Welcome to Disney Extinct Attractions. My name is Cole, and I’ll be your guide on today’s journey into a few of the early ideas for the Disneyland Resort.
Via Variety
I have to start today by talking about how amazing Black Panther is doing at the box office. It became only the fifth movie to ever open at over $200 million at the domestic box office and cemented Disney’s spot as the ultimate box office champion because it now holds eight of the nine highest opening weekends of all-time. I saw it last Thursday night and I have to say that it’s as incredible as everyone is saying it is.
Of course, Disney has already gotten T’Challa involved in the parks, with his now daily appearances in Disney California Adventure. It’s currently difficult for Marvel characters to appear in certain Disney Parks around the world (*cough* *cough* Florida) because of Universal owning the theme park rights, but California Adventure doesn’t have that problem, so it has become the Marvel Headquarters on the West Coast. Now speaking of the West Coast, we are going to head to the earliest days of Disneyland, a time before the park was even open.
Now everyone knows that Walt Disney loved to adapt literary tales as seen with Snow White, Cinderella, and countless other stories made into Disney Animated Classics. With that in mind, one of Disney’s initial ideas for Disneyland was to adapt the British story, Gulliver’s Travels, into its own miniature land in the original Disneyland. The ideas for the park in those days were so open-ended that the sky was the limit in terms of what would be included in the park.
Via Jim Hill Media
As you can see from this map, Disneyland went through a few changes from its original concept to the park that we ultimately got, with one of those changes being the removal of Lilliputian Land. Initially planned to be located between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, Lilliputian Land was going to be a miniature Americana village inspired by the world of Gulliver’s Travels.
Overall, the land wasn’t going to have much else going on, but there were plans for miniature animatronic people around the village, similar to the dancing man figure above that was Walt Disney’s original inspiration for Audio-Animatronics. Just as they did in the story, these characters would have populated the village and added a lot of life to the area, kind of like Legoland’s Miniland but more lifelike.
Via DesertUSA
The land also would have provided yet another place for Walt Disney to showcase his love for trains, with plans for a 17 inch tall train that would travel throughout the entire land, much like what is seen in the photo above.
Unfortunately, the land never came to be because Imagineers could not figure out how to make the miniature animatronics work properly. This was approximately 1954, so the technology was still super complex at the time and simply could not be added to the park.
However, Lilliputian Land did manage to live on in a little way (pun intended). The Storybook Land Canal Boats took the ideas of miniatures and adapted them to Disney stories, creating the attraction that we know and love today (after briefly appearing as the simple Canal Boats of the World for six months). I’m sad that the land never got the chance to see the light of day because I love miniature things, but even if the land was created, I doubt that it would still be around today.
Speaking of the Canal Boats, Disney originally had other plans for how they would update the attraction, those plans also known as Rock Candy Mountain.
Rock Candy Mountain was set to be Disney’s first expansion to the original park. This glorious mountain was going to be completely made up of candy and delicious sweets. Throughout the mountain, the Casey Jr. Circus Train would have weaved in and out, taking guests on a scrumptious ride. Additionally, guests could have ridden the Storybook Land Canal Boats through the mountain itself with the entire interior of the mountain showcasing scenes from the world of Oz.
At the time, Disney had just purchased the rights to the sequels to L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, and Walt was trying to create a movie called The Rainbow Road to Oz (which I mistakenly thought was an attraction).
Because of this move, Disney planned to cross-promote by adding the Land of Oz to the parks, and I do agree that Oz would have been an awesome fit in the Disney parks, but unfortunately, we didn’t get much more than Munchkinland in the The Great Movie Ride.
Anyways, guest on the Storybook Land Canal Boats would have had a chance to enter the world of Oz in a more concrete way. Sadly, we never got this awesome world because Candy Mountain never was going to be able to be sustained on a long-term basis due to the inability to keep it clean. Even using giant fake candy, it was going to be a nightmare to maintain and also did not look as good the models that were created.
Instead, Disney decided to shift its focus to another mountain, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. This attraction has gone on to become one of Disneyland’s most beloved rides, so I can’t say that Disney made a mistake by not putting in Rock Candy Mountain. However, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it would have been really cool to see how this mountain would have altered the look of Disneyland.
Via Disney Food Blog
But Rock Candy Mountain didn’t officially die as you can still find a candy version of it at Trolly Treats in Disney California Adventure. Sometimes, I find myself staring at it before I remember that I’ve got to get to my Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass. But anyways, I would have loved to see how these areas would have played out in Disneyland’s history over the years. Alas, it never happened, so now let’s take a look at what’s coming next week.
- One of these attractions was a show based on a TV show all about summer vacation.
- One of these attractions sent you on a tour throughout a certain worldly park.
- The TV show that the first attraction was based on formed the inspiration for the replacement to the second attraction.
I hope that you enjoyed this look back at some of the proposed differences to early Disneyland. With this being my favorite park, it was super interesting to learn more about these early ideas.
Via Buzzfeed
Thank you for reading and have a magical day!