Category: Disney California Adventure

The first pictures from inside the new Blue Sky Cellar have popped up on the OC Register’s Around Disney Blog. Some of the concept featured inside we’ve seen, a lot we haven’t, so it’s definitely worth checking out. Our very own Myrna Litt will be at the Resort tomorrow for the first AP Preview day, so she’ll be sure to get some great pictures for everybody.

Also posted on the Around Disney Blog was a little guide to the Cellar, with interviews, descriptions, rough opening dates for some of the attraction re-dos, & more:

Walking into the new Blue Sky Cellar in Disney’s California Adventure is like sneaking into an Disney artists’ design studio while the Imagineers are out to lunch.

The Cellar in the Golden Vine Winery is the latest attraction, giving park guests a preview of what’s to come in the theme park’s expansion.

The 1,717 square foot Blue Sky Cellar showcases sketches, models and artwork created by Disney Imagineers.  The new attractions showcased in the cellar are family attractions, focusing on classic Disney characters.

“The Blue Sky Cellar gives more of a behind the scenes feel, so guests can get a sense of our process.” said Bob Weis, Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering.

The cellar has a few different mock-ups of work stations, each devoted to a different aspect of the park. The attraction is set up as if it were an Imagineer’s studio.

“These notecards you see, that’s the way I work,” said Imagineer spokeswoman Marilyn Waters. “This looks like where I work, except it’s a little neater.”

A major section of the cellar focuses on Paradise Pier.  The architecture will give the area an aura of the 1920s.  The land will, “celebrate the romance and charm of great seaside amusement parks”, said John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, in a video featured in the Blue Sky Cellar.

Models of ride vehicles used in Toy Story Midway Mania show some of the Imagineer’s process in developing new attractions.

Midway Mania, which opened last June, was the first step in the theme park’s expansion.

“It’s the first step in adding big elements to Paradise Pier that feel like it’s park of a time period,” Weis said.

That feeling will extend around the land through the upcoming Mickey Wheel and Midway Games.

The Mickey Wheel will replace the park’s current attraction, The Sun Wheel.  The sun face will be replaced by a vintage “pie-cut eyed” Mickey face.  Different vintage Disney characters will be featured on each gondola.

The Boardwalk games will be rethemed  with characters from classic Disney films.  The games include “Casey at the Bat,” based on a segment of “Make Mine Music;” “Dumbo Bucket Brigade,” from the movie “Dumbo;” “Goofy About Fishin’,” based on the Goofy cartoon “How to Fish;” and “Bullseye Stallion Stampede,” from the Pixar Film “Toy Story.”

The goal of these attractions as well as the other new additions to Disney’s California Adventure is to “bring more Disney richness through more characters,” Weis said.

The World of Color will be a new night show that will celebrate music from classic Disney and Pixar movies and will take place in Paradise Bay.  The show will use fire, water and other special effects.  During the day, the area will be a park with trees and a fountain.

The show and improvements to the Paradise Bay area are scheduled to open in 2010.

The current Mulholland Madness rollercoaster will be given a new story overlay, called “Goofy’s Sky Skool.”

The Orange Stinger will be restyled as Silly Symphony Swings.  The ride will be based on the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color called, “The Band Concert” which premiered in 1935.

Among the changes to the attraction will be a covered queue with twinkling lights and a shady pavilion underneath and a Mickey figure on top of the attraction.  The ride will create the illusion of guests swinging out over the water.

Silly Symphony Swings will open in Spring of 2010.

Golden Dreams, which closed in September, will be replaced with a dark-ride attraction based on “The Little Mermaid”.  The immersive attraction will take guests under the sea and through scenes and songs from the film.

The park’s main entrance will be inspired by architecture of Los Angeles in the 1920s, when Walt Disney first arrived in California.  The area, soon to be known as Buena Vista Street, will feature shops and a replica of the Carthay Circle Theatre, where “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiered.

The entrance will embrace Walt Disney’s passion for trains through the addition of Red Trolley Cars, reminiscent of the Pacific Electric Red Car that once ran throughout Los Angeles County.  The trolley will take guests from the main entrance to The Hollywood Tower of Terror.

Cars Land will be a 12-acre expansion of the park into what is now a Disney parking lot, recreating the town of Radiator Springs from the movie “Cars”.

“The ‘Cars’ movie is incredibly popular,” Weis said. ”There’s a new audience for it and there’s a revered sense for those characters. Cars Land is an interesting collaboration between us at the park and Pixar.  To have (Pixar head) John Lasseter personally involved is a lot of fun.”

Three new rides will be added to the land, including Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Flying Tires.

“Then the pinnacle, the E-ticket ride of the land: Radiator Springs Racers,” Lasseter said in the video.

The land will also have food, retail and live entertainment.

“It will be something exclusive to the west coast,” Weis said.

The new land will be located just across from the Blue Sky Cellar.  Cars Land will be the final installment of the California Adventure expansion, set to open in 2012.

The Blue Sky Cellar will remain open for the next four years as the park continues its expansion.

“It is designed to be updated frequently,” Weis said. “We treat it like a dynamic space.”  The Blue Sky Cellar opens to the public on October 20.