Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris

[IMDREW]

Stylistically having many trees within a restaurant looks very nice. I could see this in a modern restaurant in Disney Village or even Epcot & Sequoia Lodge. Though thematically I still don't get the connection between the theatre facades and entering an area with lots of trees behind. But hey, it's WDS after all.

When TWDC did the overhaul for DCA they had a little preview center laying out the transformation of the park, showcasing what was about to come and explaining the story behind it. Like explaining how Buena Vista Street is reflecting the California of the 1920s when Walt Disney first arrived there. The original announcement for the WDS expansion is now five years ago, some of the original plans have changed and the famous artwork is outdated. I think it would be nice to have something for WDS where they would share an updated overall plan - showcasing how the park will look like after the completion of this expansion phase and how the new story/theme of each area and the whole park fits together. Of course, this means assuming that they actually thought about this in the process.

Hard to see any “thought” they put in so far, but Im just hoping it’s because I don’t have the full picture. Though them not showing any plans like that for such a massive overhaul of a park makes one wonder.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

There won't be trees behind facades, that wouldn't make any sense... The cheap current restaurant facades will be removed and the current dining area will be similar to Sunshine Seasons at The Land pavilion in Epcot as far as the configuration is concerned. There will also be some kind of divider between the dining area and the main alley. The mezzanine will stay.

There are multiple reasons behind the lack of any "blue sky cellar", this project is far more complicated than DCA's expansion plan. The focus isn't to provide some much needed placemaking, but rather expanding the current footprint of the park with 3 entirely new lands built from scratch + a freaking NEW lake ! The plans are more likeley to change from one year to another, and oh boy did they change overtime... The budget dedicated to the placemaking of this park is unfortunately secondary. There are plans to rename Front Lot into "Hyperion Studios" or "Walt Disney Plaza" (the initial name of BVS) and Production Courtyard into "Theater District" but those budgets solely depend on "what's left". The Hyperion Studios would necessitate the removal of the Fantasia fountain and the Ear-ffel Tower to fit the time period of the 1920s, whereas Toon Studio would have to be entirely rethemed to fit the 1950's era of Theater District.

In the best case scenario, Front Lot will get a vintage overlay with old posters, the Storytellers statue, old cars and the famous neon signage from the early decades of the WDC along with the removal of the Earfel Tower and the Fantasia statue. But they will probably use this overhaul of Front Lot to pay tribute to the 100 years of the company and thus have some references to both Burbank and Hyperion studios. They haven't took their final decision on this part yet, except for the Studio 1 case.

Why on earth would they remove the Earful Tower?

 

[LondonTom]

One thing I do wonder is whether it will become a bit of a bottleneck as the park becomes more popular. It's kind of the anti-Disneyland Parc entrance where you have not only Main Street USA, but the arcades on both sides to keep people moving at all times.

Just take that MSUSA idea and open up the sides of Studio 1 as a guest path. (The left side is already used as an exit sometimes? I know I've gone out that way a few times )

 

[mrflo]

The Hyperion Studios would necessitate the removal of the Fantasia fountain and the Ear-ffel Tower to fit the time period of the 1920s, whereas Toon Studio would have to be entirely rethemed to fit the 1950's era of Theater District.

Thank you for sharing all the additional information, Moon Knight. I still think it would be nice for DLP to share an updated vision & concept of the WDS at some point. This could help to make sense of what currently can came across as a random selection of IPs and styles. But maybe that is just what it is and the focus is more on adding marketable IP-based infrastructure than building an overarching story & theme.

I hope the entrance will pay homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s & 1940s rather than the 1920s. The famous Water Tower at Warner Bros. was already built at that point (1927) and Fantasia was released in 1940. So they could definitely save that money and put it into areas that need it more. Updating the Production Courtyard to the 1950's sounds like a fun idea. But I personally would prefer if they expanded the 1930s/1940s theme to better align with the ToT area.

 

[IMDREW]

Another budget cut project. I take it the mickey theme for studio 1 has also been rejected?

 

[mrflo]

A few clarifications for our fellow french forumers who seemingly misinterpreted my posts :
* There WILL be artificial trees in the dining location of Studio 1, I haven't stated otherwise, though they won't be put behind fake facades since those will be taken down soon...

* The removal of the Fantasia Fountain and the Earffel Tower doesn't seem to be on the table anymore, we're heading towards a relatively light reskin of Front Lot with some visual touch-ups (e.g. new vintage logo of the company on the water tower, the neon sign, themed food carts and some minor props). I've edited my previous post that was poorly written .

Thank you for the additional clarification. I am glad the Front Lot will just get some tweaks and they will save the money for other areas that actually need it.

For Studio 1 it sounds like this will open up and modernise the restaurant side of the building. The theatre facades that you mentioned would then be used as a backdrop if they are not directly replacing the current ones? It does not seem like these changes will do much - if anything at all - to improve the guest flow.

 

[marni1971]

To be honest the front lot was one of the better 2002 areas.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

To be honest the front lot was one of the better 2002 areas.

Yes, I honestly wouldn't be too concerned if they more or less left it as is.

The one thing they probably should do is rename the 'Studio Photo' store as we went in there to see what it was this last trip and found a very lonely CM in a shop filled with Spiderman merchandise!

 

[Animaniac93-98]

It does not seem like these changes will do much - if anything at all - to improve the guest flow.

No, but it should make it look a little nicer.

 

[LondonTom]

Yeah Front Lot does what it does really well, doesn't really need any changes more than the mentioned tweaks. Especially if Studio 1 is pretty much staying as it is. Good to see it getting some TLC and an older logo on the earffel tower seems like a fantastic idea.

 

[mrflo]

Let's just say they had really bad ideas for this park in 2019...

Do you know which team is currently in charge of the WDS expansion? Is this the local Paris' Imagineering team with a final sign-off from the headquarters in California?

We should have a petition for WDI to re-hire Tony Baxter as a creative consultant or lead to safeguard and sign-off on any DLP expansion. #DLPbringbackbaxter

 

[dreamersnight]

Is Lion King land planned as part of the 35th anniversary in 2027?

 

[fradz]

Is Lion King land planned as part of the 35th anniversary in 2027?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. What I can tell you is that Star Wars is 99.9% dead. For the rest, be a bit patient.

 

[Moon knight]

History is about to repeat itself...

 

[cjkeating]

To make it simple, WDI dictates, orders, provides graphical references, specifications, scripts and WDIP must translate the scripts and adapt the WDI requests according to French and European standards, adapting the scenarios, choosing the right materials, checking that the show or attraction is suitable for the European audience.

New French 20s who have recently entered the job market have joined the new Parisian teams responsible for the projects of Cars Road Trip, The Art of Marvel and the Avengers campus. The rest of the extension has, I'm told, allowed Parisian imagineers to have more creative freedom.

WDIP in its current configuration is relatively new as their recently inaugurated building. New jobs occupied by old Americans like Jim Shull have been replaced by more competent young people since the pandemic.. .

I certainly have more confidence in WDIP to do the best with what they are given than WDI in Florida.

 

[marni1971]

History is about to repeat itself...

At least in Paris it’s a little more intuitive.

 

[mrflo]

New French 20s who have recently entered the job market have joined the new Parisian teams responsible for the projects of Cars Road Trip, The Art of Marvel and the Avengers campus. The rest of the extension has, I'm told, allowed Parisian imagineers to have more creative freedom.

WDIP in its current configuration is relatively new as their recently inaugurated building. New jobs occupied by old Americans like Jim Shull have been replaced by more competent young people since the pandemic.. .

It's great to see young new talent joining WDIP. I hope they will get many opportunities to bring the magic to DLP and will raise WDIP to the same high standard that we already have from the superb Paris' show/entertainment team. Cars Road Trip & Avenger's campus might not be good examples for WDIP raising the bar - even considering budget cuts. But I am still hopeful and rooting for them for what is about to come.

To me many of those "old Americans" like Tony Baxter or Joe Rohde have created a gold standard of what theme park design looks like. Without them we would not have some of the best Disney parks & attractions in the world. So the fact that many old Imagineers have been replaced by competent young people does not necessarily only mean a win. I don't want to go too much into the overall discussions about how WDI has now shifted their leadership and talent to people from big architecture & design companies like Gensler. We can already see the outcome in many of those very generic looking new hotel expansions in WDW & DL. Those projects might be lead and executed by many competent talents in their field and would be considered a success in places like Las Vegas or some modern shopping malls. But I don't think that is the right thing for Disney.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Those "old Americans" in EDLI were no Tony Baxter nor Joe Rohde... Some had serious problems with alcoholism and were wrecked all day long... DLP dismissed them weeks before the 2020 lockdown.

Well, that is a little shocking, but overall I have the impression that the "old Americans" like Baxter and Rohde are more or less long gone from WDI so I wouldn't be too concerned about a new generation coming up in France whose training ground is what that previous generation left behind in Disneyland Parc. The current leaders in the US don't even seem to know how to create period-appropriate signs and graphics for themed environments anymore.

 

[JakeDLP]

I'm confused about the trees in the dining area but not behind the theatre facades? Will they serve as more of a backdrop? I'm curious how all this works with the mezzanine and serving kiosks

 

[mrflo]

Those "old Americans" in EDLI were no Tony Baxter nor Joe Rohde... Some had serious problems with alcoholism and were wrecked all day long... DLP dismissed them weeks before the 2020 lockdown.

I had heard of one Imagineer with alcohol issues who was let go. But hearing that this was not the only person is even more shocking and sad indeed.

Joe Rohde was announced to retire but then joined Virgin Galactic shortly after. I suspect that Chapek was behind a direction change at WDI which prompted Imagineers like Joe Rohde to leave. At least Tony Baxter still seems to be doing some work for Disney - e.g. consulting on Tiana's Bayou Adventure. As he still is very passionate about DLP, I keep on dreaming that they bring him back in some capacity for the DLP expansion projects. Disneyland Parc is a perfect canvas to learn from for the next-gen Imagineers. But why only learn from the artwork if you can learn directly from the artist.