Disney announced this week that theme park California Adventure will benefit from a five-year renovation plan that will include the creation of Cars Land, based on the “Cars” franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter informs that Disney CEO Robert Iger and parks and resorts chairman Jay Rasulo announced the renovation plans during a news conference Wednesday, detailing a “new and improved Disney's California Adventure theme park.”

Over a scheduled five-year period, a 12-acre “land” inspired by the 2006 Disney/Pixar film “Cars” will be developed. Dubbed “Cars Land,” it will be Disney's first "land" in any of its theme parks to be dedicated to a single product, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Its main attraction will reportedly be Radiator Springs Racers.

New rides themed to the movies “Toy Story” and “The Little Mermaid” are to be added as well. “Toy Story” was the first Disney/Pixar project, back in 1995. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the forthcoming “high-energy 4-D” ride will be called Toy Story Mania.

John Lasseter, director of both “Cars” and “Toy Story,” was named principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering (where theme park attractions are designed) in April 2006.

“We have the benefit of having John's great storytelling skills involved in almost everything we do at Imagineering,” Rasulo said Wednesday.

California Adventure made its debut six years ago and has struggled through the years, without managing to equal the success of Disneyland.

Disney executives said Wednesday that the park could also undergo a change of name. The renovation scheme includes plans to remake the park's main entrance to resemble the Los Angeles of the 1920s, with a replica of the former Carthay Circle theater, where Walt Disney's first animated feature film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” premiered in 1937.

While Disney executives declined to comment on the cost of the overhaul, some suggest it could add up to nearly $1 billion. The remake is expected to begin in late 2008 and run until 2012.

Rasulo said California Adventure, currently measuring 55 acres, will expand by nearly another seven acres, and some attractions, like the Golden Dreams Theater, will disappear.

It was only last month that Disney broke ground on a 250-room expansion of the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

Walt Disney, born December 5, 1900, deceased December 15, 1966, is one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. He and brother Roy O. Disney founded the Walt Disney Company almost three-quarters of a century ago, in 1923.

Walt Disney gave Mickey Mouse to the world, as well as his cartoon pals Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. Disney and his studio produced animated feature-length version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” as well as “Pinocchio,” “Bambi” and “Dumbo,” among others.

Walt Disney received twenty-two Academy Awards in competitive categories and 4 honorary, holding the record for having the most Academy Awards.

He and wife Lillian were married from 1925 until his death in 1966 and had two children, biological daughter Diane Marie Disney and adopted daughter Sharon Mae Disney.

Walt Disney’s vision of an amusement park became reality in 1955, when Disneyland, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company, opened in Anaheim, California.