Two weeks ago WDI unveiled the impressive Ursula audio-animatronic and yesterday they released a video showing the one of Ariel. The Ariel AA is not the same size, of course, than the Ursula Animatronic but it looks really good as you will see in the video below!
The Little Mermaid ride will mark the return of great Audio-Animatronics in Walt Disney Imagineering grand tradition. The infamous evil sea witch Ursula that DCA guests will see inside “The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure” attraction will be 7 ½ feet tall and 12 feet wide, i.e a HUGE Audio-Animatronic!
Currently, the Ursula Audio-animatronic is being installed inside Ursula's lair - renderings above and below - one of the Little Mermaid ride eerie scene...
Others special effects in that scene will include a bubbling cauldron in front of Ursula and, all around, projection effects of "unfortunate souls" captured by her. At the entrance of the lair, if the plans hasn't changed, expect to see others unfortunate souls stuck inside bottles, another projection effect.
The video below was filmed for a big part at WDI North Hollywood facility with WDI Imagineers explaining the complexity of their work on Ursula's AA. Thanks to stretch velvet and flexible rubber for her body and the genius programming of WDI Imagineers be ready to be amazed when you'll see how Ursula will move in this awaited dark ride. In the meantime, don't miss the exciting video below!
WDW revealed today that the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history is underway, a project that will nearly double the size of Fantasyland and deliver a new home for Ariel, new ways to interact with favorite Disney princesses, an exciting new family coaster, a double dose of Dumbo and more. Honestly, the new concept looks better than the first one announced at D23 with more fun rides and is certainly the counter attack of Disney to the huge success of Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. New WDI artworks were also released and you will find all of them below!
Scheduled to open in phases beginning in late 2012, the new Fantasyland will immerse guests in Disney stories as never before. Among the highlights planned:
Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid, a major, all-new attraction during which guests will travel with Ariel and her friends through their exciting adventures above and below the waves – all against a musical backdrop of songs from the classic film.
The castle of the Beast, standing majestically upon a hill just across an old stone bridge from Ariel’s new home. The Be Our Guest Restaurant will feature a lavish dining experience in the elegant ballroom, gallery, and mysterious “West Wing” of the castle. With seating for 550, this magnificent facility will offer “great food fast” service by day and full table service dining in the evening. Nearby in Belle's Village, guests will find the rousing Gaston’s Tavern and Bonjour! Village Gifts.
Just outside the village is Belle’s cottage and Enchanted Tales with Belle. The adventure begins in Maurice’s workshop, where a magical mirror is the doorway to a captivating new kind of storytelling experience: Guests are transported to the Beast’s library to meet Belle and Lumiere, and share in a lively, interactive, re-telling of the “tale as old as time.”
But that’s just the beginning of what guests will discover when the multi-phase project is completed. Here’s more of what’s in store: The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will take guests on a rollicking, musical ride into the mine “where a million diamonds shine.” The coaster will feature a first-of-its kind ride system with a train of ride vehicles that swing back and forth, responding to every twist and turn of the track. The journey will be accompanied by music from the classic Disney film and animated figures of Snow White and the Dwarfs.
Here is a detail of the big Fantasyland artwork at the top of this article (which i will put online in high-res early next week) showing the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride - and the Little Mermaid attraction in the background. It's interesting to note that the train goes in and out of the "mine" several times with big parts of the ride outside. In fact it reminds me the Grizzly Trail coaster currently build at HKDL (which have also a "mine" story) and i won't be surprised if WDI did a "Snow White" adaptation of the HKDL concept.....which is itself an adaptation of the Expedition Everest track, more or less. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride could very well be a solid "D" ticket attraction.
In Princess Fairytale Hall, Aurora, Cinderella and other Disney princesses, such as Tiana and Rapunzel, will greet guests in their new home, an elegant royal court on the site where Snow White’s Scary Adventures stands today.
The sound of the calliope will lead guests to the brand new Storybook Circus and not one but two circling carousels of airborne pachyderms on Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
Before taking to the skies on this Fantasyland favorite, guests can experience an array of fun-filled family games and interactive wonders for kids of all ages inside the Big Top.
Next door in Storybook Circus, the classic Barnstormer gets a bright new look as well, featuring Goofy as The Great Goofini. It’s a twisting, turning roller coaster “flight” high above the circus fun.
All of this looks not bad at all, isn't it? I like particularly the new Dwarfs Mine Coaster, they can do something really good on that concept...we'll see!
The Disney Parks Blog was obviously created by Disney to control the release of informations, but there is nothing wrong with that, it's their company, it's perfectly natural. Sometime it looks a bit corporate like last friday article about "New Chairman Tom Staggs Visits Walt Disney World" but generally they do a pretty good job. And sometime we can find interesting stuff like in the January 4th article called "What’s Coming Up at Disney’s California Adventure Park".
The article had a special video about DCA's future, and anyone who watched it in full screen mode and knew to click on "pause" at the right time could discover interesting shots. That's what we're going to explore today - please note that some pictures may not be perfectly sharp as the screen captures were not easy to do.
Let's begin with the future entrance of the park. We all know the entrance model of the new DCA but the shot you can see above - note the red car model in the back - is pretty good. More interesting, this rendering - always of DCA's future entrance - the building in the background is the Carthay Theater.
Great close shot too of the Red Car/Trolley artwork. Works for it began recently at California Adventure.
Next on the video, some interesting shots of the awaited Little Mermaid attraction. The rendering below shows the "Under the Sea" scene of the ride with Sebastien...
...just like this picture of an Imagineer at work on the model of the scene.
But it was in the Cars Land segment that we could see some very interesting artwork. Beginning by a rare night-view of the land (may be this artwork like some others below is on display at DCA's Sky Blue Cellar but personally it's the first time i see it).
We can see John Lasseter talking about the Radiator Springs Racer ride and how great it will be - and he is right, the ride will be GREAT, but behind him some WDI artwork was display, showing scenes of the outside part of the ride.
The camera had the good idea to do a zoom on some of the artwork. Although Disney reveal some scenes in this video, please note that it doesn't necessarily mean that all of them will be kept in the final version of the ride. However, i hope that this scene showing the two cars entering a cave with stalactites during the last part of the ride - the "race" part - will remain in the final version...
...just like this other scene - always referring to the "race" part of the ride - where the two racing cars seems to get "out of the road". Of course it's an illusion, they're not really leaving the tracks, but it's a VERY good idea, it's probably not very difficult to do and i hope they will keep it in the final version.
Only one shot referring to the dark ride part of Radiator Springs Racer was shown, and that's fine as i think the less we will know about that part, the better it will be if we want to keep a (very good) surprise. Anyway, the artwork shows a night scene with Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera, and yes, these will be "automatronics", just like the one of Lightning McQueen you saw at D23 Expo last September.
Finally, we could see in the video three WDI Imagineers working on the Radiator Springs Racer model and a simple look at it makes you understand what a huge piece of rockwork it will be, probably the biggest one that WDI Imagineers have to build - since Expedition Everest...
You can see the full Disney Parks blog video right HERE.
Don't miss tomorrow or thursday my Disneyland Paris update about the future of the resort!
Walt Disney World released new high-res files of the four renderings for Dumbo, The Little Mermaid - by WDI artist Chris Smith - and Star Tours 2. I've posted before the high-res new Fantasyland artwork - by WDI artist Greg Pro - but i put it again here so you'll have the four on the same post. Click on each picture to see them in big size.
Note that the high-res file of the Dumbo artwork reveals interesting points about the Circus itself. If you look well, you can see an adult elephant inside the circus tent - will it be a real one or a big AA elephant? Also, the famous "fire in the house" sequence of the movie seems to be part of the circus show.
Since 1994 Disneyland Paris fans are dreaming of the Little Mermaid attraction concept. Designed by Tony Baxter, the attraction was supposed to be build after the park's opening. As we know it's in California Adventure that the Little Mermaid dark ride will finally open in 2011. Disneyland Paris fans will still have to wait a bit, but if everything goes fine the attraction should come at DLP in the near future.
Thanks to Lee Mac Donald and Lindsay Cave from the excellent "Tales from the Laughing Place" Magazine i have the pleasure to post on Disney and more this great interview of Imagineer Tony Baxter, previously published in Tales from the Laughing Place Issue 8. The article below includes pictures of the models and renderings for the attraction storyboards. At the end of the article, you will also find the Little Mermaid virtual ride video, which shows the attraction as it was envisioned for Disneyland Paris.
Part of your (virtual) World An Interview of Tony Baxter Article by Lee Mac Donald
When I saw The Little Mermaid on the big screen I got the feeling that we were finally back in the animation business,” Tony reminisces. “The movie was a truly unforgettable masterpiece and for us at WDI that was critical as we had virtually run out of properties to use. Splash Mountain was the result of going through the library and saying ‘Gosh, there is only one product left with amazing places and fun characters for us to develop into a ride.’ We had been gifted a brand new classic.”
At that time Tony and his entire creative team was racing to complete designs for EuroDisneyland as the park was already in the construction phase. However their focus was not limited to preparation for opening day. “We had already earmarked The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast as two properties to develop for the first batch of additional capacity. If you look at Sam McKim’s opening day park map you can clearly see both on there,” Tony reveals. “For Paris The Little Mermaid area would have been directly opposite from Pizzeria Bella Notte. We had developed Fantasyland to reflect the countries that were the five main draws for the park and for Italy we only had Lady & The Tramp as an appropriate Disney property. Opposite the restaurant you can still see the berm populated with Italian Cypress trees where Eric’s southern Mediterranean Palace would have been located. We also had two other The Little Mermaid attractions for that area with an Ursula octopus ride and a themed carrousel that is now the plateau queue area for it’s a small world.”
“To distribute the costs we jointly developed the projects for Disneyland to go where Videopolis was at that time. It fitted both locations well and everybody thought it would go,” Tony continues. “We built models and mock-ups as the key was cracking the illusion of believing that you are above and below the water’s surface. Every attraction has an Achilles’ heel in development and I thought that was the critical component to this project’s potential success.”
In order to win support from the Studio Tony invited Jeffrey Katzenberg and the lead animators on The Little Mermaid to WDI. They were able to stand on a platform ten feet above the models and actually put their hands through the waterlevel. The models enabled the animators to see their created worlds in three-dimensional form and they immediately endorsed the project. However as the Scottish poet Robert Burns reminded us ‘the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.’
“Once we opened EuroDisneyland we knew that we needed two things; thrill rides and quick capacity,” Tony admits. “We had literally picked the crown jewels of the Disneyland model and I think we opened that park environment richer than any we have ever done before. However we needed things to distribute the crowd and let them vanish into the environments. So we added the Passage of Aladdin and Fort Comstock walk-throughs, a new train station, Casey Jr., Le Pays des Contes de Fées [Storybook Land Canal Boats] and Les Mystères du Nautilus [Mysteries of the Nautilus]. We also built Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril as the park only had Big Thunder Mountain in the original attraction mix that was a thrill ride so the park needed something else. We were able to put in about 13,000 guests per hour capacity with those additions. That was all within the working capital requirements of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast attractions which had capacities far south of that figure so it made sense for us to drop those initial plans. It also allowed us to go right on in with Space Mountain.”
“When we were developing EuroDisneyland we were looking to find areas of deficiency in our line-up,” Tony says. “When The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast came along we were thrilled to be able to get two new pieces into our park vocabulary. They were both fresh and adjusted thematically and emotionally for a new audience. The struggle that Ariel goes through with her father and then going out on a limb for what she believes is right is very different to Snow White who just wants someone to wash and cook for! Belle was even more modern as she has no interest in the hunk that is drooling over her. These heroines were profoundly more relevant to today’s audience and young kids really did identify with them and if you capture that spirit at a particular age they will carry it with them through life. WDI needs to get those moments into the parks for each new generation. For fifteen years or so we lost touch with the audience film-wise so WDI had to initiate a new direction as the studio was not producing product that was relevant to that generation. So we pushed for George Lucas and Star Wars. I’ve always believed that the key to Disneyland’s success is a being a reflection of the popular culture that is captivating the world at that time.”
As mentioned earlier the key innovation was the ability to believably create two worlds for Ariel and her friends to inhabit namely the submarine environment of merfolk and fish and above the sea’s surface where Eric resides. “Now no-one was going to be wearing a wetsuit in this dark ride so you did need to suspend some disbelief to enjoy the experience,” Tony jokes. “We would have approximated the water’s surface with Eric and Ariel in front of you. The boat would have disrupted that surface and everything that touched the water’s surface would have had a ring of fiber optics radiating out like ripples. Your brain has been conditioned over a lifetime to only consider that to be real. So when the ride vehicle dips below the surface you would have thought why didn’t I get wet? The two worlds would have looked very different with the gaudy colors of Sebastian’s Under the Sea number being very different to the tone of Eric’s ship emerging from the fog or the glade in Kiss the Girl. The ride would have been able to glide between those two worlds and some of the show scenes were stacked so you could see another portion of the ride below or above you. I am intrigued by the idea of seeing something from a different vantage point. We toyed with it at Pirates of the Caribbean in Paris where you look down at the battle and village from the ramparts.”
One technical development that did emerge from The Little Mermaid dark ride was the ability to synchronize onboard audio. “The real breakthrough for this attraction was the creation of a device that allowed the ride vehicle to understand exactly where it was in the attraction, and without having to change the pitch, adjust the delivery of information to match,” Tony proudly explains. “Eventually it was first employed on Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. It was actually more critical there as a light car could arrive back in the station some twenty seconds earlier than a heavier car. We needed to be able to deliver the key audio punchlines at the same point in every dip, turn and loop. I always feel it is the technical things that don’t contribute to the obvious part of the show that are the really amazing parts of what we do at WDI. It is such an amazing effect to be able to punch the ride on the key kinetic moments and to ensure that there is perfect synchrony every time.”
If you have seen the virtual ride-through and are familiar with the movie’s story arc you might feel a disconnection between the two. That was a deliberate move on Tony’s part. “I am stickler for playing with the sequencing as I believe that the most boring ride we can do is a book report of the movie,” Tony asserts. “Our attractions are more about the emotion and environments that you come through and I just didn’t want to take the good with the bad just because that is what you saw in the theater. We set the ride up by showing you two people that belong in two different worlds and they want to be together. The first major scene was "Under the Sea" as it validates the notion that we are beneath the surface in their world and this is contrasted by the villainy of Ursula in her dark grotto. Ultimately we needed to be honest to the emotions and feelings of the story rather than just laying it all out again. Pinocchio at Disneyland is the perfect example of a book report of a dark ride which is frustrating as scenes become small vignettes and you cannot bathe in that environment as we tried to get every nuance of the story in that short ride. In my opinion Disneyland’s Peter Pan’s Flight has the best script as all that is important is the phrase ‘Come on everybody and here we go!’ as we fly out the window. Ray Bradbury wrote to Walt saying ‘I will be eternally grateful that you allowed me to fly out of a children’s bedroom out over a moonlit London in a pirate galleon’ and that is what it is all about. We don’t tell the story of Peter or the Darlings and they just become ciphers to set the stage and gently remind you of the story. It is about the experience rather than being forced to drink in storyline point.”
For an organization that was often shrouded in secrecy in the past WDI seem to be willing to embrace a new age of disclosure with the general public with this DVD bonus featurette. “I think this a great way of getting a new brand on to Disney DVDs that people can look forward to in the future,” Tony sums up. “I’m sure we will get a lot of comments from guests asking why we didn’t build it though! Hopefully this test will go well and we can contribute to future releases. Ultimately it keeps the public aware of WDI and the things we do for the parks.”
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that would love to have access to rummage through the WDI archives for shelved projects.
Any volunteers?
Once again, I want to add for those of you who don't know the "Tales of the Laughing Place" magazine that it is a fantastic magazine about Disney theme parks, full of great reports or interviews with WDI Imagineers like this one with Tony Baxter. The latest issue, no 14, of this gorgeous magazine will be released very soon, and among the great reports this issue will include a "Story of Tokyo Disneyland" article. More infos on the new issue 14 HERE.
Artwork, model pictures and video: copyright Disney.
A looong time ago, i.e at the opening of Disneyland Paris, back in 1992, when one bought a map of the park, you could see a Little Mermaid attraction in the Fantasyland area with these words "future attraction". Well, this "future" attraction never opened but we know now that it will open at DCA in 2011.
One year later, in 2012, it will be Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary and there is little doubt that the park will build a major attraction - like they did with the Tower of Terror for the 15th anniversary. The big question that all DLP fans try to answer on all forums is: which one? Indiana Jones Adventure and Splash Mountain are of course long time favorites, but personally, i rather will put all my bets on the long awaited Little Mermaid attraction.
Why? First, it will be a new E-Ticket for Fantasyland, and at DLP Fantasyland have until now only one real E-Ticket : It's a Small World. A new one in this land often very crowded will be totally welcome, specially considering that it will be a high capacity per hour attraction.
Two, as i've said in previous articles the Little Mermaid is not only a "family attraction" but also a perfect ride for young girls. And it has been a long time since DLP opened an attraction perfectly designed for young girls.
Three, strong rumors keep saying that the Fantasyland Festival Stage destruction should begin at the end of this year. And we know almost for sure that imagineers should build the Little Mermaid behind Fantasyland Train Station where there is plenty of room available - and probably not in front of the Pizzeria Bella Notte where it was envisioned back in 1992. I re-post below this Google Earth view where you can see all the room available behind the train station.
Four, and for DLP management it should be the most important point: scale economy. If DLP build the Little Mermaid ride almost at the same time than the one at DCA they can expect important scale economies and lot of money can be save.
Five, it will be not only a real E-Ticket - if DLP get the same version than DCA - but a fantastic dark ride, full of great theming, special effects and audio-animatronics. The kind of attraction that guests will ride forever. Not to mention all the great songs that we all know by heart.
For all these reasons, i put my bets on the Little Memaid ride as DLP 20th anniversary attraction. Of course, if DLP attendance dramatically fall this year because of the world economy crisis things could change, but if everything goes well we all should be "under the sea" in three years from now.
In the meantime i suggest we have a look back at the original concept. Legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter designed the Little Mermaid attraction as a dark ride, and i should say: a GREAT dark ride.
At the origin the vehicles were designed like a shell and hold by the top , just like those of Peter Pan's flight. We know now that it is an omni-mover system which is finally chosen for the DCA version - no doubt that it will be the same for DLP.
Two , the ride will bring you under water AND over the water, and back again, thanks to the incredible "dry for wet" WDI technology, a mix of lighting, lasers and smoke effects which will give you the feeling you're under water, even if you're not really.
In DLP's original plans the great design was beginning with the outside decor - the Little Mermaid "castle", a wonderful theming. It would have been a great addition for DLP's Fantasyland in front of the Pizzeria Bella notte restaurant. DCA's version will have a building with a totally different architecture. May be they will keep the original concept for DLP, who knows?
The first scene of the original concept was over the water with the Little Mermaid meeting Eric for the first time.
Then, as you hear the Sebastian character singing "under the sea" the vehicle was "diving" under water for a great "under the sea" concert scene. You can expect plenty of audio-animatronics in that scene, so magical that guests will remember it forever .
Always in the original concept, we then meet Ariel in her grotto, before entering Ursula's threatening cave , the famous scene where she try to steal Ariel's voice. In the final version that is currently build at DCA, expect a little bit frightening atmosphere in that scene with the "unfortunate souls" welcoming you at the entrance of Ursula's cavern or rising from a bubbling cauldron thanks to WDI wizards special effects...
The next sequence of the original concept was the "kiss the girl" scene. Although it looks peaceful, Ursula's marine eels were there to remember us that something dramatic is on its way to happen, as the creatures will try to stop the first kiss between Ariel and Eric... And, as the vehicle was supposed to come "out" of the water again, guests would have discover that the surface of the sea was now under a frightening storm. The "giant" Ursula was there, soon to be defeated, just like in the movie. A really powerful scene in terms of sound and lighting effects...
The last scene shows Ariel and Eric living happily, a typical fairy-tale ending.
It looks like a great dark ride, doesn't it? The final DCA version will have nine main "scenes" and most of what was envisioned in the original concept should be there.
Now, those of you who bought the Platinum edition of the Little Mermaid dvd may have seen the special feature about the original attraction project - the images you've seen on this article are screen capture done by the former dlrp.fr web site. In that special feature it was possible to see a video of a "virtual creation" of the ride, and now it's time to have a better look to this original Little Mermaid attraction concept. You won't get closer to this highly awaited ride until its opening at Disney's California Adventure and, hopefully, at Disneyland Paris in 2012.
