Disneyland Paris update - Summer at the Magic Kingdom, Ratatouille Audio-animatronic, and July 14 firework video !

First, for those of you who were not at DLP last night for the July 14 firework, here is a - new - Daily Motion video filmed by dlrp-team, and this one shows the whole firework. Please note that the firework begin after the first 50 seconds.

Disneyland Feux D'artifice 14 Juillet.
envoyé par dlrp-team

It's full summer at Disneyland Paris, and flowers are everywhere! On the esplanade between the Magic Kingdom and the Walt Disney Studios...



In Fantasia gardens...



And at the Disneyland Hotel and park's entrance



But something really odd happened on Town Square: One of the building located in front of the Story Book Store and formerly supposed to be a small "hotel" was repaint, and in front of it, instead of real flowers and tree as it was before, there is now....plastic flowers and false tree! Okay, the flowers are not really in plastic, but in cloth, fabric, etc...but at the end the result is the same...it's not real flowers.




Why this? Well, you see, the place is one of the "meet the characters" location, and now, not only the small building is not supposed to be anymore a "hotel", but much more the house of the characters. When they've finished their show, they climb the little stairs, open the blue door you can see on the right and go out through the building like if it was their home. Soooo, because it is now "supposed" to be the house of Mickey, Goofy, etc...who, as we know, are cartoon characters, they've put false flowers.
Do you see what i mean? If it don't make sense to you or if you find the "alibi" really poor, you're right. In fact they've tried to redesign a Main Street house in a kind of Toon Town house, using new colours on the facade and plastic flowers. Frankly it's not only stupid - if they've put real flowers the effect would have "work" exactly the same - but also it is such a poor idea that it's a long time i've seen something so cheap in the park. And, by the way, it's not even well done - i mean, it don't looks like a "characters house"!

If we except this, the rest of the park looks great, lot of people of course, and nothing new specially, but it's normal: summer is the high season for the parks, but the low season for the news, and don't expect new announcement before the fall.

However, at the Walt Disney Studios there is something new! No, it's not the fact that they've take out the big "Cars" billboard from the entrance of the Studio 1 or the fact that they are going to repaint the facade - they are currently putting a new billboard on the scaffoldings, a photo of the original facade which seems to indicate that the re-painting should take a while...



No, what is really new is a small Audio-Animatronic of Remy, the beloved rat character, Ratatouille's hero. He is appearing three times each day at the Rendez-vous des stars restaurant, and last week, it was also possible to see him at the Disneyland Hotel's California Grill restaurant. I've hesitate to call him an "Audio-Animatronic", because this robotic figure don't look as sophisticate as the new Wall-E AA. But there is mechanism inside, and we must not forget that it is always difficult to do small robotic figure - simply because there is not much room inside to put the mechanism...
I think the best is that you judge by yourself, and the two short videos below will give you a better idea of it - note that on the second one you must wait 30 seconds before you'll see Remy AA.







Okay, as you saw, it's not the Audio-Animatronic of the century, and the movements are - it's the least we can say - very limited. He don't move around on the tray, but he looks pretty realistic, which is good.

Let's talk about the future, now. Next year the Walt Disney Studios will have in the old Disney Channel building a "Playhouse Disney Live on Stage" for ( very ) young kids and a new parade. The park bought to the DHS the cars of the "Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade" and the WDS name of this new parade should be "Disney's Stars 'n' Cars Event".

The WDS is of course the park who need the most new attraction and theming, and it seems that the building of Soarin' is still under discussion. But a strong rumour announce the closing of the Armaggedon attraction. To be replace by what, you ask? Well, the same rumour was talking about a Narnia-Prince Caspian walk-through similar to the one at the DHS, and later - translate: when they will have the money - a real new attraction.

More interesting is this info from a Disney Central Plaza member who heard a group of imagineers talking about new theming ideas. They were standing in front of the Studio Tram Tour Station and said: "Guests will walk into that direction and see San Francisco". It's interesting, because one thing is sure: imagineers will definitely build new decors after the Hollywood sign, and it may very well look like this San Francisco decor built at the DHS some years ago...we'll see! More news when available!



As for the Magic Kingdom, no new attraction has been announced yet, and it's difficult to bet on one. I still think that Indiana Jones Adventure will be the best choice for the park's 20th anniversary but the maintenance cost and all the problem with the cars - at Anaheim only four of them are currently working - don't work in its favor...

I also think that the Little Mermaid attraction - similar to the one coming to DCA do have some chances. As you may know, they are going to build it simultaneously at WDW - simply because when you build the same attraction twice at the same time you do economies of scale, so why not build three instead of two? Also, let's not forget that the low dollar is a blessing for Disneyland Paris when they buy new attractions to Walt Disney Imagineering. It's the right time for the park to buy expensive attractions at a bargain price!

See you soon for a new DLP update!

Photos: copyright Disney, Alex Rosa and Alain Littaye

Youtube videos of Remy AA thanks to novastarbuzz and gochaton!

Daily Motion video of July 14 firework thanks to dlrp-team!