Although I do believe that The Walt Disney Studios Paris is a very, very beautiful themepark (at least based on pictures I've seen, mostly from Photos Magiques), it's no secret that it's also probably the weakest park Disney's ever built, especially after the disaster that is the Toy Story Playland. But, just as the pheonix rises from the ashes, soon, the new Ratatoullie attraction (an all new extremely complex and immersive dark ride) will rise behind Toy Story Playland. It's extremely exciting and I can't wait to find out more on what will probably be one of the greatest attractions WDI has built in a long time. Finally, WDS will have an attraction worthy of the Disneyland Park.
It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful an animated picture done right can be. No studio has perfected this art form in the way that the fine folks in the Hat Building have, and although the last decade has seen its string of dissapointments, I don't think it's fair to write Disney off just yet, especially after their last two films, The Princess and the Frog (which may very well be one of my favorite films of all time) and Tangled, and I have no doubt that the new Winnie the Pooh movie is going to be absolutly wonderful. It seems to me the studio may finally be getting its act back together, probably thanks to good ol' Uncle Lasseter). Me being the nerd I am, I recently searched for a Disney Animation montage along the lines of the finale of "The Great Movie Ride", and much to my delight, I found this one (click on the link). It's an AMAZING recreation of the montage used in the short film, Back to Neverland, which could be found in the "Magic of Disney Animation" tour when the the Disney-MGM Studios opened (it must have taken forever to recreate it the way glennwhelan did). Although I never got to see the original animation tour or Back to Neverland, after watching this montage I sure wish I could've had the opportunity. I still have goosebumbs from watching it. In fact, I think I may watch it again before I head to bed.
Update 3/8/11: While rewatching the montage (it's official, I have no life whatsoever) I decided to click on a link labeled "Walt Disney Studios Paris-Art Of Disney Animation", and was very excited to find a recreation of an updated version of the montage above! It's so exciting! (Okay, so maybe I'm over reacting a little, but hey, I figure it's my blog and I'll react how I darn well wanna react so there!). This one has a few clips in French, and includes films up to The Princess And The Frog. There's also ALOT of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (another of my absolute favorites) which I found interesting as I assumed it was one of the less popular films...perhaps the movie was better recieved in Europe due to it's French setting? Also interesting is the lack of CGI films. No Dinosaur, Chicken Little, Meet The Robinsons, or Bolt, which makes me wonder, is Disney trying to forget the last deccade? That seems rather silly as all of those films are at least mildly entertaining. Either way, it's still a fantastic montage...anywho, the updated montage can be found here.
image courtesy of Insights and Sounds