Here is a new Disneyland Paris update which will send us back in time at DLP opening day! If you already visited the park you surely remember the entrance of Discoveryland with its dramatic rock formations partly submerged by water. When you entered the land recently it looked like the picture below shot by Disneyshawn...
On the picture above you can guess some lights under water. But that's not how it was at opening day as WDI Imagineer Discoveryland Show-Producer Tim Delaney had included some more dramatic effects with smoke effects and fire explosions right in the middle of the water! These effects don't work anymore since many many years and it's a pity as Discoveryland entrance was even more spectacular, and specially at night. There was also a reason why Tim wanted this fire effects and it's because the whole land was supposed to be on a volcanic ground. In its first "Discovery Mountain" version Space Mountain was supposed to be located atop of a volcano...
Pictures or video showing these fire / smoke effects at the entrance of Discoveryland were impossible to find until recently when the guys of Disney Central Plaza forum found back this rare dutch video filmed at DLP opening days in 1992. I did some screen shots for you and you'll see below the few seconds in the video showing the fire and smoke effects.
These "fire in the middle of water" was an effect quite new and not too much used in others theme parks when DLP opened in 1992 and for the guests surely impressive...
On the two pictures below you'll see the smoke effect coming over the water. Below , without smoke effect...
And here comes the smoke effect on this next one.
Some of the fire effects were spectacular!
At that time ( but may be it's still the case today ) the water was running down from the top of the rocks...
Regularly the park is doing some maintenance - as you can see on this Dlp Info picture below - often to restore the rocks, but the fire effects never came back. The real reasons why DLP maintenance never put back the original effects are not totally clear - some say it's because it stops working too often, others have another version saying that the real ducks who move all around the park from a lagoon to another one where grilled by the fire (!) - but one thing is sure, the fire effects disappeared and probably will never come back.
And now, here is the 1992 video with the few seconds where you can see this "fire and smoke" effects. Jump directly to 13min 47sec to see them.
We'll stay on the hub for what's coming next and it's about the Frozen sequence that DLP guests can discover in the new Christmas Disney Dreams! show. You may have seen yesterday the clip of the Frozen musical sequence called "Let it Go!". Well, the Disney Dreams! Frozen sequence is inspired by the same song. If you've missed the Frozen clip here it is first...
And here is video filmed by Max from DLP Welcome showing only the new Frozen Disney Dreams sequence.
Now, some great news for those of you who did pre-order to me the Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book in its English normal edition as we've finally received the copies from the printer last friday and ALL orders have been shipped today! - the last ones will be shipped tomorrow Tuesday. It should take between 10 and 15 days to arrive depending if you're living in Europe or in the U.S.
It also mean that the new and updated ENGLISH regular edition is now available for immediate shipping, and you can always order it at the pre-order price of 55€ + 15€ shipping worldwide.
You can order the book by sending me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com or send directly your Paypal payment of the 70 euros either by the Paypal button below or directly from your Paypal account at the same email address. The book will make a gorgeous Christmas present so order today your copy of "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" to make sure you'll get it for Christmas!
A full description of the book can be find HERE.
Pictures: copyright Disneyshawn, DLP Info, Wesley Lelieveld
Videos: copyright Disney, DLP Welcome
I saw the Euro Disney video a few weeks ago, and it made me feel quite sad that those good old days are gone forever. I know that Disneyland isn't a museum, but especially Discoveryland was a lot better in those days: Le Visionarium + Café des Visionnaires (+ fire and smoke effects at the entrance) got replaced by Buzz and Bureau for annual passports ... such a shame.
ReplyDeleteAnd although I like the special effects in Space Mtn.2 a lot better than the original ones, I still can't understand why they got rid of the great original storyline (+ changed the name "From the Earth to the Moon" into the dull "Mission 2").
I guess that's being called 'moving with the times' ... but it certainly isn't progression.
Sorry, but I am crying each time I hear that song.
ReplyDeleteWe will see Dreams of Christmas in a few days and I know exactly what will happen with me when I see this sequence.
About a fire effect: I just had lunch at Blue Lagoon restaurant today. And I was quite surprised and pleased to see that the chimney at the entrance was working!
ReplyDeleteLooks the fire effects video is blocked in the US. I get the error "This video contains content from WMG and Warner Chappell, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds." Anyone have another link?
ReplyDelete