DisneyLand Paris

The Disneyland Paris Attraction

Les Mysteres Du Nautilus

  Upon arriving in Paris, visiting Disneyland Paris was NOT one of the first things I did.  And were it not for the Disneyland Paris FAQ which I discovered about six and a half years ago, I never would have realized that the Nautilus attraction was there.

  Having heard many stories from my father about the walkthrough attraction at Disneyland here in Anaheim (never believing one of them until I was 15, how's that for jaded?), I was always curious to wonder what it might be like to walk through the sets from the movie.  Short of winning the lottery, this didn't seem very likely.

  However, upon arriving in DiscoveryLand, it was rather a euphoric experience to discover that there was a life size Nautilus (almost to scale with the original exterior set which technically, was not life size either due to the restriction of the Sersen effects tank at Fox) sitting in the "Nautilus Lagoon."

  Within the Wheelhouse there is a wheel assembly that is similar but not the same as the original prop as well as a johnson level which for some odd reason has fallen forward.  In the place of the rear window on the WheelHouse is a faux door.  Some claim this door is the way people get in an out of the wheelhouse to maintain the interior.  I don't buy that for a second.  You couldn't fit a fat puppy through that opening if you tried.  All the pieces seen inside the Wheelhouse were installed prior to putting the two portholes in place.  That's the only way in and out of there as far as I'm concerned.

  While nice to look at, the discerning Nautilus enthusiast will notice several differences between this set and the original.  However, rather than point them out here in an inevitably over-critical way, I'll leave that up to the reader to discover the variation here.

  The Nautilus exterior was made entirely out of concrete in one fell swoop in the Nautilus lagoon.  Unlike the interior which was constructed at Imagineering in Tujunga, CA, the exterior was constructed onsite in DiscoveryLand inside a tent so that guests could not see what was going on.  Quite possibly the biggest secret at Disney since...yesterday?

  The Nautilus' interior is not associated with the exterior at all, although they make some attempt to make you feel like perhaps they are.  You enter the interior to the right of Nautilus itself and descend town a spiral staircase to a hallway that supposedly leads you right into the side of the middle level of the Nautilus on the surface.  I didn't have a compass with me so there was no way for me to verify if this was the intended effect.

  You enter the Nautilus through a hole cut in the side of the hull and the first thing you see is the ballast cabinet filled with treasure as well as a reproduction of Ned Land's guitar fashioned from fish and turtle corpses.

  You then turn to the right and pass through another door into Nemo's Cabin.  It's when you step forward into Nemo's Cabin that you realize, you're walking through the f---ing Nautilus!  The detail the Nemo's Cabin is exquisite, possibly the best in the walkthrough.  With the finish on the woodwork extremely close to the original and the wall with the map looking like it was pull out of storage and restored for this attraction, it's very clear that Art Director Tom Scherman put a lot of thought into this.

  After you leave Nemo's Cabin you enter the Chartroom of the Nautilus.  The faux ironclad finish on the walls of the Chartroom is superb.  The accuracy and layout of this room and those to follow does suffer a bit from requirements necessary to allow for handicap, wheelchair access, and safety.  To compensate for this, the lights throughout the rest of the ship are extremely low.

  After passing through the ChartRoom, we enter the famous Salon.  The Salon is very interesting in that most of the detail is not there, but it still feels the same.  Key to it holding up is the inclusion of Nemo's pipe organ.  Another example of someone doing their homework, the pipe organ is almost a carbon copy of the original which resides inside the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland here in Anaheim.  Every two minutes or so a little show goes on inside the Salon where you are "attacked" by a giant squid.  The squid certainly is an interesting looking squid, painted in several colors which reflect black lights in a bizarre fashion.  If one was so inclined, there is a curtain on the wall on the left side of the salon just before the viewing area for the squid.  If you duck behind this curtain, you can get a much better look at the squid and the mechanism that drives it...but you didn't hear that here.

  After passing through the salon, you enter the pump/engine room.  Although the pump room was originally designed to be fully functioning like it was seen in the movie, it was decided to make it static for guest safety.  The pump room is the final stop on the tour of the interior of the Nautilus.  There is another hole cut in the hull here and you exit out of it in the same fashion that you came it.

  There where many things that did not make it into the final design of this walkthrough attraction.  Most notably, a surfacing Nautilus.  The way it was originally designed, the Nautilus in the Lagoon was rigged to surface, move forward through the lagoon, then flood its decks and move back into it's original position underwater.  It was a design very similar to the Jaws portion of the Universal Studios: Hollywood Studio Tram Tour.

  Another thing that did not make it to production was the inclusion of the other two decks of the Nautilus.  This was axed because of concerns for handicap access.

  The most interesting element that fizzled though, was the fact that one of the original Skiffs used in filming was going to be tied to the dock in the Nautilus Lagoon.  One one side, it is fortunate that this did not happen as the skiff would not have lasted long out in the elements.  On the other side, any props or set pieces from 20k are an extremely rare sight and always a pleasure to see.

  It was a true pleasure to have the opportunity to walk through the Nautilus for the first time.  While it was not the same as the original, it still held that ambience that made it special and was accurate enough to fool people who don't watch the movie that closely.

  You did good Tom.

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