News Disneyland Paris Updates & Features

Alpha Bet You Are began on 31st March 2007 with the rest of the 15th Anniversary launch events, featuring new music remixing Disney classics with the vocal talents of children from the surrounding region. Directed by Emmanuel Lenormand, it was designed as a new “welcome” and introduction to the park for guests, though for much of the Summer season heavy guest flow has pushed it back to early afternoon performances.

Now, after over 500 performances, the letters reach their final finale at the end of this month.

Curiously, performance times for the event are no longer listed in the latest online schedules of the official website as before, but the final performance is still confirmed to be 30th September 2007, clearing the way for the Halloween events due to begin next month. With Christmas then taking over the schedules for a further two months, it could be that Alpha Bet You Are is simply taking a seasonal break. However, no return for the 2008 months of 15th Anniversary celebrations has yet been confirmed.

Don’t begin to think this “hiatus” is due to poor guest reaction to the quirky cavalcade, oh no. If the insider words of several magicforum members can be trusted, Alpha Bet You Are regularly charts higher even than Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade in the so-called “guest satisfaction” surveys.

But, as now officially the first 15th Anniversary event to come to an end, we say a fond farewell. If past anniversary events are remembered for their more controversial castle overlays and events, you never know what the icons of the 15th will be in years to come…

You can find a full guide to the production including music and behind-the-scenes information here, an archive of previous DLRP Today articles about the event here or a full video of Alpha Bet You Are here.

Besides the irregular flow of guests into and out of The Chaparral Theater and Frontierland Depot railroad station, there’s not a lot going on in Cottonwood Creek Ranch. Why, it’s almost like a real-life, sleepy ranch settlement! But for a Disney park? Yes, they want a little more life…

Heading into the quiet Cottonwood Creek area (24th August 2007)

The Critter Corral area, with its sheds, paddocks, enclosures and ‘Woodcarver’s Workshop’ is now surrounded on all sides by green construction walls — from the path, and from the railroad. Above the fences, however, the old signage of the workshop/retail location can be seen sitting strangely beside modern day machinery and digging equipment in the Western corner of the area, next to the railroad. Interestingly, most of the outer paddocks are still open, suggesting they won’t be changed — perhaps left simply as grassy surroundings.

Corral fences / Woodcarver remains for now (25th August 2007)

But how do you see behind the fences? Oh, there’s always a way. Be it the mirrors of Videopolis, the rockets of Orbitron or the Flying Carpets of Toon Studio, the Imagineers’ future projects always have a hidden viewpoint or two. Next time you’re walking toward Frontierland Depot passing the fences, take a closer look for several useful holes at various heights…

Through the fences, equipment and foundations (24th August 2007)

…and enjoy the confused looks on other guests’ faces as you hold your camera up and try to snap some photos. The view is worth it, however, showing such features as the entrance gate of the old Critter Corral still in place, with even the “We’ll be back next season” sign holding on for now.

A little to the left, and further back, the real surprise are some new concrete foundations recently laid, enclosing the centre of the former farm from the passing railroad. New foundations in Frontierland? It seemed like we’d never see the day!

UPDATE

Aaron has emailed with some photos by Jort Laban, providing a further update from this past weekend, showing that the foundations are now home to two new wooden constructions, similar in style to the buildings retained from the original Critter Corral:

New wooden constructions near the railroad tracks

The following aerial plan shows the two new constructions and gives a complete overview of the full Critter Corral area — including its original animal paddocks and the area accessible to guests. Unless the animals make a return for the new development, these large enclosures could add a lot of extra land for guests to stroll around.

Critter Corral development plan (Click to see in full)

As a whole, the development is similar in scale — and idea — to the Toon Studio Plaza area which opened with the new area at Walt Disney Studios Park in June this year, featuring dedicated character locations within their own themed environment. With the Woodcarver’s Workshop and other buildings available at Critter Corral, however, the possibilites here are even greater. Live music? Craft workshops? Whatever they’ve planned, the new area should be hive of activity, particularly for younger guests.

The use of this new location for Christmas (and possibly Halloween) seasons has already been confirmed. In fact, it’s said to be none other than the entertainment department themselves who are helping along the resurrection of this former Frontier-waste-land.

Photos by DLRP Today and Jort Laban (with thanks to Aaron). Aerial photo from Google Earth.

Member Lucky on Disney Central Plaza forum snapped the following photo from Disney Village‘s parking, showing the formerly empty area at the heart of the park now populated by the Hollywood sets in all shapes and styles. (Notice also the extra conifer trees recently added to the empty corner of Production Courtyard)

Further into the park, the picture-postcard view along the new Hollywood Boulevard is beginning to take shape, as shown in photos posted by WDSfans.com from magicforum member Japper. The Off the Page/La Terrasse building now has its first prefab details, whilst the tall white skyscraper of the real Hollywood Boulevard‘s First National Bank has climbed almost to completion in less than a week.

In a two-dimensional form with a heavy forced perspective, the building luckily still appears to sit well next to the all-important Hollywood Tower Hotel, sharing similar windows and vertical Art Deco lines in its architecture. No doubt the Imagineers saw this connection between the two buildings whilst on the search for new icons on the Studios’ boulevard. The windows of the tower appear to feature an extra layer of reflective plastic, although this could simply be some clever 2-D design work.

The make-up and layout of the boulevard forms this picture-postcard view from Disney Bros. Plaza, before fragmenting into its separate two-dimensional sets and their forced perspective playing tricks on the mind when — eventually — guests can walk along it toward the new Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic entrance…

The entrance really will be brand new — the old 2002 “billboard” entrance featuring spotlights, a dragon and a Catastrophe Canyon oil tanker is officially no more. In perhaps the most ruthless transformation effort yet seen at the Studios (Toon Studio saw only additions, rather than destruction, for example), the signage has been dismantled leaving only the bare white frame behind.

The new entrance is still expected to be the mythical Hollywood Hills tunnel, framework for which appeared back in July just in front of the old entrance to the attraction’s large queue area.

Photos by Lucky, Japper, Arno-hh; with thanks to WDSfans.com and Disney Central Plaza.

Adventureland Bazaar is a world of secrets, a mysterious, mythical place to Disneyland Resort Paris fans. If you weren’t a fan before 1998, you’ve probably never seen the covered Arabian alley of small shops and beautiful details as it was originally intended. If you weren’t even a fan before the early 2000s, no doubt the entire area is a hidden treasure in your mind…

Agrabah Café opened in the more spectacular, Northern buildings of Adventureland Bazaar in 1999, a new buffet restaurant to increase capacity for the increase in visitors since the 5th Anniversary. No longer would guests be able to stroll along the covered alley and browse in small boutiques such as L’Echoppe d’Aladdin and La Reine des Serpents — now, the entire covered shopping district would be a unique 1001 Nights-inspired dining area.

Unfortunately, the same Jay Rasulo-led pre-Walt Disney Studios Park era which brought us the closure of the River Rogue Keelboats and downturn in upkeep eventually caused Agrabah Café to close — taking the chance of a glimpse at its beautiful setting with it. Aside from rare press events and the single-day opening each year on 31st December, the only way to see this exceptional location has been through some small glass windows in the remaining Les Trésors du Shéhérazade boutique…

Tempted by this teaser? Luckily, this won’t be one for our Wish List. Our partners at magicblog announced earlier this week confirmation that Agrabah Café will finally reopen for good from 6th November 2007! The restaurant will be open daily from 11.30am to 4pm, another item successfully ticked off the “to do” list by Karl Holz’ management.

But wait… with an exceptional location like this, why open it for just any old street rats? Indeed, from the outset you won’t be able to stroll into Agrabah Café and grab a bite to eat — you’ll need to be one jump ahead — specifically, in possession of some Half Board Meal Plan vouchers! Yes, Agrabah Café will be the first “Half Board-only” restaurant in the entire resort, meaning that you’ll need to have bought the pre-pay vouchers in advance and therefore have also booked yourself into a Disney Hotel.

Clever, don’t you think?

However, it’s unlikely making Agrabah Café “Half Board-only” is intended to tempt more people onto the system. Rather, this is the surest sign yet that the Half Board Meal Plans — introduced less than a year ago in November 2006 — have proven to be a huge success. Guests save up to 15% on their meals, but for Disneyland even these discounted table or buffet service restaurant rates are a bonus when the guests might have otherwise snacked on a quick meal from Casey’s Corner, rather than eat table service every day.

This move follows the transition of Rendez-Vous des Stars Restaurant in Walt Disney Studios Park from a self-service to full buffet service, on a par with Plaza Gardens Restaurant, therefore providing better value for “Half Boarders” used to fancier service in the park next door.

As for Agrabah Café, you never know — there might well be a few moments when the remaining “street rats” among us can sneek inside, to help fill up capacity.

The curse of -those details which have been on the California Tower all along but you probably never noticed- returns! For example — we know a whole front section of this deserted hotel was blown to pieces by the lighting bolt on that “fateful night”, but did you know the Imagineers would fully decorate the remaining corridors and walls as if real rooms within the hotel, before giving them their lightning-struck purple scorch marks?

Disneytheque.com brings the latest construction pictures…

Hollywood Tower Hotel – ready for reopening? (Photo: Disneytheque.com)

The rooms are certainly bright and modern for the era – the Art Deco favourite of turquoise has arrived on the remaining walls of Paris’ front wing, with the completed Californian version showing the wood panelling, window details and — eventually — purple cracks and scorches still to come.

The design of the corridors matches with that seen in the two show scenes below — the elevator’s disappearance in a mirror and the ghostly corridor where The Twilight Zone takes hold of you.

Corridors in Paris (Photo: Disneytheque.com) …and California (Photo: Sun-Mountain.net)

Currently looking a rather innocent shade of pale yellow, the completion of this corridor decoration will then allow for the heavier signs of the lightning strike to give the resort’s newest icon a quite surprising sense of devastation. This is no Sleeping Beauty Castle!

The cracked and broken wall around the front portion of the building has now nearly completed its purple lightning overcoat, jutting up across the facade to further push the “story” to guests that the Tower is missing a large portion of its original 1920s structure.

More destruction, but rooms are bright are airy! (Photo: Disneytheque.com)
/ Rear paintwork completed (Photo: NeMo, Disney Central Plaza forum)

Finally, more signs elsewhere show the exterior theming project wrapping up remarkably fast — the vertical line of windows on the far left of the building’s behind has now been surrounded by a finished coat of pale yellow paint and 15 years-worth of dirt. The final piece of construction scaffolding — two small steel towers for the “real” service elevators — should be removed soon, finally marking the completion of the rear wall.

The opening date, you ask? The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is still most definitely on track for an official opening in January 2008, it’d be suicide for the resort to begin the full launch any earlier, but word from insiders continues to confirm that guests visiting from 22nd December 2007 onwards could be treated to a special “soft-opening” test ride during their visit. This would then put the attraction in line for a proper launch in the early weeks of January — exactly when many European families begin to plan their holidays for the year.

Will the five-star luxury and bright and airy rooms of The Hollywood Tower Hotel win them over?

You can see the rest of Disneytheque.com’s latest update here.

Since around the release of Chicken Little in 2005, Disneyland Resort Paris finally got back into some good cross-promotion with Disney’s movie releases. No doubt many fans’ earliest memories of “EuroDisney” come from the countless advertisements placed before films on Disney’s VHS releases of the early ’90s, and now a whole new generation is discovering the resort at its 15th Anniversary with Pixar’s latest smash-hit CGI tale.

Ratatouille is, according to Disney, “the best reviewed film of the Summer”. That’s not just marketing talk – on reviews database Rotten Tomatoes, it currently counts 158 positive reviews against just 6 negative, giving an overall score of 96% fresh and right up there with the best of Pixar’s greats.

“The characters are irresistible, the animation is astonishing and the film, a fantasy version of a foodie rhapsody, sustains a level of joyous invention that hasn’t been seen in family entertainment since The Incredibles,” says the Wall Street Journal.

“In this Michelin-starred confection, Brad Bird deserves an Oscar,” raves The Observer. Luckily for Disney (and the $ 7.4 billion hole in their pocket), it appears the studio may never make a bad film.

We know the two lead characters – Rémy and Émile – have been frequenting Toon Studio since late June, and now Disneyland Resort Paris have cooked up some promotion to make the most of the characters — afterall, where else on this continent can you meet the Pixar stars? No doubt the film’s location of a glowing, saccharine Paris will also play well to draw more eyes to the Disneyland just a few miles East…

On the official website, you can now find a special page with a surprising amount of photos (something Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally still lack) showing the furry pair of rats in front of their new photo location in Toon Studio. Of the international websites for the Ratatouille movie itself, the Dutch and English versions provide partner links to this page on Disneylandparis.com, as has been the case for recent releases such as Cars. The Dutch link, however, is unfortunately presenting a page error. Still, it’s an effort.

The characters themselves, despite being completely Pixar-produced, are 100% Disney. This is actually the first time Pixar have produced furry, hugable animal characters, and no doubt these two will be around for years to come…

What other treats, beyond a hug from Rémy and Émile? Well, if you’re a Shareholder or an Annual Passport Dream holder, you’re invited to a special, free screening of the film in Walt Disney Studios Park‘s CinéMagique theatre!

As has become the norm for every big animated Disney release, the park’s Disney Studio 2 will opens its doors after-hours for a private screening of the new film. The Annual Passport Dream showing takes place on 25th August 2007, though no doubt this will come as news to almost every passholder unless they’ve stopped by the Bureau Passeport Annuel recently and spotted the form. Apparently you’re not alone if you never received any notification via email or through the post.

Registration closes on 6th August, so if you’d like to fill one of the limited spaces available for the single screening (the theatre’s capacity is 1,100), you’d better… well, we’re not sure. They don’t seem to want anyone to go. The only spotting of the registration form is thanks to a member on Disney Central Plaza.

More successful, as always, is the Shareholders Club. Here you’ll find a proper online sign-up (click here) ready and waiting for your membership details and seat reservation for one of two screenings — Saturday 8th September 2007 or Sunday 9th September 2007, both beginning at 7pm. However, unlike several film screenings in the past, Ratatouille will be presented exclusively in French.

“We invite you to improve your French thanks to a screening in French version only (without any subtitles),” they boast. Well then, throw away your phrasebook!

Ratatouille is now showing in cinemas across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria since today. After a little time to mature, the fine French delicacy à la Pixar will arrive in Germany on 3rd October and the UK on 12th October.

Images © Disney/Pixar; by Photos Magiques and by Minnie Mouse on DCP.

At the foot of the boulevard, Paris’ versions of ‘Off the Page‘ and ‘Gone Hollywood‘ are still in almost the same state they’ve been for weeks, only Gone Hollywood appears to have received a few more vertical steel pieces to its busy frame. As we begin to see the changes and enhancements to the prefab version of Sweet Success further below, who knows what changes await for these façades…

The word “prefab” usually has ever so slightly negative connotations. But, after seeing the Imagineers work their magic with the process, maybe we should think again. From a bare steel frame to a bare steel frame covered in cardboard-thin dry wall, the tower on the far left of the development has suddenly started to become a real, historic Hollywood landmark.

Begun by the pale brown dome, to contrast with the deep turquoise domes of the Tower behind, the movie set is fast become a building, piece-by-piece. Each section of detailed sculpting, window edging and brickwork has been slotted into place and nailed into position like an insanely elaborate IKEA flatpack. Let’s not even begin to imagine the size of that instruction manual…

Currenly going in are undulating borders around the very top of the building, and the immensely detailed coat of arms sculptings along the top of its facade are now making their way onto the side walls. With its zig-zag edging and luxurious prefab detail, it looks as if the Imagineers were helping themselves to a fine French gateux when they re-Imagineered their 1989 original with extra frosting.

The two buildings are certainly very similar, with the same sculptings and windows, but now that the Parisian version has taken another leap forward, the real difference in design is apparent. The detailing around the top of Paris’ version is only used above the shop windows of Disney-MGM’s candy store, the wavy edging is nowhere to be seen, the Dome replaces a dull square roof and further differences can just be seen in the way the “stonework” either side of the main window is coming along.

Just as those who expected a carbon copy of California’s Tower of Terror to arrive in Paris have been partially hushed, anyone presuming photocopies of landmarks from Disney’s Californian and Floridian Hollywood Boulevards will also be surprised at the change. Walt Disney Studios Park may be expanding on a strict budget, but those Imagineers can still work in a bit of extra magic.

Finally, Maarten – who we must thank again for another great photo update – has captured two photos from an angle which doesn’t appear to have been posted online yet. These two pictures are from between Disney Studio 1 and CinéMagique, close to the parade route, looking straight along the row of buildings which will soon become icons of the whole park.

The proximity to the parade route of the Sweet Success building is surprising, and the height of the developments continues to deceive the eye from certain angles. One look at a construction worker atop the third floor of Disney’s California Adventure’s ‘La Brea Carpets‘ reminds us that these may be fictional, false facades, but their vast size is very real.

The way these sets should enclose guests within a themed environment is exciting to see for the Studios, and of course this leaves us to end with a pun you all saw coming – Hollywood Boulevard should be a Sweet Success indeed.

Latest photos provided by Maarten. Sweet Success photo from DisneyPix.com.

If the inane amount of times “brand new” was mentioned in that introduction didn’t annoy you enough, then get this – that’s it. Those are the August 2007 releases. Yep, we spoiled the surprise. Oh, and there won’t be a Pin Trading Night this month.

Wednesday 1st August 2007

Ratatouille
Reference number: 209401007122
Price: 6.00 Euros

Saturday 4th August 2007

Retrospective 1997 (LE)
Reference number 209401007043
Limited Edition 900 ex.
Price 10.90 Euros

Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade series #5 – Dreams of Power (LE)
Reference number: 209401007015
Limited Edition: 900 ex.
Price: 10.90 Euros

Why no Pin Trading Night? Why so few releases all at the very beginning of the month?

Here’s why – this month will see a major Pin Trading Day on Saturday 25th August 2007.

The first guests entering the park receive a special board and an exclusive Limited Edition pin for free, and can then pick up more at various locations around the park to complete the collection – if a cut-throat mob of eBay sellers hasn’t trampled you to the floor first, of course.

Pin Trading Day

at Disneyland Park
on Saturday 25th August 2007
from 10.00am

Come and enjoy a full day of Pin Trading in Disneyland Resort Paris!

On 25th August 2007 at Disneyland Park, a free pin on a board to complete will be offered to the first Guests who arrive in the morning. Take the opportunity to start your collection now!

Come and meet our international Pin Collectors, and get the exclusive Limited Edition pins only available on the day!

If you’re visiting and use Extra Magic Hours on this day, remember to head back down Main Street just before 10am to look for the Cast Members giving away the cardboard holders and free pin.