You know that park that lives entirely in your head? The one you’ve dreamed of and daydreamed and doodled to perfection? The one you’ve “armchair Imagineered” to such detail, you feel as if it could be a real place? After many, many years of sketching it and rearranging its pieces and adding and subtracting, I decided it was time to write mine down.

Welcome to Disney Fantastic Worlds – my first from-scratch theme park both in real life (where I started doodling the basics of this park a decade ago) and for Park Lore.

Let me say now that this feature will doubtlessly be the longest I’ve ever written for Park Lore. Together, we’ll travel from land-to-land, uncovering the Pitch, Inspiration & Concept, and Experience of each of this imaginary park’s nine lands. I may not be able to make this place as real in your mind as it is in mine, but I really intend to try! If you’d rather skim through the big stuff, you can read a Twitter-condensed version here. But if you’re interested in hearing some of my inspiration and reasoning and behind-the-scenes thinking about how this park came together, settle in!

A few notes worth mentioning before we get to the basics:

• I am by no means a professional at this. I’m a teacher with a background in museums and non-profit education. I just really, really love the themed entertainment industry, and sometimes I think I have good ideas! (And if this is the project that gets me noticed and starts me on a new path to a dream job at a wonderful design firm… hello!)

• Undercutting that sales pitch, the park we’re about to see is 100% unreasonable, unrealistic, and unworkable. This is entirely a “Blue Sky” concept drawn up by me – remember, a non-professional! – alone, without the creative input and constructive feedback that these kind of team-based projects need to reach their strongest selves. It would probably cost $10 billion. Remember that it’s also “built-out” (i.e. what a project would look like decades after opening, once it’s totally, impossibly matured). I would love your constructive feedback, but telling me it’s impossible or unlikely is… not news to me.

• Frankly, I could not have spent weeks making this without the financial support of Park Lore’s Members. For as little as $2/month, these incredibly kind individuals put their money where their mouth is, and actually support the kind of ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity theme park writing & content development we all say we want, but don’t always empower like we should. Park Lore is a one-person team (me!) and not an antagonistic Facebook click aggregator churning with ragebait, so every single new Member makes my heart sing.

With all that out of the way, our journey into this new theme park begins…

Note that we’re beginning our journey into Fantastic Worlds on July 28, 2022, and that each afternoon, I’ll return here (and to Twitter) to introduce the next of the park’s lands on our counterclockwise journey around the park.

DISNEY FANTASTIC WORLDS

To all who venture through these worlds of wonder: welcome.

Fantastic Worlds invites you into imagined stories, impossible places, and incredible adventures drawn from throughout the Disney multiverses. Across these Technicolor lands, tales of enchantment, adventure, and creativity await where land, sea, and sky converge…

Here, stories come alive; here, heroes arise from dreamers, adventurers, immigrants, and optimists; here, the impossible can be…

In each of us glows the spark of imagination. Fantastic Worlds is dedicated to that spark and to the hope that when it ignites in you, a new fantastic world will be ours.

You have to imagine that the park we’re about to explore isn’t alone. Every first gate is a “Castle Park.” Everyone knows that, right? There isn’t really an archetypical second gate, but in my imagined three park resort, park two is a modern reimagining of EPCOT. (Let me know if you want to see that park sometime.)

So if you’re willing to skip with me to this imagined resort’s third gate, you’ll probably agree with me that Fantastic Worlds gives off big “third gate” energy. Maybe it’s because (as I think you’ll agree) it’s a sort of new-age, 21st century fusion of Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, with dashes of DisneySea and California Adventure, drawing the strongest elements from these “accessory gates” and opting for something very different from – yet complementary to – a “Castle Park” and an “EPCOT Park.”

So even though I picture Fantastic Worlds as a “third gate,” it’s the first one I fully fleshed out, and the first one I’m presenting here. There are a few reasons why…

First, I knew that I wanted a park that centralized “IP lands” in one place rather than having these lands throw off the scale and scope of the other two. I think it’s pretty universally agreed that plopping Galaxy’s Edge into Disneyland and Avengers Campus into California Adventure was – in a long-game view – pretty short-sighted. After all, we all kinda know that a Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars gate will happen eventually. So in the grand scheme of things, it’ll probably be remembered as a weird move to have shoehorned these properties into existing parks rather than using them to fill two out of six slots in a new park…

Speaking of which, the second reason I jumped into designing this park first is because I love Universal’s Islands of Adventure – the park where the “IP Land” was born. Granted, Islands of Adventure managed something spectacular, which was purely by chance: it was born after the “studio park” era had waned (yet benefitted from its “Ride the Movies” E-Ticket extravagence) and before the era of the blockbuster “Living Land” (and the apparent decree that every single thing be connected to a hot film franchise of the week, long-term strategy be damned).

(To imagine what Islands of Adventure would look like if it were designed today, you need only look at Universal Studios Beijing, which uses the “Islands” layout, but populates those lands not with timeless, intergenerational stories but with current, hit movies – a consequential difference 50, 20, or even 10 years down the road when Universal Studios Beijing is likely to need major reimaginings to stay relevant.)

So in a way, Fantastic Worlds is my answer to “What if Disney built that inevitable park of IP lands around a lagoon that will almost certainly be the format of its imaginary next stateside gate?”.

The caveat is that if that park really happened, we all know exactly what “IP lands” it would contain: Frozen, Star Wars, Zootopia, Toy Story Land, Avengers Campus, Pandora, Beauty and the Beast… These pre-existing lands are easy enough to drag-and-drop, blockbuster enough to make headlines, and timeless enough to not need replaced in 20 years. Instead of taking the easy way, I decided to try my best to avoid them altogether and instead bring to life a whole different set of “worlds” that I think are equally timeless and habitable and fun and “blockbuster,” but maybe less obvious.

And in the great spirit of Islands of Adventure, I wanted to embrace the clashes between these dissimilar worlds, each with their own shores against a shared central lagoon. I thought about placing literal, gleaming white “portals” with misters on the bridges between each, but ultimately, I love that Islands of Adventure’s bridges serve as “flash cuts” between worlds, and that their sightlines smash together in a smorgasbord of sights and sounds and colors, each so distinct and yet all viewed as a whole. That’s the energy I wanted from this park of cinematic and literary worlds… and I wanted it to start in a completely new kind of entry that could serve as an opening act to so many impossible places…

HALLOW VALE

Pitch

The entrance to Fantastic Worlds lies through Hallow Vale – a dense, misty, sacred deciduous forest pulsing with energy. This is an enchanted place; a majestic woods of ancient trees and jagged, mossy rocks carved with mystical symbols. It’s a hidden forest where sunlight pours through branches, caught in the dancing, low-lying mists; where paths are carved with indecipherable runes. The energy that gathers in this place can bridge time and space, connecting those who stand in its warmth with pathways into other worlds…

Inspiration & Concept

There are a few key projects whose DNA I tried to infuse into Hallow Vale.

From Animal Kingdom’s Oasis, I took the idea of an entry land that doesn’t just tiptoe away from the “Main Street” formula, but which actively upends it. In the Oasis, there’s no oversized Emporium; no high capacity Starbucks; no park icon as the visible weenie at the end of a straightaway. Instead, the Oasis (and hopefully, Hallow Vale) includes essential services, a small shop, and quick bites, then sets you down in nature; it offers gentle guidance, but with room to meander; to explore, to get lost!

In another way, Hallow Vale has a touch of DisneySea’s entry land – Mediterranean Harbor – in that it opens up, unfolding from a narrow entry to a wide vista overlooking the park’s lagoon.

From Islands of Adventure’s Port of Entry, I pulled a narrative idea. Port of Entry pulls off something nearly impossible: it somehow manages to feel like a coherent overture for the lands that follow – lands as diverse as Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter, Spider-Man and Jurassic Park. Port of Entry is literary and stylized and detailed enough to hold its own among the park’s lineup, but it’s also eclectic and neutral enough to serve as an opening act to them all. It’s about departures and exploration and commerce and harmony, and serves as a genius narrative way “into” and “out of” those worlds. I wanted something similarly distinct-yet-neutral for my park – a place that would serve as a strong introduction and somehow a contextual unifier for the IP-heavy worlds to come.

But to tell you the truth, the spark for Hallow Vale was a project that never got built. Probably a decade ago, I first stumbled on the artwork below – a Disney “castle” formed entirely of trees and rocks and natural debris. I was totally infatuated with it; a park icon that only appeared as you made your way through the woods, assembling in plain sight at three-quarter profile; forming that iconic silhouette only for those who looked carefully…

Cupolas are made of interwoven branches; keeps formed from driftwood; shape provided by the puffy crowns of flowing trees as they encircle and rise up a rocky outcropping; Eyvind-Earle-esque waterfalls plunging and pouring over cliffs and meandering along mossy banks; long leaf pines as turrets, with spiral staircases and bridges leading to flag-flying finials…

I only found out recently that this castle was apparently part of a concept for a second gate in Hong Kong called Disney’s Enchanted Forest (a sort of compact hybrid of DisneySea and Animal Kingdom, with lands themed to various forests from Disney animated films) but by then it was too late… In my head, I’d already reverse engineered an entire concept around the castle. My Hallow Vale is definitely darker and less “Disney” than the original, but since I first sketched this idea a decade ago, I’ve been determined to make it a part of a whole park project.

Experience

Hallow Vale is all about discovery. Whereas most parks (sensibly) orient guests toward the park icon and deposit them at a central place without much effort, I wanted this enchanted woods to catch them by surprise. To that end, the park gates are 45° askew from the the land’s central structure and icon… (or it the entire park “askew,” merely by not being oriented in a typical north-south fashion? Maybe seeing the land rotated around the axis of the gates adds its own questions and answers…!)

Though a real park could never sacrifice operational efficiency in search of an “a-ha” moment that most guests would probably never have, I sort of love the idea of starting off on a path based on previous, subconscious experience only to find out you need to re-orient yourself completely. And listen – that’s not hard to do. Research suggests that most guests will tend to turn right when entering a new space, so I laid out a “path of least resistance” that also follows the directionally-complementary “spring” trees to the right.

But before we follow that inevitable path forward, let’s backtrack. If you boldly choose to resist the temptation to turn right and instead proceed forward, you’ll eventually find yourself in Hallow Vale’s autumnal grove. Here, guests could begin a clockwise trip around the park. But it’s also here that they encounter the park’s first ride.

No “immersive” land is truly complete without rockwork enveloping it and serving as a berm and backdrop. Hallow Vale’s is a beautiful, mossy, sandstone wall like the one above (located in the real Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio). That wall not only serves to cradle the land and isolate its views, but to conceal the showbuilding for RIVERS OF LIGHT.

In every iteration of Hallow Vale I’ve sketched for the last ten years, Rivers of Light has always been a part of the park. (You probably won’t believe me, but I really did call it that long before Animal Kingdom’s nighttime show of the same name!) My Rivers of Light has always been a tranquil, conflict-free boat ride, so today, it’s easiest to decribe it as a sister to Pandora’s Na’vi River Journey.

Passing through the sandstone, guests would emerge in a beautiful autumnal grove of glowing runes and camouflaged animals… With the sunset forever hovering just over the horizon, the queue would wind through this otherworldly orange glen, leading down to the river’s edge…

There, wooden boats would arrive led by lanterns lit by glowing fireflies. Departing from the dock, riders would drift beneath a canopy of sunset-hued leaves and set off beneath twilight skies. (These first few scenes would also be home to the GOLDEN GROVE RESTAURANT – an “in-ride” equivalent to Disneyland’s Blue Bayou, set beneath firefly lanterns at the water’s edge.)

Taking place “overnight,” the attraction would send guests peacefully passing through Hallow Vale’s enchanted environments, watching the forest’s mystical creatures – foxes, spiders, crickets, deer, bears, and more – settle in with their young for sleep. As each creature falls asleep, glowing sparks would rise from them, coalescing overhead into “Rivers of Light,” flowing with the boats toward some unseen point.

Past crystaline rocks and ancient shrines, this moonlit ride would (hopefully) capture the same sort of celebratory, harmonious, mystical, and musical spirit as Na’vi River Journey, all culminating in guests’ boats reaching the glowing, pulsing, crystaline caverns at the heart of the forest. Truly at peace and one with the woods, guests would see via a crystaline reflection as sparks arose from them, joining the chorus just as the sun breaks over the horizon returning guests to the dock at sunrise.

But forget Rivers of Light for a moment. After all, most people would likely begin their circumnagivation around the park the opposite way, following those spring trees path past the quintessential in-park coffee and pastry shop (BEAN & SPROUT CAFE), as well as past a 1,500 seat THEATER OF VINES for stage shows (which can also have its queue re-routed to admit guests without park admission).

Along the way, they might glance to the left through breaks in the trees, catching the unmistakable castle silhouette of the ENCHANTED FORTRESS at three-quarter profile. Speaking of which, crossing fancifully carved wooden bridges into the fortress’ interior reveals an attraction in its own right – a playground of spiral staircases and balconies and cathedrals carved by nature, all centered around a gushing well formed by jagged, mystical rocks. This glowing well produces water that pours down the well, concentrating into carved symbols in the castle’s floor.

Following those streams outside, guests see them cascade out of the castle and into the moat below. That water then flows from around the castle to the icon just beyond – the TOWER OF LIGHT, a 150-foot tall lighthouse of carved gray stone, scaly bronze tiles, wood, and sails, all wrapped in ivy and roots – having been overtaken by the forest of Hallow Vale.

Speaking of which, if you can imagine fast-forwarding to nighttime, I wanted this land to come alive. To do that, I pictured a unique land-wide light show using LEDs embedded in the park’s pathways and tree canopies. As night falls, the paths and trees would begin to gather energy as glowing, white sparks.

Those sparks would build, moving together in pulses and waves through the land, right under guests’ feet and above their heads. They’d all pulse toward a single point: the base of the Tower of Light. There, the energy would gather, roiling with power around the rocky outcropping the tower stands on. Some of that light would “spill” into the water around the lighthouse, then fall into the park’s central lagoon – a literal Sea of Stars, filled with distant points of white light. But most of the power would pulse upward, swirling around the lighthouse as it races up the ivy encasing it, powering the piercing white beacon at its peak.

Hallow Vale is meant to be a land of fantasy and enchantment; a place to get lost in nature; to set the stage and cleanse the pallate for fantastic worlds beyond. But to follow its “spring” path of cherry blossoms is to rise up an incline through the woods alongside the Enchanted Fortress where – on an outcropping over the Sea of Stars – a bridge leads onward…