Tower of Terror sign placement

Maxonius

New Member
Original Poster
The Tower of Terror is my favorite attraction at WDW, even with tons of effects broken and missing I love the attraction. However, one little thing bothers me to no end about the attraction.

The freaking sign! It’s way lower than it is in the preshow video and overlaps the dropshafts. This wouldn’t be a problem if the preshow didn’t show two towers jutting out the front of the main building. I don’t know how imagineers missed this little detail, but seriously how hard is it to either move the physical sign up or edit the preshow video to be more in line with the version of the HTH we see in the made for TV movie (which still makes absolutely NO logical sense).

Is there an obscure detail I don’t know about the sign placement? Is this a thing anyone else has noticed? Am I just insane for being driven nuts over this?
 

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
Just guessing mind you but maybe it's lower so it can't be seen from EPCOT. Something they missed until they were under construction and the preshow video was done.

I can here it now in the meeting: "eh no one will notice."
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
It may be artistic license but here’s the issue

DF75A9C6-4793-49B5-9924-41E12D9A6237.jpeg
 

DisneyJeff

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Maybe the sign was supported by the elevator shafts. When they exploded (or whatever happened to them), the sign fell to the position that it's currently located. Thankfully, it landed completely level and still had electricity running to it.

... I know, its a stretch.

Truthfully, I never realized this until you pointed it out. I'll probably never be able to un-see it now. Thanks!
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Artistic license and psychology. It’s not just the sign that differs between the built building and the “before” images but also the height of the main tower compared to the missing wings. The attraction utilizes forced perspective but in doing so also makes the missing wings larger and taller relative to the main tower than you see in the “before” images. This is good for a drop ride as it places the ride vehicles closer to the top of the building because height is a key part of the thrill. It’s bad for the visual procession to the attraction as a sign properly scaled would be significantly smaller, so you wouldn’t get that same image walking down Sunset Blvd with the looming tower and the flickering sign.

The location of the elevator shafts also makes no sense, as they would be right in the middle of the corridor for each wing in some prime real estate.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
But, they used the Florida one for the opening of the ToT Movie.....Perhaps they should re-edit the opening to use for better accuracy...As you can see the outer towers were never there in this version...
View attachment 467603
Conversely the Orlando preshow has the front towers to match the billboard artwork

1EDF8A11-0427-4031-900C-1E1B09170A0A.jpeg


The movie indeed fixed the park error.
 

Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
I think of ToT as sort-of a "dream state" experience (like a Twilight Zone episode). Like a dream, it doesn't make literal sense, but rather it's about the feelings and notions it conveys. That's why, even though the sign placement is "wrong," it works better aesthetically/emotionally than the sign being in the "right" place.

(Incidentally, the DCA's ToT [RIP] and WDSP's ToT "fix" the sign issue with their building designs.
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
The Tower of Terror is my favorite attraction at WDW, even with tons of effects broken and missing I love the attraction. However, one little thing bothers me to no end about the attraction.

The freaking sign! It’s way lower than it is in the preshow video and overlaps the dropshafts. This wouldn’t be a problem if the preshow didn’t show two towers jutting out the front of the main building. I don’t know how imagineers missed this little detail, but seriously how hard is it to either move the physical sign up or edit the preshow video to be more in line with the version of the HTH we see in the made for TV movie (which still makes absolutely NO logical sense).

Is there an obscure detail I don’t know about the sign placement? Is this a thing anyone else has noticed? Am I just insane for being driven nuts over this?

Should be noted that the back side of the sign at WDW the camera rig, which was bigger in 1994 than in 2004 for DLR's, in addition to a full catwalk where crews can film the drop shafts.

I'd imagine the desire to "mask" these elements led to the sign being where it is.
 

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