A Fresh Look at the Latest Disneyland Resort Expansion 9/1/2016

It has been a little over a year since I last tackled how to do expansions at the Disneyland Resort, and now we have a little more of an idea of what Disney is thinking in regards to locations for where intellectual properties are being built as well as which intellectual properties are coming to the parks. First I'll go over what Disney has officially announced since my last post, then I'll go over all of my ideas based on that as well as some of the rumors for both ride and entertainment offerings)

What Disney Has Announced:

Disneyland Park:

• Star Wars Land was announced at the D23 expo last summer. Now I was a little right about a Star Wars area being built, I was just wrong about where. It is being built along the backside of Disneyland's Rivers of America (The northwest corner) and will connect what is currently a dead end in Critter Country to the outskirts of Frontier land. However to do this massive undertaking they are also re-routing the Disneyland Railroad, shortening Tom Sawyer's Island, and re-routing the back end of the Rivers of America to accommodate space for Star Wars Land.
• Star Wars Land is the biggest expansion to Disneyland Park in its history at an impressive 14 acres and is going to be as immersive as Cars Land in Disney California Adventure. This massive new area of the park is being built on mostly what used to be backstage area, though the Big Thunder Ranch did have to close to make way for the access point from Frontier Land to Star Wars.

• With the re-routing of the Rivers of America as well as the Disneyland Railroad it is rumored that there will be a new marina to store all the barges/floats for Fantasmic!, the current marina is mostly hidden from guests however with a keen eye you can see it from the Disneyland Railroad because you'll see the top of Tic-Toc. The rumor is that the new Fantasmic! marina will be under Star Wars Land completely hidden from guests and that the entrance to the Rivers of America will be hidden by a waterfall, not unlike the entrance to a Bond villain lair.

• Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Disneyland proudly presents our spectacular festival pageant of nighttime magic and imagination. In thousands of sparkling lights, and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sound. The Main Street Electrical Parade. returning to Disneyland in early 2017 for the first time since 1996 (to be fair it did return to the resort only in California Adventure from 2001-2010 but this is the first time it has returned to Disneyland's Main Street since '96). In the announcement it says the parade will be here for a limited time so it could be as short a run as January-May, June, or July when Fantasmic! returns.

• Also announced this summer was the brand new Frightfully Fun Parade to debut at Mickey's Halloween Party this year. The new parade will be led by the Headless Horseman, then you will be greeted by Jack Skellington (the Pumpkin King) and the inhabitants of Halloween Town. You will also see the ghosts of the Haunted Mansion come to life (sounds like this part is being cloned from WDW's Boo To you Parade). After that Dr. Facillier will summon his sinister shadows along the parade route, and rounding out the bunch will be the Villains in a dungeon like lair.

Disney California Adventure:

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. That is the name of the first legit Marvel attraction to be added to the Disneyland Resort, it is replacing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which will close on January 2, 2017. Guardians is scheduled to open Summer 2017 and will take guests through the Collector's museum where he has all sorts of oddities from throughout the cosmos (I hope one of the exhibits will be Cosmo, the talking Russian astronaut dog). As it turns out the Guardians have been captured by the Collector and the guests will be helping them breakout.

Downtown Disney, Hotels, and other Resort infrastructure:

• A new 5-star hotel has been announced to be built on part of the existing Downtown Disney parking lot, basically on the parking lot side of New Orleans Square. Rumor is that the new hotel will offer views of the fireworks and Fantasmic, which likely means the exterior of the hotel will be themed to New Orleans if it will be visible from inside the park. Disney hasn't announced a theme or title for the new hotel yet but I think this is likely.
• Along with the new Hotel Disney is also going to build a new parking garage near it to accommodate the hotel guests as well as make up for the parking they are taking away from Downtown Disney. I haven't seen anything super concrete about the parking garage location nor the exact location of the Hotel so I estimated where the new Hotel will be on the map (see bottom of the page).

• Disney has also announced their new Eastern Gateway project. This will be a new parking garage housing 6,800 vehicles build on top of what is currently the Pumbaa parking lot. Disney also acquired the properties at 1515 and 1585 Manchester Ave last year. The site of the US Immigration building is staying (for the time being), however the other side of it will be the new ART/Bus/Taxi drop off area. From there you will go through the Eastern Gateway security checkpoint and follow the 1/2 mile path to the main gates at Disneyland and California Adventure. Based on the plans they released to Anaheim (public).

• House of Blues has left Downtown Disney for a bigger venue at Anaheim Garden Walk leaving a nice sized vacancy. The House of Blues closed at Disneyland on May 29th of this year and the new GardenWalk location is scheduled to open in November

Rumors & My Ideas:

Disneyland Park:

• Fantasmic! is returning in summer 2017, that is for sure, but the rumors are about how much of the show will have changed when it returns. From what I can tell it sounds like basically the only parts staying the same are the big clash between Mickey and Maleficent, and then the finale (Mark Twain w/ characters through the end with Mickey on the island conducting fireworks). So lets examine some of the rumors, first is that Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook aboard the Columbia will be replaced by Captain Jack Sparrow fighting Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean and that the pirates will be digitally projected on to switch from human to skeletal pirates. This would also mean that the Columbia would become the Black Pearl during Fantasmic. Now this could be true because the most recent photos from the park show the Columbia missing the upper sections of its' masts suggesting some serious overhauling of the masts and rigging. Personally I'm very interested to see this. Another rumor is that there will be a Frozen segment (cue the haters) where the river would be iced over, much lie how it goes ablaze when Maleficent lights it on fire. Color me curious to see how they manage to pull off freezing the river during Fantasmic. Personally I'm hoping Jungle Book will stay whether live action or animated because I LOVE that segment, and I also desperately want Ariel w/ Eric, and Belle w/ Beast to still be in the show as they are my favorite characters in the whole show. I'd be very happy of Rapunzel and Flynn got added in the new version of the show. I also wonder if the soundtrack will sound so obviously 90s in segments like the Princess Medley.

• Paint The Night Parade - When can we do this again? Well from the latest rumors it sounds like it will in fact be returning after a lengthy refurbisment throughout the end of 2016 and the first part of 2017. I imagine that it may become a seasonal offering after this, or perhaps a weekend only and nightly during peak attendance times, much like Fantasmic and the Fireworks normally are. Time will tell but I'm excited that it sounds like Paint The Night isn't glowing away forever because it is my favorite parade Disneyland has created since the Lion King Parade in 1994.

• Fantasy Land Expansion - Arendelle is one of the ideas I had last summer taking over part of Toon Town, well now I'm adjusting my earlier suggestion and moving it to the west from where I'd originally put it. I'd had it replacing Roger Rabbit and Gag Factory, but now I'm leaning more towards the residential part of Toon Town as well as the area currently backstage between Toon Town and where Star Wars Land is being built, highlighted in Blue in the second image below.

• Another part of what I'd love to see for a Fantasyland Expansion is still a section dedicated to Beauty and the Beast. However I'm modifying the location prediction, originally I'd put it as a replacement of the Small World Mall and the old Motor Boat Cruise area, but due to the monorail beams I'm thinking it makes more sense to replace the Fantasy Land Theater (highlighted in Yellow in the second image below), and I'm thinking we could see possibly the new Beauty and the Beast ride from Tokyo Disney and the Be Our Guest Restaurant.

• And Finally, I also still want to see Rapunzels Tower put in Fantasyland, even if it is for nothing more then a meet and greet or maybe bathrooms like in WDW, her tower is too gorgeous not to be in Disneyland. I've highlighted the area I think it would fit best in Lavender in the second image below.

• Over in Tomorrowland I'm not quite sure what they are thinking but I think until Star Wars Land opens we should expect the Season of the Force offerings (Hyperspace Mountain, Star Wars journey to Force Awakens in Magic Eye theater, and Star Wars Launch Bay) to remain so it will be a while before we see any significant Tomorrowland overhauls, but I'd love to see the Tron Lightcycle coaster from Shanghai cloned for Disneyland.

Disney California Adventure:

•  Marvel - Here is where I get to direct your attention back to that Eastern Gateway image that Disney released. in it notice how there is a large gap between the current north edge of DCA and the pedestrian bridge. Well my gut says that area (or most of it) will be absorbed by DCA to be a part of the new Marvel area of the park, as well as the area that is left over from the old Timon parking lot between Tower of Terror, Bug's Land, and Cars Land, making the Marvel area stretch all the way along the east side of the park. The first image below show how the Eastern Gateway path lines up with the parks. The second image below I highlighted the area I expect Marvel to takeover in Red (a little hard to see in the Northern area but look carefully)

•  At this point I think it is safe to assume 2 things about the new Marvel area of DCA. 1st is that the Iron Man ride opening in Hong Kong Disneyland will be cloned for this area. 2nd is that we will see the Avengers Tower build in the city, where, I'm not sure, but I think those 2 are for sure going to happen.

• Paradise Pier - I still believe that Disney intends to install a new ride in the southwest side of Paradise Pier to replace the old Maliboomer (removed September 2010). I have 2 tentative ideas, 1 seems more likely but the other could also work. First idea is a Lilo and Stitch ride based in Hawaii/the beach. The second idea is dependent on Moana's box office and audience performance. If it is a huge hit and makes a ton of $$$$ for Disney then I expect they would want to put a ride based on the movie in the parks and the only place in Disneyland Resort that it could work thematically and actually has room for it is in Paradise Pier.

• Potential New Parade Route for Disney's Electrical Parade. Because I'm hoping that Disneyland will want to keep the Electrical Parade running after next summer I've come up with a viable alternate parade route for it to take. It wouldn't be able to take the normal parade route because it would be along the World of Color viewing area and it would cause a logistics nightmare. In the below image I've marked the current parade route with a solid Green line and the new alternate route with a dashed Green line.

Downtown Disney/Hotels/Infrastructure:

• Monorail re-routing to accommodate the Eastern Gateway bridge. In the image that Disney released I noticed it looks like the Monorail will be re-routed to make room for the new bridge and walkway. I've highlighted that new path for the Monorail in Yellow so that it will stand out against the satellite view of the parks.

• With the former location of House of Blues now vacant and its proximity to the show building for Indiana Jones, I'm hoping we can see and Indiana Jones themed bar like the one that recently opened at Disney World's Disney Springs shopping/dining area take that spot. I would really like to be able to have that experience at Disneyland, not just over in Florida.

• Based on the location of the pedestrian entrance to the new Parking Garage being build at the Eastern Gateway compared to Gardenwalk I think it is even more obvious now that Disney is going to be trying to buy out Gardenwalk and turn it into a Downtown Disney East. I have highlighted Gardenwalk in Blue in the image below.

• If Disney does in fact acquire Gardenwalk I think they will build a new hotel or maybe even 2 on the undeveloped land next to the mall. They could fit 1-2 tower style hotels like Disneyland & Paradise Pier Hotels on those 2 plots of land.
• Cast Member Parking Garage, this will aim to make the cast parking lot connected to the Katella parking lot become obsolete and unnecessary. Within the last year or so Disney completed and opened a new Cast parking lot up to the North end of the property at the North East corner of the intersection at Ball Rd & Harbor BLVD which currently holds approximately 1300 cars. The Katella cast lot currently holds approximately 2900 cars. So theoretically if Disney were to build a 5 level parking garage with capacity around 6000 on the Ball cast lot location it would eliminate the need for the Katella cast lot. I've highlighted both parking lots in green in the images below. The first image is the Katella lot, the second image is the Ball cast lot and location where I think the cast garage should be built.

Third Park, Water Park, & Beyond:

• Both a Water Park and a third theme park have been rumored to be added to Disneyland Resort for 20 years. But it has never seemed more likely that they will announce a new park as now. Personally I still believe that they could fit a Typhoon  Lagoon size Water Park in the area to the South West of the Disneyland Resort Property (West of DCA, South of Paradise Pier Hotel), which leaves the current Toy Story parking lot available to become a 3rd theme park. With the Star Wars and Marvel announcements over the last 2 years at D23 expo and San Diego Comic Con, I'm at a loss for an anchor theme for the 3rd park, but I think we'll begin to hear more rumors about it as time goes on. In the images below I've highlighted the area I want to see a Water Park in Purple and the Toy Story parking lot (future 3rd park) in Orange.

• Finally Below is an overview image to highlight all the areas I've talked about and show how it all connects together:

Disneyland Resort Expansion ideas... updated 8/4

The following is a break down of how I would expand the Disneyland Resort based on the current themed lands, the properties that Disney space Disney has to work with, and the various franchises that Disney owns. So without further adieu....

Disneyland Park

Fantasyland expansion:

• Rapunzel’s Tower to replace the old Skyway station in Fantasyland, the tower will act as a meet and greet location for Rapunzel and Flynn. Lanterns will be projected against the building at night every 15 minutes when “I See The Light” plays. 

• Beauty and the Beast village and ride to replace the old Motorboat area, which has sat unused for far too long. The village will include a spot to meet Gaston, and another area to meet Belle and the Beast. The ride will be on a scale to rival the Little Mermaid ride in DCA, and the façade will be Beasts’ Castle, the 2 big show scenes will be “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Also Gaston will be featured in the ride both for the tavern scene “Gaston”, and again with a climactic fight between him and the Beast, you will pass underneath them into the ballroom again where everyone is human. Also, the Maurice’s Treats cart currently in Fantasy Faire will be moved over to this section.

• ToonTown will be gutted and completely replaced as more Fantasyland expansion (read my plans for Roger Rabbit in the DCA section)

• Arendelle will be the first thing on the other side of the train station and will be the east side of the current Toon Town location. The ride will be inside Anna & Elsa’s castle, and the gates that close each night when the Fireworks ar happening will be the palace gates. The Toon Town hills will be replaced to look snowy and Elsa’s palace will be up there in the distance. The ride will essentially be where Roger Rabbit is now, and where they currently just have a play area near the attraction exit will become a meet and greet location for Anna, Elsa, and Olaf. The Gag Factory store will be replaced by Oaken’s Trading Post.

• On the west side of this area will be a new permanent location for Nightmare Before Christmas (so as not to have to do the overlay at Haunted Mansion as NBC, but instead take out those elements). The forest with the doors to the different holidays will be how you transition from Arendelle to here. And you will be able to meet Jack Skellington daily, he will be seasonally joined by Sally and Oogie Boogie.

• Continuing west from Halloweentown is the city of Agrabah, which will have 2 main focal points. The first you will see will be the Cave of Wonders, which will be the entrance for the Aladdin ride. The ride will be flying in the magic carpet. The vehicle will be able to old 2 rows of 2-3 guests (like most Fantasyland dark rides). This will utilize the same track system as the Peter Pan ride only will have double the capacity per vehicle. You are on a Magic carpet ride where you will start in the Cave of Wonders when Aladdin finds the carpet, you will then go through scenes of Aladdin getting the lamp, meeting the Genie (Never Had a Friend Like me will be a large room). You continue through to Agrabah where you meet Jasmine and fly over various places as you hear A Whole New World. Places you will see include the pyramids, Greece, Agrabah, Cave of Wonders, and more. You will then go into the last main scene, which will be a showdown with Jafar he will transform into a snake and a genie and attack you. Then the finale room is Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie, and the Sultan in a celebratory scene. When you exit the ride you will be in Agrabah itself where there will be a shop and a restaurant. And in the palace (only 3 real towers, the rest is forced perspective/façade), you will be able to meet Aladdin, Jasmine, and the Genie.

• Another slight change would be a completely back of house change but will have a positive effect on the guest experience. This would be to have the backstage road after the parade gate make an immediate down grade of 4 degrees. This would get low enough that by the time the parade floats were to pass the train tracks they would actually be going underneath the track, then after they have cleared the track the grade will go up again until back the street level. The reason this will help the guest experience is because it will make it so that the Disneyland Railroad won't have to take breaks during the parades anymore and guests wishing to get from one section to the park to another will no longer have to try to fight the crowds along the parade route.

Frontierland expansion:

• Pocahontas: Around the River Bend, will be a new attraction where you ride in a boat and will take over the current area of the Festival Arena as well as part of the Circle D ranch “beyond the berm”. Also this new Pocahontas area will be perfectly aligned with the Indian village visible from the Rivers of America. On the main trail side of the Indian Village will be where Pocahontas herself will greet guests along with Meeko and seasonally John Smith.
  

• Streetmosphere entertainment will be increased in Frontierland featuring a new bandit type stunt/chase show that will take place along the roof of the Frontierland shops, as well as incorporating other Disney characters that would fit in Frontierland like Lone Ranger and Tonto, Davy Crockett, etc. These characters would only be in these entertainments and maybe meet guests once a day.h

New Orleans Square/Critter Country expansion:

• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will be a new attraction based on Princess and the Frog. It can be in either New Orleans Square (though there isn’t much room for it) or in Critter Country, and it would follow the part of the movie where Tiana and Naveen are frogs, and end when they turn human again. Thematically it would work in either section of the park, it is more of a question of where there is more room for it without taking out anything currently between Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mt but potentially could replace the Winnie the Pooh ride. Also a walking path will be added between Critter Country and Pocahontas so no more dead end in CC.

Adventureland expansion:

• With Aladdin having a new home in Fantasyland area the Oasis is now freed up to be a home to Lion King and Jungle Book characters. In the Lion King half will be a puppet of Simba, a puppet of Pumbaa, and then Timon and Rafiki are walking around. In the Jungle Book half of the area you will see Baloo and King Louie. Basically you will always be able to see Simba in here and the other characters will rotate but you’ll see at least 3.

Tomorrowland expansion:

• Flynn’s Arcade will replace the current Starcade (this is one of the simpler changes) and will house Tron and Wreck-it Ralph inspired arcade games. This arcade will also permanently have meet and greet locations for Wreck-it Ralph, Vanellope, and Tron.

• Tomorrowland Theater will get a new 4D short film and it will be inspired by Wall-E. Film will run about 15 minutes, and the pre show video will be the along the lines of the Burn-E short.

• Tron Light Cycle coaster “Greetings Programs”, this coaster will take over the former People Mover track, Autopia track, as well as the Innoventions building and will be the coaster from Shanghai, only utilizing what is already at Disneyland for infrastructure. (I’ll explain what to do with Autopia later in the DCA portion of this).

• Astro Orbiter will once again be up above where the Rocket Jets used to be as opposed to on the ground level. This will bring more excitement to the attraction and will remove the disgusting bottleneck at the entrance to Tomorrowland.

 

Disney California Adventure

Hollywoodland:

• Hyperion Theater receives a new facade, it will no longer look like the street continues but instead will look like a legit theater with an indoor lobby, concessions, etc. Also, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights the theater will offer performances of a past Disney Broadway show for an additional $15 charge (full length show), during the days a much more simple show. 

• Toon Town (light) relocation to the North East corner of the Hollywood backlot area. The first 2 things guests will see are a new restaurant for the Ink & Paint Club (will operate similar to Golden Horseshoe), which is a toon revue dining experience. You will see Jessica Rabbit featured here every hour as well as a plethora of other characters doing sketches and/or showing shorts on a screen. This restaurant will replace the current House of Cards arcade and have 2 main entrances, 1 in Hollywood and 1 in Toon Town. The other entrance to the area is via a short tunnel (just like in the movie). Inside of Toon Town will be an upgraded Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin (this will be in what is currently backstage replacing he building currently next to Monsters Inc. Also in this area will be a “Toon Green Room” where you can meet more rare characters that haven’t been seen in a LONG time at Disneyland (Esmeralda, Kronk, Mushu, etc). Also Roger Rabbit will meet guests outside of his attraction.
  

Grizzly Peak National Park expansion:

• Country Bear Jamboree will make its triumphant return to the Disneyland resort but in a new home. It will be between the Grand Californian and the Challenge Trail. And the building will be themed to the idea of a camping area. This will be the 4^th attraction in the Grizzly Peak National Park and will pretty much finish the area.

Cars Land expansion:

• Autopia will be relocated to Cars Land and will take up the space of the current Tuck and Roll bumper cars as well as the other area between Luigi’s and Bug’s Land in what is mostly currently a parking lot. Also the vehicles will get changed to look like they belong in the Cars universe.
  

Paradise Pier expansion:

• Lilo and Stitch themed dark ride added on the SW side of the Pier focusing only on the Hawaii aspect and not really the space aspect of the movie. Stitch will meet guests outside of the ride. The ride will partially take up the former location of the Maliboomer (queue area) and the show building will be in what is currently backstage (much like how the Toy Story Mania is placed).
  

Disney Heroes and Legends

Marvel:

• The North end of the park will be the Marvel section of the park, which will also have the main entrance. This area will feature Marvel characters from the films as well as some of the animated heroes from Disney/Pixar.

• To the NE corner of the park will have the Iron Man attraction being build at Hong Kong, part of the queue would be going through the hall of armor currently in the Innoventions building.

• Ant-Man will be the next attraction working our way to the center of the section. The ride will be an omnimover and you will shrink to the size of an ant, and grow to the size of a building in this attraction

• On the other side of the entrance will be a Thor attraction that will take you on the Bifrost into the 9 realms and of course Asgard, using the ride system from Indiana Jones Adventure, and the vehicle design is based on the little fighter ships in Thor: The Dark World.

• Captain America and the Avengers will be the next attraction heading to the NW. The ride will feature Captain America, Falcon, Black Widow, Hulk, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Vision, Scarlet Witch, with cameo appearances of Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man. Ultron(s) will be the leading villain(s) as well as some Chitauri with a slower ride system. You will see projected images in the backdrop as well AA figures in the foreground. The façade for the attraction is a Helicarrier.

• Across from Captain America will be the Guardians of the Galaxy using a Star Tours ride system. Almost like a FPS video game.

• Spider-Man will be a “webslinger” coaster that will be all outdoor coaster over a miniature city block. Spider-Man himself will appear a few times as will Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. This will be the attraction that segues into the kids part of the Marvel section of the park as he is the most kid friendly of the Marvel characters.

• Big Hero 6 will be in the kids section of the park and will feature a meet and greet with Baymax and one of the other heroes. This will be a dark ride along the scale of Monsters Inc in DCA.

• Incredibles will be the other ride in the kids section and will be a legit dark ride on the order of the Little Mermaid ride for length and attention to detail. The ride vehicle will be the pods from the film and you will encounter all the main characters. It will focus on Nomanisland and the end fight against the omnidroid. Outside this attraction you will be able to meet Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone.

• In the area bridging Marvel and Star Wars will be a SHIELD facility that will house extended previews for the next Marvel and Star Wars films.

• All cast members in the Marvel section of the park (apart from characters) will be SHIELD agents. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Star Lord, and Gamora will be out daily for meet and greets. And at least 2 of the following will join them: Vision, Hawkeye, Fury, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, Drax, and Groot.

Star Wars:

• Star Wars will be the South 2/3 of the park and will be split into 4 areas: Prequels, Originals, 7 & Beyond, and the kids area will be dedicated to Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

• Pod racing will be the first attraction in the prequels section of the park and will be an outdoor coaster. Set pieces will include Tusken Raiders w/ Banthas, Jawas w/ Sandcrawler, moisture farms, Sarlacc pit and Jabba’s sail barge, and a grand stand area.

• Naboo is a small area with a stunt show with Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul.

• Geonosis arena interactive attraction where you can use lightsabers in duels against your friends. Area can also be used for stunt shows.

• The Jedi Temple will be a large building that houses the room of a thousand fountains, shops, actual tower to the council room where you can meet Mace Windu, Yoda, and Obi-Wan who will welcome you to the Jedi Order. And there will be a ride called Clone Wars where you will ride in a republic juggernaut tank, there will be a clone commander in your vehicle. You will travel through all the various planets and see the clones and jedi fighting the droid armies. All of a sudden you are in a black room where you will see a hologram of Emperor Palpatine appear in front of you and he will say “Commander, execute Order 66”, the Clone in your vehicle will respond with “Yes sir”. Then the Emperor fades away and all of a sudden the heat turns up and the music from the battle of Mustafar and you will see the epic battle of Anakin vs Obi-Wan as you exit the room.

• Moving into the section more based on the original trilogy you will head out from the Pod Racing ride you will see the Cantina from Tatooine which will be a restaurant featuring the band.

• Turn around and face the SE, and you will see an AT-AT walker and the Millennium Falcon. The Millennium Falcon will a walk through attraction where you can meet Han Solo, Chewbacca.

• Between these 2 vehicles you see a snowy hill with an entrance to the Hoth base where you will be able to join the rebels in the battle of Hoth against the AT-AT walkers in a massive video game setting. You will sit in a booth and play through the fight in a snow speeder. Take out the AT-ATs and watch out for Darth Vader.

• Continue South from the Millennium Falcon into Endor, the village will be a forest but looming up above you is the sinister Death Star (it will be the size of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT). The Death Star is powering its weapon so you better go help stop it before it is too late. Inside the Death Star you will be on an indoor rollercoaster where you will have to board your fighter and help stop the evil empire. The ride will be an all indoor coaster (like Space Mt) and you will see projections around to look like a generic Star Wars battle.

• On the far south side of the Death Star would be an imperial base where you can meet Darth Vader and other imperial characters.

• The SW corner of the park will be for episodes 7 and beyond and the only attraction so far is a coaster going in and out of the crashed Star Destroyer on Jakku.

• In the SE corner will be the kids area which will consist of simple rides and things based on the animated TV shows.

• The first and most simple ride will be an X-wing spinner (same ride system as Dumbo, but X-wings)

• To represent Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a simple dark ride where you will meet the jedi characters from the show: Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, Padme, Captain Rex, Darth Maul, and General Grevious.

• To represent Star Wars Rebels, a simple dark ride taking a tour of the ghost where you can see all the crew: Hera, Kanan, Zeb, Sabine, Chopper, and Ezra. And a quick fight scene between Kanan, Ezra and the Inquisitor.
  

Entertainment:

• Parade route will start near the Ant-Man, move south and avoid obstacles and end between Endor and the kids area. Floats will include:

o   Hellicarrier

o   Milano

o   Cap’s jeep

o   Antony

o   Asgard throne

o   Incredibles

o   Star Destroyer

o   Millennium Falcon

o   X-Wing

o   Pod racer

o   Snow speeder

o   Land speeder

• An evening entertainment for the Marvel section of the park will be a big party (like Mad T Party).

• For Star Wars, Jabba’s palace at night it becomes a 21+ venue with alcohol, live music, dancing, etc.

• Outside, there will be a light show with projectors mounted on the Death Star (in laser dish and/or on equatorial trench) aimed at the Jedi Temple and projectors on the temple’s spire aimed at the Death Star. Both will be visible from the central plaza.

Disney Pirates' Lagoon (Water Park)

• This new water park will be on the site of the current Simba parking lot on the SW corner of the main resort property. The park will be visually reminiscent of the Pirates Cove area being built at Shanghai Disneyland, however it will be all water attractions (water slides, lazy river, etc).

• There will be a replica of the Black Pearl docked in a small lagoon (picture how the old Chicken of the Sea pirate ship restaurant was in Fantasyland) the difference is that this will be an area where you can go to meet Captain Jack Sparrow. 

• But not to completely negate Disney's original pirate, Skull Island will also be featured on the opposite side of the lagoon where you will find Captain Hook and Smee plotting about.

• The only other main attraction worth mentioning that isn't a basic water slide will be one that takes you down the Maelstrom (from At World's End) This will be a slide that will require a projectors to give you that sense.

• The park will also have some fun at night, while the slides will be shutting down at dusk, the final thing guests can experience will be a projection show aimed at Skull Rock, and throughout it the cannons from the Pearl will be put to use to fight back. Show will run for 15 minutes and after that the park will close for the day.

Downtown Disney expansion:

• The first major expansion of Downtown Disney will be for  Disney to buy out Gardenwalk and make it act as a controlled corridor between the new parking structure being built and the new park. Also part of the Gardenwalk section of Downtown Disney will be to open 1 or 2 new hotels over there. One a moderate priced and one a value priced Disney hotel (first value resort on Disneyland Resort property).

• The second big part of the expansion will be a new Monorail line. This line will run from the current Downtown Disney station (if you face east while on the platform you would see this new line). The track will run in a circle and will start by going heading south and will run above Disney Way. Then at the new parking structure it will stop along the north side of the garage and will then go through Gardenwalk to make a stop on the SW side of the Star Wars section of the park near the Death Star. From here it will go North on Harbor, Turn west at Katella, and will then gradually merge to where it is following Disney Way again. There will be a loop for it to turn around for the station above the Pinocchio parking lot. Also there will be a track switch on the North side of the station so that the Monorails can get from the roundhouse to the new line. The track is visible in a black line in the Resort Overview image.

Resort Overview

Key:

Red - Disney Heroes & Legends Park

Green - Disney California Adventure Park

Light Blue - Disneyland Park

Blue - Disney Pirates' Lagoon

Orange - Resort Hotels

Yellow - Resort Parking

Purple - Downtown Disney

Black Line - New Monorail Route #2

Maleficent

Before I begin my review of Maleficent I would like to make it known that I had been looking forward to this for about 2 years because Maleficent is one of my favorite Disney villains of all time, after all she is the self proclaimed mistress of all evil. So that said take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Angelina Jolie stars as Maleficent in this re-imagining of the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty boasting the animated classic from 1959 as its source material (or at least that is what the marketing would lead you to believe). However after seeing it twice now I've decided that it takes inspiration both from Wicked AND Sleeping Beauty, I won't list all of the reasons why to avoid giving spoilers but if you read the synopsis you'll understand why I say that. If you go in to this movie expecting Jolie's Maleficent to be the mistress of all evil and just see the story of Sleeping Beauty as told from her eyes then you will be very disappointed in the movie, I can say that because on my first viewing I felt fairly mediocre about it, but when I went back I told myself to pretend I had never seen Walt Disney's 1959 animated film and I fell in love with the movie. If I told you all the ways in which it differed from the animated movie I would be spoiling the entire movie and I won't do that for you so I'll break this down in to some of the biggest differences and similarities between the two then go in to my positives and negatives.

How Maleficent fits in with Sleeping Beauty:

• The 3 good fairies from the animated film were named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, pretty easy names to remember if you ask me. In Maleficent their names are Knotgrass, Thistletwit, and Flittle (in the same order).
• Henchmen, in Sleeping Beauty Maleficent has (admittedly quite stupid) henchmen, she even called them imbeciles and fools. In Maleficent these creatures are nowhere to be seen.
• The presenting of baby Aurora, apart from a few lines here and there, looked as if it was right out of the animated movie just acted by real people.

The Positives:

•  Angelina Jolie is superb as Maleficent and did a wonderful job capturing the feel of the character from voice to looks and for me was perfect in the role.
• The visual effects were breathtaking and well worth seeing on the big screen, personally I would argue they were more impressive then those of Avatar.
• The three good fairies are as well meaning but dim-witted as ever.
• For us adults the moment that Maleficent loses her wings has a deep emotional response and when you see it you will hopefully be able to tell what it parallels for women in the real world.
• Elle Fanning's performance as Aurora

The Negatives:

•  If Disney wanted us to believe that the 1959 animated movie was the main inspiration then why on earth did they change the names of the 3 fairies?? None of the other named characters were changed, just those 3 and it doesn't make sense to me.
• Her pet raven's name is Diaval, and I'm sorry but you can never quite make out what his name is no matter how many times it is stated.
• As great as she was in this Angelina wasn't 100% on in this, there were 3 individual scenes where I felt as if she was overdoing it, but none more so then about halfway in to the movie, and believe me you'll be able to pick out the 3 pretty easily.
• Elle Fanning's casting as Aurora, I still don't get it, Aurora was given the gifts of grace and beauty, so why didn't they get someone who would fit the "jaw dropping beauty" aspect of the character? Don't get me wrong, her performance as great but to me she seemed far to pale for the character.

Overall rating - 8 out of 10
         - I give it this high a rating because none of my "negatives" felt so bad that they made me want to score the film any lower, just things I would have loved to ask the producer and director about. I rate movies based on how I felt while watching and what the general reactions were in the theater as well. For me, this was up there as one of my favorites of the year and while X-Men DOFP was certainly a better made movie, I enjoyed this quite a bit more.



In case anyone is curious my ranking of the 4 fairytale movies that Roth has brought us is as follows:

1. Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska) - 9.5
2. Oz: The Great and Powerful (Mila Kunis, James Franco) - 8.5
3. Maleficent (Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning) - 8
4. Snow White and the Huntsman (Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth) - 3.5

A Million Ways to Die in the West

Seth MacFarlane's second live action full length film A Million Ways to Die in the West has his first leading role and he did a very fun thing with this movie. The movie stars Seth MacFarlane as the clumsy but smart Albert, Liam Neeson as Clinch the baddest outlaw in the West, Charlize Theron as new girl in town Anna, Amanda Seyfried as Albert's ex girlfriend, Neil Patrick Harris as the thinks he is funny guy Foy, Giovanni Ribisi as the loveable good Christian boy Edward, and Sarah Silverman as Ruth who works at the town whorehouse.

The Positives:

• The comedy was great in this movie I wasn't laughing every minute but the laughs I had were SO worth it.
• Liam Neeson - this was the first movie in a long time that I have seen Liam Neeson in that I didn't feel like it was just a new version of Taken plus he got some very entertaining moments.
• Cameos and bit parts - There are a few cameos in it that you won't want to miss but I won't tell you who or when they are but the bit parts are great.
• Western - This was a very fun western and while a few jokes took me out of the west, I had a very good time.
• Adult - this was a very adult movie that I wouldn't bring kids to in a million years, but it was great as it was and I'm glad it was an R rated comedy.
• The dance number was so funny especially the song If You've Only Got a Moustache

The Negatives:

• It was a little overlong and there were a few scenes that could have been cut out

Over rating - 7.5 out of 10