Category: DL vs DLP

Comparison of Disneyland and Disneyland Resort Paris in terms of design, queues, nomenclature, etc

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Disney History DL vs DLP Gone But Not Forgotten In the Parks

Anaheim vs. Paris: Pinocchio’s Daring Journey

Paris’s version of the Anaheim attraction “Pinocchio’s Daring Journey” is known as “Les Voyages de Pinocchio”, which translates literally into The Journeys of Pinocchio. Although the French name has never changed, in the early days of the Park, the attraction was known as “Pinocchio’s Fantastic Journey” for the benefit of English speakers, although now (as with several other attractions in the park) one name, in one language, is used for all Guests, regardless of their mother tongue.

For the sake of this article, I shall be abbreviating the name of the Anaheim attraction to PDJ and the Paris version to LVP.

Both are dark rides, which can be found in Fantasyland. Both last just over two minutes, although the woodcutter’s cart in which you travel, supposedly carved by Geppetto himself, seats four riders in PDJ and six in LVP.

The queue area for LVP is the bigger of the two, and bizarrely features a half carved duck, but has fewer details, flags or lights.

The attractions themselves are pretty similar experiences, going through the same scenes in the same order. PDJ has more Hidden Mickeys, such as in the spilt popcorn and in the carvings of the end scene; LVP has more hidden “donkeys”, thematically implying the true nature of “Pleasure Island”.

PDJ has a lot more dialogue throughout the attraction. What little dialogue LVP has is in French (including the lyrics to “An Actor’s Life for Me” in the opening Marionette scene). Even when Geppetto yells the sole word “Pinocchio”, it is done in a French accent rather than re-using the original audio.

On the whole though, I prefer PDJ. This is because LVP doesn’t use a hologram for the Lampwick scene, and has a slower, and thus less scary, emergence of Monstro.

 

Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in December 2010.

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DL vs DLP In the Parks

Anaheim vs. Paris: Snow White’s Scary Adventures

The Paris equivalent of California’s “Snow White’s Scary Adventures” is simply called “Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains” which translates literally as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, thus giving the attraction the same name as the film upon which it is based.

Both are Fantasyland dark rides, which have existed in some form since the opening of their respective park.

In each you travel around the show building in a Dwarf’s Mine Car. These vehicles have a dwarf’s name on the front, in the appropriate language, which has made some people believe that they are supposed to be beds.

The Mine Cars in France are bigger, having three rows of riders, compared to Anaheim’s two.

In many other ways such as ride length, the audio-less sections and the exterior curtains periodically opening to reveal the Queen, the two rides are generally carbon copies.

One “mistake” that links the two is that the outside of the attraction and the queue area including the “Secret Chamber”, implies that the ride will start inside the Queen’s castle whereas it actually starts inside the Dwarfs’ cottage.

Likewise, in terms of chronology, the “Secret Chamber” section of the queue area of both features lighting and sound effects which imply that the Queen has already transformed into the witch, whereas this does not actually occur until half way through the ride.

Both “Secret Chambers” feature a book of spells behind faux-iron bars. Although both mention the poison apple (in their respective language), the France version also references “L’antidote…premier baiser d’amore” which translates roughly as “The antidote…love’s first kiss”.

I should also mention that in France, this Chamber does not feature the griffins that appear stateside. Creatures of a similar design, however, can be found in the Séance scene of Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor.

The recent(ish) changes to the lighting of California’s transformation scene have not yet made it to Europe, making that section feel crude in comparison. Also, in this room, California features the raven sitting on a beautiful throne, whereas in France, the familiar is perched on a spell book.  However, a greater amount of real estate means that Paris’s ride has a better “reveal” of this section, taking Guests over a drawbridge, before the double doors part.

Towards the end of both rides is the “cottage door” scene, in which the Hag is seen to be offering an apple. Both versions have had this replaced by a hologram although in France, for about six months, the entire arm of the witch (including the apple effect) had fallen off and was lying on the floor, in full view of riders.

In the following scene, the order of the dwarfs is identical in both versions, from Dopey on the far left to Doc on the far right nearest the Hag as she tries to lever an object onto the rider’s Mine Car. In Paris, this object is some form of boulder, whereas in California there have been arguments put forward saying this object is an oversized emerald.

In France, the lighting seems all over the place in this section, making it less clear what has happened and to whom.  However, this is compensated for in the final scene, which proves our heroes survived. This features waving figures of Snow White (on a horse), her Prince and Dopey, ears-a-wriggling, standing amongst various woodland creatures on a bridge. This addition may be the reason for the aforementioned addition to the book of spells.

Although visually more interesting than Anaheim’s simplistic open book stating “And they all lived happily ever after”, these animatronics look out of place. They appear to pout rather than smile, and our eponymous heroine seems to have grown her hair by at least six inches since we saw her in the ride’s opening.

I will end by mentioning one of my favourite details. In the foliage outside the attraction, there is a pickaxe. This may refer to the chap who the Queen sends to kill Snow White, but -seeing as in the 1937 Disney movie this character is a Huntsman with a dagger, rather than a Woodman with an axe- I would like to think that this prop is supposed to belong to one of the dwarfs, dropped in their rush to rescue our heroine – although I always was an idealist.

 

Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in November 2010.

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DL vs DLP In the Parks

Anaheim vs. Paris: Sleeping Beauty Castle

As mentioned last week, I will be posting articles comparing the Fantasylands in Disneyland Paris and in the Anaheim park every Monday from now until the end of the year.

I thought I ought to start with the obvious: Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The French equivalent, officially known as “Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant”, is 167ft high, compared to California’s 77ft.

The interior of Paris features several coats of arms, with different designs. One design which does not appear is the one prominently featured on California’s Castle, the one with three lions passant thereon which is often believed to be the Disney Crest.  This lion-heavy design DOES appear in Disneyland Paris though, in The Backlot Express (a restaurant in Walt Disney Studios Park) also above a door.

[The actual crest of the Disney family is of three fleur-de-lis].

The design of California’s castle is based mainly on Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein Castle (with the windows being a tribute to Notre Dame), whereas the one in Paris is based more on the one in the Disney film (including the surrounding square trees) and also the Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.

Both castles have shops in the interior, a hidden Mickey in their tiles (although not one I have been able to find) and a walk-through section telling the story of Sleeping Beauty, although Paris’ walk through is a lot less enclosed, yet harder to navigate correctly.

Both castles are disabled friendly: Anaheim’s has a virtual tour on the ground floor, whereas Le Château has an elevator for this purpose, which calls in on all three levels. The top floor is the diorama. The ground floor has the most common access to Main Street, U.S.A. and Fantasyland. The lowest level takes us to La Tanière du Dragon, featuring an audio-animatronic which, at the time the park opened, was the world’s largest.  Not suitable for the very young.

 

Portions of the above were first written for DLDhistory.com

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DL vs DLP In the Parks Reviews

Anaheim vs. Paris: A new short series of writings in MouseScrappers, a request for writers and a comparison of Toads

Due to the dwindling number of contributors to this site, and so its faithful followers have new articles to read on as near to a daily basis as possible, I have offered to submit a handful of additional pieces on top of the exclusive comparisons between Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris that I write for MouseScrappers every January, April, July and October.

These additional articles (the first of which shall be available here November 12th) are to be comparisons between the Fantasylands in Anaheim and in Paris. A new article will then come out every Monday until the end of the year.  These will be cut-down re-edits of articles which I wrote in 2010/2011 for DLDhistory.com, but with new material included.

[Some of the below info about Toad first appeared in one such DLDhistory article]

Whilst I am writing, editing and submitting these, the MouseScrappers organisers are out looking for new columnists to start in the new year, or sooner if possible. If anyone wishes to volunteer, do please get in touch with the MouseScrappers Team. Articles can be regular or occasional; new material or recycled; funny or serious.  Anything Disney related is of interest.

[I write comparisons between DLP and DL, and between DLP and WDW, but there is little need to go full circle by comparing WDW to DL because there is only one difference between the two that matters: DL has the real Mickey Mouse].

For the sake of brevity my articles comparing DL with DLP shall not be comparing the theatres or shops, although my by-now-probably-slightly-out-of-date musings on the latter subject can be found here: http://dldhistory.com/2k11article.asp?Page=5&Filter=Current&Ident=2371

I shall also not be looking at the stations (although the one in Anaheim is officially considered as part of Mickey’s Toontown), The Sword in The Stone Ceremony, parades, fireworks, meet and greets, restaurants, the characters or anything no longer in operation. Some of these things may get mentioned in passing though.

I also won’t be going to the level of the uber-nerd, by comparing costumes, trashcans, paint colors and the like.

However, I shall be looking at the following attractions over the coming weeks…

 

Nov 12th – The Castle

Nov 19th – Snow White’s Scary Adventures

Nov 26th – Pinocchio’s Daring Journey

Dec 3rd – Peter Pan’s Flight

Dec 10th  – Fantasyland’s Rotating Rides (Dumbo, Tea cups and Carrousel)

Dec 17th – Alice in Wonderland

Dec 24th – Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats

Dec 31st – it’s a small world

 

Do please let me know if there is anything major I have missed…

Paris has no equivalent of the Matterhorn.

France also has no direct equivalent to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, although it does have Toad Hall Restaurant. The exteriors to both are remarkably similar, although the Ride has the Latin phrase “Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda” over the entrance (“Speeding with Toad is Always Absurd”), whereas the Restaurant in Paris goes for “No Consumus Froglegus” (“No Eating of Frogs Legs”).

Both the Ride and the Restaurant feature a Library scene, complete with comically titled books and a suit of armor. In Paris, though, the latter is more humorously designed, looking more like one Toad himself might wear.

The soundtrack in the Restaurant varies more and is less annoying, featuring lyric-less versions of songs related to England.  Some of these are Disney related (think Winnie The Pooh or Mary Poppins) and others are from the world of Music Hall.

The Ride and the Restaurant also both feature chandeliered ceilings, faux stained glass windows (one of which being broken in my last visit to Paris) and famous paintings adapted to feature Toad’s face.  In Paris, these images change in front of your very eyes, kind of like the portraits between the stretch rooms and the load area in California’s Haunted Mansion (or Phantom Manor in Paris, for that matter).

Toad Hall Restaurant also features non-moving portraits which feature other Toad characters, such as Ratty and MacBadger.  Such things do not exist in Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, seeing as Toad is too vain to have images of anyone but himself, although it is understandable that these exist here, especially as the characters appear in the ride in other manifestations.

Going off-topic slightly.  Although the food in the Restaurant is very basic short-order fare, the theming is beautiful and the layout is interesting, with two separate dining areas which aren’t physically connected in any way. There is also an impressively wide array of seasoning, rare for any Disney eatery, and it tends to be quite quiet there, so –whilst I am not a big fan of reviewing restaurants- I would recommend giving it a look if you are ever in the park.