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In recent years, Disney theme parks have dazzled guests with nighttime spectacles like “World of Color” in California, “Wishes” in Florida, “The Magic, the Memories, and You!” on both coasts and “Fantasmic!” worldwide. But today Disneyland Paris debuted a new show called “Disney Dreams!” that combines the best elements of all of these shows into one elaborate nightly extravaganza featured around the park’s enchanted Sleeping Beauty Castle.
But while all of the above-mentioned older shows are located in one or more United States Disney theme parks, “Disney Dreams!” premiered today for attending media and guests exclusively at Disneyland Paris, with its grand public opening tomorrow, to be performed twice nightly in the coming months. Fortunately, for those of us in the U.S. and elsewhere, Disneyland Paris offered the rest of the world a chance to see the show in its entirety online, in HD, via a video stream. It was billed as a “live” event, but the video offered was pre-recorded, though no less entertaining.
To preserve the moment and mark the debut of this grand new show, I’ve archived that “live” video for your enjoyment now and until you have a chance to see it in person at Disneyland Paris. Watch it below via YouTube and be sure to view it full screen in 1080p HD for the closest experience you’ll get to being there.
Video: Disney Dreams! debut at Disneyland Paris
(Video and content by Disney, via TF1.)
Like “World of Color,” the lead Imagineer behind “Disney Dreams!” is Steve Davison, who holds the exciting title of Creative Director and Vice President, Parades and Spectaculars for Disney. He previously has been Show Director and Art Director for Disneyland, bringing exciting new entertainment to fans for years. His latest show is the culmination of years of achievements, combining high-definition projections, colorful moving water fountains, mist screens, fireworks and other pyrotechnics, and classic Disney animated film clips to create the ultimate Disney-fied experience.
“Disney Dreams!” is part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Disneyland Paris, which also includes a new parade called “Disney Magic on Parade!” featuring all-new floats. But the video above, and the new show itself, should be reason enough to entice you to visit the Paris resort, as it’s certainly one of the most unique, colorful, and exciting shows Disney has produced. (Rumors point to a similar show making its way to the Magic Kingdom in Florida - but don’t count on it any time soon.)
This projection water thing is getting really old and tired. I made it to about the 10 min mark and stopped watching, it’s the same thing over and over and over again. What a huge, HUGE disappointment. Looks like Steve Davidson has run out of ideas maybe he should consider doing something, I don’t know, ORIGINAL.
You couldn’t be more wrong. A tremendous and exquisite achievement all around. Kudos to the creative team.
I wonder if you saw the same show like the rest of us did?
Like 90% of the projections where on the castle , water was just an added effect here and there.
Thanks to amazing projctions on the castle, the added fireworks this show is alot more then just “this projection water thing”.
With the current technologie out there, Dreams is as original as one could get, but hey if you have all the wisdom in pact, let’s hear it then, you make an “original” show and let’s see how far u get then.
Jeeez , it amazes me how some people will never be impressed no matter what.
It may be nothing new for those have been to the American parks but those in paris didnt have anything like this till now. It is also nice to see projections on a castle used properly – I can NOT WAIT until the magic memories and you is FINALLY OVER ! that thing is the tackiest thing going! This actually looks good.
You got one fact about Steve Davidson wrong, he has NEVER been the Art Director of Disneyland.
Then you’d better tell him to change his Linked In profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steven-davison/6/31a/a62
This was absolutely breath taking. I had worried when I started reading about lasers etc in the press releases before hand that the timeless Disney magic could easily get lost behind a mass of lasers and pretty light effects, but this is obviously a work of art and one that Steve Davidson should be extremely proud of. It brought a tear to my eye several times. ‘Wishes’ and ‘TMTMAY’ in WDW holds so many special and dear memories for me that it would be sad to see it leave but if it is replaced by ‘Dreams’ I would be happy… and like you said, its probably going to take some time for it to move to WDW, just think of the new technology that will be around then. Also… Still love the spray curtain projections, it was cleverly and sparingly used in all the right places.
I thought it was really smart to have Peter Pan speaking English yet Wendy speaking french (I know, small little detail in the view of the spectacular show). That way people of both languages knew what was going on whether they knew the other language or not.
I also loved that the story based around Peter Pan — it’s refreshing having a character other than the Fab Five get special attention.
This kind of bilingual dialogue is really common in Disneyland Paris. For example, Mickey often appears with Minnie so that he speaks English and she speaks French. If he’s on his own, though, he’ll usually have some of his lines in both languages.
I’m really surprised by how much English was in that! There was almost no French at all in the second half! But it was such a great show! Though the camera work was a bit annoying in parts of it!
Sorry to have to correct you Joana (and others), but I’m not “more wrong” in my opinion of this show, it is after all, my opinion. I am tired of seeing shows consisting of projections, water fountains, and concluded with fire and fireworks, with all the good characters gleefully cavorting in their vignettete at the beginning and all the villians trying to take over at the end, with some magical poof riding them from the scene for a happy ending. It’s all the same, different configurations. This started with Fantasmic at Disneyland in 1992 and aside from upgraded technology, there is nothing new to be seen, even the promotion art is almost identical to World of Color. Didn’t there used to be facilities called Drive In’s where they projected movies on big screens outdoors?
@Brian,
You’re entitled to your opinion but let it be known that your opinion about this show is more tired than anything related to the story of Disney Dreams. Your analysis of the technology used in this show being the same and unoriginal is completely flawed, like your spelling of Davison. Comparing this show to a drive-in theater is ridiculous! A Drive-in has a rectangular, flat screen; how many drive-ins had complex castles as screens and were projected on all sides of the geometry? I can also tell that you don’t spend much time keeping current on developing art forms otherwise, you’d realize that building projection mapping is one of the most exciting and cutting edge blends of creativity and technology in the art community right now. This is the first time EVER that building projection mapping has been done on multiple sides of a building that is this complex and not a rectangular box. Figuring out how to precisely map and wrap the video across a building like this took many months and is COMPLETELY different than any of the projections that you may have seen on other Disney shows.
Lastly, these shows are not intended to be original new material like one would expect from a feature film. It is intended to be a celebration of all things disney ranging from classic stories and characters to the more contemporary ones. Plus, next time you go to the movies or read a book, try and see if you pick up on how common it is for the storyline of ANY story to include a protagonist, antagonist, a conflict and a resolution.
I am curious though, what would Brian’s spectacular show be like. Which technologies and mediums would you use for your show and what would your “original” disney story be about?
Eric –
I have a friend who is JUST LIKE “Brian”. It’s funny, but I think there is a whole generation of people who were taught to be “Brians” in public school. My friend, “Joe”, has to criticize EVERYTHING — no matter how good it is — because he was taught “to be a critical thinker”. This is how “Joe” gets validation as a person. Imagine the best meal you’ve ever eaten — and if Joe was there, he’d have pointed out there there could have been three different kinds of potatoes instead of only two. Imagine the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen, and Joe would have noted that there were a lot of bugs out that evening. If you took Joe to a hilarious movie, Joe would leave the theater only being able to talk about the people three rows in front of you who were chomping popcorn too loudly. I have spent HOURS trying to figure out why Joe does this, and the end result is that I’ve come to realize that all through public grade and high school Joe was taught by teachers who demanded this sort of behavior from him and his age peers. I went to private school so I never had an experience like this, but Joe told me that teachers always wanted him to pick things apart and say what he didn’t like about them instead of teaching him to look for the things he loved about something. So, he was trained to see the glass half full while also commenting on all the bacteria and germs that were probably in the water. It’s really sad that even while watching a SPECTACULAR show there are Joes and Brians out there who can only see the negative and things they’d improve and miss out on all the wonder and magic. I feel really bad for these people, actually. Life must not be very much fun for them.
I thought this was spectacular. To “Brian” above I have to say that it’s much easier to go through life a critic always raining on parades than it is to be the hardworking and talented people who designed the parade and then artfully staged it. I’ve never seen anything so spectacular in all my life and I am 27 years old! I hope that “Brian” can one day see the magic and artistry that went into this show and maybe then he can appreciate things instead of just complaining about them.
What an absolutely mesmerising, uplifting and moving show!
This show just really ROCKS! It blew me away in so many ways ;
The fantastich musical arangements, the combination of techniques, the original animation created adding to the excisting ones from original Disney movies, the nicely written storyline and the great build up at the end..
I’ve seen Magical in Disneyland and the night time shows in DisneyWorld,
but really , he WOW factor in this one is huge..
And for the people who don;t like it..
well come up with a better concept I’d say or don’t watch it and stop complaining
This redeems Davison for the debacle that is World of Color. Now if we can just replace Illuminations and/or wishes with something equally stunning as Disney Dreams!
Forget the criticisms – this is without any doubt the best sound and light show anywhere in the world
A true delight for the eyes, a magical 20 mins that makes many of the Disneyland Paris customers cry
with joy – I left the show speechless with the complexity and cleverness of the production, worth going to Paris for this alone, do not miss this live