Defunctland: The History of Disney's Best Coaster, Space Mountain: From the Earth to the Moon

[Music] [Music] [Music] jules verne is one of the most recognizable authors of all time known for his extensive detailing of the scientific concepts that he included in his novels one of his most popular works was 1865 s de la terre a la lune or from the earth to the moon the story focused on the Baltimore Gun Club a group of American weapons manufacturers attempting to create a gun powerful enough to launch a space capsule to the moon the novel was not only successful but it was also massively influential in 1902 French filmmaker George Melies created one of the first science fiction films a trip to the moon inspired by Verne's novel decades later in 1969 when the astronauts of Apollo 11 returned from their own trip to the moon Neil Armstrong drew comparisons between Verne's story and his team's mission so when it came time to build discovery land at Euro Disney Land an area drawing inspiration from the work of Verne it was quite obvious how to fit a Space Mountain into it the issue was the budget the original concepts for discoveryland Space Mountain was much more than just an enclosed two rollercoaster the Imagineers drew up a ginormous pavilion over twice the size of Space Mountain a Walt Disney World named discovery Mountain guests would enter the pavilion into an interior themed after mysterious island the homeport of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus they would immediately be greeted by the famous submarine peeking out of the water this ginormous model would house a walkthrough attraction allowing guests to experience the interior of the Nautilus similar to the original Disneyland exhibit near this area would have also been an underwater restaurant themed to the interior of the sub so the guests could dine aboard the Nautilus and stare out at the ocean life this was another attempt to utilize a concept from the never built discovery Bay the pavilion would also our guests have direct access to star tours and Captain EO at one point it was rumored that the popular Epcot dark ride horizons would be cloned and placed within the pavilion and concept art showed the Jules Verne show scene from the ride replicated and placed above guests there was also a steampunk theme train station that the Euro Disneyland railroad could stop at a drop tower based on another Jules firm property journey to the Center of the Earth and finally a Space Mountain themed after from the earth to the moon this space mountain would not only take guests from the earth to the stars but it also allowed them to navigate the lunar surface guess would be shot out of a large cannon akin to Vern space gun and be sent to the moon they would then wind through craters and rock formations before returning back to earth non-riders within the pavilion could even watch the coaster speed through the stars from areas referred to as telescope points discovery mounts and and its attractions would be another ambitious Imagineering concept that would never come to fruition and it is quite obvious why while the idea itself seems great the show building pavilion and all of the attractions would have come with an enormous price tag well outside of Euro Disney's original construction budget this was one of the reasons that Disney decided to wait a few years after Euro Disney's opening to greenlight the project their thinking was that if the resort turned a profit quickly they would have the funds necessary to build discovery mountain on top of this they could partner the opening of the new attractions with a marketing push designed not only to bring new guests into the resort but encourage past visitors to return of course this was the plan pre opening and after Euro Disney debuted everything changed attendance was less than half of what was expected and the hotels were so empty that one was temporarily closed to save money in 1993 alone the company reported a loss of around 1 billion dollars efforts were made to renegotiate contracts and payments between Disney the Euro Disney subsidiary and the creditor banks in an attempt to avoid the resort from declaring bankruptcy however these initial attempts failed and on January 1st 1994 Eisner began warning the public the Euro Disney Resort might close he even began considering withdrawing from the resort entirely abandoning the subsidiary Euro Disney SCA to deal with the banks and debt on its own when asked why he was making such threats to the company that Disney was so heavily invested in Eisner applied the word threatened doesn't seem fair to me he went on to say that Disney would fully support Euro Disney SCA until March 31st or in other words less than three months Eisner explained that if a fair Accord is found from now until then between the Walt Disney Company and all the banks and investors than Euro Disney continues that would be a happy end in the tradition of the Disney Universe while March 31st was how long Disney support was promised the involved parties really only had until March 15th to sort out 3.5 billion dollars in debt because that was the day of the annual shareholders meeting Euro Disney SCA would need to be able to report some sort of update on the restructuring plan and assurance of Disney support to avoid the bankruptcy somehow on March 14th the day before the shareholders meeting a restructuring was in in which disney the creditor banks and a wealthy Saudi prince invested in the resort the banks also forgave interest payments in an attempt to decrease the large debt while the deal allowed the resort to avoid bankruptcy all of the measures of the restructuring were temporary the bank's deferred interest for three years and Disney would not demand royalty payments from the resort for five practices that could not be continued for long it was clear that the restructuring was not a solution for Disney they were stalling while the executives and investors were dealing with the financial issues the Imagineers were hard at work due the lack of funds Tim Delaney and his team knew that they would not be able to create the Discovery Mountain Pavilion in its entirety but this did not stop them from implementing a few of the ideas the first step to the expansion was to build a lagoon in Discovery land where a large model the Nautilus would be placed guests could end of the submarine for a walk through an exhibit called the mysteries of the Nautilus while it appears the guests are under the lagoon the entrance to the attraction actually takes them to a completely separate show building and the Nautilus scene outside is merely a model the mysteries of the Nautilus debuted on July 4th 1994 by then a ginormous structure with a familiar shape already loomed behind it while the Imagineers and I have the budget for it in its original form they had found the funds to build a Discovery Mountain instead of a pavilion filled with attractions this conical structure would feature just one the enclosed coaster themed after Jules Verne's from the earth to the moon your destination outer space your speed astronomical your closest encounter asteroids [Music] between the earth and the moon lies the adventure Space Mountain the greatest riot in the universe at Disneyland Paris the new ride was named discovery Mountain throughout production and construction however around a month before the ride opened management was convinced that Space Mountain would be more effective in marketing so the name was changed to Space Mountain from the earth to the moon since the attraction was so far into development when this decision was made numerous signs had already been created with the initials DM and may remain in the attraction despite the name change after pouring all the money Eurodisney could find into construction of Marketing Space Mountain from the earth to the moon opened on June 1st 1995 [Music] and let positive this right goes freely really back it really looks great sounds fun [Music] [Music] as guests approached the new Space Mountain it was immediately clear that this was much different than anyone that had come before it for one the exterior copper finish was highly stylistic blending him perfectly with the rest of discoveryland also the massive bronze cannon attached to the side of the mountain provided an incredible exterior show every few minutes the cannon would fire and out of the barrel will come a bullet containing screaming guests perfectly placed oak affects gave the appearance that the guests had been shot into the sky going so fast that they had disappeared out of the other side of the cannon as guests entered the cue they were surprised to find themselves on a platform in the middle of the ride with trains and special effects surrounding them giving a preview of what was to come yes eventually wind their way into the home of the Baltimore Gun Club in which drawings of the planned space gun could be seen it is also set up here that a member of the club has started a space mining company and drawings of his machines were also on display after waiting for the majority of the queue inside guess exit onto the side of the mountain the loading station is outside as guests need to enter the space gun in order to be shot into space after boarding their vehicles guests are put directly into the barrel of the cannon at this point the ride reveals one of its most impressive features the newly developed so bat or synchronized onboard audio track this allows for music and sound effects to be played directly to guess with the track being timed perfectly to emphasize different experiences throughout the attraction from the earth to the moon score written by composer Steve Bramson is a beautiful heroic and epic melody and is one of the highlights of the ride but sound is just one of the many elements with which the coaster would impress its riders the next came after guests head into the cannon sitting on an incline the guests wait as the gun is prepared besides open and the Train is lifted into position just as the music builds guests are launched traveling upward 40 miles per hour through smoke then a drop down reveals that they had made its space a bank left swoops guests through the Stars and by asteroids the turn levels out into a drop sending guests into another surprise a full loop making this the first and so far only Space Mountain to feature any type of inversion after finishing the loop the train speeds ahead weaving its way through a large space mining tool guests are then taken up a curved incline and make their way through the smoky interior of a hollowed meteor the Train then performs a long corkscrew before slowing down a bit and coming on to a lift Hill guests are then given a view of the smiling moon similar in style to the georges milies film after finally reaching their destination yes plummet back down to earth making their way through more meteors and another inversion before a series of light signaled that the train is about to stop guess then swoop down and enter the electrode a velociter a device designed to land the bullet sent to the moon guests are given their last burst of smoke before the music transitions to a victorious March the Train then exits the mountain and returns to the loading station to say that Space Mountain from the earth to the moon was an impressive ride would not do it justice the technology the music and the theming were amazing but perhaps the most brilliant part of the ride was its ability to tell a story despite its fast-paced design the nearly 90 million dollar ride was a huge gamble for Euro Disney the company was relying on the attraction to reinvigorate interest in the park and euro disney's annual report sent out to shareholders in the years leading up to its release the company mentioned the ride in the way in which it would turn the resort around this put a lot of unfair pressure on the ride to draw audiences in but somehow it surpassed all expectations Space Mountain from the earth to the moon was a smashing success the ride seemed to even please some of the French public so critical of Euro Disney in its beginning the rides heavy marketing and rave reviews caused resort attendance to skyrocket and a year after space mountains opening the newly named Disneyland Paris was happy to announce its first quarterly profit 35 million dollars a small number but a huge victory talks of the park closing ceased and Michael Eisner even personally thanked designer Tim Delaney for saving Euro Disney the coaster had done everything that had set out to do and more however Space Mountain from the earth to the moon would only get to entertain guests for one decade because while that had saved the resort a new round of misfortune would soon be on its way opening of the Walt Disney Studios take 1 lights Muhtar Saturn taxi are [Music] thrilled to see Disneyland Paris finally turning a profit Eisner decided to go ahead with one of the original plans for the resort a second gate the decision was made after the turnaround in 1996 to finally build disney-mgm Studios Europe in part to fulfill a promise made to investors early on in euro disney's development the issue was that disneyland paris was doing better but it wasn't steady just yet on top of this disney-mgm Studios in Orlando was having a difficult time adjusting to the reduced number of productions being shot at the studios the park was in sort of a theming limbo caught between the original Universal Studios Hollywood production tram tour and the new Universal Studios Florida ride the movie style it would remain in this limbo for nearly twenty years before eventually going all-in on the latter regardless this made creating disney-mgm Studios Europe all the more difficult as its source material was not confident in its own theming however Eisner and the executives pushed on and created the second gate anyways opening his Walt Disney Studios Park on March 16th 2002 the construction budget for the resort was a mere 550 million dollars even california adventure cost at least 600 million the result was a park which mainly consisted of shows and demonstrations on opening day the theme park only featured three rides rock and roller coaster the studio tram tour and magic carpets of the Latin on top of the park's lack of poll among guests the terrorist attacks of September 11th hurt the tourism industry worldwide Disney also sided the war with Iraq the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Asia harsh weather in Europe and a series of transportation strikes all of these things sent the resorts spiraling and eurodisney SCA called for help once again Disney and the investors had to restructure the resort's finances for a second time and the Disneyland Paris resort needed another attendance boost after the process to get back on track in order to do so they would turn to the attraction that was once their savior to coincide with the 10th year anniversary of the ride and more importantly create a desperately needed attendance boost Space Mountain from the earth to the moon was retooled to Space Mountain mission to Mickey was waiting outside for me with a supercomputer bingo camera detected on outer edges of the galaxy in Space Mountain mission two [Music] [Applause] afterwards the camera was nowhere to be seen the new version of the ride saw the removal of the vast majority of the jewels Burton theming and the new mission took guests all across the universe this saw a lot of the story accents replaced by generic space themed objects for instance the smiling moon was changed to an animation of a supernova most large structures and scenes remained and various lighting effects were added throughout the ride perhaps too many as parts of the track and show building were exposed the cannon launch was altered so that the train started from a point lower down on the incline the cars were repainted to silver and set a bronze and most disappointing of all the original score to the ride was replaced for a new one written by Michael Giacchino the famous composer that had worked on the updated space mountain scores for Disneyland in Anaheim and Hong Kong the result was a Space Mountain similar in design to its predecessor but without the story in theming that had made the original experience so unique mission 2 was still the most exhilarating Space Mountain on earth but now it was no different than any of the others in terms of story worse the change came to the purpose of a lazy marketing scheme in that Disneyland Paris canal Market Space Mountain as a brand new ride despite it just being a watered-down version of the original Space Mountain mission 2 would operate for over a decade closing in January of 2017 to undergo a renovation rumors have circulated for years that mission 2 would eventually be reverted back to its former glory but of course this wasn't the case quite the opposite really when Paris the Space Mountain would reopen in May of 2017 it received the star wars hyperspace mountain treatment this overlay first appeared in Disneyland in Anaheim in 2015 then again in Hong Kong in 2016 all of the hyperspace mounts and overlays rely on the use of projection mapping to add recognizable ships and planets from the Star Wars universe these work a lot better with the classic Space Mountain style because Paris's version just feels empty and sad this version of the ride is only supposed to last until mid to late 2018 after the Space Mountain mission 2 will return but many fans are still hoping that from the earth to the moon will eventually make its way back to Discovery land it was everything you could want out of an attraction a well told story perfect theming innovative technology and monetarily successful it was the best Space Mountain and it saved Eurodisney even if it was just for a little while as for the Disneyland Paris resort it has always bragged about being the number one tourist destination in Europe while this might be the case this is in no way an indication of success it has limped along showing some glimmers of hope before being devastated by financial issues once again and the Walt Disney Company has recently taken it over in early 2018 CEO Bob Iger promised a large investment in the resort this will hopefully be the end of the struggles of Disneyland Paris but the damage has already been done its initial failures created a domino effect within the Walt Disney Company affecting all areas of the parks division during what was one of the most successful times for Disney Studios Euro Disney held the company behind the financial issues would force the closure of many fan favorite rides and see the cancellation of many ambitious projects if any good was to come out of the resort's failure it would be an important lesson when one goes in with the mindset that failure is impossible or when one's only worries that they will be too successful they will be completely caught off guard by even slightly missing the mark perhaps the most ironic part is that Jules Verne himself believed that the entrepreneurs of the United States possess the exact opposite trait as he wrote in the final line of from the earth to the moon it is part of the American temperament to foresee everything in business even failure [Music] you you

Channel: Defunctland

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Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, disney, disneyland, disney world, previous, attractions, on ride, lights on, space mountain, disney roller coaster, disney roller coasters, best space mountain, space mountain from the earth to the moon, space mountain mission 2, space mountain disneyland paris, space mountain paris, euro disneyland failure, disneyland failure, de la terre a la lune

Id: wqV070b25GA

Length: 20min 11sec (1211 seconds)

Published: Sun May 13 2018