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- Les Mystères du Nautilus
Les Mystères du Nautilus
"Giant squid, sir!"
Captain Nemo's infamous Nautilus submarine has been moored in the Discovery Lagoon, allowing you to take an atmospheric tour of this historic vessel and discover the details and secrets within.
Watch out, though - these sombre and menacing waters can also be incredibly dangerous! Can the Captain see off another giant squid attack?
- Don't miss this!
Atmospheric walk-through experience with animatronic giant squid scene.
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Opening Date
4th July 1994
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Attraction Type
Walkthrough
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Duration
Around 10 minutes to explore
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Category
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Wait Time
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Suitablility
- Children 3-7
- Children 8-12
- Young Adults
- Adults
- Seniors
Trivia
- Original dreams of Discoveryland from the land's show producer, Tim Delaney, could have seen the Nautilus submarine actually moored inside, as part of the vast Discovery Mountain complex! This enormous show building, at least twice the size of the final Space Mountain, would have housed the roller coaster only in its upper levels, with a large free-roaming cavern below home a lagoon where a full-scale Nautilus restaurant could be found — complete with aquarium fish in the windows!
- Construction began at the same time as Space Mountain just behind the lagoon, although Les Mystères du Nautilus was completed one year earlier, in July 1994.
- The attraction was a labour of love for artist and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea expert Tom Sherman who, despite being in remission from cancer, took helm on the project to perfectly recreate the original sets and props of the film — and then some. In the film, for example, there was no need to show how one chamber connected to another, where the Grand Salon was in relation to the Diving Chamber. For Les Mystères du Nautilus, Tom created a complete walk-through plan of the submarine first dreamt up by Jules Verne in 1869 and saw it right through to completion, on time and under budget. After years building scale models of the famous sea craft, to design and build a full-scale replica was truly a dream come true. At the inauguration, Discoveryland show producer Tim Delanely presented Tom Sherman with a certificate officially declaring him "Admiral of the Nautilus".
- The giant squid attack scene uses a film technique known as "dry for wet", whereby the only water involved in the scene is inside the glass window in front of you. Through the use of bubbles and currents, the (very dry) animatronic squid can appear to be floating in water.
- A more grandiose attraction based on the Nautilus did at least find home at Tokyo DisneySea, the second park at Disney's Japanese resort. Here, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a unique dark ride where guests take a simulated elevator to the seabed to ride in "Neptune" mini-subs through an underwater landscape. Each vehicle uses the same "dry for wet" technology of the giant squid window in Paris, their double-glazed windows filling with water to simulate the dive below water.
- This walk-through attraction is totally unique to Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris, but can be seen as a subtle nod to one of the very first attractions of Disneyland in California. At park opening in 1955, Walt presented a walk-through experience of sets from his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie production, whilst later the iconic Submarine Voyage would literally take guests below water level to discover the hidden mysteries of the deep. The Disneyland edition of this attraction closed in 1998 but was brought back to life as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in 2007.
Tom Sherman made the suits in the Diving Chamber himself and sketched over250 illustrations onto simple paper napkins to dictate the entire layout and design of the Nautilus
