shan-Yu from Mulan.

Besides this, the festival looks remarkably similar to last year. Minnie and the Bat Boys and Goofy and the Magic Cauldron return to the Trick or Treat Stage next to Cowboy Cookout Barbeque, as does the long-running Halloween Pinata. Even Disney’s Halloween Party on 31st October sounds like it might, for once, remain quite similar to the previous year.

As for decorations, on reading the press release you’d be forgiven even those will be the same — Main Street again overrun by orange “Pumpkin Men” and Frontierland turned into Halloweenland. But here’s the big news: This year, those Pumpkin Men will arriving on their own. The Pink Witches, including their live character forms and all decorations (such as those unpopular cauldrons near Fuente del Oro Restaurante) are GONE.

Goodbye, good riddance…

In addition, Stitch’s very short-lived invasion of the event is now well and truly over, as the resort seeks to refine his presence to the new Stitch Live! attraction over at Walt Disney Studios Park. In place of these two, for 2008 we will instead be welcoming the Pumpkin Men in much greater numbers — and, as you read above, Pumpkin Ladies too.

Reports suggest that brand new decorations will be created, in a much more “Disney” style. Both Mickey and Minnie will also apparently wear brand new costumes, in rich deep purple, orange and green colours. Finally, everything will again be focused on Disneyland Park — no expansion whatsoever of the festival into Walt Disney Studios Park is planned.

The directors are taking the entire concept back to a more focused, classical approach — and continuing to develop the “Disney” presence in the festival at the same time.

[Pictures & Images: © Disney, by DLRP Magic.com and Photos Magiques]

— Disney’s Halloween Festival kicks off on 4th October and continues until 2nd November 2008. Keep your devilish stare and scrawny face pointed right here on DLRP Today.com for more news…

Skies were blue, flowers in bloom, attractions running well and crowds relatively light… it was a perfect day to celebrate the host country of our European Disney resort.

Bastille Day 2008 once again saw Disneyland Resort Paris pull out its regular music for a spectacular “feux d’artifice” over Le Château de Belle au Bois Dormant, but, as the show director Christophe Leclercq had promised, things were a little different this year. The resort’s new fireworks partner brought in new designs, new styles and new bursts to light up the sky.

There were certainly hints of the regular Enchanted Fireworks in there, but also rare sights at Disneyland Resort Paris such as “shape” fireworks — giant red hearts bursting into the sky.

Before the fireworks began, fans would smile at the fact that even Disney sometimes make a little mistake. As the crowds milled around after Fantillusion, an announcement proclaimed “You will soon have the pleasure of discovering Candleabration followed by The Enchanted Fireworks”. Several minutes later, the announcement was swiftly repeated with the correct “followed by a special 14th July fireworks” line.

Candleabration itself would also present a little surprise. Whilst the show was still effectively cut-down considerably in line with its other performances this Summer, serving only as a lead-in to the fireworks, this night saw a second new version with an added finale of ‘Just Like We Dreamed It’ (itself abridged) as just Mickey and Minnie danced on-stage.

Candleabration (Bastille Day 2008 Edition)

Luckily, the earlier announcement mix-up did not extend to the fireworks themselves, which went ahead swiftly and without a single fault. Compared to the incredibly muddled recent attempts for New Year’s Eve (using unknown and out-of-place rock songs from the Narnia “inspired by” soundtrack, for example), Bastille Day once again proved to be the resort’s best night for a truly spectacular fireworks display…

Bastille Day Fireworks 2008

You can find more photos of the show at Photos Magiques here.

[Pictures: Photos Magiques; Video: DLRP Today.com/DLRP Magic! Video]

Quietly announced by Operations, talked about by Cast Members and introduced to the sales teams, the opening of a new Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage show alongside Stitch Live! inside the Walt Disney Television Studios building has so far not been allowed as anything more than a strong rumour amongst fans.

Will a Marne-la-Vallée authorities construction notification change that?

The sign is now posted along the road at the backstage of Walt Disney Studios Park, near the town of Val d’Europe, and reads:

“DISNEYLAND RESORT PARIS
Modification to studios 2, 3 and 4 of “Walt Disney International” building for use by the “Playhouse Disney” attraction”

Yes, curiously three studios will be affected by the Playhouse Disney attraction. Since Stitch Live! already uses one room, that leaves the former space of Disney Channel CyberSpace post-show arcade, a huge, long studio and a smaller room toward the back which may not be classed as a “studio”.

The important thing to note here is that the area occupied by Disney Channel CyberSpace was actually built as two separate studios before being joined together for use by park guests as the channel began to disown the building. However, the listing of three studios must at least mean that the long, thin studio well within the building will be involved — almost certainly as the show theatre itself, being the ideal shape and size.

Our plan of the building has been updated to reflect the new information:

The show-based attraction, which uses puppets along with a live host, is still officially pencilled in for March 2009, after the 15th Anniversary has ended. Nothing is yet known about languages or the design of the exterior entrance, where construction activity has now increased to include a small digger.

Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage will be the park’s fifth new attraction in just under two years.

[Photos: WDSfans.com]

The official 15th Anniversary blog has shared this collection of clips and soundbites from the events last Friday, providing a look at the unique medieval ceremony in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant and the arrival of the stars outside Gaumont Disney Village:

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Launch

The entire event was undoubtedly a huge success, bringing the magic of a brand new Disney film direct to Disneyland Resort Paris, raising the resort’s profile and providing a unique “I was there!” moment to guests on the day. We can only hope this is the start of more fruitful relationship with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (formerly Buena Vista Distribution), that leads to more events like this and less giant billboards…

« Part 4 of our Prince Caspian series ‘¢

[Video © Disney]

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is released in the UK today! Have you seen the film yet? Share your thoughts and reviews on the magicforum topic!

This live show attraction, to be housed inside the Walt Disney Television Studios building right next door to the popular new Stitch Live! interactive CGI show, was first rumoured back in November 2007. Since then, the show has been confirmed internally to resort Cast Members and will be pushed heavily as one of the key additions for 2009, alongside Disney Stars & Motor Cars Parade.

The actual location of the show within Walt Disney Television Studios, the former home of the unpopular Television Production Tour, was originally quite uncertain. With its flatmate Stitch Live! now open for business, however, and the former Disney Channel CyberSpace post-show room of the original tour still closed, it is now confirmed that this vast space will house the show.

Diagram showing inside of Walt Disney Television Studios.
Current construction areas are shown in blue.

Indeed, reports from several people “in-the-know” suggest work inside is already well advanced with casting and rehearsals scheduled soon.

In fact, those returning construction fences signal the start of this new construction project on the exterior of the building — the attraction’s new entrance. Nothing is yet known about the design or placement of the entrance, how it will link into the Stitch Live! turnstiles right next door or even how the queue line will cross the exit path of that same show.

Looking at the current placement of the blue fences, it appears that the entrance will be similar in size to Stitch Live!, but separate from the building and angled slightly more toward The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror across the courtyard.

Additional fences next to the old Mickey Mouse Trailer, which has been sitting unused for almost a year now, appear to have removed an old Production Courtyard lamppost here. The placement is interesting if we were to still consider Soarin’ to be built in the space behind, squashing four attractions into just a small corner of one courtyard.

The show itself is believed to be near-identical to those at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and Disney’s California Adventure, featuring Playhouse Disney favourites Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger and Pooh and Little Einsteins. At these two locations, the entire audience sits on a soft floor and watches the action on a raised stage, the characters mostly brought to life through puppetry from below.

When can expect it to open? Well, there is currently some speculation that both the new show and parade might debut as early as Christmas this year, rather than being held off until the real launch of the 2009 celebration in April 2009. With the parade cars sitting backstage and this show’s preparations relatively minimal, it could be possible — but how likely?

Opening early would follow the plan used for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which opened last year on 22nd December 2007 with full advertising not starting until April this year. For a major E-Ticket attraction such as this, it allowed for a long period of build-up and for word of mouth to spread.

For a small children’s show and a new parade, brought over from another resort? It could just lead to a massive anti-climax come 2009. For fans, at least. Watch this space.

[Photos: WDSfans.com; Walt Disney World]

As Candleabration clocked up its 365th performance and continued into its second year as part of ‘The Celebration Continues… Big Time!’, the fifteen candles spread across Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant continued to have their flickering, orange LED lights hampered by the setting sun.

The show is usually scheduled as the final piece of entertainment of the day, often exactly at the park’s closing time, but, for much of the year, this closing time just isn’t late enough to let the fifteen birthday candles glow. And so, as Mickey Mouse points up into the sky and toward the Castle, intending to send his magical energies to light up the candles, it appears as if he is merely making wild hand and arm gestures to the “Flying” soundtrack — a slightly uninspiring finale for any guests who don’t realise the problem.

However, since at least April this year, the illumination moment has been improved significantly thanks to a long line of streamers which burst into the sky from every side of the circular Central Plaza Stage. Now, every time Mickey points across to the castle, his hand gestures are joined by a golden streamer erupting from one side of the stage.

In Video

The streamers are rather a fitting addition considering the “presents” theme of ‘The Celebration Continues’, and a welcome addition for the many parents and children who didn’t quite grab one of the Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade streamers quickly enough…

Summer and Christmas have so far been the only times when darkness could be guaranteed for the ceremony, due to the late opening hours and early nightfall respectively. The 15th Anniversary launch night on 31st March 2007 also saw a special edition of the show presented under darkness.

Our day at Walt Disney Studios Park on Saturday, 5th April continues as clouds continue to gather above and turn ever darker. With the clock ticking to the park’s much-publicised new ‘Summer’ show, will it make it through before the rain begins?

The same “rolling” (or moving) stage of the first show, High School Musical On Tour, returns to the park following its Winter break, now redecorated to almost exactly match the stages of the two American versions of the sequel show. A banner to the right of the iconic High School Musical letters carries a large number ‘2’, the words ‘School’s Out’ across the front show that this show will take its name straight from the original versions and the colour scheme in general is altered to a less formal, more Summery look. The red stepladder pulled along by the stage in the original show is replaced by a blue trailer carrying the students’ golf club work equipment and beach accessories.

Inspired costuming: “I majored in VACATION”

Rather than rolling into Backlot and continuing into Production Courtyard with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror as its backdrop, the premiere edition was due to arrive just in front of the Place des Stars Stage, allowing more VIP press and film crews a clear view from the large cordoned-off area next to the Tower’s gardens. Regular guests would have to see the show, the only performance of the day, from the sidelines or from behind.

Sunnier Summertimes: Rehearsals leading up to the premiere

As crowds gathered all around and the first spots of rain began to fall, fans could spot a flustered Katy Harris, show director of ‘School’s Out’ as well as ‘On Tour’ and of course Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade, directing and redirecting technical teams to make sure the premiere went without hitch. The cast had been rehearsing for several weeks beforehand, with several actual in-park rehearsals from the 31st March onwards.

Show director Katy Harris

During the first week of the new show, which runs only in the late afternoons, they would also be preparing for the return of the original show, featuring songs from the first Disney Channel movie, from 12th April onwards.

Tick tock, tick tock… following a medley from the first movie, the clock began to countdown…

And then, the bell! Schoooool’s out!

As the video above shows, the Summertime songs and real smiles of the cast couldn’t hold back the heavy rain that began around halfway into the show. The cast continued uninterrupted in the usual Marne-la-Vallée Disney style — it seems nothing can stop them. Keep an eye out for show director Katy Harris rushing past toward the end of the video.

Given that this was the official premiere and would be filmed and photographed by press from across Europe — as well as the resort’s own audio/visual team, almost the entire cast joined the show to give a huge team of over 20 singers and dancers in the spotlight. The usual performances do feature slightly fewer extras, but have larger casts than you might expect — thanks perhaps to the lack of a daily parade. Most of the faces amongst the Wild Cats were new, whilst some were returning from 2007.

The show follows exactly the same set list as its American cousins, with dialogue alterations to allow most of the words which weave together scenes to be repeated in both French and English. The songs are presented entirely in English, as they are in fact in the “French” versions of the films.

‘What Time Is It?’ begins the event as the students march to the show stop, with the routine including the now-infamous single line mexican wave. Cookery tools and mops provide props for ‘Work This Out’, swaying couples accompany the four key singers for ‘You Are The Music In Me’ and the basketball theme of the original show and movie is transferred to baseball with ‘I Don’t Dance’.

A clever routine with blue sheets and parasols gives ‘All For One’ a beach feeling and, returning from the first show, ‘We’re All In This Together’ rounds out the duo of High School Musical shows.

Both High School Musical 2: School’s Out! and High School Musical On Tour continue every day through the Spring and Summer right up until 30th September 2008.

This year’s Spring/Summer season officially begins on 5th April, when the parks suddenly come to life with many additional entertainments that run until the end of August. Set to return already are favourites The Tarzan Encounter, High School Musical On Tour (from 12th April) and Good Morning Walt Disney Studios, with Winnie the Pooh and Friends, Too on select dates and during the main Summer season. Add to that the recently-confirmed High School Musical 2 show, a brand new production featuring the songs of the second hit movie.

But that’s not all… Preparations have been underway for some time on a couple more brand new “spectacles”, specific to their locations and set to feature some rare stars from the Disney archives.

The first is currently known as Good Morning Mary Poppins and will be a brand new morning show for Main Street, U.S.A., taking place several times early each day on the Town Square gazebo.

Information from member zanderstarz on magicforum reveals that the small show will feature Mary and Bert alongside three penguin waiters and three dancing couples, for a total cast of 11. Music and recorded singing is apparently taken entirely from existing sources, notably the soon-to-end Disney Cinema Parade.

This could be considered a replacement for last year’s morning event, Alpha Bet You Are, and will be the first daily morning entertainment on Main Street, U.S.A. for quite some time, coming many years after the Good Morning Main Street character happening was retired. It is due to begin from Saturday, 5th April.

The second new event also looks set to return daily entertainment to an underused area of the park — the Castle Courtyard, behind Sleeping Beauty Castle, occasionally home to The Sword in the Stone Ceremony. Provisionally titled The Aurora and Prince Phillip Happening, this mini-show will star the royal couple themselves in a regal ceremony that will likely be rudely interrupted by Maleficent, making it sound somewhat similar to the Halloween event which took place here during the festival’s brief introduction to Fantasyland in 2004.

Source zanderstarz also suggests that royal guard-like figures and fairytale maidens may also make an appearance in the happening, which is currently expected to begin on Wednesday, 26th April.

Finally, a controversial Walt Disney Studios Park memory from last Summer is also due to return…

‘Toon Train…Lights! Camera! Musique!‘, the musical show which featured Chip, Dale and their female friend Clarice alongside a live band, left many fans cold during the Summer of 2007, but the trailer sets it was based upon — originally used for the Starring Cruella De Vil show — are likely to return to the park again soon in another new guise.

However, current plans state their use will definitely be more alike that of the Christmas event ‘Toons en Scene pour les Fetes‘ — as in simply to bring characters into the park and to act as meet ‘n’ greet photolocations. Characters touted so far are Lilo and Stitch, Chip ‘n’ Dale and Abby the Duck with Chicken Little, but this could certainly change.

Add to this promising mix of new and old the 15th Anniversary favourites Disney Characters’ Express, Candleabration and Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade, and you’ve got the makings of a busy Spring season of entertainment in Disneyland Resort Paris!

— See magical Disneyland Resort Paris entertainment in motion at DLRP Magic! Video >>