Disneyland Paris adds Marvel-themed drone show to 30th anniversary celebrations

Step aside, Mickey and Pluto: Disneyland Paris is about to fill its evening sky with Marvel characters during its “Avengers: Power the Night” drone show – part of its yearlong celebration of the park’s 30^th year anniversary.

Disneyland Paris said the nightly Avengers drone show will run from January 28 through May 8. Performances will feature up to 500 UAVs creating images like Captain America’s shield, and also include lights, lasers, fireworks, and music projected onto or from the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride in the Walt Disney Studios Park. 

Read: Paris park to fete 30th anniversary with first Disneyland drone show 

The Marvel-themed spectacles are the most recent in a series of drone shows Disneyland Paris kicked off in January with the first-ever UAV performances in one of the company’s parks around the world. Additional aerial choreographies will continue through September, when events marking the Paris facility’s 30-year anniversary come to a close.

The “Avengers: Power the Night” fits into a wider selection of Marvel-themed attractions staged by Disneyland Paris, and will feature characters including Captain America, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and the Incredible Hulk. 

For the UAV  element of the nightly light and sound performance, Disneyland Paris again turned to Bordeaux-based drone show and swarm company Dronisos, whose work creating the park’s first aerial event led to it being named its official provider of those services in April. A special soundtrack was recorded by a collection of 70 musicians in London’s Abbey Road studio to accompany the Marvel spectacle.

Read: SKYMAGIC steals the show with Queen’s Jubilee drone performance 

Though doubtless unintended, the presence of superheroes like Captain America offers an ironic rebuke to the many vociferous critics in France who, when Disneyland Paris first opened three decades ago, denounced it as a vessel of US cultural imperialism that would never find sufficient traction with French and European audiences to stay afloat. 

Now, in addition to Disney-proper characters, the park is attracting big crowds with American Pixar and Marvel characters lighting up the sky as well.