They’ve landed! Since 2nd April 2010, the two parks of Disneyland Paris have seen the latest and greatest Disney characters thrust into the spotlight, parachuting into brand new shows, parade scenes and even attractions.

Planning headline events to span an entire year and firmly make at home a new century’s characters in the landscape of the Magic Kingdom is all in a day’s work for Kat de Blois, Creative Director of Disneyland Paris Entertainment…

Now Mickey’s Magical Party is over, what do you take from it?

That was really… magical. We created no less than eight different exciting projects. That represented a huge amount of work and was an opportunity for us to look to consultants from all over the world. That was very enriching. And who better than Mickey to create a party that big ?

How did you come to the idea of the New Generation Festival?

We wanted to associate all the new characters the Disney Studios have developed for the last 10 years or so with the concept of “festival”. That came out of Blue-Sky discussions we had, going outside — like in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant — in order to dream of what new things we could do to celebrate, translate and give life to those beautiful movies throughout our parks and through our interactivities with our guests.

The artists at the Walt Disney Studios have created all kinds of wonderful worlds and our task is to make them come true, make them real. The term “festival” was also very inspirational to us. For centuries, Europe has been animated by all kinds of festivals, celebrating in the streets the culture of each country and each people. We wanted to celebrate in the same spirit our stories and characters.

How did you select the Disney Characters that would be the stars of the New Generation Festival?

We chose them according to the spirit we wanted to give the Festival. Take the Incredibles, for instance. They’re superheros, yet, at the same time, they’re average people living a normal life like you and me. In a way, they show us that everybody can be a superhero. And the link between all these new characters and the classic ones is, obviously, Mickey Mouse and his friends, because, as you know it, “it all started with a mouse !”. They’ve met the new characters during the Festival and they want to share that experience with us! That way, we wanted our Festival to be about another kind of bond: friendship. It shows through the presence of Lilo and her unexpected friendship with Stitch, an alien from outer space. In the same way, there’s the friendship between little Boo and big Sulli from Monsters, Inc.

You’re talking about the brand new Disneyland Park show, Disney Showtime Spectacular.

Exactly. That was the occasion for us to gather Disney Characters that we weren’t used to meeting in our parks. I was mentioning Boo, but there’s also Mike Wazowski, and Angel, Stitch’s new girlfriend. From the creative point of view, that was a true challenge to associate, for instance, the universe of Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, to the one of Mickey and friends, and to conceive production numbers that would allow you to really dive into these universes in less than 2 minutes. In order to do that, our dancers can draw from some “toy chests” located on stage in which they can find new accessories to transform themselves and accompany Mickey and friends in each tableau.

We also worked a lot on the soundtrack. We looked to scores that don’t necessary come from the realm of musicals. Composers like Alan Menken or Phil Collins have written themes that are perfect for the stage. But that’s more difficult when dealing with music taken from, say, Toy Story, since that kind of music doesn’t form part of the action. It rather accompanies it. So, we had to make those titles danceable and singable. In order to do so, we used a process called “routining”. That means that we go to the studio with the musical director. We are all there, standing and listening to, say, five bars of pre-recorded music, and we’re experimenting movements according to the different musical accents of the score.

For this show, we rediscover the stage built last year for It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends. What did you use from that experience?

It’s true that it’s always nice to work with a stage you know, and we wanted to enhance that 360° aspect in creating a kind of “ambulatory” experience. That means that, since the audience is not sitting like in an indoor theater, they can follow our show in circulating around the stage. They can choose a Disney Character or a family in particular and really follow all their movements on stage. Because of its very specific nature, that stage invites you to a certain interactivity and lets you feel free to choose what you want to see, when you want to see it. With that spirit, we worked on the timing, on the lifts, the stairs and the effects to bring an even better visibility than last year, taking our inspiration from the reaction of the audiences that we were able to observe during last year. That helped us a lot to stage that new show.

There was a great deal of work on the costumes, I think.

Imagine it, for each tableau, Mickey is dressed specifically to fit each and every universe we’re going through. He goes from Green Soldier from Toy Story to a Hawaiian shirt for Lilo & Stitch, to a chef’s suit for Ratatouille and a Dixieland shirt for Princess and the Frog. We also worked on the dancers’ costumes, with, in addition to the various accessories they get, t-shirts on which they can stick all kinds of things like badges. That way, the audience can really feel the passage from one world to the other since they can see the changes on stage, literally in front of them. That was a great challenge for Sue Lecash and her team to conceive those kinds of clothes and find fabrics that remain colourful no matter the weather, to make all these universes really come to life.

How did you adapt the concept of the New Generation Festival according to the different stories that the Disney parks tell, be it Disneyland Park or Walt Disney Studios Park?

The idea is that all the characters of the New Generation come to Disneyland Paris, but, of course, not all in the same place. They just got parachuted right in the middle of our usual activities. Thus, when attending Stars’n’ Cars, a cavalcade in which the cars are the stars, you’ll discover a brand new car, just like a moving kitchen for Remy from Ratatouille. And that’s another occasion for a new production number à la Busby Berkeley on Place des Stars!

Now, from the Disney Princess side, Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade was the perfect place to welcome Tiana, and more particularly the last unit, devoted to the Dreams of Romance, that ends the parade with a magical garden where you can retrieve all your favorite Disney Princesses with their Princes. It was natural to meet Tiana there, accompanied by Naveen, as a touch of New Orleans was added to the score of the parade. As for Disney All Stars Express, that presents all of our families of Disney Characters, we set one car for the new generation, in addition to the one of the Disney VIPs, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale and the others, and to the one of the classic Disney Characters –a new meeting between generations.

Finally, we imagined Monsters Inc. Scream Academy, a place to meet and greet Sulley, shake hands with him, take pictures with him, but also try his Scream-o-Meter –a concept that perfectly fits the story of the park dedicated to sound and special effects- and get a special badge “I screamed with Sulley!”.

All these events are perfectly connected to the attractions of the parks, right up to the much-anticipated Toy Story Playland at Walt Disney Studios park.

You know, we are one big, happy Disney family. We always work in close collaboration with our Imagineers, but also with our friends from the Food and Beverage departments like Restaurant des Stars with Rémy and Buzz Lightyear’s Pizza Planet Restaurant. There’s always a way to partner with all the divisions and departments of Disney since everybody wants to take part in the celebration.

What is your favorite event in the New Generation Festival?

I’ve been dreaming of that for years: having a Cancan on the music by Offenbach in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant!! We thus conceived a burlesque Cancan with giant vegetables surrounding Remy and Emile, the kings of French gastronomie in Ratatouille. The cooks are then panicking, trying to manage everything at the same time; dance the French Cancan and cook! That was really fun to produce! And each time I see that number, I feel goosebumps!

The New Generation Festival began a few weeks ago. What are the first reactions you’ve seen?

We’ve already received interesting feedback. Our guests love that idea of integrating a new generation of stories, characters and music. It’s a celebration that will be held for the next ten months and that will allow you, going from one park to the other, to enjoy different, unheard-of and exciting new experiences!

Talking of the New Generation, it’s also about sharing between generations. Our Festival is for the whole family, from kids to grandparents. Everyone has a favorite character and we imagined a festival where the little ones would introduce their grandfather to Buzz Lightyear, whereas the grandfathers would tell them about Peter Pan, who is as good at flying! In associating now new Disney Characters to our parks, the Festival gathers all those stories coming from different times, for the fun of the whole family. In that, we are true to Walt Disney’s first ambition for Disneyland: creating a theme park where all the generations could, together, have fun and share some very special times.