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The Disneyland Paris that never was: Part Three: Main Street U.S.A

2010-04-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the part two of the "Main street that never was" article, always with the brilliant comments of Main Street show-producer Eddie Sotto. We saw yesterday the 1920's Main street concept but other concepts not necessary linked to this 20's version were also never realised, and i asked Eddie more details about some of them, beginning by the one above.

"After the park opened, there were proposals to add more new experiences. Between the entrance to the Discovery Arcade and the Camera Store is a façade that we were going to renovate into what you see here. This was bringing the multiscreen history of silent film to Main Street. I knew this was a very hard sell, but I am personally passionate about silent and early film. Keaton, Linder, Chaplin, Louise Brooks, George Meiles and more would be on going in this exhibit. There would also be handcranked Mutoscopes and other machines that guests could look into and experience early film. Of course, there was no way anyone would want to do this. So we have a sketch to remember it by! I would've loved to see this come true. There also was an evolution of this idea that was a video store except the videos were previewed by turning a crank on the antique Muto scope machines. The name "Buffalo Nickel" arcade was first coined at Knott's Berry Farm where I had worked years earlier.

Below, this is the concept where a video store has demonstrations of coming Video attractions in the movieolas. You could crank the chapters of the video forward and back by using the handle so it really was a way of sampling upcoming movies. This was to go between the camera store and the Discovery arcade facing town square. I thought this might work, but they never went any further.

This next sketch was intended to depict what would happen if we decorated the interior of the Main Street Transportation Company. This may have been done after opening as an enhancement. Ever since we first designed it, the Main Street Transportation building was intended to display the live horses that pulled the trolleys. Being able to go in and pat the horses would be a very nice payoff to such a dominant building.

The original intent at the end of market Street - rendering below - was to cross the arcade and go through three arches which would take you outdoors and they are would-be wagons with all kinds of things to eat. This area still has arches and doors so at some point you could create a courtyard and do food carts out there. What's the point of having a market Street without an open-air market? So in this sketch I showed people in the arcade and then sunlight leading to the far left of where market Street would enter.

Barbara Wightman did this next drawing and I believe it was primarily intended to be a concept for a bakery and was very early in our interiors explorations.

This rendering depicts a 1876 "Crystal Palace Exposition" type entry sequence. This would be a giant glazed ticketing complex and ironically, the cost of this is what drove us into subsidizing the coverring of ticketing with a hotel. At one time we even had the Crystal Palace restaurant from Walt Disney World as part of the Main Street program. I think it went away early on and perhaps this sketch was my way of getting it back in on a grander scale. It's hard to remember.

This is one of my favorite Herb Ryman paintings and probably the best Main Street piece of art. He decided to depict the ground-level of the elevated train station in Town Square. Herb always focuses on what people are doing not what the architecture is doing. In this image something has just happened offstage as the policeman's attention. You'll see dogs, people interacting and all kinds of "business". An artist named Tony Sarg did illustrations of New York City that were all about the people and Herb brought the book to work to say that's what he wanted to do to make the Main Street renderings more interesting. And of course anything Herb does is interesting. So beneath the El Station you would have merchandise and other vendors.

This next image is the Fire Station for Main Street and because it was not a revenue-generating location it was cut and instead the Storybookstore replaced it. It was based in part from the Staten Island Ferry Building in Manhattan. Carpenter Gothic is the style.

The artwork below depicts a crystal piano that was designed to rise up out of the ground and form a gazebo. I always loved how the Rock 'n Roll band "grew" out of the ground at the Tomorrowland Terrace at Disneyland. It would be so beautiful to hear distant piano music and then see a glowing, Crystal Steinway rise up in the middle of the Restaurant! This was the centerpiece of our Crystal Palace Restaurant at the Hub. Later the Plaza Inn replaced the Crystal Palace because it was less expensive to build.

This next painting was an early concept for City Hall. Eventually the design of the double columns and rotunda ended up as the interior of Harrington's China store.

This next artwork was done by artist and friend Jim Michelson, best known for his spectacular attraction posters and discovery arcade posters. He did this sketch of the forecourt area.

This artwork by Carol Grosvenor is a early concept for the StoryBook Store. It was before it became a small library theme, inspired by the film "the music man". But Tiger, in the booth, was kept in the final version.

The artwork below, by Nina Rae Vaughn, was to show the San Francisco feel of the Market Street as a concept. We did keep the look and style although these are not the facades at all. Market is also a famous street in San Francisco.

This artwork, also by Nina Rae Vaughn was more of a piece of marketing art for what we were building. We had already done most of the design at that point.

This last sketch shows the Photo shop and the photographer office but the final result is slightly different. I did this to give the buyers the exact density of props, their type, and direction for placement and buying. From a sketch like this you figure out the lighting, furniture, wallcovering and more. "The office" was moved from behind the counter - which became the darkroom - to the niche closer to the street so more guests can see it.

These "Main Street that never was" articles ends with this artwork from Eddie. Again, all my thanks to Eddie Sotto for his great comments on all these amazing concept-arts, it was fascinating!

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Artwork: copyright Disney enterprises Inc.

The Disneyland Paris that never was: Part Two: Main Street U.S.A

2010-04-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

This part two of the "Disneyland Paris that never was" articles series is all about Main Street U.S.A. It’s not very known, but at Disneyland Paris we were at two fingers to get a really different design for Main Street U.S.A. Instead to have a “turn of the century” theming, Eddie Sotto - show producer of the land - had designed a Main Street set up in the 20’s-30’s with of course a totally different look.

WDI Imagineers felt that a Main Street with the theme of Jazz Age America in the 1920's would be more appropriate than the Victorian Architecture that had come from Europe and would therefore be of less interest. Everyone in Europe was fascinated by stories of the Roaring '20s… jazz, Cinema and, of course, Gangsters. They headed a long way down that route and according to Eddie Sotto this version of Main Street would have include "lots of Art Deco, an America as represented by the Chicago and New York seen in the movies. "It seemed to us that this would have been more representative of America in European eyes, as opposed to the Main Street inspired by the small township of Marceline, Missouri. The way we looked at Gangsters, was more of the slapstick comedy "Keystone Kops" variety with fun instead of guns. Walt was able to make Piracy and cowboy outlaws fun, so we thought we could make a "Speakeasy" fun too, without the violence."

Eddie Sotto give us more details about this amazing Main Street concept that never was and all comments with each picture of this article are from Eddie himself, whom i thanks a lot for his very kind contribution:

"In this version inspired by the '20s, each shop reflected the personality of an immigrant to the United States. An elevated train ran along the facades on one side of the street. After reaching the station in front of Discoveryland, the land of visionaries, it came back to Central Plaza, in front of the Castle, passing in front of a Vernian diorama on the return trip.

The top rendering shows the elevated train just above the entrance from Market Street looking south, to the left would be the entrance to the theater that has a circle vision type screen or similar that would tell the history of Hollywood and early film. This circle-vision cinema was disguised as one of the grand classic cinemas of the time, but the concept went away very early in the process because the determination to build a studio as a second park would duplicate that experience. The elevated train as we see it , would also look into windows that depict a "City of the Future" as Victorians imagined it. This was to be a Discoveryland transition.The posters in the hallway of the Arcade are the last remnants of that idea.

This view above shows an overlay sketch of mine to show EL Train, which was more of a "Peoplemover" system with many cars. One of the purposes of the elevated train is to provide a way for people to watch the parade while being under shelter during the rain. The elevated train was to extend to the entrance of Discoveryland to allow guests to circulate without getting wet.
On Main Street, instead of Walt's - an American Restaurant, we put in a "Speakeasy', one of those clandestine bars that sprang up due to prohibition. The guest would enter a relatively innocent looking flower shop, but a minute later the walls would revolve to reveal a 'Cotton Club'-style jazz hotspot.

The sketch above was done by Herb Ryman. We wanted to do a diner that looked liked the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks". This is where Walt's restaurant is now. The "Speakeasy "is next door on Flower Street, see the orange awning. We kept the "signs on the roof idea"and forced perspective distant buildings for Main Street Motors.

Another sketch by Herb Ryman showing the Diner again and the beige awning is the Speakeasy. I loved this sketch.

The painting above by Herb Ryman shows a design proposal for the castle as well as the Main Street elevated tramway. I think he painted Legend Dick Nunis in the foreground with a kid on his shoulders. He used to bury Executives in his paintings.

The painting above was done by Disney legend Collin Campbell. I was wrestling with the design of the 1920's being overlaid onto the existing Main Street. It was no easy task and in many ways looked conflicted. The elevated train station which looks just like the one in the movie "Hello Dolly!" was set on Town Square at a 45° angle. This allowed one block of Main Street to also be positioned that way as well. The Emporium was to be in that block behind the El Train Station so exiting guests would be let out into the upper floor of the store and trickle down. The Gas Station was to be where the Firehouse is currently located. The reason we put a Service Station into the project was because the transition from horse-drawn streetcar to automobile had already been made and the automobile had won.

I was never entirely satisfied with this rendering. The angle, composition, colors, even the scale just felt wrong. Herb Ryman had taken a few stabs with very loose sketches and I felt that they were very much on target. But it was taking a long time to get finished renderings that really depicted the project, so we went with Colin on this particular view. And it took this view and putting the elements together to really show us what kind of work still had to be done. We should have given Colin a better direction to work from. It really made me nervous because there was so many façades that had become ingrained in our consciousness from Walt Disney World, that the addition of these new elements even if they were perfect would seem like a clash. At this point it just wasn't working the way I had hoped. We would have to massage the transitions between Art Deco buildings and 19th Century buildings. We would have to go back into the Victorian designs and simplify them somewhat to make the gap less glaring. We never got that chance as the land was judged and declined while I was on vacation. Note to self... Never go on vacation! In hind sight, do I think the 1920s theme was the right thing for Paris? Yes. A year after he had declined the design, Michael Eisner said to me that we should have done the 1920's idea anyway because it would have been understood better in Europe. By then it was too late. I think in his mind, the 1920's Main St. was more expensive, so he was still happy with what we did and said so often. I don't necessarily agree with the story about him seeing the movie "The Untouchables", and that alone setting him off. I do believe because of the Circlevision Theater, the El Train, and all the Speakeasy Restaurant, it was only partly a creative issue and it was also a big financial issue. With that bigger number in mind it gave him the security to say no. Just an opinion.

The two images above and below were painted by Nina Rae Vaughn. Behind The Town Square East block of buildings there was to be a private restaurant for the sponsors of the park. This idea was first pioneered with club 33 at Disneyland. We would have a secret entrance underneath the railroad station that would lead you to a hidden terminal and in that terminal we would have an American-style streamlined locomotive train complete with dining cars that is inspired by the famous "20th Century Limited". There was a restaurant in Southern California that was this idea and it was absolutely gorgeous but did not survive. We thought this could be the most unique private restaurant in Europe. Europe has the Orient Express as its legendary train. In America the equivalent would be the 20th century limited. I believe we also wanted to investigate projections outside the windows that would take you across the US as it looked in another time.

On the artwork below, this is the east side of Main Street where we had created a circular driveway and we actually wanted the Main Street limousine to pull up in front of the theater and that is where you would board it. Today the limousine is the only thing left of that idea. Herbert Ryman did a very nice painting from this point of view that was stolen from Imagineering and I don't believe they ever got a photograph of it. but I thought it looked really great. It's unfortunate that this sketch is all that remains.

The confusing thing about this next piece of artwork, is that we weren't sure where the façades are going to be yet so this sketch in fact represents the east side of the street not the West. The idea was to have this theater whether it'll be a live stage or a show about film.

The next artwork shows another view of the "circle vision" theater entrance. In this view, we ran the El tracks directly above the guests in the Discovery Arcade. As I recall, this was a very early concept sketch. I think the greenery was shown outside the glass until we decided to make it solid walls.

The artwork below shows the same arcade but with the current design. This drawing was done midway through design to help visualize the details that we were beginning to assemble. The gas lights and brackets all have the liberty motif so I believe this is pretty close to the reality.

Herb Ryman and I discussed Walt's fascination with dollhouses and miniatures in general. We talked about an idea called "Automata-mericana". We thought it would be fun to build animated miniature scenes that are based on the American traditions and set them in Main Street. We wanted to tell the story with images rather than words. For example, The Main St. Cinema would be an animated scene with tiny figures of kids playing in the aisles, couples "making out" in the back, and the Projectionist embracing his mop imitating Valentino's famous screen kiss. Eddie Johnson, (who in my opinion is an unsung Imagineering legend) worked with me on this and came up with lots of fun ideas for these animated scenes. He was one of our art directors and did a great job. On a business trip to Covent Garden, London, we saw an animated "Cabaret" of these small exhibits. They were highly creative, very funny and showcase the ingenious use of cams and handmade characters. The idea for the "Shrunken Ned" Automatic Prescription machine at Disneyland also was inspired by that British exhibit. I believe the location for this exhibit - rendering below - was to be between the Transportation Company and the Hat shop.

Another 1920's Main Street sketch, very early for a music shop. Looks like the work of Barbara Wightman. In the early development you have to do very loose concept sketches so they can throw a budget number at the project. So these designs are just for a feel of the level of quality and basic theme.

Below, just a super rough of a gas station concept based on some research imagery to make it less industrial and more victorian like Main Street. In the 1920's version we also wanted to sprinkle the facades with giant advertising billboards and have cars motoring up and down, to give some idea of the dynamic atmosphere in the United States at that time. These were the only two ideas that were saved for the final version.

This next artwork is an early City Hall concept, before we were made to do 10' wide continuous foul weather walkways in front of the buildings which drove the design in a new direction.

This next concept of a giant clock would have been in the Forecourt, in front of the park's ticketing.

We will end the part one of this "Main Street that never was" article with this last artwork from Eddie, and we'll be back tomorrow with other sketches not linked to the 1920's version. Again, all my thanks to Eddie Sotto for his great comments on this amazing concept, which unfortunately was never built.

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Artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

The Disneyland Paris that never was - Part one

2010-03-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hello aeveryone. Here is the first part of a series of articles about the "Disneyland Paris that never was", and this is a new version of the one previously released someyears ago, with new and better scans and some surprises.
As you know, when WDI imagineers begin to think about a new park or attraction, the phase one is call “blue sky”, everything in this phase one can be imagined as there is still no limit that the final budget will put inevitably. Then, from the blue sky comes the comeback to earth and choices must be done. Mind you, it’s not that the imagineers love to do some “cut” in their wonderful concepts as they are always pleased to enhance any project or put more theming details when it’s possible. The best example is Tokyo Disney Sea although even with this one some choices had to be done like with the “Voyages of Sindbad attraction which had a different first concept than the actual one with its oriental “small world puppet” theming.

To come back to DLP, and although the budget for the park back in 1990 was high, the imagineers had to make choices. Most of the time, they’ve kept the best. Sometime, as we will see, the project they had in mind was really too expensive...others were not really that expensive but the park’s management decided to do some “cuts”. It’s always the same thing when we look at renderings of “never done“ projects: we want this one to be built immediately! .........and we forget that what we already have is great! So, most of these coming projects will never exist, although, as they say at WDI “a good idea never die”. Let’s just dream about them, leave your mind enter the art-work and imagine that it’s real.

To begin by the beginning, the first picture below show you a model of the park, and, that’s how it looks before the imagineers decided to add Autopia, with the Disneyland Paris hotel at the entrance.

You may have not noticed it but the map of EuroDisneyland at the top of this article have an interesting detail. If you look at Discoveryland's entrance on the left of the Orbitron you'll see a structure which was never built. WDI Imagineer Tim Delaney had envisioned to build the Alien Encounter attraction at DLP's Discoveryland - in front of the Visionarium building and the Constellations shop, and this is a rare proof of the project. Although the words "Alien Encounter" are not written on the map you can see clearly the two theaters of the attraction on the picture detail below. Unfortunately the attraction was cancelled.

This rendering below show you a pretty different park's entrance, with two small lake where the fantasia gardens are now, and a big one at the bottom with a wharf and a boat where now stands a big boulevard.

The next one is a “winter” version of the previous one, where imagineers have imagined the small lake frozen and where people could have done ice-skating on them (Actually, this is possible in front of the New York hotel, so all is not lost)

This town square rendering shows main street entrance with coconut trees. This image depicts an early concept when the disneyland Paris Hotel was inside of Main Street U.S.A and the left side shows the resort architecture of a grand floridian style hotel. The coconut trees were part of that idea.

The Disneyland Hotel was indeed built but this two next artworks show a slightly different architecture and a much bigger pool too.

...You'll note that the coconut trees are back!

I will come back soon on the Main Street that never was with a brand new article as we were at two fingers to get a really different Main Street than the one which now exist. Instead to have a “turn of the century” theming, Eddie Sotto - DLP Main Street show-designer - had designed a Main Street set up at the 20’s-30’s with a totally different look.

This next artwork show Central Plaza and all we can see on it exist in reality but you'll see some Christmas season decor at the center of the plaza which, them, don't exist.

In Frontierland, most of the original concepts were realized, but sometime , small changes makes big difference. Take this early model of Phantom manor, for instance. Next to the manor you can see a barn where now instead stands a totally different queue building.

What i miss the most is the great voice of Vincent Price who was recorded - as Phantom Manor ghost host. For a little while , at the opening of the park , visitors were welcomed by Price’s voice, until it was realised that this only english version was not understand by the french audience.....But the ghost laughs that you can hear during the ride are still Vincent Price laughs! A little story about the recording session: when it was recorded , Vincent Price was already at the end of his life , and really tired, physically speaking. So, the agreement was that Price could come for the recording , but just for one hour. Everything was ready, and Price arrived at the recording studio. He look really tired and everybody hoped that he could do it right....then he begin to read the text, and , all of a sudden , it was magical. A few takes were done, and that was it! Probably one of the last thing that Vincent Price did with all his genius. However, all is not lost , as this recording was released on the Haunted mansion anniversary cd , that you can still find easily.

On the picture below around Vincent Price are Imagineers Al Vasquez behind the camera, Jeff Kurti is behind Vincent Price and the woman on the right is Gabrielle Reynolds.

Another concept never realised for Frontierland was this small wood carver shop.

But the most surprising is probably this Lil' Big Thunder ride concept by Julie Svendsen - Obviously inspired by Disneyland extinct attraction "Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland" it was a kind of Big Thunder family coaster for young kids going through "rainbow caverns", Geysers, friendly cactus, rolling stone balls and even a mine blast!

Don't miss the next parts of these Disneyland Paris that never was articles, coming soon!

You will find many more renderings of Disneyland Paris in my “Disneyland Paris, from sketch to reality” book which tell you all about the creation of the park, thanks to 750 pictures of the park including 250 renderings, and a great text by Didier Ghez. You can order easily the book to me if you wish, please check my special offer below!

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All artwork and photos: copyright Disney

Disney Animation Update: Princess and the Frog, Rapunzel, and......"Prep and Landing"

2009-08-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today, a special Disney Animation update, and we will begin with some pictures of the Disney Animation Panel at San Diego's Comicon on July 24.

Legendary director Hayao Miyazaki was there too - his last movie "Ponyo" will be released soon in the U.S - and here he is with John Lasseter who consider Miyazaki as his "master".

On the next picture: Director Ron Clements, Director John Musker, Director Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Director Kirk Wise and Director Lee Unkrich at the Disney Animation Panel.

On this last one John Musker, John Lasseter and Ron Clements at the San Diego Convention Center.

And talking about John Musker and Ron Clements, the two directors of Princess and the Frog, here is a great "pencil test" video that was shown during the Comicon.

Also, a series of - for some of them new - pictures from this awaited movie.

Let's talk now about another 2D animated feature, Rapunzel, as new pictures were released recently, and all this looks pretty interesting as you will see. Here they are.

A good surprise may also come from another new Walt Disney Animation project called "Prep and Landing" directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers. Here is the pitch: "After working tirelessly on Prep and Landing for 227 years, an Elf named Wayne is upset when he doesn't receive an expected promotion to be the "director of naughty list intelligence".
Instead Magee the North Pole Christmas Eve command center coordinator partners Wayne with Lanny, an idealistic rookie who has an undying unthusiasm for Christmas. during their Christmas Eve mission, Wayne and Larry encounter unexpected challenges that push them to their limits.
Will the elves be able to guide Dasher, Dancer and the rest of the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh through a raging snowstorm to ensure a Merry Christmas for all?"

Don't need to be a genius to guess that this new movie will be released more than probably on Christmas!

Here are some pictures of "Prep and Landing" and apparently this one seems to be done in 3D animation.

Okay, that's all for today, have all a great week-end!

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All pictures and video: copyright Disney - Getty images

Islands of Adventure Original Artwork and video tribute

2009-08-05T04:45:00.001-07:00

As Islands of Adventure is now under works for the awaited Harry Potter land, i thought it was a good time to look back to the original concept of the park, including some areas that will disappear forever.

When Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park opened, everybody was stunned: So, Universal was able to build a theme park with a theming as good and detailed as Disney?
Yes, and there were good reasons for that : some of the creators of the park were former Disney Imagineers, and they did a real good job on IOA.

Anyway, the park is indeed beautiful, and here is a "portfolio" of some of the art-work done for each land of the park. As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

These two first renderings show an overview of the park and the entrance.

The artworks below is for Seuss Landing and the Cat with a Hat attraction.

At the entrance of Lost Continent, the giant arm of the broken statue.

The entrance of the eight voyages of Sindbad stunt show.

This next artwork was created for a scene of Dueling Dragons queue.

Below, two other renderings for Dueling Dragons, the second one show the queue decor. The coaster will be transformed in a Harry Potter coaster ride.

Three artwork for the Jurassic Park land, including the Jurassic Park attraction and the Pteranodon Flyers. A Disney and more reader who worked on the park's creation just left in the comments an interesting story about the first rendering below. Here it is: "Regarding the rendering you have featuring the overview of Jurassic Park, you can see an attraction in the background which was designed and put on hold, which still has not been realized in the park. It is the building with the helicopter perched on a rooftop landing pad. This attraction was to be called Helicoptours and was a simulator attraction, which flew visitors over the world of Jurassic Park ending in a crash landing in a dinosaur filled jungle. It was a great attraction, but one which is doubtful will ever be constructed now that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is encroaching on some of the real estate planned for the attractions footprint."

In Toon Lagoon, the Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls attraction.

An artwork for the Popeye and Bluto's Blige-Rat Barges raft ride.

A night overview of Marvel Super Hero Island.

A rare early concept for the Incredible Hulk coaster.

Without any doubt, one of the best ride in the world: The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman.

And, to do things perfectly, you'll find below you tube videos of the Cat in the hat attraction, as well as those of "Poseidon's fury " attraction - that probably will be removed for their future Harry Potter's land - , Jurassic park river adventure, and the not-to-be-missed Spiderman ride.

Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Artwork: copyright Universal Studios

Meet Peter Sohn, Director of Pixar's " Partly Cloudy "

2009-08-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Peter Sohn - above and below - is the director of Pixar's Partly Cloudy, this wonderful short movie released wih Up!. He's here at Pixar Animation Studios during the making of Partly Cloudy.

Animator at Pixar Animation Studios, he worked on Finding Nemo as story artist. On the Incredibles he was animator, story artist and did additional voices. On Ratatouille he was also animator and the voice of Emile. Before his Pixar career he worked on the Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones. And in UP! Russell, the Asian-American character, looks somewhat similar to Peter Sohn, who has a Korean surname.

Pixar also released these two Partly Cloudy preliminary sketches of the storks flying and of Gus and Peck.

Pictures: copyright Disney-Pixar

DCA's World of Color Pictures, Artwork and Videos

2009-07-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

The pictures were released last week-end, but i was doing my "Man on the Moon" celebration and couldn't post them before. Anyway, better too late than never and here is great artwork for the awaited "World of Color" show at DCA. As always, click on each picture to see them in big size.

First, some pictures of the Blue Sky Cellar preview center.

Here is the artwork for the Pocahontas scene...

...And two artworks for Alice in Wonderland scenes.

The artwork for the Wall-E scene...

and the one - if i'm not wrong - for the final scene.

Disneyland also released a picture of the model showing where will be all the fountains...

...as well as pictures of the construction inside Paradise Pier Lagoon.

I'm re-posting here the video - filmed by the always excellent MintCrocodile - that visitors of Blue Sky Cellar can see and learn more about the upcoming show.

Disneyland also posted on Youtube a behind the scenes video of the construction in DCA's lagoon!

But the not-to-be-missed video is the presentation that Steven Davison, creator of the show, did last week. Not only you will learn a lot about the show itself, but if you want to see somebody who have a real VISION, then look closely at Steven Davison.
Thanks God, "Lightsofwinter" had the genius idea to film Steven's presentation, and here it is in three parts.

Pictures and artwork: copyright Disney

Videos: copyright Disney, MintCrocodile and Lightsofwinter

New " World of Colour " Artwork coming soon at DCA Preview Center

2009-07-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

If you're living in California, look out for the new World of Colour concept-art that will be unveil at DCA Blue Sky Cellar preview center later this week!

The one above released today on the L.A Times web site shows the alice in Wonderland sequence, but you can expect to see many more at the preview center.

Read the L.A Times full article HERE.

Artwork: copyright Disney

New Hong Kong Disneyland Artwork !

2009-07-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong Disneyland released three new artwork for each of the awaited new lands -
Grizzly Trail , Mystic Point and Toy Story Land - and here they are! Click on each to see them in bigger size!

Very interesting artwork as we can see more of these three new lands. Grizzly Trail and its Audio-Animatronic bears looks promising and Mystic Manor artwork is even more exciting as the theme and the inside of the manor looks really different than the others Haunted Mansions.

Also, here are bigger files of the previously released artwork for the three new lands.

I remember you that you can now find this article and ALL others artwork articles about HKDL and all others Disney theme parks on the new Disney and more Artwork site HERE

All Artwork: copyright Disney

Hong Kong Disneyland new lands announced officially with Artwork

2009-07-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is it, the Hong Kong Disneyland expansion plan is unveiled, three "lands" were announced today and you will see great artwork for each of them! Basically, the three new lands are located on the left side of the park , stick to the west of Adventureland as you can see on the expansion map above. No giant Pirates of Caribbean land, no snow-covered mountain, but a small Frontierland with a mine ride, a Haunted Mansion with a different theme, and a Toy Story Playland exactly like the one we will have at the WDS next year.

Also, you will notice that they still have a big space available for a future expansion on the left of the new Frontierland/Grizzly Trail.

Here are all the details with the official press release and click on each picture to see them in full size.

With the addition of more than 30 new attractions, play and entertainment experiences, Hong Kong Disneyland’s total number of rides and attractions will increase by almost 50 percent and top one hundred. When completed, the expansion will increase HKDL’s physical footprint by approximately 23 percent; broaden the park’s appeal by adding more experiences for young adults; and place increased focus on universally-understood stories. Using Guest feedback as a guide, these three new themed areas will create memorable guest experiences, drive strong word of mouth and repeat visitation, and offer many unique only-available-in-Hong-Kong attractions that feature Disney’s immersive storytelling and innovative technology.

Grizzly Trail
Grizzly Gulch, Frontier Gold-Mining Town

The path along Grizzly Trail offers high-spirited frontier fun in an abandoned mining town called Grizzly Gulch, set amidst mountains and woods. The town was founded August 8, 1888 – the luckiest day of the luckiest month of the luckiest year – by prospectors looking to discover gold. Bears have now started causing havoc at the Big Grizzly Mountain Mining Company.

Key Technology and Creative Elements
• Guests visiting Grizzly Gulch are part of the action, experiencing hands-on water features, massive geysers and various leaking structures in the abandoned town.
• Life-size Audio-Animatronic® bears set the story in motion on Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, an adventure aboard a runaway mine train through town. Guests careen backward down an incline that propels them through twists and turns, before a launch sequence “blasts” the mine train out of the mountain.
• A Wild West stagecoach, an old time Jail House, and the world’s largest nugget of gold provide fun photo opportunities.
• Guests can relax with a Wild West refreshment at the old Saloon or shop for mining supplies and souvenirs at the Bear Necessities merchandise stand.

Mystic Point

Mystic Point is the site of mysterious forces and supernatural events in the heart of a dense, uncharted rain forest.

In Mystic Manor, home to an eccentric world traveler and adventurer and his collection of exotic international artifacts, strange things are afoot as an enchanted music box releases its magical powers, thanks to a mischievous monkey.

Key Technology and Creative Elements
• Inside Mystic Manor, a trackless ride system enables vehicles to move “freely” about the attraction as the story unfolds. Audio-Animatronic® figures and special visual and audio effects help tell the story of mystical phenomena.
• Within Mystic Point lies a beautiful garden full of relics and mythological figures, where guests discover a hidden world of illusions and mysteries that trick the eye.
• Guests can dine at the Adventurer’s Club amid a vast collection of unusual artifacts from around the world or purchase exclusive curiosities and collectibles at the Archive Shop.

Toy Story Land
Disney·Pixar-themed Play Area for Kids of All Ages

Andy, the young boy from the Disney·Pixar Toy Story films, has left his toys unattended in this immersive and highly themed environment, based on one of Disney·Pixar’s most popular film series. While Andy is away, the toys come to life and play...and Guests are invited to join!

Key Technology and Creative Elements
• Oversized outdoor rides and photo opportunities allow Guests to experience the different perceptions of scale, and shrink to the size of a toy.
• One attraction includes a shuttle coaster which propels Guests along a U-shaped style track.
• A drop-style parachute attraction lets Guests join a “training mission,” plunging from a 25m tall tower.
• Guests will enjoy fun, immersive and interactive environments with life-size toys.
• A themed food kiosk provides a barrel of fun snacks and refreshments and Guests can shop for Toy Story inspired collectibles at the merchandise location.

(end of press release)

Now, to all DLRP and WDS fans : Have a look again to the Toy Story Playland rendering above as the Toy Story Playland at the WDS will look exactly - or almost - identical when it will open in July 2010!

As for HKDL this expansion is not only welcome and necessary but also will bring new attractions unique to the park - Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, with audio-animatronic Bears and a track that seems to be inspired by the one of Expedition Everest - or also new versions of grand classic ride - Mystic Manor - a Haunted Mansion mixed with the world traveler and adventurer theme of TDS Tower of Terror. It will be very interesting to discover all this when it will open in 2011-12!

And now, more news about the financial part of this expansion with this Reuters.com article. Note that the author says that there will be 30 "new" attractions but it's probably a mistake, what he means is that HKDL will have in all 30 attractions including the new one:

Disney to pump $452 mln new funds into HK theme park
Reuters - Wednesday, July 1

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG, June 30 - Hong Kong said on Tuesday the Walt Disney Co will invest $452 million to expand its Hong Kong theme park, seen as necessary to bolster the park's long-term prospects against a planned rival park in Shanghai.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said Hong Kong would not invest more capital in the joint venture but would convert a substantial part of its loan to the project into equity. He added Disney's capital investment would be about HK$3.5 billion.

Disney will also convert the entire balance of its outstanding HK$2.76 billion loan to the theme park to equity.

"In total this means that the Walt Disney Company will invest about HK$6.2 billion new capital in demonstration of the company's confidence in Hong Kong Disneyland," said Rita Lau, Hong Kong's Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development.

After Disney's new investment and the government's debt to equity swap, Hong Kong will see its stake in the underperforming park fall to 52 percent from 57 percent in the theme park's first major expansion since its opening to great fanfare in 2005.

Since then however, the park's performance has been sluggish, with attendance figures falling short of initial targets.

The government's outstanding loan to the theme park is about HK$6.89 billion. After the conversion, this balance will not drop below HK$1 billion, the government said in a statement.

It said the expansion, with a mix of thrill rides, would "broaden the park's appeal" and act as a "catalyst" in improving the park's operating and financial performance.

"If there is no expansion, the attraction of the theme park will fall over time," government economist Helen Chan said at a briefing to announce details of the long-awaited expansion.

SHANGHAI RIVAL

The Hong Kong government desperately needs the expansion to boost flagging attendance, with a much larger rival Disneyland expected to be built in Shanghai in 2014 that could draw much visitor traffic from the burgeoning mainland China market.

"We're only increasing it by some 20 percent but the Shanghai Disneyland is going to be ten times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland, how are we going to compete with them," said lawmaker Emily Lau during a briefing on the plan.

But officials, who must still lobby lawmakers to green-light the deal in a legislative session on July 10, stressed the park's unique attractions would bolster the park's current reported attendance of about 4.5 million annually, to between 5.2-8.4 million visitors by 2015 when the expansion is done.

"We often talk about uniqueness and exclusiveness and therefore it's not just about the size," said Hong Kong official Lau.

"We're not competing on the basis of size, we are competing on the basis of these attractions," Lau added.

The park is currently the smallest 'Magic Kingdom' globally.

The expansion, which will cost HK$3.63 billion, will include 30 new attractions and three new theme areas -- two unique to any Disneyland -- and will see the total area of Hong Kong Disneyland increase by 23 percent over five years.

The total net economic benefit of the expanded theme park over 40 years would range from HK$64.7 billion to HK$117.3 billion, the government said, with the theme park having already added 0.2 percent to the city's annual GDP since opening.

Hong Kong's Financial Secretary John Tsang travelled to Los Angeles in May, where he met senior Disney executives. The trip is seen to have paved the way for the breakthrough after Disney earlier said it would stall any expansion amid the credit crunch.

As part of the deal, Disney promised to boost transparency by disclosing its annual visitor figures and financial performance.

All pictures: copyright Disney - Hong Kong Disneyland

James Pomfret Reuters article: copyright Reuters.com

Leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

2009-07-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, like the park, is located on Lantau Island - 20 minutes only from the airport and 40 minutes from Hong Kong island, and what you must not forget is that there has been a huge land filled, as before , where HKD is now standing , everything was under water! as you can see on these two pictures , before and after.

The main reason about the choice of the architecture of the two HKD hotels was that they were so different that one can find in hong kong, and that’s sure as it’s probably hard to find in hong kong a victorian architecture like the HKD hotel.

But, before they built it , as we are in hong kong, the location of the hotel required a “feng shui” master! So, Imagineers of the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel worked with a feng shui master from Hong Kong for positioning the buildings and entrances throughout the resort.
His advice included to make sure that the main entrance faced north to south, oriented to ensure maximum advantage from the Green Dragon Mountain to the east and White Tiger Mountain to the west. Doorways, so, are placed to maximize the flow of positive energy. Water themes also dominate throughout the resort, in restaurants and lounges.

When you arrive at the entrance of the resort, you instantly know that the imagineers did their best: The avenues leading to the hotels have a great tropical lush vegetation theming and , instantly, you know that you’re entering in a “Disney” world.

I stayed at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel, one of the two hotels of the resort - the other one being the “Hollywood hotel”, and both of them are great , top disney-quality. To give you an idea, i put the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel - who have the same architectural style - between the Disneyland hotel in paris and the Grand Floridian in orlando. It’s bigger than the Disneyland hotel in paris, and smaller than the Grand Floridian.

And it’s a great one! with a beautiful lobby...

Big rooms with balcony...

Luxury suites, with WDI art framed on the walls...

Wonderful indoor-outdoor swimming pool and asian spa...

And even a labyrinth maze in the central garden where you can play to get lost!

Some rooms give you special access to the “kingdom club” , a beautiful victorian private lounge where guests can find free drinks and food all day.

The Imagineers designed three different restaurants, from quick and casual at the "Sorcerer’s Lounge"...

To fine dining at the Crystal Lotus restaurant, featuring fine Asian cuisine themed after the five essentials of life – wood, metal, earth, fire and water .Even the entryway to Crystal Lotus, the hotel’s signature contemporary Chinese restaurant, pours on the Disney magic. Guests pass above the see-through floor of a virtual aquarium. As they step onto the surface, rushing water is heard and ripples spread as the colorful “fish” dart about. The imagineers had fun to put lot of “special effects”. At the bar, the top of the vodka or whisky bottles launch “flames” regularly and the lotus flowers are changing of colours in a fraction of seconds!

The ultimate in Disney character dining can be found in the conservatory-like setting of the lamp-lit Enchanted Garden Restaurant, offering exquisite buffet-style meals.

But there is one other good reason to stay at the HKD hotel: it’s the fantastic view on the Hong Kong bay at night,. After a whole day in HKD magic kingdom, having right in front of you, the dazzling sky line of hong kong at night, it is really magical!

And now it's time to discover it through two perfectly filmed youtube videos by barrybillionaire. You will see everything i mention above, including WDI special effects in the Crystal Lotus restaurant!

Artwork: copyright Disney - Photos: copyright Disney and Alain Littaye

Youtube videos by barrybillionaire

Hong Kong Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

2009-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the second pictorial report about the Hong Kong Disneyland hotels, and this one is about the beautiful art-deco Hollywood hotel.

Just like the Hong kong disneyland hotel had some reminiscence of WDW grand floridian, the Hollywood hotel, have something of the Tokyo Disneyland Ambassador Hotel, except that this new version is even better!

So let’s have a closer look to how the press release presents it: “It was the Golden Age of Hollywood when, night after night, searchlights on Hollywood Boulevard heralded the latest star-studded motion picture premiere at an ornate movie palace, celebrities wined and dined at swank clubs on the Sunset Strip, and young girls discovered at soda shops would become glamorous movie stars.

There was only one business that mattered in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Motion pictures.
Hollywood was the original movie capital of the world. It is a place where dreams become real and reality is often nothing more than a dream.
“This spirit of fantasy, whimsy and movie-making magic is reflected not only in Hollywood’s product, motion pictures, but in its atmosphere, its essence and its architecture, all of which serve as the inspiration for Disney’s Hollywood Hotel at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort,” says Wing Chao, executive vice president, Master Planning, Architecture and Design for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Designed in the Art Deco style of architecture with whimsical Mickey Mouse-inspired motifs, the stylish eight-story hotel features 600 guest rooms in a U-shaped building arranged around a central courtyard. The hotel’s Hollywood theme will make every guest feel like a movie star as they immerse themselves in the history and glamour of motion pictures.

Details abound in the hotel with the movie and Art Deco motif reflected in everything from the light fixtures and carpets in the public areas of the hotel to the wall coverings and bedspreads in the guest rooms, creating a “Disney Deco” ambience.

A distinctly unique feature is its expansive lawns, which cover 21 acres and are available for guests to play on, picnic or simply relax.

The Chef Mickey restaurant: The 280-seat buffet-style restaurant pays tribute to Disney’s famous mouse with his famous ears adorning the decor. Bright lights shine through the oversized film reels suspended from the ceiling as diners enjoy a delicious array of international favorites.
The upscale buffet features a series of show kitchens where Disney chefs can be seen working their culinary magic.

Studio Lounge: Located just off the main lobby, the Art Deco theme of the hotel continues with the colorful, high-backed chairs and soft sofas complementing the streamlined wall panels. With a full service bar offering specialty cocktails and mocktails (non-alcoholic mixed drinks), Studio Lounge is a place to relax and enjoy the view through floor-to-ceiling windows.

In addition to exciting and unique dining experiences, Disney’s Hollywood Hotel offers a wide variety of leisure and recreation facilities. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the garden that unfolds like a map of Los Angeles with popular and well-known Hollywood streets, landmarks and icons.

The pedestrian walkways are modeled after such renowned Los Angeles landmarks as the Hollywood Freeway (complete with interchange), Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards, and Mulholland Drive. The famous “Hollywood” sign is certain to be a popular photo spot, while handprints and footprints of international and local celebrities will recreate the Avenue of the Stars.

The whimsical piano-shaped pool, complete with keys, in the center of the garden will feature a waterslide built into a rock where several “Hidden Mickeys” will inspire young “on the lookout” guests. Next to the pool, a whirlpool will relax and rejuvenate guests. “

Wow! doesn’t it sounds good to you? If you’re big art-deco lover, it seems that WDI has reached your expectations...In fact, the Hollywood hotel was the one chosen for the big HKD hotels opening celebrations.

Before the videos, i’d like to talk about another peaceful area of HKD: “Inspiration lake” Located at the opposite, Inspiration lake is a public park and a 3,5 hectare arboreum, where people can rest, find boat rentals or jogging trails, all this in a peaceful atmosphere, with in the back drop the hills. But, as you can see on the photo below, one can enjoy too a view of the park,specially space mountain!

So, here are two great youtube videos of the Hollywood Hotel by barrybillionaire.
They will show you everything of this wonderful and not so expensive hotel. On the videos there is not a lot of people. It does not mean that the hotel is empty, it only means that the guests are in the park!

Artwork and photos: copyright Disney

Youtube videos by barrybillionaire

Hong Kong Disneyland Part one with interview of Show-Producer Imagineer Tom Morris

2009-07-10T13:55:00.001-07:00

Hong Kong Disneyland is Disney’s newest theme park and we begin today a 5 parts article about this new magic kingdom.
I have the pleasure to introduce you to Tom MORRIS, executive creative show producer for an exclusive interview about the park. Tom , senior show producer at Walt Disney Imagineering was previously the show producer for Disneyland paris Fantasyland. He was also the show producer for the gorgeous sleeping beauty castle at DLP.

Alain Littaye: Hello Tom. Many thanks for this interview . What were the challenges in building a Disney theme park in Hong Kong?

Tom Morris: Hello Alain. Well, first, we have the challenge that we always have when we take a park overseas, which is to select the most classic attractions that we’ve done in the past, but also we have to think about a special one that we need to do for the visitors who will be coming to the park in this particular region. And the second thing is the climate, the weather conditions of Hong Kong . For Paris, it was about cold and four months of drizzle, here , in Hong Kong, it’s about heat and a lot of rain, more than in any of our other parks, significantly more. And that brings a lot of challenges in terms of coverage and drainage. And of course, probably the biggest challenge of all here is the fact that it was all just water five years ago! It was a big civil engineering challenges...All the land was under water four years ago.
I remember that the first time we came out here in 2001,we came on the site in a boat! We were floating 15 feet beneath where i’m standing right now...So this whole site - i think 300 acres of landfill were created just in the last five years . The whole resort is around 4 or 500 acres, but 300 acres or so were just landfill.

A.L: And i think it’s pretty difficult to “visualize” a park when the land is under the ocean!...

T.M: That’s right!...So, these were the challenges, but some of the great benefits and a gift is having these beautiful mountains as backdrop for this park...There is mountains on one side, and , on the other one, the resort hotels benefit of a beautiful view on the Hong Kong skyline and the South China sea. It really is a remarkable site , so conveniently located, only at 20 or 30 minutes from any point in Hong Kong territories...

A.L: I wonder if it’s not - in terms of scenery - the best site you ever had for a Disney theme park...

T.M: I think you’re right. And, other than the heat, it’s just beautiful, gorgeous, even the thunder storms are quite spectacular here! they create beautiful waterfalls on the mountains, right after a big rain.

Note: There was another challenge for HKD: the old chinese art of “Feng shui”. The ancient Chinese practice involves ensuring that there is a good flow of energy, or "qi" when you’re building new houses, or, in this case, a theme park. Buildings and other structures need to face a certain direction depending on their surroundings. Elements such as wood, fire and earth have to be carefully balanced.

A.L: There is a long “promenade” which brings the visitors to the entrance of the park

T.M: Yes, the “Disney promenade”. I was not involved directly in the design, but it’s a wonderful walk way from the transportation center leading to the park and to the hotels and the ferry pier. I think it’s a kilometer long, there is four plazas with water features and topiaries..., beautiful gardens and this great fountain at the entrance of the park. Every hundred meters there is resting place. But from the train station to the entrance of the park there is only about 150 meters, so most people will only walk that much from the station to the park...

A.L: The park have four lands instead of five in the other magic kingdoms...

T.M: That’s right. We combined attributes of Frontierland and Adventureland in one big land on the left, another one big land on the right with Tomorrowland , one big land straight ahead with Fantasyland , and of course main street,, so it becomes like a quadrilater. We took attributes of Frontierland, basically the big river which we called here the “River of adventures”, and we put an island on it - the Tarzan island . We have the river traffic that usually Frontierland have by putting the jungle cruise boats on the river . So every minute or so, there is a jungle cruise boat which leave for a cruise on the river. It’s dinstinctly Adventureland in its “flavour” and we thought it was best to keep the american “icon” only for Main street. Main street is the piece of the park that represents america and nostalghia and we wanted the left part of the park to be very shady, very green, to use a lot of water... we wanted these four lands to very very distinctive. Plus, the stories that are in Adventureland are for the local audience to be able to have Tarzan, the Lion king, and characters from the newer films give it a little bit more relevant.

We keep space around the land, so the idea with Adventureland is that eventually you will be able to stroll around the key romantic regions of the world. We have Polynesia, south seas, part of Africa, part of south east Asia with Thailand and Cambodgia, there is flavours of elements of all these regions today in Adventureland...
And then , in the future, eventually, people will visit other locals like Carribean, and, we think, may be North America... And in that North America neighborhood of Adventureland one will probably find some of the attractions that you will find in the Frontierland of the other parks.

A.L: But i think it will be hard to put the “dry” desert theming of “Big thunder mountain” in Adventureland...

T.M: We haven’t decide on any specific attractions for the future, but what we’ve done is we’ve create a neigborhood or a parcel of Adventureland that is representative of north america. So in this idea of going to all these “ports of call”, we can imagine that one could be along the pacific north west, and that could contain some of the attractions that one might find in Frontierland...

A.L: By the way, this Adventureland seems to be the biggest ever built..

T.M: Yes, i think in terms of “on stage area” i believe it’s the biggest Adventureland. And it’s quite large: imagine the rivers of america and several little neighborhood along the side of the river...

A.L: Can you tell me more about Tarzan island ? One of the good idea is that the Tarzan tree don’t have the exact shape than the Swiss robinson tree...

T.M: Right. It’s based on the Tarzan tree that was done at Disneyland some years ago, with the scenes of the highlights of the movie, and interactives at the base of the tree, the same you’ll find at Disneyland, and little baby elephants...and you take rafts to reach the Tarzan island. For the future, one of our plans is to expand the island theming.

A.L: Is the Jungle cruise identical to the one in the united states?

T.M: Yes, it share some scenes from the other jungle cruise, it has the Cambodgian ruins, the gorillas that trash the camp, and the hippos scenes, the natives, etc....but we have enhanced some effects : the elephants - how could i say - are a little more “invasive” than they’ve been in the past...we don’t mind getting our guests a little bit more wet on this attraction, not uncomfortably so, but just to get a little bit more surprised and more fun... And we have developped some other new effects with the natives scene - where the natives attack the boat, new effects too with the hippos, and a brand new scene for the finale of the attraction where you get caught in the cross fire of a battle between gods of fire and water ... this big finale of the attraction leaves people with a big smile on their face...

A.L: Are the “Liki Tikis “ a reminiscence from the “Tiki room” ?

T.M: No. They are some tikis that are in the style of those of the tiki room and they are over “professor porter’s” shop nearby , but the “Liki Tikis” are eight totem poles that blow steam and throw water. They are probably more reminiscent of the four totems that are in the magic kingdom in disney world.

A.L:Talking about reminiscence, i saw that you’ve recreated the “tahitian terrace”, although i think it’s a different one that the one which was built in Disneyland many years ago...

T.M: That’s right , but we have the “spirit” of the Tahitian terrace, that’s why we have some of the tikis from the tiki garden of the tiki room...but the tahitian terrace is where you can get chinese and asian food, barbecues, noodles, sushis...with a very pleasant environment with a patio with trees and beautiful light and tikis, of course. And it’s under a big thatch roof which is similar in some respect with the original tahitian terrace in disneyland,but it’s specially designed for this new park. Somewhere similar to main street , where we borrowed the original architecture but the inside is all new and all customed...

A.L: Is the “festival of the lion king” the same show than the one at animal kingdom?

T.M: It’s very similar, but the musical numbers and the costumes have been updated, and i think there is an additional musical number and more show action equipment involved. And a bigger theatre, too.

A.L: The “professor porter’s trading post “ is the only shop in adventureland...

T.M: Yes, the “Professor porter “ is the father of Jane in the movie, and his shop is the one of a excentric explorer scientist , and he has built a permanent trading post where you can see his personnal belongings that he brought with him to create a “home sweet home away from home”

Here is the end of the first part of the Tom Morris interview. Come back soon for the second part of Tom’s interview in a few days where he will talk about Main Street....and much more !

Let's end this article with a Jungle cruise You tube video by Barrybillionaire

All Photos and Art-work: copyright Disney

Hong Kong Disneyland Part Two with interview of Show-Producer Imagineer Tom Morris

2009-07-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the part two of the exclusive interview ofTom MORRIS, executive creative show producer for the park. Tom , senior show producer at Walt Disney Imagineering was previously the show producer for Disneyland paris Fantasyland. He was also the show producer for the gorgeous sleeping beauty castle at DLP. And this time he tell us more about hong kong disneyland’s main street.

ALAIN LITTAYE: Main street and the castle looks like an almost perfect “copy” - in the good meaning of the word - of the one in Disneyland in Anaheim...

TOM MORRIS: I think it was just a kind of hommage to the original castle , the original main street and train station that was personnally supervised by walt disney. So we wanted something here that actually have some of the “DNA” of walt’s vision...and we thought main street would be the appropriate place to do that, a tribute to his chidhood and his nostalgia...
and also there is a little bit more of the feeling of the disneyland version...put it in a kind of cinema terms main street feels more like “the music man” and the one at walt disney world is more like “hello dolly”.
We wanted something a little more intimate, in fact the smaller scale works very much in favor of main street , i believe. There is more wood, there is a heavier use of wood molding than the facades of the disneyland version of main street...it’s less stone-based and more wood-based. And that is unique, very unique for hong kong, because you do not see wood anywhere.
The victorian colonial architecture in hong kong is all about stone buildings, and here this kind of combination of queen anne architecture you know, with all the gingerbread on it, it’s something that’s very unique...For all the people of this region , i really think it’s a completely different and new look , so we wanted to have something that was for them , i guess “exotic”.

A.L: Do the interiors of the main street buildings have the same quality of details that they have in disneyland?

T.M: Oh, yes. And may be more. Because we brought back some of our best interiors designers to work on those shops on main street, some who worked on disneyland paris . the shops have very distinct personnalities, we wanted to make sure that the shops really feel like they have their own individual business owners and entrepreuniors...so that was a very important piece of it, each shop having its own kind of color scheme or design image system associated with a different lighting , different woodwork, a different way of presenting the story . We have a beautiful jewelry store on the street, we have a bakery, a fantastic candy store, we have what’s called the corner café, of course the “emporium”,and they’re all very developped like they’re owned by different people, and that was very important . we’ve also integrated a little bit of an “emigrant” story into the street, too. So that, if you look carefully at the props and photographs, you’ll begin to discover that some of the owners are immigrative from austria, or from china, or from russia...so we wanted to have that slight overland--story telling as well...

A.L: I think you have a beautiful chinese restaurant on main street...

T.M: We do, it’s beautiful. It’s the Plaza Inn, and it borrows some architecture from disneyland’s main street on the outside. And on the inside, you step across another world. You’re in China at the turn of the century, about that time period where both america and china shared a mutual fascination and appreciation with one another. So you will see a lot of western influence and , too, chinese furnishings...it really is what we called a “east meet west” material...and we have murals that are reproduction from the pre -production artwork for “Mulan” done by the production designer of disney feature animation...They’re at the back of the restaurant, forming these beautiful landscapes and we have chinese lanterns that changed colours...it’s a very magical place, and at the end of the day it’s a very “disney” experience...you know, it’s a fusion of western and eastern experience, but then at the end of the day , it’s “disney”, because of the colours and the lighting.

A.L: About the castle, is there any walk through inside of it, like the one in disneyland?

T.M: Not yet, but we reserved space inside of it for future development , once we get an idea and understanding of what people need and want to the park...it can go to merchandise, or to an attraction, or to some sort of interactive attraction , once we get a sense after we opened of what our audience wants to see more of...but there is space available inside the castle.

Don’t miss the third part of Tom Morris interview where he will tell us more about hong kong fantasyland! Below is a youtube video by Feona 88 showing all the HKD fireworks over the castle.

Photos and Art-work: copyright Disney

Hong Kong Disneyland Part Three with interview of Show-Producer Imagineer Tom Morris

2009-07-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the part three of the exclusive interview of Tom MORRIS, executive creative show producer for the park. Tom , senior show producer at Walt Disney Imagineering was previously the show producer for Disneyland paris Fantasyland. He was also the show producer for the gorgeous sleeping beauty castle at DLP. And this time he tell us more about hong kong disneyland’s Fantasyland.

ALAIN LITTAYE: There is a lot of Fantasyland’s favorite attractions which don’t exist at Hong kong Disneyland. Is it because the Asian people are not aware about the old animated features ?

TOM MORRIS: It was partly that. We wanted to introduce a dark ride with the character which we thought will be the most popular out here, which is winnie the pooh. Winnie is really close in popularity with mickey mouse. Everyone knows winnie the pooh out here. So we wanted to test the dark ride notion first with that attraction. And we reserved space for future dark rides once we know what it is what the local audience wants...

A.L: The attraction of winnie the pooh is it identical to the one in united states, or the one in tokyo?

T.M: It’s similar to the one at walt disney world. it’s a pretty close approximation of the one of the magic kingdom in orlando.

A.L: There is something really unique in HKD Fantasyland, which is the “fantasy gardens”. My question is: why this choice,, and is it also a kind of tribute to the tivoli gardens in europe which were inspirationnal for walt disney for disneyland in anaheim?

T.M: Some of it might be tribute to tivoli gardens, but that’s really next door to the story book theater , as his architecture was inspired not only by tivoli gardens, but all of the big musical pavillions in music palaces that you would find in the european pleasure gardens, like tivoli gardens, or others in european cities. So story book theater really is a “hommage” to that. Fantasy gardens may be is a little bit tivoli gardens, too, but it’s really kind of a classic “english “ garden with different “folies” pavillion where guests will encounter the popular characters in a pleasant and relaxing environment

A.L: Talking about the story book theater, there is a show inside, the “golden mickeys”...

T.M: Yes, a very good show. It’s a musical revue, a retrospective in some respects of some of the great musical numbers, of some most famous disney animated features, like beauty and the beast, little mermaid, mulan, etc....

A.L: Does it looks like the “Encore” show at tokyo disney sea in the broadway theater?

T.M: Well, it has some similarities to that, but it’s most closely to the show of the disney cruise ship. It’s really based on that, but we made some adaptations...

A.L: What about the shops in fantasyland ?

T.M: We have some really good shops, the “merlin’s “ shop is very whimsical, it’s quite different than the one in paris, it’s more literally themed to the film “the sword in the stone” , may be a little more colourful, more playful than the one who is inside the castle at DLP... The one here have a lot of merlin’s inventions inside, some interesting special effects and lighting things inside...

T.M: I would say the most dramatically different space in fantasyland, from an interior stand point, is the “Banquet hall”. It’s a huge restaurant, i think it’s the biggest restaurant we’ve ever done in a fantasyland, and it is a kind of idea of “king stephen’s banquet hall”, but bigger, and a little more grand...Of course we couldn’t put king stephen’s banquet hall inside the disneyland castle, so we wanted that space for people really kind of feel that they’ve gone to a royal banquet or a royal feast...so, we’ve got tall ceilings, gothic architecture, and tapestries recreated from the “sleeping beauty”, glass windows, royal paintings, and sculptures. It really is a beautiful space and spectacular restaurant...

We also have a new bit of architecture, with “mickey’s philarmagic”, which takes place in what we wanted to make very clearly look like the village concert hall. So, in fact, the building is called the “fantasyland concert hall” , and it’s another kind of iconic piece of architecture for the land...

A.L: It’s a small world, one of Fantasyland’s famous attraction is not there, as pirates of carribean, haunted mansion or other e-ticket...Will they be added in the future?

T.M: There is a lot of area set aside reserved both outside and inside the boundaries for additional favorite attractions, but we have not decided which one yet. We reserved spots, “places at the table” for many of those classic attractions, plus new ones...but i don’t think we’ll know until after we open which direction we’re gonna go for the next first big attraction...now, we’ve already decided on smaller attractions that will open up in 2006 and 2007, the only one who’s been announced so far is the “autopia” , the first “all-electric” autopia (Note: the interview was done at the opening of the park before Autopia opening) . In addition to the autopia there will be three or four smaller attractions in the next two years, that will bring to the park a variety of different guest needs, such as inter-activity and high-tech technology, and that sort of thing...But we have not decided yet which of the bigger attraction we are going to do for 2008, 2009 or 2010. But certainly some of the favorite one ( NDR: like it's a small world ) are the one who are the most discussed...

We will meet again Tom Morris on a upcoming article about HKD hotels, but don’t miss next article with an exclusive interview with Tim Delaney, the show producer of HKD Tomorrowland!

Hong Kong Disneyland Part Four with interview of Tomorrowland Show-Producer Imagineer Tim Delaney

2009-07-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Today,here is the awaited fourth part of this Hong Kong Disneyland article with an interview of Tim Delaney, show producer of Tomorrowland. Tim was previously the show producer of Discoveryland, at Disneyland Paris, and, too, for California Adventure. Please note that this interview was done for the opening of the park, before the opening of Autopia and Stitch encounter.

Alain Littaye: Tim, as we know, you were the show producer of Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris. The theme, there, was that Discoveryland was supposed to be the land of visionaries, and here, in Hong Kong, the theme is probably different. So,what is the story line of Hong Kong’sTomorrowland ?

Tim Delaney: Well, we wanted to create here something totally different, our biggest challenge was how to create something that is not only tomorrow, but also something that is timeless. So, we took the theme in this particular case of a “spaceport”. All of our attractions relate to space travels: we have Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, the Orbitron - this last one with a totally different style.

( below, a previous sketch for a Tomorrowland concept, finally not chosen )

T.D : So we took the idea of a space port ,we have different style of architecture...it’s a kind of space encampment , a space port where you go when you journey to other planets. We have two very large restaurants, the big restaurant call “starliner diner” have a rocket ship in the front and it’s a place where you go before you go in outer space : there is big posters of space travels inside, we have rockets, etc...this is a place where you go to have lunch and food before you go up to your journey into space mountain and buzz light year...It’s also one of the largest restaurant we ever built in a Tomorrowland with an incredible design

T.D: Throughout the land we’re using these motifs of these planets and an alien landscape to make you feel that you are in another world...You have to see the styling of the buildings to see how it looks like. It’s not mean to look like in the fifties, like disneyland was in 1955, it has much more of an organic field to it.....we are also using a lot of colours in the land, and the reason for that is that most of the time Hong Kong have grey skies and humid, so we want these colours to bring a kind of more of a familiar quality to our tomorrowland...Secondly, about landscaping, we have a lot of landscaping in covered areas, so we create a sense of the future and tomorrow with more human kind of space...

A.L: I’m pretty sure the design with all these planets is probably beautiful at night...

T.D: It’s magnificent, spectacular at night !

A.L: The Orbitron have a totally different look than the one built in Paris or Anaheim , and you have flying saucers instead of rocket jets ...

T.D: That’s right, we wanted to create an Orbitron in the center of the land that has more a kind of space-beacon look to it ...there is a very large 8 meter diameter globe at the bottom , it has a starfield with fiber optics in it and the flying saucers fly around, and we still have a kind of planet kynetics that are flying up above, and these flying saucers flying among all about ...it is a very visual thing , a very powerful looking thing...and the colours are all different here, we’ve kind of take a whole different colour scheme here because we wanted to make the colours much brighter , much cooler colours because it is so warming here most of the time.

T.D:...By the way , the 8 meter diameter globe also rotate and due to the painting technique, the whole land reflects in it, and, with the fiber optics, it’s a map of the universe that’s what it is, in fact. The kind of painting used for the globe is call Chromaship, it’s a special painting and what happens is that when the globe rotate the colour goes from a warm blue to a purple blue...

A.L: Talking about flying saucers, it reminds me the Eddie Sotto project for Tokyo Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. It was supposed to be called”Sci-fi City” , and one of the attraction was supposed to be small flying saucers flying around a huge flying saucer.
So, are the flying saucers in your Orbitron a reminiscence of this previous project?

T.D: No, not really...i just start it all over again from scratch.

A.L: Anyway, it is a good idea to have change the usual rockets for these new flying saucers. About Space Mountain, does this new version have a particular storyline?

T.D: Our Space Mountain continue the overall theme that is your amazing adventure in outer space. We have new effects, new images, the ride system is smooth and fast, and, as you know they’ve re-done space mountain in paris, they re-done the one at disneyland, too. And every time we do this we have new effects, new projectors, new imaging devises,etc...and, here in hong kong , we have the latest one, and they’re brilliant. We don’t really have an overall strong story, but we do have a very strong theme and it’s a really great effects show. And the reaction of the guests here is fantastic.
In fact, talking about effects, there is one effect that you have in paris, and that we have, here: it’s the explosion of a super-nova. But in a completely different format.

A.L: What about Buzz Lightyear? I supposed it’s the same ride that we can find in Anaheim or WDW?

T.D: It’s very similar to the one in Disneyland. But we have a totally different entrance for the attraction: we have a 12 foot monumental, kind of “heroic” Buzz Lightyear standing up in the front, and it’s a great photo location, and the ride is as great as in the u.s, of course. It’s amazing how people love this ride, really. And i heard they’re gonna add some internet competition...so people on internet can compete with people on the ride..
but .i don’t know how it’s gonna work, i just know they’re talking about doing that...

A.L: Do you have a kind of big theater like we have in Paris with “videopolis”?

T.D: We have two large theater in the park, one in adventureland, and one in fantasyland, but not in tomorrowland this time!

A.L: Are you going to add more attractions in the “phase two” of the park?

T.D: We are currently designing and actually we are under construction for one more major attraction and two more minor attractions that will open in july of next year. We’ll have a totally unique and different Autopia than the one you have in Paris. We’ll have electric cars, with lighting effects on the cars, and a different kind of unique on-board audio-system, and the landscape that you’re gonna go through is much more of an alien landscape , another planet kind of landscape...it will really be a fun drive...and actually we’ll also have one of the roadways who comes into the land , because most of the Autopia will be beyond the railroad, so part of the road will come into the land on an elevated highway and returns back down to the location of the attraction, so it really showcases the ride to the people in the land. And people will be able to walk underneath this elevated roadway that you see the cars are going by.

A.L: Do you think you’ll have later an attraction themed on the pixar movie “the incredibles”?

T.D: Right now we’re not doing anything on the “Incredibles” theme for Hong Kong.
Before we leave, i’d like to tell you that the whole resort here is impressive, the location is great, the hotels are beautiful, the “disney promenade” from the hotels to the park is charming, and these hills in the background , behind the castle...i think it really is the best location we ever had for a magic kingdom!

And i have added below two youtube videos, one of Tomorrowland at night, and one of the Autopia ride!

Photos: copyright Disney and, for some of Autopia, Alain Littaye

Hong Kong Disneyland Part Four with interview of Tomorrowland Show-Producer Imagineer Tim Delaney Artwork, Photos and Videos!

2009-07-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Farewell to Tokyo Disneyland Mickey Mouse Revue

2009-07-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

I am doing today a tribute to The Mickey Mouse Revue. As you know, Mickey's Philarmagic will open in 2011 at Tokyo Disneyland, and it will open in the theatre where the Mickey Mouse Revue previously was. UPDATE: The Mickey Mouse Revue is still open at TDL until May 25, 2009! So, if you go at TDL before, don't miss it, it's your last chance to see it!

For me, the Mickey Mouse Revue is probably the most underestimated WDI Audio-Animatronic attraction. When was the last time you saw somebody regretting the Mickey Mouse Revue? Or simply talked about it? Never! Nobody speaks about it! And frankly it's a pity, as it was a totally charming attraction. One of the last attraction from the end of the 60's WED Enterprises era. Sure we still have POTC, HM, Jungle Cruise and others, but The Mickey Mouse Revue was the one and only attraction dedicated to Disney Animation characters - the one from the very first Disney classics. Now that it's gone, it's a whole era which is leaving with it. I had the luck to see it both at WDW in 1972 and at TDL, and it's true that the attraction was getting old, but it was "charmingly old" (i know, the word "charmingly" don't exist in english!).

So, for those who never saw this lovely attraction - after all it left WDW for TDL 29 years ago and some of you were probably not even born yet, here is more about it, and, yes, videos below of both the original WDW and the TDL versions!

The first time the Mickey Mouse Revue was more or less mentioned was in a 1962 interview when Walt Disney talked about his new audio-animatronic technology in The Enchanted Tiki Room and untitled haunted house attraction. He said that he had similar plans for "all the Disney characters". In October 1, 1971, the Mickey Mouse Revue show opened as an "E" ticket attraction in Fantasyland, in WDW's Magic Kingdom where the show ran until it was closed on September 14, 1980. The building that housed it was renamed the Fantasyland Theater and the Mickey Mouse Revue found a new home at Tokyo Disneyland since then.

The show resembles a concert orchestra with Mickey Mouse as the conductor, and various Disney cartoon characters playing musical instruments, including Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Baloo, Kaa, King Louie, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Dumbo, Timothy Mouse, Gus-Gus, Jaq, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, Abner the Country Mouse and Monty the City Mouse, all Audio-Animatronics. Parts of famous songs from Disney films are performed by Snow White, the Three Little Pigs, the Fairy Godmother, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and the Three Caballeros. 73 characters are represented. Songs include "Heigh Ho," "Whistle While You Work," "When You Wish Upon A Star," "Hi Diddle Dee Dee," "Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf," "I'm Wishing," "The Silly Song," "All In The Golden Afternoon," "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," "So This Is Love," "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," and "Mickey Mouse Club Alma Mater." Among Disney Imagineers who contribute to the attraction were John Hench, Bill Justice, and Wathel Rogers.

And now, on with the show, the original 1971 WDW show, and hope you will enjoy it as much as i did!

And now, thanks to ParkHopper here is the video of the Tokyo Disneyland version in good filming quality. The Mickey Mouse Revue had a pre-show and you can see the video HERE.

Many Thanks to LoreneFaith for the Youtube video of the 1971 WDW version and to Park Hopper for the video of the TDL version!

Picture and Artwork: copyright Disney

Tokyo Disneyland " Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek " Attraction - by Lee MacDonald

2009-07-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

Here is the awaited article about Tokyo Disneyland upcoming attraction Monsters Inc, Ride and Go Seek. First, i was supposed to write myself the article, but when i read Lee MacDonald's article in issue 10 of the "Tales from the Laughing Place" magazine, i knew Lee's article was so good that it was impossible to beat! So, i asked Lee who is a good friend the authorisation to publish it on Disney and more, and here it is, with renderings and new pictures of the TDL Monsters Inc building and attraction posters.

Those of you who love Audio-Animatronics should await particularly this new WDI attraction as "Monsters Inc" will have the biggest number of Audio-Animatronics - more than 70 - built by WDI for an attraction since DLP Pirates of Caribbean or TDS Sindbad Golden Voyages. The official cost of this new wonder is 10 Billion YEN - 107 Million $ - and the attraction is scheduled to open officially April 15, 2009, but i think we can expect some soft opening before that date.

I want to add for those of you who don't know the "Tales of the Laughing Place" magazine that it is simply and undeniably the best magazine about Disney theme parks, full of great interviews with WDI Imagineers or reports like the one you will read below . I will tell you more about this gorgeous magazine later this week, but in the meantime, you can discover more about it HERE.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is with great pleasure that i introduce Lee MacDonald who will open the door for you on the secrets of Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek!

“Meet the (Monster) World” by Lee Mac Donald

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of interviewing Imagineering Ambassador Marty Sklar about the development and construction of EPCOT Center as part of our special EPCOT at 25 series that will be the centerpiece of our fall ’07 issue. EPCOT Center remains the largest engineering project ever undertaken by the Walt Disney Company and I remarked that I was astounded that the Company could execute both EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland concurrently (the first international park opened little more than six months after the second park at Walt Disney World). Marty countered that Tokyo Disneyland (“TDL”) was a cakewalk compared to EPCOT Center as it was little more than a Magic Kingdom clone.

In short that is precisely what the park on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay was at the outset. TDL designers cherry-picked the most popular attractions from Florida’s first Disney theme park for the licensed park in Japan. In addition the park’s owner and operator Oriental Land Company (“OLC”) wanted a venue to house an attraction that was being developed for the Japan pavilion at EPCOT Center. Ultimately the attraction was dropped from the lineup of World Showcase but it did materialize on a neutral pad of land between TDL’s World Bazaar and Tomorrowland. Meet the World was a 19-minute multi-media show that traced the history of Japan from its volcanic origin to the present day. Our hosts were two young children (in the form of Audio-Animatronics) and an animated magical crane (a pertinent choice as Japanese society reveres the bird as a symbol of good health and long life) in a theater similar to that used in Carrousel of Progress (although at TDL the audience was seated in a rotating inner core that afforded a larger stage but less seats than its US counterparts). The attraction opened with the rest of the park (that included the truly original film presentation of Eternal Seas that also dealt with Nippon) and offered complimentary admission when TDL operated the ticket book system.

Ultimately Meet the World shuttered on June 30, 2002. Space is at a premium within TDL and OLC decided it could no longer support an attraction that was underutilized by guests whilst still occupying valuable real estate on one of the main spurs from World Bazaar. The race was on for Walt Disney Imagineering to find a suitable replacement for the Kingdom of Dreams and Magic.

“We considered a couple of different concepts for the replacement for Meet the World but the successful release of Monsters, Inc. in the fall of ’01 sparked our imagination about the possibility of bringing the world of Monstropolis to Tokyo Disneyland,” xxxx told Tales. “We really did go around the block though on how to present the story and characters to guests. We really liked the idea of interactivity but our partners, OLC, didn’t want the play element to be like Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters [which debuted at the park on April 15, 2004] so we went off in another direction. By the spring of ’05 we had hit upon the idea of flashlight tag which solved the puzzle for both us and OLC.”

Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek is the latest generation of dark rides that is currently under construction on that plot that originally hosted Meet the World. In early ’09 guests will join Boo and Sulley on a trip through the Monsters, Inc. factory and the streets of Monstropolis as they play hide and seek with flashlights. Along the way we will meet a host of familiar and new monsters who are equally keen to play with us but will only reveal themselves if tagged in a predominantly white-light environment.

“We built an early interior model that proofed out our concepts and the storyboards that had been worked up. That model allowed us to justified our specifications to OLC and help us understand their criteria. OLC have a great understanding of Japanese culture and what their guests expect from the attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort. OLC wanted an attraction that was highly repeatable as the average guest tends to visit the park often,” Mark explains. “Buzz is a fun attraction but we didn’t need another ion blaster game at the park. Also we didn’t want guests to focus on getting the highest score which can become a fixation for some in that particular ride. The design challenge was to combine the playability of Astro Blasters without overselling the scoring aspect. We hit upon the flashlight tag concept early in the design phase and it works as so many people will have played the game as a kid ensuring that the gameplay is intuitive and doesn’t require a complex initial set-up. The whole reaction and counter-reaction to the tag is the center of the gags we have written and the characters lend themselves to cute gags. Instead of needing to tally up a score and look for a totals board we hope guests will exit the attraction saying “I got Claws!” or “I tagged Milton!” That differentiation was critical to the attraction being green-lighted.”

“However the interactivity quality cannot dominate the storytelling. Ultimately we need to meld the two together. We really looked at the more recent dark ride like Astro Blaster, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin to see what works best and transfer those elements into the monster space,” Mark continues. “However I think the overall look of the interiors is hyper-real as opposed to the cartoony look of something Pooh or Roger Rabbit. Our desire was that Ride and Go Seek! would be a great experience with rich storytelling for anyone that opts not to take part in the gameplay.”

Courtesy of a fully realized 1:50 scale painted model imagineers have recreated the exterior of the Monsters, Inc. factory as envisaged by the movie’s co-production designer Harley Jessup. As the model on the previous page demonstrates the giant signature M-shaped vault has been recreated in physical form for the attraction.

Guests will enter the building through the same doors as the monsters as Walt Disney Imagineering have been exacting in the replication of the Pixar designs. The first room is the circular lobby where guests will see Celia’s desk and even the murals within the domed structure to be as true to director Pete Docter’s original intent as possible.

The conceit is an extension of the movie’s conclusion where Mike and Sulley discover that laughter is a more powerful source of energy than screams and Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek! leads off from that point. “The front of the building will have “It is Laughter We Are After” rather than “We Scare Because We Care!” to set-up the storyline as early as possible,” Mark says. “We have been invited back to the Monsters, Inc. factory and Monstropolis along with Boo to play flashlight tag with the monsters.

After the load/unload area we meet Boo and Sulley in the simulation room. We see that Boo is anxious to get started but Sulley cautions that we aren’t quite ready to play as it is still daytime. However in the next scene we see Mike at the main power switch for the entire city. We discover it is now time to play and with a flick of the switch both the factory and the city turn to darkness. One of our secondary monsters is hiding in a toolbox and as the city powers down he zaps Mike in the eyeball as the first tag.”

“Our first big scene is the locker room and our flashlights are engaged as we enter the room. Lockers are on both side of the room and we can hear monsters rattling behind the locker doors saying things like “We can’t catch me!” Guests will be able to engage the monsters by pointing their flashlights on the activated lockers which will cause the doors to open and reveal the monster to tag,” Mark explains. “One of the neat things about this attraction is the ride vehicle. Guests will board maintenance vehicles as we are visiting the factory after-hours. Each train of vehicles features three cars that each seat two passengers. We can independently rotate each car which gives us total control over the view of each guest. The train can also be programmed to proceed at different speeds throughout the show building. I believe it is also the first time we have ever built a dark ride with a canopy over the vehicles which will prevent guests from focusing on the ceiling or grid work inside the space.”

“Guests will be able to feel the warmth of Boo and Sulley playing hide and seek and feel that they are able to participate themselves. Before we leave that first play scene we will see that Randall is watching the events unfolding that hints that he will want to disrupt proceedings at some point,” Mark continues. “Our next scene will be Roz at her booth and her shutter will snap closed if we try to zap her. She will tell us that she’s “not playing so move along!”

As Mark took me through the storyboards I noticed that one monster in a hard-hat had a recurring theme throughout the attraction. “That is a good catch as we have added a tertiary character that is the hard-hat monster from the movie,” Mark exclaims. “We have called this little friend Rocky and he appears five times throughout the attraction and has been entirely designed for the hard-core repeat guests who will hopefully try to find as many Rockys as possible! I’m not going to tell you where he appears but like all the monsters he will vibrate or wiggle when he can be tagged and revealed. For our purposes there is no such thing as a magic flashlight. If you shine your light on a door it won’t necessarily do anything. The reveals are only possible when the indicator is present. This could be a wiggling hat or socks sticking out of a door. Just some hint that you might want to try and trigger that object. There are no “Z” targets in this attraction [referring to the top-scoring hidden targets in Astro Blasters] and guests will need to pay more attention. The cues are obvious enough that you will see what to do and with five other people in the scene at any one time you will be able to play of off each other.”

All of the main characters that are integral to the storytelling will be recognizable to guests as being lifted from the movie itself. All of the secondary characters, most of which are involved in playing tag with us, have been developed by WDI for the attraction. Mark was quick to stress that Pete Docter and his team at Pixar were involved in the design process to ensure that all of the new characters were on-model and in-character whilst being unique to the attraction. All of the original Japanese voice talent from the movie has been assembled for the character voices and the background music is based on Randy Newman’s score that has been specially orchestrated for the attraction.

Next the ride vehicles enter the Laugh Floor. Co-production designer Bob Pauley came up with the concept of the former Scare Floor being akin to a bowling alley as he saw the function as being similar in a row of monsters all doing the same thing in a line. The concept is evident in the final design for the movie and has been replicated by WDI for the TDL attraction. Mike will be in a pickle as he is being stretched between two moving doors with Smitty and Needleman trying to help out. Again Randall will be attempting to interfere with the harmless game but Sulley is there is protect his playmate.

“Following the Laugh Floor the vehicles transport guests on to the streets of the city. This is our biggest scene and it is contained within the giant M-shaped vault that is visible from the outside,” Mark reveals. “The facades are as tall as the building of Disneyland’s Main Street and are all fully dimensional and rendered. We were fortunate enough to be able to mock up a full-sized version in our North Hollywood facility. That enabled us to work out the pacing and monster locations but it also allowed us to deal with the sound issues that were troubling our engineers. They were worried that the combination of the ride vehicles, background music and monster voiceovers would lead to a cacophony of sound with little detail reaching the participants. We ended up creating facades that absorbed sound. In short the dummy set answered a lot of questions that was a useful learning tool for the entire design team.”

Much like the attraction at Disney’s California Adventure (“DCA”) park imagineers have recreated the Harryhausen’s restaurant where guests will see the sushi chef playing with Boo (using Chinese food boxes) and catch Mike trying to find the precocious tyke by lifting up a bench that dumps his date Celia in water. Upon exiting the scene the train of cars will take guests back through the cityscape on the opposite side of the road which increased the interactivity as guests will be able to see another train playing the game as they had done just moments before themselves.

“Up until now Sulley has always known where Boo was but as we arrive in the basement of Monsters, Inc. he loses her and you will see the sense of panic that overcomes him,” Mark explains. “However we will know that Boo is still playing hide and seek but she doesn’t realize that Randall is directly behind her. Mike will pop up and zap her with his flashlight exclaiming “Got you! Game over!” and he accidentally pushes Randall down the garbage chute. The flashlights are switched off but we need to complete the storytelling. We will see a live-action Randall getting trashed, thrashed and crunched in the compactor and we have the funny gag of a cube of Randall garbage popping off the end.”

“Finally we find ourselves back in the simulation room but Boo isn’t ready for bed and escapes,” Mark reveals. “She says “Goodnight” to our hard-hat monster that pops up and says “Goodbye” in this funny deep voice. The ultimate scene is where guests can interact with Roz. We have actually lengthened the scene by three times from that at DCA to encourage more communication from Roz to the riders and back. We hope to get some banter going which should be fun.”

Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek! is approximately four minutes in length but due to the richness and sheer volume of visual eye candy in each scene I can imagine it will feel like a longer experience. All of the monsters are rendered three-dimensionally in Audio-Animatronic form and in total there are over seventy figures and props of this kind. “This attraction is what OLC felt they needed in this park – a high-end interactive dark ride experience,” Mark concludes. “OLC get the marketability of a new attraction and guests will discover something new each time they go back. We hope that guests will find it as great on the first visit as the thirty-first. All of us at WDI are very excited about this project due to the warmth of the characters, the compellent storytelling and the concept of flashlight tag.”

Interactivity appears to have become the plat du jour for WDI of late with recent unveilings under the Living Character Program like Muppet Mobile Lab and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom and the parallel construction of the 3D CGI-based Toy Story Mania! at DCA and Disney-MGM Studios. Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek! also continue the Pixar domination of WDI product of late that has many people frothing at the mouth. However the overriding commitment by WDI is to irresistible stories and appealing characters. Sadly Walt Disney Feature Animation has failed to produce either in recent years. Personally I would take an attraction about the enduring friendship between an adorable bundle of energy and her gentle giant of a scarer. Monsters, Inc. is a tale we can all relate to and the opportunity to join Boo in Monstropolis is both alluring and overwhelming. There is little doubt in my mind that the chance to play with Boo and Sulley will be infinitely more popular than an aged Disney-skewed history lesson.

Text: copyright Tales of a Laughing Place - Lee MacDonald
My biggest thanks to Lee!

Photos: copyright Disney and Paul Hsu

Artwork: copyright Walt Disney enterprises and Pixar

Tokyo Disneyland " Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek " Attraction - by Lee MacDonald

2009-07-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Tokyo Disneyland Artwork - Part One

2009-07-10T13:28:00.001-07:00

This week is a special Tokyo Disneyland week on Disney and more! After the first part of Tokyo Disneyland Halloween season on monday - and part two coming tomorrow, the artwork article of the week, so, is dedicated to TDL. Don't forget to double-click on each picture to enjoy them in big high-res size.

Above and below a Herb Ryman early concept design for Tokyo Disneyland surrounded an American theme park with a Japanese atmosphere.

World Bazaar concept-art: Reminiscent of Victorian exhibition architecture, a graceful canopy was created to schelter World Bazaar.

Soaring 51 meters above the plaza, Cinderella castle at Tokyo Disneyland.

Cinderella castle murals: this shimmering Tokyo Disneyland mosaic was based on the original one created for Florida's Magic Kingdom by WDI artist Dorothea Redmond.

Snow White Grotto: Tucked beneath the walls of the castle, Snow White Grotto was designed by John Hench

All Artwork: copyright WED Enterprises Inc

Tokyo Disneyland Artwork - Part Two

2009-07-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

This week is a "Tokyo Disneyland" week on Disney and more, so the artwork article is all dedicated to it. As you know, it's TDL 15th Anniversary, and a new 80 pages paperback brochure was published in Japan. It's called "Disney Art Festival" and it's full of Disney and WDI artwork inside! Part of the artwork is already known but i did a selection of some of them that you may not know or that i didn't post before on D&M.

Some of the artwork you will see below, although it inspired Tokyo Disneyland attractions was done previously for Walt Disney World or Disneyland. If you don't live in Japan, it will be almost impossible for you to find this brochure which cost 1200 yen - $13.55. But if you go there or know someone in Japan who can find it for you, i strongly recommand it.

The first rendering at the top is of course for the Tokyo Disneyland Western River Railroad.

This next one show a scene of the Primeval World.

The artwork below show the interior of a World Bazaar shop.

Here are two renderings for the "Enchanted Tiki Garden"...

...and another one showing the Tiki Room characters.

This artwork was done more recently for the "new" Tiki Room show with Stitch.

Here is a rendering showing the facade of the Country Bear Theater.

And an attraction poster for the Christmas version of the Country Bear Jamboree.

This next artwork show the Haunted Mansion building...

And here is a Marc Davis rendering for the ball room scene.

Two renderings for It's a small world, the facade, and a European scene.

The attraction poster for the new version of Space Mountain...

And a John Hench concept showing the inside of Space Mountain!

All artwork: copyright Disney.

Tom Scherman Tokyo Disney Sea Artwork

2009-07-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone. Tokyo Disney Sea is largely considered as the most beautiful theme park in the world, and today i will explain to you how you can own a piece of its history. More precisely: of Tokyo Disney Sea Mysterious Island origin. I've presented to you in previous articles the great Nautilus specialist Tom Scherman, and today's article is all about his rare Discovery Bay drawings. As we will see, the design of Tokyo Disney Sea Mysterious Island found its origin in these drawings.

First, we have to thank Rowland Scherman, his brother who own some of Tom's original drawings and provided his artwork for this article. Here is what Rowland told me on why Tom was so interested in the Tokyo DisneySea project:

"Ten years before Tokyo, Tom and Harper Goff had an idea for a TV show and a Theme Park/Ride called Discovery Bay. It was Nemo's home base and there were to be lessons of travel, nature and physics involved.

Harper died before they could collaborate on the project, but Tom kept at it and drew different versions of it over and over again. He also made, at his own expense, a pilot film preview of the idea. It is a cult classic--but no one at Disney ever got to see it.

The drawings Tom made were on napkins--his favorite medium--not only because he could do them while dining at a restaurant, but also he liked the shading effects he could produce on the napkin's absorbent surface. The sketches simply took form in Tom's head. He could visualize the project from any angle, and then simply create it on a napkin!

That Tokyo's Mysterious Island looks like Tom's ten year old drawings is a source of speculation as to which came first. Alas, now that Tom is no longer with us, that answer will probably remain a mystery."

Well, today, i have more explanations about it, as recently i receive an email from somebody, who, very gently, gave me more informations about the collaboration between Tom Scherman and Harper Goff. As you will see, it seems that legendary imagineer Tony Baxter was also involved in the project:
"Yes, Harper worked on it, but, the project was primarily Tony Baxter and Tom Scherman. In fact, most of the design work that TDS show-producer Steve Kirk and his team used in the final placement of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND was directly inspired and/or lifted from the work that Tom and Tony did on the Port Disney project (Long Beach, CA) for the 'Mysterious Island' installation there. Tom passed on far too early to work upon the DisneySea version of Mysterious Island, and, Tony was not a member of the design team that was assigned to Tokyo DisneySea. But, the work that created that installation rests fully upon the previous foundations laid by Tony Baxter and Tom...dating back to the mid-1970's"

So, quite a while ago, Tom did what he always did to jog his memory: he began to draw Vulcania Island, with what he remembered about the 1954 movie and the WDI imagineer's ideas for the TDS park.

Here are some of those black and white very rare drawings, beginning with this one of the overall view of the volcano and the Nautilus floating in its lagoon.

Here's another one, a closer view of the Nautilus, including one of TDS boats.

This other one shows the fantastic machines built by Captain Nemo as seen around the Vulcania lagoon.

Tom's drawings also depicted the decor in the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, like this setpiece that everybody walking around the lagoon would see.

Not to mention this concept for the boarding area, as seen after riders took the elevator to arrive in the center of the earth...

As we can see on the pictures below, Mysterious Island is not that far in concept from Tom's work.

Now, the good news is that his brother Rowland own the rights of these drawings and is currently producing a set of limited edition lithographs. It is a very limited edition, between 100 and 150 numbered sets, large-sized, all with a certificate of authenticity.

If you're a Nautilus fan - and who isn't? - this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to own some of Tom Scherman's artwork and a bit of Tokyo Disney Sea history. If you want to know more, feel free to send Rowland Scherman an email at: photomota@comcast.net

If you have trouble to contact him by email - sometime my own messages were blocked as spam - please email me at: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr and i will forward your request to him.

Artwork: copyright Tom Scherman

Photos: copyright Oriental Land co

Great Tokyo Disney Sea Artwork wallpaper pictures

2009-07-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

This new Tokyo Disney Sea wallpaper pictures will delight those - 20% - of you who have said in my poll that you like "artwork articles" AND the 12% who love "wallpaper pictures article"!

Click on each picture to get them in bigger size.

As always, i remember you as it is written on the "terms of use" page that, in the event you download any material from The Disney and more blog, the download of the material, including any files or images must be for your personal, noncommercial home use only. You may not and cannot sell, print or reproduce in any way any material downloaded from The Disney and more blog, and specifically any material copyright Disney , Walt Disney company or any other companies.

All Artwork: copyright Disney

A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part one

2009-07-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is the one that all of you fans of WDI artwork are waiting for! A big artwork tribute to the most beautiful Disney park WDI have ever built. For those of you who may have seen the article on Mice age i did some weeks ago, this is an "extended" version with much more artwork, so don't go away!

From the opening day, the park has been acclaimed, and for a lot of good reasons: the theming was stunning, the story line and the E Ticket were perfect and it seems that, for once, the WDI Imagineers were asked to add more details and that no major budget cuts were done.

I was invited at the grand opening and i still remember a person from the press office telling me : "you know, Alain i don't think we will see again a park like this one before a loooong time". Unfortunately, until now, he was pretty right.
But i think that the new Disney management have now understood the mistakes of the end of the Eisner's era, so hopefully, may be we will see another park as beautiful as this one in the future.

Anyway, all along this week-end you will see a three part TDS artwork article, and this first one shows the renderings of the entrance and Mysterious Island, a pure dream come true for any Jules Verne lover.

As usual, i've tried to find for you the best definition possible for the images, but it depends of the source, so, some time it will be just "good", sometime it will be "great". As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

From the top:
Rendering of the big ocean ball at the entrance
A bird view rendering of the whole park
Rendering of Renaissance fortress and Mysterious island
Rendering of the inside of Mysterious island
A close shot of the inside of Mysterious island
A rendering of the boarding room of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A scene of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
Another scene of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A concept-art for the submarines vehicles of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
Another concept art for the inside of the submarines vehicles of the 20000 leagues under the sea attraction
A concept art for the steamer boats of the park
A rendering for a scene of the Journey to the center of the earth attraction

All artwork: copyright Disney

A Tribute to Tom Thordarson Artwork : Tokyo Disney Sea Mysterious Island

2009-07-10T13:13:00.001-07:00

Here is the part three article of my Tom "Thor" Thordarson artwork tribute. After being Director of Attraction Development at MCA Universal Studios, Hollywood, Tom became a WDI Disney Imagineer with his role as a Director/Senior Concept Designer.

Among his many assignments at Disney was the task of the concept design for one of the main "E-ticket" rides for the new Tokyo Disney Sea theme park in Japan called, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" the top rated thrill ride of Tokyo Disney Sea. Tom was also a key team player in the early design phases of many other attractions for Disney Sea, especially 20000 Leagues under the Sea at Mysterious Island.

Those of you who had the luck to visit this gorgeous theme park and remember Mysterious Island rides will see below how important Tom Thordarson's contributions were to the design of these rides.

First, i want to thank Tom very very much for the beautiful artwork and pictures he kindly provided to me for this article.

Here is Tom, in his own words, remembering his work on Mysterious Island and Journey to the center of the Earth:

"When I was first invited to be part of the TDS team, it was truly a project that I cannot recall being more excited about. Mysterious Island, with it's magical energy full of classic adventure was where everyone knew I belonged focusing upon, though I played with concepts for Port Discovery as well. They basically said: "This is based on the Jules Verne book in general, but give us your take on it." Disney had explored it loosely as a studio tour designed by Scott Sinclair, but I was allowed to use or scrap any past ideas as to the content of this story as it would become a ride.

I watched the movie with Pat Boone and read the book. I sat in my office at Imagineering for close to a year creating this ride in countless drawings, storyboards and paintings. I presented this ride again and again and was told by staff that my sound effects and enthusiastic body gestures were a "hard act to follow". lol! Michael Eisner was chuckling and well entertained repeatedly at my performances, I recall well. One Corporate Exec. stated, as I finished the very first presentation with my story boards, "Is it HOT in here..or is it me?
I truly lived this ride...over and over and by the time it was in show model form, I felt I had ridden the thing a thousand times. Every rock form, creature and sound was something I had to describe to the team in drawings and verbal dramatizations."

The first paintings below are Tom's artworks for "Journey to the Center of the Earth", Mysterious Island's feature ride. They are presented here in the chronological order of the attraction (If I'm not mistaking!) and also with some pictures that were shot before the opening, all from Tom's personal collection.

Here is Tom's design for the "Terravator" - the lift which "carries" the guests "deep down" to the load area.

This next artwork is Tom's painting for "Journey" load area. Long before it was built.

All the decor of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is, of course a "subterranean" decor. So, as it is often the case at WDI, Tom and his early team went exploring caves for references for Journey's design. Tom is on the bottom right of the second picture. Tom says, "I could go on forever telling everyone about the details. I have included pictures of one of my early research trips into actual caves where i took countless photos. We had rangers take me deep into the caverns below where most people have ventured in tours. But I had to make all this bigger than life. I had to learn from real nature, but then project a sci-fi logic to the rest."

The painting below shows the entrance of the vehicle inside the "crystal scene".

Tom did a scale section drawings to help WDI set designers translate his illustrations...

...and also pictures of the model of the crystals scene, where Tom placed every Crystal in miniature. All translated accurately into the final ride.

Tom now explains more about this scene and how he designed these "crystal vortex's".
"I placed ever single crystal in the model for the rockwork department to chart and blow up to scale in the actual ride precisely. The way this looks is all out of my head...not anything real. I designed this "Vortex" of crystals as an idea where there was a "swirling energy" in the earth that caused these formations..like a magnetic tunnel. All the rock formations from the beginning to the end, I designed to have a psychological effect. In the beginning, the forms are friendly shapes like swirls and circles and crystals. As we move into the more dangerous and dramatic areas, I designed the look to be sharper and actually look like the rock shapes are "pulling you" or forcing you towards the creature and out the volcano's eruption. Again, when I design a ride or even just a painting, every form tells a story. Rock...seems simple but it is a stage and opportunity to tell a story...that can allow us to control our audience's emotions, depending on how we stage it."

Here are two rare pictures of the real set decor shoot before the park's opening...

...And a picture of the crystals with the show vehicle.

Tom also did all the storyboard sketches for the ride like this one below. As you will note in the early concept, Imagineers envisioned a kind of "train" of three vehicles together.

Here are two storyboards for the "mushrooms forest scene"...

...Two "fabrication drawings" for the mushrooms of the mushrooms forest scene. Tom had to draw all these details for construction.

And one painting for the same scene.

Did you note these little animals with their back colour red on the painting above? Well, Tom did this next artwork to describe how these life forms should look with a "phosphorescent" back.

Tom also did artwork showing some subterranean animals like this "caped skenk"...

This next one is a "Moss Plucking Skenk". They were both ideas...but the one below became the final design.

Tom also designed this "Winged Nudibranch", a drawing for the production team.

The two next pictures are rare photos of the real decor, also shot before the park's opening.

Tom recalls, "In the Giant mushroom forest, I made it all up on my own. The movie was really fake and unimpressive. So, I researched real glowing fungi and mushroom species'. I created a world where light came from the natural bio luminescent mosses and plants and the water was full of phosphorus plankton. This thinking made me believe in my story and so I could paint it and describe it to others like it was a place that really existed. The creatures were my creations that I believed could really have evolve. The team was VERY amused by the names I gave them like the "Moss plucking Skenk", "flying nudibranch" and "leaping tri-pedal beetle". You should have seen the figure animation department trying to say the names when they were building the creatures. The meetings were a real hoot! The creatures have parts that glow because..well, they eat the phosphorus and glowing vegetation, of course."

Here are other storyboard sketches. A few ideas never made it to the finished ride...

This next one shows the vehicle entering inside one of the cavern scenes where guests can see the Lava monster's giant egg sacks.

The next picture is a photo of the model Tom Art Directed inspired by his renderings .

The photo below was shoot by Tom at WDI: "This is the "Test" in full scale using concrete that the WDI rockwork department did to show me. They wanted to see if they could duplicate my designs in the rack sculptures."

This next painting Tom created is one of my favorite and absolutely gorgeous. It shows the scene of the "Storm upon the subterranean sea" at the center of the Earth!

Tom states, "I did take certain key scenes from the book, like the idea of a "subterranean sea". Here is a rendering that shows the way I pictured such a place. A cavern so huge it had it's own weather and atmosphere inside. I wanted it to feel very phosphorescent and electrical and that those were the only sources of light so deep below the surface."

Of course there is the climax scene of the attraction, the encounter with the Lava Beast - in the ride, one of the biggest audio-animatronic ever built by WDI. Here is Tom's early concept for the Lava Creature.

...Tom's storyboards of the attack by the Lava Beast...

...and the spectacular final painting of the scene!

Here is a picture of the Lava creature, in "real".

Tom recalls, "I liked a few elements from the studio tour but things like the creature being a worm was not as exciting for me. I wanted to be scientific in how I made this ride believable. The creature, in my mind was a prehistoric life form that, because we were in a lava tube peppered caldera of rock, had to look like it could have evolved to withstand incredible heat and yet move through tunnels with great speed. If you look at the first drawing of the lava creature, it is almost like a crustacean, hard exoskeleton amour to insulate it from the heat. However, it could swim out into the undersea tunnels too, to the open sea. Even when I deal with fantasy..I like to believe it could be possible in some way."

Right after the attack, the ride vehicle is going up at full speed, escaping from the creature and the center of the Earth. Tom did some storyboard proposals for this sequence and here they are. The first one shows people as the vehicle is launched in his fun storyboard, but in reality, it's exactly how your face is looking in this high-speed scene!

The next one is a "leaping idea in the final run". For technical reasons the vehicle couldn't actually jump over a gap, but the final effect is almost the same.

Tom did also a concept for the car landing in a "lava tube" after the above "flight".

Tom has great memories about the design of that scene. He elaborates, "Then came to the part in the ride where the vehicle accelerates and we are sucked into the erupting lava tube. Just before we almost get eaten by the lava creature, we are blasted out the top of the volcano. I wanted it to feel like we are suddenly air-borne and maybe feel zero gravity for a short moment. Well...they said,"Ummmm, Ok...so for how long are we at zero g's?". I was busy painting a key frame at the time and said,..."Ohhh, I dunno, 10 seconds or something". Well..that taught me a lesson in being careful what you ask for as a show designer at WDI. Two days later they take me to a private pilot in Malibu. He was told to take me up in his small plane and test what 10 seconds feels like in zero gravity. He had said he could fly small parabolic arcs like the big planes do for NASA to train the astronauts. So....this we did!"

Tom continues... "I held a chalk eraser in my hand as I was loosely belted in the back seat of this flying Volkswagen of a plane...and the pilot, at 10,000 feet over Malibu began zero gravity manoeuvres. When the eraser floated from my hand, we were at zero G's and he held that speed and arc as long as he could...well, 10 seconds is an eternity at no gravity for the average person!! In the end, we never do zero in the ride as the ride was built...just about .1 or .2 for a couple seconds when you first blast out and down. Anyway...it was a fun memory."

This last concept-art shows the unload area of "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

We will now see Tom's artwork for 20000 Leagues under the sea.

Tom states, "Here are a few of the storyboards I did for the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. In the beginning, I was developing ideas for both rides. These storyboards and the familiar shot below of the first mini sub design showing the giant squid attack was my pass. It was the first image the press saw in the project announcements in the beginning of TDS. The ride was turned over to other art directors from there and I focused on journey through the finished models and drawing package."

The next painting below is showing some Atlantis clues...

And this one is a "view of Atlantis".

The next painting shows the 20000 Leagues ship graveyard...

And this one the "sunken ship hull".

This last "20,000 Leagues" painting is of course showing the giant squid attack as Tom saw it.

Creating a land or an attraction is never the work of a sole person of course, but considering the obvious contribution of Tom's design to Mysterious Island attractions, I think it's fair to say that he fully deserves the tribute I'm doing today, and I'm quite sure you agree with me. So, it's with pleasure that I let Tom conclude this article.

Tom agrees and states, in his own words, "With all my passion for these rides, they would never have made it to being built without all the amazing team I worked with at Imagineering. It definitely does take a team of minds to make it all a reality. I would like to personally acknowledge the talent of Imagineer, Greg Combs who was so instrumental in his leading the show/set effort that brought all this craziness into working drawings and reality. Also, to Imagineer, Gwynn Ballantyne, who took the baton into the field and saw that all this and her own creative contributions would be become something we could all step into as the ride it is today. Thanks so much Gwynn. Lastly, to fellow show designer and Imagineer, Dave Durand. He was the creator and Art Director of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones ride for TDS and I recall many a day when we had lunches in the courtyard there at WDI and inspired each other with our passion for making magic and adventure we believed Walt would be so proud of today!

Magic and regards, Tom (THOR)

You can watch a great Youtube video of Journey to the center of the Earth HERE and of 20000 Leagues under the sea HERE

I would like also to remember you that Tom Thordarson have his own web site and a gallery in Hawaii - more precisely on the Island of Oahu - where you'll be able to find his beautiful Tiki and Hawaian artwork, including the Tiki idols series. Some of them are on sale, and whether it is the originals or very affordable prints, any Tiki lover will find his happiness! Also, if you're a fan of Tom's artwork and want to contact him, feel free to do it through his MySpace page.

Tom have also a new gallery in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the U.S. Navy Exchange Mall. It's the "THOR STOR" in the NEX Mall. Most of his underwater and diver paintings are there now. Below is a painting he just finished, and you can see how his Disney Sea past influenced his work today.

Please have a look to the previous article to discover Tom Thordarson Tiki and Pirates artwork.

All artwork by Tom Thordarson and copyright Disney and WED Enterprises

Last picture "Tentacle Difficulties" copyright Tom Thordarson

A Tribute to Tom Thordarson Artwork : Tokyo Disney Sea Mysterious Island

2009-07-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part two

2009-07-10T13:11:00.001-07:00

So, here is the part two of this Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute, and this time the artwork is about the Little Mermaid lagoon, Arabian coast and Lost river delta, including the Indiana Jones adventure.

From the top:
Rendering of the outside coaster of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the inside of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the outside decor of the Little Mermaid lagoon
Rendering of the Little Mermaid lagoon's restaurant
Rendering of the Arabian coast
Rendering of the inside decor of the Arabian coast
Rendering of the preshow area of Arabian coast magic show
Rendering of the Arabian coast magic show
Rendering of the Indiana Jones adventure pyramid
Rendering of the Lost river delta entrance
Rendering of a scene of the Indiana Jones adventure attraction
Rendering of the Raging spirits attraction
Rendering of annother area of Lost river delta

As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

All artwork : copyright Disney

A Tokyo Disney Sea artwork tribute - Part three

2009-07-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

And here is the last part of this three part article about the Tokyo Disney Sea artwork.
This one is about Port Discovery, Mediterranean Harbour and American Waterfront.
We will talk again about Tokyo Disney Sea soon with documents that haver been published anywhere, but i keep the surprise...

From the top:
Bird view rendering of Port Discovery
Rendering of the restaurant area and Tram station of Port Discovery
Rendering of the entrance of Storm rider
Rendering of the Mediterranean Harbour
Sketch for the Venitian gondolas
Rendering of American Waterfront
Rendering of the "Encore" show in the Broadway theatre
Rendering of the Tower of Terror
Sketch of Cape Cod Waterfront
Rendering of the New York harbour
Rendering of the s.s Columbia

As always, click on each picture to see them in bigger size.

All artwork: copyright Disney