Disneyland Paris That Never Was : Secrets Revealed of the First DLP Site Plan

Faithful Disney and more readers may remember a previous D&M article posted in 2012 with the first Disneyland Paris site map above. This was a very early master plan combining each land's design into an overall plan by the Area Development department, and at that time, each land Show Producer/Designer submitted their layouts for the plan. A closer look at it will show you that the attractions are marked in pink / purple color ( restaurants and shops have different colors ) but as you'll see the plan include attractions that never existed. Because there is just numbers and not the names of each, i asked each original DLP show producers if they remember what these never built attractions were supposed to be.

Let's start by the answer of Disney Legend Tony Baxter: "Disneyland International was in partnership with WDI throughout the development of EDL ( EuroDisneyland ). In the earliest phases they were very busy in the dealings with the French government and other political entities that needed information throughout preliminary negotiations and into the basic planning of the Disney created components. Often their needs came sooner than the finalized WDI concepts were available. As a result, maps like this were developed "to approximate" what we were planning to do. A good example is the TDL Jungle Cruise which was on the TDL opening day plan they had created for the Oriental Land Company. It was assumed that it would be a part of EDL also. Their focus was primarily operational…trying to make sure the attractions that were chosen had the proper capacity and were spread equally across the entire park.

This plan does look like "some input" which came from the show producers as new elements can be seen ( Big Thunder on the island, Castle Stage, Adventureland Bazaar and Pirates of Caribbean ) while Discoveryland looks more like a rough guess on their part. The interesting element is the 1920’s style Main Street that Eddie Sotto began with ( and illustrated by Herb Ryman ) with an elevated tramway which can be seen traveling from Town Square to a combined Train Station at the front of Discoveryland. That concept was very short lived, so the date that this plan was created could probably be sorted out by Eddie and Tim Delaney."


Above: a rendering of the combined train station at the entrance of Discoveryland at which both Disneyland Paris railroad and the elevated tramway would have stopped.

So, i asked Main Street USA show-producer Eddie Sotto who of course confirmed the elevated tramway but also about another attraction that never was, indicated as "T 900" on the plan, one which woudl have been located in Discovery Arcade.

According to Eddie: "It was to be a Hollywood themed circlevision type show. The black and white Discovery Arcade line drawing of mine ( artwork below ) shows the entrance on the lower right.  We don’t have any artwork from the interior of that attraction because we never really got to that point. We just knew that it might be sort of a history of Hollywood kind of multimedia show of some kind. It was killed with the 20s Main Street idea, and also because another circlevision attraction - Le Visionarium - was planned for Discoveryland as well because they were considering a movies Studios park as a second park.


Below, others sketches by Eddie Sotto showing concepts for the entrance of this circlevision      attraction that never was. 







Next is Frontierland and i asked Frontierland show-producer Jeff Burke what was supposed to be the attraction marked as "W 400".


According to Jeff, 'The area marked " W 400 " in Frontierland was where we had planned to create a Western Stunt Show attraction. This complex was to be a roof - covered, outdoor guest theater facing a collection of western building sets where the stunt show action would be staged. There were also cast member quarters for the performers as well as stables for horses and other livestock featured in the show. This stunt show attraction was a very early concept, but it was in the planning phase long before the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show" had ever been considered for outside the Park. As you noted, the "W 400" area would eventually become the site of the Cowboy Cookout Barbecue and also the Critter Corral petting zoo."

Below, a rare rendering showing the facades of this Frontierland stunt show that never was, and if you want to learn more about it, jump to a previous D&M article HERE.



Next stop is Adventureland and here we have two interesting attractions that never existed marked as "A 400" and "A 500".

According to Adventureland show-producer Chris Tietz: "This early layout of the Adventureland area served as a "place holder" for the proposed attractions list, details would have been defined later. It also shows my 1987 overall layout drawing for Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise location. I started on it right after I had finished working on the first Star Tours at Disneyland. I always liked the "Cambodian Ruins" section of the Jungle Cruise in WDW where the boats go inside a show building. So, in this plan I put in a similar show building (A-400) but enlarged to have a bigger show inside. At this stage though, the show was not defined yet, and we were not yet developing an Indiana Jones attraction.

The A-500 building would have been the entrance and queue designed to look like the original Disneyland building. I did finally get to build this building later at the Jungle Cruise in Hong Kong Disneyland where I was the lead designer ( but not the producer ) of Adventureland there. You can also see it in the John Horny painting he did for DLP Jungle Cruise ( artwork below ). Later, I proposed to have the Jungle Cruise boats going through Adventure Isle in the middle section between the treehouse and Skull Rock, circling the treehouse, but it was dropped when the Jungle Cruise was being considered to be taken off the menu for reasons of different language requirements, weather, and because several copies of the attraction had been done in other non-Disney parks. Interestingly, we had the Jungle Cruise circle the island and treehouse in Hong Kong Adventureland."



"You can see that the location of the Explorers Club restaurant ( A-700) was going to be a big part of the Jungle Cruise themed area, with animated birds and all. The Jungle Cruise was at first going to be with the regular animal scenes, but we also talked about making it about dinosaurs, especially inside the show building. Taking from the classic story "The Lost World" novel by Arthur Conan Doyle ( not to be confused with the Universal Studios movies which came later). There is no artwork that was done for the dinosaur theme for Jungle Cruise. This was very early on and to start with, we plugged in the same Jungle Cruise layout as at Disneyland until we could further develop it, but we didn't get very far before Jungle Cruise was dropped from the menu. After Jungle Cruise was deleted, I added the West Bridge off of Adventure Isle to make better access to and from the island into this future area whatever it would become."



                                       Both artworks above: paintings by John Horny.

Le Passage Enchanté d'Aladdin was not envisioned yet by DLP Imagineers when this early plan was done but of course it exists now, since 1994. I had heard that in fact the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride - currently at the Walt Disney Studios - had been envisioned to be put in Adventureland between the back of the Girafe Curieuse shop and the Hakuna Matata restaurant and that the current Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin would have been in fact the queue decor for this B ticket ride. Supposedly the Magic Carpet ride was not built at Adventureland for budget reasons, and i asked Chris Tietz if there was any truth in all this?

Here is Chris answer: "It was never envisioned by me to have the Magic Carpet ride part of DLP Adventureland, but the idea to add it was brought up by others later on, I think because it was economical to build a second one since it had all ready been designed for WDW's Adventureland. Right after opening, we were busy adding the Aladdin walk-thru and Temple of Peril with me continuing as the lead designer. The Magic Carpet Ride was not part of this menu. Walt Disney Studios needed more attractions so I think that's why it landed there. After Aladdin and the Temple of Peril, I moved on to other projects and was not part of any future changes at Adventureland Paris."

We move to Fantasyland and i asked show-producer Tom Morris what was supposed to be the attraction marked on the plan as “F 200”, located where some Fantasyland shops are now.



Here is Tom answer: "Hmmm, very interesting, I remember seeing this piece when I first started, it would be nice to get the date of it if you have it. I think my involvement came shortly after this was done. It’s before I added the Hedge Maze and Toad Hall, yet I thought I had also added the Castle stage off to the side but I see that it's already there! It’s before either Mermaid or Beauty & the Beast animated films were finished so it wouldn't be one of those. I wonder if at that point Pinocchio and Snow White were to be separated rather than together? Or maybe an Alice in Wonderland ride was being considered ( if so, the show building indicated ont he plan was awfully large ). The person who was the Show Producer for Fantasyland when this was done ( and he may have actually drawn this entire piece ) was Bob Kerzweil who unfortunately has passed away."

So, i'm afraid the mystery will remain for this one ...though there might be a hint as this "F 200" ride was located in an area of Fantasyland that DLP Imagineers had devoted to French stories ( later they designed a Beauty and the Beast Audio-Animatronic show for that space, another attraction "that never was" ). Thus, it might have been a Sleeping Beauty dark ride, something Tony Baxter wanted to do, and which later found its way into The Dragon's Lair and the Sleeping Beauty walk thru inside the Castle.

Last stop is Discoveryland where was already planned not only a Space Mountain ( D 400 ) but also the Nautilus ( D 650 ), though on a different location than where is now Captain Nemo's submarine, but also two others attractions ( D 200, D 300 ) and i asked Discoveryland show producer Tim Delaney what would have been these attractions.

Unfortunately, Tim answer won't give us the answer as: "This looks like a very early plan of the Park. I don’t even remember it. As for Discoveryland, the menu always included Star Tours, Space Mountain in some form, a Circlevision attraction, a large Tomorrowland Terrace dining hall and something to do with robots. As I stated this is an early plan. Sorry, I am not much help..."

The train / elevated tramway station at that time envisioned at the entrance of Discoveryland is however visible on the plan ( D 500 ) and we'll end by another rendering showing the station design on two levels.


If you enjoyed this article about the Disneyland Paris that never was, i remind you that you'll find in D&M archives others previous articles on the same theme, just type in the search box near the top of the right column the keywords "Disneyland Paris that never was" and ask a search on "Disney and more".

The great Disneyland Paris book, "From Sketch to Reality" has also plenty of stories about the making of the park and is now available on Apple and Google Play eBooks stores in an updated edition including 40 more pages than the original 320 pages original edition and 116 more pictures! You can buy it for Apple devices HERE and for PC or Android devices HERE and during the next two weeks you can enjoy a special introductory price of 19.99 €/$ instead of 29.99, so don't miss it as it is the ebst price you'll find it and you'll be able to read it on your computer, mobile device and even inside the park next time you'll visit DLP!

Pictures: copyright Disney

The Disneyland Paris that never was: Main Street U.S.A

Editor's Note: Following the article of Eddie Sotto that you've read yesterday on Eddie's website, some of you asked me where it was possible to see renderings of the first concept developed by Eddie and his team for DLP Main Street U.S.A. So, i repost the great article posted some years ago on Disney and more in which, precisely, we are talking about this first concept of a Main Street in the 1920's Jazz era, with original WDI renderings.


This part two of the "Disneyland Paris that never was" articles series is all about Main Street U.S.A. It’s not very known, but at Disneyland Paris we were at two fingers to get a really different design for Main Street U.S.A. Instead to have a “turn of the century” theming, Eddie Sotto - show producer of the land - had designed a Main Street set up in the 20’s-30’s with of course a totally different look.

WDI Imagineers felt that a Main Street with the theme of Jazz Age America in the 1920's would be more appropriate than the Victorian Architecture that had come from Europe and would therefore be of less interest. Everyone in Europe was fascinated by stories of the Roaring '20s… jazz, Cinema and, of course, Gangsters. They headed a long way down that route and according to Eddie Sotto this version of Main Street would have include "lots of Art Deco, an America as represented by the Chicago and New York seen in the movies. "It seemed to us that this would have been more representative of America in European eyes, as opposed to the Main Street inspired by the small township of Marceline, Missouri. The way we looked at Gangsters, was more of the slapstick comedy "Keystone Kops" variety with fun instead of guns. Walt was able to make Piracy and cowboy outlaws fun, so we thought we could make a "Speakeasy" fun too, without the violence."

Eddie Sotto give us more details about this amazing Main Street concept that never was and all comments with each picture of this article are from Eddie himself, whom i thanks a lot for his very kind contribution:

"In this version inspired by the '20s, each shop reflected the personality of an immigrant to the United States. An elevated train ran along the facades on one side of the street. After reaching the station in front of Discoveryland, the land of visionaries, it came back to Central Plaza, in front of the Castle, passing in front of a Vernian diorama on the return trip.

The top rendering shows the elevated train just above the entrance from Market Street looking south, to the left would be the entrance to the theater that has a circle vision type screen or similar that would tell the history of Hollywood and early film. This circle-vision cinema was disguised as one of the grand classic cinemas of the time, but the concept went away very early in the process because the determination to build a studio as a second park would duplicate that experience. The elevated train as we see it , would also look into windows that depict a "City of the Future" as Victorians imagined it. This was to be a Discoveryland transition.The posters in the hallway of the Arcade are the last remnants of that idea.



This view above shows an overlay sketch of mine to show EL Train, which was more of a "Peoplemover" system with many cars. One of the purposes of the elevated train is to provide a way for people to watch the parade while being under shelter during the rain. The elevated train was to extend to the entrance of Discoveryland to allow guests to circulate without getting wet.
On Main Street, instead of Walt's - an American Restaurant, we put in a "Speakeasy', one of those clandestine bars that sprang up due to prohibition. The guest would enter a relatively innocent looking flower shop, but a minute later the walls would revolve to reveal a 'Cotton Club'-style jazz hotspot.



The sketch above was done by Herb Ryman. We wanted to do a diner that looked liked the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks". This is where Walt's restaurant is now. The "Speakeasy "is next door on Flower Street, see the orange awning. We kept the "signs on the roof idea"and forced perspective distant buildings for Main Street Motors.



Another sketch by Herb Ryman showing the Diner again and the beige awning is the Speakeasy. I loved this sketch.



The painting above by Herb Ryman shows a design proposal for the castle as well as the Main Street elevated tramway. I think he painted Legend Dick Nunis in the foreground with a kid on his shoulders. He used to bury Executives in his paintings.



The painting above was done by Disney legend Collin Campbell. I was wrestling with the design of the 1920's being overlaid onto the existing Main Street. It was no easy task and in many ways looked conflicted. The elevated train station which looks just like the one in the movie "Hello Dolly!" was set on Town Square at a 45° angle. This allowed one block of Main Street to also be positioned that way as well. The Emporium was to be in that block behind the El Train Station so exiting guests would be let out into the upper floor of the store and trickle down. The Gas Station was to be where the Firehouse is currently located. The reason we put a Service Station into the project was because the transition from horse-drawn streetcar to automobile had already been made and the automobile had won.

I was never entirely satisfied with this rendering. The angle, composition, colors, even the scale just felt wrong. Herb Ryman had taken a few stabs with very loose sketches and I felt that they were very much on target. But it was taking a long time to get finished renderings that really depicted the project, so we went with Colin on this particular view. And it took this view and putting the elements together to really show us what kind of work still had to be done. We should have given Colin a better direction to work from. It really made me nervous because there was so many façades that had become ingrained in our consciousness from Walt Disney World, that the addition of these new elements even if they were perfect would seem like a clash. At this point it just wasn't working the way I had hoped. We would have to massage the transitions between Art Deco buildings and 19th Century buildings. We would have to go back into the Victorian designs and simplify them somewhat to make the gap less glaring. We never got that chance as the land was judged and declined while I was on vacation. Note to self... Never go on vacation! In hind sight, do I think the 1920s theme was the right thing for Paris? Yes. A year after he had declined the design, Michael Eisner said to me that we should have done the 1920's idea anyway because it would have been understood better in Europe. By then it was too late. I think in his mind, the 1920's Main St. was more expensive, so he was still happy with what we did and said so often. I don't necessarily agree with the story about him seeing the movie "The Untouchables", and that alone setting him off. I do believe because of the Circlevision Theater, the El Train, and all the Speakeasy Restaurant, it was only partly a creative issue and it was also a big financial issue. With that bigger number in mind it gave him the security to say no. Just an opinion.



The two images above and below were painted by Nina Rae Vaughn. Behind The Town Square East block of buildings there was to be a private restaurant for the sponsors of the park. This idea was first pioneered with club 33 at Disneyland. We would have a secret entrance underneath the railroad station that would lead you to a hidden terminal and in that terminal we would have an American-style streamlined locomotive train complete with dining cars that is inspired by the famous "20th Century Limited". There was a restaurant in Southern California that was this idea and it was absolutely gorgeous but did not survive. We thought this could be the most unique private restaurant in Europe. Europe has the Orient Express as its legendary train. In America the equivalent would be the 20th century limited. I believe we also wanted to investigate projections outside the windows that would take you across the US as it looked in another time.



On the artwork below, this is the east side of Main Street where we had created a circular driveway and we actually wanted the Main Street limousine to pull up in front of the theater and that is where you would board it. Today the limousine is the only thing left of that idea. Herbert Ryman did a very nice painting from this point of view that was stolen from Imagineering and I don't believe they ever got a photograph of it. but I thought it looked really great. It's unfortunate that this sketch is all that remains.



The confusing thing about this next piece of artwork, is that we weren't sure where the façades are going to be yet so this sketch in fact represents the east side of the street not the West. The idea was to have this theater whether it'll be a live stage or a show about film.



The next artwork shows another view of the "circle vision" theater entrance. In this view, we ran the El tracks directly above the guests in the Discovery Arcade. As I recall, this was a very early concept sketch. I think the greenery was shown outside the glass until we decided to make it solid walls.



The artwork below shows the same arcade but with the current design. This drawing was done midway through design to help visualize the details that we were beginning to assemble. The gas lights and brackets all have the liberty motif so I believe this is pretty close to the reality.



Herb Ryman and I discussed Walt's fascination with dollhouses and miniatures in general. We talked about an idea called "Automata-mericana". We thought it would be fun to build animated miniature scenes that are based on the American traditions and set them in Main Street. We wanted to tell the story with images rather than words. For example, The Main St. Cinema would be an animated scene with tiny figures of kids playing in the aisles, couples "making out" in the back, and the Projectionist embracing his mop imitating Valentino's famous screen kiss. Eddie Johnson, (who in my opinion is an unsung Imagineering legend) worked with me on this and came up with lots of fun ideas for these animated scenes. He was one of our art directors and did a great job. On a business trip to Covent Garden, London, we saw an animated "Cabaret" of these small exhibits. They were highly creative, very funny and showcase the ingenious use of cams and handmade characters. The idea for the "Shrunken Ned" Automatic Prescription machine at Disneyland also was inspired by that British exhibit. I believe the location for this exhibit - rendering below - was to be between the Transportation Company and the Hat shop.



Another 1920's Main Street sketch, very early for a music shop. Looks like the work of Barbara Wightman. In the early development you have to do very loose concept sketches so they can throw a budget number at the project. So these designs are just for a feel of the level of quality and basic theme.



Below, just a super rough of a gas station concept based on some research imagery to make it less industrial and more victorian like Main Street. In the 1920's version we also wanted to sprinkle the facades with giant advertising billboards and have cars motoring up and down, to give some idea of the dynamic atmosphere in the United States at that time. These were the only two ideas that were saved for the final version.



This next artwork is an early City Hall concept, before we were made to do 10' wide continuous foul weather walkways in front of the buildings which drove the design in a new direction.



This next concept of a giant clock would have been in the Forecourt, in front of the park's ticketing.



We will end the part one of this "Main Street that never was" article with this last artwork from Eddie, and we'll be back tomorrow with other sketches not linked to the 1920's version. Again, all my thanks to Eddie Sotto for his great comments on this amazing concept, which unfortunately was never built.


Artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

The Disneyland Paris That Never Was !

The great Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book include 750 pictures as well as 250 renderings from Walt Disney Imagineering but those of you who don't already own the book might not know that you'll find also in the book many artworks showing the "Disneyland Paris that never was"! I will show you today some of them, beginning by the beautiful artwork above showing a winter scene of DLP entrance as envisioned by WDI Imagineers.

The next one below is part of the concept-arts for the very first concept of Main street, and we were at two fingers to have at DLP a really different Main Street than the one which exist now. Instead to have a “turn of the century” theming, Eddie Sotto, Main Street show-producer, had designed a Main Street set up at the 1920’s-30’s, at an era which was ruled by gangsters but also the golden era of jazz and cinema, and it would have been a totally different design as you can see on the Colin Campbell artwork below.



Another artwork, this one by Eddie Sotto himself, is showing the elevated tramway concept, going all along Main Street and inside the MS arcades. The idea of the elevated tramway was finally realized at Tokyo Disney Sea in the American Waterfront area.



Always in that 1930’s theming, a luxurious art-deco restaurant - a kind of private“club 33” -located behind the Main Street Transportation Co. building was envisioned and would have give you the feeling that you’re dining on a train.



One of the most amazing concepts for DLP castle was the one looking like a futuristic castle designed by Tim Delaney.



In Adventureland the Temple du Peril had several exciting ideas, unfortunately never realized like the one below...



In Discoveryland Star Tours almost had an AT - T at the entrance instead of the X-Wing fighter...



...but one of the greatest concept ever envisioned for DLP, the one that would have stunned all DLP fans, was the first concept of Space Mountain at that time called Discovery Mountain...



...in which you would have found not only the Space Mountain coaster but also the Nautilus submarine as well as a Journey to the Center of the Earth drop ride - the vulcano that you can see in the background of this Tim Delaney artwork.



Mind you, the DLP concepts that never were were also envisioned for the outside of the park, like this incredible restaurant concept supposed to be build in what is now the Disney Village...



...or this amazing concept for one of the hotels of the park which was designed with the shape of an aircraft carrier by austrian architect Hans Hollein.



There is dozens more of these "DLP that never was" artworks in the Disneyland Paris book, all fascinating and, with the special pre-order price for the upcoming english regular edition, that's one more good reason to pre-order your copy right now. English regular edition will ship in 2-3 weeks from now and collector copies are shipped in the next 48 hours.

You'll find below the video showing you each page of the book and to place your order in one click with Paypal use the Paypal button below, with which you can choose between the regular or collector's edition of the book.  Please send me also your shipping address by email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com   Note: if you don't have Paypal, payments by bank transfer are accepted, thanks to send me an email to have the bank infos.

Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality - Include shipping

1 Copy English NORMAL Edition Disneyland Paris book inc shipping €70.00 EUR 1 Copy English COLLECTOR Ed Disneyland Paris book inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 Ex Signé Collector Français Livre Disneyland Paris + envoi €115.00 EUR 1 Ex Collector Français Livre Disneyland Paris + envoi €100.00 EUR

Artwork: copyright Disney

Video: copyright Alain Littaye 2012

Disneyland Paris That Never Was !

As you know we are planning to reprint the great Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book and we are now entering in the production of the book, the printing itself should happen in a few weeks. There is 750 pictures in the book including 250 renderings from Walt Disney Imagineering but those of you who don't already own the book might not know that you'll find also in the book many artworks showing the "Disneyland Paris that never was"! I will show you today some of them, beginning by the one above showing a winter scene of DLP entrance as envisioned by WDI Imagineers.

The next one below is part of the concept-arts for the very first concept of Main street, and we were at two fingers to have at DLP a really different Main Street than the one which exist now. Instead to have a “turn of the century” theming, Eddie Sotto, Main Street show-producer, had designed a Main Street set up at the 1920’s-30’s, at an era which was ruled by gangsters but also the golden era of jazz and cinema, and it would have been a totally different design as you can see on the Colin Campbell artwork below.



Another artwork, this one by Eddie Sotto himself, is showing the elevated tramway concept, going all along Main Street and inside the MS arcades. The idea of the elevated tramway was finally realized at Tokyo Disney Sea in the American Waterfront area.



Always in that 1930’s theming, a luxurious art-deco restaurant - a kind of private“club 33” -located behind the Main Street Transportation Co. building was envisioned and would have give you the feeling that you’re dining on a train.



One of the most amazing concepts for DLP castle was the one looking like a futuristic castle designed by Tim Delaney.



In Adventureland the Temple du Peril had several exciting ideas, unfortunately never realized like the one below...



In Discoveryland Star Tours almost had an AT - T at the entrance instead of the X-Wing fighter...



...but one of the greatest concept ever envisioned for DLP, the one that would have stunned all DLP fans, was the first concept of Space Mountain at that time called Discovery Mountain...



...in which you would have found not only the Space Mountain coaster but also the Nautilus submarine as well as a Journey to the Center of the Earth drop ride - the vulcano that you can see in the background of this Tim Delaney artwork.



Mind you, the DLP concepts that never were were also envisioned for the outside of the park, like this incredible restaurant concept supposed to be build in what is now the Disney Village...



...or this amazing concept for one of the hotels of the park which was designed with the shape of an aircraft carrier by austrian architect Hans Hollein.



There is dozens more of these "DLP that never was" artworks in the Disneyland Paris book, all fascinating, and that's one more good reason to pre-order your collector copy right now, specially considering that during the pre-order period which will end in a few weeks you also have a 20% discount on what will be the final price of the book. I repost below the video showing you each page of the book and to know how to order and send your payment please go HERE. Paypal or bank wire transfer payments are accepted.







Artwork: copyright Disney

Video: copyright Alain Littaye 2012