Vintage Disney Attraction Posters
October 2019 - December 2019
Inspired by my "Top 10 Never Built Disney Attractions (That We Wish Were Actually Built)" article from my senior thesis travel magazine, Inside Orlando, I decided to experiment with illustration work and design vintage-style attraction posters for each of the 10 unbuilt Walt Disney World attractions that I ranked.
I've long been fascinated with the history of Walt Disney World, especially the various publicly known projects that never came to be. The dreamer in me is always wondering what these never built attractions would have been like given the intense immersion and creativity The Walt Disney Company is known for. I decided to pair my passion for Disney history with my fascination with their collection of vintage-style attraction posters, which culminated in a project decades in the making: vintage Walt Disney World attraction posters for rides that never came to be.
By studying Disney's collection of retro attraction posters made popular in the early days of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as additional retro travel posters for various cities, I took the aesthetic of vintage illustration and combined it with the backstories of these never built attractions to create my own personal vision of what these attraction posters would have looked like hanging in the Disney parks.
Fire Mountain
Fire Mountain would have been an addition to the Magic Kingdom Park mountain lineup, joining Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. Located in Adventureland, Fire Mountain was to be a roller coaster through an active volcano. The most interesting aspect of this proposal was the innovative ride system Disney had planned. Riders would begin the ride in a seated roller coaster position, with the track below the riders, and then switch mid-ride to a flying roller coaster position, with the track now above the riders. The presence of the hang glider on the poster is a nod to the flying aspect of the coaster.
Bald Mountain
Bald Mountain would have been a second addition to the Magic Kingdom Park Mountain lineup and would have been based off of the Disney Villains franchise. The mountain itself would have been a replica of Bald Mountain from Disney's Fantasia, where the evil Chernabog sits atop. The exact story of the attraction is not clear, but it is known that Bald Mountain would have been a boat ride involving all of the Disney villains coming together, with a final drop down the mountain, similar to Splash Mountain, where riders escape an attack from Chernabog.
Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji was to sit behind the existing Japan pavilion at Epcot and contain a roller coaster similar to Disneyland's Matterhorn Bobsleds. Early plans called for Fuji Film as the sponsor of both Mount Fuji and an additional attraction in Japan which is also on my Top 10 list: the Japanese Bullet Train simulator. Unfortunately, talks between Disney and Fuji quickly ended when Kodak, which already sponsored the Imagination pavilion at Epcot, interjected, expressing dissatisfaction with an attraction being named after and sponsored by one of its top competitors. Because of this, Mount Fuji never saw the light of day.
Bullet Train
The unnamed Bullet Train Simulator discussed above would have been a second attraction in Japan and would have been a new take on the Disney-created Circle Vision 360 film technique. Riders would board replica bullet train vehicles which would simulate motion while large Circle Vision screens outside of the cabins would show various Japanese landscapes passing by as the train moved. Like Mount Fuji, failure to secure corporate sponsorship was the main reason why the attraction was never built.
The Excavator
The Excavator would've sat in DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney's Animal Kingdom on the former plot of Primeval Whirl. The ride would have been a runaway mine train roller coaster through a paleontological dig site. The coaster would have been an expansion of The Boneyard playground that greets DinoLand U.S.A. visitors today, and would have saw guests racing past dinosaur skeletons and mechanical dinosaurs built by the Dino Institute students. Due to rising costs of live animal facilities during the park's construction, The Excavator was unfortunately scrapped and DinoLand U.S.A. opened with only one attraction: Countdown to Extinction, now known as DINOSAUR. Chester and Hester's Dinorama, along with Primeval Whirl, was constructed sometime later on the land that The Excavator was to be built on.
