News Bruce Vaughn Returns to Disney as Co-Lead of Walt Disney Imagineering

[lazyboy97o]

How? Tower of Terror's ride system was picked first and then the IP was applied to it. Does dictating a ride system restrict creativity too? There will always be a directive that comes first for any project.

Tower of Terror started with a completely different ride system in mind. What they built was not dictated from the start. The process was open to exploring a variety of ideas in terms of ride systems and stories.

 

[JD80]

Tower of Terror started with a completely different ride system in mind. What they built was not dictated from the start. The process was open to exploring a variety of ideas in terms of ride systems and stories.

Here you go again.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I agree but I don't think people in Burbank care.

They’ve hired a bunch of people relatively recently. If anything, teams could be leaner.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Here you go again.

Not my fault things didn’t happen the way you claim.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

How? Tower of Terror's ride system was picked first and then the IP was applied to it. Does dictating a ride system restrict creativity too? There will always be a directive that comes first for any project.

It certainly can. Creativity can of course happen with restrictions as well.

 

[HMF]

It certainly can. Creativity can of course happen with restrictions as well.

Yes, but being constrained the way modern WDI is is basically just being a marketing firm.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I would assume the IP factor was a sticking point for the ones who actually wanted to be creative.

I don’t know. There are aspects to Disney that I can make some educated guesses about (upcoming rides, for example, based on longstanding rumor mills) but that one is entirely opaque to me.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Here you go again.

Well when you’re wrong…you might get some blowback.

They absolutely didn’t have the ride dictated to them…they came up with something truly ingenious and got it built in lightning speed by today’s standards

But don’t let the truth stand in the way of a good excuse for daddy’s company

 

[JD80]

Not my fault things didn’t happen the way you claim.

According to Behind the Attraction on Disney+ or even the Wikipedia entry the ride system was first being considered for another park but not used. Then once the MGM expansion was being planned a drop-shaft-ride was chosen from a collection of other attractions types. Once it was chosen several different stories were considered before finally landing on The Twilight Zone for inspiration.

So ride-system before IP.

 

[lazyboy97o]

According to Behind the Attraction on Disney+ or even the Wikipedia entry the ride system was first being considered for another park but not used. Then once the MGM expansion was being planned a drop-shaft-ride was chosen from a collection of other attractions types. Once it was chosen several different stories were considered before finally landing on The Twilight Zone for inspiration.

So ride-system before IP.

Are you using “ride system” to mean general ride movement concept? A ride system is a specific type of ride mechanism, not a general category describing experience. Only the notion of a drop ride was sort of there from the beginning, but it was because the creative teams were exploring the possibilities of a recently developed ride type.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror uses a custom designed and built ride system developed exclusively for the attraction. Its history goes back to explorations of drop ride concepts that started from the first generation of Intamin drop rides. A widely published example is art from the early development of Discovery Mountain at Disneyland Paris from when it was intended to be a multi-attraction pavilion that clearly show the Intamin ride system. These rides using that system were never built and instead Disney went on to develop their own, more advanced, system that better met the story that was being developed for the attraction experience that become the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The attraction also has roots in the concept work done for the “Hotel Mel” attraction that was developed in collaboration with Mel Brooks. This project is the origin of the concept of the haunted hotel at the end of Sunset Blvd. This attraction was not a drop ride, but a more traditional dark ride with guests riding around a horror movie set in wire guided golf carts. That though never coalesced into a coherent idea and other ideas ended up being explored for the haunted hotel concept. One of these was a mostly walkthrough experience about actors who disappeared in the hotel with the finale taking place in an elevator that was also not a drop ride.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

There’s also an older imagineering book with early concepts for the tower that had a different ride system where the elevator car drops and at the bottom coaster like rails guide the car so it flips sideways (putting riders on their backs).

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

There’s also an older imagineering book with early concepts for the tower that had a different ride system where the elevator car drops and at the bottom coaster like rails guide the car so it flips sideways (putting riders on their backs).

Like this one!

 

[lazyboy97o]

There’s also an older imagineering book with early concepts for the tower that had a different ride system where the elevator car drops and at the bottom coaster like rails guide the car so it flips sideways (putting riders on their backs).

That is the first generation Intamin drop ride being illustrated.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

That is the first generation Intamin drop ride being illustrated.

Oh!! When I read intamin drop I immediately imagined the more modern drop towers - I didn’t realize they had developed that system.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

There’s also an older imagineering book with early concepts for the tower that had a different ride system where the elevator car drops and at the bottom coaster like rails guide the car so it flips sideways (putting riders on their backs).

Which at the time…was how every drop tower had been built…at a
Six flags near you

 

[JD80]

Are you using “ride system” to mean general ride movement concept? A ride system is a specific type of ride mechanism, not a general category describing experience. Only the notion of a drop ride was sort of there from the beginning, but it was because the creative teams were exploring the possibilities of a recently developed ride type.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror uses a custom designed and built ride system developed exclusively for the attraction. Its history goes back to explorations of drop ride concepts that started from the first generation of Intamin drop rides. A widely published example is art from the early development of Discovery Mountain at Disneyland Paris from when it was intended to be a multi-attraction pavilion that clearly show the Intamin ride system. These rides using that system were never built and instead Disney went on to develop their own, more advanced, system that better met the story that was being developed for the attraction experience that become the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The attraction also has roots in the concept work done for the “Hotel Mel” attraction that was developed in collaboration with Mel Brooks. This project is the origin of the concept of the haunted hotel at the end of Sunset Blvd. This attraction was not a drop ride, but a more traditional dark ride with guests riding around a horror movie set in wire guided golf carts. That though never coalesced into a coherent idea and other ideas ended up being explored for the haunted hotel concept. One of these was a mostly walkthrough experience about actors who disappeared in the hotel with the finale taking place in an elevator that was also not a drop ride.

We're on a public message board, of course I used the term "ride system" as a generic reference to how the ride functions. No one in casual conversation is going to say "general ride movement concept".

Good grief.

 

[JD80]

Oh!! When I read intamin drop I immediately imagined the more modern drop towers - I didn’t realize they had developed that system.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend the two seasons of Behind the Attraction on Disney+. Easily worth one month of subscription if you're not a subscriber.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Just saw that Jason Surrell has returned to WDI - that’s great news.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Just saw that Jason Surrell has returned to WDI - that’s great news.

Help a person out… who?

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Help a person out… who?

I know him mostly as the guy who wrote the books on Haunted Mansion and POTC - From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, and the Disney Mountains book. He was a show writer for WDI previously, then left to go to Universal Creative for the last decade or so. Not entirely sure what his Imagineering credits are, but he was there when a lot of good Imagineers still worked there (and researched his books by talking to the old guard like Sklar and Baxter), so this is a positive development.