Category: Disney

Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was a 3D film based off of the 1989 hit film Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.  The show first appeared at EPCOT in 1994, but spread to (in order) Tokyo Disneyland(1997), Disneyland(1998), and Disneyland Paris(1999).  All of these shows replaced the original Captain EO shows, and all were replaced in 2010 by the new Captain EO 4D tribute show.  Viewers enter the “Imagination Institute’s” theater for the Inventor of the Year Award Ceremony, in which professor Wayne Szalinski is receiving the award. Attendees are asked to don their “safety goggles” (3D glasses) in preparation for the scientific demonstrations. The show opens with the crew of the show searching for Wayne, when he suddenly flies on stage shrunken.  A neon sign illuminates stating “Inventor of the Year Award” sign over the audience (at first only some letters are knocked out, leaving “NERD” spelled diagonally).  Wayne’s son Nick demonstrates some of his father’s other inventions to kill time while the crew searches for him. Adam puts a mouse in his father’s copy machine and they quickly multiply. This does not go smoothly, and the audience ends up screaming with the sensation loose mice running under their seats. To scare the mice away, Nick uses a holographic “Holo-Pet” lion to scare the mice away and a giant lion seemingly leaps off of the screen and into the audience. Wayne manages to unshrink himself and brings out the machine for a demonstration.  Unfortunately, the machine goes haywire and shrinks the audience. The viewers then are faced with the obstacles of being miniature.  Some of these effects are a picture being taken of them with a huge flashing camera, being attacked by a large and hungry pet snake and a slobbery pet dog, and even being completely lifted off of the ground to be observed.  Wayne finally returns all back to normal size, however, in doing so makes the dog much larger than normal.  When the large dog is seen, the curtain is quickly closed, however not before the dog sniffs the curtain and sneezes on the audience.  The show was typically enjoyed by the audience, lasting for up to 16 years from its original opening date, however was known to scare younger viewers.

The Flying Saucers was an attraction in Disneyland that ran from 1961 to 1966. The attraction was located in Tomorrowland. Guests rode in personal flying saucers on a cushion of air that shot up from the floor beneath.  The ride was used as a futuristic form of bumper cars, with guests ramming each other with their saucers.  As the ride began, large round plates would lower from the floor, and air would blast from underneath the table, pushing each saucer upward so that it was floating just above the table. Guests would control the saucers by shifting their weight from side to side.  The ride closed because it was expensive to operate, maintenance was intensive, and it did not fit the normal Disneyland ride capacity.  When Tomorrowland was renovated in 1967,the ride was removed, and the space that it occupied was turned into the Tomorrowland Stage, where the new Jedi Academy interactive show is put on today. The Submarine Voyage was an attraction in the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland that opened in June 1959 and was closed in September 1998.  The ride traveled through the depths of the Tomorrowland Lagoon, passing many sea creatures including turtles, lobsters, and a climactic scene of a shark fighting a giant octopus.  The ride then “dives” deeper an deeper, an illusion used by shooting high speed bubbles over the windows of the submarine to uncover even more treasures, including remains of ancient Greek and Viking Ships, the Lost City of Atlantis, mermaids, and the final creature before ascending, a comical looking cross eyed sea serpent.  The ride lasted for about 8 minutes, and was replaced by the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage which opened in 2007.

When Walt Disney first envisioned Tomorrowland, he saw a futuristic paradise…in 1986.  Unfortunately, 1986 has come and gone, and we still don’t have commercial space travel or interactive houses, but we still do have the “futuristic” Tomorrowland, circa 1986.  Here at CCK, we have many ideas on how to update Tomorrowland, but it all has to start with an updated version of the area’s centerpiece, Space Mountain.  When Space Mountain opened in Anaheim, it was a one of a kind experience, but now, with all new coaster technology, the ride itself has gotten for lack of a better term, lousy.  This is not the case, however, for its equivalent in Paris. 

Space Mountain: Mission 2 opened as Space Mountain De la Terre à la Lune in 1995.  It was based off of Jules Vern’s novel “From Earth to the Moon”, and was supposed to portray a futuristic way of space travel.  Riders would enter the dome and step onto an open walkway, where they could actually see the coaster and track.  Riders then would board trains and would be placed into a giant cannon and launched into a dangerous asteroid field.  After narrowly dodging asteroids and space age mining technology, riders would finally reach the moon (with smiling face as seen in the 1902 Melies film “A Trip to the Moon”), and see Jules Vern safely landed their as well, before returning to earth.  The  was the first Space Mountain to feature  synchronized on board audio track (SOBAT). 

In 2005, the ride received a futuristic make over, and became Space Mountain: Mission 2.  This is what we’d like an updated Space Mountain to be like.  The ride now goes beyond the moon, but even further to a Supernova at the edge of the universe.  The track remained the same, but the theming got a futuristic update, and new sequences were added.

  The original smiling moon was changed to a large supernova, the cannon launch went from the bottom of the cannon, instead of the top, and a new SOBAT soundtrack was added.  The queue was also updated, by replacing the original open walkway with a hallway featuring pictures of cosmic phenomena such as comets and asteroid fields.  The original Victorian soundtrack that was played in the queue was replaced by space like radio messages.  A new ending was added to the ride, where riders enter a red worm hole known as the Hypergate, before slowing down and heading to the station.  The custom Vekoma track begins with a 0 to 40 mph launch, followed by a few twists and turns around asteroids before hitting the first inversion, a sidewinder, which begins like a traditional loop, but then twists out at the top and continues on.  The ride then hits its second launch, a few more twists and turns around space, and then goes through a corkscrew.  The ride then heads to the top of the dome, where riders see the supernova, and then drop into the final inversion, a Tongue, an inversion that only Space Mountain: Mission 2 contains, before going through the Hypergate, and heading back to the station.

  Here at CCK, we like aspects of both the original and updated Space Mountain in Paris.  For the line, we love the open walkway, in which patrons can view the track and coaster.  We also love the track layout, and because it is Vekoma, believe that there could be modified version to fit into our Space Mountain structure, to lessen the cost.  This ride would definitely up the anty for thrill seekers to come ride at Disneyland.

Comment your thoughts, agreements, ideas, etc. below! Let’s see how Disney could go about upgrading ‘Tomorrowland’ to actually become ‘Tomorrow’!