Disney Magical Moments Festival kicks off at Disneyland Paris on April 6.

Here are some fun facts about the new celebration:

Mickey’s Magical Celebration

From conception to realization: fun facts

• First appearance on stage in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle of the Disney Princesses.
• 60 hours of rehearsal are needed for the Disney characters to learn the choreography.
• For the rehearsal, the stage is recreated in its real dimensions in a secret temporary location….!
• 4 entire nights of general rehearsal on stage in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle are needed.

The theme music: fun facts

• The music of « Mickey’s Magical Celebration » show features the musical themes of the biggest Disney movies (Fantasia, Cinderella, Aladdin and Tangled just to name a few) that enchanted our imagination and dreams.
• Vasile Sirli (Music Director) who has created the musical concept, has produced a musical production that pays tribute to famous Disney composers such as the Sherman Brothers, Mack David, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston, Alan Menken but also to European classical composers such as Paul Dukas or Tchaikovsky, who inspired Walt Disney himself.
• From conception to production: approximately 9 months.
• Creation of the concept: 1 month and a few sleepless nights.
• Arrangements: 1 month.
• Orchestration: 1 month.
• 135,000 notes of music, give or take a few.
• Around 95 kg of sheet music for an 78-piece orchestra.
• Orchestra: “The Budapest Pop Orchestra”.
• Special instruments: Hungarian hurdy-gurdy, Bodhran and Irish flutes.
• 41 recording hours with the orchestra.
• 8 recording hours with the choir.
• Character voice recorded in France (Le Studio – Marne la Vallée at Disneyland Paris) and the United States.
• These recordings represent approximately 60 GB of hard drive capacity, or the equivalent of several kilometres of tape.
• These recordings correspond to around 130 different musical tracks.
• 2 weeks of music mixing.
• 4 weeks of post-production.
• 3 days of performance mixing on location at night.
• Mixing done in France (Le Studio – Marne la Vallée at Disneyland Paris).

Costuming: fun facts

Fun facts about “Costuming” in general:

• The biggest “Costuming” of Europe with a team of 10 costume designers who mainly take care of the conception of costumes, 45 persons who dedicate themselves to their manufacturing and maintenance
• Several millions of costume pieces are housed at Disneyland Paris, with around 50,000 complete show costumes.
• Disneyland Paris has it own Costuming workshop with 45 persons working 7/7 days.
• 58,000 working hours a year
• Maintenance work on costumes (main activity of the Costuming workshop) at the level of 45 % of time. Daily work made to assure a high quality of the products taken out in the Disneyland Paris Resort (Parks, hotels, Disney Village). The rest of the time being dedicated to the realization of new costumes
• Creation and manufacturing of costumes, hats and accessories: between 3,000 to 4,000 pieces are created a year
• 650 boxes filled with notions (buttons, etc.)
• 15,000 m of stripe with 500 different colours
• 100,000 buttons
• 300 varieties of paste and glitter
• 25,000 m of fabrics in stock with 1 500 different colors
• 500 different feathers are used

30 new costumes have been specially designed for the occasion:

Mickey Sorcerer costume: has dozens of meters of silky red embroidered velvet specially made in Lyon. Dozens of stars have been hand sewn on the costumes and hats. And they took three weeks to make.

Merlin costume: embroidered fabric from Lyon with sparkling violet lame gives a bright and magical effect.

Ariel costume: a new ball gown for Ariel, inspired by the sea and printed with starfish, coral patterns. This traditional crinoline dress has 2 over-skirts, one in rich brocade, the other in luminous embroidered crystal organza.

Rapunzel costume: a new dress has been created for Rapunzel based on the magic flower from the film with 2 underskirts and two overskirts in contrasting shades.

Prince Eric & Flynn Rider costumes: the costumes have been tailored by professional men’s tailors to be elegant and easy to move in. The epaulettes of Prince Eric costume were made by a specialist who also works for the military making dress uniforms. A Disney touch has of course been added!

Hundreds of working hours have been consecrated on the design and production of these beautiful new costumes.

Moteurs… Action ! Stunt Show Spectacular featuring Lightning McQueen!⁽¹⁾

(1) Inspired by Disney•Pixar’s Cars

The Stunt Show Spectacular is a one-off attraction, exclusive to the Walt Disney Studios Park. Since opening, a similar version of the show opened in Walt Disney World in Florida.

Disney Imagineers drew their inspiration for the Mediterranean town from villages in the south of France, scouting many places on the French Riviera.

The term “imagineer”, invented by Walt Disney, is a contraction of the words “imagination” and “engineer”.  Imagineers come from numerous and varied walks of life to transform the dream into reality. They have been designing and building Disney theme Parks since 1952.

Since its opening in 2002, 27 millions guests have seen the show. It is about 9,000 live shows on the Stunt Show Stage.

The drivers from the motor sport world were recruited for the spectacle, and each followed intensive stunt training classes.

Fun facts related to Lightning McQueen

• The most exciting automobile stunt show (Walt Disney Studios Park) welcomes Lightning McQueen before its future comeback in  theaters in summer 2011 for new adventures in Disney Disney•Pixar Cars 2.
• The scene with Lightning McQueen is approximately 4 minutes.
• The vehicle is an “environmentally friendly” car equipped with an electrical motor but sounds like a V8 engine.
• Battery: 6 units of 120 Kg
• The car manufacturer (Montargis (France), around 140km south of Paris) designs and builds cars for famous race teams.
• Lightning McQueen is also racing adventures in Cars Quatre Roues Rallye (Cars Race Rally) inspired by Disney•Pixar’s Cars, an immersion in the incredible world of the first Cars-inspired attraction to a Disney Park.
• At the entrance of Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe, a drive-in theatre screen permanently displays Lightning McQueen & Sally, heroes of Disney•Pixar film Cars.

Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade with interactive show stops

Guests will join the Parade to share with our performers an interactive magical moment on stage. They will be invited to dance and share funny instruments and props. 2,050 working hours have been needed to create all the props for the shows (including prototypes, tests and final conception):

Props are mainly made in “plastazote” (polyethylene block foam material):

- 200 plates of different thickness

- 150 liters of paint, primer and varnish

- 20 liters of special glue for joining the foam

- 50m² of wooden boards

On a parade, there are 500 different costumes and 500 pairs of shoes (500 costumes = 2,000 costume pieces)

Costuming fun facts

Costumes already exist for most of the performers but new costumes have been designed:

« Dreams of Fantasy » float : 44 000 buttons have been sewn on the costumes for « Pearly Kings » and « Pearly Queens » inspired from London’s famous East End historical characters.

« Dreams of Adventure » float: sand and clay colors to materialize the rhino and buffalo costumes.  Silks have been especially tinted.  A selection of about 500 stones has been used for the necklaces.

The hats have been designed by a Parisian hat designer.

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