WILD ANIMAL KINGDOM - PARIS

  This is another exploration of "what could have been" for the 2nd Gate plot at Disneyland Paris.   This plan has the park stretching out to the circular perimeter road, even though a significant part of the plot has in actuality been given over to the Val d'Europe suburban development project.   I also wanted to switch up from the current trend of 'random IP-lands plopped together park' and create a unique variation of WDW's Animal Kingdom, with its more focused overarching theme.

 

PALACE OF THE WILD KINGDOM

   It would have been ideal to have a landmark resort at the front of a 2nd gate that complimented the DLP Hotel in scale, height, execution, detail, luxuriousness, etc., but with a very different theme.   Dreams & visions like this are necessary now more than ever, as we are currently in the Dark Age of themed hotels, with only a few decent among many pedestrian eyesores getting designed, approved and built across the world.  Nothing remotely approaching stem-to-stern architectural quality & placemaking of a MiraCosta has gone up since 2001.  While the DLP Hotel & MiraCosta are exemplars of themed hotel architecture - two of the very best ever built - the king is South Africa's Palace of the Lost City.   The hotel I have envisioned at the front of this Wild Animal Kingdom park is influenced by it and by some art released by Legacy for an Asian park (see below), which in turn borrows from India's Laxmi Vilas Palace.   The bespoke design would weave nature/animal motifs & statuary into everything, as the Palace of the Lost City does so brilliantly.

 

  I am grateful that Legacy Entertainment released a lot of artwork by former WDI concept artists, including all-time greats like John Horny & Christopher Smith, for a proposed 'Forest Kingdom' park.  That artwork inspired a few features of this conceptual plan, including the Court of the Titans (see below) on the park-side of the hotel.   Rather than have a "wild" jungle Oasis with small animal exhibits as at Orlando's DAK, I imagined the approach to echo Disneyland Paris: centered on a monumental hotel with turnstiles on the ground level beneath the building.   Guests emerge from the hotel into a wide circular courtyard surrounded by giant rockwork-animals, with the elephant fountain (see below) at the center.  Other giant carvings I've included are a polar bear, lion, bison, walrus, condor & triceratops.

 
  An expansive, tiered viewing area for unique daytime & nighttime lagoon shows wends down to the water's edge.   Here, the park would utilize a submerged high-powered water cannon platform, so that Bellagio/Burj Khalifa/World of Color-style dancing fountains, along with projections, lasers, floats, actors, etc. could be utilized to wow audiences with a Mythica-level daytime show and a jaw-dropping, IllumiNations-level go-home show.  

 

DINOLAND 

 The approach to this land is marked by a unique version of the 'Oldengate Bridge' with its reconstructed Brachiosaurus-skeleton.  The first attraction encountered is the Crocodilia Caverns, a live animal trail with an indoor cavern section.  In the center of the eastern land is a hillock and terrain-following, swinging coaster modeled on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster: a different version of the originally-planned Excavator.   Continuing this Active Dig Site theme is the Boneyard Jamboree: a re-theme of the Mater's Junkyard flatride from DCA.   The general feel I imagined for these areas as well as the surrounding restaurants & shop sections is that of a 1930s-50s paleontology-find Boomtown with a Southwest  or Australian outback-style, somewhat-ramshackle Research Station aesthetic.

 The backdrop of the eastern half of the land is a monumental rockwork facade in the shape of a herd of wooly mammoths.  The plantings change to a more Boreal/Steppe environment.   Inside the mammoth painted caverns, I imagine a classic Disney style family-ride: long, comedic, narrated, musical omnimover with Marc Davis-inspired scenes involving Pleistocene animals (e.g. sloths, glyptodonts, sabretooths) and their interaction with cavemen (as seen in the Davis art from the World's Fair, below). 

 

  The western half of the land is dominated by another mountainous facade.  It houses Dinoland's second E-ticket and the park's largest indoor ride: an elaborate river cruise into the Triassic era, with dozens of high-tech, life-like AA dinosaurs presented in both peaceful and frightening vignettes.  The attraction has a distinctly more serious tone than the Mammoth ride, with minor visceral thrills in PotC-scale drops.  A Shanghai Pirates-style, full motion boat could be a model ride system.   Integrated into the attraction, with an elevated view of one of the largest, herbivore-filled show scenes, would be an "Observatory" - a slowly-rotating 360 degree restaurant.  The last opening day attraction is the Tar Pits, a Boneyard-style explore zone.  
 

SAFARI ISLAND 

 Just as the Castle parks have unique versions of the same concept (a fairytale castle) as their centerpiece, this land is a "different-but-the-same" take on DAK's Discovery Island.   Both feature the park's Icon, shops & dining buildings in a Tropical/Animal Motif-style and a live animal trail that winds around the carved roots and beneath the boughs of its somewhat unique, great Tree of Life.   I imagine a unique & non-IP Wonders of Nature-type show could go underneath the Tree, though a copy of Bugs makes sense too.

 Adding on to what can be found in Orlando, I placed a wild animal-themed (e.g. carousel in this area as well as the Theater-in-the-Wild, where musical shows, maybe based on Disney animal films that don't fit in the other lands, could be staged.

 
BEASTLIE KINGDOMME

 The approach to this land of fantasy animals combines the best of the DLP Chateau and Diagon Alley dragons: not only does the huge animatronic occasionally spew fire over the heads of guests, but it is fully "alive", not static.  Its main movements would be kept to small twists of the head, eye movements, snorts, shake of tail and wings, as it casually observes the small humans below its rock.  Intermittently, it would do something wild, such as spread its wings, roar, and/or spew fire in an arc over the pathway.  Some backstory could connect it to its relative/rival under the DLP castle.

dragron rock model by Michael Weisheim Beresin

 

 
  The land's attractions would be associated with different geographies of Europe: England (Merlin's Menagerie, an LPS family darkride), Scotland (Loch Ness Landing restaurant, the only direct carryover from the Orlando proposal, with appearances by Nessie in the water), France (a glen featuring animatronic Unicorns and other fantasy creatures) & Germany (the Dragon-based wooden coaster that would feature an indoor "near-incineration" scene).  The architecture of each area would be a fantasy-medieval take on each of these countries unique building styles.   

  Additional attractions include a Griffin-themed aerial carousel (Dumbo) and a MagiQuest-style interactive game through a forest of mythical animals.

 

 ASIA 

  This land, like the WDW original, features distinct geographic representations.  The largest sub-area is India, with centerpiece swing spinner and a Jungle Book (animated) family musical boatride - one of the park's few IP-based attractions.   An even larger complex of temples being reclaimed by nature houses an E-ticket inspired by Legacy's artwork (see below) for a flume that incorporates live tigers and other regional animal habitats (Splash Mountain meets Maharajah Jungle Trek).  

panda trail art by Senen Iglesias

 
  Adventuring guests are drawn to the deepest part of the park by its tallest weenie: Expedition Everest, one of the park's only near-clones from WDW, with a re-engineered, fully-functioning Yeti.

  Moving on from Nepal, the environment transitions to China, with a live animal trail featuring Giant Pandas, red pandas, snub-nosed monkeys, etc.
 

AFRICA

  The visual landmark of this land - enhancing wide vistas from most areas - is a full-scale version of Pride Rock, behind which is a family dark ride based on the animated film.  

  The anchor attraction is a live-animal boat safari, akin to the Tiger River Run that was never built in Orlando, but here themed to East Africa.  The key to the attraction is the wild, apparently-free-roaming, no-visible-manmade-barriers imagineering that made Kilimanjaro Safaris so unique and special in its early years.  I also envisioned a semi-thrill finale, as KS had, which could involve a flash flood through a Hyena Cavern (Animatronics, in this sole case) and hot geysers.   

gorilla trail art by Senen Iglesias

 

  The carryover from WDW is a Gorilla Falls animal trail that features spindly rope bridges over the Maasai River that might give an acrophobe pause.  There is an amphitheater for original, non-IP musical productions.  An element from the aforementioned Legacy park that helped inspire this illustration is the Hippopotamus Lagoon restaurant (see art above).

 

AERIAL OVERLAYS

Current Expansion

 

This Park

 

 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

  The future, seventh land could be any number of things: Pandora, Arctic, South America, Oceans (I feel that Rivers of the Far West and the Grand Canyon Diorama in DLP give a representation of North America), or something not yet proffered up.   I may return to it some day.

***

The End.

EPIC UNIVERSE

An end to America's decades-long new (Tier I) park drought is on the horizon.

My drawing is an amalgamation of the artwork, plans & models that have surfaced on the internet, with some personal flourishes.   The two major influences - the key artwork above and the Drainage Plan - differ somewhat, so I've had to select elements from each for this drawing.

 

Feel free to comment any thoughts or corrections on what is what.

 
CELESTIAL GARDENS

The curvy pathways and water features that form the spine of the park seem to have a SciFi-Victorian (i.e., Discoveryland) style which looks appealing in the artwork.  Here's hoping reality measures up to the feeling conjured by the art.   Kudos to the designers for creating a unique path/park layout - it's something different than anything that has come before.

The Helios Grand Hotel will dominate the park, so many of the important vistas will live or die on the hotel's design & execution.   It would be great if Universal can buck the current trend and create an architecturally-great hotel building (last one was 2001's Mira Costa).

Another cool aspect of the overall park is that there are plans for similarly-shaped-but-appropriately-themed "Spire-Portals" at the entrance of each land (all but the Wizarding World one are visible in the art).  Each seems to have a silhouette echoing a castle:

 

 

 WIZARDING WORLD - PARIS

The art shows that the third Wizarding World in Orlando is planned to look like classic Paris.  With London & New York already represented in the Universal Studios, it makes sense to tackle a 3rd Great City of the World in this park. 

 
Clearly, the original plan was based on the Fantastic Beasts series being a creative & commercial home-run.  Since that hasn't been the case, will Universal cut bait on the Fantastic Beasts connection (as I wish Disney had done with the Abrams trilogy) or change the timeframe & locale of this wizarding world entirely?  It already appears the rumored "Broomstick simulator" is in limbo.

The key art reflects that the Paris of Grindelwald didn't feature much in the way of highly-stylized locales such as Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.  I wonder if Universal Creative and WB Art Directors take it upon themselves to invent a slanting, "wizarded"-version of the streets of Paris?

MONSTERLAND

Over the years I've drawn a number of Classic Monster lands for various Uni illustrative plans, so I'm excited that one is finally coming to fruition.  The artwork, plan and model found on the web show somewhat varying takes for this land.   For this drawing I went with the enclosed theater in the south.  I've seen a stunt show or a return of Graveyard Revue speculated.   I was thinking a Biergarten-type entertainment/dining venue could be a part of the village.

The art and model show the center of the land will have a Camp Jurassic/TSI style explore area, with rope bridges, caves and such.

  

NINTENDO WORLD

The version of this area that I've drawn is a near clone of the Osaka park's land, slightly-reconfigured.  There is a little more space to the land in Orlando which allowed me to add flourishes in the form of Bowser's Airship near his castle and a temple-themed light dining venue in Kong Country.  

 

Perplexingly, the key art shows a markedly different (City) theme to the area than Japan's Mushroom Kingdom.  The key art & my plan also include a Spire Portal that is much more elaborate than the Osaka entrance.  An artificial hillside conceals the showbuilding from the hub.

 

 ISLE OF BERK

While the available art does not indicate the towering rock spires that the define the island in the movies, in this plan, upon emerging from the Portal into the land, you would to see the two carved statues on the water in the foreground framing the main spire on the far side, beyond the viking ships and village, as in the artwork below:

 

The building on which I've placed the main spire is a question mark.   The footprint of the building and the existence of only one other eatery of any size near the Splash Battle would indicate that this facility has to be a major indoor dining venue, which is what I've labeled.  However, there are rumors this is some kind of simulator ride, such as the vertical 4-bay simulator as seen in the above art.  This might account for the small footprint and give a need for the tall rockwork spire I've included, but likely wishful thinking.  

The land has an assortment of other attractions: a skyfly, a splash battle, an explore zone, and a coaster.   At the bottom of the land, I added as second landmark spire (and other smaller ones) atop the large theater building that supposedly will house a headliner show featuring giant puppet dragons & special FX.  

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Rumors from site OrlandoParkStop suggest plans are already in flux from the original ones they first presented.  So it will be interesting to revisit this drawing when construction is at a midpoint and the opening day menu is set in stone.  Regarding my filling in the large expansion pads... that will be also be a future effort.  Some vague IP lands have occurred to me (LotR, Zelda, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) and I have seen others' suggestions (Jurassic World, Classic Universal, Pokemon, Illumination, etc.).   I encourage readers to imagine & draw their own expansions.