Standing in the sunset glow of Batuu… alone; gazing up at fireworks from a Main Street that’s… empty; a family perfectly sized to capture that Splash Mountain photo… with no pesky strangers in the log. Anyone who’s made the mistake of mentioning “Disney World” in earshot of a smart speaker or so much as Googled the possibility of a trip will quickly find their browser filled with these rosy images of a Disney Parks vacation. In the alternate reality Walt Disney World depicted there, there’s an unspoken guarantee: your family will find a Disney trip as effortlessly magical as all those ABC sitcom families in the ‘90s did.
Of course, anyone who’s actually been to Central Florida will tell you that those dreamy plans quickly evaporate upon arriving on Walt Disney World soil. There, reality checks you fast. Pathways surging with people; restaurant reservations sold out six months in advance; multi-hour queues in parks notoriously short on rides yet packed with E-Tickets; transportation, ticketing, theming, and infrastructure from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s butting up against one another in continuous conflict.
Image: Disney
In the mid-2000s, record crowds (and record prices) were beginning to break the spell of “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” sullying Disney’s reputation for courtesy, efficiency, and show. MyMagic+ was the sleight of hand that would bring the magic back… An abstract-but-ambitious billion dollar undertaking, Disney World’s all-at-once modernization was meant to add ease and simplicity back into a visit; to make Disney World as frictionless as promised; to leave guests effortlessly traversing (and spending money) across Disney’s Central Florida campus. Did it work? Well…
“Book reports” – staples of middle school and, as it turns out, sometimes Disney Parks, too. In fact, you don’t have to be part of theme park fandom for long before you stumble across debate about “book report rides.” It’s a not-so-flattering description for an all-too-common subset of Disney dark rides that merely condense the 90-minute story you already know into a 90-second ride-through.
For better or worse, “book report rides” don’t deviate much from the story you (hopefully!) recall by heart. Beat-for-beat, song-by-song, note-for-note, these condensed attractions don’t draw from Disney’s pantheon of Imagineering-original characters, myths, or worlds, but instead rely on animated classics and nostalgia. Often, guests are cast as mere “observers,” passively gliding through three-dimensional recreations of the scenes they’ve seen a hundred times on screen.
So when Tokyo Disneyland announced a new Beauty and the Beast E-Ticket dark ride, there was little doubt among fans that it would be a “book report” ride… but at least it would be a well-deserved one! After all, as we explored in our in-depth, two-part Special Feature dive into the Disney Renaissance, Beauty and the Beast is often considered one of the greatest films of all time, and it’s weirdly underrepresented in Disney Parks! So if any timeless tale in Disney’s portfolio deserved an epic E-Ticket retelling, it would be Belle’s…
Special Features are typically available exclusively for those who support this evolving theme park history project with a monthly Membership.It’s been unlocked for a limited time, but if you enjoy what you read, consider becoming a Park Lore Member for as little as $2 / month!
Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.
This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!
If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.
“The year is 2021. The Intellectual Property Wars have been waging for decades…” What might sound like the beginning of a post-apocalyptic young adult novel is all too real for theme park fans today. As their respective parent companies race to create, borrow, or outright buy the hottest brands they can get their hands on, Disney and Comcast’s theme parks have become a pop culture battleground.
We spent an entire Special Feature here on Park Lore examining the age of the “Disney+ Park” – an era of increasing interchangeability and diminishing themes as IP floods into theme parks. And why not? With nearly $100 billion in acquisitions over the last two decades (and many unexpected IPs en route to Disney+ and Disney Parks), wouldn’t it be downright irresponsible for Disney to waste time with original mythologies, original worlds, or original characters? Wouldn’t it be a disservice to shareholders to build Mystic Manor instead of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure?
Which brings us back to 2024… Today, we’ll look back in the archives to discover… What was the most recent IP-free headlining ride at U.S. Disney and Universal Parks? How many years has it been since each debuted a truly original major attraction without a blockbuster movie, character, or brand as its reason for being? You might be surprised…
But for many Imagineering fans, there’s nothing quite like the classics… Even as projection, light, sound, animatronics, and – yes – screens become increasingly prevalent across Disney and Universal Parks, it’s still practical effects – real, tactile, in-your-face, and physical – that seem to leave us astounded. These are the big ones – the effects that are so mesmerizing, surprising, and astounding, even seasoned Imagineering fans may not have recognized the complexity required to make them work.
Today, we’ve collected just a handful of some of the physical effects we love… true, practical, in-your-face effects that leave guests recoiling, ducking, shrieking, or just staring in awe as no screen can. Note that these effects often serve as big moments in the rides they occupy, so expect spoilers! And for each, we’ll include a video that’s already fast-forwarded to the big moment so you can inspect these effects up close… Which had you fooled? Which are must-sees for leaving first-time guests with their jaws dropped? Which of the hundreds of screen-free physical effects do you love most?
If you want to get a Disney Parks fan thinking, ask them which ride is their favorite and why… But if you want to get a Disney Parks fan dreaming, ask them which rides are on their bucket lists. After all, unless you’re lucky enough to have made it to all twelve Disney theme parks on Earth, every Imagineering fan should have a “bucket list” of must-see rides and attractions; the experiences they daydream (and sometimes, YouTube) about. And while everyone’s Imagineering “bucket list” is unique, we wanted to get you started with 16 must-see masterpieces that’ll jump start your wish list.
Don’t misunderstand: there are plenty of rides that are so definitively Disney, it’s hard to imagine a (Disney) world without them. But our goal today wasn’t to select the “best,” the “biggest,” the “coolest,” the “most classic” or even our “favorites,” but to choose the far-flung, one-of-a-kind, historic-or-modern masterpieces that are… well… rare; aspirational; sought-after; goals! So don’t feel bad if you haven’t gotten close to completing this list yet. Instead, add our “bucket list” picks to your list of rides worth daydreaming about… and maybe one day, booking a flight for.
How many of our “bucket list” attractions have you experienced firsthand? Which Disney Parks attractions top your “bucket list?” Which parks do you daydream of visiting, and what do you think will be your first stop when you finally get there? There are plenty to choose from, and absolutely no wrong answers!
Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.
This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!
If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.
CONTENT IS KING – that was the title of a 1996 editorial by Bill Gates, who wrote that the Internet would disrupt entertainment in a way unmatched since the home television a half-century earlier. He reflected that in television, “the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.” To Gates’ thinking, the Internet offered the same opportunity… and as such, he suggested that the wise would invest in entertainment on the then-new World Wide Web.
Now, a quarter century later, we can see that Gates’ prediction wasn’t just right on the mark; it was practically prophetic. Spurred by the 2010 opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we can see the battle of content play out as Disney and Universal each reach for high-earning film (and video game) franchises to translate into “Living Lands” stocked with in-universe souvenirs and snacks But even as billion-dollar theme park projects clash in battle, the war is even larger. The “Content Wars” have redefined entertainment in the 21st century. Accelerated by the pandemic, streaming has usurped all other forms of traditional media, and he who has the most valuable IPs has the lead.
Founded in 1987 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard, B&M today is one of the world’s most respected roller coaster design & manufacturing films, supplying headlining attractions to amusement parks across the globe. In fact, you’d be hard off to find a major, thrill-focused coaster park in the United States (or elsewhere, for that matter) that doesn’t have at least one B&M creation among its lineup…! No, really… Try to think of one…
If you’re not sure, just venture into the rabbit hole of your friendly, neighborhood park’s unofficial fansite discussion board; scour RCDB; or more to the point, visit a park with a seasoned coaster enthusiast. Without fail, a coaster geek can spot a B&M a mile away thanks to unmistakable signs: rounded support columns; four-abreast trains; signature “pre-drops” before the biggie meant to relieve stress on chain lifts; buttery track transitions; signature maneuvers like wing-overs, dive loops, Immelmans, and cobra rolls… once you know how to spot them, B&Ms are everywhere.
Image: B&M
In part, the proliferation of B&M rides around the world is thanks to the firm’s apparent three-word mantra: reliability, reliability, reliability. A designer who knows how far to push the limits (and what lines not to cross compared to, say, their nearest competitors, Intamin), B&M rides are trustworthy crowd-pleasers and people-eaters. But the spread of B&M coasters is also due to their part in the epic “Coaster Wars” of the ‘90s and early 2000s, when parks were willing to spend big to prototype B&M’s cutting-edge, record-breaking ride systems that would earn parks attendance, awards, and acclaim.
The breakneck pace of innovation and the thirst for record-breaking has (mostly) quelled. The primary competitors in the “Coaster Wars” – Six Flags and Cedar Fair – have since noticed that in their two decades of bigger-taller-faster obsession, they might’ve accidentally forgotten to invest in anything but thrill rides, leading to a significant slowdown in coaster construction throughout the 2010s and a needed shift toward flat rides, dark rides, and entertainment. But now, a new patent suggests that B&M may be ready for a comeback…
Today, we’ll tour through the major reinventions of the roller coaster pioneered by B&M over its thirty year history, watching as they reposition, reorient, and remake riders’ roles in thrill rides. Think you know what B&M might have planned next? We bet you’ll be surprised…
Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.
This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!
If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.
Before a warrior chose her path… Before a young lion became a king… Before a beauty tamed a beast… Before a street rat unleashed a genie… There was a little mermaid. And for a generation of ’80s and ’90s kids, there will never be a “cinematic universe” to rival the one that began on November 17, 1989: the “Disney Renaissance.”
In fact, few studios ever accomplish what Disney did in the ’90s when – for a full decade – the studio released an unbroken streak of box office blockbusters earning universal critical acclaim and literally defining a generation. The Disney Renaissance is today remembered as a high water mark for Disney (and for animation) that’s unlikely to ever be matched; a time when Disney’s heralded return to the world of fairy tales, fables, and folklore produced some of the most heart-wrenching, powerful, generation-defining, and timeless films ever.
In fairy tales, there are a few tried-and-true conventions you can count on… good triumphs over evil; villains get their comeuppance; wishes come true; love conquers death; a kiss breaks the spell… you know, real “happily ever after” stuff. But the Disney Renaissance could not have happened without the turmoil that came before. There is no dawn without the darkness before, so if you haven’t, be sure to jump back to our Disney Renaissance, Part I Special Feature – a sort of must-read prologue to the story.
After all, today, we’ll jump in right where we left off: just as a newly-assembled dream team of leaders, animators, storytellers, and songwriters prepared to take the biggest gamble in Disney’s recent history: to return to the animated fairy tale genre that Walt himself had created with Snow White fifty years earlier…
Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.
This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!
If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.
Es war einmal… Der var engang… Il était une fois… Había una vez… 很久很久以前 … Once upon a time… For a thousand years and in practically as many languages, those words have been passed like heirlooms from one generation to the next; centuries of invitations into worlds that never were but always will be. Tales of little mermaids, sleeping beauties, princesses and frogs, snow queens, and magic lamps have been told, retold, written, assembled, reimagined, and shared for a millennium. Today, though, these legends transcend their cross-cultural origins and take on their most iconic forms as part of one collection: Walt Disney Animation.
From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through Frozen and beyond, Disney’s catalogue of fairytale adaptations haven’t just been childhood-defining cinematic classics; they’ve become the definitive versions of fables for generations. Like the stories they’re born from, Disney’s enchanting animated fables feel altogether timeless, even as they evolve to showcase new artistry, new talents, and new messages for new ages.
Image: Disney
But among Disney’s pantheon of folktale-inspired favorites, there’s no single period that can match the ‘90s when – under cinematic new leadership, Disney could do no wrong. Releasing hit after hit after hit at the box office, the boundaries of animation were quite literally redrawn. It’s a tale tailor made for our Special Features collection, where we explore the interconnected stories that shape the themed entertainment industry, from the Rise of the Simulator to the Ride the Movies era; the massive mythology of S.E.A. to the “Pixarification” of Disney Parks.
And since all great tales begin with “Once Upon a Time,” know that this entry is merely the prologue… In it, we’ll trace the story of Disney animation from the origin of fairy tales to Walt’s “first princesses,” then onward through the “Dark Age” of Disney Animation and to the rising dawn that came after… However, it’s in our The Disney Renaissance, Part II Special Feature that we’ll finally arrive at the nine blockbuster hits of the ’90s and explore the princesses, parks, and pop culture they shaped… So settle in and let the story begin…
Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.
This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!
If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.
Hidden Mickeys… Whether you consider yourself a seasoned Imagineering insider or simply a vacationeer who loves an annual trip to Disney Parks, chances are you have been on the hunt for Hidden Mickeys – the elusive, I-Spy-ready icons splashed throughout the rides and attractions of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Famously formed by a circular center topped by two circular ears (resembling the iconic silhouette of Mickey, of course), the hunt for Hidden Mickeys had produced blogs, books, tutorials, YouTube videos, and more.
And while you can spend hours and hours searching out these silhouettes while waiting in line or re-riding your favorite attractions, they aren’t always formed by fine china curiously arranged on a dinner table, pebbles in pathways, or Mickey-shaped paint splatters…
