Though this is obviously meant to be a record of the
Tower of Terror built at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, I thought I’d like
to compile some history and trivia about the other Towers here for context and fun.
The original Twilight
Zone Tower of Terror, and the one that I first rode, is the one at Disney’s
Hollywood Studios park in Orlando, Florida.
Among my family, it's infamous for breaking my dad’s camera. We didn’t know what the ride did, so dad was
first impressed by the camera “floating” during the falling segment of the
ride, only for the camera to hit the floor and break when the drop ended. I never forgot that lesson. This is why any videos or pictures from the
elevator portion of the Tower that show up on this blog are not mine; I’m not going to risk my camera.
On a more relevant
note, the Florida Tower opened in 1994, and was significantly different than
the current version of the Floridian ride that garners so much praise from
fans. Although it had the most elaborate
queue area and show scenes from the start, it notably only dropped ONCE—from
the top of the tower to the bottom—rather than the variety of randomized drops,
bounces, and special effects it is known for today. The current version is the result of
successive upgrades to the ride.[1]
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| The Florida Tower. Image from Wikipedia |
The Florida Tower is
199 feet tall, and is the tallest of the Towers. Its architecture is in a Gothic-Deco
semi-hybrid style with Mediterranean influences, made to look both ominous and
fitting for the 1940s Hollywood setting of the park section where it resides. The blog TowerSecrets.com refers to this
architectural style as “Neo-Mediterranean."[2] Notably, it was designed to fit thematically
both inside the Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then Disney’s MGM Studios) AND
the World Showcase at Epcot. The
designers knew that the tall structure would be visible over the Moroccan
pavilion and designed the architecture to be thematically consistent when
viewed from that area as well (hence the “Mediterranean influence”).
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| The Florida Tower as seen with the Morocco Pavilion across the World Showcase Lagoon at Epcot. Photo by "deror avi" on Wikimedia Commons |
This Tower’s signature scene is the “5th
Dimension” portion of the ride, wherein the elevator travels forwards down a hallway that transforms
into the Twilight Zone. Florida is the
only Tower to feature this scene, and when the California version opened the
lack of this segment drew criticism from fans (including, admittedly, me).
The second tower to open was the one at Disney’s California Adventure (DCA), on May 5, 2004. Since the rest of this project will focus on this ride, I won’t over-summarize here. It was meant to add another much-needed headliner attraction to the underwhelming original version of DCA. Critical fans complained about the changes from the Florida version, which included the lack of the 5th Dimension scene as well as changes meant to prioritize rider capacity over immersion. However, it was still a great ride and a hit with most fans and the public despite the criticism, and was, for a while at least, one of the iconic parts of DCA. (And I, of course, loved it. It would be weird for me to run this blog if I didn't!)
The third tower was the Disneyland Paris version, which opened on April 5, 2008 [3]. Although at first glance it appears to be a clone of the DCA Tower, there are in fact recognizable differences. Obviously, language is one of them. The Paris Tower is bilingual, with the default dub being French. There are, however, videos of the Paris Tower that show it running the English dub. Perhaps the cast members have the ability to switch soundtracks based on the demographics in the ride car that day. I have also heard people claim that riders can request which dub is used for their ride.
In terms of the building exterior, the easiest differences one can use to spot the Paris ride vs. the California one are landscaping and decorative “round things” (for lack of a better term) on the side of the tower. The Paris grounds have less landscaping and trees around the Tower, and also do not have plants in the “bowls” in the dried-out fountain. The "round things" are decorative bracers under the large blocky "T" shaped part of the Tower.
The second tower to open was the one at Disney’s California Adventure (DCA), on May 5, 2004. Since the rest of this project will focus on this ride, I won’t over-summarize here. It was meant to add another much-needed headliner attraction to the underwhelming original version of DCA. Critical fans complained about the changes from the Florida version, which included the lack of the 5th Dimension scene as well as changes meant to prioritize rider capacity over immersion. However, it was still a great ride and a hit with most fans and the public despite the criticism, and was, for a while at least, one of the iconic parts of DCA. (And I, of course, loved it. It would be weird for me to run this blog if I didn't!)
The third tower was the Disneyland Paris version, which opened on April 5, 2008 [3]. Although at first glance it appears to be a clone of the DCA Tower, there are in fact recognizable differences. Obviously, language is one of them. The Paris Tower is bilingual, with the default dub being French. There are, however, videos of the Paris Tower that show it running the English dub. Perhaps the cast members have the ability to switch soundtracks based on the demographics in the ride car that day. I have also heard people claim that riders can request which dub is used for their ride.
In terms of the building exterior, the easiest differences one can use to spot the Paris ride vs. the California one are landscaping and decorative “round things” (for lack of a better term) on the side of the tower. The Paris grounds have less landscaping and trees around the Tower, and also do not have plants in the “bowls” in the dried-out fountain. The "round things" are decorative bracers under the large blocky "T" shaped part of the Tower.
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In terms of architectural styling for the California and Paris versions, I’ll discuss that in its own section later. Of course, there are minor interior detail differences as well, such as the exact placement of props. Paris’ lobby also lacked the “King and Queen” portraits that I’ll discuss in another post. However, it would be nigh impossible to catalog every exact miniscule difference between the Towers if we nitpick at such details.
EDIT:Interestingly, according to Martin Smith's DCA and Paris Tower documentary (see HERE), the Paris Tower was designed first, but then built years earlier at DCA than at the intended Paris site. This might explain why quite a bit of official DCA art shows the California Tower with Paris' "round things". That was the intended design all along, but for some reason the bracers weren't included on the California exterior. /EDIT
The
fourth Tower is the Tokyo Disneyland version, which opened in 2006 according to
the Disney wiki. I put it last not
because of chronology, but because of thematic differences. The most unique part of this Tower is that it
has nothing to do with the Twilight Zone
television series. This was either due
to that show being unpopular in Japan, or due to the Japanese company that
co-owns Tokyo Disneyland not wanting to pay a licensing fee to use the Twilight Zone name (or maybe both, or
neither). At any rate, the story for
Tokyo is unique and has shared lore with the California and Florida versions of
the Haunted Mansion (although, oddly enough, the lore is not shared with Tokyo’s
own unique Mansion).
In
Tokyo, the Tower is set in New York, and is the Hotel Hightower rather than the
Hollywood Tower Hotel. It is owned by
Harrison Hightower, a rich jerk who loves stealing cultural treasures from
native peoples around the world and displaying said treasures in his hotel. Then, one day, he steals a cursed idol that
doesn’t appreciate Hightower’s thieving ways.
The idol proceeds to kill Hightower via falling elevator. Harrison is a relative of George Hightower,
one of the grooms killed by Constance the Black Widow Bride in the Florida and
California Haunted Mansions. It also shares lore with Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor and Walt Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain, via the shared Society of Explorers and Adventurers story.[4]
The
architecture for this tower looks similar to the Gothic façade of the Florida
Haunted Mansion. It is a mixture of
Gothic and Moorish Revival architecture, per the Disney Wiki. TowerSecrets simply calls it “Moorish
Revival”.
Tokyo’s
Tower seems to garner a lot of praise from fans, much like most of Tokyo
Disneyland seems to earn high praise.
The Tokyo version uses the same ride system as the California and Paris Towers (note the building shape similarities
between Tokyo and California/Paris). I've heard California and Paris derided as “cheap knock-offs” due to their
ride system changes from the Florida version, yet the praised Tokyo Tower uses
their ride system rather than Florida’s. At any rate, I really want to see this version in person some day! It looks awesome.
[1]
Martin’s Videos’ WDW Tower Documentary (https://vimeo.com/10428903 ), a
must-watch for Tower fans. It explains
in detail the planning and function of the Florida ride, as well as the
upgrades that made it what it is today.
It also goes into the deeper history of the Tower concept that I’m not
covering here. Sadly, it doesn’t seem
that Martin had a low-light camera when he made this, so therefore the actual
on-ride video portions are slightly lacking.
[2] http://towersecrets.com/tower-of-terror-architecture-styles/
This gives an interesting rundown of the architecture for ALL the Towers.
[3] This date is from the Disney and More blog, and their awesome post about the opening ceremony: [LINK]. Oddly, the Disney Wiki contradicts itself and by listing
both 2007 and 2008 as the opening date. TowerSecrets lists the year as 2007 as well. I trust Disney and More's opening date, given that they were actually there for the ceremony! I believe the confusion comes from the fact that the French Tower began public soft openings on 22 December 2007, a long time before the official opening.
[4] Thanks to mrbellcaptain at tumblr for this information!
[4] Thanks to mrbellcaptain at tumblr for this information!
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