Saturday, December 14, 2013

Disneyland Paris Disney Dreams! Christmas Show - Full Show HD Video !

Here is a new video of the full show of the Disneyland Paris Disney Dreams! Christmas show filmed this week by Max, Disney and more contributor. Choose to watch it full screen and in 1080p HD definition!




Video: copyright DLPWelcome

Friday, December 13, 2013

Visual Development Artwork For a Wicked Animated Movie


Here is some interesting "characters visual development" artwork created by Minkyu Lee who imagined a "Wicked" animated film with a Disney style. Lee is a Disney animator who worked on Princess and the Frog as well as Frozen. He also did the Oscar nominated short Adam and Dog and these drawings below were done while he was studying at Cal Arts and interning at Disney.

It's always interesting to see some visual development, specially when the movie is not done yet, but apparently Disney seems to don't be interested by a Wicked movie - or may be they don't have the rights on it... May be another studio will be interested some day!








Artwork: copyright Minkyu Lee

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Jekyll and Hyde Club, The Awesome Themed Restaurant That Won't Come at Universal Orlando City Walk


Universal Studios Orlando did yesterday their awaited big announcement and unfortunately even if there was a strong rumor saying that a Jekyll and Hyde Club - similar to the popular one existing in New York - would open at Universal City Walk, i'm sorry to say that unfortunately this awesome themed restaurant is not included in the new eight City Walk venue.

It's really a pity as this would have been a very, very, smart move from Universal. And here is why: the Jekyll and Hyde club is a club of "eccentric explorers and mad scientists where guests eat, drink and socialize among the unusual and the bizarre" in a british victorian decor filled with Audio-Animatronics monsters and weird props. Yes, a club of "eccentric explorers"...  does this remind you something? That's right, the Jekyll and Hyde club would have delighted all of you who miss dearly the now unfortunately extinct Adventurers Club at WDW Downtown Disney, but a Club with a more weird theming.


But what exactly is this Jekyll and Hyde club, you ask? Well let's have a tour of this splendid "club" that New Yorkers can enjoy, with plenty of pictures and videos that will show you everything!

The Jekyll and Hyde club is indeed a place where you can drink and eat while you're sit in "chesterfield" sofas surrounded by artifacts from around the world and on your way to your table you'll note changing portraits and Audio-Animatronics skeletons...






You can count on the eyes of the portraits on these paintings to follow your steps...




You must not miss a visit to the library and its kind of "Mrs Leota" floating above the table...


Highly detailed theming and gargoyles await you at each corner...


Here is a first video who will show you a bit of everything, and then we'll have a look at each "show" in detail. You'll note that in New York you enter the club through a phone booth!




Now, let's start our tour of the shows and animated characters, and again, chances are that all these will be include in the Jekyll and Hyde club coming at Universal City Walk. The big show is the "Frankenstein" one called here "Dr Brain Experiment"...


...in which the "creature" hidden for now in the metal box above will come to life after blood from a guests would have been transfused to it!


Here is the video of the whole show, don't miss it, it's fun and the actor is great.




The Jekyll and Hyde club include as i told you some Audio-Animatronics like this skeleton ventriloquist and his puppet...


...or these Siamese twin...


...as well as The Elephant Man himself, and you'll see all of them in this next video!




And now meet the cast of "eccentric explorers and mad scientist" of the Jekyll and Hyde club in this next video!




A last video for the road showing the mad clown and the Audio-Animatronic devilish puppet in the chamber of horrors!



What a great theming, isn't it? And what a great place to eat, drink and "socialize" as they say. I think you better understand now why bringing the Jekyll and Hyde club at Universal Orlando City Walk would have been an incredibly good move from Universal, and it's a pity they missed it! But if you fly to New York, don't forget to pay a visit to the Jekyll and Hyde  club, HERE is the official website with all needed infos.

Pictures: Copyright Jekyll and Hyde club
Editor's Note: Although i've sent a notification by email, i'd like to confirm to those of you who pre-ordered the Disneyland Paris book in its regular edition that ALL orders have been shipped last Monday and Tuesday, Dec 9 and 10, and it should take between 10 and 15 days to arrive depending if you're living in Europe or in the U.S.
The new and updated ENGLISH regular edition is now available for immediate shipping, and for now you can always order it at the pre-order price of 55€ + 15€ shipping worldwide.

You can order the book by sending me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com or send directly your Paypal payment of the 70 euros either by the Paypal button below or directly from your Paypal account at the same email address. The book will make a gorgeous Christmas present so order today your copy of "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" to make sure you'll get it for Christmas!

A full description of the book can be find HERE.

Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality - Include shipping

Saving Mr Banks Released Tomorrow in the U.S, Three New Great Featurettes to Keep You Waiting !


Saving Mr Banks, one of the most awaited movie of the year - by Disney fans - will be released tomorrow in the U.S! How good will be Tom Hanks playing Walt and Emma Thompson as P.L Travers? Will you have the feeling to go back in time at Disneyland glorious years?


You'll let us know what you think after you watched the movie and in the meantime here is three new featurettes titled Tom Hanks", "The Music", "The Story" to keep you waiting. The three look great, include many new shots not seen before, so don't miss them!










Picture and videos: copyright Disney

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Jay Rasulo Announces That Shanghaî Disneyland May Expand Quickly After 2015 Opening



Jay Rasulo announced at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York yesterday that Disney may quickly expand Shanghai Disneyland Resort after its opening late 2015 "in order to meet rising demand in the world’s most populous country".
"Shanghai Disney Resort will be almost 1,000 acres (404.7 hectares) in size when it opens, putting it third behind Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland Paris among the company’s resorts" said Rasulo. Disney will have enough room available to expand both the new park and to create another one as land has been kept on the right of Shanghaî Disneyland "Magic Kingdom".
We believe we’re developing a park that will absolutely blow people away. We’re opening the park for a pretty healthy number of attendees but more importantly both we and our partners and the Shanghai government are eager and willing to expand rapidly after that,” Rasulo said. Attendance could ultimately top Tokyo Disney Resort, which has 28 million annual visitors, Rasulo said. 
Disney owns 43 percent of the venture with the state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group Co., a consortium of three businesses, holding the rest and cost of the phase one of the project is $4.78 billion. "Shanghai Disneyland is part of a larger focus by Disney on China, where entertainment spending by consumers has lagged the growth of the middle class. The new park is within a three-hour drive of 330 million people, many of them young families" Rasulo said.
Don't get too excited, though, with Rasulo's  as what will more probably happen is that they will build new hotels and attractions and then a new theme park years later as they do usually, and this if everything goes well. We learned with the experience of Disneyland Paris to don't believe promises until works on any expansion starts for real.
Picture: copyright Disney 

Star Wars Characters With An Awesome Steam Punk Design



Here is some awesome pieces of Star Wars Steam Punk art created by artist Bjorn Hurri. Below, you'll find Princess Leia, Han Solo, C3 P0, Darth Vador, Yoda, Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper all with a Steam Punk style treatment!







Godzilla 2014 First Trailer !


The awaited first "real" trailer of the new Godzilla movie produced by Legendary Pictures was put online two minutes ago and here it is below. You'll note that the music you hear during the first minute is the same one than Stanley Kubrick used for the black monolith  sequences of "2001, A Space Odyssey". 

Godzilla will be released next year.






Picture and video: copyright Legendary Pictures

Monday, December 9, 2013

Disneyland Paris Update : Discoveryland Entrance Original Fire Effects, Disney Dreams Frozen Sequence, and more


Here is a new Disneyland Paris update which will send us back in time at DLP opening day! If you already visited the park you surely remember the entrance of Discoveryland with its dramatic rock formations partly submerged by water. When you entered the land recently it looked like the picture below shot by Disneyshawn...


On the picture above you can guess some lights under water. But that's not how it was at opening day as WDI Imagineer Discoveryland Show-Producer Tim Delaney had included some more dramatic effects with smoke effects and fire explosions right in the middle of the water! These effects don't work anymore since many many years and it's a pity as Discoveryland entrance was even more spectacular, and specially at night. There was also a reason why Tim wanted this fire effects and it's because the whole land was supposed to be on a volcanic ground. In its first "Discovery Mountain" version Space Mountain was supposed to be located atop of a volcano...

Pictures or video showing these fire / smoke effects at the entrance of Discoveryland were impossible to find until recently when the guys of Disney Central Plaza forum found back this rare dutch video filmed at DLP opening days in 1992. I did some screen shots for you and you'll see below  the few seconds in the video showing the fire and smoke effects.



These "fire in the middle of water" was an effect quite new and not too much used in others theme parks when DLP opened in 1992 and for the guests surely impressive...


On the two pictures below you'll see the smoke effect coming over the water. Below , without smoke effect...


And here comes the smoke effect on this next one.


Some of the fire effects were spectacular!


At that time ( but may be it's still the case today ) the water was running down from the top of the rocks...


Regularly the park is doing some maintenance - as you can see on this Dlp Info picture below - often to restore the rocks, but the fire effects never came back. The real reasons why DLP maintenance never put back the original effects are not totally clear - some say it's because it stops working too often, others have another version saying that the real ducks who move all around the park from a lagoon to another one where grilled by the fire (!) - but one thing is sure, the fire effects disappeared and probably will never come back.


And now, here is the 1992 video with the few seconds where you can see this "fire and smoke" effects.  Jump directly to 13min 47sec to see them.





We'll stay on the hub for what's coming next and it's about the Frozen sequence that DLP guests can discover in the new Christmas Disney Dreams! show. You may have seen yesterday the clip of the Frozen musical sequence called "Let it Go!". Well, the Disney Dreams! Frozen sequence is inspired by the same song. If you've missed the Frozen clip here it is first...




And here is video filmed by Max from DLP Welcome showing only the new Frozen Disney Dreams sequence.




Now, some great news for those of you who did pre-order to me the Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book in its English normal edition as we've finally received the copies from the printer last friday and ALL orders have been shipped today! - the last ones will be shipped tomorrow Tuesday. It should take between 10 and 15 days to arrive depending if you're living in Europe or in the U.S.

It also mean that the new and updated ENGLISH regular edition is now available for immediate shipping, and you can always order it at the pre-order price of 55€ + 15€ shipping worldwide.

You can order the book by sending me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com or send directly your Paypal payment of the 70 euros either by the Paypal button below or directly from your Paypal account at the same email address. The book will make a gorgeous Christmas present so order today your copy of "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" to make sure you'll get it for Christmas!

A full description of the book can be find HERE.

Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality - Include shipping




Pictures: copyright Disneyshawn, DLP Info, Wesley Lelieveld 

Videos: copyright Disney, DLP Welcome

Frozen Spectacular Musical Sequence " Let it go ! "


Have you been in theaters to watch Frozen? Not yet? Me too, but i will see it soon and in the meantime have a look to this beautiful musician sequence called "Let it go!". The Animation of snow and ice is spectacular, really...




Picture and video: copyright Disney