Editor's Note

After a dreadful week without my Mac, I'll be back on monday with new updates. In the meantime, i remind you that we have now less than twenty copies of the "Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality" book in its english collector's edition, so if you don't own the book yet, it's now or never, and it's also a great way to help Disney and more in these difficult times! 

You can use the Paypal one-click button below or send me an email to place your order at : neverlandeditions@gmail.com, and for more infos about the book with plenty of pictures and videos, please jump HERE.

Choose between french or english edition -Price include shipping

1 copy ENGLISH edition Disneyland Paris book, include shipping €100.00 EUR 1 SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book, inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 NON SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book +shipping €90.00 EUR

Rare Pictures of Walt Shot During the 1966 Epcot TV SPecial

Discover above some rare pictures of Walt shot on October, 27, 1966, one month and a half before he died during the filming of the famous show presenting the Epcot project!

And those of you who never did this historical show can watch it again below!

Pictures and video: copyright Disney - Thanks to DCP Facebook page!

Elysium Trailer

Something interesting will be released soon at a theatre near you, and it's a movie called "Elysium". Why interesting? Because, a bit like in Wall-E the story is set in the future - in this case the year 2154 - on a ruined Earth with wealthy people living on a man-made ship / space station.  But, unlike in Wall-E the rest of the population still resides on this ruined Earth, and a man - played by Matt Damon - takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

The movie is directed by Neill Blomkamp who is this young director who did a few years ago the pretty good District 9 movie, a story of extra terristrial invading Earth, filmed with a small budget in South Africa. Along with the generally always excellent Matt Damon , Jodie Foster also plays in Elysium and as you will see in the trailer below the whole thing could end to be interesting. Have a look!

Disneyland's " America on Parade " Artwork and Models

Today is July 4th, United States Independence Day, and to celebrate this memorable day this article is all about the 1975 Disneyland's and Magic Kingdom's "America on Parade", with rare artwork and pictures of the parade models, thanks to Richard Terpstra, Disney and more reader, who sent to me the artwork and model pictures you will see below. A big hat tip to Richard for his precious help in the making of this article!

America on Parade was a temporary replacement for Disneyland's and WDW Magic Kingdom's Main Street Electrical Parade during the United States Bicentennial. Like the Main Street Electrical Parade, America on Parade was also created under the direction of Disneyland's Director of Entertainment, Bob Yani. The first run was in the summer of 1975 and was originally designed to run through 1977, to commemorate the United States Bicentennial. Where the Main Street Electrical Parade ran nightly, America on Parade ran once during the afternoon and again just prior to the nightly fireworks display. It traveled the full length of Disneyland from "it's a small world" to Town Square at the beginning of Main Street, U.S.A.







The Sherman Brothers who had left Disney Studios to work for independent film companies were asked to write a specialty song for the American Bicentennial. The song was called "The Glorious Fourth" and was performed as a part of AOP.



The parade also featured synchronized music to which performers danced set routines created by Disneyland choreographers (Barnett Ricci and Marilyn Magness). Each of the parade performers sported costumes appropriate to the float around which they danced, as well as enormous heads fixed on a custom-built apparatus for support, with the performer looking through the neck, giving the parade a carnival appearance.





The parade's soundtrack was Don Dorsey's first project for Disney. He used synthesizers and antique carousel organs to create the soundtrack. [1] During the parade's run, Dorsey conceptualized a system which Disney would develop a computer controlled system called "Mickey Track" that controls the parade's music from 1980 and on.

And now, let's have a look to the parade renderings for all the different costumes and the floats model pictures! I've tried to put them in chronological historical order, hope i didn't do any mistake!





































































As i've said above the characters and the floats for "America on Parade" were designed and built by the Park's Entertainment Division. Some of the characters were later recostumed, also by WDW's Entertainment Division and used as walk-around characters in World Showcase when EPCOT first opened in 1982. I don't know if all World Showcase Pavillions had them, but some friend can remember characters in Japanese costumes, greeting guests in front of the Japan Pavillion. There were also characters appropriately costumed in front of the Mexico Pavillion. And in front of the American Adventure there were colonial costumed characters, maybe left over from the parade.



I hope you've enjoyed this America on Parade article and I wish to all my American readers a great Independence Day!

All pictures and artwork: copyright Disney

Part of the text: copyright Wikipedia

Pirates of Caribbean Original Artwork

What can be better than to discover rare artwork of a Disneyland beloved attraction? Today, here is a collection of rare Marc Davis renderings created for Pirates of Caribbean. Below, a picture of Marc in the 1960's at work.

You may know some of the renderings below, but a lot of them are pretty rare and the main reason is because they show scenes ideas that were not used in the attraction. So, enjoy them!


























The two renderings below are not from Marc Davis. In fact, this next one is probably from Colin Campbell...



...and this gray pencil sketch of the Fortress with the boat ascending was done by Herb Ryman.



These last renderings below show scenes ideas that were used in the final attraction. Note that other renderings also related to scenes of the attraction were previously posted in the special "Behind the scenes" Pirates of Caribbean article that you can see HERE. Enjoy them all!






















The two next renderings show the end scene of the WDW version.




And this last one, not only is not from Marc Davis as it was created by Herb Ryman, but also should be at the top of the renderings above - that i've try to put more or less in "chronological" order - as it is a concept art for the very first "Blue Bayou" scene.



All Artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc