Vinylmation is the latest trend in Disney collectibles mvoing from the US resorts to Disneyland Paris. And certainly Disneyland Paris had to release a set of Vinylmation collectibles at the occassion of its 20th Anniversary (more on the other anniversary merchandise in a separate post).
The small series of 20th Anniversary Vinylmations at Disneyland Paris consists of four figurines: Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. Each of the four Vinylmation sports a painted on costume resembling the special dresses of the characters as worn by them in the new “Disney Magic on Parade!” that is part of the new entertainment for the 20th Anniversary. Each of the figurines also features magic hat as worn in the parade as special add on.
The four Vinylmations are available in clear boxes, i.e. guests see in advance which one they buy. They are available in various shops across the resort – including the Pueblo Trading Post in Frontierland where the photos seen in this post were taken. The Pueblo Trading Post has been turned into a specialty shop stocking pins, Vinylmation and related items in the recent years (after being closed for a long time), but usually is only open during weekends with pin trading events as it then turns into the pin trading headquarters of the resort.
Today the first official performance of “La Magie Disney en Parade !” / “Disney Magic on Parade!” was celebrated with thousands of enthusiastic guests along the parade route.
They saw the completely reconstructed floats of the former “Once Upon A Dream Parade” beginning with the princesses floats. Just to give you a first impression of the new look, here are some shots of Mickeys Sorcerer float at the end of the parade. His closest Friends Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Chap are with him as magicians. And Tinkerbell is sitting on former dragons place, enchanting the guests for more magical moments coming with the 20th anniversary celebration.
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At 10:00 Disneyland Paris officaly opened the 20th celibration year of the park with a special event. Together with Mickey and Minnie the two Disney ambassadors welcomed the public both in Frensh and English. They welcomed the press and fans before they talked about the importance of music.
Especcialy for this occasion a new song was created. The song is called “Magic Everywhere” and was performed by the Voice Kids winner (fabienne) from the netherland. She came to the front accompanied by Donald and Dasy. The song, catchy as always, was an imidate success with the guests and press. During the song about 10 cast members came to Main Street holding up Mickey formed cut out boards with flags on them from European countries.
The big finaly came with a bang hurling goldon ribbons and confetti in the air. Once the show was finished Main Street opened with the cutting of the goldon robbon to the press for a short meet and greet with the characters. The celebrations have begun…
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Our team member on-site just provided us with an update on the strike action of cast members at Disneyland Paris under the leadership of the unions CFDT, FO, UNSA and CFTC. Earlier the impact seemed to be limited to a small number of cast members demonstrating in front of the RER / TGV train station – see our coverage from earlier today also including details on the demands of the unions.
However, at 2:30 pm the cast members escalated their actions…
Equipped with union flags and whistle the striking cast members walked down the Main Street in a noisy “parade” of the unwanted kind disturbing guests along the way. However, members of the resort’s security as well as managers of various departments are out in force to keep the scene as orderly as possible and inform guests about what is going on (certainly only if a guest approaches them and asks). While thegroupwas on the Main Street guests were guided away from the demonstrating cast members by directing the guests toward the two arcades.
The demonstration then walked right through the castle into Fantasyland and turned around at the Carousel to return the same way it had come toward the Main Street. After milling around in the area the demonstration did not leave the park (as had been expected). Instead the group turned into Discoveryland around 3:00 pm where the noisy demonstration currently continues as our team member on-site reports.
He also noted that the Studio Tram Tour at the Walt Disney Studios Park is closed today despite not being listed on the official list of attraction closures. Therefore, it could be assumed (but is NOT confirmed) that this closure might be related to the strike. In this case this would be the so fare sole closure due to the strike that we have been able to note.
Three of the four unions involved in the current strike action (CFDT, CFTC and UNSA) already organized a strike on December 23rd 2009 in the resort which included noisy demonstrations in both parks and the cancellation of the “Once Upon a Time Parade” in the Disneyland Park (as covered in detail with photos and videos). That strike – according to the unions – did lead to an increase of the wages.
Disneyland will be celebration its twentieths birthday on April 12th 2012 and guest will have the chance to celebrate this together with Disney. This can be done with the new “Disney Dreams” nighttime show, while watching the new Parade, meeting the Characters or while riding an attraction. There is always a way to celebrate this great day. But what happens when the celebration is over and you have to make your way home? Well, in that case you can always take some of the magic home. It is especially nice when you can can find some related items to the event or celebration. It will be no surprise that Disney will make sure guest will be able to find just that, a nice collectible to take home.
One of these collectibles will be a new, special and limited Disneyland Paris 20th anniversary pin. The pin will have one of its icons showing, namely the beautiful Disneyland Hotel’s Mickey Mouse clock that can be seen from the Fantasia Gardens in front of the main entrance. The pin will have two dates on it; 1992, the year of opening, and 2012, the year of the celebration. It will also have the official opening day on it; April 12th. This beauty will be available in a limited quantity of only 1000 pieces. It’s therefor advised to get yours as early as possible to avoid missing out on it.
You can start the countdown, the official 20th birthday celebration of Disneyland Paris is getting near and the park will be filled with new magic and special events. Fans of Disneyland Paris and Imagineering in general will have a special treat on April 12th. No other then Tony Baxter will be at Disneyland Paris to share his memories from the early days of the resort. The special event will take place inside the Videopolis in Discoveryland. He will talk about his involvement in Disneyland Paris and there will be time for some Q&A too. The event starts at 10:45 and ends about 1 hour later.
Tony Baxter started his career in Disneyland Anaheim at the age of 17. he started on Main Street U.S.A. Scooping ice cream but was hired at WED Enterprises (Walt Disney Imagineering) a some years later where he would first be involved in smaller project before starting to work on the big once. Big Thunder Mountain was his first major project and the rest is history! He worked on a re-design of Disneyland’s “Fantasyland”, the original “Journey Into Imagination”, the beloved “Splash Mountain”, the new “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” at Disneyland and many more. Tony took a big part in creating the Disneyland Paris we know and love today. This event is your chance to hear his stories of this magical place.
Disneyland Paris fans will be able to hear from Tony Baxter himself how the Disneyland Park was formed, created and build. Their might be some interesting facts or secrets or even stories about some early ideas that didn’t make it into the final design of the resort. Whatever the presentation will be about, it will be incredibly interesting for sure.
If interested it is advices to show up early to the Videopolis as places are limited and expected to fill up fast.
Construction continues at the far end of Fantasyland where the Fantasy Festival Stage underneath the Fantasyland Station of the Disneyland Railroad is still blocked off with construction walls and has scaffolding around it. Only a small path to the side of the construction area remains open to allow access to the train station.
Interestingly this is the first major exterior rehab of a building inside the Disneyland Park in a long time that happens out in the open, without being hidden behind tarps with special designs (e.g. a recreation of the building’s facade) printed on. On the other hand this allows us to see the progress at least of the exterior part of the work. So far the building has received a new color scheme and the “Fantasy Festival Stage” sign has been taken down.
However, the more interesting part of the construction happens behind the walls of the former theater as it is transformed into a permanent Meet’n'Greet location for Mickey to open later this year as part of the 20th Anniversary celebration. Recent reports indicate that the opening will delayed and not happen in time for the kick-off of the celebrations on April 1st, though.
Disneyland has started testing the new “Disney Dreams” Show, the show especially created for the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris, inside the park. The test includes the show, that will be projected on the castle, and the new music. It’s not know if all show elements are already included in this first test phase, but one can expect if not all elements are there yet more and more to be added until the full show can take place.
Those test are taking place during afterhours with no general public in the park, but if you are staying at the Disneyland hotel the coming months you might see a little more of the magic before the premiere.
Especially those staying at the Castle Club level will be able to see a little early “Disney Dreams” magic. The show itself will be part of the new Disneyland Paris programme that will officially start as from April 1st. The night time show “Disney Dreams” will be filled with Disney characters that are being projected on the castle. But that’s only the beginning of what looks like an amazing display of Disney magic. There will be tons of other projections on the castle and on water screens in front of it. There will be water fountains and fire, an amazing new music score and a collection of other surprises.
Disney is starting to share some official information about the show via a new video they posted on the web. Here you’ll see the Imagineers, including Steven Davison (creator of Disneyland’s World of Color in Anaheim), whom worked on the show talking about what to expect. The video already shows some of the projections, including a scene with Peter Pan (what is rumoured to be the opening scene), pyrotechnics, fire effects, water fountains and even a short Mickey Mouse teaser. A very nice preview for those fans that can’t wait.
Also in the video is some information about the new “Disney Magic on Parade!” Disneyland Resort will get. The new floats include a Castle float, horse carriages with princesses and a fantastic looking final float celebrating the 20 years of Disney magic in Paris. There are also some pictures included in the video with the Disney characters and their new costumes they will wear during the festivities. They are very colourful and look like fun, especially Goofy’s green outfit can’t be missed.
Only a couple of months left before we can enjoy this amazing looking show for Disneyland Paris 20th anniversary celebration. Not to be missed!
Picture capture from Disney Dreams; Copyrights Disney
Ratatouille at the Walt Disney Studios in Disneyland Paris is a fact. Disney has not announced the attractions yet but the news is out their because of a visible building permit that has been put in place last week on Euro Disney property. This permit has to be up, according French law, before building starts. So Disney can’t hide it anymore, even if they didn’t put any press release out yet, but with the permit up and building to start, expect something official soon. (Picture via: Disney Central Plaza). This news doesn’t come as a surprise, especially after the news of the new loan Euro Disney S.C.A. got secured to build the attraction.
So far we can expect a trackless vehicle system where vehicle will move almost freely inside the attraction. This technology is already used in Tokyo Disneyland’s Pooh’s Honey Hunt, so it’s no secret to Disney on how to use this technology in the best possible way. Other superb park rides already using a similar system can be found in the fantastic Spider-Man attraction in Island of Adventures (Orlando). The possibilities of this system are endless and one can only imagine what the Imagineers will come up with for Ratatouille’s attraction in the Walt Disney Studios.
So far we’ve seen some amazing early artwork for the outside of the attraction building and the area around it. We will be in a mini Paris (just outside Paris) to enjoy the cooking arts of the rat Remy. While there is not much known from what is going to happen behind the facade, one can expect to see a lot of scenes from the movie. Especially scenes in and around the kitchen might become a big part of the Dark Ride experience. Together with 3D projections, including a big rumoured dome projection will make this the ride to look out for.
The permit also gives some extra information. The building permit is for a building of 17.8 meters high. This could mean that there will be either big sets or even movement on several levels. The new area that is being prepared for building will be 5719 square meters big. One more important note on the permit; it’s not accessible for the general public, but we hope to get some pictures from the works once the start. From behind the fence of course, away from the building site, until we can enter it and enjoy this new exclusive Disneyland Paris attraction. (We encourage everybody to take pictures of the works, but do not break any rules and only take pictures from a locations that is freely accessible by the public)
Vinylmation is the latest trend in Disney collectibles mvoing from the US resorts to Disneyland Paris. And certainly Disneyland Paris had to release a set of Vinylmation collectibles at the occassion of its 20th Anniversary (more on the other anniversary merchandise in a separate post).
The four Vinylmations are available in clear boxes, i.e. guests see in advance which one they buy. They are available in various shops across the resort – including the Pueblo Trading Post in Frontierland where the photos seen in this post were taken. The Pueblo Trading Post has been turned into a specialty shop stocking pins, Vinylmation and related items in the recent years (after being closed for a long time), but usually is only open during weekends with pin trading events as it then turns into the pin trading headquarters of the resort.
