Disney International Parks: December 2011

What Disney Says

Travel through mysterious caverns to the earth's core as a scientist aboard fantastic vehicles designed by Captain Nemo.

Place: DisneySea / Mysterious Island

Capacity: 6 persons per vehicle
Top Speed: 75 km/h [47 mph]

Like the other attraction at the Mysterious Island (20.000 Leagues Under the Sea), this ride was inspired by Jules Verne's novel of the same name and is lead by Captain Nemo himself!

Split in 2, the queue line is a big surprise! The first part has you working your way past makeshift laboratories with items apparently taken from previous expeditions. The careful observer can find foreshadowing clues to the ride's climax under the microscope and recorded in sketchbooks.

At the end of the queue you take a large elevator and go at high speed down below the earth's surface.

At the second queue you’ll see all the huge and giant equipment necessary for a journey of this magnitude.

These are the large vehicles (called "Terravators") you ride:

"They are large cars with giant shovels on the front, and look rugged enough to actually take you on a trip underground. The technology built into the cars allows them to travel smoothly at a variety of speeds, from slow, "sightseeing" tempo all the way to up rollercoaster quick. (I have read they are based on the same technology as the ride cars in Epcot's Test Track.) Although it gets pretty speedy at the end, the ride is never rough."

- Chris Calabrese

[As found at: http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/]

Tom "Thor" Thordarson has the mission to the concept design for this attraction:

""When I was first invited to be part of the Tokyo DisneySea team, it was truly a project that I cannot recall being more excited about. Mysterious Island, with it's magical energy full of classic adventure was where everyone knew I belonged focusing upon, though I played with concepts for Port Discovery as well. They basically said: "This is based on the Jules Verne book in general, but give us your take on it." Disney had explored it loosely as a studio tour designed by Scott Sinclair, but I was allowed to use or scrap any past ideas as to the content of this story as it would become a ride.

I watched the movie with Pat Boone and read the book. I sat in my office at Imagineering for close to a year creating this ride in countless drawings, storyboards and paintings. I presented this ride again and again and was told by staff that my sound effects and enthusiastic body gestures were a "hard act to follow". lol! Michael Eisner was chuckling and well entertained repeatedly at my performances, I recall well. One Corporate Exec. stated, as I finished the very first presentation with my story boards, "Is it HOT in here..or is it me?
I truly lived this ride...over and over and by the time it was in show model form, I felt I had ridden the thing a thousand times. Every rock form, creature and sound was something I had to describe to the team in drawings and verbal dramatizations."

- Tom "Thor" Thordarson[As found at: http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2009/04/tribute-to-tom-thordarson-aka-thor_06.html]

Artwork for Load Area

Here are two rare pictures from the DISNEY AND MORE BLOG that shows the real set decor shoot before the park's opening...

...And a picture of the crystals with the show vehicle.

S t o r y

[From Wikipedia]

Riders travel through mysterious caverns to the Earth's core as scientists aboard vehicles designed by Captain Nemo. After traveling through Nemo's labs inside Mt. Prometheus, guests board "Terravators" to the facility's base station one half mile below. In the base station is a communications center which is currently giving warnings of increased volcanic activity, but the scientist who mans it is currently away on a tea break. The riders then board steam-powered mine vehicles that travel through pre-drilled tunnels into the heart of the Earth. The ride begins through a cavern of colorful glowing crystals before entering the giant Mushroom Forest, which is inhabited by strange insect and amphibian-like life-forms. Before the car can proceed further, an earthquake causes a cave-in of the tunnel ahead, forcing the car off its planned route and down a side branch filled with giant egg-like sacks. The car emerges on the shore of the Subterranean Sea, and is nearly struck by lightning from the electrified gas clouds. The finale comes when the riders are forced into the fiery heart of an active volcano, where the riders come face-to-face with the giant lava monster that calls the Center of the Earth its home, before escaping back to the surface on the wave of an eruption.