Scaling creative peaks to make resort mountains
Print Edition
WHEN Fabrice Kennel, then age 25, built his first artificial mountain at Disneyland Paris in 1990, he found his life’s passion.
Since then, the French landscape engineer has designed and made rockwork and mountains at almost every Disney park around the world. His masterpieces include Tree of Life, a 45-meter-tall artificial tree at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, Mount Prometheus, a volcano at Tokyo Disneysea, and all the rock formations in Hong Kong Disneyland.
As rockwork production design principal for the Shanghai Disney Resort, Kennel leads a team of 45 artists creating the park’s centerpiece mountain and thousands of square meters of artificial rockeries.
He is also mentoring Chinese apprentices as they learn the trade he loves. “We are working hand-in-hand with local contractors to transfer unique Disney techniques which will eventually promote the local rockwork industry,” said Kennel.
Now in his 50s, Kennel said he feels as passionate about his work as he did when he was 25 and just starting out.
“To me, artificial mountains and rocks at Disney are large artistic sculptures,” he said. “I hope they will be seen and appreciated by millions of people for decades to come.”
The mountain at the resort’s Magic Kingdom-style theme park was successfully topped-out last December. The shape and height of the centerpiece mountain of the Shanghai Disney Resort hasn’t been disclosed yet, but it is expected the second highest feature in the park. The resort in the Chuansha area of the Pudong New Area is scheduled to open in the spring of 2016.
A series of smaller rock hills will be the foundation of the Enchanted Castle, the biggest of all Disneyland castles. Artificial rock creations will also spread over the lagoon, fortress and the Treasure Cove pirates-themed land.
“Each artificial rock is not just a stone,” Kennel said. “Each is part of a story being told.”
The mountain and rockworks in Shanghai are quite large and diverse, he said.
“The Shanghai resort has rocks that look like natural ones in South America and fantasy hills like those in the Disney cartoon ‘Snow White,’” he said.
Linking stories to rocks, he began designing the shape of the mountain and other rock architecture for the Shanghai resort in Florida in 2012. His designs were based mainly on Disney movies and theme park concepts. He came to Shanghai to supervise their construction.
“Every rock in the resort requires three years from initial design to completion,” he said.
First, foam miniatures for the mountain and all rock structures were made on a scale of 1:25. They were then scanned into three dimensions for reproduction at full scale.
Each rock has steel structure and is covered with special cement. Kennel’s apprentices carve on the cement before it hardens. The tough exterior can withstand any weather in Shanghai for decades, he said.
Kennel said 40 percent of the mountain has been completed and he expects it will all be wrapped up by the end of the year.
Kennel is often out on the site, climbing the rock formations to guide the work of his students. His Chinese surname Baili, which means “hundreds of miles,” is inscribed on his helmet.
What he calls his “Rockwork Academy” includes 30 Chinese students and 15 foreign artists who are from places like Japan, Portugal, Italy and New Zealand and have studied under Kennel.
“We are trained to put our different cultures aside and pursue the common goal of a Disney product,” Kennel said.
When he first set foot in Shanghai, he said he found China to be “the most mysterious part of the world,” and it was there he had to recruit local professionals for his team.
“We were in the fog and had no idea what kind of talent was available,” he said. “But it was like fishing. We threw out net far and wide into the water and found big, good fish.”
Andy Guo, a field art director, is one of those fish.
The Sichuan Province native who majored in sculpture said he was surprised by the realism of the artificial mountain and rocks when he visited Hong Kong Disneyland in 2014. He applied to join Kennel’s team when he heard of plans to build a Disney park in Shanghai.
“My previous sculpture projects were mainly in the residential neighborhoods or in park gardens, but they were crude in comparison to what Disney was seeking. In Disney, there’s an incredible attention to detail, rich and immersive storytelling, and activities that appeal to the whole family,” Guo said. “It fired up my passion.”
Guo, 30, was one of 120 applicants for 30 positions. Kennel designed a three-month training program to test the talents of the candidates. They were taken to a workshop on the site and asked to construct a two-meter-tall tree or a rock according to various design pictures. Kennel said he monitored them for carving capability and their skill in artistic communications.
“They needed to be able to grasp the concepts behind the designs,” Kennel said.
Guo said he still remembers Kennel’s comment on his first trial work: “not bad.” He is now a supervisor in mountain building and carving. He also helps other craftsmen follow Kennel’s designs to the letter.
Kennel said he sees a bit of his 25-year-old former self in Guo as the young man embarks on his first Disney project. “When I was 25 I was learning, but today my career is more about teaching,” he said. “It’s great to see the young talent growing up.”
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