Mickey and the Magician: an illusion show with Disney classics

Mickey and the Magician is an indoor show at the Animagique Theater. Mickey lands in a great Magician’s workshop and dreams of becoming a magician too. The Magician gives him a task: tidy up the room before the moon disappears, reminding him that a real magician always keeps his promises.

As he cleans up, Mickey conjures up several Disney characters who each teach him a lesson about magic: the Fairy Godmother (Cinderella) with "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast) with the banquet scene and a waltz by Belle and the Beast, Rafiki (The Lion King) surrounded by savanna animals to "Circle of Life," the Genie (Aladdin) and his Arabian Nights troupe, then Olaf and Elsa (Frozen) singing "Let It Go."

On stage, live actors share the spotlight with puppets, while singing, dancing, lavish costumes, illusions, digital projections, and special effects all come together. Everything leads up to the big closing number, "Let the Magic Shine," in which Mickey earns his place as a real magician, before every character comes out to take a bow.

The Animagique Theater building first made its name with Animagique, a black-light show that audiences cheered from the park’s opening in 2002 until January 31, 2016. Looking to move toward more ambitious story-driven theater, management commissioned Mickey and the Magician. After a few weeks of previews, the show officially opened on July 2, 2016, and by the end of that same year the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) had named it "best theatrical production."

For this critically praised production, Walt Disney Imagineering brought in British illusionist Paul Kieve, and the designers drew on the worlds of Georges Méliès and Robert-Houdin to give the show an "old-school" style of magic. That partnership made it possible to build optical illusions and stage trickery right into the story. The set design, built for lightning-fast scene changes, relies on video projections subtly mapped onto the scenery, creating the feel of a classic nineteenth-century theater.

Accessibility is part of this show’s legacy too. In 2018, it became the first show at Disneyland Paris to be performed in French Sign Language, the result of two years of teamwork between the entertainment, accessibility, and disability departments. And since February 2023, the signer is no longer stuck at the edge of the stage translating: they play a real role in the story and interact directly with the characters.

Mickey and the Magician celebrates Disney magic through five classics: Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, and Frozen. Apprentice magician Mickey meets the Fairy Godmother, Lumiere, Belle, the Beast, Rafiki, the Genie, Olaf, Elsa, and Tinker Bell in a series of scenes that mix illusions and live songs, set to the soundtrack "Let the Magic Shine."