Do You Remember When Dinosaur was Countdown to Extinction?

By Nick

One of my favorite rides at Walt Disney World is Dinosaur, located at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Dinosaur is a dark ride that takes us back to the Cretaceous Period, aboard a Time Rover, to bring back a live dinosaur, dangerously close to when a large asteroid is going to hit the earth. Along the way we encounter many species of dinos, and come very close to getting hit by meteorites.

Did you know, however, that the ride was initially called Countdown to Extinction? It was changed to Dinosaur to promote the film of the same name, released in 2000. At that time, there were several changes made to the ride, including toning down some of the more frightening effect elements, and making the ride itself less intense.

I was not fortunate enough to ride the original, but do have a few items from that period, including this button.
The button is lenticular, starting with the Carnotaurus in the distance…

…and, suddenly, he is upon Mickey!

I also have a book, “Countdown to Extinction, A Hologram Adventure to the Age of the Dinosaurs”,
from Disney Press, by A. J. Wood, illustrated by Chris Forsey.

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From the back cover:

Catch the mistakes in the Dino Institutes Files on a holographic adventure through the prehistoric past.

The Dino Institutes Files have been corrupted by a computer error and there’s only one way to find the mistakes. Climb aboard the Time Rover and explore the age of the dinosaurs, but be careful: the past is filled with a hungry Carnotaurus, meteor showers, and erupting volcanoes. With vivid illustrations and holograms on every page, this exciting book ties into the knew Countdown to Extinction attraction at DinoLand U.S.A., part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, and brings the dinosaurs back to life.

Throughout the book, we are asked to find the mistakes in the Time Rover Files.

For instance, we are asked to look at the picture and find 2 mistakes. The files state that these tiny chicken sized dinosaurs, Compsognathus, were 98 feet big. That would be a big chicken! So, error number 1. The file states that the Compsognathus has five fingered hands. Clearly the picture shows they have three, so we have mistake number 2! I feel so smart!

Can you tell which is the T-Rex and which is the Triceratops?

YOU are smart too!

We are getting the Time Rover files all straightened out!

Speaking of Time Rover, I’ll be featuring MY very own Time Rover in a future post, so please stop back.