4. Egg Spinner

Inspired By: Mad Tea Party / Dumbo the Flying Elephant / TriceraTop Spin

Ready to go for a whirl? The Egg Spinner at Jurassic World is a classic carnival ride given a lovingly themed overlay. We don’t get much of a view of the Egg Spinner during the film itself, but the park’s official website describes it as follows: “Spin until your brain’s scrambled on our exciting recreation of the Hammond Creation Lab’s egg spinner. You’ll have so much fun, you might feel like you’ve been genetically resequenced!”

5. Mosasaurus Feeding Show

Every two hours, the park’s central lagoon comes alive. But this is no World of Color. With a packed stadium, a giant, carnivorous, aquatic lizard called a Mosasaurus leaps from the water to capture its lunch – a suspended great white shark, dwarfed by the massive creature – and splashes the audience in turn. The Jurassic World website warns that this attraction “may be disturbing for small children.”

Inspired By: Shamu / Gatorland

There are two very distinct inspirations behind the Mosasaurus Feeding Show. First may be the various Shamu shows that have headlined SeaWorld over the years. Despite your personal thoughts on the captivity of orca whales, there’s no denying that SeaWorld’s iconic killer whales can still pack a stadium as they show off their size and power, yet their undeniable grace.

From the “splash zone” to the aerial tricks, the Mosasaurus Feeding Show is the perfect Jurassic World-sized version of SeaWorld’s famed show.

There’s another Orlando inspiration for the acrobatics. Just up the street from Universal Orlando is the historic Gatorland, whose opening predates the original Disneyland. One of its starring attractions is the Gator Jumparoo show, where one of Mosasaurus’s great-great-great-great-grandchildren leap vertically from the water to snatch a suspended raw chicken to the delight of onlookers. The stunning show of force and power was almost certainly a direct inspiration for Jurassic World’s version, and just as impressive.

6. Gallimimus Valley

The Gallimimus dinosaurs of Jurassic World roam free across the verdant valleys, eating vegetation and dining on insects and grubs. With a name meaning “chicken-mimicking,” you’d probably expect the agile flocks to be friendly if a bit scatterbrained. And indeed, the ostrich-like dinosaurs dart in and out of the road as guests aboard off-roading safari vehicles take all the photos they’d like.

Inspired By: Kilimanjaro Safaris

In the great tradition of perfectly-safe theme park safari attractions, the undisputed king is Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Passing through animal habitats where friendly creatures can approach the vehicle, Kilimanjaro Safaris is one of many safari attractions at parks across the world.

7. Cretaceous Cruise

You can “paddle with the plant-eaters” down Isla Nublar’s river ways. This calm, guided kayak tour perfect for park novices is meant to showcase the flora and gigantic fauna of the 145 million years of the Cretaceous era with 100 species of prehistoric life along the river’s edge. The website mentions, “a high level of fitness and endurance is required.”

Inspired By: The World of Pandora

The Jurassic World attraction seems to have quite a bit in common with an upcoming attraction earmarked for Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Aside from the headlining “Soarin’ Over Pandora” style attraction, the land will feature a slow-moving boat ride through the glowing terrain of the alien forest. This attraction will allow guests to get a little closer to the unusual, giant, glowing plants of the planet, and perhaps include an encounter or two with the gentle creatures of Pandora.

We don’t yet know anything about the Pandora dark ride besides the single piece of concept art that we’ve seen. Our hope is that the dark ride will be a calm, beautiful, and peaceful tour of the planet’s gorgeous habitat. So far, it sounds like the ride will be more or less free of plot, and probably without a ‘villain.’ After all, many children visiting Walt Disney World probably won’t have seen Avatar, so the idea of a darkness-enshrouded forest will probably have them on edge to begin with. Not to mention, Animal Kingdom’s only other dark ride is the terrifying Dinosaur, which also takes place in a dark forest, and the park needs a family dark ride where nothing scary, loud, and threatening happens.

Was Cretaceous Cruise inspired by Pandora? Probably not. But in the theme park world, these recurring tropes happen everywhere, and this is a prominent example. You might also imagine that Cretaceous Cruise is in the same genre as Jungle Cruise, Living With The Land, or Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes.

8. Gyrospheres

With a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour, the relaxing gyrospheres may prove to be the most innovative and exhilarating transportation system in Jurassic World. Protected by advanced invisible fence technology, animals stay within their designated zones as the automated system of the Gyrosphere rolls through the enclosures of Jurassic classics: Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus… Truly ultra-efficient systems of the future, the Gyrospheres are the gentle but functional heart of the park.

Real World Inspiration: The Peoplemover

When it comes to efficient, cutting-edge, brisk transportation systems, theme park fans know only one infallible one: The Peoplemover, originally part of Disneyland’s New Tomorrowland in 1967. The outstanding, simple, gentle attraction was the focus of our recent In-Depth investigation. While the Peoplemover probably didn’t directly inspire Jurassic World’s Gyrosphere, Disney Parks fans will immediately recognize the evolution of the Peoplemover concept of efficient, smart, innovative mass transportation.

Inspiration Comes Alive

In designing the ficitonal theme park of Jurassic World, it's not that the film's crew set out to copy well-known attractions and simply apply a dinosaur overlay. Rather, brilliant designers constructed an original amusement park that, like every other park on Earth, borrows and reimagines classics. Not all (or maybe even any) of the attractions we've pointed out here are "copies." Rather, they're inspired by the well-known attractions at Disney, Universal, and beyond, and creatively build on those foundations.

At the end of the day, Jurassic World is a theme park most of us would actually like to visit (minus the carnage, that is), and that's a tremendous testament to the world-building work that was put into making a convincing, engaging, and exciting theme park that would sure get my admission money, Indominus rex or not!