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uber
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called euro disneyland it will have cost
the disney corporation four billion
dollars
disney executives are hoping that within
a year of opening 11 million people will
have gone through the gates
this agreement with the walt disney
company
is
a very very
interesting
contract and the fare
i'm sure it will be a great success
euro disneyland
is dedicated to the young
and the young at heart
with the hope that it will be a source
of joy
and inspiration
for all the
ladies world gentlemen boys and girls we
proudly present space mountain
on january 15 1975 the first space
mountain opened in the magic kingdom at
walt disney world the concept for an
indoor space-themed roller coaster dated
all the way back to the early 1960s with
walt disney and imagineer john hench
discussing a new tomorrowland attraction
to be named spaceport after the success
of the matterhorn arrow's revolutionary
tubular steel coaster disney and hench
wanted to utilize the unique ride system
this time instead of taking guests to
the top of the swiss alps the coaster
would take guests on a trip through the
final frontier unfortunately when walt
disney died on december 15 1966 the
plans were shelved as the company was
more focused on completing walt's
florida project however after the magic
kingdom proved to be massively
successful upon its debut in 1971 it was
clear that an expansion to the park was
necessary to meet the strong demand more
specifically the park needed more
e-ticket attractions to appease young
thrill-seekers the first solution to
this was to create a hasty and abridged
version of disneyland's pirates of the
caribbean which would open in the
adventureland section of the park in
1973. the next step was a major
expansion to tomorrowland this included
moving the carousel progress from
disneyland into a new carousel theater
building a new people mover in the form
of the tomorrowland transit authority
and finally realizing disney and hench's
dream of an indoor coaster themed after
space flight disney approached
communications company rca to sponsor
the attraction and they agreed providing
10 million of space mountains
approximately 20 million dollar
construction cost the show building
built on the other side of the park's
train tracks featured a paperwhite
exterior with a conical shape and tall
futuristic spires the coaster featured
two separate tracks and a variety of
props and special effects space mountain
opened at the magic kingdom on january
15th 1975 along with the carousel
progress it debuted to much fanfare with
an entire television special leading up
to its grand opening
hi
how are you
good afternoon
i'm lucy arnez i'm lyle wagoner
me tommy tune
we've been invited to disney world to
see space mountain
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to say space mountain was a hit would be
an understatement the ride was so
successful that two years later in 1977
disneyland would receive a space
mountain of its own a multitude of size
and track accommodations had to be
implemented in order to fit the
attraction into disneyland's limited
space but the experience of the two
attractions was essentially the same
with disneyland's different ride cars
lack of two-track system and smaller
size being the main differences in 1983
six years after disneyland space
mountain would debut tokyo disneyland
would open its gates the japanese park
featured a space mountain on its opening
day closely resembling disneyland's
version once again the coaster received
a positive response from guests in fact
tokyo disneyland overall was a massive
success for disney and the oriental land
company the company that owns and
operates tokyo disney resort
from the outside it looks a lot like the
other two but there's one startling
difference about japan's magic kingdom
walt disney world productions is
designing it even sharing in the profits
but they do not own this one oriental
land company does and they wanted not a
mickey with slanted eyes but a mouse
that roared american the oriental land
company pays disney to license its
properties and contract its imagineers a
system that has resulted in arguably the
best disney resort in 1984 the year
after tokyo disneyland debuted the walt
disney company hired a new ceo and he
had one question where to next
at the top of the show biz headlines the
premier of france and the president of
the disney company signed a
multi-million dollar deal today to open
euro disney in france the agreement
comes after two years of negotiations
during which disney agreed to give the
new park a french flavor set to open in
five years the world's fourth disney
playground will occupy 4 400 acres of
what is now farmland 20 miles east of
paris as part of that cultural
compromise mickey will still be mickey
and donald will still be donald but in
euro disney goofy becomes dingo and snow
white will be called blanche nage liz
just one year after becoming chairman
and ceo of the walt disney company
michael eisner announced plans for a
euro disneyland to be constructed near
paris france this seemed like the next
obvious step for international expansion
there was only one problem they forgot
to ask france while the project was
built in coordination with the french
government and french contractors
clearly the head of public opinion
polling at the walt disney company
phoned in his report or was fired after
reading the results because the citizens
of france were very much not on board
many prominent french commentators
expressed distaste for what they saw as
a capitalistic invasion of their
beautiful countryside some going as far
as to promote burning the resort down
and describing it as a cultural
chernobyl the ceo of the resort robert
fitzpatrick attempted to assuage the
situation by explaining that the company
didn't come in and say okay we're gonna
put a beret and a baguette on mickey
mouse
and yet potential arsons in comparisons
to deadly catastrophes turned out to be
the least of the resort's worries the
magic kingdom as a park
predominantly was developed 30 years ago
and will be brought to france
intact
it will be different in that it will
take
not only advantage of but have respect
for
the french culture we will be getting
now
to look at various
uh different means of financing all the
different parts of europe disneyland
and it will resort to the magic of
disney
and uh
hope that that in the end makes the
dream come true here are just a few of
the issues that disney experienced
before opening number one disney
executives such as michael eisner
require that solely english be spoken
during all developmental meetings
sparking outrage among french citizens
number two disney's cast member
guidelines prohibiting jewelry facial
hair and certain hairstyles not only
angered and disgusted the french as a
violation of individual liberties but it
turns out that it was also illegal under
french law euro disney spokesman thor
dangelman pointed out that without the
rule the company would not be able to
provide the disney product that people
would be expecting he completely forgot
that no one wanted the product to begin
with he went on to say it would be like
going to see a production of hamlet in
which everyone looked different than you
expected would you ever go again number
three in the four years leading up to
euro disneyland's opening three theme
parks all with budgets well over 100
million dollars open in france and by
euro disneyland's opening two had gone
bankrupt and one was in financial ruin
not a good sign but fitzpatrick was
quick to comment my biggest fear is that
we will be too successful plans were
announced for an mgm studios europe and
a european epcot before euro disneyland
even opened number four operating under
this lack of hesitation eisner made sure
that the walt disney company would own a
49 stake in the euro disneyland resort
and the only reason they didn't own more
was because the french government
wouldn't allow it number five at some
point the french government began
dropping heavy hints to eisner and the
other executives that perhaps the french
would not accept a full-on disney
invasion number six as construction
progressed protesting increased on one
trip by eisner to check on the
development he was greeted by
demonstrators that were throwing eggs
and globs of ketchup and holding mickey
go home signs number seven small
villages near the resort expressed
concerns over the noise that a nighttime
fireworks show would make number eight
disney sticking with their typical
policy banned wine from the french theme
park and finally number nine the name
euro disneyland did not play well in
europe as eisner later stated as
americans the word euro is believed to
mean glamorous or exciting for europeans
it turned out to be a term that they
associated with business currency and
commerce all of those issues and i'm
sure others that i did not mention were
all present before opening day so did
eisner and disney manage to work out all
the kinks and did euro disneyland turn
out to be another smashing success for
the company
disney is not known for nailing their
opening day events the opening of
disneyland was disastrous for a variety
of reasons the most cited being the use
of counterfeit tickets that more than
doubled the expected number of visitors
the opening day of euro disneyland april
12 1992 had the exact opposite problem
the head of public opinion polling most
likely given one last chance by the
company estimated that around 500 000
visitors could show up on opening day
how many actually showed up around 25
000. more people rushed through the
gates of disneyland on the press preview
day in 1955 than entered euro disneyland
on its opening day in 1992. this was for
a variety of reasons first scared of the
potential of half a million guests at a
park made for around sixty thousand the
french government police media and
disney attempted to warn the masses not
to all come on opening day this worked a
little too well also employees working
for the suburban railroad between paris
and euro disneyland went on strike most
likely due to the impossible workload of
shuttling the projected amount of
visitors to the park supposedly two
bombs were detonated on nearby power
lines in an attempt to sabotage the
park's opening although this did not cut
off electricity the attendance numbers
for opening day were embarrassing and
eisner and disney hoped that this was
just a one day anomaly perhaps the most
depressing part of the entire situation
was that the park itself was brilliant
spearheaded by famed imagineer tony
baxter europe's magic kingdom was a
beautiful classy and quaint version of
its predecessors not only did it have
intricate theming and groundbreaking
storytelling continuity but the park
maintained a surprisingly calm
atmosphere the theme park equivalent to
a sunday stroll baxter and his team did
their homework and had it not been for
their care and consideration the outrage
the park caused could have been a lot
worse baxter made the integration of
french culture look easy this could be
due to the fact that he had been drawing
inspiration from one frenchman in
particular for nearly two decades both
walt disney and tony baxter had a mutual
appreciation for the work of 19th
century french novelist jules verne
verne's novels are among the most
recognizable of his era and his work
along with that of h.g wells popularized
the science fiction genre and more
specifically fascination in steampunk
technology steampunk as the name implies
is a genre of science fiction that
focuses on technology powered by steam
and often features elaborate bronze
pipes cogs and other metallic structures
walt disney would produce feature film
adaptions of vern's novels the most
popular of these being 1954's adaption
of 20 000 leagues under the sea in 1970
four years after the death of walt
disney tony baxter would begin his work
with walt disney imagineering one of his
first projects was art director on
twenty thousand leagues under the sea
submarine voyage which was to debut at
the magic kingdom in walt disney world
on opening day this would only be the
first of many times that baxter would
attempt to adapt jules verne's work for
disney parks during construction on big
thunder mountain railroad baxter would
design the concept for a new land in
disneyland the never built discovery bay
an area that would have been filled with
attractions directly based off of the
work of verns and wells in the late
1980s baxter would be given the most
control he had been granted yet he was
named the executive producer of euro
disneyland with his oversight euro
disneyland received the most elaborate
big thunder mountain in the world a
breathtaking and unique castle and the
first of any magic kingdom-style disney
park to not receive a tomorrowland in
its place a new land was constructed
named discoveryland designed by
imagineer tim delaney and his team
discoveryland drew inspiration from
discovery bay the work of vernon wells
and a variety of other sources when it
opened in 1992 the land looked much
different than any tomorrowland that had
come before it and it actually solved
one of the biggest issues that disney
parks have been facing since their
inception the tomorrowland problem as it
has been named by imagineers and fans is
the issue that arises when disney
constructs or renovates the area only to
have technology catch up to the theming
rendering it obsolete put simply the
problem with tomorrow is that it always
comes but with discoveryland delaney and
his team solved this issue they created
a tomorrow that will never come a
tomorrow imagined by the creative minds
of the past
right when jules verne was 11 years old
he ran away to see as a cabin boy bound
for the west indies but his father
caught him in the nick of time and took
him home and
gave him a good ticking off and quite
right too and from that moment on jules
verne made a vow that he would only ever
travel in his imagination and so he did
to the north pole to the moon 20 000
leagues under the sea
and it took the rest of us on the ride
with him and tonight jules verne returns
to france to open discovery land which
features his favorite destination the
future
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today
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play
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when discoveryland opened it featured an
astro-orbiter style ride named the
orbitron it also had a videopolis themed
after the island at the top of the world
the film partly responsible for killing
the chances of discovery bay at
disneyland paris videopos was originally
supposed to be a teen dance club similar
to its disneyland counterpart but this
was scrapped due to lack of interest
instead when videopost opened in 1992 it
featured a show called rock shock a
stage show featuring dancing teens that
were described as following in the
footsteps of jules verne because when i
think of jules verne i think of this
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also located in this area was cafe
hyperion a counter service restaurant
themed at ticket booths for the doctor
ridgible finally discoveryland featured
the visionarium the time travel themed
circle vision animatronic hybrid show in
which guests traveled through time with
the timekeeper and even ran into jules
verne and h.g wells on the border of
discoveryland were a few attractions
familiar to fans of the us parks on
opening day discoveryland featured a
star tours and captain eo which saw
george lucas's sci-fi vision find a home
in discoveryland there was also an
autopia in discoveryland themed to 1950s
ford cars discoveryland is an example of
just one of euro disneyland's many cases
of brilliant theming and execution this
made the park's controversy and troubled
opening all the more painful and worse
the issues would persist the resort was
a disaster euro disneyland's numbers did
not improve as expected and the sheer
cost of running all the resorts hotels
were making the financial problems even
worse this was due in part to the global
recession in the early 90s on top of the
mixed response from the french locals in
its opening year the park lost around 3
000 of its 12 000 employees due to
alleged poor working conditions in 1994
just two years after its debut eisner
referenced the possibility that euro
disneyland might close down completely
and the company began admitting the poor
performance and financial issues that
the park was facing but luckily despite
the failure of the resort catching
eisner and everyone else off guard they
had a backup when looking over the
opening day discoveryland attractions
you might notice that a familiar
e-ticket is missing imagineers had
planned to include set attraction in
discoveryland on opening day but after
going over the budget for the proposed
ride they decided to save it for a few
years after opening to reinvigorate
interest in the park in case that it
waned they did not expect the situation
to be as dire as it was so with no other
options an increasingly limited budget
euro disneyland put all of its hope into
the opening of a new space mountain if
it was successful it could potentially
save the resort and if it wasn't euro
disneyland would be the first disney
park to become completely
defunct
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oh
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