68 years after Walt and "El Grupo" went to Rio de Janeiro to prepare "Saludos Amigos" the first Disney parade created specifically to perform outside a Disney theme park happened on Copacabana, in Rio. It's pretty amazing as it is a real Disney parade like the one we can see at Disneyland with huge floats, characters, etc...
The question of course is: why? As far as we know there is no theme park opening soon in South America and no Disney Cruise Line ship coming to Rio. So, why a parade like this? Could it be that the WDC is doing some kind of marketing event to remind the Disney characters to all Cariocas?
But in this case, why? There is no plans of a "Rio Disneyland", is it? Well, wait a minute! Actually, Disney DO have some plans to build a theme park in South America as i've told you in a previous article. Although i think we cannot expect an opening before the end of the decade (remember this little project in a city of the Middle Kingdom that should give a lot of work to all Imagineers for the next five years?) Disney is really looking towards Brazil for their first theme park in South America.
And where exactly in Brazil, you ask? Just guess: that's right, in Rio de Janeiro.
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I remember they were thinking about Brazil back in the late 70's while finalizing Japan's TDL negotiations and Epcot. We still don't have a Brazil in World Showcase, where all Disneyland Country Host's are represented, like Japan, China, and France.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would happen for... let's see... ¿2016? It's the first time in my life I'm deeply sorry for not getting the Olimpic Games in Madrid XP
ReplyDeleteThey just do not built those huge floats to be used once. Interesting to see if they pop up in a new parade in a Disney resort the coming years.. The first parks to probably get a new parade are Magic Kingdom (2011?) and Disneyland Park (2012?).
ReplyDeleteI don't know... I don't pretend to offend, but the floats seem a little bit temporary, and not too beautiful as we are used to.
ReplyDelete"first Disney parade created specifically to perform outside a Disney theme park happened on Copacabana, in Rio."
ReplyDeleteThat's not 100% true. NYC was the first place to host a Disney parade created specifically to perform outside of a Disney theme park.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeDX62jPz3Q
I am from São Paulo, Brazil and a huge fan of Disney theme parks. I would really like to have a Disney park close to where I live, but unfortunately I think that a Disney theme park in Brazil would not work. There are many reasons that I could give to explain my reasoning, but to be short, a Disney theme park needs at least 10million visitors per year spending a reasonable amount of money per visit and everything must be considerably expensive (tickets food, merchandise). We are still a country that do not receive a lot of foreign tourists, so 80-90% of the park's visitors would have to be Brazilian. People that can afford to go often to a Disney park is mainly the elite, which is not very big to support a Disney park and can afford to go to Orlando. The rest of the population may go to the park once in a while, specially when they make special offers, but are not going to spend a lot and, if the poorer people start going to the park, the elite will stop going there and will just go to Orlando (just like it happened to Hopi Hari, a theme park near São Paulo). Besides, for the people in the north of the country that have money, it is roughly the same distance to go to Orlando than to go to Rio, and to a people in the other soutern American countries, as they would need to take a long flight anyway to go to a probably small Disney theme park in Rio, why not stay a little bit more in a plane and go to WDW?
ReplyDeleteTo conclude, I would love to see that project, but I would not put my money on it.
Bonjour, Alain. Actually, this parade performed not only in Rio, but also in Sao Paulo and in Vila Velha. The floats were 100% designed and built in Brazil, under Disney's supervision. And do you know what I think? The parede looked cheap (our carnival floats are much much better).
ReplyDeleteThe parade was part of a comercial agreement between Disney and Nestlé Brazil (yes, the food company). And it was a major sucess: 350 thousand viewers in Rio and 1 million in Sao Paulo (Brazil's most populated city).
I disagree with Marco about the Disney theme park in Rio — we can't compare Disney to Hopi Hari, that had lots of administration problems and don't have any famous character. I tried to buy a trip to Orlando this month for february and ALL the travel agencies don't have any place since september!
Love the blog, btw.
interesting but i have to agree that the floats eventhough they are big are not of the high qaulit of the ones found at the parks. I also find it strange that some of the face character make-up was not scrutinized a bit more by Disney and that Disney was not a bit more picky on how the characters personalities were depicted.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the fireworks that Disney put on in Rio for the Milennium celebration?
ReplyDeleteHow come Rio gets all the attention?
I hope you are right Domingo nos parques and I am wrong. As I said, I would love to see a Disney theme park in Brazil.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I would try a different concept, maybe instead of building a Magic Kingdom, I would try to make a different kind of resort, something by the beach with some very nice Disney hotels for different budgets, with lots of things to do on them, something similar to a Downtown Disney by the sea and a big Disney water park, bigger and better than the ones in Orlando. I would also make some Disney cruises here in Brazil before to test the public (that I think would be a success), and maybe open a Disney store.
P.S. I can not believe that you could not find any place to go to WDW from now till September, but if you want to go anyway, just book the hotels directly from the WDW website, I am sure that they have rooms available, specially now, during the off season. You can also find the best air ticket prices on this website:
www.decolar.com.br
I agree with you that Hopi Hari can not be compared to Disney in any sense, I just meant something else when I mentioned it.
I used to work for WDW here in Orlando and I also right now work for Universal Studios...during this time of year we get a massive surge of visitors from Brazil, and if I remember correctly, out of all the visitors we get, the third largest group comes from Brazil (I think the first two are Germany and Japan)...considering the amount of visitors we receive from Brazil, I think it could work with a park down there. Not sure what the social/economic climate is down there though and that is a huge factor. I saw someone mentioned that if there were a lot of lower class people to go to the Disney park down there, they thought that the upper class wouldn't go there as much. So not sure on that end. Only time will tell
ReplyDeleteCould it be a location for a yet to be announced DVC resort like Hawaii & Washington DC?
ReplyDeleteThe article was correct inquiring if Disney has plans to open a park in Brazil. There are rumours to that effect in Brazil in the last months. However, the artcle got its facts wrongly: the main Disney Parade in Brazil was not in Rio (where it draw a crowd of some 300.000 people), but in São paulo, where it was a huge affair drawing over one million people, probably being the biggest Disney Parade ever. If the rumors prove correct, a Brazilian Disney Park would very probably be in an area not far from São Paulo, like the Paraiba Valley (where there will be bullet trains), or the metro area of campinas. This region is the economic & population bulwark of Brazil: 20 million inhabitants in São Paulo Metro area and 28 million in 100 miles around it. As Brazilian economy is improving fast, so is the money these millions of people have in their pockets. Thus I do think a Disney Park in Brazil will make sense in some 5 to 10 years from now. I do wish it happens!
ReplyDeleteit isnt in rio. it is going to be in curitiba, in parana, one of the southern states.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if this parade will take place again this year (in Rio)
ReplyDeleteI am from Ceará. I am fan of WALT DISNEY!
ReplyDeletePlease, i don't like in Rio de Janeiro, i only like best in São Paulo. Example "Brazil Disneyland Park or São Paulo Disneyland"
Good night, bye Mickey!