Today, i found in my Disney "archives" a press kit that was sent to me in 1996 by the Disneyland press office. It's a presentation of the "future" Disneyland Resort and what was going to be, some years later, Disney's California Adventure.
Everything is there, the Entrance, the Animation building, Soarin', the Grizzly raft ride, the Grand Californian hotel, etc...but if we have a close look to the renderings, nothing look like what we know. It's a Disney's California Adventure that never was!
Let's have a look first at the rendering on the cover of this six-pages brochure. It is supposed to be the entrance of the park. The monorail is still passing through, but no Golden Gate, etc...And this giant golden spire was supposed to be the icon of the park, just like Sleeping Beauty castle can be for Disneyland.
Now, if this giant spire looks familiar to you, dear readers, it's normal. You just saw it four days ago in my Westcot article - see the Westcot rendering below - and this spire was probably one of the rare reminiscence of the Westcot project in this early DCA concept-art.
But all is not lost in this "entrance" rendering. If we have a look at this picture of the model of DCA future new entrance, we can see that, here too, there is some reminiscence of this first DCA entrance concept-art. But the giant spire has disappeared forever.
The next page of the brochure was introducing the new Disneyland Resort, and i suggest you to double-click on the image to read the text.
As we're going to see, the next page is very interesting, too...
The Art of animation building looks totally different than the one we know...
And it's the same for the Soarin building, very different, too.
Even more interesting are these two renderings. Not only the Grizzly rafts don't look like the one show here, but we are still waiting for an "abc" attraction!
The master plan on the next page may look familiar...
But if you have a close look to the DCA section, you will notice that big changes were done in the final version, beginning by the water canals...
Next page is interesting, too. The buildings on the rendering with the monorail were never built, and even the Grand Californian hotel had a different architecture.
The last page who show the redesign of Walnut Street and Katella Blvd is may be the most accurate with the final result, though...
We know the rest of the story, and how DCA finally had a totally different look, but i thought it was interesting to share with you this first vision of the park. We are now all waiting for the third "vision", and hopefully, this time, it will be the right one!
Artwork and brochure: copyright Disney
I can say that the idea of a California-centric theme park was never appealing to me. The EPCOT park provides for an experience with 13 national themes in the World Showcase. But even so, there is more to the theme park in different areas.
ReplyDeleteTheming a park after a single state seems, to put it bluntly, really hubristic and self-absorbed about the location. That was the overall impression that we had when we eventually visited DCA, and it really detracted from the theme park experience.
Although Soarin' was our favorite experience there, we had a discussion about how much better and more interesting it would have been had the ride started in either Florida or California, and soared over different national landmarks and parks. And starting on one coast and ending on the other would have not only promoted two Disney parks, but provided an option to see different views of areas like the Grand Canyon, Mt Rushmore, the St. Louis Arch, and a host of other interesting visuals. Even more stunning would have been a choice to soar over all the Disney parks around the world...showing how universal Disney is. Focusing on just the state of California, really made the attraction far less than it could have been.
To the comment about Soarin flyin over national landmarks. This is California Adventure, not the United States Adventure.
ReplyDeleteI have a map very much like that which was included in that press kit, but even more of a twist and turn on the size and shape of DCA.
ReplyDeleteThank god we never got Wescot. EPCOT is the most over rated Disney theme park. The common complaint "lack of things to do" that you hear for California Adventure is REALLY A VALID POINT for EPCOT.
ReplyDeleteA few notes. We are not still waiting for the ABC attraction. That attraction, the ABC Soap Opera Bistro, came and went and was replaced by Playhouse Disney.
Grizzly River Rapids is one of the best of its kind. The rafts depicted in the artist rendering would not work for a theme park attraction. There is a good reason for the circular raft design.
Just popping in to say nice site.
ReplyDelete