Crush's Coaster is a

spinning roller coaster A spinning roller coaster is a roller coaster with cars that rotate on a vertical axis. Models Virginia Reel The first spinning roller coaster was the Sierra Sidewinder, first built in 1908 by Henry Riehl. Instead of trains, the ride had "tubs ...

Walt Disney Studios Park Walt Disney Studios Park (French: ''Parc Walt Disney Studios'') is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through i ...

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, Seine-et-Marne, Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disney ...

. The attraction officially opened on June 9, 2007 as part of an expansion project in Toon Studio, an area within Walt Disney Studios Park formerly known as Animation Courtyard. The ride is themed to

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

's '' Finding Nemo'' film, and named after Crush, a green sea turtle voiced by

Andrew Stanton Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's ''A Bug's Life'' (1998), directing '' Finding Nemo'' (2003) ...

from the movie. Most of the roller coaster is

enclosed Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

and features

dark ride A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, su ...

special effects. On August 27, 2021, following Disneyland Paris' reopening, Walt Disney Studios Park announced that the attraction was set to become part of the ''Worlds of Pixar'' area.

History

Disneyland Paris – known as Disneyland Resort Paris at the time – began a

placemaking Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that improve urban v ...

project as early as 2006 to improve and expand the Animation Courtyard area within Walt Disney Studios Park. The project was completed in 2007, and the area was renamed Toon Studio. No official press announcement was given until the launch of the resort's

15th Anniversary Celebration ''15th Anniversary Celebration'' is a live album by the progressive bluegrass Maryland band The Seldom Scene. This was the last album for bassist Tom Gray, who left to pursue his own music and was replaced by T. Michael Coleman. Track listing ...

on April 1, 2007. The ride then debuted on June 9, 2007 and is the first and only ride at Disneyland Paris to be themed to '' Finding Nemo''. On Halloween night in 2010, Walt Disney Studios Park was rethemed for the holiday, with most of its popular attractions receiving a halloween re-theming. Crush's Coaster became ''Crush's Coaster: Avis de Tempête'' as part of the festivities.

Ride experience

Queue

Guests enter the Toon Backlot of Toon Studio and stumble upon the beached sound stage and film set of Disney·Pixar's '' Finding Nemo'', themed as Sydney Harbour, where Crush and his sea friends invite guests to climb aboard turtle shells for a ride through memorable scenes from the movie.

Ride

The ride starts off with shells "diving" into the ocean. The first part of the attraction is a slow

taking guests to the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

, where they meet Nemo and Squirt, then to the darkness of the depths, where they encounter voracious glowfish, and finally to the Sunken Submarine surrounded by an army of jellyfish where they meet the sharks and their chief, Bruce. The second part of the ride's track is a faster rollercoaster in the dark, representing the spiraling, churning

East Australian Current The East Australian Current (EAC) is a warm, southward, western boundary current that is formed from the South Equatorial Current (SEC) crossing the Coral Sea and reaching the eastern coast of Australia. At around 15° S near the Australian co ...

itself. The ride ends with the shells returning to Sydney Harbour, with cheers from Crush and his friends.

Technology

The attraction employs several instances of new technology developed by

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...

, the key being two large digital video projection effects in the early dark ride scenes of the ride, which place Nemo, the

clownfish Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...

, and Squirt, Crush's son, seamlessly within the 'underwater' environment. The technology was developed for Crush's Coaster in conjunction with

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is an attraction in the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. It opened on June 11, 2007. Based on the characters and settings of the 2003 Disney·Pixar film, ''Finding Nemo'', it is a re-them ...

and

The Seas with Nemo and Friends The Seas with Nemo & Friends (formerly The Living Seas) is a pavilion located in the World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an oceanic exploration base called ...

. Crush's Coaster marks the only second

-themed spinning roller coaster (following

Primeval Whirl Primeval Whirl was a steel Wild Mouse roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort. The ride was a spinning roller coaster purchased from Reverchon Industries. The ride was part of Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama, wh ...

), and the first ever collaboration between German roller coaster engineers

Maurer Söhne Maurer AG, formerly known as Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, is a steel construction company and roller coaster manufacturer. Founded in 1876 in Munich, Germany, the company has built many styles of steel buildings, ranging from bridges, industrial ...

and

Fastpass

In a bid to decrease the long queues that frequently plague the ride, Disney conducted preliminary tests during July 2008 at the Crush's Coaster site to investigate the possibility of installing a

Fastpass FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass were virtual queue systems created by the Walt Disney Company to speed up customer access to certain attractions and amenities at the Disney resorts and theme parks. First introduced in late 1999 as a virtual ...

system at the attraction. Fastpass was ultimately not implemented at the ride, though a single riders line subsequently was. Fastpass was again trialed in January 2018. Crush's Coaster is now part of Disney Premier Access, a paid Fastpass service. Article - 'How does Disney Premier Access work"
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References

External links

Disneyland Paris - Crush's Coaster

DLRP Magic - Crush's Coaster Info

WDS Fans - Crush's Coaster Fan Page

Photos Magiques - Crush's Coaster Photos

YouTube - Making of Crush's Coaster

YouTube - Crush's Coaster Recreation
{{Disneyland Paris Coasters Pixar in amusement parks Walt Disney Studios Park Finding Nemo Roller coasters at Walt Disney Studios Park Roller coasters manufactured by Maurer AG Spinning roller coasters Steel roller coasters Enclosed roller coasters Roller coasters introduced in 2007 Toon Studio (Walt Disney Studios Park) Audio-Animatronic attractions 2007 establishments in France