This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2013) |
Tower of Terror | |
---|---|
Based on | Disney-MGM Studios' "Tower of Terror" at Walt Disney World |
Written by | D. J. MacHale |
Directed by | D. J. MacHale |
Starring |
|
Music by | Louis Febre |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | Iain Paterson |
Cinematography | Stephen McNutt |
Editor | Barry Zetlin |
Running time | 89 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | October 26, 1997 [1] |
Tower of Terror is a 1997 American supernatural horror television film written and directed by D. J. MacHale and starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst. It is based on the theme-park attraction, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, and aired on ABC on October 26, 1997, as a presentation of The Wonderful World of Disney . It is Disney's first film based on one of its theme-park attractions, and the only one produced for television. [2] [3] [4]
The film, which has no connection to any incarnation of The Twilight Zone , [4] was partly filmed at the actual attraction in Orlando, while the rest was filmed on a stage in Hollywood, Los Angeles. As of 2024, the film is not available on any streaming service or aired on any television channels.
Journalist Buzzy Crocker writes for a supermarket tabloid, The National Inquisitor, after his termination from the Los Angeles Banner (where his then-girlfriend Jill works as editor) for publishing a fake news story. Helping him in his job is young niece Anna, with whom he is close friends. Sometime later, an elderly woman named Abigail Gregory comes to visit Buzzy, and explains that on Halloween in 1939, she was witness to a bizarre incident in the Hollywood Tower Hotel, when five hotel guests – singer Carolyn Crosson, Crosson's boyfriend: actor Gilbert London, [notes 1] much-loved child star Sally Shine, her nanny Emeline Partridge, and bellhop Dewey Todd, [notes 2] – mysteriously disappeared without a trace when lightning struck the elevator they were in on their way up to a party at the hotel's Tip Top Club.
Abigail states that the nanny, Emeline, was a bitter witch who tried to put a curse on Sally, only for the curse to misfire, trapping all of the five people who were in the elevator as ghosts, who haunt the hotel. Buzzy investigates the shuttered hotel and finds a book of spells mentioned in Abigail's story, also discovering the curse can be reversed by its "contrary". Abigail also explains that items belonging to the passengers must be found, and what happened in 1939 must be repeated to break the curse. Buzzy and Anna enlist the help of Chris "Q" Todd, the hotel caretaker and grandson of Dewey Todd. Q is reluctant, but he decides to help his deceased grandfather and the four guests, especially as he stands to inherit the hotel if an explanation to the 1939 event is revealed.
Inside the hotel, Buzzy and Anna meet an actress named "Claire Poulet", who had been hired so Buzzy could take fake pictures of the "ghosts" for the supermarket tabloid. Buzzy tries to develop a relationship with Claire, but she is dismayed when Buzzy expresses more interest in restoring his career than helping the spirits. Fearing an intrusion, some of the ghosts appear and repeatedly attempt to frighten off Buzzy and Anna, but Anna steadfastly offers to help the ghosts escape the curse. Finally, the ghost of Carolyn appears. Apparent immediately, she is the same "Claire Poulet" to whom Buzzy already talked. Anna accuses Emeline of cursing the other guests, but a shocked Emeline states her innocence, to which the other ghosts agree. [5]
Researching Buzzy's story, Jill discovers that Abigail is the sister of Sally Shine. Abigail was secretly jealous of her younger sister's talents and fame. Although Halloween was Abigail's birthday, no one seemed to have remembered. After finding out that Abigail caused the curse, she also discovers that Abigail has been in a sanitarium ever since, but is allowed out on day release.
Buzzy realizes that finding the personal effects of the guests (a lock of Sally's hair, Ms. Partridge's handkerchief, Dewey's spare bell-boy hat, Gilbert's Oxford spectacles, and Carolyn's locket) and repairing the elevator have given Abigail the means to complete the curse. He and Jill rush back to the hotel, but they are too late. Unaware that they are about to walk into a trap, Carolyn, Gilbert, Dewey, Emeline, and Sally enter the repaired elevator. Anna runs in, but only Sally makes it out of the elevator before the doors close and the car moves up the shaft. The group confronts Abigail, who then tearfully admits her actions before Sally appears. [6]
The elevator continues to move up, but gets stuck on the 11th floor again, with only minutes left before the final phase of the curse takes effect. Sally explains that the party was a surprise birthday party for Abigail and apologizes to Abigail for not being able to get to it, but of course, Abigail did not know about it. Sally has kept the present she wanted to give to Abby - a golden friendship bracelet with two hearts engraved with their names - assuming she would forgive her. Buzzy then explains that Abigail was the one who started the curse all out of jealousy over Sally, which makes Sally surprised that Abigail is an old woman now and was the one responsible. Abigail is distraught at her mistake, but does not know how to stop the spell. Buzzy, Q, Jill, Abby, and Sally board the service elevator, catching up with the others on the 11th floor. Anna manages to leap from an emergency escape hatch, rejoining Buzzy and the others, but at exactly 8:05 pm, lightning strikes the hotel again, and both cars plummet towards the basement. Amid the chaos, Sally and Abby reconcile, breaking the curse. As they hold hands, they both dissolve into a shower of golden sparkles that safely stops both elevators just before they crash.
Buzzy and his group follow up behind as Carolyn, Gilbert, Dewey, Emeline, and Sally finally ascend to the party at the Tip-Top Club, restored to its former glory; Gilbert proposes to Carolyn after the latter performs for the party. One by one, the ghosts then ascend to Heaven, along with the other partygoers. Abigail, now a child again, appears with Sally, and thanks her for the present. The sisters then hold hands and vanish into golden sparkles, reversing the curse on the hotel. With the spell broken, the Hollywood Tower Hotel is restored and reopened to the public, with Q taking charge as the new owner.
Goofy is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and is Max Goof's father. He is normally characterized as hopelessly clumsy and dim-witted, yet this interpretation is not always definitive; occasionally, Goofy is shown as intuitive and clever, albeit in his own unique, eccentric way.
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, such exhibits include tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories. Dark rides are intended to tell stories with thematic elements that immerse riders, which unfold throughout course of the attraction.
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1983 American animated Christmas fantasy featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and stars Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. Many other Disney characters, primarily from the Mickey Mouse universe, as well as Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940), and characters from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Robin Hood (1973), were cast throughout the film. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 16, 1983, with the re-issue of The Rescuers (1977). In the United States, it was first aired on television on NBC, on December 10, 1984.
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 but distinct attractions, Phantom Manor and Mystic Manor, which exist at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, respectively.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick in his feature directorial debut and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of "Halloween Town", who stumbles upon "Christmas Town" and schemes to take over the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Based on a concept by Marty Sklar, Randy Bright, and Michael Eisner, the park opened on May 1, 1989, as the Disney–MGM Studios (Theme) Park, and was the third of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. Spanning 135 acres (55 ha), the park is themed to an idealized version of Hollywood, California, and is dedicated to the imagined worlds from film, television, music, and theatre, drawing inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
National Treasure is a 2004 American action-adventure heist film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Jim Kouf and the Wibberleys, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Jon Turteltaub. It is the first film in the National Treasure franchise and stars Nicolas Cage in the lead role, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha and Christopher Plummer. In the film, Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian, along with computer expert Riley Poole and archivist Abigail Chase, search for a massive lost Freemason treasure, which includes a map hidden on the back of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or simply Tower of Terror, is a series of similar accelerated drop tower dark rides located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, Walt Disney Studios Park, and formerly located at Disney California Adventure. The attraction is inspired by Rod Serling's anthology television series, The Twilight Zone, and takes place in the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel in Hollywood, California. The Tokyo version features an original storyline not related to The Twilight Zone and takes place in the fictional Hotel Hightower. All versions of the attraction place riders in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator, and present a fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously disappeared from the elevator under the influence of a supernatural element many years previously.
Cinderella Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of two Disney theme parks: the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Based on Cinderella's fairy tale castle from Disney's 1950 animated feature film, both serve as the symbol and flagship attraction for their respective theme parks. Along with Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Castle is a main symbol of The Walt Disney Company.
Chicken Little is a 2005 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. It was directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, and Ron Anderson, based on a story by Dindal and Mark Kennedy, loosely inspired on the European folk tale "Henny Penny", known in the United States as "Chicken Little". In this version, the title character is ridiculed by his town for causing a panic, thinking that the sky was "falling". A year later he attempts to fix his reputation, followed by an unexpected truth regarding his past being revealed. The film is dedicated to Disney artist and writer Joe Grant, who died before the film's release. This also marked the final film appearance of Don Knotts during his lifetime, as his next and final film, Air Buddies, would be released posthumously.
The Happiest Homecoming on Earth or the Happiest Celebration on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park, which opened on July 17, 1955. It commemorated fifty years of Disney theme parks and celebrated Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks all over the globe. The "Homecoming" name was only used for Disneyland Resort; all the other Disney Parks resorts used the "Celebration" name.
Mickey's House of Villains is a 2002 American direct-to-video animated comedy-horror film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It is based on the animated television series House of Mouse and serves as a stand-alone sequel to the direct-to-video animated film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck, and Disney Villains that appeared in past Disney productions. It was released on both VHS and DVD by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on September 3, 2002.
Haunted Mansion Holiday is a seasonal overlay of The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland that blends the settings and characters of the original Haunted Mansion with those of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Taking inspiration from "The Night Before Christmas", the attraction retells the story of Jack Skellington visiting the Haunted Mansion on Christmas Eve, leaving holiday chaos in his wake.
Hollywood Tower, originally known as La Belle Tour, is a large apartment building in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The tower, built in 1929, was a popular residence for entertainment industry employees for many years and has often been cited as the inspiration for Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions. The real-life Hollywood Tower was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The 24th Young Artist Awards ceremony, presented by the Young Artist Association, honored excellence of young performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television, theater, music, and radio for the year 2002, and took place on March 29, 2003 at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, California.
Jill Wisoff is an American filmmaker, performer, actress and film composer best known for original music and songs in Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz's critically acclaimed 1996 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner.
All I Wanna Do is a 1998 American comedy film written and directed by Sarah Kernochan. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Monica Keena, Heather Matarazzo and Rachael Leigh Cook in an ensemble cast as students of the fictional Miss Godard's Preparatory School for Girls, and Lynn Redgrave as the school's headmistress. The film takes place in 1963 and focuses on several students' plotting and sabotage of a proposed merger for the school to go coed.
Anna of Arendelle is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' computer-animated fantasy film Frozen (2013) and its sequel Frozen II (2019). She is voiced by Kristen Bell as an adult. At the beginning of the film, Livvy Stubenrauch and Katie Lopez provide her speaking and singing voice as a young child, respectively. Agatha Lee Monn portrayed her as a nine-year-old (singing). In Frozen II, Hadley Gannaway provided her voice as a young child while Stubenrauch is the archive audio.
The Ghost and Molly McGee is an American animated supernatural comedy television series created by Bill Motz and Bob Roth that aired on Disney Channel from October 1, 2021 to January 13, 2024. The series features the voices of Ashly Burch, Dana Snyder, Jordan Klepper, Sumalee Montano, Michaela Dietz, and Lara Jill Miller.
Events in 1938 in animation.
Emeline Partridge: I don't know where you came up with such a fairy story, lass, but I couldn't love Sally more if she were me own daughter. I protected her in life, and I'll continue until I get her back safe with her parents.
Abigail Gregory: I made her [Sally] a legend! And now she is everywhere. Haunting me for 60 years. But not anymore.