Extinct Attractions – Pirouettes of the Old Mill
Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at an attraction that was unique to Disneyland Paris.
Via D23
This week, Disney announced that D23 members will be among the first to get tickets to Disney 100: The Exhibition on its next stop in Paris, France. The exhibition will open in Paris on April 10th, just a few days before the 33rd anniversary of Disneyland Paris on April 12th. It will be the third European stop for the exhibition, which features a vast array of objects from the Walt Disney Archives, spanning across the company’s 100 year history and ranging from movies to television to the theme parks.
Via Wikipedia
I haven’t been to the exhibition, but I’d be willing to bet that there is some representation of the SIlly Symphony series of animated short films. With seventy-five different short films, they are a crucial part of the company’s early history, even introducing the character of Donald Duck. The shorts won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, including The Old Mill. The short was the first to use the multiplane camera, a key cog in the animation engine that helped make feature-length animated films possible.
Via Progress City
It really is stunningly animated and still holds up to this day, while also capturing audiences of that time. In fact, Walt Disney originally wanted to incorporate a Ferris wheel based on The Old Mill at Disneyland, with plans falling through. Disneyland did get its representation on a much smaller scale as a part of the Storybook Land Canal Boats (with Arrendale taking its place in 2013), but all good ideas get filed away for a later day at Imagineering.
Via Designing Disney
With the opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992, the Old Mill itself finally got its time in the sun, though it was simply a snack stand … at first. The park knew that it needed to start expanding and stat, so it opened an expansion barely a year after the park debuted, when Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats were added to the Parisian lineup on June 6, 1993. Along with them, there was also Pirouettes of the Old Mill, a brand-new Ferris wheel to help complete Walt’s vision.
There wasn’t much to the Pirouettes, but they did provide a really nice view of the Fantasyland expansion with the beautiful French hillside beyond the berm really helping tie everything together. It was a kiddie ride at heart with only eight four-person buckets, but those buckets could really move and groove, going faster than one would expect. The wheel would do a few laps, which actually lasted a bit longer than expected, though that probably drove everyone in line a bit nuts with such a small capacity.
Via Designing Disney
I also thought that the design of the buckets was pretty cool, which really came in handy during Christmas time. It was way too cold out for a Ferris wheel experience, so they would decorate the Pirouettes in Christmas decor with gifts in the buckets. What a clever way to make the most out of a closed attraction.
Via D23
After just six years, Disney brass made the decision to close the Pirouettes of the Old Mill in 1999, but they didn’t stay for long, returning in 2001 before closing for good in 2002. Even then, Disneyland Paris kept teasing guests about a possible return by not fully removing the Ferris wheel until 2011, though the Old Mill itself still remains to this day, with a smoking area taking the spot of the attraction. I love that Walt’s vision was fulfilled in the end (and the irony of it being replaced by a smoking area), but I get why they didn’t last too long. WIth such a low capacity, it’s hard to justify keeping an attraction like that open, especially when it's based on a short film that many guests likely hadn’t seen. So is life sometimes.
Via Instagram
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!