May 22, 2019

Rare California Adventure and Grand Californian Concept Art

Imagineering's R. Tom Gilleon created a beautiful slice of concept art for the ill-conceived and executed California Adventure theme park. Here's the view from the winery portion looking at Grizzly Peak and the Grand Californian Resort- probably the most successful piece of the expansion from a design point. 

Back when it all was made public in 2001, let's just agree that the public was not impressed. Thankfully, many years later, Robert Iger admitted it was a mistake -a brand withdrawal- and committed the funds and talent to make the renewed park something closer to what it should have been at opening.

The new shiny Cars Land and Buena Vista Street were unparalleled successes for the little park, but the suits later under much of what was gained by changing Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. Things only went from bad to worse when the already awful Paradise Pier took another downgrade and became Pixar Pier. Talk about a brand withdrawal!

(Concept art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

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