6. Autopia -> World of Motion -> TEST TRACK -> TRON Light Cycle Power Run

Image: Disney

Disney’s connection to car culture dates back to the opening of Disneyland. While its placement in Tomorrowland is often derided today, Autopia was sincerely futuristic when Disneyland opened in 1955, as President Eisenhower had not yet signed the Interstate Highway Act into law! To allow guests – young and old – to drive their own cars along the meandering highways of the future was a thrill (and honestly, it remains so today for many children).

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With EPCOT Center’s distinctly celebrational approach to the evolution of industry and technology, a ride about transportation was assured, and General Motors’ Lost Legend: World of Motion was a wonder standing among the best of EPCOT Center’s hallowed originals. The classic dark ride toured guests through the history of transportation, especially highlighting the arrival of car culture and the freedom it afforded – a pinnacle of Americana.

As Epcot’s trajectory shifted, educational masterpiece dark rides of old gave way to modern thrills, and GM upgraded World of Motion into TEST TRACK, a cutting-edge dark ride that left history in the dust to instead show us how modern GM cars are tested for safety. In a modern vehicle testing facility, TEST TRACK was a fun, frivolous, laugh-out-loud ride through braking tests, hot and cold environmental chambers, hairpin turns, and more.

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Between Disney and GM, someone decided that even this updated 21st century thrill ride wasn’t adequately time-tested, so it evolved. Now a Lost Legend, TEST TRACK was redesigned into TEST TRACK Presented by Chevrolet. A floor-to-ceiling rebuild turned the ride into a STEM-focused engineering interactive where guests in line create their own custom cars that – connected via MagicBand – follow them onto the ride.

Image: Disney

The original TEST TRACK became its own sequel, turning the disconnected industrial tests into a glowing, neon SimTrack, pitting riders’ prototype cars against one another on tests measuring Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power.

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Guests quickly noted that the digital world that had arisen in the new TEST TRACK looked like something out of Disney’s cult classic '80s hit TRON, and in 2016 we knew why – Shanghai Disneyland opened with a totally new type of Tomorrowland, and to the surprise of many, it was not lorded over by a Space Mountain. Instead, the Shanghai-premiered, Florida-bound Modern Marvel: TRON Lightcycle Power Run is a launched roller coaster whose innards closely resemble the neon landscapes of the new TEST TRACK.

Over literally fifty years, the simple concept of Autopia evolved – one step at a time – creating connection after connection until a TRON launched coaster came out the other end!

7. Matterhorn Bobsleds -> Expedition Everest

Within the dark, icy caverns of a towering, snow-capped peak, you’ll come face-to-face with a roaring, mythological mountain guardian before your train races down the mountainside. What ride comes to mind? The ride you’re picturing right now likely depends on which Disney Parks resort you call “home," because that description fits two attractions: Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland and Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. 

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Indeed, the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland (debuted in 1959, alongside that same Tomorrowland growth spurt that opened the Submarine Voyage) was “moved” to Fantasyland in time for a 1978 redesign that added Bavarian chalet stations, icy caverns, and appearances by the feared Abominable Snowman.

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We listed Matterhorn among our Countdown: Peaks of Imagineering as the original Disney Parks mountain – and the only one ridden by Walt himself. For a time, a copy of the ride was planned for a Switzerland pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase, but it only ended up being built in our Possibilityland: Un-Built Disney Mountains feature.

Instead, a “spiritual sequel” opened in 2006, when Expedition Everest joined Animal Kingdom’s ride lineup.

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The elaborate and built-out ride (reportedly costing more than $100 million – easily the most expensive roller coaster on Earth) takes guests into the heights of the Himalayas for a runaway train ride through the Forbidden Mountain Pass that locals say is protected by the ancient Yeti. We traced the entire behind-the-scenes story of the mega E-Ticket in its own standalone feature, Modern Marvels: Expedition Everest. Everest takes everything that worked on Matterhorn and makes it bigger, louder, and more detailed… and yes, that includes the imposing Yeti, who scored high on our must-read Countdown of the Best Animatronics on Earth… with some fine print.

8. “it’s a small world” -> Sinbad’s Storybook Voyages

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Whether you’ve ridden it in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo, Paris, or Hong Kong, your voyage on “the happiest cruise to ever set sail” has been an international journey through calm canals sailing past animated figures representing the vast cultures, languages, traditions, and garments of the world presented in a glowing, ethereal, "storybook" style.

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A sort of epitome of family attractions, the gentle, bright, kinetic ride is inarguable and well loved.

 When Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, it featured a ride that borrowed the basics – the gentle canal cruise “around the world” through scenes populated by knee-high figures. But the Seven Voyages of Sinbad was very different. The ride sailed guests through the infamous voyages of the legendary sailor from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, making the doll-sized animatronics here were quite a bit more… aggressive… We’re talking green-skinned sirens trying to lure you to your doom, a Roc bird attacking, a sinister towering giant dangling Sinbad and his men over you, an angry island-whale, and a literally horrifying finale with black-eyed, erratic monkeys threatening you at every turn. Frankly, the ride was a horror, likely to leave kids quaking with heads buried in parents’ laps.

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Thinking quickly, Disney Imagineers made a change. Soon after the park opened, Sinbad was shuttered. Every element of the ride was recast in a new light thanks to two simple additions: first, Disney Legend Alan Menken (composter of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and countless others) was brought in to create a song called “Compass of Your Heart,” a sing-along wonder that follows you throughout the voyage, looping and growing like “it’s a small world.” Second, Sinbad was joined by a new companion – Chandu the tiger cub, who’s since become a veritable icon of DisneySea on par with Epcot’s Figment.

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The re-emerged Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage then told a new tale… Now, the sirens are helpful, guiding mermaids; Sinbad and his men protect the Roc bird and its babies from invading pirates; they use the giant feather the grateful bird provides to free the Giant, who sings along to “Compass of your Heart” as he cheers them on; the angry whale has become a guide, leading them across stormy seas; and those (still scary) monkeys now shake musical instruments rather than spears and try to pry bananas onto our boat instead of a boulder.

What’s so unusual is that Disney had already put in place the structural pieces of a “small world” sequel, with a gentle cruise past simple animatronics. But only once they recast the ride as a light-hearted musical journey did Sinbad really take off, cementing the ride as a spiritual successor to “small world.”