Hi all,

So after a slow week for character news, I now have quite a lot to tell you!

First off Disneyland Paris has redesigned Jack Sparrow’s costume, and he is due to start appearing in his updated gear very soon, to coincide with the new movie. He already wears his new outfit in California, where the film had its premiere last week.

The Alice meet and greet area is reopen again in DLP after temporarily losing the new table installed for this year’s theme.

Maleficent has been seen back on the Dreams of Power float in the Once Upon a Dream Parade after yet another long absence of late. Hopefully they have finally fixed the recurring issue with her harness, and she will remain on the float!

Over in the Studios, Stars ‘n’ Cars is due to lose its popular high energy musical show stop, in favour of two smaller met ‘n’ greet stops along the parade route, making the parade now, well, a parade as opposed to a hybrid show-parade. Testing is due to take place mid-June after hours, and the new version is due to begin late June. I have also heard that there could be some new cars included, which used to be used for the old Good Morning Walt Disney Studios, but this is unconfirmed.

Finally for DLP and the Studios, some good news on the entertainment offerings front. Today InsideDLParis posted on Twitter that a new character based musical number would begin next week in the Backlot utilising the old Toon Train that disappeared without a trace about two years ago! Characters reported to be involved so far include the Incredibles and the Ratatouille stars. No other details of what this “musical train” will involve have been divulged as yet.

Jumping across the pond for some brief news from the usually character deficient California. A user on MiceChat posted that two days ago he saw some particularly rare characters appear late in the afternoon up by “it’s a small world”. These included Foulfellow (who is rare at most Parks), Friar Tuck (very rare for the US) and the Beast (out in EPCOT fairly often, but otherwise rare).

Finally, of course the big character news this weekend has been PIXAR's 25th anniversary event being held at EPCOT. Lots of images have been posted across the Internet, so you can do a search, but some of the cooler ones I have seen online include Smitty, Wendell, George Sanderson, Gypsy, Slim, Atta, Mr Potato Head and Bullseye.

Ok, that’s all for now,

Dan.