ONE
| TWO | THREE
| FOUR | FIVE
| SIX | SEVEN
Television
Production Tour at Walt Disney Television Studios
This was not open on the day of the preview.
The park guide says, "Smile, you're on camera. It's the wonderful
world of TV and your invited to witness a live studio production."
Cinemagique
Cinemagique is housed is a large theatre. It
has great seating with a steep rake, making sure everyone in the
audience has a great view of the screen. Note that I said screen here
rather than stage, even though this attraction does have a live element.
Basically, Cinemagique is a film. The idea
of the attraction is that a "member of the audience" (actually
a cast member) accidentally gets pulled into the movies, and we get to
experience it with him.
While the idea is good and the actual film
editing is excellent, the theatre effects are minimal. Apart from a
couple squirts of water during a rainstorm, and the sinking of the
Titanic, the audience does not get to experience anything at all. What
little effects there are happen either on the front of the stage or to
the screen itself.
It's a nice film staring Martin Short, with
some clever editing and use of some wonderful clips from classic movies.
I doubt however, that it will have much repeat value. It is not in 3-D
like Honey I Shrunk The Audience or Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision
3D, and it does not have the movement and large screen like Soarin'
over California. Instead, Cinemagique is basically a collection of film
clips with a small number of theatre effects.
Odds and Ends
By the way, visitors should know that the
FastPass service will only be available on three attractions. They are
the Magic Carpets, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and the Tram Tour, the
other attractions do not have FastPass capability and it doesn’t look
like it will be added in the future.
As far as entertainment goes things are not
a great deal better. You do get some nice musical groups performing in
Studio One through the day, and characters make appearances here and
there around the park (see photo below).
To see a 2.8 mg QuickTime video clip of some
of the entertainers, CLICK
HERE. (You will need a QuickTime viewer from Apple installed on your
computer to see it.)
What you don’t get is a parade of any
sort, we have heard one may appear for the summer but there's no sign at
the moment. There is also no night time entertainment of any kind
(parade or fireworks) and I don’t think we will see either for a long
time.
In Conclusion
That was it, as far as attractions go. But
what about the overall feel of the park? Is it nice to be in? Does it
have a cozy or open feeling?
Well, I did not like the feel of the park.
It seems to have no heart or core, there are large open spaces between
what are basically large industrial- style attractions
buildings.
I know it's winter at the moment. In a few
years' time things will become much greener, and we will of course have
the Tower of Terror filling the skyline. But somehow it does not feel
right. It feels like a big park, but there is very little to do here,
and not a lot to look at either.
I wanted to see a visual
feast, a surprise around every corner and a level of detail I have only
found across the way in Disneyland. What we have is not a second-rate
park. At the moment it's a third-rate park, and I think Disney knows
this.
To make things a little
better visitors will be allowed to buy a park hopper pass from
day one (unlike DCA). Also, if you buy a single-day ticket to the
Studios park, you can also enter the Disneyland park on the same day for
its last four hours of operation. This gives you an indication of how
they feel they will need to keep the guests happy.
I hope I have not been too negative about
Walt Disney Studios Paris. As a shareholder and regular visitor, I do
want it to succeed and become a great park. Unfortunately at this
moment, it has a long way to go. Maybe when it celebrates its tenth
anniversary, we can say it's a park Walt would have been proud to give
his name to.
