Important Note: For the french version of this article
click HERE. Pour la version française de cet article
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Please note that copies in english of french edition are always available. As long as this message stays here it means that copies are available, so you can place your order directly. For those of you who have never seen a copy of the book you'll fin below a video presentation of the full book which will show you each of the 320 pages of the book.
So, I have a great news for all of you who are looking desperately to find a copy of the acclaimed "Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality" book, out of stock since more than a year. The book will be reprint in March - which means that its released in April is now sure! - and not only it will be republished but it will be reprint in its very rare collector's edition, the one impossible to find since eight years, so rare that it is sold on Amazon Market Place or eBay for prices between 500 and 1300 U.S $ !
Thanks to read all the lines below to well understand how to order a copy of this limited collector's edition of the book.
First, a few words to explain you how this re-publishing is happening. As you know the book was impossible to find whether it was in the park or anywhere else at a reasonable price, and obviously the publisher who had the rights wasn't planning to reprint the book. As this publisher wanted to sell the rights after long negotiations i've succeeded to find him someone interested by republishing the book. A new publishing company has been specially created for this and is called Neverland Editions.
In my talks with the new publisher he asked me if, at the first printing, the book had different editions. I told him that we did a collector's edition, and when i looked back in my 2002 files - the year the book was first published - i realized that at that time we've printed only 550 copies of the french collector's edition and 1270 copies of the english collector's edition. This collector's edition being limited at 2000 copies in french and 2000 in english there is still 1450 copies in french and 730 copies in english which are allowed to be reprint and commercialized. These are the one which will be reprint and only these collector's edition will be reprint, not the "regular" edition.
For those of you who don't know what is the collector's edition here is more details: the collector's edition is printed on a luxury glossy paper, it has a gold printing on the cover and dust jacket, is limited at 2000 copies in english ( and 2000 in french ), each copy has a number, AND each copy include four beautiful "lithographs" of WDI artwork for the Walt Disney Studios. Each of these lithographs can be put under frame. Also, the contents of the book will be exactly the same than the first collector's copies printed ten years ago.
We have began to take pre-orders on the book rand this not only will allow you to pre-order a valuable collector's edition copy but also to help this legendary book to be reprint and have a new life. The pre-order period is still running until late february and for those of you who haven't pre-order the book yet it's the right time to do it as placing a pre-order also give you a 20% discount on the book final price!
Here is how to do to order the book, and first a real good news: although the printing costs are not anymore what they were ten years ago ( the cost for the paper is specially higher ) i have convinced the new publisher to keep the collectors's edition at the same price that it was sold ten years ago for each one who will pre-order the book. In two words, each one of you placing a pre-order for a collector's edition copy will pay it exactly the same price that it cost ten years ago, in 2002, i.e 100 euros. When the pre-orders will be over and the book issued this collector's edition will be sold at a price between 120 and 130 euros, which means that pre-ordering the book help you to have more or less a 20% discount on it.
The book is expected to be released late April 2012 as of course we wish to have this collector's edition released during DLP 20th Anniversary, and everyone who will place a pre-order will be kept informed of the printing and the release date, as well, of course, of the shipping date. Please note that the book will NOT be sold at Disneyland Paris. The merchandise department, for reasons which are difficult to understand has decided to don't order copies of the book. We'll be happy if there is any changes but apparently the merchandise products plan for 2012 is now finalized and it's too late to change it.
So, how to pre-order a copy of this collector's edition? First, send an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com ( with as subject: "dip book order" ) to let us know that you want to pre-order a copy, how many copies you want, in which language ( english or french edition? ) , and your shipping address. Please also note that a pre-order needs to be paid to be consider as an order.
The price for a pre-order of a collector's edition copy is 100 euros, plus 15 euros only for shipping to any country, including U.S. If you live in France, shipping is 10 euros (only for France).
How to proceed for your payment: We prefer a Paypal payment. Paypal is a very safe way to pay without giving your credit card number. For a payment with Paypal the total amount ( 115€ including shipping or 110€ if you live in France ) must be sent through Paypal at the email adress: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr
If you don't have a Paypal account: either you know someone who have one and through whom you can send the payment, or you can pay with a bank wire transfer ( no foreign checks, sorry ). If you want to do a wire transfer please let us know in your email and we will send you the bank infos.
Finally, the quickest we'll be able to have the needed amount for the printing, the quickest the book will be reprint. So, thanks to don't wait for the last minute to place your pre-order and also because the number of copies of this collector's edition are limited. Also, if you have friends or DLP fans who are desperately trying to find the book, thanks to let them know about this reprinting.
Thanks to all of you for your help and below you'll find a description of the book as well as visuals of the inside pages ( click on the mosaic pictures to see them in larger scale ).
Although you've probably heard about this beautiful book, many of you may have never seen a copy of it. So we've done a video presentation of the full book which will show you each of the 320 pages of the book! The book includes 750 pictures of the park, including 250 gorgeous renderings of Walt Disney Imagineering and stunning pictures of the park seen from above. The book is so big that it took us seven and a half minutes to show you the full book, and that's without stopping turning each pages! So, if you want to have a closer look at a page don't hesitate to stop the video. Finally, because we didn't had any more a collector edition copy the video is showing the regular edition of the book, not the collector's edition that you will receive if you place your order, but the inside pages are exactly the same.
Alain Littaye
Description of the book:
The book is a gorgeous "coffee table book" with 320 pages and 750 pictures - of which 500 are park and attractions photos and 250 are Walt Disney Imagineering renderings!
The size is 9 x 12 inches, all pages are in color and it's hardbound with a glossy dust jacket. The text (by Disney historian Didier Ghez), was written after more than 75 interviews he conducted with all the Imagineers who created the park. He goes into just about everything you wanted to know about this unique place that many describe as the best "Magic Kingdom" ever created by WDI.
It took five years to create the book, but it was worth all the time we spent on it, and the book looks just as good as we had hoped for at the beginning - in fact Imagineer Bruce Gordon told us that it was "probably the best book ever done on a Disney theme park". Coming from Bruce who did with David Mumford the great "Disneyland, The Nickel Tour" book, it was more than a compliment.
The first chapter about Main Street has 52 pages and introduces the reader to the "legend" of Main Street, USA. You'll learn all about the Disneyland Paris Railroad, the unique "Discovery" and "Liberty" Arcades; find out about the architecture, the restaurants (like "Walt's," a tribute to Walt Disney, but also inspired by Club 33 in Anaheim) and the shops; with dozens of photos, renderings, models, and reproduced for the first time here, all the "cities of the future" posters located in "Discovery Arcade."
The second chapter on Frontierland discusses the park's western side with extensive sections about its major attractions, "Big Thunder Mountain" and "Phantom Manor." In fact the book has the longest sections ever put together in a book on all the major attractions. The Pirates of Caribbean section in the Adventureland chapter is 26 pages, Phantom Manor has 16 pages devoted to it, as does Space Mountain, it's a small world, etc. The photo material was so great that we kept adding more pages to the book, which was supposed to have only 240 pages when we started... we ended up with 320 upon completion!
The Frontierland chapter also covers the Mark Twain, the River Rogue Keelboats, Fort Comstock, all the restaurants, the shops and Cottonwood Creek Ranch.and featuring stunning photos of Disneyland Paris from the air by Yann Arthus Bertrand, author of The Earth from Above that make spectacular "double-pages," and allow the reader to discover the park from a whole different angle.
The Adventureland chapter is even more interesting, as many elements of the land exist only in Paris - such as the Bazaar and Aladdin to Africa and the ex-"Explorer's Club." Plus there's a long section about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril," "Adventure Isle" and "The Swiss Robinson Treehouse" and, of course, "Pirates of Caribbean" the land's major attraction and featuring its amazing Audio-Animatronics! All in all there are 56 full pages about Adventureland, and as in the previous chapters, there are dozens of photos, lots of concept art, and many shots of Imagineers at work. There's even a great bonus here, with the Marc Davis artwork for "Pirates" also included.
56 full pages are also dedicated to Fantasyland. There's an extensive look at Sleeping Beauty Castle, sections on all the dark rides (Snow White, Peter Pan and Pinocchio), as well as a look at "Alice's Curious Labyrinth," the "Mad Hatter's Tea Cups," "Storybookland," and "Casey Jr." There are even 14 pages about "it's a small world" with stunning photos of nearly all the scenes in it. Here the reader can discover a new attraction that exists only at Disneyland Paris, with a great view from above of Alice's Labyrinth.
Discoveryland also gets 52 pages of special treatment, with sections on the Visionarium, the Nautilus, Star Tours, Space Mountain, and everything you wanted to know about the other attractions in this land – Autopia and Orbitron. In fact the Nautilus chapter takes you on a visit with photos of every room of this detailed walk-through and two double page photo spreads, one which makes you feel you're inside Captain Nemo's grand salon, and the other showing you a unique view of Discoveyland featuring the Nautilus and Space Mountain in a kind of "CinemaScope" view.
When the book was released in early 2002, the Walt Disney Studios didn't exist, so you won't see them in the book. But there's still one last chapter about the hotels of the park, and Disney Village too, with the great Buffalo Bill Wild West show that entertains hundreds each evening.
And because every day in a Magic Kingdom should end with a parade and fireworks, we have the Main Street Electrical Parade that close the book, with also an Herb Ryman gorgeous painting in the very last pages!
Pictures: copyright Disney
Video: copyright Alain Littaye 2012
