The 5 Abandoned Disney Decade Projects I WISH Had Been Built

What could have been…

For Disney fans of a certain age bracket like myself, there are two words that elicit feelings of both nostalgia and dread in neat equal measure: Disney Decade. Coming off the high of the Michael Eisner/Frank Wells era of the late 80s – – which saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid kickstart the Disney Renaissance in theaters while projects including Videopolis, Star Tours, Splash Mountain, Body Wars, the Disney MGM Studios, and Pleasure Island change the face of their theme park business forever – – Disney had big plans for the 1990s. And we all know what they say about the best-laid plans…

The Disney Decade was first announced in the early 1990s. As the name would imply, the plan spelled out a decade’s worth of projects for Disney theme parks around the world, including new parks, hotels, themed lands, and countless rides that would have had long-ranging effects on the company’s theme park business to this day.

However, the Disney Decade as originally envisioned, never came to be. A series of events including the financial failure of EuroDisney, Micheal Eisner’s health issues, and a series of underperforming films in the late 1990s led to the majority of the Disney Decade projects being seriously curtailed if not outright canceled. As a huge Disney fan-turned-historian who grew up during the 1990s, there are a litany of unbuilt Disney Decade projects that interest me. However, if I were to choose, these are the five I most lament never seeing the light of day…

Disney’s America

Let’s start with the most controversial choice on the list: Disney’s America. This history-themed park was planned to be built in Virginia and feature lands based on subjects including the American Civil War, immigration, and World War II, among others. However, controversies about how Disney would present the harsher elements of American history and disputes whether the land where Disney wanted to build the park was “too close” to real Civil War battlefields eventually led to the project collapsing.

While I have my own doubts about how well Disney would have tackled American history in the park, I still would have loved to have seen what their initial attempt would have been, and how it may have evolved over time. Plus, I would have welcomed an American Disney park in a state besides Florida or California.

WestCOT

Moving from an unbuilt theme park on the east coast to one out west, there’s the aptly named WestCOT. This adaptation of EPCOT was the original approved plan for the Disneyland Resort’s second gate. However, this park would have been no direct clone. It’s version of Future World was to be headlined by SpaceStation Earth, a MASSIVE golden take on Spaceship Earth, and feature heavily updating takes on attractions including Horizons, World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination, Universe of Energy, The Living Seas, Wonders of Life, and The Land. Meanwhile, it’s World Showcase was planned to include areas themed to London, New York, Africa, Asia, Paris, Tokyo, China, and Toronto. These areas would be packed with attractions (including E-Ticket thrill rides), shopping, dining, and even in-park hotels. However, this massive vision led to a massive budget, and in-light of the failure of EuroDisney, the project was scrapped in 1995, eventually being replaced by California Adventure.

 

All due respect to California Adventure super-fans – – and don’t get me wrong, I like the park, especially in its modern incarnation – – but from a purely content perspective, WestCOT may be the biggest loss of the Disney Decade. If built to fruition, the park’s take on EPCOT may have become the definitive version of EPCOT, and could have changed Disney’s entire approach to theme park development.

Tomorrowland 2055

Staying in Disneyland but downsizing from a full unbuilt theme park to an unrealized renovation, let’s talk Tomorrowland 2055. This massive refurbishment of the opening day Disneyland land would have solved the “Tomorrowland problem” by adapting the theme of the land considerably. Tomorrowland 2055 would have been themed around being an active spaceport set in the year of Disneyland’s 100th Anniversary. The land would have featured new attractions including Plectu’s Intergalactic Review (an animatronic show in the former Carousel of Progress/America Sings theater) and a West Coast version of the ExtraTERRORestial Alien Encounter, as well classic attractions including Space Mountain and Star Tours receiving updates. However, the financial failure of EuroDisney reared its ugly head yet again, leading to the projects cancelation in 1994.

Considering that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland has barely been touched in the last 30 years (and ways it has, like the 1998 “New Tomorrowland” disaster that was little more than the failed Rocket Rods and Space Mountain being inexplicably painted brown, have failed miserably) it’s very easy for me wish the Tomorrowland 2055 project have happened. Plus, similar to WestCOT, a massively successful non-IP theme park addition could have changed the direction of Disney’s theme parks for decades.

Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood

Moving across the country, let’s look at two lands that were nearly built in Disney World’s two most-recent theme parks. First off, there’s Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood in Hollywood Studios. When the park then-known as MGM Studios opened in 1989, Roger Rabbit was a major part of the park. There were references to the character all-around the park, including billboards, thematic elements in Echo Lake and as part of the Studio Tour, and even a Roger Rabbit walk-around character. However, plans were even bigger. In the early 1990s, Disney announced that a full Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood land would be added to the park. The land would have been located in the area currently occupied by the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, and would’ve featured a simulator attraction named Toontown Trolley, dark rides based on Baby Herman and Benny the Cab, and a recreation of the Terminal Bar from the film. Plus, a replica of California Red Car Trolley would have been built to transport guests down Sunset Boulevard to access the new land. The ever-present financial failure of EuroDisney, plus issues over ownership of the Roger Rabbit characters eventually led to its cancelation.

While a version of this land was also planned for Disneyland, the fact that it was never built hurts Hollywood Studios more than Disneyland since the latter did receive Mickey’s Toontown as a replacement. In any case, as a major Roger Rabbit fan, I really wish this land would have been built somewhere. Interestingly, the land’s plans were oddly prescient, as they seem similar to the type of single-IP-themed lands that dominate the theme park space today.

Beastly Kingdom

Finally, there’s arguably the most legendary unbuilt land of the last 30 years: Beastlty Kingdom. Originally designed to be one of the headline lands of Animal Kingdom, this land would have bene themed to mythical bests like dragons and unicorns. The land was meant to be split between “good” and “evil” sides, with the former headlined by a dragon roller coaster in a ruined castle, while the later would feature a highly themed maze that ended with an encounter with an animatronic unicorn. The land was planned so deeply into Animal Kingdom’s development that a dragon was part of Animal Kingdom’s logo and entrance plaza, and ester eggs hyping the land (including a dragon’s cave and charred suit of armor) were present in the park. However, budget issues forced Beastly Kingdom to be pushed to phase 2 of the park’s development in favor of Dinoland U.S.A. Like many projects that have earned that distinction over the years, Beastly Kingdom was never built.

As much as I love Pandora: The World of Avatar (which currently occupies the pace Beastly Kingdom was scheduled for) I would choose the unbuilt land 10/10 times. The dragon-themed roller coaster alone would have been one of Disney’s era-defining E-Tickets.

These are just SOME of the Disney Decade projects that unfortunately went unbuilt. Stay tuned to AllEars for further deep-dived into Disney World history.

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Now you know my choices! Which Disney Decade project do you wish would have been built?