All over the park and especially in Frontierland and Main Street, U.S.A. Baxter’s team paid tribute to the Imagineers of the past, their own mentors, by using their best ideas which had never been realized before - as detailed in part one of this series. For Discoveryland and Fantasyland the new generation of Imagineering decided to give this concept a spin ... and used their own “never built” ideas mostly from two projects developed in the late 1970’s by Tony Baxter: Discovery Bay and the Fantasyland redo. When brainstorming about how to develop the Tomorrowland area for EuroDisney Tony Baxter knew that if there was one thing that his team couldn’t do was simply copying the other Tomorrowlands around the world.

Why? Well, as Walt Disney once eloquently said: “at the speed technology is moving today by the time we built the future it is already outdated!”. Disneyland’s Tomorrowland was plagued with problems from the very start and went through major overhauls in 1959 (Subs, Matterhorn and Monorail), the late 60's (“A World on the Move”; People Mover, Inner Space etc.) and again in the 70’s with the space redo which introduced Space Mountain, Mission to Mars,… Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland and Tokyo Disneyland’s on the other hand had this white, "2001 - a Space Odyssey”- look, which was starting to feel very outdated, and EPCOT’s future world was not aging well on the public either.

Baxter and his team knew they had to re-think the whole area especially if they wanted to create something without the constant need of updating in order to keep it up-to-date with the visions of the future. But how?It was Tim Delaney who, while touring with his team various museums across the old continent, realized that the answer was lying literally in there backyard. Europeans obviously had a sense of pride in their museums, art exhibits and literature history, most of all European writers and visionaries had a totally different idea of the future than the Americans.
The American audience had grown up with a vision of the future derived mainly from two (very different) ideas: the cartoon type Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon future and the race-to-space period renderings of a white and geometrically “no thrills” architecture, with this type of cartoon-movie future later serving as the basix concept for WDW’s 1994 Tomorrowland redo. Europeans on the other hand had their own visions of the future derived mainly from two sources: the future depicted in movies (therefore similar to the ideas Americans had) and their own visions acknowledged in tons of books written by such visionaries as Jules Verne, H.G Wells and Leonardo da Vinci. 

The Imagineers immediately realised that the American movie type future would look cheap and tacky to a European audience - at the same time it was obvious to Michael Eisner that a balance had to be achieved between the various lands of the park and the heriatge they were based on. With Frontierland and Main Street, U.S.A., representing pure Americana the influence of Europe had to be felt distinctively in the other lands. So it was decided - EDL’s Tomorrowland would show “the future that never was and always will be” according to Europe’s legendary visionaries. This theme would solve two problems: the constant outdating of the other Tomorrowland concepts was avoided and the critic that “EDL isn’t European enough” as claimed by some “European intellectuals” could be countered.

But how was Disney to build this “future that never was”? Researching and reading all those books, visiting countless European museums and exhibits obviously proved a daunting task for Tim Delaney’s team - a task which was bound to take too much precious time out of the actual design and building phase. So Tony Baxter proposed: “Why not use Discovery Bay as reference”?

Discovery Bay was the land Tony Baxter designed for Disneyland in California in the mid 70’s based on the movie “The Island on Top of the World” which would have been located in the northern portion of Frontierland, where the now-closed Big Thunder Barbeque was located. The Rivers of America were to be expanded back into the area to form a bay, even so only the first icon of the new land, the Old Lighthouse, would have been visible from the Rivers of America. The Columbia would dock there as well as several set piece vessels in a very similar design to the entry of Tokyo DisneySeas.
The basic theme of the land would have been provided by the the gold rush era San Francisco of the 1850's-1880's, "a time and place that climaxed an age of discovery and expansion". As the back-story designed for the area explains Discovery Bay became home to the adventurous souls during the gold rush, who were seeking new opportunities in this rich land arriving from the east via the new cross-country railroad link (the Disneyland Railroad), bringing the culture and luxury of Europe and America's Northeast to the rugged frontier, earning the city a reputation as "The City of Myths and Eccentricities".

Walking from Frontierland into this new land guests would have passed by the first main structures: a Cider Mill, a Lighthouse, the Columbia and some prop ships, the Fireworks Factory and Chinatown. Docked in the uppermost corner of the Rivers of America new bay area would have been the Hyperion Airship, which would have been Discovery Bay’s weenie. The building the airship was docked toowould have hosted, instead of the theater and dining area it houses now in DLP's Discoveryland, the "Island at the Top of the World"-attraction - a monorail ride through an AudioAnimatronic extravaganza.
To the east of the Hyperion and the north of Chinatown the Nautilus submarine would have anchored. Guests would have been able to tour the submarine, as we do in Paris, but would have ended up in the fabulous Grand Salon Restaurant, a cross between the Blue Bayou and EPCOT’s Coral Reef Restaurant, with a fish eye window opening, as in the movie "20,000 Leagues below the Sea", to reveal real fish (in an aquarium themed to look like the sea). Next to Nemo’s Grand Salon Restaurant would have been the Discovery Bay Railroad Station. Guests would have crossed under the Railroad tracks to enter the “Mythia - Land of Legends” attraction. Also in the land would have been a spiral thrill ride themed to a wild magnetic experiment in the form of a roller coaster type ride. This would have been Disney’s first attempt at a magnetic roller coaster ride. 
Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were of course to be crucial part of the lands themeing.

See what I’m getting at gang? Without getting into too much detail about the fabulous attraction, shops and restaurants Discovery Bay would have featured, I think you get the picture of how much Tim Delaney and his team relied on Tony Baxter’s beautiful concept art and the model as shown in the Walt Disney Story exit area in the late 70’s for this proposed Disneyland Anaheim expansion while designing EDL’s Discoveryland.
Still major retooling obviously had to be done: the San Francisco themeing, the Chinatown area and the references to the movie “The Island on Top of the World” (which bombed at the box office and therefore doomed the construction of this expansion at Disneyland Anaheim) had to be taken out, the Jules Verne and H.G. Wells aspects of the area had to be emphasized and expanded as much as possible and the whole concept needed to be adjusted to its new function - serving as EDL’s Tomorrowland, which meant adding new kinetic structures such as the Orbitron and more references to the future as seen by the visionaries.

If any of you are asking ”but other than the Hyperion and the Nautilus - which are anyway different from those in your description - what else does our Discoveryland owe to Discovery Bay?” I suggest you take a look at the pictures of the Discovery Bay model and the design sketches which can be found e.g. in the book Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real. Then it will become obvious that the look and feel of the various concept art is practically identical to the look and feel of our Discoveryland!
And as if this wasn’t enough the expansion plans for Discoveryland included two incredible features of Dicovery Bay: the magnetic roller coaster and the underwater restaurant. If everything had gone according to the original plans guests would have found the very same Nemo's Grand Salon Restaurant designed for Discovery Bay, with a giant fish eye looking under water at fish swimming in front of the Nautilus, docked next to that magnetic rollercoaster then still known as Discovery Mountain.
Sounds as if Tony Baxter would have finally seen his dream project of Discovery Bay being built!

Fantasyland on the other hand didn’t need to be completely re-thought since the very same second generation Imagineers where lead by Tony Baxter in the 1983 Disneyland Anaheim Fantasyland redo and right from the very start of the EDL project it was a set decision to improve on that 1983 design.
Tom Morris, one of Baxter’s assistants in the 1983 project, was assigned to Fantasyland and since, unlike in previous incarnations, space was no problem in Paris all the compromises done in California would be unnecessary in Europe.

With the 1983 redo of Fantasyland practically the whole in Disneyland Anaheim had to be demolished and reconstructed from the ground, e.g. the Fantasyland Theatre became Pinocchio's Daring Journey and the dark rides housed within the Castle were all demolished and rebuilt too. In order to solve the traffic problems of the area the Carrousel was moved to the Teacups previous location, which in turn moved in front of the Alice in Wonderland dark ride while Dumbo took the place of the original Galley.
As if this relocation plan and the interior remodelling of the attractions weren’t enough the team designed the new Fantasyland for Anaheim “as Walt would have wanted it” based on the smale models as seen in Storybook Land. Instead of the “medieval carnival” theme Disney went with in 1955 (and again later for WDW and TDL) Disneyland Anaheim features facades which continue the theme of the various attractions since the remodelling, e.g. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is located in Toad Hall, an a replica of London street forms the facade for Peter Pan's Flight. But unfortunately there were some “casualties” during the process of remodelling the land: the Pirate Ship Restaurant (also known as Captain Hook's Pirate Ship and as the Chicken of the Sea Restaurant) and Skull Rock became victims of the new Fantasyland since the ship was to be taken apart piece by piece and then be reconstructed as part of Storybook Land but got crashed during the process. Fortunately Tony Baxter’s team saved the cannons and some other elements of the ship and used them for the ship inside the Peter Pan ride thereby paying tribute to one of the by then gone classic eye catchers of Fantasyland.

The Imagineers where also set to solve the other great plague of Fantasyland: the original rides were designed in order to make you think YOU were Peter Pan, Alice, Snow White or Mr. Toad, but unfortunately guests didn’t get this and inevitably came out of the ride asking “cute settings, but where was Snow White?". To cope with this task the rides had to be redesigned to incorporate both - the rich, elaborate settings the legendary Animators and Imagineers Claude Coats and Ken Anderson (two of Walt’s “nine old men”) had created and painted themselves in 1955 AND the newly added characters in the scenes from each movie! It was a daunting task and required a lot of space, space which Disneyland’s Fantasyland didn’t have...
In Paris Tom Morris could not only improve on the Fantasyland design of 1983 by adding new and exciting rides or areas which simply wouldn’t fit into the California theme park, but he could also create the exact Fantasyland Walt would have wanted - while the 1983 Anaheim redo due to space limitations had to include compromises.

While some elements as Captain Hook's Galley, which was moved to Adventureland, didn’t end up in EDL’s Fantasyland the main differenc between Tom Morris' and Tony Baxter's Fantasyland is double fold: Paris’ Fantasyland in fact features all those rides scenes cut form the 1983 Anaheim redo because they “simply wouldn’t fit” as well as the "correct" spacing inside the land.
Yes I know, it’s strange to hear such a phrase when speaking about Disneyland but when Tony Baxter and his team were finalising construction of the new dark rides in 1982 they found that they had no space left to conclude the rides as designed.

Take as example the Snow White ride: in California guests arrive in the very dark scene where the witch falls backwards from the cliff while trying to drop a boulder on the vehicle. Once they have passed under the cliff black doors swing open and the guests find themselves ... in front of a wall with the words “and the lived happily ever after” written on it and a painting of Snow White and Prince Charming riding towards the castle. Then the ride moves straight into the unload area. “What!!!”, I can already here you scream, “No Andrea, those are actual simple AudioAnimatronics, it’s not a painting, there is this little room the vehicle passes through before reaching the load/unload area”!  Ehm, yes there you are 100% right ... but in Paris, not in California!
As hard as it may be to believe Imagineers didn’t have the space to fit the recreation of the royal couple into the Disneyland Anaheim ride and therefore had to opt for a simple painting and writing just before the unload area, whil in Paris Tom Morris could finally fix this little detail so that you finally don’t feel so weird at this ride’s finale!

Speaking of little unnoticed details: next time you are eating your burger and fries at the Au Chalet de la Marionette Restaurant take a look at that little Figaro found on the side of the exit. Back in the 1983 California redo while constructing the Village House Restaurant the team realized they couldn’t place the main exit sign centred on top of the door because of a structural beam. Iinstead the sign had to be placed on one side. In order to provide some optical balance Tony Baxter had the idea of placing Figaro holding a rope connected to the tilted exit sign on the opposite side of the door. As you can see in Paris the exit sign is perfectly centred - next to it you will find a smiling Figaro as if he saying “We got it right this time”!

Hope I gave you a few more back stories and details which will help you appreciate even more the beauty and effort put into the creation of EuroDisneyland or as it is now called Disneyland Paris. In the next, and last, installment of this series we will see how Adventureland is a homage to both, the past and the future of the Walt Disney Company. On top of that I will talk about all the things EuroDisneyland sprung for the future of the other themeparks.

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic