Here is a new Disneyland Paris update with some amazing news about DLP Adventureland Temple of Peril as Joe Schott "DLP Directeur General Adjoint" revealed in a meeting with DLP fans that Indiana Jones Temple of Peril will be destroyed and rebuilt entirely all in REAL STONE, and the looping track, too, will be rebuilt!
I know that it's hard to believe and personally i couldn't believe it - just like you, i presume - so i double checked to make sure that it was not an April Fool at the end of September and, yes, this is really what Joe Schott said, they are really going to rebuild the temple in real "stone" like in the good old times when Pharaohs were building the Pyramids!
Works should start next year and last five months. I don't think they will rebuild the coaster structure itself as, as you can see on the great aerial picture below coming from my DLP book, the temple itself has been built around or inside the coaster structure, so they probably can rebuild the temple without touching to the coaster structure. The only thing that remain to be confirmed is if they are really going to rebuild the WHOLE temple or only a part of it? I know that all this sounds insane but no need to say that considering the financial situation of DLP if they decide to rebuild the whole temple it's not for the pleasure to spend money and there is probably a good reason behind all this.
So, i tried to learn a bit more about how the temple was built 20 years ago, in 1993, and although there is certainly a steel framework and concrete substructure to support the whole thing, it seems that a big part of the temple is in fact made of block of foams covered by cement - sculpted cement of course, or eventually sculpted concrete. One of the reasons they did it like this in 1993 seems to be because of the small budget which was available. No need to say that if the temple is really made in foam + cement it's no surprise that they need to rebuilt it twenty years later. May be they realised that the way it was built is not strong enough anymore, becoming potentially dangerous, and may be they don't have any other way to resolve the problem than to rebuild the whole thing... Well, may be they shouldn't have called it "the Temple of Peril"! Bad omen!
That said, if they rebuild the temple, may be it would be a good idea to improve the ride at the same time. There is quite a lot of ideas that were envisioned during the design at WDI and some of them included great additional decors, specially this one showing the train entering inside the head of a giant asian statue...
...or also this one showing a never built arch...
...not to mention this idea of the train entering a gorilla mouth.
And if they re-build the loop - i mean: this loop...
...may be it's the right time to remember these others concepts of a loop with the track going under and over a giant gorilla statue...
...and what about this other idea with the ride vehicle going through the mouth of a stone eagle?
But one of the easiest element to add could be this audio-animatronic tiger - coming right from the “Jungle Cruise”... It surely would be a great addition, and this one probably not so expensive. But for weather reasons it might be difficult to have this AA Tiger in open air. Also, they might think that due to the speed of the train during the ride guests won't have the time to see and enjoy the tiger. I have the solution: there is one part of the ride where they could put it, and it's at the very end when the train slow down before the arrival. What they should do is to build there a ten meters tunnel in which they'll put on the right the tiger in a small niche ( like on the artwork below ) and it'll be a great finale for the ride, at low cost as the Jungle Cruise Audio-Animatronic has very limited movements and is probably not very expensive. And they should put at the start of the tunnel the giant asian statue head, the one you can see on the first rendering above.
...as well as those audio-animatronics baby tigers which were envisioned to be part of the pre-show decor.
Editing: I just remind that these two tigers scenes were not in fact part of the original WDI story for the Temple of Peril. Those tigers scenes were done when it was announced that Esso was going to be a possible sponsor of the attraction and WDI was brainstorming to introduce scenes linked with Esso - remember the famous Esso tiger? Finally, with no budget available for the Audio-Animatronics tigers DLP Imagineers suggested logos on stuff and oil drums instead. That said, sponsor or not sponsor, if the Imagineers thought it was possible to introduce these tigers scenes without damaging the original story they could as well do it now... as long of course as the park give them the budget to do so.
DLP won't probably introduce any of these exciting ideas for budget reasons - the same reasons than twenty years ago - but what they could do more easily is to add the same fire and water effects that they did at Tokyo Disney Sea's Raging Spirits temple, which is basically an improved Temple of Peril.
Don't go away, there is a "one more thing", as Joe Schott also revealed that after the rebuild of the Temple of Peril it will be the turn of Big Thunder Mountain! No kidding. But for this Frontierland favorite the plan is not to rebuild BTM but only to increase the ride capacity. How they will do it is another question that we will talk about later. By the way, some of you might think that all these new announcements from DLP might be done in reaction to the fans petition sent recently to Bob Iger, but in fact i've been told that these projects are part of a long term strategy scheduled since 2009. That said, may be there is a link between the petition and the fact that they communicate about all this now. Anyway, even if i'm sure you would have prefer the announcement of a brand new ride, the fact that one of the park's favorite coaster will receive improvements in a near future is a great news, and of course i will let you know when works will start on the Temple of Peril.
Also, as i announced last week, now that the english collector's edition of the Disneyland Paris book is almost out of stock, we are reprinting the english edition in its normal edition, and it should be a very good news for those of you who still don't own the book but couldn't afford the 120€ price of the collector's edition. All the inside of the book will be similar with always 320 pages and the same 750 pictures including 250 WDI artworks, this time printed on a luxury "silk art matte" paper. You can place right now the pre-orders and enjoy a special pre-order price of 55€ ( + 15€ shipping worldwide ). Shipping is expected at the end of November when we will receive the books from the printer. As usual you can pay with Paypal or bank transfer and please send us an email to confirm your order at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com
For more infos about this reprinting please jump HERE, and you can also watch the video below showing the whole book.
NOTE for the french édition: Si le bouton Paypal ci-dessous ne fonctionne pas lorsque vous choisissez l'édition française merci d'envoyer le montant directement le montant depuis votre compte Paypal à: neverlandeditions@gmail.com
Pictures: copyright Disney, Daniel Rous, Altitude
I think it's great news and if they could add a bit more decore that would be great. But wouldn't it be great if they do this because of the open land that is still there were something new can be build? A bit of a Indiana Jones area or miniland. (A guy can dream right) ;)
ReplyDeleteI think it is great news, but I do hope they improve the temple with something new.
ReplyDeleteIn case you have the large Euro Disneyland Map from the early years you can see what a wonderful attraction was envisioned here first. I think this roller coaster is really crappy and I'd prefer having them replace the track by a better coaster and leave the temple :)
ReplyDeleteWhy spend so much making constructing real stone when they could use that money to impreove the existing ride and make it more to the standard of what was initially envisioned?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the tiger AA...it is an excellent idea to add it and I contend it's even more thrilling if you see it only a plit second, especially if it growls and catches people off guard or takes a swipe at the trains! I remind you of the goat AA that exists in the original thunder mountain with the stick of dynamite. You see him only a split second but he is a staple of that ride and it's the sum of those minute details that creates the suspension of disbelief and the Disney difference!
Why would they waste money tearing down and rebuilding this attraction when they can use that money to plus or expand it and bring it closer to the original vision for the ride?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the AA tiger that would be an excellent way to plus the ride, and i contend that a brief view of it is even better and more thrilling than a long view. Imagine the tiger suddenly roaring or swiping at the passing trains. That would be thrilling to unsuspecting riders. Also compare it to the billy goat with the dynamite in the origiinal Thunder Mountain. He is only seen for a brief moment but he is a staple of that ride. It is the sum of those little extra details that are so important to the Disney difference as they all contribute to the suspension of disbelief.
They will spend so much money "only" to replace the existing structure into real stone structure? I don't know what to say... If the spend the money, the visitors should see an improvement: Bigger temple, wider area, water-/fire-effects, animatronics...
ReplyDeleteI hope they'll do more than "only" replacing the parts...
Previously the ride had not to be a permanent one.
ReplyDeleteIt could be unsettled within few days like a moving ride.
They should take this opportunity to move the ride into the Walt Disney Studios (where its place will be in cohesion with the theme of the park) and so to rebuild the temple there around the ride.
This will be the better idea!
So that a lot of place would be available to build a brand new ride in Adventureland, like Jungle Cruise of another flume ride as the park is missing it.
Well, maybe I am dreaming...
The current temple of peril doesn't have anything special, it's just a standard roller coaster that could have been built in any regular theme park around the world; it doesn't have any Disney magic.
ReplyDeleteAny one of those ideas would improve it a lot!
What a waste of time and money! Just build a new ride!!
ReplyDeleteTemple of Perils was conceived from the start as a fill up attraction for a very temporary time. Just after the opening of EuroDisney, they realised the park needed more capacity and more thrill rides.
ReplyDeleteThey will probably use the same technology as for the castle bridge. Beautifull result & rumored as cost effective. Let's hope they "plus" the ride with some effects from Japan or use ealier concepts shown here to make the currently borring last part of the tracks more exciting (just like they did with the "red lights corkscrew" in SM:M2 : an exciting instead of dull moment). But I wouldn't set expectations very high given the actual figures of the resort. Not to mention the not-so-successfull past experiences (think Backward & Mission 2).
The real heartbreak for us fans is that it proves we won't see a major development in Adventureland before 10/15 years... :-(
it lacks characters, animation, history and adventure. It is this side that should be added to the attraction.
ReplyDeleteEnclosing the lower part of the temple on the lower part of the circuit, making area covered in dark ride with special effects the same time giving the impression to go also inside the temple, one can like the movie! ..
it would give a very good air indiana jones adventure version roller coaster !
Could have used the same red light / orange in the caves of IJA in a passage like the ..
Which would give a dark ride part one can, I said well, such as this one can (near vision on the way) who can join an original idea for a dark ride part in more sober .. :
http://altavoz.pe/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/indianajonesandthelostexpedition1.jpg