In the context of the opening of Space Mountain: Mission 2 at the Disneyland Park five years ago, we look back at the old Space Mountain: de la Terre à la Lune. Today I'll give you another piece of music used for the original attraction, from the movie 'Rocketeer'
The music was written by James Horner, who also wrote the music for movies like Troy (2004) and Avatar (2009). In my opinion it's one of the best pieces of music (which isn't composed for Disney itself) used for an attraction. Enjoy the music below:
Here you'll meet the wonderful world of music which is used in the Disneyland Resort in Paris. You can even download the music by clicking on the link which is included in all posts.
The first piece of music I'll post is on of my favorites: the ride score from Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune. It was composed by Steve Bramson, who also composed the music for 'Scooby Doo on Zombie Island' and 'The Young Indiana Jones'.
In 1995 Mr. Bramson was invited to write the music to the ground breaking new attraction 'Space Mountain: de la Terre à la Lune' at the Disneyland Paris theme park. Unlike the familiar ride at home, this version was a breathtakingly fast journey through a vast enclosed set of the universe. The music had to be synchronized with the fast-moving trains and required two dozen rides over several months holding a stopwatch to time and average the speed of travel of the trains. Ultimately the music was recorded for a 55-piece orchestra and loaded into the computerized system in the park.
History;
An extravagant version of Space Mountain had been planned since the inception of the Euro Disney Resort, but was reserved for a revival of public interest. Located in Discoveryland, the park's alternative for Tomorrowland, this Space Mountain was originally designed as a view on space travel from a Jules Verne-era perspective, based on the novel 'From the Earth to the Moon'. Paris' version of Space Mountain is the fastest of the five versions of the ride, and is the only Space Mountain to include inversions. It is also the only Space Mountain to feature a portion of track outside the mountain itself (that being the station and the launch cannon).
The attraction features a 1.5G up hill catapult launch at 68 km/h, and three inversions: a sidewinder, a corkscrew and a cutback. It was the first roller coater to feature on-board music, known as a SOBAT (Synchronized On-Board Audio Theme). SOBAT's would later be added to Space Mountain at Disneyland Resort (California) and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland. The ride opened in january 1995 (watch some opening-previews at 'Euro Souvenirland' HERE).
In 2005 Space Mountain: Mission 2 replaced the attraction with a brand new story line and soundtrack, which was (in my opinion) the stupidest decision DLP could take. Although I've never been on the original Space Mountain, I really miss it. It was one of the things that made Discoveryland really special, which I also miss these days.
Watch the YouTube-video below for the soundtrack. The video includes some early concept arts for the attraction and a picture of the opening.
