According to Roller Coaster Database, there are over 5,500 operating roller coasters on Earth today. Of those 5,500, any thrill-seeker worth their salt – most of whom come equipped with a “Coaster Count” spreadsheet – has a “best;” a “classic;” a “bucket list;” a “personal favorite.” But between them, very, very few rides can agreeably and unanimously be described as “landmarks.”
Those are the roller coasters recognized across the globe; known by their silhouette alone; forever emblazoned in the record books; renowned by generations, and even living on as legends beyond their time… From The Beast to Millennium Force; the Incredible Hulk to Nemesis; X2 to El Toro; Steel Vengeance to VelociCoaster… These are rides so renowned, the mere mention of them conjures images in the minds of coaster enthusiasts the world over.
Standing among the pantheon of the most recognizable coasters in the world was one of the planet’s most extraordinary rides: Top Thrill Dragster. Opened in 2003, the world’s first “stratacoaster” shattered expectations and pierced through the 400-foot coaster height record like it was tought tissue paper. A big, hairy, audacious engineering marvel, Dragster was a ride beloved by adrenaline junkies and detested by those who green-lit its construction. A story of extremes, Dragster’s life was a miracle and a mess… until a pivotal pitstop changed the ride’s (literal) trajectory forever…
June 15, 2012. It’s a date engrained in the minds of so many Imagineering fans because on that otherwise-ordinary Friday, something happened that had never before occurred in the history of Disney Parks. At 9:00 AM, the gates to Disneyland’s sister theme park re-opened after a single, symbolic day of closure. When they did, guests were ushered into a park reimagined.
The story really began with our Disney’s California Adventure: Part I feature, exploring the initial opening of Disneyland’s second gate back in 2001. In that entry, we walked through not just the development of a theme park centered on California, but on the experience guests found within – an under-built, undmarer-funded park that was infamously short on rides, had practically nothing for families to do, and – worse – went out of its way to differentiate itself from Disneyland by throwing out the rule book.
Image: Disney
Then, as we saw in Disney’s California Adventure: Part II, a wave of reinvention swept the park – first via a series of “Band-aid” fixes meant to bolster its lineup, then as a $1.2 billion, master-planned, five year redesign. Between 2007 and 2012, the renamed Disney California Adventure was stripped of its modern ornamentation and redrawn as a park celebrating California through historic, idealized “lands” and lots of Disney and Pixar characters.
When it re-opened on June 15, 2012, the reborn California Adventure was nothing short of an Imagineering triumph; a park “righted” and placed on a new track; honoring its Californian roots but embracing Disney “magic.” But then things started to change… Today, in the final chapter – Part III – of our California Adventure story, we’ll trace what’s happened to the park after its 2012 relaunch for better and worse… Settle in…
“Exploration – Excavation – Exultation!” Take it from the Dino Institute team: there’s an art to digging deep. Uncovering the past isn’t always easy, and making sense of what was only begins at finding evidence of it. Maybe you could say that the same is true of exploring, excavating, and exulting Disney Parks past, too… and that’s where Park Lore comes in.
Our mission is to explore the stories behind the rides, adding context to the legends and lore around the world’s most beloved (and sometimes, denigrated) attractions. Together, we’ve dug deep into the tales of Lost Legends, explored the making of industry-changing Modern Marvels, reflected on the lessons learned from Declassified Disasters, and walked through unbuilt Possibilitylands across the site.
Image: Disney
But through all the stories we’ve told on Park Lore, few hold a candle to one of the boldest, darkest, and downright weirdest rides ever developed by Walt Disney Imagineering. When Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, Countdown to Extinction was its only dark ride, sending guests on a wild, off-roading journey through a steaming primeval jungle, pursued by some of the biggest, loudest, meanest, and hungriest creatures ever to walk the Earth.
Countdown to Extinction was a technological marvel, filled with incredible Audio-Animatronics and brought to life by one of the most talked-about ride systems ever developed by Imagineers. Yet Animal Kingdom’s only dark ride was also… a loveable mess, driven by a comical plot and blacklight jump scares meant to leave riders laughing, screaming, crying, or all-of-the-above.
Today, we’ll explore the development of Disney’s Countdown to Extinction and its subsequent transformation into DINOSAUR, detailing the differences and what makes the ride such an unusual, uneven oddity in Disney’s portfolio today. Unsurprisingly, the story begins in the past… So “let’s get in, grab the Iguanodon, and get out before that asteroid hits!” Hang on!
When’s the last time Disney did something different? Like, really unexpected? Something so out of left field – so completely out of the box – it felt like a reinvention and a risk? Think back to the days before box-office tie-ins and IP lands. When’s the last time Disney made a move that truly surprised and excited you? Disney English? The Disney Cruise Line? The Disney Vacation Club? Maybe!
But one thing’s for sure: one of the bravest, boldest, and most surprising moves at Disney in the last few decades is one that’s no longer around (except that it is) that you can no longer visit (except that you can): The Disney Institute was a really-for-real reinvention of what Disney could do. And today, it’s gone… kind of. Just image: Would you be willing to visit Walt Disney World but skip its theme parks entirely to visit a self-contained informal education campus where you could pursue new interests and dream hobbies?
So what was the Disney Institute? A program or a place? A campus or a course? Did you study there or stay there? Did it close or continue? And for that matter, is it a Lost Legend missed by those who experienced it, or a doomed Declassified Disaster whose failings we should learn from? The answer is… yes. Today, we’ll dig into the unusual history of one of Michael Eisner’s more far-flung pet projects; how it was conceived, where it came to life, why it disappeared… and how you can still experience it today.
And before we head off, remember that you can unlock rare concept art and audio streams in this story, access over 100 Extra Features, and recieve an annual Membership card and postcard art set in the mail by supporting this clickbait-free, in-depth, ad-free theme park storytelling site for as little as $2 / month! Become a Park Lore Member to join the story! Until then, let’s start at the beginning…
Ready to peel out on a high-speed race through Hollywood? Or perhaps you’d prefer a journey through the cinematic classics that shaped generations in an epic dark ride? Maybe instead you’d like a laugh-out-loud, comical dark ride through the entertainment industry? There are dozens of intriguing and incredible ways to build a ride around the concept of Hollywood.
No matter what you’re looking for from a Disney dark ride, you aren’t likely to find it in Superstar Limo. Often regarded as the worst dark ride Disney has ever created, this short-lived monstrosity spent more time in development than it spent open for guests! Irreverent, unfunny, instantly dated, and creatively starved, Superstar Limo was more than just a one-off accident; it was the anchor of an entire creative concept that nearly killed Disney’s California Adventure.
“Here you leave today…” Since Disneyland opened in 1955, that simple invitation has served as a de facto design statement for Disney’s “castle parks” around the globe. From Orlando to Shanghai, each subsequent “Disneyland” has evolved to more fully immerse guests into romanticized versions of worlds “yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” The foundational conceit? That guests will be transported to another time and place that can’t quite be found on a timeline or map. While they may resemble history, they’re enchanted; passed through an idealized lens.
Walking right down the middle of a glowing, incandescent, nostalgic Main Street, U.S.A.; torch-lit Adventurelands drawn from the pulpy exoticism of yore; futures that never were, but always will be in the collective consciousness. And through it all, you’ve likely had one persistent thought repeat again and again in your mind: “I only wish I could leave this fantasy nonsense behind and get back to reality.”
At least, that must’ve been what Disney’s executives imagined when they commissioned the construction of Disney’s most disastrous theme park ever; a park that dispensed entirely with immersion, fantasy, and romance in favor of blistering blacktop, metal lighting rigs, electrical poles, and big, boxy, beige soundstages. Less a celebration of Hollywood’s storied past and more a trip to an empty industrial backlot, Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris was nothing short of a box office bomb.
Though our Declassified Disasters series at Park Lore is filled with its fair share of failed rides, concepts, and even theme parks, there’s probably none that have been so spectacular, resounding, and complete a failure at the would-be second gate in France. Today, we’ll step through its agonizing Opening Day version, watch its slow “Band-Aiding,” and tackle the ultimate question: will Disney’s $3 billion investment in this park actually save it? Or will a new IP-focused mini-land model fail to fix its broken foundation?
And before we head off, remember that you can unlock rare concept art and audio streams in this story, access over 100 Extra Features, and recieve an annual Membership card and postcard art set in the mail by supporting this clickbait-free, in-depth, ad-free theme park storytelling site for as little as $2 / month! Become a Park Lore Member to join the story! Until then, let’s start at the beginning…
Opening credits
Image: Disney
In the early 1970s and early ’80s, the Walt Disney Company was struggling. In the 15 years since Walt’s 1966 death, the company had experienced a period of stagnation and – frankly – uncertainty. What was the Walt Disney Company without Walt Disney? Who would take the reins? Whose vision should the company follow? And indeed, the 1970s had been one of the bleakest times at the company. Hit films were becoming increasingly rare, animation was all but abandoned, Walt’s EPCOT city was canned, and the theme parks were being left behind as a rotating cast of internal executives tried (and inevitably failed) to match Walt’s vision and direction.
In 1984, Michael Eisner appeared with just the credentials to fix it all. Coming to Disney straight from a time as CEO of Paramount Pictures, Eisner was deeply embedded in the film industry and quickly set to work turning around Disney’s luck there. He kicked off a period of rebirth at Disney Animation so legendary, it earned its own in-depth Park Lore Special Feature: The Disney Renaissance. During that ’90s pop culture peak, Disney had hit after hit after hit at the box office from The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King to Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. Likewise, his media industry savvy saw Disney acquire ESPN and ABC and forge a groundbreaking partnership with Pixar.
When it came time to address the shortcomings of Disney’s aging theme parks, Eisner had a cinematic plan there, too. His unique film-centered résumé gave him three controversial ideas for fixing Disney’sparks, each more unimaginable than the last. Eisner believed:
That Disney parks should be places where every member of the family – including thrill-seeking teenagers – would want to visit;
That to entice young people to visit, Disney parks should be hip, cool, cutting-edge places where guests could “ride the movies!”;
That – since Disney didn’t exactly have a modern catalogue of many movies worth seeing – those movies didn’t necessarily have to be Disney movies
Image: Lucasfilm / Paramount
While we traced all of Eisner’s eccentric and ambitious projects in our standalone “Ride the Movies” Special Feature, rest assured that fresh from his time at Paramount, Eisner had just the connections to breathe new life into Disney parks.
Indebted to Eisner for greenlighting Raiders of the Lost Ark at Paramount, George Lucas was eager to work with Disney and bring his growing catalogue along. Of course, audiences of the era couldn’t imagine that a Lost Legend: STAR TOURS (based on Star Wars, distributed by 20th Century Fox) and Indiana Jones (distributed by Paramount) could fit into Walt Disney’s magic kingdom, yet they appeared. So did the hip Videopolis dance club, Michael Jackson’s Lost Legend: Captain EO, and, later on, another Disney / Lucas Lost Legend: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter.
Image: Disney
Eisner was so invested in bringing movies to life at Disney parks, he believed that the film industry deserved its own dedicated pavilion at EPCOT Center, and tasked Disney Legend Marty Sklar with developing a movie-centered project. The resulting pavilion was intended to fit between The Land and Imagination in the park’s Future World, concealed behind a massive blue-sky backdrop. Inside, the pavilion’s star would’ve been (like most of EPCOT Center’s pavilion headliners) an all-encompassing dark ride – Great Moments at the Movies – which would transport guests through the most fabled scenes in cinema history.
Then, of course, rumors suggested that Universal Studios was interested in building a studio-themed attraction right in Disney’s backyard. Wouldn’t you know it? Eisner was seized by inspiration… Maybe this oversized dark ride deserved a place of prominence in an entirely new theme park dedicated to filmmaking…
Hollywood in Orlando
Image: Disney
When the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened on May 1, 1989, Michael Eisner’s dedication was a thoughtful one. He called for the park to be “dedicated to Hollywood – not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine; a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was – and always will be.”
For all the pomp and circumstance, Walt Disney World’s third theme park was small. Very small. In its opening year, the pedestrian-accessible “theme park” proper was made up of only of modern day Hollywood Blvd. and Echo Lake (orange and light pink on the map above), and the park offered only two rides. Naturally, the first was the epic, EPCOT-esque Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride, housed in the elegant Chinese Theater recreation, towering at the end of an idealized golden age Hollywood Blvd.
Image: Disney
The second ride was the real showstopper – and frankly, the park’s main purpose: a multi-hour Backstage Studio Tour. Part walking tour, part tram tour, this truly gargantuan attraction (any area in deep pink or purple in the map above) would weave in and out of real working production facilities, soundstages, and demonstrations where actual television and film studios would operate.
Along the Studio Tour, guests would view pre- and post-production facilities, watch animators craft Disney’s next masterpiece, and even catch real filming in person! Eisner’s new park had gifted guests with a sought-after peek behind-the-scenes…
Image: Disney
So it should be no surprise that Eisner believed the Disney-MGM Studios concept was highly franchisable. In fact, while blacktop was still hardening on the tram tour’s route in Orlando, Disney began the process of drafting a whole new Disney-MGM Studios to join its in-development Euro Disney Resort… Read on…
Imagine a ride so frightening, guests would need to sign a waiver of liability to enter the queue; so terrifyingly intense, no one under 16 or over 55 would be allowed aboard for “physical health and safety”; so dizzyingly, maddeningly extreme, guests would be limited to ride no more than once per day for their own “emotional health”; so cutting-edge, it would feature a mysterious world’s-first element that no other roller coaster on Earth had ever even attempted.
Would you be in line to tackle the world’s first “psychoaster?” If so, that would obviously make you a born-and-bred thrillseeker looking to see just how far a modern roller coaster can go. …So how might you feel if your multi-hour wait leads to a ride about as “extreme” as Big Thunder Mountain?
Disney and disaster. Two words that don’t often go together… and yet, our Declassified Disasters collection has traced the surprising stories of several of Disney’s pitifully-bad overlays, reimaginings, and replacements whose stories are too surprising to be forgotten…
But when you ask Imagineering fans, there’s one single attraction that most agree stands the test of time as the worst that Walt Disney World has ever hosted… Avoided by guests, skipped by fans, and mercilessly mocked by all, this can only be the story of the Magic Kingdom menace that is Stitch’s Great Escape!
Since the earliest days of Disneyland, the future has been on the move. The park’s Tomorrowland has been the subject of continuous evolution and reimagining for over six decades! But one thing that’s remained constant in this ever-changing land of the future is its dedication to moving people. Preoccupied with ways to improve living, Walt’s fascination with transportation led to numerous prototypes and experiments that guests could experience firsthand.
Eventually, one of them was bound to be a bust, right?
Long ago, in the distant corners of the ancient globe, civilizations were ruled not by order, but by seething dragons, forbidden magic, and jealous gods… It’s the perfect prologue for another timeless entry into our in-depth collection of must-read stories chronicling the best (and worst) attractions to ever exist – from the Skyway to Jaws; Radiator Springs Racers to DisneyQuest.
And yet, today’s entry is perhaps the strangest story we’ve told. An anchor of Universal’s Islands of Adventure, the mythological Lost Continent set out to prove that Universal could dispense with its “studio” styling and create immersive fantasy worlds matching Disney’s dominance. But forget dueling dragons or living dinosaurs… One of the most talked-about and mysterious elements the new park promised was Poseidon’s Fury…
