jeudi 22 mars 2012

THE MAIN STREET STATION

 Hi!
Here's at last a second article.

Ambiance sketch of the station, as seen from the street, with a cablecar in the foreground, and the Disneyland hotel in the background.


It concerns the Main street station, near the entrance of the park. I should have posted this much earlier, but I had some doubts that made me hesitate for a while.
The building is inspired by the Nyugati railway station, in Budapest, Hungary. The original building could be assimilated to the english victorian architectural movement, but was built by the "Eiffel company" in 1875, and has some oriental inspirations as well, especially in its ornaments.
To be honest, I am not completely satisfied with this design. I think that the shape of the building is too much of a square, and do not ressembles a real station in its layout. In the end I find it a little too fantaisist to my taste. But there are so many other things I still have to define concerning the park, that I don't don't think I should take the time to make another attempt for the moment.

Elevation sketch for the main facade.


quick ornamental study

jeudi 26 janvier 2012

INTRODUCING MY PROJECT.

Welcome to NeoDisneyland!

My name is Pierre, I am a 21 years old french guy who really enjoys theme parks.
So I've decided to create this blog in order to showcase a "home-imagineering" project I started last year, which consists of designing a Disney "Magic kingdom" park.
This first entry will only be a general introduction to this project. Detailed articles about more precise aspects of the park and full descriptions of the rides themselves will be coming soon.

Nighttime rendering

As every magic kingdom, the park would be devided in several lands, five in this case : Main street, Discoveryland, Storybookland, Country of the spirits, and Frontierland.

overall view of the park

The first land, by which you enter the park, is of course Main street.
Throughout the history of Disney parks, the main street has always been reproducing Walt Disney's hometown, Marceline, Missouri. My version of Main street depicts an anonymous european city from the inter-war period. In this land you would find inspirations from almost every european capitals and their own architectural heritages. It would also be a way to introduce some very beautiful architectural styles that have never been used before in a theme park ( at least to my knowledge ) like for instance the franco-belgian "Art nouveau" style, and its hungarian and swiss variations.

Main Street elevation sketch
Haunted Mansion's queue

The only proper ride on main street is the Haunted Mansion, with of course a new european theme and storyline, involving a rich art collector, owner of the house, and madame leota as the main antagonist.





The main difference between the original Disneyland concept and my interpretation of it, is that there is no longer a central plaza at the crossing of the lands, as I replaced it by a lake. The abscence of a hub is compensated by the fact that Main street is not hermetic to the other lands anymore.

The transition between Main street and Discoveryland is made by the red brick facade of a Tron 4-D dark ride, using a similar technology to the one that Intamin and Universal develloped together for The amazing Spiderman ride, at Island of Adventures.
Discoveryland's center piece is a hemispheric Space Mountain, isolated on an artificial island surrounded by water and exotic rocks. This lake is also home to aquatopia, that would be slightly different from the original one at Tokyo Disney sea, since it would have two distinct operating programs: a daytime program and a nighttime one. At night, water screens would rise up from the lake, and video-projections would be displayed on them, showing beautiful astronomical phenomenas and strange creatures coming from the depth of both the sea and the outer-space.
Further on, a monumental art deco pavillion hosts a Soarin' spin-off based on the 1991 movie "Rocketeer".

Coming back to the central lake, after walking through a futuristic landscaped area made of  waterfalls running on giant stylised copper ores, you find yourself in front of the key element of any respectable magic kingdom park : the castle.
The evil queen's castle, as seen from backwards

Here, the castle is the one from the evil queen in "snow white and the seven dwarves". It would take the shape of a dark bavarian castle, setted up into a threatening forest, inspired by the black forest in Germany, where the tale is supposed to take place.
It would be the main gate to Storybookland, which as you may have guessed is an equivalent to Fantasyland. Storybookland has a much more restrictive theme than Fantasyland, for it is dedicated to the fairytales that were brought to screen by Walt Disney himself, when he was still alive. It features enhanced versions of some of the classic Fantasyland dark rides : Snow white's scary adventures, Alice in wonderland, and Pinnochio's Daring Journey. These new versions of the traditional dark rides would use trackless ride systems, have augmented storylines and more modern special effects. Storybookland would also have some original rides : A 3D omnimover ride based on "Sleeping Beauty", a canal boat ride taking place on the central lake, and a Fantasia live music show.

Next to Storybookland is Country of the spirits, a small land based on Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited away, with only one E-ticket ride : a boat ride using the same building and track layout as Pirates of the caribbean, but telling the story of spirited away through the use of new sceneries and special effects.

Once you've been through this Country of the spirits, you find yourself at the doors of Frontierland, a huge dried canyon, that leads you to the ruins of a what used to be a mining town, abandoned after an earthquake occured centuries ago. The major ride of the land is an indoor version of Big thunder mountain. There is also a boat ride, "Keelboats through nature's wonderland", which is actualy a tribute to the ancestor of Big thunder mountain : "mine train through nature's wonderland".

That's all for today. Thank you for reading! Please tell me what you think!
(and by the way, if you noticed any language mistake or weird formulation, don't hesitate to tell me, so I can correct myself in the future).