15. Albert
Debut: Mystic Manor (2013)
Location: Hong Kong Disneyland
Video: Welcome to Mystic Manor
Often considered among the pantheon of Disney’s best modern dark rides, Mystic Manor is part of the incredible and enigmatic storyline of S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers that connects multiple rides, shows, and even restaurants at Disney Parks around the world. The ride sends guests into the eclectic home of Lord Henry Mystic and his pet monkey Albert. The pair have spent their lives collecting wonders from around the world… Mystic’s prized possession, though, is an ancient music box said to grant life to the lifeless! Of course, that’s all silly superstition, so Mystic sends us ahead to the Acquisitions and Cataloguing Room to view the priceless music box.
As you might image, the glowing gems and painted primates on the music box prove too much for Albert to resist, as he opens the chest and sets our unthinkable adventure into motion. The mischievous monkey is so wonderfully lifelike and adorable, he’s become a de facto icon for Hong Kong Disneyland. As for Mystic Manor itself? With some of the most spectacular special effects and astounding animatronics Disney’s ever created, the ride earned its own in-depth entry in our newest series, Modern Marvels: Mystic Manor that’s an absolute must-read for Disney Parks fans. A 3D ride packed with screens wouldn’t have the same effect.
14. Cars
Debut: Radiator Springs Racers (2012)
Location: Disney California Adventure and Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Video: “Get out there and do us proud!“
It’s race day in Radiator Springs! And you know what that means… time to put the pedal to the metal. The incredible Modern Marvel: Radiator Springs Racers – opened as part of the incomparable Cars Land at the reborn Disney California Adventure in 2012 – returned Disney to a scale we hadn’t really seen since the ’60s. It’s an incredible E-ticket that’s chocked full of impossible settings, breathless wonder, and a cast of Audio-Animatronics that defy logic in their lifelike expression and movement.
In some sense, it might actually be easier for Disney Imagineers to craft the likenesses of Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sally, Doc Hudson, et al since modeling full-sized, physical cars off of animated rigs is likely a lot easier than translating, say, 2-D animated human characters. But the wonder of these cars isn’t just in their size, but in their expression and liveliness. Projected windshield “eyes” do the trick, but figures like Sheriff and Mater have fully expressive mouths, “puppeted” impressively by internal actuators, all as the cars themselves sway, lift, roll, and express themselves as living cars would!
With more than a dozen of the Cars characters populating the attraction, it’s nearly impossible to choose a favorite. That said, there’s something very striking about seeing Doc Hudson hoisted up on an auto repair lift. As he turns to the car, he offers some of his usual sage wisdom: “It takes more than new tires to win a race. Now get out there and do us proud.” The ride has been compared (rightfully) to Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland next door as the Resort’s top attraction. While the big race finale may be the selling point, it’s the no-expense-spared animatronics that have really fueled up Disney fans and reminded them just how innovative Imagineering can be.
It’s also worth parking another car animatronic here – the one found at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy attraction. Finally a sizable, semi-permanent inhabitant of the “Sunset Showcase” flex space (which Disney built in 2015 and used for intermittent, awkward “dance parties” for years), the ten minute long show basically stars a single Lightning McQueen animatronic accentuated by a wraparound projection screen. But the animatronic car is not only as good or better than the ones in Cars Land; it has to stand up to the scrutiny of being watched closely for ten minutes!
13. Davy Jones
Debut: Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure (2016)
Location: Shanghai Disneyland (exclusive)
Video: An Undersea Encounter
Among the many significant reinventions of the “Castle Park” formula to appear in Shanghai Disneyland, the mainland China park doesn’t have a Pirates of the Caribbean. Or at least, it doesn’t have the version you’d recognize from Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo, or Paris. Sure, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure contains allusions to the original Disneyland ride and the many iterations thereafter. But Battle for Sunken Treasure is the first and only Pirates ride to be explicitly based on the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise launched in 2003.
Shanghai’s Pirates ride isn’t just a reimagining; it’s a restart that totally threw out the rulebook and tried something new. The ride uses a new multi-directional boat ride system and combines massive, larger-than-life sets with cavernous, seamless projection. A gripping re-invention of the classic, this indescribable dark ride is easily on par with the Modern Marvels: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man or Indiana Jones Adventure as one of the world’s best modern dark rides.
The whole ride is packed with unfathomable wow-moments, but one key encounter is with Davy Jones himself. The shocking figure is so realistic, it would easily be mistaken for a live actor in costume as he challenges guests to just try to steal his treasure. It’s an awesome and arresting moment and, trust us, the same figure created digitally on a screen would not carry the imposing strength and intimidation of this animatronic.
12. Kong
Debut: Skull Island: Reign of Kong (2016)
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Video: “This cannot be good…”
For decades, King Kong terrorized guests at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida, albeit in different ways. In Hollywood, the towering great ape was merely a small (but starring) part of the hour-long, world-famous behind-the-scenes Studio Tram Tour, ravaging a New York set and rattling the passing tram. The wild animatronic – 30 feet tall and full of fury – was easily one of the most stunning figures on Earth when he debuted in 1986. When Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, the creature encounters of Hollywood’s Studio Tour were split into standalone attractions, yielding the Lost Legend: Kongfrontation. After barely a decade in action, Kongfrontation folded to Universal’s rapid growth, and Revenge of the Mummy took its spot.
In a sort of mea culpa, Universal heralded the return of the king with 2016’s Skull Island: Reign of Kong. Whereas Kongfrontation set the ape lose in our world, Reign of Kong flipped the script, trapping us among the unearthly horrors of Skull Island – much more fitting for the fantasy and literature-inspired Islands of Adventure park it inhabits.
After far too long dabbling in entirely screen-based rides, Reign of Kong turned out to be… well… only mostly screens. After a 360-degree projection tunnel experience wherein Kong turns out to be our savior from Skull Island’s horrors, the ride’s grand finale is a much-needed face-to-face encounter with the ape – albeit, as an exhausted, heaving protector that lacks the gravitas of Kongfrontation’s meeting with the raging, wild, angry ape. Still, the Kong figure is technically brilliant and absolutely mesmerizing. It just also happens to be undeniable evidence that the red-eyed, maddened beast of old is simply the preferred way to see him.
11. The Amazing Spider-Man
Debut: Avengers Campus (2021)
Location: Disney California Adventure
Video: “Here goes something!“
In 2018, Disney released an out-of-the-blue video offering a glimpse into an in-progress new technology it called Stuntronics. Showcasing a year of continuous development, the video showed a Z-shaped figure nicknamed “Stickman” slowly evolving into a humanoid figure capable of being catapulted, striking a heroic pose, then contracting and somersaulting through the air to land safely in an awaiting net.
Given the meteoric rise of the Disney-owned Marvel, it didn’t take much imagination to figure out what Disney was likely to use the Stuntronics technology for… but frankly, it was surprising that it actually came to be. (Even brilliant ideas Imagineering prototypes don’t always end up seeing the light of day in the parks.) When Avengers Campus opened in 2021, its skyline was punctuated at regular intervals by the astounding flight of the one and only Spider-Man, soaring elegantly over the land.
Frankly, it would probably be cooler to just launch the Spider-Man figure at random times throughout the day – a “blink and you’ll miss it,” “did I just see what I think I saw?” moment. Instead, the flight is a listed, timed “show” where a live actor does some silly rooftop tumbling and bumbling before disappearing around a corner as the Stuntronic launches. The actor then re-emerges from the landing point and rappels down for meet-and-greets, successfully conveying the illusion that it was the real Spider-Man all along.
Sure, the Stuntronic has had its share of literal misses… Famously, Spider-Man forgot to release his launch cable and went rigor mortis during a 2022 flight, crashing through a breakaway wall. The rare misfire aside, the astounding moment is so genuinely amazing, it’s hard to see Spider-Man’s flight as anything but one of the best animatronics-powered moments in the parks.