Showing posts with label Bruce Bushman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Bushman. Show all posts

Monday, October 15, 2018

D&M Tribute to WED Imagineer Bruce Bushman Part Two: The Disneyland Alice in Wonderland Walk Through That Never Was


Here is the part two of D&M tribute to WED Imagineer Bruce Bushman who did a lot of concept artworks for Disneyland. Today we'll have a closer look to an Alice in Wonderland walk-through concept for Disneyland that was never built, though it may have been inspirational for Disneyland Paris Alice's Curious Labyrinth.

A map for this Alice walk-though was drawn, here it is. Click on it to enlarge the picture.



All the following renderings are from Bruce Bushman. The order of the scenes below match the scenes order number that Bruce had put on its artworks. One screen, the number "12", might be missing.

The two first scenes below shows the room with guests having their size reduced and the exit of the scene was at the end of the room. Some doors were supposed to open to nowhere.




The next scene is titled "over the waves" and guests had to walk on the two structures below to access the next scene after exiting the previous room with oversized objects.



Guests would have meet the first Alice in Wonderland famous character by walking on a rotating disc floor, to simulate i presume  the dance that happen around him in the animated classic. Note that the same character exist in DLP Alice's Curiosu Labyrinth but placed on the top of a roaring stone that guests are turning by themselves.


Next scene would have been an encounter with suspended Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


In the next scene guests would have met the walrus and carpenter characters inside the little house and it was supposed to be a "day for night" scene with an "air balloon Moon rising".


The next scene was the one entering the white rabbit house with "crazy stairs inside leading to the top of the slide outside".  Note that there WAS at opening day in DLP Alice's Curious Labyrinth a slide from the top of the Queen of Heart castle which has been cancelled a few years later.


Next scene was walking through giant singing flowers.


Next scene was one with the caterpillar and this one is quite close to the one in DLP Alice's Labyrinth.


The next scenes shows giant trees with indication of different ways to go...


...As well as the next one, a scene in which "things would have fly over head" of the guests.


Guests would also have met in this forest of trees the Cheshire Cat, who would have appear and disappear...


Next scene was the "Mad Tea Party" scene and was supposed to be an animated one.


Next was supposed to be a "Hedge Maze" with scene of giant cars painting roses.



The next scene would have been a big one with the Queen of Heart and guests would have moved through a giant cards maze to access to the Queen of heart scenic.



Guests would have escaped the Queen of Heart by waking through these twin counter-rotating barrels in which you can see a whirlwind of cards printed inside, to simulate the final scene in the animate movie when Alice escapes.


This Alice in Wonderland walk-through for sure would have ben fun but Disney Imagineers ended to build the Disneyland beloved dark ride instead. And of course the Mad Hatter Tea Cups for which Bruce Bushman also did the concept-art below with the white rabbit and the mad hatter at the center and the tea cups turning around them.



Most of the renderings of this article were found in the excellent vintagedisneyalice website which posted them nearly ten years ago, more about Alice in Wonderland on the site HERE.

There is more coming about Bruce Bushman so stay tuned for the part three of D&M tribute to this great Imagineer!

Pictures: copyright Walt Disney Enterprises

Saturday, September 29, 2018

D&M Tribute to WED Imagineer Bruce Bushman - Part One



Here is the first part of D&M tribute to Disney artist and WED Imagineer Bruce Bushman who did plenty of wonderful artworks for Disneyland, California. And i've got for you today something really cool as it is a document published in a non-Disney american magazine prior to Disneyland opening in 1955. What's really interesting in it - click on each images to see them in big size - is of course these WED Enterprises renderings drawn by Disney artist Bruce Bushman, and specifically the one about the Snow White dark ride showing how the ride was envisioned back in 1955.


As you can see, a lot of scenes still  now exist in the Snow White dark ride but here they're not shown in the same order and a slightly different ending scene.  


You'll note also the difference of design on the ride vehicle itself as at that time they envisioned to have a sculpted dwarf on the front of the vehicle. 



The rendering above showing the Dumbo ride also prove if needed that they thought to have pink colored Dumbo elephants instead of the grey ones that we know.


But the other artwork interesting on this double page is this flume ride with Monstro, the giant whale from Pinocchio. We've seen this artwork before and know that it is one showing "a ride that never was" but obviously the magazine, specially in 1955, got all these artworks from Disney, meaning that the ride was at that time really envisioned to be built and may be even shortly after Disneyland opening day. This Monstro sketch showing a quite vertical fall was likely in reaction to the popular ride at Coney Island that every operator told Walt he needed to have. Finally the Monstro ride was never built but who knows, may be it will be one day?


On the second double page of this 1955 article we have the original concept for the beloved Peter Pan's Flight ride. This Peter Pan sketch is pretty faithful to what was the ride on opening day, the only surprise in it is that the track mechanics are shown on the sketch of the boat at the upper left of the picture above.


Also on this double page another sketch from Bruce Bushman for Mr Toad's Wild Ride vehicle...


...but also this concept of a Donald ride that never was in which "seagoing visitors would have been captain of their own electric powered boats in the shape of wash tubs. Inflated inner tubes would have encircle each craft to absorb the shock collisions." It's funny, but when i see this artwork i thought that they still could do it using the same old Flying Saucers technique, the one they used at DCA for the Luigi Flying Tires attraction.
As for the Dutch mill in the background this one was finally built by Imagineer and DLP Fantasyland show-producer Tom Morris at Disneyland Paris Fantasyland - although with a slightly different design - and was of course a tribute to Disney's short animated and Academy Award winner The Old Mill.


A great idea - specially for a pre-show decor - was this decor of a huge table from Alice in Wonderland which would have made DL guests feel like Alice did after the potion made her tiny...


Last but not least, the artwork of the Alice Mad Hatter tea cups ride is another one showing an attraction that has been built, except that we don't have the table with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare in the center of the ride. It was probably not possible for technical reasons, but it would have been a good idea to have the tea cups turning all around this unbirthday party table...


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Pictures: copyright Disney
 
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