Saturday, May 8, 2010

Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, and . . . Mickey Mouse?

La Legende de Buffalo Bill: "Five thousand miles from Cody, Wyoming, 30 minutes outside Paris, France, there is a man who plays one of the most iconic Western figures in American history." This a fun story about one of the most popular attractions at EuroDisney's Mainstreet USA attraction, a "90-minute dinner performance modeled directly after Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows."

I am not sure what "modeled directly" means in this case, though there are a lot of grainy tourist videos of the show on YouTube (see below). If someone could please watch them all and report back, that would be great. Especially interesting is this nugget from the article:

At the beginning of the show, Vance introduces four different “ranches,” or sections of the arena, each with its own cowboys and Indians. Buffalo Bill greets Sitting Bull, and after a series of rodeo games, Vance gallops in on a white horse to save the guests, who have been robbed in a stagecoach attack.

In its 18 years (Vance performing for 15 of those), the show has only changed once. A little rough around the edges, the show is different than what a typical Disney audience would expect, Vance said. So last year, the management team asked that Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Chip and Dale be incorporated.

Vance was worried these additions would mess with the integrity of the show. “I wouldn’t have thought it would work, but the way it’s done, because of who we are – we’re just real guys – when you put that out there, we make the characters look more real,” he said. “Instead of us becoming a Disney show, it gives Mickey a bit of an edge.”

Here is a brief video from the show--sans Goofy, alas:

No comments: