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Hi all,
We have been busy as always here at Character Central, but here's this weeks roundup of all the latest character news.
There has been lots of PIXAR news this week.
We start with the news that the West Coast Cruises this Fall will feature a lot of favourite PIXAR Pals. There will be special meet and greets and events on board.
The picture posted by the Parks Blog shows fairly standard characters, and I doubt very much any real neat ones will show up.
What do you all think of this? Have you already booked a DCL Cruise for these dates? Would you have liked to have known it was going to be PIXAR centric?
Staying with PIXAR, some new PIXAR stamps were launched in the US this week, and the PIXAR pals were at the brand new Art of Animation Resort in WDW for a special launch event.
That leads me to talk about the new Art of Animation Resort... It opened this week with a character filled ceremony and a speech by the fan love her/hate her head of Parks and Resorts, Meg Crofton. Characters in attendance included Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Timon, Ariel, Eric, and Chip 'n' Dale - and the Fab 5 friends were the talking head versions! Also there were puppeteers commanding Sebastian and Flounder alongside Ariel and Eric.
Continuing the PIXAR theme, and Downtown Disney in WDW has been hosting the Car Masters Weekend, and of course Disney took the opportunity to have some very famous stars there... Mater, McQueen and Finn McMissile! Although Mater and McQueen already meet in the Parks, Finn is a cool addition for those visiting this weekend.
Over in California, the PXAR Play Parade made it's return in "soft opening" mode, and will return officially on June 15th - DCA's official re-launch date.
The only float we can see that is missing currently is the Remy and Emile one, and that's probably due to the rats bouncing wires being too tall for the new overhead lines along Buena Vista Street.
Staying with DCA, and the Disney Parks Blog announced a few new cool things there. I thought I had mentioned these previously, but obviously completely forgot! So these are a bit late, I apologise lol.
When the new Buena Vista Street opens, some of the Fab 5 friends will get some fantastic new outfits to meet fans in the new land. We just LOVE Chip and Dale's outfits!
Also, as expected, but now confirmed, Mater and McQueen will be meeting Guests in Cars Land daily.
On top of all that, and I think maybe inspired by DLP's daily fountain shows that utilise the new Dreams technology, Goofy will be making appearances in his tux throughout the day at Paradise Bay, conducting the World Of Color fountains to music!
Finally for DCA (!), the Parks Blog also said that a character dance party will take place daily though the summer in Hollywood Land, and "you never know who might show up!"... We'll see whether that ends up being regular pals, or some more random ones (we of course hope the latter!).
We look forward to seeing all these new things this year!
Two last things, which aren't PIXAR related!
Rapunzel and Flynn have apparently been added to the day Parade in the Magic Kingdom, on the finale Castle float, which makes for a nice addition. As we all know, they are immensely popular, and so adding them makes sense - especially in the MK's ailing parade.
Finally, it has been announced (and confirmed by various sources) that place-making will begin at the Walt Disney Studios in Paris, alongside the new Ratatouille ride (scheduled to open 2014), and will continue through 2018!
I know this isn't character related, but it is a much welcomed announcement, and we can only hope that it will be along similar lines to the new DCA, and in turn will mean new character shows, greetings and entertainment!
Ok, that's all for now! Let us know your thoughts by hitting the Discuss button below and commenting on the forum!
Dan. |
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Hi all,
A few small pieces of information for this week, but nothing major.
Christmas Season ended at the Parks and Resorts, and at Disneyland Paris, unusually, Mickey's Winter Wonderland - which previously was a winter show running through February - ended also.
This now makes Winter Wonderland more a Christmas show than a Winter one, which is a little sad since it added some nice seasonal entertainment through the boring months of January and February!
Along with that, Central Plaza Stage has begun being decommissioned, hence ending the Mickey's Magical Celebration show. Disney Dance Express also had it's last performance.
The Once Upon a Dream Parade lost the Imagination unit so it can be converted to the new Fairies unit, and the Romance 2 unit is soon to follow.
All these changes are in preparation for the 20th Anniversary celebration, which will begin on 1st April.
We can't wait to see everything they have planned once it is all up and running!
Staying with Paris, and of course with the end of Christmas Season the Characters revert back to regular outfits. Duffy had made his début in Paris during the Christmas period, and so now makes his official regular début on Main Street in his regular sailor outfit on a permanent basis, alongside Mickey Mouse. Incidentally, the new Mickey meet 'n' greet is taking shape apparently, with some fresh new colours being painted onto the former Fantasy Festival Stage building. Again, we look forward to seeing it completed!
Over in Florida, much to my sadness, Dug and Russell from UP have stopped meeting guests just a month after they were added at Animal Kingdom.
This week saw the half marathon and the full marathon in WDW, and there were some truly amazing characters there. We really want to do a marathon some year (when we eventually get time!), and if any year has spurred us on to want to do it, it was this year. We have so far seen pictures of Darkwing Duck, Ludwig Von Drake, the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, amongst others. There were many more of course, but they are the most amazing ones I have seen posted online so far. Oh what we wouldn't do to meet Darkwing and Ludwig!!
In California, Disneyland held their Three Kings Day celebration, and of course Loren was there to get all the best pictures for us! Check out his picture filled Forum post here.
Finally, I posted some photo filled entries that I thought I would just highlight, as they are worth a look.
You can check out Part One and Part Two of my Disneyland Paris Christmas and New Year Photo Trips Reports here and here respectively.
I also posted a great over view of all the fantastic Character related things we have done this year, in my Year in Review post which can be seen here.
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan. |
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Hello everyone! May I take this opportunity to formally wish everyone a Happy New Year. We were in Disneyland Paris (I mean, where else WOULD we be?!), and so we could only Tweet and Facebook our New Year's greeting to everyone, so this is the first chance I have had on the Blog. We had an amazing time as always in DLP, and those of you who follow our Facebook page may have seen our various updates about all the cool things they were doing for New Year. Our pictures will be coming in due course; in fact later tonight I might just upload a select few to begin with and make an additional blog post here so that you can all see a selection of some of the neat things we did this trip. We are now back of course though, and counting down, as always, to our next crazy adventure, which will be to WDW and our first Disney Cruise next month! Following the WDW trip we are also seeing the Phineas and Ferb Disney Live show. February will be quite the amazing month!
Following a pretty quiet December, there are a few small bits of news for this new year, so let's take a quick look. In WDW, we have heard whispers that Princess Merida and Sophia the First will make appearances once the new Disney/PIXAR film 'Brave' has been released. To make way for the removal of the gargantuan Central Plaza Stage at Disneyland Paris, the final performance of this years main Hub show, Mickey's Magical Celebration, will be on January 9th. Also ending earlier than the official Magical Moments end date, are the Green Army Men Meet 'n' Play and the Disney Dance Express. Both of these will also end on January 9th. Also ending early, but not until March 4th will be the parade's show stops, the Following the Leader with Peter Pan show and Rapunzel's meet 'n' greet location in Fantasyland. It is expected that Rapunzel will simply move into the new Princess Pavilion on a rotational basis, just like the rest of the princesses. Character locations that will be staying that were added in 2011 will be the Alice and Mad Hatter area in Fantasyland, the Jungle Rhythms gazebo in Adventureland, and Aladdin's Magic Lamp (also in Adventureland). As far as we know the characters will still appear at these locations. Now as for the parade itself, the Dreams of Imagination float (Mickey and Friends) will be removed for it's magical transformation also on January 9th, while the Dreams of Romance 2 float will be taken out for it's refurb from January 16th. Both will return in their new forms in time for the 20th Anniversary launch, on 1st April 2012. As we already know from a while back, Mickey and Friends will be put on the finale float and fairies and Merlin will now appear at the beginning. The princes and princesses displaced by Mickey and Friends taking over their float will either move to the Dreams of Romance 1 or be in new horse drawn carriages. We have a thread going on our Forum here, and if you scroll down, user Dragy recently posted a piece of artwork showing the new changes. Over in California, Loren tells us that this weekend Disneyland will be celebrating Three Kings Day by featuring some cool characters in the park! Check out his Forum post about it here. Loren also tells me that Disneyland continued it's tradition this year of having a mass ensemble of characters appear at park closing at Main Street Station on Christmas Eve. Ones that he tells me appeared include Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Max, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Chip n' Dale in their pyjamas and then there was Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Mulan, Mushu, Pocahontas, Meeko, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Suzy, Perla, Fairy Godmother, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Belle, Beast, Snow White, Dopey, Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Jane, Terk, Lilo and Stitch (in a Santa costume!), Alice, the Tweedles and the Queen of Hearts. Finally, Character Central celebrated it's second birthday on January 1st, but of course we were away in DLP, so we missed being able to make a post about it. We just want to thank every single one of the 120,769 unique people that visited last year on at least 222,000 occasions! We really appreciate all your support and feedback. In the next few months up until April we are going to be working to make some awesome new additions and changes to the site. So stay tuned for those! So, Happy New Year everyone, and Happy 2nd Birthday Character Central! Dan. |
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Hi all, It has been really quiet o nthe Disney Character news as late, but I have been searching around and have a few small items to share today. The Disney Parks Blog announced the dates for Star Wars Weekends next year. These events are always ridiculously popular, and are filled with some excellent Star Wars characters, as well as Disney Characters in Star Wars outfits. Dug and Russell are now meeting in Disney's Animal Kingdom, near the Flame Tree BBQ. I have also heard a rumour - and this really is jus tthat right now - that Dumbo may appear maybe in Aniaml Kingdom (although could be elsewhere) for the early part of next year while his ride relocates across the Magic Kingdom. This is certainly a viable rumour since they did the same thing back in 2005. Lastly for WDW, the Pooh characters are now meeting in Town Square, and not Fantasyland. Over in California, Loren has been keeping us up to date with all the happenings there. Be sure to check out last week's and this week's posts. The Disney Parks Blog also announced a brand new show coming to the Disney Fantasy, called Wishes. It looks pretty neat, so we look forward to hearing more about that one as it develops. Finally, don't forget to check out Part Five of my Grand Circle Tour of Disneyland Paris, which was about Frontierland. Of course, it features some of our favourite friends along the way! Jon and I are off to Disneyland Paris this weekend again, to check out the Christmas Season, and will be back at our desks Monday. Have a great weekend all! Dan. |
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Hi all, This weekend was quite an eventful one in the world of Disney. We shall begin with something close to home (at least for me!), and that is Rapunzel's coronation in London. Although I wasn't there (why did they have to have it the same weekend as DLP's Halloween Season open?!), there have been some videos posted to YouTube. I liked this one, and this one in particular. There was a small ceremony at an indoor location, which was presented by the Fairy Godmother and also featured Flynn Rider, and there was a horse-drawn procession outside. It was a neat and different way to induct her a the newest member of Disney Royalty, and I hope that Disney continue to do cool things like this in the future. [ Read More... ] |
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Hi all, Let us begin today's news in California, where apparently the Pooh meet 'n' greet area is being removed. At the moment it is unclear as to whether there is a replacement in the works, or if the Pooh characters are being permanently evicted. I guess we'll see in a few weeks, but it is strange that they didn't work on this when the whole land (Critter Country) was completely closed for several months earlier this year! California doesn't really need any less characters, and the Pooh friends are especially popular, so let's hope they return in a fab new location soon! [ Read More... ] |
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Hi all, This week has been fairly quiet on the character news front, but there are now a few more details emerging about the upcoming Halloween Season across the parks. At Walt Disney World the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party line up has been released and can be found on our forums here. There are no real surprises as rumours had been flying around for a while. Just confirmation really of some of those expected, including Jack Sparrow, Lotso and Gaston. [ Read More... ] |
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Hi all, We start the news this week with D23 over in California. Sadly, much to the fans disappointment there were no real major announcements but one thing did come out of the Parks talk, and that is that the Carnation Plaza Stage area of Main Street in Disneyland will be re-themed. It will in fact become part of Fantasyland and will take on the look of a small village complete with a Rapunzel Tower and a small stage for shows. No other real details yet, but it looked fairly sizeable considering the relatively small space up in that area. Interestingly the new area will be called Fantasy Faire. It will house the Disney Princesses, and is likely to replace the current, similarly named, Princess Fantasy Faire that already exists in Fantasyland. Hopefully PFF will be returned to it's former glory and house some neat shows once again. [ Read More... ] |
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