Disney's Complicated Relationship with European Theme Parks

Everyone knows what Disneyland, or Disney World is. Many non-Disney theme parks have tried to capitalise on Disney's popularity, creating their own copy-cat versions of Disneyland rides with the hopes of attracting guests. At one point in time, European theme parks were the worst offenders. However, Walt Disney was inspired too. He travelled the globe gaining inspiration for his original Disneyland park, which debuted in 1955 in Anaheim, California, USA. And, a lot of this inspiration came directly from some of the world’s first theme parks, which just so happened to be located in Europe.

PATREONS: D. Newman, Simon Stirrat, Simon Ward, Racc Hudson and Urso Brando

SOCIAL MEDIA:

VIDEOS:

VIDEO SECTIONS:
00:00 Introduction
01:04 An Idea
02:34 Tivoli Gardens
05:44 The Expansion
08:04 ' 'Inspiration' '
12:18 Disneyland Paris
14:47 Originality
18:27 Inspiration

[TheDutchRevolution]

In the Netherlands we have a saying: "Beter goed gejat dan slecht bedacht" which means "It's better to steal a good idea than to create a bad one"

[politiekhistorie]

If Disneyland Paris was built in the UK, Germany, Netherlands or Belgium it wouldn't have had the problems it had now. The center of western Europe sounds great but other than Paris there aren't any rich conglomerates in the area. There is a reason all French parks until that point had failed (now popular parks like Puy du Fou and Parc Asterix opened just a few years before DLP, while the other mentioned countries have multiple successful parks. It helps enormously that in that area there are many conglomerates consisting of cities with rich inhabitants. Closest to Paris is Lille with 1, 5h drive but that is a relatively poor area. If hey instead built in somewhere in the Eifel region, within a two hour drive were Flanders, a substantial part of the Netherlands, The Ruhr Valley, Frankfurt area, Neckar Valley, etcetera.

The problem is they thought Europeans had the same concept of distance as Americans, which they don't. They also presumed DLP would profit from the combination with tourism (which it didn't; most people that visit Paris only visit Paris, and those who visit DLP only visit DLP). While Tokyo took the Disneyland concept of being within driving distance of a lot of rich enough people, DLP took the Disneyworld concept of being within flying distance of a large part of Europe. If they had gone with the Disneyland-concept, it would have been a huge success.

[VincentRoch]

Efteling in the Netherlands is amazing, they have many original ideas and world-class rides, really worth the trip!

[hannesk.]

The owner of the Europa Park is a builder from very much rollercoaster in the whole world so also in Disney. His name is Mack.

[benjaminwright]

Awesome documentary Harry! I don't think I've ever seen the European-Disney relationship explained and showcased in such a great way before

[AndersHenke]

There’s certainly different aspects of every single park which do explain more of their background. For example, Phantasialand cannot expand, so in order to be more competitive, Phantasialand does both very weird engineering tricks to save space, replaces their rides every few years by very creative new ones and does provide too-notch theming of their park and hotels. If you do consider Disney to be very pedantic about theming, decorating and accurate operations, you have missed how much more immersive Phantasialand can be.

[stellaVista]

Thanks for a great video. There´s an elephant in the park though, which is Disneys most iconic "inspiration": The Disneyland castle is taken entirely from Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany.
Also: Splach Mountain is a log flume, which was made popular through Six Flags and Knott´s Berry Farm. This time it was Disney taking ideas from other parks.

[MattMcIrvin]

I will say, the concept of a mine-train roller coaster with Western theming predates Disney's; they were a theme-park staple in the US before any version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad went up. (Though Disney did have a similarly themed ride with a slow-moving train.)

[mikatu]

I have been to Europa-Park and then went to Disneyland Paris and I have to say that Europa Park is much better.
The rides are more adult and while disney is great Europa Park has everything that you wanted and is cheaper and it takes less space and less time to queue... I love Europa Park and it is quite popular among the Swiss people.
Europa Park is used as showroom for the Mack Family that produces rollercoasters for other parks, that means the park is packed with rollercoasters.

[lindatannock]

Fantastic video! 👏🏻
I've worked/performed in both Europapark and Phantasialand (in the 90's), and love both parks, but particularly Europapark. Tbh I think it's far better than Disneyland Paris, as there's way more to do for a much cheaper price, the staff are super friendly, and it's visually stunning! I spent 4 years there, 1 at Phantasialand, and worked in/visited other parks too. It's fascinating to see the comparisons between the different parks.

[rickpontificates]

Walt Disney didn’t invent amusement parks, but as he would say, he PLUSSED them. And other parks have been trying to duplicate Disney’s magic ever since.

[emmata]

9:55 Eurosat no longer exists.
They did a major redesign and themed it to the famous Can-Can by Offenbach. Good ride, very fun, but not that thrilling.
The lifts are exceptional (EuroMirr and CanCan-Coastet/EuroSat) though

[sweetbananacake]

My favourite themepark is Tripsdrill in Baden-Württembergin Germany. It's overall theme is "Swabians anno 1880" so the designs of all the attractions are pretty unique. Even though I could see why people might not find it to be as exciting as other Theme parcs. But I absolutely love it.

[ThePandorads]

I'm inspired. I'm going to open a theme park called "Not Disneyland"

[PowerControl]

Wow, there are so many US-centric misconceptions. Never saw an European consider European theme parks as "Disney rip offs". First at this time it was incredibly expensive to fly to the US and nearly nobody had experienced a Disney theme park. And even after DLP opening, there was no comparison because of the huge price difference between a "normal" theme park and DLP. They were completely made for different target audiences. (edit: typo)

[AttractionStories]

Incredible video Harry! This is fantastic to see as I always wondered about the Epcot ball in Europa Park! (It’s great to see the original Chessington mentioned for its incredible scenery!)

[LaifsteVroew]

Agree with some of these, but calling rides of the same type “cheap ripoffs” is a bit of an easy accusation. Also I think that being inspired by something or saying “I want that theme/ridetype as well” is not the same as stealing something.

You even say it about Soarin, which Disney popularized and others now "develop their own versions of". Isn't that the same thing with the minetrains?

[GingerBeardMark]

Great stuff! Really enjoyed that. Awesome to see my chained oak footage.

[IndonesischeBapao]

A lot of things in Disney are also based on attractions of european themeparks

[timothyjoksch]

I'm often annoyed by Disney Fanboys who claim everything was stolen from Disneyland from European parks to steel Disney profit, but they don't consider that most of the Europeans are still not able to afford a trip to the US and there was no European Disneyland in the times most European Disney attractions were built.