Cortylandia, Cortylandia, vamos todos a cantar (Cortylandia, Cortylandia, let's all sing)
Cortylandia is a free animatronic show organized annually during the Christmas season by the Spanish brand "El Corte Inglés" on the entrances of its most important shopping centers in Spain. It consists of a display full of animatronics singing various songs, and started in 1979 as a way to promote the Preciados mall in Madrid. Since then, each year (with the exception of 2020 due to the pandemic) has been displayed in Madrid ever since then. Each year the decoration, the songs, and the thematic changes, with the sole exception of the Cortylandia song, which is featured at the beginning of the song, with some slight alterations to match the theme of the show. Over time, the show was also performed in El Corte Inglés centers in other cities in Spain.Cortylandia provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ancient Egypt: The 1988 edition is dedicated to Egypt, with the walls of the mall being decorated with temporal walls mimicking Egyptian art and architecture and featuring two giant statues at the entrance of the mall. This version proved to be popular enough to be reused in other cities during the nineties.
- Circus Episode: The big circus in 1986, the remake in 1995, and Pitiflu's circus in 2011
- Christmas Songs: Some editions managed to have their songs released on CD and DVD.
- Christmas Special: The whole show is only featured during the Christmas season
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: Due to being displayed on Christmas, many editions are decorated with artificial ice and snow on their stages.
- Land of Faerie: The editions of 2008 and 2012 feature a hidden of fairies.
- Noah's Story Arc: A retelling of the story is featured in the 1987 edition, where Noah travels through time alongside his niece to tell the story of how he saved every animal from dying, with the sole exception of the Dinosaurs who were too big for the arc.
- Santa Claus: He is rarely displayed despite Cortylandia being displayed only during the Christmas shopping season. His most prominent role was in the 1982's when many Santa clauses took the protagonism alongside many water fountains.
- Shout-Out:
- 1993 was dedicated to Disney's Aladdin, to promote the theatrical release of the movie.
- Some cities got variants in the 90's featuring Disney movies, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Peter Pan, in order to promote Disneyland Paris, with some of these featuring attractions based on other Disney movies as well.
- In 1995, one of the malls in Barcelona decide to promote the StarWars's VHS release of the remastered original trilogy by featuring their characters.
- The 2001 edition was done to promote the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Trojan Horse: The 1996 show was a retelling of the war of Troy and featured a giant wooden horse where soldiers come out of its insides decorating the mall's entrance.
- World of Funny Animals: There are several editions where the cast of the show are all cartoony animals:
- The earliest case comes from 1983, with a show of caged birds singing about where they came from.
- In 2004 the stage takes place in a city of mice named Ratipolis, hiding from the cats from adobe it.
- In 2013 a group of cartoony bears sang Christmas songs under the decorative huge bells they put in their forest.
- In 2014 a band composed exclusively of penguins is practicing to make sure their Christmas concert goes well.
- In 2016 the cast is composed of a group of sewing mice accompanied by a house cat.
- In 2018 takes place in a canine Town where its inhabitants tell the audience about how they spend Christmas there.
