Progress City, U.S.A.

It’s been some time since we’ve discussed the upcoming Disney animation slate in any detail, and even longer since I updated the site’s list of animated projects. We’ve mentioned some of the schedule shifts that have occurred in the year and a half since Disney announced their ambitious development plans; most notably, Cars 2 was bumped up to a 2011 opening, pushing Gary Rydstrom’s newt back to 2012. But as the months pass, the crews at Disney and Pixar continue to develop new material. We’ve had one official announcement, 2011’s traditionally animated Winnie-the-Pooh, but there are several other new projects waiting in the wings.

First, though, a look at some of the projects that have been announced already. Disney will soon debut Princess and the Frog, its first traditionally animated feature since 2004. Hopes are high that this December release will revive Walt Disney Animation Studios, and pave the way for many 2D features to come. Early indicators are good; the screening of the film’s first act at the D23 Expo went over like gangbusters, and I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the parts we were shown. I still have some qualms about some of the character design and animation (again, too loosey-goosey for my tastes), but the general aesthetic of the film looks great and the story seems to be extremely tight and lean. The music’s good, too.

Rapunzel is looking lovely too…

Work on Rapunzel continues for 2010; as that long-in-the-making film moves from story to production, the scuttlebutt coming out of Burbank has become increasingly optimistic. After the story problems that plagued the film for so long, one hopes that things really start to click. The development art that has been released looks top notch.

The first new film to add to our list is the aforementioned Winnie-the-Pooh. Directors Steve Anderson and Don Hall originally brought this project to John Lasseter as an idea for a direct-to-video feature. Lasseter, who apparently has an affinity for the Disney Pooh featurettes from the 1960s and 70s, liked the idea so much he greenlit it for a theatrical release. This came as something of a surprise to observers, who are used to Disney targeting this character directly at the preschool crowd. Lasseter seemed aware of this during his presentation at the D23 Expo, asking the audience to “trust him” that the film won’t be just for little kids, and that we “won’t believe how funny this thing is.” Indeed. Just kiddin’, I love ya Johnny boy.

I’ve always assumed that I was alone in my incredible and all-consuming disdain for the Pooh character and his cohorts. I’ve never liked Pooh, even as a kid. Maybe it’s because each inhabitant of the Hundred Acre Wood seems straight out of a different chapter of the DSM-IV. Anyway, it was amusing to hear both the muted reaction to the Pooh news at D23 and then to watch the documentary the boys and hear Richard and Robert Sherman talk about how they couldn’t stand the stories either. Don’t get me wrong – Winnie-the-Pooh will most likely be highly enjoyable in the end. I just can’t get myself excited about it right now.

What does excite me is the approach they’re taking to the film, which is hand-drawn and will incorporate watercolored backgrounds like the original films. They’re also mining the original Pooh books for five stories that will be strung together around a central narrative. Disney Legend Burny Mattinson, who worked on the original animated featurettes, returned to Disney to guide the story department in the picture’s development. Winnie-the-Pooh will hit theaters in the spring of 2011, filling a gap in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ production slate.

Another previously announced film in development is 2012’s King of the Elves; based on the Philip K. Dick short story, it’s rumored to be computer-animated. The Animation Guild blog mentioned recently that the story is currently being retooled, bringing some changes and the departure of at least one director. Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker were originally announced to direct, and it seems that Blaise has left the film for reasons unknown.

From here, we enter the realm of speculation. There have been a number of projects in and out of development at Disney over the last decade, and these are starting to pop up again as contenders for the next wave of releases. The first of these is The Snow Queen, which was mentioned by Disney producer Don Hahn as in development as recently as the D23 Expo. Hahn showed a slide of concept art from the film during one of his panel discussions, and offhandedly mentioned the project as something they’re working on.

This is an awful, awful picture I took of the concept art from The Snow Queen at D23. If you could see it, it would show a castle embedded in an icy mountain lit by aurorae. The striking piece was created by artist Paul Felix; if you have a better picture from this presentation, would you send it along?

The Snow Queen was in development at Disney from roughly 2000-2003, when it was scuttled because Disney management wanted to get out of the fairy tale game and into the “hip and edgy” business. The project was originally intended for directors Paul and Gaetan Brizzi for when they were finished with Don Quixote, but when that animated adaptation was canceled in early 2001 the Brizzis departed the studio. The Snow Queen was then handed off to Dick Zondag and Dave Goetz to direct, but the project eventually went into turnaround in the middle of 2002. During this break, animator Glen Keane left the project in order to direct his own film (which, eventually, turned out to be Rapunzel).

Character design for The Snow Queen by Harald Siepermann. This design is from the earlier attempt at producing this story.

The film spiraled into development hell as management decided to retool it as a computer-animated feature, and around 2003 it simply faded away. In early 2006 it was announced that composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glen Slater were developing a stage musical based on The Snow Queen for Tokyo Disneyland; it was canceled abruptly at the end of that year, possibly when the film version went back into development. Cut to around 2007, when John Lasseter had arrived at Disney Feature Animation and was reassessing the development slate. Around that time, work began anew on The Snow Queen. Current rumors online suggest either Mike Gabriel or Dean Wellins are involved to direct. Menken has confirmed in the European press that he’s writing the songs for the film.

If Lasseter’s arrival at Disney brought new life to some projects, it meant the end of others. So it was for Joe Jump, a computer-animated film that was junked in 2008 after about four years of development. The film, a story of a videogame character from the early 1980s who tries to make his way in the modern high-tech gaming world, got some positive buzz when it was going through the story process around 2006. Story artist Sam Levine was leading the project, with designer Joe Moshier helping create the film’s look. In an interview, character designer Jim McPherson spoke about his work on the film:

“…I was appointed to join the Visual Development Team at Walt Disney Feature Animation to work with the director Sam Levine and character designer Joe Moshier on a film called Joe Jump. All the characters were developed in collaboration of drawing and modeling done in ZBrush 2. We translated a more graphic character style into 3D, slightly leaning towards “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom” or UPA cartoons, but with a heavy influence of Milt Kahl and Tom Oreb’s work. Unfortunately, the movie was cancelled after 4 years in development. I hope to eventually get permission to show some of the characters. There were cyborg lizards, heavily armored heroes and amazon women designed in a new style.”

Joe Jump was canceled in order to focus resources on projects that were further along in the development pipeline, but now the blog of the Animation Guild reports that the pixelated hero lives again. Further information is unavailable, but look for the CGI Joe Jump and the (hopefully) hand-drawn The Snow Queen to shuffle into those 2013 and 2014 release slots at some point.

What comes after that? Your guess is as good as mine. Online sources have speculated for several years that Disney has been working on an adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, although I can’t find any compelling source for this. What does lend some credibility to that rumor, aside from Disney’s increased efforts in India over recent years, is their under-the-radar interest in the purchase of a publisher of graphic novels centered on Hindu mythology. No one seems to have noticed this in the shadow of the Marvel deal, but it could indicate that the rumors of Ramayana are not all fanboy speculation. Allow me to say, Disney folk, if you are thinking about this… I really hope you make it work somehow because it could be absolutely killer.

There are certainly other abandoned projects from the early part of this decade that deserve a second chance with the new management; Barry Cook’s My Peoples, Ron Clements and John Musker’s Fraidy Cat, or – please, please, please – the Brizzis’ Don Quixote. Hopefully there’s a lot of room at WDAS for new productions; that will keep a lot of animators employed and make me very, very happy.

There wasn’t as much Disney-related content today at SDCC, although there have been a few interviews from yesterday to trickle out. The only really big Disney event was the Lost panel; more on that to follow. First, let me ram TRON: Legacy into your brain one more time, with some more pictures from io9 and this:

Following up on the events of yesterday, you can find pictures of the panels at the Disney/Pixar photo page. Slashfilm has two interviews with Pixar personnel; first, Lee Unkrich talks about how he was developing his own project when Disney purchased Pixar and he was picked to direct Toy Story 3, how Pixar wanted to know as little as possible about the previous version of TS3 that was in development at Disney under Eisner, Pixar’s philosophy towards sequels (blaming the public’s negative opinion of sequels on other studios’ assembly-line mentality), the decision to begin the film with Andy’s departure for college and the implications thereof, and how they decided to bring Ken and Barbie into the film. In John Lasseter’s interview, the Pixar chief talks about the move to 3-D, villains in Pixar films, converting Beauty and the Beast and other Disney classics into 3-D, his early-80s work on Where The Wild Things Are, and the upcoming changes to California Adventure.

At Latino Review, there’s an interview with TRON: Legacy director Joe Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey. They mention something that’s strangely been missing from coverage so far – the role of the actual Tron character in the film. They speak about Bruce Boxleitner’s role, how the computer world they show has evolved since the original film, and what kind of lightcycles to expect!

Then there was the Lost panel. The viral ARG for the season has already begun, and several viral trailers shown at the panel hint that the upcoming season takes place in an alternate reality than the one we’ve come to know in the series so far. The panel itself sounds to have been fairly wacky; cast members Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson stood in line to ask the show’s writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof what, exactly, was happening in the convoluted plot of the show. Cast member Josh Holloway raided the stage to steal a lockbox from Cuse and Lindelof which allegedly contained the final scene of the show’s finale; sadly, he found that it just held the final scene from Heroes instead.

Cuse and Lindelof also revealed that the show’s time-traveling flash-forwards will not be a part of the next season; they also announced that cast members Jeremy Davies and Elizabeth Mitchell will return (double yay). The big surprise at the end was when Dominic Monaghan took the stage – apparently Charlie will, in fact, return in some form.

UPDATE: io9 reports that Ian Somerhalder (Boone) will return as well. Now just call up Mr. Eko and we’ll have a party!

The Disney/Pixar animation panel at the San Diego Comic-Con

Another day, another zillion nifty things going on in San Diego that I’m missing out on. Yesterday, the focus was on Disney’s upcoming live-action fare. Today the spotlight shifted to animation, with sneak peaks from both Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation. There were no shocking reveals, but guests were treated to a panel featuring several animators including John Lasseter and, in his Comic-Con debut, legendary director Hayao Miyazaki (known to many as “the Japanese Walt Disney”).

John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki

First, though, let’s take a look at the events of Thursday night that followed up on yesterday’s Tron: Legacy panel. The countdown that had appeared on the Flynn Lives viral campaign site expired yesterday evening, giving way to a map to a real-world location in San Diego. After arriving at the designated time and place, guests were handed a packet containing instructions, a map, a hand-held black light, and a token for Flynn’s Arcade. They were then told to search the area for a series of hidden posters for Flynn’s, with which they could use their black lights to discover a series of invisible numbers. The numbers, in turn, provided a series of coordinates that led fans to…

Flynn’s Arcade. Like in the movie, but for real. When did Disney get awesome? This almost makes up for G-Force. Almost. Anyway, Flynn’s had been set up with all the trappings of a retro arcade. It even had a playable version of Space Paranoids, the game that Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) had created in the original film. Upon beating a level, fans discovered a series of hidden codes; it’s still unclear as to what these codes are to be used for.

Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde from TRON: Legacy

Somehow Olivia Wilde even makes playing TRON somewhat dirty

Flynn’s had been featured in the scene from TRON: Legacy shown at the panel yesterday, and the real-world arcade had been set up to recreate that clip – including the TRON machine set up in front of a hidden door at the back of the arcade.

 

Eventually the hidden door opened, and guests filed inside to find a series of conceptual renderings of Lightcycles from the film. Then, on a rotating platform, was an actual Lightcycle prop.

Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund and Jeff Bridges at Flynn’s Arcade

Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde examine a lightcycle

Very cool, all around. If that wasn’t enough, Disney has finally released the VFX test that was shown at last year’s SDCC and which helped gain the film its official greenlight from the studio. I can’t wait for this movie to arrive. You can find a nice play-by-play of the Flynn’s event here, and video here, here, here and here (I just pray that the crowd at D23 is less irritating that the SDCC fanboys seem to be).

Seriously. I want one.

So, on to today’s animation panel. Pixar led the way, with a preview of this October’s re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in – of course – 3-D. The films will be shown in theaters on a double bill for a two-week limited engagement. The opening sequence of Toy Story 2 was screened in 3-D, and then John Lasseter came out to screen a trailer for the double feature; the trailer will be released online next Tuesday.

Then Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich came out to speak about that upcoming release. They talked about how Barbie will play a greater role in the new film, and announced that Michael Keaton will voice the role of Ken – which was odd, as that news was widely known last year. They also played a faux-retro “interview” with Ken called Groovin’ with Ken, filmed in his Malibu Dream Home. Hopefully, they’ll put that online at some point. In other Toy Story news, Pixar updated the web pages today for both the original films and Toy Story 3.

John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich

After Pixar was done, it was time for the traditionally animated segment of the presentation. Disney appears to be really ramping up to promote its 2-D revival; Lasseter announced that Disney was going to start releasing lots of production videos online very soon, a trend that has started with Feature Animation’s new Facebook page.

John Lasseter and Kirk Wise

First up was director Kirk Wise, talking about the upcoming re-release of his 1991 film Beauty and the Beast. The film, which for some reason has been converted to – wait for it – 3-D, will come back to theaters next February. After a brief talk, they screened a clip; for this, they selected the Belle number from the start of the film.

Next up was Prep and Landing, an upcoming holiday special that will air on television this Christmas. It tells the story of a group of elves and the extensive preparations they go through to ready a house for Santa’s annual visit. This was originally planned as a theatrical short, but it was decided to expand it into a full-length show.

 

Finally they got to The Princess and the Frog, which was introduced by its directors Ron Clements (above, left) and John Musker (above, right). This traditionally animated feature will contain seven songs by Randy Newman, one of which – Friends on the Other Side – was screened for fans. Reports say that the scene is trippy and psychedelic, and resembles in tone Ursula’s Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid.

Young Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), her mother Eudora (Oprah Winfrey) and father James (Terrence Howard) in The Princess and the Frog

Tiana in jazz-age New Orleans

Tiana and her frog prince

The froggy Tiana and Prince Naveen

Louis the trumpet-playing alligator – is anyone else slightly concerned that this is starting to look a little… Bluthish??

Tiana and froggy Naveen in The Princess and the Frog

The eight-minute sequence featuring the villainous Dr. Facilier (Keith David) was followed by another scene in which the two protagonists, transformed into frogs, search the bayou for the mysterious Mama Odie. Disney has also released the following pencil test from the film online:

For many, the highlight of the panel was the introduction of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki, he of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, rarely makes appearances in America so having him on stage with Lasseter was a special event. Miyazaki was at SDCC to promote his upcoming release Ponyo, a film about a boy and a magical goldfish/girl/whatnot – really, everything I’ve heard from this film sounds completely crazy and inexplicable.

Sosuke and his goldfish in Ponyo

Ponyo and Sosuke

“Ponyo, a young and overeager goldfish on a quest to become human”

“Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas lend their voices as new-found friends in Ponyo“

The film is aimed somewhat younger than Miyazaki’s usual fare, but it’s received his typical level of acclaim for its surreal story and delicate watercolored visuals. Miyazaki and Lasseter held a ten-minute conversation which can be seen at CinemaBlend, and then they were both presented with the Inkpot award from the SDCC.

Other Disney tidbits from the day: Disney production head Oren Aviv said that the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film will go into production next year for a 2011 release; Disney hopes to follow that up with a smaller-scale pirate trilogy. Also check here for some pictures of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland prop exhibit.

Directors Ron Clements, John Musker, Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Kirk Wise and Lee Unkrich

Feel the flow, here we go…

What better way to clear out my bookmarks than to start out with a nearly year-old post from Passport to Dreams Old & New? When Foxx originally posted this piece about the new souvenir guidebooks at Walt Disney World, I was excited to hear about the possibility of a return to the classy park guides of old. Sure as the world, I was able to pick these up in March and they’re a vast improvement over recent guides. And, as Foxx says, the fact that they’re not hardcover or printed on high-quality paper is offset buy their shockingly reasonable price. Big applause to author Jody Revenson, designer Steven Rosen and editor Wendy Lefkon.

Disney & Siemens team up to keep us safe.

Disney fans have long bemoaned the lack of merchandise for characters outside of the company’s mainstream. Thankfully, the folks at Electric Tiki have stepped up and obtained a license to produce figures, maquettes and statues of fan-favorite Disney properties. Early releases will include Darkwing Duck, Roger & Jessica Rabbit, maquettes based on Mary Blair’s Alice in Wonderland designs, the Rescue Rangers and – yay – the Rocketeer.

At last – a nice explanation of what, exactly, the deal is with the mysterious Bonnet Creek Resort.

The Financial Times has lunch with John Lasseter, featuring some interesting discussion of his 1983 firing from Disney. Why don’t I ever have lunch with John Lasseter?

Here’s a photo update from last month with some news regarding expansion at Disneyland Paris.

Word leaked last month that, considering Detroit’s current woes, General Motors might be unable to come to suitable terms to extend their sponsorship of Test Track. Their most recent ten-year sponsorship contract was set to expire at the end of March. A spokesperson for GM admitted in March that talks were still underway, and that the company very much wanted to continue the deal, but with the company’s financial future imperiled it might be difficult to explain the roughly $5 million annual fee to Congress.

Sources from Toyota admitted to the Orlando Sentinel that they have had internal discussions on whether to enter into sponsorship talks for the attraction, but as of March further speculation would be premature. It’s assumed that if a new company took over the attraction that, much like Siemens did with Spaceship Earth, they would want to put their own stamp on the pavilion. As I’m not much of a Test Track fan, I’m pretty much of the opinion that anything they’d want to do would be an improvement. Nothing against GM, but this is one rumor that I hope has legs.

You must read this. I wish it was mandatory reading at Team Disney.

Mickey’s Philharmagic will open at Tokyo Disneyland in 2011. While this is understandable, I will mourn their loss of the Mickey Mouse Revue. That and Meet the World were two treats that I was always excited about someday seeing in Tokyo.

More from Passport to Dreams – this time about Tomorrowland. There are interesting ideas here, and this is something I’ve written about myself. WDI needs to decide what Tomorrowland is going to be.

A great resource: Theme Park Paper.

What the?!

The new gateway to Pixar Place. Photo nabbed from EpcotServo.

These are odd times for Disney theme park fans. After a decade of escalating affronts to the legacy of quality and good taste they had long taken for granted, relief came in the form of new CEO Bob Iger and the John Lasseter-led Pixar braintrust. While some would see Lasseter as the White Knight by whose hands all positive change would be affected, his efforts will hopefully result instead in a wide variety of Imagineers who could be equally trusted with large-scale, E-ticket projects. As the most highly-placed creative staffer in the company, Lasseter has the ear of individuals that the average Imagineer or animator could only dream of calling for a lunch meeting. After so many years in the wilderness, Disney fans thought that they finally had an advocate at the highest levels of the corporate ladder.

The problem, however, with surviving the reign of a tyrant is that any small kindness is viewed as loving and magnanimous. Things in the parks were so bad for so long, that just getting a fresh coat of paint on anything seemed like the theming achievement of the century. After having been so grateful to see the bleeding staunched, it would seem ungrateful to criticize the new wave of attractions emerging from WDI.

For many of us, though, the last decade of Eisner’s rule left us uneasy and suspicious of change. After decades of gladly giving WDI the benefit of the doubt, trusting fans would now be burned time and time again with each new attraction. The first few years of the new leadership have indeed been far from critic-proof; concerns about the “toonification” of areas formerly themed to exciting “real-world” adventures have combined with worries over the fairly obvious Pixar-centric drift of new development.

It’s not that Pixar has no place in the parks; as the most uniformly popular output of Walt Disney Pictures in the last decade they’re obviously meant for inclusion. While fans might hope that WDI would some day give heed to the huge back-catalog of Disney films and shows without attractions – or even build some completely new attractions without licensing tie-ins, it’s fairly reasonable to expect that the average Disney guest would look to find Buzz, Remy and WALL-E on their Disney vacations.

So while neither unexpected nor unwarranted, the arrival of Pixar in the parks has been a bit overwhelming, and at times redundant and out-of-place. From a Walt Disney World standpoint, it’s definitely been noticeable. In recent years we’ve had Finding Nemo attractions open in two separate parks – one of which placed a cute and pleasant Nemo dark ride into a location that unfortunately stripped EPCOT’s Seas pavilion of its informative nature and overshadowed the real-life thrill of undersea exploration. Tomorrowland now plays host to a Monsters, Inc. attraction which, aside from being absolutely tragic, is woefully out of place thematically (Tokyo Disneyland will soon be getting an out-of-place Monsters, Inc. attraction in their Tomorrowland, but that is at least guaranteed to be a budget-busting E-ticket affair). Last but not least, Walt Disney World is now home to two attractions themed to Toy Story that differ in technological complexity but feature the exact same game mechanic.

This is not to say that the new management has failed, but rather underlines that work remains to be done. While both WDI and Feature Animation are home to an array of great talent, there still needs to be a “scouring of the Shire” at the upper levels of management to clear out those who forced through so many embarrassments in the past. Prime amongst these offenders is Disney Parks head Jay Rasulo, whose disastrous global branding initiative is designed to make Disney’s parks as unique from each other as five slices of stale white bread. It was Rasulo’s visionary leadership that led to the cloning of Toy Story Mania – an attraction designed for Anaheim’s California Adventure – to Florida’s Hollywood Studios. While this fine attraction was a much needed and well-themed addition to the California park, it is completely out of place in Florida’s Studios park.

Pixar Place, home of Toy Story Mania! Photo from WDWMagic.com.

This brings us, at last, to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the new Pixar Place. The recently opened area, formerly known as Mickey Avenue, has been completely and elaborately rethemed to resemble Pixar’s Emeryville studios. While the area is ostensibly intended to house a variety of Pixar’s creations, at the moment its only inhabitant is the new Toy Story Mania. With the former Disney-MGM Studios rumored to be the site of several new attractions and re-themings over the next decade, it’s certain that Pixar Place will see a great deal of welcome new development. But what’s on the way?

The site in question, circa 1989. At this point, Mickey Avenue was off-limits to guests as it was still part of the working Backlot. Guests were only allowed in this area via the Backlot Tour, which then departed from the current Magic of Disney Animation queue.

One persistent rumor over the last year is that Pixar Place will be the site of a new roller coaster, which would be the park’s marketable new attraction for Walt Disney World’s big 40th anniversary celebration in 2011. This speculation derives from last year’s Pixar-based “Toon Studios” expansion at Disney Studios Paris, which contained Crush’s Coaster, an indoor spinning coaster based on Finding Nemo. While many expected the attraction to be cloned in Florida’s Pixar Place, other rumors held that the coaster would instead be based on 2007’s Ratatouille. The latest speculation stems from a recent Jim Hill article, which claims that the new coaster will be themed to Monsters, Inc.

The pre-millennial Mickey Avenue. The area was by now open to the public, as production had ceased in most of the facilities and the space was now used to preview upcoming Disney films. The entrance to the now-shortened Backlot Tour was now housed at the end of Mickey Avenue.

Since its release in 2001, Disney fans have anticipated the creation of a Monster’s, Inc. coaster themed to the film’s Door Hangar sequence. Hill claims that just such an attraction is being designed for installation into the former Soundstage One building on Pixar Place. The building would be rethemed to resemble the Monsters, Inc. facility from the film, with the conceit that guests are attending an open house to see how the titular monsters collect laughter to fuel Monstropolis. As they careen through the building in their coaster vehicles, guests’ screams and laughter will be collected in canisters which will fill to explosive levels.

A behatted Disney-MGM Studios. Mickey Avenue gained the Walt Disney tribute One Man’s Dream (yay) as well as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire – Play It! (boo) in 2001.

How plausible is this rumor? While the pricey and well-themed attraction would no doubt be a hit, there’s been no hint of it from Disney. Or has there?

This won’t be the end of the additions to Pixar Place. Hill continues to say that the former Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground will be rethemed to Pixar’s a bug’s life, and floats the possibility of Lights, Motors, Action receiving its own Pixar overlay when Cars 2 debuts in 2012. He also mentions the rumor, reported elsewhere, that a great deal of the remaining backlot area will be leveled to make way for a clone of the Carsland area that’s coming to California Adventure. This depends, of course, on how popular that new attraction proves to be when it opens around 2012. Hopefully, though, Disney’s cloning trend will by then be wholly purged from the company and we Florida-goers will have unique new E-tickets to call our own.

Pixar Place today. If rumors hold true, this area will expand to the left and top of the map in upcoming years.

Maybe, just maybe, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will get something new and unique that suits and enhances the park’s own themes. It would just go to show you, anything can happen in the movies…