Tuesday, April 1, 2008

A Disney MGM Studios celebration - Part Two - Sunset Boulevard and Tower of Terror original artwork



Hello, here is the part two of this Disney MGM Studios series, and, as in France it's already April 2nd, it's not an april fools!

Finally, the article about the Great Movie ride will be the next one, and instead we will have a look today on the original artwork for the Sunset Boulevard and Tower of Terror.

Let's begin first by a series of renderings for the Sunset Blvd facades, and note that the one above on the top show a building that was never built.





And, yes, the next one is the Carthay Circle Theater, which was replicated at Disney-Mgm and who will be, too, one of the icon of the new DCA placemaking, hosting the "Walt Disney story".



Here is another one, showing the Tower of terror in the background, and the Carthay Circle Theater on the right.



This next one is a beautiful night view, and the Carthay Circle Theater is now on the left!



And this rendering seems to indicate that a "Disney film festival" was envisioned by the imagineers in the Carthay Circle Theater. Just like on the rendering above, note the red tramway on the right. Never built, we will finally get it in the new DCA placemaking.



On this next rendering, have a close look the "orange grove" area on the top left, finally never done.



Let's have a look now to the Tower of terror renderings, beginning by these two early concepts. As you can see , the building had a totally different look.




Here is another TOT concept art, pretty rare, too.



The next renderings are others concept, closer to the final version, and a picture of the model.






This one is really interesting as it shows how the ride was previously envisioned, and as you can see, the Twilight Zone room was supposed to be in the basement and not at the top.



Let's end with a picture of the model that we all know, but always beautiful.



Okay, next time, promise, you'll have the Great Movie ride article!

All artwork and photos: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc.

7 comments:

Michael said...

Thanks for the great art as always!

Anonymous said...

Sure love the Orang Grove area. Elaine Cooke

Craig Wheeler said...

Alain, I am always impressed with the amount of concept art that you have. Where do you get it all?

Keep up the great work. I always enjoy your blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the great artwork you have been posting recently. Of this post I particularly like the first picture. This is one of the buildings that was to be part of the upper west side of Sunset Blvd...that was never built. You can see this building also in the render in the 8th pic together with the unbuilt Roger Rabbit area next to the Orange Grove. - Tasman.

Matt said...

Really incredible stuff here! As Craig asked, how do you have access to all of this incredible work? Actually, it doesn't matter... just thanks for posting it all - this is one of my favorite sites (could easily be in book form and sold).

Brer said...

Great post! Like everyone else, I LOVE seeing all the background art images. Amazing stuff. I kind of prefer the alternative designs for the TOT, but that's just me :)

What I find most interesting is in the 7th picture, where Carthay Circle is on the left. It looks like there's a building towards the back of the drawing that is has towering tropical fruit on top of it (it looks like there is a segmented pineapple and bananas). Too bad this wasn't built! I also miss the red trolley's shown here--but they should make a fine addition to DCA.

Brer Dan

Alain Littaye said...

Hello, Alain here. Almost all of the Epcot and Disney Mgm artwork you see here was delivered to me during th 25th WDW anniversary press event by the WDW photo library.
At that time it was still possible for the journalists to go in the photo library, choose the slides that interest you and ask if it was possible to get them. These one needed an approval from WDW Imagineering, but they gave their approval, and that's the whole story. For the choice of the renderings itself, you just have to thanks my good taste!