HKDL gets new castle, frozen land and marvel land.

montydysquith-navarro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
A glimpse on the PhilharMagic seating arrangement with physical distancing. Also since when did Tim Sypko relocate to HK?


This shows exactly what I feared about the new castle (unless Reuters post-processed the video footage to death).
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HKDLer

Well-Known Member
Some better pics of the castle. These appear closer to the real thing, still a mess though. I like that they used the beige paint to blend in with Main Street but that doesn’t change the fact that the new structure being too imposing. Yes it’s now the same height as DLP castle but has the wrong scale and different architectural language.
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Source: HK01

Backside of the castle
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616.1314

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Some better pics of the castle. These appear closer to the real thing, still a mess though.
View attachment 477131View attachment 477132View attachment 477133
Source: HK01
I like the new roofs - so detailedly done with different shades and gradients of colours
The new brick walls also look fine to me, and amazed by their speed - I think they have changed the colour of the bricks of the entire Fantasyland already (?)
But the I think the walls of the middle structure (the tall slender part) is a bit too "yellowish"...
I think it will look better if it's whiter

Edit: Oh and I actually think the back of the castle looks grander than the front :0
 
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HKDLer

Well-Known Member
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So no more Vikings style boat? Maybe the imagineer thinks the stem post is blocking the view?
Also, the Orlando’s version has bumper at the base of the boat while the hkdl’s version has those rubber bumper on the body of the boat, which is kind of an eyesore. Hopefully there is a strong reason for that. (To accommodate for a steeper drop?)
Since it’s so different to Shanghai potc and the traditional small world boats, I’m wondering if they’re introducing the ‘capturepult’ mechanism to the ride system. It seems that some big wheels will be attached to the bottom of the boat.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
I just think it's far too overwhelming.

That castle looks like an incoherent mess of towers, turrets, domes, and roofs of different styles and colours all piled on top of each other. I feel if you stripped away some of that mess, leaving the original castle and the main building and tower at the back you might have actually have a decent, somewhat majestic structure.

Hopefully it looks better in person, but, gee, Disney has become very bad at designing castles lately.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I just think it's far too overwhelming.

That castle looks like an incoherent mess of towers, turrets, domes, and roofs of different styles and colours all piled on top of each other. I feel if you stripped away some of that mess, leaving the original castle and the main building and tower at the back you might have actually have a decent, somewhat majestic structure.

Hopefully it looks better in person, but, gee, Disney has become very bad at designing castles lately.
All held up by those itty bitty columns. The whole thing is like a McMansion. Random styles and ornaments thrown together with no concerns for proportion, scale or restraint.
 

montydysquith-navarro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Hopefully it looks better in person, but, gee, Disney has become very bad at designing castles lately.
Same thoughts here. The newest ones have a lot of issues. Despite its boxiness, Shanghai's castle at least has a nice color scheme with the reds and blues. Hong Kong's castle, on the other hand, seems to be a last-minute job that they forgot to do before the presentation and they just slapped together a bunch of new towers on the existing castle, changed the finials, painted it with a different (horrendous) color scheme, and that's it.

Funny enough, one of the designers for Hong Kong's new castle was also the designer of Shanghai's castle: Doug Rogers.
 

SpectroMan93

Well-Known Member
I really, really like the new castle. It's not my favorite (see: Paris), but I really do like it much more than the original.

I don't know anything about architecture, though, so my opinion may not be worth much.;)

Count me in the minority with you lol. I think the pastel colors look nice and the architecture is a fun departure from the other castles. It does feel a bit fake-looking, but overall I'm a fan. Happy that Hong Kong has an original castle finally.
 

616.1314

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
The new castle isn't THAT bad to me
Maybe because I have lowered my expectations after seeing the second concept art
(The first concept art looked quite decent, but once they changed to colour scheme to yellow in the second version it looked tedious)
The final product they are currently producing is already WAY above my anticipation
Sure, it's not the best castle Disney has ever created, but at least it's much better than Shanghai's
And it's also prettier than Paris' in my opinion

It might have been better if they had torn down the old parts and built an entirely new structure
But I guess Disney does not want to demolish SBC as if they are admitting that they have made a mistake in HKDL(?)
Plus SHDL's castle is also wholly original, but it sucks - so who knows?
All in all, I'm definitely content with the castle and looking forward to Arendelle
 

ParkPeeker

Well-Known Member
I can’t make up my mind about this. I’m close to really liking it but I look back at it constantly and it’s like goodness what the hell is that thing, then I look back and go wow that’s a fun thing to look at. It smacks you right in the face like bam.

I keep thinking I would have preferred to at least have the colors very uniform. But then I go damn this one is so interesting. Uniform long wall of brownish bricks, then bam a heavily layered structure right in the middle. It’s colorful and chaotic, but in a way that somehow works for me. Something about it pleases something in me and I can’t stop looking at it.
 

DDLand

Well-Known Member
This is interesting. I’d say the top third of the castle is strong.
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Some of the elements are out of scale. It’s odd, but forgivable. I’d say this is the literal and figurative high point of the castle. It’s problematic down below...
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Here the castle is weaker. Look at the weird supports where the red arrow points. What’s up with those? In the same area you have what looks like a giant pedestal. That’s funky too. Then check out the blue arrow. That’s supposed to be a small station for archers/crossbowmen. Defenders can hide under cover inside of that while returning enemy fire. That little tower should be tall enough for a person to fit inside. Compare its minuscule size to the rest of the castle. The rest of the castle is relatively massive next to that station. The castle would have to soar hundreds of feet more in the air to have that properly scale. It betrays an important point- it’s only a decoration. A decorative element. This is not the most offensive element though.
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Up until this point, I don’t think the castle was bad. In fact, I think it would largely be fine. It’s this section of the castle that is wacky. Look at all the busyness. It’s weird. Notice how few windows there are. It’s almost fortress like. How did this castle get built? It’s almost like a castle cityscape. Tower on tower. There was no coherent plan. It’s meant to look wacky. Compare a similar section of the Magic Kingdom’s castle:
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Excuse its transformation to “rose gold.” See the relative restraint. Instead of contrasting styles and scales, it’s all totally harmonious. It feels like one unit that was designed together.

Look at this image of the full castle:
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I think top section is largely inoffensive. It’s the bottom half that really is odd. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is a wonderful icon, but just does not work in this context. Lowest chunk of dark stone terminates too early. It makes the top tower feel like a skyscraper. Then the coloring is odd too.

Look at the castle in profile:
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I called the castle a monument, and I think that sums it up. This is not a real castle. This is a monumental structure with castle flourishes. Essentially it’s a large movie projector screen for nighttime spectaculars. This epitomizes a missed opportunity...
 

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