News / Disney Dreams!

Do what frozen things do in summer. If your name’s Anna, Elsa, Olaf or Kristoff, that means a long summer holiday at Disneyland Paris, starting now. Frozen Summer Fun officially launched this week at Disneyland Park, bringing a modest but very welcome and well-executed selection of Frozen-themed treats from 1st June to 13th September 2015.

This is your complete guide to all the new events, combining the first photos and videos, tweets from the preview weekend and a little commentary analysis… Read More…

On the day Walt Disney Animation Studios announces that Frozen 2 is really happening, Disneyland Paris has revealed more details of its upcoming Frozen Summer Fun season in a particularly informative press release.

Due to ice-over Disneyland Park just as soon as Swing into Spring comes to a close, the season from 1st June to 13th September 2015 is the first time the resort has truly “celebrated” summer, albeit in an unusually cold way. Read More…

You wait for one new Disney princess meet ‘n’ greet and then two come at once. Alongside Anna and Elsa from Frozen, making their first appearance at Disneyland Paris outside of the daily parade, the upcoming Disney’s Enchanted Christmas season will also see the premiere of fiery-haired Merida from Pixar’s Brave, whom many assumed had been passed over by the Parisian resort. Read More…

Over the years we’ve seen countless Disneyland Paris trailers cut from the vast archive of footage covering the resort’s attractions, but this one might just be the best.

Simply titled “Disneyland Paris – Faire vivre la magie pour nos visiteurs”, the video appeared without fanfare on the resort’s YouTube channel on Tuesday 3rd June. Running at just 2 minutes 14 seconds, it probably does a better job of selling the destination than any single one of the account’s other 581 videos.

Much of, if not all, the footage is recycled and not filmed especially for the trailer, some of it dating back decades and some of it — such as the swooping fly-over of Disney Magic on Parade! — relatively new.

Footage of the resort’s Cast Members and artisans putting finishing touches to the “magic” begins the video, before it’s all shown in action. It ends, of course, with the official footage from Disney Dreams!, which never fails to impress.

Music is “Fly High (Trailer Music)” from The Amazing Hero: Caped Avengers Fanfares.

Place a Disneyland Paris logo and a call to action at the end and it’d make a perfect trailer for wider release — especially in cinemas, as @CafeFantasia suggested.

It’s certainly a world apart from the Disneyland Paris commercial currently gracing TV screens.

Named “Magical Answers”, this 30-second spot (below) follows three children discovering they can, amazingly, actually have fun at Disneyland; with an odd and almost disturbing tone of cynicism about the world around them, given their ages.

Normally, the narrative in commercials and newspaper articles is of a cynical adult realising they too can enjoy a Disney theme park; this advert however shows us a mournful young boy sitting alone in a plush mansion, looking skeptically into the eyes of a Buzz Lightyear action figure, before saluting the real thing — still bizarrely on his own.

Continuing the trend of advertising only to this specific bracket of families with very young children, it all feels oddly sombre and pessimistic, and features precisely three seconds of footage of an actual attraction. Filmed at Disneyland in California, the French Sleeping Beauty Castle was simply spliced into the shots.

It’s enough to put a vast swathe of the audience off wanting to visit Disneyland Paris altogether. Let’s hope those potential visitors at least make it as far as the resort’s YouTube, and watch the fantastic new trailer above instead.

VIA Disneyland Paris (YouTube)

This month’s Disneyland Paris Pin Trading releases have an infestation of — you guessed it — rats. Beginning on 21st June with an “In 1 Month” pin, the tie-ins for Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy continue with three more open edition pins, a booster set and a lanyard on 28th June ahead of the 10th July opening.

There’s also the traditional Summer pin featuring The Little Mermaid, another new Disney Dreams! open edition, a limited Lady and the Tramp “Paris” dangler and a new entry in the now brilliantly huge “Attractions” series for Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains.

Since last month’s releases were missed, see below for a May 2014 catch-up! Read More…

Such surprise, relief and excitement when, for the first time in forever, Disneyland Paris was right on the Disney movie schedule ball in featuring Frozen so heavily during the last Disney’s Enchanted Christmas, a perfect match for the season.

A landmark spot in Disney Dreams! of Christmas and a new redecorated float with Anna and Elsa in Disney Magic on Parade! were the talk of the season, appearing even before the film’s release. It felt like the old days of the ’90s, when Disney’s latest animation releases from Aladdin to Hunchback and beyond were always featured in the park through their year of release.

Fast forward to the thawing days of March, Frozen has just achieved an incredible double: two Academy Awards, for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song, and — no doubt even better to Disney’s eyes — passing the heralded $1bn worldwide box office total.

Frozen in Disney Dreams! of Christmas

Back at Disneyland Paris meanwhile, Disney Dreams! has reverted to its regular self — with new scenes The Lion King and Brave added last year.

Anna and Elsa still appear on their Disney Magic on Parade! float, shared with similar Walt Disney Animation Studios successes Rapunzel and Flynn, but they’ve still yet to step down from that float to actually meet and greet their increasingly adoring public.

That means, for all the hundreds of thousands of guests visiting the park during Frozen‘s finest hour, their one and only chance of getting a glimpse or even a photo of these new heroines is a blink-and-you’ll miss it appearance during the parade.

And would anyone thinking about visiting even know they’re there? The parade’s page on the official website, for example, doesn’t feature any photos of them or, err, any actual text whatsoever. There’s nothing official anywhere to actually tell people they’re there.

In classic style, they’ve seized an opportunity yet completely missed it at the same time.

Anna, Elsa & Olaf in Disney Magic on Parade!

Disneyland Paris is constantly trying to create a pressing, immediate intent for people to visit. A reason why people, who’ve often thought about visiting but hesitated — until their kids are older, until *ahem* a new attraction date is announced — would finally get up and go.

Given the astounding success of Frozen and “Let It Go”, the sheer number of people who must have seen and loved this brand new Disney tale, could this not be a good enough reason?

Doesn’t that parade appearance deserve promoting? Don’t Anna and Elsa deserve an actual meet ‘n’ greet? Wouldn’t it be a fantastic draw to bring the Christmas “Let It Go” scene (or a new scene) to the regular Disney Dreams! show, if only for this year?

When there’s an opportunity like this, don’t let it go…

PHOTOS Photos Magiques

This month’s Pin Trading releases include two more Disney Dreams! pins, two Eiffel Tower pins and another art nouveau Paris pin. Meanwhile in March 2014, Scrooge McDuck finds a pot of gold at the end of the St Patrick’s Day rainbow, Rapunzel represents Printemps (Spring) 2014 and Minnie Mouse gets a touch of Parisian avant-garde with a new “Oh La La” set.

Which ones would you like to add to your collection?

ORIGINAL PDF Disneyland Paris Pin Trading March 2014

This month’s Pin Trading releases include two more Disney Dreams! pins, two Eiffel Tower pins and another art nouveau Paris pin. Meanwhile in March 2014, Scrooge McDuck finds a pot of gold at the end of the St Patrick’s Day rainbow, Rapunzel represents Printemps (Spring) 2014 and Minnie Mouse gets a touch of Parisian avant-garde with a new “Oh La La” set.

Which ones would you like to add to your collection?

ORIGINAL PDF Disneyland Paris Pin Trading March 2014