First "Full Look" Picture of Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Re-Opening on May 24th

Disneyland released today a new picture providing a full look to Sleeping Beauty Castle with its new colors ( picture above ). It's of course a big change with the preious castle colors ( picture below ).



Mmmmh, may be a little bit too much gold, specially on the arch entrance? I don't have anything against the gold color but there is a big rule saying that "If everything is special.....nothing is special”.

If you want to see how it will look without the gold on the arch entrance, this picture from Blog Mickey shot just a few days ago provides a good example as the gold entrance arch is hidden by the fences. Without it, it work not too bad, though i still think that the turrets top blue color is a bit too “electric blue".



In a O.C Register article WDI Kim Irvine who was the lead Imagineer on this renovation tells us more: "“People when they come to Disneyland they expect something that’s different than what they would see on their city streets or in their downtowns, We have to push the color, we have to push the fantasy. People get used to seeing it faded. Even if we painted it the original colors, it would look strikingly different. These are not far off of the original colors at all. The only thing that’s quite a bit different is the roof. The pinks are all very much the same and the trim colors are exactly the same."



"All our other castles keep getting bigger with more towers, even our sister castle in Hong Kong, they’re adding onto it and making it gigantic. We’re never going to do that to our castle. It’s always going to be this little castle. It’s the charm and the centerpiece of Disneyland. But what we can do is push the colors a little bit more and add a little pixie dust.”



In a January video below Kim Irvine was also paying tribute to Herb Ryman original rendering for the castle ( picture above ). Watch Kim telling us more about the new colors. The castle reopen May 24, just in time for Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening on May 31.




Pictures and video: copyright Disney, Blog Mickey

Disney MGM Studios 30th Anniversary Celebration - D&M Tribute Part Three - The Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction that never was - original artwork

Here is the last part of my D&M tribute to Disney MGM Studios 30th Anniversary, and this time it is about an attraction envisioned for the park, but that never was ...or almost was: the Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction.

Remember Warren Beatty's movie adaptation of the famous Dick Tracy comic strip released in 1990? The stylised movie where Al Pacino and all villains had masks on their faces to look like the characters in the comic strip?

Yes, the one with Madonna playing in it - she was dating Warren Beatty at that time!



Well, everybody at Disney was so much convinced that the movie will be a big hit that Walt Disney Imagineering designed a fantastic Dick Tracy attraction, a whole area in the park, in fact.
An attraction where "Dick Tracy will recruit guests to shoot it out with gangsters bad guys"...



The 1990's press release was saying that " Guests will literally get "into the act" in this new high-tech action-adventure featuring the latest Audio-Animatronics, simulation, sound and special effects." And also: "Guests will join America's favorite comic-strip detective in a high-speed chase with his gangster adversaries." And in what kind of decor this high-speed chase would have take place? Well, this kind of decor that you can see on the rendering below - a really great great one.



Below, two close shots of this artwork to have a better view how detailed it was.






As for the high-speed chase itself, this rendering below will give you a perfect feeling of it.



Here also, two close shots of the artwork.






It looked great, doesn't it? And not only the Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction was envisioned for the Disney MGM Studios, but also for Disneyland, Anaheim for a whole new land: "Hollywoodland". And if you ask any imagineer who worked at WDI at that time who had the luck to see the model, they will all tell you how great the attraction would have been.

Yes, but...the problem was that Dick Tracy's box office didn't reached Disney expectations, and you know what kind of things often happen when an "eagerly anticipated summer hit" finally is not that successful, don't you? That's right, all the plans were cancelled, and we're all still waiting for this Dick Tracy attraction...although...when i look again to that rendering of the decor with a cinemascope format, the right part of it reminds me what anyone can see in the best themed park on Earth: the streets of Tokyo Disney Sea's American Waterfront under the elevated tramway.



Hmmm, apparently may be something from Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers finally survived? Your thoughts?

Artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc.

New Aerial Helicopter Footage Shows Amazing Close Up Shots of Disneyland's Star Wars Galaxy's Edge !

Some recent helicopter footage posted on Youtube by Disney Dave shows amazing close-up shots of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge and especially of the Millenium Falcon and others Star Wars fighters all over the land, as well as how the construction of Star Wars land is coming on over at Disneyland California. And it was not even filmed at sunrise or sunset when no workers work yet in the land but apparrenty at mid-day with Star Wars Galaxy's Edge workers all around!

For those of you wondering how he has filmed such close up shots considering that it is forbidden for helicopters to fly over Disneyland, the answer is simple: the helicopter was not over the park and was at a reasonably high altitude, i would say apparently at more or less 500 meters from the ground. The filmmaker just had one of these cameras with incredible super-zooms - like the Nikon P1000 with which you can film the Moon from your balcony. Check it out in the video below!

First Look at Disneyland Tropical Hideaway Opening Soon

Disney Parks released the first pictures of the awaited Tropical Hideaway restaurant at Disneyland which will be opening soon at Adventureland!


This exotic marketplace is the go-to destination for discovering extraordinary eats from all corners of the world. Set along the Jungle River waterfront, it’s also the perfect spot to sit and relax in between adventures—perhaps with a refreshing Dole Whip! After sunset, flickering torchlights add to the evening ambiance.




Travelers can reach The Tropical Hideaway across its main bridge, through Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room or along “Skipper’s Walk,” a pathway leading from the Jungle Cruise loading dock.


Colorful wildlife can also be found at the Hideaway. The stars of the Enchanted Tiki Room live in small birdhouses that dot the roofline, each personally labeled. Can you spot them?



One cockatoo who has packed up her bags and spreading her wings is Rosita. As she waits on the dock for her boat to arrive, this friendly bird makes small talk with visitors!



Below : Paddles on the wall of The Tropical Hideaway.



Below: The Tropical Hideaway at Disneyland park Lost and Not Found items, at The Tropical Hideaway.



The trader’s market is filled with details to discover around every nook and cranny. Disneyland look forward to welcoming world travelers soon at The Tropical Hideaway!

Pictures: copyright Disney

Amazing 1953 LIFE Magazine Pictures Showing Walt Disney in a Brainstorming Meeting About Disneyland with Disney Legend John Hench

I've found an incredible set of LIFE Magazine pictures shot in 1953 by LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. The caption says "A relaxed Walt Disney with one of his artists in his Burbank office, discussing plans for Disneyland - the map which they are holding is referred to by Walt as the "$5Million dollar layout".

The Disney artist with Walt is Disney Legend John Hench and, yes, there is a huge map on Walt desk but more about it in a minute. What's specially extraordinary in Alfred Eisenstaedt pictures is that they'r almost sequence shots - just like if he had back in 1953 a camera allowing to shoot ten pics per second like we have now.


Above and below, Walt is thinking, obviously concentrated with his foot on the desk.


On the next pictures John Hench is no longer sitting in the sofa as Walt apparently asked him to come closer to have a look at the map...

Always showing the map at John Hench, Walt post an area on the map...

Same scene of Walt and John Hench looking at the map, shot from a different angle by Alfred Eisenstaedt.




Now, let's talk about this supposed map - or as LIFE magazine quoting Walt "$5Million dollar layout" - a bit more...


What's interesting for a 1953 scene which shows a conversation about Disneyland - which i remind you was still not built in 1953 - is that the plan he shows to John Hench - if we zoom on it - doesn't look at all like a Disneyland plan, at least all the plans we know or have seen before, including Disneyland first layouts. And it don't look either like the plan of Walt first idea, when he wanted to build a small park near the Disney Studios at Burbank....


So, what the hell is this mysterious "$5Million dollar layout" we've never seen before?!? Some friends Imagineers to whom i asked the question thought that it was may be a plan of someplace Walt may have visited. Someplace like Greenfield Village or Tivoli Gardens that Walt was impressed with. But another friend Imagineer - as well as a kind D&M reader, see his comment below - have found it and the map is the very first layout concept for Disneyland and is reproduced both in the Walt Disney Imagineering" book "A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic real”, page 15 top left and page 61 in "Designing Disney's Parks, The Architecture of Reassurance". The caption for it says:
"After Walt Disney questioned the Imagineers as to what they might do with fifty acres of land for the park, art director Marvin Davis attempted to fit everything they had designed thus far onto this site plan - three times the size of Riverside Drive ( Ndr: Walt's first project ). At the time of this drawing, the actual site for Disneyland had yet to be determined. Each square section of the grid represents one square acre of land"



Marvin Davis is also the one who shortly after created "the first site plan including the now famous "central hub" concept, in which different themed lands surround a center point in the park". You have this other plan below.



So, here it is, this plan is in fact an early plan/layouts for Disneyland and these pictures shows a pretty incredible moment of "brainstorming" for Walt beloved project, with Walt apparently not totally satisfied with Marvin Davis plan and thinking with John Hench about how to improve the layouts for the future Disneyland. It's the kind of moment that we never thought we would be able to see, specially 60 years later!

We're not done yet as there is more never seen pictures of Walt below!

The next pictures shows more amazing pictures of Walt explaining "something" to John Hench with his hands like a director can do when he explains a shot to his cameraman.








Two last pictures for which i'll give a lot of money to learn what exactly Walt was explaining to John Hench at that moment!

Wasn't this amazing?

Pictures: copyright TIME - LIFE, Disney Enterprises

Rare LIFE Magazine 1957 Pictures of Disneyland House of the Future

Here is a series of rare LIFE Magazine pictures shot by LIFE photographer Ralph Crane in 1957, showing the interior of the House of the Future at Disneyland Anaheim. The experimental house was made with 20 moulded pieces and built on a 16 square foot block of concrete. The house was 1300 square feet and everything was molded plastic.

Sponsored by Monsanto, the House of the Future was made possible by Monsanto, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Walt Disney Imagineering. With this project, Monsanto wanted to demonstrate plastics' versatility as a high-quality, engineered material. The house, featuring four symmetric wings cantilevered off a central core, was fabricated with glass-reinforced plastics.

The attraction offered a tour of a home of the future, featuring household appliances such as microwave ovens, which eventually became commonplace. The house saw over 435,000 visitors within the first six weeks of opening, and ultimately saw over 20 million visitors before being closed.

The house closed in 1967. The building was so sturdy that when demolition crews failed to demolish the house using wrecking balls, torches, chainsaws and jackhammers, the building was ultimately demolished using choker chains to crush it into smaller parts. The plastic structure was so strong that the half-inch steel bolts used to mount it to its foundation broke before the structure itself did. The reinforced concrete foundation was never removed, and remains in its original location, now the Pixie Hollow, where it has been painted green and is used as a planter.

Pictures: copyright LIFE Magazine