There’s been a debate among Disney fans about the idea of too much IP in the parks. It’s easy to see the complaints on Disney basing rides on not just movies but stuff from Marvel, Star Wars and other properties rather than more original stuff. The fight continues with some hoping that Disney can let go of this obsession.
Yet 30 years ago came an attraction that was one of the first major non-Disney IP rides for a Disney park. It also remains one of the absolute genius peaks of Imagineering in a decade when Disney was doing great with it. That it’s a perfect mix of how to do an IP right along with a ride that still thrills decades later shows its amazing power, no matter what kind of motif it has.
The Tower of Terror.
The very name rolls off the tongue and makes it sound amazing. Sure, technically it’s the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror but fans prefer the latter, especially given its changes in other parks. And like the property it uses, its journey to life remains a fascinating journey. In fact, many may be unaware of the secret early ideas the Tower had that could have made for a very different ride.
The history of the Tower
Interestingly, the journey to this now-iconic Disney ride begins 3000 miles away.
When Disneyland Paris (then known as Euro Disney) was being planned in the late 1980s, one attraction was going to be Geyser Mountain, a “freefall” type ride. These were becoming popular in other theme parks, the simple but effective idea of riders taking up a large tower then dropping down fast.
Of course, Disney couldn’t do just a copy like that, instead hoping to combine it with a roller coaster-like track. Like many early Imagineering ideas, it never came to fruition but luckily, Imagineers never threw anything out and the idea sat around, just waiting for the right time to be brushed off and reused.
That came as Disney was working on ideas to spark up the Disney-MGM Studios in the early 1990s. They knew something special was needed and a push for more open thrills rides at Disney parks. So a freefall ride fit well. They just needed the right story for it.
The Mel Brooks Hotel
The first idea would have been an interesting one as Disney wanted to make a ride based around legendary comedy writer/director Mel Brooks. As detailed in this article, at first, it would have been themed after Brooks’ classic comedy Young Frankenstein with guests watching the story play out.
That shifted to the concept of Brooks making a movie at a haunted hotel with guests riding golf carts around the sets. This would have had a fun exterior of half the place looking rundown and falling apart and then the “set” area. A crazy suggestion was that guests would be transported right from the Orlando airport to this hotel in a special car and then taken into a working hotel.
The ride itself would have been filled with Haunted-Mansion style sight gags: a vampire shaving with no reflection, Frankenstein using the Mummy’s wrappings as toilet paper, witches cooking in the kitchen, etc. It might have been a fun idea, but Brooks and Disney were definitely a mismatch in styles at that time, so they went their separate ways. The hotel idea, however, would stick around.
An awards show?
Imagineers were still pitching ideas, including an odd one as rather than a ride, the attraction would mix film and audio-animatronics together in a celebration of Hollywood horror. Titled the Creature's Choice Awards, it would be an awards show hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the famously buxom horror hostess and comedian superstar Eddie Murphy as a Frankenstein-like creature.
It would have included somehow an award for Godzilla with movies showing the legendary monster storming from Tokyo to Disney World. Supposedly, the finale would have a massive Godzilla robot showing up on stage to "accept' the award. It was vetoed due to the high cost involved and a ride sounded like it'd have more staying power. Interestingly, Disney also wanted a Godzilla-themed coaster for Epcot's Japan pavilion, so it's odd they never did anything with the character.
A murder mystery
Another concept played on an older idea of a mansion that was home to a murder mystery show where a wrap party for a horror movie has someone bumping off the actors. That might have been a tad too dark, so little wonder it was vetoed fast. Disney hoped to get iconic horror movie star Vincent Price to provide voice and video work with Price seemingly interested. Sadly, before that could go further, Price died in late 1991, although he did record voice work for Disneyland Paris’ version of the Haunted Mansion.
Disney still played with that, as well as the notion of basing the ride on Stephen King novels. The very idea of the master of horror and Disney working together is fantastic and almost a shame it never got going.
The hotel develops
The hotel idea remained with the Imagineers and Disney seriously toyed with the idea of making it an actual hotel with a horror vibe. In fact, some of the early concepts aren’t much different than what the Star Wars Galactic StarCruiser became with cast members dressed like 1930s hotel staff carrying bags around. A fun scene would be for a guest to see what looked like an AA of a man on a chair slowly moving his head until he started talking to reveal he was a real person.
They were dropped for much the same reason a lot of ideas like this died out, that Disney didn’t want to have more cast members than needed around. Eisner had liked one idea kicked around from the Price version, that guests would be inside a hotel where a mysterious disappearance once took place only to find themselves trapped. The only way out was an elevator that would drop them to the basement exit.
Just who came up with the Twilight Zone idea is unknown as Disney had been wanting to integrate Rod Serling’s landmark show into the Studios for a while. It simply clicked to mix the story and have guests be the “stars” of their own episode.
A fun bit was that Disney wanted to use the famous Otis Elevators company but they refused as they’d spent over a century making everyone think their elevators were the safest so not going to make them look bad. They were swayed to create the one-of-a-kind system once assured it wouldn’t be a real elevator.
Thus, the Tower of Terror became the ride we know today, with copies in California (which later became Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout) and Disneyland Paris with Tokyo…well, that’s a different story.
Why Tower of Terror is different in Tokyo Disneyland
The reason for Tokyo Disneyland having a different version of the Tower ties into Japanese culture itself. First, when American Imagineers first began pitching the ride to the Oriental Land Company (which owns Tokyo Disneyland), they realized one important thing: Barely anyone in Japan knew what The Twilight Zone was. For some reason, the show never took off in Japan, so the references to it would go over the heads of guests. The rights and fees issues were also a consideration, but it was more the lack of name recognition making it less likely Japanese audiences would respond as well to the ride.
There’s also the fact that Japanese culture views ghosts differently than Western nations. It’s why Tokyo’s Haunted Mansion is located in Fantasyland, they see ghost stories like fairy tales. Thus, Imagineers reworked the ride with a new storyline of Harrison Hightower III, an explorer who made the mistake of mocking a mystical idol he’d taken from a tribe. Cue a fateful elevator ride that turned out badly.
The Hightower Hotel was abandoned before being “refurbished” into a tour, which leads into the main storyline. It’s a fun turn that captures the feel of the ride’s drops and thrills and adds a different experience for the Japanese audiences.
So while the Tower of Terror may be seen as such a classic ride today, it’s intriguing to view what could have been. The Mel Brooks idea might have been a fun one or some darker takes yet few can argue that the Twilight Zone theme doesn’t give the attraction the iconic status it enjoys now.