Disney teases what you’ll see on Cars and Monsters, Inc. rides during SXSW

Disney Imagineers are building their first-ever suspended coaster with a vertical lift for the Monsters, Inc. ride coming to Disney World’s Hollywood Studios.

Disney also wants to take passengers on a bumpy ride for the new Cars attraction at the Magic Kingdom. Disney is going at great lengths to get the details just right, including inventing a new ride vehicle.

Disney Imagineers gave the updates Saturday during a presentation at SXSW. The rides don’t have official opening dates yet.

At Hollywood Studios, the Monsters Inc. ride will include the memorable scene from the movie where Mike, Sully and Boo venture through a vault to find the child’s closet door.

“Imagineers have been itching to turn that very moment into an attraction ever since we all saw it for the first time,” Imagineer Michael Hundgen said.

Disney released an animated video of the coaster’s load station that shows the train rising straight up in the air.

Passengers climbing on won’t feel the traditional “click and clack up an incline” like on most roller coasters, Hundgen said.

“It’s not going to cut it,” Hundgen said. “Just like the doors in the movie, the train will lift straight up into the air before zooming off.”

“We have never done anything like this before. It’s Disney’s first suspended coaster. It’s our first vertical lift, and we’re designing this experience to be as memorable and as fun as the film itself. So we’re just so excited.”

At the upcoming Cars ride, vehicles from the popular children’s movies will race each other off road in the frontier.

“This isn’t Lightning McQueen on a Piston Cup Speedway,” said Pete Doctor, Pixar’s chief creative officer. “It’s more like Midnight Run with Smokey through the wilderness of Cars 3. That meant the Imagineers had to figure out a way to put our characters in a space they’ve never experienced before on screen, racing over rocky terrain, ascending mountain peaks, dodging geysers.”

Disney Imagineers designed new ride vehicles and also went off-roading in Arizona for ideas on how to make the turns and bumps feel more authentic on the ride.

The additions coming to Disney World also mean something beloved gets lost.

The Monsters, Inc. Land is replacing the Muppets Courtyard and MuppetVision 3D while the Cars attraction means the end of the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.

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