"A Jolly Holiday" Attraction Concept

Concept by Lilly

Imagine. You are walking down the lane on the streets of England in EPCOTʼs World Showcase. As you pass where the British Invasion plays on your left, straight ahead is the beginning of a queue for A Jolly Holiday.

England continues as you walk inside a building where the queue continues, you turn a corner and realize you are on Cherry Tree Lane. You walk by Admiral Boomʼs house where an animatronic Admiral Boom and Mr. Binnacle are washing windows or getting ready for cannons on the hour. He shouts things like “Time Gun ready?” or shouts to guests in the queue things like “Good afternoon to you, young man. Where are you bound?” and “A word of advice, young man. Storm signals are up at number 17. Bit of heavy weather brewing there.”

And sure enough when as you walk by number 17 on Cherry Tree Lane, you can hear Ellen and Mrs. Brill shouting at each other at the top of their lungs.

Then on your right you notice some chalk drawings. They are Burtʼs drawings from the film. As you turn the corner into a new room you see the exact same chalk drawings now talking up an entire wall, except you can walk through the center one–the one of the English countryside.

As you walk into the next room you find yourself inside the chalk drawing. It is colorful and the walls have projections of flowers turning into butterflies. You walk over a white bridge that goes over a little stream. Then you come to a door. The door opens and a gentlemen or lady costumed as an attendant at the country fair, usher just the right amount of people into a loading room.

In the loading room is a carrousel of horses and benches (for wheelchair/people who donʼt want to ride a horse). Everyone loads and the carrousel begins to turn. All the horses go up and down.

A wall opens and there are animatronics of Burt and Mary Poppins on their carrousel horses. Bert says, “Very nice. Very nice, indeed, if you don't wanna go nowhere.” Mary replies “Who says we're not going anywhere? Oh, guard!”

At that moment a window on either side of the guard opens up and the guard says “Righto, Mary Poppins.”

Then another wall opens and reveals a passage way and the horses and benches leave the carrousel and travel through the scenes from the chalk drawing sequence in the film starting with a fox hunt, then the horserace, then Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Mary, Bert, Jane and Michael of course make appearances throughout the adventure. At the end of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, it begins to rain and the chalk begins to run and wash away. You turn a corner and find yourself back in England where you dismount your horses and exit the attraction. The exit would dump you right into the character meet and greet that already exists for Mary Poppins and you would be able to meet with Mary–who off course denies everything and doesnʼt know what youʼre talking about. (We would kick Pooh and friends out of the Mary Poppins room along with Alice, how did they get into Mary Poppinsʼ story anyway?)

The best part of the attraction will be that the carrousel horses continue to move up and down throughout the adventure. As a concept of how to make that happen, I shot this footage of a baggage claim.

[Footage coming soon]

You would create large floor pieces that look like this and each piece would have a horse or a bench. It would be similar to Ellen's Energy Adventure. Then a bar at the top that goes throughout the attraction would turn the top of the pole and help the horse go up and down just like a real carrousel.

The show building would be as shown in the above illustration. Where the World Show Place now sits. This building was originally built for the millennium as the Millennium Village. but now has turned into a building used for the Food and Wine Festival and other special events. I think A Jolly Holiday will be a much better use of space.

CONCEPT: Carrying the Banner (A Newsies Welcome Show)

Concept by Lilly

Itʼs 8:55am on Main Street USA. The park opens at 9:00. Hundreds of excited guests are streaming through the turnstiles, hustling through the arches and town square, until they meet a rope draped across main street just before from the Emporium, keeping them from the excitement of the park for just five more minutes.

A couple of Newsies have wandered out of the Emporium and other nearby buildings, just getting ready for a day of selling “papes.” Some of them are just tucking their shirt in, one is just drying his face with a towel, others are arranging their newspapers getting ready to sell them.

They have the demeanor you would expect from a Newsie, pushing each other around, cracking jokes, talking about the girl they met last night. They donʼt acknowledge their audience just yet. At about 8:55 one of them sings “Try Bottle Alley or the harbor,” another Newsie adds, “Try Central Park itʼs guaranteed,” and the song continues. There are only three lookalikes in this show from the Disney film. One is Jack “Cowboy” Kelly, and he sings his own lines from the film. Eventually the Newsies bring in the audience and interact with them during the number. In the appropriate place in the song (we cut the part with the nuns), the Delancey brothers, Oscar and Morris, enter. These are the only other two lookalikes from the film. One of the Newsies states “Dear me! What is that unpleasant aroma? I fear the sewers may have backed up during the night,” and the scene continues up until Jack says “That's right. It's an insult. So's this!” Instead of knocking the hat of Morrisʼ head, he steals it and a choreographed fight scene/keep the hat from the Delancey brothers/Jack hiding from the Delancey brothers proceeds as the Newsies continue to sing around this scene up until the end of the song.

As the Newsies finish the musical number the Newsies then explain to the crowd how the rope drop will work. They form a line of Newsies in the front and then walk the guests to each land, mingling and interacting with them as they go. When they get to each land, various cast members take over and lead the guests to the most popular attractions. The Newsies stick around Main Street and sell papes.

The best part is that the papers the Newsies have are actual papers filled with never before seen articles about the Walt Disney Company. Essentially, they are collectors items and the Newsies actually sell them for whatever they can get. The Newsies donʼt advertise the papers for what they are, they just sell like Newsies would sell, but they only place you can get one is from a Newsie.

After the morning set, Jack and maybe the Delancy Brothers will continue to do sets throughout the day on Main Street, continuing to sell papers and to interact with each other and the guests.