Unearthed Discovery Bay Art

EPCOTCenterLover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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 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+
There's IP I don't care for that still make darned good lands and attractions. Pandora is one and Star Wars (shocking but true!) is another. And there's IP that I love where the attractions could be way better than they are like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. Then there's the IPs that make me go, "Hmm, ok" but I love what Disney did with them- ie Cars Land and Legend of the Lion King.

Definitely curious what Imagineering came up with for the new Springs addition to TDS. Peter Pan and Tangled are two of my all time favorites.
 
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Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Speaking of Discovery Bay, Island at the Top of the World is now on Disney+ if anyone wants to watch it.

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Professortango1

Well-Known Member
There's IP I don't care for that still make darned good lands and attractions. Pandora is one and Star Wars (shocking but true!) is another. And there's IP that I love where the attractions could be way better than they are like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. Then there's the IPs that make me go, "Hmm, ok" but I love what Disney did with them- ie Cars Land and Legend of the Lion King.

Definitely curious what Imagineering came up with for the new Springs addition to TDS. Peter Pan and Tangle are two of my all time favorites.
Galaxy's Edge has great potential. If they could just put more movement in the land, more things to discover. All of those empty stages scattered throughout need actors throughout the day. And get replace the weird Rebel gift shop with some other feature on the West end of the land to balance it out. Why they didn't put in the Jedi training academy is beyond me.
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
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+

I really wanted to see this as a kid but missed it. I guess now's my chance and I'll be asleep before I know it.

Disney+ gets an F for catalog content in my book. I found out that Kurt Russell made 10 movies for Disney from the 60's to the 70's while under contract. 2 are on Disney+, that's it.
 

Practical Pig

Well-Known Member
I watched The Island on the Top of the World for the first time this afternoon after seeing @Animaniac93-98 post that it was now available on D+. I was a Disney-disdainful teen when it was first released. Wow! what a plodding piece of mediocracy. Some of the special effects were impressive for the time, but that's just not enough to sustain interest.

But it did serve well enough as ambient TV while I did crossword puzzles.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
Speaking of pretty...

Tony Baxter's stunningly beautiful watercolor concept art painting of 'Discovery Bay' is my favorite peice of Disney Theme Park concept art ever.
Absolutely fantastic piece that one can literally find themselves walking through.

Love that work, and it is incredible to me the level of detailing when you consider he painted it in watercolors!
Very challanging medium to control on paper, but in 1974 he literally painted a masterpiece in his late 20s.

You know the one I'm talking about....THAT fabulous, famous 'Discovery Bay' concept art always featured in books or online articles regarding the topic.
I would post a photo, but cannot at the moment.

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TP2000

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?

It's bad when an HR committee tries to write a forced backstory for an attraction that has existed without one for 60 years.

It's not bad when a talented Imagineer designs an attraction from scratch with a natural backstory intertwined into it brand new.

I'm surprised it's that hard to tell those two glaringly different things apart. :oops:
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Galaxy's Edge has great potential. If they could just put more movement in the land, more things to discover. All of those empty stages scattered throughout need actors throughout the day. And get replace the weird Rebel gift shop with some other feature on the West end of the land to balance it out. Why they didn't put in the Jedi training academy is beyond me.

The whole thing was cut to shreds before it could even open. There were plans. There were designs. There were scripts. There was talent.

Almost all of it was scrapped by Bob Chapek.

Intead, we got Ky'le from Tustin running the snack bar who was supposed to immerse you in his backstory. :rolleyes:

Or, in my case when I visited in June '19, there was just a bunch of bored CM's crabbing about being scheduled on the 4th of July.
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
The whole thing was cut to shreds before it could even open. There were plans. There were designs. There were scripts. There was talent.

Almost all of it was scrapped by Bob Chapek.

Intead, we got Ky'le from Tustin running the snack bar who was supposed to immerse you in his backstory. :rolleyes:

Or, in my case when I visited in June '19, there was just a bunch of bored CM's crabbing about being scheduled on the 4th of July.

When I was in a gift shop (or was it some sort of barter town), a customer was talking about Disney World in Florida to the merchant and the merchant of Batuu didn't know where that was. After a long pause, the customer figured it out and just kind of walked out a little dumbfounded. Such immersion!
 

Sailor310

Well-Known Member
The whole thing was cut to shreds before it could even open. There were plans. There were designs. There were scripts. There was talent.

Almost all of it was scrapped by Bob Chapek.

Intead, we got Ky'le from Tustin running the snack bar who was supposed to immerse you in his backstory. :rolleyes:

Or, in my case when I visited in June '19, there was just a bunch of bored CM's crabbing about being scheduled on the 4th of July.
Go Tillers! Once a Tiller always a Tiller! T-Town
 
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CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
When I was in a gift shop (or was it some sort of barter town), a customer was talking about Disney World in Florida to the merchant and the merchant of Batuu didn't know where that was. After a long pause, the customer figured it out and just kind of walked out a little dumbfounded. Such immersion!
Opening week of GE was so different when the employees had to be completely in character and hadn't yet given up on the act. Was a lot of fun though even if it is a bit silly.

I agree they should leave the acting to performers.

Imagine someone getting injured opening day and asking for an ambulance and a GE CM has to look at them and say "what is an ambulance?".
 

britain

Well-Known Member
So does anyone know if the train was going to be elevated way high, or was Discovery Bay going to be deep below the park’s regular ground floor? Because those pylons are super tall, way higher that what was recently built in Frontierland.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
*Technically* Mysterious Island is a 2 IP land - 20,000 Leagues and Journey to the Center of the Earth are different properties.
Three if you count The Mysterious Island, a sort of sequel sort of independent story.
So does anyone know if the train was going to be elevated way high, or was Discovery Bay going to be deep below the park’s regular ground floor? Because those pylons are super tall, way higher that what was recently built in Frontierland.
I think that’s just the exaggeration of the slightly elevated perspective. The models and first image do not make it look so tall.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
So does anyone know if the train was going to be elevated way high, or was Discovery Bay going to be deep below the park’s regular ground floor? Because those pylons are super tall, way higher that what was recently built in Frontierland.

The Rivers of America remodel / redo a few years ago gave me a serious flashback to the 'Discovery Bay' project plans because of the elevated railway.
It reminded me a LOT of what was planned for the proposed new land back in the 1970s.

The elevated train was a integral part of that project, but was not as high as those concept drawings seem to imply.
Take a look at the images i shared above , exspecially the model, for a example of what was being planned height wise for the railroad.

The train was a element closely integrated into the design of 'Discovery Bay', and a large glass encased 'tower' shown in many of the concept images done at the time was to be the train station.
'Discovery Bay' was to be build ground level, with some elements below level such as the '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' themed dining experience.
The train was to connect the area to the rest of Disneyland Park, and provide another 'transportation gateway' to the thematically 'hidden' residence of inventors and adventurers.

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