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4. Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln (Disneyland / New York World's Fair)

Mr. Lincoln

Image: Disney

Having pioneered the concept of the theme park with the opening of Disneyland in 1955, Walt Disney turned to his next challenge: how to create realistic-looking human figures to populate his rides and shows. He contracted with the State of Illinois to produce just such a character for the New York World's Fair in 1964/65 - one that would bring President Abraham Lincoln back to life. Despite being under incredible time-pressure, Disney's Imagineers made huge strides towards creating a realistic human figure as they prepared for the show. Just a week before opening day, "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" passed its initial test at the company's headquarters in California. The figure was shipped to New York the next day. Things immediately began to go wrong. The shipment was delayed by a day due to heavy traffic. When Lincoln was set up in the Illinois Pavilion, it delivered its speech as planned, then went into convulsions. The temporary wiring in the pavilion was faulty, and permanent wiring wasn't installed until the day of the opening. Then a transformer broke down, leaving the show without power for two days. To Walt Disney's dismay, Lincoln was not ready for his big preview in front of Illinois dignitaries and the international press. 

However, by the time of the grand opening, the Imagineers had somehow pulled it off. Some observers were shocked at their ability to bring historical figures back from the grave. "Shake Lincoln's hand," said Daniel Cohen in a Science Digest article. "Its texture is enough like real flesh to make you cringe. It's moist, for the vinyl plastic skin exudes a fine oil over a period of time. The plastic even bruises." After the World's Fair, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was shipped to Disneyland, where it continues to entertain guests to this day. Audio-animatronics, of course, have become an integral part of Disney attractions, as well as rides at many other theme parks.

3. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Islands of Adventure)

Spider-ManImage: Universal

As far back as 1997 - two years before the ride was due to open at the under-construction Islands of Adventure - Universal was making bold claims about The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. It would, the company modestly promised, be “the greatest ride ever built." Despite its reputation for risk-taking, Universal originally intended for Spider-Man to be a much simpler attraction. According to Ben Lovelace, who worked on the ride in addition to the Incredible Hulk Coaster, it was initially conceived as a simple dark ride, with a chain of cars passing by a film of some sort. However, when in 1995 Disneyland opened Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye, combining an innovative motion vehicle system with stunning special effects, Universal felt it needed to up the ante. "We always try to make things a little higher, a little faster, a little bit more dynamic, so we have something to market technologically," said Lovelace. "Universal pushes the envelope." For inspiration on how to top Disney’s creation, Universal looked to its own attractions. The company had just finished work on Terminator 2: 3-D, which had combined 3-D on-screen action with live sets in new ways. Also analyzed was Back to the Future: The Ride, which combined the simulation of motion with huge projected images. The plan was to take the best elements of both attractions, and place them into a dark ride setting. Lovelace describes the goal: "In Spider-Man, it was combining all of that together on a vehicle that moves on a track. Combining every technology we could think of in one show." The bar had been set extraordinarily high by Disney, and Universal was now attempting to leap over it. "A lot of people, even in our own team, didn’t believe it could be done. But we said: ‘We think it can be done, we think we know how to do it, let us try,’" recalls Scott Trowbridge (now head of Imagineering at Disney, but formerly with Universal Creative). "It was a difficult, trying process from Day One basically, but with a huge carrot at the end." Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man

Image: Universal

Spider-Man’s first-of-its-kind ride system would enable Universal to create a wide range of sensations. "We can simulate flying, falling, bumping and hitting," boasted Trowbridge.The attraction would boast thirteen 30-foot-tall projection screens, twelve of which would show 3-D footage. To create the illusion of depth, 25 large-format projectors and dozens of smaller projectors would be used. Many of the screens were rear-projected, in a first for a 3-D movie. A major problem for the ride’s designers was that 3-D films are traditionally designed to be viewed from a stationary position, but riders on Spider-Man would be whizzing past, often tilting and rotating as they went. "3-D has always been very restrictive - you have to sit in the middle seat, halfway back because that's the only spot where the 3-D really works," explains Trowbridge. "We had to find a way to make 3-D work from a moving point of view. To solve the problem of the distortion that you see as you move past the screen, we developed a process that we call 'squinching'. This basically is predicting what the distortion is going to be and counteracting it with additional distortion in the opposite direction." To anyone looking at the screens from a standing position, the image would "move and squash into a whole bunch of things that look really weird." But to riders, "that screen is a window onto a virtual world.” Universal patented the "squinching" technique, which had not previously been employed by any ride. Spider-Man

Image: Universal

Sound designer Carl Hartzler also faced challenges. The large screens would make it difficult to contain the audio in one place, so it was decided that the majority of the audio would come from the cars themselves – that way, it would not “bleed” into other scenes. 18 Infinity Kappa speakers from Harman International, identical to those used in car stereos, were added to each vehicle. For a realistic effect, though, some of the audio would need to come from outside the vehicles, so that it appeared to be coming from characters on the screens. This was also problematic, as Hartzler explains: "Normally, in a movie theatre, the system is behind the screen; the screen is perforated and audio floats through it. But the screens we were dealing with could not be perforated, so we didn't have that opportunity. We put the Renkus-Heinz speakers in front of the screen, aimed them at the screen, and bounced the sound off that. We were very leery of that, but it was a vinyl surface, and it bounced off pretty well." To coordinate all of these different elements, Itec Productions developed the Ride Show Supervisor software for a central control computer. This would know, to within one thirtieth of a second, when each effect would need to be executed. Each car would also be equipped with three computers to help trigger the action. "All the systems had to be very reliable and very accurately synchronized to make it work," Trowbridge said. "If you feel the bang a second after you hear the bang, it sort of spoils the illusion." Spider-Man

Image: Universal

The final scene of Spider-Man would boast an incredible special effect that brought together all of the disparate technologies employed by the ride. Doctor Octopus would shoot the riders’ Scoop vehicle with his levitation gun, sending it flying 40 stories into the air above Manhattan. It would then fall off a skyscraper’s roof, plummeting towards the ground below before being caught in Spider-Man's web. Set supervisor Phil Bloom explains how the effect was achieved: "[It is] a series of effects built on top of each other. One has static scenery with some lighting cues. We also have an actual physical building that has motion that drops away from us, and makes us feel like we're rising. All this is synced with a movie projection screen. Add in the motion effects of the vehicle and some wind effects, and you feel like you're flying in the air." The drop at the end would, in reality, be about 10 inches. Speaking in the aftermath of Spider-Man’s debut, Trowbridge was elated. "Whenever I go into the attraction, I put all my identifying marks away and go incognito just to hear what people are saying. I walked up to the front-door operator and asked how long the line was, and she said about an hour. I said, 'Wow, an hour?' And there was this couple in the front of the line, and the woman said, 'It's worth it! It's worth three hours!' And the guy said, 'You know, it was designed by NASA!' And I said, 'Really? That's fascinating. I did not know that.'"

 
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Comments

Even though I am a die hard Disney fan, I think Spider Man is one of the most awesome rides ever conceived.

I'd be interested to see where 'X' at Six Flags Magic Mountain lands on this list. The ride was so innovative that severely complex technical issues not only caused the already expensive installation to go way over budget, but it also put one of the most famous ride manufacturers out of business, forcing the park to complete the installation on their own.

I guess it doesn't count as the actual building part of it, but they had serious technological and tire problems with Test Track:

They should have kept "Jaws" and added Harry Potter as well.

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