Former Imagineer Joe Rohde posted never-before-seen concept art on Instagram and wrote about the unbuilt Disney attractions he worked on in the 1980s.
Unbuilt Adventureland Log Flume
“This might look like it’s from the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland but it’s not. It’s from years before that,” Rohde said in his Instagram post.
He explained that in 1984, former Imagineering Senior VP Tony Baxter “rescued me from layoffs and brought me back from our Tujunga production facility to WED to be a concept illustrator.”
This was just after Journey Into Imagination opened at EPCOT. The classic ride was created by Baxter and Steve Kirk, but Rohde actually had a small hand in the project, portraying the Dreamfinder on-screen in one of the original ImageWorks activities.
Baxter assigned Rohde to a “very preliminary concept to create a mystic temple in Adventureland that would combine an interactive walkthrough with a flume ride and a rerouting of the Jungle Cruise boats.” The pathways in the concept art are not ride track like on Indiana Jones Adventure, but suspension bridges that guests would have walked on. Rohde said “there was still an either-or thing going on here. I just drew stuff. “
“I was very very junior and lucky to have escaped being cut loose,” he explained. “I was very cheap labor and I mostly used scrap pieces of illustration board from the scrap bin in the model shop, so all my images are odd sizes. I’m not a great colorist so I’d work in sepia tone, which I like anyways.”
Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure
Though an Adventureland walkthrough/log flume attraction didn’t come to be, the concepts were clearly split into two projects — Splash Mountain (the flume ride) and Indiana Jones Adventure (the temple ride). Baxter was a creative force behind both projects, which opened at Disneyland in 1989 and 1995, respectively.
Rohde said Baxter was already talking in the mid-’80s about this theoretical attraction being themed to Indiana Jones instead of “generic mystic temple.” Rohde didn’t actually work on Indiana Jones Adventure, having moved to Disney’s Animal Kingdom by the time the Indy ride was in active development.
“But my DAK team did learn from the lavish narrative queue when it came to time for Everest,” he said, referencing his famous Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain coaster at Animal Kingdom.
Those were just the first versions of Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure. Splash Mountain would also open at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland in 1992. The Magic Kingdom and Disneyland versions became Tiana’s Bayou Adventure last year, and Baxter came out of retirement to act as an advisor on the new ride.
A second Indiana Jones Adventure with the same ride track and system but a different story opened at Tokyo DisneySea in 2001. A third version, also with a new story, will soon come to Rohde’s home park — Disney’s Animal Kingdom. DINOSAUR will close to be reimagined into a new Indy ride.
The Black Cauldron Land
Rohde guesses the concept art is from 1984 or 1985 — shortly before he was assigned to a land based on “The Black Cauldron” (1985). Rohde said he “did some of my more developed concept illustration” for the unbuilt land. He didn’t say where this land would have been or what kinds of attractions it would have had, but it likely wasn’t in development for long.
“The Black Cauldron” was a box office flop and is sometimes called “the film that almost killed Disney.” It didn’t end up with much theme park representation, but, in 1986, Lancer’s Inn at Walt Disney World was renamed Gurgi’s Munchings and Crunchings after the character Gurgi. It would eventually become The Friar’s Nook, which it remains today.
The most prominent representation of “The Black Cauldron” in Disney Parks was the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, a walkthrough attraction in Tokyo Disneyland that operated from 1986 to 2006. The Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror led guests into the lairs of Disney Villains, leading to an encounter with The Horned King from “The Black Cauldron.”
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