Latest - and good - news from Asia !

No, these good news are not about Shanghaî Disneyland - still waiting for Beijing official agreement - but about Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland.

Let's begin by HKDL as its destiny was recently in jeopardy. Reuters press agency announced yesterday that "The Walt Disney Co (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to agreeing to invest more capital in Hong Kong Disneyland and allow the island's government convert its loans to equity to maintain its majority share of the theme park"

Reuters source - somebody close to the talks - also said that "Hong Kong's government will not budge on two points: the need to retain equity control of the project, and a refusal to put up any more cash for the park"."The Hong Kong government might reduce its holdings, but still retain a majority shareholding. That's the bottomline."

So, may be had a genious idea to create a "win-win" ending for both parts... If everything goes fine, may be the park's expansion that would enlarge the park's existing area by around a third and feature three new "lands" will not be a dream anymore. Let's cross our fingers!

At Tokyo Disneyland the future looks bright, as it is not less than four attractions that will open in the next three years. Tokyo Disney Sea will have the first one with Turtle Talk with Crush next October. The attraction will be located inside the huge S.S Columbia - no doubt there is plenty of room available inside for an attraction. Cost of this small attraction is U.S $ 13.1 M.



Mickey's Philarmagic will be the next attraction to open, this time at Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland in 2011. Cost is around U.S $ 60.5 M. Unfortunately, Philarmagic's opening mean the very end of the beloved Mickey Mouse Revue - that's why i did an article about it a while ago.



The same year, a Cinderella walk through will open inside Cinderella's castle with dioramas, paintings, and most of all a recreation of the grand ballroom where - in the movie - Cinderella danced with her charming prince. Cost: U.S $ 20.2 M.



In 2012, it's Toy Story Mania that will open in the New York area of the American Waterfront. Cost: U.S $ 115.9 M.



Finally, TSM won't be build in the Cape Cod area which doesn't mean that there won't be anything new in this small land. In fact, a new shop dedicated to the extremely successful "Mickey Bear" plushs should open anytime soon in the Cape Cod area (that's a D&M exclusive news!)

Also, if i'm indicating above the costs of the attractions it's not only because it's always interesting to know them, but it may also help some of you to understand why sometime it can be difficult to get a budget approval even for small "A" Tickets.

I'm very happy for TDL and TDS japanese fans, but a little bit less for foreigners. as you can see, if we except the Cinderella walk-through, all the other attractions already exist in the U.S which means that there won't be any new TDL unique attractions coming in the next three years. But it's true that they recently opened the new Monsters Inc attraction, a version which exist only at TDL.

Let's end with a little week-end gift with this great TDL-TDS map at the top of this article! Enjoy!

All pictures: copyright Disney

Will Mickey's Philarmagic replace Walt Disney Studios Animagique attraction in a near future ?

If there is one attraction which will have its place at the Walt Disney Studios Toon Studio, it's Mickey's Philarmagic. First, it's all about animation, and, two, it's a 3D movie and there is no 3D movie at the WDS.



The Animagique show using dark light effect is okay - just okay - but Mickey's Philarmagic will be a big hit with the WDS guests. And the two shows use Donald as the main character!



So, why don't they replace Animagique by Mickey's Philarmagic ? After all, they already have the building, it's already a theater, and the seats are already in place. So, why?

You, see, they have indeed a building, but they don't have the CEILING. I mean, the ceiling height that the Mickey's Philarmagic show effect need.

Let me explain you more. When they've built the WDS, it was in the Michael Eisner era - well, actually, the end of his era. I'm sure you remember it, it was those times where the WDC choose to don't spend too much money in new theme parks ( to say it elegantly! ). The imagineers who built the WDS did absolutely their best with the budget they had, but ,to stay in the "budget", some choices had to be done.

So, for those of you who have never been to the WDS, the "Studio 1" is a full real building - front, back, walls and ceiling are in "hard" - but Studio 2 and 3 have only the front and the bac , and the floor, of course, which are "in hard" everything between is a huge inflatable canvas ( i think it's inflatable, if it's not, sorry about the mistake ) , just like a huge tent hold on each side, with an invisible metallic structure.

As it's not easy for me to find the right english words, the best is that you have a look at the picture below. Here is what you can see on the left...



And here is a closer look...



Now, let's come back to that ceiling problem. Those of you who have seen Mickey's Philarmagic may remember that, at the very beginning of the show, the screen have a kind of "frame" around it. And when it begin, the frame goes up, to "disappear" in the ceiling - see below a screen capture of a youtube video. And here is the first problem. Because of this damn' hemispheric structure, they simply can't do it! No way to have the frame disappearing in the ceiling!



The other problem is with the screen itself. If you saw the show, it begin with a "small" screen which enlarge after five minutes to reach a kind of "cinemascope" size. Same problem, because the walls are not square, it's another difficulty.

I know, you're going to tell me: " why the hell don't they put out this damn' structure and built real walls and ceiling? It's not THAT difficult..." You will be right, it's not difficult, but it's not cheap. Because not only you have to almost build an entire new building - except the front and back walls, but you have to re-install all the security , fire system, etc...And, believe me, it's always a big part of an attraction budget.

On the other hand, the cost of the Animagique show is not that cheap for the park. The show need many performers which means a salary cost, that would be reduced with a movie attraction which need less cast-members.

So, we'll see in the future, but Mickey's Philarmagic is a really good "D+" ticket, WDS guests will enjoy it immensely, and it will be a real good choice for the WDS Toon Studio.

Animagique and Mickey's Philarmagic show Photos: copyright Disney

Exterior photos: copyright Alain Littaye