Theme Park Concepts

Kings Empire

2012-02-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

This week’s site plan – “Kings Empire” (not sure if that is intended to be possessive or not) - is my interpretation of Brian K.’s entry in the IdealBuildout contest.

Brian imagined a park that combined elements based on some of those found at Disney, Universal, Paramount Kings Island, Busch Gardens, Sea World & Port Aventura (did I miss any!) into one thrill-oriented mega-park.

Brian describes the park (italics = Brian's descriptions):

From collapsed tombs to fallen civilizations, the park is divided into eight themed continents: Atlantis, Indius, The Northern Lands (Arctica), The Mayan Lands (City of Gold), Thebes, Africus, Europa, and Isla Volcanica. Kings Empire is literally a map of the world with the continent of Atlantis having risen from the Atlantic Ocean to form the park’s main thoroughfare. The continents represented celebrate the greatest myths and legends of their cultures over time.

I was intrigued by the design challenge of drawing a theme park to fit a rough layout of the Atlantic continents. This is what I came up with:

DESIGNER NOTES:

This is a very big park, with a larger footprint than EPCOT Center. Its centerpiece is a ~200ft tall volcano with greater girth & height than TDS’s 168ft Mt Prometheus. The volcano needs to be this big because four attractions (three of which are E or D tickets) are embedded in its slopes and another is buried in its inner chamber.

One can’t really tell from a site plan (one day I’ll be able to draw an isometric), but as I drew this, I thought that the park’s landscapes & architecture ought to reflect the relative location on the park “map.” For example, there is a smallish building (quick service food/restrooms/retail) where Scotland is located, and that building would be themed to the ruins of a Scottish Laird’s tower. Another example is that Bald Cypress swamps would take up the “Gulf Coast” part of North America. This kind of thing would follow throughout the park.

Another thought I had was that there should be elements throughout the park’s lands and attractions that connect them to a larger backstory involving the central continent of Atlantis (e.g., Atlantis may have had contact with extra-terrestrials, which in turned influenced ancient civilizations/gods from the Maya to Egyptians to Sioux). It was along these lines that I added a “Prometheus” (placeholder name) ride to Arctica which could be an E-ticket dark ride/flume/simulator about modern scientists’ quest to discover mankind’s origins below the Arctic ice and finding some incredible or terrifying secret (linked to Atlantis?).

ATLANTIS

Atlantis is the central continent of Kings Empire, offering an array of shopping, dining, and out-of-this-world attractions. Guests enter Atlantis as a collapsing and decrepit city, with cracked buildings and water leaking from each roof. But, progressing further towards the northern end of the island, the lost continent seems to be reborn. When guests finally reach the tremendous palace at the farthest end of the Island, they’re greeted by a thriving, shining city with beautiful sand-colored turrets and sea-blue domes amid the sound of waterfalls pouring into the lagoons below.

Escape from the Lost City – At the mercy of less-than-seaworthy fishing ships, you must escape from the crumbling city before its watery fate is relived aboard this water coaster.
King’s Lighthouse – Don’t let the crumbling bricks frighten you away, this lighthouse has survived for centuries.
Royal Fountains – Bursting springs of illuminated water, dancing to a grand, adventurous score… At night, water, flames, light, and music come alive in the nighttime extravaganza, Luminaria.
Dome of the Fish & Hall of Sharks – An all-encompassing aquarium room and a connected “moving walkway.”

Some quick modeling I did for the Lighthouse & centerpiece volcano/palace watercoaster:

VOLCANICA

For entering guests, the Volcano (along with the palace and lighthouse) makes for an unforgettable view. Volcanica also participates in the nighttime show ‘Luminaria’ in the Atlantis Lagoon, with waterfalls of “lava,” billowing steam, and rumbling noises being timed into the show. Internal pathways within Volcanica allows access to the northern half of the park.

Lava Wheel – During Volcanica’s eruption, the ancients sought to harness the power of the mountain by building a gigantic lava wheel, constantly turned by the flowing magma and able to power the continent’s advanced technologies.
Volcano – Accelerator coaster with mid course brakes built around a short dark ride scene a la DisneySea’s lava monster.
The Core – Prepare to experience the unstoppable force of an erupting volcano firsthand on this HUSS Frisbee built in a rocky chamber within the volcano.

THEBES
Travel deep in the mysterious deserts of Egypt and conquer the sands! Whether you prefer traversing the town markets, spending time at the splash-filled Oasis Springs, or tempting the fates in the grand pyramid on Revenge of the Mummy, there’s something for everyone in this mysterious world.

My model study of the Revenge of the Mummy façade:

Treasure Hunters – Aboard these 1925 Model T Fords you may come face-to-face with crocodiles, scarab beetles, and maybe even a hippopotamus or two!
The Revenge of the Mummy – Deep in the Great Pyramid, an unspeakable evil has arisen. On this high speed, forwards / backwards roller coaster, you’ll find out first-hand that the curse is real...
Oasis Springs – Tucked away in the corner of Thebes, this watery playground is great for kids of all ages to beat the heat and escape from the stresses of ancient curses. Amid the surprising watery antics of spitting camels and dripping palm trees, parents can also find a shaded canopy from which they can recharge while little ones refresh.
Kings & Thieves Waterway – This complimentary and convenient water taxi provides a leisurely, scenic way to pass between Kings Empire and neighboring Thieves Dominion theme park.

AFRICUS
The sounds of the animals who call this continent home resound from all corners of the dark foliage. One thing is clear: in this land of dead-ends and crumbling temples, adventure awaits.

SW: Since sub-Saharan Africa is not well known for its ancient structures (the kind of places that draw Indiana Jones or Lara Croft), there would be a fun opportunity to invent/explore a new style (maybe based on Great Zimbabwe) for the Temple of the Dancing Light or other ancient ruins in this land.

Adventure Express – Blasting out of the jungles of Africus, Adventure Express skims along the surface of the water, narrowly avoiding sharp rocks, and twisting through the darkness of caverns at incredible speed!. An Intamin Wing Rider Accelerator, like Furios Baco, does little elevation change throughout the course, instead focusing on turns, speed, and one single, prolonged inversion.
Jungle Flyers – Soar above the jungle canopy aboard ancient sailing ships, zooming along the horizon and on to adventure. This torch-covered ancient device lets the whole family join in on the adventure.
Theater of the Beasts – At the very southern end Africus in a decrepit looking stone chamber, torch-lit pathways lead into an ancient atrium for viewing the delicate night sky. And as you might expect, it’s within this surreal place that nature comes alive!
Tomb Raider: The Ride – Fifty years ago, a group of young explorers was forever lost within the Temple of the Dancing Light. Supposedly, in their quest for the Triangle of Light, they awakened the ancient goddess sworn to protect it. Now, trapped inside the tomb, your only means of escape is the excavation equipment left from decades before, still perfectly maintained as if untouched by time. A Giant Top Spin, based on the original at Paramount’s Kings Island (now closed) featuring theater-like ride cycle with icicle interaction, hangtime over lava pits, and interaction with 80-foot goddess carving on forward wall.
Indiana Jones Adventure: Same ride with two queues – each in different parks.

EUROPA
Cultures collide on the continent of Europa! (Featuring three distinct sub-lands). Twisted vines and tangled roots have ensnared the Germanic forests, and darkness seems to lurk around every corner of The Woods. However, the malevolence of the plants cannot penetrate the renaissance-style Garden of Inventions, where the works of Da Vinci come to life. And, in The Kingdom, fantastic creatures bow to the powers of the kings and sorcerers of old.

The Flying Machine – On this family-friendly machine in DaVinci’s manicured estate, hold on tight, as the machine raises up and spins, providing riders a worry-free gliding tour of the Gardens.
Da Vinci’s Cradle – Strapped into a large, forty-person gondola, you’ll swing back and forth, gaining speed and momentum before eventually traveling in a complete circle!
Journey to Pompeii – Long ago, the city of Pompeii was a peaceful, seaside village nestled into the mountain of Volcanica. All that is about to change.
The Curse of DarKastle – Do you dare to enter this twisted kingdom and brave one of the world’s most advanced dark rides? [The “vines” of the woods crawling across the façade, some animatronic are seen slightly writhing at the tips from time to time].

Festhaus – Inside this German festival hall, the warm, glowing hearth is always open to weary travelers! Though the vines of The Woods have ensnared the building’s structure, they cannot penetrate enough to dampen the happy spirits that sing and dance within!
Tower of Terror – In the 15th century, a greedy and opulent baron built a tremendous manor house atop the highest hills of Europa. Generations upon generations of his descendants traveled the world, stealing priceless relics from foreign lands and stockpiling them within the home’s walls. All the while, the manor was built taller and grander, borrowing architecture from all corners of the globe. In 1935, the earl’s family disappeared. Portraits of his descendants disappeared. And the vault was sealed shut. Do you dare ascend into the hallways of the once-grand manor to discover the secrets of the cursed Tower?
Quest for the Unicorn – Tucked into the rolling hills and valleys of the quaint Europa countryside, places guests into a one-of-a-kind outdoor interactive hedge maze adventure!

SW: Since the labyrinth is located over Scandanavia, I thought it makes sense to give it Norse mythology theme-ing.

WAR – SW: Brian’s War coaster was based on Olympic(Ancient Greek) mythology. However, since I was working with limited space in Southern Europe, I moved it away from the Mediterranean and towards the Northlands and gave it a sword & sorcery overlay. WAR’s queue takes riders through a castle scarred by warfare. My thought for the storyline is that a bellicose king has funded an ingenious invention to transport troops en masse to the enemy kingdom to do battle. Riders are conscripted as men-at-arms and sent off to war on a wooden coaster themed in a medieval fantasy style. Along the lengthy route, mostly surrounded by forest, there would be encounters with AA bandits, dragons, orcs, enemy troops, as well plunges through dark caverns and around a wizard’s lake-encircled tower. The wooden coaster, which I based on PKI’s The Beast, is over a mile long and travels through acres of dense, hilly forestland.

INDIUS
From the European-colonized Northeast to the swampy and enchanted bayous of the South, the cultures of America are eternally alive in here. Entering from Altantis, guests pass through a colonial area resembling The Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square, then reach a fork in the road where they can travel to either the Old West, or to the swamps of the dark and mysterious Louisiana Bayou.

Phantom Manor – Inside this colonial manor house lies a frightening mystery with traditional, timeless gags galore.
DUEL – In the bluffs and hoodoos of the Old West, the Thunder Falcon and Lightning Hawk’s eternal clash is very much alive, and you’re going along for the ride. Dueling Dragons meets Big Thunder.
Voodoo coaster – In the deep cellar of this plantation house, the powers of voodoo have conjured the darkest and foulest of souls from the Other Side. Trains slalom through the outdoor swamp portion of the ride.

My study of the Colonial Square area...

ARCTICA

Diverting from the historic mythology of the rest of the park, in the far Northlands, among billowing snow drifts and icy temperatures, there exists a super-secret government scientific & aerospace facility.

Operation: NorthFlight – Board this flying coaster and you’ll know what it feels like to soar around ice caverns, zoom face-first towards the snow, and dive to a spectacular splashdown in the Hudson Bay of Indius.
Drop Zone: Ice Tower – freefall drop ride.
Camp Cooper – Here in the frozen Arctic, that wily raccoon Sly Cooper and his misfit band of thieves has set up shop in a long-abandoned summer camp deep in the tundra (whose bright idea was that, anyway?). Home to a dozen family-friendly rides and attractions, you can experience the life of Sly, Bentley (the brainy turtle) and Murray (the pink hippo – brawn of the group) like never before as kids swing, slide, spin, and slip around on the icy attractions within!

CITY OF GOLD
Glistening gold in the light of day and illuminated by flickering torches by night, the city of El Dorado exudes the mystery and intrigue of the ancient Meso-American world.

Some of my modeling of the Mayan temple architecture:

The Golden Altar – Set next to the entrance to the Mayan Lands stands this ancient mechanical contraption. The gold-tinted double-decker carousel is partially enclosed in a stone temple façade with revered deities and stylized South American animals providing chariots for willing riders.
The Golden Rapids – You’ll pass into caverns, beneath waterfalls, and down steep slopes amid the ruins of the Seven Cities of Gold.
Tortugas – Hop aboard the shells of these giant tortoises for a whimsical ride over the blue waters of Baja and the Pacific! The same ride technology that powers DisneySea’s Aquatopia – boats travel across a cushion of water, avoiding obstacles and spinning around illuminated whirlpools and rockwork.
FACE/OFF – The Tribes are at war, and the race is on! Vekoma Inverted Boomerang.

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Alright. Thanks Brian for sharing a very cool idea for a park and I hope you enjoy my interpretation. I will try to feature another contest entry later this month.

From Macro to Micro

2012-01-12T13:20:00.000-08:00

UPDATE II:
Quest for the Black Cauldron: Based on the Disney's animated high fantasy, this attraction would be an indoor flume in the tradition of PotC, with heavy fx and full AAs (in the same animated style as the film). Set between Pan and Mermaid, this ride would add some darkness/thrills to balance the happier/brighter elements of the land.

I imagined the facade as a craggy hillside with an ancient portal set into its side. Entering the queue cavern, visitors would reach the Hall of Lore, an underground vault/library (lots of dusty books, scrolls, vials, etc.) where a pre-show would take place, voiced by Dallben and animated using maybe something akin to the old dueling dragons stained glass window. This would give the background info on things that will be useful in understanding what is about to take place (the Horned King, the Black Cauldron, Hen Wen's powers).

Emerging from the cave into the placid farm of Caer Dallben, riders would board boats and set off on their adventure. Like the older dark rides, here the rider takes the role of Assistant Pigkeeper, rather than watch an AA Taran re-hash his own adventure (First Person vs Third Person). The opening show scene takes place in Dallben's house and features a mist-screen special effect showing the Horned King's plans for Hen Wen and the Black Cauldron.

Dallben orders riders to set off with the pig to keep it safe from the Horned King. Floating down the stream through the green forest of giant trees, the adventurers have a comical encounter with Gurgi before a Gwythaint swoops down (scare effect) and steals Hen Wen.

The boats drop into the Fair Folk Kingdom, where riders are instructed to retrieve the Cauldron before the Horned King can use it to raise an invincible dead army. The adventure continues in the Marshes of Morva with an encounter with the witch sisters. A winch system takes the boats up a waterfall to the Horned King's castle (upper level).

Within the ruined castle the boats pass drunken henchmen, the Creeper, and enter the dungeons to free Fflewddur Flam & the Princess and find the magic sword. The ride culminates in a large show-room where the Horned King succeeds in using the Cauldron to raise the skeletal army. The effects here would be designed to overwhelm the senses. Out of nowhere, Gurgi, apparently following us, causes the Cauldron to backfire and defeat the Horned King (this would be the rides big drop - a little bigger than PotC's).

The ride deviates somewhat from the film's story & order (just as the film deviated from the books' story). I did this for re-ridability ("the Horned King is only temporarily defeated and will try again", warns Dallben as riders de-board) as well as to avoid a total "book report" ride. This is more in the spirit of the film rather than a direct re-telling.

POST UPDATE:
Here is a digital model I built of the Toad Hall facade sketch drawn below:

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This week's post shifts the focus from full-scale theme park layouts to individual attraction layouts. Both attractions I drew were from my idealized Magic Kingdom park.

The first is a 21st century Fantasyland darkride based on MK's now defunct Mr. Toad ride. It is located where PhilharMagic currently resides.

This attraction takes almost all the show scenes from the original dual track ride (a number of which do not exist in Anaheim) and re-creates them in a single track ride system with dimensional sets and full-motion AudioAnimatronics (similar to Tokyo's Hunny Hunt), rather than painted flats. Since the sets are 360 degree, drivers have the option of spinning their car (like Car Toon Spin).

The facade would be a version of Toad Hall unique from those in Anaheim & Paris (see above). The queue begins in the Foyer and continues in the oak-paneled Great Hall, where boarding takes place under the watchful eyes of Toad's ancestors (via sfx portraits). The four-seat motorcars begin their journey in the Library, disturbing a reading Badger (this time rendered as an AA). Chaos ensues as the cars speed through the Trophy Room (with living animal heads) and the Kitchen, finally exiting the back of the Manor through the barn, with angry barnyard animals dodging the speeding motorcar.

Things seem to calm down a bit as the vehicle motors through the leafy Shireland and past a Gypsy Camp (see storyboard), but chaos resumes after a near collision with a Farmer's Wagon on the One Way Street that leads to Town Square. As drivers recklessly steer their vehicles through Winky's Pub, the law finally catches up with them and they are sentenced to a prison term. In Jail, the villainous weasel gang is staging a Jail Break, and the driver's use the opportunity to escape, pursued by bobbies. Karma eventually collects on the wild drivers as they maneuver down an in-use Train Tunnel and end up in Hell. But was it all a day-dream as the cars return to the Toad Hall garage and riders exist through Mole's Wares shop.

If you're familiar with MK's old Toad, you'll see that this ride is a close facsimile of the original but in a new medium (3-D, AAs)

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The next attraction, from the same imagined version of MK, is Western River Expedition. While the exterior and ride layout are not the same as the Marc Davis piece de resistance (don't think an official layout has ever been seen by the public), my version's show scenes are in the same order and tell the same story:

It may be a little more challenging to visualize this layout because the attraction takes place on multiple overlapping levels (like Pirates or Indiana Jones Adventure). The darker purple shades represent the upper level.

The images that follow tell the story, but if you'd like to see & hear Tony Baxter's virtual ride-through at D23, it can be found on youtube.

It's interesting to see from the model that the attraction is much more stylized color-wise (almost psychedelic) than pirates, although the AA's would have been in a similar vein.

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Let me know how you feel about my creating renderings on the attraction-level rather than on the wider land- or park-level. I may expand this posting later this week with a drawing of the same park's "Black Cauldron" attraction.

Contest Winner

2012-01-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

Time to announce the winner of the inaugural Ideal Buildout Design Contest.

First, thanks to all of you who entered the contest. There were a number of very cool concepts, and I hope you enjoyed the experience of drawing your park.

HONORABLE MENTIONS & RUNNERS UP

The following entries contained some great & original concepts for theme parks.
    MYTHICA, by Daniel B.
    EPIC KINGDOM by Jon
    INDIANA ADVENTURE by Eric G.
    ENCHANTED EARTH by Sam V.
    KINGS EMPIRE & THIEVES DOMINION by Brian K.
    DISNEYLAND BRAZIL by Lucas A.

Over the coming months, I will try to convert a number of these entries into my style of conceptual site plan and then share all the details here.

THE WINNER

The winner of the contest is Timothy F., who created a greatly-expanded version of WDW’s Studios park. Not only did Timothy create an accurately-scaled site plan, but he built a model of his entire park in SketchUp. While some of the original ideas/concepts among the Honorable Mentions were on par with those of the winner, Timothy’s presentation efforts (full 3-D model, scaled site plan) put him in First Place.

What follows is his presentation (which is quite long, so you may want to grab a cup of tea and get comfortable):

And here is the link to the full, 59-pic album of his model:

DHS Album

***

"The Studios has lost its basic theme over the years. What started as a cohesive if small park is now just a jumble of themes. There are really two paths the studios could take, completely drop the studios and just feature movie worlds like the plan posted on here recently, or fully embrace the studio and restore the original idea, of a working studio park that displays and celebrates the idea of Hollywood. My plan goes in the latter direction. This will become a park that puts the guest right in the idea of Hollywood, showing the lifestyle, the products, and most importantly, the process of making the Hollywood that is so idolized and romanticized in culture.

Before describing each area, I have some notes about the above site plan. Its created with an 8 color system, with a color for buildings (blue), on stage area (light grey), backstage area (medium grey), areas with trees or dense vegetation (dark green), areas of grass and light vegetation (light green), water (light blue), and expansion areas (dark grey). The plan is as accurate as possible, with google earth being used as reference whenever possible. New attractions were based on existing buildings and are of approximately the same size as similar rides. Backstage areas are also approximately accurate. I probably took too much in some areas, but overall, similar backstage space exists, so this park could ideally function.

Getting to the Park
This park will receive a Monorail station, and will be connected to Animal Kingdom on a new line. This line will run through a new central transportation hub to the west of EPCOT, so guests can transfer to the other line with MK and EPCOT.

The Main entrance road will be rebuilt. It will now be elevated with a backstage road running underneath it. A new ticketing gate will also be built that will serve the main entrance traffic as well as the traffic from the smaller side entrance. The exit will remain the same.

Hollywood Boulevard
The biggest change is that the hat is removed, and placed outside the park at the edge of the water. The concrete pedestal of the hat is converted into a stage where daily performances take place. In the approximate area where One Man’s Dream is now, a Studio information center is built where guests can learn about the shoots taking place in the studio. Trolley tracks will be inset into Hollywood Boulevard, connecting to the new tracks on Sunset Boulevard. Also a trolley stop will be built at the corner of the two streets.

The Great Movie Ride will be renovated to add new scenes, representing movies like Star Wars, James Bond, Gone with the Wind, and Vertigo, giving a more comprehensive overview of movie genres.

The building with Hollywood and Vine and 50s Prime Time Café will be grouped into this land, as with the street in front of these that will be formed by the changes in Echo Lake. Across from 50s Prime Time Café, the American Academy of Film Museum will be built which will have exhibits of movie history.

New York (Echo Lake)
This area will see a lot of change. In the land strapped Studios, having a water feature that takes up that much space just isn’t possible. This area will be replaced by a romanticized New York area, based in the early black and white film days, heavy in film noir references. The current American Idol Experience will have a New York façade built in front of it to hide the studio theming. The area of the former entrance building will become an underground jazz club filled with references to “The Jazz Singer,” the first movie with talking sequences. The actual American Idol theater will home to a Broadway style theater, presenting a musical production in the style of the classic musicals like Singing in the Rain.

Overview of the New York area. The former American Idol theater is on the right, and Hollywood and Vine is to the Left. This also shows the new parade path.

Across the street from this area, the gritty underground New York of classic film noir will be represented by a dark and narrow side street that is under a dark elevated train track. On this street, there will be a small Irish Pub that could easily be under the control of the mob, and a private detectives agency, serving as the entrance to a film noir attraction. This will be a dark ride based attraction, with heavy use of physical sets and projections to create the film noir mood. The queue through the office will set up the idea that you are shadowing a private detective while a new case comes in. You follow him through the dark streets as he searches for the answers, ending in a dark and abandoned warehouse, which will be recreated as the exit area and gift shop. These streets will be lined with small shops and interactive areas supporting the romanticized New York setting.

This change will also reroute the parade. It will now start at the gate next to 50s Prime Time Café and travel up the main New York Street past the Film Museum and the new ice cream stand to the Chinese Theater courtyard and then back down Hollywood Boulevard.
Both Indiana Jones stunt show and the new attraction put in the current Sounds Dangerous theater will now be part of the new Lucas Studios, and their entrances will be relocated to this area.

Lucas Studios
A new entrance to Indiana Jones will be built on its right side, featuring many more props and vehicles from the film as well as a new store. The Backlot Express will be re-themed as the Lucas Archives Café, featuring props and costumes from his films. The former Sounds dangerous theater will become an indoor Jedi Training Academy, where a more interactive and higher tech show can be presented. Outside the theater will be a X Wing Fighter spinner along with an actual X wing recreation. On the new path leading to the new backlot, there will be a recreation of the Mos Eisly Cantina as well as a large new Star Wars store. Also on this path will be a THX studios soundstage where guests see how important sound is to the movies they love, even getting a chance to record sound tracks to famous scenes. This area will have more walk-around characters from the Lucas world.

The new Jedi Training Academy building, with the X wing and new spinner attraction to the left.

Sunset Boulevard
Major changes happen here. New side streets are created and this area becomes much more open with two grassed park like areas. These parks will be able to feature musicians, such as a jazz quartet, or other street performers, like the Citizens of Hollywood. Also working trolley tracks will be installed throughout this area. The Beauty and the Beast Theater will be enclosed and a new façade built, now be themed as an old movie house. I was tempted to just put Aladdin in this theater, but then I thought about the other great musical that could go here. I couldn’t decide on just one, so this plan has 3 musicals, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules, running concurrently with a different one being presented each day. This is possible, as it is done on the Disney cruise line, where 5 or more musicals run in the same theater with the same casts. All three of these musicals would be done at as high a quality as Aladdin, with similar lengths and production scales.

A new indoor quick service is built on the north side of the boulevard along with a few new shops. On the second floor of this new building will be the premier club for Hollywood Studios, called the Hollywood Club. Accessed through a side door in the alley, the club will be accessed by elevator like the original club 33 and will have windows looking out onto Sunset Boulevard and the Tower of Terror. My plans have a premier club in all 4 parks, with members having access to all 4.

The new counter service and park square. The Hollywood Club will be on the second floor of the new building on the left.Add caption

The Rockin’ Roller Coaster courtyard will be reduced in size due to the new streets and the gate with the guitar neck track will be moved backwards. The lot next to the show building will be used to build a new music themed square. The biggest addition will be a large Hard Rock Café restaurant. This restaurant will also include an auditorium that can hold large separate ticket concerts. Next door, there will be a new store built that will only sell music. Inside the store, there will be an interactive multimedia show about music hosted by the owner of the music shop. This area will also be home to live musicians, including the relocated Mulch, Sweat, and Shears. The trolley tracks will pass through a tunnel by the Hard Rock Café, leading to the new trolley barn built next to Rockin’ Roller Coaster.

The new music subland.

Toontown
One of the new streets jutting off of Sunset Boulevard will be themed to an urban Toontown, based in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In this land, there will be a trolley station, a meet and greet with Mickey and friends in his Toontown apartment, and an interactive show similar to the former Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, where guests can talk to their favorite toons and some new characters too. There will also be a small café on the toon square. The main attraction here will be Benny’s Runaway Cabs, a fast paced dark ride traveling through and above the streets of Toontown.

Toontown and the Animation building will be connected by an enclosed bridge over the backstage road.

The Toontown circle with the showbuilding for Benny's Runaway Cabs to the back left. The track will go across the three bridges over the street as it goes through the showscenes. The bottom center building has the Toontalk attraction.

Animation Courtyard
The building holding the Little Mermaid show will be removed. Playhouse Disney will be removed and replaced by Mickey’s Philharmagic. The Animation building will again be home to actual animators, although not a full production team’s worth. A semicircular statuary courtyard featuring groundbreaking characters surrounds the new sorcerer’s hat entrance, modeled off the Disney Animation Building in Anaheim. The new building is home to a dark ride based on classic animation, a carousel of Disney characters surrounded by a continually changing projected landscape, and the restaurant, Animators Palate.

Mickey's Philharmagic on the right, the Animation building featuring the tour on the right, the carousel at the center behind the hat, and the dark ride to the left in the raised section.

Pixar Place
In the former stage where Prince Caspian was, a new Pizza Planet will be placed, completing the Toy Story themed area. Between that and Toy Story Midway Mania, a new street will lead to the back of the land.

On the immediate left, the UP house will be built, serving as the queue for a new suspended dark ride telling the story of the movie. On the right, a side path will lead to the superhero museum, housing an Incredibles dark ride using the Pooh’s Honey Hunt technology. This ride will be projection and special effects heavy, similar to the Spiderman ride in Universal. Next will be a Cars dark ride featuring the world and events of Cars 2. Maters Garage next door will serve as a meet and greet with the cars. On the right, as the street curves back to Pixar Place, there will be a space for expansion, and then Remy’s Restaurant, a sit down that is home to a LCI Remy.

Continuing on the street, we hit Monstropolis. The Monsters Inc building will serve as the queue for the doors coaster, using the Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster system with a custom track. Across the street, the Pixar Studio will be a space for guests to see the inner workings of Pixar and its future projects as well as shop for all things Pixar.

There will be 2 expansion pads in Pixar Place to feature future Pixar properties. In my plans, every Pixar property is represented in one of the four parks, with WALL-E in Magic Kingdom, and A Bugs Life in Animal Kingdom, so these plots would be used to represent future films.

The Up darkride, with the house serving as the queue.

Production Central
This area contains the former streets of America section and some surrounding areas. The area where Studio Catering Co and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground are now will become multiple smaller attractions. A new entrance to the Backlot Tour will be built that does not include the water tank, which was removed for the Pixar Studio. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids area will become a special effects stage attraction. After an introduction, guests will enter the first stage where a small scale demonstration is performed. After seeing how that happened, they enter the main stage for the feature demonstration. This will be something similar to the Earthquake attractions at Universal parks, featuring water, fire, and large scale moving set pieces to demonstrate a special effects shot. Opposite the special effects stages and next to Pixar Studio, a Blue Sky Studio will be built, just like the Blue Sky Cellar in California Adventure. This will be home to exhibits on all the changes happening in the 4 parks.

Lights, Motors, Action will be relatively unchanged, with the only addition being a real wall on the left side of the queue instead of a chain link fence. The streets of America will likewise be unchanged. The area between the backlot theater and the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet will be home to a new building featuring an exhibit about production. Think Innoventions for making movies. The Backlot theater will be accessed through this area and will feature a live production show. Shows can be easily swapped out to reflect what is popular, and all will feature audience participation to complete the shots. This would also be a place for actual TV shows to film when needed.

Muppet Studios
    All of this area will be themed to the Muppet Studio shown in The Muppets. Muppet Vision 3D will get a new film and Pizza Planet will be re-themed to the Swedish Chef restaurant. All of the shops and Mama Melrose will be removed and replaced with Muppet themed shops. Behind those shops and next to the production exhibit, a Muppets dark ride will be built, giving a tour of the more interesting areas of the studio. This area will also feature the Muppet Mobile Lab and other LCI Muppets, like the Electric Mayhem band.

Backlot East
    This will be the biggest new addition to DHS. It will be accessed by a path in Lucas Studios that passes underneath the main entrance road. The first attraction after passing under the road will be an amphitheater on the right that will feature Wipeout Live, in the vein of the live fear factor shows that Universal had. Straight ahead, guests will see Walt’s plane that is currently on the backlot tour parked. Behind that will be the Boneyard coaster. This will be a Vekoma Jr Coaster, the same model as Flight of the Hippogriff, that will be themed to a coaster made up of all the old vehicles sitting in the boneyard.

Behind that, guests will pass through a gate leading them to the production lot where they will see a large set, themed to the Stark Expo seen in Iron Man. This set will be the entrance to a dueling suspended coaster called Iron Man Silver and Iron Man Red. Disney has always needed another real coaster to compete with Universal, and this seems the most appropriate place to do it since much of the track and support structure can be themed to film production. I am aware that the current Marvel contract does not allow Marvel characters in Disney world, but that is minor issue in an expansion this size.

Back out from the fenced in area, guests will see a set of soundstages on their right. First, a relatively small stage will be used as rotational space for current project exhibits. Jan-April will have one exhibit, May- Aug will have another exhibit, and Sept-Dec will have a seasonal Nightmare Before Christmas exhibit and ride. This ride would have to be extremely modular for easy setup, so a simulator type attraction would be a good choice. The next stage would start empty and be saved for future expansion. The next stage on this first block would be the answer to potter. This stage would lead to a massive show building for a kuka based headliner ride for a yet to be determined property.

The last building would be home to the Prop House Raft Adventure. The queue through the undamaged section of the building would set up the idea that the Prop House recently flooded and you the guests are being sent in to assess the damage and maybe recover a few prized items. This queue would also be a place to relocate all the Disney props that were stored in the stage behind the backlot tour water tank, which no longer exists. If you have never seen this room, it’s really amazing, it has props such as the original legend of the lion king puppets to tapestry of nations puppets to set pieces from early shows at MGM studios. Guests would be sent into the flooded section in various prop boats that were found in the collection. While exploring, they will find the source of the rapidly rising water, pass through movie history, and even encounter some malfunctioning props, leading them to the final drop down the emergency exit stairs. The boat circles around the new DHS water tower and then reenters the building to the unloading station. This building will also hold a counter service location themed called Studio Catering Co. Above the main entrance to the amphitheater, there will be a sit down restaurant called the Directors Table with views over the studio and backlot.

Backlot East.

The Disney Studio Orlando
    In this plan, the return of a working studio is crucial to the theme. I feel like Disney’s first attempt at a studio was not good enough and that led to the failure of the studio. I mean they had 3 small stages and a mediocre backlot street. The studio only ever got small scale productions because of this so it never really could survive. This plan includes a real Hollywood style studio. The studio is built on the south side of the new entrance road. The road will be built on a raised level above a backstage service road. All traffic to the studio will go through the main entrance road and will branch off to the studio gate before regular traffic hits the park gate. In front of the studio gate, there will be a water feature with a series of statues all in view of the park traffic and parking lot.

The gate lets visitors onto the main studio road. This has the safety and security building, the food service building, and studio offices on each side, and has the main studio center at the end. A parking garage connects to this building. A road leads to the other half of the studio, the production side. This area will have a large residential area, a city street backlot, large empty lots for filming, a large outdoor water tank, and 13 soundstages including 3 built for an audience, 1 built with a water tank, and 1 that would be one of the largest in the world. Overall, this studio backlot would be able to serve many productions at any one time, making a studio that is viable and successful.

Some other things to point out about the studio. A practice lot for Lights, Motors, Action will be built next to Backlot East. All studio traffic will come into the main entrance off the entrance road, while all production trucks will enter through a gate off Osceola Parkway. Traffic will exit through the main gate and a side gate by the parking garage, leading to Osceola Parkway.

This new studio will lead to a greatly expanded backlot tour. After boarding the tram, the tour will go around the maintenance building then head to Catastrophe Canyon. After that, they will head to the security gate and go under the entrance road into the backlot. The tour will take them through part of the New York Street set, then to the soundstages area where the tram will drive through a tunnel with windows looking into the stages, and then through the residential area. The tour will drive by the open filming lots and then by the water tank before going to a stage near where they entered the backlot. Once the tram is completely in the stage, they will see a fast paced movie montage on a 250’x60’ imax screen, wrapping up the tour. The tram will then return to the park area and return to the unloading station. Each of the areas of the backlot can be left out of the tour at the request of the productions filming in the studio.

The Studio offices to the bottom left, the open filming lots at the center with the truck entrance, the residential lot to the right, the water tank to the front right, the sound stages to the back right, and the Iron Man coaster to the extreme front right.

Wrap Up
At my count, this version of Disney Hollywood Studios now has 48 attractions and 23 food locations. It breaks down to 9 E tickets, 11 D tickets, 14 C tickets, 10 B tickets, and 4 A tickets; and 14 counter service locations, 8 table service locations, and 1 premium club. That is over twice as many attractions as the current park, making this park a definite full day experience that everyone can enjoy while they discover for themselves what the idea of Hollywood really means."

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Outstanding work, Timothy! Remember to click on the picasa link above for many more pics and descriptions of the 3-D model.

Cracking the Case of Shanghai Disney

2012-01-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! First a Contest Update: Thanks to those of you who entered the contest. Upon first glance, all the ideas showed a lot of originality, and I'm excited to look at them in more detail over the coming days. In about ten days, I will begin to share the results (haven't decided to begin with the winner or runners-up). I will let the winner know beforehand. But for now...

Cracking the Case of Shanghai Disney
By S.W. Wilson

Like many of you, I have been paying close attention to the development process of Shanghai Disney for several years. It’s been both an exciting & frustrating project to follow. Exciting because the (i) budget involved ($3.7 billion for the park and $0.7 billion for the facilities), (ii) early inside word and (iii) official concept art are all pointing to what will be a high-quality & unique take on the Magic Kingdom model. And frustrating because it is going to take three or four more years to complete, and Disney has been reticent about revealing juicy details regarding the park. After becoming impatient for the fog surrounding the park’s design to lift on its own, I went about uncovering the details myself.

The Five Corroborating Clues:
Five visual clues have been released by Disney since last April. When “layered” and analyzed, these pieces of media allowed me to draw a fairly accurate version of current Resort plan. They are:
1.    Property Map. This gives us the basic outline of the resort. It matches the Massing Model very closely.
2.    Castle Video. The castle video shows a CG fly-around of the park centerpiece. But what is of more interest to me is what’s visible in the background of the video… quite a bit of Fantasyland & Fantasy Gardens.
3.    Computer Model. A glimpse of this was shown during Tom Staggs’ D23 presentation. It is a key piece that shows a detailed, three dimensional view of the center of the park. It matches the Massing Model & Key Art.
4.    Key Art. This is the digital conceptual painting that shows a birds-eye version of the park. It follows the other media closely, but not exactly (Tomorrowland seems different).
5.    Massing Model. This model, displayed at D23, was the most important piece in the process. At first glance, it shows nothing but little green trees and wooden blocks representing vertical structures. But what is important is that below these blocks & trees is the detailed site plan for the current iteration of Shanghai Disney. If you look at hi-res pics of the model, particularly those from an elevated angle, this becomes clear. I squinted at many, many pics of this model from all the various angles. And, yes, my brain/eyes hurt after doing so.

Then there was the need for non-visual clues. These came in three forms:
1.    Official information out of the mouths of Disney imagineers (e.g., 'There will be a Fantasyland riverboat ride that travels around FL & under the castle', or 'Pirates of the Caribbean will be present').
2.    Rumors/hints by trustworthy online sources + visual confirmation. (e.g., word on the net was that the Seven Dwarfs Coaster would be in Shanghai, and, sure enough, in the Computer Model, you can see it).
3.    Common-sense inferences based on visuals (e.g. There are clearly circular thatched huts(African village) in Adventureland and it is about the right size for a dining venue.).

So armed with all of these clues, I began to lay out the resort.

DISCLOSURE: We know park plans can and do change & evolve. My drawing - a rough interpretation based upon the previously-discussed sources - meant for fun & discussion. But, unlike most of my site plans, this is not a work of fiction. It is a 2-D translation of the 3-D massing model, and the rough placement of vertical structures & paths is fairly accurate. The actual content (what kinds of attractions those structures contain), on the other hand, is more based on informed guesswork (with a few bits officially confirmed). Still, as far as the physical layout of the resort is concerned, what follows may be the closest thing to a park map (of the current iteration of Shanghai) any of us outside WDI will ever see:

A WALKTHROUGH OF THE RESORT
After disembarking the subway at the subterranean Metro Station, visitors take an escalator to the surface. On the left is the Downtown Disney retail & dining area. On the right is the Lake with the deluxe resort hotel sitting on the far bank. Walking forward, visitors reach the central Resort Plaza area, and making a 90 degree turn to their left, face the large fountain and the ticket booths. In the distance, beyond a lot of greenery, are the spires of Storybook Castle.

HOTELS: Two hotels will open with the park. The deluxe hotel is lakeside and shown in my drawing. It is connected to the Plaza by a curving promenade path (encircling the lake). The layout of the Hotel does not suggest the “Mictorian” style of the flagship hotels of Paris, Hong Kong & Tokyo. It has the rambling layout associated with WDW's Boardwalk Inn or Animal Kingdom Lodge or TDS' MiraCosta. South Seas, American Coastal or Historical Chinese would all seem like possible themes for this hotel. There is a large plot directly adjacent to the park & Adventureland which will likely house a future deluxe hotel. The value resort is not shown (to the northwest of the parking lot), but its boxy layout suggests something like HK’s Hollywood Hotel or even the Art of Animation motel now being built in Orlando.

ENTERING THE PARK. The opening land’s thematic style is still somewhat of a mystery. It’s been stated officially that the park will not have a Victorian Main Street, U.S.A., however there is something akin to Town Square and Main Street that will doubtless house things like Guest Relations, lockers, retail & dining. But if not themed to Americana, what will it be? One possibility is it will be Disney Fantasy-themed (although, including Fantasyland proper, that would make for a possible overload of Fantasy-themed buildings in the park). Another possibility is Disney “Whimsical” – entertainment architecture not based on a specific time or place (although this style seems likely for the Downtown Disney district). Maybe this area will have an emphasis on Old London. If you look closely at the Overview Painting the dormers are reminiscent of London townhouses featured in numerous Disney films (Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, etc.), which would provide lots of film tie-in opportunities that Disney loves. A London setting would also mesh with the very extensive gardens & carousel (Poppins) that comprise the core of the park.

ADVENTURELAND. The jungles of Adventureland await on the eastern side of the park. Like Paris’ AL, this one seems to have distinct geographies, the first being Africa with its thatched roof eatery (likely themed to Lion King). A major attraction nearby is the River Rapids ride. The fake mountain backdrop for these rapids will be based on the famous Chinese mountain spires (with pine trees clinging), as can be seen in the Key Art. I believe BlueSky Disney reported that this would be called Lost World Rapids and include AA dinosaurs. Sounds great, if true (even though Universal Singapore already does this), but I don’t know for certain. What can be inferred is that it will be a circular raft ride with a nod to Chinese geography.

The next geographic area (moving clockwise) is based on Meso-America, with its Mayan temple. I don’t know if this area will host a ride, show or restaurant, but the building does not look to be the right shape or size to house the Indiana Jones Adventure (I also think Disney is reluctant to include any licensed properties in this venture).

Moving north, taking up the largest part of Adventureland (reported online as a sub-land) is the Pirates Cove area. A pirate ship will be anchored on the Lagoon (likely Black Pearl) and the headline attraction will be an all-new version of Pirates - heavily film-based - with possible linear induction acceleration. I’ve also read rumors of a pirate stunt show and the key art would seem to corroborate this.

FANTASYLAND. The castle is very large and will host a restaurant, a princess meet & greet, and, in the sub-level, the final show scene for the Riverboat Ride. Speaking of which, the entire center of the land is taken up by the riverboat attraction which seems to be a “Storybook Land Canal Boats”, maybe with FX to make it closer to Jungle Cruise in scale. There is a labyrinth (likely Wonderland-themed) adjacent to the eastern side of the Castle and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the 3 o’ clock position.

In the north-east of Fantasyland lies what I am guessing is a Hundred Acre Wood sub-section with a Pooh darkride and tea-cup spinner. This guess is based on a number of factors, including (i) Pooh being the most popular & well-known Disney property in China, (ii) Key Art which shows “roof mountains” in the same style as Tokyo’s Pooh (although the showbuilding doesn't appear to be big enough for Hunny Hunt), (iii) the 3-D model which shows a Christopher-Robin-like cottage, and (iv) the fact that “Pooh Teacups” is an attraction that has appeared on early plans for HKDL (we know that ideas never die at WDI). In the massing model there is a circular block which indicates a spinner ride (same size as other spinners).

The biggest mystery of the park is what the large attraction in the northwest corner of Fantasyland is. It has a big showbuilding – on the scale of Small World or Indiana Jones. I can’t tell, but it may have a tall spire which could indicate a Tangled-based E-ticket. Other tantalizing possibilities include a Fantasyland version of Haunted Mansion or “Once upon a Time” (a best-of darkride that would cover many animated fairytales). Maybe it is just Small World, although it is my hope that Shanghai will differentiate itself from HKDL, cloning very little of the first Chinese park.

The final piece of Fantasyland is a large block of buildings with Fantasy-themed exteriors that form the western wall of the land. These likely include dining & retail and – potentially - small darkrides (if the park takes the route of individual film-based rides).

TOMORROWLAND. There is a long, isolated pathway that connects the back of Tomorrowland to the back of Fantasyland. The Massing Model & 3-D Model both seem to corroborate the rumored Tron coaster, which would be a launched Vekoma motorbike coaster into a large showbox (like RocknRollercoaster). There is the ever-present Orbitron, but I’ve read rumors that Shanghai’s version could be a jetpack type. I believe Disney filed patents for this system.

There is one more large showbuilding that could accommodate a ride. I’ve read a rumor that the upcoming "Soarin’ over the World" simulator may find its way to Shanghai and it could fit in this building in Tomorrowland.   Or it could be something else entirely. There also appears to be a covered amphitheater in the Key Art, 3-D Model & Massing Model, and Disney has stated that they want to have live venues in the park to celebrate Chinese occasions.

Finally, I’ve read rumors about a PeopleMover ride for Shanghai. Then I saw Scot Drake’s presentation at D23 where he showed several pieces of concept art (potentially early work for Shanghai). Among these were PeopleMover-like cabs. I’ve also read Scot is the lead designer for Tomorrowland in Shanghai. Then I looked at the 3-D model and saw these odd geometric curves and circles, which led me to wonder if these could be indicators of the PeopleMover’s track path.
http://www.mouseinfo.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=45128&original=1

THOUGHTS ON PIXAR, MARVEL, PARK SIZE & EXPANSION. I would be very pleased if something like the park I’ve drawn (with at least 4 original E-ticket rides) opened in 2016. However, I must remind myself of the initial plans for Hong Kong Disneyland which opened with about 50% of the attractions (and fewer lands) than were announced at the pre-construction stages (along with a totally different layout).   Assuming the park does open as something close to the current plan, I think it will have just enough to fill a Chinese family’s day and leave them wanting to return.

The current Shanghai park plan also includes a lot of room for future expansion. Each land has dedicated expansion pads and there are even larger areas between the lands which could accommodate mini-lands (e.g A Bug’s Land or Mystic Point).

One thing that strikes me as odd is that in all the deducing & analyzing I’ve done to put this site plan together, I can’t find any locations where Pixar properties would fit naturally (possibly a Wall-E attraction in the Tomorrowland showbuilding). This seems counter intuitive as I know how Disney loves to put Pixar in its parks these days. Same goes for Marvel (although it is possible some Marvel properties could be wedged into Tomorrowland, like an Iron Man orbitron). Maybe the first additions post-opening in the expansion pads will feature Pixar and Marvel.

It will be very interesting to see if an official conceptual site plan or model for the park becomes available in 2012 and how close my interpretation is to it.

***

I hope you've enjoyed my work in investigating the mystery of SDL. If you can add, correct or clarify anything (substantiated with visual evidence or solid info), I would like to hear your thoughts.

Disney's Futura

2011-12-27T00:28:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Quick Reminder that the IdealBuildout Contest deadline is December 30th... just a few short days from now.

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Now, on to a new theme park. This park orginated with a request by Leandro of Holland to create a site plan out of his idea and very rough drawing:

My interest was piqued by this idea of an all-future version of the Magic Kingdom: a Tomorrowland expanded outward to an entire theme park. Since Tomorrowland has had a number of different identities since its inception (eg., real world futurism, Victorian steampunk, googie, deco-tech), and each identity has typically regressed into its current state of “Anything Goes”, I thought this would be a fun chance to give some of these identities a themed area of their own.

I started from scratch with the layout and re-arranged, deleted, altered and added to the park's contents to come up with this:

Each of Futura's lands is based on some specific aspect or genre of sci-fi futurism, with each being its own world, distinct from the others in architecture, landscape & mood.

FUTURA BOULEVARD: Deco-Tech/Retro-Futursim

I imagined a version of Main Street USA in a retro-futuristic stye (Flash Gordon/Jetsons/1930s-1950s pulp) but with a clean, forward-looking, techno-industrial aesthetic. This is a sci-fi land with lots of robots, towers, domes, etc. Similar to Disneyland, there is a train station over the entrance to the park, but this train would be a futuristic MagLev. I also put in an automated streetcar system that passes through the indoor arcade of one of the building blocks.

The park’s icon is a futuristic version of the familiar fantasy castle.

TOON-TROPOLIS: Animation/Googie

This land would be home to the animated, “Disney” vision of future, with attractions, restaurants & architecture based on Meet the Robinsons, Wall-E, Buzz Lightyear. It is cheerful & colorful with lots of curves – a futuristic Toontown.

CYBERPUNK CITY: CyberPunk/Dystopia

Taking the opposite approach, this land features the ominous, gritty, dark style of films like “BladeRunner” & “Alien”. Film Noir. Lots of neon signs, steam and skybridges. The comedy club lightens the mood. I added a BladeRunner-like scoop E-ticket attracion based on a future Detective Agency.

NEBULA ONE STARPORT: Epic Space Fantasy

This land is a space port with many ships, aliens, droids, bars, etc. – like something you might find in the Star Wars universe. I added an AA darkride based on the characters of Captain Eo, taking them on a new musical adventure, but now tangible rather than filmed. There is a launch-coaster experience that would feature pull-down virtual reality headsets (like those Bremen Space Center) to simulate atmospheric dogfights synced with the movement of the track.

MECHANICA HARBOUR: SailPunk

The next land takes the unique style invented (I think) by the artists who worked on “Treasure Planet” called SailPunk: It is 18th Century Sea-going (PotC) meets Sci-fi Space Adventure. The lagoon is home to the Solar Winds fountain & FX show.

ALIEN PLANET: Alien Culture & Landscapes

This land simulates a mysterious alien homeworld. If you know the game StarCraft, I had that in mind (Protoss planet), as I drew the land. There are several overgrown temples. Giant glowing blue crystals would grow among the strange trees throughout this land. A crashed Mothership is part of the pre-show for the park’s flagship attraction (kuka).

EARTH STATION: Reality-based TechnoFuturism

The final land takes its cue from the original Tomorrowlands & EPCOT’s opening day Future World: It is reality-based, techno-optimistic futurism, hands-on & educational in nature with at least one lengthy, Horizons-like omnimover ride.

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Thoughts? Comments?

Enhancing HKDL's Castle & Contest Announcement

2011-12-15T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick creative entry followed by an announcement regarding the first ever IdealBuildout Design Contest.

First, I wanted to examine ways in which the HKDL Castle could be enhanced (i.e., heightened). I feel that each DL-style park should have its own unique castle as its signature icon. I think the SB castle design is a little too short, squat and underwhelming for its surroundings - not as soaring or majestic as it could be. The idea here is to make it a little taller & grander - similar in proportion to Paris' castle: the paradigm of proportionality - while keeping most of the features of the original. It remains deferential but stands as its own unique centerpiece:

And a quick photoshop of the middle version:

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Now, on to The Contest... ImagineeringDisney had an armchair contest early this year in which some pretty impressive work was submitted, and I thought it might be fun to do the same thing here.

The rules are simple.

1. Dream up a theme park (or water park). It can be an enhancement of an existing park, an all-star park, or - hopefully - something new.

2. Draw your park (pencil, digitally, colored pen - doesn't matter). Points awarded for detail, clarity, professionalism, creativity. Supplementary illustrations welcome.

3. Annotate your drawing (label) and include a written description (length at your discretion).

4. Submit your park drawing/description to me via email (address in About Me section at left) by midnight on December 30th, 2011.

Shortly thereafter winners will be announced, shared & discussed here. The winner(s) will have the option to request customized site plans (if desired) or concept artwork done by me for their park.

Hoping you will have some fun with this and create some outstanding visual materials for your parks.

Tokyo DisneySea 2025

2011-12-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Continuing from last post, this entry will feature artwork & images created exclusively by yours truly. I hope you enjoy:

I created these drawings for fun - imagining what my ideal built-out Tokyo DisneySea might be like.

Currently, there are four pads surrounding TDS that seem reasonably suitable for expansion. Since OLC has been adding youth-focused shows based on established Disney/Pixar characters since Tower of Terror opened in 2006, all of these additions return to the park’s more character-free roots. And because TDS is fairly short on water/boat rides (for a park about the Sea), I added two major water attractions and a new bay.

LOST RIVER DELTA: This area is the last greenfield of the park. It is big enough for a small land (e.g. A Bug’s Land) or a large attraction. I opted for the latter, expanding Lost River Delta. The attraction I chose would be an FX & AA-laden flume based around the search & mysteries of the Lost City of El Dorado. The layout and boat size is reminiscent of the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Any visible showbuilding not hidden by dense rainforest vegetation would be heavily-themed as ancient ruins. Here is a massing model of the show-building:

And a storyboard sketch of the boat entering the overgrown ruins for encounters with hostile natives and their gods.

GANGSTER ROW: Taking up the parking lot beyond the soon-to-open Toyville Trolley Park would be an area of gritty, seedy buildings and home to an indoor shooter coaster featuring Gangsters and the Coppers trying to take them down (guests would be divided in the queue). There would also be a themed Prohibition era eatery & bar. Here is a conceptual elevation I drew of the area facades:

And a concept of one of the ride vehicles:

LEONARDO’S WORKSHOP: An ornate Renaissance villa would be home (and house the queue) to inventor & artist Leonardo Da Vinci. After queueing past his creations, guests would board his latest Flying Machine for a Soarin’ experience. Here is a massing model and conceptual elevation of the attration:

SVALBARD BAY: The final land takes up the giant parking lots north of the Arabian Coast. I’ve read a rumor that a Glacier Lake expansion was/is slated for this area, so I went in that direction and created Svalbard Bay. The aesthetic is EPCOT’s Norway (Scandinavian) meets Hogsmeade (whimsical/fake snow banks) meets New Orleans Square (lots of little alleyways). Since this land is a New Orleans Square of the Far North it features a “Vikings of the North Sea” indoor AA boat ride that parallels PotC in mood and execution. The land is not specifically set in time, but has quaint industrial technology, so the Viking attraction would begin the Village’s history museum. In the bay, among the icebergs, there is a Viking longboat and sidewheeler/tall-ship icebreaker. In coming up with plan I tried to remain conscience of attraction diversity so the final attraction would feature something akin the new Pandora’s Box ride system by Vekoma to present an original adventure based on the mysteries of the Aurora Borealis (treading close to The Golden Compass): Here is a concept elevation & massing model of the land:

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So there is a build-out of DisneySea. Comments? How would the next 15 years unfold if you were Toshio Kagami?

Conceptual Elevations

2011-11-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

I've been spending some time sketching conceptual elevations by hand in black ink and graphite in order to visually communicate some elements of my site plans. Some of these are from "yet-to-be-released" park plans I've drawn.

Fantasyland. Of note is the giant oak tree that could be home to some small fantastical creature.

This is a "Deco-Tech" style Tomorrowland study. The image has no color but I imagine the many glass domes to be illuminated in the same colorful style as the MK's TL:

I drew this version of the Antiquities Museum from the Night Kingdom park. I wanted to show a structure that recalled the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, the Smithsonian in DC and some other old, overpowering museums.

This next elevation is a study of the Arabian themed land from my Kingdoms of Adventure site plan:

Next is a study for my Port Disney project (replacing DowntownDisney @WDW). It represents turn-of-the-century Northeastern U.S. Coastal and is the queue building for the sea-themed haunted mansion attraction located there:

This elevation is a concept for a PotC exterior... A waterfall would flow out of the rocky skull-like edifice (an homage to DL's original Skull Rock) and under the fortress rampart. I also imagined Kraken tentacles rising periodically from the dark lagoon waters:

As requested, a castle centerpiece elevation sketch:

A study in a Captain Nemo-type area (see my Long Beach DisneySea or any plan that has a Nautilus. I based this Nautilus on Tom Sherman's Nautilus II as featured on DisneyandMore.

Here are some "speed sketches" in ink:

At the top of this drawing is a Tomorrowland, a DecoTech/Future-Industrial version in a similar vein to the TL at MK (with some Star Wars-type architecture)... The idea here is to add as much ornament & detail as found on MS:USA, but in a sci-fi setting. The next is a Port Royale-type area - the civilized, non-pirate part of Pirate Coast, then a Roaring 20s NYC-style Main Street, followed by a Fantasy/DragonDale area and a castle-town with nearby rural area featuring Hag's Hut and Druid Runestones...

The bottom row include a study of a geyser-based Freefall attraction (using an exposed mining derrick to raise and drop the ride vehicle) and an Angkor-type show building for an indoor-outdoor coaster.

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Comments are appreciated and feel free to request any elevation sketches from parks I've posted (and I will add them to the post). And Happy Thanksgiving!

Magic Kingdom ft. Discovery Bay

2011-11-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

There was once a bluesky plan within WDI to add a Vulcania/Discovery Bay section to the Magic Kingdom. I drew this conceptual site plan to explore where such a land could go and how it might be laid out:

UPDATE: Colored Paths

The key to expanding north of FLE would be a themed bridge that goes over the East-West access road and keeps all those backstage areas from view. Tokyo DisneySea has just such a bridge leading to/from its Mysterious Island:

Discovery Bay would be home to a version of Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with an extended outdoor section that drops out of the volcano's side and does two high speed helices above and below the shoreline and around a smaller caldera before re-entering the volcano for disembarkation:

Since such an expansion would require an alternate western access point, I imagined WDI planning two new sub-areas to Frontierland: a gunslingers town called Outlaw Ridge with its associated E-tick and an area I call White Canyon based on Pueblo cliff dwellings. There would then be a wilderness trail looping around the Rivers of America and connecting with Discovery Bay (with its 1880s San Fran/Barbary Coast motifs).

In this plan, I also explored the recently-discussed idea of creating a Wonderland sub-area to Fantasyland (with the recently re-named Cheshire Cafe). In this plan, Cosmic Ray's would become the Queen of Hearts banquet hall, the teacups would receive the glass petal roof and the northern half of the Speedway would be given over to a Giant Mushroom Garden play area and new Wonderland dark ride (LPS) that begins in an English Country House. This would make a thematically consistent transition from the Hub to Fantasyland. (with a new archway added to transition to Tomorrowland:

Since this is an ideal build-out site plan, I drew my hopes that Tomorrowland would one day be brought under a coherent thematic umbrella of Deco-Tech Industrial Fantasy Future. I added a walkthrough futuristic power plant based on the Large Hadron Collider over the southern half of the Speedway (to keep some of the trees/greenery in the land) and added an large, original E-ticket taking over the the Carousel of Progress & parking lot.

***

Thoughts on a long-term expansion plan for the MK?

Disney's Night Kingdom

2011-11-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

MASSING MODEL UPDATE III:

Museum of Antiquities:

MASSING MODEL UPDATES:

Here's a quick view of the in-progress massing model I'm working on for this park. This shows how I envision part of the old-fashioned brick Light Factory area:

Here's a massing study of the western half of Rock n Roll City. I tried to add some mid-century details like rooftop water tanks & vintage billboards. Note the city skyline facades on the Rock n Rollercoaster showbuilding facing the land (with a Tron-world obelisk facing the Tron land):

Street view of Rocknroll City, showing effect of deep skyscraper facades. Maybe this time next year this blog will feature virtual fly-throughs of all the imagined theme parks...

***

This park plan began with a request by Mike from Holland, who had an idea for a Disney theme park that was only open after sundown and closed just before sunrise:

I found Mike’s overall idea of a nocturnal theme park to be quite original, so I was happy to develop the concept further:

HYPERION LIGHT FACTORY:

The park’s opening land is based on an imaginary Light Bulb Factory of the early 20th Century: lots of brickwork with multiple tidy buildings and a thin, 100 foot clocktower. I imagined the Factory owner to be an eccentric inventor like the Phineas T. Flagg character developed for the Baltimore Power Plant project or EPCOT’s Dreamfinder. There is a restaurant based on Thomas Edison and an omnimover tour (same tone as World of Motion) through the factory. There is also a Peoplemover-like elevated rail (maglev) that takes guests around the park.

This might be the only park where the central icon can be ethereal rather than physical. The centerpiece of the Night Kingdom is the Beacon of Light (similar to the Tribute in Light done in NYC). Its high-powered lamps sit sunken on a peninsula in the center of the Lake of Shine (a special effects & fountain-laden body of water) because to view the beam properly, visitors need to be somewhat distant from it and have darkness around it.

If you look at the park plan from a distance, its core resembles a lightbulb.

MUSUEM OF ANTIQUITIES:

I always like the idea of an ominous old museum, particularly what goes on after-hours (i.e., Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil T. Frankweiler, etc.), but there is no direct connection here to the Night at the Museum movies. The period is circa 1950 and the Museum’s brick façade eases the transition from the Factory. The major ride is an EMV Through Time adventure. There is a 4-D presentation (like CineMagique, but based on History, not Cinema). I also like the idea of an elaborate, walking scavenger hunt (Sorcerers of the MK) through the halls of the museum that trigger various FX (like a T-Rex skeleton coming to life, animal dioramas moving, etc). There are gardens and lagoon show viewing in front of the giant Museum building.

ROCK N ROLL CITY:

Continuing the transition, this area is representative of New York/L.A./Detroit during the Golden Age of Rock n Roll. Finally, a land where Rock n’ Rollercoaster naturally fits. There is a new muppet production featuring their Electric Mayhem band. I also like the idea of magician-based restaurant, so I put one here. Great Music Ride could feature audio animatronic versions of The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, Elvis & Justin Bieber.

THE GRID:

If there was ever a park that could host a Tron land, it would be one that is only open at night. LightJets sits above the queue building for LightCycle Racers – a tandem, motorbike version of Radiator Springs Racers on an elevated track. Below this elevated track is the LightRunners course, which is a Tron version of Autopia. The End of the Line Club could host the popular ElecTronica dance parties that take place at DCA.

STAR DISCOVERY CENTRE:

This area is focused on the night sky: astronomy & space exploration. There is a Star Tours-like simulator, but based more in reality with an original storyline. There is a special FX show that features a high-tech planetarium as well as exhibit areas.

PANDORA:

Continuing the smooth transitions, moving clockwise, visitors would reach the human colony of HellsGate II on Pandora. Entering the compound, guests are surrounded by Samson gunships and the large Valkyrie transatmospheric shuttle. There is an Avatar training play zone. The major ride here (and of the park) is a Kuka E-ticket (similar to Harry Potter) that puts riders into the battle between the Navi and the humans. I would hope the forthcoming land at Animal Kingdom focuses on the animals/nature side of Avatar, lest it impinge on the park’s overall thematic coherence, but in this park it doesn’t hurt the park’s theme to give weight to the Earthling-Navi conflict.

The second half of this land is the Bioluminescent Forest of Pandora – the area of nature and natives. In the giant, broken stump of Home Tree (the land takes place after the events of the film), the Navi have returned and put on a mystical show of their culture around a re-growing tree in the center. There is a spinner (swings) and many paths to explore through the illuminated forests, with interactive elements (like the sea-fan plants and moss that lights up as you walk on it). The major ride in this area is an omni-simulator in the Floating Mountains that gives riders the impression of flying like a Banshee.

SHADOW HOLLOW:

I think a park that is only open at night needs to take advantage of the horror/monster genre, so this land is a 19th Century European castle town. Ghosthunters is a steampunk-ish laser tag-like game. Lycan River is like a jungle cruise (combining dread with humor) but with monsters. There is a haunted maze as well as an original haunted house omnimover (because what park couldn’t use one?), sitting atop a butte. Jekyll & Hyde’s is inspired by the original themed restaurant (West Village).

YULETIDE BRITAIN:

This land is based on an idealized Christmas, both urban (London) and rural (Village). The coaster would be drawn by Reindeer around a snowy, pine woods environment.

***

So there you have it: a park for night owls. Comments are always appreciated.

Disney's Hollywood Studios 2025

2011-10-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

For my first MGM/DHS drawing I re-imagined the concept from the beginning and kept a working, A-list Studio as central to the park's story. This plan takes the actual Studios park as it exists, puts out the last embers of the dying “working studios” concept, adds a couple billion dollars of new attractions and placemaking, and lets the phoenix of a movie adventure park rise from the ashes.

The new underlying theme is “entering filmic worlds”, so rather than feeling like a collection of lightly themed soundstages in a studios setting, this park aims to create compelling, transportative worlds in distinct, strongly-themed lands (like a Magic Kingdom):

GOLDEN AGE HOLLYWOOD: This is an area that the Studios currently does successfully. Of course, the first order of business is to remove The Hat (and drop it in the Mariana Trench) so that the Chinese Theater resumes its place as the visual landmark at the end of the boulevard (and symbolizes the park). In order to bring the entire land into the 1930s/40s/50s fold, American Idol would be replaced with Cinemagic (in an Art Deco theater setting).

GANGSTERLAND: Continuing the 1930s/40s period, RocknRollercoaster would be rethemed to a gangster getaway. I added a shooter cops&robbers chase ride in the vein of the cancelled Dick Tracy attraction. There is a speakeasy dining facility with in-character staff.

WALT DISNEY ANIMATION: One Man’s Dream had to go away in order to open up walking paths and make the park more navigable (and not a maze of narrow alleys and right angles), but I kept part of the building to become Animators Palette. The Mermaid theater could become a rotating puppet/fx theater with the shows changing out annually (e.g., 2012 Princess Frog, 2013 Beauty Beast (removed from Sunset Blvd), 2014 Aladdin, etc.) . I think old Animation Studio exhibits could serve as the queue for a family omnimover through scenes of the Disney classics (an animated Great Movie Ride).

LUCASLAND: This land is bifurcated (yup) into a southern Indiana Jones section and the northern Star Wars section. The Monster Sound building is rethemed to an indoor Jedi Training Academy to incorporate more SFX. I added Yoda’s Dagobah hut as a Living Character Initiative (LCI) walkthrough experience. The exterior of the Star Tours building is made to like a space port as this is no longer a studios/soundstage experience – you are ostensibly in the world of Star Wars. The exit shop goes back to being the Endor bunker, because the Mos Eisley environment moves towards the expanded area where there is a recreation of the Cantina (Studios Drive is moved a few hundred yards westward for this plan). The major new ride is inspired by those online patent plans for an indoor dueling, shooter coaster – recreating an X-wing/Tie Fighter dogfight over the Death Star. A ride like this requires an enormous show-building. I added a Speeder dumbo for little kids since the park lacks these kinds of things and the other two Star Wars rides are fairly intense.

The Indy Stunt Show would be re-worked to no longer be an exhibition of how film stunts are done, but an actual real-time unfolding story (no “Cut! Check the Gate!”) with a new story. In order to help meld the Star Wars architecture with the Indy stuff, I chose the theme of Atlantis for the EMV attraction. An Atlantean temple could be fairly alien-like and look comfortable next to the Star Wars universe.

MUPPET STUDIOS: Muppets get the long-deserved comedic AA ride along with the Gonzo pizza place and a live Muppet concert in the old Backlot Theater.

MARVEL SUPERHERO CITY: The skyscraper flats are moved to the top of the land to give a better, more dramatic entrance to the land. From within the land the City Streets are not distinguishable as facades (again, the idea is that you are "in worlds of the movies", not "where the movies are made"). Motors Action is rethemed to Marvel Superheroes (Punisher too violent?) and given an indoor, city-like queue (so guests can’t see the backstage workings of the show, to the above point). There are new major attractions themed to your pick of Marvel heroes… I imagined an X-men scoop style ride and a Pandora’s Box ride themed to the Fantastic Four.

PIXAR PLACE: A kuka Incredibles ride makes for a smooth transition from Superhero City. Honey I Shrunk the Playset gets the obvious, easy re-theme to Bugs. Monsters Inc coaster goes in. Finally, I added Gusteau’s a French restaurant with a LCI Remy.

MIDDLE EARTH: There are four reasons why I chose this theme to take up most of the old backlot. 1. It’s one big film franchise (on the scale of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.) that has yet to receive theme park treatment. 2. Fantasy (Sword & Sorcery) is a fairly popular film genre that has no representation in the park. 3. The park is very urban; so for balance it needs a winding, rolling green area with vistas, water features and lots of rockwork and trees. 4. This land serves as an outer rim that connects Sunset Blvd to Pixar Place, helping make the park more navigable.

Entering from the Hub, guests experience The Shire, coming upon the village of Hobbiton, where they can dine at the Green Dragon Tavern or explore Bag End. Making up for the lack of rides for children in the current DHS, this land features a spinner, a ferris wheel (like Old Mill in Paris) and a gentle outdoor boat ride through landscapes of Middle Earth (Storybookland Canal Boats meets Sinbad).

The forest turns sinister as guests make their way through Mirkwood towards Dol Gulder and attempt to discover the secrets of the Necromancer in a thrilling ride. Further on are some Rivendell-style buildings housing a dining venue and the boarding area for a flume adventure involving a huge, fire-breathing AA dragon. The Lonely Mountain serves as both an impressive weenie in itself and a way to hide the gangster (formerly Aerosmith) rollercoaster building from view.

***

Thoughts/comments appreciated.

Anaheim Disneyland II

2011-10-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

This site plan imagines a future built-out Disneyland based on the existing park, but making number of changes to strengthen the thematic coherency of each land and adding a mix of attractions, with an emphasis on rides not connected to previously established characters/films. I’ve already done a site plan for DL that includes the famous Discovery Bay & the existing Toontown, and that may be more of my ideal park, but this is a study in a "Purist" vision of the park:

MAIN STREET, U.S.A.

--A second boulevard added (to alleviate crowding). It is themed to early 20th century Big City America (see New York in DisneySea) with taller facades to block Space Mountain.

--Plaza Pavilion kept as is.

--I changed the Primeval World showset to one that reflects the American Century represented by MS:USA (could be inspired by EPCOT’s World of Motion scenes). This is because as the train passes each land, I feel the sights & sounds should reflect that land.

ADVENTURELAND
--Aladdin Oasis removed in favor of Tahitian Terrace.

--Static figures removed from Treehouse (not visible in site plan;)).

NEW ORLEANS SQUARE
--No changes.

CRITTER COUNTRY

--Country Bears resurrected in the form of a musical dark ride that replaces Pooh (which has no place in an American West setting, IMO). Façade of ride is a granite boulder hill.

FRONTIERLAND

-- Keelboats are given a new dock and become an interactive shooter (Passengers use mounted rifles/horns to interact with various sights along the River’s edge) (saw this idea on one of the boards a while back, don't know whose it was).

--Fort Wilderness restored.

--Land doubled in size. Festival Arena area transformed to a “dark” version of Frontierland: Outlaw Ridge. It is part Ghost-town, part Tombstone. The railroad passes over a natural arch. Guests pass under it. North of the berm, rocky mesas form the façade of the E-ticket adventure (WRE meets Red Dead Redemption).

FANTASYLAND
--The Plaza’s Pixie Hollow becomes just a park in the Plaza (Fantasyland kept behind the castle walls).

--Borders condensed. Attractions that are not related to Disney fairy tales (IASW & Matterhorn) become part of Holidayland (World Showcase).

WORLD HOLIDAYLAND

--This is based on the proposed area (that was to be situated south of NOSQ). It is essentially a condensed version of EPCOT’s World Showcase. I settled on this land because, from a thematic-standpoint, I don’t believe Matterhorn (with its modern-ish bobsleds) & IASW belong in Fantasyland (although the former provides an excellent backdrop), although I recognize the quality, history & nostalgia value of both.

--The land transitions geographically (i.e., Alps (Matterhorn & Rhine) to France (Café & Ratatouille ride) to Renaissance Rome represented by a suspended DaVinci dark ride (http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2011/9/17/ride-concept-competition-winners.html)).

--The Istanbul section represents the transition from East to West as a Japanese dinner theater rounds out the land.

MYTHIA

--An original land based loosely on an old idea for DL. This land is a place for myths & legends, influenced mainly by Classical myths, but with bits of Egyptian & Persian legends. The main attraction is AA-heavy (PotC) and indoor-outdoor original adventure.

--The coaster is suspended and family-oriented (similar scale to Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster), featuring ride vehicles held by mythical flying animals. There is a Vekoma Pandora’s Box ride as well.

TOMORROWLAND 2067

--A play on the TL:2055 name, the idea of this Tomorrowland is to evoke both nostalgia and the retro-futuristic techno-optimism of the 1950s-1980s. Every building is consistently Saarinen in design – reflecting the old John Hench concept paintings.

--StarJets is moved back to the pedestal. Peoplemover restored. Pixar characters and fantasy sci-fi (i.e. Star Wars) removed from the land. Buzz is replaced with a new real-world based shooter family dark ride. Star Tours replaced with an original real-world based simulator (successor to Adventures Thru Inner Space).

--The Carousel building becomes a new Horizons. The sub adventure begins with the Sea Castle aesthetic of Horizons, just as Space Mountain reflects the Brava Centauri aesthetic. Autopia is given a new Saarinen station, new car designs (pods) and hydrogen cell engines.

-Grand Canyon Diorama changed to elaborate City of Tomorrow (e.g. the one in the World of Motion) special effects model. Again, this is so the train’s sights reflect the land it is passing though.

***

Thoughts? What would comprise your ideal version of Disneyland?

Kingdoms of Adventure

2011-09-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

A while back I was contacted by Daan of the Netherlands about his Kingdoms of Adventure theme park idea which was mainly dedicated to Disney properties, particularly animated ones. As you know, I prefer original content to be in a 60-40 ratio (at least) over Disney movie-inspired rides at most of my parks, and because Daan’s layout was too rough for me to translate into a site plan, I asked him to come back with something less Disney-oriented.

Then some weeks ago Daan’s brother contacted me and asked me to draw the park as a surprise birthday present (Happy Birthday). So I revisited this Kingdoms idea on my own: I isolated the germs of what would make a compelling theme park, added a lot of original content, a new land, and, most importantly, created the individual Kingdom names & identities. This was key in going beyond what was a Disney movie-based concept towards a park that was about world cultures & natural history – which I find much more sophisticated, interesting and worthwhile for an audience of both adults and children:

MUSEUM OF EXPLORATION

The experience begins in the Museum. This massive building is influenced by – and on a similar scale to - some of the great cultural buildings of the world that were built from 1850-1930, particularly New York’s original Penn Station, London’s Museum of Natural History and Paris’ Grand Palais. The Museum gives a taste of each of the park’s lands (kingdoms) via a vaulted exhibit hall on that particular region’s natural & cultural history (e.g. Hall of the Inca Empire, Hall of North American Peoples, etc.).

The circumnavigating train has its main station in one of the museum's courtyards. On the parkside grounds there is a garden featuring the leapfrog fountains, as well as viewing for the night-time lagoon spectacular, and in the center of the park, a plaza-monument to the earth (think Aquasphere).

THE DESERT KINGDOM (ARABIA)

Moving clockwise, the first kingdom is Arabia. On the outskirts of the walled city lies the ruins of the evil vizier’s fortress. This is the gateway to a kuka-E ticket experience revolving around the return of the villain of Aladdin. I did not want this land to be too heavily reliant on the animated Aladdin, so I envision the magic carpet coaster as unaffiliated with the film, although still taking riders careening around and through the streets of an Agrabah-like city. Scheraherzade’s tales (Sinbad, Ali Baba, etc.) are the source of varying stunt performances that take place in a large dry-wet amphitheater. Sultan’s Palace is an opulent restaurant overlooking (and providing a backdrop to) the Lagoon. I envision an outdoor marketplace with all sorts of curios and street performers (fire-eaters, snake charmers, etc.) as well as an indoor shopping bazaar akin to the original one in DLP.

THE DAWN KINGDOM (AFRICA)

The next land is based on Africa and is bifurcated (yep, a favorite word) into a Rainforest section and a Savanna section to reflect two of the major biomes of the continent. The Rainforest section hosts a major dining venue, Tarzan’s Treehouse and the watering hole viewing “theater” once planned for EPCOT Center. The Savannah section is home to a 4-D theater (hidden within Pride Rock) that has a show based on The Lion King as well as a fun safari jeep ride past animatronic animal scenes (Jungle Cruise on wheels). A roller coaster similar in scale and intensity to Big Thunder Mountain zips & dips around an Elephant Graveyard with threatening AA hyenas.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (CHINA)

If you approach China from the Hub, you would pass under a traditional gate like the one in World Showcase’s pavilion. The main boulevard is like 16th century Peking, with a nine-tiered temple at the end of the street. A more Tibetan/Himalayan architecture influences the queue buildings for Penglai Mountain, which is modeled after Expedition Everest. China Voyager is an overlay of DisneySea’s Sinbad boat ride (same little AAs, same length, same style) but follows China’s seaward explorer Admiral Zheng He. There is the Mulan-based LPS dark ride and – this a first for any of parks I’ve drawn – a large stadium dedicated to horse shows.

THE MOUNTAIN KINGDOM (INCA)

I’ve drawn many Aztec & Mayan meso-American rides and lands in these site plans (and Disney has built a few), with their distinctive pyramids, but I had yet to do one based on the Incan Empire, so that was fun. The Inca had a distinct style to their Andean cities, villages & temples which I’ve attempted to represent in this land (with several “mountain” facades on the roofs of showbuildings to make the setting feel like one is in the Andes). There is an indoor boat ride based on Inca history/mythology – I called it Kingdom of the Sun, which was the serious-minded animated project that was then transformed into the lighter, more stylized Emperors New Groove. The Kingdom of the Sun ride would be in a live-action style similar to Pirates. There are some family attractions based on the Emperor’s New Groove.

THE WILD KINGDOM (NORTH AMERICA)

The final land is themed to Wild North America during its pre-Columbian and Frontier eras (pre-1492-1800s). Grizzly Rapids doesn’t feature the bear head carved into the mountain, but does have plenty of AA wild animals (elk, bears, wolves, moose, etc.) of the western frontier. The Riverbend log flume through the eastern wilderness could have some references to Pocahontas (as the rapids could have nods to Brother Bear), but I tend to prefer to steer clear of animated tie-ins when this park already has plenty. A unique feature of this land is that the water rides both have variable courses (e.g. your log or raft has two paths it can take).

"Spirit of the Wild" is an elaborate SFX show, similar in scale to the Atlantis walkthrough in Islands of Adventure. I imagined the facade being a Mount Rushmore of wild animals with the giant heads of a bear, eagle, wolf & elk carved into the granite rockwork. There is a D/C-ticket darkride based on Bambi.

***

What I like about this park is that it is representative of a Civilizations/Mythology-style theme park. Of the varying genres of theme parks (i.e., "Science Parks" like Bremen & EPCOT, "Studios Parks" like DHS & Universal Singapore, "Magic Kingdom" parks, etc.), I think the Civ/Myth genre is one that has not yet been built at the Tier I level, but is rife with great possibilities. I've drawn a couple of this genre and was happy to add this park to the roster.

Comments are appreciated (unless they are requesting Tokyo-WB Studios ;)).

Re-visiting Paris Explorers World

2011-09-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

After reading about the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, I began thinking about a theme park created specifically as the canvas for these types of role-playing adventure games. My mind first went back to Pascal Schyns' Explorers World park:

So I took Pascal's brilliant work and translated it into my own style of plan (putting things in scale, enlarging the park, adding attractions, re-naming things):

I wanted the park to be at least on the scale of Tokyo DisneySea:

Some reference images of the park:

Pascal's park remains a theme park, but the idea that each land is specifically connected to a member of the Explorers Society and its elaborate backstory (Tokyo DisneySea does this to a small degree with Lost River artifacts showing up in New York) and that it has a widespread interactive game element built into the design from day one, moves it into exciting, untrodden territory of "theme adventure parks".

In thinking about this new type of theme park, I am also reminded of the Night Kingdom boutique park concept by WDI, that put visitors in the role of Indiana Jones in an adventure film (exploring temple ruins in small groups, avoiding booby traps, taking zip lines, etc.).

There are lots of intriguing possibilities for the next generation parks... imagine a park that unfolds to the visitor like a three-dimensional novel or video game (while still incorporating the types of attractions we all love).

Thoughts?

Disneyland Brazil

2011-09-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

This Disneyland Brazil park originated with a request by Felipe Zahtariam to translate his rough drawing & notes into a conceptual plan.

Felipe specializes in drawing stylized birds-eye maps of dream parks that are reminiscent of some of the official “fun maps” or things you might find in old issues of “Disney Magazine.” They are quite cool. You can see much more of his artwork here:

Disneyland Brazil combines elements from a number of existing locations (Disneyland Paris, Magic Kingdom, DisneySea, Anaheim Disneyland) as well as some original elements, resulting in a mega-park, with around 80 attractions. Here is my interpretation of his park:

From my plan, Felipe went on to draw a stylized map of the park:

NOTES

MAIN STREET USA

Includes a horse drawn-trolley, swan boats in the Central Plaza and a museum-like tribute to Walt Disney in the Exposition Hall.

FRONTIERLAND

The front of this land is based closely on Disneyland Paris. In place of the Silver Spur Steakhouse is an extreme ride, based on a covered wagon. Felipe included a number of these extreme rides (which are thrilling midway attractions that we are all familiar with) in various lands. If done right, with the highest level of execution (e.g. Paris’ Old Mill Ferris Wheel, DL’s Teacups or MK’s AstroOrbitor), I think such attractions can visually fit within a Disney-level park, despite being a fairly common ride experience. The back of Frontierland sees and expanded Indian Village (with Canoes) and two water based E-tickets. With the rapids ride, I added a couple of points where the raft can randomly take left or right-hand chutes, which would add a sense of unplanned variability to the experience.

ADVENTURELAND

Like many of the other lands, Adventureland is marked by distinct sub-areas, based on exotic geographic locations: The entry area is based on Arabian legend, with Aladdin & Sinbad dark rides and a central magic carpets spinner. To the north is the Caribbean sub-area. To the west is the South Seas sub-area with its Liki Tikis, Tropical Serenade & Tahitian Terrace. Next is the African section with a theatre & restaurant connected to the Lion King. The final sub-area is a Meso-American dig site with a D-ticket coaster (Raging Spirits/Temple du Peril scale) an Indiana Jones Adventure and an extreme ride themed to a Mayan astronomical device.

FANTASYLAND

The bulk of Fantasyland is the fairytale village style of Paris & Anaheim featuring some old favorites. I imaged a new version of Storybookland Canal Boats, with greater topographical relief. The “mini mountains” of Storybookland would serve as the front range to the larger Matterhorn & Matterhorn Jr, in the distant Alpine Village sub-section. This should provide a pretty impressive, layered view from the castle rear-courtyard. There is a Wonderland sub-section featuring the three existing Alice attractions and a Circus themed sub-section, with a kiddie-power-coaster version of Casey Jr.

DISCOVERYLAND

This land begins (from the Hub) in an industrious Renaissance-era town, with adventures based on Da Vinci. This more ancient environment segues into a more retro-version of DisneySea’s port discovery (as highlighted in the above artwork). Captain Nemo’s mysterious hideaway forms another sub-area of this land. In the final sub-land, a number of dirigible-based attractions continue the steampunk theme in an Aeronautical Academy setting.

TOMORROWLAND

Tomorrowland begins with the central, elevated Peoplemover (like in Anaheim but a little longer) running to an elevated Orbitron (based on HKDLs). The rest of the land contains elements from Anaheim & EPCOT’s Future World, as well as some original extreme rides. Since Felipe’s Tomorrowland blends Science Fiction (Star Tours, Captain Eo) with Science Fact (Horizons, Carousel of Progress), I think it is essential that the lands exteriors share a unified design scheme. Maybe a distinct blend of Saarinen and Deco-Tech to achieve something futuristic, yet timeless.

***

As always, comments are appreciated.

Virginia - Disney's American Experience

2011-08-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

I’m excited to share this vision of an American history theme park. A while back I drew a version of Disney’s actual planned park for northern Virginia, but I was unsatisfied with its very light attraction line-up.

Enter Cody Schlottmann, with whom I’ve collaborated previously, with an awesome vision for a much more ambitious take on the American theme park idea. Below is his hand drawn layout of “Disney’s American Experience.”

From his drawing, I made some alterations and additions, put things in scale and drafted a conceptual site plan of my interpretation of the park:

The American Experience park takes visitors on a chronological and inspirational journey through of 200+ years of our history. I enjoy the idea of an American theme park so much that I put together a little video slide-show to promote it (listen/watch as you continue reading):

LIBERTYVILLE (1750-1820): This is the Colonial/Revolutionary War-themed land – an expansive take on Liberty Square with authentic shops (like a blacksmith, silversmith, printing press, etc.), a fife & drum parade and a pair of family dark rides. There is a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party, as well.

THE NEW WORLD (1600-1810): This area begins in the giant eastern forests with an Indian Village that has various crafts as well as canoes. The mountainous pine forests of the western frontier mark the Lewis & Clark River Expedition. Beyond the rapids are expansive trails that lead to various live, wild animal paddocks (a mini-zoo). The barriers are designed to be invisible or natural, so guests feel that they are in the presence of bison, grizzlies, elk, etc.

DIXIELAND (1812-1860): This land represents Antebellum South & Midwest… the worlds of Tom Sawyer, Uncle Remus, etc. There is the more genteel section with the Riverboat dinner show and the Haunted Plantation of the Gracie Family and the more back-woods/moonshine area of the Country Bears.

FORT HENRY (1855-1870): This area is dedicated to the Civil War, its causes & aftermath. Land battles are re-enacted as is the Monitor vs the Merrimack. Mr. Lincoln AA show finds a home here alongside a Circlevision presentation that puts visitors in the middle of the major battles.

ENTERPRISE (1870-1912): This land represents America’s growth into an industrial giant. The main thrill ride is Industrial Revolution, through a spark-spewing steel-mill. An elevated rail takes guests to New York.

THE BIG APPLE (1880-1929): Representing America’s electric metropolis in its golden age. The main E-ticket is a Cops vs. Robbers chase. Another family dark ride features Scrooge McDuck – a New York mogul of the period. The forced perspective Statue of Liberty sits in the Bay and is used as a backdrop for night time spectaculars.

ELLIS ISLAND (1900-1940): Focusing on the immigrant story, the Island features a comedic Muppet presentation as well as more somber shows.

COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS (1920-1950): This midway area is themed to the nostalgic era when County Fairs were clean, wholesome fun and the big event of the Summer for many rural areas.

THE AMERICAN FARM (1940- ): I envision this area to be a working farm, supplying food for the parks finer restaurants. There is a dark-ride on the history of American farming, as well as a light, family musical boat ride based on Old MacDonald.

VICTORY FIELD (1940-1945): This land represents American mobilization and action during World War II. There is a Radar Station in the rocky pass at the northern approach to the land. The southern entrance is marked by a Guardhouse. The airfield has B-24 Liberator bombers and P-51 fighters on the tarmac. I added the spectacular 4-D show called “Beyond All Boundaries” currently featured at the National WWII Museum. I also thought of an attraction where one boards his own mini-tank and drive around shooting shells (like tennis balls) at targets, other tanks, bunkers, etc. People on the outside can man gun positions and shoot at the tanks as well. There is GI obstacle course (playzone) and a USO stage for music & comedy. WWII-era Captain America is the star of E+ EMV adventure.

THE NEXT FRONTIER (1960- ): The final land, bringing the visitor full circle, represents America’s achievements in technology – particularly Aeropsace – in the last half of the 20th Century today. The Space Pavilion was inspired by Tim Delaney’s artwork. There is also viewing here for a Golden Dreams nightly fireworks/fountains/laser show, with the Statue of Liberty & New York as the backdrop.

http://timjdelaney.com

***

Thanks, Cody, for coming up with a great vision and letting me interpret it.

Long Beach DisneySea

2011-08-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

Take one part Discovery Cove, one part Sea World, two parts EPCOT and three parts DisneySea, mix them together and you have my vision of the proposed DisneySea park that was to be a part of the massive Port Disney development proposed for Long Beach. Others have told the story of Port Disney better than I could hope to (I recommend ProgressCity for a very in-depth article with lots of big photos), so the focus of this post will be my version of the DisneySea park.

I based this drawing off the preliminary site plans (which had very little detail of the park itself), the write-ups and – mostly – the big overview concept art. As you will see, the front of the park follows the artwork pretty closely. As things moved toward the horizon in the painting and become less discernable, I had to employ a lot of creative license.

WORLDPORT: The entry plaza and land takes the form of a variety of seaside pavilions from the 1880-1930 time period. The monorail connects the park to the multiple hotels and other venues of the much larger Port Disney property.

PORT HOTEL: The hotel closest to the theme park is in the Spanish Mission/Hacienda style with lots of landscaping and water features.

OCEANA: The famed giant aquarium spheres would have been an engineering marvel – and likely far too expensive to ever build – I imagine this facility housing a dark ride (maybe the one originally planned for The Living Seas as well as an FX theater and levels of exhibits. The monorail station is within the complex. One of the more quixotic elements of the park are the wavy, semi-elevated platforms that lead up to the Spheres. I’m not exactly sure what the intent was, but I’ve assumed they are futuristic aqueducts above a tide pool-like garden/trail zone.

FUTURE RESEARCH STATION: This is an extension of Oceana, hosting actual marine scientific research as well as arctic and reef habitats. I put in a future-themed undersea simulator, as well.

PACIFICA PARK: This area (my name) is featured clearly in the art but never mentioned in all the write-ups I’ve seen. I imagine this to be an area that competes with Sea World, with an aquatic stunt theatre and a marine mammal aquatic theatre. There is a large surf pool (bring your bathing suit) as well as parks for relaxing/picnicking.

VENTURE REEFS: This area is similar in concept to Discovery Bay, devoted to very close encounters with all sorts of sea creatures, including separate lagoons for dolphins, manatees, and rays. The highlight would be the cage dive with man-eating sharks.

FLEETS OF FANTASY: This area houses the kid-friendly rides aboard a variety of vessels from different regions and time-periods. Interestingly, in the most recent WDI book there is an illustration of this concept that was revived for a proposed expansion of Tokyo DisneySea.

HEROES HARBOR: This area is about legends of the sea – Middle Eastern, Ancient Greek, Norse, etc. – so it is a mesh of these architectural and boat-building styles. Sinbad is a kid-friendly boat ride (as opened with TDS in 2001) while the Ulysses attraction is a little more frightening (PotC-like with drops).

PIRATE LAGOON: The actual park was to have a Pirates area that was supposed to be “Tom Sawyer Island x 10.” Now I’m a big fan of TSI, so since WDI made so bold a claim, I expanded the Pirate area to an entire land. There is the civilized, colonial port with a Royal Navy vessel docked offshore. Across the lagoon is the dilapidated pirate fortress holding a new attraction in the PotC universe – one using LPS-guided “boats” sitting in a few inches of water – making it more E-ticket darkride rather than an indoor flume. The Queen Anne’s Revenge is anchored in a hidden alcove.

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND: The final land takes Nemo/Vulcania mythology and throws in some Atlantis in.

***

So this park, like my WestCOT drawing, is part puzzle-piecing, part conjecture, mostly just fun,wishful thinking.

Customized Kingdom

2011-07-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hello and hope everyone’s having a great summer (for those north of the Equator).

This entry is another guest feature, this time by IdealBuildout reader MagicLamp. Interestingly, MagicLamp created his version of a New Magic Kingdom by cutting and pasting a number of my previously-posted parks:

I then went back and re-scaled and re-drew the park from scratch, adding details and additions.

OVERALL: As I drew the park I saw that it has three central themes. The west is Adventure. The central is Fantasy (composed of five sub-lands). The east is Discovery. This is like that site plan of “Asian Disneyland” in the latest Imagineering book. This also reminded me of the entrance to Animal Kingdom with its trio of ticket booth statues – elephant, triceratops & dragon – representing the Real, the Extinct, and the Imaginary. Here, you’ll notice that there are three paths leading from where ticket booths would be (not drawn), I imagine that at its start each could have a bronze statue (circle) representing, for example, Adventure (explorer Donald), Fantasy (princess Minnie) and Discovery (inventor Mickey).

LANDS OF FANTASY

FAIRYTALE STREET: I made this street non-linear & asymmetrical, as one would expect in a Fantasyland-style overlay of Main St. I got rid of sidewalks as I don’t believe they existed in the Fantasyland time period. The Train Station is moved to the side as it is a little out of period, and the distant central castle is the anchor for this land (and all the Fantasy areas). The entrance paths go under the track, which is on a tree-laden hill, to reach the town square area. The building on the rights side of the Square area is an exhibit based on Walt Disney’s history with bringing fairytales to the screen.

Fairytale Street has two side streets. Buccaneer Alley features Peter Pan’s Flight as it eases the transition to Adventure Bay and Inventor’s Road has a Pinocchio dark ride as it transitions to Discovery Bay.

ENCHANTED FOREST: This central land is basically a re-arranged version of the FLE (composed of both the old and new proposals). I added an overlook on the lower level of Beast’s Castle (full-scale in this version) that lets visitors get a closer look at the “Enchanted Waters” area (waterfalls, pools, etc.).

COUNTRYSIDE: The manicured English countryside of hedgerows and tended trees features attractions based on The Wind in the Willows, Milne's Pooh and Alice in Wonderland.

MICKEYVILLE: A medieval Toontown based on the WDI/Hani El-Masri proposal for Tokyo Disneyland. Sorcerer Mickey can be met in an interactive, exploratory tower (built into the mountain ridge). I was thinking an original 3-D musical film can go in the Music Hall (rather than PhilharMagic – which uses more modern instruments and clothing than is perhaps theme-appropriate for this land) .

art by www.hanielmasri.com

STORYBOOK CIRCUS: In addition to what will be found at the MK’s new land, there is a D+ dark ride (Big Top) and a restaurant that has a viewing section of the ride (I believe such a concept was once proposed for Circusland at DL in the 70s or 80s).

DISCOVERY BAY: Discovery Bay is about gears, inventions, steampunk, riveted steel, etc. Among the headliners is Island at the Top of the World , where riders board suspended dirigibles over elaborate AA scenes of a mythical, arctic Shanghri-La. The Hyperion juts from its hangar on a Cliffside above the Bay promenade.

The land is covered in large pipes which are leaking steam. A large gear-like platform rises from the Bay for periodic fountain shows. Journey to the Center of the Earth winds around the land. There is a submerged peoplemover-like attraction that tours the underwater sites of the Bay (ruins, shipwrecks, sea creatures, etc.).

ADVENTURE BAY: The approach to this land is a Pirate Village. Similar to New Orleans Sq at DL, there is a lower-level water side promenade that could help with show/fireworks viewing (as it does with Fantasmic at DL).

The rear of the land is jungle, pulp, serial themed (Indy, Everest, Baloo River Cruise). Headhunter canoes add some kinetic movement to the Bay.

***

Alright. Looks like a another great spin on the Disneyland model. MagicLamp, feel free to elaborate on your ideas in the comments section.

Sydney Disneyland

2011-07-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

A little while back I received a request to draw a park based on this drawing by Ludovic Lefort:

While a drawing like this is a little too rough for me to translate, I decided to take this park on because there were some interesting features in his written description. Ludovic's first language is French so there was a significant communication barrier, and my final drawing reflects my variation on his idea, rather than a straight translation of his park:

AMERICAN SEAPORT: Ludovic wanted a typical, geometrical Main Street, but with a yesteryear Rhode Island/Mytic, CT theme rather than Middle America. I took his idea further and opened Main Street into a bigger version of DisneySea's Cape Cod, influenced by Melville, Pete's Dragon, Nantucket, etc.

There is ride similar in scale to PotC, but based on northeastern nautical legends and folklore.

BIG RIVER BEND: Continuing with the idea of new twists on classic Disney lands, this Frontierland reflects not the frontier of mesas & cowboys, but the more civilized midwest and south (e.g. Mark Twain's Mississippi).

COUNTRY CIRCUS: I liked the idea of separating the American-set story of Dumbo from the pre-20th c. European fairytales of Fantasyland.

image from progresscityusa.com

ADVENTURE PASS: Adventureland here is miniaturized, reflecting South Pacific and Himilayan exoticsm that may be appropriate for the Australian market. The train passes through a lengthy JungleCruise-style show scene (ruined temple, Elephant grotto, orangutans). Everest is designed so that the sides facing Adventure Pass resemble the Himalayas while the side facing Fantasyland resembles an Alpine peak.

FANTASYLAND: Fantasyland is buffered by a number of wooded exploration zones. A castle based on The Beast's (with restaurant) is the park icon. Bambi's Woods is a transition area from the American Big River to the animation-dominated FL. The Teacups are found within Alice's Labyrinth. As mentioned above, the Alpine side of Everest serves as the backdrop to the regionally-appropriate dark rides of Pinocchio and Snow White. The Pixie Hollow area once planned for MK is also here:

TOONTOWN: The two new attractions in this version of Toontown include a dry-land Aquatopia-like ride (Motor Mania) as well as a major motorbike launch coaster themed to Darkwing Duck.

HOLLYWOOD: Home to both a light look at Disney & Pixar Animation as well as the darker side of classic Tinsel-town. One can imagine the possibilities of a Golden Age Hollywood-themed Haunted Mansion, which can connect in subtle ways to the ToT mythology.

Desmond Villa from 'Sunset Boulevard'

TOMORROWLAND: Here, Tomorrowland is a fantasy Spaceport, with Star Tous, Skytopia (hovercrafts), a spinner with mini-Treasure Planet space galleons, and a Space Mountain with a Black Hole story overlay.

DISCOVERY EXPOSITION: The final land I based on the rivet & iron look of the famous Paris Expositions of the 19th Century. The attractions are heavily influenced by Jules Verne (e.g. 20K Under the Sea from DisneySea with a Nautilus walkthrough as its queue, an Around the World in 80 Days in the style of IASW, a steampunk version of Dinosaur (aka Countdown to Extinction, a verions of Soarin')... a lot of heavy hitters in the bottom of the line-up.

***

So there is another variation on a theme of a Disneyland-style park. As mentioned in the beginning, this was based on a reader submission, with a great deal of personal interpretation. I am always open to guest submissions, although I can't promise that I'll be able to draw them (a decently-scaled, cleanly drawn plan goes a long way, however)

EPCOT Center

2011-06-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

"To all who come to this Place of Joy, Hope and Friendship, Welcome. EPCOT is inspired by Walt Disney's creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all. May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire, and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere."

Robert McCall’s magnificent “The Prologue & The Promise” mural

This Ideal Buildout version of EPCOT Center attempts to live up to the above dedication and artwork.

FUTURE WORLD

Great theme parks are not about individual attractions so much as they are about 'place' - a kind that make sense and is compelling. In order to bring Future World back to its more coherent sense of place (i.e., an optimistic techno-futurist showcase of what tomorrow could bring as spearheaded by American enterprise & ingenuity), the FW pavilions see a return to some of their original concepts while maintaining (or adding) the latest in FX or fast-paced thrills.

The jumping-off point for this version of Future World was the blurry “Epcot Discoveryland” plan that was posted on JimHillMedia a number of years ago (for layout, not content). The big ideas that I took from that concept include (a) breaking up the monolithic Communicore/Innoventions buildings into individualized attractions, dining & retail facilities; (b) adding lots of greenery - here, Future World has been redesigned to be very lush & fecund (not just manicured lawns, but plenty of “wild” areas and a flowing stream running through the center) in order to underscore harmony between Nature & Technology, which is requisite of any positive human future; and (c) adding outdoor attractions, including a rainforest canopy rollercoaster, a living hedge maze and an electric Autopia aimed for kids, to add kinetic energy to the areas.

As importantly, I’ve brought back the EPCOT Iconography - simple yet meaningful – which encapsulated the framework and architecture (both physical and psychological) upon which all of Future World was built... a framework that made sense and connected each of the pavilions to the other and to the larger story that the Original Designers were trying to tell:

Gone are all Pixar tie-ins, game show references, quasi-celebrity appearances, etc. Like animated films, I find theme park attractions work better when you don’t already know the face of the character whose voice you’re hearing. The goal of the park is to not only entertain, but educate and elevate, leaving animated Disney fantasy for the other parks.

The site plan is fairly self explanatory with respect to Future World, but here are a few more details.

HORIZONS: Using the giant showbuilding that formerly housed Universe of Energy, the new Horizons would follow a similar format to the original, with a ride script that is a deferential sequel utilizing the same voice actors, but new set pieces, more interactive elements, 21st century special effects, etc.
WORLD OF MOTION: Test Track’s car testing-ground story is scrapped in a thematic return to the original attraction. The cars would move slowly for the first 80% of the ride, through sets similar to the original but with updated FX. For its climax (as you reach the future of transportation) the ride picks up speed for its 60mph outdoor segment.
SPACE: Similar to its opposite (The Land), Space becomes a multi-attraction pavilion, incorporating the old Wonders of Life structures. Exhibits, a “space station”, a planetarium, etc. join a re-written centrifuge simulator that isn’t about training to go to space but actually going into space.
SPACESHIP EARTH: Time Racers is a new version of Spaceship Earth with a high-speed segment – based on the attraction once considered for Epcot 2.0.

***

WORLD SHOWCASE

The basic layout of this part of the park was taken from Peter Schaab’s EPCOT project. If you’re not familiar with this, you’ll want to check out his site: http://www.peterschaab.com/epcot.htm. Peter’s brilliant vision of EPCOT elevates it beyond a theme park to a global research center, university and library – with students & educators from around the world living and studying (and working) there. It is a high-concept idea that Walt Disney would have appreciated.

My vision here is not as bold as Peter’s. EPCOT remains just a theme park. But I really liked his idea of Regions composed of Countries: rather than distinct borders, countries of the same region bleed into one another (as was the design at WestCOT). Adding attractions, particularly rides, was another goal for World Showcase.

LATIN AMERICA: Mexico (with El Rio del Tiempo) merges into Costa Rica with its Botanical Gardens and topiary arches (once planned), Venezuela (once planned) with a suspended tram ride and then Brazil with rainforest, zip lines and trails.

Hereafter, Disney photos from Disney site. World wonder photos from National Geographic Image Collection

SCANDANAVIA: Norway remains the centerpiece, with the back of the pavilion themed to the bright facades of Copenhagen, Denmark.

(SOUTH) ASIA: China transitions into Southeast Asia with a Burmese temple carousel and hillside of terraced rice-paddies. The area then moves to the Indian subcontinent with a centerpiece indoor boat ride.

EASTERN (AND CENTRAL) EUROPE: The planned Russia pavilion is here. Between Russia and Germany is, what else, Poland, with shopping and dining fronts. The main attraction in the region is a thrilling, mountainous adventure based on German folklore.

MEDITERRANEAN: Italy is the gateway to this region. Greece features a recreation of the Parthenon (hosting an AA show) as well as a family coaster based on mythology. A building inspired by the Hagia Sophia houses the Turkish ride, dining and retail.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As is.

PACIFIC: Japan finally gets an attraction housed in its castle showbuilding (the bullet train circlevision using today’s seamless HD circlevision technology). A large palm-encircled lagoon represents the island paradises of the South Pacific, with Tahitian thatched bungalows. A rocky outcrop reminiscent of Uluru hosts a theater-in-the-round special fx/music show featuring Australian aboriginal spirits.

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST: The bazaar area of Morocco transitions eastward towards the Arabian peninsula and westward to tropical central Africa. Gabon features the jungle animal blind and great tree theatre. The Arabian section moves into a Palestine/Isreal section with a reconciliatory attraction on the three Abrahamic relgions (facade could be Old City of Jerusalem, dome/wall/sepulcher). Further in the region is Petra and finally the Great Pyramid of Giza, housing an E-ticket adventure on the Egyptian history & myth.

WESTERN EUROPE: France sees a recreation of a beautiful vineyard/winery where the process of creating wine & champagne can be seen & tasted. The Low Countries are represented by the canals and streets of Amsterdam.

NORTH ATLANTIC: Ireland is represented by some Dublin facades and an old castle on a hill. A whitewhater thrill ride is themed around wild rivers and geothermal power of Iceland.

***
See you in the comments section!

Re-Inventing Walt Disney Studios Paris

2011-06-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

INTRO: My goal in this conceptual plan was to somehow transform WDSP into a world-class theme park that would equal or surpass its sister park (DLP, a masterpiece of Imagineering) in scale, imagination and ambition.

My first decision was to do away with the Studios as the underlying theme for the park. While I think the Studios theme can work in some places, in many cases (particularly WDSP) it has been used as a crutch to house attractions in lightly themed “soundstages”, create facades with visible, unfinished back-sides, and have ugly administrative buildings in plain view of on-show areas. These things do not equate to a highly compelling environment. However, for practical, real-world purposes, I decided to keep some of the major existing attractions (Tower of Terror, RocknRollercoaster, Cinemagique, Crush’s Coaster, etc.) where they are and design the park around them.

ICON: I wanted a unique Icon for this park, comparable to the Chateau, Tree of Life, Spaceship Earth, etc. However, since the 200ft tall Tower of Terror dominates the lower left of the park, I knew the central Icon should be smaller in scale. What I ended up with is The Forgotten Portal: an upright stone disc (think StarGate) of unknown origin engraved in strange markings, with a smooth curtain of water falling constantly across its opening (thus, a portal). The Portal, about 90 feet (nine-stories) in diameter, sits on a lush island, in a circular pool, atop a rocky plinth with waterfalls descending from it. It is otherworldly, with special fx projected on the falling water’s surface. It also rotates slowly at about 1 revolution per hour, and when it faces a certain land, the projections subtly could reflect that land’s theme. For the night-time lagoon show, the Portal rotates to face the center of the viewing area and is part of the show.

Thus, the working name of the park is “Disney’s Forgotten Portal”, and it is designed to include a nice mix of attractions and shows, based on original and established material, with themes that compliment Disneyland Paris (and skew a little more to the teen, adult demographic).

HOLLYWOOD: The opening land is classic (1930s/1940s) Tinseltown with all the trimmings. Studio One is transformed into Hollywood Boulevard. There is a Red Line trolley, a Great Movie Moments AA omnimover (with Chinese Theatre façade), a posh Sunset Club for drinks and dining. Cinemagique’s exterior is redressed to one of the over-the-top movie palaces of that golden era.

PIXAR PLACE: Here are a few of the last vestiges of the original WDSP. I would like to see all Pixar removed from DLP (Woody out of Frontierland, Buzz out of Discoveryland). That park will feature Disney animation and this one will feature Pixar. The Aladdin Carpet spinner is re-themed to A Bug’s Life. Animagique becomes Toy Story: The Musical. Ratatouille is put in as planned. The large, unsightly costume building is replaced with a major suspended dark ride based on Up (with the ‘Spirit of Adventure’ emerging from its hangar). Toy Story Playland is replaced with a viewing area for the nighttime spectacular.

CYFY CITY: Since DLP features a past-oriented Vernean-style Discoveryland, this park features a more future-looking take on Tomorrowland (neon billboards, androids, holograms, etc.). RocknRollercoaster is converted to a Tron attraction (I imagine this would be pretty feasible – re-theming the trains into Tron-like vehicles and creating light trails throughout the interior Grid). I put in a family dark ride featuring the Disney characters (Space Mickey) as well as a Jetpack spinner and future-themed version of the Luigin Flyin Tires attraction underway at DCA.

MARVEL UNIVERSE: This land has a web-slinging Spiderman E-ticket as well as a morphing coaster based on Dr. Doom, which, like Revenge of the Mummy, has significant dark-ride portions. There is a major X-Men stunt show and a play area for kids.

ADVENTURE BAY: This land, an outgrowth of the Adventureland concept, has a number of distinct, yet complimentary segments. There is Forgotten Isle, which is home to the Portal, a retail & dining bazaar district based on Timbuktu/Zanzibar, an area themed to the ruins of Atlantis that is home to a major walkthrough SFX presentation, Asian & African sections with a major tree-top coaster and flume themed to The Lion King (Splash Mountain). The final area is based on the Ponce de Leon/Age of Exploration Era and features the something akin to the elaborate and canceled “Journey to Paradise” boat attraction once planned for Las Vegas.

CASTLEVANIA: The name of this land and its attractions are more placeholders (copied from the Castlevania universe), but if you are familiar with Castlevania, Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Van Helsing, you get the idea. It is a gothic Transylvanian castle town (echoes of Mont St. Michel) with Dracula’s castle cresting the rocky mount. Ostensibly set in the 19^th century, filled with half-terrified inhabitants, the state-of-the-art orignal attractions here feature the kind of mythology you’d expect from the aforementioned stories (vampires, wolfmen, mad scientists, giant spiders, gypsy witches, vampire-hunters, etc.).

***

So there it is: WDSP can be fixed. All it needs is about 4 billion euros. Calling Prince Al-Waleed…

Comments are appreciated.

Tokyo Disneyland

2011-05-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

Tokyo Disneyland is known for, among other things, its popularity and financial success as well as its meticulous operations and maintenance programs. It is an operational model that theme parks the world over should follow. However, from a design standpoint there is a lot about the park I would change and three lands in particular (Fantasyland, World Bazaar and Tomorrowland) that I think could use a radical overhaul (aesthetics-wise). Unlike Paris Disneyland, which was intended to be an original work of art designed from scratch for a sophisticated European audience, Oriental Land Co. executives wanted a “Disney park just like those in America”, so they toured Disneyland and Magic Kingdom in the 1970s and pointed out the different elements they wanted copied directly into their Tokyo park.

Here is my plan for an expanded version of TDL:

STREETS OF AMERICA: While I think the concept of a covered entry, as well as a World Bazaar (i.e., World Showcase, not a covered MS:USA), can work well in a theme park (I’ve used them elsewhere), I’ve never been a big fan about the way World Bazaar was executed in Tokyo. So in its place I created an outdoor Main Street (cobblestone pavers), with four quadrants, each representing a different period (architecture, cuisine, technologies, etc) in American history. The front two are based on Colonial Boston (1700s) and Age of Invention (latter 1800s) Philadelphia. The rear two are based on 1920s New York (deco, Jazz Age) and the typical MS:USA Victorian. These blocks feature indoor arcades (for inclement weather) similar to Disneyland Paris. To the west, Broad Street dissolves into a ‘classic’ Los Angeles influenced square, featuring a theater with Disney character shows (like the popular One Man’s Dream) and an exhibit on Walt himself.

NEW ORLEANS SQUARE: Easing the transition from Streets of America to Adventureland (and already existing in TDL in all but name) is NOSQ. Throughout the park I’ve added more landscaping and narrowed some pathways in order to make the park feel more intimate and block out-of-theme sight-lines. A criticism I have of TDL is its openness, the geat width of its pathways. I’ve read this was an intentional part of the design – a relief from the crowdedness of Tokyo (check out Dave Gottwald’s blog for a really informative and photo-heavy analysis of the design of TDR and all the other Disney parks) – but in this exercise in fantasy I’ve done quite a bit to change the wide openness and make the park a little tighter, thematically.

Extra wide walkways in existing park

ADVENTURELAND: The major change here is turning the Jungle Cruise (doubling its real estate outside the berm) into a much grander dinosaur riverboat attraction (still set in the pulp 1920s-30s). Former Imagineer Tom Thordarson produced some artwork for such a ride, featured on DisneyandMore:

I also added an indoor family ride based on the Jungle Book.

WESTERNLAND: Mostly the same as what exists, but I moved Country Bears to Critter Country in order to keep Westernland more realism-based and the talking animals in their own area.

CRITTER COUNTRY: Tokyo’s Critter Country is a masterpiece of themed design. If you are not overly familiar with it, not only does Splash Mountain have more (and maintained like the day it opened), but the restaurant and environment around it are incredible. Check out Flickr and Youtube to get a better idea, like this photostream. Someone (unfortunately I can’t remember to credit him/her) once described it thusly, “Do you remember those childrens books or games (Peter Rabbit, Uncle Wiggley, Berenstain Bears, etc.) with detailed, colorful cut-a-away illustrations of the homes of anthropomorphized rabbits, badgers, etc., inside an old tree trunk or cut into a riverbank… TDL’s Critter Country is like stepping into such an illustration.”

FANTASYLAND: All the current TDL dark-rides have been changed out for similar ones of Disney films that have yet to receive such treatment (e.g., Beauty and Beast, 101 Dalmatians). Toad Hall replaces Haunted Mansion (with its Hudson Valley exterior that never worked in Fantasyland) and houses a new, e-ticket incarnation of the Wind in the Willows adventure. The bright, plastic tournament tent exteriors are all gone, and the facades are “fantasy-village-themed” like those in Anaheim and Paris. Also the wide open expanse of pavement is broken up by a ribbon of water and landscaping running across the center of the land, similar to the one in Paris:

photo by http://picasaweb.google.com/europeinmay

MICKEYVILLE: Fantasyland has two associated- or sub-lands (as Critter Country could be considered a sub-land of Westernland or NOSQ of Adventureland). The first is based on an actual plan for Tokyo, a medieval version of Toontown, by artist and former Imagineer Hani El-Masri:

SHADOWLAND: This land is home to several big-budget high-fantasy attractions (not associated with animated features) including TDL’s version of the Haunted Mansion, re-set in a wizard’s castle (just as Paris’ version was re-set in the Old West).

TOMORROWLAND: Tomorrowland, aka Sci-Fi City, gets the famous re-themeing that almost happened in the 1990s. The northern half, marked by lots of alien rock outcroppings is the shady district of the space pirates, bikers and alien gangsters known as Crater Town.

The depth-giving backdrop to the entire land is an in-park, sci-fi-themed resort hotel:

PIXAR PLACE: Rather than damaging the thematic coherence of the land, as has been the sad history of Pixar in Tomorrowland, the popular rides based on Pixar works get their own area, easing the transition between Streets of America and Tomorrowland:

***
So those are my physical design changes to what is otherwise a very well run park. Comments? And, needless to say, our thoughts and best wishes continue to be for the speedy recovery of Japan and her people, who will doubtless emerge from their current adversity all the stronger.

Colorization

2011-05-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

I've been converting some of my site plans to color and would like some feedback from you good people.

I like the simplicity of the original four color scheme I've been using, but inserting a cool-temp color palette can help differentiate the lands/showbuildings. Thoughts? Should future plans be in color? Should the already-posted ones be converted like below?

FOLLOW UP: Continuing this experiment, I've replaced about half of my posted parks with colorized versions, going all the way back to MGM, so feel free to check them out and let me know your thoughts on the new scheme.

A lot of these plans feature small enhancements from previous incarnations, such as this expanded version of Texas Disneyland:

In which I resurrected the old Pirate Ship from Disneyland:

Thanks for the input so far and let me know your thoughts on this change in presentation, if you haven't done so.

Shanghai Disneyland

2011-04-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

I drew this conceptual site plan of the forthcoming Shanghai park by studying the April 8th concept art, reading the internet rumor mill, and adding quite a bit personal of conjecture and wishful thinking. To view the hi-res artwork, check this link. I do not expect the final result will look much like my drawing, but it was fun to interpret the art and possibilities for this park in a concrete way.

WATERFRONT:

The areas closest to the front, including the lakeside esplanade, the Downtown Disney district and entry plaza are based directly on the hi-res versions of the April 8th artwork. In Downtown Disney I imagined a Broadway-caliber theatre to host the current slate of theatrical productions (e.g. Mary Poppins, Lion King, etc.). This would be a separate charge from the park. In the art, one can make out an odd motel with tent like structures in the A5 position. It will be interesting to see when and what this hotel will be.

FANTASIA GARDENS:

The first land of this park is based on the art. Looking closely at the park-wide painting, the area in the lower right look like London townhouse rooftops, so I imagined a small ‘London Square’ (like DL’s proposed Edison Square) with a Pan attraction. The front of the castle (which sit atop a rocky protuberance) has a pretty elaborate stage for productions, including waterfalls.

ADVENTURELAND:

The second easiest land to interpret (because it was up-front in the art) was Adventureland. PotC is very big and has an outdoor section. I did not make the Mayan Temple an Indiana Jones Adventure (this appears elsewhere in the park) for two reasons: a. the show building size and shape don’t look right for this attraction, and b. a Mayan/Aztec Indy would be too close to the DisneySea attraction. I hope this Shanghai park will be highly unique and exclusive, content-wise. So I made the Mayan temple an indoor coaster. There is also a major rapids ride based on the famous landscapes (Li River) of China.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM:

This land is obviously not based on the art (which I can’t decipher – what's there looks low and empty with an American southwest and a barn/silo???). I based it on rumors and personal conjecture about a land based on Chinese history/mythology. There has also been unreleased artwork of a version of Expedition Everest planned for Phase II in the part of the park. This land is marked by, and contained within, The Great Wall of China. Mount Penglai (the re-themed Expedition Everest) and the Great Wall form the backdrop for a nightly SFX lagoon extravaganza - like Fantasmic but based on Chinese history/mythology. There is an indoor boat E-ticket, a version of Soarin’, as well as a Mulan dark ride.

FANTASYLAND:

I drew this as more of a Fantasy Forest with lots of landscaping and water features. The heavily rumored Snow White Mine Coaster and Snuggly Duckling are here. There appears to be a labyrinth to the right of the castle. I added a Hundred Acre Wood section with a new version of Hunny Hunt (which seems to be visible in the concept art) and a Pooh version of Teacups - I’ve read this is the one Disney franchise that is known and loved by the Chinese, so it should find a place in the park. The most visible feature on the artwork is a large manor-like building. I imagined this to be an elaborate dark ride (10-minutes) called ‘Once Upon a Time’ that covers a lot of the animated classics. The fairytale films that are not covered in Once Upon a Time are featured in a gentle outdoor boat ride (water is visible on the right side of this land). I also added a Pixie Hollow version of Aquatopia. The Storybook Castle is multi-level and contains an elaborate walkthrough, including dragon’s lair and dungeons (Mystery Tour reborn?), as well as the Princess meet & greets and restaurant.

OLD SHANGHAI:

In the northwest of the artwork there is a land that looks like Main Street, U.S.A. I interpreted this to be a romanticized version of Shanghai in the 1930s when it was known as ‘Paris of the Orient.’ This park’s re-imagined version of Haunted Mansion is here, based on a mysterious Chinese tea house. There is Club Obi-wan - run by gangster Loa Che - and a new version of the Indiana Jones Adventure that takes riders careening through the Shanghai Antiquities Museum to the Emperor’s lost tomb (terra-cotta army).

TOMORROWLAND:

The buildings and landscape are based on the artwork (a lot of the western land appears to be covered by large canopies), but the attraction names are based on my own wishful-thinking. I know the Tron coaster has been heavily-rumored for this park, but the dome building looks pretty far removed from the dark world of Tron, so I made it a placeholder 'Adventures in Space' - interpret that as you will. The only other specifics I can see in the land are the Jetpacks spinner and what looks like a covered outdoor amphitheatre. I wanted this Tomorrowland to be more about a real-world optimistic future (like 1980s EPCOT), so I used some placeholder attraction names to reflect this.

***

So that is my interpretation of the art and current rumors. I’d be interested in hearing your interpretations and thoughts. I’m sure rumors and actual plans are going to change drastically over the next 2-4 years. It will be interesting to watch.

Kingdoms United!

2011-04-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by 'KingMickey' to do a conceptual site plan of a park, dubbed Disney's Kingdoms United! that he had imagined and roughly sketched out:

This park was to be completely devoted to Disney animated characters (with nine lands around a lagoon, each dedicated to a single animated classic). As I've mentioned before, in my own parks I often keep animated tie-ins to a small minority of the park's attraction roster, so drawing a park that was all-animation was a refreshing change of pace.

The result was World Showcase meets Fantasyland and is described below in KingMickey's own words:

"This theme park takes the style and design of several different Disney movies and throws them into one theme park, creating the ultimate experience of wrapping the guests into the storylines and environments of some of their favorite Disney films. Wrapping around a central lagoon that connects all of the kingdoms together, it is only a mere step from the Sultan’s Palace in Agrabah to the settlement in Jamestown seen in Pocahontas. At night, Disney’s World of Color brings the lagoon to life, truly bringing all of Disney’s classic films together into one nighttime spectacular.

The Kingdoms of the World

The entrance of the theme park, the “Main Street”, is themed to Kingdom Hearts, using the architecture seen in the Traverse Town and Twilight Town worlds in the game as its’ main architectural design. Rows of trees and lamplights lead through the provincial area, leading to the Twilight Town Clocktower, where the Kingdom Hearts attraction, a target-shooting, multi-track attraction is found within. On the backside of the clocktower is a viewing location for World of Color. Guests can board a boat cruise and float around the lagoon. In the center of the lagoon are golden statues of the main characters represented throughout Disney’s Kingdoms United.

Chateau de France

Continuing clockwise around the park, guests proceed over a bridge and are lead into Belle’s Village seen in Beauty and the Beast. In Belle’s Village, you can explore some shops or take a relaxing boat cruise around the river that intertwines between the town and the forest. Perhaps you’d like to board a mysterious train, invented by Maurice, and be transported to the drawbridge of the Beast’s Castle. Once inside life-sized castle that takes up the rear of the land, guests will find Beauty and the Beast, a classic dark ride re-telling the tale as old as time. The other parts of the castle give way to secret passages, leading to the Enchanted Castle Tour, hosted by Lumiere and Cogsworth. Another passage leads to the Rose Garden, a beautiful balcony where Storytime with Belle takes place.

Notre Dame Courtyard

Continuing on from Belle’s Village, guests proceed into the Notre Dame Courtyard, in the midst of the Topsy Turvy celebration. The area is themed to The Huncback of Notre Dame. In the center of the square, the Topsy Turvy Celebration, an interactive streetmosphere extravangaza appears daily. On the backside of the courtyard is the cathedral of Notre Dame, which leads guests through its peaceful sanctuary. Inside the cathedral, guests will find The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a live, musical re-telling of the story, very similar to the attraction that once existed at the Disney-MGM Studios. A passageway leading to the attic of the cathedral leads to Quasimodo’s Bell Tower, an interactive play area for kids, looking down on the courtyard.

The Enchanted Forest

The French-inspired courtyard gives way to the setting of a beautiful forest. Upon exploring the forest, guests will soon realize they are in the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when they come across the Dwarfs’ Cottage, where they can meet the seven little men and Snow White, herself. Traveling down the forest trail will lead the guest to Snow White – An Enchanting Musical, an outdoor theater that uses puppetry, music and effects to bring the story of Snow White to life. The forest trail leads the guests to the rock exterior of the mine, sheltering the Dwarfs’ Mining Camp interactive area and the Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train. The forest trail continues to grow deeper, leading the guests to the foot of the Queen’s castle, Snow White’s Wishing Well just nearby. Inside the castle, the guests can interact with the Magic Mirror. Descending down into the laboratory of the castle will lead guests to Escape the Witch, an intense boat ride, where the guests are pitted against the wicked power of the Evil Queen, as they try to escape her castle and the dark forest. Beware, poisonous apples along the way.

Atlantica

The forest soon gives way to a beach-side setting, as guests enter a cavernous cove under the sea to reach the kingdom of Atlantica (indoor land), seen in The Little Mermaid. In the Undersea Garden, attractions like Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Blowfish Balloon Race and Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster add to the themed experience of being under the sea. One of the land’s significant attractions is the Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, which will be a copy of the attractions found at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort. Guests can even meet Ariel at her grotto located alongside the attraction. The tranquil undersea garden soon leads to a chilly interactive graveyard of sunken ships. In the largest ship hull is an entrance that leads to Shark Attack!, an intense thrill attraction where guests board their own ships and are pursued by the massive shark from the film. The interactive Sunken Ship Graveyard leads through the mouth of a sea dragon, leading to the interactive lair of Ursula, where guests can meet the villainess diva herself.

Olympus

The pathway leads past the beach-side rocky setting and leads to the royal courtyard of the city of Thebes, seen in Hercules. At the back of the courtyard is Mount Olympus, which houses a dark ride that re-tells the story of Hercules. To the left of the mountain is the Temple of Zeus, an interactive venue where a statue of Zeus and several other gods and goddesses come to life. Leading up the stair to a royal coliseum is Go the Distance: A Musical, a musical comedy hosted by the Muses. In front of the courtyard is the beautiful Garden of Aphrodite, which is directly opposite of the entrance of the park. The area provides a beautiful location during both day and night and offers one of the best views of World of Color.

The Royal Kingdom

Guests soon find themselves wandering back into a forest trail. It is only when a tall tower is seen in the distance that they realize they must be in the forest from Tangled. Continuing into the forest, you’ll find Rapunzel’s Royal Carousel. A trail through the forest leads to Rapunzel’s Tower, which serves an exterior to the even better dark ride, Tangled: Flynn’s Adventure. The castle of the kingdom offer s a great dining selection at the Kingdom Faire restaurant. A Meet & Greet location with Rapunzel and Flynn is also located inside of the castle. Every night, after the sun sets and night falls, all of the kingdoms throughout the theme park send off floating lanterns, which take off into the night sky.

Agrabah

The forest fades away to the desert landscape of Agrabah from Aladdin. The city boasts the Agrabah Bazaar, a marketplace of goods and foods, located just before the Sultan’s Palace. Inside of the Sultan’s Palace, guests will find Aladdin’s Arabian Adventure, where guests board their own magic carpet and take off through the story of Aladdin. After traveling through a brief oasis of palm trees, the path leads inside of the Cave of Wonders, where Genie’s Wish, a 3-D attraction takes place.

The Pridelands

The desert theme of Agrabah continues as the path travels through a beautiful oasis area, entering into a peaceful savanna, seen in The Lion King. The savanna will lead to Timon and Pumbaa’s African Safari, a jungle jeep adventure, where Timon and Pumbaa act as guides through their own tour of the jungle. Rhythmic sounds and music come from some live drummers found just outside of the Circle of Life restaurant. Ahead lies Pride Rock, the iconic large rock formation from the movie that houses the Festival of the Lion King attraction. Moving past Pride Rock leads to the Elephant Graveyard, an interactive playground filled with large elephant bones and the Chomps Steakhouse.

Native Camp Grounds

The pathway then leads through the Virginian settlement of Jamestown, where the settlers had landed in Pocahontas. Inside the settlement, there are dining locations and shops. Further into the wilderness that travels alongside a riverbend, guests will come across Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, a show that was once featured at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The path continues to lead down to Grandmother Willow’s Tree Grove, an interactive plaza where guests can meet the tree, herself. At the southeastern edge of the park, guests will come across Meeko’s River Run, a river rapids attraction through the forest and the Indian encampment, as well as Just Around the Riverbend, a log flume attraction that takes guests through the story of Pocahontas. The pathway in front of Jamestown leads guests back to the Twilight Town Clocktower at the entrance of the park."

***

Thanks, KingMickey... hope my drawing did justice to your ideas.

Shadow Kingdom

2011-04-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Back in the Fall of 2010 I came across a really neat description of a villains park posted on MiceChat by RegionsBeyond. Around the same time I was developing my own take on the "evil" version of the Magic Kingdom park, Dark Kingdom , which had quite of bit of independent similarities. In the past weeks, I drew an expanded conceptual site plan for Regions' park (using his original ideas and adding some of my own), then he came back with new descriptions for what I had drawn and the collaborative end result is presented below, along with his in-depth description (fair warning: this is a long, but good, read).

"Over the years, there has been much talk of a potential Disney park themed entirely around the 'villains’ characters. I am sure many pictured roughly what I did: lands and dark rides dealing with the traditional animated characters such as Malificent, Jafar, Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts, and their associates. However, in thinking about it, I began to realize what would interest me would not be a park centered on, say, the ravaged Pride Lands from the Lion King, or Pleasure Island from Pinocchio: classic environments taken verbatim from the feature films. What I was imagining, instead, would be a park similar in structure to Disneyland, or Universal's Islands of Adventure: separate "ports of call" or areas with a overarching theme, with movie properties sprinkled throughout largely realistic realms and placed aside attractions not based on any established film property.

It was my goal to conceive a park that could mirror the attraction mix of DisneySea: large scale E-tickets, smaller dark rides, a handful of more traditional amusement park type rides that still fit the style of the realms, and walk through exhibits. This would create a variety of experiences matched with exquisitely detailed settings and waterways winding throughout the various realms. My theoretical third-gate, darker themed Disney park would be entitled The Shadow Kingdom, and have eight themed sections within united by the idea of an "alternate universe" version of Disneyland, accessed by walking through a slightly sinister traveling circus (inspired by the Disney live action film "Something Wicked This Way Comes"). This would be an old fashioned style-traveling show, and serve the function of Main Street: nothing too threatening at this juncture, just slightly vintage and offbeat, with shops, entertainment, food, and presenting a vintage archetype guests would be as familiar with as they are an old-fashioned town square. It would serve as a "portal" to wooded paths and waterways leading to the other themed lands.

Once entering the park past main ticket booths (in the form of a semi-circle of aged but clean looking gypsy/circus wagons with themed detailing items attached), guests would pass under a banner for Pandemonium and Darke's Shadow Show. On either side of a "country dirt road" (actually painted and detailed concrete) would be lines of well-kept, black, red and white striped vintage circus tents and temporary wooden structures. One would offer British "hand food" of the period: meat and portable shepherd's pies, a few sandwiches, and desserts like funnel cake along with beverages. Another would sell hand crafted wooden toys and mementoes of the carnival done in period style, a third, park-specific merchandise and Disney brand goods limited to this one location. The usual services and sundries would be offered, but hidden inside a aged wooden building marked "Amenities" on one side, and a large tent on the other: an ATM, phones, wheelchair rentals, restrooms, etc. Along the road, at one point, would be the boarded up, closed "Mirror Maze" from the film of Something Wicked This Way Comes, with a hand painted sign out front explaining the closure due to visitors being "lost" inside. If guests were to stand and watch, they might glimpse spectral forms of period-dressed tourists inside, trapped in the mirrors, but vanishing quickly and appearing only subtly and infrequently. The barker outside would invite guests in to the funhouse that shared the building, for a 3-4 minute walkthrough designed after classic walk-through attractions found in places like Coney Island and San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach.

The main attraction in this area would be Professor Darke's Odditorium Sideshow. Guests would sit on benches surrounding an indoor stage, and be entertained by a mixture of live performers on the main stage (acrobats, fire eaters, a magician/illusionist, etc) and AA performers on either side, in smaller little circular stages, as used in County Bear Jamboree (Spidora the spider woman, a two-headed jazz-singer/flapper type woman, a pale, thin, skeletal looking fellow who would summon spirits to interact with the stage and theater, etc).

In addition to this main show, there would be a few classic carnival type rides done in a more lush, period style with slightly aged and morbid designs in spots: a Himalaya type spinner ride, a Ferris wheel, surrounded by woods on either side in both cases.

When ready to leave the main entrance, guests would find a single pathway with an old-fashioned parchment map on a signboard at the edge of a dark wood, wooden gates standing open on either side of the lane. The text would read thusly, on a plank affixed to the map: "Beware, traveler, for those who venture beyond these boundaries are no longer under the protection of the management of Pandemonium and Darke's Shadow Show. Strange realms await beyond our encampment, and many wonders as well. But beware, for those who pass this way may experience many dark enchantments merely hinted at by our humble amusements, and few who do are ever truly the same after."

The map would lay out the rest of the park, illustrated in a rough, sketchy style, with stylized representations of each of the realms (starting from nearest the entrance and working counter-clockwise): Hollow Bastion in the center, ringed by The Black Forest, Voodoo Bayou, Dead Man's Cove, The Underworld, Halloweentown, and Vulture Flats.

In the center (as Sleeping Beauty Castle is for Disneyland) would be Hollow Bastion, based on designs from the Kingdom Hearts games. Waterways and moats would surround it, with seemingly decayed bridges over them to enter the fortress. Many of these would connect to the other realms, and dark, swan-shaped boats carrying about twenty guests would depart from a dock outside the walls of Hollow Bastion to take a 10 minute trip to the other dock at Dead Man’s Cove.

Guests would be able to walk through the castle structure and an interior set of paths, seeing scenes featuring the Horned King from the Black Cauldron, aided by the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. These scenes would feature a story of the King attempting to open portals to other realms in order to gain new power and increase his strength by tapping into evil energies from other planes of existence. These portals would be used to explain the different realms of the park, and how guests crossed into Hollow Bastion from Pandemonium and Darke's. The final scene would feature the Horned King triumphant, standing behind the black cauldron, smoke rising and flashes of light coming from within. Crackling energy would line the walls, and as guests exited to proceed into the rest of the realms, they'd walk out of the castle through a cloud of mist, energy bolts sizzling along the wall, headed outwards, leading them to understand the King had been successful in opening gateways to other dark realms that guests could now visit. Below the castle, a dragon's lair similar to that in Paris would lie, with smoking volcanic vents, a giant slumbering dragon AA, and a series of dungeons with skeletons shackled inside leading to the main cavern.

Behind the castle, in a courtyard, would be a carousel with steeds modeled after famous and infamous supernatural creatures: thestrals, the giant spectral dogs of England, werewolves, griffons, sea monsters, and the like. Beyond the carousel, the main bulk of the park would begin, the realms lining a counter-clockwise circle, each bordered by strange, magically glowing symbols on the ground, like etchings, in red and purple light that would glow and wane eerily. A secret “escape tunnel” would be found through a unmarked crack in the fortress walls, and lead past some scenes of a long abandoned dungeon: open cells, skeletal remains, and the like. Guests taking this tunnel would wind up near the skiff boarding dock outside the walls.

The first realm accessed if exiting to the right would be the Black Forest, heralded by stylized "spooky trees" like in the Snow White animated film, and the sound of wings and ravens cawing deep in the woods. In this area would be a small wooden cart offering "Poison Apples", in reality, apples dipped in caramel or chocolate then with a skull imprinted on front using a stencil which sugar would be sprinkled over, leaving the design. A rough wooden hut would offer the chance for guests to meet and be photographed either with the Wicked Queen or Old Hag from the classic Disney film. The main attraction in the Black Forest, looming behind the wooden cottage, would be Bald Mountain, styled after the classic sequence from Fantasia..

This would be a 10-12 minute flume ride, where guests would board hollowed out, twisted logs in a forest clearing, traveling along a rocky mountain stream. A few minutes would be spent floating in wooded settings, owls and AA wildlife glimpsed, the sounds of nature and slightly ominous, low scale music heard. A small drop down a minor hill would take guests to a densely forested setting, then quickly into the enclosed portion of the ride disguised by trees and rockwork matched with a disguising wall featuring a painting of the forest continuing and a village in the distance. Once inside the mountain's show building, there would be scenes of the village in the shadow of the mountain as dusk set: candles in windows, a lone shutter banging in the breeze. As guests floated past the old cemetery at he base of the mountain, tombstones would be seen to shake, mist rising from the ground, and then the logs would speed up, propelling guests into a close, dark thicket of trees, the strains of "Night on Bald Mountain" and eerie, strange cries echoing in the dark. Spectral forms, using the original ghostly designs from Fantasia, would be glimpsed on either side, the logs catching the bottom of a lift hill and starting upwards in a dark tunnel, shrieking spectres projected all around them on mist screens. Once at the top, the logs would pause, as a giant pair of yellow eyes opened, then a gigantic AA of Chernabog the demon would lean forward, music swelling, hands reaching out for the guests as if to grab the log. As the boat got nearer, hands closing in, it would plunge suddenly downwards, in a dark, enclosed drop tunnel filled with fog, in the pitch black. Once at the bottom, the logs would float slowly past the gates of the town, a rooster crowing in the distance as in the segment of Fantasia, a few whispy spirits visible headed back down to the ground to flee the dawn. Guests would exit near a large, dead tree stump, with glowing owl eyes visible and soft hooting occurring occasionally from within, and walk a path back to exit by the apple cart.

At this point, a covered bridge would lead guests to the second ride in the area: the Legend of Sleepy Hollow dark ride, where small wooden carts would set off on a moonlit eve for the party at the Van Tassel residence. A brief scene with Brom Bones and the party guests would follow, featuring the Headless Horseman song, and then back out into the fields and woods with the moon overhead. The ride of course would climax with being confronted by the Headless Horseman at several points, ending up with a combined projection and AA of the flaming pumpkin shrieking towards them, followed by a small dip underneath the wooden bridge, the carts moving along past the whipporwills and croaking toads to unload at the edge of the woods, in the shadow of an abandoned windmill.

The third attraction would lead away from these areas, via a small path with a sign nailed up at the entrance, painted with the words “Beware the Tulgey Wood”. A twisting series of paths would eventually lead to a maze themed to Alice in Wonderland’s Red Queen from the recent Tim Burton film, with still statuary and some interactive effects and illusions, both indoors and outside. A dark ride located inside the façade of the Queen’s fortress would take guests for a fast-paced adventure through the castle, dodging the presence of the decapitation-obsessed Queen, her animal footservants, and the dreaded Jabberwocky. The path at the exit would once more lead to the central area by the apple cart and Bald Mountain queue.

Guests hungry and thirsty after these adventures could have a sit-down meal at Gaston's, a restaurant styled after the pub in Beauty and the Beast, with deer trophy heads and the like for decor, as well as a oil painting of the namesake of the restaurant over the main fireplace. Seated at wooden tables in one of two dining rooms, guests would enjoy hearty steaks or seafood and pasta dishes, as well as specific European dishes like haggis and roasted pheasants.

The next realm encountered would be Voodoo Bayou, the trees thinning out and becoming more realistic, guests walking on wooden walkways over "swampland" with cypress-like trees growing around the path. Splashing and the noises of reptiles would be heard from the water, a few AA crocodiles occasionally surfacing, eyeing the guests. At night, eerie green lights could be glimpsed far back in the trees, and the lightning bug effect from Pirates could be used as well, with the main lighting provided by antique lanterns hanging from the walkway railings. This area would feature three attractions: a boat ride through the swamp, a sit down show, and a walk through "exhibit".

The show would be entitled "Dr. Facilier's Other-Side Revue", and naturally feature the title character from Princess and The Frog. It would take place in a rustic shack with hand painted sign like in the film, and a live actor would play Facilier: explaining to guests after he got ran out of the city and "perished", his friends from the other side decided to give him one more chance to redeem himself. In order to prove himself, he has to convince one of the guests present to let him take their energy (via a planted actor in the audience, like the Indy stunt show in Florida) to revive his "friends". The chosen actor would come onstage, only to be vanished and reappear as a AA frog, before disappearing once again in a cloud of smoke. At this point, the masks and voodoo dolls around the stage would "come alive" with the gained energy, chanting ominously at first, chairs and items moving on their own, the lights dimming, strange noises occurring around the whole theater and lighting effects. At this point, a few of the shadow creatures from the film would appear onstage, and interact with Facilier: knocking off his hat, tripping him, etc. After the Dr. and his shadow calm the "friends" down, there would be a musical reprise of "Friends on The Other Side", with punctuation provided by the masks chanting along, statuary and artifacts coming to life. As the music reached the finale and crescendo, a bolt of purple light would hit the stage from above, and the live Facilier performer vanish, all the masks and objects go still, and when the lights came back up, all would be normal except for the lingering shadow of Dr. Facilier, which would remove it's hat, bow, and gesture for guests to rise and exit before vanishing itself. This would be a combo between Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room and the "Spirit Lodge" attraction at Knott's, which features live performers vanishing and interacting with Pepper's Ghost type illusions.

The second attraction, the walk through, would be a realization of Rolly Crump's Museum of The Weird. This would be housed in a area of small shops and a few casual food places, a slightly more run down sort of community on the edge of the swamps. Inside the Museum would be an eccentric collection of artifacts, many said to be cursed or "haunted", from around the world. These would be explained to have been collected over the lifetime of one Dr. Phineas Crump, a noted collector of the arcane and unusual who traveled the world looking for items for his collection. The items might include "possessed" paintings of medieval people from castles in England, cursed tribal artifacts from Africa, items stolen from the tombs of Egypt, unusual carvings from Asia and India, shrunken heads, artifacts from the witch trials of Salem, a man-eating plant, etc. The exhibit would be housed in a rather decrepit building, outside painted with odd languages and phrases in red and gold paint. Several of the items would appear to move on their own, the eyes of the paintings sometimes follow guests, or odd knocking sounds to echo through the building at times. On hand would be a few Cast Members, well trained in the significance of certain items (or being good enough at improvisation to make up stories behind the artifacts on the spot) to share with guests who had questions, or point out "special" exhibits. This would be on scale, room size wise, with the One Man's Dream exhibit at Disney Studios, guests being allowed to linger with CM's positioned along the way, and take up perhaps 3 rooms total.

The boat ride, Crocodile River Expedition, would have a queue among gnarled cypress trees, through a seeming crocodile trapper’s shack decorated with rusty implements and odd drawings from old books depicting strange voodoo-esque rituals . Once on the dock and loaded onto a boat, guests would take a ten-minute or so Jungle Cruise type tour with a live guide, who would tell rather lightly-handled tales of the swamp and wildlife, and voodoo legends and ghost stories of the area. Sights would include a pit of quicksand with remains of some unlucky local trappers, the burned down remains of a once regal plantation house said to be haunted, a simulated attack by large angry crocodile animatronic, and to escape: a trip through a dark, moss filled cave where eerie lights would appear and prompt the guide to tell tales of the “will-o-whisps” of legend.

Leaving the Voodoo Bayou behind, the swamp would slowly become more rocky ground, with a curving path around a lagoon of black, still water, waves lapping slowly at the shore. This would be the "back" of the park: Dead Man's Cove. Looking under the water as they walked along, guests might spy items such as sunken gold coins and treasure, animatronic crabs and moray eels, human bones, and stray pieces of wrecked ships. The first attraction here would be the Flying Dutchman from the Pirates film series, created full scale and moored along the walkway. Guests could climb the gangplank and walk both above and belowdecks, to view the organ chamber (eerie music playing by itself from Tia Dalma's locket), the brig, the mess hall, and through a cut out window, might glimpse the Kraken swimming by underneath the waves. A few AA crew members would be scattered throughout, those that have become part of the ship and covered in moss and sea life. On the main deck, guests could find either Captain Hector Barbossa or Davy Jones himself to pose for photos. Back on the mainland, a smaller meet and greet space set up to look like a backdrop of stolen treasure and ship parts would house Jack Sparrow and Tia Dalma characters for photos. Nearby, there would be a rough-looking building constructed out of wrecked ship parts (similar to the ‘town’ of Shipwreck in At World’s End) which would house a meal and pirate show featuring stunts, musical performances by the Bootstrappers, and saucy pirate wenches displaying feats of derring-do while guests were served items such as whole roasted chicken, stew, or beef ribs along with large flagons of soda or specially brewed "rum".

From the mainland, guests could either cross a swaying rope bridge or take a underground tunnel to an island set in the waterway towards the center of the park. This “cursed treasure isle” would be analogous to Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland, with forest settings, a ruined church, treasure caves, footpaths to explore, and the like suggesting the world of the live action Pirates films.

The showstopper attraction for Dead Man’s Cove would be a water ride/coaster hybrid taking place inside a large fortress on the side of a mountain. Titled Phantom Fortress, it would feature a trip through a under-siege East India Company headquarters and battalion center. Starting out as a slow moving coaster seating about 8 people in 2 rows, it would journey past scenes of battle between pirates and the military/shipping forces and then speed up into the water-based section. Boats would be “hit” by cannon fire and sink, dropping down into a dark show building with more ghostly and eerie effects of deep-sea inspired monsters, half-human sirens/mermaids and ghostly cursed pirates ‘underneath’ the water via a dry-for-wet effect environment similar to The Little Mermaid upcoming dark ride and Tokyo’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. The boats would gradually rise again and ‘surface’ at an unload station looking like a rocky beach.

The next realm, The Underworld, would be entered through a rocky cave along the water's edge. Down into the darkness guests would walk, the path lit by ornate, Greek-style torch holders on the walls, until they reached a larger cavern. Along the way, small alcove would hold a simple, golden lamp familiar to any who enjoy the Disney animated films. If venturing close enough to touch the lamp, guests would activate either maniacal laughter from within, or Jafar pleading to be let free from his prison.

Further on, at the entrance to a lake framed by jagged rockwork, the queue would form for the area's signature attraction: The River Styx. Guests would queue up and enter a stone chamber, lit by more torches, carvings of events from the film Hercules on the walls: Hades on his throne, the three-headed serpent, various other monstrosities. Once in their boats (PoTC style flat boats), guests would embark past a skeletal boatman in a small skiff, supporting himself on a staff. He would warn them to go no further, the realms of the dead and beyond are no place for the living, especially now that Hades has sworn revenge on the mortal world for harboring his enemy, Hercules. Of course, the boats proceed apace regardless, through a series of scenes including a plunge down a waterfall into a cavern with glowing blue waters, eerie faces swirling and vanishing underneath the surface; the sudden eruption of a giant cartoon-styled sea monster feet away from the boat on one side; Pain and Panic, Hades' henchmen, trying to crush the boat with a swaying support pillar; a scene of Megara imprisoned by the Sirens (haglike monstrous creatures); and finally, a showdown with Hades engulfing the ceiling with fire as he tries to destroy guests, who are saved at the last minute by Hercules holding a falling wall up so the boats can escape back to the load area.

To round out the land would be a indoor Coliseum style theater where a group of live actors would perform musical and improv skits based on classic Greek legends and myths, and a walk-through “Labyrinth” to view both the beastly minotaur in his lair, and a small pool with AA stylized fauns, winged horses, and water sprites inspired by Fantasia in the center.

Next up, the second-to-last realm would be Halloweentown, accessed by leaving the caverns of The Underworld, and arriving on the outskirts of the town. The surfaces and textures would all resemble those in the movie: hatchwork and lines on ‘natural’ features like hills and trees. A main street would lead into the town square, complete with City Hall, the central fountain, and a large graveyard and Jack‘s tower home, all as shown in the Burton/Sellick film Nightmare Before Christmas.

The main attraction here would be a Fantasyland style Nightmare dark ride taking place in a 2-story show building hidden behind Town Hall. Inside, the Mayor would be represented as a human-sized AA, inviting visitors from the "human world" to tour his town, entire head swiveling with worry that Oogie Boogie has been sighted lurking about, then turning back to his "cheery face" to assure guests everything will be fine. Inside would be about 10 separate show scenes, including a mid-point large scene for "This is Halloween" with 15-20 AA's, and a "descent"/falling scene down into Oogie's blacklit lair near the end. After riding, guests could visit Jack and Sally along with other Halloweentown residents (the vampires, the wolfman, the Behemoth) on a rotation in a small gazebo in the cemetery.

A few smaller rides would complete the area, located in patches of woods on the outskirts: a tea-cup spinner themed to Lock, Shock and Barrel with the ride vehicles resembling cauldrons and AA figures of the characters in the center of the platform, bickering and singing snatches of song from the film from inside their over-sized, monster/sentient bathtub. The second attraction would be a coaster themed to the sled ride at the film’s finale along with a synched up audio track of the chase music used in the section.

Last of the realms, but not least, is likely my most ambitious idea for the park: Vulture Flats. A decrepit ghost town in the style more of the current section at Knott’s than Frontierland, it would house three main attractions. A saloon/eating establishment would sit along the main road, and a vaudeville style theater delivering Old West melodramas with a slightly morbid/quirky edge. The landscape around the town would be like Arizona, roughly: orange colored buttes and scraggly desert trees, rocky features.

The first attraction in the section would be titled Redemption Armored Wagons, and play out like a hybrid of Indiana Jones, Universal’s Men in Black and the film based Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure. After walking to a more prosperous looking area of town, guests would be drafted by the local sheriff to pursue a gang of bank robbers into the wild, trying to disable the stolen armored stagecoach they are dragging and taking aim at specific targets along the way to slow the robbers up. The ride would feature moving vehicles and 3-D sets combined with film elements for a ride through the wild west featuring a cave full of bats, a steep canyon descent, the desert at night, and a chase across a rickety train trestle. Some elements and scenes would be re-used and updated from Marc Davis’ Western River Expedition along the way.

At the edge of the town atop a rocky butte would sit Ravenswood Manor, a western-inspired (but less romantic/film inspired a la Phantom Manor) variation on the Haunted Mansion archetype. Effects and gags inside would include some Mansion stalwarts (Pepper’s ghost, the ballroom party) along with new technology in portions such as AA figures recognizing and inviting guests to join them, followed by the cars starting to drift off the track and down dark hallways, or a sudden ‘earthquake’ causing vehicles to veer off the established ride path and into a set of scenes only sometimes visited, most guests receiving an alternate set of scenes and continuing through a different experience. The main story, as Disneyland Paris’s version does, would deal with a gold baron who went bankrupt and vanished after a large earthquake along with his wife and the household staff.

The final, and most lengthy and ambitious ride of the section, would be accessed through a "Western History Museum" front alongside a dusty path that dead ends at it, with a few other inaccessible buildings nearby: a horse stables, a hotel, a house of ill repute: all seemingly abandoned. Inside, the museum would have warped wood floors and display cases of items left behind in the ghost town of Vulture Flats, that had been mysteriously abandoned in the 1870's. These items would include old bottles, spoons, cutlery, plates, clothing, dolls, spurs...all things of a domestic nature, and keeping in what you'll find in any number of western history museums across the Western U.S. A town history would be on a wooden plaque on a wall, recalling the boom days of the Gold Rush, the waning of new pioneers, and finally, the day a group of miners arrived to find the town deserted of every living soul: women, children, laborers, cooks, saloon-keepers...all vanished without a trace. After pursuing the exhibits, and a final stop in a darkened room to view strange, glowing rocks mined during the town's heydey under blacklight, guests would exit the back of the building through a supposed "exhibit" faux rock mining tunnel only to find themselves outside, at night, on the abandoned streets of Vulture Flats.

This entire section of the area would be enclosed in a show building, like the entrance to Paris's Hollywood Studios park, entered through the Museum structure without guests knowing or seeing the enclosed building taking over. Projections of a ghostly full moon and clouds would move across the blackened sky/domed roof, and the walls would be obscured by trees or buildings, with matte paintings in places hinting at the desert beyond. Moving past the silent buildings, guests might think they glimpse movements or odd lights behind some windows, or hear whispering in alleyways, only to find nothing when they look back. Signposts would point the way to the Silver Dollar mine, and these would clearly be newer in style. Upon reaching a rock wall with mine tunnel entrances dotting it, most blocked off, guests would queue up in a horse barn, then a series of switchbacks through the mining company's equipment room. Cast Members at the front would explain the owners of the museum have opened the mine again for tours, so guests can see working conditions of the day, and assure guests that everything has been made safe for visitors and that they will be accompanied by a trained guide who knows the caves.

Groups of 16 would board open cars chained together similar to those at the Calico Mine Ride at Knott's, made of hammered steel like they'd been constructed out of old ore carts, with a headlamp on front. Then, the cars would slowly proceed into the mine, the guide telling a brief history of the Silver Dollar and it's owners, and how its' employees had vanished along with everyone else in town during the late 1800‘s, never to be seen again. Once into the mine shaft, the guide would start pointing out the bands of precious metals along and inside the walls, only to be interrupted by a strange, cold wind, and knocking sounds from either side. This would be followed by voices, murmuring and whispering, and faint blasting sounds off in the distance. The guide would express some concern at this, saying he has never experienced anything like this before in the mine, but he would take guests onwards into the original caves below the mine tunnels and that there was nothing to worry about, surely it was just imagination running away with them in the dark.

Inside the caves, weird, strangely glowing rock formations would be seen, and eerily glowing waterfalls here and there, making strange shapes. At one point, underneath the trestle supporting the cars, the guide would point out odd, sightless fish underneath the water (a mixture of AA's and projections) on either side. Entering a darkened cavern beyond the water-filled room, the headlamp would suddenly flicker and go out, the only light an odd blue one reflected by the rock walls. As the guide reassured guests everything was fine, off to the side there would be a sudden noise like rocks falling slowly, a misty shape slowly appearing: what appeared to be the form of a miner, eyes like blank holes, skeletal grin, wavering and flickering in and out slowly and oddly like a lightbulb. This frightful apparition would vanish slowly, into the darkness, and next the moans, low, and eerie, of many voices would be heard: men, women, and children. The cars would speed up, and the headlamp come back on, revealing a large pile of rocks dead ahead, scattered all across the cavern, a few bones poking out here and there. Then a loud rumbling would be heard, the cars shaking slightly, and the guide asking guests to remain calm and stating the exit was nearby, and they'd be out before any potential cave ins.

Quickly, the car would zip through a few nondescript caverns, catching sight of a opening ahead into the night, trees visible and the full moon. As the cart neared it, a apparition would suddenly appear, blocking the entrance: a fully formed, blue, ghostly image of a woman holding her hands above her head, as if in fear, the rumbling getting louder. No time to stop, the vehicles would simply pass through the ghost like mist, a loud roar of rocks falling behind them as the vehicle went back to the unload area. The cave guide, visibly shaken, would say he guessed now they might know what happened to the townsfolk: a serious cave in took the lives of some of the miners and women, and the rest just up and left, not that he could blame them for that. He'd go on to say the restless spirits must be re-living the events of what happened to them, and maybe now they could find peace. Guests would unload and walk back the main street of town, having the opportunity to look around the boarded up buildings or visit a small "Undertaker's Office" selling a limited selection of merchandise of a Western nature. They would exit through another cave to the outskirts of the traveling circus/entry area, or take a one way shortcut back to the rest of the park via a door hidden behind one of the outdoors Western fronts.

This concludes the basic tour of the potential park. Some elements are not included, such as more specific smaller stores, fast food type establishments, and bathrooms in the themed realms. Overall, this is designed to be something Disney does not currently have stateside: an even mix of original properties and movie-based attractions all in service of a larger theme of a “darker”/slightly horror based concept. If done correctly, the balance of menace, thrill, E-ticket and experimental rides and more familiar properties and ride systems for younger guests could truly be something unique. In addition, such a park would allow Disney to expand into the market of after-hours Halloween events for a more adult crowd while not stooping to the level of gore or pure gross-out elements in order to do so. Some might disagree with the suitability of a project so vast and ambitious, yet based on “horrific” elements or darker themes. Nothing truly grotesque, however, would be presented, and no cheap scares or content beyond the level of things which could conceivably be rated PG-13 were this a motion picture."

Side by side with my expanded version of Disneyland

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Alright! Comments, as always, are appreciated.

Anaheim - California Adventure

2011-03-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

For me, one of the key problems with DCA - that I've tried to address here - is that it was built with little regard to sight-lines & visual intrusions. I believe theme parks can be considered "great" when they successfully transport the visitor to an extraordinary place. In order to do this, the first and most important task is to block from sight & mind the real world of cheap hotels, power lines, commercial buildings, etc.

The biggest issue regarding DCA for me was how to handle Paradise Pier. I don’t care much for the lightly-themed carny rides and hip-modern puns, signage & architecture of the original Pier, and I really don't like the lack of a berm which allows for many outside visual intrusions, particularly the Paradise Pier Hotel and Grand Californian DVC addition, in the Pier's wide vistas. However, after studying many close-ups of the fully Victorian-ized Pier model (in the Bluesky Cellar), as well as the fine execution of the revamped sections (e.g., Midway Mania), I've come to believe that if given the full-budget treatment, the Idealized Turn-of-the-Century Boardwalk could work within a Tier I theme park. It could - and should - be the equivalent of Main Street, U.S.A., but a waterfront midway.

You will note in my drawing that all the Victorian components are here: the new wooden buildings housing the queues for the carousel, ferris wheel and coaster, the new parachute drop, the new facades for the Pavilion area – all based on the model below (I understand that most of this much-needed placemaking has, unfortunately, been cut from the budget):

Photo from David Wallace's stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/david-wallace/sets/72157610368139836/with/3066890584/

Now, what to do about the outside intrusions. One way to address is to build a berm. Another is to build a thematically-appropriate hotel (e.g. MiraCosta in Tokyo DisneySea). Here, in place of the razed Paradise Pier Hotel, I've added an expansive turn-of-the-century beach resort (based on those like the Del Coronado), with turrets and parapets that complement that which is within the park:

I did a quick photoshopping of the before & after view:

Unfortunately, at the Grand Californian, Disney built a very pedestrian (IMO) extension to the beautifully-designed original building right up to the border of (and now looming over) the Paradise Garden area. In my idealized vision, this DVC expansion never came to pass. That area is given over to a major E-ticket dark ride, inspired by attractions like Mystic Manor & Haunted Mansion, which explores Gustav Tinkerschmidt’s mysterious, frightening & humorous funhouse & sideshow:

The next big issue was what to do about Carsland. Part of me wanted to do something different with that land, because (i) Radiator Springs and the types of rock formations being built right now are not part of the California landscape (more AZ/UT), and (ii) it is limiting to theme an entire land to a single film franchise that has only indirect connections to CA (Pixar, Rt 66, etc.). However, after seeing the extraordinary rockwork that has been done so far in that area, and realizing it can be fun to draw some areas that will actually be built, I decided to keep it (although I renamed it). The only change is that I added the Drive-In Theatre restaurant that was cut from the plan:

Buena Vista Street is drawn as planned:

I drew the Grizzly Peak section of Golden State as depicted in the Disney Mountains book (i.e., Condor Flats has been incorporated and given a 1950s National Park/Forest overlay. I would hope some AA bears could be added to Grizzly River, similar to the HKDL peak:

Hollywood sees some major changes. The land is fully themed to the Golden Age Tinseltown of the 1940s, rather than revealing the set-like backsides of facades. Monsters Inc and the adjacent unused show building are combined into a lengthy omnimover that takes riders past AA scenes of various genre classics (not repeating those films that are featured in the Great Movie Ride). The Hyperion Theatre gets an indoor queue/lobby and a Pueblo Deco facade to complement the Tower of Terror:

The final themed zone replaces Bugsland and takes up the remaining sliver of unused land. I was inspired by the La Brea Tar Pits to do a land on prehistoric California. I’m a big fan of natural history museums, and that’s basically what this land is. The Discovery Center is exactly that, with Deco architecture inspired by L.A.’s Griffith Observatory:

The major E-ticket in this area is an ice-age themed flume, with AA dire wolves, imperial mammoths and Shasta ground sloths that once inhabited California’s central valley:

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So there you have it. I think the above would be a worthy second gate to Disneyland. Please take a minute to leave a comment. Cheers!

Guest Feature - Walt Disney Studios Themepark

2011-03-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

I’m pleased to present another guest feature/collaboration. I received this pencil sketch for an elaborate take on the Studios model:

From it, and employing a little artistic license, I drew up the following conceptual site plan for his dream Studios park:

What follows is Cody’s description of his park (as well as two original birds-eye sketches):

“For quite some time now I've been developing plans for what I believe would be the perfect studio theme park. Seeing as how I absolutely love movies and all things Golden Age Hollywood, and how I would do almost anything for the chance to use a time machine to visit the 1940's, I suppose that makes some sense.

The Walt Disney Studios Themepark combines ideas and concepts from Disney's Hollywood Studios, The Disney-MGM Studios Europe, The Walt Disney Studios Paris, along with some original ideas I've come up with. It's important to note that the park IS NOT a working movie studio, but does pretend to be one, with cm's portraying aspiring directors and actors/actresses filming on sets. When designing the park, I felt it was important to make sure that the design of the park felt like a movie studio (helping to reinforce the illusion) yet still have individual themed areas, which I think was accomplished rather well. Over all, there are still many areas of the park that need improvements, but for the most part I'm quite pleased with how it came out. Anywho, enough with introductions, "On with the Show!"

Hollywoodland-
Most of the stuff found here exists at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…I figure if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it. At the end of Hollywood Blvd stands The Disney Chinese Theatre, which houses the park's signature attraction, "The Great Movie Ride", a tour through movies unlike any other. Featuring many of the films seen in Disney's Hollywood Studios, you'll find some new movies on the tour as well, including Jailhouse Rock, Planet of the Apes, Forrest Gump, and The Little Mermaid.

What is Echo Lake at DHS is Primetime Lagoon at my park, and is given a 1950’s theme, a time when Television was in its prime, cars were absolutely perfect, and America found its one and only King. “The Rock’n’RollerCoaster with Elvis” updates the DHS classic with a more theme-appropriate attraction for this land. The exterior of the attraction is based on the Sun Recording Studios in Memphis:

“Great TV Moments” brings your favorite TV shows to life through the magic of an AA stage show (American Adventure meets The Great Movie Ride).

Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood-
The entrance to the land is the Maroon Studios Gate, with the Acme Warehouse being the showbuilding for the “ToonTown Trolley Tours”. “Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggies” is a soundstage with a toonified Hollywood Hospital Set attached to it. Everything else in the land after the Studio Gate appears to be ToonTown.

The Western & Route 66 Lots-
“The Very Wild, Wild, Wild, (Wild) Wild West Stunt Show” is a comedy stuntshow complete with Cowboys, Indian Sidekicks, Bandits, and a grand finale featuring a Damsel in Distress tied to a railroad track complete with a moving train! “Radiator Springs Racers” is not the new attraction being built in Disney’s California Adventure, but rather a dueling family coaster very similar to “Crush’s Coaster” in Paris (the attraction should probably be renamed).

Animation Ave-
“The Magic of Disney Animation” is a grand, EPCOT Center-like dark ride that takes you on a tour through the animation process that’s unlike any you’ve ever seen. “How To Be A Villain” is a 3-D show featuring the Magic Mirror as host.

Marvel Studios Lot-
Marking the entrance of the land is a Stainless Steel, futuristic arch. The exterior of “The Uncanny Xmen” attraction features the X-Mansion as the exterior with it’s grounds as the queue. “Marvel Origins” is housed in a show building designed to look like a futuristic comic book city, and “The Invincible Iron Man” features an exterior very similar to the one seen in concept art for the unbuilt Dubai attraction.

SciFi Ctyd-
“Alien Encounter” features the creatures of the “Alien” franchise, with a reimagined story in order to go along with its new theme.

The Adventure Backlot-
The facades in the front of this land represent the city of Casablanca, which extends to the Indy Theatre, although it is made to look more like a dig site. The POTC coaster is very comparible to The Mummy coaster found at Uni. It would include several elaborate sets along with a thrilling rollercoaster ride. The Special FX show is a combination of the Monster Make-up Show at Uni and the DHS Backlot Tour Pearl Harbor Preshow, but themed to POTC. The Up façade represents the Tepuis and their waterfalls along with an airship hanger and the partially-exposed “Spirit of Adventure”.

Production Ctyd-
“The Studio Tram Tour” has been completely transformed and turned into one of the most ambitious attractions ever built at a Disney theme park. Passing through the Streets of New York (a 1920’s recreation of NYC), guests will be taken to the European Set, where your vehicle will stop for several minutes as a brief (and constantly changing) demonstration of car stunts is conducted. It’s then through the bone yard and onto The Western Set you go, where you’ll encounter a scene from the legendary Western River Expedition. Moving through Catastrophe Canyon, The grand finale will then take guests right into the heart of the Battle of Hoth, where you’ll encounter moving AT-ATs, an Ion Canyon, and lots of actors portraying Rebel and Empire forces.

Well there you have it. The park is far from perfect, but I feel it does the movie theme justice, which is more than any other movie themed park in the world does. I’d like to thank RandySavage for taking the time to turn my rough sketch into a map, he did a great job! Also, for further explanations, revisions, edits, and additions to this park, and also for new and exciting parks, please visit my blog, Sparks of Inspiration"

Castle Diversity

2011-03-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

A brief entry.

Of the 40+ theme park plans I've drawn so far, there are 10-12 different Disneyland/Magic Kingdom-style parks (I don't think the world needs 12 different Disneylands quite yet but it has been fun to explore all sorts of variations on a theme).

I believe each park should be unique while retaining the essence of the original. So here I've drawn some fairytale castle elevation silhouettes for a portion of my MK-style parks (Anaheim, Tokyo & Paris represent their existing castles):

Anaheim - WestCOT

2011-02-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

A Vision of WestCOT

Researching this WestCOT conceptual site plan was like taking the pieces to two different puzzles, mixing them up, throwing half of them out and trying to create a finished picture from the remains. I quickly discovered that a lot of the publically-available information on WestCOT was contradictory – likely coming from different iterations of the design (versions 1.0, 2.0, etc.) . For example, two key pieces of information were the 1991 Master Plan Report (available on SamLand) and the Tony Baxter lecture; in the latter, Tony talked about European & Asian themed hotels being built six-stories above their continents and a Ride the Dragon coaster, but these things did not appear to be present in the 1991 master plan. So what I’ve drawn is not what WestCOT was actually to be at any one time (although parts may be), but instead a fun, amalgamated vision that takes all the best ideas (IMO) that were revealed and puts them into one fantasy park.

Since WestCOT was to be a new & improved version of EPCOT Center, and EPCOT is bigger than the combined plots of Disneyland + DCA (expanded), it became apparent that WestCOT needed to be double-decker (or triple-decker if you count the hotels) theme park. That would help explain the early multi-billion (in 1991 dollars) price tag. The official site plan and some key pieces concept art corroborated this theory. For example, the giant soundstages that were to be home to the Future World style pavilions (with exteriors not visible to the park-goer) were built behind the World Lagoon show buildings, and the only way to access these would be subterranean (likely, moving) passageways.

Also, on the site plan & art, there was scant evidence of the park’s most famous & elaborate attraction: the “World Cruise” aka “River of Time” – a forty-five minute, five-stop boat ride that would take riders past animatronic show scenes and then “pop out” in the exterior waterways of that particular continent. This ride would also have to be on the lower level (light gray lines in my plan).

This pic of the underside of SpaceStation Earth, the park’s enormous centerpiece, shows the multiple levels (Lower Concourses leading to the futuristic Wonders of WestCOT pavilions).

Speaking of SSE, since the World Cruise/River of Time covers the historical scenes that comprise the majority of EPCOT’s SSE’s ride, I imagine this West Coast geosphere attraction to be closer to Horizons in spirit & execution – focusing on futurism rather than the history of civilization.

FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD
The entrance to the park (and part of The Americas corner representing the U.S.A.) is in a similar style to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, easing the thematic transition from to Disneyland’s MS:USA to WestCOT. There is an exhibit and show in a similar vein to The American Adventure.

Native Tribes of North America are represented by an island village and Spirit Lodge-type show. Mexico is represented with an interior space (similar to EPCOT but much larger) that houses an ongoing night-time fiesta, dark ride and spinners for kids. Inca & Aztec exhibits & shows are present, as well.

Europe begins with a tribute to Denmark’s Tivoli Gardens that inspired Walt. France & Italy are represented in the wings of the Continental Hotel that rises, similar to Mira Costa, five or six stories above the park. There is the Russian show once planned for EPCOT and a Trans-European Express circle-vision attraction crossing the heart of the continent. As Europe transitions eastward, Turkey & Russia meet in a family boat ride based on the classic song ‘Abdul Abulbul Amir’ (done in a similar style as TDS’ Sinbad attraction).

Asia begins with representations of Istanbul (part of the Hotel Oriental), India (a Bollywood-musical theatre), Japan (Meet the World production), SE Asia (Siamese carousel). The Ride the Dragon coaster represents China, with its Great Wall segment and Dragon's Teeth Mountains.

The lakeside areas of Africa are more representative of North Africa & the Middle East (with a Great Pyramids adventure on the scale of Indiana Jones and a bustling bazaar).

Equatorial Africa, with its river rapids attraction, uses some elements of the unbuilt EPCOT pavilion.

THREE WONDERS
Tony Baxter described (and the Master Plan confirmed) that the Future World pavilions would be housed in huge, un-themed (from the exterior) warehouses (or soundstages) standing behind the heavily-themed World Lagoon. This would be done to afford WDI the ability to make changes to the shows being presented, without having to expensively alter/demolish elaborate, futuristic pavilions.

While that sounds cost effective, I believe that a great theme park must impress not only from within, but without, as well. So while I kept the concept of accessing the backstage Wonders pavilions via lower level concourses, I drew representations of themed exteriors based on another WDI WestCOT proposal.

I also created some original iconography that would link these futuristic pavilions to their Orlando sisters. I have very strong feelings about EPCOT Center’s Future World past, present & future, which I will discuss when I post a plan for that park, but I’ll say here that I think that the symbology created for Future World was a work of graphic design genius, and discarding it (and thus any holistic linkages among the FW pavilions) and not replacing it is one of the most grievous decisions TWDC has ever made (for me). I’ve tried to keep all the symbols using simple geometric shapes to tell a universal story. Ventureport’s represents a key to the world, Earth’s represents the sacred spiral found throughout nature, Science represents the atom, Living represent human well-being:

Wonders of Earth (sometimes called Wonders of Nature) combines the ideas behind EPCOT’s The Land and The Living Seas. I included some shows/rides that were planned for EPCOT, but never built, such as “Blueprints of Nature”, an expedition through various biomes from the Arctic to the Desert, and a sea-voyage film/simulator aboard a vessel called ‘The Spirit of Mankind’.

Wonders of Living includes an omnimover ride through the human body (planned for EPCOT, but discarded for Body Wars) as well as a new LPS-version of Imagination with Dreamfinder & Figment.

Wonders of Science (sometimes called Wonders of Space) has the Cosmic Journeys (power of ten) show/simulator planned for the park as well as some concepts taken from earlier versions of EPCOT’s space pavilion (such as a simulated space station and space walk).

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So there you have it... a closer look at how one of the big "woulda, coulda, shoulda" projects in theme park history. If you like this site/these posts, please take a moment to comment. Cheers.