Tokyo Disneyland Resort Expansion

RandySavage

Well-Known Member
This isn't really related to Tokyo, but if you like WDI concept design, check out this art-filled thread on the stalled Fushun Dreamworld park: https://www.themeparx.com/hotgo-dreamworld/.

The Chinese developer visited Disney's US parks and insisted that they be copied and improved upon. Dutifully, Legacy hired a host of WDI artistic Greats (that Disney was crazy to let go) like John Horneey, Jim Michaelson, Christopher Smith, Scott Sherman and Don Carson - all of whose work helped shape Disney's best parks - and the result - on paper - is an IP-less take on a Disneyland. Be sure to read the blurbs on each attraction - how they wanted to amp up a particular Disney concept like Grizzly River Run or Space Mountain.

I posted here because I thought of the challenges facing TDS when looking at their concept for an in-park Fantasy-themed Hotel:
Fushun-Hotgo-Theme-Park-Design-Hotel-6.jpg


The art looks much better than how the real thing came out.
 

LittleMerman

Well-Known Member
This isn't really related to Tokyo, but if you like WDI concept design, check out this art-filled thread on the stalled Fushun Dreamworld park: https://www.themeparx.com/hotgo-dreamworld/.

The Chinese developer visited Disney's US parks and insisted that they be copied and improved upon. Dutifully, Legacy hired a host of WDI artistic Greats (that Disney was crazy to let go) like John Horneey, Jim Michaelson, Christopher Smith, Scott Sherman and Don Carson - all of whose work helped shape Disney's best parks - and the result - on paper - is an IP-less take on a Disneyland. Be sure to read the blurbs on each attraction - how they wanted to amp up a particular Disney concept like Grizzly River Run or Space Mountain.

I posted here because I thought of the challenges facing TDS when looking at their concept for an in-park Fantasy-themed Hotel:
Fushun-Hotgo-Theme-Park-Design-Hotel-6.jpg


The art looks much better than how the real thing came out.
There's some amazing concept art and really cool ideas here! This is just a concept project right? They don't intend to build? I see the castle hotel but wouldn't the attractions bc copyright infringement?
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
There's some amazing concept art and really cool ideas here! This is just a concept project right? They don't intend to build? I see the castle hotel but wouldn't the attractions bc copyright infringement?
Intellectual property rights are for specific works and ideas, not general concepts. You can buy a flying theater from the manufacturer who built Disney’s patented ride system for Soarin’ because it is different enough in how it works.

It’s also China where there is less concern about such things.
 

LittleMerman

Well-Known Member
Intellectual property rights are for specific works and ideas, not general concepts. You can buy a flying theater from the manufacturer who built Disney’s patented ride system for Soarin’ because it is different enough in how it works.

It’s also China where there is less concern about such things.
Of course you can have similiar concepts, all theme parks do. But some of these ideas go a little further than that and seem like blatant rip offs lol. I'm sure there are ways around things but geeze.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
The concept for that Around The World ride looks amazing -- like a significantly better version of Soarin' Around the World. It looks like the kind of ride I'd want to ride multiple times in a day.
 

RandySavage

Well-Known Member
There's some amazing concept art and really cool ideas here! This is just a concept project right? They don't intend to build? I see the castle hotel but wouldn't the attractions bc copyright infringement?
The Space Mountain copy, "Alien Taxi" looks awesome in the art and is pretty far off from SM - looks like a perfect fit for Tokyo Disneyland's cancelled SciFi City.
FEH5aKf.jpg


Their take on Grizzly River Run with lots of sight gags looks pretty cool:
mh4Zt7f.jpeg


They started building and then the project was halted. You can see very interesting pics of the half-finished Main Street with its 80 Days showbuilding throughout that themeparx thread linked above.

There also seems to be a much larger drop-off in quality from the former Imagineers' concepts to what was actually constructed (i.e., the hotel looks pretty bad in real life). Makes me think of the rumored issues WDI had with SDL Chinese contractors not actually building to the specs and having to re-start certain aspects, costing hundreds of millions. It makes one appreciate the many people and steps between a concept illustration and a final product that separate great from good from bad.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
There also seems to be a much larger drop-off in quality from the former Imagineers' concepts to what was actually constructed (i.e., the hotel looks pretty bad in real life). Makes me think of the rumored issues WDI had with SDL Chinese contractors not actually building to the specs and having to re-start certain aspects, costing hundreds of millions. It makes one appreciate the many people and steps between a concept illustration and a final product that separate great from good from bad.
Not to continue this tangent too much, but building in China requires engaging an LDI (local design institute), the local state-owned licensed architecture firm. While having to use a local architect of record is not unusual in the world (if you check the starchitect designed hotels for Disney you won’t find a stamp reading Robert Stern or Michael Graves), the LDIs were apparently one of the more recently areas of the economy to be liberalized. Previously and still some extent enjoying a local monopoly the quality of work can and often range from just copying incomplete schematic or design development drawings to odd changes for opaque reasons of “building safety” and even “national security” as most developments include bomb shelters.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
This isn't really related to Tokyo, but if you like WDI concept design, check out this art-filled thread on the stalled Fushun Dreamworld park: https://www.themeparx.com/hotgo-dreamworld/.

The Chinese developer visited Disney's US parks and insisted that they be copied and improved upon. Dutifully, Legacy hired a host of WDI artistic Greats (that Disney was crazy to let go) like John Horneey, Jim Michaelson, Christopher Smith, Scott Sherman and Don Carson - all of whose work helped shape Disney's best parks - and the result - on paper - is an IP-less take on a Disneyland. Be sure to read the blurbs on each attraction - how they wanted to amp up a particular Disney concept like Grizzly River Run or Space Mountain.

I posted here because I thought of the challenges facing TDS when looking at their concept for an in-park Fantasy-themed Hotel:
Fushun-Hotgo-Theme-Park-Design-Hotel-6.jpg


The art looks much better than how the real thing came out.

I think WDI needs to stay in some of the old Canadian Fairmonts. The art of making a castle-like hotel can be learnt from a few.
 

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
I think WDI needs to stay in some of the old Canadian Fairmonts. The art of making a castle-like hotel can be learnt from a few.
I’m always surprised Disney never built a chateau hotel, maybe on the Venetian site at sev seas lagoon. Although if it were built now it would probably be more like the excalibur in Las Vegas than the chateau frontenac in qubec!
 

denyuntilcaught

Well-Known Member
There also seems to be a much larger drop-off in quality from the former Imagineers' concepts to what was actually constructed (i.e., the hotel looks pretty bad in real life). Makes me think of the rumored issues WDI had with SDL Chinese contractors not actually building to the specs and having to re-start certain aspects, costing hundreds of millions. It makes one appreciate the many people and steps between a concept illustration and a final product that separate great from good from bad.

Rest assured, those were more than just rumored issues. The re-doing of efforts due to the cheap building of Chinese contractors was indeed very much one of the largest issues they faced in building SDL.
 

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