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The Best Disney Attraction Backstories!

Hey everyone, I’m Mike, she’s Sophie, that’s Brenda, and he’s Grogu, and We’re On the Road with Mickey! This is episode 318, and our feature topic is The Best Disney Attraction Backstories! In this week’s episode, we each talked about a specific Disney attraction and the backstory behind the attraction. Here’s what we talked about:

• Cheddar from the Big Cheese:
  • Sophie: Interestingly, two Walt Disney World restaurants have now introduced a walk-up list feature. The Beak & Barrel in the Magic Kingdom will be adding it soon, and over at Epcot, Geo-82 will be adding it as well. Currently, it looks like the features aren’t fully available but if you are near the locations and look in the MDE app, you will see a button for their location that says to “Join Walk-Up List”.
  • Brenda: This is more rumor than anything, but it appears that the Disney Cruise Line may be bringing back departures out of New York City. There have been some updates on various cruise websites, such as the Manhattan Cruise Terminal website, and that is sparking discussion about whether DCL is returning to New York! No official word from Disney, but stay tuned!
  • Mike: We here at On the Road with Mickey would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the family of Disney Legend Don Iwerks, who passed away at the age of 96 on July 9th. Don is the son of the legendary Ub Iwerks, and Don’s daughter Leslie has also worked on projects for Disney. Our prayers go out to Don’s wife Betty, his sons John & Larry, and his daughter Leslie. He was preceded in death by his cherished daughter, Tamara, who he carried in his heart always.
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• Question of the Week Feedback:
  • What is your favorite Attraction Lore/Backstory?
    • Sophie: Haunted Mansion
    • Mike: Expedition Everest
    • Brenda: Cosmic Rewind
    • Chandler: “I enjoy the stories of how the early imagineers had to create the attraction ride systems before Disneyland even opened.”
    • Cindy: “The backstory of Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids.”
• Feature Topic: The Best Disney Attraction Backstories
  • Sophie: Phantom Manor
    • Disneyland Paris (originally Euro Disneyland)
      • Catering to a distinctly non-American audience
        • No Liberty Square, no New Orleans Square, where to put the Haunted Mansion?
      • Multiple languages, not just French and English
      • Decided on Frontier land due to french enthusiasm for the American Gold Rush → Thunder Mesa, Arizona, USA
        • (Marc Davis reference)
    • Thunder Mesa Backstory
      • EVERYTHING is owned by one Henry Ravenswood, founder of the Big Thunder Mining Co.
      • In childhood, Melanie was confined to the grounds of Ravenswood Manor
      • As she grew, she acquired a long line of suitors
        • Capt. Rowan D. Falls – Captain of the Mark Twain Riverboat (sent over a waterfall by Henry)
        • Ignatius Knight – An explosives manufacturer for Big Thunder Mining Co. (blew up in a dynamite explosion by Henry)
        • Barry Claude – An oil-field tycoon (led into the forest by Henry and mauled by a bear)
        • Sawyer Bottom – An owner of a Sawmill (tied to a log by Henry and sawed in half)
        • Jake – Melanie’s final suitor, a train engineer who planned to take her away from Thunder Mesa to start a new life (hanged from the rafters of the attic by a mysterious phantom)
      • Henry vowed to thwart the wedding of Jake & Melanie, but was killed in a massive earthquake before he could. The wedding plans proceeded despite the tragedy
      • On the day of the wedding however, Melanie dressed in her bridal gown and waited for Jake to arrive. He never did.
      • Heartbroken, Melanie vowed to wait for her beloved, but as days turned to weeks, months, years, she became a recluse in the now dilapidated manor.
      • Many questioned if she was still alive, but on quiet nights, her voice could be heard, singing melancholy songs of lost love.
      • All the while, a mysterious phantom (revealed to be the ghost of Henry Ravenswood) haunts the manor, inviting numbers of dead spirits to live there. Jake’s spirit never appears, theorized to be trapped in his hanging corpse, still suspended in the attic.
  • Brenda: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy are a team of intergalactic mercenaries (some say outlaws) who primarily defend the Andromeda galaxy. I agree with those that think of them as good guys — with an unconventional approach to the Super Hero business. 
    • The team was founded in 2014 when  Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax the Destroyer assembled to save Xandar from being decimated by Ronan the Accuser. Recognized by the Nova Empire, the Guardians were hired shortly after by the Sovereign’s leader Ayesha to defeat an Abilisk, but became their enemies when Rocket stole from them. They gained three new members in Mantis, Nebula and Yondu Udonta when they banded together to defeat Ego, which resulted in Udonta’s death. Nebula then left the team as the remaining Guardians resumed their adventures.
    • Four years later, the Guardians joined forces with the Avengers to stop Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones. 
    • Pre-show
    • At the end of the gallery, Terrans (inhabitants of Earth) are ushered to the final stop of the Wonders of Xandar Pavilion, hosted by Nova Prime Irani Rael of the Nova Corps. She welcomes the guests and begins by explaining how both Xandar and Terra were born of the same moment — the Big Bang. She then details how the Xandarians traveled through the galaxy to reach Terra to showcase their culture: by utilizing a Cosmic Generator, a piece of Xandarian technology that creates “jumpholes” that allowed them to create shortcuts to reach their destination much quicker. As a culmination of the Wonders of Xandar Pavilion, Terrans will be teleported to a Nova ship in space to demonstrate the Cosmic Generator. After Nova Prime’s presentation, Centurion Tal Marik of the Nova Corps welcomes Terrans and advises the prohibition of communication devices with recording capabilities (i.e. cellphones and smartphones), after which Terrans are ushered into the teleportation chamber.
    • After Terrans have been teleported to the Nova ship, the Cosmic Generator is stolen and the ship loses its power before a demonstration could be presented, prompting Nova Prime to urgently call the Guardians of the Galaxy for help. Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot all appear on screen answering the distress call, only to discover that a Celestial named Eson, seen outside the Nova ship, has stolen the Cosmic Generator. Unhappy with the Terrans, the Celestial uses the Cosmic Generator to send Terra through a jumppoint to the dawn of time, with the intention of erasing its existence, before entering the jump point itself.
    • Quill urges Centurion Tal Marik to follow Eson while the Guardians rendezvous with the Nova ship to stop the Celestial but is unable to do so due to the lack of power in the ship and needing to send Terrans to evacuation shuttles. However, Rocket suggests he can control the shuttles to have the Terrans follow Eson via jumpholes and rendezvous with them instead, as they are their only way of tracking the Celestial in order to recover the Cosmic Generator. Terrans are then led to the corridors of the loading platforms to board their evacuation shuttles.
    • Ride experience
    • As the shuttles depart, Terrans begin making their way out of the Nova ship to enter the jumppoint in their evacuation shuttles. Peter Quill / Star-Lord and Gamora assure them that they’re tracking the shuttles to meet them, while Drax and Rocket instead make pessimistic remarks about the situation. The Guardians wish the Terrans luck as they set off, and after crossing the jumppoint the Terrans arrive at Eson’s location, where it holds the Cosmic Generator. Shortly after, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive in their ship as Eson prepares to throw the Cosmic Generator towards Terra, who disregards Quill’s music from the Guardians’ ship as “noise”. The Guardians then blast the Cosmic Generator from the Celestial’s hands, opening another jumppoint which proceeds to suck everything in, taking them all the way back in time to the Big Bang and eventually fading into complete darkness. Suddenly, the evacuation shuttles are launched backwards in an explosion, and it is at this point that the vehicles begin their spinning profiles on their axis to achieve a sensation of “space travel” while the story develops around them with a randomized song selection out of six.
    • As the evacuation shuttles travel through multiple jumpholes along the way, the Guardians of the Galaxy engage in combat with Eson around the Terrans as they also cross multiple jumppoints. The Guardians finally lead a fleet of Nova Corp Starblasters to Eson, who manage to contain the Celestial and recover the Cosmic Generator. As the Guardians of the Galaxy travel far from the scene, they lead the Terrans to a final series of jumpholes that takes them to the Milky Way, then around the Moon before locking the coordinates for EPCOT and sending them back to Terra. As they arrive, Peter Quill welcomes the Terrans to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the rest of the team remarking amongst themselves as they disembark.
  • Mike: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
    • Picture this, if you will…
      • The Date is October 31, 1939
      • The Location: The Hollywood Tower Hotel
      • The Scene: A severe thunderstorm rolls over Hollywood. Lightning struck the hotel, and a service elevator carrying five guests disappeared into another dimension. The hotel is abandoned, and decades later is opened to the public for tours.
    • To gain an understanding of what the attraction would look like, the Walt Disney Imagineering team watched ALL 156 episodes of the Twilight Zone series, and they deliberately chose pieces from several different episodes to include in the attraction.
    • In the queue, you enter the forgotten lobby of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, complete with:
      • Dust-covered furniture
      • Half-finished drinks
      • Luggage that was never claimed
      • Cobwebs everywhere
      • A stopped grandfather clock
      • Basically, what you are entering is into a space that has not changed since that fateful night, October 31, 1939.
    • As for the ride itself, well, you don’t just fall. You enter the 5th dimension that Rod Serling mentioned in the opening of every episode of The Twilight Zone. Then, you don’t just fall – you fall FASTER than gravity! Lastly, computer technology since 2002 randomly changes each drop sequence, so you never have the same exact ride each time.
    • As for the building – it is deliberately built at 199 feet. This is because if it was 200 feet tall, FAA regulations would require an airplane beacon be placed on top of the building, which would affect the theming of the attraction.
    • Fun Fact: In two days from the airing of this episode, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror will celebrate its 32nd anniversary of opening on July 22, 1994
    • “Tower of Terror isn’t my favorite attraction. However, the way the Imagineers have created such a suspension of disbelief, it is truly like you have left Florida, you have left Walt Disney World, you have left Hollywood Studios, and you have entered another time, another place, and entered into the Hollywood Tower Hotel on October 31, 1939. That is why this backstory is so captivating to me.”
• Sophie’s Question of the Week:
  • What is your favorite Attraction Lore/Backstory?
• This Day in Disney History for 7/20:
  • 1890: Actress Verna Felton is born
• The Weekly Disney Windows
  • Jack Lindquist
• A little bit of Walt
  • “If I can’t find a theme, I can’t make a film anyone else will feel. I can’t laugh at intellectual humor. I’m just corny enough to like to have a story hit me over the heart.” – Walt Disney

Coming next week: Disney with Teens vs Disney with Little Kids

As always, thank you for listening. We are having a lot of fun talking Disney, and I’m glad you are enjoying it as well! Remember, you can reach us in many ways — by email to info@ontheroadwithmickey.com. You can also talk to us on our Facebook Page, On the Road with Mickey or in our On the Road with Mickey Group. Feel free to join us! Have a great week, and we’ll be back to talk with you again next week!