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[experiment627]

At JimHillMedia, guest writer Peter Bell has delivered a great article pretty much summing up all what's wrong with Walt Disney Studios. Can't really disagree with what he's writing and can't really add anything more to it (and I usually disagree with all WDS-articles  :wink: ).

But what really caught my interest were two Imagineering-ideas, that apparently got cut from WDS' budget:

"It wasn't meant to be this way, of course. Even after construction had begun, Imagineering's plans were somewhat more ambitious than those finally realised, but as the already modest budget was scaled further and further back, a great many good ideas had to be abandoned. According to the concept artwork, the façade of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was to have been made up of a network of huge lighting rigs, bathing the Backlot in a synchronised light show. Not only would this have been spectacular, it would have given guests an idea of what to expect of the ride itself. In its place, all we have is a large cardboard cut out style billboard and a bunch of plain grey walls.

Similarly, the Animation Courtyard was going to be a lively, brightly coloured yet intimately proportioned section of the park, dominated by two enormous paintbrushes thrusting upwards from the Animagique building. There is little evidence of that today. Those atrocious steel pylons march across it and the brushes have never appeared, although the blue spiralling supports to hold them up have been in place since opening day. "

I don't know about you, but to me this sounds AWESOME... oh well... what could have been... sigh...

[Anthony]

And surely that would be so easy to do??!  Those paintbrushes would cost hardly anything and they would add some interest, themeing and height to Animation Courtyard at least.

And the light show *outside* Rock N Rollercoaster - that would probably be fairly cheap aswell, and it would look amazing!  Now that i think about it though, there wouldn't be much point to it with WDS closing so early.     One of my greatest (realistic) wishes for DLRP is that they see sense and have some kind of "evening/night-time entry" to WDS after dark.  The park looks at its best then, and they could make it better by perhaps providing entertainment around the park like Streetmosphere or perhaps even a parade!  Cheap tickets would then be available after 6pm.  People with WDS day tickets can either stay in the park or get back in for free later.  WDS isn't the nicest looking park, so i wish DLRP would let us see it when we can actually say "wow, that looks good!".  :wink:

[experiment627]

Opening up WDS for special events in the evening would be really cool. They've done that before with the 2003-Chinese-New Years... maybe they could have some movie partys...?

But I don't see a night time parade coming for WDS, for safety reasons alone: you know how narrow the parade route is and how close guests can get to the floats of the DCP. Now imagine a night time parade, when the float drivers also have to deal with the darkness. ... (It's already a problem on the much wider parade route next door at Disneyland Park... there *is* a reason why cast members ask guests not to stretch there legs while sitting on the curb, watching the parade...).

Anyway: yes, WDS looks great at night and these extra touches at RnR or Animation Courtyard would have been so welcomed!!!

[Kristof]

Maybe they are getting the point, since they added that taxi next to Backlot Express...

[Anthony]

Maybe they are getting the point, since they added that taxi next to Backlot Express...

Yeah i like little additions like that because they add lots of nice photo opportunies.  WDS seem to love cars and other transport things aswell - they have the garage in STT, the limo in frontlot, the tourbus by RNRC, the bus, cars and train carriage in STT, the bike outside Art of Disney, the motorbike by Café des Cascadeurs, the cars of Good Morning WDS and then all the many cars/motorbikes of Moteurs... Action!! It's crazy!  :lol:

However much i like these small additions though, they are simply little details to hide the fact that that for a lot of WDS there isn't "proper" themeing.  The details they've added so far are very welcome, and they should have been there from the start, but as soon as they get some sort of budget i want them to try proper themeing.  You've probably seen the street sets in DIsney MGM, and they look great, don't they?  They are just the sort of thing WDS needs to make it feel more complete, and because they are just simple facades they should be fairly cheap aswell.  Don't ask me where they should put them though, it'd be very hard to place them somewhere where the backs of them won't look ugly - though they could easily build them in a ring... (I'm getting to deep in thought about these now, aren't i?!)  :wink:

[Kristof]

Here's a picture of those pencils which were supposed to be placed in Animation Courtyard!  It's from the model which is displayed in Bureau Passeport Anuel.