Every movie based on a Disney ride
Across its long, successful, and often complicated existence, Disney have drawn inspiration from many places, with classic fairytales, popular novels, the minds of some of the finest creative thinkers on the planet serving as sources for the ‘House of Mouse’ for some of its most magical output.
Sometimes, they don’t even need to look past their own doorstep to find ideas, given that the various Disney parks scattered across the globe are full of rides, attractions, and shows with their own in-built stories, and even the ones without traditional plots have characters, settings, and themes that can be mined for storyline potential.
To date, there have been 12 different movies based on a Disney ride, and while some have been incredibly fruitful for the company, others remind us all why those concepts belong solely in a theme park.
For better or worse, here’s every time Disney copied its own homework.
Every movie idea derived from a Disney ride:
‘Tower of Terror’ (DJ McHale, 1997)
You can tell that Disney weren’t massively confident in the idea of turning rides into movies based on their very first attempt with Tower of Terror, a low-budget horror movie that was originally made for TV and followed a reporter investigating a seemingly haunted hotel with a history of vanishing guests.
The movie was inspired by the ride of the same name, which was oddly inspired by The Twilight Zone. Why Disney didn’t use the Twilight Zone branding to promote it is beyond me, but it does explain why nobody remembers it today. It’s not all bad as Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst turned in typically reliable performances, but Tower of Terror is more of an interesting trivia answer than an actual picture.
‘Mission to Mars’ (Brian De Palma, 2000)
Three years after Tower of Terror took the world by storm (sarcasm), Disney decided to actually put some effort into their next attraction-based venture, Mission to Mars, which not only got a theatrical release but also a stellar cast and the direction of the legendary Brian De Palma. This was only a few years after De Palma made Mission: Impossible, but sadly, it didn’t have quite the same impact.
A weak critical and commercial performance sent this sci-fi adventure crashing back down to Earth, but what’s odd is that the ‘Mission to Mars’ ride wasn’t even open when it was released, leaving you to wonder why the company even bothered turning it into a film.
‘The Country Bears’ (Peter Hastings, 2002)
Where space travel had failed, horrible CGI bears were sure to succeed, or at least that was the philosophy at Disney when they greenlit The Country Bears. Inspired by ‘Country Bear Jamboree’, an animatronic show that has featured at multiple Disney parks, this family comedy casts the titular ursines as wannabe musicians looking for a big break.
Despite featuring the vocal talents of Haley Joel Osment, Bonnie Raitt, and Don Henley, The Country Bears was as lifeless as the park models during a power cut. Barely anybody watched it, even fewer people liked it, and it’s incredible that Disney continued to pursue the whole ‘rides as films’ strategy, but luckily for them, it was about to yield its greatest success.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series (Various, 2003 – 2017)
In 2003, the world first met Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp’s limb-flailing swashbuckler who was the star attraction of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The movie had very little in common with its namesake ride, the original version of which was the last one personally overseen by Walt himself, but audiences didn’t care to compare notes.
People went mad for Pirates, and the film quickly spun off into a trilogy, comprising Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Then, when the studio couldn’t think of anything better, it returned to the high seas twice more with the half-decent On Stranger Tides in 2011 and the absolutely god-awful Salazar’s Revenge in 2017.
They are, by far and away, the most successful versions of this format, even if they did set in motion a dangerous trend.
‘The Haunted Mansion’ (Justin Simien, 2023)
The original ‘Haunted Mansion’ has been part of Disneyland since 1969, its longevity reflected in the fact that there are not one, but two films based on it. Released in 2003 and 2023, and starring Eddie Murphy and LaKeith Stanfield, respectively, the movies pit a band of unlikely heroes against the fearsome ‘Hat Box Ghost’.
When it comes to box office success and fan appreciation, Haunted Mansion is probably the second-best ride-themed film series behind Pirates. That being said, the films still aren’t great, although the modern one did get it right by casting Jared Leto as a despicable ghoul.
‘Tomorrowland’ (Brad Bird, 2015)
‘Tomorrowland’ at the original Disney park isn’t so much a ride as an entire area that’s been there since the very beginning and was designed to give visitors a glimpse into what life might be like in the future. While we’re still waiting on those flying cars, ‘Tomorrowland’ did get its own feature film to celebrate its 50th birthday.
A rare live-action outing from Brad Bird, with a script from Damon Lindelof, no less, the movie paints its namesake as a technologically advanced utopia open to only a select few. While George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, and country singer Tim McGraw make up the all-star cast of this promising venture, it was ultimately yet another mediocre sci-fi romp.
‘Jungle Cruise’ (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2021)
As it stands, the most recent original ride-based movie pays homage to one of Disney’s oldest rides. Opened as part of the first park in 1955, ‘Jungle Cruise’ takes punters on a boat ride through an exotic land full of animals, natural wonders, and originally, some very problematic depictions of locals.
The attraction forms the basis of the 2021 movie Jungle Cruise, which saw Dwayne Johnson play a sardonic steamboat captain who helps scientist Emily Blunt and her bumbling brother Jack Whitehall discover a historical treasure: think The Mummy, but with more water. It inexplicably cost $200million to make and, unsurprisingly, was a box office flop.
The Future
A quick glance at Wikipedia shows that there are a lot of Disney movies in development based on their theme park attractions, with the famous ‘Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’ and ‘Space Mountain’ rides both getting films, while Figment the dragon from Epcot’s ‘Journey into Imagination’ looks set to be voiced by Seth Rogen.
Scarlett Johansson is apparently producing another Tower of Terror movie, while both Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean are getting sequels (why won’t they let them die?). Perhaps the most intriguing prospect on the list is a film based on Club 33, a group of restaurants only available via an expensive membership. Who says Disney is running out of ideas?
