Unearthed Discovery Bay Art

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I'm calling @Figments Friend to this thread. If anyone has seen this obscure art before, it would be her. But it's new to me.

It also shows how quickly the Imagineering artform was advancing in the 1970's. This type of development really wouldn't be seen until Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, or Tokyo Disneysea in 2001. It was a style of Imagineering showing that Tony Baxter was ahead of his time in the 1970's.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I'm calling @Figments Friend to this thread. If anyone has seen this obscure art before, it would be her. But it's new to me.

It also shows how quickly the Imagineering artform was advancing in the 1970's. This type of development really wouldn't be seen until Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, or Tokyo Disneysea in 2001. It was a style of Imagineering showing that Tony Baxter was ahead of his time in the 1970's.

Thanks for thinking of me, TP.
You know how much I love the whole darn wonderful world that could have been the epicness known as 'Discovery Bay'.
And of course, my boy Tony.
:)

So the two 'new' images shown....
Great ink drawings, from the looks of them.
Wish they were in a larger size to see the details better.
I vaugely recall seeing these before somewhere, but not exactly where, some years ago.
They may have been another pair of similar looking line drawings ( I have seen quite a few ).
But looking at these now just makes me long for this proposed area even more.

I have said it before, but I will say it again -
The area Disneyland's 'Galaxy's Edge' is placed is misplaced.
That spot could have been, and SHOULD have been 'Discovery Bay'.
It would have been glorious, and 'evergreen'.

-
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
These pieces really show off how well DB would have fit into Disneyland vs standing so out of place like SW:GE.

It's so weird. Did I just imagine all the lengthy discussions on why IP based lands and convoluted backstories where everything is connected through some weird meta-verse was BAD?
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
It's so weird. Did I just imagine all the lengthy discussions on why IP based lands and convoluted backstories where everything is connected through some weird meta-verse was BAD?
I think the ire is taken more with *Single IP-based* lands - No one complains about the amount of IP in Fantasyland, largely because the IPs fit together under the concept of the land and the land's concept extends beyond a singular property. The same could have been said of Discovery Bay.

I do personally tend to take the "convoluted backstory" thing on a case-by-case basis - I love the way Disneyland Paris' Frontierland weaves characters and stories together across all of its venues, but the "Barnabas T. Bullion" crud they threw into WDW's Big Thunder queue drives me up the wall. Probably because one is more retroactive lip service to the idea of "backstory" and the other is actual, genuine, baked-in Worldbuilding.

Now, it's harder to say which of these two Discovery Bay would have been more like, simply because we didn't see it executed, but I'd have to imagine that part of why people love it is because they imagine it featuring genuine, compelling world building instead of excess flourishes like giving non-characters names like Gustav Tinkerschmidt and pretending that excuses a poor concept instead of enriching a good one.
 

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Who needs Discovery Bay when SoCal already has steampunk at it's finest-

1617390070350.png
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
I think the ire is taken more with *Single IP-based* lands

But Mysterious Island at Tokyo Disney Sea is ok?

I don't want to give the impression that liking either is wrong, as I really do think it just comes down to personal preference. It's just weird see the same faults excused in one concept and derided in another in an attempt to validate one attraction as more "artistic" than another.

Discovery Bay though, and especially, benefits from the projections and lofty goals of the design team, since it only exists on paper.
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
But Mysterious Island at Tokyo Disney Sea is ok?

I don't want to give the impression that liking either is wrong, as I really do think it just comes down to personal preference. It's just weird see the same faults excused in one concept and derided in another in an attempt to validate one attraction as more "artistic" than another.

Discovery Bay though, and especially, benefits from the projections and lofty goals of the design team, since it only exists on paper.
*Technically* Mysterious Island is a 2 IP land - 20,000 Leagues and Journey to the Center of the Earth are different properties. But they are both Verne, so I see what you mean. Not to mention that the relative obscurity of 20K and Journey as IP leaves their attractions feeling to most guests like wholly new experiences. In Mysterious Island's case I think it would come down to how exceptionally well executed it is, and how well it complements the rest of the park.

Unlike, say, Toy Story Land, which takes a beloved property and does it and the park no justice, or Cars Land which is generally well regarded despite disinterest in the property and poor relation to its park.

It probably also helps that at the time of Mysterious Island's inception such narrowly-focused lands were an exception rather than a rule, and present Disney has made clear their intentions to continue rather pretty exclusively down that path. But even if it were built today its unique and well-realized enough to inspire awe rather than ire.

I think people are more bothered by the trend than by most of the examples of it, you know? I don't care for Avatar but Pandora is great, I don't care for Cars but Cars Land is great, I'm not a Star Wars junkie but Galaxy's Edge is . . . well, ambitious . . . but thinking the days of Disney building a Fantasyland-style fusion land are behind us bothers me. Part of the magic is seeing them weave things together in a new way like that and finding new creations to fit within that structure, instead of just "dragging and dropping" a whole environment out of a movie (obviously it's not *that* simple, but I think you know what I mean).
 
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Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Oh, you mean like Discoveryland in Paris! :)
Yep! Maybe an emphasis on 1900's America meets innovation. Discoveryland still feels like an Expo with metal structures rather than a port city which is building upon its foundations. I think that's the biggest drawback of ALL Tomorrowlands, its the one land where I can't imagine living there. With every other land, even Critter Country, I get a sense of a community and life outside of the attractions. I'm in a fictional world. With every Tomorrowland, even Discoveryland, it just feels like attractions plopped down with futuristic theming and landscaping. It feels like a theme park rather than another world.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
It probably also helps that at the time of Mysterious Island's inception such narrowly-focused lands were an exception rather than a rule, and present Disney has made clear their intentions to continue rather pretty exclusively down that path. But even if it were built today its unique and well-realized enough to inspire awe rather than ire.

I agree, generally, but will point out that from inception, Tokyo Disney Sea has included a Little Mermaid land immediately adjacent to Verne Land. TDS really pioneered the use of single-IP lands and was generally well regarded for such.


I think people are more bothered by the trend than by most of the examples of it, you know? I don't care for Avatar but Pandora is great, I don't care for Cars but Cars Land is great, I'm not a Star Wars junkie but Galaxy's Edge is . . . well, ambitious . . . but thinking the days of Disney building a Fantasyland-style fusion land are behind us bothers me. Part of the magic is seeing them weave things together in a new way like that and finding new creations to fit within that structure, instead of just "dragging and dropping" a whole environment out of a movie (obviously it's not *that* simple, but I think you know what I mean).

I do. I generally think it falls into two categories, but both really just fall on the side of personal opinion. One idea being that people like to have a wide diversity of attractions and that locking lands into a single IP reduces the possibility of such. The caveat to that though, is that you have to make area lands and parks in general have these really broad themes that don't really mean much. At the end of the day, if TDS's theme is "the sea" you can basically make anything fit into it and *kinda* make sense. That's more of a six of one, half dozen of the other discussion though.

And of course the other one is simply that people don't care for the IP being presented, and really don't care if a land or park is based on a single IP, as long as it's one they like.

As a weird side note to this. I see that a contender for the most snooze inducing Disney movie that isn't Song of the South, and the reason why Discovery Bay got sunk, just made it's way to Disney+
 

EPCOTCenterLover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yep! Maybe an emphasis on 1900's America meets innovation. Discoveryland still feels like an Expo with metal structures rather than a port city which is building upon its foundations. I think that's the biggest drawback of ALL Tomorrowlands, its the one land where I can't imagine living there. With every other land, even Critter Country, I get a sense of a community and life outside of the attractions. I'm in a fictional world. With every Tomorrowland, even Discoveryland, it just feels like attractions plopped down with futuristic theming and landscaping. It feels like a theme park rather than another world.
Interesting thought! I can't imagine really living in any of DLP's lands aside from Frontierland and Main Street, but I've never thought of theme park design from that angle.
 

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