Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been a hotbed of changes, refurbishments, and improvements over the last few days, so WDWNT Reporter Banks Lee headed out to the park to take photos of all of this activity:
There’s a lot closed
Read More about Banks Lee’s 9/11/10 Hollywood Studios Photo Report
While the presentation about the Fantasyland Expansion during the D23 First Anniversary party did not allow photography of any kind, there were ten pieces of artwork on display at Ariel’s Grotto during the party, some new, some you may have seen before:
The overall view, nothing new here
Old concept art of Dumbo’s Circus area and the “Dueling Dumbos”
The exterior of “Dreams Come True with Cinderella”
Old concept art of “Under The Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid”. A new version of this artwork was shown during the presentation, however, photography was not allowed. The ride will use omnimover vehicles very much like those found at the Seas with Nemo and Friends
Old concept art of “A Birthday Surprise for Sleeping Beauty”
Old concept art of “Dreams Come True with Cinderella”
Old concept art of Gaston’s Tavern
New concept art of the cottage that will hold the magic mirror transporting guests into “Enchanted Tales with Belle”
Older concept art of “Be Our Guest” Restaurant, but take note of the “living character” Lumiere being wheeled around, along with the stained glass windows featuring Beauty and the Beast characters towards the back of the room
New concept art showing the entrance to the Beast’s Castle and the “Be Our Guest” Restaurant
A few days ago, a picture of a Walt Disney Imagineering model for the upcoming Fantasyland Expansion at the Magic Kingdom was leaked on to the Internet. We have obtained the picture and have a number of new details to share about the parks’ largest expansion ever. To view any of the images below in a larger format, simply click on the images to see them on the WDWNT SmugMug:
An overview of the entire model (you’ve probably seen this already): Since we saw the blueprints back in September 2009, some things have changed. The new “Dumbo the Flying Elephant” ride is going to be to the south of the Barnstormer now, leaving Pixie Hollow (in its newly updated form) to the north and next-door to the Little Mermaid attraction.
Beauty and the Beast Realm: Everything according to plan here. You can see the buildings for the meet-and greet and the connected buildings for “Be Our Guest” restaurant and Gaston’s Tavern behind the model facades.
The Little Mermaid Realm: The Little Mermaid dark-ride isn’t all this land has to boast. An Ariel meet-and-greet, the largest store of the Fantasyland Expansion, and (if the budget holds-up) a living character version of Sebastian the crab could be in the queue of the genuine Magic Kingdom E-Ticket.
Pixie Hollow: As we stated before, the model has a very different Pixie Hollow area from the original blueprints. Not only has the area moved, but the attractions in the area have been changed greatly. The building that will house the Pixie meet-and-greets is much bigger than the originally proposed Home Tree and is now attached to the show building for The Little Mermaid dark-ride. The huge building for the meet-and-greets isn’t a mistake, it’s because these meet-and-greets are supposed to be unlike anything ever seen before. The current plan is to use new living character technology to project the fairies into their natural habitat and have them interact with guests. We saw a short preview of this new technology in a Walt Disney Imagineering video released last year.
Also new for Pixie Hollow is a ride featuring “Cheese” the mouse, replacing the concept of a Pixie play area. This character from the Tinker Bell film series will take guests for a spin around part of Pixie Hollow after guests board from a queue made of oversized items (remember, you will be the size of one of the fairies when visiting Pixie Hollow). The ride will only be different in theme from the upcoming “Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree” at Disney’s California Adventure. Tinker Bell may even appear inside the giant lantern at the south end of the attraction as guests in vehicles spin from turntable to turntable.
Note that the new WDW Railroad station is rather plain, either because it borders both the Dumbo Circus area and Pixie Hollow, or simply because it has not been decided what the station should look like. The WDW Railroad will be closing for 3-4 months in 2010 to accommodate construction.
Dumbo’s Circus: The “Dueling Dumbos” have moved south to border the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. Meanwhile, the new theme for Goofy’s Barnstormer is undecided. Rumors indicate that it may be a more modern version of the Casey Jr. Circus Train attraction, running on the same track as the current coaster.
Pooh and Princesses: This area remains very true to the original blueprints. The facade and shop of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction will be updated this year to reflect a “Hundred Acre Woods” theme and most of what is Pooh’s Playful Spot today is set to become a Winnie the Pooh character meet-and-greet. The Mad Tea Party will probably not see any changes until after the entire expansion is completed in 2013. The Cinderella meet-and-greet and princess/royal guard training as well as the Aurora meet-and-greet/birthday party are still very much what they were originally announced to be.
For those wondering about the placement of the Castle Walls that will separate the medieval fair from the fantasy forest, this picture should give you a good idea. The thatched roof you see on what is currently Mrs. Potts’ Cupboard is currently being put in place, so the first piece (although very minor) of the expansion is already being completed.
We hope you enjoyed this in-depth look at the Fantasyland Expansion model. Stay tuned to WDW News Today in the coming weeks as we introduce a new feature to the site that will allow you to easily follow the development of the Fantasyland Expansion.
If you weren’t a fan of “Disney Parks” combined branding, then you’re not going to like the next major step that was taken today. Here’s the press release from Disney:
BURBANK, Calif. – February 18, 2009 – Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, today announced organization changes to deliver a “one-Disney” experience by simplifying the Parks and Resorts operating structure, streamlining decision-making and eliminating redundancy.
“We know that our Guests want a ‘one-Disney’ experience and we must organize around that expectation,” said Rasulo. “The long-term success of Parks and Resorts depends upon our ability to adapt and innovate and respond to Guest preferences. These changes are essential to maintaining our leadership position in family tourism and reflect today’s economic realities.”
Today’s announcement accelerates the evolution of the Parks and Resorts management structure by creating seamless behind-the-scenes operations across domestic Parks and Resorts, while preserving the uniqueness, character and culture of our individual destinations.
In a memo to employees Rasulo explained: “In 2005, we announced a new Walt Disney Parks and Resorts operating structure. We transformed our organization to match consumers’ expectations: ‘one-Disney,’ regardless of how or where they experience our products. We put in place a new leadership team, integrated key business functions and implemented a consistent set of best practices. This allowed us to more rapidly and efficiently roll out new creative projects and better anticipate changes in travel trends.
“We’ve already seen innumerable benefits. Prime examples of our successes are the establishment of many maintenance and safety practices, holiday castle lighting that began in Paris and expanded into our other theme parks, the speed with which we integrated the High School Musical shows into our parks around the world, and the simultaneous openings of Toy Story Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s California Adventure.
“We have made significant progress. However, the long-term success of Parks and Resorts depends upon our ability to continue to adapt and innovate, to respond to ever-changing Guest preferences, and to implement an organization and cost structure that meet today’s economic realities. We must accelerate the evolution of our business and further refine our structure to work in a more integrated and effective manner.
“We know that our Guests want a ‘one-Disney’ experience and we must organize around that expectation. Our new structure will enhance our ability to Identify and Develop the next great Disney experience, Create and Build Disney destinations that incorporate our rich storytelling heritage and Operate them in a way that delivers a unique, memorable experience that transcends geography. Economic realities require that we do this in a simplified and streamlined manner that eliminates redundancies.”
Organization Changes Announced Today
A new Global Business Development team led by Executive Vice President Nick Franklin will combine the existing development functions of business and real estate development. The team will be responsible for driving growth by working with existing businesses on their development strategies, while also exploring new business opportunities around the globe.
Walt Disney Imagineering under the leadership of Bruce Vaughn, EVP, Chief Creative Executive and Craig Russell, EVP, Chief Design and Project Delivery Executive, will be reorganized into a single practice merging resort development with attractions and entertainment development to bring the creativity of Disney storytelling to the design and delivery of products at all Disney destinations.
Al Weiss, President, Worldwide Operations, will lead the work of merging the operating infrastructure at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort to create a single domestic organization and “back-of-house” operation.
In the coming weeks, other functions will review their organizations and make appropriate changes.
In his memo Rasulo acknowledged the challenges inherent in a large-scale reorganization: “Organization changes require difficult decisions, including the elimination of some roles. These decisions were not made lightly and we know this will be a challenging transition. The people affected are our friends and colleagues, and they have made valuable contributions.”
The changes announced today are effective immediately.
What this basically means is that more attractions and entertainment offerings will be developed for both the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts, rather than just for one of them. This announcement would lead us to believe persistent rumors that attractions such as “Radiator Springs Racers” and “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Adventure” that are going to Disney’s California Adventure as part of the billion-dollar expansion plan will also find their way to one of the four Walt Disney World theme parks sometime in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as we get more information on this announcement and what it means to the future of the Walt Disney World Resort.
There are a ton of entertainment changes that will be taking place at the Walt Disney World theme parks this week, so I thought it would be useful to provide a list for those of you visiting in the next few days:
Stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information on these entertainment changes become available.
According to the OC Register:
The last performance of Golden Dreams for the public, an American dream film performance in Disney’s California Adventure, is Sept. 7. Disney announced back in fall that as part of sprucing up California Adventure, Golden Dreams will be replaced by a dark ride based on “The Little Mermaid.” So, if you want to see the show — show up by Sept. 7. Still, the theater will be open through the spring, but only to school kids as part of the Disney youth education program.
Not really good news in my opinion. If they’re not going to start construction until next year, then they should just keep the attraction open to everyone. Just my 2 cents…
Screamscape have posted a few interesting rumors from through-out the Resort, some of which we have already reported, but they give extra backing to what we have already said:
Some improvements are slated to be made to the Electrical Parade for Summer 2009. First off it seems that the California parade will import a couple of floats from the old Paris parade, namely a new Pinnochio float and the Diamond Mine float. Meanwhile we’ve heard that the Blue Fairy float is likely to be on the way out and will be replaced with a brand spankin’ new Tinker Bell float that will serve as the new lead float for the parade. Apparently the float itself will still use the old-school style lights like the rest of the parade, but Tink herself will be covered in new LED lights instead. Speaking of LEDs… apparently the plan is to install a few new LED effects in all the floats so that Tink can create some kind of magic effect at the start that will travel back through the rest of the floats in the parade.
While the improvements to the parade are likely to happen, the only question is if it will be in DCA or Disneyland.
In a disappointing twist, it seems that the real world Wall-E may not be coming to California Adventure after all. If the rumors are true something may have gone amiss with the first robot that we’ve all seen clips of already, that may be caused them to drop or delay plans to bring one to the park. Also due to construction on the Little Mermaid ride, there will not be another Golden Screams show held this fall. They may come up with some kind of replacement Villains concept in the Hollywood Backlot instead. And the fun news is that the new DCA Preview Center that will show off all the proposed changed coming to the park may be ready to open sometime this fall.
I have been hearing that they will actually close Golden Dreams as Golden Screams as soon as Halloween is over & then they will start work on the Little Mermaid. Although if you look at Disneyland’s official page for Halloween Time 2008, Golden Screams doesn’t appear to be listed. Time will have to tell on this one.
Early 2010 – Toy Story: The Musical – Rumor – (8/3/08) While I don’t know what the short-term plan is for the Aladdin show, we’ve heard that Toy Story: The Musical is now scheduled to open in early 2010 as a replacement. So I guess the question remains as to when exactly the current Aladdin show will close down.
2010 – Wonderful World of Color – Confirmed – (8/2/08) Sometime in very early 2009 I’ve heard that we may see the park drain the lagoon to do some of the extensive work needed for the upcoming World of Color night show.
And moving quickly over to Disneyland…
For the Holiday season we’ve heard that the park may add the “light up” snow effect to cover the front and back of the castle this year as well as expand it into the trees and garland in the hub and main street areas as well as the Town Square Christmas Tree. I’ve also been told that a new Toy Factory float will be added to the Christmas Parade to replace the old float.
I did once hear that what Screamscape is talking about might even be expanded to the Matterhorn, but I highly doubt that would happen. However, if the lighting effects do expand to the back of the Castle, that will make the whole thing look even nicer, & more complete!
The next few years at the Resort are going to be really exciting, & if even one of these rumors come true, I’ll be happy!
Here are a few juicy rumors concerning the Little Mermaid attraction & World of Color:
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for updates on these & any rumors involving the DCA Expansion!
Just as we briefly mentioned at the end of last week, rumors are swirling that an inverted roller coaster themed to Disney Pixar’s Monsters Inc. will be the next major new attraction for the Walt Disney World Resort after the opening of the American Idol Experience this January. Our good friend Jim Hill over at Jim Hill Media had a lengthy article about the proposed Hollywood Studios roller coaster today, although he did go into more detail on some other upcoming projects as well.
Jim also mentioned two new attractions that were first rumored to the public right here on WDW News Today over the course of the last year. First mentioned was that the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure will be themed to “A Bug’s Life” (probably in the very-near future), and next was the Little Mermaid dark ride that will most likely be heading over to Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom in October of 2011. Be sure to stay tuned to WDW News Today for updates on all of these very strong rumors, and be sure to read Jim Hill’s article HERE.
I advise you to check out the latest Blue Sky Alert over on Blue Sky Disney. This latest update talks a bit more in depth on World of Color & the Little Mermaid ride, both of which are going into Paradise Pier. The picture below should give you a clue as to what could be a big feature in World of Color:
