The Script

Aerosmith are recording some awesome new sounds and have dreamed up a psyched-out new way of letting you experience their work... With a booming launch and twists, turns and loops throughout, this is a rock 'n' roll scream like nothing you've ever heard - or felt - before!

You'll "ride the music" with 120 onboard speakers in your unique SoundTracker vehicle and more G-forces than an astronaut experiences. As the music rocks, you'll "roll" from 0 to 100km/h in less than three seconds, into an amped-up, neon-lit, smoke-filled extravaganza of music. As you blast through lighting rigs and navigate hairpin turns, heart-stopping drops and over-the-top flips, you'll experience the awesome vibes of a non-stop rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

Production Guide

Welcome to the Backlot, rockers! Ready to roll? Piazza Sergio Leone is home to the state-of-the-art recording and research facilities of Tour de Force Records, where Aerosmith are putting the finishing touches to their brand new rock music sensation - which you're invited to test! As rock classics from recent decades pound through the courtyard, the towering, multicoloured instruments of the record company's building flash and pulse with concert lighting. To one side, the two-level Aerosmith tour bus is parked up with a red carpet leading inside - the band have arrived!

You enter through the edgy concert rigging and trusses to the main lobby of the recording studio, which features an entire wall filled with glistening electric guitars from rock legends past and present. From here, you're led through the corridors of the recording studio past the faint beat of music in Studios A and B, around walls lined with signed concert posters and gold discs. After seeing a full showcase of real rock memorabilia proudly displayed by Tour de Force Records, your guide shows you to Studio C, where you wait for Aerosmith to call.

Once escorted into the studio, you discover that the members of Aerosmith are, in fact, in the studio control room, rather than amongst their instruments. As the doors to Studio C close behind you, the tour guide explains that Aerosmith are putting the finishing touches to a "revolutionary musical experience", which the band members excitedly describe through the glass screen. With a model of a roller coaster inversion, they break into their famous song lyrics to describe the "awesome" new experience, ending on "Going dooowwnnn...". At which point, the band themselves usher you, their V.I.P. guests, into the top secret Research & Development studio of Tour de Force Records. You're about to be among the very first to experience this brand new concept in rock.

In the dark and industrial R&D wing, you're met head on with the pounding launch of SoundTrackers, the prototype vehicles of the ride, each one tweaked and perfected a little more than the last and joined with blinding concert lighting and colourful projections. An audio assistant can be seen on the control panel running the experience and adjusting the ride to Aerosmith's demands, with a huge bank of video monitors displaying live feedback from inside the ride.

"Can you play that back for me? I think we're there."

"A bit more bass please!"

"Yeah! Track three is totally in synch now!"

When you're ready (..so ready!) to board your SoundTracker, speaker and volume tests can already be heard coming from the vehicles as the train is prepped for launch and the adjusted music track downloaded onto its sound system. When all of the "gineau pig" riders are ready, the train leaves the station and rounds the curve towards the launch track, with instrument tune-ups and shouts from the band and technicians heard through the train's systems and around the launch area. With everything in place, it's...

"SoundTracker prêt pour le lancement!"

The lights dim and your face is illuminated with the fiery orange glow of the LED countdown, sung by Aerosmith themselves...

"Three ! Two ! One !"

Without change to say "go!", your SoundTracker is fired at 100km/h along the launch track with coloured lights all around. At the end, you enter the main concert arena and punch through the wall of dry ice that surrounds the track, swooping upwards straight into a double inversion roll-over to one of Aerosmith's five chosen soundtracks. Past dazzling colours, dizzying strobes, near-misses with concert rigging and through a whirlwind of high-energy dives, turns, drops and loops, your SoundTracker gives a ride you'll never forget.

With a final high-speed dive through a blinding field of dry ice and strobe lighting, the test-drive is finally complete, and your SoundTracker comes to a halt along the brake run with flashing, coloured lights only adding to your dizzy sense of energy. As the train pulls into the unload station, you stumble to your feet and spin around to see a bank of screens displaying your unforgettable reaction from the lightning first launch, which right now seems like a lifetime ago.

"Love in a roller coaster...

Livin' it up when I'm goiiiiin' dowwwwnn!"

Production footnotes

Did you know - there are five completely different ride experiences to enjoy? Each of the five SoundTracker trains features not only a different Aerosmith soundtrack but a completely different light-show, customised to the music. This is a world-first and still a world-exclusive in Disney attraction history. The five different soundtracks are:
ST1 - Back In The Saddle / Dude Looks Like A Lady
ST2 - Young Lust / F.I.N.E. / Love In An Elevator
ST3 - Love In An Elevator / Walk This Way
ST4 - Nine Lives
ST5 - Sweet Emotion (Live)

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith is the fastest roller coaster ever built for a Disney theme Park. It can reach 100 kilometres per hour in 2.8 seconds, and features three inversions: a double roll-over (immediately after launch) and a corkscrew. The maximum G-Force pulled is an incredible 5G, putting riders at five times their normal weight!

Each SoundTracker train features a state-of-the-art sound-system and 120 speakers, 5 for each seat. These are joined in perfect synchronisation by additional speakers in the loading area for the launch build-up.

Unlike the cable launch system of Space Mountain: Mission 2, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith uses an LSM launch system, which uses electro-magnetic propulsion to push trains at high speed along the launch track. Each train features metal "fins" underneath, which are pushed forward through opposing magnetic power when the linear electro-magnetic current in the launch track is activated. The ride system is manufactured by Vekoma (Space Mountain: Mission 2, Casey Jr. - Le Petit Train du Cirque), based on a pre-designed layout.

Guitars, drums, gold discs and costumes can be found throughout the corridors of Tour de Force Records from such legendary artists as AC-DC, Pearl Jam, REM, Sting, Elton John, Aerosmith, and many more. As you pass by Studios A and B in the queue line, put your ear to the doors and listen to the muffled sounds of the recording artists inside!

The footage of Aerosmith in Studio C was filmed with 70mm film recorded at 60 frames per second, compared to standard 35mm film, which is recorded at 24 frames a second. It is then replayed in the attraction using High Definition rear-projection, to give the effect that the Aerosmith stars are truly present.

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry re-recorded certain vocals and guitar riffs especially for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. These changes, which cannot be heard anywhere else other than at the attraction, include new lyrics to classic Aerosmith songs, such as “Love in an Elevator” (now “Love in a Roller Coaster”) and “What Kind of Love Are You On?” (now “What Kind of Ride Are You On?”).

History

The original version of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith can be found at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The ride, opened in 1999, features the exact same track layout but with an entirely different theme to the "plussed" Parisian version. Here, riders are boarding super-stretch limousines to rush to an Aerosmith concert, with 2D blacklight icons of Hollywood positioned around the track and a more glamorous, Hollywood-themed exterior. Five different soundtracks are featured, but the customised light shows are absent.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith was announced in 1999 as one of the key attractions of Disney Studios Paris, later Walt Disney Studios Park, and began full construction in May 2000. In June, the steel supports and track of the Vekoma-manufactured ride went vertical, and by August of the same year the layout was complete. The building then grew around the roller coaster itself, with the frame completed in September 2000 and the attraction totally enclosed by the end of 2000. Following previews in February 2002, the finished attraction officially opened on 16th March 2002.

The exterior façade of the building went through several changes and styles before the final design was chosen. Most original concepts show the building themed to Disney's 'Hollywood Records' brand, rather than the final 'Tour de Force Records' name. The large icon of a glittering CD disc was featured on many, serving as the actual entrance to the building, rather than an extra prop as it is in the final design, and one concept even suggested the building be entirely covered in the name 'Aerosmith' spanning from one side to the other. One of the most promising concepts which never made it to reality was for a full light-show similar to that inside the attraction to be featured on and around the façade.

Disney's relationship with Vekoma began in the early nineties, when they manufactured the track and roller coaster system for Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Park. This was followed in 1994 by Casey Jr. - Le Petit Train du Cirque, the first roller coaster with on-board audio, then Space Mountain - De la Terre à la Lune (now Space Mountain: Mission 2) in 1995, one of the first launched roller coasters.

The tour bus previously located in front of the attraction had to be moved to the side of the ride's entrance in 2005 for the Chronicles of Narnia meet 'n' greet location.

© WDS Fans 2006