In the first installment of a two part photo essay, Jeff Lange shares some shots that he recently took of Disney-MGM’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” walk-through attraction.
by Jeff Lange – 02-07-06
Last week, the Walt Disney Company and Walden Media officially announced that they had begun pre-production on “Prince Caspian,” the highly anticipated follow-up to the hugely popular motion picture, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Which wasn’t really a surprise. Given that — to date — this Andrew Adamson movie has earned $636 million at the box office (I.E. $282 million during “Narnia” ‘s domestic release, plus an additional $356 million from the motion picture’s overseas release).
And — given that “Narnia” looks to be the film franchise that Disney Studios has been desperately seeking for years now — there’s already been a lot of talk on the Web about what the Imagineers can now do to capitalize on this success. What WDI can do to bring C.S. Lewis’ characters to life in a theme park setting.
To date, Disney’s in-park “Narnia” -related efforts have been rather modest. Disneyland has a White Witch meet-n-greet, while Disney-MGM Studio theme park has its “Journey into Narnia: Creating the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” walk-through exhibit.
“So what’s this exhibit like?,” you ask. Well, WDW guests who line up outside of Soundstage 4 are first treated to a short making-of film. Which explains how state-of-the-art visual effects and scenes that were shot all around the globe were combined to create the magical world of Narnia.