Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Past Attractions...

Hey all...

Ok I know it's been a few days since my last post... Sorry. Anyway I've been slammed with going through hours and hours of old Disney VHS tapes that we have. I'm talking Horizons, World of Motion, Universe of Energy, Illuminations, Hall of Presidents, WedWay etc...

Time for a quick WDW update, we were at the Kingdom this weekend and it was PACKED. Low attendance my ..... Anyway we stayed for a few hours but really didn't want to deal with the crowds. When Hall of Presidents has a massive line you know the parks are loaded.

So come check us out at Themed Attractions and say hey in the forums. We have more and more photos online each day (Currently over 9000) and hundreds of videos coming online in the next couple of months.

vfxpro

Monday, April 10, 2006

Pirates of the Caribbean is OPEN... For Now..

We went to the Magic Kingdom this weekend and got to ride Pirates. It had 5 minute wait, so we jumped on. I was told by a CM that POTC would be open through Easter and then closed back down. Honestly I didn't notice many changes, so if new effects had been installed or anything had been changed it was negligable. I'm assuming the major rehab will take place between May and July.

These changes are more subtle than what I was expecting. I was told that by the premiere of the second film POTC would have very advanced effects installed. I was informed by a few people at WDI that the skeleton steering the ship at the beginning of the attraction will turn his head and 'appear' to look human and say "Dead Men DO Tell Tales" and then turn back into a skeleton. After the drop a ghost pirate will appear and swing his sword at the boat and disappear. As for the new AAs here is what Screamscape says:

Disney has officially confirmed that they will be adding new figures of Captain Jack Sparrow and his nemesis Captain Barbossa to the storyline of the world famous Pirates of the Caribbean ride, in a “race to be the first to claim a cache of plundered treasure.” The new figures will be integrated into several of the ride’s famous scenes and interacting with some of your favorite classic figures from the past. The ghostly Davy Jones character from the upcoming sequel opening this summer will also make a guest appearance as well as a slew of all new special effects to be added throughout. The upgrade to the rides will happen to both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the ride, with both scheduled to close down in March and open just in time for the premier of the new film. Disneyland’s ride will reopen on June 24th while the Disney World version wont open until July 7th, the same day as the new film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.


So we spent the weekend at the Kingdom and despite bizarre weather we were able to get some great video. Check it out:

http://www.themedattractions.com/video.html

Thursday, April 06, 2006

If I controlled the 'World'

I've always been a WDW enthusiast, the park means everything to me.. As I've mentioned many times, the direct reason I became an Artist is EPCOT Center. I owe the creators of that park quite a bit. That being said, a good friend asked me "If you were given complete control of WDW today, what would you do?" Certainly not a simple answer, not for me anyway. So I thought I'd post my response here. I'm not going to be practical or budget concious. So don't freak out if my project would cost 50 billion dollars..

TRANSPORTATION

Get rid of the buses and only use them for high capacity times and emergencies. Replace bus routes with a more effective Monorail and WedWay system. Like Uncle Walt said, I would have Monorails for the long distances and Wedway for the short. At each monorail station would be a hub for the wedway stations. Imagine getting off at the EPCOT Monorail station and hopping onto a wedway, then the guest picks a destination on a control panel which takes them to their selected EPCOT area resort. Along the journey they can enjoy the view or watch related video on the plasma screen in the cab. If guests are riding the monorail or wedway cars during a fireworks display, they can catch a live broadcast of RoE, Wishes or Fanstamic. Or they can push a button and talk to a cast member via the plasma screen and make reservations, get park hours, etc. I would also make more use of the boat systems. Both the wedways and monorails would travel through lush environments and showcase attractions while the guests travel to their destination.

I would have a boat dock at DAK that would take guests to and from The DAK Lodge.

MAGIC KINGDOM

As far as attractions go, I would remove all of the character attractions from Tomorrowland and move them to the studios.

I would create attractions more in line with the future and revamp the whole look of the land. I think it would look better even if we went back to what it looked like in 1986.

Revamp Space Mountain..

MGM STUDIOS

I would continue what WDI started and make MGM Disney's 'Thrill Park'. I would put the Little Mermaid attractions from tokyo, Monsters Inc Attraction, Stitch's Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (With Hand Held Guns), Cars attraction and an Aladdin Attraction all in the Animation section.

Seeing how ABC and ESPN are owned by Disney I would add more soundstages to the backlot tour and shoot ABC / ESPN content there. Plus add the lava monster or something else exciting to the tour in addition to Catastrophe Canyon.

Star Tours 2.0 would be installed.

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular would be replaced with an Indy Ride that would combine all of the effects and features of the other Disney Indy Attractions.

Bring back Alien Encounter and install it over sounds dangerous or Millionaire. Put it in the themed building that John Hench designed and make the attraction less cheesy.

Add Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as a few other Dark rides, coaster attractions and E tickets.

Using PeopleMover cars themed like old street cars, add in park transportation.

Change the great movie ride to a thrill ride that puts guests in front of Disney's greatest villians.

EPCOT

Refurbish Spaceship Earth, change the ending to be more futuristic and bring back Earth Station.

Put 'Time Racers' somewhere else in Future World.

Remove the hideous arm that looms over Spaceship Earth.

Add more nature and trees but in a modern fashion.

Have World of Motion 2.0 created in a pavillion next to Test Track. Have WoM spill into a massive Trans Center and permanent 'Auto Show in Motion' with access to Test Track. So the GM pavillion would gobble up a large crowd and alleviate some of the traffic. Bring back the WorldKey information system.

Add in park transportation.

Build a huge pavillion that houses a new omnimover attraction (like a new Horizons) spills into something like the communicore and from there guests can ride three simulators; Mission: Space, Undersea, Desert...

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Open up Beastly Kingdom and add several more E-ticket attractions.
Add in park transportation.

I have tons of ideas but not enough time to write them now. This is a start...

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

About vfxpro..

Ok, so I thought I'd let you know a little about this guy who is blogging about WDW...

My name is Sean Mullen, I'm a graduate of Full Sail and I've been a graphic artist and compositor for over nine years. I've got over 60 credits in feature films and television. I've worked on numerous music videos, commercials and motion simulator attractions. Right now I design graphics and work on various multimedia for Walt Disney World as well as many other major entertainment companies.

I am a Disney freak, no doubt. I study John Hench's work on a regular basis. I grew up going to Walt Disney World dozens of times a year and now I live about 5 minutes away from Disney's Animal Kingdom. My goal is to work for Walt Disney Imagineering. I've met with several members of WDI and they are nothing short of inspiring and are always interested in talking shop. I'm hoping to work for Theme Park Productions one day. The last time I interviewed there was during the reign of Eisner and cutbacks were plentiful.

Just thought I'd let you know a little about myself so you aren't asking, why should I care what this guy has to say about Walt Disney World? Sure, you're probably still going to ask yourself that... So when I'm not working on a Disney Commercial, bus video, in-room video or other Disney project, I'm in the parks having a blast and taking the photos to prove it.

You can see thousands of Disney photos and tons of videos that I have shot at:
http://www.themedattractions.com if you do stop by, say hey in the forums and let us know you visited.

vfxpro

Welcome to vfxpro's WDW blog!

Hey there.. Welcome to vfxpro's WDW blog. I run a site called Themed Attractions http://www.themedattractions.com where you can find over 8,500 photos of Disney parks, tons of video and forums.

Ok now that the shameless plug is done I can get back to business. This blog is a pseudo-daily mostly weekly update of my journeys at Walt Disney World. I'm usually there between 3 - 4 times a week.

Last night I was at EPCOT, still an extremely memorable place for me. I miss EPCOT Center. I miss Horizons, the Chroma Key Theater, Earth Station, Communicore, Gero, Backstage Magic, the WorldKey Information System, World of Motion, and all of the other components of EPCOT Center. Anyway I still have a great time at the new EPCOT nonetheless. I got off of work in Celebration and went to the park around 7pm. We got in the main entrance and the place was relatively quiet. This was a little surprising seeing that this weekend was so busy that Hall of Presidents at the MK had a massive line.

So Mission:Space had a 5 minute wait, Soarin and Test Track both had less than 25 minute waits. (They were posted at 40 minutes, but we walked through both in less than 25)

We loved it, the night was perfect. Unfortunately Test Track had run out of fast passes so my wife and I walked around World Showcase, had some Kir Royal at France, headed over to Japan and had a light dinner. We then headed to Test Track, you can see the video of it here http://www.themedattractions.com/video.html and had a blast. As soon as we got off of TT we headed back to World Showcase and caught a great view of Reflections of Earth. I noticed that they are projecting the spinning Earth graphics on SSE at the end of the night along with a plug for Siemens.

Ok so that was just last night. Fair warning to those of you coming to WDW this week, it's Spring Break and the place is packed. I called some friends who went to the MK last night and they did not have then uncrowded experience my wife and I had at EPCOT.

I'm off to work the day job.. More later.