Disney California Adventure Archives - Page 5 of 9

June 26, 2020October 18, 2020

Think You Know These 16 Extra Iconic On-Ride Quotes By Heart?

Earlier this year, we gave you a challenge: to see if you could recognize and identify 16 Iconic Ride Dialogue Lines We Bet You Know By Heart… and whaddaya know? You did! From unforgettable safety spiels to bilingual announcements; classic narration to beloved pre-shows, it turned out that lots of Imagineering super-fans have tried-and-true lines down pat. Naturally,…

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.

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.

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June 26, 2020April 6, 2021

We Bet You Know ALL of These Iconic On-Ride Quotes by Heart…

The sights! The sounds! The smells! The snacks! If there’s one thing Disney and Universal’s parks do well, it’s to engrain themselves in your mind; to act as the backdrop to timeless memories. It’s no accident that Disney and Universal’s best attractions are the ones that become evergreen classics; the kinds of rides you can’t to get back to and…

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June 26, 2020April 26, 2022

“That’s Not Dory” and 8 Other BAD Voice-Acting Moments at Disney and Universal Parks

What would the Haunted Mansion be without a Ghost Host?

The Enchanted Tiki Room without Jose, Michael, Pierre, and Fritz?

Carousel of Progress without John and Martha?

Voice acting is a major piece of great theme park attractions, lending life to Audio Animatronics, characters on-screen, and even ever-present narration! In fact, the delivery of lines can become so iconic, we created a two-part list of ride voiceover lines we bet you know by heart, from “This here’s the wildest ride in the wilderness!” to “Thank the Phoenicians!”

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June 26, 2020May 1, 2023

Some Assembly Required: 10 Memorable Moments when Disney Animatronics Froze, Burned, and Lost Their Heads

Like all Disney Parks fans, we love Audio-Animatronics.

That’s why we created a must-read list of the 25 Best Audio-Animatronics on Earth, celebrating the essential role that Disney’s greatest invention plays in the parks today. Make no mistake – these complex, dynamic, sensational figures have been cutting-edge since their debut in 1963. And like all technological marvels, they don’t always work the way they’re supposed to…

For Imagineering fans, the only thing more amazing than watching one of Disney’s Animatronic marvels work is catching one when it doesn’t. Thanks to the age of the Internet, fans’ cameras are ready at every moment to capture the slightest crack in Disney’s shell of immersive show. That’s why we’re able to curate this countdown of 10 misfiring, malfunctioning Audio-Animatronics across Disney Parks, offering a fascinating glimpse into Disney’s rare failures and flubs…

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.

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June 26, 2020February 21, 2021

8 “What Were They Thinking?” Disney Parks Mistakes We’re Happy to Forget

There are plenty of fan-favorite attractions that have come and gone from Disney Parks. In fact, our Lost Legends series was compiled just for super-fans to dig into the histories of beloved closed classics… But sometimes, even Imagineering can make a mistake… a big one. No, we’re not talking about regrettable Declassified Disasters like Stitch’s Great Escape, Superstar Limo, or Journey into YOUR Imagination.

We’re talking about giant eyesores, sorry icons, and big bad decisions that we just can’t believe happened to begin with. Check out these eight massive features that we’re glad to have seen removed in our lifetime.

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June 26, 2020March 28, 2022

Mini to Massive: How Disney’s BIGGEST (and Smallest) Parks Measure Up

Discerning Disney Parks fans are known to critique and analyze all aspects of the parks they love: their style, their stories, their smarts… But what about their size? From miniscule to massive, Disney Parks come in all shapes and sizes… but does size matter?

On our cross-continental tour today, we’ll stop by each of the 12 Disney Parks on Earth to take their measurements. Sometimes, Disney’s official numbers don’t quite add up… That’s why we’ve used simple acreage calculator maps when we need to to get closer to the real figures about just how big (or not) these parks are. Our ultimate agreement? We measure the simplest shape of a park – including its showbuildings and behind-the-scenes facilities – but excluding parking lots and empty expansion pads (which you’d think Disney would exclude, too, but they don’t always).

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June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

From Big to GARGANTUAN, These are the Enormous Showbuildings You Never See

What do an off-roading ride through the last minutes of the Cretaceous and “the happiest cruise that ever set sail” have in common? Not a whole lot. But like so many of Disney and Universal’s E-Ticket adventures, one thing they do share is the kind of building in which they take place. Most of the industry’s leading, anchoring, epic attractions take place in enormous soundstage-style warehouses – called “showbuildings” in Disney-speak – that are (to varying degrees of success) completely hidden from the view of Guests.

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June 25, 2020February 21, 2021

13 Abandoned, Broken, and Canceled Special Effects at Disney Parks

Since the earliest days of Disneyland, Walt and his designers set out to wow guests by making the unimaginable real. From singing birds to zooming through the stars; haunted ballrooms to the depths of the jungle, Disney Parks are all about dazzling guests with inexplicable effects. That’s why we took an in-depth look at 10 “How’d They Do That?” Special Effects that STILL Amaze Us to celebrate how Imagineering’s tricks – from simple to astounding – make all the difference.

But for fans of Imagineering, there’s only one thing more interesting than a special effect that works: a special effect that doesn’t. So today, we’ve created a special list to explore a “lucky” 13 special effects that just didn’t work. Broken, malfunctioning, abandoned, or removed, these almost-amazing moments simply didn’t work out the way designers had hoped… And since Disney’s designers tend to have smart solutions, you may not have even noticed when these effects simply disappeared, were replaced, or were left broken in plain sight!

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June 25, 2020July 9, 2024

Superstar Limo: The Short Life and D-List Death of Disney’s Infamous “Worst Ride Ever”

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.

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June 19, 2020May 9, 2023

Disney’s California Adventure – Part II: The Rebirth & Reimagining of Disneyland’s Second Golden Gate

When the wint’ry winds start blowing and the snow is starting in the fall, then my eyes head westward knowing that’s the place that I love best of all… California, here I come, right back where I started from! Where bowers of flowers bloom in the spring! Each morning at dawning birdies sing and everything! A sun kissed miss said “Don’t be late!” That’s why I can hardly wait. Open up that Golden Gate! California, here I come!”

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When Disney’s ode to the Golden State opened in February 2001, it was supposed to change Disneyland forever. All at once, this second theme park – built right on the land that had been its older sister’s parking lot for 45 years – was meant to transform Walt’s original Anaheim property into a multi-day destination rivaling Walt Disney World in tourism and international appeal. Instead, it failed.

That’s exactly where our story began in Disney California Adventure: Part I – our in-depth exploration into the frustration-filled design and flawed development of Disney’s first “New Millennium” theme park. Sure, the park was “too much California, not enough Disney.” It was short on rides. It had practically nothing for families. But even Imagineers’ attempts to bolster the park’s weak spots with “Band-Aid” attractions in the mid-2000s proved that California Adventure’s issues ran deeper than ride counts… and any real fix for the park would need to address its broken foundation…

Today, in Part II of our deep dive into Disneyland’s infamous second gate, we’ll stand before the soaring, art deco towers of the Pan-Pacific and set off to explore the unprecedented process – and walk through the unbelievable outcomes – of a $1.2 billion master plan to fix California Adventure’s foundational flaws and design a true companion and complement to Disneyland… Open up your Golden Gate; California, here we come!

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