Vintage Animation Device Outside Discoveryland Theater at Disneyland Paris Updated To Feature Sorcerer Mickey

Despite Discoveryland being a future that never was but always will be at Disneyland Paris, guests can take a look at a special early animation device – that has now been updated to feature Sorcerer Mickey.

What’s Happening:

  • Disneyland Paris has updated one of the smaller, yet still enjoyable details found at the park – a praxinoscope that has now been updated to feature Sorcerer Mickey in Discoveryland.
  • Previously, the device featured a playful, alien-type creature that has now been changed to feature Sorcerer Mickey – whose hat is prominently featured in the 3D film playing in the nearby Discoveryland Theater, Mickey’s Philharmagic.

  • Appropriate since they were originally invented by Frenchman Emile Reynaud, it was 1877 when he made his contribution to the iconic art of animation with the Praxinoscope. This device is similar to that of the zoetrope (which was inadvertently shared in our earlier tweet), but rather than looking through small slits in a drum, viewers see images reflected by a set of mirrors attached to the central drum, as exemplified by the video above.
  • The device helped Reynaud develop and patent what he called the Theatre Optique, which featured images painted on gelatin squares suspended within leather bands which were routed through the projector and aligned with a mirrored surface using a series of spools. A concept that not only carried on to help animation, but filmmaking in general as it led to the eventual realization of flexible bases, like celluloid film stock. Demonstrations of this new device were realized through his performances, which he called “Pantomimes Lumineuses”, which he showed throughout Paris between 1892 and 1900.

More Disneyland Paris News:

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Tony Betti
Originally from California where he studied a dying artform (hand-drawn animation), Tony has spent most of his adult life in the theme parks of Orlando. When he’s not writing for LP, he’s usually watching and studying something animated or arguing about “the good ole’ days” at the parks.