Mousekingdom Blog

The past weekend for fans of the Disney theme parks was certainly dominated by the 55th anniversary of the opening of the one Disneyland that started it all. Many fans made it to Anaheim to celebrate in Disneyland,. However, those who travelled to San Francisco to enjoy the celebrations organized by the Walt Disney Family Museum were treated to various lectures and discussions not only looking back onto the history of that magical place in Anaheim and its various brethren around the world but also the future.

The all new blog of the Walt Disney Family Museum gives a rough overview over the events without covering the actual presentations in detail but still mentioning that amongst others Craig Russell, Chief Design and Delivery Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, and Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, presented several slides of future projects for the various Disney parks. Unfortunately those are neither detailed nor reproduced (so no word whether anything regarding Disneyland Paris was presented). For that reason also there is no mentioning of one of the most anticipated artworks amongst fans that – unnannounced – was revealed during the lectures: official artwork for Disneyland Shanghai!

Luckily user MickeyMania posted an (unfortunately blurry but still very interesting) shot of the concept artwork for the Shanghai Disneyland resort over on the MiceChat boards. What is visible in the artwork? At the very bottom one can see a small side arm of a large recreational lake that is supposed to be created inside the park, on top of which something like a Downtown Disney / Disney Village area seems to be located leading to a parking lot on the far left side of the drawing and the main entrance to the Disneyland Park. In the lower left corner of the drawing, on the other shore of the lake’s side arm a structure that could be a hotel has been placed. From the hotel a small bridge leads across the side arm of the lake to a park like area next to the Downtown Disney area – which very well could be a future expansion area for said Downtown Disney.

A structure that could be a second hotel is located atop the parking lot in the top right corner of the drawing, next to a water way leading into the park, seemingly connected to the waterways in two lands of the park. If this is a hotel it would be a first for any Disneyland Park. One could wonder whether guests of such hotel might be able to enter into the park by a boat service on this waterway…

What about the actual park? Well, it certainly sticks to the traditional hub and spoke layout characterizing all Disneyland Parks since the very first one complete with Main Street, U.S.A., a large Central Plaza and a dominant castle at the center. Details in the lands are hard to make out in the shot. However, there are clearly four lands besides Main Street.

The first to the left could be a Frontierland like area (respectively Westernland for those familiar with Toyko Disneyland). However, compared to other Frontierlands most of the surface in the drawing is taken by a lake with a very small island in the center. Also no details reveal whether there might be a Big Thunder Mountain coaster on the island as at Disneyland Paris. At the lower bottom of the lake in this land one structure seems to be located that is bordering the tracks of the railroad circeling the park. As the structure is close to the backstage building of the Downtown Disney like area this could – in theory – be a Haunted Mansion building, with the actual show building located right across the railroad track (as at Disneyland Paris), with the show building mixed into the backstage of Downtown Disney. Also interesting: at the far side of the lake in this land huge waterfalls seem to have been placed which could indicate that they are covering a show building. Fans might remember that this one of the features used to disguise the huge building in concepts for the never built “Western River Expedition” water ride that had been imagineered for the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

Next up going around the park clockwise is another land featuring large water ways. This normally should be Adventureland. The islands in the waterways share a resemblance - on a first glance – with the concept of Adventureland at Disneyland Paris with its Adventure Isle concept. However, there are once again no clear details to identify in the drawing. In addition the fireworks above the castle block a large part of Adventureland – in particular the area in which at least in Disneyland Paris Pirates of the Caribean is located.

Next up, right behind the castle is the huge Fantasyland area. Once again details are hard to make out, but one round structure with a closed top right behind the castle is clearly visible. Traditionally this should be a merry-go-round. Also note that in the far right rear corner of the area one large show building has been constructed with the facade right on top of the railroad tracks but the actual building located on the far side of the tracks. Going by the concept of Disneyland Paris this might be where “it’s a small world” could be located.

On to the next and final land … no, stop. Take a close look at the map. Between Fantasyland and the final land there is a clear green corridor separating the lands, which leands to a something that looks like a green expansion area in front of and beyond a part of the railroad tracks. Interesting. Why? Because this resembles a concept for Disneyland Paris as well … an area that could be used either as backstage for one of the adjacent lands or as entrance corridor to a sixth land of the park … a future Toontown!

But now on to the final (and fifth) land already represented in the drawing. This should traditionally be a version of Tomorrowland (Discoveryland for those familiar with Disneyland Paris). The layout clearly shows a huge structure similar to the Space Mountain buildings found in all Disneyland Parks in this area with further buildings surrounding the it on the outside of the land. Behind what should be Space Mountain one building has been placed right up to the railroad tracks but behind those. This could indicate a location for Star Tours if one works off the blue print of Disneyland Paris. Also on top of the land (up from Space Mountain) a large structure is found complete with blue lights indicating a raised roof similar to the “hangar”-like structure of the Videopolis restaurant / theater entrance at Disneyland Paris. The lower left corner of the land seems to be an unused expansion pat, even so some of it might also be actual backstage for the Main Street. Again based on Disneyland Paris this would be the location for Autopia.

The many references to Disneyland Paris that have creeped into the description of the drawing are a surprise – but the longer one looks at the actual Disneyland Park in the concept drawing the more conceptual similarities and resemblances to Disneyland Paris one can find – in particular in the Tomorrowland / Discoveryland area. However, this shouldn’t lead to the assumption that Shanghai will copy Disneyland Paris. In fact there are many differences, not the least the set up of the potential Frontierland at the lower left corner of the park. Also one has to keep in mind that this is clearly an early concept artwork created for publicity use. So the actual park might show many, maybe even huge differnces. Attractions might be cut out or added, whole concepts for areas might be changed. For example many concept artworks that made it out to the public for Hong Kong Disneyland showed a Frontierland that never made it off the drawing board.

Also there is no way of knowing how many phases are already incorporated into the present concept art for Shanghai. Certain elements seen here might not be built for opening day and only added later. E.g. Hong Kong Disneyland still has no Downtown Disney area. Maybe even a complete land might be moved to a later phase. However, clearly the drawing does NOT show the resort at anything close to a final stage (even so no Disney resort ever reaches such) as there are many expansion pats inside the Disneyland Park area as well. Looking at these the expansion pats seem to be a healthy mix of areas within the boundaries set by the railroad tracks and just outside the tracks.

For sure the concept art has brought the topic of Shanghai Disneyland back to the top of fan discussions (just take a look at the great and detailed interpretations of the drawings and its details on the MiceChat boards). Also for sure more artwork will become available with the project moving ahead in the coming years … and many changes will be executed to the early concepts as well …

P.S.: you might be interested in our earlier coverage of Shanghai Disneyland including coverage of the re-settlement efforts for the locals currently living on the future resort property as well as rumors regarding the company operating the resort.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Disney Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.