Part of what makes Disney so magical is the attention to detail. For instance, take Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there are a ton of little references to Disney movies and TV shows. Even if you don’t know what the reference is, it makes the experience richer… Read More »Magical Detail Gone Missing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Back in August we had the news that the most popular and best rated show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and, quite possibly, on property, the Festival of the Lion King, was scheduled to move to a new location. The biggest open questions where when and where. We now know the where and it’s likely the when will come soon.
FotLK had to move to make way for Avatar, which will be coming to where Camp Minnie Mickey is now. Cast members were notified that it would shuttering early in 2013, but so far there hasn’t been much progress as to how the move would be made.
In paperwork filed with the Florida water district management agency, we now know that the FotLK theater will be moved to a new plot of land in Africa. It will be to your left as you cross over the bridge, behind the Tusker House restaurant. Imagineers have been spotted in the area taking a few measurements. So its possible work on fencing in and clearing the plot could begin any day now.
Read More »Festival of the Lion King Relocation Plans Revealed
Disneyland has released details of the upcoming holiday offerings at the resort and there’s a lot that’s new. New segments include a new Holiday segment for ‘World of Color’ and an updated section of “The Magic, The Memories, and You!” Additionally, Toontown gets some updated cheer a new exhibit focused on Walt Disney’s love of trains will debut in the Disney Gallery.
The full press release is below the jump:
Read More »Disneyland Holiday Celebration to include new Show Segments
I was talking with someone this weekend about the sad state of Splash Mountain, I’m sorry I can’t recall who, and the discussion turned to Magic Kingdom’s VP Phil Holmes. Apparently, Phil believes that the park has serious capacity issues to the point where only… Read More »State of the Magic Kingdom
It seems different enough it should have it’s own name. You don’t hear the iconic Fantasmic strains until 2 minutes into the show. Overall, I’m impressed at the grandeur and beauty of the show. Seems like a worthy successor to the sad sack of a show we have out here in Orlando, if they could ever scrape together the budget to do improve it.
Instead of relying only on water projections the show has what appears to be a giant cone of LEDs (think like the globe in Illuminations, but easier to see) for animations. This being Tokyo DisneySea there has to be giant water floats. Which they put to really creative use in terms of lighting and choreography.
There are a lot of other great surprises… which you can see yourself in the video of the show. You have to see how they did the dragon on part two. Wow.
Here it is in two parts:
Part two is below the jump;
One last little bit to share from the media event for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee at the Magic Kingdom. I got the chance to meet and interview Tara Anderson, Show Director from Creative Entertainment at Walt Disney World Resort. Her previous work at the Magic Kingdom… Read More »Interview with Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee Show Director
Princess Tiana appears in a horse drawn carriage fit for an American Princess.
Yesterday marked the official opening of a 15 week run for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. As I posted earlier, the show envelopes guests into being part of the show, a great experience for the guests involved, but how would it play for the rest of the park attendees? Turns out, pretty amazing.
For the special ceremony New Orleans dancers led Princess Tiana to the castle.
The Princess and The Frog is an American story at its root and it features the first African American Princess. The park is really excited about promoting the first new princess in 12 years, so they rolled out some big guns for the press event. One of those was Bruce Smith, the lead animator on Dr. Facilier, the main villain of the movie.
Characters representing current inhabitants of the Magic Kingdom welcome Princess Tiana to the fold.
There was also a wonderful display of merchandise that Disney spent the last two years creating. Some of it, like the theme park exclusive Princess Tiana dress, has been for sale in the park for two weeks and is already flying off the shelves.
A royal proclamation is read.
But the focus of the day was the introduction of Princess Tiana to the park and the official debut of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. TSJ has three distinct parts, and while it’s possible to catch all three, if you can only pick one, make sure to choose the middle part performed on the Liberty Belle when it stops in front of Splash Mountain.
The regular show will take place three times daily on the Liberty Belle with a procession leading to and from the boat before and after each performance.
The show is currently only scheduled to run through January 3rd, 2010 as a tie-in to the movie’s launch on December 11th. It’s my hope they extend this show at least through the summer. The show was already drawing huge crowds without the benefit of the movie even being in theaters, I imagine it will continue to grow once it’s seen by the public.
Lots more photos below the jump, so come on down
Here’s a great slide show of photos from the Gala Premiere of Disney’s The American Idol Experience including many shots I’ve not seen anywhere else. Also included are a few videos you may have seen before. The gala premiere was attended by all seven previous… Read More »American Idol Experience Premiere – Slideshow