Grand Opening Celebration of Shanghai Disney Resort Telecast Will Air June 16, 2016

The Disney/ABC Television Group has announced it will air a television special to commemorate the opening of the Shanghai Disneyland Resort:

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Disney Shanghai Grand Opening to be broadcast on Disney Channel and Freeform

ABC Press Release
June 9, 2016

Viewers from around the world will be able to experience the grand opening to the new Disneyland resort in Shanghai in a special telecast on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD on Thursday, June 16.

The telecast promises to showcase "the beauty of Chinese art and tradition," and bring the "magical Disney stories and characters to life for kids and families," Disney announced in a press release. Disney Channel star of The Descendants and Adventures in Babysitting, Sofia Carson, will narrate the telecast.

The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger will join 3,000 distinguished guests, celebrities and government officials at the largest Disney park castle, The Enchanted Storybook Castle, where the showcase will present creative "choreography, acrobatics, costumes and technology in grand scale, with dazzling lights, Disney music, pageantry, special effects and fireworks."

And, of course, Mickey Mouse.

Other musical festivities include a custom arrangement of "Let it Go" by pianist Lang Lang; the debut of the song "Ignite the Dreamer Within," written especially for the grand opening of Shanghai Disneyland; along with classics "Once Upon a Dream," "Heigh Ho" and "Some Day My Prince will Come," all performed by the Shanghai Symphony, and conducted by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon composer Tan Dun.

The "Grand Opening Celebration of Shanghai Disney Resort" telecast will air Thursday, June 16 at 8 p.m. EST | 7 p.m. CT simultaneously on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD, and again on Friday, June 17 at 10:00 p.m. EST | 9:00 p.m. CT on Freeform.

Disney Shanghai Resort is the first Disney resort in mainland China, created especially for the people of China, and promises to be "a world-class family entertainment destination." The resort consists of the Shanghai Disneyland park, two themed hotels, an international dining and shopping district called Disneytown, and Wishing Star park "with peaceful gardens and a glittering lake."

Shanghai Disney Resort is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Shanghai Shendi Group. The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Disney/ABC Television Group, and this station.

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Anyone else remember the Euro-Disneyland park opening special?

Thanks for the information. I've set the DVR. Don't remember Euro-Disneyland opening, or entire resorts, just remember specials for new parks opening.

Thanks so much for the head's up, I probably would not have known about this! Now to set the DVR.

I would like to watch it but I don't believe it's airing in Canada on any of those channels. Ugh. Guess I will have to use the power of the internets to find it.

Well as much as I enjoyed the music and such I really wanted to just punch the girl narrating. Very annoying.

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Originally Posted by jennsky

I would like to watch it but I don't believe it's airing in Canada on any of those channels. Ugh. Guess I will have to use the power of the internets to find it.

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This ^

Might have to end up scouring the internet for it later on. Kind of odd for Disney to air a milestone event such as this on their more "kid-oriented" channels, opposed to ABC, like you would expect. Maybe it is because they have this Disney Channel girl hosting it, opposed to someone of... you know? ESTEEM?? Haha... I don't know. I tried taping the whole evening line-up last night of both Disney Junior and Disney XD here in Canada and from what I've seen, it's nowhere to be seen in the recordings. Just tons of shows...

That show was the worst! Just my opinion, but the only thing I got from the show was that this sure is not being put on my bucket list. And just where did they get that awful girl narrator from? Does anyone have any clue who she is? Oh, BTW - just me again, but I thought the castle is ugly.

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Originally Posted by JanetMegan

Well as much as I enjoyed the music and such I really wanted to just punch the girl narrating. Very annoying.

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I just finished watching the special and I felt exactly the same way. The girl who I am sure is from one of those Disney shows, did not need to do commentary on every single thing that was happening.

The special did not do justice to the park, and all the work that's been done. To me this should've been one half of a one hour special. They could've mixed the concert with showing how the park came together, and what's in the park, what makes it unique.

Bob Iger kept repeating the line that appears on the dedication plaque that Shanghai Disneyland is authentically Disney, and distinctly Chinese, but the special didn't really show us any of that. I've gotten much more out of the half dozen YouTube videos I watched about the new park.

While I'm still excited about going to the park in December, it's not from watching this. Even the grand opening ceremony that happen the next day was better. They showed highlights of it at Disney California Adventure park in the special pavilion they had set up to celebrate Shanghai's opening. They should've combined the night before event, as well as the grand opening day ceremony, and showed more behind-the-scenes stuff of the park. That would have made for a much better special.

As I suspected this entire show was also done in Chinese for the Chinese audiences as well. If you search Shanghai Disneyland Resort Grand Opening Gala you can find it. While some of the songs are in Manderin，at least you don't have to listen to the annoying girl from the American version. The version I watched has no commentary at all.

Ok. My wife and I said the same thing about the narrator of the show. My wife said she was from Descendants so maybe that was The Disney Channel's way of bringing in kids who may not have been interested in this show. However, her delivery was very poor and whoever wrote it did as good a job as what is written for awards presenters.

But this isn't the 1970s or 1980s where Disney would take two hours to do a extended show about an opening of a park. I believe they feel they can bill more money showing their normal shows than an extended park opening. Notice they didn't show it on any of the ABC affiliates which they own.

You guys aren't really motivating me to find a copy of this on the Internet. Lol! I think I might just stick with YouTube videos of the park. Or better yet, perhaps we need to make an Intercot contingent of people to go and shoot some videos ourselves! I'm in!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's playing on the "LiveWell" network (never heard of it before) at 8:00 PM EDT today, 6/20, for anyone that missed it.

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Originally Posted by 2Epcot

As I suspected this entire show was also done in Chinese for the Chinese audiences as well. If you search Shanghai Disneyland Resort Grand Opening Gala you can find it. While some of the songs are in Manderin，at least you don't have to listen to the annoying girl from the American version. The version I watched has no commentary at all.

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I agree...the narration was as if they had translated it direct from Mandarin to English. It's funny, I watched it with my son (12) who has no ties to Intercot but who recognized the young lady from TV but asked why she was speaking so strangely. It was strange for sure!