Where in Spain was the proposed site for Euro Disney and were there any other sites in Spain?
A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
- Start date
- Status
You can read about some of it here, but basically there were four final contenders for the EuroDisneyland site. Two in France (the final OTL site near Paris and the previously mentioned original top contender site near Toulon in Southern France that was abandoned due to bedrock issues that would have increased costs and caused construction issues), and two in Spain. Of the Spain sites, one was in Pego, Alicante, over the Marjal de Pego-Oliva marshlands which is one of the last homes of the endangered Valencia Toothcarp, while the other was near Barcelona.
The Barcelona site, from what I've read, was considered too far out from places where European theme parks are popular, and it was not on completely flat land which would have cost Disney additional money in construction. Finally there was a lot of red tape in the local government that Disney apparently would have had to deal with if they had chosen the site that they ultimately wanted to avoid, and they would basically have had to bring any proposal for constructing the resort through the local, regional, and national government, something which Disney could avoid with the two French sites. I also know at one of the Spanish sites there was apparently an issue with regular violent winds, though I have yet to determine for that last point if it was for the Barcelona site or the Alicante site where regular strong winds were encountered. I speculate however that the strong winds were in the Barcelona site, but I could be wrong about that, as one website I’ve found indicates it might have instead been the Alicante site.
The was also I believe at one point a fifth possible site at one point near London, England, but it was rejected for similar reasons to the Barcalona site (not flat land, possible red tape) but also because the land was too small. The possible land sites being too small was also why Italy got rejected as well, from my understanding, despite being the country a number Disney execs originally wanted the most.
I recently did a bit of research into Disneyland Paris and it's history for a different timeline on this site that I was/am helping with, so a lot of this info is a bit fresh in my memory. Long story short of it, no matter how much I tried to avoid it, the current OTL site ultimately, based only on what knowledge is currently available of the final four site contenders, ironically was the best possible site for Disney to choose, despite the weather issues it came with.
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Makes me wonder what the other theme park companies are doing ITTL. In OTL 1985 Six Flags had opened a short-lived theme park in an old Baltimore power plant. Maybe the butterflies could make it more successful if it weren’t butterflied away completely.
Do these four sites have to be the same ITTL? We are 5/6 years past the PoD so any number of random butterflies could change proposal sites, maybe near Montpellier or Marseille in France.
That or somewhere with better climate and more accomodation.
Maybe EuroDisney is delayed and when German reunification happens, a spot there is chosen to celeberate and helps stimulate and liberalize the economy of East Germany?
Any room for a proper Flashman adaptation? There was a movie in 1975 (so before the POD) based on the second book (Royal Flash) starring Malcolm McDowell (who even agrees he was miscast as ol' Harry), but given its reception, it's no wonder that another adaptation hasn't surfaced since IOTL. Though the biggest problem with adapting George McFraiser's masterwork is boh due to the character of Sir Harry Paget Flashman himself (he's not a "lovable" rogue in any sense like, say, Jack Sparrow - he's an unrepentant misogynist, racist, chauvinist and white supremacist of the highest caliber, not to mention a few of his lays with women were rapes; so, in short, a standard Victorian English soldier) and the observational satire and wit of the prose not carrying over well to a visual medium (the 1975 Royal Flash film attempted to replace this with slapstick, which contributed it to its divisiveness).
en.wikipedia.org
The Flashman Papers - Wikipedia
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Marty Sklar IIIa: Park Expansions
It's funny that everyone's talking about the next parks. More tomorrow!
Chapter 25: A Small World After All
Excerpt from: From a Figment to a Reality: The Imagineering Method! by Marty Sklar
Being an Imagineer means more than just coming up with innovative solutions to a set of requirements, it means thinking in terms of a grander vision. Walt always had a grander vision: for his art, for his company, and for humanity. Walt, for example, always had his eyes pointed outwards to the world. Even though he loved America and American values, for him, the human experience transcended borders and nations. He sought to expand Disney’s vision and audience to the international stage, and sought to show America that there was a whole new world out there as well. The It’s a Small World ride at Fantasyland was an encapsulation of this vision, obviously, but so were his nature documentaries and cartoons like Bienvenidos Amigos. The World Showcase Pavilions were an attempt by Imagineers to further that vision of international brotherhood.
Phase II of the World Showcase was intended to establish four to six new national pavilions alongside the original nine. We intended to expand as much as possible into South America, Asia, and Africa in particular since, of the original nine, only China and Japan were not from Europe or North America. Jim Henson loved the World Showcase, especially the Mexico Pavilion and El Río del Tiempo[1], and helped us develop new rides there, like Great Britain, Above and Below for the United Kingdom Pavilion. He also had big ideas for Phase II. For Phase II we had promised four new pavilions as of 1982: Spain, Venezuela, Israel, and Equatorial Africa. Alas, only three would see construction, and one as only a shadow of its former self.
Concept Art for the Venezuela Pavilion (Image source “themeparkuniversity.com”)
Venezuela had some big ideas behind it, from a statue of Simon Bolivar to a tram ride to the “Andes”, but the crash in oil prices in the early ‘80s doomed any hope of getting funding from the oil-dependent nation, causing the Venezuela Pavilion to be stillborn[2]. As to Spain, our original deal with the prior Spanish government fell through after the 1981 election. The new socialist-leaning majority was not interested in sponsoring a pavilion[3].
Sign for the Israel Pavilion (Image source “mouselets.com”) {seriously, this is the only online image I can find!}
The Israel Pavilion nearly didn’t happen over fears of terrorism. Only strong lobbying by Associate Director Steven Spielberg, who had Jim and Roy’s ears, got the pavilion greenlit[4]. Even so, we had some protests and needed to subtly increase our security measures. Thankfully, other than a single foiled knife attack in the 1990s, there have been no major incidences.
Concept Art for the Equatorial Africa Pavilion (Image source “forums.wdwmagic.com”)
Equatorial Africa was a source of huge hope. Despite the poverty of the region, we’d assembled a coalition of African nations who’d agreed to split the costs. We imagined movie pavilions and a giant interactive music show with self-playing drums. Alas, the ‘80s were not a good time for the real Equatorial Africa. Kenya and Zaire fell into cycles of brutal violence and oppression. Liberia and Nigeria collapsed into civil war. Ivory Coast saw the price of cocoa and coffee, its principle exports, plunge and dropped out. South Africa offered to take over, but this was the era of apartheid, and no one was touching South Africa at the time. At the insistence of Jim, we opened a small Africa themed stage, where traditional musicians could play and documentary films could be screened. His friend Harry Belafonte performed the inaugural number at the opening. We even added a small food court featuring African foods. A far cry from what we envisioned, but better than nothing[5].
The Realized Morocco Pavilion (Image source “disneyfanatic.com”)
Thankfully, Africa got some real representation, though North Africa rather than sub-Saharan. Morocco signed on to sponsor a pavilion, which thanks to some outstanding and realistic architecture by our Imagineers, and some damned good food, remains a popular one. Some even cite the “balance” of having an Islamic nation as part of Phase II for why the Israel Pavilion remains relatively unbothered.
Walt wanted to open up Disney to the world, but he also believed in being a good shepherd to the Earth and its natural bounty. This was a belief that Jim Henson wholeheartedly shared. Walt Disney World sat on over 20,000 acres of central Florida land, and yet much of that was wetlands. Sure, we could have drained and developed it, but Jim had another idea: why not follow the spirit of Walt and preserve it? Jim suggested that we take the majority of that existing Reedy Creek wetland and turn it into a private nature preserve. We could tie it directly to The Land Pavilion. We could offer limited, minimal-impact tours with trained naturalists to help fund conservation and research efforts. We could even seek a sponsorship or grant from the Department of the Interior or EPA.
I said, “why stop at the wetlands? Let’s save the whales too! We can tie it to The Living Sea.”
“Great!” he said with a smile.
To help promote the effort, he suggested a new series of documentaries specifically about whale conservation, the Florida Everglades and other natural wetlands, and the Amazon rainforests, which were all becoming causes celebré. He set up a partnership with Jacques Cousteau and John Denver. He even got Roy E. Disney to be the executive producer for the documentaries as a tip of the hat to Roy’s work on The Vanishing Prairie and other nature documentaries back in Walt’s day. Once Ron and then Frank approved the measure, no doubt appreciating the promotional opportunities, public relations, and tax deductions that came with it, I had the Imagineers look into the wetland’s preservation project, which we soon dubbed Kermit’s Living Swamp Project.
We had plenty of hydrologists and environmental engineers and scientists on the staff already, given the number of environmental and flooding concerns that come with land development in Florida, and they jumped at the opportunity. In addition to exploring the requirements to begin the conservation efforts, they devised minimal-impact methods for adding in boardwalks, nature paths, and boat tour pathways. They came up with maximum allowable visitor numbers and “blacklist” dates to protect animal mating and nesting seasons and other critical periods. They even came up with a plan to prevent runoff from the parks, hotels, roads, and surrounding farmland from entering the wetlands in order to protect them from pollutants.
In addition, our power and heating was provided by a combination of solar cells, solar water heating, and a natural gas cogeneration facility taking advantage of waste heat for heating purposes[6]. We put solar panels on tresses over parking areas and walking paths, providing both power and shade for the guests. We wanted to put up wind turbines too, but the prevailing local winds were insufficient most of the year. The team received a special EPA conservation meritorious notice and won awards from organizations from the Sierra Club to Ducks Unlimited. Roy’s Shorts series received Best Documentary Oscar nominations and several smaller awards. I’m sure Walt would be proud.
(Image source “laughingplace.com” via “pintrest”)
The Short Documentary A Wish for the Whales came out just in time for the grand opening of The Living Sea Pavilion in early 1986 after United Technologies (UTC) signed on as a sponsor. Ron, Jim, and Roy attended the opening ceremonies along with guest stars John Denver (who provided the soundtrack to the ride) and Jacques Cousteau (a conservation partner who’d participated in some of Roy’s Shorts). Jim had largely approved of our early “Sea Lab” concept of the Living Seas ride, and throughout ’82 to ’85 had worked with us to implement it as an underwater voyage in a “sea car” people mover. Jim at first brought us these drawings of a huge tank with these pneumatic tubes that would carry people through the waters. It honestly wasn’t practical, or necessarily even possible within the laws of physics. However, since “no” is not in the Imagineering vernacular, we instead approached things from a “yes, but what if?” approach. He took it all with a friendly smile and asked us what we could do in that “general area” of guest experience.
Like this Concept Art, but Crazier (Image source “dizavenue.com”; great vintage images from them here)
We ultimately came up with an approach that met the “submerged in the water” feel while remaining cost effective and practical. The visitors would travel through glass tunnels under or between the tanks rather than through glass tubes inside of them. The sea cars took the visitors past the many artificial reefs, freshwater tanks, deep water tanks, and tidewater tanks within the exhibit, giving them a global view of life in the seas. The sea cars then took the visitors to the central “Sea Lab” where the cars slowed down so that visitors could optionally disembark for a short walk-through attraction. There, a combination of animatronics and windows into the actual tanks gave the visitor the impression of being inside a working sea laboratory of the future, coincidentally the “same one” they would see from the outside at A Look to the Horizon. When ready, the visitors could re-board the sea cars to continue the journey through the tanks to complete the ride. John Denver and Jacques Cousteau travelled with us on the maiden voyage and Jacques was quite amused that all of the sea lab people, animatronic and living actors and guides alike, wore red knit beanies in the Calypso crew style.
The Living Seas proved popular and even got an unexpected bump in late 1986 when Star Trek 4 and “George and Gracie” hit the big screen, further popularizing Saving the Whales. We were the largest aquarium in the world for a while before the expanded Atlanta Aquarium took the top spot. In general, The Living Seas, despite its slight changes through the years, remains popular and holds a special place in EPCOT history.
The Living Body Pavilion, more or less (Image from “blog.tickets2you.com”)
Jim also worked with Dick Nunis and us on The Living Body Pavilion, ultimately gaining the sponsorship of Merck & Co. with construction beginning in early 1985 and opening planned for 1987. The pavilion was dedicated to the human body, life, health, medicine, and biology. Our vision for the star attraction, “Body Wars”, a spiritual successor to the Journeys Through Inner Space ride, was, alas, a bridge too far for us. We had some excellent ideas for a dark ride through the human body featuring an attack by viruses. It was to have “breathing” lung alveoli, a “beating” heart, and other aspects of a living human body, but this all proved far too costly when we budgeted for it. Instead, we adapted it using the new ATLAS simulator ride technology that we’d explored for the doomed The Black Hole ride back in 1979. By this point it was renamed and rethemed “Innerspace Journeys” as a tie-in to the upcoming Lawrence Kasdan film. It proved a crowning success and a great forerunner for Star Tours, and would become the signature ride for the new pavilion.
Innerspace Journeys (Image source “themeparktourist.com”)
The other ride in the new pavilion was to be Head Trip[7], a hybrid animatronics, animation, and live action film based in part on an old concept that Jim had called “Inside John”[8] and in part on some old Disney animations, such as 1943’s Reason and Emotion. The ride features animatronic or animated representations of aspects of the human brain, with the logical Captain Cortical Cognition, or “Cortie”, trying her best to lead the 14-year-old human “Betty” (live action through her eyes and viewed through eye-shaped windows) through a series of daily life’s experiences like arguing with her mother, playing with friends, getting teased, and meeting a boy she likes. Cortie’s job is in turn assisted, and complicated, by her staff of “helpers”, each representing a part of the human mind. These included the bookish Professor Hippocampus, who provided memory, the athletic Sergeant Motor, who managed physical movement, the hardworking maintenance worker Henry Hypothalamus, who controlled heart rate, temperature, and breathing, the strict Governess Orbitofrontal, who served as the superego moral guardian, and the overworked Lieutenant Limbic, who tried to manage a team of competing emotional impulses. These emotions included “Happy Heather”, “Sad Sadie”, “Angry Angie”, “Scared Sarah”, “Bored Bessie”, and the fan-favorite “Amygdala Amy” who occasionally emerged, shrieking, from a hidden chamber amid a flashing Red Alert light and siren, causing chaos to ensue. It became a beloved ride and even proved quite a good primer on neuroscience.
Head Trip, more or less (Image source “yesterland.com”)
We also entered discussions with Steve Spielberg and Michael Jackson for a new multimedia show based upon Peter Pan[9]. Steve had been working with Ron Miller on a Peter Pan film already[10], and so the timing was serendipitous. The 45-minute multimedia short was the perfect blending of the two visions. We ultimately titled it Pan: the 4D Experience. The Creatureworks would provide beautiful effects work for all of the crazy animals. It would be released in CommuniCore in ’86 to great acclaim before eventually being relocated to Fantasyland locations. We also entered into discussions for collaborations with George Lucas, most famously Star Tours, the Indiana Jones Adventure stunt show, and the Race with the Monkey King roller coaster.
But perhaps the biggest contribution we would make to Walt’s international vision was the opening of Tokyo Disneyland and the Disneyland in Europe. The former I’ve already spoken about, but the latter probably has the more interesting story.
[1] True! He partly modelled the Great Muppet Movie Ride on it in our timeline.
[2] Same as happened in our timeline. World events can matter more than dreams sometimes.
[3] Also as per our timeline.
[4] In our timeline these terrorism fears killed the pavilion. Here, it survives. Rumors persist that many of the Disney “employees” at the pavilion are secretly Mossad agents.
[5] To this day Epcot only has a dinky snack bar at the site of the planned pavilion.
[6] Disney did this in our timeline too.
[7] Similar in some respects to Cranium Command!
[8] True! An interesting coincidence that’s serendipitous in this timeline.
[9] Jackson’s original plan for a Disney collaboration. In our timeline Eisner steered him towards “something SciFi”, which became Captain EO. Henson is more likely to let the creative artists plot their own pathway.
[10] This was happening in our timeline as well and eventually got taken to Paramount, where it ultimately evolved into 1990’s Hook.
Chapter 25: A Small World After All
Excerpt from: From a Figment to a Reality: The Imagineering Method! by Marty Sklar
Being an Imagineer means more than just coming up with innovative solutions to a set of requirements, it means thinking in terms of a grander vision. Walt always had a grander vision: for his art, for his company, and for humanity. Walt, for example, always had his eyes pointed outwards to the world. Even though he loved America and American values, for him, the human experience transcended borders and nations. He sought to expand Disney’s vision and audience to the international stage, and sought to show America that there was a whole new world out there as well. The It’s a Small World ride at Fantasyland was an encapsulation of this vision, obviously, but so were his nature documentaries and cartoons like Bienvenidos Amigos. The World Showcase Pavilions were an attempt by Imagineers to further that vision of international brotherhood.
Phase II of the World Showcase was intended to establish four to six new national pavilions alongside the original nine. We intended to expand as much as possible into South America, Asia, and Africa in particular since, of the original nine, only China and Japan were not from Europe or North America. Jim Henson loved the World Showcase, especially the Mexico Pavilion and El Río del Tiempo[1], and helped us develop new rides there, like Great Britain, Above and Below for the United Kingdom Pavilion. He also had big ideas for Phase II. For Phase II we had promised four new pavilions as of 1982: Spain, Venezuela, Israel, and Equatorial Africa. Alas, only three would see construction, and one as only a shadow of its former self.
Concept Art for the Venezuela Pavilion (Image source “themeparkuniversity.com”)
Venezuela had some big ideas behind it, from a statue of Simon Bolivar to a tram ride to the “Andes”, but the crash in oil prices in the early ‘80s doomed any hope of getting funding from the oil-dependent nation, causing the Venezuela Pavilion to be stillborn[2]. As to Spain, our original deal with the prior Spanish government fell through after the 1981 election. The new socialist-leaning majority was not interested in sponsoring a pavilion[3].
Sign for the Israel Pavilion (Image source “mouselets.com”) {seriously, this is the only online image I can find!}
The Israel Pavilion nearly didn’t happen over fears of terrorism. Only strong lobbying by Associate Director Steven Spielberg, who had Jim and Roy’s ears, got the pavilion greenlit[4]. Even so, we had some protests and needed to subtly increase our security measures. Thankfully, other than a single foiled knife attack in the 1990s, there have been no major incidences.
Concept Art for the Equatorial Africa Pavilion (Image source “forums.wdwmagic.com”)
Equatorial Africa was a source of huge hope. Despite the poverty of the region, we’d assembled a coalition of African nations who’d agreed to split the costs. We imagined movie pavilions and a giant interactive music show with self-playing drums. Alas, the ‘80s were not a good time for the real Equatorial Africa. Kenya and Zaire fell into cycles of brutal violence and oppression. Liberia and Nigeria collapsed into civil war. Ivory Coast saw the price of cocoa and coffee, its principle exports, plunge and dropped out. South Africa offered to take over, but this was the era of apartheid, and no one was touching South Africa at the time. At the insistence of Jim, we opened a small Africa themed stage, where traditional musicians could play and documentary films could be screened. His friend Harry Belafonte performed the inaugural number at the opening. We even added a small food court featuring African foods. A far cry from what we envisioned, but better than nothing[5].
The Realized Morocco Pavilion (Image source “disneyfanatic.com”)
Thankfully, Africa got some real representation, though North Africa rather than sub-Saharan. Morocco signed on to sponsor a pavilion, which thanks to some outstanding and realistic architecture by our Imagineers, and some damned good food, remains a popular one. Some even cite the “balance” of having an Islamic nation as part of Phase II for why the Israel Pavilion remains relatively unbothered.
Walt wanted to open up Disney to the world, but he also believed in being a good shepherd to the Earth and its natural bounty. This was a belief that Jim Henson wholeheartedly shared. Walt Disney World sat on over 20,000 acres of central Florida land, and yet much of that was wetlands. Sure, we could have drained and developed it, but Jim had another idea: why not follow the spirit of Walt and preserve it? Jim suggested that we take the majority of that existing Reedy Creek wetland and turn it into a private nature preserve. We could tie it directly to The Land Pavilion. We could offer limited, minimal-impact tours with trained naturalists to help fund conservation and research efforts. We could even seek a sponsorship or grant from the Department of the Interior or EPA.
I said, “why stop at the wetlands? Let’s save the whales too! We can tie it to The Living Sea.”
“Great!” he said with a smile.
To help promote the effort, he suggested a new series of documentaries specifically about whale conservation, the Florida Everglades and other natural wetlands, and the Amazon rainforests, which were all becoming causes celebré. He set up a partnership with Jacques Cousteau and John Denver. He even got Roy E. Disney to be the executive producer for the documentaries as a tip of the hat to Roy’s work on The Vanishing Prairie and other nature documentaries back in Walt’s day. Once Ron and then Frank approved the measure, no doubt appreciating the promotional opportunities, public relations, and tax deductions that came with it, I had the Imagineers look into the wetland’s preservation project, which we soon dubbed Kermit’s Living Swamp Project.
We had plenty of hydrologists and environmental engineers and scientists on the staff already, given the number of environmental and flooding concerns that come with land development in Florida, and they jumped at the opportunity. In addition to exploring the requirements to begin the conservation efforts, they devised minimal-impact methods for adding in boardwalks, nature paths, and boat tour pathways. They came up with maximum allowable visitor numbers and “blacklist” dates to protect animal mating and nesting seasons and other critical periods. They even came up with a plan to prevent runoff from the parks, hotels, roads, and surrounding farmland from entering the wetlands in order to protect them from pollutants.
In addition, our power and heating was provided by a combination of solar cells, solar water heating, and a natural gas cogeneration facility taking advantage of waste heat for heating purposes[6]. We put solar panels on tresses over parking areas and walking paths, providing both power and shade for the guests. We wanted to put up wind turbines too, but the prevailing local winds were insufficient most of the year. The team received a special EPA conservation meritorious notice and won awards from organizations from the Sierra Club to Ducks Unlimited. Roy’s Shorts series received Best Documentary Oscar nominations and several smaller awards. I’m sure Walt would be proud.
(Image source “laughingplace.com” via “pintrest”)
The Short Documentary A Wish for the Whales came out just in time for the grand opening of The Living Sea Pavilion in early 1986 after United Technologies (UTC) signed on as a sponsor. Ron, Jim, and Roy attended the opening ceremonies along with guest stars John Denver (who provided the soundtrack to the ride) and Jacques Cousteau (a conservation partner who’d participated in some of Roy’s Shorts). Jim had largely approved of our early “Sea Lab” concept of the Living Seas ride, and throughout ’82 to ’85 had worked with us to implement it as an underwater voyage in a “sea car” people mover. Jim at first brought us these drawings of a huge tank with these pneumatic tubes that would carry people through the waters. It honestly wasn’t practical, or necessarily even possible within the laws of physics. However, since “no” is not in the Imagineering vernacular, we instead approached things from a “yes, but what if?” approach. He took it all with a friendly smile and asked us what we could do in that “general area” of guest experience.
Like this Concept Art, but Crazier (Image source “dizavenue.com”; great vintage images from them here)
We ultimately came up with an approach that met the “submerged in the water” feel while remaining cost effective and practical. The visitors would travel through glass tunnels under or between the tanks rather than through glass tubes inside of them. The sea cars took the visitors past the many artificial reefs, freshwater tanks, deep water tanks, and tidewater tanks within the exhibit, giving them a global view of life in the seas. The sea cars then took the visitors to the central “Sea Lab” where the cars slowed down so that visitors could optionally disembark for a short walk-through attraction. There, a combination of animatronics and windows into the actual tanks gave the visitor the impression of being inside a working sea laboratory of the future, coincidentally the “same one” they would see from the outside at A Look to the Horizon. When ready, the visitors could re-board the sea cars to continue the journey through the tanks to complete the ride. John Denver and Jacques Cousteau travelled with us on the maiden voyage and Jacques was quite amused that all of the sea lab people, animatronic and living actors and guides alike, wore red knit beanies in the Calypso crew style.
The Living Seas proved popular and even got an unexpected bump in late 1986 when Star Trek 4 and “George and Gracie” hit the big screen, further popularizing Saving the Whales. We were the largest aquarium in the world for a while before the expanded Atlanta Aquarium took the top spot. In general, The Living Seas, despite its slight changes through the years, remains popular and holds a special place in EPCOT history.
The Living Body Pavilion, more or less (Image from “blog.tickets2you.com”)
Jim also worked with Dick Nunis and us on The Living Body Pavilion, ultimately gaining the sponsorship of Merck & Co. with construction beginning in early 1985 and opening planned for 1987. The pavilion was dedicated to the human body, life, health, medicine, and biology. Our vision for the star attraction, “Body Wars”, a spiritual successor to the Journeys Through Inner Space ride, was, alas, a bridge too far for us. We had some excellent ideas for a dark ride through the human body featuring an attack by viruses. It was to have “breathing” lung alveoli, a “beating” heart, and other aspects of a living human body, but this all proved far too costly when we budgeted for it. Instead, we adapted it using the new ATLAS simulator ride technology that we’d explored for the doomed The Black Hole ride back in 1979. By this point it was renamed and rethemed “Innerspace Journeys” as a tie-in to the upcoming Lawrence Kasdan film. It proved a crowning success and a great forerunner for Star Tours, and would become the signature ride for the new pavilion.
Innerspace Journeys (Image source “themeparktourist.com”)
The other ride in the new pavilion was to be Head Trip[7], a hybrid animatronics, animation, and live action film based in part on an old concept that Jim had called “Inside John”[8] and in part on some old Disney animations, such as 1943’s Reason and Emotion. The ride features animatronic or animated representations of aspects of the human brain, with the logical Captain Cortical Cognition, or “Cortie”, trying her best to lead the 14-year-old human “Betty” (live action through her eyes and viewed through eye-shaped windows) through a series of daily life’s experiences like arguing with her mother, playing with friends, getting teased, and meeting a boy she likes. Cortie’s job is in turn assisted, and complicated, by her staff of “helpers”, each representing a part of the human mind. These included the bookish Professor Hippocampus, who provided memory, the athletic Sergeant Motor, who managed physical movement, the hardworking maintenance worker Henry Hypothalamus, who controlled heart rate, temperature, and breathing, the strict Governess Orbitofrontal, who served as the superego moral guardian, and the overworked Lieutenant Limbic, who tried to manage a team of competing emotional impulses. These emotions included “Happy Heather”, “Sad Sadie”, “Angry Angie”, “Scared Sarah”, “Bored Bessie”, and the fan-favorite “Amygdala Amy” who occasionally emerged, shrieking, from a hidden chamber amid a flashing Red Alert light and siren, causing chaos to ensue. It became a beloved ride and even proved quite a good primer on neuroscience.
Head Trip, more or less (Image source “yesterland.com”)
We also entered discussions with Steve Spielberg and Michael Jackson for a new multimedia show based upon Peter Pan[9]. Steve had been working with Ron Miller on a Peter Pan film already[10], and so the timing was serendipitous. The 45-minute multimedia short was the perfect blending of the two visions. We ultimately titled it Pan: the 4D Experience. The Creatureworks would provide beautiful effects work for all of the crazy animals. It would be released in CommuniCore in ’86 to great acclaim before eventually being relocated to Fantasyland locations. We also entered into discussions for collaborations with George Lucas, most famously Star Tours, the Indiana Jones Adventure stunt show, and the Race with the Monkey King roller coaster.
But perhaps the biggest contribution we would make to Walt’s international vision was the opening of Tokyo Disneyland and the Disneyland in Europe. The former I’ve already spoken about, but the latter probably has the more interesting story.
[1] True! He partly modelled the Great Muppet Movie Ride on it in our timeline.
[2] Same as happened in our timeline. World events can matter more than dreams sometimes.
[3] Also as per our timeline.
[4] In our timeline these terrorism fears killed the pavilion. Here, it survives. Rumors persist that many of the Disney “employees” at the pavilion are secretly Mossad agents.
[5] To this day Epcot only has a dinky snack bar at the site of the planned pavilion.
[6] Disney did this in our timeline too.
[7] Similar in some respects to Cranium Command!
[8] True! An interesting coincidence that’s serendipitous in this timeline.
[9] Jackson’s original plan for a Disney collaboration. In our timeline Eisner steered him towards “something SciFi”, which became Captain EO. Henson is more likely to let the creative artists plot their own pathway.
[10] This was happening in our timeline as well and eventually got taken to Paramount, where it ultimately evolved into 1990’s Hook.
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Well, the term I used was "Smart Slasher" (it was someone else that used "psychological horror) and two "OTL examples that I can think of would be Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Cabin in the Woods. Jacobs Ladder might count, though it's not really a slasher. Eraserhead is surreal horror.
Hadn't put much though to the Japanese horror craze, buyt if you have ideas PM them to me.
This idea does have some merit:
Muppetville (concept)
Muppetville was a concept for a Muppet-themed amusement park first explored by Jim Henson around 1987. Artwork was commissioned and created by Kurt Hanks before the idea was eventually abandoned.[1] Henson dropped the idea, conceding that "Disney does it so well that we could never do it...muppet.fandom.com
I think putting somewhere in southern France might also work, so that they have less competition from more established European theme parks.
An observant viewer would notice that I plunked a Muppetland down in WDW in the early 1980s alongside a second Sesame Place, but i really should do a dedicated post on it.
Any room for a proper Flashman adaptation? There was a movie in 1975 (so before the POD) based on the second book (Royal Flash) starring Malcolm McDowell (who even agrees he was miscast as ol' Harry), but given its reception, it's no wonder that another adaptation hasn't surfaced since IOTL. Though the biggest problem with adapting George McFraiser's masterwork is boh due to the character of Sir Harry Paget Flashman himself (he's not a "lovable" rogue in any sense like, say, Jack Sparrow - he's an unrepentant misogynist, racist, chauvinist and white supremacist of the highest caliber, not to mention a few of his lays with women were rapes; so, in short, a standard Victorian English soldier) and the observational satire and wit of the prose not carrying over well to a visual medium (the 1975 Royal Flash film attempted to replace this with slapstick, which contributed it to its divisiveness).
The Flashman Papers - Wikipedia
I'd never heard of that series. Sounds like James Bond from Victorian England. If you have an idea PM me.
Yes, quite a bit like that.
It'd require its own pad (the power pad or Atari equivalent will lack the proper number of buttons), but there's no reason why not.now you can correct their error in your tl
Hmm... wonder if this means Hollywood Studios or at least a third WDW park still happens. I’m not entirely sure there’s enough space in Magic Kingdom for all three rides, let alone Disneyland.
Can’t wait to hear about this.
I wonder if this means we’ll end up having Disney make Hook, or if it will stick to being about a younger more traditional Peter Pan story.
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Great that the two Walt Disneys are doing their best to preserve the local environment. (Fun fact: I actually came up the other days of a similar idea, but as a fossil quarry from the Pliocene, preserving proboscideans and Titanis, the giant bird). I wonder, maybe we will get new green energy innovations out of it?
I wonnder if Disney's green efforts might affect the concurrent Midterms, like turn parts of Florida more democrat and create further public support for environmental action? Who knows, maybe we could get a president Dukakis in two years' time.
I'm so sorry for that.
Hopefully the Sub-Saharan African pavilion gets built in full eventually.
The Seas Pavilion sounds great. Will this exhibit dolphins as IOTL? Hopefully it doesn't get bastardised into the Nemo shit, given I assume Pixar as we know it doesn't happen
While I think Star Trek 4 is great enough in both this timeline and ours, part of me wonders what it would look like had Mel Brooks been behind it and arguably make a hilarious film even funnier (but the rest of me won't accept trading off Spaceballs as we know it).
I wonnder if Disney's green efforts might affect the concurrent Midterms, like turn parts of Florida more democrat and create further public support for environmental action? Who knows, maybe we could get a president Dukakis in two years' time.
*Breathes in deeply and aggressively, trying to control unsolicited opinions on Israel*
I'm so sorry for that.
Hopefully the Sub-Saharan African pavilion gets built in full eventually.
The Seas Pavilion sounds great. Will this exhibit dolphins as IOTL? Hopefully it doesn't get bastardised into the Nemo shit, given I assume Pixar as we know it doesn't happen
While I think Star Trek 4 is great enough in both this timeline and ours, part of me wonders what it would look like had Mel Brooks been behind it and arguably make a hilarious film even funnier (but the rest of me won't accept trading off Spaceballs as we know it).
marathag
Banned
But who was a complete coward who was just very lucky, not skilled.
Think more Victorian-era Zelig or Forrest Gump
I've never heard of this, but after reading about it it sounds like an early version of the Pretender.
Forrest's not a coward.
I'll talk a little more about this in the future.
Politics will come up, but I won't dwell on it. Yes, please keep discussion on topic and away from political mine fields as I'd hate to get this thread locked. Yes, there will be Dolphins as well as sea lions, but it won't be going full Sea World. Mel Brooks will come up fairly soon, actually
OK, so possibly a bit of a spoof/deconstruction of Bond? Or just a straight Zelig, "been there, shaped history"?
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marathag
Banned
Like Forrest as in being around for many major cultural events. Harry was around for political and military ones
I really hope lots more Corporations and the government take note of using 'free' energy sources and we get a bigger Green revolution sooner.
If EuroDisney is in Spain esp near Barcelona it would be a great opportunity to cover it in solar panels to cut costs and impact on the local grid in a way that a N. France or W German park is not able too.
I like the Morocco pavilion.
I wonder about putting a park there if Spain isn't an option, would it get visitors from southern Europe?
Would having a good relationship with Morocco help with Aladdin and other Arabian Night projects?
It's not the Mid East, but an actual muslim nation having some input would be good.
I wonder about putting a park there if Spain isn't an option, would it get visitors from southern Europe?
Would having a good relationship with Morocco help with Aladdin and other Arabian Night projects?
It's not the Mid East, but an actual muslim nation having some input would be good.
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