On 1st April 2007, the 15th Anniversary of Disneyland Resort Paris officially began. Key to the entire event was a magical evening ceremony starring Mickey Mouse, illuminating the fifteen special candles of Sleeping Beauty Castle — Candleabration. Every night, as the trumpets blare and the dynamic “proudlights” theme whips up an air of pure anticipation around Central Plaza, thousands are enthralled by the enchantment of their own anniversary ceremony.
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 surely be very high on that list — as show director of both Candleabration and the hugely popular 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 all our appreciation to Christophe and Aurélie!
– Candleabration continues every evening throughout 2008, extended until late March 2009 as part of “The Celebration Continues… Big Time!” You can see a full video of the daytime performance here, the nighttime performance here and the special 15th Anniversary launch edition, featuring Lumiere and spectacular fireworks, here.
– You can find the original French version of this interview on the Media Magic Blog here.
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