The Parisian iteration of Disney's Indiana Jones attractions will soon close as the park prepares to rebuild the foreboding temple structure in actual stone. Revealed by Disneyland Paris directeur general adjoint Joe Schott and relayed by Disney and More blogger Alain Littaye, the popular Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril ride will be reconstructed in 2014, with a refurbishing of Big Thunder Mountain to follow.
The attraction is rather unlike its American cousins, Disneyland's Temple of the Forbidden Eye and Walt Disney World's Epic Stunt Spectacular. Featuring a roller coaster and the first inversion in any Disney park, the perilous ride whisks guests around the eponymous Temple of Peril in runaway minecarts. If this premise seems somewhat familiar, it should, as the attraction's 1993 debut meant that the park could now boast two separate roller coasters with "runaway minetrain" narratives; Adventureland's Indiana Jones temple, and Frontierland's Big Thunder Mountain.
Though the park representative did not indicate the reason for the rebuilding, fans have theorized that the temple's cost-conscious construction may be to blame. While the buildings are supported by a steel skeleton and concrete substructure, a significant part of the temple is composed of mere "...Styrofoam blocks covered by sculpted cement."
Prior to the ride's appearance in the park, Disney's Imagineers had planned to introduce not only an Indiana Jones-themed thrill ride to the Adventureland area, but an entire land-within-a-land based on the popular franchise. The resort's immediate financial woes, caused in part by executives' over-insistence on property hotels, brought the budgetary ceiling crashing down, and the expansive plan was nixed in favor of the single themed roller coaster guests may visit today.
Recalling this promising past, Disney fans hope that the reconstruction invites Imagineers to implement at least some of the planning stages' discarded decadence. The full extent of the rebuilding will be known when the attraction reopens midway through next year.
