Storybook Land Canal Boats
| Storybook Land Canal Boats | |
|---|---|
Storybook Land Canal Boats entrance at Disneyland
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| Disneyland | |
| Area | Fantasyland |
| Coordinates | 33°48′50″N 117°55′06″W / 33.81377°N 117.91825°W |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | July 17, 1955 |
| Disneyland Park (Paris) | |
| Area | Fantasyland |
| Coordinates | 48°52′31″N 2°46′29″E / 48.8753°N 2.77467°E |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | April 3, 1994 |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Boat ride |
| Designer | WED Enterprises |
| Duration | 6 minutes |
| Manufacturer | Intamin (Disneyland Paris only) |
| Theme | Fairy tale |
| Vehicle type | Bateau |
| Vehicle capacity | 9 (Disneyland) 20 (Disneyland Paris) |
Storybook Land Canal Boats is an attraction located at the Disneyland and Disneyland Park (Paris) theme parks. Passengers embark on a leisurely paced outdoor boat ride through a winding canal featuring settings from Disney animated films recreated in miniature. The Disneyland version was one of the original attractions when the park opened on July 17, 1955, although the miniature buildings and landscaping were not added until the following year. The version in Disneyland Paris is named Le Pays des Contes de Fées (meaning "The Land of Fairy Tales" in French) and opened in the spring of 1994.
The ride's concept dates back to Walt Disney's plans for a "magical little park" across the street from his Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. This modestly scaled, never-built amusement park was to include a gravity flow canal boat ride among its attractions.
When plans for the much grander Disneyland were being made, there was to be a "Lilliputianland", inspired by Madurodam, a miniature city in the Netherlands that Disney once visited. However, the technology did not yet exist to create the miniature animated figures that were to inhabit the "Lilliputian" village, so the canal ride opened under the name Canal Boats of the World. It was intended to be a journey past miniature recreations of the great landmarks of the world, but time and money prevented its completion. The ride was plagued by other problems. The outboard motors were prone to overheating, often forcing the boats to be pulled by hand, and because the attraction opened with little landscaping, it earned the nickname among park executives as "The Mud Bank Ride".
After two months of operation, the Canal Boats closed while Storybook Land was constructed and the muddy banks were landscaped with miniature plants, including a bonsai tree planted by Walt Disney himself. The idea of having Monstro the whale consume the canal boats came from a never-implemented concept for a "Monstro the Whale" ride, in which small boats were to be swallowed by Monstro and then plunged down a watery path into a pond below.
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Wikipedia