Disney has a sprawling theme park empire, spanning both coasts of the US, the heart of Europe, Japan and (soon) two resorts in China. Since the debut of Disneyland in 1955, the company has done an impressive job of expanding its footprint.
Still, not every plan can come off. Before his death, Walt Disney devised numerous theme park projects which – for one reason or another – never came to fruition. The same is true of his successors at the helm of the company he built.
Covering all of these parks in detail is a huge job – worthy of an entire book (or books). So, in this article, we’re going to focus on the ones that nearly made it. In many cases, they were actually announced to the public, before being cruelly snatched away. Reading about them and admiring concept artwork produced by Imagineers, it’s difficult not to emit a wistful sigh about what might have been.
We’ve collected these disparate “phantom” parks into one imaginary wonderland: Possibilityland. Join us on a fascinating tour as we discover the parks that Disney designed, but which we’ll never get to visit.
1. Mickey Mouse Park
Location: Burbank, California
Planned in: Between late 1930s and early 1950s
Theme: Small-town America in the early 20th century
Size: 8 acres
Lands: Town Square / Main Street, Western Village, Farm, Carnival
Background
The idea of building an amusement park-style attraction where families could enjoy themselves together had been interesting Walt Disney for decades before Disneyland finally opened its gates in 1955.
Flush with the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs following its 1937 release, Disney concocted plans to build a new studio on a 51-acre plot in Burbank. Even before the studio opened, Walt hit upon the idea of installing an amusement park on part of the property to satisfy the urges of those wishing to visit the Disney studios.
The Second War War caused the project to be put on the backburner. It wasn’t until summer 1951 that an excursion provided the impetus to get the project back into development. Walt toured Europe with wife Lillian, and visited the famous Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. He was impressed by the cleanliness of the park, the beauty of the surroundings, the quality of dining on offer and the pleasant disposition of the employees. “Now this is what an amusement place should be,” he declared to his wife.
Walt asked Harper Goff, an art director at the studio and fellow railway fanatic, to produce sketches of the park. These were expanded upon with drawings by architect John Cowles and animator Don DaGradi. It is from these drawings and sketches that we can get an impression of the experience that would have been on offer to guests at Mickey Mouse Park.
The plans
Mickey Mouse Park was designed to be a small, family-friendly park that would differ significantly from typical amusement parks of the era. Instead of concrete and high-speed roller coasters, it would offer grassy areas, picnic tables, water features and gentle rides that could be enjoyed by young and old guests alike.
The Village
The central area of the park would be a turn-of-the-century village that was clearly modelled on Marceline, the Kansas town where Walt spent part of his youth. This would be built around a village green, with a Town Hall (doubling as an administration building) at one end and a railroad station at the other. A working steam train on a narrow-gauge track would circle much of the park..
Surrounding the village green would be a fire station, a police station and a selection of shops, representative of a typical American town in the early 20th century. An opera house would host a movie theatre, and could also be used for radio and television broadcasts.
The Lake
A large section of the park would also be given over to a lake, with an island in the middle. Guests could enjoy views of the island from a stern-wheeler riverboat that would circle it.
Western Village
A horse-drawn streetcar would carry guests from the main village to a second, smaller village – this time themed around a western settlement. This would host a general store selling cowboy items, a pony ring, a stagecoach ride, a donkey pack train and possibly a movie theatre showing westerns. A frontier museum was also considered, as well as a small settlement of Indian teepees.
Farm and Carnival
From the Western Village, guests could board horse-drawn surreys and buckboards. These could carry them through an old-fashioned farm and to a carnival area. Perhaps surprisingly, given Walt’s dislike for traditional amusement parks, this would be populated by “roller coasters, merry-go-rounds…typical Midway stuff”.
Other attractions
Later plans included more ambitious rides such as a canal boat ride through a “Lilliputian Land”, a mock spaceship and a submarine ride. Other elements that appeared in various sketches included a petting zoo, a haunted house overlooking the main village and a roller coaster-style ride that would race across a broken bridge.
What went wrong?
The plans and sketches for Mickey Mouse Park were presented to the Burbank Parks and Recreation board in March 1952. The board approved the plans, but Burbank city council subsequently rejected them, with one councilman proclaiming: “We don’t want the carny atmosphere in Burbank! We don’t want people falling in the river, or merry-go-rounds squawking all day long.”
By this stage, Walt had already decided that his ideas had outgrown the small site identified for Mickey Mouse Park. After an exhaustive search led by Harrison “Buzz” Price, SRI settled on then-rural Anaheim, California, and Walt acquired a 160-acre parcel of land in the area. Disneyland opened on that plot in 1955, and the rest is history.
The legacy
Elements of Mickey Mouse Park lived on in the Disneyland that opened in 1955, and many remain in the park even today. The most prominent of these are the Town Square and Main Street, USA, which – like the main village of Mickey Mouse Park – are idealized recreations of a turn-of-the-century Midwestern town.
A steam train circles Disneyland, just as it would have circled the smaller park. Horse-drawn streetcars pull guests up and down Main Street, USA. The Storybook Land Canal Boats are an evolution of the canal boat ride sketched out by Harper Goff, and riverboats circle Tom Sawyer Island just as they would have circled the small island in Goff’s drawings. The Western Village idea was imported wholesale for Frontierland, with Disneyland’s pack mule ride being similar to the proposed donkey pack train.
Learn more
You can discover the full, in-depth story behind Mickey Mouse Park in this article.
2. Walt Disney’s Riverfront Square
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Planned in: 1963-65
Theme: History and culture of Missouri
Lands: Old St. Louis, Old New Orleans
The background
St. Louis had been devastated by the Great Depression. Although things began to turn around after the Second World War, areas such as the famous riverfront on the Mississippi River fell into a state of disrepair. The city authorities acquired and demolished a 40-block area, on which they planned to install three major attractions.
The first of these was the Gateway Arch, the iconic memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The second was a new stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals, while the third would be Riverfront Square, initially envisioned as a large outdoor mall themed around 19th century St. Louis.
In early 1963, the authorities approached Walt Disney with a proposal to produce a short film about the history of St. Louis to be shown in one of Riverfront Square’s theaters. Having spent many of his childhood years in the Midwest, Walt held the area in great affection – and he was intrigued.
Over the next two years, Disney’s proposed involvement in the Riverfront Square project grew to the point where it was instead planning to build an entire “Midwestern Disneyland”. However, it would be very different to California’s original, focusing almost entirely on the history of the region rather than on fantasy characters.
The plans
Unlike California, St. Louis was not blessed with a climate that would suit year-round operation of an outdoor theme park. For that reason, Riverfront Square was to be enclosed in one enormous, air-conditioned building, the size of two city blocks.
Guests would enter onto a Main Street, USA-style promenade. On the left side of this would be a recreation of Old New Orleans (circa the 1850s), while the right-hand side of the building would host Old St. Louis (circa the early 1900s). Lighting effects would be used to simulate the weather and time of day on fifty-foot high ceilings.
Old St. Louis
The entrance, on the main floor, would be a recreation of a gaslight plaza. The headline attraction was to be a show about the history of the region, featuring a rotating stage and a host of audio-animatronic figures (these having just been developed by Disney for attractions at the 1964/65 World’s Fair in New York). Nearby, a 200-degree “Circarama 200” screen would be used to present a show focused on the history of St. Louis itself.
After boarding escalators and travelling past displays on St. Louis’ history, guests would enter the basement. Here they could experience a dark ride themed around the westward journey of Lewis and Clark, watch an audio-animatronic show about river pirates of the 1800s and watch a CircleVision film titled “St. Louis Today”.
Kids would be served by attractions on the mezzanine floor, which could have included clones of Disneyland favourites such as Peter Pan’s Flight.
Old New Orleans
The entrance to the New Orleans area would be a French Quarter-style street. From there, guests could reach the Blue Bayou Adventure, riding flat-bottomed swamp boats through scenes of Louisiana’s wetlands, before experiencing an attack by Caribbean pirates.
Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue would be adapted to a New Orleans theme, while a Haunted Mansion attraction would feature legendary figures of local history recreated as audio-animatronics.
Observation Floor
On the top of the Riverfront Square building would be an observation floor, with huge picture windows overlooking the Gateway Arch. A restaurant and a cocktail lounge (serving alcohol, banned on the lower floors) would be aimed at adult visitors.
What went wrong?
The Riverfront Square project collapsed in July 1965, with Walt Disney accepting that “a project of that scope, in size and cost, might well prove difficult to accomplish, due to a number of imponderable factors. Such has proved to be the case.”
The most enduring myth surrounding Riverfront Square is that the project was dropped due to a dispute over the sale of alcohol between Walt and August Busch (whose family owned the prominent St. Louis Brewery). Alcohol was off-limits at Disneyland, and the pair were said to have fallen out completely over the sale of alcohol at Riverfront Square. In reality, this myth has been comprehensively debunked – and a compromise was reached with the inclusion of the observation floor and its bars.
The real reason is likely to have been simpler: money. Disney wanted St. Louis to absorb the cost of the entire outer building and many of the structures within it, putting in only limited amounts of its own cash to build the attractions themselves. The city couldn’t stomach this, and Disney wasn’t likely to put up more of its own money given that it was, by this stage, planning the much larger Disney World project in Florida.
The legacy
Several of the attractions that were proposed for Riverfront Square had a clear influence on future Disney attractions:
- The Blue Bayou Adventure had a huge influence on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, which included a Louisiana swamp at the beginning to set the scene.
- Elements of Riverfront Square’s Haunted Mansion, including a “stretch room” elevator, are likely to have made it into the Disneyland version.
- Both the Pirates and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland are hosted in New Orleans Square – a clear nod to Riverfront Square’s Old New Orleans.
- The complex rotating stage and audio-animatronic historical figures of the historical show proposed for Riverfront Square are very reminiscent of Epcot’s American Adventure.
3. Disney’s Mineral King Ski Resort
Location: Sequoia National Park, California
Planned in: 1960s
Theme: Swiss Alpine-style ski resort
The background
At the same time that he was developing plans for Disney World in Florida, Walt was also working on another, very different concept for a tourist destination. He had set his heart on developing a ski resort.
Just before Christmas in 1965, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it had awarded Disney the rights to develop the Mineral King Valley area of Sequoia National Forest into just such a resort. Walt himself was quoted as saying: “When I first saw Mineral King five years ago, I thought it was one of the most beautiful spots I had ever seen and we want to keep it that way.”
Disney expected to attract 2.5 million visitors a year to the Mineral King Ski Resort, and planned to spend some $35 million on creating it. In the same way that Disneyland had transformed the public’s perception of what an amusement park could be, Disney hoped to redefine expectations of a ski resort.
The plans
At the heart of Disney’s Mineral King Ski Resort would have been an Alpine Village, complete with a shops, restaurants, a chapel and an ice-skating rink. Further restaurants (a total of 10) would be scattered through the valley and atop mountains. Two large hotels would provide accommodation.
Although there would be no theme park as such, Disney would bring its brand of themed entertainment to the resort. Notably, one of the restaurants would contain a musical Country Bear Jamboree show featuring audio-animatronic characters.
Cars would be excluded from the valley itself, with guests parking some distance away and being transported into it. There were discussions about installing a steam train, or possibly even a monorail system to fulfil this function.
A total of fourteen ski lifts would be installed. These would be camouflaged to avoid blighting views of the valley. To the same end, service areas would be buried in a 60,000-square-foot facility underneath the village.
What went wrong?
A previous plan to install a ski resort at Mineral King had fallen apart when it was realised that road access to the area was inadequate. For Disney’s plan to succeed, a highway would have to be cut through the surrounding Sequoia National Park. In the months leading up to Walt’s death, much progress was made. California Governor Edmund G. Brown announced a $3 million Federal grant towards building the road, and planned to seek further funding.
After Walt died in 1966, the company continued to work on the Mineral King plans. The master plan was approved by the U.S. Forest Service in January 1969, and the resort was expected to welcome its first skiers in 1973.
By this time, however, there were significant objections to the ski resort plans. These were mostly based on environmental grounds, with fears that the road and resort would destroy the natural beauty of the valley. Eventually, in May 1972, Disney reduced the planned number of ski lifts (which by now had reached 22) to just 10, as well as scaling down other aspects of the resort. It even planned to install a cog railway instead of the new road. This, though, was not enough to placate its opponents, with the Sierra Club pursuing legal means to stop it. Eventually, in 1978 Congress removed Mineral King from the National Forest and made it a part of Sequoia National Park. The ski resort project was dropped.
The legacy
One element of the plans did live on. The Country Bear Jamboree at the Magic Kingdom was based on the show that was originally designed for one of Mineral King’s restaurants.
4. Walt Disney’s Boyhood Farm
Location: Marceline, Missouri
Planned in: 1950s – 1960s
Theme: Working turn-of-the-century farm
The background
The happiest period in Walt’s childhood was the time he spent living on a farm with his family in Marceline, Missouri. It became the template for a key element of Disneyland, Main Street USA, which is designed to resemble a turn-of-the-century American town. The city also provided inspiration for the animated classic Lady and the Tramp.
Tiny Marceline seems like an unlikely spot for Disney to develop an attraction. However, at the time of Walt’s death in 1966 he was seriously pursuing such a project. He had teamed up with local businessman Rush Johnson, who had set up a non-profit foundation to buy up the old Disney farm and numerous surrounding properties. These were subsequently sold on to Walt Disney Productions.
The plans
The resulting attraction, sometimes referred to as Walt Disney’s Boyhood Farm, would not have been another Disneyland.
Instead, it would have been a working “living history” farm, employing methods from the early 20th century. Visitors would be able to learn about agriculture and the origins of the food on their plates, as well as enjoying the simple pleasures of country living.
Little is known about the proposed attractions, but some reports suggest that guests would have seen pigs, chickens, horses, cows, orchards and fields of grain, along with a swimming hole.
What went wrong?
Walt and Johnson corresponded about the project for over a decade, and Walt even kept a map of Marceline on the desk of his office in Burbank. In mid-1966, he donated Disneyland’s Midget Autopia ride to the city after it was removed from the park.
Walt died before his Boyhood Farm project could come to fruition, but his brother and business partner Roy continued to pursue it. However, he was focused primarily on completing Walt Disney World, and died shortly after its opening in 1971. Following Roy’s death, the Disney company abandoned the Marceline project, and sold the land back to Johnson. He gave it to his daughter as a wedding gift.
The legacy
While the project didn’t go ahead, its philosophy of teaching guests where their food comes from was continued by EPCOT Center’s The Land Pavilion.
When it opened, Disney’s California Adventure featured Bountiful Valley Farm, similarly designed to teach kids where food comes from. This was closed to create room for the Cars Land expansion in 2010.
5. DisneySea
Location: Long Beach, California
Planned in: 1990s
Theme: The ocean
Size: 225 acres
Lands: Oceana, Mysterious Island, Heroes’ Harbor, Fleets of Fantasy, Rainbow Pier Boardwalk, Adventure Reef
The background
In 1984, Michael Eisner and Frank Wells were parachuted into Disney as CEO and President respectively, in an ultimately successful attempt to save the struggling company from being broken up. Eisner and Wells oversaw an unprecedented period of expansion at Disney’s theme park resorts, building new hotels with abandon and adding a third park, Disney-MGM Studios, to Walt Disney World.
Buoyed by their early success, the pair hatched a plan to transform Disneyland into a multi-day destination resort along the same lines as Walt Disney World. There was a major problem, though – lack of space. The land surrounding Disneyland in Anaheim had become blighted by urban sprawl, and Disney didn’t have much land of its own to work with.
Instead, it proposed building a new resort in Long Beach, which it dubbed Port Disney and announced in July 1990. At a cost of $2.8 billion, the resort was due to open in two phases (the first in 2000), pulling in some 10 million guests in its first year of operations.
The plans
The headline theme park of the Port Disney Resort was to be DisneySea – the most ambitious Disney park ever, sprawling across 225 acres. The entire park would have featured a marine theme, combining live animal exhibits with high-tech rides and attractions. Each of its lands was to be themed around a real or fictional port.
Oceana
This stunning, multi-domed structure would have been the world’s largest aquarium. It would have featured tidal exchange with actual ocean, so as the tide changed, the levels of water in the outside display tanks would rise and fall.
The aquarium would have held a ridiculous 10 to 12 million gallons of water, making it double the size of the one at Epcot’s Living Seas pavilion (itself the world’s largest when it opened). Oceana would also have hosted a real, working research center, bringing together scientists from around the world.
Mysterious Island
Built around an enormous mock volcano, Mysterious Island would focus on Jules Verne’s stories about Captain Nemo and the Nautilus submarine. City of Atlantis would be an underwater trip to the mythical lost city, Pirate Island would be a child-friendly area for exploration and Nemo’s Lava Cruiser would simulate a trip into underground caverns.
Heroes’ Harbor
Themed around a Greek village, Heroes’ Harbor would play host to myths and legends of the sea. Attractions would include the Aqua-Labyrinth maze (with walls made of water), a Sinbad the Sailor ride, and an attraction themed around Ulysses.
Fleets of Fantasy
This area would have hosted a variety of midway rides, with theming designed to resemble ships from around the world.
Rainbow Pier Boardwalk
Similar in style to Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Pier, the Rainbow Pier Boardwalk would have hosted an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster and a Ferris Wheel.
Adventure Reef
Adventure Reef would have hosted easily DisneySea’s most unusual attraction: the Shark Cage. This would have been exactly what it sounds like – a steel cage that lowered guests into a tank full of sharks. Elsewhere, tamer attractions would see guests snorkelling through tropical reefs.
Other resort elements
DisneySea would be accompanied by no fewer than five hotels, a cruise ship port, a marina and an evening entertainment area. Disney had already acquired long-term leases for the RMS Queen Mary (which would have become one of the hotels) and the Spruce Goose boat plane, which would have been incorporated into the new resort.
A monorail circuit would have linked the hotels, theme park and other attractions, and a shuttle service would have operated between Port Disney and the original Disneyland resort.
What went wrong?
The Long Beach project wasn’t Disney’s only option for expansion in California. The company was still looking at expanding in Anaheim, and announced ambitious plans for a second theme park there just one year after the Port Disney announcement. Realistically, only one new park would be built – and the decision on which one would be heavily influenced by which authorities offered the best incentives to Disney to build there.
Anaheim offered to fund a new parking garage and build a new on/off ramp from the I5 interstate. Meanwhile, the California Coastal Commission refused to let Disney go ahead with the dredging and land-filling operations needed to build Port Disney as originally planned (although Disney did offer up an alternative that would require less landfill).
Following the crushingly disappointing debut of the EuroDisney Resort in 1992, Eisner dramatically scaled back his ambitious plans for a “Disney Decade” of theme park expansion. This, as well as the above factors, led to the Port Disney project being dropped.
The legacy
The entire DisneySea concept, including the idea of lands themed around ports, was picked up by the Tokyo Disney Resort for its second park. Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, becoming the most expensive theme park ever built at $4 billion.
Although Oceana was nowhere to be seen, a number of elements were lifted or adapted from the Long Beach plans. Notably, Mysterious Island is one of the lands at the Tokyo park, featuring attractions that are similar in concept to those planned for California. The Hotel MiraCosta is essentially a hybrid of two hotels planned for Port Disney, the Port Hotel and Canal Hotel.
Disney’s California Adventure was much less ambitious than DisneySea when it debuted in 2001, but it did feature Paradise Pier, an area that shares much in common with DisneySea’s proposed Rainbow Pier Boardwalk land.
Learn more
You can find out more about DisneySea and Port Disney in this detailed look at the plans.
6. WestCOT
Location: Anaheim, California
Planned in: 1990s
Theme: Future technology, countries of the world
Lands: Future World, World Showcase
The background
While it was planning Port Disney, Disney was considering an alternative approach for the Disneyland Resort. Less than a year after it announced Port Disney, it also announced WestCOT, a West Coast version of the popular Epcot at Walt Disney World. It never intended to build both parks, but was instead playing the local authorities off against each other in a bid to secure incentives to build one park or the other.
WestCOT would be the centerpiece of a major expansion to the original Disneyland Resort, which would cost an eye-watering $3 billion. The new area would span some 550 acres, and would include the new park, three new hotels, Disneyland Center (a new waterfront shopping and entertainment district) and the 5,000-seat Disneyland Bowl amphitheater.
The plans
Guests would reach WestCOT from the resort’s towering new parking garages by taking a PeopleMover to the front gates. They would discover a park that was similar in style to Florida’s version of Epcot, but with some key adaptations to allow for the smaller footprint of the Disneyland Resort.
Future World
The iconic headline attraction of Future World would be Spacestation Earth – an upgraded version of Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. The 300-foot golden sphere would be set on its own island, with guests passing over a bridge and under a waterfall in order to reach it. Inside, the Cosmic Journeys attraction would be a revamped version of Disneyland’s former Adventure Thru Inner Space ride.
Three pavilions – Wonders of Living, Wonders of Earth and Wonders of Space – were expected to include clones of Epcot favorites such as Horizons and Journey into Imagination.
World Showcase
Whereas Epcot’s World Showcase features pavilion dedicated to individual countries, WestCOT’s version would feature a smaller number dedicated to entire regions.
The Americas Pavilion would have represented the US in the early 20th century, hosting a clone of Epcot’s American Adventure and a show themed around a Native American Spirit Lodge.
The Europe Pavilion would have included a version of the Timekeeper CircleVision show, a Tivoli Gardens-style playground for younger children and the Trans-European Express (a simulated train ride past famous landmarks).
The Asia Pavilion would have been headlined by a steel roller coaster known as Ride the Dragon. This would have rampaged through the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains, boasting cars designed to resemble Chinese-style lion-dragons. At its highest point, riders would be able to see outside the park’s walls, so it was planned to have billowing red and gold silks emerge to hide the view.
Finally, the Africa Pavilion would have hosted “a raft ride down the mythical Congobezi River”, as well as a farming exhibit.
The extraordinary World Cruise boat ride would have been the longest ride ever built by Disney. Passing around the entire World Showcase area and through each of its pavilions, it would have included audio-animatronic scenes depicting the world’s cultures and would have taken a full 45 minutes to circumnavigate (riders would be able to hop on or off at ports in each of the pavilions).
Hotels
One of the most exciting elements of WestCOT would have been the ability to stay overnight inside the park. Each of the World Showcase’s buildings would have featured six floors, with the top three featuring hotel rooms.
What went wrong?
The cost of acquiring the necessary land was one factor, while there was also significant opposition from local residents (particularly to the impact of the huge Spacestation Earth icon).
As with Port Disney, the final straw was the disastrous debut of Disneyland Paris, which caused a swathe of theme park expansion projects to be put on hold or cancelled. WestCOT was officially canned in 1995, and the much cheaper and less ambitious Disney’s California Adventure was built in its place.
The legacy
Few elements of WestCOT were carried forward into other projects, although of course many were based on the existing Epcot.
The concept of staying the night within a Disney park was adopted for Tokyo DisneySea’s Hotel MiraCosta. This is yet another reason for Californians to resent the decision to cancel both DisneySea and WestCOT, while the Japanese resort welcomed many of the best elements of both.
Learn more
You can take a detailed look at the WestCOT plans by reading this article.
7. Disney-MGM Studios Europe
Location: Marne-la-Vallée, France
Planned in: Early 1990
Theme: Working movie studio
Lands: Front Lot, Hollywood Boulevard, Animation Courtyard, Attraction Studios, New York Backlot, Indiana Jones land
The background
When the EuroDisney Resort opened in 1992, it featured just one theme park that was closely modelled on the original Disneyland. But Disney had already agreed with its partners and the French government that a second park would be installed, and it planned to base it closely on Walt Disney World’s Disney-MGM Studios. Disney was so confident in its plans that artwork for the new park was shown off during EuroDisney’s televised grand opening.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner was determined to spread the “studio park” model all over the world, particularly as rival Universal was planning to do exactly the same. A similar park was also proposed at one stage for the Tokyo Disney Resort, but was never built.
Just like the Florida park, Disney-MGM Studios Europe would combine working production facilities with theme park attractions. While many of its rides would be clones of Florida versions, it also had some new tricks in store.
The plans
The plaza between Disney-MGM Studios Europe and the adjacent Euro Disneyland would be updated to include a lake, complete with a towering Sorcerer’s Hat icon in the middle.
Front Lot
The entrance to the park would feature buildings in Pueblo Deco-style on either side. The icon of the park itself would be located here – the Earful Tower, just as it was at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida.
Hollywood Boulevard
Guests would pass through an indoor version of Hollywood Boulevard, contained within a giant soundstage-style building. This would be designed to resemble Disney’s original Hyperion studio.
Plaza
On exiting Hollywood Boulevard, guests would see the park’s main attraction, The Grand Movie Palace – contained within a recreation of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. It was to be the park’s version of Disney-MGM Studios’ Great Movie Ride, and would take riders on a tram-based tour of famous movie scenes, complete with audio-animatronic figures and live actors.
To the left of the theatre would be the Gangster Shootout attraction, inspired by the Dick Tracy movie. This was to combine elements of Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast to create a stunning interactive attraction housed inside a huge mock factory. Occupying the same building would be the Backlot Express restaurant.
A small recreation of the famous Route 66 “Mother Road” would host the Route 66 Roadside Diner, another of the park’s themed restaurants.
Animation Courtyard
On the right hand side of the courtyard would be the Animation Commissary restaurant, with the Magic of Disney Animation exhibit on the left. A real, working animation studio would be housed here. The courtyard would also host a clone of the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant.
Attraction Studios
This would be the departure point for the Backlot Tram Tour, featuring a clone of the Catastrophe Canyon set-piece from Florida.
New York Backlot
As well as New York-style streets and a waterfront area, this would host the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area.
Indiana Jones Area
A clone of Disney-MGM Studios’ Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular would be located here, along with an Indiana Jones-themed restaurant.
What went wrong?
At the time of EuroDisney’s grand opening, Disney hoped to open Disney-MGM Studios Europe within three years. However, it quickly became clear that the French resort was badly underperforming, to the extent that its very survival was at stake. The opening date of the studios park was pushed back to 1996, and by mid-1992 the project had been canned altogether (along with swathes of other expansion projects at Disney’s US resorts).
The legacy
Eventually, the project was revived, and Walt Disney Studios opened in 2002. However, the plans had been dramatically scaled back, with the park being about half the size of the proposed Disney-MGM Studios Europe. It was derided by many for its lack of attractions and bland theming. Even today, it is still widely considered to be the worst Disney theme park in the world.
8. Disney-MGM Studio Backlot
The background
In the late 1980s, Disney’s rivalry with Universal was at its most fierce. Universal was planning to move into Disney’s Central Florida backyard by opening its own theme park in Orlando, taking advantage of a tourism market that Disney had largely created.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner threatened to escalate the war between the two companies, taking it into Universal’s heartland of Los Angeles. The company announced plans to build a major new retail and entertainment complex near its Burbank headquarters, just miles from Universal Studios Hollywood (which was in the midst of its own $120 million expansion).
Eisner said that the Burbank complex would “not be a second Disneyland in Southern California. Instead, it will be a new-generation Disney attraction.”
The plans
The Disney-MGM Studio Backlot was to be a new style of Disney property – one that combined elements of a theme park with retail stores and restaurants. A sort of theme park-shopping mall hybrid, if you will (a concept that seems much less unusual these days, with Universal’s CityWalk and Disney’s Downtown Disney / Disney Springs both placing third-party restaurants and shops right at the gates of theme parks).
Golden State Mall
About a third of the total area would be given over to shops and restaurants – but this wouldn’t be a bland mall. Instead, it would feature streets designed to resemble movie sets, allowing guests to shop on Paris’ Champs-Elysées or Tokyo’s Ginza. Street performers would add to the atmosphere.
On the upper levels would be a host of high-concept nightclubs. One of these would feature audio-animatronic figures of historical characters, who would play out a story as guests partied.
California Canyon
A relaxing area featuring a trout stream and waterfalls would be dominated by the Hollywood Fantasy Hotel. This would be designed to celebrate Hollywood’s Golden Age, with each floor being dedicated to a different genre and rooms and suites being designed to resemble famous sets. Cast Members would wear costumes to add to the atmosphere. At the top of the hotel would be the Celestial Dining Room, which would feature a planetarium ceiling that would rotate as diners ate.
Backlot
Similar in style to Disney-MGM Studios, the backlot would host a number of recognizable locations. It would also be home to Disney’s main animation studio, which would be open to tours and would also host a museum. Nearby would be a 10-screen movie theater, the Star Quality Diner (where guests would dine surrounded by movie memorabilia) and the Soundstage Restaurant (which would host character meals).
The headline attraction was to be a clone of the Great Movie Ride, taking riders on a tour of iconic scenes from classic movies. A mysterious Star Tours-style simulator ride was also planned, along with an audience-participation attraction hosted in a working studio similar in concept to Disney-MGM Studios’ Superstar Television.
In theory, these “backlot” areas were to be opened up to actual filming, enabling guests to see movie-making in action. In reality, the difficulties of combining a noisy visitor attraction with production may have made this all but impossible (as Disney found at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida).
Burbank Ocean
At the top of a multistory parking structure would be the 18-inch deep Burbank Ocean. This would be themed as an old special effects tank that was now open to guests, and would cleverly hide the nearby freeway by featuring a huge waterfall that would cascade down the side of the building (this would also hide the parking structure from the outside world).
A pier area would feature a host of midway attractions, including bumper cars and a funhouse. An enormous Ferris Wheel would emerge from the water itself, half-buried inside the parking structure.
The area’s restaurants would be spectacular. The Deep End would be designed to appear as though it sat at the bottom of a swimming pool, complete with a false water level and audio-animatronic “swimmers”. Madison’s Dive, themed around Splash, would feature windows looking out onto aquariums to give the impression of dining at the bottom of the ocean.
Finally, the Fish Out of Water restaurant would imagine what would happen if “beef lived in the sea”. Diners would be surrounded by traditional seafood restaurant décor – but the restaurant itself would be a steakhouse. Stuffed cows would line the walls, with 12-foot long lobster traps hanging from the ceiling.
What went wrong?
Universal was not about to take Disney’s invasion of its turf lying down. Owner MCA funded a local activist group, Friends of Burbank, to protest against Disney’s plans. MCA filed a lawsuit against the city, accusing it of offering Disney an anti-competitive deal that would see it buy 40 acres of land for just $1 million, without offering similar terms to other interested bidders.
MCA Vice President Jay Stein told the Los Angeles Times in May 1987 that Disney had privately offered to drop its Burbank plans, if MCA gave up its own plans for a tour in Florida. Eisner denied this, saying: “As far as I know, we’ve never had a conversation with them in that area at all. We’re going forward with Burbank in the next year. I have no idea what they’re talking about.”
Besides its struggles against local opposition, Disney faced other problems with its California project. MGM, which had licensed its name for use at Disney’s Florida park, was furious that Disney had announced plans for a Disney-MGM-branded attraction in Burbank. Disney insisted it was on solid legal ground using the name.
In April 1988, however, Disney abandoned the plans for the Burbank complex. In a letter to Burbank officials, Alan Epstein, Vice President of Disney Development Co., described the decision as “extremely difficult”. Disney had reportedly spent some $2.5 million evaluating the scheme, but was “unable to justify the project financially.” MCA officials declined to comment, but were privately said to be delighted.
The legacy
The idea of a waterfront shopping, dining and entertainment district was not new to Disney, and the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village at Walt Disney World was expanded into Downtown Disney in 1995. Disneyland gained its own version in 2001.
The pier area, with its midway attractions, was eventually adopted as Paradise Pier at Disney’s California Adventure.
Burbank did eventually go ahead with a retail development on the site, with Burbank Town Center opening in 1991.
9. Disney’s America
Location: Haymarket, Virginia
Planned in: Early 1990s
Theme: History of America
Lands: Crossroads USA, Native America, Presidents’ Square, We The People, Enterprise, State Fair, Family Farm, Victory Field
The background
The abject performance of Euro Disneyland following its 1992 debut led to the cancellation of a number of Disney projects. One was still set to go ahead, though – partly thanks to its status as CEO Michael Eisner’s pet project, and partly due to its relatively low price tag.
Walt Disney had long been keen to educate Disneyland visitors about the history of the USA, and following a visit to Colonial Williamsburg, Eisner was inspired to dedicate an entire new park to that subject.
Eventually, the Disney Development Company identified a suitable site on land in Haymarket, most of it owned by oil company Exxon. Disney secured a long-term option on the 3,000-acre site, just 20 miles away from downtown Washington, D.C – a prime spot to attract historical tourists. On November 11, 1993, Disney announced plans to build its third US theme park resort on the site: Disney’s America.
The plans
Eisner and Disney’s Imagineers recognized that the company would be open to accusations of “whitewashing” America’s history, so they decided to include both positive and negative aspects. The attractions would be spread across nine themed lands, referred to as “territories”, each representing a different period in US history.
Crossroads USA (1800-1850)
Inspired by the Civil War era, Crossroads USA would act as the gateway to the park. Here, guests would be able to board one of two antique steam trains that would travel around the park.
Native America (1600-1810)
The Native America area would be developed in tandem with the Pocohontas animated movie, and was to include a village setting similar to that seen in the film. Exhibits would celebrate the culture of multiple Mid-Atlantic tribes, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition white water raft ride would headline the area.
Presidents’ Square (1750-1800)
Inspired by the colonial area, Presidents’ Square would have featured a clone of the Magic Kingdom’s Hall of Presidents audio-animatronic show.
Civil War Fort (1850-1870)
Civil War re-enactments were to be held here, as well as recreations of water-borne battles between battleships on Freedom Bay. A Circle-Vision 360 movie would depict scenes from the battlefield.
We The People (1870-1930)
This territory would be a recreation of New York’s Ellis Island, focusing on sharing the immigrant experience. A show would depict how conflicting cultures helped shape America, and could possibly have been a musical featuring the Muppets. Ethnic food and music would add to the atmosphere.
Enterprise (1870-1930)
Enterprise was to be a recreation of an American factory town. At one stage, it was to be dominated by the Industrial Revolution roller coaster, a thrilling ride around a steel mill.
State Fair (1930-1945)
This recreation of 1930s Coney Island would host attractions such as a 60-foot Ferris Wheel and a wooden roller coaster. It would also be home to an old-fashioned baseball park, where legendary greats would have taken part in exhibition games.
Family Farm (1930-1945)
Similar in concept to the Walt Disney’s Boyhood Farm attraction once planned for Marceline, the Family Farm would have featured exhibits allowing guests to learn about harvesting crops, milking cows and making home-made ice cream.
Victory Field (1940-1945)
Themed around a military airfield from World War II, this was to host an ambitious hang-glider-style simulator ride, Soarin’. It would also boast duelling inverted roller coasters named Dogfighter, themed around German and American planes.
The resort
The theme park would cover only a small fraction of the 3,000-acre site. The long-term plans included a water park, a 27-hole golf course, 300 campsite spots and a 1.3 million square feet retail and entertainment district.
Inside the park itself, a hotel would be themed around a 19th century Civil War-era lodge.
What went wrong?
The plans for Disney’s America immediately stirred up controversy. Even the name was criticized for implying a sense of ownership over the nation’s history. Some academics who initially supported the project were offended by it, leading to Disney to consider alternatives such as “Disney’s American Celebration”.
The climate was another concern, with Virginia’s weather conditions not really conducive to hosting a year-round theme park.
The biggest issue, though, was opposition from powerful families who owned estates in the area. They worked together with historians to oppose Disney’s America, under the guise of a group dubbed Protect Historic America. They argued that the park would lead to historical locations being destroyed. David McCullough, the host for Ken Burns’ Civil War miniseries on PBS, went so far as to compare the building of Disney’s America to the Nazi takeover of Western Europe.
On September 17, 1994, thousands of people marched on Washington to protest against Disney’s America. Shortly afterwards, Disney announced that it was abandoning the new park.
Disney did try to revive the project a few years later, appealing to the owners of California’s Knott’s Berry Farm to accept a bid for the park and allow Disney to convert it into a historical park. The Knott family, however, wanted to maintain the legacy of the park that their parents built, and turned Disney down flat.
The legacy
A number of the concepts intended for Disney’s America found their way into other theme parks. Disney California Adventure features Paradise Pier, similar in concept to the State Fair area. Condor Flats was clearly inspired by Victory Field, and the Soarin’ ride was built as its headline attraction. The park originally featured Bountiful Valley Farm, very similar in concept to Family Farm, before this was closed in 2010.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition white water raft ride was reimagined twice – once as Kali River Rapids at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and again as Kali River Rapids for Disney California Adventure.
Learn more
You can find out more about Disney’s America by reading this detailed look at the plans and the opposition to them.
10. EPCOT
Location: Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Planned in: 1960s
Theme: Working prototype futuristic city, open to visitors
The background
By far the most famous – and ambitious – of Walt’s never-realised dreams was his plan to build a futuristic city dubbed the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) at his Florida resort. This would be a place where new technologies and systems could be tested, before being rolled out to other cities across the world.
Having reinvented the amusement park, Walt had now turned his attention to solving the problems of the real world.
The plans
EPCOT would have featured a simple design, not dissimilar to the famous hub-and-spoke layout employed by Disneyland.
At its heart would be a 50-acre urban complex, much of it covered to protect it from the elements (although plans to enclose the entire city in a climate-controlled “bubble” are a myth).
At the very center of this would sit an enormous, 30-story hotel, dubbed the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
At the base of the hotel would be an international shopping district, with stores representing countries from all over the world.
Surrounding the central area would be a series of three further “rings” in a radial system. The first would host high-density apartments. The next ring would be a greenbelt hosting parks, playgrounds and schools.
The final ring would be a low-density residential area, complete with houses that would see their furnishings and appliances replaced constantly with newer versions.
Residents would commute to work via WEDway trams, like those used on the PeopleMover at Disneyland. Monorails would carry them on longer journeys. Automobiles and trucks would be restricted to underground tunnels, and to a one-way road that circled EPCOT. A jet airport would link the city to the rest of the world, and would be used as a place to test new methods of processing bags and cargo.
Walt hoped to persuade leading companies to install research laboratories, factories and other facilities in the city, with visitors able to explore them all. He engaged with hundreds of companies to discuss the project, and EPCOT became his favorite topic of conversation. The plans referred to here were constantly evolving, and it’s impossible to say for sure what EPCOT would have looked like if it had finally been built.
What went wrong?
When Walt died (after the Disney World project was announced, but before detailed planning work had begun on EPCOT), Roy opted to focus on opening the Magic Kingdom and resort hotels at Walt Disney World first. The more ambitious EPCOT could wait until later.
Roy’s successors at the company never did find a way to create Walt’s dream city – when it did open in 1982, EPCOT Center included some elements of the original plans, but was essentially just another theme park.
The legacy
The biggest legacy of Walt’s EPCOT is, of course, the theme park that was named after it. Today’s Epcot is still made up of Future World (which showcases future technologies, albeit largely through the medium of rides and shows, rather than working factories as Walt envisioned) and World Showcase (a permanent World’s Fair that bears a strong resemblance to Walt’s planned international shopping district). Of course, nobody lives at Epcot – and in recent years Disney has faced accusations of “dumbing down” the park’s original purpose, by installing attractions dedicated to movies and fictional characters rather than the real world.
Elsewhere, the pioneering spirit of EPCOT was reflected in the initial design of Walt Disney World. For example, underground tunnels sit below the Magic Kingdom, keeping service vehicles and utilities largely out of sight. The monorail is an important transport link between different areas of the resort, even if it doesn’t extend beyond its borders. An updated PeopleMover lives on at the Magic Kingdom as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. And innovative ways of recycling water, disposing of waste and handling insect populations help support the daily operations of the sprawling resort.
EPCOT’s other legacy was the far-reaching local government powers that Disney secured for its land in Florida. The Reedy Creek Improvement District still wields these powers, and they have proved helpful – for example, Disney was able to rush Disney-MGM Studios into construction to enable it to open before rival Universal Studios Florida in 1989.
