Hong Kong Disneyland
Topic: Hong Kong Missing Attraction

#	Author	Message
1	mstaft Thu 5/15/2008 7:10a	I received a piece of concept art labeled "HKDL"- it depicts a dinosaur roaring as a vehicle appears to be going over a bridge. Kind of an Indy and CTX hybrid. Does anyone know what it is?
2	Spirit of 74 Thu 5/15/2008 1:27p	<<I received a piece of concept art labeled "HKDL"- it depicts a dinosaur roaring as a vehicle appears to be going over a bridge. Kind of an Indy and CTX hybrid. Does anyone know what it is?>> Without actually seeing the art, it's kind of hard to say for sure. I can tell you that the original plans for Adventureland included a dino mini-area that was to feature an indoor-outdoor coaster (it was described to me as CTX meets RnRC) thru a primeval forest featuring onboard sound as well as a replica of DAK's Boneyard kiddie play area. My guess would be that the rendering you have is of the coaster-concept.
3	mstaft Fri 5/16/2008 7:30a	Sounds like it. I did post it on my blog: www.insightsandsounds.blogspot.com Thanks, Spirit!
4	Spirit of 74 Sat 5/17/2008 12:12p	Yep. That's definitely what it was. One of the many great concepts/attractions that were taken out after HKDL was announced. What I'd love to know is in what order and by whom (Pressler, Eisner, Rasulo) were attractions cut. Two whole lands got chopped. Major attractions like Small World, Phantom Manor, Lewis and Clark rafts, Peter Pan and Little Mermaid just disappeared ... one would assume that dining, shopping and atmosphere were hacked away as well in order to make this as cheap a park as possible. Like I said, I'd just love to know how it all went down and I doubt it'll wind up in a coffee table book anytime soon!
5	SuperDry Sat 5/17/2008 2:19p	I'd be really interested to know what the HK SAR gov't thinks of all of this, with them being the majority shareholder in HKDL and all, and as far as I know putting up all of the money they committed to the project, only to have TWDC dramatically reduce their contributions. And now, in order to "fix" the issue of what's widely considered to be a park without enough to do, TWDC is apparently holding out for the HK gov't to make significant additional contributions.
6	mstaft Sat 5/17/2008 2:29p	There was a "Making of HKDL" book out for employees, as far as I know. Maybe someday, someone will post scans of it! (Probably wont include unseen stuff, though.)
7	Spirit of 74 Sat 5/17/2008 3:20p	I believe I have seen the 'Making of HKDL' book you're talking about, and it only focused on what was actually built. I'm sure there had to be an original rendering of the park done to sell the government. I'd take it the original had Frontierland and its two major E-Tickets ... and Toontown ... and the dino sub-area of Adventureland ... and the missing Fantasyland dark rides all represented. I've actually seen less artwork on this park than any other Disney park by far with the possible exception of DSP. Somewhere the stuff exists ... paging Leemac to the thread ... Leemac please get off the plane you're on and check in! ;-) I recall hearing that John Hench did some work on the park before he passed away in 2004. I'd love to see his 'final' work. It seems like this stuff is really hidden, which makes you think HKDL really, had it been built as planned, would have been a unique, spectacular little MK instead of the butt of jokes. I know I have the original press releases here somewhere, but I don't recall getting any artwork back in '99 when the park was approved. I hadn't see this particular piece of art of the Dino-themed coaster until you put it up, so again ... there's stuff out there. I guess it's just in Burbank and Glendale's best interests to keep this stuff hidden away for PR purposes.
8	mstaft Sat 5/17/2008 3:54p	Frontierland- BTMRR and... Splash Mountain or something else? What is there does seem pretty. Wish they'd built an unique castle, however.
9	WorldDisney Sun 5/18/2008 3:04a	<<Yep. That's definitely what it was. One of the many great concepts/attractions that were taken out after HKDL was announced. What I'd love to know is in what order and by whom (Pressler, Eisner, Rasulo) were attractions cut. Two whole lands got chopped. Major attractions like Small World, Phantom Manor, Lewis and Clark rafts, Peter Pan and Little Mermaid just disappeared ... one would assume that dining, shopping and atmosphere were hacked away as well in order to make this as cheap a park as possible. Like I said, I'd just love to know how it all went down and I doubt it'll wind up in a coffee table book anytime soon!>> Everytime I read stuff like that, I simply want to cry! This park actually had the potential to be one of the best MK parks built, even better than DLP when you add in the location of the park and the resort as a whole. And then they chopped off two lands and litterally a half dozen attractions, three of them that was going to be completely original btw. I mean, I can't imagine how the government must of felt of Disney pulling the plug on all of this AFTER they made the agreement. It's kind of like one of the Presidential canidates making a promise to his voters he's going to make all these promises after he's elected president only to take half of them back the day after he won the election. I think its safe to say the voters would feel duped (although this would be nothing new for voters lol) and I can't imagine how the government feels, especially knowing how sub par attendance and word-of-mouth is on this park today. Yeah, I would looove to hear how all of this went down as well.
10	leemac Sun 5/18/2008 4:16a	<<I believe I have seen the 'Making of HKDL' book you're talking about, and it only focused on what was actually built.>> Yup - it was finally released at CMO Stores about two years late. It was originally supposed to be a wide release and a secondary version as a gift to all those that worked on the park and both got scaled back. It is a cute book - written by Melody Malmberg (author of Making of DAK) although brief. There is very little artwork in the book itself - and a small chapter about the additions to Tomorrowland that opened up that following summer. I know Melody was very disappointed about what happened to the book. It is more like a photo-essay of the park. To be honest I think we did a better job of covering the park in Issue 4 of Tales. <<I'm sure there had to be an original rendering of the park done to sell the government. I'd take it the original had Frontierland and its two major E-Tickets ... and Toontown ... and the dino sub-area of Adventureland ... and the missing Fantasyland dark rides all represented.>> I can't go into too many specifics but Frontierland was nixed very early in the process and not for budgetary reasons. It was felt that an American Wild West just wouldn't be a draw (and that was backed up by local surveys). On Toontown - you have to remember that there is virtually no exposure to the characters in that market - they had to build the education from scratch (and as a company should have done it sooner before the park opened) and so a land created by the 'toons just wouldn't have worked for them. The original HKDL that was pitched to the government was an interesting hybrid of Disneyland, Disney's America and DinoLand USA from DAK. The budget just kept getting cut - and that wasn't all Disney's fault. But attendance has been increasing and the park appears to be finding its voice locally. Stuff is being worked up for the expansion and now the WDI effort for the park is being managed by Joe Lanzisero I think we will start to see some developments soon - I can't tell you what right now though. :-) <<I've actually seen less artwork on this park than any other Disney park by far with the possible exception of DSP.>> Not too sure about that - I've got a lot of artwork from the park - typically it depends on who the executive producers are - and HKDL had some very gifted artists - Tom Morris, Tim Delaney and Lori Coltrin to name a few. DSP was mainly executed by individuals who weren't that artistically gifted - except for Chrissie Allen who did an amazing job on Studio 1 (and the even more phenomenal original concept).

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