The recent announcement that Disney California Adventure would no longer feature its beloved The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror shocked a lot of diehard supporters. The news that Disney would replace it with a themed Marvel attraction based on Guardians of the Galaxy added another level of intrigue. This wasn’t the first time that the company chose branding over legacy, though.
The Turning Point that eventually led to the demise of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror didn’t actually happen at Disneyland. Instead, it occurred at the second gate at Walt Disney World. It was there that Disney killed a beloved attraction that was both engaging and amiable. They did so in favor of a much more popular brand, thereby returning to their roots as an extension of Walt Disney Animation Studios. This is the story that explains why Disney permanently closed Maelstrom in favor of Frozen Ever After.
A boost to Norwegian tourism
Image: Disney
No, I’m not speaking of Frozen. Let’s rewind to the early 1980s instead. In 1982, Epcot’s World Showcase debuted to glowing reviews. Critics loved the premise of a permanent World’s Fair site brimming with international flair. At the launch, nine countries participated, but park publicists promised that other pavilions would quickly follow.
The first of them was Morocco less than two years later. The second one and, in fact, the last addition to the World Showcase for reasons clear only to Disney execs, was Norway. In June of 1985, the Orlando Sentinel alerted the public to the existence of blueprints for what would become the 11th pavilion. The country of Norway believed in the project so much that they footed the bill for a key portion of construction.
Their parliament directed $10 million to the Norway Pavilion. It was their expectation that having a permanent presence at the Most Magical Place on Earth would boost American awareness of their country. They expected an influx of American tourists soon after the pavilion’s debut, and they further projected that this stream of visitors would continue throughout the lifetime of the building.
Whether those expectations were too ambitious is up for debate. What’s inarguable is that Norway and Disney did everything they could to stack the deck. Norwegian businesses lined up for the opportunity to participate in this exciting venture.
“A powerful whirlpool in the sea or a river”
Image: Disney
The above is the literal definition of a maelstrom. The Epcot ride based on the premise wasn’t quite as exciting, but it encapsulated several notable aspects of Norwegian culture. The most famous of them is the mythos of Viking lore. Scandinavians celebrate the fables of Odin, Thor, and Ragnarok. The subject matter is fertile for ride development, and even though the World Showcase itself prioritizes accurate reflections of foreign cultures, the attractions built there display a bit of whimsy.
The first of them was El Rio del Tiempo, which laid the groundwork for the current iteration, Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros. The original Mexico Pavilion water ride was the first of its kind at the World Showcase. A few years prior to the Mexican boat trip, Disney offered different World Showcase attractions with their Circle-Vision 360° movies of Canada, France and China. All of them share the same weakness. They’re glorified travelogues with a tourist sales pitch.
In an odd decision, the Norway Pavilion’s new attraction would combine those themes. Maelstrom would offer a journey into the supernatural figures of Norse mythology. Guests would steel themselves for a journey down the path once trekked by actual Vikings. They’d face legendary creatures such as Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar, the Dark Elf and Light Elf.
After the ride was over, guests would have a chance to watch a movie about the actual history of Norway, which involved fewer trolls than the preceding boat ride. The watery splashdown that signified the ending of Maelstrom seemed incongruous with the accompanying documentary about the customs of Norway entitled The Spirit of Norway. It was largely a celebration of their winter sports options, which couldn’t have less to do with Ragnarok unless there’s a heretofore unpublished version of the Norse Bible. World Showcase fans enjoyed the process anyway.
Ragnarok at Disney
Image: Disney
The problem Disney faced with Maelstrom was simple. It wasn’t the most ambitious ride when they made it in 1988. More than a quarter century later, the wear and tear on Maelstrom was unmistakable. Still, people loved it anyway. The problem is that the sheer volume of people who loved it wasn’t remarkable from a business perspective.
The Maelstrom boats were empty far too often, and few riders stuck around to watch the movie. The Norway Pavilion was no longer earning the tourist bonuses that they’d planned thanks in large part to Maelstrom. Theirs was one of the only pavilions to offer a ride, but that benefit gradually eroded over time.
Fittingly enough, the central theme of Ragnarok is that the old regime collapses and a new entity rises to take its place. At the same time the demand for Maelstrom was dissipating, a pair of royal siblings was sneaking into movie theaters. Their presence seemed innocuous enough. After all, the first teaser for Frozen failed to include Anna and Elsa. Why would anyone expect them to become the most dominant force in the history of the Norway Pavilion?
As you know, that’s exactly what happened. In November of 2013, Frozen dominated Thanksgiving week at movie theaters across America. That was only a small part of what it achieved during its theatrical run, though. The instant classic shocked box office analysts, myself included, by becoming the number one release of 2013 as well as the most popular animated movie of all-time, a fitting honor for Walt Disney Animation Studios to hold.
Frozen wasn’t the film anyone would have expected to hold that title, though. It overcame modest projections to gross roughly $1.276 billion worldwide. At the time of its release, it was the fifth most popular movie ever shown in theaters. And anyone who claims they saw that coming is lying.
Frozen Ever After, figuratively and literally
The fallout from this box office shocker was that Frozen became the dominant force for all things Disney in 2014. The company earned $4 billion from merchandising consumer products, and a significant chunk of that came from the princesses of fictional Arendelle. The Halloween of 2014 might as well have been a national Anna and Elsa cosplay event.
Disney quickly moved to boost the park presence of Anna and Elsa wherever possible, an understandable decision. I won’t recount the debates about whether Frozen Fever negatively impacted Disney theme parks. Suffice to say that there was a lot of it, most of the gear sold, children experienced euphoria as they embraced Anna and Elsa during Meet and Greets, and strategists at the World Showcase noticed a huge surge in traffic.
What happened next was just as predictable as it was divisive. Park planners correctly deduced that a themed version of Arendelle was more befitting of the Norway Pavilion than the dated Maelstrom attraction. Also, without benefit of a Norway travelogue, the country was enjoying a spike in tourism. North Americans and even Europeans wanted to visit the lands that provided the backdrop for Arendelle. Yes, it was a made up place, but the inspiration for it was the Norwegian landscape.
With Maelstrom no longer serving a purpose as a draw for Disney or Norway, both parties understandably reached the same conclusion. A Frozen ride simply made more business sense. It was also an easy sell for Disney. From day one at Disneyland, themed lands were an indelible part of their history. They’d oftentimes based attractions on their iconic movie library. Why shouldn’t they do the same for Frozen, one of their current breadwinners?
On September 12, 2014, Disney confirmed the hot Epcot rumor of the year. Maelstrom would close permanently the following month. A few months later, the company confirmed that Frozen Ever After would replace it at the Norway Pavilion, creating a permanent tribute to Arendelle in the otherwise authentic building. The outcry was immediate, and a #savemaelstrom hashtag campaign trended on social media for a time. It didn’t matter, though. The money was in Anna and Elsa merchandising. The prior iteration of the boat ride never stood a chance.
The New World (Showcase) Order
Frozen Ever After debuted on June 21, 2016, and it immediately triggered a massive surge in traffic at the Norway Pavilion. Rather than build an entirely new attraction from scratch, Imagineers retrofitted much of the Maelstrom boat technology into the updated version. They saw an opportunity for a quick turnaround from a dated attraction to a new one that would create new excitement in an unpopular part of their park. From a business perspective, it was the only choice.
The problem Disney fans face is the constant chance to perform such actions. We all have a memory of our first time at a certain Disney attraction. When the ride closes, we feel as if we’re losing one of our favorite recollections. For anyone who visited the Norway Pavilion prior to 2015, Maelstrom embodies such remembrances. Its loss is deeply personal.
The same is true of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, irrefutably one of the greatest attractions in Disney theme park history. Disneyland Resort visitors will no longer have the same memories because the company is replacing it with a Disney-owned intellectual property. The new theme is Guardians of the Galaxy, which was notably the surprise hit of 2014 on the heels of Frozen being the surprise hit of 2013. And it will go into the same repurposed area rather than get developed in a new space at the park.
In other words, history is already repeating itself. Frozen built a playbook, and the company already has enough confidence in it to employ the same tactic with Guardians of the Galaxy. Whether it works as well or not remains to be seen, but the Turning Point here is unmistakable. The company is circling back to themed attractions of Disney licenses at the cost of beloved standalone rides like Maelstrom and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The economics of the choice are perfectly reasonable. It’s the human element where Disney fans are feeling the sting of loss.
