Modern Marvels Archives

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

Countdown to Extinction: Inside the Evolution of Animal Kingdom’s Time-Traveling DINOSAUR Dark Ride

“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.

But through all the stories we’ve told on Park Lore, few hold a candle to one of the boldest, darkest, and downright weirdest thrill 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 lovably uneven mess, seemingly unsure whether it was meant to leave riders giggling with hokey, blacklight glee or traumatized with terror and wanting to go home.

Today, we’ll explore the development of Disney’s Countdown to Extinction and its subsequent transformation into DINOSAUR, detailing the differences and what made the ride such an unusual, uneven oddity in Disney’s portfolio… until a fate dreamed up on early 2000s message boards unbelievably came to be. Unsurprisingly, the story begins in the past… So “let’s get in, grab the Iguanodon, and get out before that asteroid hits!” Hang on!

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September 30, 2023December 26, 2024

EL TORO: The Wild Life of Six Flags’ Buckin’ Bull and How Intamin Rewrote the Rules of the Wooden Coaster Wars

The smell of wood – decades-old, cut, stacked, and bolted, bathed in and baked by summer sun; the aroma of grease, clinging to the lift chain as humming motors drag bug-splattered wooden trains upward, anti-rollback wedges clacking into place in their wake; the roaring, rumbling wave of sound as riders snake along a superstructure of swaying wood beams, shuddering and shaking as up-stop wheels ricochet…

For more than a century, the wooden roller coaster has been a staple of amusement parks the world over. And even once it wooden roller coasters were joined by altogether sleeker, smoother steel sisters throughout the 1960s and ’70s, the wooden roller coasters remained landmarks; classics; essentials.

But in the early 2000s, roller coaster enthusiasts encountered a question they’d never had to ask before: what makes a wooden roller coaster a wooden roller coaster? What if the wood wasn’t aged and hand-sawed, but brand new and laser-cut? What if there were no clack-clack-clack of a classic chain lift? And what if the ride itself were smooth as glass, arcing and slaloming and diving as effortlessly as only a steel coaster once could?

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January 1, 2023June 1, 2023

VOLKANU: The Quest for the Golden Idol – Behind the Legend of Lost Island’s Mythic Adventure Dark Ride

Long ago, the realms of Lost Island lived in harmony – the floating air kingdom of Udara; the water nomads of Awa; the wise earth protectors of Yuta, the fierce fiery warriors of Mura... All was at peace.

…Until Volkanu emerged. A molten demon forged in the fiery depths, Volkanu’s roiling rage threatned to shatter the realms and destory Lost Island forever. Only one hope remained. Guided by the Tamariki spirit guardians, the realms united to forge a golden idol imbued with the strength of all four elements: the Ora-Tika. Placed on the altar of the Fire Temple, the Ora-Tika sealed Volkanu away…

And so long as the Ora-Tika remains, Volkanu awaits… his rage growing stronger with each passing day…

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August 25, 2022January 24, 2023

MILLENNIUM FORCE: The Record-Shattering Story of Cedar Point’s Gigacoaster Icon and How It Won the Coaster Wars

Right at the intersection of art and science resides the roller coaster…

And though we’ve devoted in-depth features to many – from Son of Beast to the Big Bad Wolf; Expedition Everest to Top Thrill Dragster; Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune to Volcano: The Blast Coaster – in the opinion of many of the industry’s most devoted fans, the ride that most magnificently combines art and science in one is Millennium Force, the landmark gigacoaster at Cedar Point.

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March 25, 2021May 23, 2023

FANTASMIC! The Mysteries, Magic, and Visions Fantastic of Disneyland’s Dreamy Nighttime Spectacular

As the sun sets behind the horizon, a shimmering layer of Pixie dust settles across Disneyland. Torch-lit jungles underscored by the distant calls of unseen animals; wrought iron waterfronts alive with the smell of beignets and the sound of live jazz; frontier towns where lanterns signal refuge from the unknown of the uncharted wild West… Walt Disney would’ve been the first to admit: “a new kind of magic takes over in Disneyland after dark.”

That’s why we’ve launched a new limited series of in-depth stories that crisscross our Lost Legends, Modern Marvels, and Declassified Disaster collections: NIGHT MAGIC, the stories of the spectacles Imagineers have brought to life under cover of darkness at Disney Parks around the globe. Today, our Night Magic series continues to unfold with one of the most outrageous, extravagant, eccentric, hallucinatory, and downright wonder-full productions ever staged by Disney’s designers.

Each evening, Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios erupt into an abstract, larger-than-life, emotional, and epic battle between good and evil that’s loud, bright, and explosive enough to leave Las Vegas spectacles scrambling for more mortars. FANTASMIC! isn’t just a journey into Mickey’s imagination utilizing every tool in the Imagineering arsenal; it’s a generation-defining classic; a lasting testament to the grandeur of the “Ride the Movies” era; “the one to beat” for every nighttime spectacular to come after.

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March 7, 2021February 11, 2025

It’s Kind of a Sweet Story – The History of the Dole Whip From Polynesian Paradise to Disney’s Tropical Hideaways

Forget Space Mountain, “it’s a small world,” or Pirates of the Caribbean. Splash Mountain who? Jungle Cruise? Never heard of it. For generations of Disneyland and Magic Kingdom guests, it’s not any particular E-Ticket that makes a day at Disneyland or Magic Kingdom complete; it’s a Dole Whip. Today, this non-dairy, frozen, pineapple-flavored soft serve treat has ascended into an upper echelon of Disney Parks lifestyling, inspiring merchandise, media, and the Parks’ snack-obsessed culture.

The Dole Whip is an Instagram-ready icon; as “Disney” as Dumbo; the Zeus in Disneyland’s pantheon of must-try treats. And like the best Disney Parks classics, the story of this sweet snack is one wild ride. From Polynesian paradise to the mid-century Tiki Craze; Walt Disney’s tropical serenade to the citrus swirls of an Orange Bird and the expanded mythologies of the Tropical Hideaway, this widely-available-yet-distinctly-Disney frozen treat and its pan-Pacific story are just the in-depth explorations that our Special Features collection was made for!

So where do we begin in our quest to uncover the story of this Adventureland anchor? Believe it or not, the Dole Whip was not an Opening Day offering at either Disneyland or Magic Kingdom… Nonetheless, the story of this tropical treat begins a long, long time before Walt Disney World… or even Walt Disney…

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October 31, 2020April 12, 2022

Non Omnis Moriar: The Heartbreaking Haunting of Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor

As the cool autumn breeze drifts across the misty Rivers of the Far West and the last streaks of sunlight strike the face of Big Thunder Mountain, a dense fog descends through the red rock hoodoos. One by one, the lanterns of Thunder Mesa’s porches spring to life, and up on Boot Hill, an unexplainable lamp sparks behind the frosted windows in the attic of the old Ravenswood Manor…

Today, we offer you this chilling challenge: forget everything you know about grim, grinning ghosts, happy haunts, and a Ghost Host. One of the most spectacular dark rides on the planet may sound like your local Haunted Mansion, but beneath the surface, Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor is something all its own… A landmark of ’90s Disney Weirdness, this reinterpretation of an untouchable classic often falters… but it does so remarkably.

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June 17, 2020August 16, 2021

Inside the Grid: Programming TRON Lightcycle Power Run and its Upload to Magic Kingdom

It’s not every day that a ride revolutionizes an entire resort… but that just may be on the horizon at Walt Disney World thanks to a controversial new ride that’s already thrilling guests on the other side of the planet… Technologically cutting-edge, this 21st century coaster finally brings to life a fan-favorite, cult classic intellectual property, and in the form of its own Tomorrowland E-Ticket. The question is, will it be worth the wait?

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June 15, 2020August 4, 2021

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: Beyond the Fifth Dimension in the Hollywood Tower Hotel

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound; a dimension of sight; a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas; you’ve just crossed over into… The Twilight Zone.

Looming over the movie palaces and marketplaces of Sunset Blvd. stands a lost icon; the lightning-scarred shell of the once-glamorous Hollywood Tower Hotel. Its neon sign sparking, this decripid, imposing tower may not look like a beacon for the showbusiness elite, but something is indeed about to happen that will change all that.

Though guests may have quickly abandoned this supernaturally haunted hotel on Halloween Night, 1939, a new generation of visitors flock to its misty grounds today, eager to take on one of the most spectacular Modern Marvels in all of Disney Parks history.

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June 15, 2020October 18, 2022

Tower of Terror: Touring Through the Cursed Collections of DisneySea’s Fabled Hightower Hotel

Hollywood, 1939… the glitz and glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age… The Hollywood Tower Hotel, a star in its own right… a rogue lightning strike… a descent into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood with a detour into The Twilight Zone… Sound familiar? Forget it all.

Today, our Modern Marvels series embarks on a cross-country expedition: from Orlando to Tokyo; New York to Hollywood. This can only be the sensational story of one of the most uniquely original attractions Imagineers have ever designed; a sincerely one-of-a-kind ride with all the features that fans crave: an original story, overwhelming detail, and a pulse-pounding thrill that’ll leave your heart in your chest.

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