The Production Courtyard

The remainder of Production Courtyard at Walt Disney Studios Park consists of soundstages and other production-style facilities, including the Studio Theater where screenings might be hosted. This is home to CineMagique, another attraction unique to the Paris park - and one of its best.

CineMagique begins as a film tribute to many of the greatest movies in cinema history. A short while in, however, someone's cell phone starts ringing. The offending Guest stands to take the call and is soon being chased down by Security. He runs on stage and right into the screen! At this point, we see the "Guest" is none other than Martin Short, who ends up on a madcap adventure through classic movie scenes. He even falls in love along the way. CineMagique lives up to its name: It's pure cinema magic!

Scattered throughout Production Courtyard are Studio Catering wagons and other equipment waiting to be pressed into service with some production shooting on the lot. Like a real studio, though, Walt Disney Studios isn't just for movie making. There's also television production... or at least, there was.

Early in the park's history, this Art Deco structure housed Walt Disney Television Studios, the one spot where Guests could see real production taking place. A tour, hosted on video by an animated Buzz Lightyear, took groups past the various facilities, including the building's four stages. If you were lucky, you could have even caught an actual taping of "Zapping Zone," a popular show on Disney Channel France.

The TV tour was less successful than the designers of the park had originally hoped. Attempts to boost interest included adding the Cyberspace Mountain simulators from DisneyQuest Chicago to the post-show area of the tour, but eventually the attraction was shuttered.

In its place today, Guests can instead participate in live shows designed to feel like you're on the set of some children's TV programs. With Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! and Stitch LIVE! (an experience similar to Turtle Talk with Crush), young Guests find this corner of Walt Disney Studios Park particularly entertaining. With the multiple languages spoken at Disneyland Resort Paris, the versions of these shows presented here are presented in several versions. Take a look a the reader boards on each marquee, and you'll see they advertise just when the next show in your language will be playing.

Winding through Production Courtyard from one end to the other is a virtual walkway of film history. The pavement is designed to look like a filmstrip, with Mickey patterns in the sprocket holes. Along the way are a series of tributes, ranging from movie and TV posters adorning sound and lighting towers to homages to some of the greatest contributors to cinema.

Some of the celebrities present for the park's opening back in 2002 have left their handprints in cement, similar to Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Here, you'll find stars both from Europe (Angela Lansbury and 3rd 007 Roger Moore) as well as those who are inexplicably popular in Europe (David Hasselhoff is HUGE in Germany).

The name Remy Julienne may not be particularly well known, but his work is. As a stunt coordinator, Julienne contributed to some of the biggest action scenes in films from the James Bond series to The Da Vinci Code. He was also chief consultant in the development of Moteurs... Action! Stunt Spectacular for the Walt Disney Studios Park.

Of course, the movies wouldn't be what they are today with the contributions of a few folks with the surname "Disney." Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew and a producer on films including the True-Life Adventures, was in attendance at the opening of the park.

Nearby, a plaque honors Roy's father and uncle, commenting without understatement that "They changed the face of entertainment and virtually created the genre of the animated feature film."

Several of these plaques in Production Courtyard pay homage to the true visionaries of motion pictures... and they're not all Hollywood names. Appropriately positioned near the Special Effects building on the Backlot, at the foot of Rue Georges Méliès, is a plaque honoring the Parisian stage magician who is credited with discovering techniques such as stop motion, slow motion, dissolves, fade-outs and superimposition.