Unearthed Discovery Bay Art

[britain]

I am on my laptop now, so can share the image i wanted to earlier....

Behold, Tony's 1974 masterpiece -

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And here is my boy workin' hard back in the day on the legendary model for 'Discovery Bay'.
To have this kind of creative era again....

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Man, one of my favorite ‘attractions’ was the original NOS Disney Gallery. I’ve looked at that model quite a bit up there above pirates. I wish they had never turned that into a VIP suite.

 

[RandySavage]

I want to see the hi-res colorized version of this Harper Goff birdseye - only a small/blurry version has been found online (though a big linework version is out there):

Speaking of early versions of Star Wars Land... the "making of" book is supposed to come out at the end of this month. Hoping it will have a lot of early, unused concepts will be shown, though I feel Disney might keep those confidential for future use.

Amazon product ASIN 1419750127

 

[BayouShack]

The Harper Goff version of Discovery Bay looks so much more ambitious than Tony’s. The elevation change from ground level to above the railroad (what looks like Circus Land)... is a level of complexity that feels out of TDS. A land sitting on top of the railroad? It’s wacky and so indulgent.

There’s that huge elevation change, the pedestrian bridge over a walkway, and even a drawbridge. Not to mention the extremely long backstage tunnel. Very quirky. And feels very expensive

And that (New York Harbor themed?) radio controlled boat pond is so cute.

I can’t believe every version of the land includes a Spark Gap Coaster that is a clone of this rickety fairground ride. Perhaps it’s to offset the expenses from all that stacking.

 

[Disneysea05]

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!

I had something similar happen at Disneyland, and then they hand you your purchase in a DISNEY PARKS bag with the castles on it.

 

[Figments Friend]

Man, one of my favorite ‘attractions’ was the original NOS Disney Gallery. I’ve looked at that model quite a bit up there above pirates. I wish they had never turned that into a VIP suite.

I had heard from someone years ago that the model for 'Discovery Bay' was located in a display case outside of Tony's office at WDI during his later years before he 'retired'.
I often wonder what became of that model once he departed from daily work there.
He still goes in once a week, but i don't know what the current status is with the model.

I would LIKE to think it is being carefully cared for in the WDI model archives....



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[TP2000]

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!

It's that kind of stuff where, God bless 'em, if the CM's try to do this sort of thing in Star Wars Land it just comes off as weird and disjointed.

Now, if ALL of Disneyland Resort operated this way, it would make more sense in Star Wars Land.

But when you are at Splash Mountain and there's semi-bored Caitlyn - Laguna Niguel, CA (nametag name in bold English) staring into the middle distance saying "How many? Row 2. How many? Row 3 and 4. How many? Row 5." and then you walk 100 yards north of there and suddenly you are on Batuu and Tyler - Tatooine (nametag name in English and fake Alien) starts pretending he doesn't know what Earth is or what the Walt Disney Company is, it's just a joke. And it's painful.

Years ago on this forum I used the Colonial Williamsburg analogy for what WDI said they were doing with Star Wars Land, as I was very skeptical it could ever work at Disneyland. The colonial era role play works in Williamsburg, but because everyone does it and it's hokey and part of it's charm.

This type of Star Wars role play doesn't work in Disneyland. Because by the time a person has gotten to the back of the park, they've interacted with a dozen or more CM's also in themed uniforms and elaborately themed environments whose just say "That'll be four dollars and 85 cents" or "How many? Row 3", or the always loveable "STAY TO YOUR RIGHT!!!".

This hokey role play about 10% of Star Wars Land CM's try to do, and again God bless 'em for trying, is something mandated by Glendale Imagineers and Burbank executives that have obviously never worked at Disneyland nor experienced the park as a normal paying customer and/or without a Plaid tour guide whisking them up the exit.

 

[SuddenStorm]

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!

I asked about Rex from Star Tours in the droid shop.. and the cashier pretended not to know what a Star Tours was, even though Star Tours as a travel agency is canon with SWGE. So dumb, if they're gonna do the whole shtick they should at least know the material.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

In Florida, we ran into a custodial CM who was totally into the role play. We were sitting down when he came by. Poor kid was so earnest and trying hard. I appreciated his effort and then felt bad for him. Sort of reflected the current state of Imagineering’s thought process.

 

[CaptinEO]

I asked about Rex from Star Tours in the droid shop.. and the cashier pretended not to know what a Star Tours was, even though Star Tours as a travel agency is canon with SWGE. So dumb, if they're gonna do the whole shtick they should at least know the material.

They probably thought Star Tours doesn't count since the ride is in Disneyland, not Batuu, or Galaxy's Edge, or Black Spire Outpost. Don't you love how this land has 3 names?

 

[SuddenStorm]

They probably thought Star Tours doesn't count since the ride is in Disneyland, not Batuu, or Galaxy's Edge, or Black Spire Outpost. Don't you love how this land has 3 names?

That's exactly what she thought. It was ridiculous because Disney made Star Tours canon in the Rebels TV show,

Plus, they have Rex in the cantina. And the starspeeder is seen at the end of the Falcon ride. So Star Tours exists, not as a ride- but as an actual airline (starline?).

So to answer the question "Hey! Do you guys sell Rex droids from Star Tours here" with "Whats a Star Tours?" doesn't win any points on the nerd front and doesn't improve 'immersion'. All it did was annoy me because they refused to answer a yes or no question with a yes or no.