It appears Disney has more big plans for its theme park Disney California Adventure. This past week before early before park operation began, a disney fan spotting 3 high flying balloons over the Hollywood Studios area of the park. What could they mean? Find out after the jump.
Luckily one of screamscape’s readers noticed something odd one morning. Just above the currently un-used Stage 17 building were 3 very large balloons. Why were they there? Well there’s a couple of possible explanations as to why they could have been high above DCA. Screamscape broke the news late last night in this post.
It appears that the Disneyland Resort is ready to push ahead with a Phase 2 renovation plan for California Adventure, with a focus on upgrading the Hollywood area of the park. The Screamscape spy network captured a great image this week showing several height check balloons lifted above and around the park’s Stage 17 building. The structure was originally built to house the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire – Play It!” attraction and currently is now only used for Special Events.
As our readers know, the site in question is also being eyeballed to be home to a new Monstropolis themed area, complete with the rumored ‘Door Coaster’ inspired by the finale of the Monsters Inc. film. The project was rumored to just be waiting to get the initial box-office results from the new Monsters University film which have been very strong, raking in $82 million in the opening weekend, making it the second biggest opening weekend in Pixar history, just behind Toy Story 3’s $110 million.
So did Disney management give the final green light on Monstropolis this week? Quite possibly… and based on the height of those balloons, we could be looking at good sized building, big enough to house an indoor coaster perhaps. Stay tuned!
If you remember a few months back we reported that a Monstropolis expansion is rumored to be in the works for Disney California Adventure and feature a large indoor coaster inspired by one of the iconic scenes in Monsters Inc that involved thousands of doors on a roller coaster type track. If you want you can read that Rumor Mill article at this link. The rumored location? Stage 17, which is the exact location these balloons were seen simulating an all new skyline in Hollywood Land.
Of course this comes only days after Monsters University became Pixar’s second highest grossing film ever. Could Disney have been waiting for the weekend box office gross to approve a Monstroplois land which has apparently been in the works for nearly half a decade. (If you remember, a similar Monsters Inc door coaster was planned for DHS in the late 2000’s but the project never gained enough momentum). What makes things even more interesting is that D23 Expo is only about 6 weeks away. Just enough time to create materials, 3d graphics, ect- for a major announcement during the Parks and Resorts keynote on Friday August 9, 2013.
But these balloons which can be seen HERE on Screamscape, may also have no correlation to Monstropolis what so ever. If you’ve been paying attention to Disney lately you’d know that this past Saturday June 22, Disney California Adventure held the world premiere of The Lone Ranger in a huge Disney-style red carpet event. Could these balloons have been tied to that event? If so why would they leave them up for so long? Who knows exactly.
But it’s safe to say come D23 Expo, we’ll know exactly what Disney Imagineering has planned for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World and we’ll be there to cover it.
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