Disney and more

Editor's Note: A great DLP Update awaits you below, but first, for those of you staying in Hong Kong, here is the latest news about giant hurricane Usagi which will make landfall on Hong Kong tonight. According to the latest forecast from Hong Kong Observatory are expected "Northwest winds force 7 to 8, becoming cyclonic force 12 later. Frequent heavy squally showers and thunderstorms. Rough to very rough seas, becoming phenomenal later."
With winds up to force 12 (!) and "phenomenal" seas awaited later today, you probably understand why it might be better to stay at your home during the next 48 hours. Sunny weather is expected to be back at HK starting next thursday or friday.

Here is a new DLP update but as Disneyland Paris unveiled today on their Facebook page a series of news about the future as well as the first visual and the official name of the Ratatouille ride, i've combined them with my pictorial update that i had scheduled to post this week-end.

So, let's start with DLP official news and the first one is of course the one which was awaited by DLP fans, i.e a first visual and the official name of the WDS Ratatouille ride which will be called in french: "Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémi". DLP announced that "This world-first adventure uses state-of-the-art technologies that will reduce you to the size of a little rat … Plunge into the heart of a particularly excited Parisian kitchen!" The picture above shows clearly the ride vehicle and the fact that guests will be indeed "reduced" at the size of a rat with oversized decors all along the ride. Also note that there is a play on the word "toquée" as "toqué" means crazy in french but the word "toque" also means the hat of a cook. So, in this case one of the translation in english could be "Ratatouille: Remi's totally crazy adventure". They probably won't use this one but it seems that the original english title " Ratatouille Kitchen Calamity " may not be used finally, we'll see...

The next DLP official news is about the Halloween Season : "Do you like to shake with laughter? Our first surprise is about to begin! As of 5 October, make way for the Disney Halloween Festival. Mickey and his Friends have prepared an unforgettable party for you in the Park, more invaded than ever by pumpkins and ghosts! Come meet Uncle Scrooge and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie for a brand new Cavalcade before learning to sew at Minnie’s Costume Couture. And if you have a sweet tooth, Goofy will adjust his remarkable candy-making machine to make your "mouth water!"

I'm adding that Jack and Sally as well as Disney villains will always be part of Halloween as well as the Disney Dreams! show which will play every night too!

And now, the news about the Christmas season which confirm that there will be a special Christmas version of the Disney dreams show with new sequences! :
"Would you rather shiver when a snowflake falls on the tip of your nose? Right! Well then come join us as of 10 November for the most magical Christmas at Disneyland Paris. Come meet the heroes of the next Disney animation movie “Frozen, the Snow Queen”, admire our new Christmas Cavalcade and dream of the presents you would like to discover on Christmas day at the foot of our brand new 24-meter tall Christmas tree … Last –but not least- make the dream go on and on by staying wide awake in front of our unique and mind-blowing nighttime show “Disney Dreams ! of Christmas”. You have now understood that at Christmas time, more than any time, Disneyland Paris slips into its most beautiful light costume and piles on the presents, all for you!"

Another news about the future, but this one was NOT unveiled today by DLP but by the Disney Gazette forum and it is a plan showing a project scheduled for between 2015 and 2020 of a new hotel and convention centre as well as a new bus station will be built near the Disney Village and the Vinci parking lot.

And now, here is the DLP pictorial update thanks to pictures of Max Fan, D&M contributor and Dlrp Welcome webmaster. As we had today a special announcement about the Ratatouille ride let's start with the latest picture of the Ratatouille construction site.

The scaffoldings have been removed on the part of the show building where will be the ride entrance!

Here are some closer shots...

...as well as pictures of the others building on the right.

Here is something else which will interest you, always about the Ratatouille ride: the pictures below were posted by Disney Magic Interactive and shot at the EAS show recently and show decors made by the PnP company. What is interesting is that PnP previously worked for DLP on some floats of the Once Upon a Dream parade. Max think - and me too - that these might show some of the oversized decors elements which will be inside the Ratatouille ride. I remind you that the guests are supposed to "have" the size of a rat during the ride. And by the way the caption on the left "Major theme park, 2014 attraction" confirms that this is very probably for the Ratatouille ride.

At the Disneyland Park, nothing special except that they already started to put the Christmas lighting on Sleepy Beauty Castle - but you won't notice it from the ground.

Another good news is that Peter Pan's Flight is open again...

...but the Carousel de Lancelot is now in refurbishment!

Outside the parks, works are still going on on the new esplanade gate, the one leading to the Vinci car park, as you can see on the pics below from Disney Central Plaza and Dlrp Welcome.

And a small bad news to end this update as the new Lego Store at Disney Village will have a delay in its opening as a fake ceiling fell down during the installation and now all works have been stopped.

O-kay, that's all for today's DLP update and i'll be back soon with a new one. In the meantime I remind you that the Disneyland Paris book - in which you have the whole park in 320 pages with 750 photos including 250 WDI renderings - is still available in its collector edition but that unfortunately there is now less than TEN copies of the Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality book available in its ENGLISH collector's edition - the FRENCH edition is also available - so if you don't own the book yet, it's really now or never!

And there is a special price right now 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. Also, you can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE.

Click on the image below to jump to the book presentation.

Picture: copyright Disney, Max Fan - DLRP Welcome, Disney Central Plaza

Here are the last news about super typhoon Usagi: So far, it seems that the 1000 km large monster typhoon is always heading towards Hong Kong - and so Hong Kong Disneyland - and should be there in the next 48 hours. The good news is that Usagi winds should be less strong but still probably around 150 km/h which is still enough to be devastating.

And here is what the park will do if Usagi don't change its path. Practically, all the outdoor and semi-outdoor attractions ( like for instance Fantasyland Carousel ) will be closed when "typhoon signal number 3" will be announced ( i.e a sustained wind speed of 41-62 kilometres per hour (km/h) with gusts which may exceed 110 km/h).

However, Hong Kong Disneyland will announce an early closure of the park 2-3 hours before "typhoon signal number 8" ( i.e a sustained wind speed of 63-117 km/h and gusts which may exceed 180 km/h) and the park will reopen in the next 2 hours after typhoon signal number 8 will be off. Apparently this is HKDL regulation each time there is a hurricane, and this one should make no exception.

Again, if you live in or are currently visiting Hong Kong, stay safe as a 1000 km large typhoon is no joking!

From the N.Y Times : "The Walt Disney Company and Jerry Bruckheimer announced on Thursday that they would end a movie deal under which Mr. Bruckheimer has produced hits like the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, and a notable flop in “The Lone Ranger.”

Mr. Bruckheimer, one of Hollywood’s most respected senior producers, has been making movies with Disney since the early 1990s, when he was executive producer of “The Ref.”

In a statement, Disney and Mr. Bruckheimer said they would end their existing deal when it expires next year. The statement said Mr. Bruckheimer intends to produce “more mature films” than those for which he has been known at Disney, while the studio plans to focus on pictures from its Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm and Walt Disney units".

BUT, as none of them are fools, Jerry Bruckheimer said in the announcement that he planned to continue working with Disney on future “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “National Treasure” movies. So, end of the alert, POTC movies are still coming, and all what we ask them is to make good ones!

RED ALERT for Hong Kong Disneyland as Monster Typhoon Usagi is Heading Towards Hong Kong !!!

I don't say this often but this time i think the "red alert" is justified, so let's be clear: Super Typhoon Usagi is Earth's most powerful typhoon of the year, has explosively intensified in the last 24 hours to reach the equivalent of a type 5 hurricane with winds over 230 km/h, and is heading towards Hong Kong where it should arrive late Sunday. In two words, if the typhoon don't change its path, it's potentially an extremely dangerous storm coming right towards Hong Kong Disneyland. It's "the perfect storm", and it couldn't be worst.

This is serious, we are not talking here about a regular typhoon, this one is really a monster storm, 1000 km large, and to give you a better idea the size of Usagi equals the size of France AND Germany together - see picture above. It's a monster storm with winds right now over 150 mph ( over 230 km/h ) and if it was in the U.S it will be considered as a hurricane type 5 , the highest one. I strongly recommand any of you who are planning to visit HKDL this week-end to cancel your trip and to watch closely the weather reports if you're already in Hong Kong or South East Asia. Taiwan apparently will have the luck to avoid the typhoon but even if Usagi change its mind and avoid a direct land fall on Hong Kong, considering its 1000 km large diameter there is no way to escape to the usual heavy rains which comes with a typhoon.

Again, don't underestimate Usagi as it is Earth's most powerful typhoon of the year and let's hope that Hong Kong will be spared as with winds over 230 km/h it will be hard for Hong Kong Disneyland to avoid serious damages. If Usagi stay on the same track i wouldn't be surprised if the park was closed when the typhoon will land in Hong Kong as i don't see them leaving the park open with 230 km/h winds.

Best luck to all of you staying over there and stay safe as the "big one" is coming in two days from now.

Pictures: copyright Joint Typhoon Warning Center

Big changes have been announced in the U.S release dates of upcoming Disney / Pixar movies and one of the reasons of all this is apparently linked to Pixar's Good Dinosaur as Pixar needs more time to finish the movie after Bob Peterson was removed as Director of the animated feature.

So, The Good Dinosaur previously scheduled for a release on May 30, 2014 will be released November 25, 2015 and then it's a kind of game of musical chairs as Finding Dory - Nemo's sequel - originally scheduled for November 25, 2015 has been pushed back to June 17, 2016. And, Maleficent - this one a non-animated movie starring Angelina Jolie - previously scheduled for a release July 2, 2014 will be released earlier on May 30, 2014. All this means that we'll have two Pixar movies in 2015 - the other one being the awaited "Inside Out" and apparently no one in 2014. That said there will be a 3D animated film as the "Planes" sequel is scheduled for 2012.

Talking about movies Disney also announced that, starting 2015 each year should see the release of one or two Pixar movies, two "Marvel" movies, one Star Wars movie - new SW Episode or spin-off , one Walt Disney Animation movie, and two or three Disney "live" movies.

Some days ago Jay Rasulo also announced that "the sky is the limit" for Star Wars future, adding that the Star Wars license is an "evergreen property" and that "the market is extremely hot for everything Star Wars" something i can agree with him. Rasulo also announced that Disney will reduce its investments in the years to come - something which might be a mistake considering that Disney's biggest competitor Universal Studios announced their plans to build new attractions each year thanks to a $500M budget per year! - but considering all the expenses they did recently with two new Disney Cruise Line ships, the new lands at DCA, the new Fantasyland at WDW MK and Disney's Aulani Resort in Hawai, it's hard to say that they didn't spent any money... However that is no good news at least for the immediate future and also unfortunately confirm what i told you recently about Disneyland Paris future.

Let's end these news with the new teaser for the Toy Story of Terror short animated to be aired on ABC on October 16.

Video: copyright Disney

Some fresh news from the even Dwarfs Mine Train construction at WDW Magic Kingdom with, first, the picture above showing ride workers and Imagineers surrounding one of the train vehicle in what seems to be the future boarding room, and you'll note that part of the vehicle is under the platform. I'm not 100% sure of the reason why but may be this is due to the fact that the part of the vehicle where guests will seat will be able to move and they probably had to find a trick to avoid the upper part of the vehicle to topple when guests will board inside the train.

Also, the first pictures showing one of these mine vehicle on track "outside" have been posted by Mouse Steps and they also did the video below.

Picture: copyright Disney

Video: copyright Mouse Steps