News / Walt Disney Studios Park

Whilst the extended opening hours of the park to 7pm have given guests more time at the Studios, they still don’t go far enough to allow regular visitors to see the park at what almost everyone agrees is its very best – fully illuminated at night. From the flashing neons of CinéMagique‘s grand entrance to the flames of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster‘s entrance and the searchlights of Disney Studio 1, Walt Disney Studios is more than a match for anything at Disneyland Park once darkness falls.

And the new Toon Studio developments? They look just as good…

Toon Studio entrance / Sorcerer Mickey statue

A hidden detail we’ve never spotted before suddenly comes to life on the wand of Mickey Mouse – the star-shaped tip glows and shimmerings in a blue fibre optic effect. The “marquee” itself is also very subtely and lovingly illuminated, with lights positioned inside the several circular bases shining upwards.

Sorcerer Mickey marquee / Crush’s Coaster entrance

Notice the purple lighting effects in Animagique in the background, and the rainbow colours of the Flying Carpets Over Agrabah backdrop, appearing to glow from behind when illuminated. The marquee of Crush’s Coaster is illuminated similar to Sorcerer Mickey, with low lighting on the signage itself and a single spotlight on his character figure. Through the lush beach planting behind, notice the well-chosen hanging lamps and even spotlights positioned throughout the sandy planters, illuminating the greenery.

Colours of the Toon Town gate / Toon Studio from Flying Carpets lookout

Over at the Toon Town gate, the lighting department of Toon Studio have done an equally fantastic job, illuminating all of the multi-coloured buildings and even several parts of the Toon Town hills. Notice that the “Toon Town” lettering is fully illuminated for a very professional effect, and entire forced perspective design of this “street” seems much more convincing. The icing on the Toons’ cake would have been a few lights inside the security booth…

From the newly-reopened viewing platform by Flying Carpets Over Agrabah, the land’s countless lighting touches can be seen glowing in the distance. There aren’t actually any blazing spotlights here at all – just subtle lighting such as the many customised neons of Cars Quatre Roues Rallye – it’s green tower and red glowing logo standing out in particular.

When or if the Studios ever welcomes enough visitors and extra attractions to warrant a late-night opening, the Imagineers have prepared Toon Studio – and the entire park – with more than enough beautiful sights to keep them there until the gates close.

» You can see an excellent video giving a walk around the nighttime illuminated Toon Studio over at our partner site magicblog, along with several extra photographs. Click here.

All photos by Photos Magiques.

It’s a rare and special event in the world of Disney parks, when a brand new pair of characters joins the meet ‘n’ greet schedule for the release of a new Walt Disney animated feature. The last time we saw such an event was way back in late 2005 with the release of Disney’s own Chicken Little. All cogs in the great synergy and marketing machine of The Walt Disney Company, for sure, but nobody is going to turn down the chance to meet a new Disney star, especially a Pixar creation – even when they’re rats!

First, meet Rémy. He’s the star of Ratatouille, the budding chef who isn’t content with eating garbage like his sewer system family. He has dreams and aspirations… and, after being caught by a untalented kitchen hand Linguini, cooking up a soup which goes on to be served to a delighted food critic, he must share his knowledge to create the greatest chef in all of Paris – without anyone even knowing of his work.

Rémy / Emile in their Pixar CG designs

The second character to be taken from CGI to reality is Emile, Rémy’s best friend and familiar from the film’s teaser trailers as the tubby brown rat who doesn’t particularly care what he eats, so long as it fills him up. No doubt when the film is released (initial US release due 29th June), we’ll find out even more about these two new furry faces.

Rémy & Emile debut at the inauguration ceremony / Fun and games at the Toon Town gate

Since opening in 2002, all of the new Disney characters have immediately arrived in Walt Disney Studios Park, from Monsters Inc and Treasure Planet to Narnia and Chicken Little. Rémy and Emile were given their first step into the spotlight during the inauguration ceremony earlier during the press event, before arriving on-stage at the Toon Town gate later, and fighting between themselves for the waiting cameras.

The plaza around the Toon Town gate of course features two dedicated photo locations for character meets, but guests attending the press event who’d already visited the park would have been surprised to see two brand new backdrops installed just for this event. Mickey’s Toon Town House, on the right of the gate, was replaced by a Toon Studio production stage setting, whilst especially for the arrival of Rémy and Emile, The Incredibles’ rather plain logo backdrop was replaced with a stunning view over Pixar’s glowing CGI recreation of Paris.

Emile poses in front of Pixar’s grand Paris backdrop / Up-close with Rémy, in perfect rat pose

The following day, however, guests would need to jump on the RER for 40 minutes to experience a view like this. Both backdrops had been reverted to their original designs, with no sight of Rémy or Emile making appearances, despite the heavy Ratatouille advertising introduced around the park. If you like the look of this rodent pair, however, don’t be too worried – the film isn’t due out in France for over a month, so it’s likely Rémy and Emile will be fully introduced at the next meet ‘n’ greet schedule shake-up in a couple of weeks.

The quick change of the photo location backdrops is also exciting to see for regular guests, showing that these two locations will now become frequently updated as each new Disney film hits cinemas. Perhaps, if Walt Disney Studios ever joins its neighbour in full seasonal events, we’ll see even more special backdrops created in the future.

Disney-Pixar’s Ratatouille is due for release on 1st August 2007 in France, the Netherlands and Belgium, 2nd August 2007 in Austria and 3rd August 2007 in Spain. Then, later in the year, 3rd October 2007 in Germany, 5th October 2007 in the UK and 19th October 2007 in Italy. This creates quite a spread of dates across the key markets of Disneyland Resort Paris – one which is mirrored almost in reverse by Disney’s recent CG hit ‘Meet the Robinsons’.

Already released in March to the UK and most European markets, the film won’t reach the Netherlands until 10th October 2007 and France and Belgium until as late as 17th October 2007. Three characters from this film – Lewis, Wilbur and Bowler Hat Guy are due to begin appearances at Walt Disney Studios Park in the Autumn, following a preview during the press conference of 1st April 2007. Luckily, this will then tie into the DVD release in the earlier markets.

All photos by Photos Magiques; Ratatouille character visuals © Disney-Pixar.

As with all attraction openings, there are two press events. The smaller, low-key public opening ceremony (already featured here) and the far grander, more show-y official inauguration ceremony reserved for press and invited guests. The last ceremony we saw like this at Walt Disney Studios, though, was…. well, 2002 perhaps?

The tendancy of the past five years to push Walt Disney Studios aside in favour of Disneyland Park has well and truly ended. There’s a lot of proud people within those Studio gates these days…

Guests enter via the open studio gates, a very rare sight!

Entering the second gate through its unique grand arch, guests were welcomed by the Ciné Classics band, as seen on regular occasions inside Disney Studio 1 and more recently even as a pre-show for CinéMagique. Notice that the 15th Anniversary banners from Disneyland Park’s entrance have now made their way to the Studios, as it finally joins the celebrations.

Ciné Classics band entertain on Front Lot before High School Musical begins.

Following this musical welcome, a special performance of High School Musical On Tour was presented just outside the entrance of Disney Studio 1 (more on this here), as this new summer show was a key additional feature in all of the resort’s communication and press material for the event, along with Ratatouille.

Red carpet leads through Disney Studio 1.

The red carpet began in Disney Studio 1, leading right up toward the exit doors and to the entrance of Toon Studio, where Disney fans amongst the invited guests were met with an exciting photo opportunity…

5 Years on, Director Mickey finally gets behind a camera.

To the side of the temporary Toon Studio gate installed several days ago, Mickey Mouse sat high on a crane camera with a live director, and even moved from side to side as he “filmed” the action of the grand opening event for his new animation studio. The image of Mickey atop this camera crane might be familiar to anyone who followed the Studios’ grand opening, since a similar photo from Disney-MGM Studios Florida was frequently used as one of those deceptive preview shots – it only took five years for the real moment to arrive!

Ciné Folies stars help to prepare the set.

If you take a look at the video featured later in this article, you’ll probably notice something a little different about Mickey’s voice. No, not that he’s speaking French (the first time in a while – all the 15th events unveiled in April feature an All-American Mickey), but that his voice was apparently performed live! Since he called the make-up artist, special effects crew to the stage and joined the ceremony at various other points from his elevated spot, letting Mickey pre-record his track and sync this with live events might have been a bit risky.

With Mickey behind the camera, we need someone else to step in and fill the role of glamorous host – who better than Minnie Mouse? She donned her glamorous white dress from the 2002 grand opening and waited on-stage for her cue as directors, technicians and make-up crew bustled around the “set”. You might recognise the actors in question from the daily Ciné Folies shows in Disney Studio 1 – some have been with the park for almost its entire five years, so it’s nice to see these talented performers rewarded with a cameo here.

Pixar stars and a huge gathering of Cast Members pour out of the land.

As it is for these “performers” too! Usually Cast Members are relegated to regular operations during a grand opening event – keeping guests to one side, making sure the attraction is ready to open – but here the entire cast of Toon Studio was invited to join the precedings and clap their clapperboards for applause. The arrival of the several hundred Cast and countless famous Disney characters to the “Dreams” Peter Pan theme music was perhaps a little reminiscent of the Disneyland 50th Anniversary launch, starting out with only a few stars on stage before a huge crowd poured out of the land’s attractions.

It’s Disney legends on one side…

You might notice something funny about the way those characters lined up either side of the red carpet… classic Disney stars on one side and new Pixar pals on the other, like a great face-off between the two animation teams! This was also the very first appearance of the Ratatouille main characters Rémy (grey) and Emile (brown) in Paris, arriving just days after their premiere at the US parks.

Notice also the stars on the temporary gate, with ‘Toon Studio’ written inside, which are very similar to the first ‘Toon Studios’ logo we saw way back in September 2005 at the special Videopolis fan event.

…Pixar pals on the other!

Press photographers were situated on the tiered viewing platform for the ceremony, whilst the invited guests filled Disney Bros. Plaza and could watch the action on the large video screen installed the day earlier. With the smaller spaces of Walt Disney Studios and the Hollywood Boulevard construction taking up much of this area, they still managed to devise a layout that would ensure a picture-perfect view of the action. After all, these events are entirely for the cameras – not least when they’re at a film Studio!

The ceremonies are about to begin…

Originally confirmed by WDSFans.com back in January, the new streetmosphere show does indeed replace Starring Cruella De Vil and feature a unique travelling stage, replicating almost entirely the ‘High School Musical Pep Rally’ shows of Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s California Adventure, as expected. Following a rehearsal day on Friday and five regular performances throughout the day on Saturday, the cast returned for a special inaugral launch presentation that evening, kicking off the Toon Studio Press Event as invited guests stepped onto Front Lot.

The show uses an almost identical format to the successful US versions, featuring a cast of athletic basketball players and cheerleaders joined by five regular students in various different clothing styles. Whilst the cheerleaders provide dance and the Wildcats a unique variety of “sports choreography” with their basketballs, the students provide additional live vocals to a pre-recorded backing track. Rather than a ‘Pep Rally’ of support for the Wildcats team, however, the story in the Paris ‘On Tour’ version of the show is that the students of East High have travelled to France for a summer vacation of special musical performances.

Guest interaction is a key part of the performance, allowing guests to join the basketball games and dance routines. Surprisingly, for the normally quite reserved DLRP audience, the interaction has proved a success and flows far less awkwardly than most other shows (such as Starring Cruella De Vil) – Disneyland Resort Paris clearly made a good choice with the popular High School Musical franchise.

Whilst the press were given a unique preview of the show on Front Lot (the first time a streetmosphere show has ever been performed here), the regular shows begin in Backlot – bringing regular streetmosphere back to this production zone for the first time since Rythmo Technico departed for Place des Stars in 2003. But, as the show comes to a conclusion with streamers (an item DLRP appear to have bought a lifetime’s supply of this year), guests will be surprised that the production then heads right towards them, travelling down Rue Georges Méliès past Armageddon for a second 11-minute performance in front of Tower of Terror, the previous performance space of Cruella.

This unique 22-minute mix of two 11-minute shows is a first for Disneyland Resort Paris, but already it’s clear through guest reaction that the show can support a double performance – many guests follow the production and watch for an “encore” showing, whilst others can hope to get a better view of the action for its second performance. The “join” between the two shows is seamless, with the cast marching along the road to a continuing soundtrack of High School Musical themes.

Whether you’re a High School Musical fan or not, their “summer vacation” in Paris looks set to be a shining success. With Crush’s Coaster and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye only just opened and returning favourites Lilo & Stitch Catch the Wave Party and Good Morning Walt Disney Studios adding even more to see, the Studios looks set to have a record Summer season.

» You can see a full gallery of ‘High School Musical On Tour’ photos here.

All photos by Photos Magiques.

For some of the guests at the official opening, there might have been a sense of déjà vu about the whole event – just one week earlier, they’d rushed into the park to be amongst the first to preview Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally as Annual Passholders. The events were a big success, as shown by the long queues to enter the area (below), despite a Fastpass-style timeslot system being implimented to give each passholder a 2-hour slot in which to preview the rides.

Despite the queues, some technical problems at Crush late in the day and general overcrowding for refreshments at Salon Mickey and the mezzanine of Disney Studio 1, the Toon Studio Preview Event was a big success for all.

(2nd June) Long queues for Annual Passholder previews.

(2nd June) Imagineer Beth Clapperton interviewed for Disneyland15.com blog.

The same weekend also saw the first low-key invasion of the press, albeit Disney’s own. The Photos Magiques camera spotted Beth Clapperton, Imagineer for Crush’s Coaster and already seen in many behind-the-scenes glimpses at the attraction, giving an interview in front of the attraction itself. Look out for this on the official Disneyland15.com blog at some point.

One week later, with previews complete and everything finally neat and pretty, it was time for the grand opening. The general smaller scale of Walt Disney Studios might have given a slightly quieter impression than the anniversary launch events of April, just two months ago, but the crowds were just as eager. To a mix of music ranging from Disney’s animated movie scores to the Peter Pan “flying” theme and “Just Like We Dreamed It”, the ceremony commenced as Arnauld Gayet, one of the two 2007 Disneyland Resort Paris Ambassadors, climed onto a small podium next to the Sorcerer Mickey marquee.

(9th June) Toon Studio grand opening ceremony.

With an impressive mix of French and English, Arnaud welcomed guests and introduced the special event, as the first Toon characters began to arrive behind him via the cadillacs of Good Morning Walt Disney Studios. Wendy Courquet, the second 2007 Ambassador, soon joined Arnaud from the empty Toon Studio behind, raving and exclaiming about each of the five attractions in the “new” land as Arnauld introduced them. Interestingly, despite the massive campaign on the esplanade, the ceremony served to inaugurate Toon Studio as en entire land, rather than to give special attention to its two brand new attractions.

With the introductions complete, several more characters welcomed (including The Incredibles) and the crowd appearing a little impatient, the guest of honour arrived to open his brand new studio – Mickey Mouse! It’s lucky that Hollywood glamour appears to never go out of style, since the dazzling white outfits worn by Mickey and Minnie might be recognised from the grand opening of the park itself, back in 2002. Mickey joined Wendy to cut the double ribbon of blue and gold, as Arnauld officially declared the new Toon Studio… “open!” with guests rushing to their chosen attraction.

The opening hasn’t been covered quite as heavily online as the huge 15th Anniversary opening events, but fans can always be relied on for capturing the magic as it happens. The following video is by Concombre2k7 on Dailymotion – ignore the apology for “poor quality”, this is just like being there:

Wait times for Crush and Cars remained impressive the entire day, with Cars Quatre Roues Rallye resting at around 50 minutes and Crush’s Coaster enjoying an everage queue of 1 hour 30 minutes, despite Cast Members warning guests the wait would be 3 hours from its entrance.

Across the park, attractions such as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Studio Tram Tour apparently rarely had wait times above 15 minutes. Kinoo on our partner website magicforum reported that total attendance at the Studios was 14,000 for the day, with around 5,000 guests heading straight towards the new attractions upon opening.

With a simple “tea cups” like Cars (albeit a brand new one) gaining a 50 minute wait that guests were reportedly quite happy to endure, the fall-out from Toon Studio will, it appears, be to now try and coax guests out of this immediately popular area and to the rest of the park.

Photos by Photos Magiques (2/06/2007) and Aaronline.nl (9/06/2007); Video by Concombre2k7.
With thanks to the opening reports from members on Disney Central Plaza and magicforum.

Wednesday, 6th June 2007. With just 3 days to go before the official opening of Toon Studio, construction walls finally disappear in the crossover between the “old” and “new” areas, forming one single, complete Toon Studio for the first time. Not only that, but crews had been busy overnight bringing in a brand new set of posters for the lighting rigs. We saw the first Snow White poster several weeks ago, and now Toon Studio is sporting a larger collection of the posters, their designs actually imported from Hong Kong Disneyland’s esplanade banners.

With construction walls gone, Willy’s Butte (the rock formation of Cars Race Rally) can now clearly be seen from the original Animation Courtyard area, forming a barrier between the courtyard and the Radiator Springs canyon beyond. The fences here, originally a clean blue behind the fences, have been weathered and rusted up for an authentic Route 66 desert feeling, especially when complemented by the wealth of planting (including many cacti) amonst the sandy soil.

The repaint of Animagique is finally completed, just in time, and we can now see the full extent of its makeover. Whilst Art of Disney Animation features blue with pink and Crush’s Coaster uses blue with blue, Animagique is set apart with its look of blue and purple. With construction fences around the Flying Carpets‘ oasis gone, we can finally enjoy this unique area in the Studios to the full – an Adventureland-style area to hide from the “Action!” elsewhere.

A final detail added to the land is the rename of the Studio Catering Co. locations. The two trailers now positioned in the land (one next to Art of Disney Animation, one beside the Toon Town gate) both feature a matching red and white colour scheme, and have been rechristened ‘Toon Studio Catering Co.’ with a slightly more prominent sponsorship by Coca-Cola. It seems that whilst Disneyland Park can have themeing delights like Cool Station and L’Arbre Enchanté, Walt Disney Studios Park must stick with a 2D sign.

Still, the new name at least separates Toon Studio even more from the rest of the park. But “the rest of the park” hasn’t been completely forgotten lately – lighting rig posters have now returned in almost all places, following their gradual demise and ultimate wipe-out through 2006.

Finally, a look at all the brand new Toon Studio character posters so far, compiled by our partner WDS Fans. The characters featured are: Snow White, Jiminy Cricket, Tinkerbell, Goofy, Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear, Ariel, Woody, Pluto, Winnie the Pooh and of course, Mickey Mouse. Who’d have thought it – decorative banners without Lumière?!

So that’s it, Toon Studio appears to be complete – finished, polished, rehearsed and ready to open…

Photos by WDS Fans and Scrooge on DMI, 5-7/06/2007.

When they said ‘Early 2008’ they really did mean early 2008. Not mid or late March as we might have guessed, but – as confirmed by the latest Walt Disney Studios Park guide map – January 2008. Following this month’s double attraction opening, January 2008 looks as if it will also welcome two brand new attractions to Walt Disney Studios. Typical, isn’t it, we wait five years for new attractions and then two come in the same month, twice!

Anyone who follows other Disney resorts around the world will know the immense rehearsal schedule these “Living Character” shows go through before their official premiere, so if January 2008 is the official opening, the first guests through the turnstiles could potentially come much sooner – especially when we remember the contract for Stitch’s voice performers begins as early as October.

We can also garner a little more information about the attraction from this latest park map update. The attraction is still listed in bold as ‘Walt Disney Television Studios‘ – the name of the building and its former attraction, with “Stitch interactive attraction” below. Both the April press release and recent Shareholders newsletter also named the attraction with this vague statement, suggesting the Imagineers and operations haven’t agreed on the final moniker yet.

Since ‘Walt Disney Television Studios’ is still used here, could we see the latest in Disney’s new craze of double attraction names (see Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island), with a name along the lines of ‘Stitch Encounter at Walt Disney Television Studios’? In reality, this wouldn’t be too different to the former attraction, which opened as ‘Television Production Tour at Walt Disney Television Studios’ before later being shortened.

But this is just a name – for the attraction itself, this sign of clinging on to the ‘Walt Disney Television Studios’ name suggests that the show may well be presented slightly differently to its Hong Kong Disneyland Tomorrowland original, perhaps with a more studio-based edge.

At least with this early early 2008 opening, we don’t have long to “wait and see”…

Park map scan provided by WDSFans.com.

Here it is!

Along the same lines as the Crush’s Coaster whirlpool and Cars Race Rally route 66 visuals released last year in anticipation of their openings, this is the final ‘Key Visual’ for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror…

Expect to see this in brochures, advertisements, billboards, magazine adverts and more as the build-up to one of the resort’s biggest attraction launch campaigns ever gets started this November and December. Fans might recognise the visual as a reworking of that used for Disney’s California Adventure (below), but the Paris version has an undoubtedly more terrifying edge to it.

Following the style of the Crush’s Coaster and Cars visuals, the image also uses Sleeping Beauty Castle rather than Walt Disney Studios park’s icon, the Earful Tower. Sure to cause uproar again for fans, but for the “simple public” it’s a quick indicator exactly where the world’s fourth Tower of Terror is headed.

Key visual © Disney.