It’s very common for hit Disney movies and television shows to be turned into attractions, but the transition from an attraction to a movie or TV series comes along less often. People just recently ran a nice article about some examples of that. Among them are Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion and the upcoming science-fiction film Tomorrowland starring George Clooney. However, for many Disney theme park enthusiasts, the most important aspect of that transition isn’t the adaption itself but how it ends up affecting some of their favorite attractions. That could happen to new attractions as projects like the Tomorrowland movie are heading to us for sure and others, like the ABC television show Big Thunder previously believed dead, are still being considered for further development. This article takes a look at some of the changes you can expect when, not if, a new Disney park attraction gets adapted to the big or small screen.
1. The attractions get more popular.
If the adaption is a success, you can bet that the attraction will increase in popularity. The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, for example, was extremely in-demand at many of the parks after the the Johnny Depp-starring film franchise took off. The Pirates of the Caribbean films, particular the first one, are widely beloved, so chances are most people thought longer lines for the attraction were worth it for the hours of entertainment that reached the big screen. Still, though, the increased attendance of an attraction that was adapted into another medium is worth noting.
2. The attractions get changed in some pretty major ways.
The Walt Disney Company kept the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction mostly as-is for awhile, but in 2011, to promote The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, actor Ian McShane reprised his role from the movie as Blackbeard for an appearance in the attraction as part of a ghostly waterfall, marking a time when the attraction was altered in a fairly significant way to suit the then-new film.
3. The attractions get changed in more subtle ways.
Some of the changes to attractions aren’t nearly as significant as what I mentioned above. The best example of that is the relatively minor inclusion of a doll that some people believe is Sally Shine from the 1997 movie version of Tower of Terror in the Tower of Terror attraction. Others think that it’s Talky Tina from the Twilight Zone episode “Living Doll” and others still believe it’s just a plain old Shirley Temple doll. But I prefer to think that it’s a clever homage to the film that, though it had no real connection to The Twilight Zone, was an integral piece of the history of the Tower of Terror.
4. Extra elements are added beyond the attractions themselves.
This was mainly the case with Pirates of the Caribbean-related entertainment. Not limiting its presence to the attraction itself, the influence of The Pirates of the Caribbean reached beyond into the walk across the Disney parks and even into live shows. Captain Jack Sparrow and his companion Angelica, for example, are regularly available for photographs, as demonstrated by the picture above. The show Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial is based partly on the film series, showing Jack enlisting people interested in becoming pirates into his group. With his faithful crewman Mack, Jack Sparrow teaches the audience how to be a proper pirate. There’s also the Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland that includes caves and at one point had a stunt show featuring Jack.
5. The attractions aren’t necessarily safe.
You would think that if an adaption of an attraction has recently been released or if an adaptation is in the works, then that attraction would be ensured a continued presence at all the Disney parks. However, if you believe that, you would be wrong. It’s not common for an attraction being adapted to another medium to be shut down, but it’s not without precedent, either. Even though a family film musical called The Country Bears was arriving in less than a year, the attraction it was based on, The Country Bear Jamboree, was removed from the original Disneyland. It was removed to make room for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a more popular franchise despite no film as close to release as The Country Beats. That The Country Bear Jamboree was shut down in 2001 despite a 2002 feature film tells you that you have to appreciate all the Disney park attractions while you have them, because most won’t last forever.
6. It’s immortalized in a different way.
For the most part, the adaption of an attraction into a television show or movie isn’t going to turn something you loved into something you despise. The changes to the attractions themselves tend to be minor, and certainly nothing can take away your memories of the versions of the attraction you loved the most. However, once the attraction is adapted for some other medium the perceptions of it will definitely change. You might not be able to ride an attraction like The Pirate of the Caribbean without thinking about the four (at some point five) movies based on it. No matter how little the Imagineers tweak an attraction, those adaptions will likely be on your mind. That can be a positive or negative thing, depending on whether or not you enjoyed those movies. Good or bad, though, it is certainly different from the connection you had to the attraction previously.
It’s also important to note that sometimes, especially for younger people, the adaptions are the first things some come across. I’m sure plenty of children saw Curse of the Black Pearl and maybe the Pirates sequels and maybe even less popular films like The Haunted Mansion before getting to visit a Disney park for the first time. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a change from what many of us grew up with. But times change, and that new form of immortalization is probably the biggest impact an adaption has on the attraction it’s based off of.
