Disneyland that never was Artwork

The Artwork article of this week is all about WDI concepts for Disneyland that were never realised. Let's have a look to this "Disneyland that never was"!

The first rendering called "Mermaid Lagoon" - below and detail above - is from Herb Ryman. This Mermaid Lagoon in fact did exist, it was a dining area built behind Captain Hook's pirate ship in Fantasyland. When Fantasyland was completely redesigned in 1983, both the pirate ship and the lagoon became a part of Disneyland history.



Below, the initial concept for the Haunted Mansion. It was considered by Walt too decrepit for Disneyland guests, so the more appealing concept that we all know was developed.



One of the most known project is of course Tony Baxter's Discovery Bay. Some elements of Discovery Bay were finally realised at Disneyland Paris Discoveryland and Tokyo Disney Sea...



... but did you know this concept-art of "The Fireworks Factory"...Conceived by Tony Baxter, it was to be a new concept in shooting galleries. The project was not built at Disneyland, but ended to be a restaurant on Pleasure Island.



Below, an acrylic rendering for another Discovery Bay attraction called "Mythia, The Lost World" by Imagineer Joe Rhode. The attraction was not built, but this 1982 rendering went on to inspire "The Adventurers Club" on Pleasure Island, and probably the also never built Beastly Kingdom at Animal Kingdom.



Let's have a look at some Fantasyland attractions concept who never were, like this Crocodile Aquarium where guests were entering by the mouth of Captain Hook's crocodile...



Below, an early design concept called "Little Toot canal boats" for the "Storybook Land Canal Boats", based on the Disney cartoon, Little Toot.



Or this also famous "Big Rock Candy Mountain", a sweet idea rendered by Claude Coats and destined for a spot in Fantasyland.



Less known is this attraction based on the Oz books. A variety of scenes - see the four renderings below - were created by the imagineers in anticipation of developing an attraction based on these books. While the "Rainbow Road to Oz" never materialised as an attraction, "Return to Oz", the movie, did make it to the silver screen.






All Artwork and part of the text: copyright Disney