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Show building is the name often given to various enclosed structures at theme parks that contain attractions such as rides and entertainment shows. The exteriors of such buildings may be themed on some or all sides, but their hidden "backstage" areas are normally very utilitarian, resembling warehouses or sound stages.
Unthemed areas of show buildings typically have simple, practical walls with flat roofs. Doors allow employees to enter and exit, and provide exits for guests during emergency or temporary ride shutdowns. One or more ladders and/or stairwells are often installed for roof access, and sometimes for access to scenes or backstage rooms that are located above ground level. Louvers, downspouts, electrical cables, and artificial lighting (often wall packs) are common sights as well.
Techniques vary for hiding the buildings' industrial nature from the eyes of park guests. The most common ways include planting foliage to obstruct the views, adding themed exteriors to the visible areas, painting visible surfaces with colors that blend with the surroundings, and adding mounds of earth (berms) or solid walls between guests and buildings. They may also be built partially or completely below ground level. Disneyland, for instance, contains many show buildings, some of which are disguised on all sides. One example is the building containing Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight, and Alice in Wonderland, which features themed facades of castle walls and a quaint European village. At attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, most of the experience takes place in a green show building concealed behind a berm that separates it from the themed "mansion", with the two structures connected by an underground passageway. All of the Disney theme parks utilize similar techniques to some extent.
Some theme parks take less rigorous approaches. Universal Studios Hollywood hides many of its show buildings in the same fashion, but other buildings, such as that housing Revenge of the Mummy, are allowed to remain (as a whole or in part) as real-world examples of utilitarian sound stages. Some parks make no attempt to hide show buildings from guests and/or people outside the property, usually due to the cost involved, space limitations, and/or lack of interest in hiding the structures. For instance, all the buildings of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk are clearly visible from Beach Street, which passes directly behind them. Similarly, the show building at Knott's Berry Farm that formerly contained Kingdom of the Dinosaurs is clearly visible from Western Avenue, just a few yards away. [1]
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.
Knott's Berry Farm is a 57-acre (23 ha) theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2015, it was the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America and averages approximately 4 million visitors per year. The park features 40 rides including roller coasters, family rides, dark rides, and water rides.
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displayed to riders waiting in the queue line. Each location differs slightly in design, utilizing a range of technology from centuries-old theatrical effects to modern special effects, including spectral Audio-Animatronics. The Haunted Mansion inspired two similarly-themed attractions, Phantom Manor and Mystic Manor, which exist at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, respectively.
A façade is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French façade, which means 'frontage' or 'face'.
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is an enclosed, launched roller coaster located at Disney's Hollywood Studios within Walt Disney World. Manufactured by Vekoma, the roller coaster opened to the public on July 29, 1999. It uses linear motor electromagnetic technology for acceleration, which propels riders from 0 to 57 mph (92 km/h) in 2.8 seconds. Riders experience up to 5 Gs and travel through three inversions, which include a sea serpent roll and a corkscrew. The attraction also features recorded music as well as appearances from the well-known rock band Aerosmith.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a theme park attraction and dark ride at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. It is loosely based on Disney's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of two segments comprising the animated package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The ride is one of the few remaining attractions operational since the park's opening in July 1955, although the current iteration of the ride opened in 1983. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is located in Fantasyland, and a variation of the attraction also existed at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida from the park's opening in 1971 until September 1998.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a pavilion located on the western side of Future World at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an underwater exploration base called SeaBase Alpha, with several exhibits devoted to oceanic study. The building includes an aquarium and its attached dark ride attraction, a talk show-type attraction called Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Coral Reef Restaurant.
The Universe of Energy was a pavilion on the eastern side of Future World at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. One of Epcot's opening day attractions in 1982, it explored the world of energy through four large-format film presentations and a slow-moving dark ride through a jungle diorama filled with audio-animatronic dinosaurs. In 1996, it was updated as Ellen's Energy Adventure, starring Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye.
Phantom Manor is a dark ride attraction in Frontierland at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. Phantom Manor is the park's version of the Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland, although a lot of scenes from the Haunted Mansion have been reimagined to correspond with a darker theme. It opened with Euro Disneyland on April 12, 1992.
Cabazon Dinosaurs, formerly Claude Bell's Dinosaurs, is a roadside attraction in Cabazon, California, featuring two enormous, steel-and-concrete dinosaurs named Dinny the Dinosaur and Mr. Rex. Located just west of Palm Springs, the 150-foot-long (46 m) Brontosaurus and the 65-foot-tall (20 m) Tyrannosaurus rex are visible from the freeway to travelers passing by on Southern California's Interstate 10. The roadside dinosaurs are best known for their appearance in the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage was an attraction at the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World from 1971 through 1994. Based on the characters and settings of the 1954 Disney film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it was a re-theming of the Submarine Voyage attraction at Disneyland. The ride involved a 20-minute submarine ride through a lagoon filled with sea life and mermaids.
A haunted attraction is a form of live entertainment that simulates the experience of visiting haunted locations or storylines typical of horror fiction. They usually feature fearsome sets and characters, especially demons, ghosts, monsters, possessed people, witches or wizards, serial killers, and slashers. Humorous characters may also be included.
Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril is a roller coaster attraction at Disneyland Park (Paris). It opened on 30 July 1993. Based on the Indiana Jones films, guests are taken on an adventure riding in a mining train through a lost temple. The attraction was sponsored by Esso.
Big Thunder Ranch was an attraction at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, United States. It included an outdoor petting zoo, a walk-through log cabin, and a variety of scenery meant to create the atmosphere of a Western ranch. It was located in Frontierland, nearby Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Inside one could find sheep, goats, cows, and other farm animals. Among these animals were the two turkeys who received presidential pardons in honor of Thanksgiving in 2008. The attraction was hosted by Brawny.
Space Mountain is an outer space-themed, indoor roller coaster in Tomorrowland located at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. The dark ride, which opened on January 15, 1975, is the original version of the iconic attraction that has since been replicated at other Disney theme park locations worldwide, with the exception of Shanghai Disneyland Resort. Space Mountain is also the oldest operating roller coaster in the state of Florida. RCA helped fund construction and sponsored the ride from 1975 to 1993. FedEx assumed sponsorship from 1994 to 2004.
Disneyland is an amusement park in Anaheim, California, which opened in 1955. It is the only one designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney.
Mystic Manor is a dark ride attraction in the Mystic Point area of Hong Kong Disneyland. Unlike Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction and its counterparts in other Disney parks, Mystic Manor has a lighthearted, fantasy-based theme with no references to departed spirits or the afterlife, due to differences in traditional Chinese culture. The attraction does feature several references to the Haunted Mansion, such as a Medusa changing portrait, a conservatory, and the busts that turn to follow visitors as they move. References to other Disney attractions include several figures similar to those from The Enchanted Tiki Room in the Tribal Arts room.
The Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County, California, originated from a berry farm owned by Walter Knott (1889–1981). In the 1920s, Knott and his wife, Cordelia, sold berries, berry preserves and pies from a roadside stand beside State Route 39, near the small town of Buena Park.
Voyage to the Iron Reef was a 4D interactive dark ride located at Knott's Berry Farm theme park in Buena Park, California. Designed by Triotech, the underwater-themed attraction opened to the public on May 15, 2015. It was the second release in the Amusement Dark collection, a branded initiative to construct a variety of video-game-based dark rides at Cedar Fair amusement parks. Wonder Mountain's Guardian was the first in the collection that opened at Canada's Wonderland in 2014.
Knott's Bear-y Tales was a dark ride located at Knott's Berry Farm that opened in 1975 as part of the Roaring 20s area. The attraction was designed by Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump as part of creating a ride that would complement Gypsy Camp, a former themed area of the park. However, the dwindling Gypsy Camp would end up becoming a new section called the Roaring 20s. As a result, the design of Bear-y Tales was altered twice until it ended up reflecting the theme of the Roaring 20s area. During construction, the building caught on fire and a couple of scenes that were under development were destroyed. However, the attraction was given an extended deadline to allow more time and reconstruction of the damaged parts of the ride. In the fall of 1986, Knott's Bear-y Tales was closed to become Kingdom of the Dinosaurs due to the then-upcoming trend of dinosaurs. Following the closure, many of the animatronics and set pieces were obtained by employees, while others stayed within Knott's to become a part of a walk-through experience in 1987 located at the Camp Snoopy area. That attraction also closed and was removed in 1998.
