The rat is out of the bag, and the characters have arrived. In 2020, Disney continued its multi-year transformation of Epcot with yet another anchor attraction: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. In this frantic new family ride, Disney promised that “guests will be able to shrink to Remy’s size and scurry to safety in a dazzling chase across a kitchen with the sights, sounds and smells of Gusteau’s legendary Parisian restaurant.”
But of course, as Imagineering fans know, this controversial Epcot adventure isn’t exactly an Orlando exclusive… In fact, the newest headlining attraction in Epcot’s France pavilion at World Showcase has been thrilling riders in the real France for years, where Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy literally helped save Disney’s most pathetic theme park…
To our count, that makes this Disney•Pixar E-Ticket a pivot point in the stories of two of Disney’s theme parks (reshaping the ongoing revitalization plans at each), and that’s all the evidence we need that the rat-sized adventure belongs in our growing library of MODERN MARVELS: in-depth stories tracing the real-life histories of the best rides on Earth, like Indiana Jones Adventure, Revenge of the Mummy, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and so many more.
Ready to venture into the streets of Paris to explore the origin story, experience, and risks of this rat-sized adventure ride?
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…
Parisian pitfalls
When the new EuroDisneyland opened in 1992, Europeans indicated that there was a fundamental flaw with the French park: that it was located in France. The Parisian press famously launched a media blitz against the “cultural Chernobyl,” decrying the park as a piece of American imperialism; a corporate invasion akin to installing a McDonald’s atop the Eiffel Tower.
Disney famously combated that perception by remaking the very-American concept of Disneyland into a romantic, literary park more fit for French audiences. There, Imagineers tweaked tried-and-true attractions to layer sensational stories decadent drama, creating fellow Modern Marvels: Phantom Manor and Space Mountain: De la Terre á la Lune, perfectly appealing to European taste.
Still, the French resort that was meant to mark the height of Michael Eisner’s tenure as CEO instead crashed-and-burned. Despite Disneyland Paris being among the most beautiful Disney Parks on Earth, the overbuilt resort limped its way through its first decade (and even today struggled to balance its finances). But if Disneyland Paris was slow to grow in its first ten years, things were about to get a lot worse…
Make no mistake – Disney has endured its fair share of box office bombs over the company’s history. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Just ask the teams behind John Carter, Mars Needs Moms, The Country Bears, The Black Cauldron, or The Lone Ranger. Of course, those film flops have something in common. While they may amount to pop culture punchlines and represent massive fiscal year write-offs, they are – by their nature – impermanent. Flops come and go, migrating to DVD bargain bins and streaming services where they can recoup some of their cost, before disappearing from pop culture altogether.
But on the rare occasion that Disney misses the mark with one of its theme parks, time doesn’t cover the wound; it makes it worse.
Box-office bomb
Such is the case with the second theme park added to Disneyland Paris. Just imagine: the financial failure of the resort made Michael Eisner nervous about big projects, and in the wake of Paris’ opening, budgets were slashed and projects were cancelled across Disney Parks for decades… including cutting the budget big time for the second park Disney was contractually required to build in Paris… Oops…
So reviled, low budget, and under built was the French resort’s second gate, it earned its own in-depth feature, Declassified Disaster: Walt Disney Studios Park that includes a walk-through of the pathetic park as it was when it opened in 2002.
What can we say about Walt Disney Studios Park? Clocking in at about 30 acres (compared to next door Disneyland Paris’ 90 acres), the miniscule movie park opened with three (yes, three) rides – a pointless “studio tram tour,” Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and a magic carpet-themed spinner. That’s it.
Predictably, the new Studio park was a bust. Upon its 2002 opening, the smallest Disney Park on Earth also became the lowest attended, by far. And worse, it wasn’t just the park’s low ride count, incredibly small footprint, or its full price admission; it was its very identity.
Born in the wrong era
Taking all the sparse, barren, beige elements of California Adventure’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot and the cringe-worthy “studio” aesthetic of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, the park was inherently half-baked. It leaned heavily into the “backlot” aesthetic of visible showbuildings, flimsy facades, and mix-and-matched styles to create a park that looked like an inexpensive creative cop-out… because it was.
Laughably bad in most every way, Walt Disney Studios became a laughing stock among Disney Parks fans, and its attendance plummeted. You can imagine that a starved, under-built, low-budget second gate was the last thing that the still-strangled Disneyland Paris needed… Because now, any money the resort could muster up for improvements and expansions would have to go to the Studios park, leading to decades of neglect for Disneyland Paris itself… (And indeed, the resort’s castle park hasn’t had a genuine, from-scratch E-Ticket since 1995’s Space Mountain.)
In 2007, the park’s Animation Courtyard (containing its Animation Academy and that Aladdin-themed spinner) was expanded in a telling way… with Pixar at the helm. Okay, so the new Toon Studio added a Cars-themed spinner ride and an indoor Finding Nemo wild mouse roller coaster, but it also dressed them both in more of that mismatched studio aesthetic.
The same year, the park opened its own version of California Adventure’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, at least providing the park with a ride that wasn’t draped in backlot aesthetics and housed in a cavernous showbuilding. And between Toon Studio and the Tower of Terror, 2007 literally doubled the park’s abysmal ride count.
Even “expanded,” few would bother calling Walt Disney Studios Park worthy of a visit. It was clear that the park was far from finished. Any proper reimagining of the park would need not only new rides and attraction, but a new identity.
As luck would have it, 2007 wasn’t just Walt Disney Studios’ biggest year yet; it was a big year for a big screen rodent…