Hong Kong Disneyland (new website!) is nearing completion. Training for employees is well underway (500 have already worked at Walt Disney World and will pass that experience along), most of the tiny details that make Disney theme parks so special have been installed, and I must say the park looks great. LaughingPlace.com’s "Tales from the Laughing Place" magazine editors, Lee and Lindsay, have been granted phenomenal access to the park for the 4th issue of the magazine:

Issue 4 is dedicated to the creation of Hong Kong Disneyland. Launching in September the issue will comprise extensive interviews with the creative imagineers behind the latest Magic Kingdom including supervising imagineer Tom Morris and John Verity who has been responsible for the construction of this newest resort. A land-by-land series will take readers through the inspiration behind Hong Kong Disneyland and provide insights to the challenges encountered in Penny’s Bay and the process of building a theme park Disney-style. In addition Tales subscribers will be able to read about the development of merchandise and food & beverage offerings for this new resort.

If you’re any kind of Disney fan you should be subscribing to this magazine and ordering all the back issues too (issue 3 was just released, so there aren’t that many). I promise you it will make you forget about the now defunct Disney Magazine.

As part of their access, Lee and Lindsay have been sending back photo essays of the park to the website. The first was of the train station and esplanade that leads up to the park, the second now reveals what Main Street looks like. Lot’s of great details, an incredible restaurant interior, and our first look at a completed Sleeping Beauty Castle (the first one built as a clone of Disneyland U.S.A.’s castle).

Certainly makes me want to book a trip.

[ttags:disney, disneyland, hongkong, hongkongdisneyland, hkdl, laughingplace, mainstreet]

Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (official site) is set for release on December 9th 2005. It’s a Walden Media film, but Disney is distributing, so expect a big push to start any time now. NarniaFans.com is a great place to start if you’re looking for more information on the film. It’s very much like TheOneRing.net was for Lord of The Rings. Keeping NarniaFans on their toes is NarniaWeb.com, which takes a very close second place. NarniaWeb is organizing ‘Lion Parties‘ for Narnia fans who want to camp out for the premier a la Star Wars.

Based on the movie trailer I’ve seen and my childhood reading of the books, I’m very much looking forward to these movies. Not quite at the level of Lord of the Rings, I actually went back and reread those books before the movies came out, but I’m still pretty excited. What’s your general feeling? The comments are open.

[ttags:disney, walden, narnia, tltwatw, film, movie, movies]

[the girl] was a regular on the honor roll at Hines Middle School and at
Watkins Elementary School. In her most recent yearbook picture, she’s
shown smiling, wearing braids and a half-ponytail.

On the day she died, [the girl]’s name was published in the Daily Press in a list of honor roll students at Hines. Her name was listed under the "All A’s" category.

The Orlando Sentinel and Newport Daily Press have more information on the pre-teen girl who died this week at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park. The prelimiary autopsy report is also out . It revealed no signs of trama, so further tests will be needed before an official cause of death can be determine.

Pamela exposes a flaw in the strategy of Bookcrossers, people who frequent the Bookcrossing website, who leave their books at Disneyland… sweepers.

Part of what makes LaughingPlace.com such an amazing internet community is the talent of its membership. Combine that with a bunch of disney oriented fun loving folk and you have a formula for some unique meets. Take the recent opportunity readers of the website had to go inside Disneyland’s famous and exclusive dining establishment – Club 33.

To make the day even more memorable Margaret Kerry, the figure model for Tinker Bell, was in attendance. She was gracious enough to give a little speach and pose to have her photo taken with all. As thanks two attendees took photos of the event and scrapbooked them as a gift for Kerry.

In addition to the marvelous photos of Kerry in the scrapbook there are plenty of photos taken in and around Club 33. A real spotlight on the club if you’ve never been there.

[ttags: disney, disneyland, club33, scrapbook, scrapping, scrapbooking, tinkerbell, ]

Tucked in among the July 24th ‘Live‘ photos on Laughingplace.com are a few photos from the world premier of Disney’s Sky High, a PG rated popcorn flick that follows the fortunes of a superhero family as their son enters the High School for superheros, only without any superpowers. Sound like something you’d go see? Well don’t say no yet.

Comingsoon.net has links to the trailer and a special 10-minute preview from the beginning of the film. I sat down to watch this preview and was pleasantly surprised. I think you will be too. Of course, the fact that it featured Bruce Campbell as the Sky High Gym Coach might had something to do with it. There’s also a very nice title credits sequence with a comicbook feel.

[Ttags: disney, disneyfilm, disneystudios, disney, film, review, preview, cinema, superhero ]

I hope somebody is considering offering all of Bob Gurr’s columns at
www.laughingplace.com in some type of limited edition softcover book
because Gurr influenced everything with wheels at Disneyland. And how
come there hasn’t been a book about Morgan "Bill"Evans and how he
transformed landscaping into an artform at Disneyland?

As part of the series honoring Disneyland’s 50th Birthday Jim Hill Media’s Wade Sampson has a nice round up of some of the lessor known Imagineers who played at part in building Disneyland. Although Wade doesn’t mention my grandfather, Vic Greene, I’ve had some wonderful chats with some of the original Imagineers who worked with and under Vic. Everytime one of them shuffles off this mortal coil, a little part of me, and of Walt’s vision, dies with them.

[ttags: disneyland, disney, imagineer, imagineering, wdi, wed, dlr, jimhill, jimhillmedia, jhm, bobgurr, bob+gurr, laughingplace, disneyblog ]

It was always Walt’s intention that DL would be a place where a family
can enjoy a day of fun (and learning – gasp!) together, and still go
home at the end of the day with money in Father’s pocket. Walt wasn’t
out to fleece anyone. Of course, there have been others managing the
parks since Walt left us, and that’s when you see the admission prices
increasing at greater rates.

Mellie, of GollyBlogHowdy fame, calculates the cost of a day trip to Disneyland and compares it to some other entertainment values of the day. Hint: Disneyland comes out looking pretty good.

Disney World doesn’t look so bad either, but only if you plan for a weeklong stay. The new ticket prices make it more expensive to just by a 2 or 3 day ticket. Btw, it is probably worth it to join AAA and book through one of their saver rates. You’ll save much more on tickets, rooms, and parking then the cost of your AAA Membership. And if you get a AAA Diamond Parking pass, send it my way when you’re done with it. Those puppies let you park right up front.