Saturday, April 18, 2009

New " Inside UP! " Featurette and first high-res image of animated short " Partly Cloudy "



Pixar released a new "Inside UP!" featurette. Have a look at it below, as it include few new shots from the movie.

As usual a new short animated will be released in theatre with UP! and Pixar also released the first high-res image of the awaited short animated "Partly Cloudy".

I remember you the exciting synopsis: "Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies from? The answer lies up in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to life. Gus, a lonely and insecure grey cloud, is a master at creating ‘dangerous’ babies. Crocodiles, porcupines, rams and more—Gus’s beloved creations are works of art, but more than a handful for his loyal delivery stork partner, Peck. As Gus’s creations become more and more rambunctious, Peck’s job gets harder and harder. How will Peck manage to handle both his hazardous cargo and his friend’s fiery temperament?"

Up Exclusive Featurette


And it's not over yet! There is another new UP! featurette called "Kevin: The Undiscovered Species" available only on Disney.com, also with new shots from the movie! Have a look on Disney.com!

Picture and Video: copyright Disney-Pixar

Thanks to Ain't it cool news for the Partly Cloudy picture.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Editor's Note: Honor Hunter of Blue Sky Disney have interesting news about Disney's California Adventure future. Oh and if you don't know yet who is Gustav Tinkershmidt and what is the relation between him and the new Paradise Pier, Honor will tell you everything about him. It's right HERE.

Tokyo Disneyland Artwork



It's Tokyo Disneyland 26th anniversary this week and in celebration of this birthday i re-post this previous Tokyo Disneyland artwork article. Don't forget to double-click on each picture to enjoy them in big high-res size.

Above and below a Herb Ryman early concept design for Tokyo Disneyland surrounded an American theme park with a Japanese atmosphere.



World Bazaar concept-art: Reminiscent of Victorian exhibition architecture, a graceful canopy was created to schelter World Bazaar.



Soaring 51 meters above the plaza, Cinderella castle at Tokyo Disneyland.



Cinderella castle murals: this shimmering Tokyo Disneyland mosaic was based on the original one created for Florida's Magic Kingdom by WDI artist Dorothea Redmond.



Snow White Grotto: Tucked beneath the walls of the castle, Snow White Grotto was designed by John Hench



All Artwork: copyright WED Enterprises Inc

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A Tribute to Don Carson Artwork - Part One



It's with great pleasure that I introduce today in my Imagineers articles series Don Carson.

Don Carson initially trained as a commercial illustrator at the Academy of Art College of San Francisco. Launching a freelance career in the early 1980’s, Don quickly discovered he disliked working as a commercial illustrator, and much preferred designing for environmental and theatrical projects. This style of art allowed him to communicate ideas through conceptual drawings, and were not merely selling a product or illustrating an editorial.

Don also had a childhood love for Disneyland later that manifested as a series of beautiful sketches of different areas of the park. These sketches were created for a proposed book to be called “Attention to Detail, A Disneyland Sketchbook”. Although this book was never published the work created for it became the foundation of his portfolio, which led to his being hired as an Imagineer.

Here are some of the sketches from that proposed book, from the top: Adventureland, Treehouse, Fantasyland.





In 1989, Don was hired as a Show Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering and was initially assigned for two weeks to work on the Splash Mountain attraction for the Magic Kingdom in Florida. These few weeks eventually turned into two years, as Don took on the role of lead designer for the project.

During the production of Splash Mountain, Don started work with Imagineer Joe Lanzisero on the beginning phase of what would become Mickey’s Toontown for Disneyland California. Unlike his work on Splash Mountain, Toontown worked with a team of designers, including Hani El Masri, Andrea Favilli, Marcelo Vignali, Maggie Parr, Chuck Ballew, Jim Shull, and Judy Chin. Don became the Senior Show Designer responsible for the Downtown portion of the new land, and eventually participated in the construction phase of the attraction

Below, Don's rendering for a "Critter Elixer Wagon" to be located at the exterior of Splash Mountain.



At the top of this article, the rendering of Don Carson's vision for Mickey's house. Below a picture of the house built in Toon Town. Include with the next Toon Town artwork some photos of the finished Toontown buildings. It is always interesting to see just how close the final land came to those very early concept sketches. Don told me: "That is one thing I really loved about working for WDI, they bend over backwards to make the final product as close to your design as possible".



Below, an early concept for Toontown when it was still under the working title of Mickey Land. As you can see the rolling slope of the street was supposed to go up and down. Considering the problem of accessibility for some guest, the idea was later turned into the flat land you see today.



The rendering below is a Toontown elevation for the island building located in the downtown portion of the land. Some of the buildings designed by Don made it into in the final Disneyland version of the Toontown we know, others not.




Since the buildings in Toontown do not follow traditional right angle construction methods, all concepts needed to be done as both flat elevations and three quarter view sketches. Below are examples of the Barber Shop (not found in the finished land) and the Fireworks Factory. The black and white sketches were used to create construction drawings while color sketches helped communicate the desired final look for the structures.





The next rendering is of the now famous “Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin” facade.




Although the Toontown Powerhouse facade did make it into the finished land, the elevated track depicted in the concept sketch did not. The original intent for the Roger Rabbit attraction was for it to take place on two stories. As part of the attraction, vehicles would pop out of the Powerhouse facade on a second story and crash and careen through the Glass Factory and Gag Warehouse facades. This second story feature was later cut, but the second story balcony that would have supported these vehicles remains in both the Disneyland and Tokyo parks as you will see in the pictures below.






This last sketch was one of the very first done for the project and depicts a "Piano Movers" truck, which unfortunately did not make it into the park.



Don worked on many other projects for the Disney parks, including these Adventureland themed elements, like this Elephant God, in fact a penny pinching machine - the arms of the elephant god would animate and give the illusion that it was pressing your penny! It was build at Disneyland, Anaheim



Same for this Adventureland truck with an Indiana Jones theming, which was also built.



I love this next one! Don's design for the entrance of a Hook's Tavern at WDW Magic Kingdom, with lamps based on a design that appears in Disneyland's Peter Pan attraction.



In part two of this tribute to Don Carson's artwork, we will have a look at the other projects that Don did participate during his career at WDI. Don't miss it!

All artwork by Don Carson and pictures: copyright Disney - WED enterprises

SHAG Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Artwork



SHAG, the trendy artist famous for his Adventureland and Tiki Room inspired artwork did new artwork for the Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary celebration.

The items will be released August 9 at a Disneyland Special Event. I have to admit the great talent of colourist of SHAG. But each time i see one of his artwork, his style reminds me another artist - a genius artist i should say - of the 1950's and 60's called Miroslav Sasek. Sasek did a series of children's books about all the cities of the world that where immensely successful at that time. Sasek books are by the way currently all re-printed and if you have children, any of these books will be one of the best gift you will ever do for them. People like SHAG's artwork also because of his 60's retro-style, and if you look at any Sasek book it also look typically 60's except that Sasek CREATED the 1960's style! I've add them in my Disney and more Amazon store, where you can find and order them easily - and they're not expensive - only $12.99!

To come back to SHAG, if I meet him one day, i must remember to ask him if he knows Sasek's work. Because I won't be surprised if Sasek was his non-official "mentor".

Anyway, let's comeback to SHAG Haunted Mansion 40th anniversary artwork, and i think as you will see below that he did a brilliant job.

Here is a series of SHAG paintings inspired by Haunted Mansion different scenes, and each of them will be available in prints, serigraphy or giclée printing. The originals themselves will also be on sale with prices between $6000 to $16000. Don't worry, the 14" x 18" prints will cost only $35.














SHAG did also a Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion version of his "We're Dying To Meet You" painting.



The artwork will also be used for other items, some of them in limited editions like this Cookie Jar Urn at $55...



This Appetizer Tray at $35...



This Haunted Mansion Lantern at $45...



These Lunch Bags at $24...



This Aloha shirt at $75...



This Boxed Pin Set at $50...



A 5" x 7" Postcard Set in Tin which will include all the different SHAG Haunted Mansion artwork will also be available at $18.




There is many more info about this SHAG Haunted Mansion artwork, with details on edition sizes, prices, etc on the Disney Gallery web site. Have a look!

All pictures and SHAG artwork: copyright Disney

The legendary Miroslav Sasek children's books on the major cities of the world are now on the Disney and more Amazon Store! The best one are the one about London , New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Rome and San Francisco. It's a vision of these cities how they looked in the 60's, and it's fantastic. Great gift for you or your children at only $12.99!