HKDL Update : Construction of Iron Man Experience Will Start After Chinese New Year

I've got a short update - but with plenty of fresh news for you today - about Hong Kong Disneyland - and it's not rumors! 

HKDL Tomorrowland will have constructions starting right after the Chinese New Year Event, and it will be the start of the works for the new E-Ticket ride Iron Man Experience! The Iron Man Site has been cleared, and construction works will cut the HKDL Railroad track and disable the train to go out from its storage area. In consequences, the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad will stop working for one year. From what i've been told they first thought to make a tunnel passing under the railroad track but apparently this was not the right solution.


There is also a new building - on the foreground, left, on the rendering above - to be built just a few meters from Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster - which is in fact located on the right of the rotunda that you can see on the rendering. The Buzz Lightyear fast pass machines will move away for one year, and no fast pass will be available for the Buzz attraction until the works are done.

Also, to clear the pathway to the new site, the two outdoor merchandising and food carts currently located near Buzz Lightyear will permanently move to somewhere else in Tomorrowland, while the existing sign of Autopia will be gone.

 
There are other works going on in HKDL Tomorrowland: Comet Cafe has received a new color tone on its roof - picture above -  and Starliner Diner is currently being repainted, too. 

Iron Man Experience is scheduled to open in 2016 but something else - still secret but not a ride - will come to Fantasyland in 2015. HKDL also have many small plans for the four original lands between 2014 - 2016, but rather than just rehab it will be many enhancing, upgrading projects which will add more themed Meet & Greet locations, shops and dining places. 

That's all for now!

Pictures: copyright DIsney

Pixar To Direct a Star Wars Animated Film ?

If this info revealed yesterday by Latino Review is right, and they're often ( but not always ) right, this is going to make some noise, folks. According to their post Pixar would direct a Star Wars animated film - which will come of course in addition to the new Star Wars "episodes" movies and the others spin-off movies centered on characters.

Right now there is no infos on what the story will be or what characters will be involved - so consider this news as a rumor - but Pixar for sure has a good experience in animated droids - remember Wall-E?  - and i'm sure they could do something great and elegant, as always. All i'm asking them is that it don't looks like the Andrew Chesworth fan artwork above (!)

From Latino Review: "Once the canon-purge is over and Episode VII is in production, there will be a whole universe of Star Wars related content to play in. We’ve heard about TV shows,new comics tie-ins (Marvel, of course), spin-off movies for particular characters and now, a Pixar film.

At this point, no idea what the size or shape of this film will be and given the long-view storytelling production model that is part of the Pixar brand, this could be a long way off. We can expect it to take place in the middle of a Venn Diagram between Star Wars and A Pixar Movie, and what that means to you depends on your definition of both."

The full article of Latino Review is HERE and the artwork above is from Andrew Chesworth.

Picture: copyright Andrew Chesworth.

Disneyland Paris Update: Part Two : Indiana Jones Temple, Farewell to Main Street Photography, and more

Here we go for the part two of the Disneyland Paris update, always thanks to the pictures of Max Fan, D&M contributor and DLPWelcome webmaster. This time we'll have a look at what's happening in the Disneyland Park and more specifically in Adventureland where works already began to rebuild the whole temple of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril!

Also, make sure to read the article till the end as i have a great news for those of you who would like to meet someone who created Disneyland Paris 20 years ago, a great Imagineer!

But first, let's move through Main Street U.S.A with a stop at the Town Square Photography shop which soon won't be the same anymore as the shop will have its theme totally changed and will be known as Flora's Boutique. Guests already can't access the shop anymore, the last products inside have been removed and the future shop will sell products linked with the different DLP "seasons"  ( Spring, Summer, Halloween, Christmas ).

Previously, Kodak was the partner of Town Square Photography and, as you know, Kodak ended last year its partnership in all Disney theme parks. Considering that guests now shoot pictures with their digital camera or cell phones and don't use photo films anymore the park probably thought they could have a better use of the shop to increase their merchandise sales. It's a pity, though, as the shop had a fantastic theming and storyline, not to mention, dozens of old cameras and a great 1900 photographer office set by Imagineer Eddie Sotto.

We'll pay a last tribute to this great shop with the original WDI renderings and the great sign of the shop.

Let's continue our walk through the park under the grey winter sky...

A quick look at the cup of coffee to check that the smoke is always coming out of it... again, as it was for a long time in maintenance last year.

As you can see, whatever the angle you shoot the pictures the light is really terrible in that season...

And it's not any better on Central Plaza...

...in Fantasyland...

...in Discoveryland

...or in Adventureland.

However, something big is happening in Adventureland as the works to rebuild entirely in real stone most of the huge temple of Indiana Jones and Temple du Peril began and will last until May 28. It's probably the first time in Disney parks history that a whole decor will be rebuilt. The coaster track itself will remain in place but the part with the loop will be changed. 

 

 

Let's move now to Disney Village where small improvements happened to the Sports Bar with a bigger TV screen replacing the old one, something that will appreciate guests who have a drink outside of the bar to watch sports events.

Just nearby the new LEGO shop had its opening delayed but it didn't stopped Max to check that products are already in place, and the opening should finally happen mid-February.

Now, here is an important info for all of you folks living in South Cal as the great Imagineer Tim Delaney, who was DLP Discoveryland show producer will be part of the next Mice Chat event happening February 8 at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney, Anaheim!

Tim will have fantastic stories for those who will attend this Mice Chat event with an audio-visual presentation and Tim will also sign copies of my Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book which will be available for purchase at the end of Tim 90 minutes presentation. This will be the very first time that a DLP Imagineer Show Producer will sign the book so if you live in South Cal don't miss that event!
Limited seats are available so make sure to do your registration today at the link HERE
where you can also pre-order a copy of the DLP book to make sure you'll have a copy waiting for you at the event.  

And for those of you not living in California i remind you that the promo on my Disneyland Paris book is valid all during January so you still can order the book and enjoy a free shipping wherever you live on the planet! The book price, whether it's the ENGLISH or FRENCH edition is 75 euros including free shipping worldwide which save $20, so order your own copy now at the best price on the market to don't miss the great Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book which will tell you all about the creation of Disneyland Paris with 320 pages including 500 pictures of the park and 250 WDI renderings!

You can order the book and send directly your Paypal payment of the 75 euros either by the Paypal button below or directly from your Paypal account at the email address:
neverlandeditions@gmail.com 
or by sending me an email at the same email address if the paypal button don't works. 
Bank transfer or credit card payment is also possible, write to me if you wish to pay this way.

 

Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality - Include shipping

1 Copy English NORMAL Edition Disneyland Paris book inc shipping €75.00 EUR 1 Copy English COLLECTOR Ed Disneyland Paris book inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 Ex Signé Collector Français Livre Disneyland Paris + envoi €100.00 EUR 1 Ex Collector Français Livre Disneyland Paris + envoi €75.00 EUR

Follow Disney and more on Twitter !

I think i never told you - probably because i'm not a Twitter addict - but you can follow Disney and more on Twitter at this link: https://twitter.com/disneyamore

Note that it is ""disneyamore" and not "disneyandmore". The funny thing is that i probably registered on Twitter a long time ago and then forgot it! But each time there is a new article on D&M a new tweet appear automatically on Twitter. So, if you "follow" D&M on Twitter it'll be a great way to know automatically when a new article will be on line!

Fresh News About Star Wars Episode 7 !

Fresh news about Star Wars Episode 7, and "from the horse's mouth" as they are coming from J.J Abrams himself in an interview during the Television Critic Association Press Tour. First, a good news, the script is ready, shooting will start this spring and the release date will be December 18, 2015. 

More, now, about all the rumors with J.J Abrams in his own words answering first on a rumor about Breaking Bad actor Jesse Plemons playing in SW 7: 
"He is one of the actors that we’ve talked to, yeah. It’s not often that I read about actors that I’m going to be meeting. I get to read articles about actors who were going to come in, so I get to see someone and say, 'Oh, I read that I was going to see you. It’s very nice to see you.' It’s usually agents talking to people about what’s happening. It’s just a lot of noise.”  

J.J was also asked if some scenes will be filmed in IMAX: 
“In the right situation, I’d like to use IMAX again. The problem with IMAX is that it’s a very loud camera. It’s a very unreliable camera. Only so much film can be in the camera. You can’t really do intimate scenes with it. It’s slow. They break down often. Having said that, they’re working on digital versions of that, so there may be a version one day. But, we’re going to be shooting this next movie on film.”

Abrams was then asked what was the craziest rumor he's heard so far: 
“There’ve been so many of them. It’s amazing to see how many there are. … But it’s sweet because it shows that there’s an interest in this movie that we all obviously know is there. But it is an incredible thing to see how many incredible things get thrown out that people then write commentaries about. How happy they are, how disappointed they are about something that is completely false. It’s a lot of noise, frankly.”

And, talking about rumor, here is the latest one: Dame Judi Dench ( who was playing "M" in the last Bond movies ) would play the character Mon Mothma. Who is Mon Mothma, you ask? It's a character who had just one scene in Return of the Jedi in which she was coordinating the rebel attack on the Death Star ( picture above ), her most memorable line being "Many Bothan spies died to bring us this information." 

As Star Wars 7 storyline happen many years later that's why they'll need someone older and Judi Dench who is a great actress could be great playing an older Mon Mothma. But it's sell a rumor, so wait and see!

Picture: copyright Lucasfilm

Disneyland Paris Update : Part One : WDS Ratatouille Update

We're back to Disneyland Paris today for a short update to have a look at the works on the WDS Ratatouille construction site. Most of the work is now happening inside the buildings, so hidden for any camera but there is still some works happening outside like the start of the construction of the fountain which will be at the center of the plaza, so let's have a look at all this with pictures shot this week-end by Max Fan, D&M contributor and DLPWelcome webmaster.

January is probably the worst month to visit DLP as the grey skies of the winter don't really give to the parks a warm atmosphere, it's the least we can say...

A close shot on the fountain foundations...

The entrance of the attraction is hidden for now...

That's all for today, come back tomorrow for the part two about the Disneyland Park!

Pictures: copyright DLPWelcome

Editor's Note: Today, just like every day, there is plenty of additional D&M posts and pictures on the Disney and more Facebook page to which you can access even if you don't have a Facebook account, so jump HERE now - and put the link of the Facebook page in your bookmarks to come back each day!