Nostalgia is a force more powerful than gravity. If you ask just about anyone on Earth, movies, music, television shows, video games – and yes, Disney Parks – used to be so much better. At this point, it’s really no surprise that each generation is practically repulsed by the media of the next; that our rosy hindsight leaves us sad and sorry for those who grow up without knowing the pop culture milestones that meant so much to us. Basically, everyone on Earth thinks the stories of their own childhood are just objectively the best.
Millennials, though, are probably right. After all, in the 1990s, Walt Disney Animation did the unthinkable: it returned animation to the zeitgeist. After decades of declining returns and meh-movies that threatened to literally bankrupt Walt Disney Productions, 1989’s The Little Mermaid was not just a return to form, but a return to formula. Not since Sleeping Beauty thirty years earlier had Disney tapped so beautifully into a timeless, romantic, artistic retelling of a fairytale. And Ariel was only the start.
From The Little Mermaid on, Disney could do no wrong. With hit after hit after hit at the box office, Disney’s fairy tale reinvention had breathed new life into a sagging studio and an almost-abandoned artform. As fans of animation know well, Mermaid and the films that followed were retroactively regrouped into their own era –The Disney Renaissance. Despite having no narrative connections (and barely any marketing ones), these consecutive films look, sound, and feel like a cohesive collection; without a doubt, a modern pinnacle not matched since.
Yet for the billions (yes, billions) of dollars earned by films at the box office, the tens of billions in merchandise, and the $50 billion Princess franchise spurred by the Disney Renaissance, it took decades for these generation-defining films to ever make their way into Disney Parks in the form of permanent, headlining, anchor rides… for the ones that did at all.
Why? Frankly, The Walt Disney Company really ought to be called The Walt Disney Companies. Even as Walt Disney Animation experienced an unprecedented rebirth, refreshing the studios’ portfolio with characters that shaped a generation, Walt Disney Parks were floundering. With the dismal opening of Disneyland Paris sapping the company’s cash, the rise of the Renaissance overlapped with the decline of the Disney Parks, leaving a massive gap that’s only now being filled! Today, let’s take a look at each film of the Disney Renaissance to see how it has (or, in most cases, hasn’t) been brought to life in Disney Parks through rides and permanent attractions.
1. The Little Mermaid (1989)
Box office: $233 million
First anchor attraction: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (2011 – 22 years after release)
On one hand, The Little Mermaid is almost shockingly pervasive in Disney Parks. From parades to meet-and-greets to fireworks, it’s rare for a nighttime spectacular at Disney Parks to go its twenty-minute runtime without a rendition of “Part of Your World” or “Under the Sea.” From SpectroMagic to World of Color; Fantasmic to Paint the Night, Ariel and company are practically as present in Disney Parks as Elsa and Anna… and that’s saying something.
That said, The Little Mermaid was a revolution. The film literally saved Disney animation and kicked off the Disney Renaissance as we know it. Ariel cleared the way for every modern Disney Princess to come, introducing lavish, romantic, Broadway-caliber musical magic (thanks Howard Ashman and Alan Menken!) back into the popular lexicon and restarting Disney’s production of cross-generational, timeless fairytale films. And given all that, permanent, big-budget allusions to The Little Mermaid have been… well… surprisingly rare.
Sure, in 1992, Ariel made her requisite debut at the still-new Disney-MGM Studios by way of Voyage of the Little Mermaid, a 16-minute book report retelling of the tale quickly assembled to meet demand for the character (and never meant to be permanent… fast-forward to thirty years later…). In 1996, both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom added quasi-permanent Ariel’s Grotto meet-and-greet locations (in the latter, a very anticlimactic reuse of the Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues). Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001 with an entire Mermaid Lagoon land dedicated to the character – finally, a permanent attraction! – but even then, it’s populated primarily by aquatic carnival rides without a true anchor attraction.
If you think that such a surprisingly sporadic presence for a generation-defining film seems to hint at never-built projects, you’d be right. Given the film’s blockbuster success aligned with production on Disneyland Paris, a custom-made Mermaid dark ride was initially planned as an expansion for the park’s Fantasyland (allegedly planned for duplication in Orlando and Tokyo, too). Disney’s 2006 DVD release of the film even included a full ride-through concept of the would-be attraction. But Paris’ disappointing debut stalled the project… and pretty much everything else planned in the ’90s.
By time a true dark ride experience themed to The Little Mermaid returned, it was as The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure – one of the anchors of Disney California Adventure’s rebirth, later duplicated at Magic Kingdom, taking the forms of a 1910s bayside aquarium and Prince Eric’s Castle, respectively. The resulting dark ride is a fun aside, but even Mermaid fans find issue with the highly condensed and somewhat passive retelling, which feels more like a ride-through singalong than a true dark ride to stand among Fantasyland’s greats.
2. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Box office: $440 million
First anchor attraction: Enchanted Tales With Belle (2012 – 21 years after release)
If The Little Mermaid restarted Disney Animation, then Beauty and the Beast arguably perfected it. The legendary 1991 film saw songwriter and composer Ashman and Menken reunite. The resulting film is, in a word, spectacular. Beauty and the Beast is often considered among the greatest animated films of all time (and sometimes, one of the greatest films ever, priod). Memorably, it was the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Preserved in the Library of Congress, it is an enchanting, evergreen, essential, and enduring icon of filmmaking.
And in Disney Parks? Like The Little Mermaid, you can’t avoid the film’s award-winning songs – particularly “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” – that permeate every nighttime spectacular, but permanent attractions dedicated to the film have been astounding few and surprisingly far between.
Like Ariel, Belle was quickly elevated into a favorite character for parades and shows, including Magic Kingdom’s Storytime with Belle – a somewhat informal mini-show presented in the small amphitheater near Cinderella Castle. Belle got her own “temporary” show at the Disney-MGM Studios (where, predictably Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage still plays [pending COVID], largely unchanged since it debuted the same day as the film – November 22, 1991). For two decades, Disney’s only sizable in-Park presence for their most esteemed animated film was in “temporary” shows with multi-decade runs.
When Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland was reimagined in 2012 in the wake of the Wizarding World and the birth of the “living lands” era, the new immersive area featured not just the aforementioned Little Mermaid dark ride, but an entire sub-section dedicated to Beauty and the Beast.
While Gaston’s Tavern and the picturesque recreation of Belle’s provincial French town are impressive, the area’s two attractions are the must-see, hot-ticket Be Our Guest Restaurant and Enchanted Tales with Belle, a “play-and-greet” that combines elements of a walkthrough, a show, and a character greeting.
In 2017, Disney’s live action remake of the 1991 classic inspired a whole new era of Imagineering interest in the story. In its wake, Disney announced that Epcot’s France pavilion and its long-running Impressions de France film would be joined by intermittent showings of Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along. When it finally debuted in January 2020, it didn’t feature footage from the live action film, though. Instead, the curious attraction added new animated footage (from the original film team) that has all the narrative quality of a direct-to-video “midquel,” suggesting Gaston’s sidekick LeFou was secretly acting to get Belle and the Beast together. It’s a pretty bad attraction made all the worse by the fact that, two months after its debut, the COVID-19 pandemic made singing together in a small theater pretty passé. It seemed to be a new low.
How was it possible that Disney’s most ride-through-able story ever didn’t have a dark ride?!
That changed when Tokyo Disneyland launched its own New Fantasyland, with the project solely dedicated to Beauty and the Beast! Like in Orlando, the land takes the shape of Belle’s village and the forests beyond. But in Japan, the land’s undisputed anchor is Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast. Utilizing Disney’s now-standard-but-still-starring trackless dark ride technology, the ride’s ultra-sophisticated Audio-Animatronics made viral rounds on the Internet from the second they were previewed in Imagineering footage. The end result, though, has gotten decidedly mixed reviews – a subject we tapped into in our own mini-analysis of the entirely new genre of dark ride that Tokyo Disneyland created.
For both The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, it took nearly thirty years until each recieved the headlining anchor ride it deserved… And given that each of the next two movies of the Disney Renaissance made as much money as the first two combined, you might expect their presence in the parks to be bigger… If so, you’re about to be surprised.
3. Aladdin (1992)
Box office: $504 million
First anchor attraction: Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular (2003 – 21 years after release)
It would be difficult for any film to match Beauty and the Beast. Smartly, Aladdin was content being its own thing, and was rewarded with an even bigger box office. It’s a testament to the smarts of directors John Musker and Ron Clements (reunited from Mermaid) as well as composer Alan Menken and lyricists Tim Rice (stepping in for Howard Ashman, who passed away during the production of Beauty) that Aladdin diverts heavily from the former two Renaissance titles. Eschewing strictly European fairy tales for an adaption of an Arabic tale from One Thousand and One Nights, the film was developed as a stylized buddy comedy built around the Genie, played by the incomparable Robin Williams.
As for its presence in the parks… you guessed it: mostly entertainment. Like Mermaid and Beauty, the biggest presence for Aladdin in the parks is almost inarguably by way of “Friend Like Me” and “A Whole New World,” which are practically prerequisites for parades, fireworks, and nighttime shows. Otherwise? Well…
Debuting the very year that Disneyland Paris opened, a whole sub-section of the French park’s Adventureland is stylized as a Middle Eastern bazaar. But even then, the only direct allusion to Aladdin is Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin, a walkthrough of stylized dioramas depicting the film’s key scenes.
Aladdin has also earned a theme park stage show. But unlike the “temporary” Mermaid and Beauty shows in Orlando, Disney California Adventure’s Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular was a true showstopper. Bucking the trend of 20-minute theme park fare, the show was a full 45-minute artistic stage retelling that packed the house at every single showing of its 13-year run thanks in part to its unscripted Genie, who riffed on pop culture and stole the show. It was closed in 2013 in favor of a more strictly word-for-word retelling of Frozen.
If you think Aladdin’s legendary magic carpet ride would make a perfect Disney Parks attraction, the good news is that Imagineers are one step ahead of you! The bad news is, they’ve come in the form of three lightly-dressed, Dumbo-style carnival spinners: The Magic Carpets of Aladdin in Magic Kingdom (2001), the embarrassingly barren Magic Carpets Over Agrabah in Paris’ Walt Disney Studios Park (one of just three rides there at the park’s opening), and the beautifully-decorated Jasmine’s Flying Carpets at Tokyo DisneySea.
The latter, at least, is part of DisneySea’s Arabian Coast – an agonizingly beautiful land that kinda sorta alludes to Aladdin, but (like the rest of the park) feels like a real, habitable place rather than a direct recreation of the movie’s fictional Agrabah. Arabian Coast does contain The Magic Lamp Theater – an original 3D film starring the Genie. It also, coincidentally, offers the not-Aladdin-related Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage which features a theme song written by… Alan Menken!
Oddly, Aladdin has more physical rides dedicated to it than Mermaid and Beauty combined, even if they’re not exactly anchor attractions. Still, it’s wild to think that Disney still doesn’t have a dark ride themed to Aladdin when a Peter Pan’s Flight style tour over miniature wonders of the world seems so obvious. Perhaps Disney’s reclamation of Epcot’s Morocco from the sponsoring country will invite a bit of an animated change to the pavilion… We’ll see!
4. The Lion King (1994)
Box office: $968 million
First anchor attraction: Festival of the Lion King (1998 – 5 years after release)
While Beauty and the Beast may have been an early creative crescendo for the Disney Renaissance, there’s no denying that financially, The Lion King was its pinnacle. While not explicitly based on a fairy tale, The Lion King famously reads like a retelling of Shakespear’s Hamlet with elements of the Biblical stories of Moses thrown in for good measure… and y’know… lions. While it may have seemed like a massive divergence from the fairy tale formula, The Lion King earned nearly a billion dollars, by far the highest grossing animated film of all time at the time (and remains so until exactly two decades later…)
In the parks? Yep, first and foremost, it’s got to be the score – this time composed by singer-songwriter Elton John. “Circle of Life,” “Hakuna Matata,” “Just Can’t Wait To Be King,” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” must rank among the most-sung songs in Disney shows. The Lion King was made for entertainment, and like the rest of the Renaissance classics, that’s where it shines. Disneyland’s The Lion King Celebration parade stepped off in 1994 with massive “Puppetronics” figures.
Shortly thereafter, in 1995 Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa made their way into Epcot’s The Land pavilion (one of the first character infusions into the park’s Future World). Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable largely re-used footage from the pavilion’s former film, “Symbiosis,” but softened the environmental messaging with an animated frame story… and of course, a performance of “Circle of Life.” (It played for a jaw-dropping 23 years, ending only in 2018.)
Meanwhile, Magic Kingdom opened Legend of the Lion King, a mostly-puppeted stage show located in the Fantasyland Theater. It lasted until 2002, meaning it actually overlapped with a much more well known stage-show based on the film just a few miles away: 1998’s Festival of the Lion King at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (which was itself intended to be temporary). Animal Kingdom’s show actually reuses Disneyland’s parade floats and adapts the film’s songs into a high energy, celebrational, acrobatic, singalong experience based on the costumes and styles of traditional African dress and Swahili tradition. Oddly, Animal Kingdom park is surprisingly short on outright references to The Lion King outside of the stage show, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and the short-lived Rivers of Light: We Are One character-infused variation of the park’s nighttime show.
The Lion King was the highest grossing animated film of all time when it was released in 1994. And exactly 25 years later, it regained the crown… Kind of. 2019’s “live action” remake of the film technically isn’t live action at all; it’s entirely CGI. Photorealistic, but CGI nonetheless. With that in mind, its own remake stands as the highest grossing animated film of all time with a $1.7 billion gross of its own. While the remake inspired lots of temporary promotional entertainment offerings in Disney Parks, so far there doesn’t seem to be any indication that this film – the pinnacle of the Renaissance – is on its way to a full fledged dark ride.
Yet even without a true anchor ride, The Lion King has fared better than all five of the next Renaissance films combined… Read on…
5. Pocahontas (1995)
Box office: $346 million
First anchor attraction: N/A
The Lion King had been Disney’s biggest hit yet. But no one had been more surprised by its success than Disney executives. As a matter of fact, The Lion King was practically a side project compared to the real golden goose: Pocahontas. Having seen the Academy Award slip through their fingers with Beauty, CEO Michael Eisner and studio head Jeffrey Katzenburg famously funneled all of their best animators into Pocahontas. Both were determined to produce an epic, romantic film that would be taken seriously – older protagonists, no talking animals, and no fairy tale endings.
As it happens, Pocahontas wasn’t the hit Disney had hoped. Critics picked up on the film’s “lack of fun,” and film critic Roger Ebert famously said “on a list including Mermaid, Beauty, Aladdin and Lion King, I’d rank it fifth. It has a lot of good intentions, but a severe scoundrel shortage.” In other words, Disney’s blatant attempt to prove their own artistry ended up creating a film that – for most people – doesn’t really resonate until adulthood.
Like the rest of the Renaissance films, Pocahontas is more frequently featured in song than in person or ride, but even “Colors of the Wind” is used much more sparingly than “Under the Sea,” “Be Our Guest,” “Friend Like Me,” or “Circle of Life.” Pocahontas makes appearances in a handful of “montage” shows like Mickey and the Magical Map and Disney World’s Fantasmic, but rarely as a standalone starring film.
When Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, Pocahontas starred in a “temporary” show: Pocahontas And Her Forest Friends – a thinly veiled “animal encounter” show typical of most zoos. It was a quick and inexpensive project meant to only briefly occupy the land that would eventually become the Possibilityland: Beastly Kingdom. Ultimately, it lasted almost two decades before the land was used for Pandora: The World of Avatar.
Pocahontas might’ve been a perfect Blue Sky story for a Disneyland Paris reimagining of Splash Mountain. But y’know how that went. Instead, Disneyland Paris’ Frontierland includes the Pocahontas Indian Village – a small playground of climbing nets, tepees, and canoe-shaped slides (which, curiously, was renamed “Frontierland Playground” on signage in 2020 so… maybe never mind).
With its self-serious, heavy subject matter, Pocahontas hasn’t permeated pop culture or Disney Parks quite like the four films that came before. In truth, the movie would probably never get made today to begin with given the weight of depicting native peoples and the story of British colonials alone. So even if “Colors of the Wind” is a tear-jerker in nighttime spectaculars, maybe it’s understandable that Pocahontas hasn’t found its way to a permanent Parks attraction.
6. Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Box office: $325 million
First anchor attraction: N/A
As you might imagine from Disney’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel about a disfigured baby abandoned by his family and raised as the reclusive bell ringer of Paris’ Notre Damn cathedral in the 1400s, Hunchback is… heavy. Moreso than ever before, executives seemed intent on showing that animation is a style of filmmaking, not a genre that’s inextricably tied to kids. The dark film infamously examines topics like damnation, lust, disfiguration, bigotry, genocide, and sin. Meaning, frankly, it’s a stretch to imagine kids even enjoying it! The concept of Hunchback is such a hard sell, it’s sometimes difficult to believe Disney ever greenlit the movie to begin with.
In some ways, of course, the experiment worked. Hunchback was well received critically and commercially. Some critics called it the best Disney film since Beauty and the Beast, and it certainly doubled down on the Renaissance’s insistence that Disney films aren’t just for kids, but true, meaningful, emotional entertainment for the whole family.
At the Disney-MGM Studios, The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure played in the park’s Backlot Theater from 1996 to 2002. Disneyland offered The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival of Fools, which played in the outdoor stage of the park’s Big Thunder Ranch from 1996 to 1998 (replacing “The Spirit of Pocahontas” at both parks). Otherwise, Hunchback never made much of a permanent impact on Disney Parks…
7. Hercules (1997)
Box office: $250 million
First anchor attraction: N/A
More a cousin to Aladdin than Hunchback (and not coincidentally, reuniting Directors John Clements and Ron Musker for a third go after Mermaid and Aladdin), Hercules once more returned Disney to its more fairy tale adaptation roots, albeit by way of the Greek myth of Hercules. With a soundtrack comprised of gospel, R&B, and Broadway, Hercules was decidedly more modern (and perhaps the closest the Disney Renaissance got to the fourth-wall-breaking films of Dreamworks that would follow). Hercules received mostly positive reviews for its spiritual similarities to the duo’s earlier hit, Aladdin, and particularly James Woods’ role as Hades (which Roger Ebert compared positively to Robin Williams’ Genie).
But analysts at the time noted that Hercules’ push to emphasize that it wasn’t a downer like the two most recent Disney films had accidentally over-emphasized the film’s lack of depth. In short, it failed to make a case for itself to teens and adults – perhaps the first film of the Renaissance to not overtly appeal to both kids and their parents. Hercules underperformed at the box office, earning just $250 million worldwide – the lowest gross of the Disney Renaissance. It signaled that the studios’ Second Golden Age may be coming to an end, and with Pixar on the rise and competitors in computer animation coming up to bat, Hercules also seemed to hint that traditional animation may not be the end-all-be-all of the industry. When Disney executive Dick Cook admitted that “more competition” might’ve been a reason for the disappointing return, the entire company’s stock slipped 9.7%.
Like the rest of the Renaissance films, Hercules had its own, dedicated parade. But otherwise, nada. Hercules is probably more highly regarded today than it was at the time of its release, but did it reach the heights of Mermaid, Beauty, Aladdin, or Lion King? For most Disney fans, probably not. And given the financial state of Disney Parks at the time, it’s not surprising that there are no permanent Hercules attractions to speak of.
8. Mulan (1998)
Box office: $304 million
First anchor attraction: N/A
Like Hercules, Mulan continued the clever ‘90s conceit of expanding Disney’s “fairy tale” retellings by looking outside of traditional European princesses. In this case, the film is a loose adaptation of The Ballad of Hua Mulan – a legendary figure first recorded in folk songs over two thousand years old. (It was also, by the way, the first Walt Disney Animation feature to be produced primarily at the Disney-MGM Studios – a sight seen by guests along the Declassified Disaster: The Backstage Studio Tour).
Mulan was another sizable success for Disney, bringing in over $300 million worldwide – which means it outperformed Hunchback and Hercules, but failed to reach the heights of the first half of the Renaissance. (Despite Disney’s hopes, it had only a limited release in China.)
It’s easy to describe Mulan’s noteworthy, permanent presence in Disney Parks: none. The character does receive a vignette along Shanghai Disneyland’s Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, but that’s like saying zebras are well-represented in Disney Parks because they can be seen along the Jungle Cruise. 2020’s live-action remake of the film might’ve presented an opportunity to inject more of Mulan – particularly in Shanghai Disneyland or Epcot’s China – but the film’s unusual release amid COVID-19 and the ensuing shut-down of park projects makes that incredibly unlikely.
9. Tarzan (1999)
Box office: $450 million
First anchor attraction: N/A
It’s probably fairest to consider Tarzan a transitionary film. Eschewing with fairy tale adaptations, the film was instead based on the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And unlike its Renaissance predecessors, Tarzan mostly did away with Broadway-style song-and-dance and romance, instead featuring a rock-influenced score and soundtrack by noted musician Phil Collins. About the only thing Tarzan really has in common with the other films of the Disney Renaissance was its success – the film earned an impressive $450 million at the box office, performing better than any Renaissance film since The Lion King. Still, a Washington Post reporter famously quipped, “[Tarzan] isn’t up there with Aladdin, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, but it’s easily above the riffraff ranks of Hercules and Pocahontas”.
Beginning in 1999, Disney’s Animal Kingdom offered Tarzan Rocks! in its open air Theater in the Wild. The high energy show featured the film’s Phil Collins soundtrack and acrobatics, roller skating, and swinging stunt work. The show closed in 2006 so that the theater could be enclosed and redesigned for its current inhabitant, “Finding Nemo – The Musical.”
Across Disney Parks, there’s only one attraction dedicated to the film. In 1999, a wrecking ball was practically en route to Disneyland’s Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse until Imagineers convinced the park’s leadership that a synergistic tie in could save the opening day classic. Tarzan’s Treehouse was born. When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, it had a ready-made Tarzan’s Treehouse of its own. Otherwise, Disney’s swinging 1999 film didn’t leave too much of a footprint in pop culture or in Disney Parks.
If you would count Tarzan as part of the Disney Renaissance, you’d certainly recognize it as the end.
End of an era
For a full decade, no one could beat Disney Animation. But beginning after Tarzan, there was no question that the Disney Renaissance had run its course. While Tarzan might’ve snuck in under the wire, no one would confuse Dinosaur (2000), The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), Home on the Range (2004), or Chicken Little (2005) of being spun from the same yarn as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, or The Lion King.
Times had officially changed. Computer animation was eclipsing Disney’s hand-drawn classics as Pixar became an unlikely frontfronner at the box office. Many of Disney’s tried-and-true Renaissance leaders (including executive Jeffrey Katzenburg) left the company through the late ’90s to pursue passion projects… or establish competing studios. Facing the likes of Shrek, Disney arguably ended its reign in the worst of all positions: imitating the competition. An era of direct-to-video sequels and low-brow humor with top-40 soundtracks became the norm.
It wasn’t until another revolutionary period – “The Disney Revival” – that the company got its groove back by way of Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Big Hero 6, Frozen, and Moana. The modern Revival period (which, with any luck, we haven’t even reached the middle of) has ushered in a whole new era of steady and spectacular adaptations of fairytales, legends, and myths. And at least so far, Disney’s been just as patient in including those new-age favorites into its parks… In another two decades, will we look back in surprise at just how long it took to turn those 21st century hits into E-Tickets? Maybe we’ll see you back here in twenty years to find out…
