Disney Had Plans For A Villains Ride That Never Happened But Might Still Be In The Works
Disney has always had a dark side and some of the most memorable characters are not the princesses or heroes but the dastardly villains! From Captain Hook, Ursula, and Scar to Jafar, Maleficent, and The Evil Queen, villains are staples in the Disney Universe so why hasn’t there ever been a ride dedicated to just them? Well…there were plans for one and it might just happen.
At this year’s D23 expo, Josh D’ Amaro reveled some “blue sky” plans” for mini-lands for The Magic Kingdom and one of those was a land focusing on villains!
We had to dig a bit deeper on this and our friends over at MiceChat.com said the following: Way back in the 1990s, there were competing ideas for a Villains attraction. Some say that the idea started with the success of the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour at Tokyo Disneyland. What started as a cheerful tour through the Castle went dark as secret passageways opened to the lairs of different Disney Villains, culminating in the dungeon of the Horned King from the Disney movie The Black Cauldron. This attraction was so popular, that Disney decided to do something with the Disney Villains stateside.
The site continues that the idea for the ride was going to be a mountain to keep in the vein of other attractions like Thunder Mountain or Space Mountain. Now the actual name of the ride has been up for speculation whether it be called Bald Mountain or Villains Mountain.
Villains Mountain, from what we can gather, was going to be a flume based ride like Splash Mountain. Guests would board boats and be taken through different Villains’ lairs, with audio-animatronic Villains singing or talking their way through the scenes. In one plan, the Villains plotted to take over the Magic Kingdom, electing who was the evilest Villain to lead the charge. In others, it was just a journey via flume through various Villain scenes: the Evil Queen in her laboratory, Ursula over her cauldron, Maleficent gloating over perceived victory, etc.
The boats would soon reach the biggest baddie of them all, Chernabog from Fantasia. He would unfold his wings and menace the riders, with little demons of fire dancing all around him. The only way to escape would be a long way down, as the longboats would slide down a long flume to safety.
There was even a concept piece created in model form for this ride and subsequent Villains Land but now only the concept art has made its way online as you can see above.
There’s no word or confirmation that this Villains Land or attraction will ever come to be but one can hope and based on the popularity of the villains themselves over the years, we think it would be a massive hit for Disney. Plans and ideas for lands and rides are always in a state of flux and if the right idea comes up, we could be seeing the Villains take over their own area of the Magic Kingdom. Here’s hoping we learn more sometime soon.
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