Looking for a great Disney book ? Then, the Disneyland Paris book is the perfect gift for any Disney fan !

If you're looking for a great gift to offer to anyone you love - including you! - my "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" book with its 320 pages and 750 pictures - including 250 renderings from Walt Disney Imagineering - would be a GREAT gift for any Disney fan!

I still have copies of the book, and, as i am one of the two authors of the book, each copy will be sign specially for you or anyone you wish. Of course, don't forget to tell me the name to whom you wish i dedicate the book.

An important note before i go further: If you're not in a rush to get the book, choose the flat shipping option (also indicated below) which usually takes between 3 to 6 weeks delivery (depending if you're living in Europe or in the U.S) and is also much less expensive.

And now, here is a description of the book and everything you need to know to order one of the last signed copy of this beautiful book. Please note that NO re-printing of the book is scheduled, and these last available copies may be the REAL last one!


IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE ENGLISH EDITION OF THE BOOK WITH THE TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Price for one copy of the english updated edition is 87 Euros and Shipping: is 15 euros.

If you have a Paypal account you can proceed to the payment by paypal - paypal payment including your choice of shipping must be sent to the email adress: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr

Important: Note that the price is in Euros, not in U.S $, so you have to choose the "euro" currency when you do the paypal payment.

If you don't have a Paypal account, a bank wire transfert is possible, just let me know.

And, of course, thanks to confirm me your order and payment AND the shipping adress by email at the email adress: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr


PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR NOW I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE COPIES OF THE FRENCH EDITION, SORRY. IF YOU STILL WISH A FRENCH COPY? PLEASE LET ME KNOW? I'LL TRY TO FIND A COPY FOR YOU.

As i am the one who designed the book, i'm not really at the good place to send compliments about it, but if you are a reader who already own the book, please leave a comment at the end of the article to let other readers know what you think about it.
Previous comments can be read at the bottom of this page where the article below was previously posted.

So, here is a little description of the book, now - See below some pictures of the book pages - click on each of them to see the photo-montage pictures in big size.



The book is a gorgeous "coffee table book" with 320 pages and 750 pictures - of which 500 are park and attractions photos and 250 are Walt Disney Imagineering renderings!

The size is 9 x 12 inches, all pages are in color and it's hardbound with a glossy dust jacket. The text (by Disney historian Didier Ghez), was written after more than 75 interviews he conducted with all the Imagineers who created the park. He goes into just about everything you wanted to know about this unique place that many describe as the best "Magic Kingdom" ever created by WDI.

It took five years to create the book, but it was worth all the time we spent on it, and the book looks just as good as we had hoped for at the beginning - in fact Imagineer Bruce Gordon told us that it was "probably the best book ever done on a Disney theme park". Coming from Bruce who did with David Mumford the great "Disneyland, The Nickel Tour" book, it was more than a compliment.

The first chapter about Main Street has 52 pages and introduces the reader to the "legend" of Main Street, USA. You'll learn all about the Disneyland Paris Railroad, the unique "Discovery" and "Liberty" Arcades; find out about the architecture, the restaurants (like "Walt's," a tribute to Walt Disney, but also inspired by Club 33 in Anaheim) and the shops; with dozens of photos, renderings, models, and reproduced for the first time here, all the "cities of the future" posters located in "Discovery Arcade."



The second chapter on Frontierland discusses the park's western side with extensive sections about its major attractions, "Big Thunder Mountain" and "Phantom Manor." In fact the book has the longest sections ever put together in a book on all the major attractions. The Pirates of Caribbean section in the Adventureland chapter is 26 pages, Phantom Manor has 16 pages devoted to it, as does Space Mountain, it's a small world, etc. The photo material was so great that we kept adding more pages to the book, which was supposed to have only 240 pages when we started... we ended up with 320 upon completion!



The Frontierland chapter also covers the Mark Twain, the River Rogue Keelboats, Fort Comstock, all the restaurants, the shops and Cottonwood Creek Ranch.and featuring stunning photos of Disneyland Paris from the air by Yann Arthus Bertrand, author of The Earth from Above that make spectacular "double-pages," and allow the reader to discover the park from a whole different angle.



The Adventureland chapter is even more interesting, as many elements of the land exist only in Paris - such as the Bazaar and Aladdin to Africa and the ex-"Explorer's Club." Plus there's a long section about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril," "Adventure Isle" and "The Swiss Robinson Treehouse" and, of course, "Pirates of Caribbean" the land's major attraction and featuring its amazing Audio-Animatronics! All in all there are 56 full pages about Adventureland, and as in the previous chapters, there are dozens of photos, lots of concept art, and many shots of Imagineers at work. There's even a great bonus here, with the Marc Davis artwork for "Pirates" also included.



56 full pages are also dedicated to Fantasyland. There's an extensive look at Sleeping Beauty Castle, sections on all the dark rides (Snow White, Peter Pan and Pinocchio), as well as a look at "Alice's Curious Labyrinth," the "Mad Hatter's Tea Cups," "Storybookland," and "Casey Jr." There are even 14 pages about "it's a small world" with stunning photos of nearly all the scenes in it. Here the reader can discover a new attraction that exists only at Disneyland Paris, with a great view from above of Alice's Labyrinth.

Discoveryland also gets 52 pages of special treatment, with sections on the Visionarium, the Nautilus, Star Tours, Space Mountain, and everything you wanted to know about the other attractions in this land – Autopia and Orbitron. In fact the Nautilus chapter takes you on a visit with photos of every room of this detailed walk-through and two double page photo spreads, one which makes you feel you're inside Captain Nemo's grand salon, and the other showing you a unique view of Discoveyland featuring the Nautilus and Space Mountain in a kind of "CinemaScope" view.



When the book was released in early 2002, the Walt Disney Studios didn't exist, so you won't see them in the book. But there's still one last chapter about the hotels of the park, and Disney Village too, with the great Buffalo Bill Wild West show that entertains hundreds each evening.

And because every day in a Magic Kingdom should end with a parade and fireworks, we have the Main Street Electrical Parade that close the book, with an Herb Ryman gorgeous painting!



Pictures: copyright Disney

A Farewell to all D&M readers , with a final surprise

That's it, my friends, it's Disney and more last post. And just like at Disneyland where each day ends with a firework, Disney and more also have its final fireworks as you can see above. But at Disneyland before the firework there is generally a great show or parade. I don't have any parade for you but i have a final surprise: a brand new website, dedicated to a great man who was also a WDI Imagineer: Tom Scherman.



Without Tom we won't have the almost real-size Nautilus at Disneyland Paris. He was without a doubt the Nautilus world specialist and a genius model maker. Since he saw "20000 Leagues under the Sea" at 17 Tom found in love with Harper Goff's submarine, did his first Nautilus model and many others later, became Harper Goff friend and even designed his own apartment with a gorgeous Nautilus style!

So, let's have a look to what you will find in the Tom Scherman's web site that i've tried to design with a Nautilus theming. First, the url to put in your bookmarks is: http://tomscherman.blogspot.com/. There is a slide show of fourteen different header images and four of them shows Tom at different ages of his life. On the right side bar you have the links to each article and the front page article is a tribute to Tom Scherman and will learn you more about his life and career.



There is a lot of never seen before documents in the site and the first of them is the incredible scrapbook that Tom did when he redesigned his apartment as a submarine at the end of the 1960's.



Rowland Scherman, Tom's brother who provided most of the documents for this site also found back great Nautilus paintings that Tom did a long time ago.



Before he passed away in 1995 Tom sent to me exclusive pictures that he shot while he was creating DLP Nautilus at WDI facility. This article will tell you everything on the making of DLP's attraction.



For this project Tom did a lot of "napkin sketches". Some of them were reproduced in my DLP book but here you will find an extended selection of Tom's sketches.



And because "Les Mystères du Nautilus" attraction is Tom's masterpiece you will find a full pictorial report AND a brand new 10 minutes video of the whole Nautilus walk through that i've filmed last week at DLP!



Tom did also some great sketches for the Discovery Bay project which inspired TDS Mysterious Island.



I've added to this new web site previous articles posted on D&M before, like this one about the amazing Nautilus Two model.



You will find also others great articles about 20000 Leagues under the Sea, the now extinct WDW attraction and also all about the beautiful eFX Nautilus Replica model available for pre-order and which will be released next month!

Finally, in the "Vulcania Treasures" section you'll be able to order beautiful limited edition prints of Tom's artwork. Now, and although i might add one or two more articles to this new site, this will not be a site where i will post daily articles as i did the last three years on Disney and more. The Tom Scherman site is pretty complete as it is right now and we tried Rowland and I to give a totally deserved tribute to a great man, in a elegant way. I hope you will enjoy this new site, let me know in your comments!

Before i end this final post i want to thank all of you to have been so faithful to Disney and more during the last three years. All i've tried to do was a really good web site and the best possible tribute to Walt Disney Imagineering. I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed it and i'll try to comeback from time to time when there will be a new attraction or a major announcement - like Shanghaî Disneyland. A last and good news for those of you who were not there from the start of Disney and more and missed a lot of good articles: a best-of of Disney and more articles will run on Mice Age each Sunday, beginning in some weeks from now.

If you miss Disney and more articles, remember also that you'll find all D&M archives on the right side bar, or on Disney and more Artwork, or on Disney and more Movies. Don't forget too the new Innoventions Blog with interesting tech articles.

Again, many thanks for your loyal support, and i wish you all the best for your life and future projects.

Alain Littaye

Editor's Note: It's an exceptional document that you will discover today: the early draft of the Main Street 1920's version "that never was"! Also, all the beautiful 113 D&M header images are now in a slide show! If you want to see all of them it'll take you 5 min and 39 sec only! And tomorrow do-not-miss the final and great surprise that i have for the end of the daily posts on Disney and more!

Main Street 1920's concept early draft and construction panoramic pictures

I thought that yesterday's article would have been my last D&M article but I had last evening a great surprise in my mail box with a mail from Eddie Sotto, show-producer of Main Street U.S.A at Disneyland Paris.

In the Disneyland Paris that never was Part 2 and 3 articles Eddie explained wonderfully what would have been Main street U.S.A 1920's first concept. Eddie found back the early draft of this 1920's version who describes in details what Eddie envisioned, back in 1987. It's a fascinating document as we discover what could have been Main Street shops, restaurants and attractions if this 1920's version has been chosen. In addition, Eddie also found great and never-seen-before panoramic pictures of DLP Main Street U.S.A's construction and the rare artwork above showing the EL Station, Main Street Station for the elevated tramway that never was. Here is the kind email from Eddie Sotto:

Alain,

I was going through a box of old papers and ran across this 1987 memo and some photos. You have written so much about the Disneyland Paris that never was, I thought you'd enjoy sharing this early draft of what the 1920's Main Street could have been! there were many more drafts after this for sure, but it's fun to see what was being talked.

Here are some images from the summer before we opened from one of those kodak single use panoramic cameras. You'll notice the elevator cab for Walt's Restaurant was being threaded (brown box on it's side) through the doorway , stained glass and all, long before the doors went in to seal the space. The white surfaces you see are the ornamental pieces and primed moldings, some made of MDF, a pressed board material that although inexpensive, expands in the rain and bursts apart. So a year later much of that was to be replaced.

Eddie Sotto

Let's begin by the Main Street 1920's "script". Click on each image to see the three pages in larger scale.







Let's have a look now to these never-seen-before panoramic shots of Main Street's construction. Eddie shot the pictures in summer 1991, approximately 9 months before opening day. The first panoramics shows Town Square, the castle in the background is still under construction.







Next panoramic seems to have been shot from what is now the Walt's Restaurant, the Disneyland Hotel is in the background.



The two next panoramics are extremely rare pictures showing the arrival of the Walt's Restaurant elevator. It is so big that they had to wait to put it in place before they put the doors of the restaurant.





The last panoramic is vertical and is a rare view of the castle under construction!



I would like to thanks again Eddie Sotto for these great documents, i'm sure you were as fascinated as i was to discover them.

Tomorrow will be Disney and more "Grand Finale", and i have a last and great surprise for you, so make sure to come on D&M tomorrow!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Artwork and Main Street draft: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

Panoramic pictures: copyright Eddie Sotto

Breaking News: Disneyland Paris officially announced today that Captain EO will re-open at DLP Discoveryland on June 12th. AND also at Epcot on July 2 ! Considering that Captain EO will also open on July 1st at Tokyo Disneyland, we can say now that EO will be back in all the parks where he used to be twelve years ago.

The Disneyland Paris that never was - Part Seven : Hotels and Disney Village

Here is the last part of this “Disneyland Paris that never was“ series, in tribute to this wonderful park. And this one should make happy those of you who like never realised projects.

For this last article we go outside the park to have a look to what was formerly known as “Festival Disney “ - now “Disney Village” - the nightime entertainment and shopping area. On our way, let’s stop a minute. One of you once asked me if there were a big fountain project for DLP - i mean, a big one like the one in Epcot, for instance. Well, it’s true that unfortunately there is no big fountain at DLP but WDI imagineers did think about having one as you can see on the picture above.

The entrance of the WDS are up front, the Magic Kingdom is on the left and Disney Village on the right. The concept with the sorcerer’s hat was okay, but i must say the dimensions were by far too big.

This rendering show the entrance of the Disney Village. The metallic tower were done, but not the guitar or the hat theming.



More regrets, however, for this incredible restaurant concept....



And the hotels, you say? Well, here is some incredible hotels-that-never-were concepts. First I have to tell you that some of the most reknown architects in the world were asked to propose different hotel concepts. And the central theme for all the hotels was: America. Weeks later , they all came back with their own proposals: For Austrian architect Hans Hollein, Amercica mean “war”, so he proposed an hotel with the shape of an aircraft carrier (!) as you can see below.



Jean Nouvel, a famous french architect proposed an all-transparent hotel.



Architect Ron Koolhass concept was pretty modern, too.



Robert Venturi proposed another original concept, a tribute to “Fantasia”.



But one of my favorite is this unique concept by Bernard Tschumi with an inside marina.



All of these projects were not developped, and, frankly, if the central theme was “America” , the hotels that were finally built were obviously a better choice. Hope you enjoyed these Disneyland Paris "that never was" articles!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

All photos and artwork: copyright Disney

Captain EO will be back at Tokyo Disneyland on July 1st

Breaking News: After Disneyland, Anaheim, and Disneyland Paris where he will be back on June 25th Captain EO will be back at Tokyo Disneyland on July 1st and will run until June 30, 2011. Micro Adventure will close on May 31st so if you want to do this 4D attraction one more time you still have four weeks to do so.