Why For did Disney-MGM visitors never get the chance to “Journey to the Center of the Earth”?

Jim Hill

13 years ago

In response to last week’s “Universal Studios Florida’s ‘Jaws’
attraction sails off into the sunset” article, A Bigger Boat wrote in to say:

I really enjoyed your “Jaws” article. But I find it hard to
believe that Universal would change the layout of their entire Florida studio
theme park just because Disney was going to have a tram tour at MGM. The tram
tour wound up being such a minor aspect of Disney-MGM. Why would something like
that make Universal blink?

Dear A Bigger Boat –

Ah, but you have to understand that – when the Disney-MGM
Studios Theme Park opened in May in 1989 – the Imagineers had big plans for the
Backstage Studio Tour. The idea was – within two years – Guests would be seeing
far more from Disney-MGM’s Backstage Shuttle than just Residential Street and
Catastrophe Canyon.

If all had gone according to plan, by the time the Summer of
1991 rolled around, WDW visitors would have left the Backstage Shuttle Station …

… and eventually found themselves rolling through a South
Seas-themed section of Disney-MGM. Where then shuttle driver was to have then
talked about all of the great adventure films that have been produced in
Hollywood over the past 70 years.

This Backstage Shuttle was then supposed to have circled around
that faux volcanic peak before it then drove into this massive soundstage where
scenes for Jules Verne‘s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” were being shot .

Once inside, your Backstage Shuttle driver was supposed to
have made a joke to the effect of “I thought that this was supposed to have
been a hot set.” Why this gag was supposed to be funny was that – as your
Shuttle drove onto this soundstage – WDW visitors were supposed to be hit with
this blast of intense cold air as their Shuttle rolled past these massive faux
ice crystals.

Mind you, as the Backstage Shuttle rounded the next corner,
the temperature of this soundstage would then begin to rise rapidly as this
Shuttle full of Guests entered a lava-filled environment …

… before then rolling the tottering columns which is all
that now remains of the Lost City of Atlantis.

Your Backstage Shuttle driver was to have then made a joke
about this set being so hot that ” … I’m getting worried that the tires on our
shuttle are going to melt.” But then – suddenly – your driver has a far bigger
problem to deal as, rising up out of a nearby lava pool, is this massive
creature …

… a magma worm. Which now begins to snap and snarl at all
six cars on this Backstage Shuttle.

Your Backstage Shuttle narrowly escapes its far-too-close encounter
with this huge horrific creature before this Shuttle exits the “Journey to the
Center of the Earth” soundstage and then continues its trip around the
Disney-MGM Studios backlot.

That sounds like a cool addition to Disney-MGM Studio’s
Backstage Studio Tour, doesn’t it? So why didn’t the Imagineers actually build
the “Journey to the Center of the Earth” soundstage? Because – as WDW officials
began to survey Guests who visited this theme park during its first summer of
operation – they began to hear one consistent refrain from these people. Which
was that this theme park didn’t have nearly enough rides.

Which is why – as 1989 gave way to 1990 – the Imagineers
abandoned their original plans for Disney-MGM’s Backstage Studio Tour and opted
instead to take the money that had been set aside for the “Journey to the
Center of the Earth” soundstage and plowed that into a whole new “land” for
that studio theme park, Sunset Boulevard …

… which was to have featured a “Star Tours” -like simulator
based attraction called “Roger Rabbit’s Toontown Trolley” …

… and a “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” inspired dark ride entitle “Baby
Herman’s Runaway Buggy Ride.”

Mind you, it’s not like all of the design work that went
into this proposed addition to Disney-MGM’s Backstage Studio Tour went to
waste. As anyone who’s ever been to Tokyo DisneySea and ridden on that theme
park’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” attraction will tell you …

… that lava monster is very, very impressive. It would have really
wowed Walt Disney World visitors if the Imagineers had actually decided to
expand the Backstage Studio Tour at this theme park instead of going ahead with
construction of Sunset Boulevard.

Of course, the irony here is that 90% of the rides, shows
and attractions that were proposed for this new “land” at Disney-MGM (Take –
for example – the Pepper’s Ghost-driven show, “Ghostwriter”) …

… wound up being cancelled in late 1992 / early 1993 because
Euro Disney wound up being such a financial boondoggle. Which then resulted in
the Disney-MGM Studios Europe project being
delayed …

… which – ironically enough – was also supposed to have a
Universal Studios-style tram tour roll around its backlot …

… which was eventually supposed to have taken its Guests
through a soundstage featuring that “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
sequence. But the story of Disney – MGM Studios Europe …

… or – for that matter – the Disney Hollywood Studio Theme Park at Tokyo Disneyland that
the Imagineers tried to convince the Oriental Land Company to build back in the
early 1990s …

… will have to wait for another time.

Your thoughts?