Walt Disney Studios Park
From Disney's Hollywood Studios Wiki
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second theme park of Disneyland Resort Paris, and the 10th Disney Park ever built. Walt Disney Studios Park is considered a sister park to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Both parks feature a show business theme, and the two parks share numerous attractions. The Earffel Tower, Walt Disney Studios Park's water-tower icon structure, is basically identical to Hollywood Studios' Earful Tower.
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[edit] History
The park opened on March 16, 2002 and is themed after a working film studio, with the "lands" being studio lots. Most of its attractions are imported from the other Disney parks, and the some of the few that weren't have since been copied by other parks.
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. WDFA Paris' first films were A Goofy Movie and the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain. WDFA Paris contributed sequences to every Disney film from Hunchback of Notre Dame to Atlantis: 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.
[edit] Early Projects
Disney-MGM Studios Europe was the original plan for a second theme park and was scheduled to open in 1995. However, these plans were canceled around mid-1992 due to the resorts financial crisis of that time.
After the resort began to make a profit, plans for a movie themed theme park went into development again but on a much smaller scale. In 2002, the Walt Disney Studios Park opened.
[edit] Recent Growth
June 2007 saw the opening of a brand new "land" in the Animation Courtyard area of the park. Called Toon Studio, the new area is 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 features two brand new attractions, not seen in any other Park, along with small merchandising locations and many character meet-and-greets. The key attractions in this expansion phase are Crush's Coaster, a custom-designed Maurer Söhne SC 2000 indoor spinning roller coaster, and Cars: Race Rally themed to the Disney/Pixar film Cars, with the ride taking the form of an enhanced tea cups ride.
On December 22 2007, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction soft-opened with the new Hollywood Boulevard on Production Courtyard. Stitch Live! has replaced the Disney Channel Studio Tour.
In 2009, new attractions and entertainment will begin at the park to run alongside with the new Mickey's Magical Party celebration which begins April 3rd, 2009. A new attraction Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! will open next to Stitch Live! and will be presented in French, English and Spanish. And for the first time, Walt Disney Studios Park will receive a full parade, the new parade will be Disney's Stars'n'Cars Parade.
[edit] Studio Lots
The Walt Disney Studios features four themed areas.
[edit] Front Lot
- Disney Studio 1
- Earffel Tower
- Place des Frères Lumières
[edit] Toon Studio
- Art of Disney Animation
- Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
- Animagique
- Crush's Coaster
- Cars Quatre Roues Rallye
[edit] Production Courtyard
- CinéMagique
- Stitch Live!
- Place des Stars
- Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage!
[edit] Hollywood Boulevard
[edit] Backlot
- Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular
- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Armageddon - Les Effets Speciaux
