Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Giant Disneyland Paris Pictorial Update !

You enjoyed the pictures of DLP under snow last week? You will love this new pictorial update with dozens of great pictures from Max Fan, D&M contributor and webmaster of Dlrp Welcome!

There we go starting by the entrance of DLP Magic Kingdom. As you'll see Main Street is the area where there is the less snow as DLP staff has removed the snow on all walkways for obvious safety reasons. Also, not a lot of people in the park on that day but considering the harsh weather it's no big surprise.

Let's move to Frontierland where there was much more snow!

Next stop, a frozen Adventureland!

Let's move to Fantasyland where the snow fits well with the medieval roofs!

Max also have some great shots of Discoveryland!

Let's all thanks Max for these great pictures which i'm sure you enjoyed a lot!

I remind you that between now and February 14 i'm doing a great Winter sale / Valentine's day special offer on the Disneyland Paris book collector's edition that you can order at its lowest price ever, i.e 75€ / $100 (instead of 120€ / $160) plus 15€ shipping wherever you live on the planet!

You can order the book either in its english or french edition and if you have a Paypal account you can use the Paypal one click button below ( please use ONLY the Paypal button below not the one on the right bar which is not coded at the same price). No Paypal account? No problem, you can pay by bank wire transfer, please send me an email at : neverlandeditions@gmail.com
Also, please send me an email with your shipping address and also let me know if you order the book in its english or french edition.

The book will make a GREAT valentine's day gift for the one you love. I can even say that it'll be hard in this kind of price to find a better gift for a Disney theme park fan, and it's true!

I remind you that only 50 copies are on sale at this special price, so order now your collector's copy while you can get it at its lowest price ever, and save $60 / 45€ on the book normal price!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Latest Shanghaî Disneyland News !

Fresh - and good! - news about Shanghaî Disneyland were released today, so let's have a look about this with excerpts of today's Shanghaî Daily article ( in italics ), to which i added my own comments.

"Construction is almost done on the infrastructure and support facilities for Shanghai Disneyland, and design details and installation of features within the theme park will begin this year, officials said yesterday.

Some major structures will take shape late this year in the theme park, which will open in 2015 as scheduled in Chuansha in the Pudong New Area, said Zhou Xianqiang, assistant director of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone Management Commission.

Half of the 10 benchmarks set for construction of the park had been reached by the end of last year, Zhou said.After the rest of the construction is done on lands, roads and rivers this year, the commission will deliver the land to Disney officials in the United States for further construction, he said."

Good news, as it seems that the park will not have delay in its opening, unlike what some rumors were saying. That said, it might open more "late 2015" than at the start of the year...

"Zhou said the future theme park will be surrounded by a waterway to isolate the new park from the outside."

Interesting... finally, may be an article that i've done in March 2011 might be right and i strongly suggest you to read it HERE. You'll find in it not only the picture of this early map below, but also my thoughts about what it means for SDL area to be surrounded by water ( which was not yet sure at that time ) and more specifically what it means "symbolically" for chinese people.

"Shanghai Disneyland will involve more Chinese elements to differentiate it from other theme parks around the world, said Dao Shuming, director of the Shanghai Tourism Bureau. Zhou said the Chinese elements will mainly involve performances, festival celebrations and souvenirs".

In two words, it means that SDL probably will not have a lot of rides inspired by chinese mythologies but that you'll find the chinese influence mainly in shows or performances. And so far, from what i've been told, it seems to be right.

"Ticket prices for the future park will be similar to other Disney parks in the world but will also take the incomes of Chinese mainland visitors into account," Zhou added."

What it means is that the entrance ticket price will be probably less expensive than in U.S, Japan or European theme parks which is indeed a bloody good news.

"He said detailed plans on future designs and events in the park will be made public late this year."

Another very good news as it means that WDI might released at last more infos or artwork about SDL. I remind you also that the next D23 Expo in Anaheim is scheduled for next summer and i think we can expect to see interesting things about SDL in the expo. I remind you too this other interesting news released last week by China Daily, saying that "Shanghaî Disneyland will feature a production center, which will showcase some of the technical and creative wizardry, which will be used at the site, and scheduled to be open by the second quarter of 2013. the center will become the "heart" of show production for Shanghai Disneyland, the company said, highlighting the park's most complex technology before it is permanently installed within the theme park, the company said". Might be a kind of Blue Sky Cellar like at DCA but of course all about Shanghaî Disneyland.

Anyway, all this sounds good and just like you i can't wait to know - or see - more about WDI plans for Shanghaî Disneyland!

Disneyland Fantasy Faire Update - Artwork and Video

As you probably know the next big thing to open in a Disney theme park will be Fantasy Faire at Disneyland Anaheim, scheduled to open anytime soon, probably in March. The exhibit at DCA's Blue Sky Cellar was changed 10 days ago and now display some great Fantasy Faire artwork. But, as usual, there is also a specially made WDI video in which WDI Imagineers presents the project, and ThomasTheImagineer ( it's his Youtube name, it doesn't mean he's a real imagineer ) uploaded on youtube a great video in which you'll be able to see the full WDI video that normally only DCA Blue Sky Cellar guests can see when they visit the exhibit.

I let you have a look at it and then we'll talk about the artwork and also about a new audio-animatronic figure specially created for Fantasy Faire!

Let's have a closer look now at a selection of the artworks displayed in the exhibit, thanks to pictures shot by Andy Castro from Mice Chat and the first one below is both in its b&w and color version.

As i told you a new audio-animatronic character will find a home in the medieval set of Fantasy Faire, and it's Figaro the lovely little cat from Pinnochio who will "play" in a friendly way with a bird in a cage. Below, the renderings related to the two characters which also detail what will be the animation for both of them.

I'd like to thanks again Andy Castro for his great pictures and remind you that you can see even more pics of the Fantasy Faire exhibit in its Mice Chat article HERE!

If you like WDI artwork i remind you that you will find more than 250 gorgeous WDI renderings in my Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book that you can order now with an amazing special offer as between now and February 14 i'm doing a great Winter sale / Valentine's day special offer on the Disneyland Paris book collector's edition which is at its lowest price ever, i.e 75€ / $100 (instead of 120€ / $160) plus 15€ shipping wherever you live on the planet!

You can order the book either in its english or french edition and if you have a Paypal account you can use the Paypal one click button below ( please use ONLY the Paypal button below not the one on the right bar which is not coded at the same price). No Paypal account? No problem, you can pay by bank wire transfer, please send me an email at : neverlandeditions@gmail.com
Also, please send me an email with your shipping address and also let me know if you order the book in its english or french edition.

Only 50 copies are on sale at this special price, so order now your collector's copy while you can get it at its lowest price ever, and save $60 / 45€ on the book normal price!

If you've never seen the book the video below will show you the whole 320 pages of the book! For pictures and description details please go HERE.

Pictures: copyright Andy Castro - Mice Chat

Artwork: copyright Disney

Video: copyright ThimasTheImagineer

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Disney Release Four OZ Characters Posters

Disney released four beautiful characters posters for OZ, the Great and Powerful. From above to bottom you'll find those of The Wizard, Theodora, Glinda and Evanora!

Pictures: copyright Disney

A Perfect American, Philip Glass Opera About Walt Disney

Difficult week for the WDC... After the screening at Sundance Film Festival of "Escape from Tomorrow" filmed entirely at WDW and Disneyland without any WDC authorization, just a few days ago an opera (!) based on Walt Disney and produced by English National Opera had its premiere at Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain, and the reviews are very good.

Called " A Perfect American" - production poster above - the opera was written by world famous and talented composer Philip Glass, and - that's where the problem is - the story is based on a controversial book about Walt Disney written by Peter Stephan Jungk in 2005 which is a fictionalised account of working at Disney's cartoon factory. Jungk's book tells the story from the perspective of a disgruntled employee who is sacked by Disney for trying to start a union and who then resolves to confront the man who has ruined his life and taken credit for the talents of many others.

More from a Guardian article : "The opera concentrates on the last years of Disney's life, when he lay dying of lung cancer and portrays Disney as a megalomaniac with McCarthyite, racist and misogynist tendencies, so you'll understand why the Walt Disney Company has denied rights to use any Disney characters or cartoons or anything else about Disney in the opera. "This opera is a surreal dream," said John Berry, artistic director of English National Opera. "It is not a biography and the truth is that we would probably not have used the real Disney characters in the production even if we had been allowed to."

Berry said that Improbable, the acclaimed British ensemble who have created the piece for the Coliseum and for the Teatro-Real in Madrid, have worked on the opera in their unique way and have felt no visual limitations. "They will be using animal imagery, puppets and shadow plays performed behind a screen to create a sort of abstract world. That is why we felt this is the right story to tell in an opera. It is not a realistic vision," he said. Below,early design sketches for the opera.

"When I started out, people thought I was going to laugh at him," Philip Glass has said recently. "But I see Walt Disney as an icon of modernity, a man able to build bridges between highbrow culture and popular culture; just like Leonard Bernstein, who could jump from a Broadway musical to a Mahler cycle."

Walt Disney Studios called Glass to dissuade him, but by then the composer was committed. Glass asked librettist Rudy Wurlitzer to turn the book into an opera and the work was duly sent to Disney Studios for consideration. There was no response and Jungk, the original author, interpreted this as "a green light".

"Neither the English National Opera nor the director, Phelim McDermott of Improbable, have felt any sort of dark presence looming over us as we worked on this," said Berry. "We have created a great poster that will be used in Spain and London and which you have got to look at quite deeply to understand what it means."

In a key early scene, Disney is tended by a nurse he calls Snow White, when his family visit together with the directors of the Disney Company. The dying mogul makes them all take a solemn promise on the American flag never to say the word "die". In later scenes Disney compares himself to Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln and says he is convinced that Ronald Reagan will become president if he will follow his advice.

Jungk's book does not flatter Disney or his vengeful employee, Wilhelm Dantine, and the opera follows the same path. Jungk describes the day that Disney hired the fictional Dantine as the happiest in Dantine's life, but his book then charts his obsessive and thankless efforts to win the praise of his boss.

Yet in the new opera, as in the book, although the portrait of Disney is clearly unappealing the artists who work for him still show devotion and Old Walt finally emerges as a tragically flawed creative genius."

The opera will start in London next June but you can read a Los Angeles Times review HERE and most of all watch some filming in the video below.

Pictures: copyright A Perfect American - English National Opera

Video: copyright Community Teatro Real

Part of text: copyright The Guardian