News Disneyland Paris Updates & Features

So far only released in a small resolution on the official travel marketing tools website Extraordinet, the visuals mainly use elements of the movie posters for Finding Nemo and Cars, with the Cars Race Rally image appearing as little more than a slightly photoshopped version of its one-sheet.

The Crush’s Coaster image, on the other hand, is more original but perhaps confusing to those unfamiliar with the new family spinning coaster and dark ride. The visual shows a winding U-shaped track similar to that of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, rather than the flatter design of the actual Maurer Söhne track. The corkscrew nature of the track, covered in quickly duplicated images of characters from the film, could also hint at inversions and a higher thrill level than the actual attraction. Despite this, the visual is fresh and colourful and, along with its Cars Race Rally friend, will likely do good work for the resort in advertising these two exciting attractions.

Both visuals feature the classic Disneyland Resort Paris logo (rather than the new 15th Anniversary version) on signposts themed to a harbour sign and billboard respectively. Strangely, they also both feature the castle, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, rather than the Earful Tower landmark of Walt Disney Studios.

The large black space in the Cars Race Rally visual hints at either a lack of creativity or a pre-designated space for the attraction logo. Indeed, after quickly adding logos to the two visuals they immediately become far more balanced and rather attention-grabbing…

Fans of Dory, the legendary Blue Regal Tang from Finding Nemo, should perhaps not smile too soon, though. After a total non-appearance in every single piece of concept art for the attraction, she has also failed to appear in this visual. Her popularity is so strong that, if she is featured in the attraction, you’d think they’d use her heavily on the advertisement too, right?

Disneyland Resort Paris are certainly not just looking for parade dancers for their 15th Anniversary extravaganza, set to be a veritable circus of animation and entertainment, with the advertisement calling upon bungee acrobats, jugglers, flag artists, puppeteers and stilt walkers. The two casting calls are scheduled for Lyon and Montpellier on the 21st and 23rd September 2006 respectively, with the listing informing participants they should plan for the day with casual (sports) clothing, sneakers and a possible call-back in the afternoon. As usual, the casting has a height requirement of between 142cm and 193cm.

Rumours suggest the parade will only feature around 50 dancers (around 20-30 fewer than current parades in high season), since the balance will be shifted more towards character performers for the new parade. The silhouettes of the parade floats confirm most of what has already been rumoured about the design of the floats – here’s a full run-through of everything we can see:

Float 1: Dream of Imagination
We’ve seen this one aleady… Mickey and Minnie ride high above the clouds in a sun-stylled hot air balloon. You can see the full concept artwork here.
Float 2: Dream of Fun and Laughter
A traditional fairytale hut is featured at the centre of the float, used by Alice in Wonderland first and then Pinocchio at the rear. The Pinocchio section appears to feature “marionnette” bungee artists similar to those in Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams at Disneyland California, bouncing on bungee ropes from supports high above.

Float 3: Dream of Friendship
Features Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh characters, with a giant storybook in the middle separating the two themes. The rear section appears to feature Winnie and friends, with lamps hanging on strings, whilst the front section isn’t too clear…

Float 4: Dream of Fantasy
The most obvious of all the designs, this very British float will feature a whimsically stylled Big Ben tower in the centre, with Peter Pan’s pirate ship at the front and Mary Poppins’ “jolly holiday” carousel and a fleet of kites at the rear. An interesting change of theme for Mary after the current chimneysweep theme, since the Disney Cinema Parade also currently uses the carousel theme.

Float 5: Dream of Power
The villains’ float isn’t too clear, but you can clearly see Fantasia villain Chernabog towering over it all and a serpent Jafar slithering along at the front.
Float 6: Dream of Adventure
Serving The Lion King and The Jungle Book, this one is bound to be popular. A giant tree towers out of the middle, with Simba on Pride Rock before it and Kong Louie and Baloo behind. You can see various animals from both films in the tree, including monkeys and giraffes. Rafiki is clinging to the tree behind Pride Rock and Timon and Pumbaa are likely featured below.

Float 7: Dream of Romance (Part 1)
The most difficult of all the artworks, float 7 is due to feature The Little Mermaid and Aladdin and Jasmine in an “enchanted garden” setting. Ariel seems to be featured at the rear, with Jasmine further forward.

Float 8: Dream of Romance (Part 2)
The grand finale to the entire parade, this float looks suitably huge and is due to feature not two but four princesses! The initial gazebo is likely for Beauty and the Beast, whilst the ornate fairytale bride is occupied by Snow White and her prince. On the hill before the giant castle stands Cinderella and Prince Charming. No sign of Sleeping Beauty yet, but the rumours of this float being articulated (split into two free-moving, joined sections) look to be quite possible.

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With a double-character style similar to Walt Disney World’s Share a Dream Come True and an extravagant, classical float design similar to Disneyland’s 50th anniversary Parade of Dreams, the first all-new daytime parade in Paris for 5 years looks set to truly be a dream come true. You can find out more about the parade here.

Advertisement scanned by Sébastien Antunes for dlrp.fr.

The unique series has seen Stitch invade locations across the resort on special Limited Edition pins, and will come to an end with the 13th pin on this special Saturday. Also, for the first time in many years, shuttle buses will be running to Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch for those without their own transport! Here is the full announcement:

Dear All,

Come and discover the final pin in the Stitch Invasion series at Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch®

Saturday September 30th, 2006 from 2:00 pm onwards

En avant première : Stitch Invasion Pin N° 13 , 2007 Pin, Tinkerbell Autumn Pin , and the latest JUMBO Pin from Disneyland® Resort Paris.

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A discount of 30% will be offered for the reservation of a bungalow at Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch® on this occasion * , including a special Barbecue offer at the Crockett’s Tavern restaurant in the Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch®, (special offer limited to 4 persons and only valid for the arrival night, drinks not included. An additional Room Tax charge of 0.40€ will be applied to each additional person. Additional Guests may choose from the menu at Crockett’s Tavern (standard rates apply).

Special shuttle buses will be available from Marne la Vallée Chessy Train Station at 1.00pm and 1.45pm and from Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch® at 6.15pm and 7.00pm on Saturday September 30th.

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Reservations : 00.33.825.306.030.

*Available only for the night from Sept 29th to Sept 30th and/or from Sept 30th to Oct 1st 2006.

See you soon,
The Pin Trading Team

The alternate logo takes the newer resort logo design from the original 15th anniversary design, with the sans-serif “Resort Paris” and bold weighted “Paris”, and matches this simply with the specially-styled “15” and three stars. The original logo design (presented below), was far more graphical and complete, showing an illustration of the castle and tinkerbell, with the text on a banner. This new, supplementary logo is therefore a more linear alternative for occasions when the original logo is too bulky to be effective.

It is fairly unusual for the resort to produce two logos for the same event as different as these, showing they know in their market the easier you make it for people to advertise your product, the more advertising you get. And, with a year as important as 2007, they’ll need all the help they can get.

No no – don’t worry, this is really just the latest creation in the long Disneyland Resort Paris tradition of year-specific merchandise, as reported in Joel’s latest Photo Hunt update. Each year, the resort creates a new character-based logo to use on all kinds of merchandise – from photo frames and photo albums to keychains and calendars. This year, the numbers of the year have taken on the appearances of Goofy, Minnie, Donald and Mickey, with legs, ears, bows or hats to distinguish the famous hidden characters. In the background, the recently introduced drawing image of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant and Front Lot has been used.

Interestingly, there is no mention of the 15th Anniversary on next year’s merchandise, meaning that, if 15th Anniversary merchandise is created, it will be as an additional line to the 2007 (and later 2008) items.

Marne-la-Vallée … 23 August 2006 – With this press release, the Management of Euro Disney Associés S.C.A. intends to make its position clear regarding the recent strike of some Resort photographers that began on 13th August 2006.

After having met and discussed with the striking employees on August 2nd, 10th, 14th and 18th and having listened carefully to their demands, Management would like to go over advantages recently gained by the photographers concerning the organization of their shifts, working conditions, career advancement and pay. For example, in terms of organization, the supervisory structure has been reinforced and photo sales promotion is part of a voluntary program for the photographers. Shifts have also been adapted to take into account the constraints of this activity, especially concerning weather conditions.

In addition, a new work area, new equipment and training sessions have been supplied to the employees.

Concerning career advancement and pay … the central point of the movement … Management has already begun to implement a program to recognize the professional qualifications of the photographers which reinforces the professional development plan already in place. In 2006, promotions were given (+10%) and a market study was performed on the positioning of our pay standards.

The result of this study confirmed that the wages we pay are in alignment with the market, especially when one considers that Disneyland Resort Paris offers stable employment in permanent contracts. Employees work a 35-hour workweek, are paid on a 13-month scale (after one year of seniority) and receive an additional 10% of their pay as compensation for the cessation of the copyrights to their photos. The average monthly salary for photographers at Disneyland Resort Paris (not including author’s rights compensation) is 7% higher than the French minimum wage prescribed on 1st July 2006.

Considering all of these elements, Management does not intend to take into account these new demands by the striking employees, as a number of them have already been covered through the measures described above and that show the level of recognition that the Management of Disneyland Resort Paris has given to the statute of its photographers.

– – – End Release – – –

So, it seems Euro Disney Associés SCA aren’t keen to bestow the photographic team with any more advantages and pay increases just yet, instead attempting to get them to smile (or “say cheese”) with this list of recent improvements to their jobs. You can see some photos of their strike efforts – both in and out of the parks – here.

Your thoughts?

Saturday, 9th September 2006

Princesses 4 Pin Set
SKU: 209401006042
Price: 18.00 Euros

Saturday, 16th September 2006

Pirates Pin Trading Starter Kit
SKU: 209411006006
Price: 19.90 Euros

Stitch Invasion 12 LE pin
Limited Edition: x1200
SKU: 209401006061
Price: 10.50 Euros

Happy trading!

Whilst this area is still behind construction fences, work has now shifted up a good few gears and a full timeline of the current project has been revealed, as Animation Courtyard is about to be engulfed in blue construction walls to make its transition to Toon Studio.

The work schedule for the next few months was revealed on Disney Central Plaza forum by the reliable La Rouquine, and suggests that a large part of the work on this “place-making” project will infact be complete by the end of 2006. Work starts this week at the entrance of Art of Disney Animation, then from mid-October to mid-November work will continue around the entrance of the land whilst the new Sorcerer Mickey entrance statue is installed. Next, construction fences will move to the entrance of Animagique and the exit of Art of Disney Animation. Finally, work will move to the area between the Art of Disney Animation exit and Cars Race Rally, in preparation for the opening of the new area of the land.

Indeed, this schedule has been put into action already. As if by magic yesterday, construction walls appeared in a circle to the right of the Art of Disney Animation entrance. The walls only cover a small amount of the outside wall of the attraction, and sit between the entrance doors and the Sorcerer’s Hat.

The new Sorcerer Mickey statue on the opposite side of the path will reportedly feature a spark of magic arcing out from Mickey’s pointed finger and curving over the entrance to the land, where it will break to allow tall parade units to pass, before ending on the other side with a downward arc. The entire land is also due to receive new, bright paving, redesigned planting areas, more trees and possibly even a fountain, all with the aim of better defining the whimsical animation theme of the area.