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DisneySea Tower of Terror
- Thread starter NCthames
- Start date
darthjohnny
Active Member
Is there a seperate Imagineering Department for the overseas parks? Or is there one department that is kind of involved with the all projects?
DisneyRoxMySox
Well-Known Member
This thread is useless without pictures! 
This thread is useless without pictures!
I'm still new to this and not quite sure how to post pictures, but if you go to http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/american/amwtot.html and start with picture #440, you will get an idea of what I am talking about.
You can also go to the official site for the Tower of Terror in Japan http://www.tot1899.com/index.html --- the site is in Japanese, but let the intro run it's course. A photo of Mr Hightower comes up. After the intro, you can do a little exploration of the site and get the general idea about the storyline and what the interior probably looks like, as well as more photos of the cast of characters involved in the story.
DisneyDellsDude
New Member
It does look like him!
DigitalDisney
New Member
That's gotta be Joe Rhode. His personality fits Mr Hightower (as a world explorer) perfectly.
Good find
Good find
WDWFantasmic
New Member
Wow. The exterior of it looks awesome, and better than MGM Studio's IMO.
NCthames and Rayray, thanks for the comments.
Oh yes that's ole Joe Rhode. I heard from various sources about this fact last summer. Then I got some artwork of the interior, where "Hightower's" likeness appears in many places. It was also mentioned in a recent issue of "The Laughing Place Magazine."
Apparently, Imagineers took a series of photos of Rhode's face and used Adobe Photoshop to manipulate it into the various images.
JoeInJpn
http://www.jtcent.com
Oh yes that's ole Joe Rhode. I heard from various sources about this fact last summer. Then I got some artwork of the interior, where "Hightower's" likeness appears in many places. It was also mentioned in a recent issue of "The Laughing Place Magazine."
Apparently, Imagineers took a series of photos of Rhode's face and used Adobe Photoshop to manipulate it into the various images.
JoeInJpn
http://www.jtcent.com
Thanks for the confirmation JoeInJpn... by the way, I love your site! The picture updates are wonderful.
Thanks, as always.
DisneyRoxMySox
Well-Known Member
It looks great! Nice pictures. :wave:
imagineer boy
Well-Known Member
NCthames said:
HOLY CRAP! The end of that intro scared the crap out of me!:lol:
WDWFantasmic
New Member
Does anybody else think this ride is too short? At only 2 minutes, it's even shorter than DCA's version! I thought DisneySea always gets the best...
DigitalDisney
New Member
I agree. I also think that the "SEE WHAT HAPPENED THAT FATEFUL NIGHT" theming / story sure ruins the experience. The pictures of the exterior and queue look outstanding and creepy, but the banners and signs down at ground level look downright tacky. It's disappointing, really.
They should have removed the cheesy signs, and kept the ones that showed what Mr Hightower did, and the ones about historical significance of the hotel. The preshow could involve Mr Hightower himself trying to contact the visitors and inviting them to go further into the hotel.
That being said, I'm sure I'll be blown away by the upcoming onride vidos...
"SEE WHAT HAPPENED THAT FATEFUL NIGHT"
Remember folks, guests are being given a tour of the hotel and being told the story about what happened the night Hightower disappeared. This is the campaign the NYC Preservation Society is using to promote the restored hotel tours. The public is already supposed to know something strange happened many years before. That's why it has been dubbed the "Tower of Terror."
While I'm not necessarily saying that this improves the attraction overall, it does gives better insight into what the attraction is about.
Remember folks, guests are being given a tour of the hotel and being told the story about what happened the night Hightower disappeared. This is the campaign the NYC Preservation Society is using to promote the restored hotel tours. The public is already supposed to know something strange happened many years before. That's why it has been dubbed the "Tower of Terror."
While I'm not necessarily saying that this improves the attraction overall, it does gives better insight into what the attraction is about.
Fantasmic!kid
New Member
Me too! My heart can't handle that stuff!
DigitalDisney
New Member
If you don't know, here's a video of the ride. The link appeared on Screamscape recently.
http://www.jtcent.com/media/tds_tot3.zip
Note that it's 92MB and 16 mins long, but the ride is only 2-3 mins (it's extremely short). All audio is in Japanese (of course), but it's pretty easy to tell what's going on.
Spoilers ahead!
After seeing the video, I honestly don't know what to think about the ride. More on that below...
As we all know, the building is outstanding and extremely detailed. The interior looks eclectic. It's just weird. Also, the lobby area has switchbacks in it, but that's somewhat understandable given Japan's weather (although they could have built an enclosed queue area).
Instead of our library, they have a room with a giant stained glass window and the cursed idol. I couldn't understand a word of the actual preshow, but it looked relatively neat. The CM that ran the preshow was also much more interactive than your average CM in the same location at WDW. He gave a long spiel, started cranking an old record player, then went away. Then the actual preshow started, and involved the stained glass window becoming animated, and the idol statue in the room doing some neat stuff and disappearing.
Their loading area is a two floor setup, and is the same style as DCA's (as is everything else from this point). The difference is that it's themed to an archive/treasure room instead of a hotel basement. There's definately an Indiana Jones feel here. Instead of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, we have Indiana Jones and the Tower of Terror.
From what I could tell, the ride itself is extremely similar to DCA's version. The elevators start moving backward immediately, and there is no 5th dimension room (or its equilavent).
The first stop involves the same long hallway that everybody has, but they have the idol and a ghost (of Mr Hightower?) instead of our ghosts. Like our hallway, theirs fades to a starfield at the end too. Next floor...
Then the elevator goes to a floor with a gigantic mirror in front of it, just like DCA has. The difference here is that the idol shows up in the mirror at the end of the scene, and appears to dive into the vehicle. This causes the vehicle to begin the drop sequence.
The reason I'm mixed on this issue is that the cursed idol concept is awesome, and extremely well done. However, the actual ride is the same as DCA's version. Unfortunately this means that it's just as short as DCA's version of the ride. The only major differences between the two are the theming and the idol.
Given that it's TDR, I expected more.
http://www.jtcent.com/media/tds_tot3.zip
Note that it's 92MB and 16 mins long, but the ride is only 2-3 mins (it's extremely short). All audio is in Japanese (of course), but it's pretty easy to tell what's going on.
Spoilers ahead!
After seeing the video, I honestly don't know what to think about the ride. More on that below...
As we all know, the building is outstanding and extremely detailed. The interior looks eclectic. It's just weird. Also, the lobby area has switchbacks in it, but that's somewhat understandable given Japan's weather (although they could have built an enclosed queue area).
Instead of our library, they have a room with a giant stained glass window and the cursed idol. I couldn't understand a word of the actual preshow, but it looked relatively neat. The CM that ran the preshow was also much more interactive than your average CM in the same location at WDW. He gave a long spiel, started cranking an old record player, then went away. Then the actual preshow started, and involved the stained glass window becoming animated, and the idol statue in the room doing some neat stuff and disappearing.
Their loading area is a two floor setup, and is the same style as DCA's (as is everything else from this point). The difference is that it's themed to an archive/treasure room instead of a hotel basement. There's definately an Indiana Jones feel here. Instead of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, we have Indiana Jones and the Tower of Terror.
From what I could tell, the ride itself is extremely similar to DCA's version. The elevators start moving backward immediately, and there is no 5th dimension room (or its equilavent).
The first stop involves the same long hallway that everybody has, but they have the idol and a ghost (of Mr Hightower?) instead of our ghosts. Like our hallway, theirs fades to a starfield at the end too. Next floor...
Then the elevator goes to a floor with a gigantic mirror in front of it, just like DCA has. The difference here is that the idol shows up in the mirror at the end of the scene, and appears to dive into the vehicle. This causes the vehicle to begin the drop sequence.
The reason I'm mixed on this issue is that the cursed idol concept is awesome, and extremely well done. However, the actual ride is the same as DCA's version. Unfortunately this means that it's just as short as DCA's version of the ride. The only major differences between the two are the theming and the idol.
Given that it's TDR, I expected more.