Route 66 in the News
Disney Team in Erick to see Harley & Annabelle
2008-03-24 19:13:24
ERICK, Okla. - Disney/Pixar sent a team of 12 Imagineers to Erick last week to meet with Harley and Annabelle Russell as research for Cars Land, a new amusement park to be added to Disneyland Resorts in 2012.
Leading the group was Michael Wallis, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of 17 books, including Route 66: The Mother Road. Wallis was Disney's Route 66 expert for the movie "Cars," as well as the voice of the Sheriff in the animated feature film. He and wife Suzanne also authored The Art of Cars, a book about the making of the movie.
"I knew this (meeting the Russells) would be a memorable experience for (the Disney team)," Wallis said. Wallis met the Russells in 2001 when he and an earlier Disney team stopped at the intersection of Sheb Wooley St. and Roger Miller Blvd. during a Route 66 tour prior to the making of the Cars movie. Wallis said he looked down Erick's main street, noticed an interesting looking building a block south and decided to check it out.
"I opened the screen door, but it was dark in here," he remembered. "When my eyes got accustomed to it, I saw Harley sitting at the back. His first words to me were, 'Michael Wallis, I've been waiting all my life for you to walk through my door.' That was the beginning of our friendship."
Wallis said parts of Harley are included in several characters he has created, including Mater, the tow truck in Cars. "There are slivers of Harley in Mater," he said, "though Harley is a great deal more intelligent and articulate than Mater is."
Wallis refers to the Imagineers as Disney's brain trust, their idea people. "They will do the incredible work of bringing Route 66 to life for Cars Land," Wallis told reporters in Erick. "There will be a lot of influences from Oklahoma in Cars Land."
A recent "L.A. Times" article said Cars Land is the most eagerly anticipated attraction of a $1.2 billion expansion of Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. The Radiator Springs Racers feature alone will cost $200 million and will take guests on a ride which starts slowly with an introduction to Route 66 and then escalates to a "hair-raising race around hairpin curves and steep banks."
Cars Land will make available to its guests information about attractions along the real Route 66. After the movie Cars was released, business increased 30-40 percent at some sites on Route 66, according to Wallis.
~Press Release
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