Although the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival doesn’t begin until March 6, preparations have been underway for weeks – especially to ready the festival’s more than 100 topiaries.
Eric Darden, manager of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, recently gave us a sneak peek at some of the work that’s been going on backstage. Take a look.
Visit the Disney Parks Blog next week for more on this year’s festival.
For more from the 2013 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, read the posts below:
Yesterday, I gave you a sneak peek at Clopin’s Music Box, an interactive element coming to Fantasy Faire when it opens March 12 at Disneyland park. Today, I’m excited to share a video of the installation of this piece, along with two other charming details: Tangled Tower, which is located in the center of Fantasy Faire, and – my favorite element of this new area – Figaro the cat from “Pinocchio.” Watch as Michel Den Dulk, Creative Director, Walt Disney Imagineering, tells us more about these magical features.
In the video, Project Manager Wyatt Winter and Creative Designer Pete Carsillo offer up a behind-the-scenes tour of the new queue, which builds on the attraction’s backstory of Barnabas T. Bullion, founder and president of Big Thunder Mining Company. The storyline of the new area builds the attraction into something that takes guests deeper into the mining days of the Wild West. When the finished queue debuts in a few weeks, guests will be able to explore the mountain’s Mining Office, the Explosives Magazine Room, and maybe even get a little hands-on by doing some of the miners’ activities.
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The builders, painters and Imagineers are hard at work here in Disneyland park, getting ready for the March 12 opening of the all-new Fantasy Faire. We’ve already told you about the fairy tale setting, magical storytelling and delicious food coming to this area, so today it’s time to take you behind the wall for your first look at Fantasy Faire.
Keep an eye here on the Disney Parks Blog for more information on Fantasy Faire, and join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #FantasyFaire.
Last June, just a few days after the grand opening celebration for Cars Land, I found myself in Culver City, Calif., on a small soundstage right next door to where they shot “Gone With the Wind.” A large tower had been constructed on one side of the soundstage and a set of the interior of the tower on the other. Annie Leibovitz and her team of artists and technical wizards had created these magical settings for our latest Disney Dream Portrait.
Soon, Taylor Swift arrived and the real magic began as these two artists began experimenting with different poses and props to bring this moment of Disney fantasy to life. In the end, the interior set was not used for the final image, but as with the character who inspired this portrait shoot, exploring the world of possibilities was the theme of the day.
In this video, come behind the scenes, see the creative process unfold, and hear from Taylor herself what it means to be a part of this iconic series.
Take a look back at previous behind-the-scenes stories from the Disney Dream Portrait series:
Tomorrow is the big day! Our amazing float, “Destination: Cars Land,” is almost ready for the 124th Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. The floral replica of Cars Land, our new land at Disney California Adventure park, is 125 feet long and 35 feet high! More than 2,000 volunteers helped decorate the float with more than a hundred different kinds of flowers, seeds, foliage and cactus. Lightning McQueen alone is made of more than 2,000 red carnations!
The “Destination: Cars Land” float is truly a work of art that began two and half months ago. The decorating took two weeks, and in this video you can see the final touches being added at the warehouse in Azusa, Calif. Make sure to tune in to your local ABC station in the morning and see it roll down Colorado Boulevard. And as we like to say around here, get ready to be floored!
I am floored by our Cars Land float for the 124th Rose Parade! It even has a cool name, “Destination: Cars Land.” In this video, we take you behind the scenes one more time to the warehouse in Azusa, Calif., in a follow-up to the first video we showed you a few weeks back, when the float was only a metal frame. But wait until you see it now! Click play, check it out and make sure to check the Disney Parks Blog next week, as we take you behind the scenes again as hundreds of flowers are added to the float.
Did you know that the Disneyland Kennel Club opened as the Ken-L Land Pet Motel on January 18, 1958? Participating in the opening ceremonies were Old Yeller’s son, Duke, and Kevin Corcoran, the youthful star of the film who would become a Disney Legend. If you’ve ever boarded your pets at the Disneyland Kennel Club while visiting the Disneyland Resort, you may remember Ginny Bullock, who will tell you about her role as a Disneyland Kennel Club attendant in this installment of Every Role a Starring Role!
As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Cars Land is being built again, but this time on a smaller scale for the 124th Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. In the video below, we take you behind the scenes of the Cars Land Rose Parade float construction in Azusa, Calif. It takes a lot of people and a lot of metal to re-create Radiator Springs, the fictional Route 66 town from Disney•Pixar “Cars” – a place you can now experience for yourself at Disney California Adventure park here at the Disneyland Resort.
I can’t wait for the float to be covered in flowers! All your favorite “Cars” characters will be represented on the float: Mater, Lightning McQueen, Sally, Luigi and Guido. Get ready to be floored when our Cars Land float drives down the parade route in the 124th Rose Parade on January 1, 2013, on ABC-TV – or you could see it up close in Pasadena!
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