Hi all,

Disneyland Paris yesterday had it's premier showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie (not the French premier though). Disney Central Plaza posted to their Facebook page a photo of Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones meeting Guests at the cinema in Disney Village! There is some conflict of information as to whether these were real or not, but whether these characters were provided by Disney, or by the cinema, they were certainly very convincing, and were on Disney property for a Disney movie premier! In our eyes that makes them characters, but take a look and make your own judgement. Let me know what you think by hitting the Discuss button at the end of this post.

I have also just literally heard from an inside source that Café Mickey in Disney Village, sadly, is no longer offering random characters at the meals! From now on it is only the Fab 5 and friends! This is quite a shame, as this was one of Disney best Character meal experiences around, and you never knew who you would get!

Loren posted his latest Character Updates to the Character Central Forum. Jon also posted to the forum that a user on MiceChat heard that Phineas and Ferb would be coming to Disney California Adventure at the start of June!

Of course the biggest news was from Florida where the D23 event came to a spectacular finish. None other than Dreamfinder and Figment made a surprise, and much welcomed appearance on stage. Check out the video Jon posted in the Forum here.

Staying with Florida, I heard that Rapunzel and Flynn made a random appearance at International Gateway in EPCOT, and Tinker Bell is now greeting alone in the temporary Fairy Garden near Mouse Gear. She has six set times with no friends joining her. This is a massive come down from the glory days of her appearing from open to close with two other friends in Pixie Hollow in the Magic Kingdom. The lines get far too long, and she is way too popular to only have six half hour slots per day. Hopefully when she moves back to Adventureland, things will be restored to order.

Don't forget to check out the latest Character of the Week, and vote for next week's star.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

So after a slow week for character news, I now have quite a lot to tell you!

First off Disneyland Paris has redesigned Jack Sparrow’s costume, and he is due to start appearing in his updated gear very soon, to coincide with the new movie. He already wears his new outfit in California, where the film had its premiere last week.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

The big news this weekend of course was the premier of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at the Disneyland Resort in California. As I already pointed out yesterday, Loren was there right on the front line, and made a forum post about it here, including up close pictures of all the stars! Be sure to check it out! His report also includes some character updates.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Our resident California correspondent Loren was in Disneyland for the world premier of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie yesterday, and has posted this report to the Character Central Forum!

Check it out now, with exclusive up close pictures of all the celebrities including Johnny Depp!!

Thank you to Loren, who waited ALL day to get the fantastic location on Main Street!

I do have more news, but I think it can wait until tomorrow, as this is pretty big :)

Dan.

Hi all,

Stitch Kingdom posted two days ago some exclusive news about a fantastic PIXAR weekend at Epcot from May 13th thru 15th. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the PIXAR Studios, Epcot will be hosting virtually all the PIXAR stars ever seen at the Parks, including some very rare treats such as the Bugs characters, and Wall-E! Sadly we will not be there for this (we will be in WDW this week though for Angelica's debut!), but we look forward to seeing all the amazing photos from this event.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Friday night saw a special preview event at Disneyland Paris for the new Magical Moments Festival, due to start in less than weeks at the Resort. The event consisted of special previews of the brand new hub show, and the Disney Dance Express (the latest incarnation of the Character Express/Casey Jr).  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Today has seen a few more things come up on the character news front, after a somewhat quiet week.

The Disney Parks Blog posted that from this weekend there is a special Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides area set up in the Festival Arena area at the back of Frontierland in California. As well as merchandise, special drinks and exclusive 3D previews of the movie, Jack Sparrow himself is said to be making appearances from time to time too. Jack Sparrow does not get out much these days in the US parks, preferring to spend most of his time in Tokyo and Paris!  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

As ever Jon and I have been working hard to improve the site and its functionality, which means there have been some changes I need to point out.

The much asked for, and much anticipated comments feature for this blog is now up and running. At the end of each entry there is a link that says Discuss this Blog Entry. If you click it, it will take you to a pre-formatted version of this blog on the forum where you can post all your replies.  [ Read More... ]