T-Rex Opens at Downtown Disney

T-Rex at Downtown Disney is the kind of restaurant where families might encourage their kids to go dig in the dirt before dinner. "It's nice dirt. It's clean dirt," said Keith Beitler, Landry's Restaurants' senior vice president and chief operating officer for specialty restaurants. "It's Disney dirt."

T-Rex at Downtown Disney is a big, brash dinosaur-themed restaurant that opens today at Downtown Disney with seating for more than 620, a couple of dozen life-size robotic dinosaurs and real fossils encased in the bathroom walls.

Dishes include mushroom ravioli simmering in lobster cream sauce, with Roma tomatoes and fresh spinach. Collaborators Landry's Restaurants, Schussler Creative and Walt Disney Imagineering, the team that brought Rainforest Cafe to Walt Disney World, aimed at going way beyond that themed restaurant, to create a more interactive mix of décor, show, dining and educational flourishes that Beitler called "eattainment."

Disney Movie News

Big news was announced today at the Walt Disney Showcase in Hollywood, California, about the company's future film releases including "Pirates of the Caribbean 4". Johnny Depp will be returning to play everyone's favorite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow. He will also be starring as the Mad Hatter in the upcoming Tim Burton movie, "Alice in Wonderland", and as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger", both of which will also be released by Disney.

In addition, Disney announced that "Cars 2" release date has been moved up to the summer of 2011 instead of Summer of 2012. The sequel will follow Mater and Lightening McQueen as they travel around the world.

National Treasure 3 is also in the works. Jerry Bruckheimer and Nicholas Cage were both on hand at the festivities this afternoon and confirmed the news. That film is scheduled for release in late 2010.

Disney introduces The Disney Fairies

Disney introduced the world to The Disney Fairies on Wednesday, just in time for the October 28 release of their DVD. The film features Tinker Bell as well as her friend Iridessa, Rosetta, Silvermist and Fawn.

They also announced that they will be opening a new attraction based on the Fairies, called Pixie Hollow. The Hollow will be located in the Mickey's Toontown Fair section of the park and is scheduled to open on October 24.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

In 2009, Universal's Islands of Adventure will open a new Harry Potter-themed Island, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, possibly incorporating elements from The Lost Continent. It will feature three different areas: The forbidden forest, Hogsmeade Village, and Hogwarts Castle itself. Three attractions (not known yet) will come with this land, as well as many Harry Potter themed shops and restaurants.

Walt Disney Studios Green Lights "Tomorrow Land" The Movie

Walt Disney Studios has announced that they will be making a movie inspired by the Tomorrowland section of their Disney Theme Parks.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is set to be in the film, and they have already hired writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore to do the script.

Disney said that while the theme park area is the inspiration for the film, it will not be the setting of the film.

SeaWorld Announces Manta

SeaWorld has confirmed that Manta is due to open Summer 2009

Following the announcement in April, there has been speculation around the construction of the newest coaster at Seaworld. We were told that the new coaster will as suggested at the time be called Manta. Manta will be Seaworld Orlando’s second major coaster, the other being Kraken.

Following on from the mix of animal/ride combinations at the recently opened Aquatica water park, Manta will show riders underwater animal habitats and then soar them skywards on a Manta styled flying coaster. Early artwork suggests that you’ll sit under the Manta face down in a hand-gliding position.

Designed to give the ride the feeling of gliding, swooping and diving, Manta will reach a height of 140 feet, top speeds of 60mph moving through four inversions on 3,359 feet of track covering 7 acres of the park. The ride will be constructed by swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard who were also responsible for the construction of Kraken, Hulk Rollercoaster and Duelling Dragons to name a few.

The attraction is to begin when visitors enter a mythical village filled with artisan-created engravings and artwork that celebrate ray legend and lore. In the queue line, visitors will wind through caverns adorned with ray-inspired art in marble, jewels, and mosaics, all hand-created.

If you’re not a coaster fan, then you’ll still get the opportunity to view the aquarium that forms part of the ride, which will be filled with rays, as well as thousands of fish and other creatures native to oceans all over the world.

Orlando Disney Parks and Universal

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