Archive for July, 2009

The Alice In Wonderland teaser trailer is now available, and it looks fantastic!

Check it out at these various links:

High Definition:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_1080.mov

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_720.mov

Quicktime:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_High.mov

iPod:

http://wdmp.rd.llnwd.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_iPod.m4v.zip

I can’t wait to see this movie, especially in Digital 3D. Some of these scenes will look incredible, such as Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

Can’t wait!

Earlier today, it seems as if construction blueprints for Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland expansion leaked out to the public. After looking them over, they seem to be pretty realistic to me, and not just the work of some overzealous Disney fan. For one thing, they seem to match up with various news and rumors we’ve heard the past few years about a new attractions and areas.

The plans look like Fantasyland will expand back into Mickey’s Toon Town Fair, and almost get rid of the entire land completely. The only thing that seems to be safe is Goofy’s Barnstormer.

Disney princesses Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel will be getting the royal treatment with newly added meet and greet areas. The long rumored The Little Mermaid ride is also on the plans, along with a possible dinner theater called “Be Our Guest” over by Belle’s area.

Overall, it seems like it will be a very good (and much needed) expansion to the Fantasyland area, and definitely a way to drive more traffic in there.

Check out the proposed blueprint below, and click to see it full size!

Weird Al has some really good songs. The man takes the parody (which is already a joke in itself) and makes it into a true art form.

What is Weird Al doing on a Disney blog, you may ask?

His latest little diddy, which I suppose will be on his next CD, due out late this year/early next year, is about a guy who wanted to be a famous actor when he grew up, and instead is a Jungle Cruise Skipper.

Very funny stuff! Enjoy!

Skipper Dan

UPDATE: You can now download the single from iTunes, Amazon, and other various online outlets!

A lot of people propose to their significant other at a Disney Park. Each one is magical in their own way, but some are a little more than others.

The official Disney Parks YouTube page posted this back in early June, and I didn’t really get a chance to discuss it until now. It’s probably one of, if not the best proposal I’ve ever seen.

It’s a singing, dancing proposal to end all proposals. Check it out:

There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the video, though. Lots of people are crying foul, and saying it’s all fake. While it does have an over abundance of clearly convenient  attributes to it, and does seem to go above and beyond typical Disney proposals, I still feel it’s the real thing.

If you ask ahead of time, most Disney Cast Members will go out of their way to help make your proposal special, and that’s obviously the case here. To me, it seems like these two guests in this truly magical moment are current or former Disneyland Cast Members themselves, and that’s how he was able to set up all that extra “magic.” I mean, look at that girl’s face. She looks incredibly surprised (and slightly embarassed) by the whole thing. Either that, or she’s a really good actress!

Regardless, whether it is a clever piece of Disney marketing, or just them helping a fellow Cast Member out, it truly is remarkable and definitely memorable!

I’m sure by now that most of you have heard of the tragedy at Walt Disney World late last night. At around 2 AM, a monorail crashed into the back of another near Epcot’s station. The driver of the monorail unfortunately passed away. There was a family on one of the monorails who, fortunately, were not injured.

For more on the story, check out CNN.com’s coverage.

Click Orlando also has a video from an eyewitness, and several photos, but I must warn you, they are very upsetting.

I would like to take this time to say that our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the Cast Member who lost his life last night.

This sort of accident has never happened at any Disney theme park before, so it brings up a lot of questions. Disney is very regimented in their safety features for all of their attractions, especially the monorail, so one has to wonder what went wrong.

The monorail is equipped with several safety features that can be used in order to prevent something like this from happening. They all have the standard equipment like most major transportation systems do: communications and navigation system (which is similar to an air traffic control tower), front and rear headlights, and a horn.

On top of that, each monorail has a fail-safe computer system that kicks in, effectively shutting down the monorails’ computerized operating systems, when they come too close to each other.

There a few reasons why this tragedy may have happened. There very well may have been some sort of equipment failure, and the fail-safe didn’t work properly. Being as how it was so late at night, the monorail driver may have been suffering from exhaustion. He may have even had a health problem of some sort, such as going into cardiac arrest, which prevented him from stopping in time. At this time, however, there is no conclusive reason why this occurred.

Officials did not release the name of the Cast Member, but Mike Griffin, Walt Disney World Vice President of Public Affairs, released the following statement:

Today, we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker. The safety of our guests and cast members is always our top priority. The monorail is out of service and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to determine what happened and the approximate next steps.

While some people may be adverse to riding the monorail system from now on, please realize that this is a true rarity, and Disney does take everyone’s safety very seriously. I imagine that there will be some new systems and rules that will be put into effect in the following days, to try to make the monorail even safer.

In any event, this is a truly tragic event, and our thoughts go out to the Cast Member’s family.

UPDATE: Orange County authorities have identified the monorail driver as 21-year old Austin Wenneberg. Our thoughts are with Mr. Wenneberg’s family.

After months of rumors, Disney announced yesterday that they will indeed be expanding Hong Kong Disneyland. The much needed new additions will expand the park another 23%, while adding three new lands for people to enjoy.

According to the press release, here’s what people can expect:

Grizzly Trail
Hold on to your hats! — the path along Grizzly Trail offers plenty of high-spirited frontier fun in an abandoned mining town called Grizzly Gulch. Set amidst a colorful backdrop of mountains and woods, the town was founded August 8, 1888 — the luckiest day of the luckiest month of the luckiest year — by prospectors looking to discover gold; however, bears are now wreaking havoc at the Big Grizzly Mountain Mining Company!

Guests visiting Grizzly Gulch will enjoy hands-on water features, massive geysers and leaking structures in the abandoned town. Life-size Audio Animatronics bears set the story in motion on Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, a white-knuckle adventure aboard a runaway mine train through town. Guests careen backward down an incline before a launch sequence “blasts” the mine train out of the mountain. Photo opportunities abound at the Wild West stagecoach, an old-time Jailhouse and the world’s largest nugget of gold. Of course no pioneer town is complete without some refreshment Wild West style, and Guests to Grizzly Gulch can get a cold drink at the Saloon or shop for mining supplies at the Bear Necessities merchandise stand.

Mystic Point
Mystic Point (shown on the previous page), located in the heart of a dense, uncharted rain forest, is a place of mysterious forces and supernatural powers. In a beautiful garden full of relics and mythological figures, guests will discover a hidden world of illusions and mysteries.

Mystic Manor is home to an eccentric world traveler and adventurer and his collection of exotic international artifacts, where strange things happen when an enchanted music box releases magical powers, courtesy of a mischievous monkey! Guests will see the story unfold from their perches onboard a trackless ride system, which enables them to move “freely” around the attraction as the story unfolds, while special visual and audio effects unforgettably tell this story of mystical phenomena.

Toy Story Land
Andy has left his toys unattended in this immersive and highly themed environment based on one of Disney·Pixar’s most popular series. And while Andy’s away, the toys will play!… and guests are invited to join!

Oversized outdoor rides and photo opportunities let guests experiences the different perceptions of scale and shrink to the size of a toy. A drop-style parachute attraction lets guests join a “training mission” and plunge from a 25-meter-high tower! And you can always try the shuttle coaster — which propels guests along a U-shaped-style track.   

All the new additions sound fantastic. Hong Kong Disneyland, as it stands now, isn’t all that big to begin with. They have a few signature attractions, but it doesn’t offer the same experience as the other Disney parks. This additions will definitely liven up the park a bit, and bring in some new crowds.

Grizzly Trail seems to be a take off of our own Frontierland, but with a bit more “Country Bear Jamboree” added in. The thrill ride also sounds awfully similar to Big Thunder Mountain, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out. This looks to be the largest part of the addition.

Mystic Point might be taking some of the left over ideas from the “Myst”-themed island that never came to fruition at Walt Disney World. Mystic Manor seems to be a variation of the Haunted Mansion, which Hong Kong Disneyland doesn’t have as of yet. This new ride will use the same technology that Tokyo Disney’s Pooh’s Hunny Hunt does.

I’m also a bit jealous of the Toy Story Land. Although we’ll be getting a Cars themed land here in the USA soon, Toy Story would be a neat addition to have as well.