Is everybody recovered from last weekend’s mayhem? Good! Today’s news column has little to do with that. But it does have to do with some big Disney news, and we know you love that or you wouldn’t be here.
Everything’s Bigger in China
Remember when we chatted about how in Hong Kong bigger is “more,” and in Mainland China bigger is “size”? Here’s another example: The world’s largest branch of The Disney Store just opened in Shanghai last week. The store is 9,257 square feet in size and has an outdoor plaza, according to Disney’s New York peeps. It’s in the heavily-visited tourist area Lujiazui, which gets about 40 million visitors annually. The store will have the usual mix of Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Pooh, Princesses, you know the drill. The building boasts a Mickey Mouse-shaped roof which will be home to a musical projection show (Is Steve Davison doing it? Dunno. Wouldn’t doubt it.) The decor is what you’d expect, classic Disney, with lots of sculpted hot air balloons all over and a very celebratory look. As of this posting, there are over 200 Disney Stores in North America, over 70 in Europe and almost 50 in Japan, where they seriously have all the coolest stuff. Shanghai Disneyland is slated to open sometime in 2016, and Shanghainese people got a sneak preview of what to expect when the park opens, standing in a line well over 2.5 miles long while waiting for the store to open. Thank about that for a moment. Now, just imagine what opening day for the theme park is going to look like.
OLD(er) news from OLC
And it’s actually pretty huge. My bad for not getting to it sooner. Tokyo Disneyland is getting a New Fantasyland a la Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom plus more, and a nice expansion on Tomorrowland and backstage parking. It’ll be theirs and theirs only. Images released by Oriental Land Company show the entrance to Be Our Guest very similar to that of Walt Disney World’s version,
but an Alice in Wonderland area that looks more like Disneyland Paris.
Over on the other side, Tokyo DisneySea will get a new “Scandinavian inspired” (read: Arendale) port, located South of Lost River Delta:
And it will be beautiful, because everything at Tokyo DisneySea is beautiful. Here’s the proposed layout.
Remember: everything in the entire Disney universe is subject to change. Always.
Oh, No, Here Comes Mary Freakin’ Sunshine
I have to admit it. I loved the living hell out of all three new spectaculars at Disneyland. I said so many curse words during World of Color: Celebrate I filled up the jar and am helping to finance the MiceChat October Invasion trip. Disneyland Forever made me ugly cry into Steve Davison’s nice suit (but I learned that Benefit’s new mascara is super waterproof! Yay!) And Paint the Night made me finally love Baroque Hoedown. I loved them all. If they’re cheesy, I’ll take another helping of Stilton, please and thank you. Also this:
“I felt Walt Disney had a lot of heart and this song, ‘A Kiss Goodnight,’ is for him. It commemorates the 60th Anniversary of Disneyland opening and it’s for Walt because he’s the one who came up with the idea of having fireworks at the end of the night. He wanted to give the folks who were leaving after a day at the park a little extra gift from him, and that was why he called it a little kiss goodnight. So as they leave, and they see fireworks shooting in the sky and they hear music and see Tinker Bell flying across the sky, all these things were Walt Disney’s gift to his guests. That story inspired this song, ‘A Kiss Goodnight’ for the new fireworks show. After all these years, people still get a kiss goodnight, so this is very special for me.” – Richard M. Sherman, Disney Legend and composer of a new song for the “Disneyland Forever” fireworks spectacular, adding to his repertoire of Disney songs, many written with his brother, Robert B. Sherman
He wrote “A Kiss Goodnight” to Walt. That just shoots a pixie-dust covered arrow through the heart of my cynicism. I have to go watch some George Sanders movies and read Dorothy Parker til I get at least a little of my snark back. Not too much, mind you. Just enough. See you next time.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got Disney news to share, please contact me at [email protected]
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