Saturday, June 16, 2007

A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part three



And here is the last part of this three part article about the Tokyo Disney Sea artwork.
This one is about Port Discovery, Mediterranean Harbour and American Waterfront.
We will talk again about Tokyo Disney Sea soon with documents that haver been published anywhere, but i keep the surprise...

From the top:
Bird view rendering of Port Discovery
Rendering of the restaurant area and Tram station of Port Discovery
Rendering of the entrance of Storm rider
Rendering of the Mediterranean Harbour
Sketch for the Venitian gondolas
Rendering of American Waterfront
Rendering of the "Encore" show in the Broadway theatre
Rendering of the Tower of Terror
Sketch of Cape Cod Waterfront
Rendering of the New York harbour
Rendering of the s.s Columbia

As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

All artwork: copyright Disney











A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part two



So, here is the part two of this Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute, and this time the artwork is about the Little Mermaid lagoon, Arabian coast and Lost river delta, including the Indiana Jones adventure.

From the top:
Rendering of the outside coaster of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the inside of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the outside decor of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the Little Mermaid lagoon's restaurant
Rendering of the Arabian coast
Rendering of the inside decor of the Arabian coast
Rendering of the preshow area of Arabian coast magic show
Rendering of the Arabian coast magic show
Rendering of the Indiana Jones adventure pyramid
Rendering of the Lost river delta entrance
Rendering of a scene of the Indiana Jones adventure attraction
Rendering of the Raging spirits attraction
Rendering of annother area of Lost river delta

As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

All artwork : copyright Disney













Friday, June 15, 2007

A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part one



This is the one that all of you fans of WDI artwork are waiting for! A big artwork tribute to the most beautiful Disney park WDI have ever built. For those of you who may have seen the article on Mice age i did some weeks ago, this is an "extended" version with much more artwork, so don't go away!

From the opening day, the park has been acclaimed, and for a lot of good reasons: the theming was stunning, the story line and the E Ticket were perfect and it seems that, for once, the WDI Imagineers were asked to add more details and that no major budget cuts were done.

I was invited at the grand opening and i still remember a person from the press office telling me : "you know, Alain i don't think we will see again a park like this one before a loooong time". Unfortunately, until now, he was pretty right.
But i think that the new Disney management have now understood the mistakes of the end of the Eisner's era, so hopefully, may be we will see another park as beautiful as this one in the future.

Anyway, all along this week-end you will see a three part TDS artwork article, and this first one shows the renderings of the entrance and Mysterious Island, a pure dream come true for any Jules Verne lover.

As usual, i've tried to find for you the best definition possible for the images, but it depends of the source, so, some time it will be just "good", sometime it will be "great". As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

From the top:
Rendering of the big ocean ball at the entrance
A bird view rendering of the whole park
Rendering of Renaissance fortress and Mysterious island
Rendering of the inside of Mysterious island
A close shot of the inside of Mysterious island
A rendering of the boarding room of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A scene of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
Another scene of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A concept-art for the submarines vehicles of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
Another concept art for the inside of the submarines vehicles of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A concept art for the steamer boats of the park
A rendering for a scene of the Journey to the center of the earth attraction

All artwork: copyright Disney











Thursday, June 14, 2007

WDS Toon Studio opening part three : Cars race rally



The Cars race rally attraction is normally what we can call a small “B” ticket attraction, but as we are going to see, thanks to a great theming , i give it a solid “C+” ticket, well deserved, and even a “D” ticket for the decors.
From the outside, you’ll see first the V8 cafe, but it’s a whole one-side-street of decor that have been recreated

Luigi’s Casa della tires and Tow Mater facades are there , and right in front of the neon lighted one of Luigis, the two characters from Cars are standing, which makes an instant photo location for kids.

All along the street telephonic poles as well as a tall pile of tires marks the border of this “Cars” district.

However, the entrance of the attraction of the attraction is made through another building, with a neon french title - quatres roues rallye - on the facade . from the window are displayed some painted car hoods , and right at the entrance , under a chrome luminary stands the famous piston cup.

To help you to locate where this is in the land, here is a picture of the contre-champ, shoot from the inside , looking towars guests come in. As you can see the Crush attraction is right in front , on the other side of the “road”, the Aladdin carpet ride being on the right of Crush coaster.

Let’s go on in the queue theming, now. First on the left, this “greeting from radiator springs” , followed by these other murals paying tribute to the characters.

A special room is dedicated to the Doc Hudson character, the one played by Paul Newman ( who was kind enough last week to reveal in an interview that Disney-Pixar have schedule the Cars 2 sequel for a 2009 release which seems to have infuriated some guys at Pixar! ) and you can even read some “Daily exhaust” front page talking about its former winning.

Other murals about Tow Mater follows, as well as an old genuine gaz pump and a map of Radiator springs.
Looking on the right is the huge painted back drop we show you before and a last mural for the Lightning mc Queen character.

And here you are at the turnstiles ready to embark. Just in front, as we saw, the Crush coaster building .

And on the right the now famous car-wing shape big red rock.

On the other side the Lightning mc Queen and Tow Mater “ full size” are standing, and their look is just perfect. However, if the one in front of Luigis are a photo location where children can come close to, it’s not the case here, as it is part of the ride decor. You can see or approach them ( without touching them ) from outside, but that’s different. Of course what must happen happened, when young boys exit at the of the ride they are running to Lightning mc Queen and Tow Mater to touch them, etc... forcing the cast members to urge them toward the exit. I’ve wonder why they’ve put them here and not outside, and i think it was to avoid children to climb on them and damage them , which would have been inevitable.
There is even a hidden Mickey on the Tow Mater character.

The ride itself , similar in some way to the lady bug ride at DCA is indeed a small ride, but really fun. The cars are spinning, moving from one plate to the next one, and the feeling that you are going to crash into another car - there is not more than 3 inches sometime between two of them , makes it really fun.
It is a small ride, but the whole theming makes it overstep our expectations ( i don’t remember that Disney ever spent so much money in theming on such a small ride like this one ) . However , if you’re not a kid, due to the small space inside the vehicles, you better loose some weight if you want to fit in. I’m kidding, but not that much, specially for the front row.

The exit is done through a path going behind the Lightning mc Queen and Tow Mater characters , in direction of “Crush coaster”.

And a billboard ask you why you’re “leaving so soon?” . Sure, we will come back soon.

There is more to see in this Toon studio. The toonis blue lamp post leads us to the Toon Town facade i show you in a previous article.

But this security office at the entrance has been installed since then . Have a look , too, at the toonish computer inside it .

On the left and right side of the Toon town 3D backdrop are two characters photo location, one with Mickey , and one with the Incredibles - here on the picture Mr incredible.

Surprisingly, no shop or restaurants in this new land ( and god knows that there is a lot of good theming ideas that could have been find around the Toon theme )

A new road now exist to exit the toon studio , and , as you can see on the picture, you have a great view on the upcoming Tower of terror.

Frankly, i really think that these new Toon studio attractions and placemaking
will bring back more people inside the WDS park, which is good, because the better the park will work, the sooner we will have new attractions.

Photos: copyright Alain Littaye and Disney