From the nostalgic return of the much-loved Tree Lighting Ceremony to a brand new sleigh for Santa Claus, Jérémie Noyer meets the man behind the holiday magic, Christophe Leclercq, who acts as Show Director for the entire season of events…

The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony is back on Town Square!

This year, we want to come back to a more basic concept and above all, more intimate. That’s the reason why we’ve developed this new ceremony in front of the Christmas Tree.

Now we’ve got three key events within the day. Several times a day, we’ve got simultaneously the illumination of the lamps, the fall of the snow on Main Street to the sound of Ring the Bells and passing by, Disney’s Once Upon A Dream Parade and Minnie’s Party Train. Then at the end of the day, we’ve got this Tree Lighting Ceremony in front of the tree, and later on, a ceremony on Central Plaza Stage for the illumination of the Crystal Palace.

With the return of the Tree Lighting Ceremony on Town Square, it brings back much nostalgia of the early Christmas seasons at Disneyland Paris!

I was nostalgic myself! It’s true that this Victorian square is very beautiful and that the Tree fits perfectly, it looks so beautiful here.

What does the new Tree Lighting Ceremony consist of?

The basic idea is to ask a child to take part in the illumination of the tree. For this, we use a removable stage we decorate for the occasion. It enters the Park and comes to a stop before the tree, to the sound of a Christmas medley composed of Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, Petit Papa Noël and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

On the float, we see our favourite characters: Mickey & Minnie, Chip & Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Daisy, all dressed in white and red Christmas outfits, as well as Tifil, Santa Claus’ assistant. This character has gathered all the letters for Santa Claus in a big red velvet bag, all the letters posted by children since that morning at the Santa Claus Post Office in Frontierland.

Tifil therefore comes to celebrate Christmas before the letters are flown off to the North Pole, and brings the illumination of the tree to life as Master of Ceremonies. He explains that he needs help to spark the illumination because fireflies locked in a magical book, which is on the float, must be freed. Only the hand of a child can open this book.

So a child will be chosen in the audience and he or she will be able to open the book, releasing a special lighting effect all around.

A very original lighting effect, indeed!

It’s a really new lighting concept. All the secrets lie in the opening of the book, which will at the same time release the start of the fireflies and all sorts of flashes around the child and the book. This is also decorated with mirrors to help the effect, creating this feeling of lights coming from all angles. And from there, the fireflies join the tree and begin to illuminate it.

As a finale, the lampposts lining Main Street are lit all at once, creating a kind of magical path as far as the Castle, which is not yet illuminated…

That’ll happen at the end of the last performance of It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends each day?

Absolutely. It’s the same show, except for the fact that, after Peter Pan’s number, Mickey’s magic formula “Miska Mouska Mickey Mouse” now releases sparkling fireflies not only on his suit but all around the stage and on the Castle.

From these, Tinker Bell appears, linked to Peter Pan who just preceded her, spreading her Pixie Dust on the castle which then illuminates fully, before the show ends with the “Mickey Dance”. This means that, for the finale of the Mickey Dance, we’ve got a sublime castle behind this stage full of singers and dancers, which itself will dance in lights to the same rhythm.

The other event is the new float for Santa Claus, to bring together the Dreams of Christmas section of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade.

It’s a brand new sleigh pulled by reindeer, designed by Jerome Picoche, which gives the impression of it flying above the clouds…

From now on, you’ll be able to see it at the end of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade every day during the Christmas season. I hope that, like me, you’ll love it too!

A show full of heart and bursting with energy, it was show director Christophe Leclercq who was tasked with bringing this centrepiece event to life. So, It’s Interview Time… with our host Jérémie Noyer!

How did you conceive It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends?

We knew we needed an overture, a prologue, interactive moments and a finale with a play-off. From this, we looked to how to give life and energy to that structure. Considering the number of dancers we have, we thought it would be great if they’d arrive on stage first. However, we later changed this, and it’s now the hosts who arrive first and introduce the dancers.

After that, we needed a magical moment for Mickey to appear. We chose to wait a little before having him magically appear on stage, so that we could warm the audience up to welcome him in the most exciting way. That’s our overture.

Now, once our star, Mickey, the dancers and the hosts were gathered on stage, we were ready for the prologue, an introductory production number. That was the time to invite the other Disney Characters to come along. To do that, we drew our inspiration from the logo of Mickey’s Magical Party, which features Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Donald. For that reason, we thought it would be best if these Characters were the first to join Mickey.

From here, we had four Disney Characters, each on one of the four satellites of the stage, with dancers and one host: now everything was set to invite the rest of the cast, that is Mickey’s other friends: Baloo, Tigger, Timon and Peter Pan & Wendy. For this, we use the lift incorporated within this magical stage, to allow the Characters to arrive completely by surprise.

So, briefly, we started with a classical structure that we plussed along the way to fit the story we wanted to tell.

How did you choose which of Mickey’s friends would participate to the show?

We made the decision rather soon to ask Goofy, Donald and Pluto to take part, to echo the Mickey’s Magical Party logo already designed. Then, the choice of the other Characters was mainly motivated by the music. We needed each Character to be interesting musically.

For instance, children love Baloo, who is inseparable from his song, The Bare Necessities. The same goes for Timon and Hakuna Matata, which is an instant winner. With Tigger, we have “bouncing” songs, perfect to bring energy and fun to the show, whereas Winnie the Pooh’s songs would be too soft.

Finally, I hesitated a lot between Alice and Peter Pan. Actually, in the park, Princesses are very much present, much to the delight of little girls. So instead, I turned to a Character that boys could identify with – Peter Pan – and, in associating him with Wendy, little girls wouldn’t be forgotten either. I also loved the idea that both Characters can fly and I represented that in the choreography.

As you described, the soundtrack of It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends strongly follows the energy and storyline of the show. How did you find collaborating with Musical Director Vasile Sirli?

The challenge was that both the writing of the show script and the writing of the score had to be done in parallel. We had long talks, long meetings, listening to demos, in order to find a satisfying way to tell our story. We needed it to be very energetic all the way through.

It was the music, thanks to Vasile’s demos, which helped us to choose the appearance order of the different Characters. At the beginning, we were set on starting with Peter Pan and finishing with Timon. But it was musically more interesting to start with Baloo and Tigger and to finish with Peter Pan. This also fit much better the musical cue that would follow, for the finale.

How did you come to create and use the Mickey’s Magical Party Time song by Scott Erickson, which can be heard several times during the show?

The first time I heard it, it was at the demo stage and I said: “That’s what I want! That’s what I need for the show!” From this, the decision was made to hire Scott on the project and have him write the lyrics and transform his demo into a fully-produced original song.

The final product is the result of an intense collaboration between Scott, Vasile and Creative Director Kat de Blois.

For the first time, you looked to a writer to help you on the show script.

Absolutely. I worked with Paul Scherer, who is a British actor, singer and scriptwriter. He helped me a lot through both the exchanging of ideas and the writing – and re-writing – of the script each time a new idea would come up.

It’s always very difficult to put on paper an idea you have in your head and in your heart, and he helped me clarify some of the ideas which came out of my imagination. He brought a more dramatic, theatrical approach to the script, as I’m rather “concert” oriented, driven by the music. It was a superb collaboration!

Can you tell me about that amazing stage built in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant?

It was designed before the creation of the production itself and my job was therefore to create a show for it. What was very important to me was to have the two lifts. They were merely suggested at the beginning, but I insisted a lot for them to become a reality.

Mickey’s lift was crucial because it is the one that brings the magic on stage, allowing Mickey to appear. As for the second one, which lifts the podiums on stage, it was also necessary since the whole show script was conceived around it.

How did the stage influence the way you directed the show?

The challenge was to create a show visible through 360 degrees. When you’re in a theatre, there’s always a backdrop and the side wings to get in and out. Here, we had a great backdrop – the castle – but no wings. From the moment the artists arrive on stage, they stay there. I therefore had to keep them active so that the visual is always interesting. And, since they have no focus – which means they don’t have one audience directly in front of them like in a traditional theatre like The Chaparral Theater or Videopolis – we had to imagine our choreographies “in circle”.

We don’t have one but four main focuses: Main Street, the Castle, Discoveryland and Adventureland/Frontierland. Knowing that, between the satellites, there are even more focuses. It’s 360 degrees, all around! You have to always keep in mind that the Disney Characters, the dancers and the hosts must dance for everybody. Wherever you are in the audience, you always see artists facing you. The whole choreography and the staging were conditioned by that really gigantic and wide stage.

Because the idea was always to have a big central stage, with machinery, bridges and satellites allowing the Disney Characters, dancers and hosts to get closer to the audience, that demanded a lot of thinking and a lot of work in the staging.

We ended up with up to 36 different versions of the script. With 33 artists on stage, if you have someone move, you’ve got to move everybody else to keep the balance. Hence the whole staging is based on lines, crossing lines and English chains. That’s very complex!

How did you visualize those moves, when you were initially planning the show?

Everything was drawn by hand on boards representing a bird-eye view of the stage. With Choreographer and Junior Show Director Françoise Baffioni, we drew crosses and circles for the dancers, and wrote names for the Characters.

According to the musical structure, we drew a board for each important moment of the soundtrack. And, since we wanted everything to move all the time, using the whole scenic space, we drew all the movements by hand on dozens of boards.

Where did you find the space for rehearsals?

We rehearsed at Disney Village, in the Dome. We had some marquees on the ground identical to the actual stage so that we could avoid surprises when we would transpose our work into the park. That proved really helpful since, for our first rehearsal in the park, almost everything worked and we had to make just very few adjustments.

You said how inspirational the logo of Mickey’s Magical Party was for you in the choice of the Characters. Are there any other elements of the decoration of the park that inspired you?

At one moment, in the Prologue, there is a ballet with ribbons. That idea was inspired by an original concept for the decoration of the lampposts in Main Street USA, which was later abandoned. You can still find that general idea nevertheless on other decorations like the ones on the castle.

It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends is based on an alternation of production numbers and interactive moments. How did you find the right balance between these?

Interactivity is a crucial feature in the concept of Mickey’s Magical Party. Yet, at the same time, we have an impressive cast of dancers on stage. So, with Françoise, we said that we had to give the dancers some true work to do, interesting things to perform. That’s the reason why you have both complex ballets and more simple moves for the audience to dance along to.

Though we know the European audience is more reluctant to dance that the American audience, there are always groups of people who join the party and dance. But, at the same time, I made the show as visually interesting as possible so that people who don’t want to dance can enjoy it because of the Characters, of the beautiful costumes, the music, the choreographies, the dancers and the hosts.

What is your best memory of the production process?

The day the cast arrived in the studio for the presentation of the concept through boards and demos (since the soundtrack wasn’t ready yet). Meeting all these artists we had auditioned all over the world was really something. Imagine it, we have dancers from seven different countries: France, England, USA, Italy, Spain, Poland and Greece.

At the beginning, in our casting office, we just had photos of the dancers and the MCs, and this day everybody was finally here, it was big! There were 90 people in the studio, and they all liked the concept. After that, rehearsals went smoothly, without any stress. Everything was so well-prepared that despite the amount of people to manage, it was a pleasure!

Another memory was the day the stage was completed. It was Saturday morning. I had the day off and I received a photo of the stage on my Blackberry from the Production Manager. I immediately took my car and got to the park because I wanted to see the completed stage with the castle behind so much.

I had followed the whole building process, but from behind the construction walls. Now, I could see the whole place opened out, with all the flowers planted by our Landscaping department. That was a very moving moment – and a scary one, too, because it was huge and I could see the amount of work which still waited!

Just like Candleabration became the Enchanted Candleabration for Christmas, do you think the show will be adapted to the different seasons of the park?

Nothing’s set yet. But I’ve already decided that Mickey should wish a merry Christmas and a happy new year during the Christmas season. That said, I can imagine an enchanting finale with the whole cast for the illumination of the Crystal Castle, taking advantage of all these brilliant artists to create a brand new spectacle for Christmas!

But, behind the swirling snow and sparkling costumes, the glittering lights and colourful treats, who’s the one organising this festive Disney season, the largest of all the Disney resorts?

Step up director Christophe Leclercq, whom our host Jérémie Noyer met with to unwrap all the news and events of this year’s season…

Among all the events and shows you’re directing this Christmas, which is the one you’d like to begin this interview with, the one you care about the most?

I think the big event of this Christmas season would be the new Christmas setting of Woody’s Roundup Village, becoming Santa Claus’ Village.

Last year’s setting was a test and that experiment convinced us that it was there that Santa Claus had to be, that it was on this place that we had to focus. For many Christmas seasons, The Chaparral Theater, just across the way, has been decorated in a mountain and snowy fashion to match the ambiance of Mickey’s Winter Wonderland, so, it was natural to echo this atmosphere in our setting.

Now, you’ll rediscover elements you enjoyed last year, like the interior of Santa’s cabin, with the fireplace, the chair and the telephone, along with the Elves’ workshop in the second cabin. Yet, this year, I wanted us to change the layout of the visit. This year, guest will enter via what used to be the exit. On their right, they’ll see Pete, the old prospector and take a picture with him. Then they’ll be able to approach Bullseye, Woody’s horse in Toy Story 2, before meeting either Woody or Jessie at the wooden gazebo, just in the middle of the village. That’s when they’ll be able to step into Santa’s cabin for a unique encounter and a picture, before they exit and cross into the Elves’ workshop.

In addition to that, the whole village will be decorated much more thoroughly. The hills all around will be covered with snow, whilst the roofs will get sparkling blocks of ice and icicles will shine in the trees all around! Everything has been done to make the encounter completely unforgettable. And Santa Claus will be there all the day long (except during Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade), so that everyone can meet him anytime!

You also redecorated the Woodcarver’s Workshop.

It’s a long time since that cabin was actually used. So, we refurbished it to make it into Santa’s Post Office. Children will be kindly taken care of by cast members who will take their letter and put it into a big envelope with Santa’s address written on it.

What’s funny about that, is that, at the bottom of the cabin, we built like a true sorting office with the flags of every European country. Each and every child who posts his or her letter at Santa’s Post Office will receive a response. And if some children prefer to give their letter directly to Santa, no problem! He will always take care of it. The only difference is that, now, he’ll have his own Post Office located here at Disneyland Resort Paris!

You are used to directing Disney Characters, but how do you direct Santa?

I have a meeting with him to tell him about what he’ll be able to do at Disneyland Park. But, generally speaking, I don’t have to tell him much. Everything is very natural to him! He’s used to organising these kinds of things!

How did you conceive this place where Woody & Jessy meet Santa?

Woody & Jessie are toys. So, with Santa coming to Woody’s Roundup Village, we keep in tune with the same universe. It’s natural that toys come to life for the occasion!

What will the Enchanted Candleabration be like this season?

I tried to simplify it a little. I originally built the Enchanted Candleabration on a mixture of the Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony and Candleabration with the spirit of the Christmas season added. Three messages in one show!

So, now, I decided to pick out the essentials of that ceremony, first in taking off all the accessories of the first act (Christmas Tree and electric lights brought by Goofy). That said, it’s still about a Christmas song medley sung by Minnie and friends, with Mickey lighting up the 15 candles of the Castle.

Then, Mickey and Minnie greet the Princes and Princesses for a ballet that is presented this year in its entirety (whereas I had to shorten it last year). After that, Mickey greets Tinkerbell before the illumination of the fireflies (starflashes), of the Christmas Tree, of the lamposts in Main Street and, finally, of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, becoming for Christmas a Crystal Castle.

This year, I re-programmed myself the lighting up of the Castle as I felt it in my heart. All the more since we’ve just added three new crystal roofs. Year after year, we’ve covered the roofs of the Castle with “crystal” and now, it’s the final touch! Now, all the roofs are covered with crystal.

That’s the reason why I personally wanted to re-configure the build-up of the Crystal Castle on computer with the help of a programmer. More precisely, it was about pre-encoding all the towers lighting up. After that, it’s always possible to make some changes on-site, since, when you face the product –LEDs-, you have to take into account practical conditions. You can’t just push a button to light up everything. Lights need to be warmed up. So, because of that, you can play on the intensity of the lights. In some places, I was able to vary the way the lights come up. You can light them up immediately or do it progressively, as the music goes up, according to the accents of the score.

I hear new characters are invited to join Disney’s Once Upon A Dream Parade this year?

Yes. You’ll spot again the Nutcraker on his drum, all the Toy Soldiers and Santa’s sleigh, but all that in a completely new choreography and, most of all, with 18 Elves joining in!

They’ll accompany Santa’s sleigh and will all wear different costumes, green and red, very rich and funny ones, with bells, pompoms and all sorts of accessories, top hats, candy canes, Christmas crowns. And that will help create much more interactivity during the show stops. Just like a musical pantomime!

Speaking of musicals, will Minnie’s Jolly Holidays Show feature any jolly new surprises?

The concept is the same as the one last year, but I wanted this year to focus on rag dolls rather than on puppeteers. Just like for Santa Claus’ Village, I wanted to work on the world of toys. So, you’ll again see Pinocchio, but now accompanied by rag dolls with porcelain faces. I wanted to play on their contortions.

We designed new costumes for the 4 dolls who are going to dance during the Pinocchio number, costumes created here at Disneyland Resort Paris in Sue Lecash’s workshop.

We used lovely material, like drapery, old rose and blue. I also wanted to play on glances and smiles (since our dolls are face-characters). Something very natural.

A great Disneyland Park tradition is the snow falling on Main Street. How have you worked on that?

Last year, there was the wind blowing and then little bells announcing the falling of the snow on Main Street.

This year, I decided to resume the “lamppost” sequence of the Enchanted Candleabration. I guess that not everyone happens to attend the ceremony at night and that it would be interesting to take advantage of those superb lampposts and of the darker winter weather that allows nice lighting effects during the day.

Now, as the snow is falling, you’ll hear the Carollers’ song, Ring The Bells, written by Vasile Sirli, and see the lamppost lighting sequence. They’ll dance and sparkle along with the snowflakes.

I think that’s a nice addition to Main Street, USA. A true Christmas flavour, as we had before, but a little enhanced. Now, it’s a true show.

You’re giving us an appetite for this Christmas Season and… for Mickey’s Magical Christmas Dinner!

Yes, it will be held at the Pavillion at Disneyland Park on December 6th, 13th and 20th! It’s a Christmas Dinner, a huge buffet feast for kids and grown-ups.

There will be several photo locations decorated in different themes where you’ll be able to meet Disney Characters. Privileged guests will get the opportunity to spend some time with them and, at the end of the dinner, to meet Santa Claus in person. There will be a band that will perform several times during the feast, and then a dance party during which children will learn dance steps with their favorite Disney Characters. It’ll be something really special!

This is a new kind of special event, mostly aimed at children, that replaces the beloved Magical World of Tinkerbell.

That really was a fabulous show! 32 artists on stage, a huge dinner service. But it had been held at the Convention Center of Disney’s Newport Bay Club for seven seasons in a row. It was time for a change. So, we came back to something more simple. It’s still a dinner-show, yet more interactive. Not a stage show, but different events that occur during the dinner.

We experimented with this new approach last year. While Disney’s Newport Bay Club held Mickey’s Holiday Cruise Gala Dinner, that also returns this Christmas, directed by Katy Harris, Disney’s Hotel New York presented the same kind of show at its Times Square venue. As it was very successful, they decided to create a new show and locate it right within the Magic Kingdom. This way, Mickey’s Magical Christmas Dinner, directed by Emmanuel Lenormand, will be opened up to far more guests thanks to the capacity of the Pavillion venue.

Speaking of festivities, what’s happening for New Year’s Eve 2009?

Like last year, there will be a DJ Party in the Disneyland Park, yet in a much more family spirit. It will be followed by the traditional 31st December midnight fireworks for which I was inspired by the music “Believe in Holiday Magic”. But the greatest event is that Walt Disney Studios Park will also be opened for the occasion!

New Year’s Eve at Disneyland Park is more and more successful each year, so, we decided to offer the opportunity to teens and young adults to spent this very special night at the Walt Disney Studios, with another DJ Party, specifically adapted to that audience along with… another fireworks show!

The idea is to use the same score as the one at Disneyland Park and to launch both fireworks in sync. I didn’t want one firework to be different or better than the other, so that everyone can enjoy the same experience. That’s the reason why there will be almost identical shells. The only difference is that they will be launched a little higher at Walt Disney Studios Park in order to be seen above the Tower of Terror. Which means that you’ll be able to see more or less both fireworks at the same time.

I think you’ll see them from Lake Disney and the Disney Village, too. All the more since my first idea was to have three firework shows in sync, with one at Lake Disney. But that was a little too complicated!

Finally, it’s a Christmas tradition now for Media Magic to let the artists conclude the interview with their own wishes…

I conceived this Christmas season with all my heart, as in everything I do, and with a family spirit. To me, Christmas is family, and that’s also the message we want to convey at Disneyland Resort Paris. That’s the reason why Santa is going to spend almost two months with us. It’s a very special time of the year where everybody can reunite and come together. I wish everyone a Happy Christmas.

And if you come visit us, I hope you’ll feel that family spirit and that enchantment… until next year’s Christmas, with many surprises I’m already working on! It should be very different!

Christophe, please, tell us the full story: Once upon a time… Disney’s Fantillusion!

Once upon a time, there was a magical garden where Mickey had invited all of his friends for a one-of-a-kind party celebrating imagination and childhood.

Here were sparkling butterflies, dragonflies and mushrooms changing colours. It was truly an enchanted garden, an imaginary place he revealed to them. Then, Mickey brought the whole parade the magic of light as all the floats were illuminated by a shining glow.

Seeing that, the Disney Villains got evil ideas, ideas of darkness. They were not at all happy with all that light and they tried to change it into an Evil power using orange, red and green. The garden was then threatened by fire and lightning, as evil smoke darkened the land and evil creatures invaded it, appearing from nowhere.

Fortunately, the Disney Princes and Princesses had the power to create candlelight and sparkles appearing everywhere to restore imagination and fantasy…

So, as you can see, Disney’s Fantillusion is a story in three acts: the light of imagination, the power of light and the magic of light.

How did Disney’s Fantillusion come to Disneyland Resort Paris?

Originally, this parade was created for Tokyo Disneyland. After several years of good service there, we wanted to have a new electrical parade here, and the Tokyo Park was eager to change theirs. Luckily, the Disney Parks work hand in hand and it’s possible to exchange parades, while adapting them according to each location.

Some of the Tokyo floats were too big for Main Street in Disneyland Park, but most of them could fit. We made a selection of the floats we wanted according to the number of floats we could get and to the story we wanted to tell. From then on, with this new line-up, we had to put the floats on boats that sailed very gently across the oceans, to get to the French coasts, one month later. Then, we transported them by truck from Le Havre harbour to Paris.

We mapped out a convenient route avoiding highways, because of the size of the floats, that couldn’t pass the tollgates. The French police was very helpful as they had to organize the road in some places or close some roads temporarily to let the floats pass, but everything went according to plan! You have to realize that it took no less than two years from the decision to have Disney’s Fantillusion Parade come to us to the Premiere!

The floats were designed and made in Japan, so there were some technical issues to adapt them to France, notably from the electrical point of view. Our engineers had to fix the whole system of each float, lighting, power, batteries….because we don’t have the same system here.

The costumes also, are technological wonders!

A lot of the original costumes were worn-out, so it was up to Sue Lecash, our costume designer here, to try new things. Even recently, she still experiments new costumes, new dragonflies and spiders, and new butterflies for the dancers. In order to do that, we worked with a Scottish artisan living in Brittany, who specialized in fiber-optics. Because Sue wanted to work with that kind of material and the changes of colours it allows, we also had to work on the way our performers could carry the batteries on their back.

For the Princes and Princesses act, originally, the performers had crinoline petticoats set on wheels and the dancers opened them to light up their dresses. We couldn’t reproduce that because we have paving stones and streetcar rails and there was a risk of breaking the electrical part of the dresses and even a risk of getting stuck in the rails. That’s the reason why Sue imagined costumes that could actually be worn by our dancers, using a lot of transparent plastic and aluminium framework to lighten the whole thing, along with LEDs and fiber-optics.

We also changed the costumes of the main Disney Villains and Princesses because there were some technical and cleaning issues with the original models. For instance, for Jafar’s costume, we had to make it out of separated parts. Everything can be dismantled. In fact, there is a cloth on which there is a lining onto which hundred of little lights are sewn and connected to a battery. Over that, we had to build the character’s costume and make some little holes so that the lights could be passed through by our technicians. In brief, there are three parts.

There were also some musical changes.

Right! The music was already written by Bruce Healey, but our Director of Music, Vasile Sirli produced a new arrangement for that since we hadn’t all the Tokyo floats. So, he had to edit it to fit “our” Disney’s Fantillusion. It was all the more complicated since this parade is based on an “underliner”. It means that there is a global music (underliner) and that each float has its own music that comes in addition to the underliner.

How does the mixing of the two soundtracks occur?

In fact, the music of each float is transmitted to the park’s speakers through the Escon system. It means that it’s transmitted through the ground to Main Street’s speakers. Each time a float passes by a kind of a marker, it sends its music to the speakers of the street and the music is then combined with the underliner.

Everything is managed by a computer, at Parade Central. It is there that all the music and the announcements of the different parades are managed. Because of all that, we had to set “technical” rehearsals to determine a definite zone of broadcasting for each unit. It’s the same as The Wonderful World of Disney Parade, which I also directed.

When two floats follow each other, the first one pulls the music of the second one to it, and the second one pushes the music of the first one ahead of it to get into the broadcasting zone.

Vasile Sirli wrote and edited all the music bearing this in mind so that there is no cacophony. Everything happens harmoniously and each float has it own music. We had a huge rehearsal with the float drivers to have them drive their unit to the right place at the right time.

The Disney’s Fantillusion floats are technological wonders, indeed!

Absolutely. First, they are very manageable because of the steering and the breaking system. And then, from a technological point of view, everything is onboard: lights, effects and smoke machines. Each float is a kind of a technological unit of its own, and all the floats are managed from one central computer that sends the right signal at the right time for each float to broadcast the right music, activate the right lights, produce the right smoke, and activate the transformations of the floats during the show stops. And what’s magical is that it is Mickey’s voice saying “Starlight, starbright” that launches it all!

At that moment, all the “hero” floats become white light. But Mickey’s voice is also a signal for the Villains. Take the “push units”, these small units pushed by dark creatures. At Mickey’s signal, they take off their capes and the push unit automatically open to let their black light spread, reacting with the special painting of the floats and the costumes of the dancers around them. All is activated by magic!

If I remember properly, it was Kat de Blois who first directed Disney’s Fantillusion when it arrived in France.

It was Kat, exactly, who was in charge of adapting it to Disneyland Resort Paris. I took up the torch two years ago, keeping her original choreography. For the moment, nothing really changed, but I hope I’ll be able to imprint my own vision in the future.

Do you think all the technology involved in Disney’s Fantillusion may hold back creativity in some way?

Not really, all the more since I’ve already directed daily parades that used the Escon system. It’s a system I know well. And our sound engineers can explain things very clearly. For me, Disney’s Fantillusion was most of all a different parade.

The most complicated aspect of it was the technical rehearsals, the synchronisation of computers and lighting. There’s so much technology that you have to program each float one by one. I had some long periods of time just waiting for it to be done! Another difficulty is related to rehearsals. For example, we had to teach the “shadow” creatures how to operate the push units, and it wasn’t easy since, when you turn left, it goes right, and vice versa!

The Princes and Princesses had some issues adapting themselves to their floats, too. Because their platform goes up to 2 meters above the float, they had to be tied on. In addition to that, we had to deal with the electrical material of their costumes. And above all this, they have to both keep their foot on a pedal. If they didn’t, the animation of the float would immediately stop, for security reasons.

You have to realize how impressive it is to stand up there, and more than once, some princesses took their foot off the pedal! Which means that we had to wait for another musical show stop to be able to complete the rehearsal! But it all ended happily and the Princesses were the first ones to tell me that it was an unforgettable experience!

That’s what I felt once all the technical issues were resolved. I stood in the center of Central Plaza and I said to myself: “it’s sublime!” I was overwhelmed. I realized all that technology allows to do and how wonderful it is!

What is your favourite moment in the parade?

It’s when Mickey arrives on his float. I find it very majestic, with Mickey as our host wearing this amazing, multi-coloured- ever-changing fiber-optic cloak. For me, the first float is always to most magical: it announces Disney’s Fantillusion parade, the park is in darkness and suddenly it appears! It’s magical! I would even say that it’s even more beautiful when you see it from it’s a small world, when it’s all dark. The doors open and wow! Mickey appears in the light!

As you say it, it is magical. And we can really feel the guests’ emotion at that moment!

I just try to use simple tools to convey a message, to touch people. If it’s too complicated, it becomes boring. I do things as I feel them, with my heart. I say to myself: “what would I like to see?”. And if something makes me dream, I guess it will make our guests dream, too. At least, that’s my hope, and my reward!

• With thanks to Nathalie Pankowski and Julie McPartlin.

This additional year of celebrations for the 15th Anniversary of Disneyland Resort Paris really hits the ‘Big Time!’ with this new pyrotechnic spectacular that will light up the skies above Disneyland park each day of the Summer season, beginning 5th July 2008.

For this new concept, Christophe Leclercq, takes us on a unique voyage through the different steps of a love story, via lights and music, to the magical musical accents of Alan Menken’s score for Disney’s hit movie from last Christmas, Enchanted.

Fireworks about love, music that’s Enchanted: we’re about to be twice charmed! Jérémie Noyer met the director for an exclusive preview of the brand new fireworks show, ahead of its grand premiere performance in just over one week’s time…

The Enchanted Fireworks is the key event of this summer season at Disneyland Resort Paris. How was it decided to abandon Wishes and create a new pyrotechnic show?

I would have loved to direct Wishes again this year, but when Disneyland Resort Paris executives told me they wanted something different, I said “even better!”. I love doing new things and creating new concepts!

How was that new fireworks concept born?

It took me some time to find it. I started from the 15th Anniversary. There was Candelabration and Disney’s Once Upon A Dream Parade. And then I got the spark! We had the “Dreams of Imagination”, of “Laughter and Fun”, of “Friendship”, of “Power”, of “Adventure” and of “Romance”, and I said to myself that “Love” would be the perfect continuation to all these dreams.

At the same time, whilst listening to some Disney music, I listened again to Disney’s Enchanted soundtrack and I found a cue that I loved a lot and that fitted a fireworks show, the Enchanted Suite.

From that point on, I edited the cue in several “paragraphs” evoking, according to the different musical themes, various ideas dealing with the different steps you experience when you’re in love: Beauty, Seduction, Charm, Passion, Love and the Happy Ending.

How did you work on the music?

I worked with one of our sound engineers, under the supervision of Vasile Sirli, our Director of Music. We worked more particularly on the end of the cue since it wasn’t quite adapted to a “one more time”, the “bouquet finale”. It’s a short cue, but I prefer that people say “finished already?” instead of “not finished yet?”, so they can come back another time to enjoy the show again!

It wasn’t deliberate, but the use of this music created a kind of a synergy between several departments of the Walt Disney Company since our show takes place as the Enchanted movie is being released by Home Entertainment. And at Disney, we love synergy!

Within that frame, the interpretation of True Love’s Kiss is obvious, but what about other themes like Happy Working Song?

I treated it in relation to “Beauty”, that leads then to “Seduction”. It’s a very light and lively song, and at the same time, it is about a Princess doing housework in a unique way!

Then, I associated the other songs to the different steps of a love story and I realized it worked pretty well! From then on, I said: “ok, it’s nice to talk about love. But how to translate that into fireworks, shells, lights and pictures dancing in the skies?” That’s when I started to work with a lighting designer.

We still remember the beautiful lighting of Wishes, and the celebrations of the 15th Anniversary launch, or even the Enchanted Candleabration during the Christmas season…

Well, I did that with the same lighting designer, Jérome Schmit, who is very talented and full of ideas. I edited each musical theme to the second …for instance, 45 seconds for Beauty, 35 seconds for Seduction, 1 minute for Charm, etc- then we listened to the music again together figuring out which colours would be the best for each section.

We noted each musical accent, like violins going up, and associated each move to another colour that would be projected on Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Then, once the lighting concept was set up, once we had a definite idea of what was going to happen, I began to work on the pictures that would be projected onto the Castle.

Wishes began that trend beautifully, which grew again with the launch night of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror!

I appealed to the same consulting artist as for the Tower of Terror inauguration, Marie-Jeanne Gauthé. I explained to her the concept of these “dreams of love”, these Enchanted Fireworks, and we exchanged ideas. She came back a couple of weeks later with images that happened to work perfectly.

For example, for the overture, I asked that there is an explosion of white flowers, something uplifting that leads to Beauty, with some projections of lace, like Calais lace, on the Castle. Something really fine, really lovely, almost unreal. The flowers evolve from the base of the Castle and go up to spread all over it. Then, all the towers are covered with lace.

After that section, we go to Seduction. For me as a dancer and Cabaret fan, I immediately associated that to “feathers”. I wanted feathers in the sky! In order to do that, Marie-Jeanne suggested that we project white feathers caressing the towers while descending. Something very quivering, in fact.

Then comes Charm. To charm somebody, you can invite the person for a dinner with candles. Hence the idea to use the candles set on the Castle for the 15th Anniversary and add more of our own, spinning on the Castle, combining the flames of the 15th Anniversary and the flames of love.

Then, with Passion, suddenly, your heart explodes! Personally, I saw a rainbow then and Marie-Jeanne got the idea of projecting a very symmetric image, like an opening, yellow fan, with the Castle almost disappearing under it. It’s very impressive. Not only is there that opening, but also a magnificent use of the lights. And at the same time, we use new spotlights that we set behind the Château and that open the same way, creating a kind of an aura behind the Castle. All that will figure something huge that overwhelms your heart!

And then we come to… Love! And when you say love, you say “hearts”. For that, Marie-Jeanne created a very nice projection of intertwined hearts of different and splendid colours, from yellow to pink, going down from the top of the Castle to the base. And for the Happy Ending, I imagined that you could feel a little dizzy after all these emotions, so I imagined a spinning galaxy, somewhat like the one in Wishes, that takes you in a whirl of love, joy, tenderness, seduction and charm, all these feelings together!

And then, we wanted to calm things down in projecting a black matte with tiny stars on the Castle. It almost disappears while we launch the “bouquet finale”, so that we can focus more on it! That done, I added a little cue taken from the soundtrack of Enchanted, Girls Go Shopping, that brings a “pop” touch to the show.

Then, you can read words, all the subjects developed during the show, gently caressing the Castle from one side to the other, like a big and soft recap.

I noticed that the Disney characters don’t appear during the show.

I intentionally didn’t want Disney characters on the different projections. Rather an abstract concept letting guests imagine or dream freely of love…

Technically, how do you make these projections?

They’re more in the spirit of Wishes, yet whereas Wishes used four TP6 projectors, here we have two because we don’t need fading images.

How did you come to the idea of the rear spotlights?

Some were used during one special event [Disney's Halloween Soirée, 2007], a fireworks show with six projectors like that. It was a beauty! So, I turned to our Conception and Operation Manager at the Lighting Department, Christophe Malmejat and asked him if we could have the same effect on The Enchanted Fireworks. He bought some and now, we can enjoy this brand-new lighting concept that really enhances our fireworks.

Machines are set a definite way, close to the launching pads, on the rooftops of the shops of Fantasyland and can provide three beams on one side of the Castle and three on the other side that can go up to the top of the Castle. These are no “searchlights” [like those at Walt Disney Studios Park], but it’s the same spirit, with an incomparable power and the possibility to change colours!

From now, we’re going to be able to play on that for upcoming events and concepts, and I’m very excited about that new opportunity!

After that, I guess you went to the fireworks themselves.

Exactly. I had to present the project to fireworks artists, which was not that simple. I did sketches to describe each “tableau” and tried to explain what I felt and what we wanted to present. The four companies that we contacted proved to be well receptive and proposed each one a test.

My task was then to choose one of them according to the spirit, the timing and the relation to music they featured. I chose a world-famous company that had great firework shells, original products that we had never seen here. I met with their young artistic director, David Proteau, who proved to be full of talents and ideas. We watched again their test and I noticed only five or six adjustments and four shell changes that needing doing to ‘plus it’ according to what I felt.

And what’s funny is that the artistic director took notes, too, and they revealed to be the same as mine! At some points, the product was too intense colour-wise, or too powerful in its soaring. He and I were on the same page!

What’s new in the way of firework shells?

There’s an effect I loved and that we called “the cauliflower effect”! It’s a kind of a cauliflower that explodes in the sky, and after the explosion, there’s a detonation! I love it! It’s a true “finale”. It was a little too loud so I know that the fireworks artists are going to balance it, but I did want to have it! A kind of a wonderful “big bang”!

We also have a new launching concept: a fan of fire going from one side to the other at an incredible speed. The effect is magical! I set it at the beginning of the show and it really launches it as a big and innovative pyrotechnic show. And we have all sorts of new colours like a blue ‘gerb’ from which pink sparkles appear going in every direction.

In fact, our fireworks artists are also the ones who fabricate their shells, which means that they have a considerable experience in the way of creating products and using them. They even work with the United States, and notably for Walt Disney World!

Another novelty: you associated Candleabration with The Enchanted Fireworks!

In fact, I changed my original concept so that Candleabration carries on directly to the fireworks. For the first time, Mickey & Minnie appear at the balcony of the Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, just above the drawbridge, on both sides of the 15th Anniversary medallion.

Mickey with light up the 15 candles before announcing the fireworks with Minnie. I think it will be a great addition for people who weren’t able to see Mickey & Minnie during the day. And it’s rather rare to see them together on the Castle. I hope it’ll make great memories for our guests!

So, now all is ready for the celebration!

Everything was set for Tuesday, June 24. Everything encoded from lights to projections for the very first live rehearsal that night. Another test is done two days after, which allows us to make changes, if needed. Even though it’s always tricky to make changes like that, if we have to, we don’t hesitate, for the good of the show!

It sounds like you really enjoyed yourself on this project!

Oh, absolutely! I brought everyone into that dream of love with me and I think everyone was enthusiastic! It’s really about fireworks that are enchanted! But it’s not just in the title. Most of all, it’s about our guests hopefully being bedazzled by our show. I’m here to do so that people enjoy themselves while enjoying myself!

There definitely is a part of me in those fireworks. And that’s the reason why I put all my heart and time in this project. After all the fireworks I have directed, all these shells I have made dance in the sky, I do believe it’s certainly one of my favorite forms of art.

Hence the fact that you’re again directing the fireworks for Bastille Day, July 14!

It’s a new concept, too. I kept the same music as last year, these “flon-flons de Paris”, Parisian popular tunes played through a big orchestration. But, since we contacted a new fireworks company, it will be a brand-new visual approach. It’ll be huge!

• With thanks to Christophe Leclercq!

• The Enchanted Fireworks premieres on 5th July 2008 at Disneyland Park and will be performed every night this Summer until 31st August 2008.

Now, here we are, almost one year later, with the entire celebration due to be extended by a whole extra year due to its unprecedented success and overwhelming, positive reception by guests. Who does the park have to thank for this triumph? Christophe Leclercq must be high on that list — as show director of both Candleabration and Disney Characters’ Express, Christophe’s work in 2007 helped to shape a celebration that became the envy of every Disney resort.

Jérémie Noyer talks to Christophe about the challenges of creating such a milestone event, the mixing of French tradition with American popular culture and the simple power of music to send spirits soaring…

What are the origins of the Candleabration ceremony?

The idea is to celebrate our anniversary. In order to do so, we decorated the Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Statues representing some of the most famous Disney characters have been set on its rooftops for the occasion. You can find Mickey & Minnie holding the 15th-anniversary logo, Lumière, Dumbo, the Seven Dwarfs, Huey, Dewey and Louie, the Cheshire Cat, Jiminy, Tinker Bell, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy, Donald and Chip & Dale. This makes a wonderful display.

In place of the spires, we set golden crowns in which one or several characters stand, holding a candle. Starting from that, we wanted to create an exceptional event for the illumination of these 15 candles and I created a ceremony in the same spirit as the Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony for Christmas.

Can you tell us about the story the Candleabration ceremony tells?

Imagine Central Plaza decorated with the colors of the 15th Anniversary: blue, gold and silver, with ’15s’ everywhere. As for the Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony, our performers, dancers and characters arrive from Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. That’s the moment when a grand fanfare begins, very royal and regal, in the same spirit as the Castle, played by trumpets. For the occasion, Vasile Sirli, our Music Director, developed an original score that he recorded with the 80 musicians of the Budapest orchestra. That’s our way to introduce Mickey.

After he welcomes everybody, the music changes and 5 flag artists come along, then 5 banner holders, dressed in the colors of the Anniversary: blue with golden edging for the banners and white trousers and blue spencer with mandarin collar for the performers. I wanted to bring all these artists on stage for a first ballet with the flags.

The fun thing about this is that, on one side of the banners, we have the 15th-Anniversary logo, and on the other side, we have one of the letters of “Happy Birthday”. I tried to play on that to create a message that can be progressively displayed in front of us. Suddenly, the “H” passes by, then the ‘A’, the two “P”, the “Y”, etc, and form a kind of a wall made of letters wishing “Happy Birthday” to the music of Peter Pan, Flying, which was suggested to me by Vasile Sirli. That’s the moment when Mickey appears at the center of the stage and all the performers put their flags down and pick up a boater, the typically French hat!

From then on, it’s not only a celebration, but also an homage to Paris!

Exactly, since we’re at Disneyland Resort Paris! In order to do that, we wanted to propose something unique. François Leroux, who was DLRP Entertainment Vice-President at that time, really wanted me to do something “avant-garde” and contemporary. So, Vasile wrote a score that has nothing to do with usual Disney music, something very percussive, with one instrument that is added after the other to the ensemble as the music moves forward. It all begins with percussion, then trumpets are added, then violins, then electric guitar. The result is very contemporary.

The idea was to propose a ballet with Mickey and the 12 performers with a kind of a twist in time: something very “Paris” and modern at the same time, based on visual “tableaux” and an interesting way of using boaters. I tried to work visually on the arms, the white gloves, the blue ribbon of the boaters, and to kind of “draw” with the bodies and the accessories. Then, the ballet ends up, Mickey is left alone on stage and turns back to the Castle on a magical music. That’s the moment when begins the illumination of the 15 candles itself, one after the other.

How did you dream up the illumination?

The light will progressively climb up to the top and at the very last moment, on a new musical note, we have the illumination of Tinker Bell’s wings. In fact, for this character, we didn’t take off the last spire of the Castle. On the contrary, we set an additional arm that makes Tink look like a weather vane. We also have a brand-new, state-of-the-art lighting system for her and her magic stick, all made out of LEDs …the technology that we used for the first time for the Castle and the lamposts of Main Street for Christmas a couple of years ago.

And, in addition to all that, we set star flashes on a rail that goes around the top tower of the Castle. It gives a kind of a Pixie-dust effect that goes up to Tinker Bell before getting her illuminated. Just after that, Minnie greets Mickey on stage. She finds it all so wonderful, compliments Mickey, and he answers: “Aww Minnie, you’re pretty magnifique too!” as Minnie invites her friends Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale, Daisy and Donald to climb on stage to sing Just Like We Dreamed It, the official song of the 15th Anniversary, written by Sunny Hilden.

So, because it’s a really pop tune, I asked that the characters have music instruments: trumpet, trombone, drums, electric guitar and saxophone for a kind of a jam session on Central Plaza wearing original costumes, specially designed for the occasion by Sue Lecash, our costume designer. And then is the Grand Finale… For that, we set four big displays with giant Lumiere figures around the Plaza. They’re used as photolocations during the day, but for our ceremony, blue and silver streamers are thrown into the air from these displays for a sparkling finale!

I had the pleasure to attend the ceremony several times and I must say that it’s really impressive!

You’re right! But at the same time, we wanted a human-sized ceremony, just like the castle makeover, with nothing too heavy to it. Take the Tinker Bell statue. It’s all golden and 1,60 meters high, which is the size of our dearest Tink, whom you can see for example during the Fantillusion parade.

Can you tell me about these statues?

They were created especially for our Castle. The most difficult part about them was to choose which characters would appear. Many ideas were proposed, and finally, it is the executive team of Disneyland Resort Paris that decided which ones would be set on the Castle. First of all, we wanted to focus on kind characters and icons of our park like the Cheshire Cat, inspired by Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, or else Buzz, representing our latest addition to Discoveryland, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. We also have Huey, Dewey and Louie who are characters that do not appear very often in the park, but whom children happen to love.

We really feel that Donald and his family have become more and more important for our guests. More and more concepts are based on Donald Duck, along with Daisy Duck, whereas they were almost forgotten a few years ago. He was the icon of the Walt Disney Studios and he now joins the gang of the Disneyland Park VIPs, along with well-known Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale. Ducks are back!

The banners seen during Candleabration seem to echo the ones of Main Street, USA.

Absolutely! I took my inspiration from the park itself, in a way! We had superb lamposts during the winter and we ask ourselves why we couldn’t use them for something else. A huge work had been done to get them for Christmas, like digging holes in the ground (two per night) without exactly knowing what was underneath. It was delicate but after several weeks, it was all done.

Having done that, we said to ourselves: “we’ve got these beautiful lamposts in the style of Main Street. Why not using them for our Anniversary to hang some decoration, like a banner?” So, we took off the crowns and the pictures of the princesses and we put globes instead, and an arm to hang the banners. What’s lovely is that the banners are lighted the whole day long with LEDs, because their glowing is so strong that they even shine during the day. From then on, I wanted to play on the blue and “congo” lights of the Castle to echo all that. Imagine Main Street illuminated in the same tones as the Castle, the candles and the star flashes on the rooftops: it’s really magical!

Candleabration that was presented for the Press Event of March 31st 2007 was slightly different from the “classic” one.

Indeed. It was in a way closer to my initial idea since I first imagined that it could be Lumiere and not Mickey who could be our host. The other difference is that the choreography of that evening was more complex than the everyday show. That’s why, then, I appealed to professional dancers from outside the park.

Lumiere made a really perfect host!

Absolutely! He’s central to our celebration. He’s on the four sculptures of Central Plaza and on the banners. He embodies all the spirit we wanted to weave into our celebration: “Be our guest!” I’m proud to be the one who got that idea. I suggested it to François Leroux at the time when he was looking for an icon for the 15th Anniversary. I told him: “for me, it’s Lumiere. He’s the ultimate host!”

How did you eventually come to ask to Mickey to host Candleabration?

Lumiere was very present as the icon of the 15th Anniversary, be it on Main Street, USA or on the Castle (he’s the first candle to be lit). So, it seemed to me that he would make an excellent guide for the opening of the celebration. Yet, I didn’t want to forget Mickey, who offers us a beautiful choreography along with our dancers.

You mentioned your initial project idea. Can you tell me more about it?

I first wanted to put Lumiere at the center of our everyday ceremony. He seemed the ideal ambassador to me, embodying France and Europe. It’s already very clear in the animated film and if you have ever seen the Broadway musical of Beauty and the Beast, you’ll hear that Lumiere speaks English with a French accent. I also saw the movie in Spain, and it’s the same. He always has a strong French accent. So, in order to echo this French identity, I wanted this color to be well represented in Candleabration.

The ceremony was first intended to begin with the sound of a blowing wind and Lumiere saying: “Be our guest!” and “C’est la fête”, in all European languages, like a call for the public to gather to Central Plaza. With the boaters, I wanted to pay homage to Maurice Chevalier, too. I even had written the lyrics for a song for Lumiere, as a nod to Paris. Vasile Sirli told me: “we can try and see if it works”.

So, it was like: “toute ma flamme, tout mon bonheur/pour Panam, mais oui, Madame!” (“My flame, my happiness/ for Panam …Paris in slang-, yes Madam!”) There were 10 phrases like that. Yet, finally, it didn’t make it and went back to the shelf like many other ideas. Who knows, it may be used someday, in another occasion…

Candleabration is not your only contribution to Disneyland Resort Paris’ 15th Anniversary…

Indeed, I also created Disney Characters’ Express. Do you remember the Dumbo float in The Wonderful World of Disney Parade? Well, we completely transformed it. All the references to Dumbo were taken off, along with the lion’s cage, the water pump (we kept the roof) and the giraffes’ wagon, and we built three nice platforms, with the 15th-Anniversary logo and golden flags. It now has a totally different look, much more magical, less “clowny”, with blue and pearly, glittery, white color, and a big ribbon in the front, as if the train had gone through it and had kept it with it!

The idea is to bring the characters to Central Plaza. We arrive at Town Square, go up Main Street and park there, where the characters get off the train. For that moment, I adapted in French a song originally written for Tokyo Disneyland, ‘All Aboard!’ with the help of George Costa, the official French music director of Walt Disney Pictures. The characters pass by on the platforms, with a special choreography, accompanied by five performers dressed like the ones of the Candleabration, and who make way for the train using whistles. Then is a 20-minute meet ‘˜n’ greet set with the characters, and after that, the train has five minutes to get back to its starting point.

It’s a really original meet-and-greet, since it’s also a kind of a street show.

Absolutely, since there is a setting and choreography. It’s the mixing of the two that gives the show its originality.

How do you feel after creating all these great events?

Exhausted! But I’m really thrilled it was such a success! The celebration has its own life, now. It doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs now to our characters, our artists and to our guests!…

• With thanks to Christophe and Aurélie!