World of Tron Comes to Disneyland

Making it's way to Disneyland in... wait for it.

Well, here's a great piece of concept art from 2013 transforming the long disjointed and confused Tomorrowland at Walt's Disneyland into The World of Tron. You can see the old Peoplemover / Rocket Rods track, the Carousel of Progress / Innoventions building sitting squarely on the grid. Cool, huh? (Even if its not from Imagineering. See below).

Could the Imagineers seriously consider revamping the Land of the Future when Star Wars Land opens in early 2019? Probably. Could the suits? I certainly hope so! Under Iger, they are usually the first ones to jump on the incorporation of film properties into the parks. For better or worse, the founding protocol of thematic structure of Walt's park has already been broken by bringing in Darth Vader and friends. And let's face it- since the piece by piece destruction of Tomorrowland 1967, the area's added some great attractions but at the cost of losing a very cohesive version of the future.

Since the announcement of the Tron Light Cycles Power Run at Shanghai Disneyland - and especially since its opening- Disney park fans have been clamoring for it to happen Stateside. (Check out this earlier post with lots more concept art.)

Put it in California, Florida, somewhere. Even though this concept art is for Anaheim, my bet is there's even plans or concept art out there to bring it to Florida. There's been speculation that the upcoming reroute / closing of the Grand Prix Raceway at the Magic Kingdom would be the place Tron goes- and in time for the 50th anniversary of the park. Aside from a splashing new Marc Davis inspired Western River Expedition, I can't imagine a better addition.

February 7 Update:  I received a note from the artist, Chris Chien.
Here it is:  

"Hi Mark -

My name is Chris. I'm the artist of that painting. I'm so sorry to burst your bubble, but Disney isn't planning on doing that. I created that illustration while I was a student at Kazone Art Academy. It was done purely for educational and fan art purposes only. :)
Here is some of my process. 

http://chris-chien.blogspot.com/search?q=tron

I'm really glad you liked it though! :) I would love the opportunity to work at WDI one day.
Back in 2013, I was working at Disneyland as a Cast member. When I would be waling home from Tomorrowland on those cold damp nights, I would wonder what it would look like if Tomorrowland looked "cooler" like a modern video game. (Many of my art teachers worked at Blizzard and designed games like StarCraft and WarCraft).

In fact, the illustration is mostly a derivative of an Eric Heschong Painting, except I changed the setting from day into night, and added a "Tron" Aesthetic to it. I had no idea they were building Disneyland Shanghai at the time. I just did this purely as an academic exercise. :)
http://micechat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tomorrowland1.jpg"

I'd hire him if I ran Imagineering, wouldn't you?

(Art copyright Chris Chien.)