What Could Have Been in theme parks...
Parks with their own pages:
- As a general rule, many theme park attractions that are in the drawing board likely stay in that process for years. The above-mentioned park operators Disney and Universal, for instance, have dozens of concepts dating all the way back to their parks' opening dates that are simply stuck in Development Hell, sitting in the shelves and their likelihood of ever getting realized growing more and more unlikely as the days go on. For Disney, the aforementioned Muppets Courtyard is an example of this, having been talked about since the park's conception in the 1980s but only realized almost three decades later when the park was stuck in such an outdated and decaying state that they had to revisit the idea. For Universal, they had concepts for various Nintendo attractions sitting in the shelves for years out of belief that Nintendo would never approve of them. Then Nintendo came knocking on NBCUniversal's door....
- Graphic artist and designer Roger Dean, best known for his work on album covers and stage designs for the progressive rock band Yes, designed several theme park attractions with his brother Martyn which were never used. The sketches appear in his book Magnetic Storm.
- From The '90s onward, Michael Jackson conceived several theme park projects for various locales; some were formally announced but none went forward. These were:
- "Majestic Kingdom" in Detroit.
- "Peter Pan's Neverland
" (scroll down the page to see the article). - "World of Childhood" in Poland.
- "Crystal Kingdom" in Dubai.
- Back in 1992, there were once plans to put in a full size replica of the Enterprise from the original Star Trek series in Las Vegas. And it almost happened: everyone involved loved the idea, from the development company, to the city, to even Paramount themselves. The only reason it was scrapped was because studio chairman Stanley Jaffe feared that if a Star Trek movie flopped, the attraction would make Paramount look bad, and scrapped it. Read the entire account here
- Cracked takes a look at five insane theme parks that were almost built.
- Alton Towers wanted to take the songs from the video game RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and use it for unspecified purpose for their park. Sadly, it didn't materialize.
- Would you believe that there really was going to be a Superman amusement park? Gizmodo has the story. Cliff Notes version: Metropolis, Ill, and DC Comics had planned to open a theme park centered around the legendary Man of Steel. A set of concept pictures and designs were drawn by Neal Adams showing off everything the theme park would have had, including a massive Fortress of Solitude topped with a stained-glass roof and a room filled with statues of Superman's greatest foes. A comic book, "The Superman Story", was also made around this time to showcase it. The park would have cost around the tune of $25 million USD. Then, the OPEC oil crisis hit and they were forced to back down. However, one has to wonder how long it would have lasted - about a decade later would have been Crisis on Infinite Earths and it would have rendered it all moot.
- In 1996, the works of L. Frank Baum inspired a Kansas City theme park, The Wonderful World of Oz. Most of the attractions evoked the Land of Oz stories, particularly the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Baum's book of The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus also prompted the addition of Santa's Workshop near Glinda's castle. Unfortunately, a vote among the Kansas City Council reportedly favored leaving the park unbuilt. Several pieces of concept art have turned up here, here, here, and here.
- In 1987, there were plans for a Muppetville theme park. Concept art◊ shows that as well as The Muppets, there would be a section devoted to Fraggle Rock. However, Jim Henson finally decided "Disney does it so well that we could never do it better."
- In 1996, Cedar Point built a Bolliger & Mabillard stand-up coaster called Mantis. Mantis was originally supposed to be called Banshee, after the mythical wailing ghost in Irish folklore. In the days following the initial announcement, however, there was some negative reaction from the public regarding the term Banshee, which in the dictionary is described as a female spirit that warns of an impending family death. Thus the ride name was changed to Mantis. The original Banshee ride logo would instead end up being used on Steel Force, a hypercoaster at Dorney Park, while the Banshee name itself ultimately went to a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster that opened at Kings Island in 2014. Ironically, in 2015, Mantis was converted into a floorless coaster and renamed Rougarou, which itself is a creature in French folklore that draws comparisons to the mythical werewolf.
- In 2009, after Kentucky Kingdom got rid of Chang, their Bolliger & Mabillard stand-up coaster, Six Flags had originally intended for the ride to be relocated to Six Flags Great America and opened there in 2011, likely replacing Iron Wolfnote . The park even obtained approval from the city of Gurnee to exceed the 125-foot (38 m) height limit imposed on the park, but plans were later canceled in favor of a water park expansion. So ultimately, Chang instead went to Six Flags Great Adventure where it replaced the Great American Scream Machine and was renamed Green Lantern. B&M would build X-Flight for Six Flags Great America instead, keeping the park's B&M coaster count to fournote , while the lot where Iron Wolf stood was taken up by a custom RMC wooden coaster.
- When Six Flags Great America was due to receive their clone of Superman Ultimate Flight in 2003, they had originally planned to use it to replace Whizzer, their Schwarzkopf speed-racer and along with Demon one of only two original coasters from the park's opening in 1976. However, due to public backlash and major fan campaigns to "Save the Whizzer!" the park eventually relented and instead decided to tear down Shockwave, their Arrow Dynamics mega-looper, and put Superman Ultimate Flight there.
- Maverick at Cedar Point is the park's Intamin blitz coaster. It originally had three inversions: two twisted horseshoe rolls in the first half, and then a heartline roll in the second half. The ride's opening in May 2007 had to be delayed two weeks because the track in the heartline roll element put excessive stress on the trains, which also might have caused discomfort to passengers due to high g-forces. Cedar Point thus had to quickly remove it and replace it with a simple s-bend.
- Grover Robbins was the founder of Tweetsie Railroad a small theme park with an authentic steam locomotive and a Wild West theme. Tweetsie is still in operation today but it was not the only theme park he had planned, but merely a springboard for a series of theme parks located throughout the Appalachian Mountains.
- Rebel Railroad was the first park to open after Tweetsie, and it also had an antique steam locomotive but was themed around the American Civil War as opposed to the Wild West, although some Western archetypes like cowboys, outlaw gangs, and Native American warriors did appear alongside the Union and Confederate troops. The park was sold to the Herschend Family Entertainment company in Missouri in 1976, who turned Rebel Railroad into a twin of their Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson. The country music star Dolly Parton invested into the company as a whole and became a majority shareholder, and the Silver Dollar City in Tennessee became Dollywood, still in operation to this day.
- Land of Oz was the last theme park opened in Grover Robbins's lifetime and was themed around The Wizard of Oz, particularly the 1939 film (with some attractions based on the later books) and it was open from 1970 to 1980. Now abandoned and a popular site for the urban explorer crowd. In The '80s the park was given the most basic of maintenance since the park was the site of a few reunions and anniversary celebrations of the 1939 movie before being permanently closed in 1990.
- There were plans for other theme parks, including Magic Mountain (focused on fairy tales and medieval fantasy) alongside pirate and Sword-and-Sandal theme parks, but most never made it past the drawing board. Magic Mountain did exist as a section of Tweetsie Railroad where the petting zoo and kiddie rides were located, but was later rebranded as Miner's Mountain to better fit the Western theme of the park.
- In 2013, two Twentieth Century Fox theme parks were announced, with areas and rides based on the studio's properties such as Alien, Avatar, Planet of the Apes, The Simpsons, Futurama, and the movies of Blue Sky Studios, in both Singapore and Dubai. The former got some delays due to a weak currency, Disney's purchase of Fox leading to a legal battle (the park, now renamed Genting SkyWorlds, ultimately got the rights to retain most of the licenses), and the COVID-19 pandemic screwing up the finishing touches, and is nearly completed but still needing a formal inauguration. The other one was just cancelled having not even broken ground in 2018, leaving only inspiring concept art behind.
