Playland

Playland may refer to:

In music

In entertainment venues

See also

Toy Story Land

Toy Story Land (known as Toy Story Playland at Walt Disney Studios Park) is a themed land at Walt Disney Studios Park, Hong Kong Disneyland and soon to be at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The area is based on the Disney·Pixar film series Toy Story. In France, it is part of Toon Studio and opened on August 17, 2010 at a cost of €70 million. In Hong Kong, Toy Story Land opened on November 18, 2011. A version of Toy Story Land for Disney's Hollywood Studios was announced on August 15, 2015 at the D23 Expo.

Walt Disney Studios Park

During Mickey's Magical Party in 2009, information was leaked about an expansion of Walt Disney Studios Park, the resort later confirmed this. The new Pixar themed area helped promote Toy Story 3. The area is designed to "shrink the guest" down to being the size of a toy, and to play in Andy's Backyard with his toys from the movies. It had do this through using highly immersive theming, using bamboo to act as giant blades of grass surrounding the area, the use of many themed props and characters from the Toy Story movies such as a giant Buzz Lightyear, a giant Rex, an oversized paper plane and a large ball from the first Pixar short, Luxo Jr. The area also features numerous photo opportunities. Construction of the area started in late 2009 and was finished on time. The new area is located to the right of Walt Disney Studios Park, behind the Art of Disney Animation. It has been rumoured that the hugely popular Toy Story Midway Mania attraction, found in Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort and Tokyo DisneySea at the Tokyo Disney Resort may be built here in a few years time.

Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated buddy-comedy adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by John Lasseter, Toy Story was the first feature-length computer-animated film and the first theatrical film produced by Pixar. Toy Story follows a group of anthropomorphic toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present, and focuses on the relationship between Woody, a pullstring cowboy doll (voiced by Tom Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure (voiced by Tim Allen). The film was written by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, and Joss Whedon, and featured music by Randy Newman. Its executive producers were Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull.

Pixar, which produced short animated films to promote their computers, was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature after the success of the short film, Tin Toy (1988), which is told from a small toy's perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Pete Docter wrote early story treatments which were thrown out by Disney, who pushed for a more edgy film. After disastrous story reels, production was halted and the script was re-written, better reflecting the tone and theme Pixar desired: that "toys deeply want children to play with them, and that this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions." The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced the film under minor financial constraints.

Doctor Steel

Doctor Steel (full name, Doctor Phineas Waldolf Steel) was the stage persona of an anonymous American musician and internet personality from Los Angeles. He performed on rare occasions with a "backup band", claiming that a fictitious robot band had malfunctioned. Shows incorporated puppetry, multimedia and performances by female members ("Nurses" and "Scouts") of his street team, The Army of Toy Soldiers. Steel made a brief appearance on The Tonight Show and has had numerous interviews. He was the subject of an article in Wired Magazine regarding allegations that Dr. Horrible had copied his style. Steel has frequently been cited as an example of Steampunk music.

Musical career

Steel began publicly performing in 1999, essentially busking on the streets of Los Angeles. A few years later, he began performing at venues like The Key Club and the CIA. His live shows combined music with puppetry and video projection that reflect the stories and meanings of the songs.

In 2001 and 2002, the albums Dr. Steel (2001), Dr. Steel II: Eclectic Boogaloo (2001), and People of Earth (2002) were released digitally to iTunes, Amazon and other stores. The Dr. Steel Collection (2004) was the first CD release, featuring many tracks which were released on other albums, slightly altered. The Dr. Steel Collection also features the track "Land of the Lost," about the 1970s version of the show by the same name. Some attempts were made to get the song into the soundtrack of 2009 movie version of Land of the Lost, but they were unsuccessful.

Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris, originally Euro Disney Resort, is an entertainment resort in Marne-la-Vallée, a new town located 32 km (20 mi) east of the centre of Paris, and is the most visited theme park in all of France and Europe. It is owned and operated by Euro Disney S.C.A., a publicly traded company in which The Walt Disney Company owns a majority stake. The resort covers 4,800 acres (19 km²) and encompasses two theme parks, several resort hotels, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, and a golf course, in addition to several additional recreational and entertainment venues. Disneyland Park is the original theme park of the complex, opening with the resort on 12 April 1992. A second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park opened in 2002. The resort is the second Disney park to open outside the United States, following the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort in 1983.

History

Seeking a location for a European resort

Following the success of Walt Disney World in Florida, plans to build a similar theme park in Europe emerged in 1972. Under the leadership of E. Cardon Walker, Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 in Japan with instant success, forming a catalyst for international expansion. In late 1984 the heads of Disney's theme park division, Dick Nunis and Jim Cora, presented a list of approximately 1,200 possible European locations for the park. By March 1985, the number of possible locations for the park had been reduced to four; two in France and two in Spain. Both nations saw the potential economic advantages of a Disney theme park and offered competing financing deals to Disney.