Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be traveling to the closest Hundred Acres Wood to its origin, at least Disney Park-wise.
Over the past few weeks, the talk of the Disney sphere has been the opening of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, with media previews last week and the first cruise launching this past Tuesday, March 1st. Though it is quite pricey, it seems like everyone who is experiencing it is having a fantastic time and though I don’t think I’ll be getting to it in the near future, I am excited to one day get the chance to take it all in.
With the first one complete, the question is will we get anything of this scope in the future at another Disney Park. Right now, Disneyland is the only other park with a Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and there is nowhere near enough room on the property to create an entire Star Wars hotel. With that in mind, my guess would be that the next Starcruiser will be built at Disneyland Paris where there is a bit more space (though not a ton) as a part of the expansion planned at Walt Disney Studios Park. Things seem to have stagnated there, but a version of Batuu was planned for the park, so why not build the Starcruiser there while you’re at it?
But today’s story actually begins before Disneyland Paris’ sister park was even announced at the prime location, right near the castle.
Via DLP Guide
Disneyland Paris’ early years were filled with financial strife, so they were pretty much always looking for little things that they could add into the park to help boost attendance and give guests some more things to do. One area that they kept changing was the show playing at Le Theatre de Château, aka The Castle Stage. In the six years before today’s attraction debuted, The Magic Lamp Game Show and Mickey’s Magic Book graced the theater before today’s star, Winnie the Pooh and Friends, too! took up residence on the side stage in 1998.
The show would play during the summer and at holiday times like Halloween and Christmas, which is pretty commonplace for shows in Paris. It can get pretty dang cold during winters in Paris, so there are a good amount of seasonal attractions, particularly shows that lack heating capability. The show stuck around at that theater until 2005 when it closed to make way for Snow White: Happily Ever After.
Luckily, the show was simply moved over to the Fantasy Festival Stage at the back of Fantasyland, right in front of the train station, replacing En Scène, S’il Vous Plaît. Videos from both locations are linked above, so you get the chance to choose which background you’d rather see in the show.
Personally, I watched the Fantasy Festival Stage that began in 2006, and I thought that the show was really cute and fun. I loved that all the characters were walkaround characters with the exception of Gopher and Roo, both of him were puppets. It really gave the characters the chance to come to life and interact with each other in a more natural way since Christopher Robin was there, but he was a pretty much nonexistent part of the experience.
Via Disney Wiki
It was pretty cool getting to see this show from the perspective of an English speaker because the show used the classic Parisian tactic of Fringlish, aka half of the characters speaking English and half speaking French. But what made things even better was that they didn’t just talk in Fringlish, they also sang in it, making each song a bit more exciting because of the different French lyrics.
The whole show was basically a medley of all the famous Winnie the Pooh songs and honestly, I really couldn’t ask for much more than that. The Sherman Brothers’ classics were all so catchy and fun and it made watching the show just a feel-good moment. And there was even a little costume addition during the Tigger song, which I had never seen occur in a show with walkaround characters before. Just all in all, the show was a perfect diversion during a long day in the park, complete with some little changes they made during the Christmas season to spice up the show.
The show ultimately closed in 2011 and served as the final show at the Fantasy Festival Stage, which transitioned into a Mickey Mouse Meet and Greet, which it still is today. I can’t blame them for switching to a permanent home for Mickey, but it’s sad that there really isn’t any Winnie the Pooh representation at that park anymore. But alls well that ends well.
Via Amino Apps
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!