Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be traveling to Paris and going all the way back to the times when the park was known as Euro Disneyland.
Last week, Disneyland Paris debuted a new look that Minnie Mouse would be sporting for the resort’s 30th anniversary celebration. The outfit sparked quite the controversy with some groups feeling that it made Minnie too “progressive,” but personally I think she looks great. The outfit itself is very stylish and has a pretty cool color scheme. I’m very excited to get to see pictures of the walkaround character when she debuts in March.
The Walt Disney Company is doing a great job in today’s day and age to try and keep with the times to keep their characters feeling relevant and equivalent with today’s societal norms, but that wasn’t always the case as today’s attractions featured some moments that look particularly questionable in today’s climate.
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Euro Disneyland opened April 12, 1992 to … let’s just say, subpar reviews. Attendance was low and the park simply didn’t quite work for European audiences at first because the park was more beautiful and austere, though it lacked some of the Disney charm that we’ve come to expect from Disney Parks around the world. However, there were a few quintessentially Disney attractions in the park, especially in Fantasyland with one of the most blatant being C’est Magique.
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Opening with the park, C’est Magique was the first show to call the Fantasyland Festival Stage home, and it was the perfect show to be a part of the Opening Day lineup because the show was basically a journey around the park with each land represented by a few songs and character appearances, though some of the choices that they made in terms of that were iffy to say the least.
The show began with a song all about Euro Disneyland that I have to admit, was extremely catchy. It was just one of those classic Disney songs that just gets locked into your brain and you can’t get it out, even with the irony of the song being all about Euro Disneyland.
Following the opening, we moved over to Main Street with the classic “I’m Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street” being the prominent song featured in the segment. Character-wise, the only one who got to be a part of the party was Mickey Mouse, who did a little number for guests at the end of the bit.
Now, Frontierland is where things got a bit dicey, though everything started off alright with Goofy and some cowboys doing a fun dance. But then Chip and Dale showed up dressed in traditional Native American garb and began doing some war chants. It was something that would certainly never be a part of a show today and it’s honestly a bit astounding that the show even included it then.
After that though, the show redeemed itself in a way with a hauntingly beautiful scene between the Phantom and his bride. I love that they included a character from an original attraction as a walkaround character and then that the scene was simply entrancing to watch easily made the scene my favorite of the show. But then the show was back to cringe with a whole song praising living in Dixie.
And to make matters worse, the show then jumped to Adventureland and a dance number with some Arabic stereotypes in it before King Louie came out to try and counterbalance it. It was almost like they knew something was a bit messed up with what they were doing, so they tried to balance it with some doses of Disney magic.
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The penultimate land represented was Tomorrowland which didn’t have too many characters in it, but it did have a very cool sci-fi-type song in it that was again really catchy. If there was one thing that this show did right, it had to be that it put together an awesome grouping of songs that all got stuck in your head simultaneously somehow.
The final land represented in the show was Fantasyland and man did they go all out for the end of the show. We got to see Mickey and Minnie dressed as royalty while “Once Upon a Dream” played before an it’s a small world bit of representation. Next up was Dopey doing a rendition of “Heigh Ho” followed up by the White Rabbit dancing around and singing “I’m late.” Our last two songs before the finale number were Pinocchio singing “I’ve Got No Strings” and “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” featuring B’rer Bear. Then, to close out the show, we got “When You Wish Upon a Star” to try and spur on all the criers in the audience.
All in all, there were definitely some fun elements to the show, but ultimately some of those outdated cultural depictions made it hard to completely stomach. The show only lasted a couple of years, closing in 1994, and ultimately being replaced by En Scène, s’il vous plaît, which I have not seen, but was hopefully much more palatable to modern audiences.
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As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!