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Just In Time for Summer Feld Entertainment Partners with Cedar Fair to Launch New Monster Jam® Thunder Alley Theme Park Experience

5/31/2019

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 Larger-than-Life Freestyle Ride Trucks, Play Area, Build-a-Truck and Garage Coming to a Theme Park Near You
WHAT:  Feld Entertainment, worldwide leader in live family entertainment and Cedar Fair, a leader in immersive entertainment, have strategically collaborated to create Monster Jam®Thunder Alley—a larger-than-life interactive experience for Cedar Fair guests and Monster Jam fans alike. Starting this summer, the new partnership will feature multiple interactive zones, providing unprecedented, under-the-hood opportunities for guests to witness the global phenomenon of Monster Jam outside of arenas and stadiums in select Cedar Fair parks. Feld Entertainment’s partnership with Cedar Fair continues to highlight Monster Jam’s growing appeal across audiences and fans of all ages, proving there are many ways to engage the sport, along with its drivers, trucks and licensed products.  Monster Jam Thunder Alley will offer authentic experiences for Cedar Fair guests, including:
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Monster Jam Freestyle Ride Truck
Buckle up for an unforgettable, thrilling ride in a brand new 10-passenger Grave Digger®or Megalodon® Monster Jam ride truck. Racing through a Freestyle-inspired course, guests onboard will get a taste for what it’s like to drive a 12,000lb Monster Jam truck on a course with the most obstacles on any ride truck track ever built.

Monster Jam Pit Stop Play Area
Let your imagination soar at the Pit Stop Play Area, featuring miniature tracks, ramps, obstacles and authentic Monster Jam die-cast replica trucks, complete with the sounds of an announcer, revving engines and more.

Monster Jam Garage
Learn how Monster Jam trucks come to life with this first-of-its kind Monster Jam Garage experience. See inside of a Monster Jam truck engine, interact with 645-pound tires, and receive an under-the-hood look at the shocks, gears, and more!

Monster Jam Build-a-Truck
Build your own custom mini-Monster Jam truck as a family with for-purchase wooden truck kits.
WHEN / WHERE: Monster Jam Thunder Alley experience is slated to tour select Cedar Fair parks including:
  • Cedar Point – Sandusky, OH
    • May 18, 2019 – June 30, 2019
  • Kings Dominon – Doswell, VA
    • July 20, 2019 – September 2, 2019
  • Dorney Park – Allenton, PA
    • September 14, 2019 – November 3, 2019
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WHY:  Monster Jam is a category-leading, 365-day franchise that lives beyond the stadium and arena walls. Bringing to life a strategic partnership with Cedar Fair gives Monster Jam fans and Cedar Fair guests a unique way to engage and experience both properties like they never have before. Partnering with a like-minded company enables Monster Jam to roar into fans’ lives in a new, unforgettable way and serves as an introduction to theme park enthusiasts. From TV to toys, from merchandise to content and now to theme parks, Monster Jam reaches their fans beyond the live event in more ways than ever.

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Bo Peep to make appearances in Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios

5/31/2019

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Bo Peep, from Pixar Animation Studios’ “Toy Story” films, will soon make appearances in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. In “Toy Story 4,” when Bonnie takes the toys on her family’s road trip, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep, whose adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. Woody and Bo are worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, and they soon realize that’s the least of their worries. Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” ventures to theaters on June 21, 2019.
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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Hidden Gems and Attention to Detail Create Authenticity in an Epic New Land

5/30/2019

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With more than four decades of films, television series, novels, comic books, video games and more, Star Wars has a deep history that has inspired generations of devoted fans. In creating Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Walt Disney Imagineers and Lucasfilm were driven to fulfill the dreams of anyone who ever imagined visiting this galaxy far, far away by telling new stories that feel authentically Star Wars.
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When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens May 31, 2019, at Disneyland Park in California and Aug. 29, 2019, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida,* guests will find these lands filled with rich details meticulously researched and crafted by Imagineers and Lucasfilm. Though the planet Batuu and its Black Spire Outpost may be new to fans, this setting offers a genuine Star Wars experience for all who enter as they discover a plethora of hidden gems and other details drawn from across the galaxy.
Hidden Gems to Look for in the Land
  • While Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is set during the current trilogy of Star Wars films, the land features elements representing many different eras of the Star Wars Examples include:
    • Several creatures seen throughout the land will be familiar to some fans, such as the dianoga from the Death Star trash compactor in “Star Wars: A New Hope” found in a tank above a Black Spire Outpost drinking fountain, or the taxidermic wampa from the ice planet Hoth in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” in Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities.
    • A podracing engine in the Ronto Roasters market stall calls back to “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” while the former smelter droid turning the spit of meats is similar to a droid seen in Jabba the Hutt’s palace in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”
    • A mural on the wall of Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities depicts an ancient battle between the light and dark sides of the Force. The original bas-relief of this mural was seen in Chancellor Palpatine’s office in “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.”
    • Hondo Ohnaka, best known from the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” animated television series, gives guests their mission in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
  • Batuu’s landscape is dotted with tall petrified tree trunks, and Black Spire Outpost takes its name from a trunk in the center of the village that is darker than all the others.
  • Imagineers took rubbings from the feet of the R2-D2 droid used in “Star Wars: A New Hope” and turned those into a set of three-dimensional wheels. Then they built a trolley with those wheels and rolled it through the land before the concrete pathways fully dried to leave behind authentic droid tracks that guests might spot as they explore the outpost.
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It’s All About the Story
  • One reason Imagineers set Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on a planet never before seen in the Star Wars universe was to give everyone a chance to step into the story at their own levels – whether a guest is a lifelong Star Wars fan or has never watched a Star Wars film, everyone will be seeing Batuu for the first time.
  • Batuu and its residents are starting to appear in and inspire other Star Wars stories:
    • Both Black Spire Outpost and Dok-Ondar were referenced in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
    • Characters in the Timothy Zahn novel “Thrawn: Alliances” visit Oga’s Cantina.
    • “Star Wars: Pirate’s Price,” a young-adult novel by Lou Anders, details a previous trip Hondo Ohnaka made to Batuu.
    • A five-issue Marvel comics series, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, debuted in April and delves into some of the famous antiquities found in Dok-Ondar’s shop on Batuu.
    • “Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire,” a novel by Delilah S. Dawson set for release in August, will tell the story of Vi Moradi, Leia Organa’s top spy who chooses Batuu for the Resistance’s secret command post (guests may encounter Vi as they explore Black Spire Outpost at Disneyland Resort).
    • Also due in August, “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – A Crash of Fate” by Zoraida Cordova is a young-adult novel about two childhood friends from Batuu who are reunited later in life and have a series of adventures.
  • During Star Wars Celebration 2019, April 11-15 in Chicago, many attendees who visited the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge booth recorded video testimonials sharing their personal Star Wars These videos were embedded into a Jedi holocron that will be placed inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Attention to Detail 
  • The land was designed with sightlines that evoke cinematic angles. Guests begin with views of wide vistas, then as they explore deeper into the land, their field of vision narrows into tighter spaces – like zooming in for a close-up.
  • In developing props and other décor for the land, Imagineers tried whenever possible to use pre-1980 materials to best capture the look and feel of the props in the first Star Wars films (“Star Wars: A New Hope” was released in 1977).
  • To create the look of an older Hondo Ohnaka and properly capture the pirate’s personality for his Audio-Animatronics figure in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Walt Disney Imagineering consulted the character’s creator, Dave Filoni.

Inspiration and Authenticity
  • In search of aesthetic inspiration for the land, Walt Disney Imagineers visited George Lucas’ private archives in California to study original Star Wars concept artwork created by Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who helped Lucas shape the look of the Star Wars They also traveled to Morocco and Turkey to experience ancient open-air markets. These sources provided Black Spire Outpost’s authentically earthy, yet otherworldly environment.
  • To ensure authenticity in their designs for the land, Imagineers also visited active Star Wars film sets in the United Kingdom. There they studied everything from ships to costumes to props to help inform their work on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
  • In developing merchandise for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Imagineers were granted access to the Lucasfilm archives to study original props and costumes. In many cases, a special scanning tool was used to take 360-degree digital pictures of these artifacts, then 3D prints were made of new models for items sold in the lands.
  • To re-create Princess Leia Organa’s iconic necklace worn at the end of “Star Wars: A New Hope,” Disney reached out to the original European designer, who still had the piece’s mold from four decades ago. That mold was then used to create the new item, available now at Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities.
  • The soldier’s ration kit offered in Resistance Supply is based off Luke Skywalker’s kit from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.” Disney asked actor Mark Hamill (who played Luke Skywalker in the film) what he remembered was in his original kit and re-created some of those items in the version for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
  • The Jedi robes and tunics available for purchase in Black Spire Outfitters are modeled after the costumes for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.”
  • The interactive experience in the Droid Depot is inspired, in part, by young Anakin Skywalker tinkering with C-3PO in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.”
  • The guest experience inside Savi’s Workshop – Handbuilt Lightsabers draws some of its inspiration from episodes of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” where Jedi younglings learn how to build their own lightsabers.

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Unveiled to the World in Epic Grand Opening Ceremony at Disneyland Park

5/30/2019

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Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger joined by George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams to mark historic moment for The Walt Disney Company
ANAHEIM, Calif. (May 29, 2019) – The Walt Disney Company celebrated the momentous dedication of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge tonight in an epic ceremony at Disneyland Park. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger unveiled the largest and most technologically advanced single-themed land expansion ever in a Disney park, which is set to open to the general public at Disneyland Park on May 31, and also at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida on Aug. 29.
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“Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is absolutely amazing and we are thrilled to finally share it with the world,” said Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “Now, for the first time, fans will be able to immerse themselves in the iconic stories that have captured audiences’ imaginations for decades and live their own Star Wars adventures in the most creative, innovative and ambitious land we’ve ever built.”
To dedicate Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Iger was joined in front of the Millennium Falcon by Star Wars icons including George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams. In a ceremony set to the soaring John Williams score composed especially for the land, global media and invited guests were the very first to see the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy roar to life.
“With Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney is redefining the theme park experience and setting a new bar for experiential storytelling,” said Bob Chapek, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. “From each authentic detail to the land’s jaw-dropping scale, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge exceeds every expectation.”

When it opens to the public at Disneyland Resort on May 31 and at Walt Disney World Resort on Aug. 29, guests will be transported to the remote planet of Batuu*, full of unique sights, sounds, smells and tastes. Guests can become part of the story as they sample galactic food and beverages, explore an intriguing collection of merchant shops and take the controls of the most famous ship in the galaxy aboard Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
Phase two, opening later this year, will feature Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the most ambitious, immersive and advanced attraction ever imagined, which will place guests in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance and will blur the lines between fantasy and reality. In light of tremendous demand, Disney made the decision to open the land in phases to allow guests to sooner enjoy the one-of-a-kind experiences that make Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge so spectacular.

Once guests step foot on Batuu, they will be part of the action as it unfolds around them, and their interactions with the Play Disney Parks mobile app** will deepen their engagement with the land – the first land within a Disney park designed to integrate with the app. They may choose to aid a smuggler, join the Resistance or pledge their loyalty to the First Order. This depth of storytelling is part of the total immersion that will distinguish the two, 14-acre lands from any other themed land in history.
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The new lands build off decades of collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm Ltd., a global leader in film, television and digital entertainment production, including the Star Wars franchise. The work on Star Wars between these two creative powerhouses dates back to 1987, when the groundbreaking Star Tours attraction opened at Disneyland Park in California.
Reservations are required to enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park between May 31 and June 23.*** Guests visiting during this time will need valid theme park admission and a reservation to enter the new land. After June 23, reservations will no longer be required to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

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LA Pride Night being held at Universal Studios Hollywood June 1st

5/29/2019

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Have you ever wanted to take over the Universal Studios Hollywood™ theme park at night with awesome DJ’s spinning in the background and other fun surprises?This just might be your lucky day!

Come kick-off LA Pride Week 2019 with family, friends, colleagues, allies, and, of course, LA’s LGBTQ+ community at the 3rd annual LGBT Night at Universal Studios Hollywood™ on Saturday, June 1. 

Each ticket gets you access to the Universal Studios Hollywood™ theme park from 4PM on, plus exclusive after-hours park access from 9PM to 2AM for LGBT Night ticket holders only. This unique experience includes live DJ’s, dance clubs, a drag show, a “rainbow” carpet, cash bars, character meet-n-greets, and a lot more. The after-hours event is open to all ages, but ID is required for guests 21 and above for cash bar access. 

Don’t miss out! Get your tickets today.
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