Disney Illuminations | |
---|---|
Disneyland Park (Paris) | |
Status | Operating |
Soft opening date | 25 March 2017 |
Opening date | 26 March 2017 (original) 31 May 2024 (updated) |
Closing date | 11 April 2023 (original) 9 January 2025 (updated) |
Replaced | Disney Dreams! (original) |
Replaced by | Disney Dreams! (revival) Disney Tales of Magic |
Ride statistics | |
Attraction type | Multimedia, water, pyrotechnic show |
Designer | Disney Live Entertainment |
Theme | Disney's animated and live-action films |
Music | Mark Hammond (Disney Illuminations) Rick McKee (Disney D-Light) |
Duration | 20 minutes (Original version) 30 minutes (Extended version, including drone pre and post-show) 15:50 minutes (Current version) |
Host | Mickey Mouse |
Languages | English 50% French 50% |
Sponsor | PANDORA |
Disney Illuminations is a nighttime spectacular at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. [1] It opened on 26 March 2017 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the park and replaced Disney Dreams! . Based on Ignite the Dream, the former nighttime spectacular at Shanghai Disneyland, the show featured projection mapping onto the park's castle, fireworks, water fountains, fire, music, lasers, searchlights, and other special effects.
On 8 May 2024, Disneyland Paris announced that the revamped version of Disney Illuminations will return on 31 May 2024, as part of Donald Duck's 90th Birthday, but the Beauty and the Beast live-action and second part of the Frozen segments were cut from the show.
The show starts with a voice-over, inviting all guests to release their inner child and dream: "Within each of us is a dreamer, just waiting to be awakened. We all have the magic to unlock this inner child. But sometimes, that inner child needs an invitation to come out and play. This is your invitation... to dream."
The music played during this opening and the finale of the show is "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella, and is performed by Heather Headley.
Like other Disney fireworks shows, various songs from Disney-related films are then showcased, including:
The show soft-launched on 25 March 2017 at the start of the Disneyland Paris' 25th anniversary celebrations, with its official launch on 26 March 2017.
Illuminations was suspended from 12 March 2020 shortly prior to the park's closure during the COVID-19 pandemic in France; it appeared as a "Disneyland Paris Watch Party" on YouTube with a full video. [2]
After a brief reopening from 21 December 2021 to 2 January 2022, it was suspended again due to French government regulations on large gatherings. [3] The show reopened on 16 February and was paused on 11 November for the 2022–2023 Christmas season. A revival of Disney Dreams! of Christmas temporarily replaced the show from 12 November to 8 January 2023. [4] [5] Illuminations then returned on 9 January 2023.
On 10 January 2023, it was announced that its predecessor Disney Dreams! will be revived and replace Illuminations starting 12 April as part of the resort's 30th Anniversary "Grand Finale", which is part of the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration. [6]
On 8 May 2024, it was announced that the revamped version of Disney Illuminations will return on 31 May 2024, after the final performance of Disney Dreams! on 30 May 2024, but the entire Beauty and the Beast live-action segment, as well as the second part of the Frozen segment (For the First Time in Forever part), were cut from the show. The show was reduced in runtime by a third due to the cuts made.
The show is known to use a large amount of audio-visual, lighting, pyrotechnic and hydro-technic technology, mostly installed for the preceding Disney Dreams! show.
The castle is covered with projectors, and uses a much wider area than the previous Disney Dreams!, utilizing the hills around the castle as well as the castle itself.
In a Disney Parks first, choreographed lighted drone technology is used during a new, specially-designed pre-show sequence for the park's 30th anniversary in 2022. [7] [8] Called "Disney D-Light", the new sequence uses 150 drones that recreated the Mickey Mouse-shaped 30th Anniversary logo above Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. "Disney D-Light" is set to an original score and arrangement by Rick McKee that uses themes from Inside Out, Hercules, Moana, and other Disney films, as well as the anniversary's theme song "Un monde qui s'illumine" (written by Chantry Johnson, Noemie Legrand, and Tony Ferrari, and performed by Héloïse). The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios by The London Symphony Orchestra.
The original version of the pre-show (and post-show called "Afterglow", now folded into the "Disney D-Light" pre-show) debuted ahead of the celebration's launch, on 5 March 2022. A second version of the pre-show continues to play before Disney Dreams! until 30 September 2023, the end of the 30th Anniversary celebrations, which is part of the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration. [9]
From 31 May 2024, Disney Illuminations include the pre-show that continue to run even when the 2023 revival of Disney Dreams! had its final performance on 30 May. A new show called Disney Electrical Sky Parade, inspired by Disneyland Paris version of Main Street Electrical Parade, temporarily premiered on 8 January 2024, as part of Disney Symphony of Colours celebration and was initially a pre-show for Disney Dreams!. [10] [11] The show was expected to run until 30 September 2024, but was later extended to 6 January 2025. [12]
However, on 5 December, 2024, it was announced that a new pre-show titled Disney Love Notre-Dame de Paris, as a new limited time engagement in the honor of the grand opening of Notre Dame Cathedral, and inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios' film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame , which was debuted from 5 December to 14 December, 2024 before Disney Illuminations at Disneyland Paris. [13]
The Main Street Electrical Parade is a nighttime parade, created by Robert Jani and project director Ron Miziker. It features floats and live performers covered in over 600,000 electronically controlled LED lights, and uses a synchronized soundtrack triggered by radio control along key areas of the parade route.
Disneyland Park, originally Euro Disneyland Park, is a theme park found at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. The park opened on 12 April 1992 as the first of the two parks built at the resort. Designed and built by Walt Disney Imagineering, its layout is similar to Disneyland Park in California and Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Florida. Spanning 56.656 ha —the second largest Disney park based on the original, after Shanghai Disneyland Park—it is dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.
Cinderella Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of two Disney theme parks: the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Based on Cinderella's fairy tale castle from Disney's 1950 animated feature film, both serve as the symbol and flagship attraction for their respective theme parks. Along with Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Castle is a main symbol of The Walt Disney Company.
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Sleeping Beauty Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of Disneyland and formerly at Hong Kong Disneyland. It is based on the late 19th century Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. It appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures logos from 1985 to 2006 before being merged with Cinderella Castle, both familiar symbols of The Walt Disney Company. The version at Disneyland is the only Disney castle whose construction was overseen by Walt Disney.
The Happiest Homecoming on Earth or the Happiest Celebration on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park, which opened on July 17, 1955. It commemorated fifty years of Disney theme parks and celebrated Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks all over the globe. The "Homecoming" name was only used for Disneyland Resort; all the other Disney Parks resorts used the "Celebration" name.
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Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams was a fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom theme park of Walt Disney World. The show debuted at the park on October 9, 2003, and was developed by Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, under the direction of VP Parades & Spectaculars, Steve Davison, who was assigned to create a replacement for the 32-year-old Fantasy in the Sky fireworks. Several variations of the show at Walt Disney World include Happy HalloWishes during "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party", Holiday Wishes during "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party", and Magic, Music and Mayhem during the 2007 event Disney's Pirate and Princess Party. The multimedia version at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris premiered on July 16, 2005, and had its final show on August 25, 2007. The show at the Magic Kingdom was sponsored by Pandora Jewelry. The show was presented for the last time on May 11, 2017, at the Magic Kingdom Park and was replaced by Happily Ever After in the following day.
Disney Live Entertainment is the theatrical live entertainment production division of Walt Disney Imagineering, the design and development arm of Disney Experiences, a division and business segment of The Walt Disney Company.
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Disney Dreams! was a nighttime spectacular at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. Designed specially for the park's 20th anniversary in 2012, the show originally ran from 1 April 2012 to 24 March 2017, when it was replaced by Disney Illuminations. A revival of the show premiered on 12 April 2023, as part of the park's extended 30th anniversary celebrations, and as part of the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebrations.
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