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Where in the Kingdoms – Alice ?

Where and How each and every Disney characters or Franchise are imagineered and exploited all around the 5 Kingdoms ?

Just a new modest section of 5 Kingdoms. Alice shall cut the ribbon.

The original Mad Tea Party cups...

The original Mad Tea Party cups...

Alice is present in all 5 Kingdoms through its world famous attraction. No matter which kingdom you stop by, guests are gonna spin under the charming theme of Alice in Wonderland, but some Kingdoms offer more than a few cups of Alice ! Actually 3 of them have something special from Walt Disney’s Classic Alice in Wonderland.

Since 1958 in the only Kingdom already opened that year, Alice welcomes guests to a unique dark ride located in Fantasyland. You climb on a 2 rows Caterpillar which before and after scrolling through Wonderland goes out of the building to give its riders a great view of Fantasyland. This darklighted masterpiece simply named ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is unique to its Kingdom and encounters quiet a success in Anaheim.

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Facade of Alice in Wonderland ride.

 

Entrance to the Banquet

Entrance to the Banquet

For long, across the pacific ocean the first Asian Kingdom only had its Mad Tea Party to enjoy, but since 1998, the Tokyo Disneyland got itself a treat. A treat for kids and adults in the form of an authentic Disney buffeteria. Imagineers decided to add a restaurant to Fantasyland and chose the always fresh Alice theme to dress it. Queen of Heart’s Banquet Hall facade works as one of the primary backdrop of the land toward which hungry guest rushes in for the Kingdoms’ only Alice’s culinary experience.

The Big hearted shaped edge welcomes you as in you were entering the maze. Instead you find yourselves seated in Queen of Heart’s castle !

 

 

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On eside of the building presents the maze. By flickr user frikitiki

 

Tokyo's Queen of Hearts Banquet's interior.

Tokyo's Queen of Hearts Banquet's interior.

This works as a great alice decor but another park, the ever “lucky” one got even better on its openning day.

In Disneyland Paris, Alice got a real labyrinth, a unique outdoor Walkthrough attraction whose climax (if you can find it) is the Queen of Heart’s very own Castle replicate. Once you’ve passed this other Heart shaped vegetal entrance you’ll find the maze is filled with Alice references and located right across the Cups by which you can have a tea or pastries in a recreated snack vendor version of the March Hare House.

Alice's Curious Labyrinth by Flickr user joelforeman

Disneyland Paris' Alice's Curious Labyrinth by Flickr user joelforeman

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Across the entrance of Alice’s Curious Labyrinth stands a March Hare refreshments, faithful replicate this Alice In Wonderland original character. March Hare Refreshments serves beverages and sweets.

Disneyland Paris' March Hare Refreshments
Disneyland Paris’ March Hare Refreshments

 

 

Needless to say in those 3 Alice enriched Kingdoms, those attractions/restaurants themed locations assembles into some Alice minilands that work perfectly with the them of Fantasyland in which they are all encompassed.

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Hong Kong and Orlando didn’t get any extra bits of Alice, they left stranded with Mad Hatter Tea Cup for one and Mad Tea Party for the other. But Alice is not only in attractions, shops and restaurants. She always gets her own float in any major Disney Parade, and is out and about in every parks quiet often. Actually no matter which Kingdom you visit, you hve a fare chance of meeting her in person bouncing around her own little Wonderland.

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4 Kingdoms

That’s it. In an unexpected move the The Hong Kong government decided to buy back Disney’s share in its theme park Chinese venture. They must have felt fooled by the competing Shanghai negociations.

But the 1998 deal between Disney and Hong Kong stated they would not be able to use Disney’s name shall they choose to use their buyout option.

On the other hand China in an effort to warm tensed relations with Europe have for long work close with Belgian franchiser Moulinsart which owns the rights to comic hero Tintin. They’ve been trying to associate it with an entertainment project in the country for as far as before shaking hand with Disney.

Now with this buyout move, instead of building a new venture, various sources predicts they will use the now copyright free resort and hastily redisign it so it reflects the newly secured franchise. Think Skeeping Beauty Castle turned into Moulinsart !

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oh My !

 

So without any legal response from Disney who cannot afford to upset the Chinese government while trying to secure the approving of their more profitable Shanghai project the park will be stripped of any Disney references.

Starting summer 2010 expect Hong Kong Disneyland to be renamed Hong Kong Tintinland with a six month head to the highly anticipated Tintin Spielberg/Jackson adaptation.

No doubt it will be massively promoted with the park opening.

Anyway untill Shanghai finaly makes it up for this disappointment: we’ve lost a Kingdom.

And I just changed my domain name weeks ago…

Moving to www.5kingdomsblog.com

[UPDATE] NEW SITE IS ON !

(if everything alright, you should already be on it)

Thanks to numerous self-teaching blogs, I was able to smoothly move the entire content of the blog into a graphically and technically enhanced 5 Kingdoms. This will ease the writing and formating of the articles as well as give the site a unique graphical entity.

All you have to do is bookmark the new URL http://www.5kingdomsblog.com and use it for your next visit.

And to seal this transition, my next article will fully benefit from new features made avalaible by this well thought move. Come back on the new 5 Kingdoms soon for “3 Haunted Mansion and 1 Phantom Manor”.

That’s it, sorry for the techy bother !

Enjoy the new Kingdoms !

The Canopy

or the marquee, or the covered passage, or that huge victorian Crystal Palace placed over Main Street. Let’s look how Tokyo Disneyland’s own World Bazaar is so unique that it stands among the greatest piece of Disney architecture.

Contrary to the other Main Street which are one street with alleys giving the feeling of a genuine crossing, World Bazzar works as a real junction that leads to three different lands. So the Marquee doesn’t only cover a street, but two plus the large empty space left by this massive crossing. The importance of the structure can be seen on the google earth snapshot. The left side leads to Adventureland and the right one to Tomorrowland.

The roof is mainly supported by the shops buidlings so poles are only needed for the exit opening leading to the castle and the structural gap over the crossing. They are beautiful Victorian pillars similar to those holding in place the canopies of many 19th century european train stations.

And as those exisiting constructions of the world this glamourous victonrian marquee impresses with its grand allure, towering the smaller buildings around it. It gives a certain grandeur to the landscape and interestingly defy the castle opposing its exit.

It also affect the general feel of the land by cuting short the Main Street pespective, though this is a different kind of wow you experience walking inside and up World Bazaar Canopee, suprisingly it really blends with the main street atmosphre and even overplay the themed immersion.

On a more confort note, let’s add that the infrastructure can be heated in winter and cooled in the summer making it for sure a great addition to any Kingdom. 

Don’t think it the Canopy diminishes the beauty of Main Street, it juste changes it, pushes it toward a slightly different direction, that is not only one of the boldest Disney ever take, but also quiet a astonishing one.

Google Earth 3D coming to Disneyland Paris

It’s been officialy announced by DLRP Management, the same service provided by Walt Disney World through Google Earth 3D will be available for Disneyland Paris starting martch 28th.

This is wonderful news for all those who couldn’t visit the European restort already. Parks, hotels and transportation, everything will be modelised and tagged just like for it’s floridian bigger sister.

Thanks to this detailed 3D services, Disney fans around to world can either explore or reminisce ! I can’t wait for them to reach the other 3 resorts !

Get ready to discover or rediscover this unique Kingdom on March 28th 2009 !

-(UPDATE)-

Still nothing on Google Earth. Is Disneyland Paris waiting for Mickey’s Magical Party campaign to kick in so the 3D Google Earth incrementation can help publicize it ? Who knows ?

We’ll just have to wait for an official announcement then…