A Collection of Rare Walt Disney Imagineering Artworks

I've got some rare Walt Disney Imagineering artworks for you today - actually as they are from Disneyland golden era it is "WED Enterprises" artworks -  and there is even one that you'll see below which is still on sale on the Van Eaton Galleries website, all the others are already sold. Make sure to click on each artwork to see them in big size.

Let's start by this Nature's Wonderland Guidebook Insert ( above and below ), a rare insert to the 1960 Disneyland Guidebook which was also available as a handout flyer at various souvenir kiosks throughout the park in the summer of 1958. Featuring outstanding Nature’s Wonderland concept billboard artwork, the flyer touts the coming attraction in Frontierland and America the Beautiful in Tomorrowland. The flyer measures 8" x 11.25" and is already sold.


Below, a lithographic poster print depicting a concept drawing of Frontierland at Disneyland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 18" x 24" and the image itself measures 14" x 17.5".



Here is a concept drawing of the Mark Twain attraction at Disneyland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 19.75" x 27" and the image itself measures 15.5" × 26".



Three rare original concept sketches used in the development of Big Thunder Mountain attraction at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. These artworks were created by Imagineer Clem Hall.

Next is an an original concept design painting created by Disney Imagineer Clem Hall while working on EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Clem Hall created imagery for use in the American Adventure attraction, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and the various world pavillions at the WDW and Disneyland theme parks. This particular painting depicts imagery of a Riverboat very similar to the Mark Twain which is nicely detailed an finished, and potentially comes from the development of the France Pavillion. The piece measures 22" x 30" overall with the main image area measuring 15" x 20". The piece is in overall very good condition with edge wear that would be expected in concept art that is being handled by an artist. On sale for $1500 on the Van Eaton Galleries website HERE.



Next artwork is a lithographic poster print depicting a concept drawing of the entrance to Adventureland at Disneyland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 18" x 24" and the image itself measures 13.5" x 19.5".


 Next artwork is a lithographic poster print depicting a concept of an aerial view of Adventureland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 18" x 24" and the image itself measures 14.5" x 18".


Here is a Jungle Cruise Concept drawing of the Jungle Cruise that was created by Bruce Bushman. This poster is from the Disney Gallery.


Next artwork shows a lithographic poster print on an artwork showing an addition to Fantasyland and Hook Pirate Ship restaurant. When Fantasyland opened, the area surrounding the ship was not themed. Later they built Storybookland with Monstro 1956/57. The rockwork attached to Monstro is still shaped exactly like this art shows. However the focal point looks like an early idea for Mermaid Lagoon from Peter Pan. Ultimately that would become Skull Rock, which would last until 1982.
The overall measurements of the piece are 24" × 29.75" and the image itself measures 19" x 23. 5". The artist is not specified but it's most probably a Herb Ryman artwork.



Below, a lithographic poster print depicting the side view elevation schematics for Geppetto's Village in Disneyland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 18" x 24" and the image itself measures 12.5" x 19.5".



Next is this limited edition lithographic print featuring a concept artwork for the short-lived Disneyland Viewliner. The print measure 11" x 14" overall with an lovely image that measures 8" x 10".

Next artwork is a lithographic poster print depicting a concept drawing of the entrance to Tomorrowland at Disneyland. This poster is from the Disney Gallery. The overall measurements of the piece are 18" x 24" and the image itself measures 14" x 16.5".



Next is a rendering from a flyer showing the America the beautiful in Tomorrowland Circarama attraction.





Below, a rare concept-art for Disneyland Tomorrowland Hall of Chemistry, now extinct as we know.



Next is a rare concept painting for Walt Disney World Space Mountain painted by Clem Hall. The overall piece measures 8" x 11".


Below, a rare giveaway from the TWA Rocket to the Moon attraction at Disneyland. This certificate would certify that the individual had, "rocketed round trip to the moon from the Disneyland Spaceport via TWA Rocket Ship." An enjoyable early artifact that was designed for the ride's opening in 1956. Especially rare is that it is unused and not filled out by the park-goer! This certificate measures 7" x 5" and is in very good condition.

 All pictures; copyright Disney

Why the Disneyland Paris Book Is So Great - Part One : The Disneyland Paris That Never Was

The acclaimed Disneyland Paris book "From Sketch to reality" has still a Christmas special offer running until January on the last English copies and , as i realized that a lot of people who don't own the book yet has never seen it, here is a two part article to let you know why the book is so great.

As co-author of Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality, I had access to thousands of images and concept paintings from the Imagineering. The book include 500 pictures of the park and 250 WDI renderings, all showing lands, rides, park shops and restaurants which WERE built at DLP, but what you may not know if you don't own the book yet is that it also include pictures of what WAS NOT built but envisioned by DLP Imagineers, in two words the "Disneyland Paris that never was". In this first article, I will tell you more about a less known angle of the book – and a very interesting one – the part of it which talks about the Disneyland Paris wasn’t built. And I think you’ll find that many of these ideas were really good and should have been built!

In the first image above – that you will find in the book’s first chapter – you’ll see a “winter” version concept showing the Fantasia Gardens, in front of the Disneyland Paris hotel located at the entrance of the park. Disneyland Paris imagineers have drawn a small frozen lake on which guests could have ice-skated.

On the next image below – done by Disney legend Collin Campbell – you’ll see Imagineer Eddie Sotto’s design of the 1920′s Main Street concept. In this version, Main Street would have had an elevated tramway and the train station would have looked just like the one in the movie “Hello Dolly!”. The Emporium was to be behind the elevated 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. And the reason why a Service Station was put into the project was because in the 1920′s the transition from horse-drawn streetcar to automobile had already been made and the automobile had won.



A year after Michael Eisner had declined this 1920′s design, he said to Eddie Sotto that he should have done the 1920′s idea anyway because it would have been understood better in Europe. But, by then it was unfortunately too late…

The painting below was created by Nina Rae Vaughn. Behind The Town Square East block of buildings, Eddie had envisioned a private restaurant for the sponsors of the park. This idea was first pioneered with Club 33 at Disneyland and this one had a secret entrance underneath the railroad station that would lead to a hidden terminal, and in that terminal there would have been an American-style streamlined locomotive train complete with dining cars, inspired by the famous “20th Century Limited”. Imagineers thought this could be the most unique private restaurant in Europe.



Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty Castle is acclaimed as one – if not THE – most beautiful castle of all Disney Magic Kingdoms, but did you know that others concepts were also envisioned? In the first one below, a remarkable Herb Ryman painting on which you’ll also see the elevated tramway on the right. Herb had designed a DLP castle close to the original one at Disneyland…



…On this next rendering by Tim Delaney you’ll see a very different castle concept, a futuristic one!



Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is a great DLP Adventureland roller coaster ride with an Indy theme, but some of the scenes envisioned by WDI Imagineers were unfortunately cancelled, like the great one below in which the train would have entered a tunnel through the mouth of a giant stone head!



Talking about this Indy temple, another rendering that you will find in the book, reveals that DLP Imagineers had envisioned not one but TWO temples, with two different coaster tracks. Look closer at the artwork below and you’ll see the second temple in the back.



In Fantasyland, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth is a Disneyland Paris exclusive, and guests must find their way through the maze to reach the Queen of Hearts castle. In which they can climb to the upper floor and have a unique view of DLP Fantasyland. But, what was also envisioned was to have a slide for young kids to go back to the “ground floor”, and children would have exited the slide by going through the mouth of the Queen of Hearts! Actually, the slide – without the head of the Queen of Hearts – was built and was operational for a few months after opening before being permanently closed because children were hurting themselves at the bottom of the slide.



DLP Discoveryland as well had others concepts than the one currently built. On this next artwork, you’ll see a very different Tomorrowland entrance than the one which currently exists.



But, of all the Discoveryland concepts that never were, the most spectacular would have been Discovery Mountain, a unique new version of Space Mountain! On the first artwork below you’ll see a great Tim Delaney painting showing Discovery Mountain at night. The transparent tube on the left would have been a direct access tunnel from Videopolis. If you visit DLP, you can still see on the upper floor of Videopolis, giant circular windows which are the same ones through which the transparent tubes would have linked Videopolis to Discovery Mountain.



Inside Discovery Mountain, guests would have found not only a unique Space Mountain ride but also the Nautilus submarine floating in a lagoon with a restaurant inside Captain Nemo’s Grand Salon, access to Star Tours, former Cinemagique attractions and also a “Journey to the Center of the Earth” attraction. The Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction would have been totally different than the one built at Tokyo Disney Sea. In fact, it was the first free fall ride designed by WDI, before the Tower of Terror concept! All of Discovery Mountain would have been a giant tribute to Jules Verne.



So, you see, in addition to hundreds of gorgeous pictures of the park, as well as WDI artwork and a great text, telling all the story of the making of the park, the Disneyland Paris book has even more to offer than you might have thought. All the renderings you've seen above are of course include in the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book, and if you don't own the book yet, you now understand why it is such a great book, as it not only tells you the story of the making of what actually exist in the park but also shows never seen before concepts of the DLP "that never was".

Copies of Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" with the Christmas Special Offer are still available in its English edition, so make sure to order a copy if you don't own it yet, as it is the last ones! The French edition is totally out of stock but if you're french, and wish to purchase the book in its english edition i will send you a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition.

To place your order for the DLP book, please send me an email at: amplittaye@gmail.com with your shipping address. The price during the Christmas special offer is 65€ ( instead of 85€ ) and shipping worldwide is 22€ ( except Belgium and Italy for which it is 29€ ).

For French readers a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition will be sent.
Lecteurs Français: Etant donné que l'édition française est épuisée, un fichier du texte complet original en Français sera envoyé aux acheteurs Français ne comprenant pas l'anglais.

Also, each order will receive two GREAT surprise gifts!

You can pay with Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. For Paypal payments please send directly the full amount  including shipping ( 87€ worldwide, except for Belgium and Italy for which it is 104€ ) at: nme4@wanadoo.fr  If you wish to pay by credit card and bank transfer, let me know in your email and i'll tell you how to do.

If you've never seen the book before, don't miss the video below showing the full 320 pages of the book!



Artwork: copyright Disney

Designing HKDL Tomorrowland : An Exclusive Interview with Imagineer Tim Delaney

Today, thanks to a D&M exclusive interview Tim talks about the design of Hong Kong Disneyland's Tomorrowland as Tim was the show producer of the land. As we know, Tim Delaney was previously the show producer of Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris and for Paradise Pier at California Adventure. Please note that this interview was done for the opening of HKDL in 2005, before the opening of Autopia, UFO Zone and Stitch encounter.
This interview was previously posted on D&M in 2005 but this is a totally new article with plenty of new artworks, pictures, attraction posters, so i'm sure you will enjoy it a lot!

I also remind you that Tim Delaney will be part of the great Mice Chat event happening on February 8 at Disneyland ESPN Zone and here is my second part of my tribute to Tim. You'll find all infos about the Mice Chat event at the end of the article.

Alain Littaye: Tim, as we know, you were Disneyland Paris Discoveryland show producer. At DLP the theme of Discoveryland was supposed to be the land of visionaries, and here in Hong Kong the theme is probably different. So, what is the story line of Hong Kong Disneyland’s Tomorrowland ?

Tim Delaney: Well, we wanted to create here something totally different, our biggest challenge was how to create something that is not only tomorrow, but also something that is timeless. So, we took the theme in this particular case of a “spaceport”. All of our attractions relate to space travels: we have Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, the Orbitron - this last one with a totally different style than the one at DLP.

T.D : So we took the idea of a space port ,we have different style of architecture...it’s a kind of space encampment, a space port where you go when you journey to other planets. We have two very large restaurants, and the big restaurant called “Starliner Diner” have a rocket ship in the front and it’s a place where you go before you go in outer space: there is big posters of space travel inside, we have rockets, etc...this is a place where you go to have lunch and food before you go up to your journey into Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear... It’s also one of the largest restaurant we ever built in a Tomorrowland with an incredible design

T.D: The other restaurant of Tomorrowland is the Comet Cafe, and is also located close to the Orbitron.

T.D: Throughout the land we’re using these motifs of these planets and an alien landscape to make you feel that you are in another world...You have to see the style of the buildings to see how it looks like. It’s not mean to look like in the fifties, like disneyland was in 1955, it has much more of an organic field to it. We are also using a lot of colours in the land, and the reason for that is that most of the time Hong Kong have grey skies and humid, so we wanted these colours to bring a kind of more of a familiar quality to our Tomorrowland. Secondly, about landscaping, we have a lot of landscaping in covered areas, so we create a sense of the future and tomorrow with more human kind of space.

A.L: I’m pretty sure the design with all these planets is probably beautiful at night...

T.D: It is magnificent, spectacular at night !

A.L: The Orbitron has a totally different look than the one built in Paris or Anaheim , and you have flying saucers instead of rocket jets ...

T.D: That’s right, we wanted to create an Orbitron in the center of the land that has more a kind of space-beacon look to it ...there is a very large eight meter diameter globe at the bottom, it has a starfield with fiber optics in it and the flying saucers fly around, and we still have a kind of planet kynetics, which are flying up above, and these flying saucers flying among all about. It is a very visual thing, a very powerful looking thing, and the colours are all different here. We took a whole different colour scheme because we wanted to make the colours much brighter, much "cooler" colours because it is so warming here most of the time.

T.D:...By the way , the 8 meter diameter globe also rotate and due to the painting technique, the whole land reflects in it and, with the fiber optics, it’s a map of the universe! That’s what it is, in fact. The kind of painting used for the globe is call Chromaship, it’s a special painting and what happens is that when the globe rotate the colour goes from a warm blue to a purple blue...

A.L: Talking about flying saucers, it reminds me the Eddie Sotto project for Tokyo Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. It was supposed to be called ”Sci-fi City” , and one of the attraction was supposed to be small flying saucers flying around a huge flying saucer.
So, are the flying saucers in your Orbitron a reminiscence of this previous project?

T.D: No, not really...i just start it all over again from scratch.

A.L: Anyway, it is a good idea to have change the usual rockets for these new flying saucers. About Space Mountain, does this new version have a particular storyline?

T.D: Our Space Mountain continue the overall theme that is your amazing adventure in outer space. We have new effects, new images, the ride system is smooth and fast, and, as you know they’ve re-done space mountain in paris and the one at disneyland, too. And every time we do this we have new effects, new projectors, new imaging devices,etc... And, here in hong kong, we have the latest one, and they’re brilliant. We don’t really have an overall strong story, but we do have a very strong theme and it’s a really great effects show. And the reaction of the guests here is fantastic. In fact, talking about effects, there is one effect that you have in paris, and that we have, here: it’s the explosion of a super-nova. But in a completely different format.

A.L: What about Buzz Lightyear? I supposed it’s the same ride that we can find in Anaheim or WDW?

T.D: It’s very similar to the one in Disneyland. But we have a totally different entrance for the attraction: we have a 12 foot monumental, kind of “heroic” Buzz Lightyear standing up in the front, and it’s a great photo location... and the ride is as great as in the U.S, of course. It’s amazing how people love this ride, really. And i've heard they’re going to add some internet competition, so people on internet can compete with people on the ride.

A.L: Do you have a kind of big theater like we have in Paris with “Videopolis”?

T.D: We have two large theater in the park, one in Adventureland, and one in Fantasyland, but not in Tomorrowland this time!

A.L: Are you going to add more attractions in the “phase two” of the park?

T.D: We are currently designing and actually we are under construction for one more major attraction and two more minor attractions that will open in July of next year. We’ll have a totally unique and different Autopia than the one you have in Paris. We’ll have electric cars, with lighting effects on the cars, a different kind of unique on-board audio-system, and the landscape that you will go through is much more like an alien landscape, another planet kind of landscape... It will really be a fun drive, and actually we’ll also have one of the roadways who comes into the land , because most of the Autopia will be beyond the railroad, so part of the road will come into the land on an elevated highway and returns back down to the location of the attraction, so it really showcases the ride to the people in the land. And people will be able to walk underneath this elevated roadway that you see the cars are going by.

T.D: The second attraction will be UFO Zone, a fun, water-squirting interactive play area!
( Ndr: Both Autopia and UFO Zone opened one year after this interview with Tim Delaney )

T.D: Before we leave, i’d like to tell you that the whole resort here is impressive, the location is great, the hotels are beautiful, the “Disney promenade” from the hotels to the park is charming, and with these hills in the background behind the castle... i really think it really is the best location we ever had for a Magic Kingdom!

As i told you, Tim Delaney will be part of the next Mice Chat event happening next Saturday, 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 or if you're coming at Disneyland that day 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.  

And, talking about Hong Kong Disneyland i remind to those of you who own an iPhone or iPad that the great HKDL Wallpapers App with hundreds of high-res pictures of the park is always available on the iTunes App Store for $1.99 only! click on the Ad below to jump to the iTunes page for the App.
 

Pictures and Artwork: copyright Disney - All my thanks to Tim Delaney for the artworks and some of the pictures posted in this article.