Disney Dragons: Egg Discoverd? Wrong Location and Bad PhotoShop!

Disney Dragons

Well this has been going viral lately between the storyline for the New Fantasyland Expansion and one cleaver blogger named Gary Buchanan. Who also happens to be the "Senior Social Media Manger" at Disney Parks Blog, this has it's own Tumblr and hasthtag on Twitter #BelieveinFantasy.

 Apparently as the story goes, Dragons have been spotted flying over the new "Enchanted Forest" area of the expansion. It's a cute story and inspires the imagination to take flight, which has been the point of Magic Kingdom and Disney Parks since they began. The story is pretty basic and easy to follow including a horrible curse and the result? Yup, Dragons!

 While I applaud them for trying to find a way to work these admittedly awesome mythical creatures into their story, let's face it Dragons have been villains in the past for Disney. They've done there job well with the most famous being Maleficent but other favorites such as Pete's Dragon, Merlin and various others of the years. There is only one small problem, they really didn't do their homework too well with this one. 

 After looking at the pictures posted by Mr. Buchanan it was bugging the hell out of me. The angle of the castle was wrong, the car was wrong.. the pictures where just not right! So I thought it over for a day. Naturally it was still bugging me so I set myself down to work and within ten minutes and a little help from Google I had their number.  

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Okay let's take this apart by levels beginning with the main picture.

Picture from Disney Parks Blog

 If you look at the angle of the castle in this image, it doesn't fit the direction of where the Fantasyland Expansion is. This picture was supposedly taken between when Magic Kingdom opened in 1971 and the early 1980's judging on a few factors and some hints posted in the Tumblr. The problem with this is that where they are proposing this image was simply don't work as 20,000 Leagues and later Pooh's Forest sat. 

 

Now normally I'd over look something like this since Disney refuses to acknowledge that 20,000 Leagues even existed 99% of the time.  However the angle problem was still driving me mildly crazy so off to Google Maps I went!

Have I mentioned I LOVE toys like Google Maps and Google Earth? Because I do!

...and here are my results. 

If you compare this image from Google Maps to the location where it was taken, you'll see that it and the above "vintage" image are nearly perfectly lined up. So now I had my angle and it was targeted right where I expected it to be, to the left side of Space Mountain! 

 

See, Got 'em!

 Well, that's one mystery solved as far as I'm concerned but then I kept looking at the images and something else began to niggle at the back on my mind, something not good at all. Other then the fact I can't remember Disney World ever owning LandRovers for WED!  So I kept staring at the pictures for another good 15 minutes after I made my excellent "Paintshop" images for everyone to enjoy. 

Wait. Wait a DAMN minute!

THEY PHOTOSHOPPED IT!

...and not even WELL! 

Okay, Now I'm angry. Pretty damn Angry!

All my excellent detective skills? Worthless because they cheated!

I called in my resident photoshop guru (also know as my long suffering husband) and set him loose. The results and the commentary coming from his laptop during these moment where truly priceless.  Let me give you an idea.. "These aren't even the same trees!" and "How in the hell did the castle GROW?!".

Much laughter ensued, we howled about this! You would think with Disney World could at least employ someone with decent photoshopping skills to make their "Dragon Egg" story more believable if someone who can't even open photoshop can spot something funky going on!  

So for your laughing pleasure, I present to you: DISNEY CAN'T PHOTOSHOP!

 Wow. I really expected more. A LOT more. 
To give you an idea, my husband was able to re-create the brush size and general fit within two minutes.

Either way, the Dragon's part is still a good idea! But please, Mr. Buchanan if your reading this.. leave the "making it believable" part to someone who is better with photoshop okay?