7. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye

 

 

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland (TPT#16)

When Temple of the Forbidden Eye opened in 1995, its reach was astronomic. Inside Disneyland, it necessitated an identity shift in the park’s Adventureland, all of which was united until its rusted 1930s jungle outpost theme. On a bit larger scale, the ride put Disneyland on the map for its technological advancement. Even larger, the ride kick-started a new generation of dark rides that redefined a guest’s role in a story and turned up the expectations of rivals. (Universal designers whole-heartedly admit that Indiana Jones Adventure is what inspired them to turn The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man from a traditional Omnimover dark ride into the stunning 21st century creation it became).

The ride places guests aboard off-roading WWI troop transports for a tour of the recently-discovered Temple of the Forbidden Eye, where an ancient lost god named Mara promises all visitors to his temple one of three gifts: timeless youth, earthly riches, or visions of the future. Facing three locked doors, Mara peers into the soul of guests and opens one, ushering them in to receive their reward in the Chamber of Destiny. Oh, before we forget to mention: don’t look into his dark and corroded eyes. Doing so just might signal the temple’s collapse…

Indiana Jones Adventure is stunning, with more special effects than most fireworks shows, outstanding animatronics, and a compelling, dark, genuinely unsettling storyline that proved Disney’s ability to think outside the fairytale box. Even today, Temple of the Forbidden Eye is considered by many to represent the height of Disney Imagineering. We even listed it among our countdown of the Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World!

6. Splash Mountain

Image: Disney

Location: Magic Kingdom (TPT#10), Disneyland Park (TPT#21), Tokyo Disneyland

“How do you do? Mightly pleasant greetin’! Fine, how’re you? Pretty good, sure as you’re born!” Over 100 Audio Animatronics creatures populate the laid-back community nestled into the prickly briarroots of Chickapin Hill. One of those critters is Br’er Rabbit, who’s sick of workin’ all day. Br’er Rabbit hears tales of the Laughin’ Place, where everything’s great and nobody works – you just sit all day and tell stories and dance and sing. So ole Br’er Rabbit packs up his knapsack and heads for the Laughin’ Place. Little does he know that the wily Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear are hankerin’ for a pot of Rabbit Stew, close in pursuit…

Splash Mountain is one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by Disney, incited by Michael Eisner’s coming on-board and his desire to market more to thrill seekers and teens. Most of the 103 animatronics in Disneyland’s ride were re-purposed from the America Sings animatronic show that had itself replaced Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland. Re-dressed in southern duds, the critters look right at home in Splash Mountain, singing along the winding watery route of the 10 minute dark ride. The big finale is a five story plunge into the briars and a Zip-a-dee-doo-dah reunion.

While most guests probably assume that Br’er Rabbit and his pals are original characters created for the attraction, the characters and story are actually borrowed from Disney’s 1946 film Song of the South, which has never been released in its entirety on home video or DVD due to its unclear time frame in relation to the Civil War. The result is a hundred-million-dollar ride based on a little known film! It works, though, and Splash Mountain is a fan favorite.

5. Radiator Springs Racers

Image: Disney

Location: Disney California Adventure (TPT#7)

"Welcome to race day in Radiator Springs! Now get out there and do us proud!" The anchor attraction of the impossibly cool Cars Land at the re-built Disney California Adventure, Radiator Springs Racers sped to the front of most fans’ dark ride countdowns. The attraction uses a third generation of Test Track technology, but is built around a highly-immersive dark ride full of outstanding Audio Animatronics. Even better, the ride’s finale is a side-by-side race through the stunning and unimaginable Ornament Valley, which we count as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the Theme Park World.

A perfect blend of classic Disney storytelling, awesome scenes, crazy animatronics, and just-right family thrills, Radiator Springs Racers will no doubt go down in history as one of the most beloved and celebrated Disney rides of all time, essentially reminding fans that Disney’s still got it!

4. Pirates of the Caribbean

Location: Disneyland Park (TPT#6), Disneyland Paris (TPT#31), Magic Kingdom (TPT#61)

Was there any doubt that Pirates would make the top 5? It was the last attraction that Walt Disney took complete creative control over (though he passed away shortly before its opening). Specifically, the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland is considered by many industry fans (not just Disney fans) as the best dark ride in the world. Clocking in at an unbelievable 16 minutes, the Californian version is twice as long as any other, featuring quite a few additional scenes, including an incredible Blue Bayou introduction, two drops, a rising waterfall, and haunting grottos.

To the tune of “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me),” riders pass through ancient caverns, under a magical waterfall, past pirate loot, and into an active battle between a pirate ship and a fort town. Inside the city, dozens of animatronic pirates and animals populate one of the world's most impressive animatronic casts. The ride is simply a shining example of storytelling, mood-setting, technology, and fun.

Interestingly, Disneyland Paris' version of the ride scores very high on the TPT100 too. That's got to be because Paris' version is a completely new take on the classic, essentially presenting the ride backwards as compared to its counterparts. The Paris Pirates is one of seven classic Disney rides that look a WHOLE lot different overseas. Click here to read our feature on the rest!

3. Haunted Mansion

Location: Disneyland Park (TPT#7), Magic Kingdom (TPT#13), Tokyo Disneyland

The stately white plantation house of the Haunted Mansion appeared in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square (just down the street from Pirates) in 1963. Believe it or not, it wasn’t until six years later that the gates were swung open. That’s because Walt Disney passed away during the early stages of the ride’s design, leaving its future in limbo. Many ideas for the Mansion had been passed by Walt, and he seemed like elements of them all. Specifically, two Imagineers with competing visions had to decide what to do, suddenly without Walt as a tiebreaker.

One of Walt’s protégés imagined the ride as a legitimately frightening, dark tour of a murderous sea captain’s home where he’d killed his fiancée then hung himself. Another design had the Mansion as a sort of fun-house style walkthrough of sight gags and spooky-but-funny narration. In the end, the two styles were combined and connected by the groundbreaking Omnimover style ride technology to create what is today recognized as one of the world’s leading dark rides and a staple of Disney storytelling.

Today, the three Haunted Mansions in the world are all a bit different from each other thanks to renovations and updates at different times. The ride also spawned two “spin-offs” in Paris’ Phantom Manor and Hong Kong’s Mystic Manor. If you consider all five “versions” of the Haunted Mansion, the ride has the unusual distinction of being located at all five Disney resorts, but located and themed to a different land in each! 

2. Expedition Everest

Image: Disney

Location: Disney's Animal Kingdom (TPT#2)

When it came time to beef up Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World went big. Really big. Expedition Everest is perhaps Disney’s most well-themed roller coaster ever, taking the snowy peak of Disneyland’s Matterhorn and super-sizing it with an incredible forwards / backwards roller coaster of unprecedented height and speed in Disney’s realm.

The ride’s queue passes through the meticulously detailed Yeti museum of the Himalayas before guests board their own Everest-bound Sherpa train for a ride to the summit. But when the malevolent Yeti uproots the train’s track and sends it spiraling back into the dark Forbidden Mountain, it’s a race to escape from the snowy caverns where the ever-present creature is ready to strike.

Everest is widely considered Disney’s best roller coaster, and certainly one of its best rides period. The attraction is beautiful, well designed, and adventurous from beginning to end.

1. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Location: Disney's Hollywood Studios (TPT#1), Walt Disney Studios (TPT#11), Disney California Adventure (TPT#38), Tokyo DisneySea (TPT#85)

The reviews are in, and the winner is clear (if only by a minute decimal point difference). According to our readers, reviewers, and guests, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is the best Disney attraction on Earth. Specifically (and unsurprisingly), the original version at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida comes out on top, as the best Disney ride (and the #1 ride period) on our TPT100. Developed in the 1990s when ambitious, groundbreaking, and dripping-with-detail rides were the norm from Disney, Tower of Terror is incomparable in most every way.

As expected, the ride’s story is nothing short of cinematic, with the once-glamorous Hollywood Tower Hotel losing a bit of its fame on that fateful Halloween night in 1939 when a mysterious bolt of lightning made one of the hotel’s wings flat-out disappear, along with an elevator carrying five people. Now, the condemned and dilapidated hotel – its grand lobby and library covered in dust and cobwebs – is open for tours. But beware… what happened here to dim the lights of Hollywood’s brightest showplace is about to unfold once again, but this time… it’s happening to you.

Whatever you expect a properly functioning elevator to do, the ones inside the Hollywood Tower Hotel just refuse to do it. Still, your harrowing journey through the hotel’s floors is accompanied by a dark ride that’s truly good enough to stand on its own without the 13-story-freefall that follows.

The ride has been re-created to much fanfare in California, France, and Tokyo (where it was given its own unique twist on the story with no Twilight Zone or lightning strike in sight), but using a more efficient (and cheaper) ride system that necessarily skips the surprise moment in Florida’s that’s so shocking and dismaying to first-time riders and also re-configures the hotel’s exterior to look a little less intimidating and frightening. Ah well. While Florida’s is number one, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a near-perfect ride no matter where you ride it.