Monday, April 1, 2013

DLP Update : Theming Begins on WDS Ratatouille Ride Show Building Facade !

Hope you all had a great Easter Sunday! We will start the week with a two parts Disneyland Paris update with great pictures shot by Max Fan, D&M contributor and Dlrp Welcome webmaster. All pictures were shot at park opening hour, that's why you'll see almost no guests on the photos and its probably due to the fact that it's so bloody cold right now in Paris with O degrees celsius in the morning that guests probably wait a few hours more before rushing in the parks. But Max who obviously is not afraid to face the harsh cold temperatures came at the parks very early, which is also a good time to shoot good pictures as it is the morning "magic hour" and the light is fantastic at that time.

In this part one we'll have a look at the Walt Disney Studios as well as the works on the Ratatouille ride as theming has began on the show building facade!

There we go, starting by the Walt Disney Studios entrance.

Let's move to Backlot!

There is a small cafe near the Moteurs Action Stunt Show which i like a lot - specially the inside - and it's a Diner called "Cafe des Cascadeurs". I've rarely posted pictures of it so i'm glad that Max did and here it is. Unfortunately it's often closed, specially in low season.

Back to Toon Studio where the Magic Carpet ride is apparently under maintenance.

And here comes the latest pictures of the Ratatouille ride site. As you will see theming has obviously began on the right side of the show building where WDS Imagineers must create the look of parisian facades.

Don't miss tomorrow the part two of Max pictorial report with great pictures of the Disneyland park, also shot early morning and in the meantime I remind those of you who don't own yet the great Disneyland Paris From Sketch to reality book that from now till April 15 I put on sale signed copies of the book in its collector edition and that both english and french editions are available. This is the very first time that collector's edition copies would be signed so they will be "double collector"!
Don't miss this great offer, signed copies are even with a 20€ discount on the normal price! You can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE and you can use the one-click Paypal button below if you wish.

Pictures: copyright Max Fan

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Editor's Note: I remind those of you who don't own yet the great Disneyland Paris From Sketch to reality book that from now till April 15 I put on sale signed copies of the book in its collector edition and that both english and french editions are available. This is the very first time that collector's edition copies would be signed so they will be "double collector"!
Don't miss this great offer, signed copies are even with a 20€ discount on the normal price! You can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE and you can use the one-click Paypal button below if you wish.

Disney " Planes " Poster and Characters revealed

So, if i can judge by the number of characters in the movie, it seems that Disney intend to do with the upcoming Planes movie what they did with Cars, i.e to release not only a movie where planes talk and have a life by themselves but also to bring some cash in with a whole series of planes merchandise items. And why not, after all? Kids and even adults - and even me! - always loved miniature planes and these ones looks great, as you will see below!

They didn't forget the vehicles working on the tarmac, and some might remind you others characters from another movie... but that's all right.

All the question now is: how good this Planes movie will be. Supposedly to be released directly in video, Planes will finally be released in theaters on August 9 and, personally, as i always loved planes i sincerely hope that it will be good. In the meantime you can have a look below to the teaser trailer!

Pictures and video: copyright Disney

Friday, March 29, 2013

New " Wolverine " movie - First Trailer

A new Wolverine movie is coming with the always good Hugh Jackman! It'll be released this summer, it's called, simply, "The Wolverine", apparently a big part of the action will happen in China, and it looks pretty good - well, at least on the trailer... Have a look!

Picture and video: copyright 20th Century Fox

The second life of the Jungle Cruise Gorillas

A looong time ago - more precisely 31 years ago - guests who ride the Disneyland Jungle Cruise could watch two not-so-threatening but massive audio-animatronics gorillas standing and observing you, from the banks of the "rivers of Africa".

And then, one day, the gorillas disappeared, vanished! Though, that was not without any reason. For the Imagineers, back in 1977-78, it was time for a major refurbishment of the attraction and legendary imagineer Mark Davis worked on the upgrading of this Disneyland Jungle Cruise - that was after WDW had opened with their improved show. Part of Mark's new show for Disneyland included the Gorilla Camp with the tents, overturned jeep and the family of gorillas unpacking and turning the camp inside out. That's when these older previous tenant Gorillas vacated the Disneyland Jungle Cruise.

But as they say at WDI, "good ideas never die", and as we will see, audio-animatronics too. Reemploying animation figures is common at Walt Disney imagineering, some of the AA from Natures Wonderland are now part of Big Thunder, and almost all America Sings audio-animatronics are in Splash Mountain.

Approximately at the same time, in 1978, the imagineers were also working on another major refurbishment of another Disneyland attraction: the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn was coming down to be reinforced with steel, as it was a wood framed structure since the beginning. The new Bobsleds were being added along with new track, and better brakes too for the splash down. It was also decided to put some show in the interior mostly for the Skyway buckets that passed through the Matterhorn more slowly. The Bobsleds of course at speed could see the new icy interiors and crystals as well as what is now a very famous Disneyland figure: the abominable snowman.

Steve Kirk, imagineer extraordinaire who will be later the show producer in chief for Tokyo Disney Sea worked on the design of it - i should say them as there is three "abominable snowmen" in the ride. The design of these Snow Men was based on Steve's artwork - the one above - which was a composite of several different contemporary depictions and his own warped imagination.

Sculptor Blaine Gibson will then sculpt the snowman mask, and the imagineers team with Legend and Matterhorn creator Fred Joerger added the interior with the new Ice Crystals. Now, and as i suppose you've already guessed the end of the story, yes, the old Jungle Cruise audio-animatronic gorilla put on a new suit in 1978, and is now living a second life in the role of the Matterhorn's abominable snowman!

Transforming ex gorillas into Snow Men had to have been purely for economic reasons and probably dictated also the proportions of the final generation of the simian snow men.

As there is three Abominable snow men figures in the ride, i couldn't tell you which ones exactly are the former Jungle Cruise gorillas, but next time you will ride the Matterhorn bobsleds and see the abominable snow man, have a little thought for these old Jungle Cruise gorillas, who were some of the first Disneyland audio-animatronics. I'm sure they will be sensitive to this attention, and watch out for that third abominable snowman as he may be the real one.

Many thanks to Davelandweb for the Jungle Cruise gorilla picture. Dave have an unbelievably good web site about the Jungle Cruise, with more pictures you can ever dreamed of. Be sure to have a look at it, it's HERE.

Steve Kirk's artwork and abominable snowman pictures: copyright Disney.

Some of the pictures are coming from Jason Surrell fantastic book "The Disney Mountains", full of WDI artwork. You can find it on Amazon.com from only $8.90!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The " Mission Space " that Never Was

Ten years after Mission to Mars closed at WDW, another "mission" sent WDW guests on Mars, and it was at Epcot when "Mission: Space" opened on October 9, 2003. Well, as a matter of fact, the existing Mission Space that we know is in fact the first part of what was
a much better "Mission: Space" attraction concept.

In its original concept part one of the attraction was the same one that Epcot guests ride every day, i.e the shuttle centrifuge-simulator of a blast-off to outer space.

But instead to go on Mars, the original concept would have sent Mission: Space guests to a Space Station built on the Moon - or, according to Jim Hill in his excellent 2001 article, on a huge asteroid - see artwork below.

Always according to Jim "After they will arrive at the station, Epcot visitors will be free to disembark and discover the many wonders that are hidden deep inside that asteroid". And how, you ask? Well, that was the third genius part of the ride as Guests would have been able to move inside the Space Station thanks to a simulated "MMU" - Manned Maneuvering Unit - the famous propulsion backpack which was used by NASA astronauts on space shuttle missions in 1984 and which allowed the astronauts to perform untethered EVA spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle. Of course, as you can see on the rendering below, every one was supposed to follow the track, but the ride would have been great anyway, don't you think so?

So, why this awesome version of Mission Space was never built? Guess what, of course the cost of this amazing attraction concept would have been extremely expensive, and probably too expensive for Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at that time. That said, i'm thinking that IF Disney wanted to expand the current version, change it and add all the awesome second part of the concept which was cancelled, they'll probably could do it, technically speaking. If they have enough land available behind the Mission Space building - and of course the needed budget - they could expand the ride. Sure, they'll have to change the storyline, the movie inside the ride itself and others things but basically it doesn't look unfeasible. But a quick look on Google Earth shows that in fact there is currently backstage buildings behind so i suppose they would need to remove these ones too...

So, only the first part of the ride was saved and Mission: Space was built on the former site of the beloved Horizons attraction.

Mission Space Grand Opening happened on October 2003 and here is the video of the ceremony attended by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, HP CEO Carly Fiorina and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, as well as several NASA astronauts from its many phases of human space exploration- Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the space shuttle program and two crew members aboard the International Space Station!

The next videos is a very good HD Video showing the attraction itself, from the pre-show to the ride itself, including the whole movie that guests can see during the centrifuge ride.

Pictures: copyright Disney, Google Maps

Many thanks to the different people for the Youtube videos!