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JeffG
11-28-2001, 09:17 AM
The new Disneyland Resort "Holiday Magic" CD was released yesterday and is now available at stores all over the resort. The CD costs $19.95 and contains the complete soundtracks to "Believe...In Holiday Magic", "It's a Small World Holiday" and "Disney's LuminAria".

The show soundtracks are both complete, including narration and exit music. The Holiday Believe track does include the version of "White Christmas" that plays during the snow finale. As for "LuminAria", I know that there were some major revisions to the show (including the soundtrack) during the show's first week. I did see the revised show, but after only one viewing I don't remember the soundtrack well enough to know if the version on the CD is the revised version. I did get a bit of a feeling that the track may have been rushed a bit as it is pretty stragely mixed. I had to keep adjusting the volume either to hear the lyrics or to avoid blasting it too loudly. It was difficult to hear in the park during the show as well, so it probably is inherent to this mix.

The "Small World Holiday" track is identical to the track on the CD single released last year. It is a 15 minute track containing the clock music and the complete ride soundtrack. To be honest, I was actually kind of hoping that they would edit it down somewhat for this release. This version is a bit much for listening to outside the attraction.

The packaging for the CD is ok, but nothing spectacular. The cover shows the castle decorated for Christmas and with fireworks above. The back of the booklet shows several of the characters dressed for Christmas and standing in front of DCA's Grizzly Peak. The booklet is a single foldout with the inside containing only text credits, copyrights, and acknowledgements. There are no photos. The back cover simply has the track listing and a copyright notice.

As had been previously reported, the "Christmas Fantasy Parade" music is unfortunately absent from the CD. Considering how long the parade has been running without a CD release, I suspect that there must be some rights issues. My first thought was that perhaps they have to pay royalties every time the main song is repeated... :)

While I think this CD is probably a bit overpriced for what you get, it is worth buying if you are a collector of the park music or if you really want one or both of the show soundtracks. If you are just looking for the "Small World Holiday" track, the CD single is still available, is more attractively packaged, and is $10 cheaper.

-Jeff

zapppop
11-28-2001, 09:50 AM
Cool.

Thanks.

Chris Lang
11-28-2001, 11:24 AM
For those of you who may be looking for the Christmas Fantasy music, check out:

http://virtual-disneyland.com/main.html

Scroll to the bottom. It's the last title.

Enjoy!

Chris Lang
Webmaster, Virtual-disneyland.com (and many others)