No Longer In The Dark: What I Learned During D23’s Space Mountain Spotlight Series
The old saying goes that it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. The same can be said for D23 Gold Members. Often the ones in a theme park queue who break any silence with the opening - “Did you know…." followed by an obscure piece of trivia for the attraction or movie or random Disney ephemera.
Considering they have poured over source material, concept art, leaked show bibles, or “I was there that day", or “My cousin’s dad’s roommate in college was an Imagineer," it - much like the old saying - is very difficult to teach a D23 Gold Member anything that they didn’t already know.
Enter events like the Spotlight Series, which gives those in attendance (who’ve paid for the privilege) a closer and more in-depth look at something, like a park attraction, anniversary-celebrating film or what have you. In today’s case, it was a Spotlight Series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World that saw a full house of D23 Gold Members descend upon the AMC 24 at Disney Springs for a closer look at the history of this landmark attraction on its milestone anniversary.
These events, often filled with never before seen art, footage, and stories from those involved call out to the D23 Gold Members in the hopes that they will learn more fodder for their collective trivia cannon, and today’s was no different. Speaking as one of those Gold Members himself, I can assure you that there were some things to learn that even the most well versed Disney Parks fan was unaware of.
The panel, led by D23’s Steve Vagnini before moving aside to let Imagineers Chris Beatty, Wyatt Winter, Betty Lombardi, and Pam Rollins take the stage - played out very much like an episode of Behind the Attraction on Disney+, in that it started under the guise of a celebration of all things Space Mountain before quickly turning into “How Space Mountain led to…. "a modern collection of Walt Disney World thrill attractions. As such, you might found out a bit about other attractions beyond Space Mountain, as we did too.
QUAD MOUNTAIN
Dating back to 1975, the technology (by today’s standards) for Space Mountain was limited to the time. In fact, as the panel reiterated, Walt wanted this “Space Journey" attraction as part of the 1967 re-do of Tomorrowland at Disneyland. A notion that was in stark contrast to when Dick Nunis proposed a thrill attraction to Walt Disney in the early days of the park and Walt was unsure. This is a whole other story, but this notion led to the eventual creation of Matterhorn Bobsleds in 1959 at the park, which would become the basis for Space Mountain’s eventual debut.
However, when Disney Legend John Hench and Walt were concocting this new indoor dark coaster experience, Hench determined that the technology at the time would not allow for the demand and capacity needs of this new ride, less he design the attraction with FOUR tracks. For reference, Matterhorn Bobsleds has two.
This became a reason why the project was shelved, but when the technology allowed for Space Mountain to debut in Walt Disney World in 1975, the technology was available - giving the now iconic attraction the status of being the first computer-controlled roller coaster ever. It too opened with two tracks, dubbed Alpha and Omega, and are still much as they appeared a half-century ago.
Design Queues
While there, admittedly, is not much to see inside Space Mountain (at Walt Disney World - calm down all you Disneyland purists), the foreboding white mountain dominating a portion of the park’s skyline is an architectural marvel unto itself. As we know, Disney Imagineers never do anything JUST for looks right? The iconic ridges on the side of the mountain are actually an architectural need, as they support the conical structure that makes up the bulk of the building.
Of note, in similar structures around the world, this would typically be done on the interior of the mountain, with the smooth portions on the exterior of the building. Alas, that would not work for Space Mountain. While not quite the projection technology showcase like attractions of the modern day, Space Mountain still contained visual elements (cough the cookie cough) that were projected onto the large walls on the inside, thus the need for a smooth surface. All the stars, planets, cookies, and astro atmosphere would not be read as easily if being moved and rotated against a number of steel beams.
Plus, there was another reason that worked in the Imagineers favor. Always fans of that ole’ theatrical trick known as “forced perspective," this exterior beam layout worked will to make the mountain look more dominating than it actually is. After all, at the top of the mountain, only a few feet separate the beams at the center before stretching all the way down to the base of the mountain where they are well over a dozen feet apart.
Imagineers are also up to their old tricks in the long queue of the original Space Mountain - which I’m sure you just started hearing that trademark Tunnel music in your head. That long winding tunnel is tiny and cramped for a reason. As you come in and work your way through, which typically lasts about an hour, by the time you get to the loading platform you have been contained in a narrow corridor that the vastness of space is accentuated when the reveal comes. Admittedly, this worked a lot better before they closed up the platform with roofs on Florida’s mountain over a decade ago…but I wasn’t the one moderating the panel and couldn’t say that.
Once Upon A Time in Tumbleweed
So, as previously mentioned, Space Mountain as at the forefront of the presentation before giving way to discuss the other coaster/thrill attractions at Walt Disney World: Slinky Dog Dash, Guardians of the Galaxy - Cosmic Rewind, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and even Big Thunder Mountain (I’m also just realizing there was not a single mention of Rock and Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith…but we can probably guess why).
Imagineer Wyatt Winter was discussing the 20013 refurbishment of Walt Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain which saw the installation of the then-fashionable but now forgotten trend of an interactive queue. He noted, before personal photos were shown, that that was personal as that was where his Disney career began on his College Program in 2004, before officially confirming what many might have assumed or speculated.
In those interactive mine shaft cameras in the queue, we see various footage of miners deep in the caverns of Big Thunder Mountain. No, that footage was not shot on a Burbank stage or even a Glendale warehouse. Winter confirmed it was filmed right there at Walt Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain. Not only did he confirm it, he pointed out exactly where - “it’s right there at the base of ‘A’ lift." So next time you’re on the attraction (after it opens from a lengthy refurbishment in 2026) be sure to look for it in the queue and compare to that first climb into the peaks of the wildest ride in the wilderness. As for that lengthy refurbishment, Winter had no comment outside of “new magic" is coming.
Howdily Bob Howdy
As was discussed at the panel, there is a lot of time taken into the crafting of ride vehicles, and that is true for the coaster attractions as well. Imagineer Chris Beatty spoke at length with a fun anecdote that the vehicle design teams usually take such pride in their work, they won’t let the rest of the design team see them until way later in the process with a grand reveal. He cited the TRON team particularly, who allegedly threw a massive reveal party complete with DJ, lasers, lighting, and fog machine as they unveiled the Lightcycle train to the team. While maybe not as show-stopping as a reveal of that coaster, the Slinky Dog Dash vehicle - which is basically a large Slinky Dog with seats - has a bit of heart to it.
As was discussed (albeit briefly) regarding the Slinky Dog Dash vehicle, fans will immediately think of the train and how Slinky Dog isn’t posed forward facing per se, but with a head tilt. This is for a very simple and hospitable reason.
Next time you’re on the load platform for Slinky Dog Dash and he comes rolling in, his head is tilting and looking at you as if to say “hello" and “welcome."
Guardians of the Galaxy|yxalaG eht fo snaidrauG
Even the most (seemingly) technologically advanced attractions can borrow some old school techniques in their design. Arguably the most popular and/or best coaster at Walt Disney World right now is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
While fans might immediately think of their favorite song, the projection effects, the spinning (or “controlled yaw" as the Imagineers emphasized) of the vehicles, some might also think of that high-speed reverse launch.
The lightning of the portal opened by the Cosmic Generator in the attraction is truly a sight to behold. How many lights do you think are in that launch tunnel? Well, probably not as many as you’d think. The effect is enhanced with numerous well placed mirror shards that will reflect and accentuate the flashing and strobing lights. You’ll never notice because you’re moving too fast.
Other illusions convincingly done real well, seemingly with some of those Micheal’s craft coupons we all get in the mail, include that distant galaxy forming at one point in the ride. According to some on the panel, that’s all cotton stuffing (like what you’d find in pillows) and some fiberoptic lighting within. Again, you are moving too fast to even notice, and 1975 Imagineers would surely be proud.
Simple tricks also made it into the design process of the ride. At the beginning of the attraction, we do a turn that puts us in the reverse position for the launch, all while keeping our eyes on Eson and the Guardians the whole time. To get the timing for this right, and without a ride vehicle in which to test with, Imagineers were left with a mockup using the footage and…their office chairs.The controlled yaw from earlier, is actually controlled, so the Imagineers would push each other in an office chair (which all have that rotating capability thanks to all those wheels) and figure out the timing for the show scene. Oh, and all those visual effects and animation - yeah, those were done by folks over at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).
Best Seat In The House
During a Q & A portion of the panel, the generic go-to question was asked that we all ask each other and every Gold Member and anybody who’s ever been aboard Guardians of the Galaxy - Cosmic Rewind more than once - “What is your favorite song?" After all, there are six of them, right? “Conga," “Everybody Wants to Rule the World," “I Ran," “Disco Inferno," “September," and “One Way or Another."
Surprisingly, the four Imagineers on stage each had a different answer, naming five songs. Why five? Wyatt Winter pointed out that he has a particular affinity for Conga since when he first took his mother on the attraction, that was the song they got - an appropriate fit since his first concert ever was a Gloria Estefan concert that he attended with…his mother. He swears he did not plan it that way, it just happened. The only song that was not named by any of those on stage was “Disco Inferno." Hey, I agree. I’m with Betty Lombardi - “Everybody Wants to Rule the World" over here. Those two in particular have a lot of experience with songs on the attraction. After all, they helped pick them. Using pre-vis footage, they had come up with a list of songs that would be featured on the attraction, but once they actually tried them on the ride, none of them made the cut. They might have looked good with the footage, but they didn’t FEEL right. Thus, new lists were made and experimented with that and eventually narrowed to the six. They emphasized that this just proves that there is no “best" song, just like there is no “best seat" on board the attraction. A small head tilt from Wyatt Winter leads us to believe that’s not quite true. By his count (at the time this was written), he had been on the attraction approximately 615 times. What does he say the best seat is? Here, I’ll put it in bold for your next visit (which can happen anytime thanks to the dropping of the Virtual Queue process!) - “FRONT ROW RIGHT SEAT." He added that this particular seat gets a bit more air when going up and over the hill of the launch. But does he mean front row during the launch? These things rotate (controllably) Wyatt!