For almost as long as designers have been adding things to Disney Parks, they’ve been taking things away! In the name of progress, expansion, modernization, trends, or funding, sometimes beloved attractions are simply lost to time. As readers of our Lost Legends know, even Walt Disney World’s “blessing of size” doesn’t guarantee that classics are spared from the wrecking ball.
Given that fan-favorites are talked about like the timeless, definitive highlights of Disney Parks, sometimes it can be shocking to discover that… well… time moves on! Here, we’ve collected 9 rides Imagineering fans still tend to think of as mere “replacements” that actually lasted longer than the “classics” they took the place of! Prepare to have your mind blown.
1. Alien Encounter (8 yrs) vs. Stitch’s Great Escape (13 yrs)
Alien Encounter: 1995 – 2003 (8 years)
Stitch’s Great Escape: 2004 – 2017 (13 years)
When the Lost Legend: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter debuted as part of Magic Kingdom’s ambitious and highly stylized New Tomorrowland in 1995, it represented perhaps the final project in Eisner’s “Ride the Movies” era… It was an epic, cinematic, original attraction subjecting humans to a frightening “demonstration” of Martian tech company X-S Tech’s intergalactic teleportation technology gone wrong. A multi-sensory horror show, the attraction released a carnivorous alien into the pitch black crowd where special effects took over.
A generation of Magic Kingdom fans experienced (and in many cases, were traumatized by) Disney’s scariest attraction ever. But once mounting complaints closed it, the attraction was retroactively heralded as an unappreciated and undervalued cult classic, sometimes considered one of Imagineering’s most creative and clever original experiences.
The attraction was shuttered in 2003 and quickly retooled to capitalize on a character whose brand had skyrocketed: the mischievous blue alien from 2002’s Lilo & Stitch. What must’ve seemed like a win-win on paper actually ended up being quickly labeled Disney’s “worst attraction ever,” the Declassified Disaster: Stitch’s Great Escape. As we know, the replacement of the ambitious Alien Encounter with a character overlay would become standard for Disney Parks in the 2000s.
Stitch’s Great Escape switched to “seasonal” status in October 2016 (often a death knell for Disney Parks attractions). Its last recorded date of operation was December 2017. Images circulating online of a Stitch animatronic stripped of parts seem to signal that Disney finally decided to end the attraction’s run, giving it a lifetime 5 years longer than its storied predecessor. Perhaps as a testament to just how detested the latter attraction was, Disney still hasn’t officially announced its permanent closure…! That’s probably fitting, though, since evaluation allegedly suggested that Magic Kingdom overall was rated more highly on the whole on days when Stitch’s Great Escape was closed… which means an empty building might be better for the park than Stitch’s Great Escape was.
2. Kongfrontation (12 yrs) vs. Revenge of the Mummy (16 yrs)
Kongfrontation: 1990 – 2002 (12 years)
Revenge of the Mummy: 2004 – Today (16 years)
There is perhaps no ride that better represents Universal Studios than Kongfrontation, the larger-than-life creature feature attraction that opened alongside the Floridian park in 1990. Guests climbed aboard elevated Roosevelt Island trams in a citywide evacuation from the raging ape from King Kong, inevitably coming face-to-face with the banana-breathed Kong in a harrowing and thrilling dark ride.
Though the Lost Legend: Kongfrontation might be one of the most-remembered Universal attractions ever, it didn’t last. In what’s become a recurring plot twist in Universal Orlando’s history, modernization won out. Turns out that basing attractions on blockbuster films means ride lifetimes are measured in seasons rather than decades, and by the New Millennium, a new generation of Universal films needed a place in the park.
Kongfrontation gave its last rides in 2002. Incredibly, just nine months later, the space re-opened with Revenge of the Mummy, based on Universal’s beloved ‘90s action-adventure Mummy film franchise starring Brendan Fraser. Kongfrontation’s enormous showbuilding was just the right size to fit the immense dark ride / coaster hybrid. And in this case, we argue that Kongfrontation’s replacement is equally as beloved, earning an in-depth Modern Marvels: Revenge of the Mummy feature. Though many still think of Mummy as “taking King Kong’s place,” it has now lasted a full sixteen years – longer than Kong was around to begin with! Doesn’t that mean Kong was only temporarily occupying the Mummy’s place?
3. Journey into Imagination (15 yrs) vs. Journey into Imagination with Figment (18 yrs)
Journey into Imagination: 1983 – 1998 (15 years)
Journey into YOUR Imagination: 1999 – 2001 (2 years)
Journey into Imagination with Figment: 2002 – Today (18 years)
For fans of Epcot, there is no more-missed attraction on Earth than the Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination. Standing among the other grand, intellectual, and historic dark rides from EPCOT Center, the imaginative classic was a “flight of fancy,” with guests journeying alongside the enigmatic Dreamfinder and his curious creation, Figment the dragon. Journey into Imagination lead guests through musical, abstract realms of art, literature, performing arts, and science to the tune of the unforgettable and beloved Sherman Brothers song “One Little Spark.”
Then, in 1998 – as Epcot prepared to host the resort’s Millennium Celebration – the ride’s sponsor, Kodak, was brought in to finance a reimagining. Unfortunately, it took the form of one of the worst rides Disney has ever created, the Declassified Disaster: Journey into YOUR Imagination. Rather than an abstract, musical, fantasy ride through creativity, the attraction’s length was cut by 40% and it was thematically absorbed the laboratory-like “Imagination Institute” theme of the pavilion’s “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” 4-D film. The ride became an “Open House” tour through the Institute’s sterile “sensory labs” with Monty Python actor Eric Idle as the star. Aside from cutting the ride time in half, the 1999 version also didn’t include Dreamfinder, Figment, or “One Little Spark.”
Backlash was immediate and fierce. After almost exactly two years, the Imagination Institute closed as the attraction was re-worked again. Would Dreamfinder return? Nope. Today’s version – intentionally titled “Journey into Imagination with Figment” – maintained the Imagination Institute storyline, halved ride track, and Eric Idle’s wacky scientist, merely inserting a troublemaking Figment among the institution’s scenes. While the modern ride is remarkably better than the short-lived middle version, it’s a painfully bad attraction compared to the classic… which should make it all the most unbelievable that the current incarnation has already outlasted Dreamfinder’s original run.
Maybe that helps explain why a generation of Disney Parks visitors has absolutely no idea who Dreamfinder even is, or why anyone would want a shirt with that pesky and irritating purple dragon who derails our tour! Mind blown yet? The unbelievable outlasting of classics continues on the next page…
4. Adventure Thru Inner Space (18 yrs) vs. Star Tours (23 yrs)
Adventure Thru Inner Space: 1967 – 1985 (17 years)
STAR TOURS: 1987 – 2010 (23 years)
Believe it or not, there was a time when Tomorrowland was actually about tomorrow! In fact, the 1967 Tomorrowland overseen by Walt Disney himself was a stunning Space Age future of mid-century modern architecture, upswept roofs, boomerang accents, and the gleaming, authentic optimism of the Space Race. It’s that spectacular Tomorrowland that remains the land’s definitive form (even for those who never saw it!) and its Lost Legends: The Peoplemover and Carousel of Progress remain among Disney’s best-loved classics.
The land’s highlight, though, might have been the Lost Legend: Adventure Thru Inner Space. Disney’s first ever use of the Omnimover ride system, Inner Space was a scientific journey down to the size of an atom (about as small as guests have ever gotten in Disney Parks decades of shrinking them). With a continuously-moving chain of cabs moving into the Mighty Monsanto Microscope and emerging out of the other end as miniatures, the memorable and iconic queue alone is an icon of Imagineering. The ride itself explored chemical organization, molecular structures, and the states of matter in an almost-abstract journey narrated by Paul Frees (later, the “Ghost Host” of the Haunted Mansion) that almost certainly inspired the grand, educational dark rides of EPCOT Center.
When the ride closed in 1985, it was to make way for a ride that changed Disney Parks forever – STAR TOURS. The intergalactic flight through the Star Wars universe not only brought an outside intellectual property into Disney Parks, ignited the “Ride the Movies” era to follow, and kicked off the Rise of the Simulator; it also acted as a turning point for Tomorrowland, shifting its focus from actual predictions of things to come to sci-fi adventures in space. Though the Lost Legend: STAR TOURS was itself replaced (with its own “The Adventures Continue” prequel) in 2010, the original version alone outlasted Inner Space by six years. Both versions of Star Tours, however, feature hidden “Easter eggs” referencing Inner Space for fans who know where to find them…
5. If You Had Wings (17 yrs) vs. Space Ranger Spin (22 yrs)
If You Had Wings: 1972 – 1989 (17 years)
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin: 1998 – Today (22 years)
When Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, its Tomorrowland was, of course, heavily based on the Space Age one that had been designed for Disneyland just four years earlier. But just as Disneyland itself was a product of the 1950s and its “family road trip” culture, Disney World was made possible by the modernization of commercial air travel. Working off the blueprints of Adventure Thru Inner Space, Magic Kingdom gained the Lost Legend: If You Had Wings – a musical travelogue through destinations served by resort sponsor Eastern Air Lines. (Memorably, Omnimovers on this ride sailed into a massive globe rather than a Mighty Microscope.)
If You Had Wings lasted 17 years before folding. In its place, new sponsor Delta Air Lines was brought in to recraft the ride into Delta Dreamflight in 1989 (renamed Take Flight after Delta’s departure) before Disney gave up on aviation-themed Omnimover rides in 1998. A new (and more lucrative) strategy had presented itself just in time for the new millennium: the “Pixarification” of Disney Parks.
A first step in the early-2000s character infusion of Tomorrowlands, the ride became Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin 1998, equipping riders with laser guns and letting them loose in the outer reaches of toy-sized space. In the two decades since, Buzz has been exported to every Disney Resort on Earth (one of very few attractions to do so). Still, it’s hard to believe that the Magic Kingdom cartoon ride has far outlasted the “classic” attraction that originally occupied the space…
6. Horizons (16 years) vs. Mission: SPACE (17 yrs)
Horizons: 1983 – 1994; 1995 – 1999 (16 years)
Mission: SPACE: 2003 – Today (17 years)
Now this one is painful. When EPCOT Center opened in 1982, its Future World realm was comprised of pavilions, with each dedicated to a specific of science, technology, and industry. At its height, those pavilions represented ocean exploration, agriculture, imagination, transportation, health, energy, communication, and innovation. Then there was the one pavilion that brought them all together.
The Lost Legend: Horizons was the philosophical centerpiece of Future World, demonstrating what could lie ahead for humanity thanks to our collective advances in all the other industries the park studied. An anchor of the park’s original, epic dark rides built on optimism, it was the keystone of the park’s educational philosophy. That made it even stranger when the ride closed in December 1994, then reopened exactly a year later to fill out the park’s lineup while other attractions were being refurbished. Ultimately, Horizons closed forever in January 1999.
Its replacement, Mission: SPACE, was meant to signify the park’s new direction: filled with technological (if brainless) thrill rides that would reposition Epcot as a cool, 21st century, thrilling park of quasi-scientific simulators. It turned out that Mission: SPACE was a little too thrilling, with poor word of mouth cancelling plans to spread it to Tomorrowlands across the globe. Its ultra-intensity even forced Disney to lower its gravity a few years ago. In other words, Mission: SPACE isn’t exactly the hit Disney hoped for… but at this point, it’s unbelievably outlasted the beloved Horizons it replaced.
7. Kitchen Kabaret (12 yrs) vs. Soarin’ (15 yrs)
Kitchen Kabaret: 1982 – 1994 (12 years)
Soarin’: 2005 – Today (15 years)
Original concepts for Epcot’s Land pavilion called for a building of prismatic glass towers containing habitats from around the world for guests to explore, with a hot air balloon dark ride through the seasons and water cycle as the highlight. But a last minute change in sponsor brought in Kraft Foods, who asked Imagineers to pivot the pavilion toward more agriculture and nutrition content – a better fit for their brand.
One component of the revised pavilion was the Lost Legend: Kitchen Kabaret, a “dinner theater” animatronic show exploring the US FDA’s “four major food groups” in a jazzy singalong musical. The show played for 12 years (1982 – 1994) before new sponsor Nestle asked for an upgrade, creating the ‘90s-infused Food Rocks that spoofed pop music of the era. Food Rocks lasted another ten years (1994 – 2004) itself, but was no longer aligned with prevailing models of nutrition by the end of its run.
That’s why, in 2004, Nestle asked for yet another change to the pavilion in exchanged for extended sponsorship… Thankfully, that aligned with one of Disney’s plans for the park anyway. As part of the same evolution that brought Mission: SPACE, Imagineers hoped to open a version of the Lost Legend: Soarin’ Over California – the single, solitary hit from the underbuilt Disney’s California Adventure – at Walt Disney World. Food Rocks closed in 2004 to make way for a copy of Soarin’, which has been taking guests’ breath away since 2005. Although the ride was “upgraded” from the “Over California” ride film to the “Around the World” variation in 2016, the airborn simulator doesn’t show signs of coming in for a landing anytime soon.
8. Space Mountain: De la Terre á la Lune (10 yrs) vs. Space Mountain: Mission 2 (12 yrs)
Space Mountain – De la Terre á la Lune: 1995 – 2005 (10 years)
Space Mountain – Mission 2: 2005 – 2017 (12 years)
Disneyland Paris is often regarded as the most beautiful and enchanting Disneyland-style park on Earth. Part of its spectacular appeal is thanks to the work Imagineers did to make the inherently-American concept of Disneyland more palatable for European audiences. Instead of a Space-Age inspired Tomorrowland of swirling NASA rockets, designers created Discoveryland – a rich, bronze, Victorian, retro-futuristic land based on the designs (and initially, stories) of European fantasy writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
In 1995, the park’s headlining attraction and Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre á la Lune opened. Rather than a sleek, white, mid-century mountain, Paris’ peak was inspired by the Jules Verne novel From the Earth to the Moon. As in the novel, riders were launched into outer space from the gold Columbiad Cannon (resting against the mountain’s gold and copper exterior). Rather than the pulsing sci-fi score of its Californian counterpart, a full, orchestral score accentuated the fantasy trip to the moon and back, including allusions to the 1902 Georges Méliès film adaptation, considered the first sci-fi film ever.
It shouldn’t be surprising that, like its Tomorrowland counterparts, Discoveryland was soon overtaken by Disney and Pixar characters, leaving the land a gilded golden shell. That goes for Space Mountain, too. Despite how beloved and celebrated the original, literary, fantasy-inspired ride was, it lasted only a decade. In 2005, the ride became “Space Mountain: Mission 2,” essentially applying the sci-fi styling and theming of the U.S. rides to the French mountain’s interior.
Even if that was an odd stylistic choice for Discoveryland, it’s got nothing on the ride’s latest incarnation, “Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain: Rebel Mission,” a quasi-permanent Star Wars overlay that fails to explain why our trip to a “galaxy far, far away” begins by being launched out of a gold cannon. In any case, it’s amazing to consider that the Jules Verne version of the ride that fans still think of as the definitive, essential version actually hasn’t been seen in 15 years… longer than it lasted to begin with!
9. World of Motion (14 yrs) vs. Test Track (14 yrs)
World of Motion: 1982 – 1996 (14 years)
Test Track: 1998 – 2012 (14 years)
We’ve got one more EPCOT Center classic for you… One of the first topics cemented for the park’s Future World was transportation, all thanks to General Motors’ early sponsorship. The resulting attraction – the Lost Legend: World of Motion – was (as you’d expect) an epically-scaled dark ride through the history of human transportation from the stone age to the cities of the future, differentiated from other Future World originals by the work of Disney animators Ward Kimball and Marc Davis.
World of Motion closed in 1996, again in preparation for Epcot’s Millennium Celebration and the resulting evolution of the park. General Motors stayed on a sponsor for the new attraction, eschewing educational histories and slow-moving dark rides for the Lost Legend: TEST TRACK, a mile-a-minute journey through a GM testing facility, subjecting guests to the routine trials of crash test dummies.
While Test Track would eventually be replaced by a modernized, upgraded spin-off, the crash test version of the ride lasted from its soft-opening in 1998 to 2012… just as long as the classic dark ride that preceded it. Will the new version of Test Track last another 14 years or more? It sure seems that way!
…But if this list has taught us anything, it’s that the things you think of as “classics” today might not last forever… and eventually – for better or worse – their “replacements” become classics for a new generation!
