EE Pictures - Explanation

[mrmickeymouse]

whats WRE?

 

[raven]

Originally posted by PeterAlt
My understanding of the fate of the Beastly Kingdom is that the Imagineers who designed it were either laid off or quit. In any case, they found employment with Universal and designed Dueling Dragons for Islands of Adventure.

With so many people trying to get into Imagineering, who would quit? Certainly not me! And for every single one of them to find employment with Universal? If DD was at all suposed to be like what was planned for BK, Disney would have sued their butts off. All sounds like a myth to me.

 

[PeterAlt]

Originally posted by mrmickeymouse
whats WRE?

WRE is Western River Expedition, a ride that was supposed to be soooo much better than Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, it was planned to be built instead of PotC. But when WDW guests in the early 70's complained that there was no PotC at Walt Disney World, Disney decided to build the east coast version of Pirates instead of WRE. WRE would have been themed to the old wild west. Instead of Pirates versus Spaniards, WRE would have been about Cowboys versus Indians, and the like.

Here's a link to Jim Hill's TEN (yes, 10)-part article on this never-built Magic Kingdom attraction...

http://jimhillmedia.com/articles/archive.0003-1.1.htm

 

[PeterAlt]

Originally posted by raven
With so many people trying to get into Imagineering, who would quit? Certainly not me! And for every single one of them to find employment with Universal? If DD was at all suposed to be like what was planned for BK, Disney would have sued their butts off. All sounds like a myth to me.

I just re-read Jim Hill's article. They didn't quit. They were laid off because they were originally hired to design Disneyland Paris. After work was completed on Paris's Magic Kingdom, they were assigned to DAK. But Disney had too many Imagineers, as a result of the mad rush of hiring Imagineers to get Paris done. So, they had to fire them. Universal picked them up.

 

[CTXRover]

Originally posted by Bill
See, if you want to blame somethin for the problem, blame Festival of the Lion King... it was only going to be a temporary show. Then they would get rid of Camp Minnie-Mickey and build Beastlie Kingdome. (Yes, that is the correct spelling) But due to the success of Festival of the Lion King, it looks like we'll never see Beastlie Kingdome in it's original form. Which is really sad. However, with a little work, you could incorporate character greeting areas and Festival of the Lion King into Beastlie Kingdome.

Actually, Camp Minnie-Mickey was designed, in theme, to fit as a gateway to Beastly Kingdom. According to the Making of AK book, during the construction of AK, but after BK had been postponed to phase 2 of the park building, Imagineers realized that they had nowhere for the Disney characters to call home. They felt it would be akward to have the characters like Mickey, Minnie and Donald roaming the streets of Dinoland, Africa and Asia (although now with Disney's response to guest requests of more characters, certain Disney characters can no be seen in these lands....go figure). So Imagineers developed the idea of a land just for the characters, but this raised the question of where to build such a land so they consulted the master plans they had set up for for AK (which, by the way, does not include any type of Mountain in Asia so things are always changing).

After this, they settled on the area over by the proposed BK area of the park and chose an Adirondack themed retreat which they felt would fit perfectly as a transition from the then called Safari Village (now Discovery Island) to Beastly Kingdom. So in all reality, Camp MM was designed to always remain as part of the park and not meant to be torn out or replaced once BK started to be built. I really don't think that the overwhelming success of The Lion King show has stopped the ambitious plans for BK. There is a lot of cleared land to the North (?) of Camp MM that could serve as the site for BK.

 

[Pixie Duster]

No the Monsters Inc 'Abominabl' is not going to be used.
Festival of the Lion King is not to blame it can be moved to Africa if the need arises.
Once again AK is only 5 years old, there is a lot of land still available kids, a place like Beastly would do much for a revamp. Had it opened as part of Phase I then it would just have been part of the Grand Opening hype, but if we do get Beastly it will revitalize AK.

 

[raven]

Originally posted by PeterAlt
I just re-read Jim Hill's article. They didn't quit. They were laid off because they were originally hired to design Disneyland Paris. After work was completed on Paris's Magic Kingdom, they were assigned to DAK. But Disney had too many Imagineers, as a result of the mad rush of hiring Imagineers to get Paris done. So, they had to fire them. Universal picked them up.

Who is Jim Hill and why hasn't he posted here before? if there is any truth to it, why couldn't they have used them for another project? Another smooth move by Eisner I'm sure.

 

[PeterAlt]

Originally posted by raven
Who is Jim Hill and why hasn't he posted here before? if there is any truth to it, why couldn't they have used them for another project? Another smooth move by Eisner I'm sure.

Jim Hill is a regular Disney fan like you and I. He is also a writer. So, he writes a lot about Disney. He claims to have connections within the company, which is where he presumably gets his information. He now has his own website, where he and guest writers publish Disney-related stories.

Check his site out... jimhillmedia.com

 

[Lee]

Trust me, it is not at all uncommon for WDI to have layoffs following a period of heavy activity. When they are going into a period of big expansion, they hire extra people. When the work is done, and they have excess personel, it's layoff time.
Happens in every business, not just at Disney.

As for Dueling Dragons, the only similarity between it and Dragon's Tower (or Dragon's Keep, Dare the Dragon, whatever) at BK is the fact that it involves dragons. Different story, different ride, etc.