 | Back to reality.... for now :P |
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| PeterPanFan
Monday, June 7, 2010 7:32:12 AM |
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Well... I am back in the states after an awesome trip to Europe including Dan and I's trip to Disneyland Paris. We had a great time at DLP and got to see (and get pictures with) a few new characters as well as see the new Showtime Spectacular show which I think is much better than the It's Party Time show... I also like how some of the characters come down to interact with the fans when they weren't on stage, a nice added touch that DLP seems to be incorporating into more of their shows... hopefully this trend continues. They also seemed to be putting out characters in town square fairly often. Most mornings right around official park opening most (if not all) the characters from the Character Express would come out and also there were some other times there would be characters out there... including later in the evening the one night the park was open late (well late for DLP). Also a treat for me was seeing the park for the first time during "good" weather... really some of my other trips haven't been bad weather (last Oct was pretty nice) but this was the first time in the spring/summer and it was great to see the park in full bloom. Everything was beautiful with all the flowers and having leaves on all the trees really added something to the park. The only bad thing was in Fantasyland where they were refurbishing Dumbo so all the water was turned off. Dan and I will be working on our pictures from this trip so look forward to lots of new DLP pictures over the next month as we frantically try to get them done before our next trip :D Next trip: Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in August! :D
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| Disneyland Paris | |
| PeterPanFan
Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:37:41 PM |
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Character Central will be in Disneyland Paris for several days starting this Sunday May 30, 2010! If you are friends of any characters and would like our cameras to be on the lookout for your friend... please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected] or sending us a message on facebook! |
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Inside sources at the Disneyland Resort in California have said that the Princess Fantasy Faire show is to return for a limited engagement from May 28 until mid-August this year! The show that replaced the Snow White stage production is a more elaborate version of a meet n greet, but that bit more magical. This was then also axed but the meet n greet continued to woo the princess in all of us. Fans have complained for a while now that the huge stage is a waste of space, which I guess is true. I'm sure people will still say they either need to put a new show there or use the space for something else altogether, but for now at least, it is being used once again for more than just character meets. Be sure to catch it's return to former glory this summer!
Dan :) |
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| Goodbye Power Rangers? | |
| PeterPanFan
Thursday, May 13, 2010 9:23:57 AM |
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According to news sources Disney has sold the Power Rangers back to their original owner (LA Times) Does this mean the Power Rangers will be departing DHS sometime soon? According to WDW Magic they will be staying until August and then will depart for good. That begs the question... what, if anything, will take their place? If they don't want to lose 5 unique characters without replacing them, the Marvel characters would seem to be the most obvious replacement; however, due to Universal holding their theme park rights that seems doubtful. Personally, I would love to see the Muppets make a return since their studios home is just next door to where the Power Rangers normally meet. I guess we shall see!
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My dad is getting ready to move so he has been going through lots of stuff (and giving me stuff to go through) and last night I found some pictures of the Main Street Electrical Parade from its original run at WDW... actually at the beginning of its run! These pictures are from 1978 and include a few rare long gone pieces of the parade including a special float for Mickey's 50th birthday and the original WDW finale the "Disney Neon Finale" which only ran the first couple years and was replaced by "To Honor America" in 1979. So check out these great rare pictures of the original WDW Main Street Electrical parade here.
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| More Park Character Updates | |
| PeterPanFan
Saturday, March 27, 2010 8:08:46 PM |
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According to various character people in the know (drew81, raxip on wdwmagic and Berlioz70 on the Dis amongst others) there will be some character changes starting sometime in May in WDW (mostly in the Magic Kingdom).
In the Magic Kingdom:
Ariel (human) and Prince Eric! will be taking up residence in Adventureland at the Veranda (replacing Lilo and Stitch). This means Ariel's Grotto will be closing to make room for the Fantasyland expansion.
Goofy will be moving to Pirates of the Caribbean (hopefully in a pirate outfit)
Wendy will now regularly be joining Peter in Fantasyland
Mary Poppins and Bert will be in Fantasyland near the Carousel
Snow White will be appearing near the wishing well by the castle
Chip and Dale will be moving to Tomorrowland (hopefully in their outer space outfits)
Stitch will be returning to Tomorrowland
Winnie the Pooh and friends will be moving to Town Square from the Pooh Playful Spot (also tied to the Fantasyland expansion work)
In DHS:
Lotso (from TS 3) will be replacing the Up characters in the Animation Building
Jojo and Goliath will be leaving Playhouse Disney
In AK:
Carl and Dug will be moving to the Oasis and appear there randomly
The character in Africa will be leaving (some of which will become random in the Oasis)
In site news… we continue to add stuff and work on pictures… Dan is currently working on WDW pictures while I am working on Disneyland Paris pictures from Feb… I have added a Valentines Day at Parc Disneyland page which has a lot of pictures of the special Valentines Day characters up now :)
Also, we want to have various character news from across the parks on our blog. So if you have information and or rumors about upcoming character changes please let us know ([email protected])… we are happy to give you credit (or not if you wish to remain anonymous) :)
Thank you!
Jon |
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| Park Character Updates | |
| 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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| Updates | |
| PeterPanFan
Sunday, March 14, 2010 6:20:29 PM |
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Hey all :)
In addition to the new trip reports Dan has also added a bunch of new meeting info to characters. We have also added a bunch of new characters and updated where some characters can be found. Hopefully the next new site feature will be search. We are also busy working on our pictures from previous trips and trying to get those uploaded. Hope everyone continues to enjoy the site and as always if you have any suggestions please let us know! Thank you, Jon
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