Disneyland - where dreams come true.
Our third Disney theme park is:
Where we took a high speed indoor roller coaster, saw a number of street performances and stunt shows, "starred" in a stunt show rehearsal, visited a number of exhibition buildings, and of course, learned lots of stuff about various movies and Walt Disney himself.
It was extremely cold that day, with temperatures barely exceeding 10 degrees Celsius. We were actually heading off to see the Beauty and the Beast stage performance, which was one of the main highlights of the show, when a self-proclaimed director started setting up the "stage" for a street performance:
And introduced his counterpart - a self-proclaimed superstar:
Meanwhile, the "director" got 3 volunteers from the crowd - 2 men to act as love interests for the "superstar", and a girl to hold the microphone for the filming. Later on, he got someone else to be in charge of the camera.
And here is one of the "love interests" of the "superstar". The whole performance depicted the filming of a love scene, and ended with a twist of course...
And this is the part where the twist happens - the "director" got fed up of the "superstar" and her exaggerated movements, so he had to kneel down to get her to act properly. She didn't, of course, and he used some tactics to fire her and drive her away from the filming grounds...
And he casts the camera assistant as the main actress, while he takes charge of the camera...
And the 2 "love interests" remain the same, of course.
The show lasted for about 15 minutes, but it was really hilarious. Both volunteers and real actors did an awesome job.
We then headed off to the Rock-n-Roller Coaster, featuring Aerosmith. This coaster depicts a high-speed trip to a film festival (or something along that line). And when I say high speed, I mean super high speed. We twisted, looped and dropped through the dark, and through "tunnels" in the "highway", and there was some rock music playing in the background as we went through the "highway". Believe me - it rocked!
The Fender-shaped guitar outside the roller coaster.
And the car that drove us around those mad loops and turns, minus the seats of course.
By then it was time for the Beauty and the Beast show. The show summarised the Beauty and the Beast film made by Walt Disney, complete with all the songs...
The opening scene, where the Prince was transformed into a beast...
Introducing Belle, the main protagonist of the show.
And Gaston, one of the antagonists of the show.
A performance of one of the main songs - "Be My Guest".
Belle, the Beast and Cogsworth...
Cogsworth - he's one of the funniest characters in the show...
And of course, the dancing scene right after the beast was transformed back into the Prince, together with chorus members decked out in gorgeous costumes...
Our next show was The Little Mermaid, also a summary of the original film by Disney.
And not too far away, some character greeting sessions were in place. I don't remember these characters, neither have I seen the movie with them inside, but they're kinda cute.
Oh yes, and of course, the famous Mickey hat. There's actually a souvenir shop under the hat.
We dropped by one of the exhibition buildings, where they explained how the animation process took place. And here are the sketches for the latest Disney movie (which I watched yesterday!), Tangled.
Inside a Disney animation studio. How I wish I could work in there! :)
Various facial expressions...
And of course, even more character greeting sessions!
The famous Mickey mouse outside the exhibition building, where we then had our lunch.
Broomsticks with buckets of flowers - it really reminded me of the 1940 movie Fantasia. In fact, it reminded me of the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas.
Some of the broomsticks were pouring flowers...
While others were carrying the buckets. Pretty amazing!
Closeup of the purple flowers. There were yellow and purple flowers all over.
We proceeded to learn more about Walt Disney, his inspirations, his cartoons, and of course, his life.
Inside yet another animator's studio...
We walked through a Toy Story-themed street, which depicted the Pixar section of the theme park, and headed straight to the stunt show demonstrations.
We first saw a demonstration of the stunts in Pearl Harbour (or some war movie)...
And then took a tram ride to the actual filming grounds of many stunt shows...
And of course, saw the famous Hollywood Studios water tower! :)
We were even subjected to a live stunt show, where we starred in a catastrophe...!!!!!!!!
But we came out (pretty much) unscathed, and learnt lots about the secrets behind the shaking bridge which we were on, the fire, the sudden flash flood and so on.
Perhaps the best part of the park (in my opinion), was the sets designs...
Doesn't it look like we're in the city?
The City of New York. Awesome skyline! I was so fascinated by the amount of details and the illustrations that they did. I still wish I could go to New York for real though.
Strolling through the "streets of New York". There were many lights, and apparently there was a Christmas light show around twilight - which we missed. Oh well...
Oh, and in addition to that, we watched a Muppets show, and took pictures with giant coke bottles!
After that we took a ride which showed famous Hollywood movies, including The Wizard of Oz (1939), Singin' in the Rain (1950s), The Sound of Music (1965 I think), Casablanca (1942), one of the Indiana Jones movies and some others. Each section was decorated according to famous scenes within the movie. For example, in The Wizard of Oz, we passed through the fictional yet colourful Munchkinland, and followed the Yellow Brick Road to the next movie section. We also saw classic and epic Hollywood moments, including famous quotes like "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone with the Wind (1939). It was really epic!
By then we had to head to the bus, and we headed back to prepare for the 4th theme park - Animal Kingdom.
And that would be part 6 of our USA 2010 series! Gosh, I dunno how many parts this series will eventually contain!