The Magic Kingdom currently has a circus-themed area featuring a version of Dumbo The Flying Elephant. But this was not the original version of this concept in the Disney Parks, with a very similar idea originally being explored for Disneyland.
Walt Disney loved the idea of incorporating a circus into his Disneyland, and explored this idea multiple times over the years, once with a never built Dumbo-themed land.
Planned for the current location of the Fantasyland Theatre, this area would have been a new section of the park based on a Disney-themed circus, primarily featuring Dumbo characters, but also other Disney favorites. It was planned to be built alongside Discovery Bay and be connected to the land with a new version of a Skyway-style attraction.
Notably, the classic Dumbo ride would be moved to this land, and Casey Jr. would be involved in this land as well.
The land would also involve a few exclusive attractions that would never get built.
One was a circus attraction featuring animatronic depictions of different Disney characters in a circus-style show. Not much is known of this concept and it died along with this land.
Another one of the land's attractions would be a new dark ride based on Pinocchio. While this version would not be built, a Pinocchio dark ride would later be built in the center of Fantasyland, but it is uncertain if this was a similar concept to the one planned for the circus section of the park.
The land would also include a dark ride based on classic Mickey cartoons, the first to be proposed for a Disney Park. A ride on this scale based on Mickey and Friends would not be built for decades, when Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was built in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
We will explore this attraction further in the next entry of Never Built Disneyland.
This land was canceled alongside Discovery Bay, leaving the plot empty until Videopolis (Now the Fantasyland Theatre) eventually moved in.
A version of a circus-themed land would eventually come to a Disney Park with the Storybook Circus-themed area of New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, bringing with it a more elaborate version of Dumbo, and being a spiritual successor to this early Disneyland idea.
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