Hello! I am Mom, Captain and Commander of this adventurous family quest; design a handful of attractions for Disneyland from our own imaginations and present a working model to real Disney Imagineers at Disney Imagineering.
The whole purpose of this project is to build a stronger foundation of reading, writing, and communication skills for the kids while strengthening their problem solving, math and science skills in a way neither kid will realize they're gaining an education from this.
We wrote a letter to mail to Disney Imagineering yesterday but while I was going to mail it today, a bright idea plopped into my head. I have a how-to book from the library on handmaking books with directions for making an awesome, sturdy scroll. Now, my daughter loves to draw long, lengthy pictures, whether it's full-sized princess posters, dresses, her favorite subject-a high-heel with a manicured foot, or a tall flower, I thought, we could make a scroll on her paper rolls summarizing this project. She can draw her Tower, we can cut & paste pictures, make a map, include our storyboards, quote Walt, place personal pictures and so on and so forth. So instead of mailing the letter we'll make a scroll to send along with it and mail in a tube, decorating the outside. How fun and exciting is that? It will hopefully get Disney's attention and promote a positive, friendly response.
Our Project Summary:
When we started we had no internet in the home so we relied heavily on library books and a Disneyland map. We had three books we kept cycling in and out of the library for our initial sources of information; Walt Disney Imagineering by Disney Imagineers, The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch, and Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Making of the Classic Film by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was our first inspiration, mainly because the movie and book were available at the library. Then we watched DVDs; The Science of Disney Imagineering, Models & Designs, Gravity, Fluids, Friction, Levers and Pulleys and the Disney Parks: Disneyland Resort, Behind the Scenes- where the bulk of our inspiration came from. After learning that Imagineers start with a story, we came up with a story for a Snow White attraction; a mine car ride. Once we got online for current research, we were crestfallen to see the idea was already taken. I wasn't sure if it was okay to move ahead with the project, the last thing we wanted was any legal/copyright troubles, but I figured it would be safe to follow through. For starters, we don't actually know what we're doing, and our version isn't intended or capable of becoming a reality. Secondly, after seeing the artist's renditioning of the ride with a brief description, the ideas are so different that I think we're in the clear.
The first concept of our mine car ride was a classic Disneyland, Fantasyland ride; slow paced, individual vehicles touting the latest in animatronics; a 'real' dwarf at the helm of each mine car vehicle. We hope to evolve our model concept car from PEZ dispenser and tea box to a working miniature robot. The story goes; The dwarfs have a Mother Lode of gems in their maze of a mine, but their one and only map to the Mother Lode was lost by Dopey. They have invited Disneyland guests to ride along with them and help in the search of the Mother Lode.
The kids had fun with the story but insisted on more adventure in line; trap doors to open up and drop unsuspecting guests to a hidden level, an actual maze for a queue line so guests have to FIND the ride, and real gems guests can mine for and keep. I didn't want to kill their joy with an explanation of liability and legal consequence, I mean, discovering Disney characters were people in suits was enough reality for one day, so we made a compromise; several tracks to the Fantasyland style ride creating a maze for a ride with each vehicle, driven by the latest in animatronic technology (which we know nothing about), having its own pace; Happy is up-tempo with clean turns and speedy, Grumpy is fast with sharp turns and hard stops, Sleepy is slow, nearly stopping while he nearly falls asleep with drunken curves, Bashful has lots of turning and side-to-side motion while the vehicle seems to shrug away in bashfulness with each interaction in the mine of a dwarf on the set, and Dopey's is confusing with lots of motion, head-scratching and needless turns. The vehicles are to interact with the sets in the ride.
To satisfy the children's desires to drop guests through trap doors, we decided to make a rollercoaster wrap over, under, through and around the slower ride. The kids loved Thunder Mountain Railroad and wanted it to feel fun and zippy. We keep the train short enough to be fun and enjoyable for all guests-those longer trains, designed to fit as many guests as possible on one run, feels like it slows down the ride as a whole. The front waits too long for the back to catch-up, while the back waits too long for the rest of the train to travel over a hill, nearly killing the affect. The kids really like creating this ride and can't wait to start building in the garage. We'll likely use K'Nex parts to make the rollercoaster model while we're up in the air on what we'll use for the rest. The rollercoaster gets to peak in on the Fantasyland ride, and the queue lines are parallel. The station will host all the rides in one area, so guests can see each other take off and disappear into different areas of the mine.
Our other ride concepts are an Ode To Walt Disney; The History of Disneyland Railroad. Part hands-on museum exhibit, part model railroad and part ride, I think this will take the longest for us to make. We picture it looking out to the real Disneyland Railroad Depot, where guests can ride a scale model of the Disneyland Railroad, learning about Walt's love for trains, watching animatronic Walt in action with his own train he had at his home, and then taking a short trip around every Disney Park in the world. My children and I have only been to Disneyland in California, and while we're very loyal to the Original Disneyland, I would like to see what the other parks look like. I can't afford such a trip, and neither can many other people, but I would still like to see the other Disney parks.
We imagine the ride starting with the history of Walt Disney's interest in trains, then get a clear view of the real, original, Disneyland Railroad. From there, travel to Walt Disney World's railroad, over to Tokyo Disney, Disney Paris and wherever else there is a Disney park.
The model trains in the depot would tout remote control models that guests may drive through a true scale replica of Disneyland. Passing certain marks, junctions or hitting switches puts attractions into motion; think of the shooting gallery at the Golden Horseshoe but with trains and track instead of guns and targets. Plenty of different 'gallerys' around the building allow guests to drive their own train through every Disney Park in the world, or even pick a train that travels through history for an education in railroading.
We also have a Tangled Tower to put at the end of Fantasyland near Toon Town (which I'm not sure yet will continue to exist), designed by my daughter, with a 'magic window' that grants guests the ability to watch the lanterns drift through the sky, take a picture overlooking Fantasyland, or watch 'magic paint' paint the ceiling, walls and tower as Rapunzel does in the movie.
We have Princess and the Frog two-in-one ride, taking a trip through the bayou on a raft, escorted by Louis and guided by Ray and his large, happy, musical family of fireflies to see the wedding of Tiana and Prince Naveen at Mama Odie's-but watch out for frog catchers, alligators and hunters-with guns! Or stay dry with a buggy ride through the streets of New Orleans to the Mardi Gras parade, beginning in Charlotte's closet, traveling through the backyard ball, and ending at the big parade to watch Louis perform on a float.
My son has to come up with his own project, which he wants to be an exclusive Disneyland Lego display, with Disneyland Legos, and add to the Downtown Disney Lego Store. Strangely what he remembers most about that store from our trip, was the fact that it was extremely hot in there with the sun beating down through the countless windows and glaring through to the shelves. He is a huge Lego fan.
There you have it, our projects in a nutshell, well, more like a coconut shell. Until the kids' next post!
Mom
