If you’re planning to go to Disney this summer or beyond, there are lots of great things in store for you! And even if you’re not, there’s still tons of Disney magic coming. The world is getting very excited for the new Beauty and the Beast movie, and from everything I’ve seen it looks like it will be fantastic.
Disney News
- A new character breakfast will be starting at Trattoria al Forno – supposed to feature Rapunzel with Flynn and Ariel with Eric.
- Beauty and the Beast will be a new stage show on Disney Cruise Line, showing on the Disney Dream.
- Rivers of Light officially opened in Animal Kingdom on February 17th! I had the chance to see it last weekend and it was beautiful.
- Wishes, the fireworks show in Magic Kingdom, will end May 11th. It was one of my favorite things at Disney World. A new nighttime specatcular called Happily Ever After will debut the next evening.
- We have at least a general opening timeline for Star Wars land! We are told it will open sometime in 2019.
- The new Geyser Point Bar and Grill opened at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
- Over at Disneyland it will be a summer of heroes, as the new version of Tower of Terror opens and Groot will be available for meet and greets.
- Disney is working on another live action remake – this time The Lion King. And James Earl Jones just signed on to be the voice of Mufasa!
Disney Rumors
Transportation // A big rumor has been circulating that Disney World is going to build a skyway system to get guests from Epcot to Hollywood Studios. This sounds crazy to me – certainly this type of gondola transportation wouldn’t be terribly efficient for large crowds?
Movies // Word has it that the new Beauty and the Beast movie will feature Disney’s first LGBTQ character. It’s not surprising to learn that LeFou’s infatuation with Gaston has a little more meaning behind it!
Disney Springs // It’s possible that the Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba, will be ending soon. It’s played for quite awhile so not terribly surprising, despite being a great show. No word on if it will be replaced by a different Cirque show or something else entirely.
Other Disney Blogs
Mindy over at This Fairy Tale Life shares some awesome behind the scenes information about Moana!
Runners – do you ever get paranoid about those early morning races and sleeping through your alarm? Jenn from The Fairest Run of All shares her take on race alarms.
Falon from Falon Loves Life draws some great comparisons between Disney’s musical Newsies and today’s current political climate.
If you’re curious about what’s going on in Animal Kingdom, Josh from EasyWDW has updates on the Avatar construction and Rivers of Light dining package. I love reading his blog because of passages like this: “The nighttime lighting test taken from the same location offers a glimpse into what we can expect from what should prove to be the next generation of immersive theme park environments. In other words, it should make Diagon Alley up the street look like it was built by a bunch of Hufflepuffs. And I don’t mean that negatively. I’m a Hufflepuff. I might have spent three days crying about it. It might have ruined my life. But it’s fine.”
I’m not really happy about LeFou being gay in the remake. I just feel he’s more of a flunky, like the kid who tries to butter up to the jock in high school, nothing romantic or sexual. I never saw him as gay.
I’m just really not looking forward to this movie at all as everything I see about it just seems to make it worse. I hope there’s something good about it.
I dunno, I think it works – like it could have gone either way. They could totally play him off as straight and just trying to emulate Gaston, but at the same time having romantic feelings for him doesn’t seem so far out of left field. Given the fact that he had no romantic plotline whatsoever previously, I don’t think it’s going against anything canon to give him this story.
I saw the first 10 minutes of the film in Hollywood Studios and loved it. What else about it has you worried?
I’m not fond of the character designs, character personalities being tweaked or changed, the comments that the cast has been making about the film pretty much saying how they had to “fix problems” with the 1991 film to fit a modern audience, and I just am not pro-these remakes in the first place.
Hopefully, I find something good about it when I watch it.
Your interpretation of LeFou makes sense for the original movie, but I think LeFou being gay works as a re-imagining. I have to admit I was disappointed by how little they do with it, but I can understand that he would be deeply closeted in that time period.
No lie, I’m excited for the Groot meet and greet! I wonder how it’s going to be but I already know there will be a huge line!
I’m not sure how they’ll do it yet but I bet it will be really cool!
So excited for the Beauty and the Beast movie! And YES for Groot meet & greets – they just need to make that happen at Disney World!
I know, I’d love to see Groot in Disney World!
I always enjoy these posts! It’s so interesting to read about all the changes/might-be changes in the “World”!
Thanks – yes, there is always so much happening with Disney!
This is amazing! I love reading all things Disney and makes me even more excited for my trip next week!
How exciting Silvia! I hope you have an amazing time!
I really hope to get to disney before too long, this makes me want to get there even more. 🙂
I hope you get there soon Lisa!