A Glimpse at 1988 Walt Disney Imagineering as it plans for Euro-Disney

A fascinating video from 1988 provides a look inside Walt Disney Imagineering as it plans to build Euro-Disney, aka Disneyland Paris. Behind the camera is Eddie Sotto, who was the show producer for Main Street U.S.A. at the time. He takes his camera through his department as they get ready to move much of the production to Paris and begin the hard work of bringing their vision to life.

Aside from the marvelous fashion of the late 80s, I love seen exactly how many crafts, skills, and professions are united to build a beautiful park like Paris Disneyland. There is some insane model work, including stuff that never made it into the final version of the park. I believe most of this footage was shot inside the converted bowling alley building that was also the home for the original Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and EPCOT models.

The video can be watched online and Designing Disney has also collected a bunch of screenshots, so you can go back and get a better look at some of the details.

Btw, that screencap at the top of the post? I believe that’s actually a model of Plectu’s Galactic Revue, an attraction that was scheduled to replace America Sings at Disneyland. It would have featured alien robots that had a striking resemblance to Earth base music super-stars (like Tina Turbo, aka Tina Turner) Check out this post on the history and forgotten future of America Sings for more of that.