Tokyo Disney Sea: Tower Of Terror...**{drools}**

[Isaac]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot340.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot342.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot343.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot346.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot351.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot355.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot357.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot358.jpg

[€uroMeinke]

Let's go!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Holy GOD! :eek:

Now THAT'S what a theme park is supposed to build these days.

[wendybeth]

I looked at these pics and my first thought was "We suck".

That's amazing- very, very cool.:snap:

[Capt Jack]

oh...



my...




God! :eek:

ride it hell...I could LIVE there

[mousepod]

The Japanese version of the Mansion is in Fantasyland of Tokyo Disneyland (it's great and the CM costume is kawaii). Our Zapppop is bringing our attention to the ToT. Here's a cool page about it (spoilers) (http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/american/amwtot.html).

Let's go for New Years!

[Not Afraid]

YES! Let's go!

The placement of the TOT is so great as well. It is near the "Queen Mary" and just makes the view incredible. Not that it isn't already incredible.

[wendybeth]

I love the artist's rendering of the terrified little boy in the elevator- he doesn't look 'fun-scared', he looks like 'I'm gonna die!' scared.

[Capt Jack]

I love the artist's rendering of the terrified little boy in the elevator- he doesn't look 'fun-scared', he looks like 'I'm gonna die!' scared.


yeah...cooool aint it?? :evil:

[Gemini Cricket]

That makes DCA's ToT look like a big mustard turd.


Question:
Is Japan's ToT like DCA's or WDW's?

[innerSpaceman]

Why don't our local Imagineers have a freaking clue??





That said, exterior design is one thing .... if the attraction is as bare-bones as the DCA version, it won't matter how cool it looks from the outside.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Why don't our local Imagineers have a freaking clue??
I would not blame the Imagineers, I'd blame the budget. This thing is going to cost a LOT of money.

[€uroMeinke]

Why don't our local Imagineers have a freaking clue??


I thought much of this and the rest of the park was done by our local imagineers

[Isaac]

Why don't our local Imagineers have a freaking clue??
The Oriental Land Company exports their theme park attractions to our local imagineering deptartments for designing with a huge or sometimes unlimited budget. The estimated budget for this version of TOT is $181 million. The imagineers that designed TOT for DCA had a budget of (at the most, and a bit unlikely) $100 million thanks to Paul Pressler & Cynthia Harris. Our imagineers are their imagineers too. So it's not the imagineers that are to blame. They can make anything good, if you give them the money to bring their ideas to life.


That said, exterior design is one thing .... if the attraction is as bare-bones as the DCA version, it won't matter how cool it looks from the outside.
Ride-wise, it will follow the same basic operating layout as DCA. The elevator moves backwards into the shaft, up to the show scenes & effects, then drops, and forward into the loading area again. The elevator moving forward during the ride will remain a Floridian exclusive, mainly cause it's so problematic. I'm sure the japanese version will have a few nice surprises that'll more than make up for this.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

You could have the same ride pattern like zapp says and have incredible visuals inside. I'm willing to bet it'll be incredible, like everything else at TDS.

Says the person who's never been there but drools over reports

[innerSpaceman]

The exterior is not what costs a lot of money. Bad architechture, design and construction costs about as much as excellent architecture, design and construction.

Perhaps it was just a poor choice of artistic direction. But our Imagineering Department CHOSE a craptacular design, and I do not think budget constraints had very much to do with it. (The actual attraction that I grew tired of quickly? Well, that's another story and money probably played a large part.)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'm willing to stick my neck out and say that Number 1 cost a whole lot less than Number 2:

http://www.euxus.com/usa/047200081-california-adventure-hollywood-tower.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot340.jpg

[Gemini Cricket]

Sad, really. I still don't get the purple on DCA's.

[€uroMeinke]

Not to be an appologist for DCA, but Tokyo's tower is themed to fit into an East Coast architecture, where DCA's is more Spanish/Moorish design refelctive of early 20th century Hollywood.

A comparison with WDW's tower is probably more appropriate

And I wonder how DLP's tower will look?

[innerSpaceman]

Yes, better to compare DCA's with the original Tower at DisneyWorld (which, btw, is technically No. 1, while DCA's is appropriately No. 2).

While not as grandly excentric gothic as No. 3 in Japan, the original has a 20's Hollywood styling that is much more appealing and creepy than the design chosen for California. If you look at the level of detail in the original, you'll see that it's about as ornate as the DCA version, but in a different architectural style. The price tag for the exteriors would, I suspect, be similar.

I'm willing to concede that the luxurious detail of the Tokyo DisneySeas version comes with a higher cost, but I remain convinced that the exterior work represents a small fraction of the overall attraction cost. The descriptions on the page that mousepod linked to above sound like the same old, quickly boring show scenes that we have in DCA. What a shame.

[wendybeth]

The Tokyo version looks very Byzantine- sort of West meets East.

[Not Afraid]

I found it interesting that the interiors of both DCA and WDW's towers are strikingly similar in decor and design, while the exterior architecture is VERY different. I wonder how similar the next 2 will be to their elders?

[Isaac]

I wonder how DLP's tower will look?
Same as ours pretty much. Some of the concept art from their TOT was on display in DCA before our version opened because the artwork was identical.
It's not going into Disneyland Park though. It's going to Walt Disney Studios Park.

Here's a recent pic from Parc Walt Disney Studios:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/ToTWDS.jpg

[Cadaverous Pallor]

A comparison with WDW's tower is probably more appropriateBeing that I've never been on Florida's tower, and it was built over a decade ago, I have to admit that it doesn't really concern me that much how it compares. But here it is anyway, with DCA thrown in:

http://www.danandsherree.com/photos/upload/2004/11/017.jpg

http://lostworld.pair.com/disneyland/california_adventure/hollywood/images/jun04-tower-mid.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/amwtot357.jpg

Ok, to my eyes, this shows that they spent far more money on the exterior of the TDS one and far less on WDW and DCA's. In fact, DCA's and WDW's look very similar.

TDS has set a very high standard for theming. I am of the highly subjective opinion that with Disney's ridiculous gobs of cash they should make everything as perfect as the current technology allows. Apparently that's what TDS is doing, and we deserve the same.

[Not Afraid]

Well, TDS has money to spend and we don't. All hail OLC.

But, I believe the architecture difference have more to do with the placement of the attraction than the money spent.

Take the Haunted Mansion in the various parks for example:

New Orleans, antebellum style mansion in New Orleans Square

http://www.disneyfans.com/dlvstmk/tn/mansion_dl.jpg

WDW in Liberty Square with a North-eastern style mansion.

http://www.disneyfans.com/dlvstmk/tn/mansion_tmk.jpg

Phantom Manor in Frountierland with Victorian architecture popular in the west during the gold rush.
http://jacquy.canalblog.com/images/panopm.jpg

And Tokyo's which is in Fantasyland and is a replica of WDW's version. (TY MP)

http://www.mouseplanet.com/tokyo/edwards/tdl_HAUNTED_MANSION%20_01_EDWARDS.jpg

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, an arugment which goes out the window when Tokyo puts the Hudson River architecture Mansion in Fantasyland, where the design makes zero sense.

Also, and more appropriate to this discussion, both American Towers of Terror feature 1920's California architecture. One's simply more boring, less creepy. Both are accurate, but one is more interesting and more appropriately frightening. The exterior of the original looks to have cost a few palty hundred thousand dollars more than the DCA sequel.

Perhaps it's not really the "fault" of the imagineers, but rather the curse of DCA that has resulted in the most boring-looking Tower of Terror being chosen for California. If so, it's hardly surprising that the only Disney park worse than DCA, the Walt Disney Studio Park in France, would select the boring model as their ToT.

[Not Afraid]

Yeah, I agree the Fantasyland architecture is not a direct hit, but at least it looks like Toad Hall which is actually in Fantasyland. Sort-of.

I think the Tokyo TOT facad works with the Eastern Seaboard theme of that area of TDS. It is sort of like some Hudson Valley or Newport RI mansio which fits in with the rest of the area. A Spanish Revival building just wouldn't fit in as it does at DCA and WDS.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Well, TDS has money to spend and we don't. All hail OLC.This branches into the whole "we don't have money because it's been wasted on purchasing ABC" discussion. I won't bore everyone with that again :)

Bottom line - OLC rocks, Disney can suck my dick until they come out with an E-ticket-made-from-scratch-not-a-copy-newest-tech-ultimate-facade-complete-repeatability-actual-ride-in-Disneyland. Hell, add in "not-based-on-a-movie-or-tv-show" and I just might die of shock.

[innerSpaceman]

Hmmm, let's see. The last one that I can recall is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 1978. Nothing since then fits the excellent Cadaverous criteria. (And, to my knowlege, Big Thunder remains the only post-Walt attraction to meet that criteria. In other words, don't hold your breath.)

[Isaac]

Cosmic Waves - 1998 ;)


BTW: BTMRR opened in 1979

[Not Afraid]

BTW: BTMRR opened in 1979

You're supposed to whisper it. ;

[Not Afraid]

You deleted it befor I could give you mojo!

[Isaac]

That's as small the font gets.

[orbitalpunk]

F***!

[Isaac]

This is the concept art for Parc Walt Disney Studios version:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/EDTOTCA.jpg