| Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull | |||||
| Tokyo DisneySea | |||||
| Land | Lost River Delta | ||||
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| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||
| Theme | Indiana Jones | ||||
| Opening date | September 4, 2001 | ||||
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Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, a motion simulator dark ride adventure, based on the Indiana Jones films, opened September 4, 2001 at Tokyo DisneySea theme park in Chiba, Japan. (It is not to be confused with the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was developed and released after the attraction's opening.) Guests accompany intrepid archeologist Dr. Indiana Jones on a turbulent, high-speed adventure through a dangerous lost temple aboard modified military transport vehicles.
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye, which opened in 1995, is a similar attraction within Adventureland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
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Because of the success of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, George Lucas decided to join forces with Disney in creating a new attraction for Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. Unlike the previous collaboration, Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction was created with a backstory "set in the Lost Delta of India, circa 1935."
Indiana Jones Adventure, Temple of the Crystal Skull is the sixth collaboration between Disney and Lucasfilm, after the Disney attractions Captain EO, Star Tours, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril, and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye.
Imagineers literally had to wait for technology to catch up to their technique of story telling. Many may think the star of the show is Indy himself, but the key element used in telling this story would be the troop transport vehicle. The team tested key show elements in a warehouse on a full sized elevated ride track that resembled a freeway. This enabled the team to test Set Work, Lighting, FX, Ride clearances and Motion profiles. George Lucas was amazed by the team's ability to figure out such an ingenious way to literally put guest into the Indiana Jones films.
Groundbreaking began for Forbidden Eye in August 1993. More than 400 Disney Imagineers worked on its design and construction, with a core team of nearly 100, with Tony Baxter as the project lead.
Disney filed for patent on the ride system November 16, 1995 and Forbidden Eye debuted on March 3, 1995.
The adventure is set in the area of the park called Lost River Delta, which represents somewhere in South America. Indiana Jones is looking for the Fountain of Youth in an Aztec temple guarded by the Crystal Skull. While the name is similar to that of the fourth Indiana Jones film, the design of the titular skull is entirely different and the scenarios in the attraction are unrelated to that film.
The Temple of the Crystal Skull appears as a large Aztec pyramid and temple, set in the South American port "Lost River Delta" at Tokyo DisneySea. The design is influenced by South America. There is a large room in the first pyramid with skeletons on the floor with the subsequent rooms get narrower. Paco, a South American man hosts black and white safety film, which plays on a continuous loop.
Guests board an Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) intended to appear as a battered military troop transport. EMV's are driven by neoporene filled tires (for operational precision) with brushless DC motors in the wheel hub atop the surface of a slotted roadbed. Beneath the slot a tubular guideway guides both front and rear wheelsets. Each transport can accommodate twelve guests with three rows of seats, four across, with the front left seat behind non-operational steering wheel, brake and throttle pedals. Each troop transport is a motion simulator which travels no faster than 14 miles per hour (23 km/h) atop a slotted roadbed/guiderail track. The transport carbody is attached by three linear induction motors to the frame of the chassis, and allow the shell to articulate independently. A guest's physically intense experience is programed to achieve the illusion of greater speed and catastrophic mechanical failure using the enhanced-motion vehicle's ability to add several feet of lift then rapidly descend, shudder and tremble, and intensify cornering with counterbank and twist.
The ride system invented for the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull has previously been implemented using three hydraulic rams in the other two attractions —— Indiana Jones Adveneture: Temple of the Forbidden Eye and DINOSAUR, located at Disney's Animal Kingdom (Opened as CTX: Countdown to Extinction) in Orlando, Florida. However, the Japanese version uses linear-inductive actuators instead of three hydraulic rams because the thirty-five gallons of hydraulic fluid used on the Disneyland version takes two hours to clean up the track when a hose splits. Because of Japan's environmental codes regarding oil spills, the design team elected to substitute electromagnetic actuators on the ride vehicle. Three of these actuators are used to create a 3-D (pitch, roll, and elevation) motion platform on which the carbody sits.
Everyone is seeking the Fountain of Youth. There is a single carved door with pools of water to the side, complemented by mist and what appears to be endless hallways.
All guests enter the same hallway, seeking the Fountain of Youth. This single hallway contains effects from the three variations seen in “Forbidden Eye”; fiber optic stars, statues holding glowing treasure, and water effects. At the end of the hall awaits the Crystal Skull. It glows demonically, signaling that the journey is about to take a turn toward the Gates of Doom.
The transport momentarily appears to head toward an exit, before making a sharp turn into a large corridor. Lightning flashes along the walls, illuminating large cobra statues overhead as the transport seems to "float" through the room using the EMV technology.
The Gates of Doom pulsate with green mist and an audio-animatronic Indiana Jones struggles to keep the doors closed. Jones scolds the tourists for looking into the eyes of the idol and instructs them to proceed up the steps to the left. The triumphant musical theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark is heard as the transport accelerates up the flight of stairs.
Blues and greens, are the colors that fill this room. There is a large tornado effect near the bridge. The eye of the large skull is crystal and emits lasers and other interesting lighting effects.
The transport turns left and enters another chamber filled with skeletons, some of which pop out toward the guests.
Suddenly, all is dark; the music tinkles with chaotic violin pizzicatos. The transport's headlights flicker back on, illuminating walls swarming with thousands of beetles. Hissing sounds are heard, and riders are blasted with puffs of air.
The transport finally heads out of the darkness and onto the bridge which spans the pit. The transport stalls for a moment as another oncoming jeep can be seen across the pit, but it turns out of the way before reaching the bridge. The transport then accelerates across the bridge which sways and jostles under its weight. The massive stone Mara/skull shoots beams from its eye at the bridge, attempting to destroy it. The transport safely makes it across and makes a right turn.
Thousands of snakes line the walls and ground and a gigantic audio-animatronic anaconda, native to Latin America, with glowing red eyes, appears to the right of the vehicle, striking at the riders.
The transport heads back to return across the rope bridge and flashes its headlights at an oncoming transport about to cross. The transport turns sharply to the right entering behind the giant stone skull. The transport slides past hundreds of human skulls which decorate the walls, as the spirit of Mara looms overhead. Turning left, out of the massive stone effigy, the transport continues downward, passing under the rope bridge.
A carved face is in the wall in front of the vehicle. The vehicle pauses for a moment and large ring of orange colored smoke pops out of the face's mouth, straight towards the vehicle.
Miniature sculptures of skulls are on the walls. Each one has a little hole in its mouth that the air darts come out of.
As the boulder falls, a photograph of the entire car of riders is taken. The photograph may be purchased after the ride.
The transport drops suddenly, then turns right sharply in a dark tunnel and comes out to see Jones standing in front of the crushed boulder. Jones wipes his forehead and says one of several pre-recorded phrases ("Not bad, for tourists!"; "Next time, you wear blindfolds, okay?"; "Don't tell me that wasn't big fun!"; "Tourists, why'd it have to be tourists?" etcetera). A final triumphant refrain of the music ushers the guests back into the station. While waiting to disembark, the mobile radio tranceiver announces one of several "please remain seated" messages.
In addition to dialogue and sound effects, an orchestral soundtrack plays through the speakers built into the troop transports. This medley contains segments of John Williams' original scores for the first three Indiana Jones movies, rescored and re-recorded to sync up with the perils of the adventure. Richard Bellis was responsible for this adaptation process.[1] The Raiders' March and Ark theme both feature prominently at various points.
The following list is a breakdown of the different passages heard in the attraction, and the track times at which the original versions can be found on the soundtracks for the films.
A variety of standard pieces from the 1930s can be heard from a radio in the outdoor queue. Furthermore, original percussion tracks can be heard subtly in the indoor pathways of the queue and exit. Faint snippets of the Raiders' March rise occasionally from the background.
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