Come for Mickey, stay for the dinosaurs

Magic is a term thrown around very lightly when discussing Disney theme parks, so much so that it often rings hollow.  But to be fair, it’s an appropriate (if not the most appropriate) catch-all term for these places.  No matter how overused the word is with Disney, there really is something magical about being able to cross a threshold, board a train, or set sail on a boat and be transported across time and boundaries to experience things that are so hyper-real, fantastic, impossible, and beyond the scope of many of our own imaginations and life experiences.

 

For me, the Disneyland Railroad is the perfect example of that magic.  If Disneyland is a microcosm of the world — or at least the world through a distinctly American filter — at various times, then the Disneyland Railroad physically transports us through the time and space that world occupies.  The magic here might seem obvious: the train is a time machine.  But no, the real magic here is that we board the train never knowing this.  The train is unassuming, charming, quaint — a simple steam train stepping off from an American Main Street a hundred years ago, naturally.  The magic here is that you board a train that’s seemingly just a train but it quietly, as if totally natural, reveals itself to be a time machine.  You step off from American midwest in 1900, travel through the western Frontier and deep south of the 1800s, and eventually find yourself in the world of the future.  Dense foliage and tunnels act as transitions; the blur of time passing by.  The trip culminates with an excursion to the Grand Canyon “as we know it today;” it’s only after our visit to the Grand Canyon, a beautifully staged natural history museum-style diorama, that the conductor finally admits to the train’s big secret and invites us to “travel back in time” to the land of the dinosaurs — the fantastic primeval world.

 

 

It’s that reveal that’s key — the moment the magic trick all comes together and you’re greeted with dinosaurs; the masterful 25 minute sleight of hand played so casually that you’d been watching it unfold before your eyes the whole time and you didn’t really know it at all.  The misdirection, the unexpected, the big reveal. That’s the magic of Disneyland.  You might come to Disneyland for Mickey Mouse but it’s the dinosaurs that you stay for.

 

I’ll soon be headed to Walt Disney World to visit the cousins of these Disneyland Railroad dinosaurs at Epcot (expect some Walt Disney World posts here soon!).  The last-minute trip is to catch a final ride on a couple attractions Disney is closing to make way for new experiences.  At Epcot, a Guardians of the Galaxy-themed ride will be installed in the current Universe of Energy pavilion, where the dinos serve as a major scene in a ride about our planet’s energy.  It’s a shame that Disney is seemingly no longer interested in creating attractions that both entertain and educate their guests through extraordinary experiences, but at least these guys continue to live on at Disneyland.