The Script

Let Crush show you the wonders of ocean life, from colourful clownfish and the thrilling EAC to hungry sharks and stinging jellyfish! You'll plunge into a larger-than-life film set from Finding Nemo and coast along the swirling underwater currents...

Production Guide

Your wild coaster ride begins in Toon Studio, outside Disney Studio 5 - the massive soundstage currently hosting the unique underwater film sets from Finding Nemo.

A giant blue backdrop of turtles and fish covers the front of the soundstage, which features coral and undersea life spilling out of the façade. Every few seconds, a turtle shell swoops out of the aquarium filmset and dives through the blue coral, before re-entering the building on the opposite side. Ready to take a ride on the EAC, dude?

You enter the soundstage on the far right of the building, following a winding downhill path past the Genie's Agrabah filmset until you reach a covered section of the queue, themed to Sydney Harbor fishing pier. Luckily, the tide is out, so you can shelter under the pier on the sand until Crush is ready for you on set! Be sure to watch out for pesky seagulls and peckish pelicans!

As you step inside, day turns to dusk and you climb up and around the maze of fishing piers. As you descend the other side, you're on the edge of the docks, with turtle shells bobbing up to the surface and gently carrying guests away on their exciting tour of the set. Surrounded by the warm glow of lights from the fishing huts, you can see the full skyline of Sydney on the dusk horizon. The infamous seagulls line the walls, shouting "Mine! Mine!" and watching the turtle shells dip underwater.

You leave the pier seated in rows of 2, back to back, onboard your 4-person shell, and suddenly take a dive underwater! Don't worry, through the magic of the movies you won't even feel a single splash! As you take a sharp turn left, you become surrounded by colourful and mysterious underwater life. The shells begin to climb a rapid descent back up to the surface, and, as you reach daylight again, you swerve to the right and swoop down a sudden dip, outside the soundstage! The fresh air doesn't last long - the shell darts to the right through the coral and you're back underwater, but now you've been joined by some very special friends...

The turtle shells twist slowly through the beautiful Australian coral and colourful habitats of Marlin's home turf. Wait - you've got some tour guides! Nemo and Squirt swim effortlessly around the rockery and introduce you to their undersea world. From scene to scene, you'll see the incredible scenery and hilarious dialogue of the movie come to life. But are you going in the right direction? Your shell swirls around a corner in the deep undersea rocks and suddenly an Angler Fish snaps out at you! Before you can catch your breath, you cling on and duck down as the turtle shell twists through glowing, purple fields of stinging jellyfish!

There's only one way back to the surface... You're headed right for the sunken submarine! Don't let the "balloons" fool you - this is no party! As your turtle shell gets whipped up by the current and carried upwards and into the submarine, everything goes deathly silent... Until, slamming into the submarine from all angles, a trio of sharks come in for attack! Bruce, Anchor and Chum have dropped their "fish are friends" motto, and they're looking for lunch! You're not a fish, are you?

Suddenly, the quick movements of sharks cause the current to swirl and sweep through the submarine. You're thrown speedily out the top, round a corner and then sweep downwards into frightful, deep, dark waters, spinning and spinning with the current. You're carried around sharp swooping curves and through gravity-defying dips and dives, twisting and shooting through undersea plants, bursts of bubbles and powerful waves.

Luckily, the lightning current of the EAC appears on the horizon, and Crush guides you safely back to brighter waters. As you glide gently along the sweeping current, your movie set adventure comes to a wrap. You float through the backstage of the sets and pop up on the surface again at the fishing pier, exiting the attraction through a tunnel in the coral reef exterior of the soundstage.

Production footnotes

Crush's Coaster is unique in that it is effectively made up of four very different elements. First, the indoor loading station themed to a Sydney Harbour fishing pier. Second, the unique outside drop through the blue coral, followed by the third section - a series of indoor "dark ride" scenes (similar to Phantom Manor or Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, for example). Followed, finally, by the spinning coaster section itself.

Crush’s Coaster uses the Xtended SC2000 spinning roller coaster system manufactured by Maurer Söhne of Germany. A standard design has been used for the "coaster" section, with a custom-designed loading station, outside drop and "dark ride" section adding a huge amount of customisation to the attraction. Imagineers have also stated that even the standard coaster section has been tweaked and perfected at almost every turn to give the best ride experience possible.

The spinning mechanism on each of the turtle shell ride vehicles will only be unlocked at the top of the first indoor drop, with Imagineers planning this as a sneaky hidden surprise for unassuming guests. Whilst the spinning element will be mentioned on warning signs, the vehicles will not spin during the outside drop and the name of the coaster no longer reflects this hidden surprise! On this type of Maurer Söhne spinning coaster, however, the unlock of the spinning comes after the first drop, rather than before.

The "dark ride" section will utilise brand new digital projection technology to allow Nemo, Squirt and Dory to swim around the underwater landscape and interact with guests. There will be at least two scenes using this technology, which has been developed by the Imagineers for use in three Finding Nemo attractions, including the overhaul of Disneyland’s Submarine Voyage.

The "coaster" section reaches a maximum speed of 37.3mph, with a height of 50ft and a duration of around 1 minute 10 seconds. The coaster section on its own usually costs around $2m to $3m to manufacture, though with the additional track, total custom design and exceptional themeing the final cost for Disney will surely be more than ten times this amount. The coaster section alone has a throughput of 930 guests per hour, whilst it has been confirmed Crush's Coaster will feature 12 turtle shell ride vehicles, around 8 of which will always be in operation. A custom-designed storage bay has also been added, situated to the left of the main lift hill.

History

Construction began 24th February 2006 with the first foundations for the attraction. The coaster section was completed by 4th May 2006, with the outside track completed by the end of July. The blue front façade of Disney Studio 5 was completed on 6th November 2006, and first tests of the ride system inside began quietly in early 2007. The attraction is due to open sometime in June 2007, along with Cars Race Rally and the rest of the Toon Studio placemaking and expansion project.

The attraction was infact not officially announced, but gradually emerged out of a sea of rumours... Euro Disney SCA, operating company of Disneyland Resort Paris, announced three new attraction projects on 11th January 2005. One of these was ‘Toon Studios’, announced as a toon backlot where guests could meet their favourite animation characters. It quickly became clear that a key attraction in the new area would be some kind of Finding Nemo dark ride, although the true nature and design details of Crush’s Coaster took some time to become clear.

Early concept art showed the building with no exterior track, whilst a second concept art piece showed track swerving out the front of the building at its highest point. The large undersea backdrop and rockwork/coral base has, however, been a feature from even the earliest concepts.

The attraction was known briefly as ‘Crush’s Sea Turtle Spin’ before the true project name of ‘Crush’s Turtle Twister’ was revealed in June 2005. In June 2006, however, an official press release for the attraction revealed the final name would be ‘Crush’s Coaster’. It seems the Imagineers discovered the difficulties foreign language guests would experience in both understanding and pronouncing ‘Turtle Twister’, not to mention the desire to keep the "spinning" a secret!

Guests were originally set to ride in vehicles fully decorated to represent turtles, with a tail, flippers and even a full head attached to each turtle shell vehicle. In later concept art revealed in 2006, however, it became clear the vehicles will be themed simply to turtle shells. It is unclear whether this was an artistic/storytelling decision (guests should not ride ‘inside of’ Crush) or a practical change (they would not work with the logistics of the coaster).

A projection of Crush himself was added at the very end of the coaster part after Imagineers questioned guests what they would have expected to see at the attraction's finale.

Tests to add Fast Pass to the attraction were conducted throughout November, but the system has not been added (yet).

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