Editor's Note: From now, each week-end, you will find a selection of the best articles from the Disney and more archives. Amazing stories or projects that you may never have known about if you didn't read the article when it was previously posted! Today, the stunning Michael Jackson's Peter Pan's Neverland Theme Park that never was!

D&M Archives : The Michael Jackson's Peter Pan's Neverland Theme Park that never was

Unless you live on another planet, you probably know that last week was another "Michael Jackson week". The "This Is it" documentary and CD album were released and a major Michael Jackson exhibition opened last Tuesday in London. I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce to you one of Michael's most secret - and really fantastic - projects: the Peter Pan's Neverland theme park that never was.

Let's first go back in time to 1997, when Michael Jackson and Prince Al-Waleed - Disneyland Paris' biggest private stock-holder - created a company called Kingdom Entertainment and purchased 50% of Landmark Entertainment, giving the company a huge infusion of cash. Prince Al-Waleed had 45% and Michael had 5% of the shares. I remind you that Landmark is the famous company directed by Gary Goddard which created the Spider-Man ride at IOA and the Jurassic Park and Terminator 3D attractions at Universal Studios.



Above and video below: Michael Jackson and Prince Al Waleed during the 1996 press conference announcing the creation of Kingdom Entertainment Co.




So, what had to happen happened, Michael asked Landmark if they could design a theme park, a real one, not only for him but a park where anybody could go, just like Disneyland. And this theme park would have been named Peter Pan's Neverland! Here is a bird's eye view of the park - please double-click on the image below to see it in big size.



This first concept is amazing, isn't it? Fully inspired from Peter Pan's story, the park would have started with a grand London entrance, as you can see on the artwork below.



A replica of Kensington Gardens, where anyone can see the famous Peter Pan statue, as well as Big Ben and the House of Parliaments in the background, not to mention horse guards at the entrance, all of which would have set a stunning replica of the Victorian city.



Here is another artwork showing this entrance by Greg Pro.



From that point guests were supposed to go to Neverland Island, and Landmark designers had designed two different way to go there, both of which were attractions. The first one, which would definitely have been an E-Ticket attraction, was... to fly to Neverland! As you can see on the artwork below, the take-of was over London, with a fly over Big Ben and other famous London landmarks like the Tower Bridge (note that on the artwork Big Ben and the Tower Bridge are close together but two miles separate them in reality) and then, lead by Tinkerbell, they would fly all over Neverland, the Mermaid Lagoon and Skull Rock and finally land near the Lost Boys home and woods.



And how would Landmark have achieved this wonder, you ask? First, no, the ride was not designed like Soarin' over California - which, by the way, was not built at that time. Instead, guests would have sat on a platform which would have turned down on a 50 degrees angle, a bit less than on the "flying" coasters, and the movie would have been projected on a huge Omnimax dome located under the platform, giving to the guests the illusion of flying over London and Neverland! What a great ride it would have been!

The other way to reach Neverland would have been by boat. During this short boat ride the boat would have go through mysterious caves before arriving to Neverland Island with its lush vegetation and waterfalls.

Once at Neverland, guests would have had the choice of six different areas:

"Lost Boys area" would have been a fun play area for young kids with slides, jumping fountains, a tree house but also a great roller-coaster with tracks going all over the land.



In "Mermaid Lagoon" guests would have had the choice between a boat ride going through Neverland Island caves or to enjoy a meal at a beautiful restaurant located underground with a huge window looking towards the lagoon where a Mermaid show was envisioned. Close to Mermaid Lagoon, the "Indian Village" would have been another area of Neverland where a raft ride was envisioned.



On the other side of the huge Neverland rock, guests would have find "Pixie Kingdom", a great area for young children with giant mushrooms playground and re-themed carnival rides.



Another major area - not so far from Pixie Kingdom - would have been the Pirates village with Skull Rock nearby as well as Captain Hook's ship.



It's there where guests could have watch a great live action show, including a flying Peter Pan fighting his eternal ennemy, Captain Hook. And of course the Crocodile was part of the show.



You may also have noticed that in this first concept three hotels were envisioned: a London hotel, a "Pirate's Cove" hotel and a "Lost Boys Tree top" Hotel. As we will see now, the project had significant changes in its final version.

This next document below is another map of the Peter Pan's Neverland park, actually it's the conceptual master plan. Drawn May 24, 1999 at a scale of 1" = 60' it shows a more advanced project with new attractions and also backstage facilities. Let's have a look again at the whole park to see the differences with the first concept.



First, the three hotels are gone, instead we have one big hotel facing the lake of the London Town area. Located near the entrance, a bit like the Disneyland Paris Hotel it would have allowed the hotel guests to have a unique view on the Neverland park.

In the London Town area, always located at the entrance, Big Ben is still there, but a replica of London's famous Tower Bridge was added. Also, a bigger Kensington Gardens at the entrance and a music hall dinner show in one of the main building on the right.
Inside the House of Parliament replica, a new show: "Salute to J.M Barrie", the creator of Peter Pan. Right on the other side of the Tower Bridge an indoor coaster as well as a 3D simulator theater were also envisioned.



In Pirate's Cove a Pirates Dinner show, another indoor roller coaster and a Pirates stunt show in front of Skull Rock were added. Also envisioned, a lagoon show, probably in the evening.



In Pixie Kingdom, the main difference with the first concept is a big building for a Pixie World dark ride. On the top of the picture below, what seems to be a inverted roller coaster would have had its entrance in a new land "Future Zone".



Lost Boys area always have its roller coaster running all over the land and even inside Neverland mountain, and as you can see below, Future Zone was located at the top with not only the inverted roller coaster but also a smaller coaster and a simulator ride.



In Mermaid's Lagoon, an underwater simulator was added to the first concept and a new area - Kid's Creek - was designed for young children with playground and water fun including small boats.



Peter Pan's Neverland was not designed to be as big as Disneyland, but it certainly would have been a great theme park where all the "Peter Pans" living on this planet would have rush!

So what happened? Why this Peter Pan's Neverland theme park was never built? Well, some years later, Michael Jackson and Prince Al-Waleed ended their association, and considering the cost of a concept like this one, it was very unfortunately the end of the Peter Pan's Neverland project. Although Michael lived in his Neverland Ranch, he never got to walk in this "real" Neverland. However, years later, Landmark designed for Michael a great statue showing Michael as Peter Pan!

Does this mean that we will never see this great park concept become real one day? Who knows, with all the different Michael Jackson celebrations that will happen in years to come - not to mention that Neverland Ranch could become for Michael Jackson's fans what Graceland is to Presley's fans - maybe somebody who has enough money will find, just like we do, that it would be great to build this Peter Pan's Neverland for real? And, hey, there is plenty of land available inside Neverland Ranch. Who could imagine a better place to build Michael's dearest dream?


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Artwork: copyright Landmark

Editor's Note: From now, each week-end, you will find a selection of the best articles from the Disney and more archives. Amazing stories or projects that you may never have known about if you didn't read the article when it was previously posted!

Carthay Theatre and Little Mermaid Imagineering Videos

Disney Parks released today two new videos. The first one is a good time lapse video showing the Carthay Circle Theatre construction through last week at Californa Adventure...




And the other video is about Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid coming to New Fantasyland at WDW Magic Kingdom next year. As we know the exterior decor will be close to the animated feature and a seaside grotto beneath Prince Eric castle is where MK guests will enter the world of Ariel. Lot of rock work, so, and Imagineers always had great cement sculptors who are able to create amazing rock work wonder. In this next video Imagineer Eric Miller explains how the team is creating a realistic underwater environment for Ariel that's inspired by the film, a process involving sketches, models, computer technology, construction and artistry.




Video: copyright Disney

Phantom Manor , The Movie

I discovered recently this home made trailer, directed by Johan Souply for a "Phantom Manor" movie. It was posted in 2010, so i'm a bit late on this one but if you've never watched it before i recommend you to have a look at it as Johan did a real good job, specially considering that he didn't had a Hollywoodian budget at his disposal.

And, by the way, the idea of a Phantom Manor movie is not bad at all. The Phantom Manor storyline and the tragic story of Melanie Ravenswood could provide perfect elements for a long feature movie and may be someone should send the idea to Burbank Walt Disney Studios... After all, Guillermo Del Toro will shoot soon a new Haunted Mansion movie, and Disney have at least two other productions related to Disneyland in project, i.e the "Jungle Cruise" movie as well as "Magic Kingdom".

Anyway, have a look at Johan's Phantom Manor trailer and then jump to his blog HERE to learn more about him.




If the video don't work, you can watch it on Youtube HERE.

Video: copyright Johan Productions

Picture: copyright Disney

DLP Update : Fantasyland Princesses Pavilion will open October 8 !

It's not every day that something new open at Disneyland Paris so DLP fans will be pleased to learn that the new Princesses Pavilion currently under construction since six months at Fantasyland is scheduled to open if there is no delay in one month, on October 8.

Located where was previously the It's a Small World post-show the Princesses Pavilion should delight young boys and girls as they will be able to meet and greet with their favorite Princess. Well, actually it will be a bit more complicated than that as they won't have really the choice of Princess as we will see below even if the official release say: " Just as every little girl dreams of becoming a fairytale heroine, few men can resist the charm of meeting a true Princess. Where else than in Disneyland can you meet your favourite Disney Princess? Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana… they’re all waiting to meet you. A royal invitation to live and capture the most enchanting of Disney moments."

Thanks to my good friends of Disney Central Plaza forum who found at Chessy's City Hall some of the WDI renderings ( the park must deliver drawings to Chessy city hall each time they build something new ) you'll see below a bit more of how this Princesses Pavilion will look. The first rendering shows the exterior of the pavilion, partly inspired by Sleeping Beauty Castle architecture. There will be two doors but DLP guests will enter only by the one on the right, the one at the left will be used only by the Princesses and cast-members.



The queue decor inside is quite sophisticated and it's partly the reason why it took so long to build this pavilion. As you will see on the WDI rendering below, all along this queue decor DLP guests will see a medieval decor with stone columns and draperies with in each alcove some brilliantly lighted iconic items related to each princess - for instance you'll have the crystal shoe of Cinderella or the rose of Belle. And right behind them, beautiful stained glass windows showing the castle of each princess. According to the master plan we can count eight alcoves for eight princesses - Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, Tiana, Jasmine and Mulan (or Raiponce). Also, some new background music has been specially composed for the pavilion.



The next picture shows the master plan of the inside queue. Guests will enter and follow the green path. Then, if there is no wait they will access directly the Princesses area. But if there is some wait they will take the yellow path leading to another door and then enter to the princesses meet and greet area. Exit will be through the path where you can see the red arrows. The inside queue capacity is supposed to be approximately 308 people with also the capacity of 67 more in an outside queue. And about the hour capacity of this new Princesses Pavilion it seems that DLP Imagineers have calculated a one hour wait to go through the green area, and more if guests have to go through the yellow one. Which means that the hour capacity should be pretty low as you can expect that young girls will probably take their time when they will be with their favorite princess.



Once you will arrive at the end of the queue some heavy wooden doors will open and you'll enter the Princess private area where there will be two alcoves - one for each princess - with stone arch, draperies and a different background for each alcoves. It's important to note that, although there will be two princesses, each in their own private alcove, that young boys and girls will meet only one of them, and then exit the pavilion. Even more important it will not be possible to know what princess you will meet, meaning that it will be a surprise, but also that little girls won't have the "choice", which also means that they might not meet their "favorite" princess. Here are the two renderings showing the two different alcoves with princesses.





Finally, a DLP photographer will be there during the Princess meeting and will take a picture which will be sent instantly by WIFI at the Princess Pavilion shop where each family will be able to order a print if they wish to do so. Thanks God, DLP guests will also be authorized to shoot pictures of this memorable princess meeting with their own digital camera!

Although this Princesses Pavilion is definitely not the E-Ticket ride awaited by DLP fans it might be a nice addition to DLP Fantasyland which for sure will delight the young boys and girls on their next trip at DLP.

Artwork: copyright Disney

All my thanks to Mouetto from Disney Central Plaza!

Hong Kong Disneyland Tomorrowland Starliner Diner

Today, we'll have a look at the Starliner Diner, one of HKDL Tomorrowland's restaurant. Tim Delaney, HKDL Tomorrowland show-producer designed a new kind of Tomorrowland and the Starliner Diner have a great theming and is unique, you won't find it in any other Disney theme parks.

Located close to Hong Kong Disneyland Orbitron...



...the "Starliner" is the spaceship you'll see at the entrance, you can't miss it with its smoke effects.



Once you're inside you'll notice another spaceship hanging over the counter...



The main room where HKDL guests sit to eat their meal is pretty huge with unique paintings showing the Starliner destinations and adventures all around the galaxy!



There is four different artwork and i'm sure you want to have a closer look at them, so here they are.









The lighting of the Starliner Diner at night is great as you can see on the picture below.



We'll be back at HKDL Tomorrowland soon with another report, so don't miss it!

Pictures: copyright Disney and more