Extinct Attractions - Disney Dreams of Christmas
Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at a Disneyland Paris holiday fireworks show to stay in the holiday spirit.
Via Variety
It may be hard to believe, but the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash is already here, just three years after the last one after a thirteen year wait for the second. To entice people to attend, there have been a series of premieres across the world from Los Angeles to Mexico City to Paris. The Parisian premiere was cool, but it wasn’t held at the theme park in a way to evoke the days of old when the Pirates franchise held premieres at Disneyland.
But it was close enough to Paris to get me thinking about Christmas time there and what attractions they may have had in the past.
Disneyland Paris was looking to include a show tied to their fireworks show, Disney Dreams, for the holidays in 2013. To do so, they looked to their counterparts at Disney California Adventure for inspiration from the show World of Color: Winter Dreams, which prominently featured many characters from Frozen. With that in mind, Disney Dreams of Christmas debuted on November 10, 2013, interestingly before the movie itself was released. The show was enough of a hit that it would return every year through 2016 before mysteriously disappearing. But all hope was not lost as the park’s 30th anniversary approached in 2022. To help with the celebration, the show returned for one last ride during the winter of 2022 with a bit of extra anniversary material attached to the beginning and end, so that’s the version I looked at today.
Right from the outset, the projection mapping in this show was immaculate, with France’s castle serving as a perfect backdrop for the show because of its extra space on the hillside. To kick things off, we got a glance of Tinker Bell and her friends before a quick Frozen segment that led right into Olaf and Anna introducing themselves as the hosts in English and French, respectively.
Intro handled, a star on the top of the castle began to light up and a projection mapped claw came down and pulled up a Christmas tree that covered the entire stage, with some Toy Story characters underneath checking to make sure that all the presents were there. The show then moved on to Buzz dancing with Jessie in a nice nod to Toy Story 3 with the projection mapping continuing to truly shine.
The next segment of the show featured a medley of holiday songs complete with characters that seemed to be inspired by it’s a small world. Many of the segments had imagery evocative of the ride and the choice of slower Christmas songs helped slow things down a bit after the rush from Toy Story.
But at its core, this show was all about Frozen, so it was time for everyone to come out in full force next with Olaf performing a stunning rendition of “In Summer,” even more ironic considering the winter timeline of the show. With the English out of the way, it was time for a French version of “Love is an Open Door,” which was a lot of fun to hear in a completely different language. But then it was back to English for “Let It Go” (of course).
Via Flickr
However, Elsa didn’t get the final word with a really cool finale number featuring water fountains, fireworks and projections along with a seemingly original song that evoked pretty much every Disney fireworks show that one has ever seen. The finale just had so much going on that it was hard not to get excited watching it and feel both the Disney and Christmas spirit.
As a whole, Disney Dreams of Christmas was less of a fireworks show than a projections show, but I honestly prefer the projection mapping, so it was perfect for me. It fit the Christmas spirit so perfectly that it still hasn’t been replaced today by another Christmas nighttime show, though its time did come to a close on January 8, 2023, a true bummer.
Via Thunder Dungeon
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!