Thanks to Max Fan, from Dlrp Welcome and D&M contributor, here is a new update of the Ratatouille ride construction at the Walt Disney Studios. As i told you in my previous update the ride is expected to open spring 2014 but as you will see the buildings facades seems to be ready to start painting and theming. But, because of Paris usual long winter we might have to wait a bit before DLPI painters start to work on it, so again, just be patient.
The Ratatouille restaurant will take place in the building below.
The one below will be the ride entrance, right behind is the show building.
The worker below stands near the facade of what was before DLP costuming sewing shop ( now moved behind Star Tours ).
If you want to have an idea of how buildings will look once they will be themed this picture done by a DLP fan - who cleverly placed the blueprint over a photo shot by Jack Sully from Disneygazette.fr - should give you a better idea.
The DLP update will continue tomorrow and this time we will move to the Disneyland park!
Something important for those of you who don't own yet my Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book. As i've told you we're running low of the english collector copies and expect to be sold out of these ones pretty soon. You still can order your collector copy - and with a 20% discount - but sooner will be better than later if you don't want to pay $500 or more to Amazon resellers when the english collector's edition will be sold out. You can use the one click Paypal button below to place your order or send me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com And if you don't know how the book look like have a look at the video below showing you the whole book which has 320 pages and 750 pictures including 250 WDI artworks!
Pictures: copyright Disney or Max Fan - Dlrp Welcome
Tokyo Disney Sea Journey to the Center of the Earth is undoubtedly one of TDS top E-ticket ride, a non-to-be-missed attraction - even if there is a two hours wait! - and today we will have a look at some of its artwork. Not the WDI "concept-arts" artwork - these you can see them in a previous article HERE - but some of the artwork that guests can see in the queue decor, part of the decor itself. They are done in the old fashioned way, like the 19th century images you could se in Jules Verne original printings, and they look great. The first one below is showing "the crystal caverns"...
...and this next one - i should say three - are three artworks showings three different scenes of a journey going down to the center of the earth.
You're going to like the one below as it is showing the famous "Terravator", the elevator that TDS guests take to go down "to the center of the earth" where the ride boarding room is! Sorry, the picture is not perfectly sharp but these are located in pretty dark area and they were shots at TDS opening, more than ten years ago at a time where the high-def digital cameras that are available today didn't exist yet.
The Disney Central Plaza forum has posted the official blueprint of the upcoming WDS Ratatouille attraction facade. It's not a top secret document as everyone going to the city Hall of Chessy can see it. As we knew already the facades of this little land will be a mix of different architectures of Paris buildings. Above, the facade that will hide the show building. On the full blueprint below, if you enlarge the picture, you can see on the right part of the blueprint that the previous DLP costuming building will be hidden by others "Parisian" facades which is a real good news.
Obviously when WDS guests will come in this corner of the park they will have the feeling to arrive in a typical Parisian area/plaza - may be not too exotic for people living in Paris but surely it will be for the others millions of DLP non-parisians guests who are coming at DLP every year. The opening of the Ratatouille ride is expected in 2014, one more year to wait!
Picture: copyright Disney Many thanks to Mouetto of the DCP forum.
Disney legendary artist and Imagineer John Hench was hired by Disney in May 1939 to work as a sketched artist and quickly moved to background painting for Fantasia and later Dumbo. He then joined the layout team on The Three Caballeros and Fun and Fancy Free, served as art director on Make Mine Music, did color and styling for The Adventures of Ichaboad and Mr. Toad , Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, developed the cartoon art treatment for combining live action and animation in So Dear to My Heart, created animation effects for The Living Desert , lead title special effect credits for the Academy Award winning movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, worked with Salvador Dali on the animated short project Destino and moved to WED (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) in 1954.
While at WED, John was first involved in the creation of Tomorrowland for Disneyland and then worked, among other projects, on the organisation of the 1960 ceremonies for the Winter Olympics, on Disney's contributions to the 1964 World Fair, and on Space Mountain. John also lead WED from 1972 to 1982 as Executive Vice President, and remained till 2004 WDI's "color guru".
In June 1996, I had the pleasure of interviewing him in his office at Walt Disney Imagineering. At the time of the interview, John was choosing the colors to be used for the Magic Kingdom castle during the Walt Disney World resort's 25th anniversary celebration.
And now, here is the 1996 interview.
ALAIN LITTAYE: How did you enter the Walt Disney Company?
JOHN HENCH: Well, it happened in 1939. I have wanted to be a fine artist painter, and I reached the point in art schools were I'd like to understand more about images and how images communicate information to people. And I was not getting very far in that from my professors.
So I thought that it would be easier to learn that (if) I worked in motion pictures. So I went to work with one motion picture producer who was developing a color system. This didn't do to me much good. All I did was pick (out) filters for the camera. The other thing I tried was working for special effects. Which was not what I was looking for.
So I finally came to Disney, who was hiring people for "Fantasia." I like classical music, so I thought "This is fine." And I found what I was after, because the studio had developed a great skill in producing images that have great meaning for people.
Mickey is one of the prime examples: Mickey has never been suspected of being an American export. It was déjà vu. They gave him a local name and he's been accepted everywhere he goes. Even in China. Children there, next to the Great Wall, who had never seen Mickey Mouse responded. So the studio did (have) that skill to communicate with images.
Of course, it gave the studio an enormous power, because I don't know any other place -- at that time -- who had that skill with images to communicate with. And the need of these kinds of images are even greater now than they ever were because we are losing our life symbols. We don't have too much ritual in our life anymore. And these life symbols which people rely on to keep their feeling of well being, that life is not too bad after all are required more and more....
AL: You went through a record number of different jobs while you worked at Disney. Which one did you enjoyed the most?
JH: I enjoyed all of them! I still enjoy all of them! But I was curious about how did it work, how did it function. And so I went from one job to another ...
Even the camera (department). One day, I told Walt: "I would like to work on camera for a while." He said "Well, really? What for?" And I explained to him that some of the scenes -- I was in background painting then -- didn't come out right. And I thought they had lit them wrong, particularly on the multiplane camera. So Walt said "Fine," and I stayed there for three years.
And I helped develop Disney's special effects department at that time, which helped very much when we worked on "20000 Leagues under the Sea."
Then I started to work on Disneyland, on the idea of a theme park. Walt said one day when he walked by my desk "I want you to work on Disneyland ... And you are going to like it!" And he kept on going. I didn't have even a chance to answer!
But I did like it. Because it was much the same -- the same kind of things achieved in the movies but in another way -- three dimensional. We have the long-shot when you're coming in, then people come to the close-ups. When you're going from Main Street to Adventureland, there is a threshold. The painting is different, you get information from your feet that you are crossing something, and the music is different, etc. Walt put everything he knew about communication with images into the park, so it was very familiar.
AL: When I am trying to explain to people in France who have never been in the park, I always tell them that Disneyland is a kind of accomplishment of the love of men for illusion. After the magicians in the ancient times, the modern magic from Robert Houdin, then came the cinema, and finally the theme park concept. Which is a kind of three dimensional illusion...
JH: That's right. And it achieved a kind of reality. Like these virtual reality games the children are playing with. I told them we were doing this 40 years ago! Disneyland is virtual reality...
And Walt understood all of those things, and even common things about people. For instance: Usually you get your idea of what kind of day it is by looking at the horizon, because the horizon is your eye level. So what Walt did is to eliminate the horizon. When you go to the park, there is no horizon -- just Disneyland.
And so the environment is very special, because nothing leaks in from outside. Even the sun is brighter! You have an impression of better weather inside the park than you do outside.
You know, since we're born, the first thing we fight for in life is that feeling of being alive -- and it's the last thing, too. We never want to give up that experience of being alive. And this is the secret of Disneyland: Everywhere in the park, it's like a pat in the back telling you: "You're okay. Life is good."
We've achieved this feeling, for instance, with the colors. The colors in the park are harmonious with each other, not like in big cities where they don't. Big cities are chaotic. And chaos for humans -- who have experience from their ancestors -- is the last step before conflict. So, in the park, every kind of visual contradiction has been eliminated.
We were trained from our work with cartoons. Everything who was on the screen was chosen. Anything who was not there was deliberately not there. In live action movies, you just hope that everything works. Because the actor may had a bad morning and doesn't play good, or accidents happen continuously. Many things contradict what you are trying to say. But in cartoons, nothing contradict what you want to say. And I think that's why Walt got into cartoons, because he knew he would have control. A director doesn't have much control, really. Only a little. Except maybe some great directors like Stanley Kubrick or David Lean. Because they're fighting for ...
AL: Talking about movies: You told me before that you worked on "20000 Leagues under the Sea." What kind of special effects were you involved?
JH: Well, there were a lot of special effects as you know. I did what we call dry for wet effects, some of the miniatures work and two animation sequences.
I even took the place of the actor who played Professor Arronax. It's the scene where Professor Arronax is sitting in his cabin, making an entry in his diary about a storm overhead on the surface, but quiet and calm where they were underneath the water. We could not find Paul Lukas that day. So I put on a coat and played his role. Actually, it's my hand that you see writing on the diary. Not in spencerian script, because I didnˆt had time to practice. You'll see it in the movie.
AL: There was this famous animated project called "Destino" on which you worked with Salvador Dali...
JH: Oh, "Destino"! Yes, it was with Salvador Dali. The theme of "Destino" was about space, time and love. It was supposed to be 10-12 minutes long, and included in what they called at that time a package picture, with a number of short subjects that make all together a long feature. It was supposed to be with "Three Caballeros," "Make Mine Music," etc. But at that time, suddenly our distributor -- RKO -- didn't want any more of these package pictures. So Walt reluctantly suspended on the film.
So there is only the story plus a 30 second test that I did. Because I thought that -- when Walt had seen these images on the screen -- he might want to go ahead with production of the picture. I shot a test with Dali. It was supposed to be animated, but I didn't had any animator! So we did something which was more animation effects than real animation.
But the story was complete as were the storyboard too. And even the plans for production. Walt was sorry afterwards. He said we should have gone ahead and made it anyway. Because of the value of the document.
But working with Dali was wonderful. We shared the same sense of irrationality. He came every day at the studio for about a year. There were breaks in between of course, where he went back to his home in Spain. I went up there. We were good friends and we did many other things later. I helped him for the "Leda and the Swan" painting, for instance. He was not good at perspective of shadows. I helped him on several canvases...
AL: What was the origin of the project?
JH: Dali was working for Warner Brothers on the Hitchcock movie "Spellbound", and he stayed at Jack Warner's house in Beverly Hills. And Walt met him at dinner, because Jack Warner and Walt were friends. And Walt asked him if Salvador would like to come over and do something for us. Dali said "Yes." And so he came at the studio.
We had a piece of music, and Walt said "Why don't we make a short animated out of this?" And that's how it happened. The music was very banal, but Dali didn't mind, because he knew he could get a handle on anything. He could take the banality out of anything!
The fact is that Salvador enjoyed banal things, really. He was crazy about the western pictures, the worst ones in the world. And he reinvented the whole story. From the stampede and the long horn cattle, he will tell you that -- in fact -- it was all about the libido of one of the actors!
So he was never bored by anything, because he re-interpreted. One of the things he was doing was taking the dictionary and making a Dali equivalent for every word. He reinterpreted each word in a "Dalinian" manner and gave it a new meaning! This is a tremendous work!
But Walt and him shared the same kind of optimism. Walt believed in himself, and he was optimistic about what he wanted to do. He just knew it will be okay, and Dali was the same way. They had a great deal in common that way.
AL: Can you tell us about the Disneyland attractions projects you work on and that were never built?
JH: Well, nothing really important. Nearly everything was built. One was ten years later and ... Of course, there is this Chinese restaurant project with a golden dragon and Confucius to entertain guests. Both of them were Audio-Animatronics, and Confucius was there to answer wisely to questions. It was supposed to be in the second street project for Main Street. But who knows? Maybe it will be built one of these days. We never throw away any idea...
For instance, some early ideas for Florida were done only recently. The idea of a little village was there from the beginning and now we have this "Celebration" village. Same thing for the Disney Institute. Walt talked about this idea in the very first.
Some other ideas had changed from their initial concept. The "Tiki room," for instance, was supposed to be a Polynesian restaurant. I had ordered tables, I had bought all the furniture. And Walt was listening one morning to a rehearsal of the show, and he said: "If we get rid of the tables, how many more people can we get in here?" So I took the tables out, arranged the chairs in a certain way, etc. ... And he said: "That's what we gonna do. I'll handle the man who was to operate the restaurant. So we can make a show out of it."
But the "Enchanted Tiki Room" show was all done, and it was a show who didn't had a curtain riser. It didn't had a start. It was supposed to start up very gradually. Walt's idea was that -- as soon as the people who were dining got through their main course (They were supposed to all be seated, served at the same time), when they got into the dessert ... This music that was supposed to only come from tapes like in any restaurant ... Something would happened. One bird will start to do a little jazz thing, and another bird will start to answer. And people would have say: "Something is going on here! What is this?" and the show would have come very gradually...
But, with no restaurant, you can't make a show like that. It must have an overture. And we tried to do something about that right up until the last minute before the "Tiki Room" 's official opening.
The show is being changed right now, by the way. Jeff Burke is doing it for the Magic Kingdom. And I think it will be better, with new birds, master of ceremonies, etc. ...
In the first version, we had to pretend that he birds were asleep. Somebody came in saying "Hey, wake up, wake up!" And we started the show that way which was very bad. I was always embarrassed about this. Because you can't design a show for one operation and then make a change so radically.
And not to mention this Offenbach music in the middle. Which is incredibly boring! I remember that I protested. I'm not a musician myself. But we had a big fight, the composer who did the music and me. His name was Buddy Baker. I'll never forget him!
AL: Do you have memories about the original Epcot project?
JH: I worked on the concept, the first layouts and designs for the property. I worked on all the attractions concept. I remember that -- at the beginning -- we had two separate models for Future world and world showcase. And Marty Sklar pushed them together, and we combined them.
I don't think that was too successful. Because I always thought that the two of them should have been more separate. Also I had planned the monorail station to be in the center. So that one day you would have (had to) go to World Showcase and then the other day to Future World. And I still think that would have been better.
AL: What was your worst challenges on your works for Walt Disney world?
JH: Well, I suppose that every time there is difficulty. I remember about Space Mountain: It took us ten years before we found the technology that would allow such a ride. And during these ten years, I had a model that I kept, waiting for the technology we needed.
And one day, we finally found out the technique of separating and getting information about where every train would be at any moment. Of course, I went over budget many times, because -- as you go along -- some things improved, and you get better ideas. And you get advantage of what is there and all that cost money.
When we started a project, all my focus was on it, night and day. You never forget it until itˆs done. I suppose I always had a passionate relation with the projects. Because, you know, it's never a hard work when you enjoy yourself. Look, I've been here since 57 years, and I don't have to explain why I've stayed so long. I always enjoyed it.
AL: I can understand that. Where else somebody can give you 100 millions dollars to build some big toys?
JH: Nowhere, that's right. And no place where they believe in big toys.
AL: What is your favorite achievement on Walt Disney World?
JH: Usually, it's the last thing I've worked on. Now, I worked on colors. Color is a very critical thing. I've found that architects don't like colors. Engineers too. And so somebody has to stand in. Because this is the finish of it. It is the emotional part of a structure. I had great satisfaction in doing that.
AL: Sam Mc Kim was a specialist of western theming, Marc Davis was famous for the humor he introduce in the attraction. What was your specialty?
JH: Well, I suppose that I was a kind of consultant for taste. Is it good taste? Or bad taste? I had an attention to detail, to what would tell best the story. Because many people get excited about the work and drift off from the story.
Like "Pirates of the Caribbean," for instance. When you get in, you see on the door: "Pirates of the Caribbean." So you expect to see pirates. Then you get on the boat, so you think: "This is okay. We're going to see pirates." The boat goes out and the first scene that you see is the restaurant. So people think: "Hey, these are not pirates. These are people having lunch. What happen to the pirates we are supposed to see?" Then we go down the chutes , and it's where the pirates were. But they're all gone. There is nothing but skeletons down here!
Well, it was never supposed to be like that. Walt died before we had finished. The original idea of Walt's was that you came down there, into the caves, and there were no pirates ... But they had been there just seconds before! There was a hot meal on the table, steaming. There were no jewelry hidden. Walt wanted this atmosphere: They were supposed to live here, they've been outside somewhere, but they could come back at any minute and catch us...
Then, you were supposed to discover the city, where they were. But because somebody like skeletons. And that they discovered that they were available at a cheap price, we used too many skeletons all over the place, and the public got the wrong message. Now people don't know what it was...
AL: In the Paris version, they put the skeleton at the end, not at the beginning.
JH: Well, at least they've learned something!
AL: Have you been to Disneyland Paris?
JH: Yes, I like it. The colors I choose there was to paint the first hotel, the Disneyland Hotel. Because of the cloudy sky we had in Paris, it had to be a particular kind of color who will fight those grey days. And also something you can see when you're driving up ... "There it is! We're arriving! " And I think it works well. Better than the castle. Someday, we'll have to paint this castle all over again!
AL: You knew Ray Bradbury who helped the Imagineers on the Orbitron concept. What was your relation with him?
JH: Ray is a good friend. And he was a good friend of Walt, too. We worked on several things for the world's fair together, on some of the exhibitions for industrial companies, and we're still consulting him occasionally. In fact, I think the studios are working on a cartoon picture from one of his books. He has talked with Roy Disney about it. But I don't know at what point is the project.
AL: What are you currently doing at WDI?
JH: Well, I happen to be working on two hotels. One is being rehabbed, repainting.And the other one is a large one. 1900 rooms, themed on the Southwest of the United States. New Mexico, kind of. It's an enormous amount of work: there are 28 separate buildings, and I work on the choice of the colors for everything. Outside colors, balcony colors, etc.. And all of this has to work together, in harmony.
I work also on the WDW castle. We are going to make a big cake out of it for the 25th anniversary. It's a big work. The logistic of that is just enormous.
AL: What is your fondest memory of Walt?
JH: I always admired his optimism. He seemed to know the direction he was going to. When I was at the studio, I remember he kept driving all of us back down to a more fundamental level all the time. When we tried to use -- let's say -- an event that was current, he said: "No, don't use that! It's all right for now. But I want these pictures to come back for years and I want them to have a meaning. If you use that now, it will be okay for today. But four or ten years from now, what will it mean?" And he was right: We still can release a 40 years old picture, and it's still good because it still has meaning.
Another memory I have is when I was working on a Stravinsky animation adaptation. It was supposed to be a ballet, and I didn't like it. Walt said "Why?" And I told him that I didn't know anything about ballet. And he said "Oh....Well, here is what I want you to do."
And Walt called the impresario of the Ballet Russes of Monte Carlo. And he arranged for me to go sit back stage for the whole season! For all the performances! And I made a thousand drawings, went back, and did my job without any complain.
Walt often did these kinds of things. Like letting me go to work down in the camera department. Who does this now? Nobody! You have a job, and you stay on it all your life now. Nobody now is going from department to another department. Only Walt did that.
I was very fond of him, really...
AND NOW , here is a youtube video where you will see John Hench with Walt , during the Disneyland 10th anniversary TV special.
Interview recorded June, 24, 1996 by Alain Littaye, with the friendly help of Didier Ghez for the questions, and previously released on the JimHillmedia web site.
In my previous article we had a look at the land available in Disney theme parks all around the world for a future Star Wars Land. Now, what about having a look at Star Wars attractions concepts which, until now, never become real - because there have been a few since the last thirty years, and as you will see they had brilliant designs. One of the most spectacular concept was indeed the one below that Tim Delaney did for Disneyland Paris. As you can see the Space Mountain dome looked like the Death Star (well, a "half" Death Star, in this case) and on the right you can also see Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. A big part of the land would have had a Star Wars design. Now, as you know there is a Star Wars land project for DLP, but don't worry Space Mountain will keep its dome like it is right now and there is no chance that this expected mini-land will look like Tim rendering. That said, if WDI Imagineers design a SW land in the future they might take some inspiration from this great concept-art.
Another artwork from Tim Delaney, always for Disneyland Paris, is showing a different Star Wars vehicle standing at the entrance of Star Tours, instead of the X-Wing fighter!
Another great concept was the Plectu's Galactic Revue. "Plectu's Fantastic Galactic Revue" was part of a new attraction/show announced in 1990's famous "Disney decade" project. Supposed to replace the Carousel of Progress at WDW, it was, a see know, never built. The renderings of this "Plectu's" project are extremely rare, but here is one showing how the exterior would have looked. Let's thanks Mark Taft from the excellentInsight and Soundsblog who had the good idea to take the picture of the artwork in 1990 at Disneyland. In one of his famous "Why for?" articles published in 2004, Jim Hill described the building exterior theming as "Like someone had brought the Mothership from "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" in for a three-point landing in the heart of Tomorrowland".
It was one of the first project that Imagineer Eddie Sotto did at WDI and what is less known is that it has been also envisioned for DLP. On the picture below you can see the model of it, done by WDI Imagineer Bob Baranick from Eddie's drawings ( the artwork above is not from Eddie and was done a bit alter ). According to Eddie the concept was that a spaceship had landed with a travelling alien show inside - with audio-animatronics of course - and it was supposed to be part of a Georges Lucas inspired Tomorrowland.
None of these concepts were realized but others will be in the future for an inevitable Star Wars land - inevitable because it's purelogic - and just like you i can't wait to see the renderings! Talking about renderings, an artist who might be great for doing them could be Albert Yu, who worked as freelancer for Lucas Arts and also for WDI during eight years. Albert did some artwork for Test Track, Honey... and Rock and Roller Coaster. Below you'll see three artwork from him - as far as i know not designed for a Star Wars attraction - but the look is quite close to the Star Wars universe. You can see more artwork from Albert Yu on his web site HERE.
To come back to Star Wars rides concepts, a few months ago i found something pretty incredible, and it was a design of a Star Wars roller coaster called "warring coaster", which was NOT designed by WDI!
I found it thanks to wdidreamer, a member of WDWMagic.com forum, who posted the pictures above and below from a U.S. patent supposedly filed by WDI last year. The title of his thread was "After Star Tours....is this what's next?" and almost instantly members of WDWMagic forum were amazed by what looks like an incredible Star Wars dueling roller coaster concept.
There was just a little problem: as i told you, this patent filed in 2010 is NOT a WDI patent! So, if this amazing concept was not designed by WDI Imagineers, who did it? A closer look at the patent reveals that it was filed by someone named Jonathan Gordon. And, yes, if you call WDI switch board they will confirm that there is no Jonathan Gordon working at Imagineering, so it's definitely not a WDI patent. I really wanted to know more about this mysterious and exciting Star Wars concept and I finally found the web site of Jonathan Gordon – www.gordonrides.com – a company that "offers new and innovative amusement rides and attractions for customers that demand the latest and greatest". Their rides are based on proprietary designs that they develop in-house. They work "with the finest engineering and manufacturing firms in the amusement industry to ensure the creation of a product that is second to none".
That sounds good, so I decided to give them a call hoping to talk with Jonathan. Luck was with me, as it was Jonathan himself who answered my call. Jonathan kindly accepted an interview and provided me with precious details about his Star Wars roller coaster concept. As you can see on the pictures above and below, the concept looks like a dueling coaster but in fact it's more than that, it is a "warring coaster" which Jonathan on his web site describes like this: "The Warring Coaster concept takes an armed conflict from a film or a story and allows riders to live it. Through the use of multiple trains on multiple tracks, giant themed arenas, animatronics, interactive laser gun systems, and much, much more, the Battle of the Death Star* from Star Wars* roars to life! This is the ultimate in themed rides and roller coasters combined."
Well, it certainly looks like the "ultimate ride" and on the patent drawing above you'll see that the coaster can have up to six different tracks with six vehicles moving simultaneously. The launch would be done by linear induction or linear synchronis system and the vehicles would reach 50 miles per hour in a few seconds. And because this warring coaster is designed with a Star Wars theme, the vehicles - I mean, the fight - will be between X-Wing fighters and Tie Fighters! Each vehicle will have six seats, and each guest will be able to use a mounted laser gun to shoot at the "enemy". Each hit will be counted and will appear on the fighter’s screen, and in addition to the usual lap bar there will a grab bar which will be helpful to guests if they need to steady themselves while they are shooting.
One of the questions I asked Jonathan was about the size of the X-Wings and Tie fighters. When you look at the drawings of the X-Wing fighter above and the Tie Fighter below, the vehicles look huge and I wondered if it was possible to have such big vehicles on a coaster track. According to Jonathan it would not be a problem as long as the vehicles are light enough. If we take the X-Wing fighter, for instance, the wings would be made of fiber glass over an aluminum frame with minimal steel reinforcement, and of course the important "middle" part of the vehicle frame and structure will be in steel.
Still, when we look at the drawing with its incredible tracks and considering the large size of the vehicles I couldn't stop thinking that this indoor project will require a huge facility and Jonathan confirmed that his concept indeed requires a huge building. But the best is yet to come, as this building would be fully themed so that the epic battle between X-Wings and Tie Fighters would take place over the surface of the Death Star and inside the famous Death Star trenches - yes, the same trenches in which the final battle happened at the end of the first Star Wars movie (Episode 4) or also in Star Tours 1! You can see in the drawing above where it is written "Main Trench". You'll note also the words "Millenium Falcon" which indicates that Han Solo’s fighter should be included in the decor.
Another great idea - a genius idea I must say - is the one related to the queue. As there will be two "teams" riding at the same time, guests will be divided – they will either join the "rebels" and board an X-Wing fighter or they will join the "Empire" and board a Tie Fighter - they will be directed down two different paths and in each of them they will have access to Death Star or Rebel Fleet ship turrets - as such, the queue decor will be "inside" the Death Star or a Rebel Fleet ship. Each turret will be equipped with laser guns AND using these laser guns guests in the queue will be able to "fire" at the roller coaster vehicles as they enter the Death Star trenches! On the drawing below the numbers 406, 410 and 416 represents the locations of some of the turrets guns.
Each hit from the turret guns to the vehicles would tally additional points which would be counted in the final count. At the end of each ride, depending who is the winner (based on the number of points), either the Death Star will "explode" - with the use of lighting and pyrotechnic effects - or, if the Empire wins it will be the rebel planet base which will "explode" thanks to projection effects.
Isn't it an amazing concept? It surely is, but, as with each concept, there are also some difficulties which would need to be resolved. For example, how the guests would board each vehicle, especially the X-Wing fighter. Jonathan imagined a system where the upper wings could be moved down to make the boarding easier, as shown on the first drawing on items 516 and 526. Technically, Jonathan is pretty sure that everything he designed in this ride can be done. Of course the biggest problem would be the cost of the ride. To give you an idea, at WDI this kind of ride would cost probably around $150M - at least. The huge facility would cost a lot, too. The ride hour capacity could be also a problem, especially considering the inevitable tremendous success of this Star Wars ride concept. Even with six tracks, considering that each of the six vehicles will embark six guests that makes 36 guests only for each ride, and considering that it would be probably a 3 minutes ride that makes an hour capacity of 720 guests which is indeed not enough. However, the patent notes that a proper block-section design could allow for multiple vehicles to run on each track at the same time, which would resolved this hour capacity problem. Last but not least, considering the size of the vehicles the ride would need a huge show building. To give you an idea how big can look a X-Wing fighter - in its real size - have a look t this picture showing Imagineers at work in a WDI facility on the X-Wing fighter now in place at DLP Star Tours entrance.
Regardless, it is a fantastic Star Wars attraction concept, and probably just like you, I wish to see it becoming real. Jonathan unfortunately can't propose his concept directly to WDI as Imagineering generally doesn’t accept concepts coming from the outside but who knows, now that Disney bought Lucasfilm, if it happens that a WDI imagineer read this article and love Jonathan's ride idea then we might ride this Star Wars roller coaster in the future!
Finally, and always about future Star Wars rides, i don't know if you've noticed but almost all Star Wars vehicles are "flying" vehicles. There is almost no "cars" vehicles, and when there is cars the cars are also flying - like in SW Episode 2. That will not help WDI Imagineers when they will design new Star Wars rides. And considering that there is already a Star Wars ride using a simulator - Star Tours - AND that they're also apparently going to use another kind of high-tech simulator for the upcoming Avatar ride, the best would be that they create something totally different, right? But they also can't use the Test Track technology like they did in Cars Land, as there is no cars! So, how will they do? Come back on monday, as i've found something that for sure is going to interest you...
See you on monday and in the meantime please note that some of the artwork above can be find in my DLP book. Those of you who are interested by this great book might have a look at the presentation article on the book web site HERE. Important Note: We're running low of the ENGLISH edition copies of the book and we know that by the end of the year the english collector's edition will be sold out. If you don't own the book yet and wish to order a copy please do it as soon as possible!
Order your copy of the acclaimed Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book while there is still copies available! You'll find all infos to order an ENGLISH edition HERE and for the FRENCH edition it's HERE. Watch below the video showing the whole book!
Article Pictures: copyright Disney
Warring Coaster pictures and patent drawings: copyright GordonRides, LLC 2009 - all rights reserved
* Death Star, Star Wars are trademarks of their respective owners who do not endorse GordonRides LLC, nor are they in any way connected with GordonRides. Concepts presented in The Warring Coaster are the subject of several pending patent applications owned by Jonathan Gordon, the principal of GordonRides.
