After yesterday’s (in the meantime twice updated) look at the rumors regarding the entertainment in the Disneyland Park for the upcoming months, today it’s time to look at the second theme park at Disneyland Paris: the Walt Disney Studios Park. First the good news: all of the major entertainment offerings will continue – but then it was never doubted that Animagique, CinéMagique, Playhouse Disney Live on Stage! (only added in 2009), Stitch Live! or Motors … Action! Stunt Show Spectacular would continue. Sure the number of performances are tweaked every now and then (in particular for the stunt show) depending on the season but those shows are among the landmark attractions of the theme park for certain groups of guests. However, the offering of additional entertainment on the streets of the park as well as on the Production Courtyard stage is something different …

Here the cutbacks that hit the Disneyland Park are more or less mirrored. Small scale events  such as the Toon Train (that replaced the Cruella de Vil show) and the “Good Morning Walt Disney Studios” happenings have disappeared. However, since they are more or less plussed character meet’n'greets and very limited in scope there are still hopes that they may return at least during high season.

However, the extremly popular High School Musical show that in three different versions brought life to the streets of the Backlot as well as to the Production Courtyard several times daily in the last three years (in three different versions) will – according to the current unofficial word – not return for the summer half year as it used. All three incarnations, titled “High School Musical On Tour”, “High School Musical 2: School’s Out!” and finally “High School Musical Party!”, had a loyal following among the local fans of the resort but also were well received by first time with large crowds bopping along to the powerfull performances of the large cast of dancers and young live singers. However, the fact that the rolling stage was filled by a relatively large cast might have been one of the reasons it got canceled. The cast (and fans) are currently trying to save the show via a facebook group as DLRP Today reports.

Unfortunately current rumors do not indicate that any replacement show has been prepared or is considered for the High School Musical show. This also means that the Production Courtyard stage (which most recently till 2007 was home to the popular show “Lilo & Stitch Catch the Wave Party” will continue to be only used once daily for the show segment of Disney’s Stars’n'Cars. Speaking of Disney’s Stars’n'Cars – this parade / show will be updated with an additional themed car in which Remy from the Disney Pixar hit Ratatouille will ride. However, there is no word yet, whether Remy will only be riding along or whether he will actually be incorporated into the show segment (which considering the lack of any songs integrated into the story of the movie seems doubtful).

The CineFollies which invited guests to join in the shooting of classic movie scenes for some comedy relief were the last hold-overs from the early days of the Walt Disney Studios Park but were cut after being moved to the Production Courtyard Stage in summer 2008. A replacement for this kind of entertainment was never presented and – unfortunately – there are no rumors something like this might return. However, rumors do not rule out that a small band / orchestra might be brought back into the park on selected high season days (just as in 2009). However, it should be noted that the “Singing Santas” – which used to be part of the Christmas entertainment in the studios park for years in varying incarnations – were not brought back for the past Christmas Season.

So the question is: is there any new entertainment rumored? Well, the resort had officially announced a happening for the Toon Studios titled “Monsters Inc. Scream Academy”. It was supposed to feature Sulley and a small cast including a live presenter who would have asked guests to join in for some screaming and laughter, all followed by a character meet’n'greet. Effectively it seemed to be the first attempt bring the concept of the popular happenings from the Disneyland Park (where “Step in Time with Mary Poppins”, “Once Upon a Time, Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White … Happily Ever After” are featured) to the studios. Unfortunately now various rumors are popping up from inside the resort as well as various fan based websites (such as DLRP Today) that the happening got canceled even prior to its premier wit the start of the New Generation Festival.

If these rumors hold true and assuming that the entertainment department does not come up with a last minute replacement the entertainment schedule besides the major shows in custom build theaters / soundstages / stadiums will be rather limited this year in the Walt Disney Studios Park – to be exact limited to Disney’s Stars’n'Cars, some character meet’n'greets and (hopefully) some performances of bands in the summer. For a theme park based on the world of entertainment not really what guests would hope for – and certainly less than in the past years.

This entry was posted by Dirk on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.