New Classics

Shanghai Disneyland takes the DNA of a Disney park – adventure, romance, fantasy, futurism, and beauty – and turns that DNA into entirely new lands. As you can imagine, the same is true for the rides. This unusual, new age park borrows from the classics that came before and crafts them into entirely new, next generation versions of the rides you know and love. What kinds of New Classics await?

1. Soaring Over the Horizon

Evolution Of: Soarin’ Over California
Location: Adventure Isle 

When Soarin’ Over California opened alongside Disney’s California Adventure in 2001, it was a rare homerun at the otherwise bleak and forgettable park. The clever and innovative ride system seats guests on sleek, suspended gliders, which are hoisted sky-high and parked vertically in front of a hemispherical dome screen. Set to a sincerely moving musical score by the late composer and conductor Jerry Goldsmith, Soarin’ Over California sent guests gliding over the wonders of the Golden State: skimming across the ocean, scaling snow-covered peaks, floating over vast deserts, and zooming through downtown Los Angeles for a finale flight over Disneyland Park.

Soarin’ Over California was such a hit, it was duplicated at Epcot’s The Land pavilion under the name Soarin’. Even though allusions to California were dropped from the name, the same ride film was used. It turns out that California’s landscapes are so varied, it can reasonably stand in for the whole United States and most Disney World visitors wouldn't even notice!

The opening of Shanghai Disneyland was also the debut a completely new evolution of the classic: Soaring Over the Horizon. The brand new version features a flight plan that spans all seven continents, gliding along the frozen waters of Antarctica, the iconic Sydney Harbor in Australia, Mount Kilimanjaro, Bora Bora, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Monument Valley in Arizona, and Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (the original inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle) to name a few. While the new version does feature a re-orchestrated score to match the new film, rest assured that it’s based very closely on Goldsmith’s original.

Because Soaring Over the Horizon is located in Adventure Isle, it takes on a unique, mystic backstory, leaving behind the “flight concourse” terminals and aviation hangar settings of its American cousins. Instead, you enter beneath a jagged stone arch carved away from Roaring Mountain and hike up a trail to the ancient Observatory of the native Arbori people. There, before a mystic black stone, you’ll be granted the spirit of the condor and the vision to see the world. The queue winds through the Observatory’s perfect view of an endless nighttime sky overhead, creating a mystical and magical version of a favorite attraction.

At least in this case, U.S. Disney Parks fans didn't have to be green with envy for very long. The day after it debuted in China, the global tour (with a swapped-out ending for each resort) replaced the original ride films in California and Florida. In the US, it’s now called Soarin’ Around the World. The choice is an obvious and overdue one for Epcot, but an odd choice for Disney California Adventure, where the Californian version is one of the few remnants of park’s Californian identity and, you know, name. Still, the upgrade is fresh, beautiful, and as stunning as ever. 

2. Shipwreck Shore & the Siren’s Revenge

Evolution Of: Tom Sawyer’s Island
Location: Treasure Cove 

Tom Sawyer’s Island opened June 1956 at Disneyland – just about one year after the park itself. Said to be the only area of Disneyland whose design was sculpted by Walt Disney himself, the island is a veritable playground for adventurers and explorers of all ages. Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland each offer Tom Sawyer’s Islands with tree houses, forts, hiking trails, boat docks, caverns, and more. In 2007, Disneyland’s version underwent a unique transformation and re-opened as Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.

Loosely tied to a cockamamie story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn playing “pirates” as we might play “cops and robbers,” the real inspiration is obvious: the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, based on the Disneyland ride just across the river in New Orleans Square. Most references to Mark Twain’s great American novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were tossed in favor of pirate maps, treasure chests, skeletons, Jack Sparrow, and Davy Jones.

At Shanghai Disneyland, the Pirates characters not only received their own full land, but a purpose-built adventure zone just for them – Shipwreck Shore. There’s a toddler area of water bells, stone sea creatures, and a “mist garden,” plus the beautiful Tide Pools full of glass shellfish and starfish that squirt when touched, a stone “harp” that plays when you break the streams of water that fall from it, “cannons” to launch (emitting a blast of fog, with a resounding “splash” in the bay to match), and two full-sized wrecked ships to explore, both visited by “real” pirates throughout the day as they wage war on one another.

3. Peter Pan’s Flight

Evolution Of: Peter Pan’s Flight
Location: Fantasyland 

Peter Pan’s Flight is an opening-day classic at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. In the style of timeless, Walt-era dark rides it resides near in other parks (Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, Alice in Wonderland, etc.), Peter Pan’s Flight is a musical blacklight journey past glowing scaled sets and animatronics. What has always set Peter Pan apart is the ride system: guests are seated in enchanted pirate galleons suspended from the ceiling as they soar out of the Darlings’ bedroom and (most memorably) over a moon-lit London and through the stars to Neverland.

Truthfully, it’s a winning formula that earns Peter Pan’s Flight some of the longest lines and most die-hard following of any Disney dark ride at each park. The formula didn’t need a reinvention. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So instead, Imagineers only tweaked with the formula for Shanghai, designing what’s likely to be the most envied and sought-after version of the already must-see ride.

Shanghai Disneyland always had the benefit of 2016 technology and the ability to build it into rides rather than trying to retcon it later (which has been done to various degrees of success in many rides, including Peter Pan’s Flight, in the U.S. and elsewhere). Perfectly placed projections are integrated seamlessly into a built-out ride that maintains all the charm of the “classic” style while looking fresh. Of the new additions, we love the floating Nana, the “splashdown” in Skull Rock, and how this version simply feels more complete than any other. And that’s saying something.

4. Pooh’s Hunny Pot Spin

Evolution Of: Mad Tea Party
Location: Fantasyland 

Simple but effective, the classic “spinning teacup” ride so commonly associated with Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Wonderland was instead transposed here in Shanghai as sticky “hunny” pots collecting Pooh’s favorite food. Riders in the pots spin and swirl beneath a canopy dripping with honey around a central “chandelier” – a giant bees nest with the insects buzzing around. At least so far, it doesn’t seem like the Chinese have caught on to the “spinning” aspect, but the unique translation of a classic into a Pooh ride is so obvious, we can’t believe Disney didn’t try it earlier!

5. Alice in Wonderland Maze

Evolution of: Alice’s Curious Labyrinth

Disney Parks around the world have celebrated Disney’s 1951 film Alice in Wonderland to various degrees over the decades, starting with the Mad Tea Party spinning cups ride right from the get-go at Disneyland’s opening. An Alice in Wonderland dark ride joined it in 1958, and ever since, bringing to life the whimsical, nonsensical, downright trippy world of Wonderland has been a Disney Parks standard.

Alice’s Curious Labyrinth opened with Disneyland Paris in 1992 as a winding, disorienting hedge maze populated by leaping fountains, doors of various sizes, confounding directional signs, giant playing cards, animatronic characters, and (at its center) the Queen of Hearts’ castle, offering outlook views over Fantasyland.

Curiously, Shanghai Disneyland offers an Alice maze, too, but given China’s long-standing censorship of American properties, Disney seemed to cut their losses and abandon the 1950s animated version in favor of the 2010 live-action version spearheaded by Tim Burton. Presented in Burton’s darkly twisted style, the maze at Shanghai Disneyland begins with three doors to choose from, each opening and shutting quite randomly. Guests pass through extensive caverns, ornate gardens overseen by imposing playing cards, fun house mirrors, a zany, interactive tea party table, and, of course, the giant head of Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen herself.

6. Once Upon a Time Adventure

Evolution Of: Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
Location: Fantasyland 

The diminutive Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland was tiny, and certainly never meant to house an attraction. As such, the small space inside was used as storage and closet space, until Walt challenged his Imagineers to design something worthwhile to fill such a grand location. In 1957, a walkthrough inside the castle’s tight corridors opened, allowing guests to view dioramas depicting the story of Aurora and the evil Maleficent. The walkthrough closed in October 2001 (allegedly as a safety precaution after the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the iconic castle understood as a potential target for further violence). A brand new, technological, charming version returned in November 2008, and has been delighting guests ever since.

The idea of a storybook walkthrough was borrowed in Tokyo Disneyland’s much larger Cinderella Castle (a near carbon-copy of the one in Orlando) where the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour operated from 1986 to 2006, taking guests through the castle’s darkest corridors, encountering sinister villains like the Magic Mirror before a finale showdown with the Horned King from The Black Cauldron. The space in Tokyo is now home to Cinderella’s Fairytale Hall, and lighter walkthrough of mosaics and dioramas depicting Cinderella’s story, not unlike California’s walkthrough for Aurora.

The enormous Enchanted Storybook Castle in Shanghai is home to its own walkthrough, but Once Upon A Time Adventure is a guided attraction where a tour guide leads a group of guests up through the Castle’s grand hall and to a one-on-one encounter with the Magic Mirror, who opens a portal into Snow White’s story. With unique sets capturing the look of the 1930s film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and interaction from animated characters, the unique walkthrough might have guests convinced they’re truly transported to an enchanted forest, not just inside a cleverly disguised, palatial show building.

7. Buzz Lightyear: Planet Rescue

Evolution Of: Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
Location: Tomorrowland 

Ever since Buzz Lightyear debuted in his own dark rides at Disney Parks, fans’ feelings toward the laser-blasting attractions has been… well… mixed. The gun-toting, animated dark ride is located in Tomorrowland each Disneyland-style park on Earth despite the fact that Toy Story 2 (the rides’ source material) makes about as much sense in Tomorrowland as Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, or Lilo and Stitch (which, granted, are all also in Tomorrowland), and blasting through a 2-D cutout action figure version of outer space to steal batteries back from a Darth Vader spoof-character is out of step with anything Tomorrowland would claim to stand for.

Still, the point-and-shoot fun of the ride has led to its expansion through the chain where guests become new recruits of Star Command and fight the evil emperor Zurg for control of the (toy-sized) galaxy.

If Shanghai’s Tomorrowland had to have a Disney / Pixar resident, we would’ve preferred Wall-e (just about the only Pixar story omitted from Tomorrowland, despite it being the only one that makes sense there), but it seems that the eco-friendly message was a poor fit for Shanghai and Buzz is back. While Buzz Lightyear: Planet Rescue is still a point-and-shoot blacklight dark ride, we can at least say to its credit that it is not simply a rehash of what we’ve seen at the other half-dozen Buzz rides. Instead, this one takes itself a little more seriously (which is a good thing) and loses some of its oversaturated flat, blacklight look in favor of more texture and realism. It even de-emphasizes the "toy" aspect in favor of making this a real outerspace adventure. Like the rest of the “reinvented” dark rides, it’s also got just the right infusion of technology to feel fresh and new. As ever, it’s a pleasant aside, even if it’s not up to the creative caliber of most everything else at the park.

8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure

Evolution Of: Pirates of the Caribbean
Location: Treasure Cove 

It seems like almost time a new Disney Park opens, it offers at least one shimmering gem that’s the envy of the theme park world; the “must-ride” that turns the park into a “must-visit.” Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris; California Adventure’s Soarin’ Over California; DisneySea’s Journey to the Center of the Earth; Disneyland Paris’ Space Mountain… These “thesis” attractions represent everything that their home parks did right. For Shanghai Disneyland, that ride is Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure.

When it was clear that Shanghai Disneyland would have an entire land dedicated to the Pirates film franchise, the wind was no doubt taken from the sails of many Parks fans who would prefer to leave the film characters on the screen. But Disney promised that this Pirates would be one-of-a-kind, and rumors ran rampant as fans determined what kinds of new technologies could come to life, and to what degree the “same old” story would unfold.

Put simply: Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure is a masterpiece. The unimaginable ride must be seen to be believed. It has practically nothing in common with the originals (aside from a few clever nods), and the fact that it can be so astounding without becoming a giant allusion is high praise. After a few familiar opening scenes, your journey soon takes you to the literal depths, into massive physical sets, and through worlds that seem to expand well past the horizon. When you disembark, you’re likely to be speechless and wonder what in the world happened. This Pirates takes everything you love about the original, mixes in The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, and maybe a hint of Indiana Jones Adventure with what must be the best standing example of projection integration. Before you go thinking it's an all-digital cop-out, know that one of its animatronics even makes our countdown of the most incredible animatronics on Earth. 

Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean – one of the last attractions Walt personally oversaw – is remembered as a crowning achievement and, far and away, one of the greatest classic dark rides ever built. Given wider exposure, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Shanghai’s Pirates given the same accolades as ranked among the best modern dark rides on Earth. It now stands among Mystic Manor and Journey to the Center of the Earth as must-rides for a generation of park fans. That’s saying something.

Reinvention

While these “reimagined” versions of beloved attractions are sure to be the envy of Disney Parks fans the world over, they’re not even the most exciting part of Shanghai Disneyland’s line-up. There is also a set of attractions so unique to this park that they’re unlike anything Disney’s tried before. Read on…