As the Author of Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality, I had access to thousands of images and concept paintings from Imagineering. The book include 500 pictures of the park and 250 WDI renderings, all showing lands, rides, park shops and restaurants which WERE built at DLP, but what you may not know if you don't own the book yet is that it also include pictures of what WASN’T built but envisioned by DLP Imagineers, in two words the "Disneyland Paris that never was". In this article, I will tell you more about a less known angle of the book – and a very interesting one – the part of it which talks about the Disneyland Paris wasn’t built. And I think you’ll find that many of these ideas were really good and should have been built!
In the first image above – that you will find in the book’s first chapter – you’ll see a “winter” version concept showing the Fantasia Gardens, in front of the Disneyland Paris hotel located at the entrance of the park. Disneyland Paris imagineers have drawn a small frozen lake on which guests could have ice-skated.
On the next image below – done by Disney legend Collin Campbell – you’ll see Imagineer Eddie Sotto’s design of the 1920′s Main Street concept. In this version, Main Street would have had an elevated tramway and the train station would have looked just like the one in the movie “Hello Dolly!”. The Emporium was to be behind the elevated 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. And the reason why a Service Station was put into the project was because in the 1920′s the transition from horse-drawn streetcar to automobile had already been made and the automobile had won.
A year after Michael Eisner had declined this 1920′s design, he said to Eddie Sotto that he should have done the 1920′s idea anyway because it would have been understood better in Europe. But, by then it was unfortunately too late…
The painting below was created by Nina Rae Vaughn. Behind The Town Square East block of buildings, Eddie had envisioned a private restaurant for the sponsors of the park. This idea was first pioneered with Club 33 at Disneyland and this one had a secret entrance underneath the railroad station that would lead to a hidden terminal, and in that terminal there would have been an American-style streamlined locomotive train complete with dining cars, inspired by the famous “20th Century Limited”. Imagineers thought this could be the most unique private restaurant in Europe.
Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty Castle is acclaimed as one – if not THE – most beautiful castle of all Disney Magic Kingdoms, but did you know that others concepts were also envisioned? In the first one below, a remarkable Herb Ryman painting on which you’ll also see the elevated tramway on the right. Herb had designed a DLP castle close to the original one at Disneyland…
…On this next rendering by Tim Delaney you’ll see a very different castle concept, a futuristic one!
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is a great DLP Adventureland roller coaster ride with an Indy theme, but some of the scenes envisioned by WDI Imagineers were unfortunately cancelled, like the great one below in which the train would have entered a tunnel through the mouth of a giant stone head!
Talking about this Indy temple, another rendering that you will find in the book, reveals that DLP Imagineers had envisioned not one but TWO temples, with two different coaster tracks. Look closer at the artwork below and you’ll see the second temple in the back.
In Fantasyland, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth is a Disneyland Paris exclusive, and guests must find their way through the maze to reach the Queen of Hearts castle. In which they can climb to the upper floor and have a unique view of DLP Fantasyland. But, what was also envisioned was to have a slide for young kids to go back to the “ground floor”, and children would have exited the slide by going through the mouth of the Queen of Hearts! Actually, the slide – without the head of the Queen of Hearts – was built and was operational for a few months after opening before being permanently closed because children were hurting themselves at the bottom of the slide.
DLP Discoveryland as well had others concepts than the one currently built. On this next artwork, you’ll see a very different Tomorrowland entrance than the one which currently exists.
But, of all the Discoveryland concepts that never were, the most spectacular would have been Discovery Mountain, a unique new version of Space Mountain! On the first artwork below you’ll see a great Tim Delaney painting showing Discovery Mountain at night. The transparent tube on the left would have been a direct access tunnel from Videopolis. If you visit DLP, you can still see on the upper floor of Videopolis, giant circular windows which are the same ones through which the transparent tubes would have linked Videopolis to Discovery Mountain.
Inside Discovery Mountain, guests would have found not only a unique Space Mountain ride but also the Nautilus submarine floating in a lagoon with a restaurant inside Captain Nemo’s Grand Salon, access to Star Tours, former Cinemagique attractions and also a “Journey to the Center of the Earth” attraction. The Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction would have been totally different than the one built at Tokyo Disney Sea. In fact, it was the first free fall ride designed by WDI, before the Tower of Terror concept! All of Discovery Mountain would have been a giant tribute to Jules Verne.
So, you see, in addition to hundreds of gorgeous pictures of the park, as well as WDI artwork and a great text, telling all the story of the making of the park, the Disneyland Paris book has even more to offer than you might have thought. All the renderings 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, as it not only tells you the story of the making of what actually exist in the park but also shows never seen before concepts of the DLP "that never was".
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!
Artwork: copyright Disney
