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The Experience: Recreating the inhabitants of the Cretaceous era

The Trick: Populating an entire building full of believable dinosaurs

Image: DisneyWhen Disney Imagineers planned this attraction, they stressed the importance of authenticity. It’s a recurring aspect of Disney theming, but DINOSAUR caused particular problems. Dinosaurs are, you know, freakin’ huge. Park space at Disney theme parks is limited. Even Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the largest of the four gates at Walt Disney World, has space issues.

Imagineers had to think about the roof and the floor when they recreated the Cretaceous era. Sure, they wanted the dinosaurs to have the correct dimensions. Builders had to maintain the structural integrity of the facility, though. To construct dinosaurs of the appropriate height and weight, Disney had to build some of these gigantic beasts straight into the floor of building. Some of these Audio-Animatronics (AAs) are so massive that they have their own foundations inside the facility.

Image: DisneyPerhaps the most famous of the creatures is Dino-Sue. She sits in the exterior courtyard of DINOSAUR, welcoming guests while setting the tone for the attraction. Dino-Sue is Disney’s lovingly crafted duplicate of FMNH PR 2081 aka Sue, the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered on an archeological dig.

Throughout the ride, you’ll see other famous kinds of dinosaurs. A carnotaurus, velociraptor, saltasaurus, a hadrosaur, and a compsognathus are all visible. At one point, a pterodactyl even attacks from above. The carnotaurus is arguably the scariest moment in the ride, and Disney knows this. They take your picture at the precise moment when you come face to face with a 25-feet long monster. On some level, you know that the monster is fake, but nobody will be able to tell from the photograph! The realism of these dinosaurs is amazing, even by Disney’s lofty standards.

The Experience: Building a vehicle capable of moving through the land before time

The Trick: Repurposing the proprietary EMV technology from Indiana Jones Adventure

Image: DisneyWhile the rides have little in common from a theming perspective, DINOSAUR does have sibling of a kind. Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland employs the same EMV technology and was actually the first attraction to do so.

At the time, Imagineers evaluated the tricky nature of that attraction’s set pieces. Guests needed to move from place to place within the so-called Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The ride couldn’t be smooth, though. Guests were supposed to be in peril at all times, and so Disney constructed a ride cart that would deliver a bumpy ride.

As park planners strategized on their new Countdown to Extinction attraction, they understood that the same contrivances were needed. The premise of the ride is that a person travels back in time to the moment when meteors plummet from the sky, causing an extinction-level event. Guests aren’t supposed to stare up at the comet strike, though. The dinosaurs were always the focus, even before that was the name of the attraction.

Image: DisneyTo keep guests looking in the right places, the spots where they’d spent so much money crafting AA dinosaurs, they needed to control the line of sight. And they had just created a vehicle that did it perfectly. So, Imagineers repurposed the Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) to make it a “time machine.” They even gave it a cheeky name, the CTX Time Rover. What does the CTX part stand for? Countdown to Extinction, of course! The DINOSAUR version of the EMV is absolutely identical under the hood. The only change is the style, which is time machine-themed.

Despite the brilliant technology of the EMV, Imagineers don’t want you thinking about it during the ride. Instead, the focus is always on the prehistoric creatures. One of the ways they distract you is with fog. It’s an insidious form of manipulation. When you have trouble seeing something you look that much harder.

DINOSAUR features one of the largest fog machines that Disney (or anybody else) has ever met, and it’s there to add a sense of mystery to the proceedings. Without it, you wouldn’t buy into the illusion as much. You’d think too much about your ride rather than the dinosaurs. These little touches are what elevate the DINOSAUR experience. It’s one of the most immersive attractions at Walt Disney World due to its tight theming.

 
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Comments

I love Disney DINOSAUR ride from Disney Animal Kingdom park because it's my number one favorite ride of all time! I wish Disney would've make a new sequel that continues the story of the original 2000 movie like based on one of rides from Disney Animal Kingdom. What do you guys think?

In reply to by Michael Ryan Moss (not verified)

That would make a really great attraction. What ideas have you got for the actual ride?

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