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A Beacon of Change

Image: Disney

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened at Disney’s California Adventure on May 5, 2004 in a most unusual way – it was struck by lightning. Or at least, it appeared to have been. The celebratory opening ceremony signaled the first major E-Ticket investment at the height of the park’s creative drought. When all else seemed lost, Disney called on the fan favorite to reenergize the park and breathe new life into Disneyland’s stumbling little sister.

And indeed, after consecutive years of attendance decline, attendance jumped 9% at the park from 2003 to 2005.

What fans and Imagineers knew, though, was that even the E-Ticket headliner was nothing more than a Band-Aid on a broken bone. The problem with Disney’s California Adventure wasn’t just that it didn’t have enough rides (though it didn’t), or just that it didn’t have enough Disney-quality details (though it didn’t have those either). Even if Tower of Terror gave the park a new ride with new details and new stories, it didn’t fix the real problem: California Adventure was broken at its foundation.

The park was designed to be “edgy” and “modern” with a bit of an “MTV attitude.” California Adventure in 2001 set out to recreate a modern spoof of California. The time is now, the place is here. Forget the Golden Age of Hollywood… Instead, step into a modern look at moviemaking on a Hollywood backlot set… of Hollywood.

It failed. We chronicled the full, in-depth story behind Disneyland's second gate in its own standalone Disaster File: Disney's California Adventure feature that's a must-read for Disney Parks fans. 

A reborn park. Image: Disney

But in 2007, Disney did something unprecedented: they admitted defeat and announced a massive 5-year, $1.2 billion redesign effort that would turn back the clock and follow Disneyland’s lead, rebuilding each of the park’s themed lands as historic, reverent, idealized versions of their former selves. Paradise Pier had its neon signs, stucco walls, and circus freak posters removed, as it became an elegant turn-of-the-century Victorian boardwalk with strung popcorn lights, Edison bulbs, classic pie-eyed Disney characters, and Victorian architecture.

Image: Disney

The park’s entrance was demolished and rebuilt as a charming Los Angeles of the 1920s called Buena Vista Street. This new entry into a reborn park took guests to the bustling Los Angeles Walt must’ve seen when he first arrived, with grand department stores, bubbling fountains, and sunset-tiled roofs with the park’s new icon – the historic Carthay Circle Theatre – reigning over it all. Of course, the electric Red Car Trolley also glides down the street, carrying guests and newsboys who sing of the California dream: “Extree! Extree! Read all about it! Spirit of Optimism sweeps California!” Indeed, Buena Vista Street might be the most intricate and emotional land Disney’s built since New Orleans Square.

Continuity

And there on Buena Vista Street, catty-corner to the Carthay Circle Theater, you could step into the Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Café (named, in reality, after the Three Little Pigs of Disney’s short, but here explained in the park’s continuity as being the Silver Lake Sisters Jazz trio) where you’d find gorgeous 20s art posters of the three girls performing at the Tip Top Club at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

Image: Disney

You read that right – 15 years before that ill-fated storm, the Tip Top Club was the place to catch all the best musical acts in Los Angeles, according to the detailed world-building Imagineering achieved.

As if that’s not impressive enough, guests could board the Red Car Electric Trolley as it glides down the street beneath the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge en route to Hollywood Land (a transformed Hollywood Pictures Backlot).

The inside of the Trolley was decked out with '20s advertisements for Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land shops, including one for the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Though, in one of the simplest yet most jaw-dropping bits of world building at the resort, you’d notice that back here, in the early 1920s of Buena Vista Street, the Hollywood Tower Hotel hadn’t added its main guest tower… yet.

Image: Disney

In any case, you could ride the Red Car Trolley through Hollywood Land and to the “Hollywood Tower Hotel” stop, as the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was firmly built into the park’s overarching continuity and its new, historic California story. How brilliant!

Elsewhere

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 1994 in what may be its most noteworthy form – a technological marvel that forever shaped Imagineering and its storytelling prowess.

There’s no denying that the follow-up at Disney California Adventure was a more cost-effective version, lacking in some of the frills and thrills that Florida’s version of the ride pioneered. What California’s version did do was to shape the narrative of an entire theme park and its rebirth, granting Disney California Adventure with a new life and a headlining fan-favorite ride that still managed to elicit excitement and stun a generation of West Coast fans.

And the terror didn’t stop there.

Image: David Jafra, Flickr (license)

As we mentioned earlier, Disneyland Paris was an early candidate for Geyser Mountain, a technological redesign of the Tower of Terror system ready to stand tall in Frontierland. But if you can imagine, Paris’s second park was in even worse shape than California Adventure. We chronicled the in-depth story of what may be Disney's worst theme park ever in its own standalone Disaster File: Walt Disney Studios. Walt Disney Studios needed an even bigger boost than California Adventure had.

So Geyser Mountain was axed from Paris’ Frontierland, too, and in December, 2007, Walt Disney Studios got its own Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, identical to California’s but for its construction in cement instead of steel (due to building codes) and its narration in French. The park also recieved a Hollywood Blvd. to accompany it, with architecture that mirrors the blue domes and pueblo accents of the tower beyond.

While the French Tower of Terror didn’t break new ground, at least it enlivened the tired and wilted Studios Park there, which, truthfully, needs a billion dollar overhaul like California Adventure and then some.

Tower of Terror – Tokyo

Click and expand for a larger view. Image: Ruth Hartnup, Flickr (license)

Then there’s Tokyo. Tokyo DisneySea – often recognized as the best theme park in the world – is a pinnacle of Imagineering. The $4 billion park was built the same year as the original California Adventure (which, again, cost only $650 million) and is by far the most sought-after of all Disney Parks on Earth – a veritable Mecca that all Disney Parks fans aspire to visit. The park is packed with outstanding original rides (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage), and when rides are shared with other resorts, DisneySea’s version is always the “Blue Sky” one with no cut corners and every detail in tact (Indiana Jones Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania, Raging Spirits).

In 2006, DisneySea opened their own Tower of Terror. However, The Twilight Zone is relatively unknown in Japanese pop culture, necessitating a change. As always, Tokyo Disney Resort’s owners, the Oriental Land Company, went all out. While the ride is structurally identical to the ride in California and France, Imagineers crafted an entirely original story for the Japanese ride. Forget the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Forget a lightning strike. Forget The Twilight Zone.

Image: Bong Grit, Flickr (license)

Instead, the Tower of Terror in Tokyo is located in the park’s American Waterfront – an idealized New York City in the 1912. The Californian tower has here been reskinned as a looming, gorgeous Moorish revival building of Islamic arches, weathered domes, oriental patterns, and stained glass. The fascinating backstory tells of Harrison Hightower, a ne’er-do-well member of S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers whose incredible interwoven story connects Disney rides, lands, and even parks across the world.

Mr. Hightower was a menace, scouring the world for remnants of ancient civilizations and stealing priceless artifacts to hoard in the dark vaults of his New York hotel. However, he made one fatal mistake – he stole an ancient idol named Shiriki Utundu from an African tribe who seemed all-too happy to part with it. On New Years Eve 1899, Hightower proved to his hotel guests that he didn’t fear the supposedly “cursed” idol by putting his cigar out on the statue’s head. A few minutes later, his ride up to the Penthouse came to a sudden, crashing end, with Hightower’s body never discovered and Shiriki mysteriously found back on his pedestal in Hightower’s office without a scratch.

Image: Cory Doctorow, Flickr (license)

The ride is a wonder, employing the same basic scenes as California’s (albeit, in reverse order) as a well-meaning preservation society tries to raise money to restore the dilapidated hotel by offering tours under the catchy, attention-grabbing name… “Tower of Terror.” Perhaps the most detailed ride in Disney’s repertoire, this Tower of Terror is, like so much at DisneySea, at the top of many Disney Parks fans’ bucket lists, and for good reason. Trust us.

Back in California

Image: Disney

So, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is inarguably a starring E-Ticket at a reborn Disney California Adventure – a triumphant piece of a careful new story and identity, folded into the continuity of a park determined to tell California’s stories and legends.

Would you believe that it would be replaced by a science-fiction space warehouse looming over Buena Vista Street?  Just wait until you hear how this Lost Legend met its demise via what some fans call one of the most shortsighted and ill-conceived ideas Disney has ever had... Read on...

 
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Comments

In reply to by Bob Connor (not verified)

That's the rumor, but tbh if they're going to replace any ride in Disney World with the only Marvel movie that they can use (at this point), they should gut and retheme the Rockin' Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios: in all blunt honesty, Aerosmith is pretty much irrelevant these days (they're pretty much a quintessential example of what us millennials call "dadrock") and on top of that, they can theme it to the Awesome Mix (both Vol. 1 and a couple tracks from Vol. 2).

IMHO, that would be a fair compromise insofar as Orlando getting a Marvel attraction and the Tower of Terror there is safe. I could even go so far as to say they could potentially truncate the Mission: Breakout material and adapt it for a roller coaster, but that might be more work and money than what Disney is willing to spend on such a thing.

As for Ellen's Energy Adventure, they could replace that with an Inside Out-themed ride. I know people will gripe about "muh originality", but given Disney is trying to implement their properties more into the parks these days, that's probably a better choice and fit for Epcot over GOTG.

I am unbelievably saddened to see this ride go. Really a bizarre move on Disney's part.

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