From July 18 the Efteling Theatre restaurant will be transformed into a Pinocchio themed eatery called Constanzo’s Marionette Theater. The theatre restaurant has seen many themes come and go, but this one sounds like one of the most interesting. Apparently Constanzo’s puppets provide ‘fun and entertainment’, while his family serve you. Interesting! The food on offer is of course, pizza and pasta, and the restaurant is open 17:00-19:00 until August 30th.
The Pinokkio musical starts at the Efteling Theatre on September 9th.
You are all aware by now that Efteling are to open their first dive coaster on July 1st. We all knew that the ride, as per its name, is a dive coaster which sends riders vertically straight down into a hole before bringing you back up again into a normal coaster. What we didn’t really know, was that the ride is to have its own audio animatronic, in the form of Gustave Hooghmoed, the Baron himself! In the newest ‘Making of’ video from Efteling, we get a short glimpse of him, and he looks fantastic!
You may remember a while back that we were wishing and hoping that Efteling would put an audio animatronic of the Captain into the Flying Dutchman. Alas, it is not to be, but Baron 1898 certainly hasn’t gone wrong on that count. It definitely gives more life to the ride and helps tell a story if you have a ‘person’ in there.
The animatronic of the Baron has been created by Garner Holt Productions, an American company who produce a lot of animated figures for Disney theme parks.
In Efteling’s newest video, we also get to see some of the theming that is taking place in and around the ride; the finishing touches that help to tell the story.
Efteling have placed a two page spread in the July/August edition of National Geographic magazine (Traveller edition). What a surprise to see them in there! Thank you to Ryan for pointing this out on Facebook and taking a photo. Naturally, a copy had to be bought! So here’s a scan (which has been pieced together, so excuse any lines that don’t match up!) of the advert.
Click to read text!
As you can see, it gives a fairly clear view of where Efteling is situated, as well as pointing out ferry routes and airports. They’re definitely fishing for thrill-seekers judging my the coaster photos at the bottom, however, Sprookjesboom with the little girl on the main picture give a vague idea of the fairy tale theme (which is mentioned in the text).
It would be great to see a full article in the future, taking a better look at the hotel and Bosrijk, and maybe featuring Aquanura.
Now the English-speaking visitors to Efteling can get an idea of the top attractions in the park, without having to decipher Dutch. The video can also be viewed in German and French. Très bien!
We’ve been waiting a while, calmly, patiently, to hear the music that accompanies the new Dive Coaster Baron 1898. Well, in episode 8 of ‘The Making of Baron 1898’, we finally get to hear an excerpt from the ride’s music. Written by René Merkelbach, who also wrote the music for George and the Dragon and the Flying Dutchman, the score is inspired by the brass bands of the mining era.
Bring out the orchestra!
The Brussels Philharmonic recorded the music, and as expected (because obviously we Efteling-lovers have high musical standards now 😉 ) it sounds great! The video only shows a small portion of the final music, but it sounds dramatic and upbeat, a little like Joris en de Draak, and it fits perfectly with Efteling’s back catalogue of attraction music.
Next year we will see the addition of a new fairy tale to Efteling’s fairy tale forest… Pinocchio! The Efteling Theatre’s newest production also happens to be Pinocchio, showing later this year. The new fairy tale will be placed between the Red Shoes and Little Red Riding Hood, where an old food counter stands which hasn’t been used for some time (In de Noordpool).