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Designing Islands of Adventure

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I wouldn't necessarily blame the artist. They could have been instructed to conceptualize an HP overlay of The Lost Continent, which wouldn't have been the worst idea in theme park history. It was one of the more magical islands in the park.
 
jWuumdMGgBbeN.jpg

Oh man. Just imagine if they tried to have a water feature like that in the oh so spacious streets of Hogsmeade we have today!

Complete. Chaos.
 
I will say though that I liked the entrance to the ride. As a Harry Potter fan I would have LOVED to enter through the Great Hall. The Bridge that went over the stream was pretty nice as well.
 
It's funny that you mention entering through the hall, because although that's true of the concept art view from Hippogriff, the main concept art of Hogwarts (in this set) has us entering far below Hogwarts (the implication being that the scale model is even smaller than what we see today, more like Beast's castle in FLE).
 
All of this must of been before Universal restructured its debt and they had NO MONEY... :lol:
 
There were a lot of crazy ideas thrown around back then. One was having a roller coaster go through the enchanted oak... one where you were riding a broom stick. I believe this overlay of LC was what Universal really tried to sell initially.
 
There were a lot of crazy ideas thrown around back then. One was having a roller coaster go through the enchanted oak... one where you were riding a broom stick. I believe this overlay of LC was what Universal really tried to sell initially.

Painful to think that some of this artwork was actually presented to WB and JKR. Uni must have received a whole lot of: :doh:
 
There were a lot of crazy ideas thrown around back then. One was having a roller coaster go through the enchanted oak... one where you were riding a broom stick. I believe this overlay of LC was what Universal really tried to sell initially.

Then Disney's must of been worse to give Universal another chance....
 
The original LC holds a very special place in my childhood, I remember the first time I ever saw the facade for Poseidon's Fury as well as The Enchanted Oak. Back then you had that wonderful actor who played Merlin and the area was so magical. Sigh. I love the WWoHP so much but sometimes I miss the old times.

I miss the original Lost Continent as well. Here's my old pic of Merlin,

ioalcontinent066.jpg



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--- Update ---

Can anyone tell me what the hell that Mayan/Aztec pyramid is in the background?




While trying to find for my old Merlin pic, look what I've found! I'm surprised too!



jWuumdMGgBbeN.jpg



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Ah, my dear Don, thank you. It was driving me nuts. That artist must be horrible at perspective and scale. Both the pyramid and signage are very tall in the drawing.

And I'm thinking that Disney's proposal might not have been "worse", but perhaps they were unyielding, whereas Universal was obviously receptive.
 
And I'm thinking that Disney's proposal might not have been "worse", but perhaps they were unyielding, whereas Universal was obviously receptive.

I'd put my money on this being the reason. Both this proposal from Universal and whatever Disney put on the table obviously wasn't what WB and JKR wanted. I'd bet Universal put their ego aside and went back to the drawing board when Disney wouldn't.
 
I'd put my money on this being the reason. Both this proposal from Universal and whatever Disney put on the table obviously wasn't what WB and JKR wanted. I'd bet Universal put their ego aside and went back to the drawing board when Disney wouldn't.

My theory is similar, but instead it was Universal's extensive and chronic use of contract work that got them the contract. Universal was open to working with WB movie division, Disney was not.
 
^Do you just mean that Disney's Imagineers would have been unwilling to work with production designer Stuart Craig and art director Alan Gilmore?
 
My theory is similar, but instead it was Universal's extensive and chronic use of contract work that got them the contract. Universal was open to working with WB movie division, Disney was not.

Idk. I mean, Disney goes outside when it needs to. Like with Everest and now with Avatar.