From the early scarecrows to the all-conquering Pumpkin Men, where does the fiendish madness of Halloween at Disneyland Paris come from? For the most part – from the mind of Jérôme Picoche!

Jérémie Noyer takes us into his world, to discover the story behind what has always been a very different, yet still very Disney, Halloween festival…

You’ve created all of the designs of Disneyland Paris’ Halloween Festival from its beginning. Can you tell me about the history of the Festival?

There were a lot of different periods, but Halloween has always been based on the idea of integrating stories into the park. The two first years, we created characters that were scarecrows. There were different kinds of characters that visited the park and were transformed into scarecrows. It was very small at the time since it took place in the area of Cottonwood Creek Ranch in Frontierland. Then, we expanded it and we moved to a “mummy” concept, with bandages and the haunted cruise.

From that approach that was both more classical and scary, we decided to make the concept evolve and we came to something funnier. That’s when we created the characters of the Pumpkin Men, that were a great way of having more fun with Halloween. For instance, orange paint was spread over Main Street and Frontierland somehow like children would have done it. But it could be at the same time a kind of a satiric interpretation of gore films… yet in orange! There’s always different possible readings, different possible interpretations.

Then, we imagined that rivalry between Pumpkin Men and Pink Witches. Meanwhile, guest were asking for Disney Characters to come back (like Stitch, for instance). Therefore, certain Disney Characters joined the party. That’s how we’ve come to work now with Jack Skellington and Sally, from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

What kind of Halloween tradition do you refer to?

Even if Halloween has a “festival of death” angle, we’ve always preferred the more traditional kind of carnival, festive aspect to it. That was the time of the end of harvests and people were celebrating before winter. Except for the period when we focused on mummies, we’ve never played on the scary side of it. That’s something cinema has been playing with fully and we always want to propose our guests something different. After all, isn’t Disneyland Paris definitely about fun!

Do you draw some of your inspiration from other Disney parks, like Tokyo Disneyland?

No. The design of Halloween at Disneyland Paris is all original.

What are your sources of inspiration?

Regarding the Disney Characters, we can’t vary very much since we have to respect their original appearance. To the contrary, for the Pumpkin Men, we had carte blanche since the characters didn’t exist before. That was interesting to create a character from scratch… and have it be so successful that Florida asked him over!

Considering all this, our only guide for Halloween is just making fun of it, to allow ourselves to do something completely different from what we do the rest of the year, to make the period even more original!

How do you work with Emmanuel Lenormand, the Show Director of the Halloween Festival?

First of all, we collaborate on the stage shows. Here, the work is pretty classical, just like any director would work with his decorator. Emmanuel gets an idea of a show, of a theme, and from that thematic idea, I develop the setting and the ambiance that fits it.

For example, for the Trick and Treat Stage of the Disney Witches show, I imagined that a troupe of gypsies or a touring theatre would have landed in Frontierland. They would have built a stage simply made out of just what they had with them: a canvas for the background and some accessories for the stage.

I did that because I wanted it to feel authentic within the park, respecting the story of Frontierland. I always make sure that my designs get fully integrated within the park, it’s a very detailed environment of sophisticated architecture and themes.

Concerning the design of places like Main Street or Halloweenland, what kind of tools do you use to conceive the different ambiances?

I imagine a model in my head and then I, when the idea is clear and after a series of early sketches, I draw it with a pencil. That proved to be the most efficient tool I’ve ever used! I draw several drawings. One with which I show the general ambiance with different elements, then, progressively, I get into the details. After being green-lit from the technical and budgetary point of view, each element is then drawn from every angle so that I can give the plans to different workshops that are going to make them for real.

How are all the elements made, then?

Here, at Disneyland Paris, he have one workshop in charge of restoring and refurbishing the elements we already have. For the new ones, we deal with exterior workshops. Most of the decorations are built in Holland, Belgium, Germany and France. We also have a lot of stability and security requirements. So, there has to be metallic structures within all these elements which have to be engineered.

Then, all is ready to be set in the park.

That takes place during the night. The different elements arrive in different places in the park, from Frontierland to Town Square. That demands weeks to build and set everything, from the closure of the park to 7 in the morning, so that everything is cleaned up for the opening.

Before all that, I have to decide on an installation plan to make sure everything is set at the right place. But I also take part in the building on site since there can be differences between the ideas we have on paper and reality. I can change my mind and get a better idea on site. That’s the fun of it!

About how many drawings does an event like Halloween demand?

It can go up to a hundred!

Considering the ever-growing success of the Halloween Festival, it seems that it’s worth the effort!

When I see our guests taking pictures of their families and friends at the photo locations we created, I feel that they have real fun. Seeing that, I’m happy, since from my side, I had great fun drawing them, too!