Dick Tracy E-ticket attraction at Disney MGM Studios

Dick Tracy was going to be big. The Disney studio was going all in on this one, with star upon star in the cast, and a very hot Warren Beatty at the director's helm (and in the bright yellow trench coat of the lead character). It was a unique film, if you've ever happened to see it, especially visually. It was all about color, despite the fact that it's harder to imagine a more b&w bland character than the comic strip Dick Tracy. Whatever. One thing I always loved about the strip was the character names: B.O. Plenty, Sparkle Plenty, Pruneface, Flattop. The Sunday strips had a little box at the top designed as a couple of inch square looseleaf page called the Crimestopper's Textbook, with advice for being safe one way or the other. When I was a kid I was stymied by the idea of people actually cutting these things out and trying to make a book out of them. The fact that they were godawful dull, even to a kid, may have played into my interest. The fact that the resulting book would be beyond bizarre was also why I was so entranced by it.

Even though the Dick Tracy franchise was hardly a blockbuster in 1990, Disney expected this film to be big. BIG! It was going to be their blockbuster, and they poured a lot of money into it (which Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg famously, publicly, regretted). Before it all went down the tubes, the company saw that what was on the screen could also be on the ground, and began planning to bring Tracy into the parks, specifically at what was then Disney MGM Studios.

The 1990's press release was saying that " Guests will literally get "into the act" in this new high-tech action-adventure featuring the very latest in Audio-Animatronics, simulation, sound and special effects." And also: "Guests will join America's favorite comic-strip detective in a high-speed chase with his gangster adversaries."

That's from the Disney and More blog. They've got the whole story, and some luscious artwork. It definitely looks like an E-ticket attraction. Unfortunately, the movie's failure at the box office meant that it never got built, and we won't have to worry about running right to it at the rope drop next time we're down there.

Too bad. It looks like it would have been a good one.
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