Saturday, November 18, 2017
A Last Tribute to the Now Extinct DLP Walt Disney Studios Cinémagique Attraction
When the Walt Disney studios opened in Paris in 2002, the Cinemagique" attraction was one of the best one of the park. For those of you who have never seen it, the attraction was a tribute to cinema history. Here is the story line: The movie begin by a black and white 1920's sequence until somebody from the audience is magically transported inside the movie - just like in Woody Allen's Purple rose of Cairo. Then, the man - played by Martin Short - goes from one famous movie sequence to another - digitally included in the original shots, and funny and emotional scenes happen between him, the characters of the original sequences and a girl played by Julie Delpy. That's, basically, how the storyline goes.
The Cinemagique attraction at DLP Walt disney Studios was one of my favorite. It was a brilliant tribute to Movies and Cinema in general and the show even have a lot of emotion thanks to Martin Short and Julie Delpy, as well as brilliant editing and visual effects. Cinémagique was an attraction unique to the WDS so if you've never visited the park chances are that you don't know it. Unfortunately Cinémagique is now gone for ever, and the Studio Theatre will reopen June 10, 2018 with a rumored show with Marvel Super Heroes. One of the reason of this is because that part of the park will be come a Marvel land in the future, as you probably already know.
But thanks to JordiFun who filmed the entire Cinémagique show you'll be able to discover right now this great and now extinct attraction movie with the two parts videos below, and this is the original version of the movie before it was slightly updated some years ago. So, go ahead, choose the 1080p definition and watch it full screen as usual!
Now, there is more as sometime ago i was reading an article on the excellent Cartoon Brew web site, talking about something called "Balloon movies" done by a mysterious director...just to discover that what they were talking about was one of the first and abandoned concept for Cinemagique!
In this other concept, we always had the famous movie sequences, but a facetious balloon - digitally included in the original shots with After Effects - was going from a sequence to another. Not only it's perfectly done, but also funny or poetic. Here is what the director said in his own words about it:
“The main through line was a romance between a guy in the audience and a woman in the movie. The “every man” goes into the movie (right through the screen) and meets a beautiful woman there. There is a spark of romance. He is then chased by villains out of her movie and stumbles through many other classic films, lost and alone. The woman leaves her movie to go on a quest to find him.
So — now you’re probably wondering where the balloon shots come in. Well they don’t. Not in the final show. However, just before we committed to film the project, we decided to go through a kind of wild card period. Float some totally different ideas. I thought it might be fun to do a nod to “The Red Balloon”. I did a few of these balloon shots at home and took them into the studio. Everybody enjoyed them. So we explored a possible version centered on that idea. I did more and more shots, took them in, hunkered down with the editor and stitched together a draft. We all got a kick out of it, but utimately decided that we missed the romantic comedy of Plan A. So after the diversion, we returned to our original course.
So I had all these shots at home that I’d done on spec. I figured that since I did them and they contain no material from the studio, and I don’t reference the context we used when toying with them, they’re safe to post.”
Please note that he didn't say that it was in relation with "Cinemagique", I did, but it's pretty obvious that it was.
Of course you certainly would like to see more about this, and here is a youtube video where you will see the 18 different sequences he is talking about all together, plus a new one on "Lord of the Rings".
And remember to look for the arrival of the balloon!
Here are the name of the famous movies :
Harold Lloyd
King Kong
Casablanca
The Wizard of Oz
Singing in the rain
African Queen
Buthch Cassidy and the Sundance kid
Once upon a time in the west
North by northwest
The Empire strikes back
Nikita
A" musical"
Gentlemen prefer blondes
Mary Poppins
Lord of the Rings
Youtube videos by Jordifun, Cybershire
Picture and video: copyright Disney, Photos Magique
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Disneyland Paris Christmas Season Extended Update with Photos, 4K Videos !
Here we go for an extended update about Disneyland Paris Christmas season which began last week-end, with pictures and videos from Max, D&M contributor and DLP Welcome webmaster!
Before going further a few words about the Disneyland Paris book "From Sketch to Reality". As i told you the publishing company stopped its activities but i managed to save 50 copies of the english edition and i'm doing a Christmas special offer on them, just like in the good old days. The French edition is totally out of stock but if you're french, and wish to purchase the book in its english edition i will send you a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition.
You won't find a better Christmas gift than this book which will provide hours of pure reading pleasure. All details to order the book are at the end of this article.
For this Christmas season that will end on January 7, 2018, the choice of Disney was to integrate the colors of the 25th Anniversary in the decorations of Main Street USA. The latter are therefore exclusively in silver and Blue. The result is up to par, with Town Square having the old decorations of Central Plaza to dedicate Town Square to the 25th Anniversary. Main Street makes the transition between the Christmas decorations and the 25th Ann, it’s simple and well thought.
This year the « Disney’s Christmas Parade » is back with new colors more flashy on the floats and the music has been completely changed. The result is not good, especially for music, which does not recall Christmas except to place the word « Christmas » in the lyrics. No sound allowing to refer to the season without any Christmas air that we know. Visitors who do not understand English, find themselves in front of a parade with a standardized music of Disneyland Paris, sung by a man and a woman during 4 minutes. There is a real lag between the visual and audio message!
What last year was the must of the season, this year, the parade lost in ambitions and is dethroned by two new shows that alone justify the visit to Disneyland Paris, "Mickey’s Christmas Big Band" and "Goofy’s Incredible Christmas".
«Mickey’s Christmas Big Band» is THE not-to-be-missed show of the season which is played 5 times per day. Located in the shelter of the cold in Vidéopolis at Discoveryland, it is a real masterpiece show that is offered to visitors. This quality show links both the glamour of gala receptions worthy of the evenings of December 31st but also performances making references to Broadway between tap dance, singing and live music! Mickey, Minnie and Goofy are also in the show to deliver performances, away the childish side that can be found in the « Merry Stitchmas » show at the Royal Castle Stage. This show is definitely a must-see this Christmas season.
At Frontierland, the Fuente del Oro restaurant has been themed with new decorations on the theme of Pixar animated movie « Coco ». And, surprise, it is possible to meet a puppet of Miguel, the hero of the film.
As every Christmas season, Frozen sing-along takes place in the Chaparral Theater! That said, it is worth noting that it will be the last season for this show as the stage will be demolished and rebuilt to eliminate the pillars in the middle of sight. Demolition will happen in 2018.
At the WDS park this Christmas Disney offers to its guests a whole new night show on the Tower of Terror facade, offering an alternative or a combo at Disney Illumination in the Disneyland Park. This show proves, once again the technological skills of the Disney teams in the design (unlike the adaptation) of night-time shows.
The energy and the dynamite is found throughout « Goofy's Incredible Christmas », although there are some regrettable lengths during the moments on stage, but this is only detail. This celebration is perfect to close a visit to Disneyland Paris with Santa Claus!
And that's it for this long DLP Christmas update! Max will be back soon with a new one, in the meantime here is all you need to know to order a copy of the "Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality" book and have it in time for Christmas. First, it's a 320 pages book with 750 pictures of the park including 250 WDI artworks! It's also probably the best Christmas gift you can find for a Disney Parks fan - and it is true! Read below how to place your order.
To place your order for the DLP book, please send me an email at: amplittaye@gmail.com with your shipping address. The price during the Christmas special offer is 65€ ( instead of 75€ ) and shipping worldwide is 22€ ( except Belgium and Italy for which it is 29€ ).
For French readers a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition will be sent.
Lecteurs Français: Etant donné que l'édition française est épuisée, un fichier du texte complet original en Français sera envoyé aux acheteurs Français ne comprenant pas l'anglais.
Also, each order will receive two GREAT surprise gifts!
You can pay with Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. For Paypal payments please send directly the full amount including shipping ( 87€ worldwide, except for Belgium and Italy for which it is 104€ ) at: nme4@wanadoo.fr If you wish to pay by credit card and bank transfer, let me know in your email and i'll tell you how to do.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Shipping usually takes around two weeks for countries outside France but can take up to 3-4 weeks sometime, so to make sure you'll get the book for Christmas please place your order as soon as possible, thanks!
If you've never seen the book before, please watch the video below showing the full 320 pages of the book!
Pictures and videos: copyright DLP Welcome, D&M