If time travel were easy, everyone would do it. Instead, we’re left dreaming of stumbling upon a TARDIS the next time we’re in England. Of course, a place in Orlando is home to a time machine, too, and you don’t have to be from Gallifrey to ride it. I’m speaking of the CTX Time Rover, the vehicle at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that will transport you into the past. To ride it, you’ll have to head over to DinoLand U.S.A and get in line for its finest attraction, DINOSAUR. Let’s go Behind the Ride to learn the inner workings of DINOSAUR.
The Experience: Building an amazing ride from a clunker of a movie
The Trick: Ignoring the movie and simply emphasizing the amazing
Image: DisneyOne of the dirty secrets of DINOSAUR is that it’s the second dinosaur attraction hosted in its building. When Disney’s Animal Kingdom debuted in 1998, it featured a dinosaur ride called Countdown to Extinction. Several of the ideas and innovations discussed here are applicable to both iterations of the attraction, although I’ll specify some key differences along the way.
The most important fact about the change from Countdown to Extinction to DINOSAUR is that then-CEO Michael Eisner loved synergy. When he saw a novel way to market an upcoming Disney animated movie, he embraced the concept. That marketing ploy was the conversion of a still new ride into one simply called DINOSAUR.
Image: DisneyThe changes that park planners performed were largely cosmetic and family-driven. The original version, Countdown to Extinction, intensified the journey through time. The ride carts jostled theme park tourists, providing them with a better feel for the rough terrain of the era. Since Dinosaur the movie was (theoretically) aimed at children, they calmed the ride carts to make them more appropriate for kids.
Disney didn’t create any direct ties to the movie. And the explanation here is quite funny. While Eisner wanted a connection between the film and the attraction, he didn’t want to spend extra money for such changes. This odd choice proved fortuitous for Disney, as Dinosaur the film was a total bust. DINOSAUR the attraction’s lack of a distinct tie-in has allowed it to age gracefully. Otherwise, children would still be asking their parents, “What’s the Dinosaur movie?” And those poor parents might feel obliged to watch it.
Image: DisneyThe closest thing to a link from film to attraction is in a name. Dinosaur the movie tells the story of an abandoned Iguanodon named Aladar. In the second version of the ride, the mission is to save an Iguanodon from extinction. Disney’s indicated in various news articles that the dinosaur in question IS Aladar, but that’s not even explicitly spelled out at any point in the ride. This fact alone tells you how much confidence Eisner and his team had in Dinosaur’s theatrical release, which is to say none.
This is the part of the DINOSAUR conversion that fascinates me. Money was especially tight in the wake of Animal Kingdom’s opening. Dinosaur the movie was viewed as the most expensive production ever or, at best, 1A to Titanic. Eisner had to drop plans for Beastly Kingdom. If Countdown to Extinction hadn’t existed already, there wouldn’t be a DINOSAUR today. Eisner never would have expended the requisite funds to start a dinosaur attraction from scratch. We should all be thankful to that dud of a movie for (indirectly) leading to the best version of this attraction.
The Experience: Recreating the inhabitants of the Cretaceous era
The Trick: Populating an entire building full of believable dinosaurs
Image: DisneyWhen Disney Imagineers planned this attraction, they stressed the importance of authenticity. It’s a recurring aspect of Disney theming, but DINOSAUR caused particular problems. Dinosaurs are, you know, freakin’ huge. Park space at Disney theme parks is limited. Even Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the largest of the four gates at Walt Disney World, has space issues.
Imagineers had to think about the roof and the floor when they recreated the Cretaceous era. Sure, they wanted the dinosaurs to have the correct dimensions. Builders had to maintain the structural integrity of the facility, though. To construct dinosaurs of the appropriate height and weight, Disney had to build some of these gigantic beasts straight into the floor of building. Some of these Audio-Animatronics (AAs) are so massive that they have their own foundations inside the facility.
Image: DisneyPerhaps the most famous of the creatures is Dino-Sue. She sits in the exterior courtyard of DINOSAUR, welcoming guests while setting the tone for the attraction. Dino-Sue is Disney’s lovingly crafted duplicate of FMNH PR 2081 aka Sue, the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered on an archeological dig.
Throughout the ride, you’ll see other famous kinds of dinosaurs. A carnotaurus, velociraptor, saltasaurus, a hadrosaur, and a compsognathus are all visible. At one point, a pterodactyl even attacks from above. The carnotaurus is arguably the scariest moment in the ride, and Disney knows this. They take your picture at the precise moment when you come face to face with a 25-feet long monster. On some level, you know that the monster is fake, but nobody will be able to tell from the photograph! The realism of these dinosaurs is amazing, even by Disney’s lofty standards.
The Experience: Building a vehicle capable of moving through the land before time
The Trick: Repurposing the proprietary EMV technology from Indiana Jones Adventure
Image: DisneyWhile the rides have little in common from a theming perspective, DINOSAUR does have sibling of a kind. Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland employs the same EMV technology and was actually the first attraction to do so.
At the time, Imagineers evaluated the tricky nature of that attraction’s set pieces. Guests needed to move from place to place within the so-called Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The ride couldn’t be smooth, though. Guests were supposed to be in peril at all times, and so Disney constructed a ride cart that would deliver a bumpy ride.
As park planners strategized on their new Countdown to Extinction attraction, they understood that the same contrivances were needed. The premise of the ride is that a person travels back in time to the moment when meteors plummet from the sky, causing an extinction-level event. Guests aren’t supposed to stare up at the comet strike, though. The dinosaurs were always the focus, even before that was the name of the attraction.
Image: DisneyTo keep guests looking in the right places, the spots where they’d spent so much money crafting AA dinosaurs, they needed to control the line of sight. And they had just created a vehicle that did it perfectly. So, Imagineers repurposed the Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) to make it a “time machine.” They even gave it a cheeky name, the CTX Time Rover. What does the CTX part stand for? Countdown to Extinction, of course! The DINOSAUR version of the EMV is absolutely identical under the hood. The only change is the style, which is time machine-themed.
Despite the brilliant technology of the EMV, Imagineers don’t want you thinking about it during the ride. Instead, the focus is always on the prehistoric creatures. One of the ways they distract you is with fog. It’s an insidious form of manipulation. When you have trouble seeing something you look that much harder.
DINOSAUR features one of the largest fog machines that Disney (or anybody else) has ever met, and it’s there to add a sense of mystery to the proceedings. Without it, you wouldn’t buy into the illusion as much. You’d think too much about your ride rather than the dinosaurs. These little touches are what elevate the DINOSAUR experience. It’s one of the most immersive attractions at Walt Disney World due to its tight theming.
