Let there be
Damon Smith
Acrescendo of cheers and hollers greets a gargantuan 3D representation of Spider-man, standing over 140 feet tall, attached by strands of brilliant white webbing to one side of the boldly geometric Twilight Zone Tower of Terror building in Disneyland Paris. The red and blue spandex-clad superhero, realised using hundreds of drones in the night-time sky, waves benevolently at an exultant throng of mobile phone-wielding guests, then amusingly loses his grip and surrenders to gravity with a staccato symphonic thud and a spurt of impeccably-timed pyrotechnics.
This delightfully comical coda to the new Avengers: Power The Night spectacular at Walt Disney Studios Park heralds the Grand Finale of the resort’s 30th anniversary celebrations, which continue until September 30, with new attractions and offerings including the first drone show performed daily in any Disney park.
The jaw-dropping eightminute extravaganza is performed nightly until May 8 (weather permitting) and harnesses energyefficient laser video projections, fireworks, lights and special effects, alongside 500 illuminated airborne devices to conjure Captain America’s shield, thunder god Thor’s mighty hammer, Shang-chi’s 10 interlocked gold rings and other supersized insignia.
Tony Stark’s artificial intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistantyouth) cajoles visitors into the Production Courtyard to savour visual effects, choreographed to a medley of themes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, rearranged by Grammy-nominated Italian composer Marco Marinangeli and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with a symphony orchestra of more than 70 musicians.
When a digitally projected Iron Man unleashes a Repulsor blast from his armour-suited hand on the building’s façade, a perfectly-timed firework arcs into the air, tracing the weapon’s path as rousing lines of dialogue in French and English underline a call to arms for teamwork and collaboration.
“Look after one another as if we were one single tribe,”purrs Black Panther, amidst chants of Wakanda Forever.
Avengers: Power The Night is the latest milestone in a €2 billion expansion of Walt Disney Studios Park, which began in July last year with the opening of the immersive Avengers Campus and two centrepiece rides, Spider-man W.E.B. Adventure and the turbo-charged Avengers Assemble: Flight Force roller-coaster.
The investment continues with the 2025 opening of a Frozen-themed kingdom of Arendelle, dominated by an ice castle atop a 131-foot snow-laden mountain, which overlooks a Scandinavian village nestled on the banks of a seven-acre lake.
In 2019, the reconfigured Studio Theatre in Walt Disney Studios Park hosted an action-packed Marvel: Super Heroes United stage show that pitted Iron
Man, Captain America and allies against supervillain Thanos, augmented with innovative special effects, including a full-size car flying across the stage.
This summer, as part of the Grand Finale, the 1,100-seat venue welcomes Pixar: We Belong Together, a rip-roaring musical adventure celebrating the enduring power of friendship that weaves together characters and songs from different animated films.
“We are aiming for a poetic and heartfelt story with a lot of emotion,” executive producer Astrid Gomez tells me. With a provisional running time of 28 minutes, the show is earmarked for five performances a day, and Gomez excitedly confides she is targeting a July opening (“fingers crossed”), shortly after the latest Pixar film Elemental arrives in cinemas.
“We imagined the show, so we could potentially incorporate a new scene,”she adds.
Grand Finale festivities extend across the adjacent Disneyland Park.
The Disney D-light drone show, conceived by Bordeaux-based company
Dronisos for the 30th anniversary, continues to light up the sky before the Disney Illuminations night-time spectacular.
Finessed since its premiere in March last year, the seven-minute-long display boasts 150 drones dancing in the air over the castle’s pearlescent towers to the infectious beat of the anniversary earworm“un Monde Qui S’illumine”.
From April 12, as part of the Grand Finale, illuminations will be extinguished to make way for a revival of the award-winning Disney Dreams!, which was conceived to mark the resort’s 20th anniversary.
“We are currently reworking the fireworks and lighting effects to introduce more lights in the sky,” teases the show’s director Matthieu Robin.
Combining pyrotechnics with lasers, dancing fountains and projection mapping, the updated 21-minute bilingual show will introduce LED technology to the rooftops of Sleeping Beauty Castle, synchronised to twinkle to a nostalgic soundtrack that shoots for the second star to the right in the company of Peter Pan’s mischievous shadow, and characters from Beauty And The Beast, Ratatouille, Aladdin, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Lion King, Brave, Tangled and The Princess And The Frog.
Many of these animated films are immortalised as surrealist kinetic sculptures in the ongoing Gardens Of Wonder installation as part of the 30th anniversary, which encircles Central