We will talk today about a Disney MGM Studios attraction that never was - or almost was: Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers.
Remember this Warren Beatty movie adaptation of the famous Dick Tracy comic strip in 1990 ? The stylised movie where Al Pacino and all vilains had masks to have their faces looking like in the comic strip.
Yes, the one with Madonna playing in it - she was dating with Warren at that time!
Well, everybody at the WDC was so much convinced it will be a big hit that Walt Disney Imagineering designed a fantastic Dick Tracy attraction, a whole park area in fact.
An attraction where "Dick Tracy will recruit guests to shoot it out with gangsters bad guys"...
The 1990's press release was saying that " Guests will literally get "into the act" in this new high-tech action-adventure featuring the very latest in Audio-Animatronics, simulation, sound and special effects." And also: "Guests will join America's favorite comic-strip detective in a high-speed chase with his gangster adversaries." And in what kind of decor this high-speed chase would have take place? Well, this kind of decor - a really great great one.
Just below, two close shots of this artwork to have a better view how detailed it was.
As for the high-speed chase itself, this rendering below will give you a perfect feeling of it.
Here also, two close shots of the artwork.
It looked great, doesn't it? And not only the Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction was envisioned for the Disney MGM Studios, but also for Disneyland, Anaheim for a whole new land: "Hollywoodland". And if you ask any imagineer who worked at WDI at that time and who had the luck to see the model, they will all tell you how great the attraction would have been.
Yes, but...the problem was that the box office of the movie didn't reached the WDC expectations, and, well, you know what kind of things happen when a "eagerly anticipated summer hit" finally is not that successful, don't you? That's right, all the plans were cancelled, and we're all still waiting for this Dick Tracy attraction...although...when i looked again to that cinemascope rendering of the decor, the right part of it reminds me something that i saw in the best themed park on earth: the streets under the elevated tramway at the American Waterfront of Tokyo Disney Sea.
Hmmmm, i'm wondering if something from Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers finally survived? Your thoughts?
Artwork: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc.
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4 comments:
Yes TDS spawned some Dick Tracey spinoffs. I had hoped it would go to work on but........................
I feel like it may have survived into the Great Movie Ride. The whole gangster area is very similar. If only the car were a bright yellow!
Didn't the idea for this ride eventually "morph" into what would become the Indiana Jones ride? Specifically, the ride system, originally being developed for "Tracy", then re-appropriated for both "Indy" and "Dinosaur/CTX"?
I remember riding the mock-up in Burbank in the early 90's. At the time it seemed so un-Disney with the machine guns and the intense high speed, breaking and turns. The ride system did morph into Indy's car. I really felt it was ahead of it's time. Thanks for posting the renderings!
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