Fantillusion at Disneyland Paris
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Internet chat rooms have been buzzing for over two years about the transfer of the parade to Disneyland Paris. Most have questioned the fact that the parade has been reduced to fifteen floats. However, the story remains coherent, as each Act unfolds, guests are immersed into the battle against evil. The missing floats are largely repetitive elements within each Act. Several Fairy Garden floats were dropped, leaving Tinkerbell, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy to perform the transformation. Several of the Villains were removed for pacing, in particular the Evil Queen and Chernabog. Although these floats were beautiful in their execution, Maleficent, Jafar and Ursula remain to fight the fairies, heroes and heroines. In the final Act, several members of the Disney royal family are absent, namely Cinderella & Prince Charming and Aurora & Prince Phillip. However, I was puzzled by the choice of characters used, as in the original production, for every Villain there was usually a corresponding hero or heroine from the same story (except for Chernabog). In the Paris production, the Evil Queen is retired, but Snow White keeps her place.
The reduction is due to a host of practical constraints that were imposed on the show producers. Firstly, the floats were in poor condition when they were finally received in Marne la Vallee. All needed substantial repair work to rebuild the floats. Doors and cockpits had to be enlarged to accommodate the larger European operators. All 600 battery systems had to be reconfigured for the 220 volt system used in continental Europe (and the higher electrical standards required by Health and Safety in France) and all 400,000 bulbs replaced due to damage. Even, the entire 60-kilometre network of cabling had to be checked and if necessary, renewed due to large-scale deterioration.
Secondly, Disney’s Fantillusion could only run at the end of the day, when the skies were at least at twilight. This is problematic in Paris, when the sun does not set until beyond 10pm during the summer months. Therefore, running a lengthy parade would mean that park hours would need to be adjusted to cope.
Thirdly, the Disneyland park is structurally different to its Tokyo counterpart. Parades are not capable of running down Main Street U.S.A. towards the Cinderella Castle due to the canopy of the Tokyo equivalent, World Bazaar. Therefore, the parades only loop from Frontierland to Mickey’s Toontown via the castle hub. Guests not experiencing the parade can freely move throughout World Bazaar, Tomorrowland and Adventureland. In Paris, the entire park is split into two halves by any parade. In particular, guests find it difficult to exit the park whilst the nighttime parades are underway. Therefore, running a lengthy parade effects all those guests not interested in the parade itself, leading to frustration and a decrease in guest satisfaction.
Finally, park management could not justify the cost of running the nighttime spectacular in its entirety. Fantillusion in Paris requires 88 performers and dozens more in maintenance, parade control and engineering. The purse strings simply cannot be opened as far as those of Tokyo Disneyland, which attracts over 50% more guests annually and has a guest spend that is over double that of its European cousin.
The music remains as emotive as ever and sounds crisper and in prefect synchrony due to the fact that the Disneyland park has the most complex sound system ever used in a Disney theme park. Bruce Healy recorded the amended soundtrack in Los Angeles with over 100 musicians, singers and actors. This process alone took over eight months to complete.
The process of capturing the parade for Disneyland Resort Paris was arduous, but by the reaction of guests on its debut, it will quickly become a firm favourite and continue to bring new guests to the resort. The alternative would be to simply have scrapped a perfectly conceived presentation. By preserving another piece of Disney history, another generation of guests will be able to join this magical journey. I have always advocated the sharing of parades amongst the four Disney resorts and I just hope that this is the first of many new collaborations.
In the next Disneyland Resort Paris update, we will share the new Tinkerbell’s Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks that immediately follow each performance of Disney’s Fantillusion during the summer season.
A CD featuring the score of Fantilluion and the
Peter Pan-inspired score for the Disneyland fireworks is available at the park.
We also sell it at
The
LaughingPlace Store.
Discuss It
-- Posted July 11, 2003
-- Story and pictures by Lee MacDonald