March 11, 2019

Walt Disney World's Fire Mountain

Never heard of Disney's unbuilt Fire Mountain attraction? Have you ever seen it? As a lover of Imagineering art, I've been looking to find it for years. "Never give up!" applies to sop many things in life, but here it is:  the infamous never-built Fire Mountain for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Almost approved by the suits, it was to be an extension of the Magic Kingdom's Adventureland, this incredible idea would have also sat across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Polynesian Village Resort. Not a bad thing to be looking at while you're on the beach waiting for fireworks! It would certainly bring a new look and feel to an old and tired part of the park as well as opening up the options for new stories.

If you look closely at the art (and as always, click on it for the largest size), you'll see the project also went by the name Volcania
  
What is that front and center? Well, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is, in fact, the Nautilus submarine. Would that be a nod to 20K Leagues Under the Sea or a full-blown attraction? If you're thinking as I am that the suits at Disney would try to pass this onto the Oriental Land Company for Tokyo DisneySea, my guess is we are right.

Rumors of old attraction being reborn come and go (think Western River Expedition), but sometimes it really does happen. It's rare- and in this case, I'd say we chalk up a great idea to the history books. By the way, I found this art on the Neverland Files site and did a few quick fixes to highlight the details.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

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