Earlier this year, we gave you a challenge: to see if you could recognize and identify 16 Iconic Ride Dialogue Lines We Bet You Know By Heart… and whaddaya know? You did! From unforgettable safety spiels to bilingual announcements; classic narration to beloved pre-shows, it turned out that lots of Imagineering super-fans have tried-and-true lines down pat.
Naturally, Theme Park Tourist readers took to social media to tag friends and family, relive favorite lines… and of course, suggest the ones we might’ve left out. That’s why we’re back with even more quotes you probably know from Disney and Universal attractions, and this time we won’t shy away from adding in a few timeless lines from closed, classic Lost Legends, either..
If you haven’t looked at the first half of this list of quotes, be sure to make the jump there, too. Our challenge today remains the same: read each of these lines in your head… Chances are, the words will expand off the screen and come to life in your mind, fully formed with accents, tone, and tempo intact! If so, let us know which of these quotes (or those from part one) are your favorite… and which we missed between the two!
1. “Remember how easy it was to learn your ABCs? Thank the Phoenicians — they invented them!”
Spaceship Earth is one of the few remnants of the original EPCOT Center – an ambitious, epic, educational journey through time to study the pavilion’s assigned area of industry: communication. Naturally, the story of human communication begins long, long ago, tracing our early Stone Age ancestors through the advent of pictographs and primitive writing.
For now, the epic journey through time and space is narrated by Dame Judi Dench (she’s the fourth in a series of narrators since the ride’s opening), who explains that it was the Phoenicians with their central role in global trade who developed a common alphabet that made communication easier. And that’s just the beginning of the ride’s larger-than-life narrative that continues on into the Internet age and beyond.
But will this famous line last into the future? Disney has confirmed that Spaceship Earth will soon undergo a massive, multi-year reimagining that’ll shift its main message from “communication” to the much more Disney-friendly “storytelling” (no doubt allowing characters to join the cast, even if only as cameos). That will certainly reshape many or most of the ride’s scenes, or at least repurpose them. Will the Phoenicians be remembered and thanked for their role in creating an alphabet that allows stories to be shared between cultures? We’ll find out…
2. “Do not pull down on the safety bar! I will lower it for you…”
Once more, we return to the rattling voice of the Ghost Host who inhabits the “delightfully unlivable” Haunted Mansion. Of course, the booming bass of Paul Frees gives life to the legendary narration written by Imagineering legend X Atencio. Our first list celebrated the Ghost Host’s quotable opening narration from the foyer to the Stretching Room (albeit, begging you not to recite it alongside him).
So here’s where we’ll lump together everything that happens after. After all, the disembodied voice of the omnipotent spectre follows guests’ Doom Buggies through the manor’s cobweb-filled corridors, and along the way, nearly every line feels legendary. In fact, each of the Ghost Host’s spoken lines could probably be its own entry here. But the hopes of being concise, let’s just group together everything from the eerie warning, “Do not pull down on the safety bar… I will lower it for you” to “Beware of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts!” As one entry and a testament to the writing and voice acting skills that bring the Haunted Mansion to life.
3. “Once we do that, you’ll be able to link to that avatar, and, uh, fly.”
Imagineers designed an entire original mythology to underscore Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, casting guests as eco-tourists visiting the verdant moon light years from Earth to learn from the customs and cuisine of the native Na’vi people. The ruins of the human-led military assault on the moon (the subject of the film Avatar) have been long-abandoned and repurposed by the ecological Pandora Conservation Initiative, offering us the rare opportunity to link with a lab-made Na’vi avatar and commune with the Ikran – the dragon-like banshee – to experience the wonder of the Na’vi’s rite of passage.
Pre-shows connect us to PCI staff member Dr. Stevens, who prepares us for the emotional and exhilarating experience of suddenly having our psyche transferred to a Na’vi, and that’s where the line is delivered. Once we’re all paired with an Avatar whose DNA complements our own, we’ll “link that avatar and, uh, fly.”
You never can tell what will make a recorded line take on a life of its own. For the pre-show experience leading to Flight of Passage in Pandora – The World of Avatar, it’s the simple stuttering of “uh” that took Disney Twitter by storm, inspiring fan-made merchandise and even an Instagram analysis by the project’s creative lead, Joe Rodhe. Put simply, the line shows that you can’t always script viral fan-favorite moments; sometimes, they just happen.
4. “Alright, say ‘Observatory’ on three. One, two, three!”
Our last list of quotable lines ended with Peter Pan’s Flight and its legendary provocation: “C’mon everybody, here we go!” It’s somewhat appropriate that one of the most perfectly classic dark rides on Earth is somehow echoed in the opening of one of this century’s finest, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
But to understand why it matters, you have to imagine the set-up. After all, the element of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey that’s most astounding may be its ride system. A series of “Enchanted Benches” glide effortlessly down a great, candlelit hall as guests board. But if you lean out and look down the row to the left, you’ll see as – one-by-one, guests flip onto their backs and disappear out of the line. It’s a strangely nerve wracking and inexplicable move made possible by the equally enigmatic ride system that even exiting guests have trouble explaining.
So as your turn to flip backward out of the line of benches draws nearer and nearer, the sudden arrival of Hermione’s voice is a comfort and a sign that there’s no turning back. Just like in Peter Pan’s Flight, her countdown and a quick dusting of floo powder sends you skyward, magically transporting you to Hogwarts’ open air Observatory where your tour can begin…
5. “Remain seated please… permanecer sentados por favor.”
You may not know Jack Wagner’s name, but you surely know his voice. The Los Angeles native and radio personality is often called “The Voice of Disneyland,” having recorded many of Disneyland’s in-park announcements and public address spiels. In fact, the Walt Disney Company paid to have a recording studio built in Wagner’s home so that he could record on the fly for last-minute changes to a park’s operating hours or weather-related closures.
The “Remain seated please…” announcement and its repetition in Spanish memorably plays as guests board the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, but it’s since become a staple of Disney Parks pop culture. For example, it’s prominently placed in the fan-favorite fireworks spectacular developed for Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary, “Remember… Dreams Come True,” sampled in the song “Tragic Kingdom” by Anaheim-founded rock band No Doubt, and spoofed by Barbie herself (voiced by Jodi Benson, voice of Ariel) in Toy Story 2.
In other words, like its Floridian Monorail sister line, the safety spiel has become a meme in its own right and adorns t-shirts, bumper stickers, pins, and more. And it’s all thanks to “The Voice of Disneyland” himself, Jack Wagner. (He’d go on to record possibly the most well-known quote at Walt Disney World… the monorail spiel that made the first part of this list).
6. “Stupid Judy. Stupid energy.”
The 1990s were a time of monumental changes at Epcot. As the big-budget sponsors of Future World pavilions found their contracts up for renewal, Disney decided to begin to shift the intellectual park in a new direction. One of the first examples was the Lost Legend: Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Re-using the basic ride components that had been present since 1982, the ride was reimagined to follow Ellen DeGeneres (star of the popular Ellen sitcom on ABC at the time Disney acquired ABC) through a dream in which she’s competing against know-it-all Judy (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) in a game of Jeopardy (cue Alex Trebek!) where all the questions revolve around energy.
Luckily, Ellen is visited in her dream by none other than Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” who brings her back to the Big Bang and then through the ride’s enormous primeval world dioramas – the place where today’s fossil fuels were formed.
Naturally, by the end of Bill Nye’s prehistoric lesson, Ellen comes to appreciate and understand energy, win Final Jeopardy, and live happily ever after. But even as the Guardians of the Galaxy move in for their Cosmic Rewind (coincidentally, also visiting the Big Bang), the hallowed halls of Epcot’s former Energy pavilion will always echo, “Stupid Judy. Stupid energy.”
7. “You are not the first to pass this way. Nor shall you be the last.”
Another closed EPCOT Center classic is the Lost Legend: Maelstrom, a downright trippy ride that propelled guests backward and forward through the history of Norway. On board, guests would sail through historic Norwegian fishing villages, through a troll-infested swamp with its magical inhabitants sending the boat backwards (“Disappear! Disappear!” “Over the falls!”) and splash down into the modern Baltic Sea beneath an oil rig in a lightning storm.
Whether you loved, hated, or didn’t care at all about EPCOT Center’s “first thrill ride,” Maelstrom’s story is a unique one, carefully balancing the needs of the sponsoring corporation, representatives of Norway, and the needs of Disney to create something… wonderfully weird. And it all began with an ascent through the darkness, into the magical eye of Odin delivering one of the most-remembered lines from any EPCOT Center classic.
8. “Not to see, your highness… to hear.”
When Michael Eisner was brought on to Disney in 1984, he stepped into a studio in triage mode. With the future of both Disney’s live action and animation studios in the balance, Eisner also needed to reverse decades of decline in the company’s theme parks. His solution there was a coup: to infuse Disney Parks with the kinds of characters, music, and pop culture that mattered to audiences of the time, he connected with filmmaker George Lucas and director Francis Ford Coppolla to direct a pop-infused musical showstopper that would instantly make Disneyland relevant again.
With global superstar Michael Jackson on board, the Lost Legend: Captain EO was born. The groundbreaking “4-D” show followed Jackson and a ragtag group of puppeted alien accomplices as they land on a dystopian, industrial planet bearing a gift for its hideous, mechanical queen (Anjelica Huston). The film shifts from a Star Wars space adventure into an extended music video for “We Are Here to Change the World,” with EO’s gift of song melting the planet’s darkness and restoring its true, Elysian form.
EO signaled a major pivot for Disney Parks, kicking off the “Ride the Movies” era. By time Jackson’s legacy became fraught with accusations about his personal conduct, the film was already nearing a decade old – a very, very long time for a media-based attraction; especially one predicated on the music, effects, and stars of its opening day. It re-opened temporarily after Jackson’s death as a “tribute,” but to this day fans beg for a digital release of the film just to relive the quirky musical space adventure in their own homes.
9. “Magic mirror, on the wall… with this disguise, I’ll fool them all!”
As a testament to just how memorable the line is, we bet you already knew that it transitions to the Witch’s raspy, high-pitched voice midway through! Now that’s iconic! Of course, Magic Kingdom fans will know this line as being part of the now-closed Lost Legend: Snow White’s Scary Adventures. But in Anaheim, Tokyo, and Paris, it’s still a startling introduction to a villanous Witch.
One of the simplest – but most effective – effects on any of Disney’s Fantasyland classics, guests’ initial run-in with the Wicked Witch in pursuit of Snow White is both fascinating and terrifying. Entering into the Queen’s cobblestone throne room, she stands before the mirror, with guests gazing at her reflection. But halfway through the threatening line, the queen spins toward guests, revealing she’s transformed into the haggard old Witch.
Naturally, the effect itself is relatively simple (achieved by having two very separate figures and a faux “mirror” between them) but the moment is eye-catching and sensational. At Disneyland, it was also one of the first ever scenes to be accentuated by then-cutting edge texture-mapped projection technology, with the color draining from the room as the witch “transforms.”
10. “Right pilot… make the jump to lightspeed.”
It’s the line you’ve probably been waiting for your whole life… your chance to sit behind the controls and “punch it,” taking the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy to lightspeed. That makes this the coolest day of your life… well… if you’re the right pilot, at least.
Okay, so reaction to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has admittedly been mixed, with some fans disliking its game engine elements and its reliance on your crew mates (often total strangers) to provide your desired experience.
And sure, maybe it would be a bit more gratifying to have the call to action spoken by Han or Rey rather than the relatively unknown Hondo Ohnaka… You might even think it would’ve been more fun to simply enjoy a trip across Batuu on the Falcon rather than needing to mash buttons and score “coaxium.” But even if your trip behind the Falcon’s controls isn’t everything you ever hoped, the lucky pilots get to live out a heck of a daydream.
11. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…”
“Disneyland proudly presents / our spectacular festival pageant of nighttime magic and imagination / in thousands of sparkling lights / and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sounds / The Main Street Electrical Parade!”
The musical, magical Main Street Electrical Parade is a (very) long-running favorite for Disney Parks fans, famously illuminating the streets of Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Disney California Adventure, and Disneyland Paris. Flickering on and off again, the parade’s debut nearly fifty years ago has seen “encore” runnings and “glowing away forever” promises turn out to be empty. But there’s a reason. Even though newer and better nighttime parades have come (like Disneyland’s Paint the Night), the ultra-classic Electrical Parade is an eternal fan favorite.
As for that iconic, electronic introductory line spoken through synthesizer and over the instantly-memorable “Baroque Hoedown”? That, too, is reportedly the voice of Jack Wagner, “The Voice of Disneyland.”
12. “You’re not gonna make it! You’re not gonna make it!”
The story of DINOSAUR is one of the more interesting tales we’ve told in our Legend Library, if only because we’re not entirely sure how to classify it… After all, it’s technically a modified version of an opening day ride (the Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction) with piecemeal changes through the ‘90s and early 2000s in an attempt to figure out the best way to narrate this dark, loud, scary prehistoric off-roading adventure.
In both versions of the attraction, the action is co-narrated by Dr. Seeker (the scientist who’s sent us on this “unauthorized field trip”) and the computer of the CTX Time Rover vehicle. But in bits and pieces, the dialogue has been rewritten and rerecorded such that practically none of the narration from the ride’s 1998 opening remains. Story writers have clearly struggled to make the narration helpful, but not intrusive; fun, but not annoying; thrilling, but not scary.
We listed this narration among our Bad Voiceover Work in Disney Parks because the narration is part of what makes DINOSAUR feel uneven and half-baked. Even still, anyone who’s ridden today will remember the over-dramatic cry of Dr. Seeker’s “You’re not gonna make it! You’re not gonna make it!” before the Time Rover dips into the Time Tunnel and lands back on its four wheels in the present. “You made it! I knew you would!”
13. “How brave… but ultimately hopeless.”
“There’s nowhere to run!” Ask those lucky enough to have secured a Boarding Group for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and you’ll hear that this new trackless attraction may very well be the best modern dark ride on Earth. Among its most astounding moments are two face-to-face encounters with Kylo Ren, the conflicted villain of Disney’s sequel trilogy, and would-be protege to Darth Vader himself.
If you didn’t know, the events of Rise of the Resistance that guests get wrapped up in are indeed “canon” (and in fact, have tremendous effect on the events of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker). That particularly includes riders’ first run-in with Ren, when the masked Supreme Leader of the First Order seems to Force-sense an ambush by the Resistance, then recognizes the presence of the Resistance captures (that’s us) on the Star Destroyer’s bridge.
A First Order trooper cries out, “Sir, the prisoners have escaped,” causing Ren to speak the line above, turning to knowingly face riders halfway through. It’s a chills-inducing moment as the hyper-realistic Audio-Animatronics figure threatens guests before taking off after them deeper in the Star Destroyer.
14. “Lightspeed to Endor!”
Yet a third Star Wars attraction to make this list, the original version of the Lost Legend: STAR TOURS positioned riders as tourists hopping into the coach seating of an interstellar flight service to the forest moon, Endor. As “luck” would have it, guests were paired with a would-be StarSpeeder pilot (and beloved character created just for Disney Parks), Captain Rex, voiced by Paul Reubens of Pee-Wee Herman fame. Just to set the tone for what’s about to come, the in-cab Audio-Animatronic would announce to riders: “I know this is probably your first flight and it’s mine too! Ha ha!” Oh boy…
And of course, anything that could go wrong did go wrong on the “direct” flight to Endor, eventually leading to guests being caught in a firefight between the Rebels and the Empire, culminating in a recreation of the fabled “trench run” on the surface of the Death Star (“Okay, I’ve always wanted to do this! We’re goin’ in!”)
Of course, by the end of the adventure, guests were safe and sound (albeit, not on Endor), with Captain Rex closing out the flight with perhaps his most famous line yet: “Sorry, folks! I’m sure I’ll do better next time. And I’m still getting used to my programming!” Though STAR TOURS has been upgraded across the globe kicking Rex out of the cockpit, he still makes two well-known “Easter egg” appearances in Disney Parks… if you know where to look!
15. “Connecting to… OnStar.”
When the Lost Legend: Test Track initially opened in 1999, the ride was a major diversion from what Epcot’s Future World had meant. Unlike its pavilion peers (and its predecessor, the Lost Legend: World of Motion) the ride did away with grand messaging about humanity’s relationship with innovation and science. Instead, it placed guests in the roles of “crash test dummies” aboard vehicles put through the paces in an industrial warehouse.
For better or worse, the ride was redesigned in 2012 to shift its focus to the engineering design process, reimagining its look and feel as a digital, TRON-style landscape and guests as riders aboard their own custom cars being put through a simulation. Now testing capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power, the interactive experience is beautifully presented… and comes with at least one iconic line. Oddly, it’s… well… an embedded advertisement.
Yes, as guests begin their journey into the digital world, a screen shows a satellite view of earth, zooming closer and closer until it centers on the Test Track ride building, “locking in” coordinates as a pleasant computerized voice states: “Connecting to… OnStar.” OnStar is a subsidiary of General Motors (the ride’s sponsor) selling subscription-based in-vehicle security and emergency services, as well as turn-by-turn navigation and remote diagnostics. In other words, having OnStar equipped as our road-ready guardian means we’re all set to go… and oddly, acts as one of the ride’s most imitable lines… and a fairly straightforward ad very much in the spirit of the original EPCOT Center!
16. “Ladies and gentlemen, the eighth wonder of the world… the backside of water!”
Jungle Cruise is as classic as a Disney Parks attraction can be. Originating alongside Disneyland in 1955, Jungle Cruise was truly the world’s first E-Ticket (though it didn’t earn that official designation until the E-Ticket came along four years later)! It was also one of the first attractions to benefit from Walt’s concept of “plussing” – encouraging his designers to return to already-operating rides to refine, expand, or reimagine them to keep them fresh.
That’s why, soon after opening, animator and designer Marc Davis was famously brought in to expand the ride with new scenes and classic gags we know today, like the Elephant Bathing Pool, the Trapped Safari, and more. That’s also when the ride’s mood began to shift from its once-serious beginnings into the laugh-out-loud, self-referential journey we know today. And voila, the “backside of water” was born.
Of course, any Disney Parks fan will tell you there are innumerable jungle jokes tossed around between generations and generations of Jungle Cruise skippers, and pretty much any Imagineering aficionado will have their favorites… I mean, who can forget the wonder of Schweitzer Falls and its namesake, Doctor Albert Falls? Once in a while, Jungle Cruise jokes come so quickly, you can barely keep up.
Quotable quotes
And that’s the beauty of all of these memorable Disney Parks lines… you have to pay attention… and you just never know what lines may be making an impression on you… If you haven’t, this is your chance to make the jump to our initial listing of 16 Quotes We Bet You Know by Heart. Together, these two lists still don’t cover even a fraction of the lines fans love…
