Tim Delaney Tribute - Mice Chat Event February 8 !

The great WDI Imagineer Tim Delaney who was Disneyland Paris Discoveryland show producer will be part of the next Mice Chat event happening February 8 at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney, Anaheim!

Tim will have fantastic stories for those who will attend the Mice Chat event with an audio-visual presentation and Tim will also sign copies of my Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" book which will be available for purchase at the end of Tim 90 minutes presentation. This will be the very first time that a Disneyland Paris Imagineer Show Producer will sign the book so if you live in South Cal you probably don't want to miss this event! Limited seats are available so make sure to do your registration today at the link HERE where you can also pre-order a copy of the DLP book to make sure you'll have a copy waiting for you at the event.  

During his career at Walt Disney Imagineering Tim was not only a fantastic show-producer of memorable attractions but also created gorgeous artworks and i did for you a selection of my favorites. 

One of Tim first achievement was Epcot Living Seas in its first - and unfortunately now extinct version. Here are some great artworks that Tim did and these are enhanced versions of scans previously posted in my Epcot Living Seas article that you can read HERE.

Of course, Tim biggest achievement was Disneyland Paris Discoveryland , a true wonder and probably the best version ever of a "Tomorrowland".

A Star Wars land will come in a near future at DL and DHS but Tim, back in the 1990's imagined what was at that time the first vision of a Star Wars land in which Space Mountain's was dome looking like the Death Star!

A few years later, Tim did a fantastic work as show-producer on Disney's California Adventure's Paradise Pier...

...before designing a new version of Tomorrowland for Hong Kong Disneyland. 

In the part two of this Tim Delaney tribute, to be post next week, we will have an extended view of Tim Delaney's artwork for Hong Kong Disneyland along with an exclusive interview of Tim, so don't miss the part two article!

At the Mice Chat event, on February 8, Tim will talk about his work in an audio-visual presentation which for sure will be great as Tim is a great show-man, too! So, those of you who live near Disneyland or travelling to South Cal on that date, make sure to attend the Mice Chat event and to make your reservation HERE while there is still seats available. At the same link you can also reserve your own copy of the Disneyland Paris book which will be waiting for you at the event!

Pictures: copyright Disney

EPCOT 30TH Anniversary Celebration - The Living Seas Original Artwork

In tribute to Epcot 30th celebration, here is the part three of a series of articles about the original artwork.
In this part three we will have a closer look to the original renderings for Epcot Living Seas pavillion, the very first version, not the one with Nemo.

As you will see, the artwork is beautiful. WDI Imagineer Tim Delaney was the show designer of The Living Seas and you will instantly identify in the artwork below his unique style.

I tried to present the renderings in the "chronological order" of the scenes, but i may do some mistake, so, sorry if it's the case! As always, click on each picture to see them in big size.

Okay, there is 27 different renderings for the living seas, and here we go!

The first one above show the whole pavillion

And the next one show the entrance



Here is a first concept for the attraction which looks great!



And here is another one preliminary concept , just as great!



This is the artwork for the preshow queue decor



And for some pre-show decor painting



This one show the inside of the famous "Hydrolator"



Here is a great one showing the sea cabs



This scene show the guests riding in the sea cabs



Guests are now unloading the sea cabs



...And arrive to Sea Base Alpha !



Here is a view from "outside" . I don't think the divers ever dress as futuristic as they look here - not to mention the submarine vehicle...



Here is another version of that scene



And a close shot on the diver



Let's come back in Sea Base Alpha



...and its hydrolators



...as well as the divers show



This one show the Pacific coastal ecosystem area



And this one the robot Jason



Here is one involving sharks



This is the artwotk for the "scuba tube" scene



And a close shot on the "diver"



Here is a different version for that scene



It seems that a "show" was envisioned with king Neptune



A close shot on Neptune's face



Let's not forget the great coral reef restaurant



And the final one will take you in the VIP lounge!



More Epcot original artwork coming soon! In the meantime, those of you who like WDI renderings will be happy to know that you can find 250 gorgeous WDI artwork in the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book which has until September 30 a great special offer!

Don't miss the special offer on the DLP book! : Order a copy of the acclaimed Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book this month of September and save $45 including Free Shipping! You'll find all infos to order an ENGLISH edition HERE and for the FRENCH edition it's HERE. Watch below the video showing the whole book!

Choose quantity and enjoy an additional discount !

One DLP Book Collector Copy with Free shipping €100.00 EUR Two DLP Book Collector Copies with Free shipping €185.00 EUR Three DLP Book Collector Copies with Free shipping €275.00 EUR

All artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises

Epcot Living Seas Pavilion : The Nautilus Exhibit

Editor's Note: This article is part of my new (and great!) Tom Scherman web site. Tom was the worldwide Nautilus specialist and worked as a WDI Imagineer on many 20K attractions. His master-piece being the full size Disneyland Paris Nautilus that you can discover in a brand new video filmed by me last month at DLP's Discoveryland.

When Epcot Living Seas Pavilion opened to the public in 1986 it was the largest man-made underwater environment in the world at its completion. WDI Imagineer Tim Delaney was the show-designer and you can see lot of great artwork that Tim did in one of my previous Disney and more article HERE. The concept of the attraction was to take visitors under the ocean to "Sea Base Alpha". Guests then would ride the Caribbean Coral Reef Ride in a "seacab" along an underwater tunnel through the aquarium. From there guests would ride around 'Sea Base Alpha' getting an up-close view of the marine life. They would then disembark into the main exhibit area where they could interact with various multimedia displays.



But before guests take an elevator ride to the ocean floor thanks to the "Hydrolator" they would enter a pre-show area and part of it was a 20000 Leagues under the Sea exhibit created with the precious help of Tom Sherman who provided a perfect replica of the Crew Diver suit.

When i was at Epcot fifteen years ago i had the good idea to shoot plenty of pictures of the crew diver suit and here they are in high-res. Click on each picture to see them in larger scale.









On this rare picture kindly provided by Richard Allsmiller, Tom is carrying outside of his apartment a diving tank he made up for the mock-up diving suit with a fiberglass helmet. This might have been the one he sold years later to Walt Disney Imagineering for the Living Seas pavilion.



On the right of the crew diver suit guests could see a great Nautilus model. The model shown there is the studio's 11-foot "hero" miniature used for filming the underwater shots of the Nautilus in the movie.





In December of 2003, Disney started re-theming The Living Seas pavilion with a new ride based on Pixar's film Finding Nemo. Most of the transformation started in exterior elements, but in January of 2004, the interior began to see change as well. On November 16, 2004, Turtle Talk with Crush opened in what was once Module 1C, or the Earth Systems exhibit. Turtle Talk with Crush was just the beginning of changes to The Living Seas. On August 21, 2005, The Living Seas closed for its transformation into a new pavilion called The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Throughout 2006, construction walls hid away the undergoing-reconstruction pre-show area. The Seas with Nemo & Friends was rededicated on January 24, 2007 and the 20K exhibit with Tom crew diver suit was gone forever. But Andrew, a kind reader of the Tom scherman's web site found back Tom's crew diver suit, now in storage in Florida and sent me these pictures shot in 2007.









While we are at Walt Disney World, let's go to the Disney MGM Studios where, in another exhibit, guests could watch a diver helmet replica as well as a replica of the underwater rifle!







Vulcania Volunteers is doing a great replica of the Captain Nemo's underwater rifle and you can find it HERE.

Discover more articles about Tom Scherman and 20000 Leagues under the Sea with lot of gorgeous pictures on my new web site HERE.

All pictures: copyright Alain Littaye, except Tom Scherman picture: copyright Tom Scherman Family Collection from Rich Allsmiller