This is a short review of the adult Red Riding Hood Bathrobe from the Efteling Web Shop. Let me start by saying that this is more of a dressing gown than a bathrobe, because the material wouldn’t really absorb much water; it is very soft and fluffy, though.
You can get children’s robes and adults robes, they are exactly the same. There is also a Dragon robe available. They come in a strong zipped plastic bag with handles, which is cute. When ours arrived, some of the white frill material from around the hood was hanging off, but it was nothing a couple of stitches couldn’t fix. During wearing the robe I have also noticed that the blue sash is coming away a bit at the edges.
On the up side, however, it is very warm, and the hood is big. Like, you could probably fit 2 heads in there, if you had 2 heads…It also has a little loop in the neck so that you can hang it up. It is longer than it looks in the photo that is on the site, and comes almost to knee-length on a person of average height.
I had never watched André Rieu perform before; all I knew was that he was a violinist, so this review is definitely from a non-biased standpoint! When I heard that he had done a show at Efteling however, of course I wanted to see it! André Rieu in Wonderland was recorded at Efteling in 2007 in front of the Efteling Theatre. Anyone familiar with Efteling will notice a couple of different things about the Theatre when the show starts. Firstly, the signage on the Theatre usually says ‘Efteling Theatre’, but it now reads simply ‘Efteling’. Secondly, wasn’t there a huge planter full of flowers and a sculpture of a mermaid situated where the audience is sitting? Yes! Mr. Rieu kindly asked Efteling to uproot that so that they could fit the crowd in.
The show starts off in dramatic style, until Rieu starts talking about princesses and elves! Then, seven elves chime in with their instruments, (playing Hi-Ho) who go by the name of the Quacking Quails. By this point, all misconceptions of a boring opera-style show have gone out of the window, because the show seems like it has had lashings of silliness injected into it already.
Before you know it, you are not at the Efteling Theatre anymore. A cacophony of bizarre characters, including fairies, Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf and André Rieu are all dancing around Anton Pieckplein to the tune of ‘Tulips from Amsterdam’. Next, we are taken inside of the Stoomcarrousel, which the band is riding, along with a few fairy tale characters, and the crowds from outside are seen dancing around the carousel (clog dancers, can-can dancers and many more!).
If you have been reading Efteling UK for quite a while now, you may remember that Efteling have camels stored away for special events at the Fata Morgana. That’s right, camels! Of course it would be silly not to get your camels out for such an occasion, so for ’Salomé’, camels, belly dancers and even an elephant are used to turn the exterior of Fata Morgana into a living market place. This is also the setting for the frantic ‘Sabre Dance’. You will notice the fake floor that was laid down for this segment, which is understandable considering that some of the dancers throw knives at the ground!
Then for something you really weren’t expecting…Magic gets involved; one of the orchestra is turned into a witch, another into a frog, and André Rieu is shrunk down to the size of Tom Thumb! This is all the work of singer Brian Dickerson from New York. He sings a couple of songs, including ‘I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing’ from Porgy and Bess. He’s pretty damned good!
More magic is unleashed now, this time by Mr. Rieu, who turns one of the senior members of the audience into a beautiful young girl, who also has a beautiful voice! Turns out that she is an angel too! She is Mirusia Louwerse from Australia, and she performs two songs, the second of which takes place outside of the Little Match Girl building in the fairy tale forest, ‘Solveig’s Song’.
We are given something a little more uplifting next from the Platin Tenors, who sing ‘The Impossible Dream’. The Platin Tenors are under contract with André Rieu, and are made up of Thomas Greuel, Bela Mavrak and Gary Benett. They are of course, amazing singers!
This brings us to the intermission.
The show is in 2 parts, of course, and at the start of the second part, we are welcomed back be some beautiful shots of the inside of Droomvlucht, set to the music of ‘Tara’s Theme’ from Gone With the Wind. Now here is a question for you: you have literally a boat-load of fairy tale characters, plus an orchestra, singers, and even more random and wacky characters with you on your evening at Efteling…what do you do with them? Why, put them on a swinging boat of course! The ones you can’t fit on get to sit beside it and drink lots of beer! Sounds like a good evening, especially when André Rieu is there playing ‘The Second Waltz’.
More fairy tale goodness next, ‘Little Brother Dance With Me’ from Hansel and Gretel, which is, performed outside of Vrouw Holle’s house, Hansel and Gretel/The Witch’s house and in the Laaf Village.
And now, the best part, in my opinion, of the whole show, André Rieu does Carnaval Festival! Apparently so does the audience, as they all start to get up and do a conga-line. Included in this number is bagpipe playing with the little Scottish man in the attraction, maraca shaking for Mexico, and ‘quacking’ for the frog orchestra in the ride…Although I do realise that frogs do not quack, but best not tell them that.
It isn’t long before we are back to the more cultured side of the show, with Swan Lake performed on the Vonderplas by two amazing ballet dancers. It looks as though they are performing IN the water!
Snow White had to get in there at some point, and next up is ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’. However at the end of the number, the wicked witch chimes in trying to give one of the singers an apple, and unfortunately, for some reason, the audience tell her to eat it. How kind of them. Now, she lies in an open coffin outside of the Flying Dutchman, while her prince ballet-dances around her. You all know how this story ends though!
‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is performed next, outside of the Chinese Nightingale building, making use of Efteling’s gardens and fountains with the added use of multi-coloured lights.
Now for the finale! ‘What a Wonderful World’, performed by everybody. Of course it is a wonderful world, you are in Efteling! What could be better?!
Now for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ DVD feature. It starts off with André Rieu being shown the setting for his show, the Efteling Theatre. He is shown around the square by Olaf Vugts, Efteling Director. It is here that we learn why the large tulip planter and mermaid were taken away; and I quote:
Rieu: ‘How can you put a ‘tulip rotary’ in the middle of this beautiful square? …Can you get rid of it?’
Vugts: (Cue alarmed expression) ‘Sure we can, you’re the one who wanted to perform here. So if you want that thing out of here, we’ll get rid of it.’
So then it was goodbye to the tulips and the mermaid! I had wondered why, on my last visit to Efteling, that the planter was gone. The production manager then shows us all the work that went into filming the Second Waltz on the Half Moon attraction, and then behind the scenes of the Tulips from Amsterdam segment. Apparently, this shows what all of the characters from Efteling do after closing time!
’30 dancers provided by you (Rieu), an elephant, camel, goats, chickens…Then there were four Arabs with swords…’
Yes, this is the behind the scenes part of the Fata Morgana segment! Things can get messy with several camels and an elephant around, though Rieu feels positive about the situation:
‘Nothing will happen to your rugs…oh, except that! …Anyone here with a poop scoop? …Just when I said the rugs would be fine.’
There is also a lot of footage of the setting up of the show outside of the Theatre. We also learn about how the weather was very kind to the production, raining literally as they were finished filming, which was at midnight, as they were not allowed to wake the neighbours!
The verdict? Go get a copy! It really is a lot more fun to watch that I thought it would be, especially if you love Efteling!
Firstly, on the last post about Aquanura, the videos seemed as though they were edited somehow after I’d linked to them, so sorry if what I wrote about them made little sense! I tried to edit it to make it right. Here is Efteling’s video of the show, so if you do not want to see it, don’t click it! There are also spoilers later on so you have been warned!
So, I’ve watched it, and watched it again…and then yeah, I watched it again. Purely for research, of course. From the moment it went online, people were commenting on it on Facebook, and tweeting away about it on Twitter. I didn’t watch it live, but made sure to see the first uploads of it that I could. The ceremony was nice, with the clips about George and the Dragon, Anton Pieck etc, and lots of talking from Bart de Boer. Those were included in the original video that I posted, which now seems to have disappeared from YouTube. Then there was a little story about the Frog King, (I think that’s what it was, with the Princess holding the golden ball and a few shots of the frogs around the lake) and then came the countdown…
…And out came the water! First up was the ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ music, with almost golden water spurting from the frogs’ mouths and into the middle of the lake. Next up, Villa Volta, the dramatic side of Efteling. If you are very familiar with Efteling and have listened to the park’s music over and over (we’re all guilty) then here is when you start to realise the subtle changes in the soundtrack. The changes really freshen up the ageing tracks. Then comes the Indian Water Lilies, a favourite of mine, also with slightly altered music which livened up the piece even more! This one comes with beautiful blue and green fountains, just like the colours associated with the scene in the Fairy Tale Forest. Next up is Carnaval Festival, which bursts into being with colourful lights and rowdy fountains. After another brief interlude from ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ comes Raveleijn; and talking of dramatic..! In my opinion this is probably one of the best segments in Aquanura, as it includes lots of fire, which, if you have seen Raveleijn, you will understand the connection to. The music is absolutely superb and works well on a huge scale such as this.
Noticed anything missing so far? Any major attraction? For example, Droomvlucht? Well, that is what comes next in the show, after another small interruption from ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’. The water does exactly what you would expect for Droomvlucht, slow and delicate, and best of all, it is pink! There is also an alteration on the music here, which is nice. What I wasn’t expecting was what came next, the musical toadstool music! You have to love those little things, and they totally deserved to be included in Aquanura. Unfortunately, (and I say this because by this point it is getting a bit old) ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ sneaks in again for a moment.
Last but most certainly not least, is another attraction with wonderfully dramatic and rousing music, Spookslot. If you watch the official video posted by Efteling on their YouTube channel, you will hear some guy shout ‘whey!’ as soon as the Spookslot music starts…Kudos to that man, I think he was speaking for the whole crowd at that point. Green, purple and blue fountains for this one, you know, spooky-type colours. I’m pretty sure that some chants were added on the music for this one, which makes it even more (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again) dramatic! Et Voilà, we have the ending of Aquanura.
What is everyone saying about it?
Well, as I mentioned in my last post about the premiere, there were a few fan sites, namely Disney ones, that were pulling the show to bits over Twitter as it was still happening. I find it quite saddening that these sites were so negative towards something that was so fantastic, especially on the birthday of a park that is a few years older than the original Disneyland. Some folks really do need to open their minds and realise that other parks such as Efteling can do things just as well, if not better, than Disney can, and that is coming from a huge Disney fan by the way! Most Efteling fans loved it of course. For those of us who have grown up with this music, it actually means something, and it is great to see it being used in a new way for a new generation.
Of course at some point Aquanura was going to be compared to Disneyland’s World of Color and Disneyland Paris’ Disney Dreams show. I’ve seen World of Color on YouTube and it was fantastic, though I have yet to see Disney Dreams, as I plan to watch it for real later in the year. The issue some of these sites seemed to have, was that Efteling had not used mist screens to project onto. Project what though? Efteling doesn’t have a back catalogue of 70+ years of movies to showcase, they are but a simple (and wonderful) theme park. So I’m not sure what it was these people had in mind to be projected onto mist screens. Showing people images of rides that they have most likely been riding all day probably isn’t the best idea. However, the music worked well on its own. I haven’t been to a great number of theme parks around the world, but I’ll bet that Efteling has one of the best sets of music associated with their attractions. From dramatic, to light-hearted, to plain adventurous, the music really awakens your senses, kind of like a Laaf beer at the end of a hard day!
I did mention a few times above that ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ was used a number of times through the show. I joked about it creeping in there frequently, but it is actually quite nice to have it there to break up the other songs. I also noticed a few comments around the internet saying that the show was a bit short. It runs at about 12 minutes long, which isn’t really too short at all in my opinion. I bet they won’t be complaining about it being short when they are watching it on a cold winter day!
So, was anything important missing?
Well, I kind of expected to hear some Fata Morgana in there somewhere, though maybe since it provides a backdrop for the show they decided to chop that one out? Some George and the Dragon or some Flying Dutchman would have fit very nicely in the show, however I guess it was not to be; maybe in the distant future when we see Aquanura 2.0?!
Oh and Efteling…Can we have a CD single of the Aquanura music? Many thanks!
