15 Abandoned and Unfinished Disney Projects

disney has a reputation for having a large number of abandoned theme parks these projects seemed like a good idea at the time but changing economical conditions in lower than expected demand resulted in them failing today we're taking a look at 15 abandoned disney projects [Music] 15 fire mountain the skylines of disney parks around the world are dominated by a number of recognizable features of course there are the castles at the center but also space and splash mountains where you'll find some of the most popular and renowned rides space mountain in particular has proved to be so successful that you might wonder why disney didn't replicate the format with a different theme the reality is they were much closer to actually doing this than you realize in the late 90s plants had been drawn up for a brand new roller coaster in the adventureland area of the magic kingdom known as fire mountain it would have been built near to the pirates of the caribbean ride and was based on the 2001 movie atlantis the lost empire with a narrative set in 1916 the focus would have been on preston whitmore's attempts to make atlantis known to the wider world with the use of specially designed vehicles but in the process something goes wrong and they're forced to navigate through lava-filled canyons of a volcano in true disney style the coaster would have been groundbreaking by beginning as a traditional roller coaster but having the cars hook up to a suspended track midway through so they could fly through the volcano ultimately though due to spiraling costs in the movie not performing as well at the box office as had been hoped the plans were scrapped with some of the elements being repurposed for a roller coaster at disney tokyo sea instead number 14 the great muppet movie ride shortly before jim henson's death disney mgm studios had opened to great success one of the more popular attractions was the muppet vision 3d experience work began on incorporating the muppets into other areas of the park which included a muppet themed restaurant and the great muppet movie ride which would have been a parody version of another of the park's attractions the great movie ride inside guests would have traveled on carts through various movie sets and seen the muppets recreating classic scenes from various movies including frankenstein and peter pan an animatronic statler and waldorf would have been present in each cart to provide commentary as the scenes would inevitably go wrong and there'd be the muppet-style brand of humor throughout such as horses making the sound of galloping by having coconuts on their shoes and a snow scene from dr zhivago that would have had kermit and miss piggy in a giant snow globe that was being rocked back and forth in the end the plan stalled after the planned merger between disney and the jim henson company fell through which is a great shame because it surely would have been one of the most talked about attractions at the studios number 13 plectus fantastic intergalactic review 1990 disney announced its disney decade project and revealed that part of its plans to upgrade the parks was to replace disneyland's tomorrowland with tomorrowland 2055. the main aim of this was to find a way to make it feel more futuristic and to bring ride concepts from other parks to disneyland but it included a number of new ideas too the main one being plectu's fantastic intergalactic review intended to replace america sings it would have been a carousel type stage show that would have put on performances by musical acts from across the galaxy think the country bear jamboree but with a space and alien theme and music that has its roots in what we're accustomed to on earth but with an intergalactic and typically disney twist to it this would have been a classic disney project relying on animatronics stunning character designs and a fantastical story to back it up but it was never meant to be following the financial hardships the company faced after the launch of euro disney and michael eisner the ceo at the time being reticent to sign off the 200 million dollar bill for the reimagined tomorrowland the decision was to simply give the area a new lick of paint and a few aesthetic changes instead of building any new significant attractions the intergalactic review therefore never made it beyond the concept stages and the carousel theater where it would have been based is now the star wars launch bay number 12 beastly kingdom disney's animal kingdom has been a resounding success since it opened in 1998 but have you ever looked closely at the park's logo and wondered why it has a dragon on it rather than being an oversight it was included from the early stages of planning for the new park and that's because initially there were plans for a section called the beastly kingdom originally the animal kingdom was going to exhibit three kinds of animal real extinct and imaginary the first two were covered by the safari and dinoland usa but the third element the beastly kingdom was scheduled to be built after the park had opened and would have dragons unicorns sea monsters and a wide range of mythical beasts there was going to be a maze several rides and it would have been split into a good side and evil side but the decision was made that it didn't need to be built and the plot that had been put aside for it was first used for camp mini mickey and is now where pandora the world of avatar can be found even though it never became a reality remnants of the beastly kingdom can still be seen around the animal kingdom there's a section of the parking lot called unicorn and one of the ticket booths at the entrance to the park has a large sculpture of a dragon's head above it the team behind the beastly kingdom ended up leaving disney all together after the decision had been made and were subsequently hired by universal studios where they set to work on the lost kingdom which was in fact the beastly kingdom in all but name number 11 david copperfield's magic underground during the 90s david copperfield was the most famous magician in the world and it seemed a no-brainer for disney to collaborate with him for a new project the result was david copperfield's magic underground which was going to be a new type of themed restaurant and had reached such a stage of planning that billboards were put up near the entrance of disney mgm studios and on hollywood boulevard to announce its imminent arrival all traces of the project and the billboard suddenly vanished in a way that even the illusionist would have been proud of there were going to be several restaurants one at the studios one in times square new york and others at each of the international parks and they would have been decorated with magical paraphernalia there would have been magicians going around to the tables to perform tricks and areas set aside for larger illusions by all accounts the times square venue which would have had a 45 foot tall statue of copperfield surrounded by 18 foot tall gas torches was 85 percent complete but admits creatives differences and massive cost overruns the entire project was cancelled leading to an estimated loss of 34 million [Music] number 10 villains mountain all of disney parks celebrate the heroes and the characters that have made the house of mouse so famous but no story would be complete without the villains and they're featured surprisingly little throughout disney's venues this of course is partly because the company wants its parks to be a magical and wondrous experience for guests but it is also because at times there was a plan to create somewhere dedicated to the evil characters that made the lives of the heroes so difficult the first attempt to focus on the villains was the cinderella's castle mystery tour which opened at tokyo disneyland in 1986 but because it scared so many guests the decision was made to close it down 20 years later the imagineers kept trying to find ways to create an attraction with a lighter tone though and records suggest that they were very close to building the so-called villains mountain on the site where the many adventures of winnie the pooh currently is the idea was that it would be a flume ride similar to splash mountain but it would see guests floating past scenes featuring all of the famous villains and at the end emerging out of chernabog's mouth into a downhill slope the big splash to finish while it wasn't ever made it shows that disney isn't necessarily averse to a villainous ride ever since the plans were revealed fans have hoped that they'll return to the idea and we may one day see a section of a disney park dedicated to darker themes number nine western river expedition possibly the most famous disney project that was never realized was the western river expedition and it's probably the abandoned idea that was closest to being built before being cancelled when walt disney world first opened in 1971 it didn't have a ride like the pirates of the caribbean and the western river expedition was going to be the floridian version because at the time it was believed that local residents were too accustomed to pirate life for it to be as popular in a similar setup to the pirates of the caribbean guests would have entered boats at the beginning of the ride and been transported through recreations of the western expansion passing by a recreation of the mississippi river up a waterfall and pass scenes depicting a fictional western town called dry gulch with cowboys shootouts a jail escape and a musical show it would have been the largest and most expensive attraction at any of the disney parks at the time if it had been built and it's the cost that ultimately led to its cancellation detailed plans had already been made though and you can still see them in their repurposed places around the park including the raft used to access tom sawyer island and even the song that's used on splash mountain we're constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight mount fuji rollercoaster epcot features attractions inspired by places around the world there are probably more abandoned projects that were once planned for that park than any other even before it opened in 1982 there were ideas of bringing the wonders of japan to florida with either a circle vision 360 show to allow guests to feel what it was like to be on a bullet train complete with a vibrating floor but perhaps the most exciting idea was a huge recreation of mount fuji it would have been built behind the japan pavilion and would have been an imposing site in the skyline of the park as you'd expect the design also included a roller coaster that ran inside and outside of the mountain being chased by a godzilla-like monster and would have been the first coaster to have been constructed at epcot the designs were by all accounts in advanced stages but the plans for the mount fuji roller coaster never became a reality for one main reason the cost to cover the huge fees for construction most attractions at epcot are sponsored but it was proving to be tricky to find a company to bankroll this one the obvious candidate was fujifilm but because kodak was already a major sponsor of disney there was no way they'd have allowed one of their competitors to be featured on such an imposing part of the park number 7 discovery bay after designing big thunder mountain railroad in 1979 legendary disney imagineer tony baxter came up with a steampunk idea for the plot that's now taken up by galaxy's edge which would have been known as discovery bay it was based on the jules verne inspired movie the island at the top of the world and was linked with the backstory of the thunder mountain railroad this would have been an entirely new region of the park in its own right and had a number of concepts for rides that were ready to go the plans were for there to be a simulated submarine ride that had a restaurant in the main viewing section an exploration ride where guests would board a ship to search for the island at the top of the world a river rapids through a prehistoric landscape a magnetic roller coaster and carousel theater show designs were also made for how to connect the bay with the rest of the park with a mooring dock for the riverboat and a balloon-themed skyway that linked with fantasyland and had the movie been a success at the box office discovery bay could have well become a reality its failure though meant that it was impossible to justify the budget needed to construct a new land and so the designs were repurposed and used in plans for elsewhere six new countries at epcot as a place to showcase the best that the world has to offer epcot features areas dedicated to specific countries but what you see today is far from how it was initially envisioned there have been so many different ideas over the years that it's virtually impossible to imagine how the park would now be if any of them had become a reality the denmark pavilion would have featured a lego canal boat ride and a recreation of the world famous tivoli gardens while the costa rica pavilion would have been a place to showcase spanish colonial architecture along with stunning plants animals water features and traditional cuisine the iran pavilion which was intended to be built right from the very start was planned to have a ride through persian history and a bazaar-like marketplace and the russian pavilion was going to be a place that would teach an unbiased history of the country and a place to experience its culture there were also plans for an israeli pavilion with a cluster of market stalls a spanish pavilion with two water rides an australian pavilion with a recreation of sydney's opera house and possibly the most ambitious of all a swiss pavilion that would have contained a recreation of the matterhorn mountain and a version of the matterhorn bobsleds right around it the reasons why these plans fell through varied from failure to sign agreements with the respective countries to a lack of funding to make them a reality with so many ideas being put forward though you just have to wonder what they'll actually decide to do next at epcot number five the excavator dinoland usa at disney's animal kingdom is based around a large sand and gravel pit where fossils can be found but the original plans also included a roller coaster that would be built alongside it called the excavator the idea was that it would be an ore car track that had been left over from when the area was a quarry before fossils had first been discovered and something that the dino institute students had since turned into a ride for their own amusement and to help transport the larger fossils that they had uncovered similar to a runaway mine cart roller coaster the excavator would have been themed with signs warning of safety dangers as the cars rolled around rib cages of dinosaur skeletons and sculptures that had been made by the students from all the junk that lay around the ride was going to open at the same time as countdown to extinction to ensure that that part of the park attracted enough guests but it was eventually canceled because of the spiraling costs associated with having so many live animals on site countdown to extinction was seen as appealing enough to anchor dinoland when it opened and eventually the primeval world roller coaster was built in its place number four the german river ride when epcot opened in 1982 there were still a number of attractions in the process of being developed but one the rhine river cruise would eventually be cancelled because of budget constraints even though some of its elements had already been constructed once described in a press release as being a cruise down germany's most famous rivers the rhine the talba the ruler and the isar it would feature a number of miniature landmarks from throughout german history passengers would have all been facing the same direction which would have allowed the designers to focus their attention on elaborate scenes without having to worry about a 360 degree field of view and it would have been a calm journey without any rapids or quick descents the german pavilion as you probably know was built there was a part of the building that visitors often overlook which was originally intended to be the entrance to the ride according to some reports some of the trenches had already been dug and when epcot opened the site where it would have been was covered with large doors these have since been replaced with a mural that depicts the rhine river itself which makes you wonder if any of the rye can still actually be found behind this false wall as for why it wasn't completed rather than being because of budgetary constraints it's thought that the teams responsible for construction simply had too much on their hands when epcot opened and some projects had to be cancelled so the others could be completed on schedule by the time it did open there was little need for the river crews so they never returned to it number three the enchanted snow palace one of disney's most successful cinematic releases of recent times frozen was based on han christian andersen's the snow queen but it turns out that this wasn't the first time the company tried to make an adaptation of the tale in the late 70s plans were made to build an attraction at the fantasyland of disneyland and the magic kingdom under the direction of renowned imagineer mark davis it was touted as a musical adventure where guests would travel through the icy world of the snow queen and encounter polar bears walruses mischievous penguins and snowball men before arriving in the queen's court the plan was cancelled though but the company turned its sights on the imminent opening of epcot and increased focus on thrilled rides but not all of the designs went to waste disney experts have noted undeniable similarities between the sketches of the snow queen for the ride and elsa from frozen meaning the blockbuster movie was many more years in the making than anyone had realized number two the nightmare before christmas ride if you visited disney's haunted mansion around christmas time in recent years you'll be aware that it gets upgraded with characters from tim burton's the nightmare before christmas but while it's now a seasonal event there was very nearly a permanent ride based on the movie originally planned to be installed next to the pirates of the caribbean it would have seen guests sitting in vehicles that looked like flying coffins and they would soar through a meticulous recreation of the world from the film you would queue through the halloweentown graveyard and would have to help jack skellington save christmas by the end he would also have managed to attract the attentions of sally and in the final scene they'd share a hug in the snow before the ride came to an end quite why it was never built isn't known for certain but it's likely to do with the cost of replicating the movie in real life as well as the feeling that there are already a number of similar rides that carry guests through narrative scenes disney now tends to favor exhilarating experience and without perilous twists and falls at every turn it's likely the nightmare before christmas ride was simply unable to target the right customers still the haunted mansion is incredible when it's been taken over by jack and the gang so perhaps this was all for the best number one disney's america most abandoned disney projects were rides or attractions but did you know there was an entire amusement park that was well into development before the plug was pulled known as disney's america it was an ambitious project that would have seen a 185 acre site near haymarket virginia turned into a destination that celebrated the history of the usa the plans were announced in 1993 with the park's opening scheduled for 1998 and at a cost of 650 million dollars which is the equivalent to just over a billion in today's money would have been split into nine different sections and one of the theme park at the center along with thousands of hotel rooms a golf course and a huge area set aside for commercial development the different lands would each focus on a part of history and would have been called native america president square crossroads usa enterprise victory field state fair family farm civil war fort and we the people from the start it proved to be controversial however not least because the proposed site was just eight miles away from the manason national battlefield park where two of the most significant battles of the american civil war took place despite the support of local authorities keen to encourage investment to the area disney was finally forced to cancel the plans in 1994 and look to alternatives instead of proceeding with an american park elements that had been designed for this venture were incorporated into disney california's adventure which opened in 2001 watch our binge watching playlist if you'd like to watch all of our most popular top 15 videos grab a drink grab a snack and get ready to binge

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 805,425

Rating: 4.8469396 out of 5

Keywords: Abandoned Disney Projects, Unfinished & Abandoned Disney World Attractions, Disney

Id: xiOil_ly9uk

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020