Mickey's Philharmagic is coming to Disneyland Paris

May 19, 2018, 11:04 AM · One of Walt Disney World's more popular shows is coming to Disneyland Paris. Mickey's Philharmagic will open in the Discoveryland Theatre in October.

The 4D show opened originally in the Magic Kingdom in late 2003 and now also plays at Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. Despite the title, the Disney star with the most screen time in this 12-minute film is Donald Duck, who, of course, messes up and sets the whole plot in motion. Mickey's Philharmagic represented the first major use of computer animation for many of Disney's classic animated characters.

The new film isn't the only change coming to Europe's most-popular theme park park, which posted an impressive 15% increase in attendance last year, according to the annual TEA/AECOM Theme Index report released this week. Disneyland Paris is refurbishing its Phantom Manor, continuing its series of major refurbs of top attractions at the resort.

Here is Tom Fitzgerald from Walt Disney Imagineering, explaining the changes in the ride, which mashes up the Haunted Mansion with scenes originally designed for Walt Disney World's never-built Western River Expedition.

The refurbished Phantom Manor also opens in October.

Replies (8)

May 20, 2018 at 1:29 AM

I liked it at Magic Kingdom, but now they are throwing it in Discoveryland, which makes no sense. It would have been more appropriate in Fantasyland or in Walt Disney Studios.
I hope they will thematically justify the presence of a classical orchestra in Discoveryland

May 21, 2018 at 3:46 AM

Awesome, but why Discoveryland?!

May 21, 2018 at 5:54 AM

I really like this film and am glad it's coming to Paris.
There is a whole list of refurbishment announced for the park till 2019
Most notably the restoration of the river boat.
Some new attractions would be nice too.

May 21, 2018 at 7:07 AM

Nice to see that Disney bought this park with a well thought out short term and long term new attraction plan. This park is in great hands now. Excited to see how the next 20 years pans out.

May 21, 2018 at 7:08 AM

The show could use a refurb ala Spider-Man. The animation looks pretty shoddy compared to today’s standards.

May 21, 2018 at 7:17 AM

I was about to write the same thing James. Philharmagic has been at MK for over 15 years with no substantive changes. If you're going to clone it to another park, at least improve it, and pass those improvements on to the existing installations.

May 21, 2018 at 8:36 AM

Philharmagic is alot of fun and a great way to beat the heat. Clearly, Disney has been able to maximize the ROI on this investment....so why not update it? I think they should pull a Star Tours 2.0 on it and add in new and randomized sequences (in addition to some new special effects. When there's a hot new Disney movie add a scene about it in the show. That will get a lot of repeat traffic in there. I often see the theater partially full and it's clear that Disney wants us to go there because they promote it like it's new on park maps and "surprise gift" fastpasses. Give us a reason to go back, Disney.

May 21, 2018 at 4:27 PM

I always wanted this to come to Disneyland.....maybe some day.

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Park tickets

Weekly newsletter

New attraction reviews

News archive