Archive for the 'Disney's California Adventure' Category
Scene-by-scene preview of Little Mermaid dark ride coming in 2011 to Disney California Adventure
July 15, 2010 1:54pm
The remaking of Disney California Adventure will continue in 2011 with the debut of the $100-million Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, a family-friendly, E-ticket dark ride that will take visitors on a musical underwater journey themed to “The Little Mermaid” animated movie.
Inspired by the Dragon Gorge scenic railway at the long-gone Ocean Park amusement zone in Southern California, the new Little Mermaid ride building has a dramatic arch that will feature relief carvings of frolicking mermaids and King Triton. Nautically themed glass work and tile work is designed to blend with the 1920s and ’30s seaside amusement park motif of the surrounding Paradise Pier area.
Inside the building, riders will board pastel-colored, clam-shell-shaped PeopleMover vehicles similar to the Haunted Mansion’s “Doom Buggies.” (You can take a point-of-view trip through an early concept of the Mermaid ride, which is featured in the DVD extras of the 2006 special-edition movie release.)
**Spoiler Alert** What follows is a scene-by-scene breakdown of the Little Mermaid dark ride:
Disney California Adventure to remake coaster with Goofy theme
July 7, 2010 4:01pm
Goofy’s Sky School will add a new look to an old ride when the re-themed roller coaster replaces the unimaginative Mulholland Madness that earned Disney California Adventure its on-the-cheap reputation.
Making its debut in 2011, the complete makeover will mark the third ride in three years that Disney California Adventure has retooled in an effort to add more classic Disney characters to the under-performing Anaheim theme park.
The “Disneyfication” strategy has worked wonders on Mickey’s Fun Wheel and Silly Symphony Swings, which now blend seamlessly with the surrounding 1920s and ’30s seaside amusement park motif and Victorian and Craftsman architecture of the re-imagined Paradise Pier.
Glow Fest dance party livens up Disney California Adventure
June 24, 2010 8:57pm
I had incredibly low expectations for Glow Fest, the new nightly summer dance party at Disney California Adventure.
The description sounded ill-conceived. The photos looked horrid. The concept seemed desperate.
A Disney-fied version of a psychedelic rave was designed to keep the tourists entertained while they waited endless hours for the Anaheim theme park’s popular new nighttime water show to begin.
Complete ‘World of Color’ coverage
Show review | Show overview | Special effects | Animation | Concept art | Scene-by-scene preview | Video gallery | Hype | Crowds | Glow Fest
Earlier this week I visited Glow Fest, which takes over the Hollywood Pictures Backlot nightly through Aug. 22.
I fully expected to walk into a massive holding area filled with families aimlessly waiting for the 10:15 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. “World of Color” shows to begin — long since finished with the limited rides that DCA has to offer and bored out of their minds.
Boy, was I wrong.
Pictures: Kobe Bryant celebrates Lakers championship at Disneyland
June 22, 2010 10:07pm
Hey, Kobe Bryant, now that you’ve won your fifth NBA championship, what are you going to do? He’s going to Disneyland, of course.
Bryant won’t be filming a Disney television commercial or getting a check from Mickey Mouse Inc., but he did visit the “happiest place on Earth” on Tuesday to celebrate the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 16th NBA title.
Michelle Obama and daughters watch ‘World of Color’ at Disney California Adventure
June 20, 2010 6:59am
Michelle Obama and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, sneaked in an after-hours visit to Disney California Adventure this week to watch the new “World of Color” water show as part of a whirlwind tour of Southern California hot spots. (They also fit in a Lakers game, pictured above.)
Disneyland officials confirmed that the first family, minus President Obama, visited the theme park Thursday night but offered no details (or photographic evidence).
The White House confirmed the Disney visit but was equally mum on specifics, the New York Times reported.
Read the rest of this entry »
Disney California Adventure reopens classic swing ride with Mickey Mouse theme
June 18, 2010 9:56am
Despite the bigger-faster-better advances in technology, the classic wave-swinger ride remains one of my all-time favorite theme park attractions.
Maybe it’s because my 9-year-old daughter, Hannah, insists on riding the swings at every park we visit, or maybe it’s the relatively restraint-free sensation of soaring through the air or the throwback feeling of wistfully revisiting a bygone seaside amusement-park era.
It never gets old, no matter how old I get. I love to stick out my arms like an airplane and kick my feet as the wind blows through the hair I still have left.
So I was pleased to be recently invited to an early morning employees-only, fanfare-free ceremony under misty June gloom skies marking the reopening of the rechristened Silly Symphony Swings at Disney California Adventure.
Animators bring ‘World of Color’ show to life at Disney California Adventure
June 10, 2010 9:01am
The challenge for Disney and Pixar animators in creating the new “World of Color” water show at Disney California Adventure was making well-known characters and signature scenes seem fresh yet familiar.
In using 26 films (21 from Disney, five from Pixar) and more than 130,000 digital images, the animators drew from a deep catalog that stretched from 1937 (an animation short called “The Old Mill”) to 2009 (”Up” and “The Princess and the Frog”). The latter two films weren’t even in theaters when work began on “World of Color,” which will make its debut Friday.
Complete ‘World of Color’ coverage
Show review | Show overview | Special effects | Animation | Concept art | Scene-by-scene preview | Video gallery | Hype | Crowds
While many of the moments in the 25-minute show will seem familiar to fans, most of the scenes were created entirely from scratch with all-new animation.
Prepare to be amazed by ‘World of Color’ at Disney California Adventure
June 10, 2010 12:01am
So, does “World of Color” at Disney California Adventure live up to all the hype?
Just about.
That’s saying a lot, considering the amount of hyperventilating hyperbole surrounding the highly anticipated show featuring fountains, lights, lasers, fire and animation projected on massive water screens.
“World of Color” opens to the general public at the Anaheim theme park on Friday. But I got a sneak peek on June 1. Here’s what I saw:
Complete ‘World of Color’ coverage
Show review | Show overview | Special effects | Animation | Concept art | Scene-by-scene preview | Video gallery | Hype | Crowds
Presented on a colossal scale, the dazzling spectacle uses a new medium to deliver a truly fantastic experience.
Touching on themes ranging from sea, sky and space to dreams, fantasy and love, the 25-minute show is at times beautiful, majestic and dreamy and at other moments epic, explosive and wicked.
Will Disney’s ‘World of Color’ water show become a crowd control nightmare?
June 2, 2010 5:40pm
How crazy will the crowds be for the upcoming “World of Color” water show at Disney California Adventure? We’re about to find out.
After priming the hype machine into overdrive for the past year, Disney officials are clearly concerned that too much success will spoil the experience for fans who find themselves waiting hours for an obstructed view — or worse, miss the show entirely.
I saw the 25-minute nighttime spectacular Tuesday after agreeing not to say how much I loved the show until the big red carpet premiere on June 10.
Complete ‘World of Color’ coverage
Show overview | Special effects | Concept art | Scene-by-scene preview | Video gallery | Hype | Crowds
Disney’s problem is too many people and not enough space or time.
The Anaheim theme park plans to present two “World of Color” shows a night on Paradise Bay at 9 p.m. and 10:15 p.m.
Imagineering book looks at the making of Disney theme parks
May 21, 2010 11:57am
Disnoids and armchair Imagineers rejoice. The book you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived.
The recently released “Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making More Magic Real” is actually a sequel to a 1995 release (the new book adds “More” to the title) that focuses on Disney theme park attractions developed during the last 15 years while also looking ahead at future projects.
The lavishly illustrated, large-format coffee table-style book, weighing more than 4 pounds, offers a rare glimpse behind the secretive curtain of the Glendale-based research-and-development creative arm of the theme park giant.
