2009

The special video sees Mickey Mouse rushing from corner to corner all over the resort, meeting up with other characters who are shown to be preparing their entertainments for the upcoming Magical Party.

Several of the scenes were obviously filmed at the same time as some of the still photo shoots we’ve been seeing this past week, but — along with giving a first look at the Stars ‘n’ Cars vehicles as they’ll appear in Paris — there is one huge, enormous spoiler in here… the music!

We posted the lyrics just yesterday and only introduced the concept of this new song — “It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time” — just last week, but already, here it is! Well, almost… as you might guess from the synthesised opening, this is actually a special remix of the song. Far more “dance” flavoured than the true number, and in fact likely to be the version heard during It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.

Here’s the video:

And a series of stills:

Mickey rises bright and early to begin another day of hard work…

Another close-up of the Minnie’s Party Train concepts — note that the third carriage will be different again from both the first and second.

Mickey arrives in the Stars ‘n’ Cars garage to surprise Goofy

Mushu steals the show in Mulan’s car

Characters polish up their cars

Mickey peers through a curtain to see Playhouse Disney — via greenscreen!

In the Radio Disney studios, Stitch prepares his beats to some wild camera work

The characters rehearse their moves for “It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends” backstage — with the show’s additional stars from The Jungle Book and The Lion King

Mickey emerges from the baloons…

That’s Mickey’s Magical Party!

As for the “It’s Party Time!” song, hearing a slightly wacky dance remix before the real thing maybe isn’t the best way to be introduced to the new theme music of the year, but what do you think so far? Is this another Disneyland Resort Paris song destined to stay with you almost every hour of the day?

Released just hours ago and available to watch in full here, the new video preview of the Mickey’s Magical Party celebrations sees the mouse rushing around the resort checking up on the preparations for his year-long party.

Amongst the special photoshoot set-ups, there are several surprising backstage glimpses, including one into the parade storage building which currently houses the vehicles of Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars…

We’ve seen inside here before, in fact, when some sneaky photos of the cars were published online just after they’d arrived in Paris. Now,eight months later, we can them in their final Parisian state… although, as confirmed in an earlier update, very little actually changed at all in the end.

One car is “new”, however, and that’s Donald Duck’s. Now dark green all over with similar movie reel motifs to Mickey’s black and grey old-timer, the Duck polishes off his takeover of The Muppets’ old car neatly. On the bonnet, an old fashioned movie camera points toward the driver!

Also note Mushu appearing alongside Mulan’s car — a character who has certainly been hard to spot in recent years, especially since the end of the Videopolis show.

Only three of the cars are featured in the video, you can see the full final lineup here.

It has also been confirmed recently that the performance of this event will now involve two separate, small cavalcades entering the park from Toon Studio and Backlot, travelling along the parade route to apparently meet and park-up around Place des Stars.

A kind of doubled-up version of the old Good Morning Walt Disney Studios — with far better cars — if you like.

We said the shop, very popular amongst fans, would be heading toward a typical Western sunset when its closing date was officially announced, but here’s the part you never see after those end credits roll… the blackout.

Stroll through Disney Village today and you’ll still see the oversized Western accessories hanging atop its large wooden entrance construction, but there’s no life inside — the windows covered over in black and given the standard “This area is being refurbished for your future enjoyment” notices…

The ripping-out of the old Buffalo Trading Co. interior should now be well underway, ready for the fitting-out of that brand new Starbucks Coffeehouse rumoured to be opening.

Yes — still “rumoured”! Neither Starbucks nor Euro Disney SCA has announced anything about a new opening in Disney Village, though there is really no doubt.

Meanwhile, the three stores of Thunder Mesa Mercantile Building in Frontierland and the General Store of Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne will be our remaining frontier for Western goods.

• Look out for a special photo tour and history of the old boutique when our Remember…? resort history column finally returns later this week!

• Photos from the latest Photos Magiques trip report, here.

The song, of course, is for Mickey’s Magical Party and will therefore unsurprisingly be titled “It’s Party Time!”, with the actual chorus proclaiming “It’s Mickey’s Magical Time!”.

Beginning with a lone chorus singing out “It’s Mickey’s Magical Time… Everybody’s ready it’s time to play”, the song builds through a quick jazzy brass intro before launching into the first verse with drums, heavy guitars and some very pacey vocals from both a male and female lead. The brass element returns several times, but the overall feel is very much a progression of the modern pop/rock touched upon with “Just Like We Dreamed It“.

Unusually, the full lyrics are already out!

It’s Party Time

It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
Everybody’s ready it’s time plaaayyyyy……

(Its time to party, come have a party, ohh yea, you know its party time)

Verse 1:
Welcome everybody, let the fun being
(Oh oh it’s party time)

A Disney celebration with all of our friends!
(You know its party time)

Young, Brand New – we’re so glad that you’re here!
(Oh oh it’s party time)

It’s a magical invitation to the party of the year
(You know its party time)

With Disney magic excitement grows, Grab a balloon – come on lets go……

Chorus:
It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
Everybody’s ready it’s time to play…

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, yea yea
The party of the year, and it’s happening here!

It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
We’ll let the music out load – dancing with the crowd!

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, hey hey!

(Its party time, its party time, if you wanna party, you know its party time!)

Verse 2:
Kiddies, right we’re coming, it’s getting a little wild!
(Oh oh it’s party time)

Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and every child.
(You know its party time)

Lint, then needles with ribbons and bows!
(Oh oh it’s party time)

Lets decorate to celebrate with everyone we know
(You know its party time)

With Disney magic excitement grows….
Everybody Grab a balloon – come on lets go……!!!

Chorus:
It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
Everybody’s ready it’s time to play…

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, yea yea
The party of the year, and it’s happening here!

It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
We’ll let the music out loud – dancing with the crowd!

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, hey hey!

Verse 3:
We’re dancing in the street to a party-time beat –
lets shoot for the stars that’s what you will do…

We’re dancing in the street to party-time beat – everybody let loose!

People from all around the world – have come from far and near!

Everybody clap, everybody cheer – the party of the year and it’s happening here!!

Chorus:
It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
Everybody’s ready it’s time to play…

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, yea yea
The party of the year, and it’s happening here!

It’s Mickey’s Magical Party Time,
We’ll let the music out loud – dancing with the crowd!

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, hey hey!
We’ll let the music out loud – dancing with the crowd!

Mickey’s Magical Party Time, yea yea
The party of the year, and it’s happening here!

At Mickey’s Magical Party Time, hey hey!
Everybody’s let loose

(Party time, oh yea, its Mickey’s magical party, yea, party time, yea yea)

ITS PARTY TIME!!

Though very much a generic “event” tune, the lyrics do make reference to several of the key Mickey’s Magical Party emblems, such as “Grab a balloon — come on let’s go…”. The full details of where and when during the celebration it’ll actually appear has yet to be confirmed, but we can certainly count on it being used for It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends and It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland, if not Minnie’s Party Train too.

As mentioned previously, the song is produced by Scott Erickson, who worked on a variety of direct-to-video releases such as Mickey-Donald-Goofy in The Three Musketeers, Bambi II and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch.

Finally — yes, the song will be catchy. Very catchy. In fact, from April 4th, be very prepared to have nothing but “It’s Mickey’s magical party time” ringing through your head, until May at the earliest…

With many thanks to Poppy the Monkey for the lyrics.

It’s often said that one of the best things about Disneyland is that it means something different to everybody who visits. At Disneyland Resort Paris, with its countless languages coming together in one place and all their required translations, that’s quite literally the case.

Unlike the 15th Anniversary, which could be communicated in all the required languages simply by placing a “15” next to the resort’s logo, explaining “Mickey’s Magical Party“ in different languages requires a little more effort, and a little more translation.

In fact, English speakers will be the only ones to hear about the event under that name in their advertising and communications. For the other five key languages of the resort, every single one has its own, entirely different, translation.

Let’s take a look…

French: La Fête Magique de Mickey

As usual, inverts the title and stays away from the possessive apostrophe…

Spanish: El Año de Mickey

Literally meaning “The Year of Mickey”, which was in fact the working title for the event in English, too…

Dutch: Mickey’s Magische Jaar

Again, preferring to push “year” over “party”…

German: Micky’s Fantastisches Fest

Whilst Germany sits better with some alliteration…

Italian: Il Magico Anno di Topolino

And Italy is still the only one of these languages to have an entirely different name for Mickey: Topolino…

We promised two new languages, and here they are! The amount of press and advertising visuals for the new event already far outweighs the number created even for the 15th Anniversary, and now to truly prove that all bases are being covered, we have the resort’s very first logos in two extra European languages — Portugese and Greek…

Portugese: A Festa do Mickey

Greek: To Mayikó Πápti tou Míku

It remains to be seen if these two new logos will be followed up by any other communications in these extra languages, such as websites or park guide maps.

But, for now, that concludes our little continental tour. Who knew an obsession with an American theme park could teach you so much about European languages..?

All logos © Disney.

Following on the welcome trend begun with Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally to use the resort’s main parking lot and its moving walkways to push the events or attractions you should return for soon, Mickey’s Magical Party began taking over the area late in December.

First, with banners and placards above the walkways:

Photo: Scrooge, Disney Magic Interactive

With a second style for the smaller spaces:

Photo: Mouetto, Disney Central Plaza

Then, with posters filling all the display cases along the route back to the car parks:

Photo: Scrooge, Disney Magic Interactive

Of course, if you’d like to start the advertising in your real home, you can do that too! The new Spring/Summer 2009 brochure is available now online to order or download, and has been taken over almost entirely by previews for the upcoming celebration year:

The general style and layout remains faithful to that set up for the 15th Anniversary brochures, merely redecorated with these new brighter colours. The back cover even reuses the same tagline — “The only one missing is you!”.

Like much of what we’ve seen of the party so far, the general idea seems to be “if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it” — just make it brighter!

Photos as credited; brochure images © Disney.

Just like the new Central Plaza show and the redecorated Party Train, Discoveryland’s brand new daily street spectacle — It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland — has been given the full Disney marketing treatment with its own logo and a full poster-style visual:

Certainly the most ambiguous visual of the lot, this one might take some extra explanation. It’s Dance Time will be an outdoor street show in Discoveryland — the land’s first for over a decade, perhaps? — somewhat in the same vein as the High School Musical shows over at Walt Disney Studios Park.

How exactly? Because, several times a day, DJ Stitch will roll out into the land aboard an apparently jet-powered set of mixing decks, styled to look similar to his rocket ship from Lilo & Stitch (as also seen at the end of Stitch Live!). Therefore, there won’t be a permanent stage for this event but a designated area of the land — as yet, not confirmed — that will be covered in brightly coloured dance mats.

The inspiration here is clearly the home video games such as “Dance Dance Revolution”, with the audience then invited to step up onto one of the mats and follow Stitch’s directions to dance along to the contemporary music.

In French, the show will be known as ‘Place à la Danse… à Discoveryland’:

As you’ve no doubt already guessed, this new daily entertainment event is hardly going to be a winner for those fans of the “true” Discoveryland. It seems unlikely there’ll be any reference to the great dance moves of the visionaries such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and the searing colours of the logo above will likely allow those same Discovery fans to even forgive Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast entirely for any wrongdoing.

But, pitched against the land’s often bizarre history for live entertainment, it is a better match than African animals or Californian beach festivals… isn’t it?

Whether you’re convinced or not, Mickey Mouse seems to be happy with the preparations. After taking a look at Minnie’s concept art for the new Party Train, he hopped over to the Radio Disney studios — housed in those infamous areas at the back of Videopolis which were meant to connect to Discovery Mountain — to hear Stitch’s rehearsals…

With the red mixing decks dotted with bolts and a view of Space Mountain through the Nautilus-inspired window, these scenes are almost worthy of the fans’ Discoveryland seal-of-approval… were it not for the grey skies, dirty glass and reflections!

Stitch won’t be alone for this show, though — it has been revealed that the little blue alien will bring along a special dance troupe to help get each show going and encourage the audience to take part. Auditions have been held alongside those for this year’s High School Musical show, particularly pushing for dancers with “street and hip hop” ability.

Here’s the casting notice:

The Talent Casting Department are organising auditions for the positions in the stage show: HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ON TOUR!, IT’S PARTY TIME… WITH MICKEY AND FRIENDS and IT’S DANCE TIME… IN DISCOVERYLAND.

It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland, good jazz technique, strong stage presence, knowledge of hip hop/street dance is a plus, girls should be 5’4 – 5’7 and boys should be 5’7 – 6’0.

Jules Verne must be spinning, grinding and bopping in his grave…!

All photos, logos and visuals © Disney.

One of the undoubted hits of the 15th Anniversary years, providing both plentiful meet ‘n’ greets and a mini-parade in one, it might have been enough just to keep running Disney Characters’ Express with its ’15’ plaques removed. Not for Mickey’s Magical Party!

Instead, entire control of this former Dumbo/Casey Jr. Wonderful World of Disney Parade float has been handed to Minnie Mouse. She’ll be leading the way on board Minnie’s Party Train each day and, crucially, giving the train a rather radical cosmetic update. Blue and gold are out… red polka dots are in!

The full visual above cheats the eye a little with its seemingly never-ending line of carriages, but it’s a smart photo edit of the current train to convey the idea. Whereas the 15th Anniversary version was plainer and more generic, the new Mickey’s Magical Party events will be entirely character-led and as bright as possible.

Minnie has also prepared for her home audience, with an alternate French title and logo — Le Train en Fête de Minnie:

And, just yesterday, she officially revealed her final concept art for the brand new Party Train at Art of Disney Animation in Walt Disney Studios Park, watched over by Mickey Mouse!

Sketching with an oversized pencil and cutting pieces of polka dot fabic with oversized scissors, Minnie gives us a very first look at exactly what will be changing to turn the Express into the Party Train. At first glance, it certainly seems that the advertising visual above was a very conservative depiction of the final result…

For the most part, the blue of Characters Express has turned to red and white polka-dots, but the entire train is now also covered in multi-coloured streamers, with bows atop the flagpoles and a ‘Minnie’s Party Train’ logo inside a blue Mickey Mouse silhouette on every carriage.

Also note the carriages themselves — in the image we’ve zoomed into above, you can see that the middle wagon will be given an entirely different design, almost completely golden, with more whimsical safety rails, perhaps closer to its Casey Jr. circus train origins…

— Find a new preview guide all about Minnie’s Party Train here.

All logos, visuals, photos © Disney.