1953 Disneyland design blueprints revealed — featuring the land of Lilliput

By Yvonne

%Urgent 1953 — The original fantastical Disneyland plan (Image/ Screenshot fromboingboing.net)

A long time ago, Walt Disney had a grand vision for a magical and fantastical Disneyland. Now you can finally see what he had in mind back then.

Group blogBoing Boingposted the original founding proposal for Disneyland on the blog. The proposal includes three original documents, and Walt Disney used the funds raised to create the happiest place on Earth. One of the maps is said to have been drawn in 1953, two years before the park’s opening, and was created by animator Herb Ryman and Walt Disney himself.

%Image of the original Disneyland plan (Image/ Screenshot fromboingboing.net)

The proposal includes Mr. Disney’s unique ideas for the theme park — ranging from a mail-order catalog featuring merchandise and livestock, live ponies and automated slides within the park, a massive tent that could house the giant squid effect from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, to creating a Lilliputian Land inspired by Gulliver’s Travels.

Although some of Walt Disney’s ideas clearly never came to fruition, you can see from the photos above that today’s theme parks still bear a strong resemblance to those original concepts.