Shanghai Disneyland: Tron roller coaster POV video

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Photo: Disney

While it might take a miracle for Disney to resurrect their one-off rebooted film series, all you need is a passport and a plane ticket to China if you want to live through a real-life version of the TRON movie experience.

Shanghai Disneyland soft opened May 6 for cast members (Disneyspeak for “employees”) and their families after a five-year construction period, and a new POV video of its TRON: Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster has hit the web, highlighting the attraction’s deeply immersive aesthetics that closey resemble the sets and effects from the 2010 film TRON: Legacy.

The coaster begins with guests boarding lifelike recreations of the lightcycle vehicles from the Joseph Kosinski production, including their signature neon-rimmed tires. Once aboard, riders lay on their stomachs, tilted slightly forward for the duration of the ride, which launches them to speeds of over 60 m.p.h. along a series of twists and turns through the Grid — and even an outdoor section that sends the lightcycles barreling through a giant translucent canopy that pulses with shimmering neon colors.

Taking the place of the traditional Space Mountain attraction that anchors the Tomorrowland section at other Disney parks around the world, TRON: Lightcycle Power Run was designed by Dutch company Vekoma International, the ride manufacturer behind other Disney coasters like Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest, the Hollywood Studios’ Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and the Magic Kingdom’s Seven Dwarf’s Mine Ride — a version of which also exists at the new Shanghai Disneyland.

Similar aesthetic enhancements like the ones seen on the Lightcycle Power Run coaster were previously brought to Disney’s EPCOT in Orlando in 2012, as the park’s Test Track attraction received a major facelift that drastically altered its original look to resemble elements from the TRON movies.

In addition to TRON: Lightcycle Power Run, Shanghai Disneyland also features a Tangled-themed restaurant, and a brand new version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Watch the TRON: Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster in action in the video above, and check out more visitor-shot footage of the ride (including the giant neon canopy) below. The Shanghai Disney Resort is set to officially open to the public on June 16.

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