A new Marvel-inspired drone show has launched at Disneyland Paris. Titled “Avengers: Power The Night,” the night-time spectacle is set to take place above and on top of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney Studios just before closing each night from now through to October.
Inspired by the park’s recently opened Avengers Campus, the eight-minute show features characters including Black Panther, Captain America and Doctor Strange using a combination of 500 drones, lights and fireworks, set to a soaring score composed by Grammy winner Marco Marinangeli and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Disneyland Paris show director Arnaud Feredj spent six months conceiving and creating the display in partnership with France-based drone entertainment company Dronisos, who used modified Parrot drones to pull it off. The two teams had previously worked together on a drone show for Parc Disneyland titled D-Light, which runs before the fireworks each night (similar to California’s set-up, Disneyland Paris has two parks, Parc Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios).
Avengers Power The Night, Disneyland Paris
Although Feredj declined to comment on the budget, the size of the team gives some indication. “There [are] light designer teams, motion designers, the drone designers, the SFX designers, then I worked with a show writer, musical producers, and we’ve been to Abbey Road to record this wonderful [performance with] more than 70 musicians,” he told Variety.
Read on for more details from Feredj on how the night-time spectacle came together.
What was the starting point for “Avengers: Power of the Night”?
The starting point was the Avengers Campus opening ceremony [last July]. Our leaders at Disneyland Paris [and] worldwide really appreciated [it] and the guests’ reaction was just incredible. So I’ve been asked to develop a show based on the look and feel of the Avengers Campus. The first conversation we had [with Dronisos], I’ll remember forever. I said, “Guys, what you did [at Parc Disneyland] is amazing…But what you did was already six months ago, we’re gonna go further.” And they were like, “Okay, let’s!”
Everything is 3D. And we really push the limits. When we did the first storyboards, I remember the conversation, they were like, “Okay, so it’s a 30-minute show?” We were like, “No no no no no. This is an eight-minute show.” We’re going to do all of that in eight minutes. And they thought we were completely crazy.
Avengers Power The Night, Disneyland Paris
Did Marvel Studios have to approve everything?
I work closely with the franchises and here at Disneyland Paris, and in Disney, we work with a lot of different franchises, so it’s been an amazing partnership because, of course, we are so respectful of their characters, of their franchise, that’s their IP and we want to display it the best way possible. And they were very helpful telling us what we could do with them and how we could do it. And with the ideas that we had, everything you’re going to see in this show is a new kind of artwork from Marvel. It’s a never-done before, never seen before.
The projection you will see, it’s not from the movies at all. It’s not from the comics, either, it’s something new. And when I came up with the idea, they were like, “Are we sure we want to show the Avengers that way?” And actually, it was quite easy to convince them because they loved the concepts. And when we talked about the drones, and they were like, “Yeah, but we don’t really want to do a show just to make it beautiful.” And we’re like, “No, we’re just going to demonstrate the power of the Avengers.” And each drone section represents the powers of the Avengers. It shows their strength, it shows why they are a true superhero.
What was the biggest creative challenge?
To be honest, I know it might sound a bit cheesy, but it was only fun. To be fair, it’s not a challenge, it’s just how you bring the emotions of the movies and the comics and the entire franchise into an eight-minute show. And how do you create something so that it has a purpose and amazes people, but also has an emotional arc.
Check out a teaser for “Avengers: Power of the Night” below:
Source: Variety
