Here we go for a new Shanghaî Disneyland update thanks to new pictures posted on Chinese Weibo website and Instagram. The first picture above is a great one showing Enchanted storybook Castle from the back in a clear blue day. As you can see behind the Gardens of Imagination are on the way to be completed. below, two others great shots of the castle.
Right in front of the back of the castle - if i can say - is the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto boat ride, and here is a picture of its lagoon.
The first scene of the boat ride that SDL guests will see is a Beauty and the Beast scene...
Another scene shows Aladdin genie surrounded by tons of gold!
And another scene is a Little Mermaid scene...
Always in Fantasyland, the Seven Dwarfs Mine train...
Trains are already running in test mode!
In the back of Fantasyland Winnie's Hunny Pots will replace Alice tea cups.
And that's it for today's Shanghaî Disneyland update, see you soon for a new update!
5 comments:
I hate to be negative about Disney but the castle looks more creepy than fantasy....I am not a fan of the castle at all
The "Voyage to the Crystal Grotto" looks cool. I like the Genie with piles of coins/treasure and Little Mermaid scenes. I bet this attraction will be beautiful at night. The Castle architecture sort of reminds me of WDW's Haunted Mansion and TDL's Tower of Terror. More foreboding than inviting.
Who designed this castle? There seems to be a mistake in the architecture. It's too big, and for its size the towers are too thin, which makes it look more creepy and scary than traditionally beautiful and elegant.
After Imperial China then Communist China, Disney might have thought they needed to make a point with this castle to leave their imprint. I.E. make it massive to validate the Disney presence in China, like a new Forbidden City.
"Too thin" turrets is right on target. Merlin's Owl is a bit creepy too. I agree there's an underlying sense of uneasiness in this castle. Although we should wait to see it live to make a definitive opinion.
For us, this overblown castle resonates like a haunted Xanadu or Winchester House. But it may be fitting for a chinses mind frame and/or culture.
One thing for sure, Chinese are quite nationalist and they will love to boast they have the biggest Disney Castle in the world.
This castle has always looked ill proportioned, from the first time I saw models and renderings at the D23 Expo. It's a massive box that keeps going up without the elegant wedding cake proportions that are expected. It sort of reminds me of the Guggenheim Pavilion at Mt. Sinai in NY. That massive black box looks like it was airlifted from a former Soviet republic to stand sentry over Central Park's northern reaches.
Yet this seems all-too-typical of 2000s architecture from WDI. Have they lost touch with human scale? Other examples:
Beast's "dollhouse" in new Fantasyland at MK (fools no one), the Tangled tower (would work better further hidden back in the trees), huge signs on attractions and stores (see any opening day signage from California Adventure such as the Soarin' sign they finally removed, the original Ratatouille sign at WDS Paris, the new mast for Pirates at MK's Caribbean Plaza, and everyone's "favorites" in Yesterland, the Epcot Wand and DHS Hat).
Do these Imagineers need to spend more time in cities and in the parks and away from their CAD drawings? Perhaps.
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