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!

This is Disney’s Halloween Festival, when whole lands of Disneyland Park are taken over by the fun of the season and the resort’s Entertainment directors and creatives push themselves to better their frights, year after year. Now, after months of preparation, Jérémie Noyer learns just exactly what show director Emmanuel Lenormand has in store for this season…

One of the most anticipated and talked-about features of Disney’s Halloween Festival this year at Disneyland Paris is the nighttime spectacular of Disney’s Halloween Party on 31st October itself, that is no longer a fireworks show…

Yes. In fact, we have operational constraints which mean we have to close Fantasyland and Adventureland one hour before any fireworks, which is always frustrating for our guests since they then miss out on major attractions.

That’s the reason why we wanted to create an event that would be as big as a fireworks show, but doesn’t force us close any land before closing time. So, we’re going to revisit the elements that made last year’s show such a success — projections, dancers, etc — but enhanced a million times! You’ll have up to 60 artists, projections, pyrotechnic effects and the Castle transformed into a stage itself!

The idea is to have Mickey confronting the forces of evil with lots and lots of surprises: black light effects and lots of projections. In fact, we’ve got a new projection system which is really effective, so you’ll be able to see giant characters and news ways to animate the walls and the windows of the Castle. It’ll look really different. There will be other surprises, but I don’t want to spoil everything!

Without fireworks, you don’t have to focus on the Castle. I guess it opens new staging perspectives to you, as a Show Director.

Things will still be made so that everything can be comfortably viewed from Main Street, USA, but I think that the projections and the new, 360-degree stage we’ve built will allow our guests to see the show perfectly from other sides.

The result is that guests, instead of being just spectators, will take part in the action. They will be surrounded by all these artists, Disney Characters, skeletons and bats that will arrive from all around them. And you’ll encounter Mickey as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, who will take over the show. So, the space is bigger and wider, and that’s great! There will be no comparison with fireworks!

Speaking of the new stage, it seems that the Disney Villains will take over It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends during the Festival.

It’s just a cameo. For the last performance It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends of the day, and to weave in the story of Maleficent complaining about not having been invited to Princess Aurora’s ceremony, the witch will suddenly appear, surprised not to have been invited to Mickey’s Magical Party.

She will burst up from the stage at the end of the show, challenging Mickey to surprise her, using the magical spell “Miska, Mouska, Mickey Mouse” to summon the Disney Villains to come and dance with her. I thought it would be fun to have all those Villains dancing the Mickey Dance! There will also be a similar cameo at the end of It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.

What are the other surprises of the Halloween Festival of this year?

Within the now well-known story of the Pumpkin Men trying to repaint Disneyland Park in orange, Minnie’s Party Train will be given a Halloween overlay. It’ll also run only in Town Square, and all the Disney Characters will be dressed in special Halloween costumes, helping out in a massive giveaway of sweets and candy.

And at Cowboy Cookout Barbecue in Frontierland — renamed Halloweenland for the occasion — we’ll see a brand new show featuring the Disney Witches performing an incredible duel: The Disney Witches Dancing Spells Party. In this show, Maleficent and the Old Hag from Snow White arrive in a cemetery during the night to have fun with their cauldrons and spells to invent new potions. Four children/dancers passing by are going to be choreographically transformed according to the Hag’s and Maleficent’s potion ingredients.

For that show, Jérôme Picoche came up with some superb scenes, with the transformation of the tombs into cauldrons, with effects everywhere, and a cool ambiance! The cemetery echoes the presence of Jack and Sally who, because of the huge success they got last year near Phantom Manor, needed a wider space. That’s the reason why we’re moving them over to Cowboy Cookout Barbecue – at least, when they’re not taking part in the Halloween Parade which again precedes Disney’s Once Upon A Dream Parade.

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Party grows bigger, too!

It was such a success last year that we decided to fully open Central Plaza and Frontierland for the occasion. There will be a brand new show in front of the Castle with Disney Characters, in which each good character with confront his or her evil counterpart! And again, there will be lots of candy and sweets handed out.

There will also be a Disco Party in Frontierland. The whole place will be filled with dance and fun everywhere! With all of our dancers and Disney Characters, it’s going to be terrific!

So, the Halloween Festival grows even bigger, but not enough to reach Walt Disney Studios Park?

We’re thinking about it at every meeting we have because there are so many exciting things you can do with the theme of the movies. But we’re waiting to have a really solid and big project instead of trying little things without a real ambition.

How do you work with designer Jérôme Picoche?

First of all, we take part in brain-storming sessions where we develop ideas. Each one of us brings his own techniques and tricks. There is a “Blue Sky” period when we dream, we have fun, and then you have to get into a writing phase, and you have to take into account practical conditions. Then, as our offices are real close, we keep visiting each other.

I’ve been in charge of the Halloween Festival for 4-5 years, but Jérôme originally created it with Kat de Blois. He’s the one who brought his fantasy into the creation of the Pumpkin Men or the petrified scarecrows, and into all these crazy ambiances all over Halloweenland. He’s an expert on the subject.

Based on that experience, we were able to build the correct feeling. For example, on the Disney Witches show, I had said I wanted cauldrons, but not classical ones. Snow White’s Witch’s one naturally had to have a skull on it, and for Maleficent’s, I thought she should have hers echo her look. Actually, we resumed the shape of her headdress, with the horns. That’s when Jérôme came in and shared his opinion on it.

Regarding the stage, we discussed the place where to put the cauldrons. For instance, Jérôme was more concerned about the perspective whereas I’m more concerned about my dancers and the space they’ll need. Those are the kind of discussions we have, they’re always enlightening!