Michael Wallis named as consultant to Cars Land January 22, 2008
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Movies, Road trips.10 comments
Disney Imagineering has hired Michael Wallis as a consultant for the Cars Land amusement park, based on the “Cars” animated movie, that will be built at Disneyland Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif.
Wallis has written the best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road,” served as a consultant to the “Cars” movie and was the voice of the Sheriff of Radiator Springs in the film.
Disney Imagineering decided to enlist Wallis in the Cars Land project after talking to “Cars” director John Lasseter.
“We discussed the idea of creating a life-size Radiator Springs, and that’s what they have in mind,” Wallis said from his Tulsa home on Tuesday.
In March, Wallis says will guide Disney Imagineering’s creative team in a trip down Route 66 from the Texas-Oklahoma border area and west to the Arizona-California border. The team will research the terrain and architecture of the Mother Road. The trip will be reminiscent of when he guided Pixar’s creative team down Route 66 in 2001 and 2002.
Disney Imagineering’s team also recently went to Germany to see state-of-the-art amusement park rides there, Wallis said. The Los Angeles Times has reported that the Cars Land is part of a $1 billion renovation of Disneyland, to be completed in 2012.
“This is obviously good for Route 66,” Wallis said of Cars Land. “It’s another way to communicate the Route 66 story.”
(Artist’s concept of Cars Land, courtesy of Disney.)
A song from the road January 22, 2008
Posted by Ron in Music.add a comment
Laura Meyer sings a song, “The Road,” parked in her car off Route 66 in Tucumcari, N.M. She’d just finished a show in Kansas City and was heading back to Los Angeles for another gig.
According to her MySpace site, she has an album coming out next month.
