Visiting Yesterday Today — The Virtual Disney Parks Experience
Fans bring Disney history to life in VR.
Whenever the name “Disney” is mentioned in conjunction with a new virtual reality experience, it is only a matter of time before speculation about a virtual theme park — usually featuring long-extinct attractions — begins making its way through the rumor mill. The announcement of a partnership between Disney and Apple to create experiences for the soon-to-be-released Apple Vision Pro sparked this conversation yet again.
What often doesn’t get mentioned are the virtual experiences that, if you have a Meta Quest (formerly Oculus Quest) headset, are ready to whisk you away to vintage Disney Park attractions today! Let’s take a look at some of the more notable ones.
Perhaps the most meticulously researched of these projects comes from ex-Imagineer Don Carson: the Alice in Wonderland ’58 project. After Carson had created an entirely original attraction as a proof-of-concept for the use of a virtual ride-thru in the concept phase of theme park design (Pumpkintown), he found himself, during the height of the pandemic, pursuing a long-time passion project: the recreation of Disneyland’s original Alice in Wonderland (1958 — present) attraction.
With numerous layout and perspective sketches he and another ex-Imagineer, Rover Singer, began interpreting how the interior of the attraction would’ve looked, leaning heavily on color experts Karen Thompson and Heidi Hirsch to manage the complex effects required to simulate a kind of black-light painting that is rarely used anymore.
The result of this meticulous and thoughtful reproduction of the artwork combined with the original sound assets is a stunning recreation of a Disneyland dark ride that had already begun to be toned down by the 1960s and was shut down entirely in order to be completely redesigned and rebuilt in 1982.
While the video can be viewed on a computer in 2D, the real joy is when putting on a VR helmet, accessing the ride through the YouTubeVR channel, and inhabiting the attraction entirely.
Note: Paired with the ride video are numerous short documentaries on its creation, all on Don Carson’s YouTube channel:
Spend any time in Disney history circles and the name Kevin Perjurer and his “Defunctland” YouTube channel will come up; and with good reason: Kevin’s long-running series on Disney Parks (and associated pop culture) history is some of the smartest, best researched, and most flat-out entertaining available. I hesitate to give you the link because you may not come back to this article for many months, but here it is because I trust you:
Kevin moves in mysterious ways and, about 6 years ago, he started discussing creating an entirely virtual theme park based on, as you might expect, defunct attractions. To date two experiences have been completed: a recreation of the Sorcerer Mickey Hat (2001–2015) that stood as an icon — love it or hate it — in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and a full ride-thru of the Magic Kingdom’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1971–1994) submarine attraction.
You can experience these on YouTube…
Defunctland: Sorcerer’s Hat:
Defunctland: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
… and they are nicely rendered, animated, 3D videos with a 360-degree perspective, but the progress through them is on rails and it’s not really VR. The YouTube videos are mostly a sampler of the master Defunctland plan which can be seen in full fruition if you are willing to download and install the DefunctlandVR executable which allows you to walk around the park under your own guidance, finding your way around the Sorcerer Mickey Hat, seeing the outside of the old Disneyland 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea walk-thru attraction and then making your way to the subs which you can board to ride the Walt Disney World Captain Nemo ride.
Now, before I give you the link to download Kevin Perjurer’s DefunctlandVR.exe, it’s important for this and the following entries to issue a disclaimer. If you have any doubts about the veracity of software you find on the internet, do not install it on your computer. I will tell you that this link below is referenced from many sites that have written about the Defunctland VR application and that my experience with installing and spending time in the Defunctland virtual theme park has been wonderful, but I make no claims as to safety when downloading software off of the internet.
Also, know that this project is a side hobby for the Defunctland team who are not professional game producers; so expect some glitches.
Defunctland VR | https://mega.nz/file/4gZEQYIZ#FjTs91BWoyBJyKMU1CznfVAZR2tQbejhrzBA9xYaj5s
You will need to install this app on a PC and then attach the PC to your Quest helmet with a USB cable. If you’ve ever played a game on the helmet from Steam or other 3rd party developers, it’s the same process.
As to the future of the Defunctland theme park?
“The idea that silence “is what kills projects” implies that the VR stuff is something we are plugging away at day and night and we don’t know how to market or communicate our ideas. In reality, we will never sell it or release it in any official way. It will always remain a fun way to preserve old rides, and it will always be volunteer run and not-for-profit. That means that some modelers, coders, etc may work for one hour on weeknights for a month, then get busy with life and not come back. That also means that we let people work on the projects they’re interested in. America Sings and Alien Encounter have been in progress for over two years, as people come and go and contribute when they can.” — Kevin Perjurer
The Disney History Institute stands far and above most other online Disney history organizations for the level of scholarship they bring to their writing and podcasts. Paul F. Anderson, Todd James Pierce, and Jeremy Marx have carved out a space for themselves through the sheer rigor and depth of their research that is almost unmatched.
When, almost ten years ago, Marx announced that he had begun to work on a virtual recreation of Rolly Crump’s Tower of the Four Winds from the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Deep Disney history propelled by a drive to explore it in a new way was right in line with DHI’s methodology. He joined forces with Kurt Pfeifer (Cranky Something Studios) to begin producing the virtual piece that has continued to evolve ever since.
Crump’s famous sculpture was a remarkable construction that he presented to Walt Disney in sketch form and which Walt funded for the World’s Fair. Influenced by the art of Mary Blair and, in turn, augmenting the entrance to the attraction most associated with Blair, It’s a Small World (1964 — present), it was a startling and elegant piece of abstract art.
While the sculpture did not survive past the Fair, elements of it have been recreated for the plaza that serves as an entrance to Disneyland’s Small World attraction.
Project Fairwinds, as they’ve dubbed the experience, allows you to visit Jeremy’s virtual version of Rolly Crump’s Tower within a Quest headset where you can wander around the spinning structure at your leisure and listen to recordings of the artist himself, the late Rolly Crump, describe the work and how it was made. It is the fulfillment of any Disney history buff’s dream.
They have documented the process of creating this piece on the DHI website and it’s a fascinating read.
That was not going to be the end of Cranky Something Studio’s work reconstructing extinct attractions, however. Marx and Pfeiffer’s next piece was even more ambitious: a point-of-view, virtual ride-thru, of Disneyland’s classic attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space (1967–1985). Project Snowflake takes you inside the world of the H2O molecule… and beyond!
The attraction, part of the first major renovation of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, was the first to use the Omnimover ride vehicles, most famously used for the Doom Buggies in The Haunted Mansion (1969 — present) and, much like in the Mansion, featured a surprisingly intimate narration by Paul Frees. In many ways, the attraction is more of a science fiction mood piece than a special effects tour-de-force, but its strange and peculiar character is well-represented in this VR experience.
The chance to experience an attraction this unique, which serves as such a direct antecedent to classic rides such as The Haunted Mansion, brings Disney history to life in a way that would’ve probably thrilled the great innovator of “edutainment,” Walt Disney.
Both Project Fairwinds and Project Snowflake are available as PC downloads and by using Sidequest to side-load them onto your headset, but, by far, the easiest method is to install AppLab through the Quest itself and then add the apps directly through there. (Please note, AppLab is a META-run warehouse for software that has not gone through all of their approval channels. As above, use at your own risk.)
Project Fairwinds —
Project Snowflake —
While the Disney Company has made several attempts to gesture at the charm and excitement of their theme park attractions through games and online experiences, the business of attempting to virtually recreate their own history in any sort of depth has, thus far, been exclusively through the labors-of-love of fan historians. We want to salute the work of these brilliant folks. These recreations are such a gift, both for those of us who got to experience these attractions as children and have wished for just one more chance, as well as for those who never could.
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Hey, if you enjoyed this article, why not give my article about another great Disney-based VR experience, Supernatural VR Fitness, a look?
Or maybe something about the behind-the-scenes difficulties of running a Disney theme park?
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Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
