Eddie Sotto's take on the current state of the parks (Part II)

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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Eddie Sotto said:
The Automatamericana exhibit was a second year approval (added capacity) attraction intended to further tell the story of Main Street in a comical way through animated dioramas. We wanted to recreate the Stores and Cinema on Main street in miniature and then animate the townspeople in funny situations to illustrate life back then. You free flow through the space and experience these tableaus in pantomime regards of language. It was partially inspired by the Mechanical Cabaret Automata then popular in Covent Garden, London. I was very disappointed to see no new attractions for Main Street in the second year.
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That's really interesting, here's a video (if anybody is interested),

I guess this attraction would have been an urban Storybook Land Canal Boats, with little characters, but minus the boats.

Might have been too popular as guests probably would have spent a long time looking at stuff, and the line would have stretched down to the castle. One of the reasons why Walt made Pirates a boat ride, instead of just lavishly detailed exhibits, to move guests through relatively quickly. Maybe electric car vehicles through a ride on the scale of Small World, but only the turn of the century, and with a lot Storybook Land Canal Boat detail, only on a slightly larger scale, and inspired by Marc Davis's sense of humor!
 
The MaD Hatter

The MaD Hatter

Well-Known Member
Since the cup thread is locked, I thought I'd let everyone here know that I was at AK yesterday and the regular size Coke cups have been replaced with beautiful Disney Halloween cups. The large size cups are still the red Disney Parks version and the napkins are still brown. I would assume this change has occurred resort-wide. Unfortunately I won't be back until next weekend to confirm this change at other parks.
 
alissafalco

alissafalco

Well-Known Member
I was at MK all day yesterday and everywhere I went you only saw the Red Disney parks cups :) I did not see one coke cup at all! But yes, the brown plain napkins are still around. I will be at HS all day today so I will report back later.
 
Eddie Sotto

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
stevehousse said:
I always wanted to be a Disney imagineer when I was younger! I have so many ideas stored in my brain! Do you know if Disney has ever taken ideas that weren't from with in the company or already employed by Disney?
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They will not look at or hear (neither will I ) outside ideas as they do not want to be sued.
 
Eddie Sotto

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
Pixiedustmaker said:
Awesome.

I finally get this elevated trolley concept after looking at historical photos, and the link Eddie provided. Had no idea they had this sort of thing back then. I think it would work aesthetically if some artistic license was taken and the track pylons were spaced out a bit and the thing didn't look clunky, but kinda fancy in a Mictorian type of way. Not a real big fan of the light green pylons used for the trolley track in Disney Seas—very industrial looking, whereas on BVS I'd want a bit more of a finished/fancy looking elevated track, as if millions were spent making something for a world's fair exhibit.

They could have the trolley go by second-story "apartments" and you could see animatronics reading papers, watching old shows on television or perhaps waving at the trolley. (Of course then we'd have broken effects threads and fans complaining that the "waving lady" above the Candy Store wasn't working all the time.)

Anyway, I can't believe they didn't use this idea for Buena Vista Street. Love Carsland, but BVS sure is quiet at night . . . sort of like a high end shopping district with a mission revival theme that is winding down. An elevated Trolley would sure liven the place up.

DCA has no train around the park, but why not have an elevated trolley station you walk under (similar to Main Street's train station), that travels around BVS, and makes a loop through Hollywood land, maybe even around Paradise Pier too.

The Red Car Trolley is just impractical. Goes too slow, and the windows look too small, making for a claustrophobic experience (haven't ridden it yet, but this is my impression). Would have been great to see BVS from above, but I guess the monorail track was in the way, and they'd have to make sure the sight lines were good from that height.

Wish they'd gone ahead and moved the monorail so it coasts by in front of DCA's entrance. The bridge doesn't work very well, IMHO. Would they ever spends the millions to do this? If they did, they could use the former bridge space to add more square feet of shopping space . . . BVS needs more of an attraction than just the low capacity Red Trolley.
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One thing I may not have mentioned is that as the El Train returned from Discoveryland Station above the MS Discovery arcade, there was to a a diorama of a victorian city of tomorrow that could only be seen out the El train windows. Kind of a transition back to MSUSA. We discussed what could be seen in the upstairs windows too. We did intend to sanitize the EL a bit from what literally exists in NYC and Chicago. It would have industrial touches but be adorable and cute like the Steam Trains that are scaled down. Like a streetcar in the air. Against the facades which have a scale you have to respect the context of that.

DCA has the Red Car as it wants to be true to LA. El's did not exist here. I've ridden it and was pleasantly surprised. It is not practical at all and just adds kinetics, exists for it's own sake, is scaled down and cute, but IMO not cramped as you might expect. Better to have one than not. There are store entrances under the bridge so they did not really give anything up with it. The monorail goes by so fast and seldom, you are not really conscious of it.
 
HMF

HMF

Well-Known Member
Recently got my copy of Poster Art of the Disney Parks. I must say I found the argument depicted in the Gibson Girl poster amusing, Very nice touch. BTW, If you have not heard yet Eddie, they just replaced your custom Main Street Music loop at the Magic Kingdom.
 
Eddie Sotto

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
HMF said:
Recently got my copy of Poster Art of the Disney Parks. I must say I found the argument depicted in the Gibson Girl poster amusing, Very nice touch. BTW, If you have not heard yet Eddie, they just replaced your custom Main Street Music loop at the Magic Kingdom.
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We like to make the story deep, glad you like the poster. I have heard the loop was replaced...c'est la vie! I guess 15 years is a pretty good run!
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
HMF said:
Recently got my copy of Poster Art of the Disney Parks. I must say I found the argument depicted in the Gibson Girl poster amusing, Very nice touch. BTW, If you have not heard yet Eddie, they just replaced your custom Main Street Music loop at the Magic Kingdom.
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I missed this, can you point me in the right direction for this reference?
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Eddie,

One popular topic regarding the MK layout is the trees in the hub at MK. There is lots of talk about how the trees 'seperate' Main Street visually, and how they put some distance between MS and the Castle. From what I see EuroDisneyland has a more open, hub design with no such screening at the end of Main Street. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the MS-Hub-Castle transition as seen visually from Main Street... and how much the different castle designs may have influenced these changes.

Thx!
 
Eddie Sotto

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
The trees in the hub give it it's own park like sense of place. It's an island that wants to relate to the Statue symmetrically. We try to be cautious with trees as if they are too big or dense they mess with the Castle vista. In DLP we had them leafy enough to have a presence but not competitive to the Castle. It creates a false sense of distance and enhances the forced persective. Same was true of Town Square. There is a delicate balance. I think what you have seen out there at DLP is a result of taking the trees out to accommodate viewing for Entertainment.
 
HMF

HMF

Well-Known Member
Another question, Eddie regarding the poster book, I noticed that a completely new Haunted Mansion poster for Tokyo Disneyland was created in 1998. If my memory serves me well You were Creative Lead at TDL at the time. What was the context for re-doing the TDL Haunted Mansion poster at that time if it was indeed your call?
1983
secrets_hmposter_tokyo.jpg


1998
haunted-mansion1.jpg
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Al Lutz spilled the beans and revealed that Disneyland's Main Street, (on the eastside), will be getting an "alley", in that the storage rooms of shops will be demolished, theming will be added, and it will be used as a way to help move guests.

Interesting that there was a similar discussion here a while back about doing such a thing, which has been in the mix for a while.

I must say I really like the alley concept. After watching "So Dear to My Heart", a film that Walt Disney created based in part of his life in small town America, I noticed that Main Street is basically a big block of stores. It would be nice to have some spaces, such as wooden fences and trees, which depicted the more rural/realistic side of such towns. I'm sure it will be a hit with APers, general guests, and of course, more retail space is always a plus, as is detailed theming. It will be interesting to see what the imagineers come up with in terms of a turn of the century alley!

Have also hated how the First Aid center looks, especially with the ventillation pipes painted sky blue and the monotonous facade.

The original train depot from the film is actually today owned by John Lasseter.
 
Eddie Sotto

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
HMF said:
Another question, Eddie regarding the poster book, I noticed that a completely new Haunted Mansion poster for Tokyo Disneyland was created in 1998. If my memory serves me well You were Creative Lead at TDL at the time. What was the context for re-doing the TDL Haunted Mansion poster at that time if it was indeed your call?
1983
secrets_hmposter_tokyo.jpg


1998
haunted-mansion1.jpg
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I was on TDL then and I recall some improvements being made to the HM queue with some big gates, window effects on the facade, and small enhancement stuff like that. I don't recall much about the poster, but they did lots of smaller things that sometimes escaped my purview. I quit in 1999 so it may have been finalized after my time there as it took forever to get things produced and installed.
 

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