SteveAZee
Premium Member
Here's a guidebook from 1983 showing Diamond Horseshoe in Frontierland.
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News Tomorrowland love
- Thread starter marni1971
- Start date
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Why is Tricorner Hats, an obvious Revolutionary named shop, further 'West' than Diamond Horseshoe, and selling "Western hats"?
The whole Liberty Square to Frontierland theme has always been a mess. A Mississippi river boat that goes through Arizona and is part of and docked in Liberty Square next to a gothic New England attraction that sometimes has M&G characters with a deep Southern drawl. Diamond Horseshoe going back and forth between Liberty Square and Frontierland. And the constant confusion of Southern with Old West. Not to mention the usual theme park schtick in which the wares of a shop have nothing to do with the theme of its land or facade (cf. Christmas shop in Liberty Square).
owlsandcoffee
Well-Known Member
I've felt for a while that it's more effective in a sort of dream-logic sense. There are some things that need ironed out, of course. I want them to bring back the silversmith darnit
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Yes please!
It may not look it, but the MK has changed in character as much as EPCOT.
In its first decades Liberty Square's shops were a silversmith, a perfumerie, an antique's shop, a historical artefacts shop...
All in stylish period setting.
Very different wares for a completely different audience.
Movielover
Well-Known Member
Yeah that transition has always felt very muddled to me, mainly because there is no portal or gateway like the other lands. We just mingle from Liberty to Frontier. Maybe if the whole Western River Expedition expansion had actually happened there would be more indication of a change, or at least the main area of Frontierland would have more of a backdrop than it does now.
_caleb
Well-Known Member
I’d be okay with a less-defined transition, but not the jarring, back-and-forth sort of thing. I’ve said it before, but Disneyland—eve despite its small size and cramped quarters—does a really good job with thematic transitions. MK, on the other hand, typically tries to just use space and landscaping to segue from one theme to another. The Liberty Square/Frontierland edge would have been a great place for a DL-style transition, but they used the WDW technique even though they didn’t have the space.
Tomorrowland, however, is a different story. They treat it like the entire land has one single theme. But it doesn’t, it mixes sci-fi, fantasy, futurism, retro-futurism, and whatever the Light & Power building is. And who knows how the Speedway is supposed to fit into all of it.
Tomorrowland, however, is a different story. They treat it like the entire land has one single theme. But it doesn’t, it mixes sci-fi, fantasy, futurism, retro-futurism, and whatever the Light & Power building is. And who knows how the Speedway is supposed to fit into all of it.
It used to. Now it’s just a mess.
trainplane3
Well-Known Member
Any chance of the land getting consistent theming or are we going to be stuck with the even worse mess now?
Side note, this thing is getting refurbished. Would be a good time to make it fit with the retro theme...but what would I know:
Or it's just concrete replacement...
Movielover
Well-Known Member
That and the other muddled transition of the park, the Tomorrowland to Fantasyland area is just the 2 lands mashed together. As much as I like car rides and think they are great fun for kids who can not drive a Tokyo Disneyland makeover of that area would do wonders.
_caleb
Well-Known Member
True. I’ve followed this thread since you started with with an announcement that some changes were coming. Indeed some did, but we all saw what became of that. I’m still holding out hope for a return to the consistent, well-themed Tomorrowland I know is possible!
Yeah—and Cosmic Ray’s looking out on the Mad Tea Party tent is a strange transition there too, isn’t it?
_caleb
Well-Known Member
I became fascinated with thematic transitions back in 2012 when I read this post about Disneyland’s Awkward Transitions at Passport2Dreams. Since then, I notice the transitions all around the parks.
I agree that DPL is really well done. To me, it’s because the entire park has it’s own overall “park-like“ design language that serves as an intermediate. So instead of “Tomorrowland —> Fantasyland,” it’s “Discoveryland —> DLP park —> Fantasyland.”
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
I also think flipping Frontierland and Adventureland was a great idea. You get that tie in with Main Street, USA of where we came from and where we hope to go that is told through the arcades. The story of exploration still connects Frontierland and Adventureland, while fantastic adventures connects Fantasyland and Adventureland with a sort of pirate mini-land that bleeds across the two.
If only someone could create a video of that park that I could watch and re-visit those lands...
My memories of the specific transition is a bit fuzzy, unfortunately. Those were the first lands we visited and I was very jetlagged.
Indeed. If it was jarring on first visit. It feels normal now. Also the sub lands in each land are fantastically designed and blended. Frontierland has... 2? Adventureland 4? IIRC
Just imagine
and to think at first I wasn’t going to release that one
owlsandcoffee
Well-Known Member
And the transition won't be made any better by the Tron building (not to get off topic, there's a whole other thread for that). Neither the Canopy nor the show building are themed in any way to fit into Fantasyland. It's like putting Space Mountain in New Orleans Square.