Who remember the "David Copperfield magic underground " project that was supposed to open in Disney-MGM Studios in the late 90's ( and never opened ). It was announced on a big billboard near the entrance of the park, and then, it really disappeared! ...Well, Michael Eisner also have disappeared from WDW, but it's for other reasons!
Probably the only thing that survived from this project is this great and funny picture of Eisner with David released when everything was going fine by WDW marketing office.
It's Disneyland's Haunted Mansion 40th anniversary, and to celebrate this event we will have today a look "behind the scenes" of this beloved attraction.
First, the famous Sam Mc Kim painting of the exterior.
As everybody knows, Marc Davis designed most of the scenes of the Mansion, so let's begin by Marc's artwork, more or less in chronological order...
Here is the famous Hatbox Ghost Marc Davis rendering
...and another scene concept never used for the attraction.
WED special effects master Yale Gracey recreated in 3D Marc Davis scenes...
Please note that you can find the Dueling Portaits in big size on Kevin Kidney's site!
I also asked Imagineer Pat Burke if he had some untold story about the Haunted Mansion. Here is his answer!
"Disney Legend, friend, and co worker, Fred Joerger told me a few stories as he worked on the original Haunted Mansion. As you know Walt had been very sick with Cancer and passed away in December of 1966, before they could complete and open the Haunted Mansion. Fred said he and fellow Art Director Legends Claude Coates and Mark Davis, were hesitant to complete and afraid to open the Mansion to the public, as it was the first attraction on which they could not get Walt's official walk through and final approval. So this of course was a major reason for its delay. They wanted it to be everything that Walt would have asked for and approved. Seems like I remember a soft opening and then it was closed again for changes.
I was told some effects were deemed a bit too scary for guests back then. Sam McKim had shown me some of his original concept sketches which showed boats floating through the halls of a half floated, and flooded mansion much like the Blue Bayou themeing. I was responsible for the props and sets on the TDL Haunted Mansion and used Disneyland's HM as a guide. When Disneyland's opened the HM it had the best Victorian antiques in the attic scene. Over the years as antiques of the Victorian era increased in value, the great antiques slowly were replaced with cheaper substitutes. You know of course that the Nautilus pipe organ was added to the mansion after the 20,000 Leagues attraction closed at Disneyland.
Leotta Toombs had a funny story about when they cast her head for the famouse crystal ball scene. She said that at the studio they placed her head in a kind of a clamp to keep her pose steady. They applied a warm mold making wax to her head. She said it was a little too warm and slid down further forming a true capture or her bust! That was before plaster I guess, as I did later in college. Just a few funny memories from my coworkers..."
Most of the Haunted Mansion guests are always wondering how the special effects were done. Tne next videos will learn you (almost) everything about them.
The first video below is with Walt Disney himself presenting the future attraction surrounded with legendary Imagineers like Marc Davis and others...
The next one is from the Discovery channel and is a short walk-through with legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter. Tony don't reveal a lot of secrets in this one, but it's always a pleasure to see Tony!
This other 10 minutes video will tell you more about the history and the effects of the Mansion. And Tony Baxter, Marty Sklar, Bruce Gordon, sculptor Blaine Gibson, Wayne Jackson, and many other imagineers will show you much more of the "behind the scenes.
But it's this other 10 minutes youtube video that will show you the imagineers at work in the sixties, creating the ghosts of the mansion. This video is coming from Disney's tv show "The Wonderful World of Color" in which the Haunted Mansion made its debut. The first part of it is with the imagineers and the second part is a ride-through with - guess who? - Kurt Russell and the Osmonds , and, yes, they were young at that time!
You can find much more renderings and the whole story of the making of the attraction in the great Jason Surell book - the best book ever written on the "Haunted Mansion" - a "must have" if you don't have it yet!
Here is a great new picture of Walt near a huge moon model , probably taken during the filming of the "man in space" series for the Disneyland tv show in the 50's. Photo: copyright Disney.
We all know the famous 1955 painting of Peter Ellenshaw of Disneyland, but here is a rare picture where you can actually see him painting it, a long time ago.
Ever heard about Grevin wax museum in Paris? With the famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London, it's one of the oldest one. Located on Paris Grands boulevards, it has been totally refurbished and the famous "Palais des mirages" re-open recently, with new lighting show. Basically, the "Palais des mirages" is a mirror show created early 20th century with decors changing each minute. With the infinite reflection in the mirrors it gives you the feeling to be , for instance, in a huge palace of India, and it's an amazing experience not-to-be-missed if you are in Paris!
This gorgeous replica of Disneyland's Mark Twain river boat will be released by Disney Direct later this month or in May. This was the last item designed for Disney Direct by sculptors Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily before they left Disney Direct. Not only the details are stunning , but 6 or 7 different materials will be used in the manufacturing of the item : resin, wood, metal, etc...
It will be a limited edition of 500 and expect a price not less than 299$. Please note that on these photos the decals "Disneyland, Mark Twain, etc..." are not yet in place on the boat.
For me this Mark Twain replica is simply stunning.
Hello , for those of you that were unable to join the 15th event last saturday at DLP , here is a photo of the crowd in main street watching the castle illumination, as well as one of the fireworks and of the big thunder and mark twain lighting for the VIP party.
In my previous article about the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality, book i've shown you the great renderings of the DLP that never was which are include in the book. Today, i will show you another type of great documents which you can also find in the book and it is stunning pictures of Disneyland Paris seen from above. And all these pictures were shot by aerial photography master Yann Arthus Bertrand who did a lot of famous books including the acclaimed "Earth from Above". No one is better than Arthus Bertrand for aerial pictures and we were extremely lucky to have pictures from him in the book!
Above, a fantastic view showing Big Thunder at sunset and a part of DLP Frontierland. And below another aerial shot of DLP Big Thunder. A great one as it shows almost all of BTM track!
One of the most gorgeous aerial shot of DLP ever done showing the whole Frontierland! Click to enlarge the picture.
On this next shot, the Disneyland Paris railroad is entering Adventureland and passes in front of Indiana Jones Temple du Péril.
Talking about Indiana Jones Temple du Péril here is another picture showing the temple seen from above.
Let's stay in Adventureland with this great aerial picture of Captain Hook's pirate ship and Adventure Isle.
Let's move now to Fantasyland with this beautiful sunrise shot showing the back of Sleeping Beauty castle.
Another fantastic picture showing a big part of Fantasyland with also the Disneyland Paris railroad passing by.
Now, you need to know that all these great aerial pictures that you will find in the book are reproduced on full double pages ( or full page for the vertical shots ) which makes them even more spectacular when you're reading the book as each double page is 31 X 46 cm!
And when we didn't had pictures of Yann Arthus Bertrand, like for instance for Discoveryland, you'll find spectacular pictures like this one showing the Nautilus and Space Mountain, also reproduced in the book on a double page.
However Yann Arthus Bertrand also did aerial shots above DLP hotels and came back with some great ones like the one below showing the Newport Bay hotel which is reproduced on a double page in the chapter about DLP Hotels and Disney Village.
By the way, whether it is an aerial shot or not, each time a picture deserved to be on a double page you'll find it in the book. A good example is this next one, a stunning night shot showing the Main Street Electrical Parade in front of Sleeping Beauty castle.
So, you see, in addition to the 250 WDI renderings and the hundreds of others great pictures of the park, as well as a great text telling all the story of the making, the Disneyland Paris book has even more to offer than you might have thought. All the pictures you've seen above are of course include in the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book, and if you don't own the book yet, you now understand why it is such a great book.
And, good news, as until August 30 i do a special summer offer on the book which not only include a 20% discount on the regular price but, also, each one who will place an order will receive a special gift - and it's a great one! Below, you can see a video showing the whole book and to know more about the book and how to order and send your payment please go HERE , or send me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com , or use the Paypal one-click purchase button below, right under the video!
The wdsfans site put on line this week two concept-arts about the production courtyard place making and the future stitch encounter facade. Here they are, but you can see them in bigger size on their web site at : http://www.photosmagiques.com/wdsfans/ It's a good web site that give regular news about the walt disney studios theme park, in Paris.
Since 1994 Disneyland Paris fans are dreaming of the Little Mermaid attraction concept. Designed by Tony Baxter the attraction was supposed to be build after the park's opening. As we know it's in California Adventure that the Little Mermaid dark ride will finally be build. Disneyland Paris fans will have to wait a bit, but if everything goes fine the attraction should come at DLP in the near future.
Thanks to Lee Mac Donald and Lindsay Cave from the excellent "Tales from a Laughing Place" Magazine i have the pleasure to post on Disney and more this great interview of Tony Baxter previously published in Tales from a Laughing Place Issue 8. The article includes pictures of the models and renderings for the attraction's storyboards. At the end of the article, you will find the Little Mermaid virtual ride video, as it was envisioned for Disneyland Paris. The California Adventure version should be more or less the same.
Part of your (virtual) World An Interview of Tony Baxter, Article by Lee Mac Donald
When I saw The Little Mermaid on the big screen I got the feeling that we were finally back in the animation business,” Tony reminisces. “The movie was a truly unforgettable masterpiece and for us at WDI that was critical as we had virtually run out of properties to use. Splash Mountain was the result of going through the library and saying ‘Gosh, there is only one product left with amazing places and fun characters for us to develop into a ride.’ We had been gifted a brand new classic.”
At that time Tony and his entire creative team was racing to complete designs for EuroDisneyland as the park was already in the construction phase. However their focus was not limited to preparation for opening day. “We had already earmarked The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast as two properties to develop for the first batch of additional capacity. If you look at Sam McKim’s opening day park map you can clearly see both on there,” Tony reveals. “For Paris The Little Mermaid area would have been directly opposite from Pizzeria Bella Notte. We had developed Fantasyland to reflect the countries that were the five main draws for the park and for Italy we only had Lady & The Tramp as an appropriate Disney property. Opposite the restaurant you can still see the berm populated with Italian Cypress trees where Eric’s southern Mediterranean Palace would have been located. We also had two other The Little Mermaid attractions for that area with an Ursula octopus ride and a themed carrousel that is now the plateau queue area for it’s a small world.”
“To distribute the costs we jointly developed the projects for Disneyland to go where Videopolis was at that time. It fitted both locations well and everybody thought it would go,” Tony continues. “We built models and mock-ups as the key was cracking the illusion of believing that you are above and below the water’s surface. Every attraction has an Achilles’ heel in development and I thought that was the critical component to this project’s potential success.”
In order to win support from the Studio Tony invited Jeffrey Katzenberg and the lead animators on The Little Mermaid to WDI. They were able to stand on a platform ten feet above the models and actually put their hands through the waterlevel. The models enabled the animators to see their created worlds in three-dimensional form and they immediately endorsed the project. However as the Scottish poet Robert Burns reminded us ‘the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.’
“Once we opened EuroDisneyland we knew that we needed two things; thrill rides and quick capacity,” Tony admits. “We had literally picked the crown jewels of the Disneyland model and I think we opened that park environment richer than any we have ever done before. However we needed things to distribute the crowd and let them vanish into the environments. So we added the Passage of Aladdin and Fort Comstock walk-throughs, a new train station, Casey Jr., Le Pays des Contes de Fées [Storybook Land Canal Boats] and Les Mystères du Nautilus [Mysteries of the Nautilus]. We also built Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril as the park only had Big Thunder Mountain in the original attraction mix that was a thrill ride so the park needed something else. We were able to put in about 13,000 guests per hour capacity with those additions. That was all within the working capital requirements of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast attractions which had capacities far south of that figure so it made sense for us to drop those initial plans. It also allowed us to go right on in with Space Mountain.”
“When we were developing EuroDisneyland we were looking to find areas of deficiency in our line-up,” Tony says. “When The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast came along we were thrilled to be able to get two new pieces into our park vocabulary. They were both fresh and adjusted thematically and emotionally for a new audience. The struggle that Ariel goes through with her father and then going out on a limb for what she believes is right is very different to Snow White who just wants someone to wash and cook for! Belle was even more modern as she has no interest in the hunk that is drooling over her. These heroines were profoundly more relevant to today’s audience and young kids really did identify with them and if you capture that spirit at a particular age they will carry it with them through life. WDI needs to get those moments into the parks for each new generation. For fifteen years or so we lost touch with the audience film-wise so WDI had to initiate a new direction as the studio was not producing product that was relevant to that generation. So we pushed for George Lucas and Star Wars. I’ve always believed that the key to Disneyland’s success is a being a reflection of the popular culture that is captivating the world at that time.”
As mentioned earlier the key innovation was the ability to believably create two worlds for Ariel and her friends to inhabit namely the submarine environment of merfolk and fish and above the sea’s surface where Eric resides. “Now no-one was going to be wearing a wetsuit in this dark ride so you did need to suspend some disbelief to enjoy the experience,” Tony jokes. “We would have approximated the water’s surface with Eric and Ariel in front of you. The boat would have disrupted that surface and everything that touched the water’s surface would have had a ring of fiber optics radiating out like ripples. Your brain has been conditioned over a lifetime to only consider that to be real. So when the ride vehicle dips below the surface you would have thought why didn’t I get wet? The two worlds would have looked very different with the gaudy colors of Sebastian’s Under the Sea number being very different to the tone of Eric’s ship emerging from the fog or the glade in Kiss the Girl. The ride would have been able to glide between those two worlds and some of the show scenes were stacked so you could see another portion of the ride below or above you. I am intrigued by the idea of seeing something from a different vantage point. We toyed with it at Pirates of the Caribbean in Paris where you look down at the battle and village from the ramparts.”
One technical development that did emerge from The Little Mermaid dark ride was the ability to synchronize onboard audio. “The real breakthrough for this attraction was the creation of a device that allowed the ride vehicle to understand exactly where it was in the attraction, and without having to change the pitch, adjust the delivery of information to match,” Tony proudly explains. “Eventually it was first employed on Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. It was actually more critical there as a light car could arrive back in the station some twenty seconds earlier than a heavier car. We needed to be able to deliver the key audio punchlines at the same point in every dip, turn and loop. I always feel it is the technical things that don’t contribute to the obvious part of the show that are the really amazing parts of what we do at WDI. It is such an amazing effect to be able to punch the ride on the key kinetic moments and to ensure that there is perfect synchrony every time.”
If you have seen the virtual ride-through and are familiar with the movie’s story arc you might feel a disconnection between the two. That was a deliberate move on Tony’s part. “I am stickler for playing with the sequencing as I believe that the most boring ride we can do is a book report of the movie,” Tony asserts. “Our attractions are more about the emotion and environments that you come through and I just didn’t want to take the good with the bad just because that is what you saw in the theater. We set the ride up by showing you two people that belong in two different worlds and they want to be together. The first major scene was "Under the Sea" as it validates the notion that we are beneath the surface in their world and this is contrasted by the villainy of Ursula in her dark grotto. Ultimately we needed to be honest to the emotions and feelings of the story rather than just laying it all out again. Pinocchio at Disneyland is the perfect example of a book report of a dark ride which is frustrating as scenes become small vignettes and you cannot bathe in that environment as we tried to get every nuance of the story in that short ride. In my opinion Disneyland’s Peter Pan’s Flight has the best script as all that is important is the phrase ‘Come on everybody and here we go!’ as we fly out the window. Ray Bradbury wrote to Walt saying ‘I will be eternally grateful that you allowed me to fly out of a children’s bedroom out over a moonlit London in a pirate galleon’ and that is what it is all about. We don’t tell the story of Peter or the Darlings and they just become ciphers to set the stage and gently remind you of the story. It is about the experience rather than being forced to drink in storyline point.”
For an organization that was often shrouded in secrecy in the past WDI seem to be willing to embrace a new age of disclosure with the general public with this DVD bonus featurette. “I think this a great way of getting a new brand on to Disney DVDs that people can look forward to in the future,” Tony sums up. “I’m sure we will get a lot of comments from guests asking why we didn’t build it though! Hopefully this test will go well and we can contribute to future releases. Ultimately it keeps the public aware of WDI and the things we do for the parks.”
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that would love to have access to rummage through the WDI archives for shelved projects.
Any volunteers?
Once again, I want to add for those of you who don't know the "Tales of the Laughing Place" magazine that it is a fantastic magazine about Disney theme parks, full of great reports or interviews with WDI Imagineers like this one with Tony Baxter. The latest issue, no 14, of this gorgeous magazine will be released very soon, and among the great reports this issue will include a "Story of Tokyo Disneyland" article. More infos on the new issue 14 HERE.
The acclaimed Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality 320 pages book is no longer available from the publishing company Neverland Editions which has stopped its activities but i could saved 50 copies of the ENGLISH edition and until May 5 you can enjoy a special offer and order a copy for 65€ ( + 22€ shipping worldwide ). To place your order, send me an email at: amplittaye@gmail.com with your name and shipping address and i'll tell you how to proceed to the payment. Paypal, credit card or bank transfer payments are accepted. Le livre Disneyland Paris, De l’Esquisse à la Création n'est plus disponible auprès de la société d'édition Neverland Editions qui a arrêté son activité mais j’ai pu sauvé 50 exemplaires en anglais ( l’édition Française est épuisée ). Si vous ètes Français et souhaitez commander un exemplaire du livre en anglais je joindrais un PDF du texte original en Français avec l’exemplaire anglais. Jusqu'au 5 Mai, offre spéciale à 65€ ( +22€ de frais d'envois )! Pour placer votre commande il faut m'envoyer un email à amplittaye@gmail.com avec le nom et l’adresse d’expédition. Les paiements par Paypal, carte bancaire ou virement bancaire sont acceptés.
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