Armchair Imagineering: Main Street Redux

[Wonderlicious]

I'm stealing the idea of listing fantasy Imagineering projects off of PrincePhilipFan, but instead of just listing a ride, I'm going to actually turn my attention to recreating the standard lands of the Magic Kingdoms for a new park. While we all love the familiar, I think that everyone can agree that nobody wants cookie-cutter theme parks scant on new ideas and attractions, especially when it comes to the tried and tested standard Magic Kingdom/Disneyland formula (Hong Kong Disneyland, cough). Thus, the aim of these threads is simple; if Disney were to create a brand new park for anywhere in the world, how would you potentially reimagine a certain land? First, we'll come to the first land, which may seem the most uninteresting...

Main Street USA

Main Street USA appears in all Disneyland-style parks, except for Tokyo Disneyland, where it becomes World Bazaar (and World Bazaar is basically Main Street USA under a glass canopy). In all forms, Main Street USA is essentially the same: small-town America from the turn of the 20th Century, almost as though plucked out of a film like Meet Me in St Louis. For Disneyland Paris, they considered moving it forward in time to the 20s, but didn't go ahead with it and created a Main Street similar to the American versions.

So, for the Disneyland Redux, here are some potential proposals for reimagining the Main Street area. They would, I should add, include some themed arcades to allow for a smoother walk during busy periods (such as parades, or opening/closing time) and midway entrances to Tomorrowland and Adventureland/Frontierland (depending on which one ends up adjacent to Main Street).

Rue de Versailles:
Why should we have an American street? Why not an elegant boulevard, appropriately stuck in the Belle Époque, like one would find in Paris or Versailles? Interestingly enough, one can get a view of the Château de Versailles looking up one of the grand Victorian streets that run up to it, just like how one sees the castle looking up Main Street USA. City Hall could become Hôtel de Ville, there would be a cinema, and there would be plenty of sidewalk cafés and fine restaurants serving French and Mediterranean cuisine. The station/entrance to the park would recall the grandiose Victorian railway stations in France.

International Street:
An adaptation of the Walt-era planned compliment to Main Street, celebrating the diverse cultures and cities of Europe.

New York Street:
Why not have the magical feeling of arriving from a small, hopeless place to the bedazzlement of a big city like New York? It would be a romantic vision of Manhattan from the 1940s, with the entrance to the park and the railway station resembling Grand Central Station (in front of the entrance and ticket booths, there would be garden themed after the landscaping of Central Park). Of course, there'd be a theatre featuring Broadway-style plays and musicals, and since the buildings would be a bit taller than their Main Street equivalents due to the general theming, they'd feature deluxe hotel rooms.

[Disney Duster]

I like all these ideas (I didn't know Paris was known for having great train railways! Fancy French and trains sound like a great combination!), but I do not know of all the things you are making references too, and...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Main Streets shows us something we can't see anywhere else, right? Like American Street was never a real street?

I think it should be more like that. Something made up, but based on things from before. Like, maybe your ideas, but changed into something not the the very same as those things that existed before. I think the 40's New York idea sounds kinda like Walt's original ideas, but updated. However, I think Walt's way, and so very possibly the Disney way, was to have a quant hominess to this part of the themeparks. Would something like Province be the European equivalent?

You ideas would be spectacular if realized, but would they be too spectacular? Main Street was supposed to be less thrilling in comparison to the castle the street lead you to.

It also has depended on what certain countries want. For instance, Japan wanted to experience American culture. But the Europeans wanted to see their own culture reflected in the theme park.

[avonleastories95]

I agree with Duster that your ideas are wonderful!