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The Walt Disney Studios Park, known as Parc Walt Disney Studios in France, is one of two theme parks in the Disneyland Resort Paris.
Dedication
To all who enter the studio of dreams, welcome. The Walt Disney Studios is dedicated to our timeless fascination and affection for cinema and for television. Here we celebrate the art and the artistry of storytelling from Europe and around the world to create the magic in a special place through our own memories of the past and our dreams of the future. - Michael D. Eisner, March 16, 2002
History and Details
Before the Euro Disney Resort (as the Disneyland Resort Paris was known as until 1995) opened, plans were already in place for a European park in the style of the Disney-MGM Studios, but after Euro Disneyland (the original name for Disneyland Park) failed to impress, plans for the Disney-MGM Studios Paris were immediately cancelled. Opened on 16 March 2002 as part of a new initiative from The Walt Disney Company pledging to open a new theme park gate at each of their resorts around the world, the Studios is the smallest Disney park and has been a criticism from many Disney fans since its opening - mainly stemming from its lack of attention to detail, theming and number of attractions compared to Disneyland Park (Paris) next door.
The park is supposedly themed around a working film studio, with the "lands" being studio lots. Most of its attractions are imported from the other Disney parks in California, Florida and Tokyo, yet the park has some original successes. Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular was so popular, it was exported to Disney-MGM Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, where it plays to full audiences.
It was traditional for a period of time for Walt Disney Feature Animation to have a satellite animation studio at each of the company's resorts, but the Paris studio was located in Montreuil, at the city limits of Paris and was never associated with the park. Originally the Brizzi studio owned by brothers Paul Brizzi and Gaëtan Brizzi, Disney purchased the studio in the early 1990s and renamed it Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris. WDFA Paris' first films were A Goofy Movie and the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain. WDFA Paris contributed sequences to every Disney film from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to The Lost Empire, most notably producing the Firebird Suite sequence for Fantasia 2000. It was closed in 2004 following Disney Florida and Disney Japan, when Feature Animation was downsized to save production costs. Disney Sidney was closed in May 2006
Production Zones
The 4 themed lands of Walt Disney Studios Park are officially called "Production Zones". The overlying "story" of the park is that the guest enters the park as a "nobody", but leaves as a world-class movie star "celebrity", thanks to their starring roles in the park's various production-themed attractions.
Front Lot
The grand entrance of the Studios, with warm, Spanish-influenced buildings in the style of the administration area of a typical Hollywood movie studio. Features boutiques and guest service buildings around the Place des Frères Lumières courtyard, which is home to the centrepiece Fantasia Fountain.Attractions:
- Disney Studio 1
- Earful Tower
- Frontlot Square
Restaurants:
- Restaurant En Coulisse
Boutiques:
- Walt Disney Studio Store
- Legends of Hollywood
- Studio Photo
- Shutterbugs
Animation Courtyard
The home of Disney's animated classics and storytelling magic, with a more whimsical approach to the movie studio theme and the chance to meet various Disney characters at special meet 'n' greet locations. To be expanded beyond recognition in 2007 with Toon Studios.Attractions
- Art of Disney Animation
- Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
- Animagique
- Crush's Coaster (opening June 2007)
- Cars Race Rally (opening June 2007)
- Mickey's Trailer
Boutiques
- The Disney Animation Gallery
Production Courtyard
An art-deco styled courtyard with various production facilities and entertainment offerings.Attractions
- CinéMagique
- Studio Tram Tour
- TV Production Tour at Walt Disney Television Studios
- Production Courtyard Stage
Restaurants
- Rendez-Vous des Stars
Backlot
The action-packed epicentre of spectacular special effects and raw movie magic.Attractions
- Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular
- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith
- Armageddon: Special Effects
- Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Restaurants
- Backlot Express
- Café des Cascadeurs
Boutiques
- Rock Around The Shop
Improvements and Growth
Thanks to a major financial restructuring within the park's operating company, Euro Disney SCA, Disneyland Resort Paris will be receiving a major new attraction in either park each year from 2005 to 2009, allowing the long-awaited expansions of Walt Disney Studios Park to begin. The new attractions were announced on January 11 2005, with Space Mountain: Mission 2 (2005) and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (2006) at Disneyland Park being following by two years of unprecedented expansion at the Studios.
June 2007 will see the opening of a brand new "land" in the Animation Courtyard area of the park. Called Toon Studios, the new area will be themed as a "toon backlot", apparently representing the film studio work place of animated characters, where they produce their animated classics. The concept has been created exclusively for Walt Disney Studios Park and will feature two brand new attractions, not seen in any other Disney Theme Park, along with small merchandising locations and many character meeting opportunities. The key attraction in this expansion phase will be Crush's Turtle Twister, a custom-designed Maurer Söhne SC 2000 indoor spinning roller coaster. A second attraction - Cars: Race Rally will be themed to the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars, with the ride taking the form of an enhanced tea cups ride. Similar attractions can be found in Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea and A bug's land in Disney's California Adventure.
Late 2007 / Early 2008 will become an important point in the park's history, as the long-awaited The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction opens in the Production Courtyard area of the park. Guests take a dramatic ride through an abandoned 1930s Hollywood hotel, ending in a plummet "faster than gravity" down the elevator shaft. This attraction has been planned for the park since the initial plans were unveiled in 1999, but was delayed due to the financial troubles of Euro Disney SCA. The original plans of the attraction were modified slightly to allow it to be built at Disney's California Adventure park in 2004, hence the fact that the Paris and California versions of the attraction will be practically identical.
Plans beyond The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror are currently unconfirmed, but it has been made clear that the resort would like to further expand upon the Toon Studios concept, should it be successful. Initial rumours point to a clone of Magic Kingdom Florida's Mickey's Philharmagic cinema attraction, or attractions based upon Pixar's The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc. films.
There have also been strong rumours since opening of the construction of an outdoor "Hollywood Boulevard" leading outwards from Disney Studio 1 past The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This would lead to the displacement of the Studio Tram Tour station to next to Café des Cascadeurs and the subsequent creation of extra European Street Sets in the backlot of the park.
External links
Disney parks and attractions | Theme parks | 2002 establishments
Parc Walt Disney Studios | פארק אולפני וולט דיסני | Parco Walt Disney Studios | Walt Disney Studios Park
"Walt Disney Studios Park"