September 12 and 18, 2008: Hong Kong Disneyland and the Original, Parts 1 and 2

[Werner Weiss]

I was struck by the eerie similarities — and the major differences — between Hong Kong Disneyland and the original Disneyland. I thought it might be fun to run some comparison photos.

Link to Hong Kong Disneyland and the Original, Part 1, at Yesterland

Link to Hong Kong Disneyland and the Original, Part 2, at Yesterland

This is the discussion thread for parts 1 and 2.

[xalesa]

This is a really fun article; thanks for putting it together. I can't wait for next week's continuation. It's really funny to see those large mountains behind the castle in Hong Kong!

Nice work; Werner!

[The Shadoe]

Very interesting update! The mountains behind the castle are the perfect backdrop - really makes you feel like you are in a fairy tale land. The mature trees behind Disneyland's castle throw it out of proportion. DL feels "plopped" into the middle of nowhere by comparison to the mountain view.

[konekobus]

The American flags are missing in Main Street and the British flag is missing on the Tarzan treehouse. Does Hong Kong have anything against flags?
Even the sensitive French placed their American flags back recently.

[vfire]

So far for me the original blows away Hong Kong.

[TwilitWings]

The mountains/hills behind the HKDL's castle are very pretty, although so is the blue sky behind the original castle.

[dreemfinder]

"For Hong Kong Disneyland, the Imagineers went back to the original Disneyland design—undoubtedly at the direction of cost-conscious executives."

Having worked for Themed Design companies, it disturbs me that whenever the online community sees something they love repeated elsewhere they accuse the producers of cutting corners, of being <shudder> 'cost-conscious'.

Consider why you love the original. Then consider that the producer MAY love it for the same reason and made the creative decision to honor that original choice by repeating it.

Yes, Main Street at WDW is bigger. But it lacks the intimate charm of Anaheim's. Maybe -- just maybe -- WDI recognized that Walt got it right and decided to share that fact with the Chinese.

Just maybe.

[disneygoingauntie]

Great Article and Pictures! Wonderful to see what the parks look like (& alike!) in HK. Great ieda to compare, possibly compare more parks in the future? Thanks!!!

[Athlonacon]

The Big 3 automakers tried the same thing with retrocars...break out the blueprints from 40-50 years ago and save a wad of cash. But it didn't work out for them in the long run and it probably won't work for Disney unless they do some serious original designing in Hong Kong. Believe me, there's nothing "creative" about deciding on using 50 year old blueprints. Creative would be to use the blueprints as a *base*, and then design something new from them, like they did in Paris.

Hopefully this will be the last Magic Kingdom style park. I don't mind Disney building tons of parks, I just don't like it that the original Disneyland loses something in its uniqueness each time it's duplicated around the world. Disney can build 100 parks around the world for all I care, just as long as they are not Magic Kingdom style.

Excellent article!

[mserenity]

I couldn't help but think of a couple of other duplicate parks: Nara Dreamland and the Beijing Shijingshan park. These left me with a creepy feeling that I can't get away from whenever I think about them. And the cloning (albeit legitimate) of Hong Kong from Anaheim made me remember them.

The big difference of course is that Hong Kong is a real Disneyland and not some creepy, icky impostor. Fortunately Dreamland is long gone and the other is supposedly changing its ways.

[daveyjones]

my name is dave and i'm doing my master's thesis in design on theming. i also visited HK disneyland this past june, and i thought you would be curious to read my detailed notes on the park at my blog: www.themerica.org/blog

i wrote six pieces in all about the park:

the forest through the trees
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » the proverbial trees through the forest – hong kong update 1.

copies of copies
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » copies of copies – hong kong update 2.

future fantasies
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » future fantasies – hong kong update 3.

spaces really do need people
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » spaces really do need people – hong kong update 4.

feng shui, the disney way
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » feng shui, the disney way – hong kong update 5.

the art of disney typography
welcome to themericaâ„¢ :: an MFA design thesis by dave gottwald :: academy of art university » Blog Archive » the art of disney typography – hong kong update 6.

i've been a miceage reader for years...hopefully you will find some things of interest on my blog. in the past year i've visited all eleven disney parks around the world, and you can read about most of them there.

cheers!

dave gottwald
www.themerica.org

[Yendorb]

Interesting stuff, great site.

Originally Posted by daveyjones

my name is dave and i'm doing my master's thesis in design on theming. i also visited HK disneyland this past june, and i thought you would be curious to read my detailed notes on the park at my blog: www.themerica.org/blog

www.themerica.org

[Werner Weiss]

Because Part 2 of "Hong Kong Disneyland and the Original" is a continuation of Part 1, it made sense to me to use the same MiceChat thread for both.

So I edited the initial post, and this in now the thread for both parts.

[doppio]

Hong Kong Disneyland has the best looking Autopia, that's for sure.

[xalesa]

A great ending to a terrific story! Thanks for putting this together. Excellent job!