Disney's Cancelled Theme Parks
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Among Disney's many theme parks worldwide, the company has also amassed a string of park ideas that for some reason or another went unmade. And while for some, this may simply be because of money, for others they were cancelled for far more controversial reasons.
You can follow me on Twitter idk: / gappingthemind
There are a ton of great stories surrounding cancelled plans for future Disney parks. From an expansion to Disneyland with WestCOT, to the controversial Disney's America, or the precursor to Walt Disney World, Riverfront Square. And while you may have already heard plenty of stories about Disney's Cancelled Hotels and Resorts, I've never seen the theme parks covered in one place. So, in this video, let's take a look at these cancelled and abandoned theme park projects over the years, and the many rides, attractions, and crazy plans that might have come with them.
If you're reading this, you should probably subscribe. Or watch some of my other videos! I make lots of videos about theme parks, Disney, Universal, and any other interesting stories.
The background music for this video comes from Epidemic Sound (referral link): share.epidemicsound.com/imrsqv
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:00 Walt Disney's Riverfront Square
5:44 DisneySea & PortDisney
10:06 WestCOT
16:10 Disney-MGM Studios Europe
19:06 Singapore Disneyland
20:18 Disney's America
28:46 Remnants of the Cancelled Parks - Розваги
"then CEO Michael Eisner..." is like the theme park worlds equivalent of "On September 11th, 2001...", in that it never precedes anything good
damn, i definitely understand why Westcot was never built, but man it looks like it had would have been incredible. havent been a fan of what theyve been doing at CA adventure in recent years, and just seeing the plans for Westcot really makes me wish they went through with it lol.
If Eisner decided not to build Euro Disneyland (Disneyland Paris) then it’s possible WestCot would have been built and opened. But unfortunately we don’t live in that timeline and DCA is all we get. Maybe when Disneyland decides to build its 3rd gate maybe they could revive it but I doubt it.
DCA is way better than it used to be.
@@Oldnonamewell yes but it still s*cks
You can say what you want about Michael Eisner, but during his reign as CEO, Disney parks reached their zenith. I met the man once, late at night, on the monorail. He was silent and looked grumpy, and had a muscular bodyguard by his side. So, not exactly Mr Congeniality. Nevertheless, the Disney parks were totally magical. His imagination and drive were responsible for that magic. I miss the old Eisner days. Bob Chapek nearly drove it into the ground!
As a Gen X 80s kid who loved Disney, I was so enamored with Eisner. Sure, there were missteps, but he also revitalized the brand at a time when it was crashing. I don't see Iger doing that now. 😢
As someone who has always lived extremely close to Disneyland, that Westcot park sounded amazing! SpaceStation Earth would have been visible from anywhere in Orange County! I mean a huge gold golf ball, no way you could miss that.
We actually met an “imagineer” vacationing with his mother at River Country in the very early ‘90’s, who told us they were working on an animal park. My son who was 12 years old returned to the U.K. from our holiday with pneumonia and spent a while in hospital,so our memories of this park are slightly jaded !
Wishing WestCOT would play a part in DisneylandForward and the $60 billion investment plan (which sadly is very unlikely would happen at this point).
And if Disney for some reason builds a third theme part resort in the USA which more than likely would be southern Texas, they should again explore having Disney’s America as a theme park option.
If Disney World recovers from the recently low park attendance, I would love to see DisneySea become the 5th gate.
Disney World will recover.
Once it deals with the social and political issues within itself and current state leadership.
Disney Sea in Florida would be a amazing idea. As well as one in California either one. Although a renewed Westcot would be a far better choice for California.
Texas another state suffering political and social issues would likely once its stable again would be a perfect choice for Disney America. Athough what to put in it would heavily depend on the State government and views.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpentwe should write a letter to them about these ideas. Also they are trying to deal with these issues but things like DeSantis and the negative people on Social Media aren't making it easy.
I think what we need now is a video just on Michael Eisner!
Ive been really enjoying your theme park videos! Its such a rarity to find a channel as informative and fun as yours. Please keep up the great work! Your efforts are deeply admired
As a historian, Disney’s America is like my holy roman empire…I think about that concept on the daily so thank you for making a video on it!
No.
Sorry buddy but I don't wan't to see employees dressed as stereotypical indigenous tribes.
Yeah, there were some really bad ideas for that project. I still remember the first internal presentation that Weis and his insular team gave to the rest of Imagineering. I was quite happy to see it go away.
Yeah it's would have been America's own private Epoc.
Everything about Disney's America felt so '90s, from its logo to its sanitized framing of history. I imagine the park aging as well as the public image of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.
Can you do a video on Disney’s standalone hotels? Like the one in Hawaii. It never quite made sense *why* Disney decided to build unthemed hotels in random locations
If WestCot did come to fruition, I imagine the "Ride the Dragon" ride would be re-themed to Raya and the Last Dragon! I would so ride that!
Ride the Dragon takes place in China while Raya takes place in Southeast Asia, so that retheme wouldn't make sense. That would be like placing an Encanto ride in Epcot's Mexico Pavilion.
@@Lil_Angry_Bitch Raya and the Last Dragon doesn’t take place in Southeast Asia. It takes place in a fictional world that is only based off of multiple countries in Asia. It’s just like how Frozen Ever After is in Epcot’s Norway pavilion, even though the movie doesn’t take place in Norway but the fictional world of Aerendale, which is only loosely based off of Norway.
It's been really interesting to follow what's been happening in the former site of River Country. It was going to be a major DVC (Disney Vacation Club, Disney's version of timeshare) resort, but apparently they got as far as beginning the foundations. And stopped. The site remains empty. Disney has applied for permits and extensions of permits around the site, but it is till in limbo.
Probably no correlation, but Westcot looks a lot like Vegas now, especially with the pyramid and big sphere
The Long Beach project was never seriously in play. Disney spent a few bucks developing it for a while just to try and leverage more concessions out of Anaheim’s political leadership, who were supposed to be worried that Disney might choose Long Beach over them. Disney had tried a similar tack with a proposed park in Burbank’s old Golden Mall district a couple years before.
It's fun to think that in alternate universes these parks exist and the ones (other than Disney Land) that do exist in our universe don't exist in theirs.
Lots of channels cover similar topics but your video style and how informative you are makes you stand out, keep it up!
disneysea and portdisney wouldve been awesome. someone should try to pitch some of these concepts to disney again
Even as a teen I wondered why EuroDisney wasn't planned for a spot in Spain. I often wonder if it would have been more successful there.
I was also REALLY looking forward to Disney America and am still bitter that the NoVA snobs stopped it dead.
Beautifully done brother, thanks for making the video
...and I'm sad Westcot never became a thing
I really don't understand the retroactive shitting on Eisner. He put Disney back on the map in the 90's. He didn't get everything right, but most of his ideas were either immediately successful, or became successful after some initial hurdles. He headed up the last great decade of the Disney parks. It's been downhill since 2000. Standards have dropped, projects have been homogenized & dumbed down, and profit at guest expense has become the focus. Disney is simply too big.
Really because Iger did save them in the 2000's and it wasn't until the pandemic things have gotten out of hand.
Great video! It’s tough to provide info and visuals for stuff that doesn’t exist, but you nailed it. Very interesting.
I love that some projects got cancelled because they went so hard on others! Would love to seee that happen now
While I largely agree with the protests against Disney's America I can't help but wonder how that park would've worked out. And California Screamin is a steel coaster, I do wonder if they actually would've built (or better yet, relocated a ride like the Chippewa Lake Park Big Dipper, which was very salvagable at the time) a classic woodie. I genuinely think the industry is better off if Disney had saved a classic woodie like that.
Have you done a video on the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta? I'm more impressed with it than any theme park I've visited, particularly the huge central tank and the pedestrian tunnel under it.
This guy has an excellent narration voice, as well as a great sense pacing & presentation. I would love to see more theme park related content.
Great video as always! Thanks for the consistently quality content.
Seriously man your context quality is amazing ! Keep it going !
i found you very recently nd i'm loving these kinds of videos, keep it up man! hope you're having a good one
Great video! I love the grand ideas Disney had even if they all didn’t come to existence.
Very nice video it reminds me of what one youtube use to do, the one that did the weird epcot series, and bright Sun production.
Keep up the excellent job 👏 😢😢
Great interesting video with great depth
The West(ern) Community of Tomorrow (WestCOT) sounds like something pretty dog-gone interesting.
Eisner was a dreamer and ambitious man with great ideas with a history of green lighting great movies such as lilo and stitch, Disney’s sitcom age, Kim possible, gargoyles, and many others he also seemed to care immensely about Disney ip and incorporating that into the parks I can not say the same things about Bob iger
I could try to ask him on Twitter about that and what he thinks about it.
Eisner simply overexpanded, Iger is the one responsible for turning Disney woke and toxic. He's easily the WORST person ever to take over Disney.
Of all the parks here, I think Westcot is the most interesting, due to the fact that it would have been not just a western counterpart to Epcot, but would gel better than California Adventure does with Disneyland, considering it's arguably more "Disney" in it's nature, especially given what California Adventure was like in it's early years (Superstar Limo anyone?).
Part of this is because... well, California Adventure doesn't really have much of a "theme" to it beyond, well... Disney, it honestly feels rather generic compared to Disneyland right next door, as well as the parks in Florida. The fact that Epcot and Magic Kingdom already feel like counterparts to each other (Magic Kingdom being fantasy and Epcot being science fiction) would have made Westcot feel more like it's to Disneyland as Epcot is to Magic Kingdom. Although saying the giant Epcot globe would have been an eyesore to Anaheim residents is hilarious when you consider the giant LED orb that was recently built in Las Vegas, now THAT's an eyesore.
But I think the most interesting one would have been Disney Sea, due to just how ambitious of a project it was, even compared to Walt's original proposal for Epcot. Given it's ocean theme, it's hard to say if it was supposed to be a waterpark or a theme park in general, but the whole place looked like it would have cost the GDP of several countries to build, eespecially given those giant domes in the center, which they could have just made the underwater castle from The Little Mermaid as a counterpart to Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella's castles, which would have cost much less and be a lot more on-brand with Disney than building a bunch of giant glass sci-fi domes.
I see a serious problem with building new parks and attracting people to its existing parks. It's that their usual animatronic attractions look primitive in comparison to the CGI we see in movies. That removes much of the magic for children.
Saint Louis & Missouri really took a loss on that decision!
Not only that, but they also lost two NFL teams, the Cardinals and the Rams.
These are great videos. Keep it up.
15:20 hmmm giant sphere in a skyline. Now where have I heard of that before
I really wish we could see mythology creatures likes dragons and unicorns 🦄 that was already planned but never seen the light of day thanks to that commercial from animal kingdom and McDonald’s
Great video, smart takes
Defunland UA-camr did a great topic on Disney American theme park
.
Westcot would have been so beyond it's years. Even today if they were to make it. I think having a combination of this and port Disney and America would make an amazing park that even today would be amazing to see but the incompetence of Disney leadership of today would never do anything ambitious and something so ahead of its time that would celebrate and embody what Disney was created to be but also make them so much money
Yet you have that dream and desire for it.
Send your views on it to the Disney company and encourage others to share that view.
The biggest weakness of the United States and its citizens is relying to much on leadership or people in power. Always expecting them to do the right thing you want them to do, and very rarely do they ever do it.
How about influencing them to do the right thing instead? How about telling them. Even a massive company like disney will listen if enough people voice their concerns.
In a educated, intelligent manner.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_SerpentI agree with that.
Everyone vilifies Michael Eisner, but the parks under his reign seem to have fared better than under the two Bobs (three if you include the second coming of Iger).
please make a video about the criticism of disney's america!!
Rip river country
Also MVP micheal Eisner 😂
Are you saying The Marvels had a budget similar to this theme park? Yikes. Just yikes. 💀
The opposition to the Virginia Park is a illustrious presentation of how inserviceable the modern consumer has become. People didn't wag their finger at Walt when he was creating a classic Colonial Main Street in Disney world. They didn't chastise him on the horrors of animal husbandry when drafting animal attractions. There are most definitely detractors, but then, they were so few, and so lacking a voice, that nobody cared to serve them, and we were better for it.
Amusement parks are supposed to be celebratory, wondrous locations for all people today to enjoy. If we are so put off by the horrors of our past, that we won't allow ourselves to be happy today, that, to me, suggests the only value referencing history has is to perpetuate anger, regret, and sadness. By those terms, never should we heed The Voice of those detractors, who aim only to humiliate and shame, at the cost of all people's joy and wonder.
i really don’t like all of the hate california adventure gets… i think beauty is in the eye of the beholder and as a kid who grew up with the og dca, i was fascinated by it and i loved so many qualities of it.
Love Michael E ❤ I truly miss him. I hope he is doing good.
27:45 thats wild
Do you guys think Walt Disney's Riverfront Square would’ve been awesome?🎢
Larry Craig! He's that politician with the wide stance.
Only one thing that I would have liked to see here: Disney Wharf at Sydney Harbour.
Disney’s America would have been great! WestCOT and DisneySea too!
You forgot ONE park: Nara Disneyland. The only thing is this park was built with the blessing of Walt Disney himself and designed by WED. So, what happened? What is the story behind Nara Disneyland and why did it open instead as Nara Dreamland????
Westcot space station and Anaheim failed so MSG Sphere and Vegas could run
Westcot would’ve been super successful
There was one that was going to be in New Jersey. But, it was cancelled.
WestCOT became The California Science Center.
27:08 That is alot closer then your meant I'm sure as.... South Florida succeeded the rest of Florida after er we succeeded from the US... And California for the longest time could not make up it's mind ... So yeah I DK which side Micky would have aligned with based on where he lives currently.
Bring Back Dreamfinder!
“F*CK!”
-St. Louis circa 2016
I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of Westcot and Disney America. Ignoring the disney haters hopeful that Disney will fail as a company, when disney largely recovers from the current situation going on in the world and the US, not to mention itself, its likely that Westcot and Disney America are going to turn back up.
Especially given the current news that Disney had about its current plans for Disneyland resort in California.
Finally someone who has faith in them. You know something similar has happened before during those Dark Ages. I am hopeful it all turns out well.
To be honest those haters are bothering me and feel line they are indirectly hurting my feelings with their words.
@@disneyboy3030@disneyboy3030 The haters are a combination of a number of social and political fans that largely have become disillusioned by Disney either politically , socially, or storytelling, or are just jealous. Much of the hate is social, due to many not liking some material, many are political cause they've been conditioned to hate anything that goes against what they been told since 2016. Its a mess. The best thing is to continue to like what you like and hopefully these anti-disney-american haters will eventually cool down or go hide back under the rocks they came from.
Disney Wharf at Sydney Harbour didn't make the cut. I think Tokyo Disney Resort got the better realisation of DisneySea than what was proposed for Long Beach, California. WestCOT was the superior proposal for a second California park. That proposal also included a much nicer Esplanade and hotel area than what was eventually realised at the Disneyland Resort with the construction of Disney California Adventure. WestCOT also took the EPCOT Park concept and plused it by 10. The only EPCOT that could beat it would be a fully realised Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow as envisioned by Walt.
Fun part about Disneys original EPCOT is that it can indeed be created now. The question is if someone has the money and will to create it.
Of course being a company city there are massive issues to overcome.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent If only that were what Disney Living Development was in the business of instead of that Storyliving nonsense out in the desert of Coachella Valley. I don't think Walt would have been a fan of Cortino. It seems to be more about luxury and exclusivity than solving the problems of urbanity and suburban sprawl.
@@david_walker_esq The problem with walts vision is that it was based on the at the time corporate towns. It also had a serious set of rules and similar that was questionable even then at the time.
I have no doubt however that such a town can exist and thrive in the modern age. The problem with it is trying to get people to stomach the idea and creating a set of rules and ideas to follow.
Like no cars in the city.
reliance on true public transportation.
Replacement of appliances and new tech when it became available.
limitations on some freedoms etc.
Very difficult in a society who barely is able to work together when they are not trying to bash each other for political and or social reasons.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent The proposed governance of EPCOT is the least important aspect of the community. The strict governance of the company town model is not what I appreciate about Walt's vision. The separation of motor vehicles from pedestrians and the prioritization of pedestrians over cars is what appeals to me. The use and encouragement of public transit over private vehicles and making the centre of the community a multimodal transit centre is what's great about Walt's vision. It only took 50 years for transit oriented development, pedestrian prioritization and necessary mixed use development to become priorities in urban planning.
The concept of a climate controlled retail centre at the heart of the community, surrounded by higher density commercial and residential is also appealing and what Victor Gruen had in mind for "the shopping centre" as opposed to typical suburban malls surrounded by parking lots, disconnected from the community. Walt's vision of "international streets" of retail, entertainment and dining is not unlike complexes like the original concept of the West Edmonton Mall or the Venetian, Bellagio or Paris casino resorts in Las Vegas. It doesn't need to be a restrictive as the World Showcase pavilions in EPCOT we have today.
Even the mandatory participation in appliance and home products testing is hardly necessary for a concept like EPCOT to be successful. In a modern context, it would be a company like Sidewalk Labs, not GE conducting such research. The entire city need not be a testbed for consumer research, but only a neighbourhood within the community or perhaps as much as quadrant of the community that could provide a cross section of the higher density of the central city with lower density housing in the periphery.
If you're interested in realized communities and urban planning that prioritize people over cars, check out channels like The Aesthetic City, Not Just Bikes, Strong Towns and City Beautiful. The Aesthetic City released a video on Cayala in Guatemala City. It's a better concept than Disney's Cotino. Unfortunately, like Cotino, it's somewhat isolated from its surrounding metropolitan area. But, it's walkability and community centre excellent.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_SerpentI can definitely see these issues today with how people are acting.
They are soooo lucky they didn’t build Disney America. That would’ve aged so badly lmao
They missed Disney Australia.
Very informative video! Could do without the Eisner slander, relatively distasteful, but to each their own.
Bring back Captin EO
I hate they didn't do the Africa part. But not surprise and I am sure i may know y but idk..smh..
Well if Disney ain’t gonna build thise park then maybe six flags or we will
Ultimately Eisner failed to understand the European market and in hindsight they should have built Euro Disney/Disneyland Paris somewhere else. Or significantly modify their plans, this is what makes large theme park operators hesitant to open up in Europe.
I don't know alot about it so what didn't he understand.
Yes. It should have been in Spain or Italy (honestly in Barcelona where Port Adventura is now)
How come Disneyland Paris's reception was poor.
The one time I’m actually really happy when euro Disney failed is because of Disney’s America.
You didn’t mention that after Virginia Disney wanted to buy knotts berry farm
Some of the ideas would have been great like the grandees of Westcot but a lass it never happened some of it though I would have wished to seem but never the Disney America this country ain’t too great to be celebrated
Disney needs to cancel all the parks in Florida, but in California, they should move forward with their expansion.
#DisneyDiva
This video was stupid
Jk, i loved it
I can't abide Disney
It's all for the best Riverfront Square never saw the light of day. St. Louis' population has rapidly declined over the past half-century and I doubt it would have been sustainable today.
Probably also for the best Westcot never happened either considering how shamelessly Disney has butchered the original Epcot to a depressing shell of its former self. and it would be even more depressing doubling that heartbreak had Westcot seen the light of day.
And Disney's America? It would have gotten severe backlash from woke activists today if it ever saw the light of day: from how indigenous Americans were portrayed to the nationalistic imagery. I totally agree with the project's opponents at the time of trivializing American history.
Well Metro St Louis has had a relatively stable population in the past half century (most of those leaving St Louis moved to the suburbs like what happened to most American cities). It would have probably still been profitable.
Now if they want to show thr history and teach history. Hire a great black professor to teach ppl that is a diff story but idk.
I wanna see these awesome Disney Parks happen!
- Tokyo Disney Animal Kingdom (a third gate for the Tokyo Disney Resort that’s a Tokyo Disney version of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but with more attractions and more animals)
- Bahamas Disneyland Nassau (perfect for a Bahamas Disney Resort)
- Disney’s Bahama Island theme park (part of a possible Bahamas Disney resort with connections to Disney Cruise Line)
- Disney Riverfront Square (a newly-revived Riverfront Square indoor theme park, but for modern audiences)
- Disney’s American Adventure theme park (located somewhere in Texas or Florida adjacent to the Walt Disney World resort or elsewhere in the USA)
- Disney’s American Celebration theme park (located somewhere in Texas or South Carolina or Missouri or Florida adjacent to the Walt Disney World resort)
- Disney’s American Dream theme park (located somewhere in Texas or South Carolina or Florida adjacent to the Walt Disney World resort or elsewhere in the USA)
- Disney Hawaiian Kingdom (an impressive indoor theme park located in Hawaii)
- Disneyland Dubailand aka Disneyland Dubai
- Disneyland Singapore
- Disney Down Under chain (multiple Disney parks in Australia)
- Disneyland Down Under Sydney
- Disneyland Down Under Melbourne
- Disneyland Down Under Brisbane
- Disneyland Down Under Queensland
- an expansive EuroDisney resort chain with multiple EuroDisney resorts throughout Europe!
- EuroDisneyland UK
- EuroDisneyland France (maybe a reimagined Disneyland Paris resort)
- EuroDisneyland Germany
- EuroDisneyland Italy
- Disney’s Fantasyland (a new indoor theme park idea)
- Worlds of Disney indoor theme park chain
- Worlds of Disney California
- Worlds of Disney Florida
- Worlds of Disney New York
- Worlds of Disney Texas
- Worlds of Disney Missouri
- Worlds of Disney Oklahoma
- Worlds of Disney Nevada (possibly in Las Vegas)
- Disney Universe Indoor Theme Park (a new indoor theme park idea maybe for Hawaii or Florida or New Jersey or the New York City area)
- Unknown Second Gate for the Hong Kong Disney Resort
- Unknown Third Gate for the Disneyland Paris Resort
Whoa that's alot of ideas you have there.
As a Singaporean, as much as I'd like to imagine what it would be like for us to have a Disneyland, we're way too tiny for that. I think we're the size of about 3-4 Disney Worlds itself...
but hey, we're going to be a home port for a Disney Cruise ship in 2025 so that's fair enough.
Boa tarde, vim aqui dizer que só o amor de Deus pode preencher nosso vazio. Só falem com Ele
Anybody who doesn't like what Disney is going to build in Anaheim should move. Disney was there first.
Nice video
Universal so much better now epic in Orlando will kill disney
ディズニーシーは日本しかないよな。なんでだろう。
Canceled by God?
To bad for St Louis, but I'm not sure how Disney would have successfully reworked that theme to include black, transgender, alpha "female".
1:10 yummy