Disney Cars Land Debut, $1.1 Billion Project to Save Disneyland? (VIDEO)
A new "Cars" themed car land opened up at Disneyland over the weekend, along with other new additions that hope to revive a park that has lost its "magic feeling" according to some.
Disneyland was first opened in 1955 and was distinguished as the only park that was built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney himself. Years later however, many customers complained that the park lacked the same "magic" as the other Disney parks, with fewer recognizable characters for today's generation.
The complaints launched a complete Disneyland overhaul, which began nearly five years ago, and debuted on June 15. One of the major new features includes Cars Land, a remake of Radiator Springs from the hit Disney Movie "Cars."
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John Lasseter, the director of Cars and the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios has said the project has been a long time coming.
"This has been a labor of love for five years working with Walt Disney Imagineering," Lasseter, who is also the Principal Creative Adviser for Walt Disney Imagineering, told NBC. "Imagineers are so talented. We wanted to bring to this park, Disney California Adventure, the level of immersive theme-ing and storytelling that Walt Disney put into the first Disneyland."
Radiator Springs Racers, an estimated $200 million project, is a massive slot car system that takes riders on a journey made to feel like a drive through the movie itself. The ride features visits with characters like Mater and Doc Hudson, as riders set forth on their own "Cars" adventure.
Two other cars themed rides were also developed. Luigi's Flying Tires allows riders to hop aboard "floating" tires which can be navigated by riders shifting weight to either side of the tire. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree also includes mini tractors that do a square dance to various different songs.
"Even the cafes and the restaurants and all that, when you look down at the street, they did the same attention to detail in this 12 acres that they did when they were rendering the film," John Ratzenberger, the voice of Mack the Truck, told NBC.
"It's unbelievably exciting," Robert Iger, Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, said. "To create that place and enable people to immerse themselves in it, to be completely transported to it and live within those stories, it's pretty remarkable."
