Rumor Report

Here's a bunch of stuff I heard about over the last week or so. Please continue to send rumors and reports of changes to disneygossip@gmail.com.

Magic Kingdom
After sitting in storage last holiday season it sounds like The Country Bear Jamboree Christmas Show will be returning this year. I sincerely hope so, but so far, there is no official confirmation.

Monsters Inc Laugh Floor cast members are in rehearsals for an upgrade to the video and audio portions of the attraction. Apparently we've only been seeing about half of what can be done here. Let's hope they give it some repeatability too.

Spectromagic is in the middle of some upgrades over at the Magic Kingdom. The Spectromen have lost their freaky light up masks and now have Cirque de Soliel-esque face-paint and light-up wigs. Many of the floats are getting some much needed TLC. There are rumors of even more changes coming too.

Disney-MGM Studios
The Great Movie Ride is losing the Aliens section (which is fine by me, too scary for a family attraction) and the Bank explosion (apparently too expensive). Also there are some script changes happening including removing all the classic references in the Tarzan section. Aliens will be replaced with... you guessed it, Pirates of The Caribbean movie scenes (or perhaps Narnia, although Lord Of The Rings was being talked about too).

Epcot
There are reports that Epcot has been testing some new fireworks recently, this probably confirms rumors that a new firework show is being developed for Epcot. There have also been persistent rumors that Epcot will be getting another parade soon, perhaps with a parade route that leads from the front of the park to the World Showplace.

Leave it to the Imagineers to test whenever or where every they can. Reports place WDI operating on the Body Wars simulators in Epcot's old Wonders of Life pavilion. The testing is supposedly for Star Tours 2.0 that is going to Tokyo Disneyland for sure, and rumored to be going to Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland.

Disney's Hollywood Studios
High School Musical 2 street show at Disney-MGM Studios is supposed to roll out soon with scenes and songs from the HSM2 movie. It's possible that the theater for the old Hunchback of Notre Dame show would reopened and a High School Musical show installed there permanently. Right now all of the Osborne Lights are stored in the location, so they'd have to find somewhere else to store those. This seems like a great long term solution for Disney to capitalize on the HSM craze at its theme parks.

Disney's Animal Kingdom
A new parade called "Rivers of Light" is in planning at DAK. I don't know if it is valid rumor or confusion about this being turned into a water show. "The Wonderful World of Color" water show going into Disney's California Adventure may be getting ported to DAK in 2009. I don't see Joe Rhode allowing this to happen.

Disneyland Resort
Pixar PlayPals Parade, is the name of the new parade for Disney's California Adventure. It will roll out in the Spring season next year. The current parade Block Party is on its way to Disney-MGM Studios.

Tony Baxter's Little Mermaid attraction for originally planned Disneyland Paris may instead now be headed for DCA. If you want a preview check out the special features on last year's release of the Little Mermaid DVD. It features a virtual ride through of the attraction.

Disney Movies & TV
Not only is Disney going to remake Witch Mountain, but the've cast Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in it.

Disney also has their eyes set on landing George Lucas' Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, and hopefully the live action series that will follow. This is key to developing a relationship that would allow Disney and Lucas to develop many more theme park properties.

Tags: disney, rumor, george lucas, star wars, theme park

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