 | Park Character Updates |
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| PeterPanFan
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 3:54:01 PM |
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So some interesting and exciting Character related news has been filtering out lately. First, in Disneyland Paris, many of the New Generation Festival happenings have started... most/all of them are in "soft" openings currently meaning that they are not guaranteed to happen and may not be in their final form. Most of the changes this year are merely that, changes, they are taking existing shows/events and making changes to them. The two notable exceptions are a Princess and the Frog "happening" in town square and an all new central plaza show called Disney's Showtime Spectacular.
The Tiana/Naveen happening appears to follow the format of Step in Time with Mary Poppins and Once Upon a Time, Sleeping Beauty with an introductory song and dance show followed by a meet and greet with the characters. I have seen a few short clips and it looks entertaining and like a nice addition.
Disney's Showtime Spectacular replaces It's Party Time... with Mickey and Friends and had its first public showing today. Based on the pictures we have seen and the short clip of video it appears FAR better than It's Party Time! They have two new characters to Disneyland Paris in it (in additional to Tiana and Naveen who also appear elsewhere)... Boo and Angel! The show is divided into a few sections which each feature a group of characters from some of the newer movies and include one or two songs from the movie. The sections include Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Lilo and Stitch (and Angel), and Princess and the Frog. In addition to the characters from the featured movies, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale join the show and change outfits for the different numbers. For example, for the Incredibles section they put on Incredibles outfits including masks! Overall the show looks very cute and we can't wait to see it (several times) in June! You can see some pictures here: DLRP Magic
Here is a video of the final from the fine folks at Character Photos Blog:
In addition to the all new events, there have been changes made to several existing ones. These include Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen replacing Belle and Beast in the Once Upon a Dream Parade, a Ratatouille car with Remy and Emile being added to Stars 'n' Cars, and another version of the Character Express called the All Star Express. All these changes seem to be well done and make nice additions or updates. Overall, based on initial impressions it looks like the New Generation Festival is going to be much better than Mickey's Magical Party and definitely a lot better than I had been expecting! Now hopefully they can continue that trend and have Toy Story Playland greatly exceed some very low expectations.
Back in the US the news isn't quite as exciting. Construction has been going on back stage for the new Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom since shortly after its announcement; however, it has mostly been hidden from public view. That is starting to change and it seems that in the next few months (or possibly after the summer season) Toontown will be closing. Which of course means new locations must be found for the characters who greeted their fans there. Starting in early April, Expo Hall will close its doors for construction of new meet and greet locations for Mickey, Minnie, the Princesses, and the Fairies. Obviously once their new homes are completed over the next few years the Princesses and Fairies will move out to their new digs. It is uncertain what the long term plans for Mickey and Minnie are; however, it is possible Expo Hall will be their new permanent home in the Magic Kingdom. In addition to the characters moving out of Toontown, Pooh and friends will be moving to Main Street while the exterior of their ride is re-themed. Who knows if they will have new meet and greet locations in the Fantasy Forest or if they will remain elsewhere.
So that is most of the recent character news! As far as site news... we continue to add more information and Dan has been busy adding greeting information. We have also now added a search feature which hopefully will be useful :) I hope everyone has a magical day!
Jon
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