Walt Disney Imagineers conduct a test with one of the more than 1,200 water jets that will make “World of Color,” a nighttime water, animation, fire and musical extravaganza, come to life in Spring 2010 in Paradise Bay Lagoon at Disney’s California Adventure. The fountain being tested – a blow pop – can reach 200 feet in the air.
According to D23:
Returning to life September 25 and continuing through November 1, Halloween Time brings fun for all ages to the Disneyland Resort with new screams at Space Mountain and a new, nightly fireworks show. Halloween Time offers families a chance to interact with some of Disney’s most beloved characters, dressed in seasonal costumes at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure parks. It also gives guests a unique opportunity to experience some spooky fun with Disney’s more sinister characters, the Disney villains.
For older kids and adults, Halloween Time offers a new attraction: Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. For the first time, riders will experience not only the thrill of flying through the galaxy, but the exhilaration of ghosts and ghouls screaming through space trying to contact them. Creepy creatures lurk around every turn as the eerie attraction provides thrilling drops like never before.
New this year is a fireworks spooktacular that will haunt the nighttime sky throughout the Halloween season. Jack Skellington, the Master of Scaremonies, invites everyone to join in the celebration, including a cast of Disney villains who get into the sprit with a wicked sense of fun.
Jack Skellington also returns to take over the Haunted Mansion and bring back “Haunted Mansion Holiday” to New Orleans Square in Disneyland. Transformed to a mix of Halloween spookiness and Christmas tradition, “Haunted Mansion Holiday” is inspired by the classic animated film Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack and his friends provide plenty of havoc and surprises as they celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Haunted Mansion in their unusual style.
For not-so-scary fun, Halloween Time offers special pleasures for children and parents. Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland will again transform for the Pumpkin Festival, where more than 300 “non-identical” pumpkins will be on display in shop windows. Meeting favorite Disney characters will be easier than ever as they stop to greet guests at designated areas on Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland and Sunshine Plaza in Disney’s California Adventure.special meet-and-greet areas will be located throughout Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.
Also available throughout both parks are special Halloween treats, including enjoyable Halloween menu items such as Zero’s Ghostly Ghoulash served in a dog dish in honor of Zero, Jack Skellington’s beloved pet dog. Special Halloween Time gifts can be found in Disneyland Resort shops. Gifts include jack-o-lantern mouse ears and collectable pins depicting Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and their friends in Halloween costumes.
Guests will enjoy spine-tingling fun in Disney’s California Adventure at the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, where a “supernatural” event happened on Halloween evening, 1939, forever haunting the building.
Also at Disney’s California Adventure, Sunshine Plaza becomes “Candy Corn Acres.” Mickey’s pal Goofy is up to his tricks once again, attempting to wow the world with his unusual candy corn treats. Candy corn carrots, candy corn pumpkins and candy corn signs are just a few of the candy corn items Goofy is preparing.
Back by popular demand is “Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party,” a one-of-a-kind celebration that returns to Disney’s California Adventure for 12 nights in October (2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 and 31). This separate ticket, nighttime event gives children and their families a chance to dress as their favorite princesses, goblins or heroes, and trick-or-treat throughout the park. It’s the ideal environment to have fun, eat special holiday treats, play interactive games, listen to “spirited” music and watch a nightly character cavalcade that celebrates the season.
As if all the coverage of World of Color that we’ve had already wasn’t enough, Brady MacDonald from the LA Times Travel Blog has a scene by scene rundown of the show from yesterday’s media walk-through of the construction site:
I watched with awe Thursday as Steven Davison pantomimed his way through a sweaty and breathless preview of the World of Color water show coming to Disney’s California Adventure in spring 2010.
For those who’ve never had the pleasure of watching a performance by the Walt Disney Imagineering vice president of parades and spectaculars, it’s a treat to behold and a sight you’ll never soon forget. I’m always worried he’ll pass out from hyperventilation or hyperbole. (Watch video from Davison’s Summer Nightastic presentation.)
World of Color, which blends the nighttime spectacle of Disneyland’s Fantasmic and the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, is the first major addition of a $1.1-billion makeover planned for Disney’s California Adventure through 2012.
The water show will feature an array of dancing fountains, movie projections and lighting effects all tied to the original Sherman Brothers musical score from Disney’s Sunday night television show of the 1960s and ’70s.
As best as I can determine from my furiously scribbled notes of Davison’s thousand-words-per-minute summary, here’s the scene-by-scene rundown for the 25-minute World of Color show:
- The show opens with laser lights painting the night sky to the classic Sherman Brothers “Wonderful World of Color” song.
- Tinker Bell sprinkles pixie dust that enchants a famous quote by Walt Disney, causing the “D” in Disney to chase the fairy around the lagoon.
- An orange fountain, dubbed Little Squirt, makes his first appearance as the mischievous spirit of Walt Disney.
- The green Spring Sprite from “Fantasia” creates a World of Nature on the one-acre lagoon canvas.
- The Colors of the Wind segment, utilizing “water butterfly” fountains, incorporates the song “Just Around the Riverbend” from “Pocahontas.”
- Heimlich from “Bug’s Life” brings on the April Showers segment, which transitions into a raging sea storm.
- Employing a “paper animation” technique, the “Alice in Wonderland” segment includes Alice, White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat.
- Little Squirt returns during the “Little Mermaid” segment, which includes the songs “Part of Your World” and “Under the Sea” and features a fountain conga line.
- Crush from “Finding Nemo” surfs on the East Australian Current.
- Humpback whales from “Fantasia 2000″ breach and splash before sailing off through the stars.
- Wall-E and Eve dance a water ballet during the Colors of the Universe segment, which features full-projection water domes.
- Woody and Buzz from “Toy Story” play on a “water bed” in the Infinity and Beyond segment.
- Carl from “Up” arrives in his balloon house before the music transitions to “A Whole New World” as Aladdin and Jasmine fly by on a magic carpet.
- The story grows dark during Color of Fear, which features fire effects and a number of Disney villains, including the Firebird from “Fantasia” and Dr. Facilier from the upcoming “Princess and the Frog.”
- The wildebeests from “The Lion King” rush at the crowd in a water stampede.
- During the World of Tears transformation, a million points of light shine as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Beast are awakened with a kiss.
- Tinker Bell and Little Squirt return during a finale that washes the lagoon in a kaleidoscope of color.
- An encore utilizing “The Incredibles” symphonic score may or may not end the show.
My fingers are tired. I can’t wait to see the real thing.
And I have to agree with Brady on this one. Only word one can describe this show… AMAZING!
Disneyland has released three press videos, covering the Blue Sky Cellar and World of Color, that I wanted to share with everyone:
At Blue Sky Cellar, guests are invited to preview works in progress at Disneys California Adventure by immersing themselves in a facsimile of an Imagineering workspace. Based on the belief that idea gathering is best when the skys the limit, Blue Sky Cellar is designed to resemble an Imagineering charette, an extended creative idea development meeting. Guests receive an inside look at how Imagineers take blue sky ideas and refine them into the classic storytelling that characterizes Disney theme park attractions and adventures.
World of Color will combine hundreds of magnificent fountains, dazzling colors and an all-new kaleidoscope of audio and visual effects to take water-infused entertainment to a new level of artistry. The production will flood the senses, taking audiences on an imaginative journey into the colorful worlds of animated Disney classics such as Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King and Pocahontas, along with Disney•Pixar films Toy Story, Wall-E and many more.
In video released for the first time ever, you are treated to an exclusive time-lapse video of Mickeys Fun Wheel and Paradise Pier.
The Orange Stinger is now closed, and its makeover to Silly Symphony Swings will begin very soon. According to the OC Register’s Around Disney blog:
The spiral-peeled orange that marks the skyline of Disney’s California Adventure will soon be gone. The Orange Stinger swing ride closes for good beginning Tuesday.
It will be re-born as the Silly Symphonies Swings, featuring characters from the first colorized Mickey Mouse cartoon: “The Band Concert,” from 1935.
The attraction will remain a ride in which guests are suspended in swings that twirl around in circles.
The short features an orchestra made up of farm animals and conducted by Mickey Mouse, heckled by Donald Duck and his copious flute collection and finally swept up in a tornado – all the while playing variations of “William Tell Overture.”
Disney Spokesman John McClintock said that though the dismantling of the Stinger will start immediately, workers won’t start “peeling the orange” until sometime next week.
The newly themed swing ride will feature Mickey as the conductor on the top, and the cows, horses, dogs, pigs and other animals making up the band’s musicians will decorate the rest of the ride.
McClintock said Disney officials expect the Silly Symphonies Swings to open in spring of 2010, at around the same time the World of Color water and light show opens.
The refurbishment is part of Disney’s $1-billion expansion and re-theming of California Adventure.
Disney hopes to make the park more attractive after several years of lackluster attendance. Part of the strategy is to link the attractions there more closely with Disney and Pixar movie and character themes.
Summer Nightastic begins tonight at the Disneyland Resort, and in honor of that, here’s a new Disney press video with footage from all three main offerings, as well as interviews with Carla Carlile (show director for Fantasmic), Denny Newell (senior show director for Disney’s Electrical Parade), and John Addis (senior show director for Magical):
Disney has released a short video and fact sheet about the return of Disney’s Electrical Parade tomorrow night as part of the already flailing Summer Nightastic promotion. The updates to the parade were much needed and the parade appears sparkling and new thanks to LED light technology and a recreated soundtrack:
Tinker Bell leads the procession on an all-new float and her trail of pixie dust enchants all the parade floats with new beauty along the way. The popular pixie waves from the basket of a balloon floating gracefully above a magical garden shimmering with fairy light.
In addition, enhanced versions of two classic favorites will return to the lineup after a 13-year hiatus – the shimmering diamond mine of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Pleasure Island haunts of Pinocchio.
WHAT: The parade twinkles with approximately half a million lights. Of those, nearly 10,000 are new “pixie dust” lights spread over the 17 floats. The new LED lights use one-quarter of the power of incandescent lights. The “Tinker Bell” float alone has more than 25,000 points of light and 75 percent are powered by an LED source.
WHEN: Nightly at 8:45 p.m., beginning Friday, June 12, and continuing through Sunday, Aug. 23, at Disney’s California Adventure.
LIGHTS ON DEMAND: A new control system makes it possible, for the first time, for each light to be programmed individually. One example is the new Tinker Bell float, which has 160 dimmers, by far the most of any parade float, to control the lighting. Programming for this parade took approximately two months.
AN EVEN BETTER HOEDOWN: The unforgettable musical theme of the “Electrical Parade,” which has inspired several generations of Disneyland Resort guests to clap along, was adapted from a synthesizer piece known as “Baroque Hoedown,” written in 1967 by Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jaques Perrey. Disney themes are superimposed over the original piece. For Summer Nightastic!, the distinctive “electro-sytho-magnetic” “Baroque Hoedown” has new audio technology that gives it a richer, fuller sound.
FUN FACTS
HISTORY
According to D23:
Bountiful Valley Farmer’s Market in Disney’s California Adventure Park will begin serving corn dogs on June 1 due to the temporary closure of Corn Dog Castle to make way for the upcoming attraction based on the movie The Little Mermaid.
hurricanefreak101 on YouTube has posted a very neat video of an after-hours test of Disney’s Electrical Parade. The notable changes here include new effects (including the pixie dust trails) on all the floats, the new Snow White Dwarf Mine, and a partially lit new Pinocchio float:
According to D23:
New Guest restrooms across from Golden Dreams in Disney’s California Adventure will open May 16 after a scheduled reconstruction. The restrooms adjacent to Golden Dreams will close as work continues on one of the premiere attractions in the Paradise Pier area, which is based on the movie The Little Mermaid.
