New aerial photos from friend of the site Bioreconstruct show an expansive construction site in the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom for land preparation related to the all-new Villains Land and a Cars-themed expansion to Frontierland. As you’ll see in the photos below, new land clearing is taking place behind the “it’s a small world” attraction in Fantasyland as part of the upcoming Villains Land. Let’s take a closer look!
Land Clearing Behind “it’s a small world” for Villains Land
Before we get to the land clearing behind “it’s a small world”, we’ll start at the south end of the construction site. This is where the majority of Tom Sawyer Island was located, along with beautiful vistas of the Rivers of America.
In a photo update from less than a week ago, we provided a look at the Rivers of America land clearing progress from various locations within Magic Kingdom. As seen in the article linked below, construction had expanded to an area near the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. There was also ongoing work to grade some of the mound left by Tom Sawyer Island following demolition. Finally, there were some survey markers placed to allow for the next phase of construction.
As we previously covered, Walt Disney World recently received a regulatory green light for its plans to develop or impact more than 33 acres in the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom. Our original coverage of the “drain lines” permit included some speculation about the layout of Villains Land. As it turns out, recent land clearing appears to support our theory about the layout of the ambitious Villains Land.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s check out the aerial photos of the area that will become Piston Peak National Park.
As you can see below, there is an area of darker dirt that roughly resembles the former outline of the south island of the Tom Sawyer Island complex. This area of dirt is being leveled as part of the massive grading project that will take the undulations of the area and create a level ground from which Disney can build the Cars and Villains areas.
From here, we’ll zoom out and check out a wider view of the project. The photo directly below shows not only the Cars-themed Piston Peak National Park area, but the Villains Land area as well. To help you visualize, you can basically draw a line from the tallest spire on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to the front door of the Haunted Mansion attraction. Anything south of that imaginary line would be Piston Peak National Park, and anything north of that line would be Villains Land.
Actually, that’s not quite correct. While the boundaries of Piston Peak National Park are known, the layout and boundaries of Villains Land remain a bit of a mystery. That said, construction for Villains Land is expanding to an area of land behind “it’s a small world”, north of Fantasyland.
The photos below were taken from a vantage point to the west of Magic Kingdom, looking east. We can see Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the middle of the photo, and the Haunted Mansion attraction tucked away in some remaining lush landscape. Of note is the new land clearing in the upper left of the photo.
Zooming in a bit, we can see some new land clearing taking place behind the large “it’s a small world” attraction building. This work isn’t visible from within Magic Kingdom, but it is in alignment with the permit that we covered back in October. It is believed that this area will be used by an attraction show building for Villains Land.
As a reminder, Villains Land will contain two major attractions, dining, and shopping on an incredibly twisted grand scale. Here’s a look at the only piece of concept art released for Villains Land so far.
Next up is essentially a reverse view of the photos above. This photo was taken from north of Magic Kingdom, looking west. In the photo below, we can see the new land clearing, along with continued land clearing beyond Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. There is quite a lot of land here for Disney to basically create whatever they’d like.
Here are some more photos of land clearing and grading underway for Villains Land.
For everything we know about the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, check out our dedicated Villains Land page below!
For everything we know about the Cars-themed expansion to Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, check out our dedicated project page below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
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