2009

With widespread economic downturn and several European countries officially in recession, Disneyland Resort Paris has been facing a tough time these past three months, its’ parade of scoring a modest profit for the first time since 2001 being, in true Marne-la-Vallée fashion, well and truly rained upon.

• Theme parks attendance up 8%, driven by more guests visiting from France

Though today’s report states that theme park attendance increased by 8% due to more visitors in France, it also goes on to add that this was partially offset by fewer visitors from Spain and the United Kingdom, two of the countries from which attendance had been growing strongly in the past 18 months.

From France itself, some of this attendance gain will no doubt be from the resort’s promotions for a “€1 Ticket” for children visiting with adults.

• Resort revenues increased 3% to €324 million

With this continued attendance surge, the Theme Parks managed to increase their takings by €11 million (6.3%), from €175.1 million in 2007 to €186.1 million for the three months up to 31st December 2008.

A strong increase, certainly, but the skies become less blue when you note that Hotels and Disney Village revenues actually fell €2.1 million to €124.6 million, due to a decrease in room occupation of 2.3 percentage points compared to the 2007/08 period.

This is clearly linked to the decrease in visitors from Spain and the UK, who would naturally require a room near the magic, unlike those visiting with reduced price tickets from within France. It meant, overall, 12,000 fewer “room nights” than in October, November and December 2007.

• Total revenues decreased 4% to €328 million, due to lower real estate development activity

But, ultimately, whilst the operations of the Disneyland Resort Paris assets could have pulled through with a modest growth, real estate sales in Val d’Europe and the wider resort area were lower in this period to the extent that any gain was completely swallowed up.

The report states: “Prior year quarter real estate revenues included €12.5 million of revenue related to the sale of a property in Val d’Europe which had been subject to a long term ground lease. The remaining decrease resulted from a reduction in the number of transactions closed in the period to one, compared to four transactions closed in the prior-year quarter period.”

From revenues of €24.4 million last year, only €3.4 million was taken this year. This segment of the group’s income often does vary wildly quarter-to-quarter, rarely remaining consistent.

In this period, however, it didn’t help a tough First Quarter one bit.

Philippe Gas, Chief Executive Officer of Euro Disney S.A.S. commented:

“We delivered increased resort revenues during this first quarter despite the challenging economic environment, by adapting our offers to drive guest visitation while addressing current consumer purchasing power constraints. The popularity of our Resort remained strong with Europeans as a short-break destination offering high quality Disney entertainment.

In 2009, there are even more reasons to visit Disneyland Resort Paris. We will launch a new, year-long celebration, and will bring more Disney stories to life at the Walt Disney Studios Park by unveiling the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage attraction and a Disney Stars and Cars show.

We recognize we are not immune to the impact of a sustained economic downturn and remain committed to managing costs while continuing to deliver the quality Disney experience our guests expect from us.”

With the overwhelmingly successful 15th Anniversary now almost at its end and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror over one year old, Euro Disney SCA had better hope that enough visitors want the resort — and Mickey’s Magical Party — to put a smile on their down-turned faces that the remainder of this financial year sees those steady, overall, increases return.

— You can download the full First Quarter 2009 report here (PDF).

Check your calendar, it’s not April 1st. Yet DLRP Today can this morning confirm that Mickey Mouse will be given a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

In fact, this news broke online just yesterday evening, only hours after it was announced to Cast Members and the resort’s sales offices. But we can go a little better than that…

Want to *see* Mickey Mouse in his new Western role?

Hold onto your hats and glasses!

Mickey Mouse stands proudly in the spotlight in these brand new images released today, with Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull behind.

So, will we be seeing “Mickey’s Wild West Show” in the not-too-distant future? Absolutely not! This is still Buffalo Bill’s classic event, simply reworked with the addition of the Mouse to give the show a wider appeal amongst Disneyland Resort Paris guests and make it more pleasing to families who might otherwise not see much reason to cough up the high dinner price.

OK, sure, this may not come as the best news to those die-hard fans of the resort’s Old West experiences — particularly just days after Buffalo Trading Co. next door closed. But, with the show now reaching 17 years old and guest satisfaction levels said to be sliding somewhat, it looks set to be a modest change that will at least allow Buffalo Bill to keep the Wild West Show playing.

And when can Old West diners expect to see a mouse roll out into the buffalo ring? No date has been set — indeed, no official text of any kind accompanies these images just yet — but the change is said to be happening around the same time that Mickey’s Magical Party launches, the weekend of 4th April 2009, which would helpfully allow for a wider relaunch of the show generally.

Then, who knows what we’ll get to experience… the West being won by a Mouse?

You saw it here first, folks!

Visuals © Disney.

The main show of the celebration is titled It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends, or, in French, ‘Place à la Fête avec Mickey et ses Amis’. Though performed on Central Plaza, with Le Château as a backdrop, this won’t be a simple reworking of Candleabration…

Though, as the new key visual below shows, ‘It’s Party Time’ will naturally be led by Mickey Mouse, the official press release for the event (so far released only in French) confirms that he has been joined by Goofy to help prepare a special party celebration.

That celebration will, unlike Candleabration, take place several times each day and almost certainly mostly during daylight hours. No reliance on an illumination ceremony at 7pm in the early Summer this year.

Along with Mickey’s friends, the characters of The Lion King, Aladdin and The Jungle Book will be the stars of the show, bringing an exotic flair — and naturally, their famous soundtracks — to the stage.

We won’t just be hearing “Hakuna Matata” or “Bare Necessities” though — the new press release also confirms that a brand new song has been created for Mickey’s Magical Party. Entitled “Mickey’s Magical Party Time!” and 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, those who’ve managed a preview describe it as a very modern, pop sound and in a similar vein to the Disney Characters’ Express theme or Hannah Montana.

The show itself will play heavily on guest interaction, with visitors encouraged to dance and sing along. Not a lot more is known about the event than that, but, as the visual above clearly shows — and the press releases are keen to advertise — it will all be happening on a brand new Central Plaza Stage.

In fact, no time has been wasted at all in removing the old tall, golden and circular 15th Anniversary stage from its position, despite Candleabration still running until 7th March:

Photo: Alex, Disney Central Plaza forum.

The old stage was a heightened and redecorated version of the one first introduced for Christmas 2003 (when it featured a pile of books and a writing quill), simply circular in shape and therefore quite distant if you weren’t stood within one of the four entrances to the plaza.

The new stage, as you can see in the key visual, will actually extend outwards with four special “satellite” stages, bringing to the action closer to a greater number of guests and hopefully reducing the — how can we describe it — “front-centric” performance style of Candleabration that made it pointless to stand anywhere other than directly in front of the stage.

Leading down from the stage, you’ll see another new feature — though one that has already been up for much debate: the stairs. This addition would help to add a new depth to the shows presented here, as well as making the giant stage less of a “wall” as you walk down Main Street. The debate has been whether  or not these will appear in the final build, and the outlook isn’t good.

The placement of the satellite stages might also suggest Central Plaza will entirely lose all its trees. If these “arms” extend right into the four small grass-covered hills, rather than onto the existing paved area, the trees would have to go, wouldn’t they?

Any fans despising this extended take-over of Central Plaza — an area that is meant to be open and relaxing, the parkland of nearby, bustling Main Street — then thank your Blue Fairy that the department’s full rumoured plans for the park hub didn’t come to life, cancelled due to worries about underground drainage and utilities.

Markings for a new show/parade viewing platform?
Photo: Disneytheque.com.

These plans would — if the rumours are to be believed — have involved brand new seating areas taking over the grass berm to the left of the Castle, next to the Adventureland entrance, to allow people a better view of the parades and shows in this area…

Rather like the kids in Toy Story who bring bedsheets and a lunchbox to the party, perhaps?

— Find a new preview guide all about It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends here.

Key visual © Disney.

Though the 15th Anniversary was certainly well-stocked with general advertising visuals, a couple of good logos and a preview image for Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade, it never saw anything like this. Indeed, that huge new Disneyland Park parade itself has still never been granted its own official logo.

Benefiting from what seems to be much-improved preparation — at least in the marketing stakes — for the upcoming Mickey’s Magical Party year-long celebration, its’ new Walt Disney Studios Park rival has been far luckier.

For a start, Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars has its very own logo —

And rather nice it is too, don’t you think? Similar — but not too similar — to the logo of Pixar’s ‘Cars’, which would have been easy to lazily duplicate.

Features of the new party are still in there, however, with a balloon replacing the apostrophe in “Disney’s” and the head of Mickey Mouse himself in the middle of the chrome-and-red emblem.

Even more impressive for this new parade/event, though perhaps pushing it on the “realism” front a little too much, is the brand new key visual —

The poster-style image depicts the cars of Mickey & Friends, Snow White, Aladdin, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, Monsters Inc. and Toy Story driving along a palm-lined boulevard, a beautiful pink-purple sky and fireworks above them. Even Tinker Bell flies overhead, with the Earffel Tower in the background.

We all know the park’s Hollywood Boulevard is rather beautiful, but it’s lucky these visuals are only for imaginative illustration purposes.  And that becomes even more true when you look at these exclusive landscape versions we’ve got to share —

The panorama above was the first to be released, using the same background as the portrait key visual above but adding The Little Mermaid, Chip ‘n’ Dale, Mary Poppins (twice!) and the now-cancelled Cruella De Vil car.

The second, and apparently final, version of the landscape advertising image loses the duplicate Poppins and instead brings to the front the planned Chip ‘n’ Dale overlay of the red toon car that, as you may have read yesterday, also looks to have been cancelled —

Again, not quite an accurate depiction of the new event.

But, zooming into the visual, fans can at least take a sneaky closer look at that planned Cruella De Vil car which apparently won’t make it off the drawing board. Behind the demon fashionista we see a whole car-load of dalmatian puppies and suitcases —

Rumours were mixed about whether this would be an overlay of the Disney Villains car coming from Florida or if it could actually be the car you see in the visual itself — the actual 102 Dalmatians car that sits inside the entrance to Studio Tram Tour.

The animation-themed overlay of the long-running toon car, on the other hand, features Chip ‘n’ Dale sitting with paint brushes, pencils, an easel and rolls of paper —

With the news that these planned overlays have been cancelled, these concepts are likely as much as we’ll discover of the Stars ‘n’ Cars that are now Cut ‘n’ Cancelled…

— Find a new preview guide all about Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars here.

Logos & visuals © Disney.

Both the name and logo changes of Disneyland Resort Paris are well-documented, but there’s been something going on these past couple of years which has begun to make all that fuss about switching from “Euro Disney” to “Disneyland Paris” very simple indeed.

History in logos…

With the 2002 opening of the second Disney park in Paris, we were introduced to Disneyland Resort Paris and the “arc and stars” of a brand new logo which is still frequently used to this day:

However, to celebrate the resort’s 15th anniversary in 2007, you’ll remember a special new logo was introduced — and went on to become very widely-used. It dropped the arc in favour of a dramatic “15”, and simplified — though probably shrunk a little too much — the “Resort Paris” element:

Now, as popular as this logo apparently was, both with fans and the resort’s advertising teams, it obviously posed a problem for advertising in UK. Unlike the other countries where Disneyland Resort Paris holds offices, the UK promotes both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in Paris entirely equally. Since 2002, the “Paris” of the resort’s logos just wasn’t clear enough.

So, last year in 2008, we got a solution:

Not technically a resort logo — it has only really been used in UK advertising, and never at the resort itself — it was hardly perfect. The “Resort” only just managing to cling on and certainly, a strong example of why The Walt Disney Company should probably refrain from using its cherished typeface for anything other than the key words themselves — the “P” of “Paris” appearing more like the classic “D” being waved around on a stick.

New 2009 logo

Which brings us neatly up to 2009. Another year, another logo? Yes indeed!

However, this time, they took the chance to fix things once and for all — well, eventually. The first simplified logo for the Mickey’s Magical Party year stayed close to its “Disneyland15” predecessor, but now a new, updated version appears to have finally clicked “bold” on the “Resort Paris” and no doubt put a smile on the UK office’s faces:

First version / Second version

Even better, perhaps, there’s a version of the logo without the “Mickey’s Magical Party” title but still very nicely framed by the new balloon emblem:

But, come 2010, will the balloon (or even the logo!) remain? Quite possibly…

A generic version of the logo removes the balloon and brings the text almost right back to the resort’s classic navy blue colour used for the 1995 “Disneyland Paris” logo:

Without the balloon, it’s admittedly not quite as special, but what do you think? Is the new logo an improvement? And should it — or will it, even — stay beyond 2009?

All logos © Disney.

Is this a scaling-back, a budget cut? Not entirely.

Two of the “cars” proposed to play a part in the event were old vehicles from the resort’s past parades and events — the black Cinema Parade van (which itself used to be a Wonderful World of Disney Parade warm-up) and Mickey’s small red car.

The latter was going to be customised with paint brushes and other animation-related props. But both, now, have been cut from the line-up. Instead of trying to bolster the event with these cheaper additions, the parade managers are sticking to the originals from Florida — in some cases, rather more tightly than they’d planned.

We shared rumours last year that The Muppets‘ hot air balloon car was planned to become a kind of galleon-on-wheels of Jack Sparrow. Not any more — the car will instead host the ever-popular Donald and Daisy Duck.

The same goes for Cruella‘s planned takeover of the Disney Villains car from Florida. Though her Hollywood Boulevard appearances in a spotted Cadillac might still be going down a storm, the decision has been made for this to remain a more general “villains” car, rather than be given a black-and-white make-over for the diva, with movie cans and props in the back.

Finally, and less lucky, the former Playhouse Disney car not only won’t be transformed into a Finding Nemo vehicle as proposed — it won’t appear at all. The transformation would have been a difficult one anyway, particularly when it comes to these stars stepping out of their cars to greet guests…

And so, the final line-up is as follows —

• Toy Story
• Mary Poppins
• Mulan
• Monsters, Inc.
• Lilo & Stitch
• Aladdin
• The Little Mermaid
• Snow White
• Mickey & Minnie
• Donald & Daisy
• Disney Villains

The Star Wars car will also not appear in any form.

And what of the plan to roll out these cars in three groups across the park, at the same time, rather than run them as a linear cavalcade along the parade route? As far as we know, this plan hasn’t changed, though all brochures and official texts are keen not to include the “parade” word — or even the words “meet ‘n’ greet”.

The red carpet is ready to be rolled out, either way…

With thanks to WDSfans.com.

Remember back in July 2006? One of the first articles published on a little site called DLRP Today revealed the hotly-anticipated visuals and brochure covers for the 15th Anniversary Celebration. Now, at the start of a brand new year, let’s do it all over again!

Key Visual

The visual we’ll be seeing most of all throughout Mickey’s Magical Party is that below, showing Mickey reaching out to you with an invitation as Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip ‘n’ Dale and Stitch dance beside him…

“Is that really Stitch?”, you ask? Well, it’s meant to be. The characters in these first two visuals are designed to be half-way between the real in-park characters — which often don’t actually look too good in the glare of a key visual — and the kind of 2D illustrations we saw through most of the 15th Anniversary graphics — which might not be considered “real” enough.

With a blue sky overhead, the red text of the celebration’s logo contrasts nicely, as do the carefully-selected palette of coloured balloons. Even Main Street’s lampposts have turned a yellowy-gold for the occasion, but don’t expect that to happen for real.

Second Visual

The second visual is really just a variation on the first, with a more dramatic, firework-filled sky and balloons surrounding the entire visual. You’ll spot this one being used more for posters and other advertisements.

The invite inside the envelope will usually read “You’re Invited…”, but in all these visuals the envelope is left blank, to be filled in in whichever language is required.

Brochure Covers

That’s also true of this next set of visuals, not published online anywhere before, which will be used as travel operator brochure covers throughout the celebration.

The style is more than a little reminiscent of the original 15th Anniversary brochure covers, replacing candles with balloons and introducing some rather rare characters, not usually chosen for these kinds of visuals. There are so many different variations, in fact, that it’ll be interesting to see just how many different brochure covers can be collected through the year.

If you can’t wait to collect them, here’s the exclusive full set:

Mickey & Tinker Bell / Mickey & Minnie / Mickey & Pluto

Mickey & Goofy / Mickey & Donald / Mickey & Chip ‘n’ Dale

Lilo & Stitch / Seven Dwarfs / Mickey & White Rabbit

Mickey & Genie / Timon & Rafiki / Pinocchio

Mickey & Dumbo / Baloo, King Louie & Mickey / Mr Smee & Captain Hook

Robin Hood & Prince John

Lilo & Stitch… The Jungle Book… Genie… Robin Hood..?! The guest list for this party is pretty impressive indeed. But still note — not a single Pixar character in sight!

All visuals © Disney.

Partly a commemoration of the mouse himself hitting 80 years old, partly another excuse to decorate the park and introduce some brand new entertainment, Mickey’s Magical Party will be a brand new year-long event taking over both parks and introducing new decorations, new shows, a new parade-event and a whole new attraction.

The theme is bright — balloons, characters and colour — and fully intended to feel as fresh and new as possible after the two, more nostalgic, years celebrating the 15th Anniversary.

The Logo

So let’s begin, with the logo:

The balloon theme will never be far away this year, at least in the resort’s advertising, with the colour of red seeming to be a obvious replacement for the copious amounts of blue we’ve seen during the 15th.

A second logo has also been produced, featuring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto bursting out from a circular Castle background:

The logos themselves are quite deceptive, however — the “Candy Script” font chosen is inspired by South America — brush-like and quite classical — unlike the proposed events themselves…

The Events

Surprisingly, it’s Walt Disney Studios Park that will once again steal the show, enjoying the launch of both a new attraction and a new parade/event (which you’ll know by now) — whilst, over the esplanade, Disneyland Park has to make up its own party games:

• Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars
The renamed and reworked Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade from Florida finally opens in Paris as part of the event. As we’ve reported previously, it likely won’t run as a parade but as a series of drive-in meet ‘n’ greets and photo shoots. (More news…)

• Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!
Currently being fitted out right next to Stitch Live! in the Walt Disney Television Studios building and classed as a full new attraction, this will be a live puppet show for the younger audience, featuring Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger & Pooh. (More news…)

• It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends
Here we come to the key event of the party, a daytime show on a rebuilt Central Plaza Stage that aims to get the entire audience dancing along with characters from The Jungle Book and Aladdin in particular. (More news…)

• Minnie’s Party Train
You might recognise this one, just a little. It’s the Disney Characters’ Express in a new polka-dot guise, still travelling between Main Street and Central Plaza with its trainload of Disney characters. (More news…)

• It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland
Jules Verne won’t know what hit him — Stitch is due to roll into Discoveryland atop a moving podium of DJ decks, “pumping out tunes” and encouraging everyone to dance along using special coloured dance mats. (More news…)

Look out for much more in-depth news and features about all these events — and the party itself — on DLRP Today every day from now until the official launch.

The Launch Date

Speaking of which — when does Mickey’s Magical Party really launch? The UK brochure states Friday, 3rd April 2009, whilst other official publications state the Saturday — 4th April. Those are the official launch dates, then there’s the actual launch, the press preview, when these events really begin rolling into the parks — which seems to be set on Saturday, 28th March 2009.

Watch this space…