2008 MOVIE PREVIEW SPECIAL

2008 begin in 3 days, and here is a special movie preview with photos and trailers, when available.
For each of them i give you the release date in the USA.

Let's begin by Disney animated features. Of course, the most awaited of all is Pixar's Wall-E, release june 27.
I've already talk about it, so here is above a new picture and, below, the last trailer. For more infos about it, please see my previous posts.






The other Walt Disney animated will be "Bolt", schedule to be release on november 26. Here is a first picture. No trailer yet available.



Always in the "animation" category, but not from Disney, two movies on which i have a good feeling.
November 7 will be the date for Madagascar: The Crate Escape . No trailer yet available, but picture below.



And the other one is "Dr Seuss Horton Hears A Who " release on march 14, and i have an even better feeling on this one, as it is directed by the guys who did the Ice Age movies. Pictures and trailer below.






2008 will also be the year of the second Narnia movie , with Prince Caspian, release on may 16.





If you're fan or archeologist heroes, two movies should make your day. The first one is of course the highly awaited Indiana Jones and the temple of the crystal skull. And it's for may 22.




Here is some images of the shooting in the USA and Hawai.



The other archeologist hero will be back august 1 in the Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
As you probably already understood, the action this time is in China, and the production did a fantastic job with the recreation of Shangai, circa 1948, as you will see if you click HERE, and here are some pictures.





Another movie will bring us back in time, in 10000 BC, precisely. It is directed by Roland "The day after tomorrow" Emmerich, and it will be release soon, on march 7.





In the Marvel super-heroes category, the Iron Man will touch down in the theatres on may 2. And great
actor Robert Downey Jr is playing Tony Stark/Iron Man.






The other one is the new Hulk movie, played this time by another fantastic actor : Edward Norton, so the movie should be much better than the previous one.
No trailer yet available, but here are some pics. Release on june 13.




A new Harry Potter will also be release november 21, and a Batman "Dark night" on july 18.
But a good surprise may come from the new movie of the Wachowski brothers. After their "Matrix" trilogy, this new movie release may 9 looks pretty exciting. Okay, it may remember you a video game, but i think that, visually speaking, it may be stunning. Click on the image below to see what i mean.





Photos and Videos: copyright : Disney, Dream Works, Lucas Film Ltd, Universal, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Paramount

Will a " Soarin' " attraction be build at the Walt Disney Studios in the future ?

The Walt Disney Studios Hollywood Tower Hotel is now open to everybody since last saturday, and every guest who board inside the TOT elevator enjoy a spectacular view over the WDS for a few seconds when the doors of the "13th floor" open.
I mean, this kind of view.



Now, there is ANOTHER elevator at Disneyland Resort Paris which leads you to experience another kind of stunning view , and you don't even have to enter the park to enjoy it! It's totally free, perfectly legal, and it also leads to a floor where nobody lives...It is the elevator of the parking lot located near the WDS. Hundreds of people take it every day, but none of them stop at the "third" floor.
Not because it is a "cursed" floor, but simply because no car can park - for now - at this third floor. But if you get inside the elevator, and push on the "3" button, you will arrive - in less time than it took me to write it - to this 3rd floor, and then, all you have to do, is to push the door that lead to the 3rd floor parking lot. No car, nobody...a whole parking floor for you only. And one of the best view over the WDS.

Not only it's one of the best spot to take photos of the Tower of terror , whether it is by day like this one...



Or by night like this one...



But you also have a great view of the Disneyland Hotel, Sleeping Beauty castle, Space Mountain and the Walt Disney Studios entrance...



And also over the WDS Front lot , a view that includes the normally out-of-view backstage.



Now, where is the relation of all this with an eventual "Soarin'" attraction at the WDS? Well, since years, french forum DLP fans talk about a WDI map of the WDS where one can see clearly that a "Soarin over the world" attraction is planned to be built between the Cinemagique attraction and the former Disney channel - soon "Stitch encounter" building.
That's right, you've read well: a "Soarin "over the world" , not "over California". Which means very clearly that a future movie for this beloved attraction taking the guests for a flight over the world should appear in the future. After all, California is quite far from France, and there is a logic that a new movie will be done for european guests...and, too, for a version "2.0" at DCA or Epcot.

Now, when french forums DLP fans talk about it , there is always a big debate. " Do they have enough room to built it in that location?" Most of them generally think that there is not enough room to built it, and this is where i make the link with this 3rd floor parking lot.

You see, if you go near the west wall of this 3rd floor parking lot, you will have a perfect view over this "planned" location for a future Soarin' attraction - click the image below to make it bigger - and you will realize that they DO have the room to built it, even with two theatres.




The other question, of course, is : will they build it? Personnally, i still think that they will, and here is why. Some years ago, some attractions projects were proposed to another french theme park, the Futuroscope. One of them was a kind of "Soarin' " like concept - of course with a different movie , and the cost of it - without the cost of the building but including the cost of the shooting of the movie - was around 10 millions euros, not more. With only one theater, not two like in DCA or Epcot.
Add 5 millions euros for the building, and, for 15-16 millions euros, it was possible to build an attraction using the same technology than "Soarin'". For many reasons, the Futuroscope didn't choose to do it for now, but this means what? It means that, even with the usual WDI costs and another theatre, the price of a Soarin attraction is probably around 60-70 millions euros, much much less than the TOT. And for that price you have a 5 minutes "E" ticket ride that most of the guests will enjoy very much.
You don't have the spectacular outside architecture of the TOT, but you have a very popular attraction for a "reasonable" price.

So, why the park will miss an opportunity like this? A real good-popular five minutes long "E" ticket for much less than the cost of the two minutes ride of the TOT?

Also, there is another reason why we can expect a Soarin' attraction at the WDS. This part of the park is the last - with another one between the Rock and roller coaster and the stunt show - where there is still some room available to build new attractions. Once it will be done, the park will need a major expansion on the land located over the Tram tour station. Which will mean an expansion of the Hollywood Boulevard, new decors, and lot of money. Before they arrive to this point, they will undoubtedly try to use the empty spaces available in the first "part" of the WDS.

You see, there is a logic everywhere in life, even in Disney theme parks! So, believe me, they will build "Soarin'". May be not before the 2012 twentieth anniversary, as they will "capitalize" on the success of the Tower of terror during the next 2-3 years like they did when they opened Space Mountain, but they will.

Photos: copyright Disney , Alain Littaye and Alexandre Rosa

A SPECIAL DISNEY MERRY CHRISTMAS " AROUND THE WORLD " !

It's Christmas tonight, and wherever you are i wish to all of you a very Merry Christmas !

And for those of you who are not tonight at Disneyland OR Walt Disney World OR Disneyland Paris OR Tokyo Disneyland OR Hong KONG Disneyland, i have prepare a special Disney Christmas "around the world" article . It should make you feel you're over there, tonight.

It's full of high-res wallpaper pictures and great videos of the different christmas ceremonies at all Disney's Magic Kingdom , so click everywhere to enjoy it!

Let's begin by Disneyland, Anaheim !





Next, let's fly to Florida and the Cinderella castle lightingceremony !






At Disney Mgm Studios, the lights of Christmas !







At Tokyo Disneyland, the Twinkle Holiday show !




At Disneyland Paris, the Cristmas candlebration ceremony !





And in Hong Kong Disneyland, the Castle Christmas lighting !






Photos : copyright Disney

Videos youtube ; Many thanks to all for the great links

New Mark VII monorail arrived to Disneyland !

It's WDI Christmas gift to Disneyland : the new Mark VII monorail arrived this week with new design and colour painting, and it looks great!



Here is a short article by Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer :

"A 75-foot-tall crane hoisted the first of the new Mark VII monorails from a flatbed truck onto the beam way track this morning at Disneyland.

The five-car burnt-burgundy train is the first of three new monorails expected to go online at the Anaheim theme park starting in February 2008.

Three years in the making, the all-new bullet-nosed monorails were designed by Disney, built in Rhode Island and assembled in Vancouver, Canada.

Lead Disney Imagineer Scot Drake said the Mark VII design represents a “streamline optimistic vision” of a “fantasy future that never was.”

The sleek iconic exterior features color-shifting paint with gray pinstriping that evokes the stainless-steel side panels of the 1959 original designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.

The interior features an under-lighted central island seating arrangement that offers every visitor a view through color-tinted windows.

The other two trains in the monorail fleet should be delivered in spring and summer 2008.

Photo: copyright Disney

Text: copyright Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Disneyland Paris Frontierland Rivers of the Far-west : ICEBERG !

Okay, may be not really an "iceberg", but definitely a lot of ice - at least 4 inches thick - were floating on the Rivers of the Far-west in Frontierland, yesterday.

The Molly Brown, the Mark Twain riverboats and the River rogue keelboats worked all day perfectly, but i wanted to share with you these two pictures shoot at sunset as floating ice on the Rivers of the Far-west are rare, although not unusal in winter.



Photos: copyright Alain Littaye