Originally Posted By bwallace I'd like to offer a collaborative "alternate history" challenge to all would-be Imagineers. "Design the Fourth Ride" Years ago when Walt Disney was designing and building Disneyland, he and his talented team of Imagineers put together many memorable experiences, but none quite so memorable as that World's Fair transplant "It's a Small World" and the two bookend story rides, "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Haunted Mansion". What nobody else has known for over 50 years is that Walt and company designed, plotted and laid out a fourth masterpiece. Another ride so memorable, so well-made and creative it may have put the rest to shame. However, due to one reason or another the completed project was shelved before production began and all the notes were lost. Until today. Your task is to _design that mythical fourth ride_. Pick a genre, pick a storyline, pick a musical style, pick all the creative elements that make IASW, POTC and THM so great and let's dream what we've been missing for 50 years. I think if we can come up with an idea so amazing, so revolutionary and visionary any theme park would love to install it today we can, in our own way, inspire the real life Imagineers to create new rides that Walt would be proud of. Remember, this is a design of a ride that would've been built in the 50's/60's, to that audience, but still loved today - even while bringing technology up to modern standards, the basic creativity still remains. There are only a few guidelines - here they are: 1) The ride cannot be based on any pre-existing Disney movie, TV show or character. 2) It must be a standard people-moving dark ride, where the guests travel in some sort of conveyance through a series of scenes. 3) It should not be a thrill ride, in the sense that the movement and motion of the vehicles is the primary or even secondary attraction. Details like small waterfalls in "Pirates" or backward-turning Doom Buggies in "Mansion" are acceptable, but the ride should not physically become a roller-coaster-type as in Universal's "The Mummy" or even Disneyland's "Indiana Jones" ride. In other words, it should be something the whole family could feasibly ride without worrying about the very young or very old being disturbed by the movement of the vehicles. 4) The ride should tell some sort of story from beginning to end. The plot can be vague or specific, but there should be a plot. 5) There must be memorable music or a musical theme connected to the ride as well as voices and vocals. That's it. Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, take your loved ones by the hand, and keep a ruddy eye out matey. Thar' be squalls ahead...
Originally Posted By trekkeruss FWIW, a fourth attraction was designed, and all the notes are still there: Big Thunder Mesa and the Western River Expedition. They did build the "secondary" attraction, which is now the signature Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but the WRE would have been right up there with HM and PotC; I am certain of that.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Disney won't give me the right amount of money to creat the ride I want, so why offer it to them or disclose the plans here??
Originally Posted By TheBacklot Because then we wouldn't have the privilege of knowing how superior TDL is.
Originally Posted By CMM1 For those of you who are interested in the WRE, get the "Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland" DVD from the Extinct Attractions folks which has Alice Davis talking about husband Mark Davis' original WRE concept. <a href="http://www.extinct-attractions-club.com/" target="_blank">http://www.extinct-attractions -club.com/</a>
Originally Posted By bwallace This isn't a big deal, it's just a chance to be creative and collaborate on an imaginary project that might have existed. Trekkeruss and TDLFan - thanks for the encouragement Just imagine there was another ride like POTC, THM or IASW. What would have been the theme? The plot? The setting? The music style? Would it have animatronics? Film? Special audio? Would it use wheeled conveyance or boats? Maybe it flew like the Peter Pan ride. Throw out some ideas and be creative... don't worry, we're not pitching to WDI so they don't owe us anything.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd I'm thinking about this. I really really am. Every time I think of something, it's been done somewhere else. How about something based on weather. That could be exciting with floods, tornados, lightning, avalanches, etc. Lots of special effect opportunities. It would work well in Epcot too as a new pavilion. Like a stormchaser thing. Other then Universal's Twister, has this been done anywhere before?
Originally Posted By sherrytodd It could be a specially designed vehicle made specially for a team of storm chaser that can convert from both land conveyance to a boat for some of the flood or ocean scenes.
Originally Posted By bwallace Sherry, that's good. I like it. How do you do it without it looking like the actual plot from the movie "Twister"? It could be a Back to the Future sort of thing, where your ride pops in and out of various weather-related venues. But what's the plot? Who are the characters? What ties it together?
Originally Posted By sherrytodd The plot would be that you're a team of storm chasers, maybe investigating some different weather phenomena. Maybe a hurricane. Then you could be dealing with wind, tornados, flooding, heavy seas, lightning. You've got all the latest technology, including a special vehicle that can travel on both land and water. Then it can be a combination of both a track and water ride.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 There is an attraction with a similar premise at Tokyo DisneySea. It's called StormRider, and it's a motion simulater much like Soarin' mixed with Star Tours, but with in theater effects (not just smells).
Originally Posted By bwallace A couple other ideas that came to mind: 1) A ride through an Egyptian pyramid - not as scary as "The Mummy" ride, but in an enclosed location like "THM" and with similar chills, but with colorful, enduring characters like "POTC". Could employ mummies, pharoahs, etc. 2) A ride through a meeting of the Roman or Greek gods. Could be similar to the interior of "Escape from Pompeii" at Busch Gardens/Williamsburg" but without the rollercoaster aspects and with actual characters. 3) A ride through an old west town. This would've been a gimmee in the 50's. I think part of this motif is used in THM-Paris, right? 4) A ride through Atlantis. Underwater, through caves, watching the denizens of the great continent prepare for its inevitable trip through the waves. Other ideas? What's a scenario/locale that hasn't been done before that anyone can think of?
Originally Posted By a1stav Well to me I always felt that the next big step in the darkride E-ticket would be interactivity. When I say interactive I don't mean "shooting gallery". Since the 80's I had the idea that the programmable nature of Anamitronics allowed for variations in story based on rider interaction (think the voting system on Horizons). If you used a trackless ride vehicle the car could take different paths based on rider interactivity. PS:The original EPCOT darkrides were the successors to Pirates and HM but sadly most are gone now.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Okay, I am slightly less lazy now, and have come up with an idea. But just an overall idea... no details. I think a medieval AA ride-through would be a big hit. Knights in armor, castle seiges, sword fights, arrows flying... plenty of adventurous material to work with.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I would like to see an attraction about a world run by dogs. The dogs are in charge and the people are pets. You ride through in a dog dish. It makes me smile to just think about it --
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Does it end with us peering out of the dog dish and seeing a half-buried Statue of Liberty on the beach?
Originally Posted By CMM1 The "Journey to the Center of the Earth" concept as done at DisneySea seems like a great one - perhaps a variant of that ride that relies more on showmanship and theming than just a steep drop and a long ride at the end through a bunch of tunnels with no effects.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>Just imagine there was another ride like POTC, THM or IASW. What would have been the theme? The plot? The setting? The music style? Would it have animatronics? Film? Special audio? Would it use wheeled conveyance or boats?<< Western River Expedition anyone??? >>Does it end with us peering out of the dog dish and seeing a half-buried Statue of Liberty on the beach?<< "They destroy Her!!! B****ds!!!" "Get you damn dirty paws of me, you disguiting damn dirty ape!!!" >>There is an attraction with a similar premise at Tokyo DisneySea. It's called StormRider, and it's a motion simulater much like Soarin' mixed with Star Tours, but with in theater effects (not just smells).<< Well Gurgi... I really would not compare StormRider with Soarin' in terms of execution. I'd say StormRider is Star Tours on steriods.
