By Kathy Westervelt

SoCal Magazine Special Edition 2010

"The New California Adventure"

Making its debut this spring at Disney’s California Adventure is “World of Color,” a spectacular nighttime water show. Prepare to be amazed! Prepare to be dazzled! Prepare to want to return for more! This show will astound you with its magnitude and creativity. But that’s not all! “World of Color” is just the first of several new attractions planned to open at Disney’s California Adventure during the next couple of years.

“World of Color” will bring Disney animation to life like never before. Powerful fountains become stars of the show as they create the world’s largest projected water screen. Combining hundreds of magnificent fountains and sparkling colors with a kaleidoscope of audio and visual effects, “World of Color” takes water-infused entertainment to a new level of artistry. Your senses will be flooded (no pun intended!) as you are taken on an imaginative journey into the colorful worlds of animated Disney classics such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas,” along with Disney•Pixar films “Toy Story,” “WALL-E” and many more.

For months now, guests at Disney’s California Adventure have peered with curiosity into the lagoon near Paradise Pier. They’ve been watching the installation of the massive infrastructure and innovative technology that will create the stage for this extraordinary combination of music, animation and stunning water effects. Teams of Disney workers have built nearly an acre of superstructure to support the complex “World of Color” production. It’s longer than a football field and capable of settling on three levels – one for the performance, one under the water surface and one for maintenance.

“World of Color” features an unprecedented infrastructure of water effects, larger-than-life projections, lasers, fire, fog, surround sound, and stunning images. This technical wizardry, combined with classic Disney film sequences, will create a breathtaking experience for guests, as jaw-dropping effects sweep across the lagoon, soar into the sky, and rush toward the audience. It promises to be spectacular!

SoCal Magazine has discovered a few behind the scenes secrets of some of the technical magic that we think you’ll find interesting: More than 1,200 powerful and programmable fountains, each with multiple points of  control for lighting, color intensity, water angle, height and more...

A huge underwater grid with more than 18.000 points of control

Fountain heights ranging from 30 to 200 feet in the air

A precise system of flame projections, lasers, and special effects

And finally, the world’s largest projected water screen — a wall of water 380 feet wide by 50 feet high for a projection surface of 19,000 square feet

The newly designed 9,000-capacity viewing area will provide Disney’s California Adventure guests the best view in the park of this exciting nighttime extravaganza that lasts approximately 25 minutes.

That’s Not All!! More is on the Way at California Adventure!!

During the next two years, more exciting changes will be taking place at California Adventure! And we want to let you in on them in advance!

The first major attraction based on Disney’s classic “The Little Mermaid” is coming to the park’s Paradise Pier area with leading-edge animation and special effects. 

Guests will be able to dive into the magnificent scenes and magical songs from the movie when The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure debuts in 2011.

In 2012, a brand new gateway to Disney’s California Adventure will welcome guests into the Los Angeles that Walt Disney experienced as a young artist arriving with big dreams in the 1920s.

Red Car Trolleys reminiscent of the old Pacific Electric Red Car Line will travel up and down Buena Vista Street alongside new dining, shopping and entertainment experiences. A new visual icon inspired by Los Angeles’ historic Carthay Circle Theatre, which premiered “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937, will draw guests into the heart of the park.

Car enthusiasts will be thrilled with California Adventure’s final piece of its major expansion – the 12-acre addition of Cars Land, which recreates the town of Radiator Springs as inspired by the hit Disney® Pixar film “Cars.”

Cars Land will feature three family attractions, Radiator Springs Racers, Luigi’s Flying Tires and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Radiator Springs Racers will be one of the largest and most elaborate attractions ever created for a Disney park. This major E-ticket attraction will place guests in the middle of a twisting, turning, high-speed adventure.

A Sneak Preview Awaits at Blue Sky Cellar

For those of you who can’t wait until these exciting attractions are completed and open, you can get a sneak peek of what lies ahead at California Adventure’s Blue Sky Cellar near the Golden Vine Winery. This preview center showcases the expansion plans for Disney’s California Adventure.  Here, guests can get an advance look at models, concepts and sketches, and view a video of what’s new and what’s next.

You’ll have a lot of fun as you are immersed in a facsimile of an Imagineering workspace. Based on the belief that idea gathering is best when “the sky’s the limit,” Blue Sky Cellar is designed to resemble an Imagineering “charette,” an extended creative idea development meeting. Guests receive an inside look at how Imagineers take “blue sky” ideas and refine them into the classic storytelling that characterizes Disney theme park attractions and adventures. In this whimsical setting, Imagineers have taken over a former wine cellar and set up shop. Wine barrels have turned into work stations and the former wine tasting room has become a screening room where a video showcases the behind-the-scenes magic that goes into the creation of new and upcoming attractions for Disney’s California Adventure. Guests in Blue Sky Cellar will also have fun testing their knowledge of Disney trivia at one of the interactive workstations.

The screening room video features Imagineers describing the approach and vision of the Disney California Adventure expansion. Guests will see footage of model-making, sculpting, Blue Sky meetings and all the aspects of bringing a Disney concept to life.

Disney’s California Adventure fans can also stay up to date on coming attractions and exciting plans for the park at a new, interactive website. The site, hosted at www.DisneysCaliforniaAdventure.com, serves as an online preview center, taking visitors behind the scenes of the multiyear expansion at Disney’s California Adventure. It features videos, photos, renderings, interviews and more to keep fans up to date on the progress of attractions and entertainment coming to life in the park. Like the Disney parks themselves, the site will “continue to change and add new things” with regular updates.

Among the highlights at www.DisneysCaliforniaAdventure.com:

What’s New – link to the latest information on new developments at the park...

Big Plans – see the “big picture” approach to the ambitious expansion project

Pictures and Videos – link to renderings, photos and exclusive, behind-the-scenes views of works in progress

Individual Attractions – click on the pictures of “World of Color,” Little Mermaid ~

Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Buena Vista Street or Cars Land for more details about those exciting attractions

Of course, we always encourage you to visit www.welcometosocal.com for the latest updates from our field reporters.