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Disney Unveils 'Avatar' 'Indiana Jones,' 'Encanto' and 'Monsters, Inc' Attractions

FILE PHOTO: Beauty and the Beast Castle, in a new area set to open to public on September 28, is seen during a press preview at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Beauty and the Beast Castle, in a new area set to open to public on September 28, is seen during a press preview at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
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Disney Unveils 'Avatar' 'Indiana Jones,' 'Encanto' and 'Monsters, Inc' Attractions

FILE PHOTO: Beauty and the Beast Castle, in a new area set to open to public on September 28, is seen during a press preview at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Beauty and the Beast Castle, in a new area set to open to public on September 28, is seen during a press preview at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

Walt Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro laid out an ambitious growth plan for the company’s theme parks on Saturday at the D23 fan convention, announcing plans for four new cruise ships and details about six new themed lands.

Forthcoming plans include a new Disney villains land at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, a doubling of the size of the Avengers Campus at the Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, and details about its partnership with Fortnite creator Epic Games.

“This, for us, is an unprecedented era of growth,” Reuters quoted D'Amaro as saying.

The two new attractions at its Marvel-themed Avengers Campus at California Adventure will be Avengers: Infinity Defense and the Stark Flight Lab, the company said.

California Adventure will also add a new 'Avatar' experience at the California Adventure, based on the second film in the science fiction franchise, “Avatar: The Way of Water", it said.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary next year of the Disneyland park in Anaheim, a show based on the life of Walt Disney featuring an audio-animatronic figure of the company's founder will be opened.

Disney also unveiled two attractions for the new Tropical Americas expansion coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida. One follows Indiana Jones on an exploration of a Mayan temple. Another is inspired by the Disney animated film “Encanto” and follows the character Antonio on the day he received his magical gift. Tropical Americas is set to open in 2027.
Actor Billy Crystal took the stage to announce an area at Disney's Hollywood Studios dedicated to the Pixar film, “Monsters, Inc”. The area, known as a land in Disney theme park parlance, will feature a suspended roller coaster designed to simulate zooming through the door vault at the Laugh Factory, just like characters Mike and Sulley in the film.
Pixar’s “Cars” film franchise also comes to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, in a re-imagined area of Frontierland, with two new attractions planned. One will take guests on an off-road thrill ride into the wilderness beyond the film’s fictional Radiator Springs setting. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year.
The fan favorite announcement, based on the audience reaction, was D'Amaro's statement Disney will create a new area devoted to Disney's villains at the Magic Kingdom, with two attractions, dining and shopping.
These announcements reveal how the company will begin $60 billion in capital investments, nearly doubling spending over the next decade to improve attractions at its 12 parks and increase cruise line capacity.
"Everything that we’re going to share with you tonight is in active development," D'Amaro said. "This means that plans are drawn. This means that dirt is moving. I just want to be clear with all the fans out there. This isn’t blue sky."
CRUISE FLEET EXPANDS
Disney also said it will add four cruise ships to its growing fleet, capitalizing on an industry that has been enjoying a rebound from the global shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company currently has five cruise ships in operation, and previously announced four others, including one Tokyo-based vessel and another that will set sail from Singapore in 2025. These new vessels will start operating between 2027 and 2031.
D’Amaro was joined onstage by the company’s creative leads to discuss Disney’s collaboration with video-game maker Epic Games. The company invested $1.5 billion in Epic earlier this year, giving Disney an equity stake in the creator of Fortnite and Unreal Engine.
Disney announced new characters and stories are coming to the online game, including Disney villains as well as characters from the Pixar superhero film, “The Incredibles,” and the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” about a lone bounty hunter from the Star Wars universe.
Disney's parks have become a reliable profit engine, helping cushion the impact of declines in traditional television and losses in its video streaming business, which last quarter turned a profit.
The experiences unit, which includes parks, cruise ships and consumer products, contributed 60% of the company's operating profit in the most recent quarter - up from 30% just a decade ago.

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The Gold Medal Goes to the Chocolate Muffin as Bakery Shines at Olympic Village

Chocolate muffins for sale at the Village Plaza Cafe in the Olympic Village, in Saint Denis near Paris, France, 10 August 2024. (EPA)
Chocolate muffins for sale at the Village Plaza Cafe in the Olympic Village, in Saint Denis near Paris, France, 10 August 2024. (EPA)
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The Gold Medal Goes to the Chocolate Muffin as Bakery Shines at Olympic Village

Chocolate muffins for sale at the Village Plaza Cafe in the Olympic Village, in Saint Denis near Paris, France, 10 August 2024. (EPA)
Chocolate muffins for sale at the Village Plaza Cafe in the Olympic Village, in Saint Denis near Paris, France, 10 August 2024. (EPA)

Freshly cooked bread and a selection of French pastries were meant to be the stars of the Olympic village where athletes from across the world have packed the on-site bakery. But the gold medalist was a surprise: the American-inspired chocolate muffin is what went viral on social media.

Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen has been dubbed “muffin man” after he posted a series of videos featuring the “choccy muffin,” accumulating millions of views on TikTok. He gave it an “insane” 11/10 star review.

“It’s been an unreal experience,” Christiansen told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“I never imagined it to become this big, but it’s fun,” said Christiansen, who swam in the 800-meter freestyle, the 1,500-meter freestyle and the 10-kilometer marathon races.

As an endurance athlete, he said he can afford to eat high-calorie food — like the dense chocolate muffin studded with chocolate chunks — every day.

Over the two and a half weeks he stayed at the Olympic village in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Christiansen ate “seven or eight” of these muffins known for their melted fudge center.

"It’s not really that much. I think people will be disappointed when they learn it’s not five a day,” he said.

About 40,000 meals are served each day of the Games to thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries and territories who are staying in the Olympic village.

And the bakery became the meeting point for many, chief baker Tony Doré said.

Doré and his team produce fresh baguettes — added in 2022 to the UN’s list of intangible cultural heritage — and a variety of other bread cooked every day on site.

“It’s unbelievable,” Doré said, describing how quickly athletes adopted the very French habit of getting their fresh baguette every morning.

Most “had never tasted a baguette freshly out of the oven. Inevitably, they come back, and they are under the charm of that bread,” he said. “Now, some teams come back every day and say, ’Your baguette is awesome, it’s amazing and that smells so good’.”

Another champion product, Doré said, is the "cocoa bread" specially created for the Olympics, basically a piece of double chocolate French bread but with less sugar and butter to better fit with athletes' diets.

Some also tried the French breakfast: fresh bread with butter and jam, croissants and other “viennoiseries."

American athletes like Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all-time, and sprinter Fred Kerley, bronze medalist on the 100-meter, came to the bakery, Doré said. Some others took part in bread-making classes held every day.

Philipp Würz, head of catering for the Paris 2024 organizing committee, said the village’s team of four bakers each day produced about 600 baguettes and 900 cacao breads, quantities that exceeded initial plans because of growing demand.

“It's one of our prides to have insisted on local French bread,” Würz said.

Unrivaled, though, were the chocolate muffins, made by another local producer, which reached 4,000 per day.

Other pastries being made include custard pie, vanilla tartlet, Paris-Brest — choux pastry stuffed with a praline flavored cream — and lemon tart. The bakery will be open for the Paralympic Games that begin on Aug. 28.

“I expect a wave of athletes, because they are already aware,” said Doré, the chief baker.

For everyone else, the recipe for the now world-famous chocolate muffin has been posted on TikTok, Christiansen said, himself hoping to re-create it at home.