Thursday, January 25, 2007

Bringing Civilization To The Wilds of Animal Kingdom...


The new Animal Kingdom Lodge expansion DVC units have been unvieled. They look lovely and will add to an already beautiful place to stay.

Here is a wide shot the new expansion.



This is a close shot of the entrance.



And here is an example of interior art.



And here is an above map of what the Lodge looks like now...



And here is an above map of what the Lodge will look like afterwards.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Disneyland (World) Hotels...

Since yesterday I was comparing different versions of the Tower of Terror attraction, I thought it might be interesting to compare the disneyland hotels around the world.

Starting backwards, we'll present you with the new Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. It opens in April, 2008. It follows the Victiorian model that is used for much of Disney theme park design. While it looks simular to the other resort hotels, it has some unique aspects of it's own. The center dome and blue roof being the main difference.

Here we have the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. Again, this one follows the Victorian motif and you can clearly see that it was modeled after Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian. Now if they can just get enough guest to fill it...

This is the Disneyland Hotel Paris. It's lovely, and has the great feature of being the first Disneyland Hotel to be situated right in front of the park(Tokyo Disneyland Hotel will do this as well).

And here is the Grand Floridian, the hotel that was the great inspiration for all the others. I know it doesn't contain the "Disneyland Hotel" name, it isn't even called "Walt Disney World Hotel", but it is considered the flagship hotel of WDW. So even without the name, it technically IS their version of the Disneyland Hotel.

And last, we have the original. The Disneyland Hotel in California. This one was built before Disney owned the hotel and it shows in the design. There is very little "Disney" in the original hotel. My hope is than they build a new Disneyland Hotel(Mictorian style) and then tear this one down and expand Downtown Disney where it once was/is...

Right now, we know that the Grand Californian is going to get an expansion of DVC units. There is talk of a new hotel behind DCA and even some rumors about DVC or hotel units inside the park. But no talk about giving us a distinctive "Disney" Disneyland Hotel...

Friday, January 19, 2007

Terror Around The World...


There are very few attraction that are in all the parks.

This is not counting Hong Kong Disneyland, which just celebrated it's first birthday. So we will leave this one out.

But in the other four parks, there are only a handful of rides that are in each of them. They are:

Space Mountain.

Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Haunted Mansion.

and The Tower of Terror...

I know, some are saying "what about the Jungle Cruise?" Well JC isn't in Paris because of the weather. It is in Hong Kong though. But those four attractions are the only ones reproduced in all four of those parks. And in about five or so years, they will have been put in five parks. Pirates should join HK in 2010 and Mansion a year or so later. That will only leave the Tower of Terror to join it. This will come sometime, I'm sure in the next decade, particularly if they decide to build a Disney-Pixar Studios park as a second gate. Not saying they will... just saying it might be a second gate. No one knows what the future brings.

Anyways, I thought I'd put up some pics of each Tower from each park and compare them.

First up is the original Tower at Disney-MGM. It's a very beautiful, very detailed representation of 1930's Hollywood glory. The Imagineers build a great ride with a great deal of detail.









Next is the Tower in Disney's California Adventure. This one has slightly less detail and is build in a more traditional art deco style. The ride itself is quite simular to its Florida counterpart, but the lobby and loading area aren't as well themed.

Here we have the Tower that opened in November in Tokyo DisneySea. This one isn't called the "Twilight Zone" Tower of Terror because most Japanese have no never seen the television show. It is in the American Harbor "port" of TDS and is themed much different than its American cousins. It has more of a gothic feel, and has nothing to do with Hollywood. As one would expect from the Tokyo Disney Resort it is incredibley detailed. No surprise that it is my favorite.

Now we have the Tower that is being built at the Disneyland Paris resort for the Walt Disney Studios. It is esentially a copy of the DCA version with very little noticable difference. The only main structural difference is that they built it out of concrete instead of steel which is what the others were constructed with.

They are all beautiful, but it is nice to have each one given it's own individual character. Hopefully, the Tower in Paris will be a little different from the other three besides the directions being in French.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Whole New World(s)...


It appears Bob Iger is letting investors peek into the future of the company. And being as he's put it in their online annual report he must be open to us seeing it as well. If you'd like to see some of the proposals for future theme parks/attractions Disney has planned across the world then go to the website for yourself.

Here's a brief review...

Disney has been toying with the idea of having "Urban Entertainment Centers", think mini-theme parks built in a five to six story mall like setting. One of the areas they are in talks to develope is in Singapore. Here's some artwork showing an example of the type of Disney Entertainment Center they might build there.



The attraction that is being build at DCA in Paradise Pier which was to be called "Toy Story Midway Mania" is now called "Toy Story Mania". It will be a 3-D ride and from what I hear this artwork doesn't do it justice. This is supposed to open in June 2008.



A proposal for a "Toy Story Live" show. It is unknown if this is planned for any park right now. It appears to still be in the Blue Sky phase of developement.



If you've been paying attention to Hong Kong Disneyland then you know that "Small World" will be opening there around the same time as "Toy Story Mania" opens in DCA. After that Pirates Of The Caribbean starts being build beyond the berm in Adventureland for a probable 2010 opening. Al Lutz of Miceage.com has posted a very detailed account of how this expansion of Adventureland themed to the movie franchise. We now have our first pic of what it could look like.



Later in the decade, think 2009 or so, the lagoon in DCA gets a night-time water show that is called "Wonderful World of Color". This is preliminary artwork so the show and name could change.



Those lucky bastards in Tokyo will get to ride their own version of Monster's Inc. over in the Tomorrowland section of Tokyo Disneyland. And you can bet it will be more detailed and elaborate than DCA's version. Ours cost around 30 million and theirs is in the neighborhood of 90 million. So just like "Pooh's Honey Hunt", TDL will have another superior version of what we get in the states. Here's yer first pic.



We all know that Bob Iger thinks the future of the Disney corporation is in the East. That's Far East as in China mainly. Hong Kong Disneyland is the first of possibley two parks they plan on building in China. The other park was planned for Shanghai by 2010 but that is not a done deal. Here is artwork for a proposed park in China. We don't know if this is proposed as the second park in Hong Kong or possibley the first one in Shanghai. The artwork shows part of the park with a land that is themed to "The Little Mermaid".



And last is the artwork for "Carland". Again, the name could change. This is a proposed attraction for DCA although I don't know if it will go in where "Route 66" is or in the boringly bland "Land" section of the park. It looks like it could be fun, but I wish the Cars looks more like the ones from the movie with eyes and mouths and such.



Hopefully we will get to see some more artwork for the DCA expansion and the new parks and resorts in Asia will be announced in the next year or so.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Pixar's Next...


No sooner do you publish an article about Disney planning on having Andrew Stanton direct "Princess of Mars" after his next animated feature for Pixar than the first pics from that picture start surfacing.

So let me introduce you to the title character from the summer 2008 Pixar release...

Wall-e.



Reminds me of "Short Circuit" from the 80's. You know, with the tag line "Number 5 is Alive"...

I guess when we go see Brad Bird's latest masterpiece we'll be treated to a teaser.

A New Disney Princess?


Walt Disney Pictures is in final talks to acquire the rights to the eleven volume "John Carter of Mars" series and film the first installment: "A Princess Of Mars". For anyone that doesn't know anything about it I suggest finding a copy of the books and start reading.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan wrote many stories besides the Lord of the Jungle. The "John Carter" series are his best known works after Tarzan. They are exciting and fun, filled with the kind of wonder and thrills that young males desire when they go to the movies. But there is a strong romance element that will appeal to girls.

Rumor is that Lasseter was the one who desired the rights to the books. Disney had the rights to make "Princess" back in the early 90's but nothing ever came of it. The film has been set up at Paramount till last year when they decided to let it go. Now it may be back at Disney but we don't know what form it will take.

Being as Lasseter is involved one would think it was going to be thought of as an animated film. Sources have said that Andrew Stanton(Finding Nemo) has wanted to make a live action film for a while and wants to make his live action debut with "Princess". Stanton is busy right now working on his follow up to Nemo which is up later in the decade. So if this is true we won't be seeing "Princess" until early next decade.

I personally would love to see it live action. This has the potential to be another "Lord of the Rings" if done right. Maybe Disney should call Peter Jackson now that New Line is going to screw up... errr I mean make "The Hobbit" without him. Things should become clearer as time progresses.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The Long Beach Project aka: Port Disney...


A lot of people have been asking for more info on the Disneysea project that was proposed for Long Beach in 1990 as part of the massive resort known as "Port Disney."

I have some pics, but not nearly as much as I'd like. This is a project that is dear to my heart since I have a great love of Disney and the sea... so putting them together would have thrilled me to no end.

It was with great sadness that I watched Tokyo get a variation of the park I wanted we here in southern California to have gotten. True, Tokyo DisneySea is not exactly the Disneysea that would have been part of Port Disney, but it was its close brother.

This my dear friends, it the park that got away. The one that would have made WestCot look like a stepchild.



This here is an artist conception of what the park would have looked like in general. You can see some semblance of Tokyo with the mountain in the background and areas of Victorian style through out the park. The giant bubble icon is "Oceana."



Oceana would be the center of the park, it's Sleeping Beauty Castle so to speak. It would also be a working ocean research center. There would be a large area devoted to education about the oceans.



If you look over to the left on the main pic you see several golden saucer-like space ship buildings. Those would be for scientific study.



There would be over 400 slips for ships, this port would also have been where the west coast version of Disney Cruise Line stopped.

Port Disney was much more than just DisneySea. There were to be 5 themed resorts located there with thousands of rooms for guest to stay in. You can pretty much guess that it was very lavishly themed. As well as the park, the slitp, the port and the hotel resorts there was Port Disney's own version of Disneyland Center or Downtown Disney. It was filled with all kinds of restaurants and rides. They even had a white metal roller coaster that looked like it was made of wood. And there was this ferris wheel with an image of the sun on it. There were also various boardwalk games... now where have I seen this before? Amazing that we pay for DCA when so much of it was going to be an open area in Port Disney, huh?



Oh well, we can all dream of the part that was to be. Unfortunately this is as much as I have right now. I do have some items stuffed away somewhere that I will have to dig up somewhere with info on the names and themes of the hotels but I'll have to wait till I have the patience and time....

A Step Back In Time...


Later this month(January 24th), the Walt Disney Company will announce what many online Disney fans have known about for some time.

Midway Mania will be coming to Paradise Pier by summer 2008. Gone will be the cheap plaster and stucco replaced with heavy theming of the Victorian/Coney Island feel that we Disney fans call "Mictorian".

From the rumblings we're hearing the new area in front of California Screamin' will look simular to the Hotel Del Coronado. This will be a much needed layering of the area. It will take visitor back in time which is one of the complaints it doesn't do right now.



Now if they wind up approving that MASSIVE 700 million dollar expansion we may see DCA looking pretty swank come its tenth anniversary.

The Shortest, "Most" Beautiful Display...


If you've read through this blog then you've seen my "Most" post as I call them. Where I basically give my opinions on some of what I feel are the best detailed parts of this Disney world of ours.

This picture is from a display near the hub of the castle in Disneyland Paris that was called "Magical Christmas Tree Forest".

Breathtaking, don't ya think?

Sadly, it is gone. It was only on display there for ONE year. 2001.

If you'd like to know more about past Christmas seasons at Disneyland's European cousin then I suggest you go over to "dlrpmagic.com" and check out their section on Christmas. They have lots of great pics over there to go along with this one.

Well start posting a little more after Jack kicks some more terrorist butt tomorrow night on "24". See ya!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Third sighting of Pirates...


Ok... ONE more post. Walt Disney Pictures has released a series of one sheets of the characters from POTC: At World's End. Plus a nifty banner with all our favorite Pirates together.

Here it is...


Well, it appears I lied.

New Year to Extinction?


Happy New Year to all...

Just a small update. More updates will follow after Monday(must not miss 24!).

Here is some art published last week for the new T-Rex restaurant to be built in WDW Downtown Disney. It looks nice but are you like me... doesn't this place look like it belongs more in Disney's Animal Kingdom?