Toy Story Mania Update

WDWNT Author on February 3, 2008

News has been slow about the upcoming Toy Story Mania attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but here are some small bits of information we have been able to pick up on:

-The new Pixar Place area is expected to be open sometime between March 20 and April 1, 2008.

-Soft Openings for Toy Story Mania are expected to begin between April 15 and May 1, 2008.

-The official opening of the attraction should be during the second week of June at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World and Disney’s California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.

We will try to provide more on the attraction as we get closer to opening day. None of the notes above have been officially confirmed, but are highly likely.

Big Just Got Smaller

WDWNT Author on January 19, 2008

For those of you familiar with the Walt Disney World big figures, (large plastic statues that can be found and purchased in any Art of Disney location) you may be interested to know that the figures of that size will no longer be produced. The big figures will now be of a much smaller scale that are sold on average at $95 each. The older, bigger statues retailed for about $150 each, with the bigger models retailing for more. Among the new, smaller models are statues celebrating the many different pictures you’ll find on Walt Disney World park tickets this year (i.e.- Seven Dwarves on Splash Mountain, Cinderella on the Carousel, and Mickey and Minnie riding the Mad Tea Party), as well as a few other designs. The new figures are also made of resin rather than plastic.

Still a Masterpiece After 36 Years

WDWNT Author on December 13, 2007

The Thomas Kinkade Company announced today that Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, has unveiled A New Day at the Cinderella Castle, a depiction of the Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle as a new morning dawns, the Thomas Kinkade Company announced today.

Kinkade exhibited A New Day at the Cinderella Castle for the first time at an October 20, 2007 event at Walt Disney World. The piece, which offers the discovery of a dawn every bit as festive and delightful as the castle itself, was inspired by the Kinkade family’s annual visits to the Magic Kingdom. “This year, I went in my imagination to explore a vision of the regal castle gently kissed by the golden light of a perfect day,” Kinkade said. “Two of the dream-memories we take from childhood on our life’s journey, if we are fortunate, are the wonder and excitement of Walt Disney World and the soaring majesty of castles,” Kinkade later added.

A New Day at the Cinderella Castle is the second artwork that the Disney organization has commissioned from Kinkade. The first commissioned piece, Disneyland 50th Anniversary, commemorated Disneyland’s half-century birthday.

Kinkade takes a unique and decidedly whimsical approach in this piece. He captures a perfect morning in exquisite detail, from the arc of a double rainbow over the towering castle to the fluffy clouds dappling the castle’s many towers to the lavish, rainbow-hued trees and shrubs framing the building and quaint gas lamps dancing along the walkway.

The piece also offers a host of surprises to curious ones willing to look a little closer. Is that Bambi on the lawn? Tinker Bell above the castle spires? The Ugly Duckling in the pond? Kinkade leaves those answers up to individual interpretation.

America’s Most Beloved Artist called the Cinderella Castle “an enchanting inspiration to young and old.”

A New Day at the Cinderella Castle can be found at Thomas Kinkade Galleries Nationwide or on the web at www.thomaskinkade.com.