I recently got a chance to interview the owner and Character actor of EA, Ms. Cam Chirnoaga De Vil
Q: What inspired you to create your own Disney based attraction?
C: A most interesting question, I have always had a love for Disney and shortly after joining secondlife I discovered there was some Disney fan content already around the grid. It was at Magicland that I first met Baz who I co built this park with, (for those who do not know it was one of the first Disney tribute areas in world). Baz and myself struck it off from the very beginning and played around with ideas, actually Enchanted Adventures was not the first Disney/fantasy based area I built and was originally based on many other cartoons too. A large amount of inspiration can be attributed to Magicland, along with the now defunct WEDCot centre park. We wanted to create something new, rather than just recreating what currently exists in reality. The park changed to full Disney when our creating abilities became more refined and we found we were able to create things the way we pictured them in our heads. We have built Enchanted Adventures as if a new park was being opened today, imagineering new concepts and combining the elements we like that already exist around the world.
Q: I've noticed in my visits, that you seem to have an enthusiastic team, would you mind telling me a bit about them?
C: We do, I firmly believe that a park is only as good as the cast who support it, without the people this would be an empty area of prims, the cast are the ones who bring the life to the place. Baz and myself are the main creators, I am sure he would agree with me saying that I have the idea and build it and he makes it do what it is supposed to do, though we are both builders. Then we come to the Character team, and while at present the team is small, each person brings something different for the enjoyment of our guests, to them we owe the life and soul of the park. I think I should also mention we have some friends who are not directly involved with the cast who have helped us do things beyond our own capabilities as well as the Magicland team who have always been a great support to us.
Q: I noticed that your sim seems quite a bit different than sims with a similar theme, is there a reason for this?
C: Well at present and even though we are 5 years old we are the younger of the sims, I should say now that people do not realise how long it takes to create something from idea to (virtual) reality and some people forget this is a hobby rather than a job that we can work on full time. We became a full Disney area about a year after mesh had been introduced meaning we were lucky enough to have new technology to create buildings such as Storybook Castle and Main Street, having mesh from the beginning also meant we did not have to both build new things and upgrade what already existed. We also began the park with a full region which meant we were building to a much bigger scale rather than starting off as a smaller area and expanding. A tip I would give for the best results is to use a mixture of mesh sculpt and prim, because using all available mediums rather than sticking to one can dramatically increase what you can create.
Q: You have several different parades, Can you please tell me about them?
C: I can, much to Baz's annoyance, I am a little parade crazy! When we first opened the park in 2012 we had Parade of Dreams which was a very slightly modified version of the Disneyland version which celebrated their 50th Anniversary. Then came the Christmas Electrical Parade for our first holiday season, I had the idea of how beautiful an electrical parade looked and why not mix it at a time when you have thousands of lights anyway... Christmas! The next parade was Parade of Nightmares which made its Debut in 2013, the inspiration for it was to take all the good elements from Parade of Dreams and flip it on its head where the Disney Villains took control. We have had multiple versions of our Celebration Train including Easter, New Year and Real life Park Milestones. Last but not least we have Celebrate, 5 Glorious Years which was built to be a smaller parade for our 5th Birthday... however my definition of small is most people's idea of large! The idea behind the different parades is to create something for all of the different seasonal events and then play the regular parade at the other intervals!
Q: What gave you the idea to use avatars in the parades?
C: Well our original Parade of Dreams actually did not use avatars, it was all built instead. I could say we stole the idea from other parks but it was really more of an organic thing, having avatars in the parades mean that they can interact with the guests watching. Upon my earlier days in Secondlife I was at a parade and had Minnie Mouse say hello to me. Having that interaction totally blew me away and gave me a feeling of happiness and excitement. I wanted our guests to feel the same!
Q: I noticed for Walt Disney's birthday, you opened up a new attraction. What gave you the idea to open up the iconic apartment?
C: I learned of his apartment many years ago before I had the chance to visit his original Disneyland, I love to research the history and stories behind how things came to be. When we built Main Street to replace our former Romeo Drive I always had plans to build it here. In the real park it has been preserved as it was in Walt's day, and having it here feels like we have a little part of him here. I like to take most things and think on how we could improve on them, however with the Firehouse Apartment it has been recreated as true to the real one as possible, it needed to remain true to the original.
Q: Fun little question. What are your favorite characters?
C: Well I am very much split, I love the good and the bad, I am a Big Fan of Belle, Beauty and the Beast being my favourite Disney movie. I love Cruella De Vil, I think we are the same person in some ways! I also have a fondness for Mary Poppins and Eglantine Price (Bedknobs and Broomsticks) most likely to my Britishness. I also have a special place in my heart for the lesser known characters from the old days like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Q: Final question. Where do you see your park going? Any future plans?
C: We have many future plans, there is always a lot going on in the background, we normally are working on between 10 and 20 different things at once, but we feel we want to get quality rather than quantity. There will be a lot more happening in the new year, however we do not like to reveal too much in case plans evolve or change! You will have to keep checking back to see what is new, hehe!
And there you have it! And I tell you now, dear readers, this sim is a ton of fun and great to explore.. I shall be doing many followups to this charming sim and with my charming hostess. Come visit for yourself HERE