fradz
Well-Known Member
I live in Brussels (Belgium). When I see Art Nouveau attempted as a theming, it just kind of reminds me of where I live, not to a fantasy world, but oh well... Same feeling to a lesser extent for Parisians I'm sure
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Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris
- Thread starter Jwhee
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cjkeating
Well-Known Member
This is pure armchair imagineering but based on keeping a very close eye on how things have developed at DLP in the past 10 years I feel like it is grounded in reality.
In Disneyland Park the premise has been "the park is a masterpiece it just needed rebuilding" which they have just about done with a few areas outstanding and long term projects ongoing.
WDSP is the pure opposite "half of the current park is a disaster, half is acceptable but we need capacity and to attract new guests" hence why they are doing massive infrastructure work and expansion in the new second half of the parks footprint to provide capacity and new attractions.
Give it time and with 3 lands around the lake - Frozen, maybe Star Wars and something else - I think they will move to the front of the park. There has been the long rumoured "theatre district" across the front of the park but this always felt a sticking plaster to me when either or both sides of Studio 1 (and Studio 1 itself...) could be repurposed into something much more cohesive and modern Disney quality. But you can't do that until you have enough capacity in the rest of the park.
And that leads me to the point I intended to make... that Walt Disney Studios Park has no need to be called that in the future. How about Disney+ Park
In Disneyland Park the premise has been "the park is a masterpiece it just needed rebuilding" which they have just about done with a few areas outstanding and long term projects ongoing.
WDSP is the pure opposite "half of the current park is a disaster, half is acceptable but we need capacity and to attract new guests" hence why they are doing massive infrastructure work and expansion in the new second half of the parks footprint to provide capacity and new attractions.
Give it time and with 3 lands around the lake - Frozen, maybe Star Wars and something else - I think they will move to the front of the park. There has been the long rumoured "theatre district" across the front of the park but this always felt a sticking plaster to me when either or both sides of Studio 1 (and Studio 1 itself...) could be repurposed into something much more cohesive and modern Disney quality. But you can't do that until you have enough capacity in the rest of the park.
And that leads me to the point I intended to make... that Walt Disney Studios Park has no need to be called that in the future. How about Disney+ Park
Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
Yes, Brussels has beautiful examples of art nouveau and very much enjoyed a few visits to the Horta Museum over the years! Where I live now in The Hague doesn't have quite as much, but still quite a lot which does enrich the urban landscape and give the city a change from the usual Dutch architecture.
I don't dislike art nouveau as such, I just find it more of a passing style of design very much rooted in a particular moment in history that doesn't translate well to reproduction in the present unless, I guess, you are trying to replicate a specific time and place. When they just use it as a general design style for no particular story reason as at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and as they seem to be doing for the new WDS character restaurant, it just calls too much attention to itself for my liking. It's a little overwhelming as a style it its use of ornamentation, which is also why I think it fizzled out so quickly.
IMDREW
Well-Known Member
I also live in The Hague!
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Again, Art Nouveau is exotic/European for the American design team, which may explain in part why they're so enamored with it.
But that doesn't work for a European audience in the same way. The reason why Euro Disney Resort leaned so heavily on Americana (in particular, the American West) was it was more unique and unusual to those guests, especially at a time when fewer of them would have made the trip across the Atlantic.
Perhaps it was too much Americana, but it understood the Disney theme park identity and how that made it different from other amusement parks elsewhere in the continent. An imitation of Tivoli is going to look more obvious to DLP visitors.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Art Nouveau was part of the growing reactions to the formalization of art and design. In architecture this reaction was against the École de Beaux-Arts, the most prestigious architecture school in the Western world which defined architectural education and the high styles of its day. Art Nouveau is appealing for a themed environment that lacks definition because it is not as ornamented as high Victorian era design but still more ornamented than full on High Modernism. Its allure is as a seemingly easy slightly organic style. You can add some plant-like curves and ornament and you have instant discount Art Nouveau (see the International Gateway Skyliner Station).
Stevie Amsterdam
Well-Known Member
I think we all experience that to a certain extend. When people visit Amsterdam they rave about the architecture of the canal houses. How quaint and cute they are. Taking millions of pictures. To me, it’s a street that gets me from A to B (and preferably I avoid them cause they are so tourist packed
).
Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
The curious aspect of this for me is that I generally think Disney has done Arts and Crafts well in their theme park and resort settings and it has made for appealing environments, whereas I really don't have the same reaction to their attempts art Art Nouveau. It's also very appealing to visit cities like Vienna and Brussels with impressive examples of Art Nouveau and a couple of weeks ago I also visited the Quinta Gameros in Chihuahua, Mexico which is basically a museum of imported Art Nouveau style by the pre-Mexican Revolution elite. I'm not sure, however, it seems like an appealing style nowadays in which to design and furnish a home and in which to live. I'm not sure if this makes it more jarring when it's imported out-of-context to a theme park environment.
While they have the same roots, I wonder whether Arts and Crafts as a style (with several iterations) has just managed to remain broadly aesthetically pleasing for longer and easier to translate for new environments and even times than Art Nouveau. People also still really do seek out Arts and Crafts home and design and want to live surrounded by it. Art Nouveau did fizzle out pretty quickly, and my reading of early modernists and even functionalists is some respect for William Morris but absolute horror at all the curves, flowers, and peacocks of Art Nouveau!
Again, I hope not to have derailed this thread too much on what may just be a question of personal taste!
Huh, really?! I thought I was the only one! Maybe we'll have to arrange a Benelux WDWMagic meeting!
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Door Coaster
Well-Known Member
Meanwhile at Disneyland Parc...
www.themeparx.com
For those not interested in clicking the link: Hagrid's-style Disney Villains coaster (and mini land) over by Discoveryland for 2028.
Disneyland Paris expansion
Construction progress on Disneyland Paris expansion, Marne-la-Vallée, France. Daily updates from theme park construction sites worldwide!
www.themeparx.com
Stevie Amsterdam
Well-Known Member
I would be up for that! I’m traveling to WDW next Sunday so any time after that
fradz
Well-Known Member
Good point about the fact that some styles translated better in the parks and have held up better. Also I’m going to The Hague and A’dam tomorrow
small world. And next weekend back to DLP
cjkeating
Well-Known Member
What is arts and crafts? Where have Disney done that?
Arts and Crafts movement - Wikipedia
Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
Just to add to @MisterPenguin's post, probably the most substantial example of Arts & Crafts design at the Disney resorts is the Grand Californian at Disneyland. I would think Sequoia Resort at Disneyland Paris is also to some extent inspired by Arts and Crafts, though its take is also very clearly inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
cookiee_munster
Well-Known Member
This is something that's been on my mind since the painfully slow rebranding of Holywood Studios. Both parks are now embracing the different Studios they have under the Disney+ brand, surely there should be some kind of cohesion between that and each of that parks? I think in general, I'd just settle if they were named Disney Studios Paris & Disney Studios Florida. Because they are still technically "studios" that are all part of the Disney brand now. Florida just needs to drop the "Hollywood" and I'll be happy.And that leads me to the point I intended to make... that Walt Disney Studios Park has no need to be called that in the future. How about Disney+ Park
SplashJacket
Well-Known Member
I like the convenient crop that obscures the interesting part of the project.