Disney and more: 1/4/15

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Stunning CGI Recreation of DLP Space Mountain Original Version by Gregory Noacco !

Gregory Noacco is a genius. I mean it, really. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris' Space Mountain, and the 150th of Jules Verne "De La Terre A La Lune" novel, he recreated completely in CGI Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland Space Mountain original version - the one we all love - "From the Earth to the Moon" ! That's right, everything - and i mean EVERYTHING - that you will see on the video below has been recreated by Gregory on his computer and it's more than perfect, there is no words to describe the greatness of his work. You will feel like being sit in the front row of a Space Mountain train, back in 1995!

So, Welcome aboard, Space traveller! Embark one more time for a trip to the Moon with "Discovery Mountain: Origins", a non-official home-made tribute to the "Greatest ride in the Universe"! Prepare for blast off!

Guess what, Gregory also did a 3D version! Yes! Go ahead take your 3D glasses now!
Note: to watch it in 3D on a 3D TV you need to choose on your TV the 3D mode "side by side", and 3D effect will work perfectly.

And one more for the road with another short but always great video, another "home made" reconstruction, this time of the "StarSpeeder 3000" advertisement that was shown in the queue of the classic "Star Tours" ride, at Disneyland.

Make sure to leave your comments on the Youtube pages of Gregory videos as he did a great, great job, really!

Videos: copyright Gregory Noacco

TODAY is the Last Day to Order the Disneyland Paris Book and Enjoy the Christmas Special Offer !!

TODAY January 10 is the last day for those of you who want to order the book Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality - in its english or french edition - and enjoy the Christmas special offer discount. For the ones who would be late, i'll accept orders till tomorrow Sunday evening January 11. Signed or non-signed copies are available in English or French edition but note that only 3 signed copies are still available in the english edition.

The price for one copy - english or french - with the special offer is 60€ + 15€ shipping worldwide. Signed copies are at 75€ + 15€ shipping.

To place your order please send me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com
Or send directly the Paypal payment from your Paypal account at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com
OR use the one-click Paypal button below. If you don't have a Paypal account a payment with credit card is possible, send me an email first at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com

You can also find the book on eBay.com here if you wish ( link below valid until Thursday ) :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DISNEYLAND-PARIS-FROM-SKETCH-TO-REALITY-BRAND-NEW-SIGNED-ENGLISH-EDITION-/321636509520?ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Below, some of the 250 beautiful WDI renderings included in the book which also include 750 photos of the park. More infos about the book here: http://neverlandeditions.blogspot.com and the video below will show you each page of the book.

French message about the payment for french readers:

Aujourdhui 10 Janvier est le dernier jour pour commander votre exemplaire de Disneyland Paris, De L'Esquisse à la Création et profiter de la promo spéciale Noel! Pour les retardataires les commandes seront acceptés jusqu'à demain soir Dimanche 11 Janvier.
Pour toute commande d'un exemplaire en édition française collector m'envoyer un email à: neverlandeditions@gmail.com
Le prix d'un exemplaire en édition française collector ( non dédicacé ) est de 60€ + 15€ de frais d'envois en colissimo recommandé. La version signée est à 75€ + frais d'envois.

Vous pouvez utiliser également le bouton Paypal ci-dessous ou envoyer le règlement directement depuis votre compte Paypal à: neverlandeditions@gmail.com.
Note: les choix sur ce bouton sont écris en anglais mais n'en tenez pas compte, vous pouvez l'utiliser pour une commande d'une exemplaire en français. Indiquez moi juste en envoyant le Paypal que vous souhaitez un exemplaire en français.
Pour un paiement en carte bancaire ou par chèque ou virement envoyez moi un email d'abord à: neverlandeditions@gmail.com

Le livre en français est également disponible sur eBay ici:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321635744097?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Ou sur Amazon ici ( choisir la vente faite par : lawrence55 ) :
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/offer-listing/2951788304/ref=tmm_ghc_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&sr=&qid=

Ci-dessous l'un des 250 magnifiques concept-arts inclus dans le livre qui inclus également 750 photos du parc. Pour plus d'infos sur le livre: http://neverlandeditions.blogspot.com et également la vidéo ci-dessous présentant chaque page du livre.

Pictures: copyright Disney, Neverland Editions.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Disneyland Paris Main Street Discovery Arcade Towns of the Future Posters

I really wouldn't like to leave you without posting something that a lot of you asked me regularly among the years, and i'm talking here about DLP Main Street Cities of the Future posters, the ones that DLP guests can see inside the great Discovery Arcade designed by WDI Imagineer Eddie Sotto. The style of the nineteenth century French artist Robida, as well as the spirit of the American magazine Popular Mechanix, inspired these giant Discovery Arcade posters created by Jim Michaelson, Maureen Johnston and R. Ziscis.

The pictures below are the scans we did for my DLP book. I've also upscaled three of them - but you also have the original non-upscaled version. Although the scans are bigger than these pictures are reproduced in my DLP book they are not "poster" size, so it'll be probably difficult to make posters out of them but those who are more gifted than i am for upscaling pictures might succeed. By the way, i've never understood why DLP, in 22 years has never published these futuristic posters... Let's hope that someone at merchandise will finally have the insight that it could be a successful operation and will finally make them available...

All-right, there we go and we start by the New York poster. You have above the original scan and below the upscaled version. Please note that upscaled versions might take some time to appear on this page because of the file weight.

Next, the Baltimore poster.

The one below is the Washington D.C poster!

The next one is the Chicago poster and you have it in two versions. The original scan...

...and an upscaled version.

The Atlantic City poster.

The Denver poster.

The New Orleans poster.

The St Louis poster.

The Los Angeles poster.

And last but not least, the San Francisco poster in its original scan...

...and an upscaled version.

Well, i'm sure you've all enjoyed these great Cities of the Future posters and i'll see you tomorrow for something different but also great!

Pictures: copyright Disney

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Shanghaî Disneyland Opening Might Have Some Delay - Plus : Gift of the Day : SDL Bird Eye View Artwork "Poster " Size.

China Daily reports in its latest article online that "Shanghai Disney theme park seems to be progressing slowly" and there might be some delay for Shanghaî Disneyland opening. Really? What a surprise... And they've got the infos from a SDL insider source. Okay, let me tell this: if there must be a delay, even if we have to wait one more year, let it be. The biggest mistake - a fatal one, in fact - would be to open the park with half the rides working. Chinese are gonna rush to Shanghaî Disneyland as soon as it will be open, and not having all the rides operationals would create a huge mess, long lines, global dissatisfaction and the worst "mouth to ear" reports from the guests which would have been trapped in what would be a half SDL experience. And you know how it is difficult to make people change a mental image once they have it in their head, don't you? It happened before for others Disney theme parks and it took them years to change it. So, i know that Chinese don't like to lose face but in this case Shendi - the joint venture company ruling SDL - must find a good corporate alibi to delay the opening, and everything will be fine. If they don't and decide to open a non fully operational park, it'll be disaster ahead.

That said, Iger recently announced that the final opening date of Shanghaî Disneyland will be announced early 2015 so i suppose we should't have to wait too long to know it. Below, excerpts from the China Daily article that you can read in full HERE. And one more thing: i've got a "gift of the day" for you today as the SDL bird eye view artwork above has been upscaled in a 80 cm poster size, so click on it to get it in big size! And below, a new picture showing the construction of the "dome" over the outdoor track of Tron Lightcycles Power Run. It's called officially "Tron Cover". The image below is not perfectly sharp because the original file was posted in very small size on a chinese website and i had to upscaled it. It's really the best that i could get out of it.

Shanghai Disney theme park seems to be progressing slowly
By Shi Jing (China Daily)

Long-awaited Disney theme park seems to be progressing slowly, reports Shi Jing in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Disney Resort will someday be a place where children and adults can indulge in dreams, but it is not pleasant at all to visit the site at present, especially on a chill winter's day.

At the moment, there is little to be seen on this mostly vacant piece of land spreading over 3.9 square kilometers－and yet security is extremely tight. Even people trying to take a picture across the street where the gate of the resort is located will be stopped by security staff.

The only way to get any rough idea of the progress of construction is to drive round the leveled land. It is hard to visualize how the theme park will look like in less than 12 months. A source familiar with the resort who asked for anonymity said that there might be some difficulty with a 2015 opening.

Shanghai Construction Group Co Ltd, one of the major contractors of the Shanghai Disney Resort, said in early December that the first phase of the theme park would be completed by the end of January 2015. But Disney Resort has told China Daily that no specific completion date has been announced.

In an e-mail sent to China Daily, the company said that the Shanghai Disney Resort's development is being led by a "highly skilled international team of Disney Imagineers", including experts from China and the United States.

"Construction milestones are being reached on a regular basis. The remarkable 'mountain' feature at the resort's Magic Kingdom-style theme park was recently topped-out, and we look forward to celebrating many more milestones in the months ahead," said the e-mail.

"An international team of Disney Imagineers is working hand-in-hand with local contractors to transfer unique Disney techniques, design, rockwork and themed finishing expertise to local artisans to bring the best of Disney to the people of China. We look forward to sharing more details soon," the company said. ( End of China Daily excerpts )

Now, i've got something else for you about Shanghaî Disneyland and it's about a mix of civil engineering staff and year two and year three students who visited Shanghai Disneyland construction site on November 26, 2014.

They had a tour on the construction site and then moved to the Headquarters of Shanghai City Building Engineering Company where they received a presentation on the project and BIM application in Design and Construction of Enchanted Storybook Castle (Disneyland castle).

Lucky them, you say? Sure, but lucky us too as the article talking about their visit also posted this picture below. It didn't took me too long to find what it shows and the yellow and white building on the top is showing a building of of Spice Alley, near SDL lake, which will present a variety of popular Asian cuisines in a casual, yet romantic environment.

If you have a closer look at the picture you'll see a bit of the lake and the high red building in the background on the left is most probably the Walt Disney Theatre, in Disney Town, in which will play The Lion King musical. On the official rendering below you'll see the yellow and white building already built above.

By the way, if this picture was shot in November during the students visit you'll note that , at least for this part of the resort, that the works are well advanced.

That's all for today about Shanghaî Disneyland!

Artwork: copyright Disney - Shendi

We Are ALL Charlie !

May be you've read my Facebook post HERE yesterday about the gruesome killings in Paris of almost all the highly talented cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, France most famous satyrical weekly newspaper. The terrorist attack has put not only France but the whole Europe and a big part of the rest of the world under shock and i think we can say that, just like after 9 / 11, there will be a before and after the brutal murders of the Charlie Hebdo artists.

And the reason why is because here it's something sacred for all of us, reasonable peoples living on this planet, which has been attacked: the freedom of speech in its larger dimension and if it was not clear yet yesterday's terrorist made all of us understood that it's not a war against islam but against fascism, in this case a radical islamist fascism. Closer to obscurantism, though, because as someone said yesterday "killing twelve people for a guy who died 1600 years ago, you have to be insane". It's indeed a question of insanity and even more psychosis, but i'd like to take a minute or two to answer to a question that probably you'd like to have the answer, i.e what can lead someone to do such monstrosity?

As usual the answer can be find in the books of the great Jiddu Krishnamurti, one the most brilliant minds of 20th century and for whom one week of national mourning was declared in India when he died at 90 in 1986. As i used to say, all answers about why the world is going mad are in Krishnamurti's books. He spent his life to the study of mind, how the thought is working, and explaining why no one should follow any guru, and i can't recommend enough to discover his writings - "The Awakening of Intelligence" in english HERE or in french HERE being a good one to start with.

So, why do i introduce Krishnamurti in all this? Because he explains something essential which is that the brain needs an order to have the thought working properly. And for this it is ready to take anything which includes an "order", whether it is a religion - any religion includes an "order" because there is a start, an history, a way to behave, rules of living, etc... or it can be any kind of ideology, the late communism being a good example of an ideology including an "order". Now, let's get back to the radical islamists and why they can kill 12 people just because they felt offended by Charlie Hebdo's artists cartoons. Crimes under the name of religion happened all along centuries, so there dis nothing really new, and right now it's radical islamists who are in the foreground but what you need to understand is that the reason why they can't accept anyone having fun of their prophet is precisely because it unconsciously they feel it attacks their own "order". Most of us have enough humor and we wouldn't feel in danger in a similar situation, even if eventually we wouldn't be happy if someone was having fun of someone we love, but we wouldn't kill anyone for that, right? The radical islamists does and i think it's because they can't accept that the order on which is based their life is being put in jeopardy. The fact is that it is NOT being put in jeopardy by cartoons - as "sacrilege" they can be - but for people for whom the only think they have in their life is their religious beliefs then they can think this way and if you add on all this a pinch of fanaticism and psychosis the cocktail becomes highly explosive. Don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to excuse their abominable killings, i'm just trying to explain all this madness.

Yesterday, hundred of thousand of people were in the streets of Europe major cities with the above sign "We are all Charlie" and today was declared a day of national mourning in France. One minute of silence happened everywhere in France and in most European countries, including at Disneyland Paris as you will see in the video below filmed by our friends of the DCP forum. Dozens of European artists have also paid tribute to Charlie Hebdo's artists and i've posted a selection of them on the D&M Facebook HERE.

Video: copyright Disney Central Plaza

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Fantastic Tokyo Disney Sea Pictorial Report By Maureen - Part Two

Here is the part two of Maureen - D&M contributor and webmaster of the new and excellent Hello Disneyland website - fantastic pictures of Tokyo Disney Sea. The pictures were shot with a Nikon D300S during her first trip to TDS a while ago and i think she did a real good job that you're gonna like. The part one of this report can be found HERE.

We'll start this part two by Lost River Delta and Arabian Coast.

Let's move to the beautiful Arabian Coast and the Sindbad ride !

Next door to Arabian Coast is Mermaid lagoon and Triton's Kingdom...

We'll end this report with a series of pictures of Mysterious Island, Meditterranean harbor and American Waterfront at sunset or at night...

The pictures that you've seen in this two part article are just a selection from Maureen own article on his Hello Disneyland website, and there is many more great spics to see in her full article so make sure to jump to the full pictorial report right HERE. And let's all thanks a lot maureen for all these beautiful pictures!

Pictures: copyright Maureen- Hello Disneyland