Not every castle can stand the test of time! Since the opening of Disneyland in 1955, parks have been identified by dominating structures often referred to as park icons. These structures come to represent a park’s stories and settings, and become synonymous with the parks they inhabit. From castles to “golf balls,” giant hats and lighthouses, we took a look at 11 of the worlds most awe-inspiring park icons just last month. But what happens when an icon falls?
Whether demoted, replaced, or never built, we’ve collected 9 park icons that just didn’t seem to make the grade for one reason or another. Which would you most like to have seen?
1. Spacestation Earth
Image: Disney
Park: WestCOT (Anaheim, California)
Fate: Never built
The Story: You’ve probably seen Spaceship Earth – the icon of Epcot. The 180 foot tall gleaming white geodesic sphere is an architectural marvel, and perfectly encapsulates the technological look and feel of the park’s Future World while also standing as a fitting tribute to the global World Showcase.
Announced in 1991, Disneyland’s second park, WestCOT would have taken all the best of Epcot and given it a decidedly West Coast spin. For one thing, the cold, silver, concrete Future World would come to California as a lush tropical realm full of waterfalls, gardens, forests, organic rockwork, and escalators through tiered levels. The cold, stark, white Spaceship Earth would do no good here. Enter Spacestation Earth. Nearly twice as large as Epcot’s, WestCOT’s icon would be a 300-foot tall geodesic sphere covered in beautiful gold isosceles triangles.
Image: Disney
Why It’s Not An Icon: For one, WestCOT was never built… and ironically, Spacestation Earth might be part of the reason… The 300-foot sphere was a major sticking point for locals, already tired of Disneyland’s traffic and terrified at the idea of expansion into a resort. Technically speaking, the sphere would also be about five times as tall as Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, which would probably distract from sightlines throughout Walt’s original park.
But Disney didn’t give up! Instead, they reimagined the park’s central icon to come up with something slightly less abrasive for local neighborhoods…
2. The Golden Spire
Image: Disney
Park: WestCOT, Disney’s California Adventure
Fate: Never built
The Story: After locals and executives got nervous about the grandiose Spacestation Earth (and Disney got nervous about the park’s $4 billion budget), they settled on a new, less overwhelming icon for WestCOT: a tall golden spire. In 1992, the revised plans were released, showing the new spire centrally located between the four corners of the globe the park sought to represent.
Image: Disney
When plans for WestCOT were officially scrapped in 1995, the Spire didn’t die along with them. In fact, it was carried over to early designs for Disney’s California Adventure. Early on in planning for that park, the Spire remained the park’s icon, located just inside at what eventually became Sunshine Plaza. Here, though, the Spire was fashioned more as a singular prominent ray from a mosaic sun.
Why It’s Not An Icon: WestCOT never got built, and when Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, it had a much less impressive icon…
3. The Sun Icon
© Disney, via Yesterland.com
Park: Disney California Adventure
Fate: Demolished
The Story: With a bland look and a name to match, the icon of Disney’s California Adventure when it opened was the unfortunate Sun Icon – known by most as “The Hubcap.” Indeed, this metallic representation of the sun was a noble effort, and when viewed from the “Postcard” perspective intended for the park’s entrance, it looked alright, rising above a comic Golden Gate Bridge. But the giant sun lacked the emotionally striking size, authenticity, and interest of other Disney Parks icons, and was certainly no sibling to Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, which it faced.
The Sun Icon was intended to reflect real sunlight into the park’s Sunshine Plaza entrance land, bathing it in golden warmth. Unfortunately, the Sun Icon faced north and was permanently in shadow. The solution was to install massive telescoping mirrors around the plaza, meant to bounce the real sun onto the fake sun to bounce the fake sun onto the plaza. The effect didn’t work.
Why It’s Not An Icon: The Sun Icon was officially stripped of its duties early on in Disney California Adventure’s history, but it wasn’t removed from the park until 2010. That’s when the final push of Disney’s 5 year, $1.2 billion renovation project went into high gear. We told the in-depth story of the park’s transformation in an in-depth entry, Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure. In short, the Sun Icon and the Sunshine Plaza land around it were demolished to build the new, detailed, delightful Buena Vista Street. The spot formerly occupied by the Sun Icon is now home to the park’s new icon, the Carthay Circle Theatre – a truly “iconic” structure that’s finally a fitting compliment to Sleeping Beauty Castle.
4 & 5. The Chinese Theater and the Sorcerer’s Hat
Image: Disney
Park: Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney Studios Park
Fate: Hatted
The Story: Opened with the Disney-MGM Studios park in 1989, the Chinese Theater is a thing of beauty. A faithful recreation (externally) of the famed TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Disney’s version even has very real celebrity handprints molded in the cement outside. The elaborately designed theater stands proudly at the end of the detailed Hollywood Blvd. that serves as the park’s “Main Street,” making the Chinese Theater a clear and deserving companion to Cinderella Castle. The soaring Chinese Theatre helps complete the illusion of a very real Hollywood, California at the height of its Golden Age.
Inside, the theatre contained the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride, an epic, 25-minute dark ride through the movies that acted as the park’s “thesis” attraction, whisking guests through the greatest scenes in cinematic history. In other words, the Chinese Theater seemed certain to be the park’s icon.
Why It’s Not An Icon: In 2001, Disney placed a 121-foot tall royal blue sorcerer’s hat in front of the Chinese Theatre, to serve as the icon and hub of the 100 Years of Magic promotion celebrating what would’ve been Walt Disney’s 100th birthday.
Image: Disney
The hat – which became a target of hatred by Disney fans – was not necessarily awful on its own. It’s just that the incredibly realistic and highly detailed Hollywood Blvd. suddenly ended in a 100-foot tall anachronistic sparkling cartoon hat, literally hiding the incredible facade of the Chinese Theater. It was, in a word, absurd. And even when the 100 Years of Magic celebration ended in 2002, the hat remained. For 14 years, the Chinese Theater was covered by the gleaming royal blue hat.
To the delight of fans, the Sorcerer’s Hat did finally disappear in January 2015, but even then, the Chinese Theatre didn’t become the park’s icon. Instead, the park has ben more-or-less icon-less since, with the Hollywood Tower Hotel standing in on merchandise.
And those aren’t the only icons Disney’s movie park has lost…
6. Earful Tower
Image: Disney
Park: Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney Studios Park
Fate: Demoted
The Story: Completing the “studios” theme of the two parks at which it’s located, the Earful Tower is meant to stand-in for real water towers that served as landmarks of studio backlots in the early 20th century. Back then, wooden sets were highly flammable, and water towers on-site served as a fire-department-in-waiting.
Why It’s Not An Icon: The Earful Tower was demoted from park icon status at Disney’s Hollywood Studios thanks to the Sorcerer’s Hat. When the Sorcerer’s Hat was demolished, the Earffel Tower was not reinstated as the park’s icon, igniting a fervor of rumors that the water tower wouldn’t last. And sure enough, Disney announced in 2016 that the Earful Tower would be removed, no doubt a major milestone in the park transforming from a “studio” style park emphasizing the backstage elements of cinema to an immersive one filled with immersively-themed lands.
The Earffel Tower at Paris’ Walt Disney Studios Park remains the identifying icon for that park today.
7. Grizzly Peak
Image: Disney
Park: Disney’s California Adventure
Fate: Defeated by time and the elements
The Story: When the tepid Sun Icon failed to take off as an identifying feature of Disney’s California Adventure, the park’s official icon was quickly labeled as Grizzly Peak. It makes sense. The 150-foot tall “mountain” was easily seen from almost anywhere in the park and was one of the more impressive and beautiful elements of the park as it opened in 2001. However, the mountain is not centrally located and (perhaps unsurprisingly) the “grizzly” naturally formed atop the mountain is angled such that it’s most easily visible to those staying in the ultra-pricy Grand Californian Hotel than it is for guests in the park.
Why It’s Not An Icon: Grizzly Peak remained the park’s official icon for quite a while. Today, the mountain is barely visible from most places, with the pine trees planted around it having matured so far as to almost completely hide the forced-perspective-peak. Time and the elements fought against Grizzly Peak’s iconic status, but the powers that be had different ideas anyway. After the park’s massive foundational renovation began, things started changing. In 2009, Disney’s California Adventure’s icon shifted for a third time…
8. Mickey’s Fun Wheel
Image: Disney
Park: Disney’s California Adventure
Fate: Demoted
The Story: When Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, the park’s Paradise Pier had long been its most easily memorable land thanks to its panoramic vista of modern amusement attractions and neon lights set along Paradise Bay. One of those attractions was the Sun Wheel, a large Ferris wheel with a vintage, ’70s-stylized bronze sun face at its center, exemplifying the land’s (and park’s) odd, modern setting.
During the early years of the park’s rebirth, the Sun Wheel was reborn as the dazzling, shimmering, LED-infused Mickey’s Fun Wheel and officially took over as the park’s icon… a smart idea since the Fun Wheel signified the park’s changing direction: chocked full of pie-eyed classic Disney characters and lovingly turning the clocks back to a turn-of-the-century, reverent, historic, idealized California rather than the odd, modern spoof the park had been up to that point.
Why It’s Not An Icon: Mickey’s Fun Wheel still retained some duties in identifying California Adventure in simple forms, but when the park “re-opened” in 2012, the official icon became the impressive Carthay Circle Theatre. The Carthay is a fitting icon: a landmark of California, an icon of cinema history, and the place where Walt risked it all to premier the world’s first full length animated feature film. Even Mickey’s Fun Wheel couldn’t compete with that.
Oddly, the story of Mickey’s Fun Wheel doesn’t end with its character overlay or its demotion. As we explored in Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure – Part II, Imagineers didn’t leave well enough alone. In 2018, Paradise Pier went under the knife a second time, re-emerging as Pixar Pier – a sort of strange mix of Victorian seaside architecture and blatantly mis-matched Pixar films. While most Disney fans see the whole project as a confused mess, the oddest bit has to be the Ferris wheel which still has a pie-eyed, 1930s Mickey Mouse on its face, but was officially renamed the Pixar Pal-a-Round.
9. Oceana
Image: Disney
Park: DisneySea California
Fate: Never built
The Story: In the early 1990s, Disney ran rampant with plans for its California property with WestCOT and Disney’s California Adventure. Another park, DisneySea was officially announced not for Anaheim, but for nearby Long Beach. DisneySea Park would be one element of a sort of second resort, Port Disney, planned for the area, incorporating the existing Queen Mary ship that Disney intended to purchase. DisneySea’s icon would be the impressive and unimaginable Oceana, an enormous central aquarium built at the center of this aquatic park.
Why It’s Not An Icon: Allegedly, Disney never really intended to built DisneySea – it was all a ploy to get to city of Anaheim to incentivize Disney to build there, instead. We may never know. Obviously a “DisneySea” did get built, but thousands of miles across the Pacific, and with little in common with Disney’s Californian plans.
10. Parisian Castle Replacements
Image: Disney
Park: Disneyland Paris
Fate: Never built
The Story: Castles have always been the central icon of Disneyland-style parks. If a Disney park includes Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and the rest of the classic lineup, you can bet that it has a castle at its center. But the construction of Disneyland Paris brought up a new issue: would a castle inspire and amaze in a country chocked full of them? The French (and the rest of the Europeans who would visit) see castles all the time, and on the whole, most real castles are much more elaborate than Disney’s forced-perspective palaces. Imagineers toyed with unique ideas for a Parisian icon, coming up with some strange ideas en route.
Why It’s Not An Icon: Obviously, Disneyland Paris ended up with Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. It’s a castle, but different than any of Disney’s, and certainly different than Europe’s real ones. With fantastical turrets, spiral staircases, elaborate windows, square hedges, gold trim, and a fanciful pink color, the castle is much more fairytale than any you’re likely to find in real life, making it suitable for a crowd used to castles in their own backyards.
