Can you do a documentary about the failure of No Name City in Austria? That would be amazing to know more about it what happend to my favorit amusement park. 🥰
I adore how insane and surreal this park looked, and its hearbreaking to know its all buried (literally) to time..i wish more parks could exist like this, less of a focus on IPs and more attractions with more artistic freedom to be odd and weird looking. Gargantua my beloved..
I’m French and I had never heard of this park, it makes me kinda sad that it had to close because it actually looks really cool, I like the vibe it had and the design of the attractions, especially Gargantua and the real life paintings scenes with animatronics, they’re pretty fascinating. As a French person, all the cultural references made much sense to me and I like how it was made, I would have loved visiting it. With your video i understand why it stood pretty much no chance, sad…
9:36 globules is just the french word for Blood cells : there are white globules who protect the body (monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and macrophages) and red globules who cary the oxygene (sorry if it's hard to read , english isn't my primary language)
You make a lot of Disney Comparisons, but Mirapolis is also giving me A LOT of Efteling vibes. The fairytalesl theming, the semi creepy rides and uncanny animantronics etc.
Actually, efteling already was a theme park by the time Mirapolis opened so they were not even the first modern theme park in europe. By 1987 Efteling had just opened Fata Morgana and was going to open Pagoda. And python had been running for a couple of years by then
@@MaximeKruijer At that point Efteling had already been running for at least 30 years, their motto is "World full of Wonders" even Disneyland in Anaheim is younger than Efteling
Another thing is that Efteling started small. It started as a nature park with a playground, and slowly evolved into the full amusement park it is today. I think that also helped a lot.
I'm glad someone else mentioned it! When the creator mentioned the forested area that housed multiple displays of fairytales/ legends, my mind immediately went to the Efteling, not Disney necessarily.
The funny part is that Disney has been copying european folklore from the jump, so saying that Mirapolis was copying Disney by making french fairy tales rides is so ironic....
not to mention, europe has themed parks long before disney did. They just were themed after the OG folklores and in Tivoli's case, stage shows, so if anyone stole, it was disney lol. Tivoli is the second oldest themepark in the world but because in english it gets called Tivoli Garden its often overlooked mistakenly.
They look very similar xD but I think that Lord Farquaad was modeled after Laurence Olivier playing Richard the Third, and face-wise he was apparently modeled after some Disney executive. The statue of Gargantua in the park might have also been more inspired by Laurence Olivier than by the original description or historical illustration of Gargantua, because he actually looks very different. He was described and depicted as an extremely round giant with a baby face and short curly hair.
@@power-of-overdrive The specific Disney executive he was modeled to look like was then Disney CEO Micheal Eisner. Many of Dreamworks animators were former Disney employees who had clashed with Eisner over differences in opinion on the company's direction, or had just been let go. Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg had previously served as a chairman with the Disney corporation, and frequently butted heads with Eisner to the point that their arguments would get very personal. Lord Farquaad's height was actually based off of these arguments. Micheal Eisner is a tall man at 6'3", and Katzenberg is very short, standing only around 5'5". Eisner would frequently mock Katzenberg over his height, once being quoted as saying about him. "I hate that little midget." So as a way to get back at Eisner, the animators made the character of Farquaad incredibly short. His name was also deliberately made to be as close as possible to "Fuckwad" as they could get in a family film.
@@power-of-overdrivemy theory is that, one of the character designers for Shrek saw the guy on the thumbnail of this video, and based it off of that without knowing
I went to this park a couple of times as a kid and the city of Ys was my favourite ride of the park by far. Very atmospheric indeed. The ride in Gargantua was cool too, but overall the park felt a bit empty.
I love videos talking about theme parks that aren’t that well known outside of the us, in the video you say you want to bring this up for more English speaking audiences but as a Mexican I highly appreciate all this research as it is something I would never have access to otherwise! Great video!
Omg Mirapolis! Learned about it one day in one of my urban planning classes, the teacher mentioned it offhandedly and I immediately got on the Wikipedia page to read about it. Ended up not listening to another word of that class. Great video!!
As someone who used to work for a big US company (I'm British) we were astounded at the lack of understanding very senior staff have about Europe. They honestly believe it's a mini America, which does everything in exactly the same way as in the US. Cultural awareness and the idea of separate sovereign states, different types of government and even different languages, was absolute zero. For instance, in the years just before the Euro, they quite happily announced they had a problem dealing with all the different currencies in the new Sales System, so until further notice all EMEA would have to work in dollars! They then couldn't understand why our mouths were on the floor. IE - DON'T bring in US consultants for European projects, unless you've definitely got failure in sight.
I went there twice when I was a kid, once with my school and once with my family and I actually had a greater time and keep fonder memeories of it that the only time I went to DisneyLand Paris in the 90s. 😂 I wish they kept Gargantua without the park as a tourist curiosity. And also fun fact, I saw Le Dragon des Sortilèges abandoned again in Spree Park in Berlin, Germany. I thought it was a copy and I was sad for it when I learned it was the original abandoned again.
My mother often went there when she was young, she lived not far from the park! I'm shocked that this park is so well known now. I drive by it often, and it's totally abandoned, but there are a lot of people living inside.
I really wished they never demolished the Gargantua, honestly it'd be really cool (or scary) seeing that thing looming over the park and over the forests slowly rotting alongside time
Thanks for this vid ! I have been surprised to see it popping in my feed, as many park enthusiast don't know anything about Mirapolis even here in France. You did a great job despite the language barrier for sure, congrats !
Fun fact: The nephew of Marcel Campion, Gilles Campion, is the current owner of Parc Saint-Paul, not that far away from where Mirapolis was (albeit quite different but also quite quirky)
That is seriously interesting! Iwent to Parc Saint-Paul last summer when I was on vacation in France. My little brother and I are kinda obsessed with theme Parks and their histories and well, Parc St-Paul has quite the backlog of incidents unfortunately. (Had a lovely time there though!) As I was watching this video, I couldnt help but notice that some of the props looked familiar to things I had seen in Saint-Paul. I went to look on google if the parks could in any way be related or if one couldve bought something from the other. But now that you mention this, it makes alot of sense! Do you think some left overs from Mirapolis could have been moved to Parc Saint-Paul?
@@hollandvw4250 as a french living in france, i can assure u that parc st paul is faaaar from the worst u can find lmao ( sorry for my english ) anyway, le parc st paul est vraiment bien meme si il fait un peu cheap ^^" ( parc saint paul is really good even if it looks kinda cheap )
Thanks for this video ! One of my earliest memories is urban exploring the defunct Mirapolis with my parents. I remembered the Gargantua but for the longest time I thought I’d dreamt it, until I showed my mom this and she told me we actually did go there after it closed. So Gargantua did get visitors after all 😊
Considering there is so much to talk about with Mirapolis, it is hard to do it justice but you did a great job. Never got the chance to visit it but I've always been interested by especially the Ville d'Ys dark ride, it had a fantastic soundtrack. It may also be worth mentioning that the ride system of Gargantua (which surprisingly enough was a suspended) was sold to Spreepark as well but never operated there. They had it set up backstage but never got around to constructing a building around it due to financial problems.
As a french person, I had never heard of it until I saw your video. But surprisingly enough, my parents went there while it was opened, and remembered clearly gargantua (not so much the rest). Thry both agreed the parc was too flat and not organized well, making it look more like a fair than a theme park. So cool !
The main design flaw was, what I personally call : "the misagora trap", which in extreme cases, some individuals, could turn into "agoraphobia". (mis- is the greek derived prefix meaning 'dislike'...) But 'misagora' is a very large spread negative sensation/experience. The far majority of visitors would 'catch' it. Useless open spaces (grass, concrete and dirt) with useless deep look-trough. Too big to feel hospitable to visitors. As said; most visitors would feel uncomfortable with it, and it leads to negative word of mouth. It's well known psychology. The 'misagora trap' can be derived directly from the first layout plan. It cannot be solved through whatever operational efforts. So, that means 'the end', embedded from the beginning. (I'm a concept developer/designer)
@@alindberg8001 YES ! There is one Disney park however, where (at least in the central part of it) the same design error was made. It's Disneyland Hong Kong, in it's initial state. (They worked hard to correct it, in the follow up 20 years)
I deeply disagree that the concept of themeparks didn't exist in europe before american disney world. Tivoli was themed around famous stage plays and is like the second oldest themepark in the world. Many of the oldest themeparks are in europe. They just aren't themed in the american tv/movieconsumerist nightmare way.
I was an au pair in France in 1988, never actually went there but heard about it from the family I worked for. Interesting to hear what happened to it.
I can't believe actual shady carnies literally came to attack the park lmao I'm picturing, like, rough looking clowns with unshaven faces and tatted up ride operators
Adding this to the list of parks I would have loved to visit, along side Nara Dreamland and the original version of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Got to say the City of East, Castle of Spells and Gargantua sound the most interesting.
Your description of the park's barren-ness perfectly summarizes my opinion on Lost Island in Waterloo, Iowa. Individual buildings look nice but the whole thing is just as flat and barren as the rest of Iowa
This is a very handy video. Oh, yeah, the Hat Cars (i'm calling them that now) aren't an Autopia-style ride, it's an Old Crocs ride, the two are fairly different. Also i think the Globules were probably blood.
been watching your videos for about a year or two? i think ahahha, but it's not often i find videos about theme parks i've not heard of. super excited to hear about this one, keep it up George ! big fan :)
Efteling grew organically, it wasn't built like a full fledged theme park from the ground up. You could list many parks older than Efteling which grew to become theme parks in the same way. By the way I don't think it was mentioned that Mirapolis was supposed to be the first modern theme park in Europe, just France.
@@mario64remix except places like Coney island grew organically and is called a themepark. the original 6 flags grew organically. A themepark spawning out of nowhere is really rare and most american themeparks don't fit that description. Also Tivoli which is the second oldest themepark in the world was built with rides and themed after popular stageplays.
Just been getting the promotional videos for this park in my feed, so it's really interesting to learn what this park was all about! I've ridden Madame Freudenthals recently so it's fun to learn where the ride came from. Great video!
My parents live just a couple of miles away. I went to mirapolis several times as a young kid: it closed before being finished, wich gave a weird unfinished, empty space feeling. But i keep wonderful memories. The Gargantua dark ride was incredible.
Grew up in Paris. Went there as a kid and let me tell you, the word creepy is an understatement 😂. The atmosphere in general was top tier nightmare material. Best place to traumatize your kids 😂.
I think it's awesome! It's really sad that something so beautiful and French only lasted five years. It's unique, alien to my world and I love it! Nobody needs another Disney park, we have two and I think it's ok because they're on opposite coasts thousands of miles away from each other but I think they would be tacky for the U.K. and Europe in general when you have so many different cultures and stories of your own. Hey France, thank you for the Statue of Liberty! It means so much to so many.
De Piratengrill in Plopsaland is going to be torn down, soon though... the building really has had it's best time and they're looking into replacing it.
you're my favorite theme park youtuber, and that's a hard title to achieve because i am very opinionated lol. thank you for your extensive research into these subjects and your great work!!
It's actually kind of a shame. I wish that each country had developed their own take on large scale theme parks. It would be so interesting to see how each one would be different.
I live near where Mirapolis was. I was just old enough to go there once before it closed. As you described, it was an ambitious project, perhaps too ambitious. Mismanagement and competition closer to Paris certainly did not help.
it has been made by Vekoma. who made this design in other nation as well. here is a small summary. The Python was built by Vekoma, but the design and layout of the track were created by Arrow Dynamics for the Carolina Cyclone, a roller coaster at Carowinds that opened in 1980. In addition to the Python, five other roller coasters with this identical layout have been built, including Montaña Rusa at Diverland in Venezuela (1983), Shaman at Gardaland in Italy (1985), and Euro-Loop at Europark in France (2004). The latter was previously known as Miralooping at Mirapolis in France (1988) and as Mega Looping Bahn at Spreepark in Germany (2002).
Wow my grand parents took me there it was super creepy i was kid i remenber that they had to take me home 2h after because i was screaming for my life because of à ride inside with creepy talking puppets..my grand parents never visited any parc again with me after this..i was 8 or 9 .. Terifying stuff i had nightmares for years..
Raise your hand if you’ve actually been to Mirapolis 🤚 After it’s been abandoned, they left Guargantua to just sit there. You could easily see it from the freeway while driving north from Paris. It’s a fond memory of mine to wait to see Guargantua from the car, it meant we were almost at our destination!
This is the first time I heard about this park and it made me realise something... I'm dutch and my favourite themepark as a kid called 'sprookjeswonderland' (translation: fairy tale wonderland) has some very similar 'buildings'. There is a big figure of a giant (which terrified me as a kid). Not THIS huge, but still. And there is a building with the 4 seasons too (which I loved). I now wonder if the creators of sprookjeswonderland took some ideas from this french park. maybe one of them visited the place back in the day.
I know some people likely look back on him fondly, but French Lord Farquad is terrifying. Though I imagine he'd make a great living statue for Godzilla to fight.
Tivoli in denmark is the second oldest themepark in the world and is still going strong. Hate to be that guy, but the reason these parks die is beacuse people stop going because escpecialy in the american mindset, they need constantly bigger and better and more. Tivoli gardens has had the same everything for decades and honestly, over a century is only added a couple coasters. But people have a healthier mindset about it.
And sadly if anything is non IP and original people like this narrator will call it creepy coz they don’t understand the background behind it, it has to be familiar and sugar coated. If people didn’t know Mickey Mouse they’d call him creepy if they saw him in the park or the dumbo ride
The problems started when American consultants were brought in. Obviously the estimates of attendance became way overestimated, but at the scale they built the park they needed several years of losses built in to give the park time to develop. If Euro Disney expected an immediate financial success, they would have shut the doors by 1994. Also most theme parks in the US don't immediately succeed, and most also eventually fail anyway, so it certainly wasn't just this park. I loved the themes and characters in Mirapolis.
it definitely gives off Plopsaland or Efteling vibes. the uncanny vibe also a bit Harry Malter, but that's maybe just how run down i remember the park when i went there as a kid
I clicked on this video because I live near Mirapolis but know nothing about it hahaha. I was born after it closed down. I can confirm that the land is used by travelers and that it has been transformed into some sort of trailer park. Each time the land has been bought over (it happened again a few years ago) there was barely hope for anything to happen. Everyone kinda knows that this space will surely remain unused.
I have no idea if that was the intended meaning, but the globules ( 9:35 ) are like the red and white blood cells from the body in french ("globule rouge" and "globule blanc")
Dude wtf I’m having dejavu about this. I had a dream a long time ago that I visited this place as a kid, but I didn’t know it existed. This is before my time
I understand protesting laws that unfairly benefit your competition, but throwing nails onto roads to sabotage cars that are predominantly driven by FAMILIES and therefore directly putting children in danger is so insane and gross.
When Disneyland Paris opened, there was farmers blocking the roads with tractors and pitchforks to stop people going in. I worked there back in 1992, the opening day was very quiet
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No
Can you do a documentary about the failure of No Name City in Austria? That would be amazing to know more about it what happend to my favorit amusement park. 🥰
I adore how insane and surreal this park looked, and its hearbreaking to know its all buried (literally) to time..i wish more parks could exist like this, less of a focus on IPs and more attractions with more artistic freedom to be odd and weird looking. Gargantua my beloved..
You can still explore many
They should have it restored.
I’m French and I had never heard of this park, it makes me kinda sad that it had to close because it actually looks really cool, I like the vibe it had and the design of the attractions, especially Gargantua and the real life paintings scenes with animatronics, they’re pretty fascinating. As a French person, all the cultural references made much sense to me and I like how it was made, I would have loved visiting it. With your video i understand why it stood pretty much no chance, sad…
9:36 globules is just the french word for Blood cells : there are white globules who protect the body (monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and macrophages) and red globules who cary the oxygene (sorry if it's hard to read , english isn't my primary language)
You make a lot of Disney Comparisons, but Mirapolis is also giving me A LOT of Efteling vibes. The fairytalesl theming, the semi creepy rides and uncanny animantronics etc.
Indeed, I've been to both in the late 80's and there are similarities. But Efteling seemed more "classical" and also much more busy overall.
Actually, efteling already was a theme park by the time Mirapolis opened so they were not even the first modern theme park in europe. By 1987 Efteling had just opened Fata Morgana and was going to open Pagoda. And python had been running for a couple of years by then
@@MaximeKruijer At that point Efteling had already been running for at least 30 years, their motto is "World full of Wonders" even Disneyland in Anaheim is younger than Efteling
Another thing is that Efteling started small. It started as a nature park with a playground, and slowly evolved into the full amusement park it is today. I think that also helped a lot.
I'm glad someone else mentioned it! When the creator mentioned the forested area that housed multiple displays of fairytales/ legends, my mind immediately went to the Efteling, not Disney necessarily.
The funny part is that Disney has been copying european folklore from the jump, so saying that Mirapolis was copying Disney by making french fairy tales rides is so ironic....
not to mention, europe has themed parks long before disney did. They just were themed after the OG folklores and in Tivoli's case, stage shows, so if anyone stole, it was disney lol. Tivoli is the second oldest themepark in the world but because in english it gets called Tivoli Garden its often overlooked mistakenly.
Disney stole a lot of attraction ideas and theming and improved them so people now think they did it first because they never saw the original rides
Yup..
Yeah but the castles in this park are built in a very Alpine German castle which is stereotypical for Disney and not very French looking
@ And Germany is in Europe, what is your point ?
Was Lord Farquaad, the very short villain from Shrek, ironically modeled after Gargantua haha?
This is something I need to know😅
They look very similar xD but I think that Lord Farquaad was modeled after Laurence Olivier playing Richard the Third, and face-wise he was apparently modeled after some Disney executive.
The statue of Gargantua in the park might have also been more inspired by Laurence Olivier than by the original description or historical illustration of Gargantua, because he actually looks very different. He was described and depicted as an extremely round giant with a baby face and short curly hair.
@@power-of-overdrive The specific Disney executive he was modeled to look like was then Disney CEO Micheal Eisner. Many of Dreamworks animators were former Disney employees who had clashed with Eisner over differences in opinion on the company's direction, or had just been let go. Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg had previously served as a chairman with the Disney corporation, and frequently butted heads with Eisner to the point that their arguments would get very personal.
Lord Farquaad's height was actually based off of these arguments. Micheal Eisner is a tall man at 6'3", and Katzenberg is very short, standing only around 5'5". Eisner would frequently mock Katzenberg over his height, once being quoted as saying about him. "I hate that little midget." So as a way to get back at Eisner, the animators made the character of Farquaad incredibly short. His name was also deliberately made to be as close as possible to "Fuckwad" as they could get in a family film.
@@power-of-overdrivemy theory is that, one of the character designers for Shrek saw the guy on the thumbnail of this video, and based it off of that without knowing
Now that you mention it, they do look rather similar!
I went to this park a couple of times as a kid and the city of Ys was my favourite ride of the park by far. Very atmospheric indeed.
The ride in Gargantua was cool too, but overall the park felt a bit empty.
I love videos talking about theme parks that aren’t that well known outside of the us, in the video you say you want to bring this up for more English speaking audiences but as a Mexican I highly appreciate all this research as it is something I would never have access to otherwise! Great video!
You literally typed this on a device that has access to the internet.
The first two years of the park looked incredible, it had so much interesting appealm
Omg Mirapolis! Learned about it one day in one of my urban planning classes, the teacher mentioned it offhandedly and I immediately got on the Wikipedia page to read about it. Ended up not listening to another word of that class. Great video!!
As someone who used to work for a big US company (I'm British) we were astounded at the lack of understanding very senior staff have about Europe. They honestly believe it's a mini America, which does everything in exactly the same way as in the US. Cultural awareness and the idea of separate sovereign states, different types of government and even different languages, was absolute zero.
For instance, in the years just before the Euro, they quite happily announced they had a problem dealing with all the different currencies in the new Sales System, so until further notice all EMEA would have to work in dollars! They then couldn't understand why our mouths were on the floor.
IE - DON'T bring in US consultants for European projects, unless you've definitely got failure in sight.
The part where you mentioned a boxing match in the park made me spit out my water. It was so out of nowhere in this seemingly normal park.
Gargantua sounds like a pretty cool ride actually.
Dude, thanks for posting a longer video when I have a ton of free time. Can’t wait to finish this, and I can tell that this is a job well done.
I went there twice when I was a kid, once with my school and once with my family and I actually had a greater time and keep fonder memeories of it that the only time I went to DisneyLand Paris in the 90s. 😂 I wish they kept Gargantua without the park as a tourist curiosity. And also fun fact, I saw Le Dragon des Sortilèges abandoned again in Spree Park in Berlin, Germany. I thought it was a copy and I was sad for it when I learned it was the original abandoned again.
i think it's sad that it didn't last very long i would love a theme park like this again
My mother often went there when she was young, she lived not far from the park! I'm shocked that this park is so well known now. I drive by it often, and it's totally abandoned, but there are a lot of people living inside.
I really wished they never demolished the Gargantua, honestly it'd be really cool (or scary) seeing that thing looming over the park and over the forests slowly rotting alongside time
Thanks for this vid ! I have been surprised to see it popping in my feed, as many park enthusiast don't know anything about Mirapolis even here in France. You did a great job despite the language barrier for sure, congrats !
Très bonne vidéo, en tant qu’obsédé de Mirapolis je suis fier qu'un anglais en parle pour une fois! Très bien résumé
Fun fact: The nephew of Marcel Campion, Gilles Campion, is the current owner of Parc Saint-Paul, not that far away from where Mirapolis was (albeit quite different but also quite quirky)
That is seriously interesting! Iwent to Parc Saint-Paul last summer when I was on vacation in France. My little brother and I are kinda obsessed with theme Parks and their histories and well, Parc St-Paul has quite the backlog of incidents unfortunately. (Had a lovely time there though!) As I was watching this video, I couldnt help but notice that some of the props looked familiar to things I had seen in Saint-Paul. I went to look on google if the parks could in any way be related or if one couldve bought something from the other. But now that you mention this, it makes alot of sense! Do you think some left overs from Mirapolis could have been moved to Parc Saint-Paul?
The most notoriously unsafe park in France!
@@hollandvw4250 as a french living in france, i can assure u that parc st paul is faaaar from the worst u can find lmao ( sorry for my english ) anyway, le parc st paul est vraiment bien meme si il fait un peu cheap ^^" ( parc saint paul is really good even if it looks kinda cheap )
Thanks for this video ! One of my earliest memories is urban exploring the defunct Mirapolis with my parents. I remembered the Gargantua but for the longest time I thought I’d dreamt it, until I showed my mom this and she told me we actually did go there after it closed. So Gargantua did get visitors after all 😊
Considering there is so much to talk about with Mirapolis, it is hard to do it justice but you did a great job. Never got the chance to visit it but I've always been interested by especially the Ville d'Ys dark ride, it had a fantastic soundtrack.
It may also be worth mentioning that the ride system of Gargantua (which surprisingly enough was a suspended) was sold to Spreepark as well but never operated there. They had it set up backstage but never got around to constructing a building around it due to financial problems.
I love hearing about abandoned parks! Your videos always are made with such dedication! I can't wait to watch this!
As a french person, I had never heard of it until I saw your video. But surprisingly enough, my parents went there while it was opened, and remembered clearly gargantua (not so much the rest). Thry both agreed the parc was too flat and not organized well, making it look more like a fair than a theme park. So cool !
Wait. "Dragon des Sortilèges" went to Spreepark in Germany. It was renamed "Spreeblitz." I know I've seen that coaster tunnel somewhere before.
Yessss! And after Spreepark was completely abandoned, you can see the remnants of the coaster in the movie "Hanna" for the final fight scene
Now it makes sense 😂 I immediately recognized the rainbow cat
I thought this roller coaster was in Japan at first
I'm shocked that Defunctland didn't cover this first. Awesome work
The main design flaw was, what I personally call : "the misagora trap", which in extreme cases, some individuals, could turn into "agoraphobia". (mis- is the greek derived prefix meaning 'dislike'...) But 'misagora' is a very large spread negative sensation/experience. The far majority of visitors would 'catch' it.
Useless open spaces (grass, concrete and dirt) with useless deep look-trough. Too big to feel hospitable to visitors. As said; most visitors would feel uncomfortable with it, and it leads to negative word of mouth. It's well known psychology. The 'misagora trap' can be derived directly from the first layout plan. It cannot be solved through whatever operational efforts. So, that means 'the end', embedded from the beginning.
(I'm a concept developer/designer)
Interesting. I guess Disney is built in the complete opposite way?
@@alindberg8001 YES !
There is one Disney park however, where (at least in the central part of it) the same design error was made. It's Disneyland Hong Kong, in it's initial state. (They worked hard to correct it, in the follow up 20 years)
Applied "Psycho-sociology" is extreme important in the development of theme parks. There is very little attention to it, generally speaking.
I deeply disagree that the concept of themeparks didn't exist in europe before american disney world. Tivoli was themed around famous stage plays and is like the second oldest themepark in the world. Many of the oldest themeparks are in europe. They just aren't themed in the american tv/movieconsumerist nightmare way.
Why am I not suprised that just 30 seconds in I hear the words "violent protests" in a video about France
Plopsaland's Pirate grill is closed now, and is about to be demolished.
i am sad about all the things changing, give me my Viktor's race back
I was an au pair in France in 1988, never actually went there but heard about it from the family I worked for. Interesting to hear what happened to it.
I went there a couple of times as a kid, grew up in paris. This park was amazing
I can't believe actual shady carnies literally came to attack the park lmao I'm picturing, like, rough looking clowns with unshaven faces and tatted up ride operators
I don’t how carnies are from where you’re from, but as a french, I sadly absolutely believe they did that.
From France, didnt know this creepy park existed, thanks for the discovery
Props for uploading. I discovered Mirapolis via the Gargantua statue. I hadn't seen the park in operation before this video.
Adding this to the list of parks I would have loved to visit, along side Nara Dreamland and the original version of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.
Got to say the City of East, Castle of Spells and Gargantua sound the most interesting.
Your description of the park's barren-ness perfectly summarizes my opinion on Lost Island in Waterloo, Iowa. Individual buildings look nice but the whole thing is just as flat and barren as the rest of Iowa
Another great video!
This is a very handy video. Oh, yeah, the Hat Cars (i'm calling them that now) aren't an Autopia-style ride, it's an Old Crocs ride, the two are fairly different. Also i think the Globules were probably blood.
Yes they are literally meant to be blood cells aka globules, I wonder how much that ride was crosspollinating with *Il était une fois… la Vie*
8:44 nah that’s Lord Farquad
Thank you for saying what we are all thinking 😆
Maybe Lord Farquad was copied off this?
His perfect theme park was once his?
Oh man, someone is talking about this legend of a theme park.
this park looked cool honestly . i wouldve gone there
How is it possible that you have only 41k subs? You should have at least five times more :o
Love the vid!! Top quality, as always!! Thanks.
Hello George Browning I am sick thanks for the video 🙏🏻
Hello pokezach494_ I hope you get better soon 🙏🏻
Get better please
been watching your videos for about a year or two? i think ahahha, but it's not often i find videos about theme parks i've not heard of. super excited to hear about this one, keep it up George ! big fan :)
" First modern style theme park in europe"
Meanwhile the efteling: "Am i a joke to you?"
Efteling grew organically, it wasn't built like a full fledged theme park from the ground up. You could list many parks older than Efteling which grew to become theme parks in the same way.
By the way I don't think it was mentioned that Mirapolis was supposed to be the first modern theme park in Europe, just France.
Tivoli would also like a word
@@mario64remix except places like Coney island grew organically and is called a themepark. the original 6 flags grew organically. A themepark spawning out of nowhere is really rare and most american themeparks don't fit that description.
Also Tivoli which is the second oldest themepark in the world was built with rides and themed after popular stageplays.
Just been getting the promotional videos for this park in my feed, so it's really interesting to learn what this park was all about! I've ridden Madame Freudenthals recently so it's fun to learn where the ride came from. Great video!
I’d love to have had a chance to go to this place. Wish it didn’t close.
I've never heard of this; great video!
My parents live just a couple of miles away. I went to mirapolis several times as a young kid: it closed before being finished, wich gave a weird unfinished, empty space feeling. But i keep wonderful memories. The Gargantua dark ride was incredible.
Grew up in Paris. Went there as a kid and let me tell you, the word creepy is an understatement 😂. The atmosphere in general was top tier nightmare material. Best place to traumatize your kids 😂.
I think it's awesome! It's really sad that something so beautiful and French only lasted five years. It's unique, alien to my world and I love it!
Nobody needs another Disney park, we have two and I think it's ok because they're on opposite coasts thousands of miles away from each other but I think they would be tacky for the U.K. and Europe in general when you have so many different cultures and stories of your own.
Hey France, thank you for the Statue of Liberty! It means so much to so many.
De Piratengrill in Plopsaland is going to be torn down, soon though... the building really has had it's best time and they're looking into replacing it.
GEORGE WITH ANOTHER CLASSIC WHAT A GREAT DAY
I will say, you don't hear a lot about female theme park moguls, failed or otherwise, so that's refreshing
you're my favorite theme park youtuber, and that's a hard title to achieve because i am very opinionated lol. thank you for your extensive research into these subjects and your great work!!
That's very kind, thank you
Tea cups. Can't go wrong with tea cups. Bar none, the best ride of any park.
It’s always so sad when parks close. Excellent video 👏🏻
It's actually kind of a shame. I wish that each country had developed their own take on large scale theme parks. It would be so interesting to see how each one would be different.
I hope to visit the vestige just in time
Otherwise as a fan of abandoned park and the stories behind thank you for the video
I live near where Mirapolis was. I was just old enough to go there once before it closed.
As you described, it was an ambitious project, perhaps too ambitious. Mismanagement and competition closer to Paris certainly did not help.
1:43 - 😱 Why TF is Obelix spreading his cheeks to let people climb inside!? 😩 No wonder this place closed down! 🤣
Now I know why those weird hat cars were in the movie Hanna when they shot in Spreepark in 2010/11.
incroyable vidéo quel plaisir de voir un étranger parler de mon pays
I always wondered what happened to that Kingdom after Dragon ate Farquaad at the end of the movie.
13:13 Miralooping looks very identical to the Anaconda in the Efteling.
it has been made by Vekoma. who made this design in other nation as well. here is a small summary.
The Python was built by Vekoma, but the design and layout of the track were created by Arrow Dynamics for the Carolina Cyclone, a roller coaster at Carowinds that opened in 1980. In addition to the Python, five other roller coasters with this identical layout have been built, including Montaña Rusa at Diverland in Venezuela (1983), Shaman at Gardaland in Italy (1985), and Euro-Loop at Europark in France (2004). The latter was previously known as Miralooping at Mirapolis in France (1988) and as Mega Looping Bahn at Spreepark in Germany (2002).
Bro efteling has the python not the anaconda
Wow my grand parents took me there it was super creepy i was kid i remenber that they had to take me home 2h after because i was screaming for my life because of à ride inside with creepy talking puppets..my grand parents never visited any parc again with me after this..i was 8 or 9 ..
Terifying stuff i had nightmares for years..
Must I say, your pronunciation of french words are on point
I'm soooo freakin' impressed by the size of that main statue Gargantua! Really impressive - James D. Watkins, artistic director of PHOENIX PRODUCTIONS
im french and i never knew this!
Please do a Spreepark vid - I've been there and explored in 2019, unbelievable to see in real life
I totally want to. There's a real lack of readily available footage from when the park was actually open, but it's something I have on my radar.
Raise your hand if you’ve actually been to Mirapolis 🤚
After it’s been abandoned, they left Guargantua to just sit there. You could easily see it from the freeway while driving north from Paris. It’s a fond memory of mine to wait to see Guargantua from the car, it meant we were almost at our destination!
🤚
This is the first time I heard about this park and it made me realise something... I'm dutch and my favourite themepark as a kid called 'sprookjeswonderland' (translation: fairy tale wonderland) has some very similar 'buildings'. There is a big figure of a giant (which terrified me as a kid). Not THIS huge, but still. And there is a building with the 4 seasons too (which I loved). I now wonder if the creators of sprookjeswonderland took some ideas from this french park. maybe one of them visited the place back in the day.
01:41 I wasn't ready for the Obelix goatse.........
I know some people likely look back on him fondly, but French Lord Farquad is terrifying. Though I imagine he'd make a great living statue for Godzilla to fight.
I hate how parks like this barely exist anymore. Theme parks are a dying breed, and non IP based parks are even rarer.
Phantasialand absolutely rocks. Their newest theme areas (Klugheim and Rookburgh) have arguably a level of theming that outdoes even the Efteling.
Tivoli in denmark is the second oldest themepark in the world and is still going strong. Hate to be that guy, but the reason these parks die is beacuse people stop going because escpecialy in the american mindset, they need constantly bigger and better and more. Tivoli gardens has had the same everything for decades and honestly, over a century is only added a couple coasters. But people have a healthier mindset about it.
And sadly if anything is non IP and original people like this narrator will call it creepy coz they don’t understand the background behind it, it has to be familiar and sugar coated.
If people didn’t know Mickey Mouse they’d call him creepy if they saw him in the park or the dumbo ride
Dude I'm French and I've NEVER heard of this park, guess it's urban exploring time!
The problems started when American consultants were brought in. Obviously the estimates of attendance became way overestimated, but at the scale they built the park they needed several years of losses built in to give the park time to develop. If Euro Disney expected an immediate financial success, they would have shut the doors by 1994. Also most theme parks in the US don't immediately succeed, and most also eventually fail anyway, so it certainly wasn't just this park. I loved the themes and characters in Mirapolis.
32:08 Mirapolis invented Vaporwave?!
Gargantua was terrifying! However, the dark rides look kinda cool. I would have loved the Impressionist Land and the labyrinth!
it definitely gives off Plopsaland or Efteling vibes.
the uncanny vibe also a bit Harry Malter, but that's maybe just how run down i remember the park when i went there as a kid
Really great video!
18:33 wait wait wait your saying the place i went to as a kid 4 times has a building from this themepark?! Now that surprised me
I clicked on this video because I live near Mirapolis but know nothing about it hahaha. I was born after it closed down.
I can confirm that the land is used by travelers and that it has been transformed into some sort of trailer park.
Each time the land has been bought over (it happened again a few years ago) there was barely hope for anything to happen. Everyone kinda knows that this space will surely remain unused.
The Giant looks like a Bootleg Farquaad 😂
Hell yea new video
I have no idea if that was the intended meaning, but the globules ( 9:35 ) are like the red and white blood cells from the body in french ("globule rouge" and "globule blanc")
Dude wtf I’m having dejavu about this. I had a dream a long time ago that I visited this place as a kid, but I didn’t know it existed. This is before my time
I understand protesting laws that unfairly benefit your competition, but throwing nails onto roads to sabotage cars that are predominantly driven by FAMILIES and therefore directly putting children in danger is so insane and gross.
When Disneyland Paris opened, there was farmers blocking the roads with tractors and pitchforks to stop people going in.
I worked there back in 1992, the opening day was very quiet
Gypsies are like that. That's why they're universally despised here.
8:42
🌸😹 Ok But Why Does Gargantua’s Head Look Like Lord Farquaad?❣️ 😹🌸
The kids castle terrifies me. I wouldn't have gone in there if I was a kid in 80s France visiting this place.
Gargantua speaks for itself.
1:42 omg its a goatse carousel
Great vid!
I did visit this abandonned park as a French guy here it was a bit creepy seeing the old buildings destroyed
BABE WAKE UP GEORGE UPLOADED
Hmmmm Lady Toast and French Beavers sounds fantastic 😎
France should definitely open this theme park back up again