A Disney Artist's Designs for a Hanna Barbera Land
Fritz Fantastic concept art for a never-built Hanna Barbera Land by Disney concept/layout artist Bruce Bushman (1911-1972).
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If I were to have a second blog it would be a Hanna Barbera animation blog. I'm sure I'm like most of you when I say Saturday mornings as a child were made up of Disney animated shorts, Looney Tunes cartoons, and Hanna Barbera animation. PS: This has nothing to do with the upcoming Yogi Bear movie starring Dan Aykroyd... but I do love me some old-school Yogi! Plus some Jetsons, Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry [before, including, and after the Chuck Jones years], Space Ghost, Quick Draw McGraw, and Smurfs.
Bruce Bushman started with Disney in the late 30s as a layout artist on Fantasia. In 1953 he joined W.E.D. working mostly on designs for Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. He left Disney in the late 50s and landed work in the early 60s with Hanna Barbera as a layout artist there. At some point in the late 60s Bushman was asked to create concepts for a Hanna Barbera land that ended up never being built. I'm not exactly sure what location these concepts were intended for.
Though there have been many Hanna Barbera "lands" or areas in amusement parks around the world (Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Great America, Universal Studios, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, Wonderland Sydney) these drawings represent something that could have been more fantastic than them all. Or better yet, how about an entire park. These sketches were auctioned online a few years back but not much has ever been written about them.
Cartoonsville Main Street
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According to the artwork, the land's main stretch would have a "Cartoonsville" Main Street.
From the entry gate you would see on your left: Yogi Picnic Basket Restaurant, Boo Boo Gift Shop, Jellystone Park Picnic Area entrance, Winsome Witch Haunted House, and Gulliver’s Adventures Birthday Party Area entrance.
On your right: Bedrock Emporium & Museum of Modern Inventions, Rest Rooms, Hillbilly Bears Shooting Gallery, Cartoonsville Camera Shop & Cartoon Studio, Precious Pupp Restaurant (Granny, Proprietress)
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Flintstone Freeway Ride
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Gulliver’s Adventures Birthday Party Area
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Moby Dick Ride
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The Moby Dick ride as you can see would take riders in a whale vehicle. The ride would consist of dark light effects, sea monster, treasure ship, volcano, sand creature, giant squid, shoctopus, electric eel, sub-ship fight, iceberg monster, and and ice cave exit.
Jetsons Ride
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I'd love to see how the flying car effect would work as you'd ride through the futuristic utopia in the year 2362.
Space Ghost's "Battle of the Planets" Ride
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Surely Bushman drew on his experience with Disneyland's Dumbo ride (see artwork further below) when creating this. It appears to be housed inside a dome. Is that to achieve a dark, space-like atmosphere? His notes indicate a level of interactivity with "simulated ray gun hits" and "individual climb and dive controls".
Other Rides
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Not sure exactly what these two rides would be but they look great. The first of the two might have been some sort of Johnny Quest motion ride with projections. The vehicles in the second look amazing with their bubble domes and tank-like wheel systems.
Bruce Bushman's Disneyland Work
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Many of Bushman's designs can be found at Disneyland's Fantasyland today. Many of his concepts cannot be found. So it is in the life of a concept artist. I particularly like the Tea Party centerpiece in the middle of the spinning tea cups. Or the whip Timothy Mouse is cracking in the middle of the Dumbos.
The whimsical Fantasyland ticket booth still standing at the Casey Jr. Circus Train entrance was a Bushman design.
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I can't get enough of this Pinocchio boat ride idea that had sent riders plummeting down the tongue of Monstro the whale. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like this drawing has the boat ride located in the same area Pinocchio's Daring is located today. Could the 1983 addition of a Pinocchio ride in that location have been inspired by Bushman's concept??
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More about this very talented yet under-publicized artist in a future post.
Related posts:
"A Day at Disneyland" 1960s Super 8mm Souvenir Film
Vintage Disneyland Home Movies- Meeting Walt Disney Himself
Matterhorn for Magic Kingdom Fantasyland
Fantasyland Expansion Model
Animation, Concept, Disneyland, Fantasyland
Reader Comments (13)
You guys have access to the coolest info. Now I guess we'll never get to see a Banana Splits Restaurant, Land of the Lost Restrooms, Josie & the Pussycats/Top Cat Lounge, Quick Draw McGraw Security, Wheelie & the Chopper Bunch Mobile Assistance Scooters, or Hong Kong Fooey Crowd Control. At least we can still look forward to the next Fantasyland change-of-direction announcement.
Brett- Hahaha. Yeah, if only. Man those are some good Hanna Barberas that I've forgotten about. You should be a theme park designer with those sweet ideas!
So I was just reading up on some Wikipedia HB history.
"The original series (the Jetsons), comprising 24 episodes, was produced between 1962 and 1963 and was re-run on Saturday morning for decades. At the time of its debut, it was the first program ever to be broadcast in color on ABC-TV (as The Flintstones, while always produced in color, was broadcast in black-and-white for its first two seasons)."
Only 24 episodes??
"Its continuing popularity led to further episodes being produced for syndication between 1985 and 1987."
I didn't know this.
The draftsmanship of these sketches is outstanding. I can't stop looking at them. He makes his sketching look so effortless. I love how he draws people. (Ignore me as a geek out about line weights and stuff)
The thing is, if that park had been built, it would no longer exist today. Because Hanna-Barbera's output, with the exception of Scooby Doo, has not stood the test of time. Guess that's what happens when you make too much crap.
Thanks Fritz. When you guys start creating one the world is waiting for, let me know.
Now Charlie, crap is in the eye of the beholder. It's what helps farmers crops grow. Besides, if Saved by the Bell lasted all those years, what some people like is an absolute anomaly. And not the planet one.
The vehicles in the mystery image just above the Disneyland work look as if they could have been inspired by those in Jonny Quest. The landscape at first glance looks extra-worldly, but the more I thought about it, could be underwater as well. Depending on when in the 60's these were drafted, Jonny Quest was an expensive addition to the HB action stable and an attraction based on it would have made sense.
Wow! I actually wrote about Houston's Hanna Barbera Land last week too! If it looked anything like that concept art it would probably still be standing.
Overall, I'd love to have sen this; I grew up in that revival of these cartoons on cartoon network, etc, and loved each one. Granted, while they haven't stood the test of time, I think it's because they were mostly given up on and tastes changed too much to keep them enjoyable (in a suit's eyes). However, I'm believe anything can be spun in the right way to make it attractive (stick on boomerang, and kids will still watch, they just need to know its there); i'm just not the best at that personally ;)
I absolutely love what this would have provided; pretty ingenious in some of the attractions, simple, but most likely fun (I'm loving the pic-i-nic basket, honestly)
and I agree about his art style, it really does look effortless; i hope I can get that way in the long run with my sketches and drawings. all in all, he was definitely a great artist and full of ideas; its a shame so many of these great talents faded in and out of disney during their careers (many of the greats seemed to)
and a last note: that first 'other attraction' image, the one you noted might be Johnny Quest motion ride, fritz, I noticed that the spacecraft prominently in the image is actually space ghost's phantom cruiser. I'm pretty sure the other is something as well, but I for sure recognized that. however, in this day long before crossovers were a dime a dozen, i could see a similar attraction to whats in Universal Orlando already, where you could experience different hannah barbera worlds intertwined through an experiment by doctor quest, who went through different times and realities to allow you a look inside... maybe a culmination ride (much how fans feel with horizons to future world)
Bushman is totally under rated. What a superior draftsman... Great post!
The Hanna Barbara land in Canada's Wonderland was fantastic, then got a bit worse, then much worse, then TERRIBLE! By the end of it, I'm glad it was taken down for the Snoopy land! This was more like what it started out as!
I imagine the Jetsons ride would feature suspended-style coasters like those on Ninja at Magic Mountain (or if anyone remembers, XLR-8 at the sorely-missed Astroworld in Houston).
Hi this is Alison from the Walt Dated World website. This was an awesome post! I noticed that your links on the right have my old site address which is no longer being updated. Can you update your link to the new address of waltdatedworld.com ? Thanks so much!