Disneyland Paris Update : Ratatouille Ride Pictures, New DLP Portals, and much more...

I have a big Disneyland Paris update for you today with more than 40 pictures and the latest news about the parks, thanks to Max Fan, D&M contributor and DlrpWelcome webmaster! Right now temperatures are high in France and at DLP.  Today it was as high as 35 degrees ( celsius! ) in the parks, in two words: bloody hot! But this won't stop us to have a look at what's happening, and let's begin by what you're all waiting for, i.e the latest pictures of the works on the Ratatouille ride construction site.

So, let's walk through the Walt Disney Studios...

...to the Toon Studio land and the construction site where a crane was installed to make things easier for the workers to move the metallic structures for the upcoming theming on the Imagination building.

But, most of all, it's amazing the progress which has been done on the theming of the show building and restaurant facades since two weeks ago. Double-click on each image to have a closer look to the new theming which is now appearing.

Outside the WDS and near the World of Disney Store something new is also coming and it's new doorways that will "mark" the entrance to the parks area. In the background of the picture below you can see the metallic structure now in place for the first of them.

And how will it look when it will be finished, you ask? Well, it will look like these computer renderings below, and you have here the front and the back of the portal.

As a matter of fact, once finished, the real thing should look very similar to the big arch located at the entrance of Hong Kong Disneyland, the one you can see below.

However, nearby, the previous arch at the entrance of the Disney Village has been partly removed and is now in a stand-by disassembly state which don't look that nice for visitors. Hope they will finish this as soon as possible...

Let's move to the Disneyland Park where fresh repainting and new electronics counters awaits guests at the entrance.

On the park map guests can see now an ad for the new Disney Dreams Light Ears. What it means is that the park is doing everything they can to promote these new Light Ears in the hope that guests will buy them...

Near the castle the lawns are suffering from the heat, in addition to the constant stamping from visitors desperately to find a good spot to watch the parades and the Disney Dreams! show.

Talking about the castle, apparently new adjustment have been done on the castle hill where  new steps and a railings between the castle and the hill just appeared, all this probably done for security reasons for Disney Dreams! maintenance cast-members and gardeners.

Let's move to Adventureland where the the antiskids that i talked you about in my previous update are still being installed.

And, good, news, the Cool post located in front of the Hakuna Matata restaurant is now open again with its brand new thatched roof.

A little way through Fantasyland...

And here we are at the entrance of Discoveryland.

Unfortunately the heat is also responsible of the appearance of moss in the water and the state of the fake rocks at the land entrance is getting worse, too.

Some problem happened a few weeks ago on Space Mountain and on July 6 a part of the exterior structure was removed. Apparently it hasn't been that easy and they had to literally "cut" the part of it which had the problem. ( pictures from DisneylandParisFans and InsideDLParis )

The removed section has now been restored and is back in place.

One more thing about the Disneyland Paris book as i remind you that there is now less than FIFTEEN copies of the Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality book available in its english collector's edition, and if you don't own the book yet, it's really now or never! Don't miss the $45 Discount on the Disneyland Paris book! Order in one click with the Paypal button below !   
Don't miss the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book, in which you have the whole park in 320 pages with 750 photos including 250 WDI renderings. Last english collector's edition copies, french collector signed copies are also always available. And i do a special price right now on it with a $45 / 40€ discount on the normal price, so order your collector copy while there is still copies available as it's really the last english collector copies. You'll find below a one click Paypal button as well as a video showing the whole book. And you can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE.

Choose between french or english edition -Price include shipping

1 copy ENGLISH edition Disneyland Paris book, include shipping €100.00 EUR 1 SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book, inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 NON SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book +shipping €90.00 EUR

Pictures: copyright Max Fan - Dlrp Welcome

The " Mission Space " that Never Was

Ten years after Mission to Mars closed at WDW, another "mission" sent WDW guests on Mars, and it was at Epcot when "Mission: Space" opened on October 9, 2003. Well, as a matter of fact, the existing Mission Space that we know is in fact the first part of what was
a much better "Mission: Space" attraction concept.

In its original concept part one of the attraction was the same one that Epcot guests ride every day, i.e the shuttle centrifuge-simulator of a blast-off to outer space.




But instead to go on Mars, the original concept would have sent Mission: Space guests to a Space Station built on the Moon - or, according to Jim Hill in his excellent 2001 article, on a huge asteroid - see artwork below.



Always according to Jim "After they will arrive at the station, Epcot visitors will be free to disembark and discover the many wonders that are hidden deep inside that asteroid". And how, you ask? Well, that was the third genius part of the ride as Guests would have been able to move inside the Space Station thanks to a simulated "MMU" - Manned Maneuvering Unit - the famous propulsion backpack which was used by NASA astronauts on space shuttle missions in 1984 and which allowed the astronauts to perform untethered EVA spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle. Of course, as you can see on the rendering below, every one was supposed to follow the track, but the ride would have been great anyway, don't you think so?



So, why this awesome version of Mission Space was never built? Guess what, of course the cost of this amazing attraction concept would have been extremely expensive,  and probably too expensive for Michael Eisner,  Disney's CEO at that time. That said, i'm thinking that IF Disney wanted to expand the current version, change it and add all the awesome second part of the concept which was cancelled, they'll probably could do it, technically speaking. If they have enough land available behind the Mission Space building - and of course the needed budget - they could expand the ride. Sure, they'll have to change the storyline, the movie inside the ride itself and others things but basically it doesn't look unfeasible. But a quick look on Google Earth shows that in fact there is currently backstage buildings behind so i suppose they would need to remove these ones too...

So, only the first part of the ride was saved and Mission: Space was built on the former site of the beloved Horizons attraction.



Mission Space Grand Opening happened on October 2003 and here is the video of the ceremony attended by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, HP CEO Carly Fiorina and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, as well as several NASA astronauts from its many phases of human space exploration- Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the space shuttle program and two crew members aboard the International Space Station!




The next videos is a very good HD Video showing the attraction itself, from the pre-show to the ride itself, including the whole movie that guests can see during the centrifuge ride.




Pictures: copyright Disney, Google Maps

Many thanks to the different people for the Youtube videos!

Comicon 2013 : Avengers 2 Title Revealed, X-Men : Days of Future Past, Justice League Movie, Cosplay Girls, and more

Joss Whedon revealed a few hours ago at San Diego Comicon the title of Avengers 2, and it will be called "Age of Ultron" ! Clips of Thor: the Dark World and Captain America : the Winter Soldier were also presented to an enthusiastic crowd.

But who is "Ultron" the villain of Avengers 2? Here is a picture below to introduce him to non specialists of Marvel villains. For more infos about the Ultron character jump to the Wikipedia page HERE.

The cast of the upcoming film "X-Men: Days of Future Past" made a surprise appearance at Comic-Con along with director Bryan Singer.
The cast members who appeared include those from the original "X-Men" movie franchise and those from 2011's X-Men reboot "X:Men: First Class." Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McEvoy, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Jackman, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore and Omar Sy assembled in Hall H to debut footage from the film. Peter Dinklage joins 'X-Men' cast as Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels (see video below to learn more about TRASK Industries).




"The goal was to try and make a film that would bring this cast together by time travel or time displacement of some kind," Bryan Singer said. "Basically, the notion is that consciousness of Wolverine of the future is sent into his past self. And it was nice because Hugh was able to play both parts because the character of Wolverine is ageless. And it was great to be able to place him as a character in both these worlds. For me, it was great to reunite the old cast and get to work as a director with the new cast."
Singer also addressed rumors that this new film will rewrite the movie universe he's set up in prior films, specifically changing some of the events from "X2."
"Whenever you're going back in time -- and this is every bit as much a time travel movie as it is an X-Men movie -- there is those risks," Singer said. "I'm not the audience, I'm just the filmmaker, but I do believe in certain continuity that we'll maintain and some things we'll change. When you go back and mess about, things happen. So some of those rumors are probably somewhat true."

One of the big surprises is that Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart) is still alive after the events of 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." In that film, the character of Jean Grey killed Xavier -- mostly.
"My assumption was that it was going to be Ian and Halle and Hugh and everybody back, but it won't be me," Stewart said. "But something happened, which I'm not allowed to talk about -- am I?"

In my own mind I understand how Xavier is alive at the end of 'X-Men 3,'" Singer responded. "At the end of 'X-Men 3' after the credits when his consciousness is inside of this woman in a hospital and you take that and mix it with some powerful mutants -- mutants can do a lot of cool stuff -- you can imagine that anything is possible." ( From CNN.com )

Another big superhero movie news was also announced by Warner Bros Pictures Saturday at Comic-Con as Superman will pair with his fellow Justice League hero Batman in the upcoming yet-to-be-named film, expected to begin production in 2014. "Man of Steel" director Zack Snyder will direct the film, and current Superman Henry Cavill will star, Warner Bros. said. The new Batman has yet to be cast.

"Superman and Batman together on the big screen is a dream come true for DC (Comics) fans everywhere," said Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment.
Snyder told Comic-Con fans he's excited to work with Cavill again and take the story to the next chapter.
Metallica unveils film footage at Comic-Con
"It's beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest superheroes in the world," he said.
Snyder strongly hinted that the heroes will be rivals in the movie."

Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane also return for the new film, Warner Bros. said.

Christian Bale, who starred as Batman in the three Dark Knight movies told Entertainment Weekly this month that he wouldn't be starring in a fourth, so maybe we can't expect to see him in this Batman / Superman movie. And director Christopher Nolan who also said he will not direct a fourth Batman movie will, however, have a hand in the upcoming Superman-Batman film as one of the executive producers, Warner Bros. said.

A bit of fun and sexy to end: Comicon is indeed the convention where Majors released precious infos awaited by the fans but Comicon is also known for its fans in costumes ( how many Slave Princess Leia will be there this year ? ), in two words, hot Cosplay girls! 

Here are the Comicon 2012 Cosplay girls:




And here are the 2013 Cosplay girls!




Pictures and videos: copyright Marvel, Warner Bros, DC Comics

News From the Front : New Version of 20000 Leagues Cancelled, Tomorrowland Actress Announced, Iger Stay WDC CEO Until June 2016...

Some short news from the front, beginning by a bad one as the new version of 20000 Leagues Under The Sea directed by David Fincher has been cancelled by the WDC. 
I think we can call this a Lone Ranger "collateral damage" as it was another movie with a $200 million + budget and apparently Disney don't want to take the risk. Personally, and although as a big 20K fan i would have been curious to see this new version, i'm not depressed by this decision as i always thought that it would have been difficult to do better than the original 1950's version. But we will never know, may be this new version would have been great, too. 

Walt Disney Pictures also announced the name of the actress who will be the lead female role in Brad Bird's mysterious "Tomorrowland" movie, and it is Brittany Robertson who previously played in teens movies like "The First Time" and in the Under the Dome series.

Also, "At the request" of the WDC board of directors Bob Iger will stay as Disney's CEO until June 2016 instead than leaving on March 2015. There is probably a lot of reasons for that but among them one which is important to Iger, i.e to be there as Disney CEO for the grand opening of Shanghaî Disneyland. Mickey can be happy, but for us it is also a precious indication that, even if there is some delay, SDL will not open later... than June 2016.

Pictures: copyright Disney, Hollywood Reporter