So they just announced the expansion plans for Hong Kong Disneyland.

[link]

They've needed to do this for a while now, considering it's the tiniest of the bunch and has really been lacking a lot of the things the other Disneylands have got. I remember the oldest plans that including Frontierland, Toontown, Critter Country and even some other stuff that would have made it a very solid park, but those got scrapped in the whole late-Eisner era of making any new park absolutely suck (DisneySea being the grand exception, though that's thanks to the funding of the Oriental Land Company). The park opened with like only two of the Disney park greats: Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain. Really shows how lacking it was at the start. With Autopia and Small World now though, they're steadily becoming more respectable.

There are three new lands on the Adventureland side of the park. I say Adventureland side of the park as until now, it completely dominated that west side. Jungle Cruise takes the usual Rivers of America space (with Tarzan's Treehouse taking the Tom Sawyer Island position) while that bottom corner houses Festival of the Lion King. It's what happens when your park opens with no Frontierland. We got Mystic Point, Grizzly Trail and Toy Story Land coming in. No sign of PIrates yet, though there's definitely an expansion plot it can go on.

Mystic Point, which will house a new interpretation of the Haunted Mansion that takes the general aesthetic of the Tokyo DisneySea Tower of Terror as far as cursed objects in the collection of an Adventurer goes. It's going with a trackless ride system much like Winnie the Pooh, which is going to be absolutely amazing, though that means they won't be the classic Doombuggy. Like Phantom Manor, should be a very interesting take on the material, though I hope the Hitchhiking Ghosts will be in it. It's also continuing Imagineering's grand tradition of having each Mansion be in a different land from the others.
They're also getting their own Adventurer's Club which is just swell, though I hope that doesn't mean that the Disney World one is as good as dead. I NEVER GOT TO JOIN THE CLUB DAMMIT. The closing of that place is like the only thing I've been bitter about not getting to see in person outside of the lost Epcot stuff.

Grizzly Trail is a reinterpretation of Frontierland that features an almost Expedition Everest style take on Big Thunder Mountain. But instead of natural disasters and Indian curses, it was the large population of godless killing machines in the area that drove the miners out. Colbert would be proud of the Imagineering story team, but absolutely terrified of the ride itself, full of animatronic bears. Sounds very cool and would be nice if Grizzly Peak at California Adventure got some of those robotic grizzlies. Also, makes me wonder if COuntry Bear Jamboree could be placed in at some point.

Finally there's Toy Story Land, which goes between Mystic Point and Fantasyland. Have no idea how they're gonna even do a smooth transition between the two. It basically looks to be like the Bugs Life land at California Adventure with a Toy Story theme, though with a parachute ride and a cool halfpipe coaster. And yet, it lacks the obvious anchor that would be Toy Story Mania. While I don't mind it too much, a lot of the consensus on the Disney Park fanboards seems to be "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT", as opposed to more of the meh feeling I've got. I agree with the opinion that it doesn't fit a Disneyland too well, but I'm not auditioning to join the Red Lantern Corps over it. Disney Studios Paris is apparently getting this too, and it definitely fits better there. Maybe the reason they're holding off on Mania is they're saving it for Shanghai, which is gonna be like 10 times bigger then Hong Kong, creating a Disneyland/WDW effect in China.

Either way, this new stuff definitely makes me want to actually go to Hong Kong Disney now. Though international parkwise, it's still a lesser priority then Tokyo and Paris.

Been back from Disney for over a week now. Though I've been putting up some pictures on my Facebook of the first Disney day, the photo uploader seems to be jammed on there or something. Plus I was going to upload various selections on here anyway, it's an easy way to fill up the gallery.
Will also eventually get around to putting up some work from last semester as well, particularly the Monster series I did for my Drawing II Final.

Also, if you haven't seen Up yet, go now.

Leaving in two weeks. I am hyped as hell. This'll be the first time going during the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot PLUS my day in the Studios is going to be the first day of Star Wars Weekends. Fuck yeah!

An actual update for Battle for Disney?
Starting the whole individual sequences plan with scene one of Act I (which will run about 9 sequences), which has Figment's brief encounter with Scar. Not much I know, but hey, at least I'm posting stuff. Look in the scraps or the Battle for Disney gallery every once in a while for new material.

After seeing Coraline and reading the book, I hate buttons now.

Been working on a summary/outline of Battle for Disney before doing that whole "non-linear" posting thing. It'll serve as a means to find the context of individual scenes as well as act as an index. First two acts (out of five) have been laid out and when I've gotten that summary to at least through act 3, I'll go on and put it up, updating as the outline becomes more complete.