Shanghaî Disneyland News

Shanghaî Daily revealed today a short but interesting news about Shanghaî Disneyland:

"An exclusive Metro line serving Shanghai Disneyland visitors will be built and put into service in 2015, the same year the amusement park opens to the public.

The new line is a 9.15-kilometer extension of Metro Line 11, starting from Luoshan Road Station in Pudong and ending at the Disney Resort with three stations in between.

The planned Disneyland Station will feature cartoon figures, such as Mickey Mouse. Passengers can enjoy the park's views through large vaults of the semi-underground station. The project has been approved by authorities, according to a report in today's Jiefang Daily".

In two words it means that you'll be able to see the park even before you've entered it, which means that the train station will probably be not too far from the park entrance. Will they have a special train like they have in HKDL with Mickey shape windows? (picture above) We'll probably have to wait a bit more to know about that!

Imagineering Behind the Scenes Video of DHS "Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow" Attraction

Walt Disney Imagineering released an interesting "behind the scenes" video that will show you a bit more of the making of the new "Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow" attraction that opened recently at Disney Hollywood Studios.  First, for those of you who still wondered if it was the real Johnny Depp who is playing Jack Sparrow in the show, and of course it's him. But the non-believers have now a proof with these video shots while he was playing...

...or at the end of the filming when Johnny is standing for a souvenir photo with the Imagineers involved in the making of the show.

There is also another interesting shot in the video showing the WDI model which was done for this new walk-through attraction. Imagineers Jason Surrell, Laura mitchell, Charita Carter and Jason Roberts will also tell you more about its making in the video below!

Finally, for those of you who were out of home for Thanksgiving last week and might have missed my previous article explaining why this new DHS show might be also a kind of technical rehearsal for the projection techniques that WDI is supposed to use in the new POTC version at Shanghaî Disneyland, don't miss it you will find it HERE.





Pictures and video: copyright Disney

Shanghaî Disneyland Update : Is Disney Hollywood Studios "The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow" a WDI Rehearsal for SDL Pirates of Caribbean Version ?

If you're a faithful Disney and more reader you probably remember that i've told you in previous posts that Shanghaî Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean attraction would be probably a very different version than the usual POTC rides. As i've also told you about a year ago i learned from one of my sources that the ride would not have a lot of audio-animatronics and mainly will use projection effects. And just like you i thought " a POTC ride without audio-animatronics, c'mon...?!?". 

And then came Screamscape discover a new WDI patent called " “Amusement Park Ride With Underwater-Controlled Boats” which would allow WDI Imagineers to create “a boat ride with precise speed and orientation control”. Lance, from Screamscape, explained better than i could do the patent in his 5/21/12 post and said that with this new boat ride technology "not only the boats will be able to move forward and back, but the back of the boat will be on a second “track”, allowing for the back to speed up faster than the front, thus spinning the boat AROUND. Even better… the patent exposes another interesting use for this technology on the 4th page where it shows the boat turning sideways to rotate around a central “show scene” like the hands on a clock". 

In two words, instead to have a POTC boat and guests always moving and looking forward, the boat will be able to turn at 90 degrees or more allowing multiple boats to look all together to a scene while they are slowly moving or eventually being stopped momentarily (see patent picture below).

Also interesting, the patent describes something that could be a kind of "simulation" system located under the boat which might allow the boat to move or shake suddenly depending of what's happening (see patent picture below).  For instance, if we look at a scene where a ship in front of us is firing its cannons the boats could be shaken just like if they've been hit by the cannonball in addition to water explosion effects. 

Now, here is another important piece of the puzzle: as i've also told you before, one of the reason why this new POTC version would be themed around the film series and will not use concepts and scenes from the original ride is because the Chinese culture probably don't have the same romanticism of Pirates from Caribbean islands as we, occidental people, do. As a matter of fact most of the Chinese probably don't even know what happened in the Caribbean during the pirates years. They surely have a pirate culture, but it's of pirates of the China sea and not the Caribbean. That said, in terms of Disney pirates Chinese are aware of the feature film series which were distributed in China. I'm pretty sure that WDI Imagineers realized all this and thought that the best way to bring a POTC ride at Shanghaî Disneyland would be to themed the ride around the film series and i must say that it sounds logical, doesn't it? And because the ride storyline will be different this also explain why i was told that projection effects would be used more than the usual POTC audio-animatronics. As Lance, from Screamscape said: "after all, why spend the money to make a Captain Jack animatronic figure try to lip sync to a soundtrack when you can just film Johnny Depp himself performing as Captain Jack?"

All this sounds good but until recently we were still missing a part of the puzzle to be sure that a POTC ride using projections effects instead than Audio-Animatronics could "work". And then, last week-end, "The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow" opened at Disney Hollywood Studios and one of my reader posted yesterday one of the most brilliant comment i've ever read, saying: "Looks like WDW paid for an installation of play test elements. It appears to be a show created from effects planned for Pirates of the Caribbean Shanghai. I presume mixing these video effects with the current attraction will give a good hint of what to expect in Shanghai. Video projections along with a boat that can turn in 360 degrees. I expect this is a cost cutting measure to reduce audio animatronic maintenance and to please Johnny Depp who has creative brand control over the Jack Sparrow character."


When i read his comment i thought "He's bloody right! How didn't thought about it before!". Of course he's right, and suddenly everything makes sense and all the pieces of the puzzle come together. Now, if you've seen already the posted videos of this new "Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow", you've seen that the show include different scenes - a skeleton scene, a mermaid scene, a Kraken scene and a final with captain Jack Sparrow itself. 

The show itself without the pre-show last around nine minutes, but if you take each of these scenes individually they last around two minutes each. Which mean that if they were used in a ride it would request not only to have the boats being "stopped" momentarily to look at the scenes but also to "face" the scene. Obviously, considering the one or two minutes length, it wouldn't be possible to do it for each boat one by one. And it's there that the new WDI patent brings the last piece of the puzzle with the ability not only to have the boats turning to face a scene instead than looking forward but also to have multiple boats looking TOGETHER at the same scene, as you can see on the patent drawing above. Do you get it? Do you see how all the pieces of the puzzle come together? Sure, the "Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow" looks like a "C" ticket because you just stand in front of it and are not sit in a boat moving in real decors, but use the same high-tech projection technology with the same dazzling projection effects, put them in a boat ride with a boat moving in caverns or any kind of other decors, and add to the ride special effects (explosion, fire, water effects, etc...) and then you have something that will be a stunning "E" ticket ride. I know, some of you will miss the "all Audio-Animatronics version" but, c'mon, there is already four POTC versions in the world using the original Audio-Animatronics so may be it's time to have something different, isn't it?  I will end by saying that the irony in all this is that we are all waiting for Shanghaî Disneyland opening day to discover what this new POTC version using projections effects will look like when in fact we probably have it already in front of our own eyes at Disney Hollywood Studios without knowing it!

We're not totally done yet with Shanghai Disneyland as Luke from "Luke and the Temple of Fun" web site posted yesterday a leaked plan of what will be SDL night time entertainment and shopping area, a kind of "Downtown Disney" or DLP "Disney Village". You'll see the plan on Luke website but in the above official rendering released when SDL was officially announced, it's the area which is at the left of the entrance of the park, i.e the one below.

The new plan reveal that the total area will be 90550 sqm with 45315 sqm for the shopping and dining buildings and 31830 sam of ground floor area. Buildings will be high as 16.75 m or 23.85 m. More interesting, you can see on the map a big building reserved for "entertainment" which seems to indicate that there will be a show outside the park. Also, it seems that the park exits will lead directly to this shopping and dining area which for sure is a good idea on a business point of view. However, considering that people will be able to access the area without going in the park - like Disneyland guests can do with Downtown Disney - there is no doubt that this shopping and dining area will already have plenty of people who will come to share a bit of Disney magic without paying to get in the park. So, i hope that the streets of the area will be large enough as the fact that the park exits will force SDL guests to move inside this shopping and dining area will bring dozens of thousands guests from the park inside an area that might be already crowded...we'll see. 

Also interesting, you'll see on the plan on Luke web site that the dining buildings are close to the park exit ( not bad when you want to move temporarily outside the park to have dinner ) and might allow people having dinner to see the firework in the park without being in the park itself. Finally, in the shopping buildings located on the bottom part of the plan you'll see one at the bottom which might be a World of Disney store as its size and the rounded shape at one corner might indicate a rotunda roof. You can check all this and the leaked plan on Luke web site HERE.

Okay, that's all for today about Shanghai Disneyland, let me know your thought about all this in the comments, and many thanks to the "anonymous" reader for his precious comment that gave me the needed insight for this article!

Pictures: copyright Disney, Disney Enterprises Inc, Inside the Magic. 

You can see more pictures as well as the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow show video on the Inside the Magic web site HERE

Shanghaî Disneyland Construction Pictures !

Shanghaî Disneyland construction began and as we know SDL news are rare. But Shanghaî Disneyland under construction pictures are even more rare! Thanks to a chinese photo agency we have the very first pictures showing the construction of Disney's most awaited theme park project.

As you'll see below this is just the start and obviously they're building now the park and resort's foundations. As to know what will be what by looking at these pictures, i'm sorry to say that i can't tell, at least not until there is more to see which hopefully will happen in a few months!

I remind you that i'm partly on a break all this week ( although as you can see it doesn't stop me to post new articles ) and also to don't miss the great Disney and more Contest in which there is two copies of the Disneyland Paris book "From Sketch to Reality" to win as well as one copy of the new DLP, 20 years of Dreams!

There is five questions to answer, it's fun to play, and with a bit of luck you might be among the lucky winners! The contest ends next thursday October 25 and  all you have to do is to jump HERE and answer to the five questions! Good luck to you!

Breaking News: Shanghaî Disneyland Opening Might Be Delayed To 2016 , and more...

Those of you who can't wait 2015 to visit Shanghaî Disneyland might have to wait a bit more as the last news i have about SDL are saying that apparently Disney is thinking to delay SDL opening to 2016. Don't know when in 2016, so it could be spring, summer or fall 2016.

All the question, of course, is why? From what i've been told it seems that they've realized they may need more time to build the whole thing - park and resorts. Which brings another "why?" question...to which i don't have the answer! Apparently until now they were not late in the works, so there may be different answers to this. However - and this is my own speculation - i wonder if it doesn't have something to see with the land itself. We know that since last year dozens of workers have "prepared" the land of the SDL site but what might be important to remember is what was there before the works began.



And, as you can see on pictures by Stefan Zwanzger - the Theme Park Guy - on his site - and on the picture above - shot before the works began, what was there were rice fields. And so what, you ask? Well, in case you don't know, rice fields are bathing in water, lot of water. Sure, the whole site had been landfilled since then, but may be the ground is not dry enough yet. Not to mention that the water table, under, may be quite high, too.

It's very important that the land will be really dry before they begin to build on it and it's something that WDI Imagineers are really taking care of. Why? Because - and it's not known - problems happened at Tokyo Disneyland some years after TDL opening, precisely because the land was not enough dry. Some buildings began to had some cracks, etc... as the ground had moved because it was not really really totally dry when they've built on it. When they've built Hong Kong Disneyland, which like TDL is built on a land which was the sea before, the Imagineers didn't forgot the TDL problem and waited enough time to have a perfect dry ground. Sure, the SDL choosen site was not the sea previously but all the water of the previous rice fields may be didn't helped. Again, this is my own speculation, so it might be another reason that we may never know.

Edited: The hurricane season is not only "open" in Americas but also in China Seas as Shanghaî is facing right now a typhoon - as you can read HERE - and the season just began. Typhoons generally bring heavy rains and possible flood which certainly will not help to make SDL land more dry!

Talking about Shanghaî Disneyland, Luke from Luke and the temple of fun website did something amazing. Remember last week the SDL hotels plans that were officially released? Well, for the second hotel, the one supposed to have a Toy Story theme we had this plan:



And then, two days later, Attractions Magazine found some new 3D renderings showing the different floors...

That was even better but Luke decided to recreate a real full 3D model that you can see below, based on the layout of the two original plans and his own interpretation. Of course, as he says "the accuracy of the model is not guaranteed" and chances are that it will not look like this. The reason why he chooses the blue, red and yellow colors is because these are the colors used in the Toy Story logo. As you can see below, like this it looks a bit like a big LEGO and considering that it should be a Toy Story themed hotel may be, finally, it will really look more or less like this at the end! there is many more pictures of Luke 3D model on his site, on every angle so jump to Luke and the temple of fun to see more!



Pictures: copyright Disney, Theme Park Guy, Luke and the temple of fun

Shanghaî Disneyland hotels were in fact already revealed on the 2011 D23 Expo SDL model !

Guess what?, the two Shanghaî Disneyland hotels which the plans were released three days ago - see yesterday's post HERE or next article below - were in fact already revealed on the Shanghaî Disneyland model displayed at the 2011 D23 Expo! And if you look well at the model pictures the shape of the hotels on the model is exactly the same than the one you've seen yesterday on the official plans!

You can see them on Andy Castro's picture above but you can have an even closer look on the picture below. The Hotel 1 is supposed to be a 5 Stars, seven floors, 41,955 square meters, victorian colonial hotel and the Hotel 2 is supposed to be a 3 or 4 stars, 7 floors, 44,901 square meters, Toy Story themed hotel. For more infos about these hotels see yesterday's article HERE.



While we talk about Shanghaî, more news about the Shanghaî DreamWorks project announced earlier this month: "It will be different in its essence from the Disney project. While Disney continues to emphasize its theme park-style attractions, Oriental DreamWorks wants to recreate an entertainment district, similar to London’s West End or New York’s Broadway.

The area will stretch over six city blocks and boost various entertainment venues. It will have the world's largest IMAX music venues as well as a "Kung Fu Panda"-themed pagoda. It will also integrate a real U$350 million animation studio called “Oriental DreamWorks”, as well as restaurants, shops and hotels. Some of the best world architects will be part of the construction project".

So, good news, it seems that the DreamWorks project definitely will not be a real theme park but more and won't try to compete with Shanghaî Disneyland.

Top picture by Andy Castro

Shanghaî Disneyland Hotels Plans Released

The plans of Shanghaî Disneyland two first hotels have been released officially. No renderings here, just plans but still plenty of interesting infos. I remind you that one of the hotels is rumored to be a 5 stars hotel with a design close to the one of the Grand Floridian ( or the one of the Disneyland Paris or Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel ) and that the other hotel is supposed to be a 3 or 4 stars hotel with a Toy Story theme.

Now, here are the plan of the two hotels that were uploaded on the Shanghai International Resort website - click on each to enlarge the pictures. According to the chinese Luke and the Temple of Fun website - who kindly sent to me the pictures and did the chinese text translation - the first hotel - plan below - will be located near the lake and is supposed to have seven floors, a Ballroom, a big car park in the back and playgrounds in the front which probably will include a pool. For me this is the one which is supposed to have a victorian colonial style. And if you check its location on the picture above - Hotel 1 - you'll see that although the hotel will be on the other side of the lake, opposite to SDL magic kingdom, it'll be right in front of the SDL castle which will be perfect to watch the evening fireworks.



The next one apparently looks smaller and according to Luke's translation "the center of the hotel will be the highest and the others parts will feature a "staircase" design". This one should be probably the Toy Story themed hotel and if you look again at the picture at the top showing its location - Hotel 2 - you'll see that this second hotel is close to the west side of the park, in fact almost right in front where Toy Story Land is supposed to be as we've seen on the SDL blueprint leaked recently and posted on Screamscape HERE or also on Luke's site HERE. For this reason i'm almost sure that this second hotel will be the one with the Toy Story theme.



Shanghaî Disneyland is supposed to have four hotels and we can see on the top map the location for a third one near the lake and in the back of SDL Adventureland, but they might build only two at the start and then the two others.

Pictures: copyright Disney - Shanghaî Disney Resort

Many thanks to Luke and the Temple of Fun website

Soarin' Over... Shanghaî Disneyland

Today we are going to soar above Shanghaî Disneyland! I know, there is not a lot of things to see right now on the SDL site, but the pictures above and below are the first one showing from above the site which seems to be ready for the big construction. We'll probably have to wait two more years to see something really interesting on it, though.



But in the meantime have a look at this video from a chinese TV which is the first i've seen filming from helicopter the SDL site!




Talking about Soarin' a Mice Chat member think that one of the Adventureland layouts on the SDL map released recently on different forums and on Screamscape shows a Soarin' theatre, with the usual two theaters back to back. Look at the picture below where you have the red circle. It's true that it looks like something with two theaters and you can even guess the Soarin' concave screen in each. So - and if this SDL map is the latest one which remains to be prove - may be it shows a theater for a Soarin' ride in which they will show the long awaited "Soarin' over the world" movie. But it's hard for me to imagine a ride like this in Adventureland. I mean, you have all the Soarin' machinery which fit better in a Tomorrowland or Epcot environment and which is not that easy to hide or themed with an Adventureland style, right?



Then, someone else said that it is located where we have seen a Mayan temple in the first SDL bird's eye view released when the project was officially announced. In fact if you look well - see picture below - the Mayan temple is ( was? ) located higher, and this supposed Soarin' theater is much below and right behind the big mountain of the Dinosaurs raft ride. Now, everything is possible, specially in a Disney theme park and they could eventually have written a storyline based on how the mayans have found a way to fly - after all they DID had a storyline like this for a never done flying coaster project for Disneyland Paris Adventureland, one more DLP project that never was. And then take this storyline alibi to have the guests soaring all over the world... Still, i may find a little bit too hard to swallow a Soarin' ride inside a Mayan pyramid... But it's true that the layout looks like a Soarin' theatre, so let's give for now to this Mice Chat member the benefit of the doubt for his discovery!



You can see more pictures shot on the SDL site on the always excellent Theme Park Guy Board HERE!

Pictures: copyright Disney, Eastday.com

Shanghaî Disneyland Update

A little update about Shanghaî Disneyland today with an interesting info coming from the official SDL website. At last D23 Expo Tom Staggs revealed that there will be a Fantasyland boat ride which will go or start from under SDL "Enchanted Storybook Castle" before moving outside for a slow cruise in SDL Fantasyland. The very first rendering showing one of the boats was shown, is now posted on the SDL website and thanks to a closer look at the caption we can learn interesting details about this particular scene which will in fact be happening in the finale of the "Fantasyland boat ride": "In a secret chamber beneath the castle, fountains of light ( will ) leap and dance in shimmering pools, surrounding the boat with magic, music and color". This should make a nice finale.

Also, as revealed last week by Doris Woodward, senior director and producer, Shanghaî Disneyland castle "will be the biggest among Disney's castles worldwide. Instead of being home to any single princess, the castle in Shanghai will be home to all of Disney's princesses, including Snow White and Pocahontas". Good to know, but where exactly these princesses will be located in the castle? We can learn this with a look at the caption of the picture below: "In the heart of Enchanted Storybook Castle a magnificent winding staircase that leads guests on a " Once Upon a Time Adventure", featuring the Disney Princesses". In two words, it will be located in the upper floor of the castle and it is supposed to be a walk-through and not a ride. Don't know yet if each princess will be an audio-animatronic or if the whole thing will be just a Princess meet and greet...



Talking about Shanghaî Disneyland, Screamscape had a good scoop last week when he posted a SDL map which seems to be the real thing - although it's impossible to know if its the final version of the SDL project or not. Unfortunately for you - but fortunately for WDI - the picture is not sharp enough to see the attractions titles. Still, Screamscape succeeded to find interesting infos and we can see a bit more of the track of some SDL rides like this Fantasyland boat ride which will have some twist and turns like the Jungle Cruise ride have except that this one is located in the heart of Fantasyland and have a Fantasyland theme.

On the same map we can see that a Toy Story Land has been added, and that's not good news. Don't get me wrong, i don't dislike Toy Story Land, but not in a Magic Kingdom. What i specially don't like about it is the visual intrusion of the RC Racer half pipe coaster ride as well as the Parachute Drop towers. What i also don't like in TSL is that almost each time it was added to the park it was for cost reasons, to save money. It was the case of course at the WDS where a Toy Story Mania was previously envisioned exactly where TSL was finally built, and for the reasons we know about DLP they've built instead Toy Story Playland. Okay, it was also a good way for the WDS to have three new little attractions instead of one, but TSL was also costing much less money than TSM. At Hong kong Disneyland where there is a Toy Story Land too it's a bit different. Basically it seems that the HK administration wanted to add several new rides and mini lands and don't exceed a certain amount. And that's one of the reasons why the great Pirates of Caribbean land was cancelled, because the cost of it was not allowing to have others and different rides/lands. So WDI came with the Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Manor concepts and needed a third one which ended to be Toy Story Land. As i've been told a while ago that some cuts had to be done in the Shanghaî Disneyland original concept this might explain why - again for money reasons - Toy Story Land has been added. TSL is very successful everywhere it's built, that's not the problem, but i still think it doesn't have its place in a Magic Kingdom.

It's not enough clear on the SDL map to be sure but on the left of Fantasyland, behind the castle, i think that the building on the very left, close to TSL, might be the one for Peter Pan's Flight as i know the ride will be at SDL. Would WDI Imagineers have the good die ago create an "expanded" and longer version of the ride? That would be a good idea.

That said, a closer look at the Adventureland part of this SDL map reveal a huge Adventureland and what seems to be a big Pirate land too with, as we know, a new version of the POTC ride and may be, too, a POTC stunt show. Screamscape think that the pirate boats that we have seen on previous renderings located in the Adventureland lagoon might be used for this stunt show and if it's right it's not a bad idea. I don't know if you remind the free pirate stunt show which was played in front of the Treasure Island Hotel at Las vegas - in which a huge pirate ship was even sinking at the end - but if you've seen it you know that there is something good that WDI could do with a POTC stunt show located in the lagoon.

That's all for now about SDL and those of you who have never seen this Las Vegas pirate stunt show - which was not created by WDI - can discover its original version on the video below posted by gregman01.




Pictures: copyright Disney

New Theme Park Guy Exclusive Reports on Shanghaî Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland

My good friend Stefan Zwanzger - aka The Theme Park Guy - is back with new exclusive pictures of Hong Kong Disneyland as well as the area around Shanghaî Disneyland construction site. I've said it before but what i like with Stefan is that nothing is stopping him when he wants to get a never-seen-before shot. Last year he went through the jungle of the hills above HKDL to get fantastic shots of the park seen from up on the hills and, according to him, the trek was just like hell, in a real deep jungle.

And this year, guess what he's done? That's right, as you can see on the shots below he went again through the jungle filled with spiders and snakes just to get brand new shots from above, and all this wearing his unique, famous - and copyrighted! - "roller coaster hat"!



But there is a reward and once he was up there he was able to shot unique pictures like the one at the top or this one below on which you can see on the same pic the three new lands AND Hong Kong city, on the other side of the bay!



On his trip, Stefan also went back to Shanghaî to have a look if there was anything new near Shanghaî Disneyland construction site. As the construction of the park itself is just beginning of course there is not a lot of things to see yet, and may be Stefan will need like all of us to wait for SDL opening to have pictures as the park construction site is far away and won't be visible even when SDL castle will rise. But, around the site, interesting things are happening as the road infra structures have totally changed. As you will see below the roads are brand new and look now like the big avenues we can find at DLP or WDW, except that for now there is no cars. But in 2015 it should be totally different as, as they say, "if you build it, they will come!".



So, jump to Stefan site to see his full report about Shanghaî HERE And the great pictures of HKDL as seen from up on the hills HERE! And i remind you, too, his great Theme Park Guy construction board which brings news of all theme parks projects around the world!

Pictures: copyright Theme Park Guy.

Shanghaî Disneyland will have Unique Rides and Attractions, says Tom Staggs

Here is some interesting news about Shanghaî Disneyland! According to China Daily latest article:
"When the Shanghai Disney Resort opens in 2015, all the attractions will look amiable and adorable.
But the process that helped create them was the product of creative opinions, challenges and discussions involving many different voices and backgrounds, including leading Chinese artists and designers.

More than 500 designers, or what Disney calls "imagineers", have worked for years to create the design concept for the first Disney resort on the Chinese mainland, in the hope of making the 3.9-square-kilometer resort 100 percent Disney, but with distinctive Chinese flavors.

For these Disney imagineers, who have already designed five Disney resorts, ensuring their designs are genuinely Disney is not as much of a challenge as ensuring Chinese elements and consumer tastes are appropriately considered and incorporated.

To achieve that goal, the designers launched numerous focus groups and undertook countless field research trips to hear from audiences, and witness and experience Chinese culture firsthand. They also welcomed into their design group top Chinese creative talent to ensure Chinese participation in the project from the very beginning.

During a lunch at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, the Shanghai Disney Resort's creative head, Bob Weis, and three LA-based Chinese imagineers shared with China Daily some of the exciting stories about their work on the Shanghai project.

According to Weis, many of the designers involved with the Shanghai resort have visited China multiple times to experience Chinese culture, and have incorporated elements into their work and discussed improvements with colleagues. Every design in the Shanghai Disney Resort is subject to critical review and debate. "We encourage the exchange of ideas so we can select the best concepts while recognizing there are no stupid ideas," he said.

One of the most debated designs has been of the main castle, the centerpiece of every Disney resort. To ensure a perfect castle for the Shanghai theme park, the team pinned many drafts on a giant wall to solicit opinions from visitors and partners. Lead castle designer Doris Woodward, a senior director and producer who traces her family background to Shanghai, said Shanghai's castle will be the biggest among Disney's castles worldwide. Instead of being home to any single princess, the castle in Shanghai will be home to all of Disney's princesses, including Snow White and Pocahontas.

Beijing-born and raised Yu Xuan, one of the LA-based imagineers, is in charge of organizing creative design focus groups and the immersive trips across China. "We get ideas of what Chinese audiences want through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with thousands of people in many cities. One key thing we have found is that they all want to take away from their Shanghai Disney Resort experience a collective memory that can be shared among family members throughout their entire lives," she said.

Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said some of the designs in the Shanghai park have been pinned down but some are still up for modification. Designs will be constantly improved and refined during the development phase and visitors will be "surprised" when they enter the park at the end of 2015, he said. He added that the Shanghai park will also feature plenty of rides and attractions, many of which are newly designed and cannot be found at other Disney theme parks.

Text: copyright China Daily

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The Reason Why You Can Probably Count on a Third TRON Movie

This week Disney released a new trailer for the TRON Uprising animated series to be released on Disney XD next month. As Blue Sky Disney said in his post HERE the trailer looks terrific, and you can check this by yourself below.




The good thing is that these animated series indicates that Disney is willing to go on with the TRON license. Sure, a good animated series can help to prepare the audience to a third TRON movie, specially considering that TRON Legacy box office in 2010 was good although less than what Disney had expected ( $400M worldwide including $175M in the U.S for a $170M production budget ) and reviews of TRON Legacy were so-so with 50% of "rotten tomatoes" on the Tomatometer. So, Disney could have decided to stop anything TRON but as we can see they didn't did it. And not only that, but chances are that we'll see a TRON 3 movie in a near future. Sure, if the animated series are popular this will help to launch the TRON 3 production, but there might be another reason for that, and this reason is: Shanghaî Disneyland.



Take a look at the rendering above - not perfectly sharp, i agree, but that's the best we can get so far. It's an excerpt of the new bird's eye view artwork that was presented at the National Committee of U.S - China relations last fall. On the left of the castle you have SDL Tomorrowland. As we know SDL Tomorrowland won't have Space Mountain. Instead WDI will introduce a TRON motor bike coaster as revealed by Screamscape some months ago. And if you look well at the big white building on the very left you'll see that its design looks like a stylized motorbike - what a surprise.

Now, what you must not forget is that chinese audiences are familiar with recent Disney productions but not really with the old classics - that's one of the reason why Hong Kong Disneyland doesn't have the classic DL dark rides like Snow White, Pinnochio or even Peter Pan's Flight. Instead HKDL have the Winnie the Pooh ride as ten years ago Winnie was the most known Disney character in China. Of course chinese know Pixar animated or Pirates of Caribbean movies and TRON Legacy, when released in China in 2010 even did $18M, a remarkable number as it was the third highest of all foreign countries.



Back to SDL: One thing we can be sure of is that Bob Iger wants that Shanghaî Disneyland will be a success from day one, and also that he had a special look on the attractions developed for the park, if not the "final cut". Now that the not-yet-officially-confirmed choice to build a TRON motorbike coaster has been done, Iger probably wants to make sure, too, that the TRON license is not forgotten in China. For us who know the world of TRON since 1982 and consider the original film as a cult movie, it's simple. A TRON ride, if well done, will be a dream come true for most of us and who wouldn't like to jump on a TRON motorbike and race in the amazing world of TRON? But for chinese who didn't discovered TRON 30 years ago but only in 2010, it's different. And, as the success of the Shanghaî Disneyland ride will also depends how much the TRON mythology will be known and popular in China, that's one of the reason why - in my opinion - these animated series will be followed by a third TRON movie anytime soon.

Pictures: copyright Disney

Shanghai Disneyland Update : New Artwork, Latest News, and more

Here is a new Shanghaî Disneyland update and those who are desperately waiting for new SDL artwork are going to be happy today as i've found new SDL artwork for you! This artwork was shown in a special tribute to Bob Iger organized by the National Committee of U.S - China relations and the video was posted on Youtube last October. Although these images are six months old - it means that it happened after the D23 Expo where Disney didn't show a lot about the SDL project - my guess is that the artwork shown in the video presented to the committee is the good one - i mean that Shanghaî Disneyland will probably look like this.

I did my best to enhance the screen captures, but the images are still not perfectly sharp due to the low definition in the original video. That said, on the first artwork above, a new bird-eye view of the park, we can see a bit more clearly and you'll notice instantly the Skull Rock on the right, in Adventureland. It seems - but not 100% sure - that a boat is falling from it, which in this case would confirm that the Pirates of Caribbean version envisioned for HKDL by Imagineers Tim Delaney and Tom Morris would be built at SDL. On the left, the huge futuristic building in Tomorrowland is supposed to be the one for the TRON motor-bike coaster attraction that we've talked about previously, and even if Fantasyland located behind SDL castle is not sharp enough to see clearly what-is-what you'll note on the right of the castle the expected maze.

One of the most interesting thing is SDL entrance which will have a spectacular architecture and apparently the part between the entrance and SDL "central plaza" will be totally indoor. By the way, the big dome on the top of it reminds me the one on the top of Paris Grand Palais where you have also a very famous stained glass dome. it seems there is some reminiscences of art nouveau style, too, but again, it's hard to be sure because of the medium-res of the rendering.



That said, when SDL guests will exit they will arrive on SDL "central plaza" as i've said (even if it might be called differently) and in front of the castle. On this next rendering we can see on the left and the right of the indoor building exit different kind of building architectures, perhaps paying tribute to different countries architectures from all over the world - it looks like. In the garden we find back the expected Dumbo ride, Carousels and small chinese pavilions, but you'll note also that the water parts should probably allow SDL to have a fountain show in the future if they wish - at least they have more water in front of the castle than we have at DLP!



Strangely the artwork below related to the WDS Ratatouille attraction was also shown in the video. Would it mean that the Ratatouille ride will come at SDL - or may be only a "Gusteau" restaurant? We'll have to wait to know the answer!



Today was also the day for fresh - and good - news from Shanghaî Disneyland as works on the SDL site are apparently "speeding ahead". A SDL press conference apparently just happened and you'll have more details below coming from CriEnglish.com as well as a video. Also, Bob Weis, SDL Main show producer revealed on his site that Bob Iger was in China very recently - apparently in the last days - to meet chinese officials. You can see Iger on a video HERE discussing with a chinese official whom i don't know the name, but apparently an important one if i can judge by the attitude of Iger towards the official , and the reception room was pure classic chinese nomenklatura decor! As i don't understand chinese i can't tell you what they were talking about (but if one of my reader do please let us know) or why Iger was there but obviously it seems that it was for something important.

O-Kay, here are the latest news about SDL from the press conference:

"Builders will soon start constructing the infrastructure of the much-anticipated Shanghai Disney Resort, after preparations on the ground formation work were completed, attendees of a ceremony held at the site on Thursday were told.

Bill Ernest, president and managing director of Disney Parks and Resort Asia, praised the ground work by the project's Chinese partner -- Shanghai Shendi Group -- and the support from the Shanghai municipal government, at the build site hand-over event.

"We are incredibly excited to begin building the resort and to develop a world-class family vacation destination in Shanghai," he said.

Ernest promised construction of hotels will start later this year, with developers studying Chinese culture in order to add local elements to Disney's latest attraction.

"We are talking a lot about 'authentic Disney, unique Chinese.' We are really working hard to incorporate it in the overall design story," he said.

The Disney chief disclosed that Shanghai Disneyland is likely to celebrate local events like Mid-Autumn Festival. Visitors will also see food, snacks and souvenirs with local elements in the park.

Intended to open at the end of 2015, the resort will initially be comprised of Shanghai Disneyland, a Magic-Kingdom-style park as well as two themed hotels, a large retail, dining and entertainment venue, recreational facilities, a lake and parking and transportation hubs.

Covering an area of 1.16 square km, the theme park inside the 3.9-sq-km Shanghai Disney Resort will be the world's sixth Disney amusement park and the first on the Chinese mainland. It will also be the third of its kind in Asia, after the company's theme parks in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

During preparation work over the past year, the Shendi Group adopted cutting-edge vacuum preloading technology to level and consolidate the ground formation to prevent from it subsiding in the coastal site.

Howard Brown, senior vice president overseeing development of the Shanghai Disney Resort, said the soil formation project is the largest ever undertaken anywhere.

Builders are now working on road network construction, as well as the site's central lake and perimeter canal.

The ground-breaking of the Shanghai Disney Resort project started on April 8 last year. Robert Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has promised the park's signature castle will be the biggest and tallest of all those in the world's Disney theme parks.

The resort is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Co. and Shanghai Shendi Group, with Shendi holding 57 percent of the shares and Disney the remaining 43 percent."

And, as there is nothing better than the real thing, here is the video of this SDL press conference, part in english, part in chinese. If the video don't appear below please go on the new Theme Park Guy board HERE.

Picture: copyright Disney

SDL News Text: copyright CriEnglish.com

Last News From Shanghaî Disneyland !

Here are some fresh news of Shanghaî Disneyland, thanks to Liang Yiwen of Shanghaî Daily as, according to the newspaper, ShanghaI Disneyland "starts forming". Of course the park won't open before 2015 but these news about infra-structure works prove that SDL is becoming little by little a reality:

"After a year of construction, the future Disneyland theme park in the Pudong New Area has started to "take shape" with the land leveled, river channel created and some roads built.

Construction crews have almost finished grading the uneven land to prepare it for the large-scale construction in the next step. To reduce subsidence and create a safe amusement park, the builders have adopted a so-called vacuum-preloading method on the 1.68-square-kilometer plot.

They divided the area into 44 parts and inserted pipes into the land to draw ground water. The builder compared the work to "doing embroidery" on the land and said it meets the standard of an airport runway. The land will not sink by more than 1 centimeter for at least 50 years, according to the builders.

About 98 percent of the necessary soil has been removed to form the river around the theme park, and 84 percent of the soil of the future inner lake has been removed. Construction on Tanghuang Road and Hangcheng Road, the eastern and southern border roads of Disneyland, will be completed and open to traffic by the end of this month, the Pudong New Area construction authorities said yesterday.

The Pudong government is responsible for the construction of 11 Disney-related road projects. The other nine projects, including the Shenjiang lane elevated road, a bus hub and the major entrance road, are expected to be completed by June 2014.

The 11 road projects, which involve streets totaling 40 kilometers, will cost about 9.4 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion). A total of 492 households and 133 enterprises need to be relocated to make way for the road projects.

The theme park will lie in the heart of the 20-square-kilometer Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone. The first Disneyland theme park on the Chinese mainland broke ground last April, and its first phase is due to open for business in 2015. It's the third one in Asia, after Tokyo and Hong Kong, and the phase 1 project will cost 24.5 billion yuan."

Text: copyright Liang Yiwen

Picture: copyright dfdaily.eastday.com

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Shanghaî Disneyland Update

Here is a new Shanghaî Disneyland update and i have to say that it's pretty hard to have any infos about SDL as WDI is quite well keeping the secret on this park. That said, i have some new ones that are quite interesting. The first one is not necessarily a good news as from what i've been told it seems that the first stage of SDL might be a downsized plan of what was originally envisioned. If that is true it could explain why there is so much space available in the park for "future expansion" as we saw last month in my previous article. You must remind that Disney is not alone to invest in the SDL project and that a joint-venture with the chinese was created. If it happened that the chinese didn't agreed to put the amount of money that Disney has expected this downsized plan might be real and due to insufficient capital. However, and although my source is as always a reliable one, please take this info as a not-totally-confirmed news until i'll be able to double-check it.

Let's have a look now at what rides we can expect in the park. Laughing Place has posted some weeks ago a list of the SDL expected rides which is quite accurate, but not totally as we will see.

So, in Fantasyland according to LP the rides would be:

-Storybook Castle
-Castle Boat Ride
-Dumbo
-Carousel
-Tea Cups
-Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
-Peter Pan's Flight
-Winnie The Pooh ride

LP is right on most of them except that the tea cups ride would be replaced by the Winnie the Pooh Hunny Pot Spins. Talking about Pooh, the SDL Pooh dark ride will be the same than in HKDL and not unfortunately the Tokyo Disneyland version. Fantasyland seems to be the most completed land and my source also mentioned a Alice in Wonderland garden/maze and that the Carousel will be themed with a Fantasia theme, which by the way is a good idea.

Let's have a look now at Adventureland. According to LP the rides should be:

-Lost World River Rapids

Pirates Cove:
-Pirates of the Caribbean Water Ride
-Pirate Stunt Show

Laughing Place is right on all of them and i've been confirmed that there will be indeed a POTC stunt show, may be partly inspired from the one previously envisioned for DLP WDS and which was never built. The Dinosaurs "Lost World River Rapids" ride will be indeed a raft ride with AA Dinos but there will be also in Adventureland, and on another theme, a walk through attraction. It might be one called "Sunken Treasure" that i've been told about but so far the mystery of what would be precisely this "Sunken Treasure" still remains a WDI secret.

About the POTC ride i thought that WDI would put at SDL the concept which has been developed for HKDL but in fact it might not be the case. More strangely, i've been told that SDL might not have many audio-animatronics at its opening, and even in POTC there might be less AA than in other POTC versions. Apparently WDI will also use projections effects. I can agree with you that all this remains not perfectly clear but Shanghaî Disneyland is a big puzzle that will take the next three years to be completed and the parts of the puzzle are coming one by one, little by little ...

Let's move to Tomorrowland rides now. According to LP SDL Tomorrowland should have:

-TRON Indoor Rollercoaster
-Astro Orbitor / Rockets Ride

I can't confirm the Astro-Orbitor but the TRON motor bike coaster seems to be definitely a "go". A Stitch encounter is also envisioned and it should be the same one than we can find at HKDL and Paris WDS.

Apparently Tomorrowland will also have a Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride but from what i've heard it will be a different version than the interactive dark ride we know and it'll be changed into a ride with projections rather than animatronics or 2D animated decor. Could WDI recycle the Toy Story Mania technology in a ride dedicated to the universe of Buzz Lightyear? I'm afraid we'll have to wait a little bit to know exactly the truth!

Picture: copyright Disney

Cracking the Shanghaî Disneyland Case

Sam Wilson is a huge Imagineering fan and a faithful Disney and more reader since i've started the site. Recently he has created his own site and yesterday he did a great article about Shanghaî Disneyland.

For the reasons we know WDI don't disclose any infos about SDL rides - mostly because Disney want to avoid SDL ideas to be stolen by other chinese theme parks - but this lack of infos didn't stopped Sam Wilson to try to crack the Shanghai Disneyland case. So, after analyzing all the infos available on different sites like Screamscape or Blue Sky Disney as well as official renderings or the SDL model displayed at D23 he did this very first Shanghaî Disneyland map that you can see below - click on it to see it in larger size.



You will read in Sam article how he did to create this map. Is he right? He probably is for some of the rides and may be not on others but that's not the problem as SDL won't open before three or four years and some of WDI choices might change. Also, in his article Sam is saying that SDL Tomorrowland might have a People Mover. It would be a good idea and we'll see if it will be the case or not but recently i've found this picture shot during an Imagineering presentation at the last D23 Expo. This rendering was apparently done for a new People Mover ride at Disneyland Anaheim, so there is no relation with SDL. Still, it's an interesting artwork as if you have a closer look to it you'll see that this new People Mover had a totally new ride system. In fact you can see that riders are sit on a platform attached to a robotic arm which obviously have the ability to move in all directions while also moving all around Tomorrowland.



What was probably envision here was to use the Kuka robot arm technology, the one that Universal used in the Harry Potter land E-Ticket ride. Universal succeeded to have an exclusivity on the use of the Kuka robot arm technology in theme park rides for the next ten years, but if i remember it well they only have this exclusivity for the U.S. Which means that Disney might be free to use this People Mover / Kuka arm idea for other theme parks, and why not at Shanghaî Disneyland? To be honest i don't think they will use it at SDL as they probably wouldn't have shown the artwork at D23 if they were planning to include this ride at Shanghaî Disneyland.

Now, to come back to SDL and Sam's map i suppose that you're interested to learn how Sam did it and how he put all the infos together to create this great map, so it's time to jump to Sam Wilson's article on his site to learn more about Shanghaî Disneyland secrets! It's right HERE.

Picture: copyright Disney

Map: copyright Sam Wilson

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