WDS Ratatouille Update : Ready for Theming

Thanks to Max Fan, from Dlrp Welcome and D&M contributor, here is a new update of the Ratatouille ride construction at the Walt Disney Studios. As i told you in my previous update the ride is expected to open spring 2014 but as you will see the buildings facades seems to be ready to start painting and theming. But, because of Paris usual long winter we might have to wait a bit before DLPI painters start to work on it, so again, just be patient.

The Ratatouille restaurant will take place in the building below.

The one below will be the ride entrance, right behind is the show building.

The worker below stands near the facade of what was before DLP costuming sewing shop ( now moved behind Star Tours ).

If you want to have an idea of how buildings will look once they will be themed this picture done by a DLP fan - who cleverly placed the blueprint over a photo shot by Jack Sully from Disneygazette.fr - should give you a better idea.

The DLP update will continue tomorrow and this time we will move to the Disneyland park!


Something important for those of you who don't own yet my Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book. As i've told you we're running low of the english collector copies and expect to be sold out of these ones pretty soon. You still can order your collector copy - and with a 20% discount - but sooner will be better than later if you don't want to pay $500 or more to Amazon resellers when the english collector's edition will be sold out. You can use the one click Paypal button below to place your order or send me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com  And if you don't know how the book look like have a look at the video below showing you the whole book which has 320 pages and 750 pictures including 250 WDI artworks!

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One Disneyland Paris Collector Copy ( Including Shipping ) €115.00 EUR Two Disneyland Paris Collector Copies ( Including Shipping ) €195.00 EUR Three Disneyland Paris Collector Copies ( Including Shipping ) €285.00 EUR

Pictures: copyright Disney or Max Fan - Dlrp Welcome

WDS Ratatouille Ride Facade Blueprint

The Disney Central Plaza forum has posted the official blueprint of the upcoming WDS Ratatouille attraction facade. It's not a top secret document as everyone going to the city Hall of Chessy can see it. As we knew already the facades of this little land will be a mix of different architectures of Paris buildings. Above, the facade that will hide the show building. On the full blueprint below, if you enlarge the picture, you can see on the right part of the blueprint that the previous DLP costuming building will be hidden by others "Parisian" facades which is a real good news.

Obviously when WDS guests will come in this corner of the park they will have the feeling to arrive in a typical Parisian area/plaza - may be not too exotic for people living in Paris but surely it will be for the others millions of DLP non-parisians guests who are coming at DLP every year. The opening of the Ratatouille ride is expected in 2014, one more year to wait!

Picture: copyright Disney Many thanks to Mouetto of the DCP forum.

Disneyland Paris Update : World of Disney, Ratatouille Ride

A short Disneyland Paris update today, thanks to DLRP Welcome who kindly sent me these new pictures of the World of Disney Store, opening July 12 at the entrance of the Disney Village area.

All are night shots and you will see a bit more of the decor inside the store as well as the illuminated dome with Tinkerbell on the top and the Mickey and Minnie statues located outside the store. The merchandise products are of course not yet in place on the shelves, but don't worry, they should arrive anytime soon!













Not so far, at the Walt Disney Studios, a second crane arrived on the Ratatouille site, which means that there is now two cranes and it should be enough to convert those who still doubt that the ride will be built, even if there has been no official announcement yet.



That said, some fans are really talented and specially Johan who created what we can consider as "the first non-official Ratatouille ride teaser", as you will see below. Very well done, specially considering that it was not done with a Disney budget! Congrats, Johan!


RATATOUILLE : La nouvelle attraction de... by johan_production

World of Disney Pictures: copyright DLRP Welcome

Video: copyright Johan


Don't miss the Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book which will tell you all about the creation of Disneyland Paris with 320 pages and 750 pictures and WDI renderings! The book always have a special offer and is now available with immediate shipping! Reviews from all those who have already received the book are "over the top" so, place your order now for a gorgeous collector's edition copy while you can get a 20% discount on this wonderful book! To know more about the book and how to order and send your payment please go HERE or use the Paypal one-click purchase button below, right under the video showing you the whole book!

What is the common point between the Disney Dream ship and the upcoming WDS Ratatouille ride ?

You'll probably be surprised to learn that the brand new Disney Dream ship and the awaited Ratatouille area opening in 2014 at the WDS have something in common! And what is it, you ask? Well, both of them have (or will have) a "Ratatouille" restaurant! Actually, as the Disney Dream is already operating it's the first one to have a table service restaurant inspired by Pixar's animated movie, and the place is called "Remy".



Now, when the Ratatouille ride will open sometime in 2014 at the Walt Disney Studios park there will be also a "Ratatouille" restaurant. We don't know yet what will be its name but chances are that he will be called also "Remy". So, when i heard that the Disney Dream had also a restaurant inspired by Ratatouille i thought it might be interesting to have a look at how it looks, precisely. Not that the decor of the restaurant that will be build at the WDS will be necessarily the same, probably not, but sometime WDI Imagineers keep the concepts of some elements previously designed to used them on something similar. Again, chances are that the decor won't be the same - and the WDS restaurant will certainly be much bigger than the one on the Disney Dream - but i would not be surprised if we found at WDS Ratatouille restaurant some designs used for the one of the Disney Dream.

So, have a look at this video - filmed recently by the always excellent Jeff Lange - showing the Disney Dream's Remy restaurant as may be we have a look at the future WDS Ratatouille restaurant without knowing it!




Video: copyright Jeff Lange

Picture: copyright Disney

Disneyland Paris Update !

Here is a new Disneyland Paris update thanks to pictures shot recently by a good friend of mine and we begin by the fountains installation all around Sleeping Beauty castle for the awaited 20th anniversary Disney Dreams! fountain show. Little by little the fountains mechanism are being installed in the castle ditches and, as the show is supposed to have its premiere at the beginning of April or the very last days of March, rehearsals should begin anytime soon. Below, pictures of some of the already installed fountains.







The World of Disney store located at the entrance of the Disney Village area is also part of what will be new at DLP this year. The scaffoldings that were still all around the building last month are down and we can now have a better look at the World of Disney art-deco sculptures and architecture. Note that the art-deco style will fit well with the backside of the Gaumont movie theaters but not the front side which will be partly hidden by the WOD store as you can see on the first picture below.









In the Disneyland Paris park, a small refurbishment can be seen on the Mark Twain - Molly Brown pier in Frontierland...



...but what each DLP fans is waiting for are the beginning of the works on the Ratatouille attraction at the Walt Disney Studios. On a picture shot by Theme Park Zone you can see the area located behind the Costuming building where DLPI Imagineers will build the ride. All trees of the land have been removed so the land is clear and works should begin anytime soon. Talking about its construction it's more official than ever now as we can see on all official notice boards like the one below. But if you have a closer look at it you'll note that is written "construction of an attraction AND a restaurant.." as it is now also official, thanks to a new construction permit, that a restaurant will be build in the Ratatouille area. Its name will be "La Ratatouille" and it's supposed to be a table service restaurant which will be more than logical if they want to stay in the theme of the movie.



Finally, as you might know we're preparing the re-print of the beloved Disneyland Paris book "From Sketch to Reality" - the printing should happen next march - and if you didn't came on Disney and more last week you might have missed a great video showing you each page of the book. You can watch it below and, as it is not too late to place your pre-order and have a 20% discount on the final price, please go HERE to learn how to pre-order and send your payment for a collector's edition copy! Note that the pre-order period will stop in February so don't wait too much to order your collector's copy to make sure you'll get it at the pre-order special price.







Pictures and video: copyright Disney and more, Disney Central Plaza

WDS Ratatouille Dark Ride Construction Will Begin Anytime Soon !

Okay, this time this is it, we can say that the construction of the awaited Ratatouille dark ride at DLP Walt Disney Studios will begin anytime soon! Not only as it was announced this week DLP now have an additional 150M € credit line from the WDC which is more or less the price of the ride and land - but, before they begin to build it, the french law request to display on site a construction announcement. That's what happened this week and generally when this is done construction begin anytime soon. You have a picture of it above, posted on the Disney Central Plaza forum by the always excellent Mouetto.

We also have new infos about the ride which is supposed to be called "Ratatouille Kitchen Calamity"! Note that this is the project title and that the final attraction title might change as it was the case on Toon Studio's Crush's Coaster previously called "Crush's Turtle Twister". Anyway, the project title bring some infos about the ride and it means that a big part of the ride should happen inside Gusteau's kitchen.

Some infos i had a few years ago - so the final script might have changed - were saying that guests will have the feeling to be reduced at the size of a rat and i agree that this could be fun. As far as i remember, after a start in Gusteau's kitchen guests will be "trapped" and throw in the sewers - which, if it's still in the storyline, could give a great visual scene and a reference to the sewers sequence at the opening of the movie. Then we will go out and all the goal would be to comeback to Gusteau's kitchen... Again, considering that these infos are two years old the script might have changed but it seems that's how it was envisioned originally.

Technically speaking we know that the ride will use a trackless vehicle system, that there will be 3D projections effects and it's also indicated on the construction permit that the ride will use 36 vehicles with 6 people inside each vehicle, including one vehicle for wheel chairs. Each vehicle is separated (not attached with others), have wheels, and energy is provided by electric batteries. The trackless technology should be close to the one used in Pooh's Honey Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland and the whole thing, technically speaking, might be close to how is done the famous Spiderman ride at IOA or the new Transformers ride at USS which also use a trackless vehicle and 3D projection effects.



You'll note that the picture on the top provides also interesting infos about the Ratatouille land. First, we can note that it's not written explicitly "Ratatouille attraction" but "Creation of attraction Toon Studio D", which is the code name of it, simply because it is located in the Toon Studio land. Then, we can see that the buildings construction is supposed to be almost 18 meters high which is as high as a six floor building in Paris! You can see above a rendering showing the Paris themed area, and i remind you that a restaurant will also open in the land, which is more than logical considering the Ratatouille original story.



We also see on the top picture the size of the land, in square meters, and i think that the "250796 sam" is referring to the total area of Toon Studio. The others 5719 sqm might refer to the Ratatouille land area, which makes an area of 57m x 100m, more or less. Logistically speaking the area is located close to the new Toy Story Playland and behind the Costuming building and as this is a kind of cul de sac let's hope that it won't create any guest flow problem - not sure, though, specially if the attraction is as popular as expected...



This next picture is a montage done by DCP Forum with the current WDS map, and although it shows precisely the location of the Ratatouille land we might not expect an Eiffel Tower small replica as it is shown on it.



The ride and Ratatouille area are supposed to need two years to be build, so don't expect an opening before fall 2013 at the earliest. But at least we know that the project is now a "go" and all we have to do is to wait, something that DLP fans are used to do (!).

In the meantime, i remind you to don't forget to pre-order a collector's copy of the Disneyland Paris book, on its way for reprinting. The book is absolutely gorgeous, Just go HERE to learn more about the book and how to place your order.




Attraction Pictures: copyright Disney, with all my thanks to Disney Central Plaza