| | From
the mansion on the hill, shrieks of laughter break the still…
The Wonderful World of Disney Parade has been commandeered!
The heroic characters from the Disney Classics have been replaced
by the Disney Villains and their new accomplices – the Pumpkinmen
and the Pink Witches, who are
preparing themselves to take you into their world of Halloween
horrors and never-ending darkness. | Keep
your wits about you and don’t do anything stupid. Don’t
smile, don’t wave, don’t get too close – just scream and shout,
point and pout! Don a costume and a wig and dance a Halloweeny jig! | |  |  | This
parade differs from most other major Disneyland Resort Paris
parades due to the fact that it has some theme sections which are
made of up characters and dancers only, with no float. The
Pink Witches feature throughout the parade, assisting the Villains
with their dastardly missions. This
is a full run-through of the parade with each float and character
section described: | 1.
Mickey & Minnie and Friends
The frightening festival of spooks is begun with the friendly
faces of Mickey & Minnie in their country & western Halloween
outfits, who ride on a horse and cart carrying pumpkins as their
Disney character friends follow behind wearing their own creepy
costume creations. Donald’s inner demons are on full show
and Chip ‘n’ Dale’s cheeky spooks are sure to create a few
frights! | 2.
HalloweenLand Spooks & Scarecrows
The ragged and scruffy scarecrows from the pumpkin plantations of
Cottonwood Creek Ranch continue the parade with some of the
strange and mysterious creatures they found on their way out of
HalloweenLand, including a massive skeleton and a giant ghostly
scarecrow. | 3.
Pumpkinmen’s Paint Workshop
A float overflowing with thick orange paint and crowded with
Pumpkinmen trying to design future paint projects follows the
scarecrows. The Pumpkinmen fight over the easels and
splatter orange paint everywhere as a mischievous Pink Witch lurks
in the background, taking note of the Pumpkinmens’ plans. | 4.
Ursula & Sea Creatures
Ursula arrives atop a giant conglomeration of undersea life and
entangled fish, as those poor unfortunately souls – the sea
creatures she has been nurturing for this special occasion – dance
around in fear before her. Snorkelling Pumpkinmen become
entangled in the sea weed as Ursula continues laughing in
villainous glee… | 5.
Ghostly Pirates
Straight from a haunting on the waters of Caribbean, this gang of
ghostly pirates makes its way down the parade route with a swagger
before pouncing on the most innocent victims in the sea of faces
in the crowd. Captain Hook and Governor Ratcliffe also make
an appearance in this nightmarish mirage of marauders. | 6.
Gaston & The Mob
Kill the Beast! Kill the Beast! This unruly mob of
villagers from the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast is
led off on a journey of evil by their arrogant leader Gaston, who
stands atop of Pumpkin dinner party whilst encouraging them to
hold their pitchforks high into the air and scare the unsuspecting
crowd with their brutish force. | 7.
Jafar & Iago
Jafar soars high into the sky on his stolen Magic Carpet with his
faithful henchman Iago on his shoulder, spreading unhappiness and
cruelty across the Pumpkin-topped rooftops of Agrabah. His
reptilian alter-ego curves around the night-time moon above him,
breathing fire at intervals to deter any Arabian heroes. | 8.
Queen of Hearts & Pumpkin Cards
Her majesty the Queen of Hearts brings a royal flare the
procession, but doesn’t forget to add her own style of
unforgettable frights. She’s got a new pack of loyal cards
with her, wearing bright orange Pumpkins and dancing around
waiting to obey her every command. Will she have them
“painting the roses orange” for Halloween? | 9.
Maleficent & Dragons plus more Villains
A shocking finale to the parade is guaranteed as Maleficent
arrives on her Pumpkin-decorated dragon float, with the Evil Queen
from Snow White and Hades from Hercules lurking
behind her, waiting to pounce on innocent bystanders! A set
of shifty-looking dragons encircle the float, making sure the
villains spread their ghastly message without any unwanted
interruptions. | To end
the parade, a few more final villains tease the crowd and attempt
to secure their place as classic Disney villains. | |  |  |
“It’s Halloween-Lo-Ween” is the popular theme song which can
be heard during The Disney Villain Parade and throughout
Disney’s Halloween Festival. The song was created
exclusively for the parade in 2003, its first year of operation as
the main daytime Disneyland Park parade, replacing the standard
daytime Disney parade which had run alongside its Halloween
counterpart for many seasons before. | Since
1998 the theme song for Disney’s Halloween Festival and the
“Halloween Happening” mini-parade included in the season’s
entertainment was the slower-paced
“Halloween-Halloween”.
When the Halloween parade took over as the park’s main parade in
2003, however, the decision was made to commission a new theme
song that was faster-paced and slightly more catchy – almost a
Halloween version of the well-known daytime parade song
“Dancin’
(A Catchy Rhythm)”. The song was created by successful
collaborators Jay Smith and Vasile Sirli, who had before written
such hits as
“All Around The World”,
“Halloween-Halloween” and
“Dancin’ (A Catchy Rhythm”.
It was first released as a
CD Single in early October 2003 and instantly became another
huge success story for the song writing team and the song’s
producers. The CD sold well during the 2003 season and was
out-of-stock in many of the resort’s boutiques during the 2004
season. | In
October 2004, brand new remixes of the song were used during an
expanded and improved Disney’s Halloween Festival, such as a Main
Street-style piano version for the Pumpkinmen’s Window Painting
streetmosphere, and a full-on rock version for the Halloween Party
Night fireworks. It was not until early September 2005 that
many of these remixes were released on a new version of the
“It’s Halloween-Lo-Ween” CD Single. | | | |  | | |
It’s
Halloween-Lo-Ween
EDDA030-2
Tracks: 8
Running time: 33m 47s
| It’s
Halloween-Lo-Ween was re-released with brand new, exclusive
remixes in September, ready for this year’s Halloween Festival.
The new CD features the original song and its Instrumental
version plus remixes in Reggae, Techno, Country, Asian, Rock and
“Dreamy” styles. The creepy Phantom Cruise Line version of
the song is also hidden away at the end of the Instrumental
track. | |  | | |  |  | A
ghoulish parade has always been a part of Disney’s Halloween
Festival, but over the years since the festival’s creation in
1998 there have been many changes to the festival’s parade.
From a small mini-parade to the park’s main daytime parade and
a multitude of other additions and alterations, the history of
the Halloween parade is coming back to haunt you… |
Between 1998 and 2002, Disney’s Halloween Festival featured
only a small mini-parade called “Halloween Happening”,
which was performed either early in the morning or in the
evening. The parade featured mainly dancers and
characters, with some very small “floats” and props such as
giant witches and skeletons that would be animated when pushed
along by the dancers, and an oversized tricycle decorated with
a massive skull. |
After a few minor changes through the years, such as changing
the parade’s performance time from the evening to the early
morning, 2003 brought the biggest change to the parade to
date. The Halloween Happening was effectively
mixed with The Wonderful World of Disney Parade (then
known as The Princess Parade) to create The Disney
Villain Parade. The classic brightly coloured floats
of The Wonderful World of Disney Parade were
transformed into sinister and dark floats to host the Disney
villains through the addition of Pumpkins and other props
along with masks for major characters such as the Beast.
The Snow White float, a float redecorated for The Princess
Parade in May 2003, was redecorated again, albeit
temporarily, into the Pumpkinmen’s Paint Workshop. The
float was given an orange paint well, painting easels and
orange paint dripping down the sides to make sure the new
Pumpkinmen characters (which were also introduced in 2003)
were represented strongly in the parade. |
The whole team of dancers were given brand new costumes
relating to the villain they were dancing for, such as bright
red birds for Jafar & Iago and vicious purple dragons for
Maleficent. New character sections were added to the
parade to make sure all the well-known Disney villains were
featured. The Queen of Hearts & her pack of Pumpkin
cards, Shan-Yu & his warriors and Captain Hook, Governor
Ratcliffe & a not-so-merry gang of ghostly pirates were all
added to the parade to make it one of the biggest parades ever
seen on the Disneyland Park parade route. |
The parade proved to be a huge success with guests during the
2003 Halloween season, and so it returned for the 2004 season
without any major changes. For the start of the 2005
season, however, the Shan-Yu
& Warriors section had to be removed due to budget restraints
on the large parade, but there the addition of many new Pink
Witches throughout the whole parade helped to balance the loss. | | |
