Photos by Alex Stroup
The Disney theme parks are known for celebrating Halloween, and Disneyland Paris is no exception. Every year, the park in France gets painted in orange to welcome the fall festivities. Recently, MousePlanet staff members Alex Stroup and Lani Teshima visited the park on their first visit to Europe.
The “Parc Disneyland” sign welcomes visitors to Disneyland Paris, located in the outskirts of Paris, France. Photo by Alex Stroup.
The Main Street Railroad station takes on an ominous look. Are those jack-o’-lantern faces in the archways, or fiery skulls?
The Main Street Railroad station is decorated for Halloween. Photo by Alex Stroup.
A closer look at the train station reveals a jack-o’-lantern pointing what looks like a shotgun.
A jack-o’-lantern stands atop the railroad station. Photo by Alex Stroup.
The “shotgun” the jack-o’-lantern is pointing looks like a paint gun ready to splatter some orange paint on unsuspecting park visitors. The paint is stored in the big canisters behind him, with hoses running into his paint gun.
The jack-o’-lantern points his paint gun at the crowd. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Pumpkin decorations festoon Main Street.
The gazebo get a Halloween treatment. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Frontierland is full of pumpkin decorations, including the very large jack-o’-lantern atop the building, sitting next to some cans of dripping orange paint.
A large jack-o’-lantern looks over Frontierland. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Even the scarecrow has turned into a jack-o’-lantern.
A jack-o’-lantern scarecrow. [Don’t mind little Stitch sitting on the straw horse; he likes to travel with Lani.] Photo by Alex Stroup.
“He’s got pretty good teeth for a dead guy!” A father and son inspect a Halloween skull. In addition to pumpkins, there are other Halloween-themed decorations around the park as well, including this gigantic skull. Notice the goblin in the background (on the left). He carries a broomstick dripping with more of the mysterious orange “paint,” which he’s dripped all over the skull. Could this be the same paint that was sprayed over the railroad station sign on Main Street?
A father and son inspect a giant Halloween skull. Photo by Alex Stroup.
In addition to jack-o’-lanterns, park visitors may also encounter “scarecrow” witches, like these. Unlike their American counterparts, these witches are quite curvy.
A couple of “scarecrow” witches hang out near Phantom Manor, Disneyland Paris’ version of the Haunted Mansion. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Stitch gets into the spirit of Halloween as he rides around near Frontierland in a rusty pumpkinmobile. Even with his jack-o’-lantern mask, there’s no hiding that naughty little alien.
Stitch, in costume, rides through Frontierland. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Mobile artists will draw spiderwebs and other decorations on your face. These artists carry their easels on a tool belt where they also keep all of their brushes and tools, leaving their hands completely free to do their magic.
Facepainting for the kids. Photo by Alex Stroup.
A couple of naughty jack-o’-lanterns hang out for visitors to pose with. Actually, they are “punk-kins”—notice their punk hairstyles and T-shirts that say “I’m Bad” and “I’m Bad, Too!” [Oh, and there’s that little Stitch again.]
A couple of “punk-kins.” Photo by Alex Stroup.
Where do these jack-o’-lantern pumpkin people come from? A sign in Frontierland explains it all: They come from regular pumpkins!
The evolution of the jack-o’-lantern pumpkin men. Photo by Alex Stroup.
The pumpkin garden near the sign shows the pumpkin people in various stages of growth.
A pumpkin garden grows baby pumpkins. Photo by Alex Stroup.
A closer look at a vine segment growing up the side of a house shows four different pumpkins in various stages of baby to toddler pumpkin. By the time they grow arms and legs, they also all carry little paintbrushes, since they all see to grow up to become painters.
A vine growing along the wall of a house is full of baby pumpkin people. Photo by Alex Stroup.
This is an adolescent jack-o’-lantern. How can you tell? By its pimples!
A pimple-face pumpkin person. Photo by Alex Stroup.
A lady jack-o’-lantern presses a pumpkin into a tea kettle, its spout pouring orange pumpking paint from its nozzle.
A lady jack-o’-lantern makes orange pumpkin paint. Photo by Alex Stroup.
An open field in the back Frontierland has turned into a big pumpkin patch, where ghouls and goblins have converted a large, broken pipe organ into a monstrous vacuum cleaner, which sucks up pumpkins to process into orange pumpkin paint.
A pipe organ turns pumpkins into orange pumpkin paint. Photo by Alex Stroup.
More of the overall-wearing jack-o’-lantern people, now busily processing the pumpkin goo into pumpkin paint.
Pumpkin goo turns into pumpkin paint. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Another paint gun-toting jack-o’-lantern pumpkin man, guarding the baby pumpkins in Frontierland.
Another paint gun-toting pumpkin man stands by his pumpkin garden. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Even the park’s regular parade gets a Halloween touch. This float, with characters from Lion King, Robin Hood, and Cinderella, has some pumpkin decorations.
A parade float is decorated with pumpkins. Photo by Alex Stroup.
The parade is preceded by a Halloween introduction, which includes a number of jack-o’-lantern pumpkin people in painter overalls as well as festive dress, dancing and romping through the park.
Jack-o’-lantern pumpkin people dance during the Halloween mini-parade. Photo by Alex Stroup.
