Category Archive: theme park

Aug
28
2011

Motion Comic Magic / re-creating the ‘Western River Expedition’ ride

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

One thing that is exciting to me is how modern animation techniques to re-purpose images of all sorts can be used to recreate and explain the past, present and future. I just saw an example that, while simple is a good.

At the D23 Expo (official Disney Fan Club) last weekend in Anaheim Tony Baxter presented a simulation of a theme park attraction that was meant to be built at Walt Disney World (WDW) in Florida when the parked opened instead of the classic E-Ticket attraction…Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride would be a musical trip through a stylized old-west called The Western River Expedition that would feature many Audio Animatronic figures and a big flume drop at the end. The problem is that guest coming to WDW wanted to know where the Pirate ride that they had heard about was. So the new western themed ride idea was scrapped for a clone of the Disneyland pirate ride. Many Disney theme park fans are still hoping that someday the ride might become a reality in some form, but that is not so likely.

To see examples of the concept art and read about the history, visit HERE.

But thanks to Disney having a huge archive of concept art and rare footage that can put it together  in a simple form with some background music and presented it as a visual discription of how the ride might have been. Below is a video of that presentation which features art by one of my favorites Marc Davis and with live narration by Imagineers Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley.

Below is the description from the youtube.com video…

On Sunday, August 21, Walt Disney Imagineers Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley lead a fascinating presentation of rare footage from 1950s and 1960s-era Disneyland for D23 Expo attendees. As part of the presentation, Tony and Josh took guests aboard a complete ride-through of the never-built Western River Expedition attraction, designed for the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Though never built, numerous conceptual renderings as well as a complete model of the attraction were built and have been preserved by Walt Disney Imagineering. This video is a ride-through of the attraction as guests would have experienced it, recreated with concept art and photos of the attraction model. Live commentary is provided by Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley.

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Jul
31
2011

Summer 2011: Disney California Adventure under construction photos

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Hey all, I just got back from my big summer trip to the San Diego Comic-Con and Disneyland. Instead of a couple of super posts here on the blog, I plan on a bunch of short ones that are maybe easier to get out to you my audience.

These photos are from last Monday 7-25-11 and are taken from the back of the Alpine Inn hotel in Anaheim. The hotel is not fancy, but it’s only a 10 min walk to the parks which is really all you need with a place to stay. What were seeing is the back side of the new area to open Summer 2012…CARS Land, based on the PIXAR movie. The area is going to be massive as it recreates the sleepy town of Radiator Springs and the surrounding mountains. Many are saying it’s the largest amount of rock work done for any theme park ever.

7-25-11 Backside of CARS land at Disney California Adventure

7-25-11 Backside of CARS land at Disney California Adventure

And here is a photo of the new entrance to DCA, based on the Pan Pacific auditorium in LA. It’s really classy and cool and at night it is all list up pretty. In fact the entrance makes the one for Disneyland across look kind of dull, especially at night.

7-25-11 Disney California Adventure entrance

Well, there is a start on the trip report(s). Stay tuned for more later this week.

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Aug
13
2010

Happy 41st birthday, Haunted Mansion!

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The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland just turned 41 and to celebrate I thought I would post some fan art inspired by the attraction.

There is an event in Anaheim held by the 1313 clube that I wished I was going too next week called the Marvelous Mechanized Magic Kingdom.  They will have on displays actual Animatronics from Disney themeparks as well as have speakers like actor Neil Patrick Harris, designer of the monorail Bob Gurr, the voice of Wendy and Alice Kathryn Beaumont, costume designer for Pirates and Small World Alice Davis, script and song writer Xavier Atencio (‘grim grinning ghosts’), animator/artist Floyd Norman, Garner Holt
who’s company does all of Disney’s ride animatronics now, ride concept artist Larry Nikolai, Chef Mayhem of DoomBuggies.com, and many more.

Find out more at: http://the1313club.com/Main_Page.html

OK, now onto the art….

First off a painting from 2003: (click for bigger image)

HitchHiking Ghosts fan art (2003)

and some of the artwork I did for the fan podcast “Story of the Haunted Mansion” that was created by Patrick Hurd. The work below is only about half of what I contributed.

To watch the final video podcast and find out more about the project, visit http://atomicbearpress.com/2009/05/01/the-story-of-the-haunted-mansion/

(click for bigger image)

art from "tales of the Huanted Mansion"

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Sep
01
2009

Geeky post of Fantastmic! animatronic dragon at Disneyland

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I am going to let my Geek Flag Fly and post a video clip of the premiere of the new animatronic dragon in the Disneyland show Fantasmic!. Due to technical difficulties it did not premiere at the start of summer like they wanted (like when I was there).

In the show the evil fairy Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty turns into a dragon to fight Prince Philp, but here it’s Mickey Mouse as the brave little tailor. Originally the dragon was mostly just a big head on a stick, now it’s a fully realized creature with full body and even eyes that show some expression.

I have posted a clip of the full public performance tonight and a sample video Disney released this morning.

p.s. I hope to see it in person in the future.

Video by MintCrocodile

Disney’s press video

Previous show dragon

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Jul
17
2008

Happy 53rd Anniversary Disneyland

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It was on July,17 1955 that a new entertainment destination appeared…the first theme park. 53 years ago Disneyland was revealed and changed our idea of what an amusement park could be. Disneyland was opened on July,17 1955. I have not be able to go for a few years, but a trip is in order for my next big birthday.

The Disney and More blog has scans of the first ever souvenir book for Disneyland. Go check it out.

One of the best shows at the park is Fantasmic:

The classic Disney’s (Main Street) Electrical Parade (which is now at DCA):

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Jul
06
2008

Enchanted Fireworks for the 4th.

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These are the new “Enchanted” fireworks for the summer at Euro Disneyland in Paris. I know that showing a fireworks show in France is probably not that patriotic of me, but this one is very cool and well done. The show does not have the usual Disney character voice overs and lots of bells and whistles, but the fire works themselves are pretty cool and the score is just music from the movie “Enchanted”. It’s only 7min, so take a break and take a look.

I hope you all had a great 4th of July.

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