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Photo by Chris Bales, 2006 |
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Most carousels have horses. Some also have African land animals. On King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea, the only horses are seahorses, and the only lions are sea lions. There are also dolphins, whales, otters, flying fish, and garibaldi (Catalina goldfish). |
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The sea creatures are all jumpers, which means they go up and down as the carousel spins. Despite the under-the-sea theme, there’s no water, so you won’t get wet. Before taking a ride on the carousel, let’s look around. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Golden Age? |
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Along with its Paradise Pier neighbors, including California Screamin’ and Strips, Dips ’n’ Chips, King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea is supposed to represent the “Golden Age” of seaside amusement parks. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Twisting tubes |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Cutout dolphins |
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The carousel doesn’t make it clear when the Golden Age was. The twisting structure topped by a seahorse and the six pairs of flat polychromatic dolphins jumping from waves suggest the 1970s or perhaps the 1980s. Was this the heyday of seaside amusements? |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2001 Band organ |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Merfolk on the ornate rounding board |
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However, the traditional band organ, the rounding boards with carvings and shields, and the fanciful details on the sea creatures tell a different story. They harken back to the Golden Age of Carousels (1890s-1920s). |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 One of the sixteen shields honoring a real California pier or fun zone |
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The rounding boards are decorated with sixteen shields, each representing a California amusement pier or beachfront amusement zone, along with its opening year:
Most of these places are gone, but a few of them still offer old-fashioned rides for 21st century guests. The 1916 Looff Hippodrome carousel building at Santa Monica Pier now houses a vintage merry-go-round built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922; it came by way of Nashville and Venice Pier. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Belmont Park are best known for each having a classic wooden roller coaster—both named Giant Dipper—from 1924 and 1925, respectively. Missing from the list is Orange County’s own, long-gone Joy Zone, which opened in 1916 in Seal Beach. The highlight of the oceanfront amusement zone was a huge roller coaster, The Derby, which had originally thrilled guests at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. But enough with studying the shields! The ride beckons. When the loading begins, pick one of the 56 jumpers—or a bench if you prefer. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Assorted sea creatures |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017 Dolphin |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Flying fish |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 California sea otter |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017 Octopus bench as a seating choice |
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The sea creatures raise another question. If this is King Triton’s Carousel and King Triton is from Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), then why don’t the sea creatures look like those in the movie? Along the same lines, why do the merfolk on the rounding board look so completely “off model,” with no real effort to represent King Triton and Ariel from the movie? And why doesn’t the carousel use tunes from the movie? It’s as if The Little Mermaid theme was an afterthought. Perhaps the carousel was already being manufactured with a generic California beach theme when the naming decision was made. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017 King Triton mural |
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Okay, there are two things that are definitely based on The Little Mermaid. The mural of King Triton on the curved wall of the restroom complex is rendered faithfully in the style of the animated feature. And the attraction’s main sign looks like a label on a Disney DVD. |
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King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea was an opening day—February 8, 2001—attraction at the park that was then called Disney’s California Adventure in the land that was then called Paradise Pier. Although newly built by D. H. Morgan Manufacturing for Disney, the 47-foot carousel had the ornate scrollwork, fanciful flourishes, and softly glowing light bulbs of an earlier age. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea and its neighbors in 2001 |
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In 2001, the official Disneyland Resort website described Paradise Pier with these words: Add a dash of the bygone days of California’s legendary surfside boardwalks to the excitement of a seaside resort and top it off with a heaping helping of Disney magic, and you’ve got Paradise Pier—a land at Disney’s California Adventure™ park dedicated to the fantastic “Golden Age” of amusement parks, jam-packed with wild attractions, delectable diners and unique shops. It’s “Fun in the Sun for Everyone!” Despite the “Golden Age” marketing, King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea and all its neighbors in 2001 were of an indeterminate time period. Some parts of Paradise Pier featured Victorian style “gingerbread” decorations, while other parts seemed much newer. Stucco buildings with plexiglass or neon signs made no effort to transport guests to the 1920s or any other specific period that could be considered a “Golden Age” for California’s seaside amusement parks. More than anything else, Paradise Pier’s style seemed to be influenced by regional theme parks built around the United States in the 1970s. At such parks, detailed theming usually took a back seat to cost effectiveness. Style consistency and historical authenticity were not priorities. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 With Toy Story Midway Mania! next door |
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Paradise Pier began to improve with the opening of Toy Story Midway Mania! in 2008. The same year, Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar opened in the former Seasons of the Vine theater to show off the wondrous artwork and models of what might come. A presentation model and renderings showed Paradise Pier’s time period rolled back to the early 20th century. Many of the same attractions would remain, but they would be redressed with new queues, new architectural features, and new signage. A walk around Paradise Bay would take guests back in time. King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea would be housed in an old-fashioned carousel pavilion—a perfect complement to Toy Story Midway Mania! The plans were only partially implemented. King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea remained unchanged. In 2017, Disney announced a new plan. Paradise Pier, which wrapped around the whole lagoon, would be replaced by two lands: Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2018 Carousel behind walls |
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King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea closed on March 5, 2018. The carousel reopened April 5, 2019, as Jessie’s Critter Carousel. It was now an attraction at Pixar Pier. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Jessie’s Critter Carousel |
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The carousel never got its old-fashioned carousel pavilion, but it got a thorough makeover, with a completely new style. There are once again 56 jumpers, but now they’re inspired by Jessie’s critter friends from the vintage “Woody’s Roundup” television sequence in the Disney-Pixar feature Toy Story 2 (1999). |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Desert critters under the canopy |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Brown doe |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Backwards purple skunk |
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In the movie, the critters are flat black-and-white cutouts. On the carousel, they’re colorful, fully dimensional, and quite endearing. |
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© 2022 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated July 15, 2022 |
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