Home

[Kristof]

Here's something that has been posted a few days ago on the Disney Central Plaza board.

Someone wondered if they're going to enhance Animation Courtyard with the paintbrush and stuff, as can be seen on the concept art.

Grandmath, the main admin, says those props are one of the ideas.  Animation Courtyard will be enhanced, they just don't know how yet.

[Anthony]

Good!  It needs all the help it can get!

At least it seems 99% likely that they're going with the second concept for Toon Studios now, where the new section will flow properly from Animation Courtyard (rather than being fenced off with an entrance gate).  This means they are more likely to do *something* to Animation Courtyard...  I don't expect more than just that paintbrush and easel to be honest, though.  :wink:

[Anthony]

Contruction for Toon Studios has now edged its way into Animation Courtyard, with the old temporary fences being moved forward to include the edge of the courtyard in the construction area.

I hope we see some more exciting construction soon though - they've only got about 16 months left to build and test it all...  

 

 

source: http://www.dlrp.fr/actularge.php?id=232

[disneyalumni]

Hello, all. I am from the States and discovered your wonderful site courtesy of the discussion board at JimHillMedia.com (//http://p088.ezboard.com/fmediabingefrm14.showMessage?topicID=259.topic).

Crush's Turtle Twister looks like a great ride. Upon close examination of the layout posted by Baloo...

(source: ericlovestztot, Disney Central Plaza)

Notice anything cool in the plans? Tell us!  :wink:

I noticed something about the plans. Based on some of the car design plans and the layout, it looks just like the cars and layout of a coaster here in Salt Lake City. It is at a park called Lagoon, and the ride here is called "The Spider."

With the exception of the load area on an angle and the first part of the track, the rest looks exactly like the layout of The Spider.

Here is a description from their website,  //http://www.lagoonpark.com (You can only get to this from the interactive park map, so I posted it here for convenience).


This is a really fun ride. My 7-year old just loves it. We typically go on it about 3 or 4 times in a row--he loves it that much. I can only imagine how great it would be to have that ride enclosed in a building, with sets, props, and projection effects. This will be a first-class, fun, repeatable ride. It is not too intense, but just a LOT of fun!

My only concern is where they will put the overflow queue area. The Spider opened up here about two years ago--yet the line, when we went to Lagoon just this past October, was about a 45-minute wait.  And that is for a ride with very little theming! But then it appears that 'Turtle Twister' will have a few more cars, due to the extended track length. Hopefully they can also boost the THC with additional enhancements, sensors, and the like, to enable more cars on the track at a time.

According to the Lagoon press kit (//http://www.lagoonpark.com/pdf/mediarelations/LagoonPressKit05.pdf), the Spider was "manufactured by the Maurer Sohne, Germany" and has these specifications:

• Footprint: 78 feet x 146 feet
• Highest Height: 53 feet high
• Length of Track: 1,414 feet long
• Top Speed: 38 miles per hour
• Capacity: 900 passengers per hour
• Number of Cars: Eight [8] four-passenger cars
• Maximum Banking: 82 degrees
• Minimum Slope: 50 degrees
• Height Requirements: 46-50 inches must be accompanied by an individual over 50 inches in height. Riders over 50 inches may ride alone. Under 46 inches may not ride.
• Approximate Cost: $3 million
• Year Installed: 2003


The picture, below, of the car is from //http://www.funworldmagazine.com/2003/Jul03/Departments/Jul03FrontRowNews.html, where they state that, "The Spider cost Lagoon Park $4 million to build, about $1 million of which went into spider and castle theming and landscaping. Lagoon added a Maurer Söhne wild mouse seven years ago; its success was one of the main reasons it went with The Spider."

You can see that two people sit one one side, then two more sit behind them, back to back. On the Spider, (a little contrary to what their website says,) you are stationary (two people forward, two people backward) through the lift, the first drop and ascent and straghtaway. Then after a U-turn, your car is released and starts spinning throughout the rest of the ride. This is the one deviation from the layout Baloo posted. It appears to me that on the first drop, they indicate a car that is already spinning.

There are a few more small pictures on a Lagoon fan site, //http://groups.msn.com/LagoonNerds/yourwebpage.msnw. You may need to click on The Spider on the left side of the page.

I hope this gives you some good additional information and gets some of you even more excited for this great ride. I will need to bring my son and come to DLP to experience it!

[Kristof]

Hi disneyalumni, it's great to have our American Disney friends here too.

They have a similar ride like that at a German themepark, which was indoors too (but no theming, just a ride in the dark), and I loved it too!  I'm very looking forward to this ride!

[Anthony]

Hey disneyalumni!  Welcome to the forum.  :wink: Thanks for that great first post!

I'm really glad to hear that the ride is fun for a 7 year old - some people on various forums have been getting worried that it would be too intense for kids.  I think about age 7 will be just the perfect age for a child to ride this attraction really...  

These coasters are very popular wherever they're built, and they're cheap too - $3m for the basic coaster part?  Not bad!  I can see DLRP were really keen to make friends with Maurer after they heard that!  :lol:

[Kristof]

The construction site looks like a battlefield right now:

[Anthony]

Nice to see some progress here - thanks for the photo!  

Surely they should be starting some kind of vertical construction soon, though?  Look at how far ToT has got, and that doesn't even open till one year after Toon Studios.  The Toons are a smaller project, but I think they could still do with getting a move on!  (If only so we've got something to see! lol)  

[Anthony]

Unfortunately, there's still almost no change to the construction site - they've just levelled out the ground a bit:





http://www.dlrp.fr/actularge.php?id=319

It'd be nice to hear some kind of official word on this project really.  It's taking a *long* time for construction to get going, and to be honest we still aren't really 100% sure what will be included in the final build besides the two attractions...  :?

[Kristof]

Grandmath (backstage CM) posts on DCP that the construction of Toon Studios is on shedule!  The tracks for Crush should arrive soon and the decorations are being constructed in the USA.  He adds (in reaction to DLRP.fr's rumours that the construction has been halted), that there's a lot of work going on at different locations, but there are no fans with camera's in the area.

And here's an interesting rumour, posted on DCP by "Survived".  
A small Chicken Little playground and photo location should be added to the Toon Studios land.

[Anthony]

It all sounds good!  The Chicken Little playground would be brilliant.  I know the film isn't exactly a classic, but at least it's something extra for the land that's non-Pixar and fun for kids who don't want to ride Nemo or Cars (for some kids they might be a bit scary!).    Remember ages ago in 2003 when they announced The Legend of the Lion King and a new playground for WDS?   :lol:

I'm glad to hear that construction is on schedule too, and it does make sense that everything's being prepared off-site.  I saw an article in Le Figaro magazine about the 50th Anniversary which showed backstage at WDI when they were finishing the Mike & Sulley to the Rescue characters - I suppose our Nemo props are currently being worked on in the same way/place now (shame I couldn't steal the magazine from college to show you, it was a really good article!).

I'm looking forward to seeing the track arrive.  Hopefully they will put it up before they build the showbuilding, if only to please the fans! lol  

[Patrick]

I would have thought they would build the coaster first then the showbuilding, that's how it worked for Rock N Roller Coaster, plus it would rather difficult to get all that track into a building when thats built, though it is Disney, maybe Mickey has some new construction magic :lol: .  Playground sounds fun and at least we are not getting a pooh one if it comes, since WDW has a pooh one and I believe TOON TOWN in DL is getting the same but miniturised a bit :lol: , good for DLRP is we get le petite poulet :lol: .

[Anthony]

"survived" does state that, should the film be a flop in Europe, the playground obviously won't go ahead.  This does raise the question of "why build a cars ride then, when they don't know if it's even popular yet?" again...  :?

[Patrick]

Probably cos they think it won't be a flop and even if it is so what you are on a ride to do with talking cars, any kids dream car :lol: , the movie going by the trailer does look funny :wink: .

[Anthony]

Probably cos they think it won't be a flop and even if it is so what you are on a ride to do with talking cars, any kids dream car :lol: , the movie going by the trailer does look funny :wink: .

Yeah, and the fact that they've already managed to dream up a themed area based on "Radiator Springs" and theme that garage properly in the concept art makes me think that perhaps they've had a few hefty sneak peeks at the film and have liked what they've seen...

With the Chicken being a bit so-so in the US, I suppose they're hesitating a bit.  Personally I think some kind of Lilo & Stitch Hawaiian play area would be much, much better, and would sit nicely next to the rather tropical Flying Carpets and Nemo...  :? *starts dreaming again*