Friday, 1st June 2007

Once Upon a Dream for Christmas and Halloween

The special collector’s issue of the quarterly magazine features a double-page spread of an exclusive interview with Francois Leroux, Vice President of Entertainment for Disneyland Resort Paris.

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Whilst the questions are largely geared towards introducing shareholders to the unique entertainment Francois and his team have developed for the Anniversary year, the second-to-last question is one that has been on fans’ lips for countless months already…

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“During the year of festivities, how many Parades will we have during the Halloween and Christmas seasons?”

Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade will be presented throughout the year of the 15th Anniversary festivities. The Disney Villains will surely try to disrupt it at Halloween. Christmas will follow in naturally at the end of the parade to add still more magic.

The answer provides confirmation for the very first time that not only will Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade continue right through Halloween and Christmas, but there will be NO major dedicated parade for Halloween or Christmas, in the style of Disney Villain Parade or The Christmas Parade of recent years. This has been rumoured for some time, since the floats of these parades — redecorated from The Wonderful World of Disney Parade — have now mostly been taken out of service, and will never return.

Therefore, this Halloween we can expect a “Once Upon a Dream” with a touch of mischeif (likely a pre-parade segment in the style of last year’s Stitch Cavalcade), and this Christmas will bring an extra Christmas dream to the parade — will it be Santa Claus’ sleigh at the end of the parade, or something new?

All we have for now are dreams…

Saturday, 14th April 2007

(Video) Dreams of Power takes control

The official “first day” performance of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade. The sun was shining, crowds were eager and characters putting on their very best performance. “Once upon a dream”, it truly was…

But then, they arrived. The park forever warns during Disney’s Halloween Festival not to trust a Disney Villain, and, now that Disney’s most vicious cast of characters have their very own float year-round for the first time, it seems we need to keep a watchful eye on this motley gang…

As the final burst of the parade’s show stop music came to an end and Ursula cackled her final “Just Like We Dreamed It!”, each of the floats’ individual scores started up again. Maleficent scowled at the audience… but failed to move. As worried glances spread across the parade control Cast Members and the characters continued on with their performances, the parade – from float 5: Dreams of Power onwards at least – remained at a stand still. Memories of a performance during the previous week’s rehearsal runs – when the float ceased movement for a short time at the exact same spot – will have sprung to mind for everyone involved.

A good five to ten minutes on and music is suddenly cut from the float, with extra crew rushing in along the parade route to check on the troubled float. Watching from the sidelines, coincidentally, was the Fairy Godmother. No, she didn’t cast a spell to end the villains’ nightmare, she was attempting to take a break from her role at L’Auberge du Cendrillon‘s new princess dining, before getting caught up in the chaos and having to “shoo” away Ursula’s slimy green sea creatures.

Whilst the Evil Queen from Snow White (a character almost never seen at Disneyland Resort Paris before this parade) looked entirely unimpressed with her problematic float, the undefeated Maleficent continued to whirl and whip her hugely acclaimed new firey costume for the entire time.

The audience watching at Royal Castle Stage, where the incident occured, were surprisingly patient considering the long wait and warm sun above, with very few deciding to move on to other attractions. Either the audience had a lot of faith in Disney’s showmanship, or the tantalising glimpse at the colours of Dreams of Adventure just around the corner kept them hooked.

Just as parade control decided to switch performers in front of each float, to give the audience some variety to what they were watching, a sudden flurry of radio messages and a reappearance of technical crew from behind the float saw it spring back into action, met with a round of applause from everyone watching. But, alas, this wasn’t the end of the parade’s problems, with the final Dreams of Romance (Part 2) float performing in complete silence – without any music – for the entire run.

Our exclusive video clips from the unfortunate first-day performance of the park’s new parade begin toward the end of the problems, including the re-start of the float itself.

With each float having it’s own computer to control music and the exact position of the show stops, it seems that whilst the dreams themselves may be full of magic, talent and wonderful artistry… technology may not always be on their side. Not least when a Disney Villain is involved.

Sunday, 8th April 2007

(Video) Once upon a dream/nightmare premiere

With the 15th Anniversary Pre-Parade and Andie MacDowell’s launch ceremony moved on, Mickey & friends departed to prepare and the press lined up on their viewing platform, the time had come. The grand premiere of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade was about to begin! The weather was far from a dream – cloudy skies and increasing rainfall – but for the cast, crew and creators of the park’s first new daytime parade in over five years, their dream was about to finally, officially begin.

Music perfectly synchronised, cast giving their best performance and floats littered with fully-working effects and details… the view of the parade travelling down Main Street USA was apparently “perfection”.

Of course, we’ll probably never see the full collection of photos from this premiere – no, cloudy skies are a definite no-no for Disney, especially when they’ve other, sunnier days in the calendar to capture the new parade. The three photos above are the only ones officially released, with the fourth part of a larger set from earlier in the week – noticable since the Dreams of Imagination float is missing key details such as its anchor and stars.

And now, we turn another page…

The music sure was perfect for the press, but at a cost. Since the individual float scores and computerised show stops add up to one of the most complicated and hard-to-align parade soundtracks the park has ever attempted, and – perhaps more importantly – the press’ location between Town Square and the body of Main Street is the bridge between two “sections” of the parade route’s usual audio system, the entire parade used just one single synchronisation. So, whilst Dreams of Imagination pulled into view of the press and they heard the opening announcement, so too did normal guests in Fantasyland, at that moment enjoying Float 7 – Dreams of Adventure.

For anyone North of Town Square, no pre-parade announcement or song was heard, the floats simply trundled into view with their respective soundtracks playing only from the on-float speakers. Then, as the entire sound system cut to join up with Town Square, a silence of around two minutes fell upon the entire cavalcade, before the pre-parade song of “Just Like We Dreamed It” took over the loop.

It wasn’t only guests who rightly appeared confused at the muddled soundtrack – the parade’s cast also had a hard time keeping up with what was going on, such as the Green Army Men (in our video below), who first appear to ask the parade control Cast Member what was happening before giving up on their choreography (timed to the usual Toy Story music from their float) and simply waving to the crowds. With the break for the pre-parade song and announcement over, the float soundtracks finally began again and the parade and its cast could continue as normal.

The video also includes footage of the two show stops around Town Square. Even though music was perfect for the show the press was seeing unfold, it once again caused problems for anyone watching beyond this point, with Dreams of Imagination serenaded by Peter Pan music and Dreams of Fantasy met with dreamy princess music. But, despite this, the parade ended on a high and was met with great response from guests – a relief considering the increasing downpour they had to endure.

Watch out in particular for the fantastic choreography of the Peter Pan show stop, with the flag artists throwing their flags into the air and across the parade route to each other, all the while with Peter and Wendy running from Hook in perfect time to “Just Like We Dreamed It”. Once again, the cast made the once upon a dream.


Blue and yellow volunteers look out for the parade, rain-rain-rain pours down-down-down on the exposed press platform as the resort’s crane camera towers overhead.


Dreams pass by without a problem, all met with great cheers from the volunteers.


Peter Pan and the pirate captain shrug their shoulders as Dreams of Fantasy comes to a halt, improvising with a pirate jig before “Just Like We Dreamed It” begins and they realise it’s a second, unscheduled show stop.


The hot-tempered Dreams of Power luckily decides not to throw a tantrum today (unlike the following day), as the Dreams continue and rain gets heavier.


Tropical rainstorm dampens the dreams.


At least the rain is good for the spring flowers!


The gate closes on the grand premiere and the blue and yellow volunteers traverse Main Street creating another memorable spectacle, in reverse.


Meanwhile, as the floats are dried off and the dancers wrung out like a wet towel, the cleaners are kept more than busy with the debris of the launch ceremony and two streamer-filled show stops on Main Street.

Saturday, 7th April 2007

15th Anniversary Launch Ceremony with Andie MacDowell

The ceremony on Main Street began with the letters of the new Alpha Bet You Are street performers wandering and interweaving down the street, before forming the word “Disneyland” at Town Square. The mayor from the morning opening ceremony returned to introduce the spectacle, introducing each letter as it twirled and bowed for the frantic cameras on the press platform.

As the 15th Anniversary Pre-Parade, with its marching band, special anniversary float and hundreds of volunteers rolled into view, the letters moved to one side and the entire cavalcade came to a highly choreographed stop, providing the press with a perfect view along Main Street. With everyone in place, the mayor next introduced the host of the event – Arnauld Gayet, one of the two Disneyland Resort Paris ambassadors for 2007.

Stepping up onto Mickey’s special anniversary float (the redecorated Snow White float from Disney Princess Parade), Arnauld announced in both French and English, “Hello everyone! I am very happy to welcome you all here today to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Please, give a very warm welcome to our special guest – Miss Andie MacDowell!”

Andie MacDowell, famous American actress from such early nineties blockbuster hits as Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and a Funeral then joined Arnauld on the float as the marching band played, to launch the anniversary and introduce the new parade premiering in just a few minutes. “I am very happy to be here,” she announced in French and English, before apologising for her language skills – “Please forgive me, because my French is horrible and it’s such a beautiful, beautiful language. I’m really happy to be here and I’m going to try with some really bad French, but I want to tell you that my kids and I love Disney and we’re going to be here with you enjoying the park – so if you run into me please say hello, I’m not afraid of being spoken to! So if you see me, say hello!”

Andie continued, “Ok, so here’s my bad French,” before describing how being at the park was a dream come true and that “it’s a small world” was the favourite attraction of her and her children, with several pauses to apologise for language and a final apology of “Sorry it’s not sunny!”

The choice of Andie to host the launch was interesting – not just because of her rather hestitant French, but also since she almost appears as a symbol of the early 1990s – just when Euro Disney first opened its gates. As the “godmother” of our anniversary, she could almost be to Paris what the 1950s/60s-associated image of Julie Andrews was to Disneyland California’s 50th.

Arnauld next handed over to Mickey Mouse himself, “As Walt Disney once said, it all started with a mouse… so Mickey, what’s next?”. Mickey began in his usual lively tone “Hi everybody! Bonjour! Gee, I just love a celebration! And look who’s with me today, a very special guest – Ashley!”. The special guest, a young girl wearing a white fairytale dress similar to that of the girl in the resort’s TV commercials for the anniversary, then climbed up to the top of the float and slid down its special red carpet slide to join Arnauld, Mickey and Andie. Mickey announced “And now, who better than a child to tell us all about dreams, wishes and storytelling?” with Arnauld translating in French.

Andie stepped forward and asked, “Bonjour Ashley, now I’m going to ask you a very important question – how does every fairytale begin?”, then in much improved French (the actress had obviously practiced this line), “Quelle est la phrase qui commence tous les fées?”. With a confident and punchy answer, Ashley replied – “Il était un fois, once upon a time – or – once upon a dream!” as Arnauld continued “Yes Ashley, it’s just like you dreamed it!” before reminding Mickey that it was time for him and his Disney friends around the float to get ready for their big entrance in Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade.

With Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy and Chip n Dale running off to the Discovery Arcade exit, the marching band played a final medley of “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” and everything was ready for the final countdown to the big fifteen. As a sense of anticipation filled the air, Andie and Arnauld kicked off the countdown, as the 500 volunteers and Cast Members in blue and yellow coats let off their balloons year-by-year with Ashley counting up the numbers from one to fifteen.

As the count hit fifteen and the sky was filled with balloons, the soaring music of the television commercials and Candleabration – from Universal’s Peter Pan live-action film – filled Main Street and the giant balloons atop the roofs of the turn-of-the-century buildings exploded one-by-one, launching a mist of golden confetti across the street.

Then, once again led by perfect showman Arnauld, the cast and crowd joined together for a rousing rendition of “Joyeux Anniversaire / Happy birthday to you”, sung in perfect Disneyland Resort Paris style – French and English combined. Arnauld announced “And now, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Disneyland Resort Paris, we are proud to present in just a few minutes… Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade!”, and the opening lyrics of “Just Like We Dreamed It” began.

The blue and yellow-dressed volunteers walked around to their reserved spot outside Main Street Transportation, continuing to smile and wave to the crowds in a jubilant atmosphere, whilst a special second pre-parade of colourful characters filled the street, as everyone waited in anticipation of the brand new parade…

Photos by Photos Magiques or © Disney.

Saturday, 7th April 2007

(Video) 15th Anniversary Pre-Parade

The time: 14:45. The place: Disneyland Park parade route. The spectacle: spectacular! Whilst the clouds above grew thicker and rain began to pour down, Disneyland Resort Paris had the perfect treatment to lift spirits – and get the 15th Anniversary launch off to an unforgettable start.

As the clock hit quarter-to and the sence of anticipation along the parade route grew stronger, the sound of live music suddenly began in the distance and a classic Disneyland-esque marching band strolled into view. Dressed all in red, white and gold, the marching band has long been a Disneyland tradition – although the last memorable performance in Paris was perhaps as long ago as the 5th Anniversary pre-parade of 1997.

Playing jazzed-up Disney melodies such as the “Mickey Mouse March” and “Under the Sea”, they led the way for the Fab 5’s special anniversary float – the redecorated Snow White unit from Disney Princess Parade, retired just one week earlier. The characters wore their blue “Year of a Million Dreams” and Candleabration costumes, dancing around the red carpet slide at the centre of the float, which had also been decorated in large blue plaques featuring the new resort logo.

After the float – a sea of blue and yellow! Disney Cast Members from across the park joined together with Disney VoluntEARS from across the region to help parade hundreds of white, yellow and blue ballons with fifteen larger balloons – counting up the numbers from 1 to 15. Everyone involved got blue hats, yellow scarves and a special blue raincoat decorated with the two anniversary logos.

The pre-parade marched all the way to Main Street USA, in front of the press podium, where it met Andie MacDowell and resort ambassador Arnauld Gayet for the grand launch ceremony.

Photos 1-5 by Photos Magiques.

Friday, 6th April 2007

Just Like We Dreamed It – the CD Single

Come a little closer, step into the wonder of everything that’s waiting for you, through those 15th Anniversary-themed doors of the Main Street boutiques…

Well, a new CD Single, at least! The first release of new, never-before-available music in over 15 months, infact. Featuring simply the standard version of the Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade and Candleabration song, ‘Just Like We Dreamed It’, along with an instrumental version, the CD is priced at the standard 5,50€ and presented in a pastel and navy blue cardboard sleeve with the “15 Magical Years” merchandise logo and illustrations of Mickey and Lumière.

The back cover features full lyrics, but also credits for the song. So, for the first time, we can learn that not only was the music executive produced (as expected) by the resort’s musical director Vasile Sirli, but also by well-known Disney theme parks musician Bruce Healey, most famous for his work on Disney’s Fantillusion.

We also learn that the vocals on the song were recorded by Renee Sandstrom and Ruben Martinez and, of course, the first thing to do here is a quick google of those names… Could either of them beat the “fun fact” power of Dancin’ (A Catchy Rhythm)‘s Joey Diggs being most famous for the “Always Coca-Cola” song?

Whilst Ruben Martinez is hard to source, only popping up on a handful of Disney remix CDs such as Mickey’s Dance Party, Renee Sandstrom (better known as Renee Sands) seems to be quite the cult star. A singer from a young age, she has cult status for starring as a young girl on the late 1980s MGM show “Kids Incorporated”, which it seems was picked up by The Disney Channel after its first season. Wikipedia introduces it by describing “The series revolved around a group of children and teenagers who performed in their own rock group, Kids Incorporated.”

And now, the voices of both singers – both with previous Disney connections – can be heard several times daily in Disneyland Park, as well as countless homes across Europe and the world, thanks to this CD!

So is this it for 15th Anniversary music releases? Certainly not! Another interesting detail on the CD is that it carries the catalogue number EDDA036-2, whilst the last CD release, a re-release of the Disney’s Fantillusion Parade CD, carried the number EDDA034-2, leaving a gap in the line and hinting towards another CD yet to come. Another sneaky hint is the shiny sticker on the plastic wrap of the new CD, proclaiming “15 Magical Years in Music”. For the resort to produce a special sticker just for this CD is unlikely, and whilst this CD features brand new music, the sticker appears to hint towards a release featuring music from throughout the fifteen years.

Perhaps those whispers of a special album, or even double album are getting a bit louder, then. We’d better keep our eyes (and ears) open…

You can find more information about the CD, and every other music release in the resort’s 15-year history, on our own Disneyland Resort Paris CD Archive, which also features 30-second previews from each track.

Thursday, 5th April 2007

(Video) Final rehearsals for new entertainment

Video features:

1. Disney Characters’ Express rehearsals

2. Spit ‘n’ Polish for Main Street and First Press Filming

3. Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade final rehearsal clips

Saturday, 24th March 2007

Disney’s Once Upon a Dream is HERE!

And now, the very first photos of the brand new parade! Don’t worry if you’re visiting next weekend – we won’t post any here until the official premiere! But, for your first sneak peak, check out the new gallery at Photos Magiques:

http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/once_upon_a_dream

Thursday, 1st March 2007

More ‘Once Upon a Dream’ making-of

The new parade is once again introduced by the now-familiar face of François Leroux, Vice President of Entertainment at the resort, before we get to see a couple more of the people “behind the Dream” as they proudly present their work.

Below, an artist proudly holds up the full concept art for the Dreams of Fantasy float, showing the extra pirate flag artists and “Jolly Holiday” penguins which, as with the extra performers for every float, were removed from the concept art shown at the recent Shareholders’ AGM. Beyond the large concept art, the tower of Big Ben can be spotted, part of the float’s concept model, whilst the huge drawing board features plans for the float design. Surrounding the artist’s area are stills and artwork from Peter Pan, showing the level of detail and accuracy the designers are striving for in their representations of these classic films.

When designing a parade, much moreso than when designing a theatre show, the directors must work in 3D to ensure the scene works with the perspective of the floats to their audience. A key part of the process, seen previously with The Wonderful World of Disney Parade and Disney Cinema Parade, is therefore to create scale models or maquettes of the floats. The next image above shows a sculpter at work on the maquette for Dreams of Laughter and Fun, in particular the giant Alice stuck inside a thatched cottage.

Next, a close-up on a finished maquette for Dreams of Friendship. Lead by the Toy Story characters in a familiar Andy’s Room environment, the first section of the float features many of the key characters from the first film along with Bullseye from the sequal. Unlike the other floats, the two scenes here are clearly divided, with a page of the storybook also providing a backdrop to the scene.

For the first time, Winnie the Pooh will get his own parade float – albeit shared. The scene – a tea party in the Hundred Acre Wood – is remarkably similar to the former set of his “Winnie the Pooh and Friends, Too” show, during its time at Royal Castle Stage between 1998 and 2005. Pooh’s oak tree home is featured, with colourful lanterns surrounding the wooded grove.

The next image below is definitely worth a click, both for its revealing look at the design of Dreams of Power and its highlighting of the intricacy and artistry involving in crafting the floats. The designer’s drawing boared is filled with a huge diagram of the float’s exact final design, whilst the maquette itself gives us a clearer look at the villain-infested float after the promising concept art seen last weekend.

Finally, a split-second close-up is given of a full coloured maquette, showing Ursula at the back of the float. It isn’t clear yet which of these larger characters will move, or how they will be controlled. Characters such as Pumbaa, for example, could be controlled from inside the float using a puppetry system similar to that used at The Legend Of The Lion King or even California’s Parade of Dreams.

Given the similarities in the style of this parade to California’s 50th anniversary debuted parade, character puppetry could well be added to the line-up of performers giving life to the floats. The list already features stilt walkers, dancers, jugglers, flag artists, bungee acrobats… and elephants! (Taken from Katy Harris’ previous project, the Kids Carnival).

Poppy The Monkey confirmed on MagicForum last week that rehearsals have now begun, taking place at night after Disneyland Park closes its gates. These will continue most nights up until the “soft-opening” premiere on 31st March.

From rumours, to sketches, to maquettes, to construction, to rehearsals – the time and effort required to create a new daytime Disney parade is unsurpassed by anyone else. And now we’re less than 30 days away from the final step… seeing it for real !

Concepts and video stills © Disney, published by arn0 on his blog.

Saturday, 24th February 2007

Once Upon a Dream Parade in concepts

Here they are – the full series of eight colour concept arts for the brand new Disneyland Park parade, officially released at the shareholders’ AGM (of course!) and captured by Mouetto on Disney Central Plaza forum (naturellement!).

Each of the concepts is accompanied by a quick summary from our guide page, and then beneath that any additional notes, details or corrections we can spot after seeing the full-colour artworks.

Float 1: Dreams of Imagination

“Mickey and Minnie hover high in the sky in a golden hot air balloon! They’ve dropped anchor on a most dreamy location, the purple curve of a smiling moon, resting on a storybook. Donald showers the moon in sparkling glitter, as Goofy rests on the pile of storybooks and blows bubbles into the clouds!”

The same concept you first saw right here over seven months ago. How time flies, eh?

Float 2: Dreams of Laughter and Fun

“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 features “marionnette” bungee artists similar to those in ‘Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams’ at Disneyland in California, bouncing on bungee ropes from supports high above. Around this section of the float, stilt walkers will perform routines with their own puppets.”

The Alice in Wonderland scene features Tweedle Dee/Dum, the Caterpillar and a tree with painted red roses. As the theme shifts to Pinocchio, a number of clocks are featured. Pinocchio appears to be performing his “I’ve Got No Strings” routine, with Gepetto watching. Jiminy Cricket sits atop the bungee rope clock tower.

Float 3: Dreams of Friendship

“Features Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh characters, with a giant storybook in the middle separating the two themes. At the front, Woody joins his Roundup Gang to remind them “you’ve got a friend in me”, whilst at the back Pooh’s birthday party is in full swing, featuring all his best friends from the Hundred Acre Wood at a jolly tea party.”

This float was the hardest to decipher from the silhouette image, with a classic scene from the first Toy Story at the front and a Hundred Acre Wood tea party at the rear. Despite the logo of Toy Story 2 being used, the scene is more reminiscent of the first film, since Buzz has a rocket attached to his wings and the arcade machine of the Little Green Men is featured.

Float 4: Dreams of Fantasy

“This very British float first features Captain Hook’s galley splashing through the waves, before a sea of London rooftops bring Wendy peering out of her window at Peter Pan on the roof above! A whimsically-styled Big Ben towers in the centre of the rooftops, poking through the clouds, with Mary Poppins and her classic “jolly holiday” carousel behind, as a fleet of kites hovers above. A merry band of pirate flag artists will surround the ship at the front of the float.”

The crocodile from Peter Pan can be seen amongst the waves at the front of the float, whilst the Penguin waiters from Mary Poppins are featured in the Jolly Holiday scene.

Float 5: Dreams of Power

“The Disney Villains are out to take command of the parade, on a dark and menacing float filled with viciousness! As the serpent Jafar slithers along at the front, Chernabog towers over the parade route on the desolate summit of Bald Mountain. Bringing up the rear is the slimy sea monster Ursula. The float will be surrounded by menacing souls juggling (false) fire!”

Hades can be seen at the front of the float, whilst the Evil Queen from Snow White hides below Chernabog.

Float 6: Dreams of Adventure

“Serving The Lion King and The Jungle Book, a giant jungle tree towers out of the middle of the float, with Simba on Pride Rock before it and King Louie and Baloo behind. Various animals from both films can be found amongst the branches of the tree, including monkeys and giraffes. Rafiki is clinging to the tree behind Pride Rock, with Timon and Pumbaa joining in the celebrations below. It’s also likely that several of the colourful jungle animals from the Kids Carnival season will join the parade at this point.”

The Jungle Book scene chosen is King Louie’s temple, with Baloo in his coconut hula outfit and King Louie’s throne beneath the tree. Timon also wears his hula costume, and the entire tree is filled with too many animals to count – including The Jungle Book’s Vultures and Kaa the snake.

Float 7: Dreams of Romance (Part 1)

“A tropical garden oasis is the setting for Ariel and Jasmine, with beautiful flowers and an enchanted tree bringing a rainbow of colour to their romantic pursuits. The Dream of Romance section will feature the enchanted garden theme throughout, with each of the Princesses’ shimmering dresses scattered with beautiful gold leaves and several dancing flowers with yellow and green petals surrounding each float.”

The enchanted garden features Ariel at the front in some kind of sea shell grotto, whilst Jasmine swings on a tree with giant roses and Aladdin dances around her.

Float 8: Dreams of Romance (part 2)

“The grand finale to the entire parade, this giant float features a grand total of four princesses! The initial gazebo is an ornate shelter for Beauty and the Beast, whilst the whimsical fairytale bridge is occupied by Snow White and her prince. On the hill before the giant castle stands Cinderella and Prince Charming. Sleeping Beauty is possibly featured behind the castle, as a finale – afterall, the parade is named after one of her songs! The float will also be articulated (split into two free-moving, joined sections), giving an idea of its impressive size.”

Sleeping Beauty is indeed featured just behind the castle, which is a giant, glittering, crystal design. The gazebo of Beauty and her Beast is surrounded by giant red roses.

Finally seeing the full parade in colour concept art is a dream for any fan, and when it finally premieres in just over one month there’ll be even more to see, not just on the floats but all around – characters, dancers, confetti and more. We’re promised a unique parade in the history of Disney Parks, filling all five sense with wonder. Sight and sound are obvious, touch will be from the many Disney characters, more than in any other parade. Unique scents for each float were even confirmed some time ago, leaving just taste to be answered. Characters handing out sweets seems a likely option, already a popular stunt during Halloween events.

Some of the concepts here appear to be quite realistic (for example, the first and second floats), whilst others seem to merely give an artistic impression of the characters and details the floats will include (Dreams of Fantasy in particular), rather than an accurate plan.

To see these concepts made a reality will be the real moment of magic. And, when you spot the first new daytime parade at the park in almost seven years coming towards you along Main Street for the first time, it’ll be better than a dream.

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