Also, a town billboard welcomes visitors just like in the movie.

You can pose for pictures with a "Piston Cup" in the queue and an old gas pump (complete with a tire pedal so cars can fill themselves up).

 

On the ceiling inside there's a lamp that's a great art-deco take on an engine part.

Now, what about the ride vehicles? While the movie had all sorts of different cars, here they are all the same, only different at to color. (Even the Autopia has a few body types.)

I was really disappointed, it would have added repeatability to the ride if there was a different car to pick from each time. The explanation being given for this was to avoid having kids fighting to all ride the same character - but you also have to keep in mind that one design also means only one mold, right?

Anyway, recently the cars were tested for 72 hours, and landscaping is currently being added all around.

There is still one design element left, a break from Pixar - Mickey's ToonTown near the exit of the Toon Studios area. This will not only give an illusion of perspective - and make for a nice photo spot - but it also hides the cast member costuming building right behind it.

Of course you'll have to wait to see everything finished before you can form a solid opinion, but personally I think this new area will start to offer some real theming in a park that so desperately needs it.

Again, big thanks again to the great www.dlrp.fr website for their help with today's photo tour.

My book "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" details the creation of the park, in over 750 pictures including 250 renderings, with text by Didier Ghez. For all of you who were interested in it, but were held back by the collector's edition pricing, the English version of the book has been re-printed and updated with the new attractions added to the park! And it is the regular (lower priced) edition, the one that was out of print for almost two years. The book is ready to be shipped immediately and if you've never seen it, take a look inside via this recently posted article.

More details follow below...

This is a beautiful large format all-color art book, hardbound with dust jacket featuring 328 pages and 750 illustrations including 250 concept paintings directly from Walt Disney Imagineering. For each attraction the reader will discover rare "never-before-published" concept drawings and paintings, models, photos of Imagineers at work, and a lot of photos of the attractions as they now exist that are revealed in the book for the first time. In addition, in each chapter features a long section dedicated to the most popular rides in the park including Pirates of Caribbean, Phantom Manor, and Space Mountain! An update now includes the Space Mountain Mission Two revamp and the new Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast attraction.

Don't miss this offer as there is a very limited quantity of books available! The $75 price includes the book autographed specially for you or anyone to whom you wish to give it to. Shipping is not that much more, and you can pay it easily with PAYPAL. You can ask about (and also order) the book directly from Alain, send him an e-mail at: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr