Photos by Seth Kubersky

It's no secret that legendary film director Steven Spielberg is a life-long theme park afficiando. As a long-time consultant to Universal Studios, rides based on movies he has created or produced (including classics like ET, Back to the Future, Jaws, Men in Black, and Jurassic Park) have been hits in Orlando, California, and Japan. Spielberg is also known to be a fan of classic Disney films; he had composer John Williams include the melody “When You Wish Upon a Star” in his Close Encounters of the Third Kind score, and his film A.I. is essentially an explicit update of Pinnoccio.

But few fans realize how far back Spielberg's fascination with theme park rides — specifically Disneyland dark rides and E-tickets — goes. Thanks to a fascinating 35-year-old story conference transcript, we have a first-hand account of the lauded filmmaker's pro-Disney fanaticism.

The minutes of this momentous meeting, recorded over a week in late January 1978, document the moment when Spielberg, together with pal George Lucas and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, brainstormed the basic backstory of Indiana Jones, and solidified the script outline that would eventually become 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Originally leaked on an Internet film site in 2009 as scan of a grainy photocopy, the document has recently resurfaced as a searchable PDF. These newly accessible transcripts reveal the creative energy that birthed this iconic screen hero, and give insight into these award-winning artists' working methods.

Lucas demonstrates the unparalleled storytelling instincts of his early years, absorbing suggestions from others and then spitting back fully fleshed-out scene descriptions, many described almost shot-for-shot as they appear in the finished film. Spielberg is adorably enthusiastic, spilling forth a flood of incidental ideas — some brilliant (the evil monkey saluting “Heil Hitler”, filling the Well of Souls with snakes), some awful (Indy as a gambling addict?), and some so absurd they worked (at Steven's suggestion that Jones jump out of an airplane without a parachute, later recycled in Temple of Doom, Lucas retorts “That's sort of unbelievable.”). Finally, Lawrence Kasdan (who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and is working on the new Star Wars sequels) is largely silent but occasionally offers an excellent idea, like Indy's mentor being Marion's father, and the Nazi monkey giving away Marion's basket hiding place.

But the real goldmine in these transcripts for theme park fans are Spielberg's repeated direct references to Disneyland. The discussion comes in two parts; first, as the team is inventing the famous opening sequence in which Indy navigates a trap-filled native temple, Spielberg says the following:

When the spikes come out and go like that, there should be remains, skeletal remains skewered on some of them, of victims that have been there before. It's kind of like one of those rides at Disneyland.

I would just love to see the guys walking in and there's a whole pile of skeletons, but they're like cardboard, completely flattened, really completely flat. They know that something around here is going to squish them. They don't know what's causing it, but something if they walk the wrong way is going to come out and make them pancakes. The piece should be like a real, horror ride, like a Disneyland ride. Once you're committed to going into that cave, there's seismic rumblings all the time and there's stalagmites and things going drip, drip. It's going to really be a sound experience going through that cave. There's nothing more terrifying than skeletons.

What we're just doing here, really, is designing a ride at Disneyland.

Ironically, that exact sequence later served as inspiration for an actual Disneyland ride, but Spielberg didn't get to help design it. Since Spielberg has been a paid consultant to Universal since the 1980s, it was left to Lucas to help create 1995's Indiana Jones Adventure.

Finally, near the end of the story sessions, the team spitballs a mine train escape planned for the film's finale. The idea was later used for the sequel, but Spielberg's initial idea to film the high-speed sequence inside a classic Disneyland attraction is certainly amusing:

This mine cart thing, we should shoot it at the Disneyland Matterhorn. They go on it at the end, so the final run is an up and a huge down, and the out is over the ocean… Just the last part of the run. It's tracks and a very small closure. It's like where they have the cable to pull the thing up, except this time it's coming down. It's weightless.It's not being run by a machine. The wheels are locked on the track, but there's no machine grinding it forward. It has no brakes. They've gotten onto the tail end. It drops down to the loading zone.

These tidbits barely scratch the surface of the gems to be mined from this treasure trove of a transcript. Read it for yourself, and I guarantee you'll never look at the world's greatest archeologist, or the happiest place on Earth, in quite the same way again!

Rediscovered Transcript Reveals Original Spielberg/Disneyland Connection is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

All images copyright Disney

Are you a Disneyland Resort Annual Passholder?

Do you love the Disney animated classic Peter Pan?

Would you like to spend a couple extra hours in Fantasyland this week?

If your answer to the following questions is “all of the above,” head over to Disneyland on Wednesday night (February 27, 2013) for the latest Limited Time Magic event. For one night only, Passholders can see a special screening of Peter Pan at the Main Street Opera House, in honor of the film’s recent Blu-ray release.

As an added bonus, select Fantasyland attractions will be open to participating Passholders for 2 additional hours past the park’s public 8pm closing time. Be warned, however, that my recent experience with extended Passholder hours at Disney California Adventure did not result in light crowds and short queues; in fact, it was exactly the opposite.

Film screening start at 11am on Wednesday. Passholders may register for the event in person at the Opera House beginning at 10am on the day of the event; online and advance registration is not offered. See here for details on the event direct from Disney.

Peter Pan Passholder Event at Disneyland this Wednesday is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

In the annals of Walt Disney’s cinematic legacy, there are a handful of infamous films that have been banished from public sight for various social and legal reasons. Song of the South, which has been unavailable to American audiences for a generation due to perceived racial insensitivity, is perhaps the best known. The Sweatbox, a fascinatingly unflattering warts-and-all documentary about the troubled creation of The Emperor’s New Groove, is a more modern example that Mickey buried out of embarrassment.

To that ignoble club, the latest member you can likely add is Escape From Tomorrow, the darling of this week’s Sundance Film Festival. Writer/director Randy Moore‘s debut independent feature is a David Lynch-inspired black & white surreal horror flick featuring Roy Abramsohn as a father trapped in a nightmarish theme park vacation.

The catch is that the entire film was shot inside the theme parks of Walt Disney World and Disneyland — including inside attractions like it’s a small world and Haunted Mansion — without the knowledge or permission the the Disney Corporation. There are even extended sequences set in the Buzz Lightyear queue and aboard the monorail. Everything, including lengthy scenes and complex camera moves, was captured during regular operating hours, with unaware park guests acting as unpaid extras.

A scene from Escape From Tomorrow (Mankurt Media LLC)

Reaction from the handful of audience who have seen the film at the Park City festival have so far been very positive, with write-ups appearing in the New York Times and LA Times. Thus far, Disney has made no official comment, but seeing as how a major scene involves the destruction of Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, the company can’t be too pleased.

To quote Drew McWeeny, look for Disney lawyers “climbing onto helicopters and planning a raid on Park City right now,” and don’t expect the film to show up in your local cineplex. Unless you are in Utah to catch this week’s two remaining screenings, this clip is probably the closest you’ll get to seeing this curiosity. (Bonus points to the first person to identify which resort’s pool this was filmed at.)

And here is an interview with the film’s star:

Escape From Tomorrow: The Disney Parks Film You’ll Never See is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.