Dark rides are indoor rides that take riders through animated, painted, or special effect scenes. They were first built in the 1800s and have evolved with technology. Disney popularized them with classic attractions like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. New technology has led to user-active dark cars with shooting mechanisms. Dark rides transport riders to alternate universes and continue to advance amusement park technology.
A dark ride is an indoor ride that carries riders through scenes that are animated, painted, or created with special effects. The ride isn’t always truly dark, although the selective use of light can hide mechanical equipment and create a more realistic atmosphere, as well as direct the riders’ attention. Originally used in the 19th century, dark rides are now popular throughout theme parks and employ ever more advanced technological methods.
The first dark rides were built in the 1800s and called scenic railroads. On these rides, passengers would board trains or small boats and be whisked past a variety of lighted and painted scenes or short attractions and featuring music and sound effects. These rides were typically themed as haunted houses or romantic getaways and became popular throughout amusement parks and fairs. In 1939, at the New York World’s Fair, designer Norman Bel Geddes exhibited Futurama, a dark ride that showed a view of the world in 1960. Soon after, entrepreneur Walt Disney incorporated the technology to build and refine many of the rides at its new Californian park, Disneyland.
Disney and his design team may have been inspired by Futurama to use a dark ride as a means of transporting riders to impossible worlds. When the park opened in 1955, Disneyland had several dark rides, including Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Adventures, and Peter Pan’s Flight. All three of these rides still operate today and are considered classic attractions. These rides were fairly simple, employing music, paintings, and some early animatronics.
Disney’s major contributions to dark ride technology would come in the next few decades. In Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney combined basic technique with thrilling elements and fully immersive scenarios, so that the knights were placed in the middle of the action sequences. The Haunted Mansion employed the use of holographic technology to create truly transparent and hazy ghosts, taking advantage of the first haunted house-themed dark ride. With Space Mountain, dark ride technology met roller coasters, using room-filling projections to give the illusion that indoor roller coasters hurtle through space.
Recent new technology has led to the invention of user-active dark cars, including shooting rides. In these rides, like Disneyland’s Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters or Men In Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios Florida, the vehicles are equipped with a gun or laser that the rider uses to shoot at targets along the way. Some shooting dark rides keep track of rider successes, and some even keep a daily tally of high scores.
Since their invention, the dark ride has proved to be an effective way to transport the rider to an alternate or impossible universe. By enclosing the race track inside and using light to selectively highlight or hide features, designers can create a totally immersive experience for the rider. With innovations like personal vehicle sound systems, shooting mechanisms, and advanced lighting techniques, dark cars continue to excite riders and advance amusement park technology more than a century after their invention.
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