Top 6 Scrapped Disney Parks Pojects

Okay, I've counted down my Top 6 Most Disappointing Attractions and all of them were from Disney World. That's mostly because that is the park I've been to the most. Today's Top 6 is a bit different in that, I'll be counting down the Top 6 Disney Parks Projects that sadly never came to be but I think that they would've been great, had they been seen through.  With that out of the way, let's begin.

6.  The Great Muppet Movie Ride -  MGM Studios

The Great Movie Ride is the ride that I consider the heart and soul of Hollywood Studios or when the park first opened, MGM Studios.   Why do I bring this up? Well, you see there were plans to make a Muppet parody of the ride in the planned section of the park that just as with this attraction never came to be, known as Muppet Studios.  The only thing the park has to show for it is Muppet*Vision 3D.   Now that's a fun show, even if it's age is showing.   The concept for this ride is something that I love, as stated above, it would've been a parody of the park's own Great Movie Ride.  Something about the idea of having a ride that parodies another ride in the same park tickles me.   Now for those who may not know, The Great Movie Ride takes you through movie scenes and herewith The Great Muppet Movie Ride, the Muppets would be the ones taking us through those classic movie albeit in Muppet fashion. So you know something would go wrong.  According to the Muppet Wiki, one film as seen in the picture I chose that would have been parodied is Frankenstein.   I just love the whole idea behind this ride and like a lot of other things on this list, if given the proper treatment, I think it could've been a classic. Now there were also plans for a Disney Villains variant of The Great Movie Ride that would have been in 3D but I actually like the Muppet one better. Here's the main reason this attraction never came to be.  Thanks in part to The Neverland Files and the biggest reason was sadly because of Jim Henson's untimely departure from our world.

In the mid to late eighties, Jim Henson was very willing to sell the Muppets to the Disney Company, but each time negotiations seemed to get somewhere, they fell apart. By 1990, things were ready to progress to the next step, but, sadly, Jim Henson passed away and the deal fell apart.

5. Toontown Trolley -  Disneyland/MGM Studios

I love the Dumbo cameo in this picture.  Hmm, we have our first attraction that was planned for not but two parks.  Anyways back to the attraction, this would have been a simulator ride. One of my favorite types of  rides are simulator rides and I really like the idea of having Roger Rabbit taking the guests  through Toontown on a trolley hence the name.   Now I couldn't find why this one was scrapped but still, the idea of Roger Rabbit taking these guests through Toontown. Can you imagine all of the cartoon cameos?  The picture gives you one of them and of course as with any great rides something would have gone awry. But that's to be expected when Roger Rabbit is involved.    Just this image alone convinces me that this ride could've been awesome.


4.  Western River Expedition - The Magic Kingdom

This is one of the most often talked about Disney rides that was never built.  As you can see by the name, it would have been themed to the old west and guests would ride on a boat that would have taken them through scenes in the town o Dry Gulch.  It would be similar to another Disney ride that kind of helped this attraction not being built. We'll get to that in a sec.   I may not be the biggest Western fan but I like the idea of this attraction. It's simple but a whole lot of fun with going through these different scenes and seeing the lives of people in the old west.  Now I mentioned earlier that there was a ride that helped to play a part in this ride not seeing the light of day. Well that ride was Pirates of The Caribbean as you see one of the biggest complaints when The Magic Kingdom first opened was that there was no Pirates ride and to please the masses, this ride was scrapped and replaced with Pirates.   Now I get it, Pirates was a Disneyland staple and I could see why guests would want it at The Magic Kingdom.  It's a great ride, I'm not trying to take anything away from it but I'm of the belief that not all of the rides in Disneyland and The Magic Kingdom need to be the same.  Just because they are the same parks just on different coasts does not mean they need the same rides.   And yes,   they do have rides that are unique to themselves and I think that it would have been fine if this ride had been built but at the end of the day,  guests wanted Pirates and Disney gave them pirates but I still wish this had been built because it would have been great.



3.  Beastly Kingdom - Animal Kingdom

For # 3, we aren't talking about one attraction here. Oh no! Rather an entire land that was planned for Animal Kingdom. Now Animal Kingdom as the park's name suggests focuses on the animals of our world but Beastly Kingdom would have  been about the fantastical and mythical creatures such as the unicorns and dragons.   That concept art right there is gorgeous and I really do think that this land would've been great. I mean the Tree of Life, the centerpiece of the park still has mythical creatures on it.   I mean it would have musical boat centered around Fantasia. That would have been cool. Now why wasn't it built. Again, I turn to The Neverland Files and according to them, it was because of budgeting issues.   Having the live animal exhibits cost a lot of money and there was very little left over to go towards this land.  So instead of this land, Eisner who was still in charge at the time directed the Imagineers to build a temporary land that kinda became permanent being Camp Minnie-Mickey.   Now I like to believe that Expedition Everest, which focuses on  the Yeti is a way to pay homage to this land that never came to be.   It's sad, this land would've been really cool.


2. WestCOT  -  Disneyland Resort

Now this name to Disney Parks fans should be a clue as to what this was going to be.  Basically this was going to be a west coast version of EPCOT located at Disneyland Resort.  Now the idea of having a second park did come to life with Disney's California Adventure but I don't know the idea of having a west coast EPCOT seems really cool to me.  It's centerpiece would have been similar to Spaceship Earth. The centerpiece of EPCOT but it would've been called Space Station Earth and would have stood at 300 ft. tall until people complained about the height as they could see it from their backyards.  (I don't see a problem there.)    Now it's true a lot of the stuff would have been cloned from EPCOT but that doesn't bug me and yes I know what I said up top but EPCOT is a park where I'm willing to make an exception because  it is just so unique that I think having two of them would've been awesome.   It would have World Showcase just like the one in Florida but instead of being grouped by nations, the countries would've been grouped by regions.   I really think that this would've been great and sadly,  I believe the reason   that this one never came to be was because of budgeting.  They didn't plans things out the right way and this was one of the more expensive projects that was taken on.   It's ashame too because I think that it would have been great.   Now I know it may look I'm contradicting myself with what I said about fourth entry on the list but I stand by what I said in earlier in that, EPCOT is such a unique concept that having two of them would have been awesome.










1.  Disney's America  - Haymarket, Virginia

As you may have noticed Number 2 & 1 on this list go beyond even being a land as they're both proposed theme parks.  Disney's America would have been the first US Disney theme park not in Florida or California.   It's hard to explain what Disney's America would have been. For that check out this article.   To put it simply , it would have been a walk through our nation's history and go into rich detail about America. The hub would have been themed around the Civil War. Now while the emphasis would have been on history, the same way EPCOT originally started with having emphasis on science, there would have been rides and attractions there such as The Hall of Presidents and a river rapid ride themed around Lewis and Clark.  Take a look.

Man that look like it would've been a lot of fun. Now why wasn't this built. There were protests from citizen's groups that Disney putting this in Virginia (the state I currently live in as well).  It's hard to say why it was protested. But this one pains me the most, probably because I live in Virginia and I would love to have a Disney park in my backyard. I mean who wouldn't want that. Now this land was eventually used for something else, Camp Snyder.  The nations' first national Cub Scout camp. That's great,  I was a Scout for a long as  I can remember and I think it's awesome that we're looking after the Cub Scouts but I'd rather have Disney's America.  I know it sounds petty and look Scouting was a huge part of my life but this is just  that idea of having a Disney park so close to where I live is the stuff that dreams are made of and add in the fact that I love that US history, I think I would have loved this park.   Sadly, it's one of those things that'll never be. I've been to Camp Snyder and it's nice and cute but each time I step foot on that land, I can't help but think what it would've been like if it had become Disney's America.  Make sure you check out that article  because it goes into greater detail about Disney's America than I do and plus, it talks about all of the lands at great length.


There you have it, the Top 6 Scrapped Disney Parks Projects that I would have love to seen see the light of day. Now there are many other great Disney projects that never came to be such as ride based around Baby Herman from Roger Rabbit or a Dick Tracy ride but thee 6 are the ones that intrigued me the most.  To close this out, check out this old video that talks about some of the aforementioned projects.