Tag: Walt Disney World

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These 9 Lands Don’t Just Recreate Worlds Seen on Screen, They EXPAND Them…

From Hogsmeade to Radiator Springs, it’s no surprise to fans of Imagineering that the era of “living the movies” is alive and well. Today, it can sometimes feel that no project can get the greenlight at Disney or Universal unless backed by a tried-and-true blockbuster intellectual property; that everything we see in parks today is directly drawn from the screen.

But pulling places from the screen isn’t always as straightforward as you think… Sometimes, attraction designers need to expand on the worlds we’ve seen in movies by taking a physical place and adding to it for logistical or narrative reasons; other times, they need instead to contract, distilling massive and incalculable worlds into smaller, concrete, “real” places guests can inhabit and connect with. Either way, some of the most spectacular theme parks lands on Earth today take the essence of source materials and expand them with “original worlds” born of the minds of designers! Here are some of our favorites…

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.


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Countdown: The 10 Greatest Original Characters Created Just for Disney Parks

It’s no surprise that Disney has perhaps the most valuable collection of characters in history. Ariel, Elsa, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, Mr. Toad, Mickey Mouse, Sleeping Beauty… for the last century, Disney has been amassing a catalogue of the definitive versions of beloved characters from across the world. Acquisitions of Pixar, The Muppets, Star Wars, Indiana…

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.

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PARKSTROLOGY 101: A Park Lore Primer on Disney Parks, the Zodiac, and the “Magic in the Stars”

Is there magic in the stars?

Whether or not you lend any credence to astrology – the practice of divining information about human matters from the patterns and movements of celestial objects – there’s one compelling connection none of us can deny: Twelve Disney Parks. Twelve signs of the Zodiac. With that idea in mind, I reached out to my longtime friend (and personal Dr. Facilier) with a penchant for the supernatural. A self-described mystic, craft artist, and witch, Desdemona Lotte also happens to be a lifelong friend and personal Dr. Facilier.

 If you’ve been around Park Lore long, you know that my goal is to see theme parks differently. Through unexpected views of what a park’s pathways tells us about its history and personality, the first cohesive collection of hand-drawn ride layouts, unexpected diagrams of Disney Parks offerings, and other theme park-y creations, I’ve tried to come up with some unusual lenses for seeing the parks we love with brand new eyes.

So it made sense for me to sit down with Desi for a really-for-real lesson on Astrology 101, determined to rise above “What kind of noodle are you based on your Zodiac sign” Buzzfeed quizzes to decide which Disney theme park best complements each of the twelve signs.

Much to our surprise, pairing parks with the stars worked out pretty effortlessly! Somehow, each Disney Park’s “personality” seemed to slot intuitively into a corresponding sign… (Keep in mind, direct from Ethan, that the signs we typically associate with ourselves are our “sun signs” – technically, they show us not who we are, but who we are on the way to becoming…) 

Is this clear complementary relationship a product of divine intervention? We’ll let you decide… But trust us when we say that – whether you “believe” or not – looking at the parks through this lens may change the way you see their personalities, quirks, and relationships to one another… 

Continue reading “PARKSTROLOGY 101: A Park Lore Primer on Disney Parks, the Zodiac, and the “Magic in the Stars””
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“Ride The Movies!” Disney’s Blockbuster-or-Bust Era of Attraction Design

Frozen Ever After. Jurassic World: The Ride. Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure. TRON Lightcycle Power Run. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

The rising tide of innovation and storytelling is lifting Disney and Universal to new heights, with a seemingly limitless supply of cutting-edge and spectacular attractions debuting year after year. Still, it hasn’t escaped fans’ notice that nearly all of the projects in the pipeline for major U.S. parks have something in common… It’s enough to cause some fans to wonder aloud, Will we ever again see an “original” anchor attraction at Disney or Universal parks? Or is the future filled with E-Tickets backed by billion-dollar box office hits and popular intellectual properties alone?

When did Disney Parks exchange bold, original attractions crafted by Disney Imagineers for the chance to “RIDE THE MOVIES”? How have the “Content Wars” heated up the back-and-forth battle for the Butterbeer budget? And what, exactly, is going to happen next in the ongoing race keep guests at Disney and Universal parks coming back for the hot properties of today? Strap in as we dive into the history of “riding the movies” and see how this character-infused era has been reimagined as never before…

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.


Log In ​or Join Now
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If You Had Wings: A Flight Through Disney World’s Dark Ride Ode to the Wonders of Aviation and Eastern Air Lines

“If you had wings, you could do many things; You could widen your world if you had wings!”

When you think of Disney’s most classic, beloved dark rides, which come to mind? More than likely, what you’re picturing falls into one of two broad categories: the fantastical storybook adventures common of Fantasyland (rides like Peter Pan’s Flight, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and “it’s a small world” or Lost Legends: Snow White’s Scary Adventures and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride) or the grand, elaborate, inspiring adventures of EPCOT Center (from Spaceship Earth and Universe of Energy to another set of Lost Legends: Horizons, World of Motion, and the celebrated Journey into Imagination).

One you may not consider, however, is one that perfectly bridges the gap between the two styles… a gentle, whimsical, sing-along family ride through the wonders of air travel. Often overlooked amid the collection of closed classics, If You Had Wings in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland was no less magical than Fantasyland’s best, and no less educational than EPCOT’s headliners. In fact, this free-flying family ride – one of the first ever installations of a cutting-edge Disney ride system – actually shaped the fate of EPCOT’s originals!

Today, our Lost Legends series takes flight to explore a beloved-and-lost favorite that spent two decades at Magic Kingdom before falling to a “cartoonification” that mirrored the fall of the EPCOT rides it inspired.

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…

Continue reading “If You Had Wings: A Flight Through Disney World’s Dark Ride Ode to the Wonders of Aviation and Eastern Air Lines”
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HORIZONS: A Look Back at EPCOT’s Imagineering Masterpiece and its Glimpse into the 21st Century

UNDER REFURBISHMENT! You know I love to keep things fresh around here, and as a result, this feature is currently under construction! As I finish up edits over the next few days, you may encounter outdated information, repeated or disjointed sections, or “past perspectives” that refer to current events in the future tense. If you don’t mind sifting through some rough edges, I think you’ll still enjoy it… and check back soon for a fully refurbished story!

Horizons 1 is now departing. Our final destination today: the twenty-first century.

For Walt Disney Imagineering, it was a destination a long time coming: the future. Since the cast of designers who would create Disney’s theme parks was formed in 1952, great effort has been spent imagining (and then re-imagining) what tomorrow could bring… And more often than not, Imagineering’s visions of tomorrow have been surprisingly prescient!

But all glimpses into the future conjured by Disney’s designers paled in comparison to the ride that – for many fans of classic Imagineering – reset the standard and the timeline. For fans of the original EPCOT Center and the heady, intellectual, reflective, and progressive values it stood for, time is measured before and after HORIZONS.

Image: Disney, by Herb Ryman

Today, we’ll glimpse the future as envisioned by EPCOT Center on a round-trip, time-traveling journey that starts in the past. Even today – long gone from park maps – it ranks among the pantheon of Disney Parks’ most ambitious, elaborate, and massively-scaled E-Tickets ever created.

But even more, Horizons was a grand, ambitious landmark of what EPCOT could be and what Imagineering could do; a project reflecting the greatest intuitions and impressions of a graduating class of designers passing their skills on to the 21st century. And in the minds of many thematic design aficionados, it was as close to a masterpiece as Disney’s ever been, standing alongside Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

What made Horizons a ride that’s transcended into the upper echelons of Imagineering’s most beloved projects? To glimpse the future as envisioned by EPCOT Center on a round-trip, time-traveling journey, we’ve got to start in the past…

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…

Continue reading “HORIZONS: A Look Back at EPCOT’s Imagineering Masterpiece and its Glimpse into the 21st Century”
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The Great Movie Ride: Behind the Epic Curtain Call of the Disney-MGM Studios’ Starring Cinematic Spectacular

Now playing: “A Spectacular Journey Into the Movies!” A cast of thousands! A sweeping spectacle of thrills! Chills! Romance!

Almost unbelievably, the curtain has fallen on another epic, classic Disney dark ride. And so, our Lost Legends series gains a new entry. Park Lore is all about digging into the in-depth stories behind the industry’s most-missed classics. We’ve explored why Magic Kingdom sunk its classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, saw why Disney’s cancelled Beastly Kingdom became Universal’s legendary Lost Continent, checked into California Adventure’s closed Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, braved the perilous streets of New York aboard Kongfrontation, and literally dozens more.

Image: Disney

Through telling these in-depth stories, we hope to collect your memories and thoughts to preserve these ride experiences for a new generation of Disney Parks fans who just won’t understand what the big deal was about The Great Movie Ride. That’s why – today – we’ll explore the history of this cinematic wonder and tell the almost unbelievable story of how it came to be; then, we’ll take a ride through its hallowed halls, dissect the places it was almost duplicated, and look to the future of Disney World’s Hollywood-themed park.

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…

Continue reading “The Great Movie Ride: Behind the Epic Curtain Call of the Disney-MGM Studios’ Starring Cinematic Spectacular”
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DISNEY•PIXARLAND: Inside the “Pixarificaton” of Disney Parks

PIXAR. For a new generation of animation fans, that word appearing against a sky-blue backdrop is as comforting and familiar as “When You Wish Upon a Star’s” grand crescendo against a glowing Disney castle; a squeaking, bouncing, articulating desk lamp as recognizable and iconic as Tinker Bell; Cars Land as obvious, classic, and beloved as Frontierland.

But it wasn’t always that way… and increasingly, some fans are wondering aloud if Disney Parks are becoming Pixar Parks, favoring the computer-generated stars of Pixar’s modern classics at the detriment to Disney’s own animated favorites… So today, we’ll dig into the story of Pixar, its relationship with Disney (including some epic breakups and multi-billion-dollar make-ups), and – most importantly – trace the timeline of Pixar attractions joining Disney Parks. Is there too much Pixar in Disney Parks? That’ll be up to you to decide. But along the way, we’ll also uncover some surprising stories.

When did Disney’s connection to Pixar first begin? Longer ago than you might imagine… How many Pixar-themed attractions have Disney Parks hosted? More than you might think… How far will Pixar permeate into Disney Parks? Think, “to infinity and beyond…” 

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.


Log In ​or Join Now
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S.E.A.: The Stories Behind Disney’s Secret Society of Explorers and Adventurers

If there’s one thing Imagineering fans adore, it’s an original mythology; an invented world and an overarching frame that connect stories in unexpected or mysterious ways… From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the interconnected attractions of Magic Kingdom’s New Tomorrowland, sometimes those connections are explicit.

But sometimes, the threads are vast and much more subtle… Such is the case with the most mysterious, enigmatic, and sought-after cross-continental tale Disney has ever woven… a global mythology that just may connect some of the world’s best rides into one story. Welcome to the legend of S.E.A. – The Society of Explorers and Adventurers.

Image: Disney

With a manifesto hidden in time, no one seems entirely sure of the origins of S.E.A., a secret society determined to illuminate the vast, dark corners of the globe. It seems that only the brightest, most cunning, and most enterprising minds ever see the Society’s inner workings. For the rest of us, the members of S.E.A. have left behind a few hints as to their findings, hidden in adventurous rides scattered across the globe…

Could Indiana Jones Adventure, Mystic Manor, Typhoon Lagoon, Tower of Terror, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Pleasure Island, Jungle Cruise, and even Haunted Mansion all be connected by this cross-continental secret society? Today, we’ll dig into the attractions, rides, and restaurants that play a role in the global mythology of S.E.A., then see some potential connections fans only dream of… for now…

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.


Log In ​or Join Now
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From Mineral King to the Magic Kingdom: Startin’ Up the Country Bear Jamboree

“Howdy folks! Welcome to the one and only, original, Country Bear Jamboree — featuring a bit of Americana, our musical heritage of the past. And right now, I give you a sordid assortment of executioners of music and song…!”

One of the most exceptional attractions ever to come from the minds at WED Enterprises, the Country Bear Jamboree was truly a sensation. Opening alongside Magic Kingdom in 1971, this Audio Animatronic ursine adventure captured the imagination of a generation of Walt Disney World’s first guests, and continues to be a family favorite to this day. But would you believe that it was never meant to play at Disney Parks?

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