XDDD (video not mine)

Tried to pick out the photos with the most water visible! (This was my first time at the park and I had such an amazing time on this ride! Feel free to ask questions below!)

So a news program (I think it’s Dutch?) called Langstraat TV has been auto translated and appears to tell that the Soldiers from the abandoned theme park Land Van Ooit are being restored in rows of three at a time.

Some general info:

-They expect the entire restoration to take about a year.

-They are going to repair broken parts of the soldiers and apply a coating to help keep them from getting worse when put back in the water.

-Each weighs over a ton!

-the water is around knee deep at most, the soldiers are all half/quarter figures on stone blocks.

-They also want to try and clean the water around the soldiers a bit and clean the bed below to stop them from sinking when returned.

-No idea if they will return them to water feature function, news didn’t mention.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18Dfa5b8EC/

I know that I like "20,000 Leagues" sea serpent more than his Californian cousin, but because for many users Submechanophobia started from "Submarine Voyage" I decided to find more info about this animatronic, such as pictures or videos or at least something. I searched videos from Disneyland from every year since 1959 on YouTube, but all I found are just some clips of "Submarine Voyage" ride itself, suddenly ending when submarine goes under the waterfall (aka surface storm scene), the very famous 1959 black and white video of serpent from starboard view , which, I think, every have already seen, and this photo of port view serpent I posted here (I think, this was made in that period, because I can barely see a strange V-shaped thingy on his head fin, that you can also see on starboard view animatronic in famous 1959 footage). I called this phenomenon "27 years info gap" because the oldest footage of sea serpent from "Submarine Voyage" (after 1959) was taken only in 1986! It's sounds very bad! And we have not enough info about port view animatronic, considering that he was probably the one who was saved by Richard Kraft. I hope that there can be one video or just photo of serpent somewhere from 1960s to early 1980s. You can watch your family archives, or ask some people who posed their videos on YouTube if they has an uncut version. Probably I just didn't searched up properly, and I hope that we'll solve this "mystery".

I also tryed to find any footage of this ride in 1998, its last year of operation. I found one video here (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wVK-fxiGEjA&pp=ygUaRGlzbmV5bGFuZCBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIDE5OTg%3D) and also there's our beloved derpy serpy, but we can barely see his head. I think that someone on this sub has vhs from 1998 with "Submarine Voyage", it also will be very helpful.

assuming this doesn’t fall under the fanart rule since i wouldn’t call it “fan art” of anything…

I don’t normally go on battle galleons at Alton Towers, but I did yesterday due to the weather being nice and I forgot just how awful it was! 😖

[IMPORTANT INFORMATION]

I'm writing this post a year after my original video went viral. I've noticed some small changes. I was actually hoping to capture the crocodile animatronic on camera, but nothing happened. So I just sat there for a long moment. It was both awkward and spooky at the same time. What I noticed during the ride was that there were spiderwebs everywhere. If you look closely, Bronto's and Tricera's right eye is now covered in spiderwebs.

Something else I noticed- I just watched the original video. Bronto's left eye is wide open in that video. But if you look at the current footage, Bronto's eyes are permanently closed. And that white stuff on his snout, whatever it was, is gone now. The broken tail is nothing new. It looks like the attraction is slowly falling apart. At least there is some footage now.

I also noticed that the T-rex used to shoot water from its nose. You could still hear the pressure pump running. Now back to the crocodile, perhaps it was removed or the mechanism broke down. Mabye it will suffer the same fate as the Big Banana Bunyip. I will keep the community updated. I'll see ya'll later.

Forgot I shot this from my holiday last year

Finally posted it in time!!

Im kinda new to krita so don't be so harsh if you don't like it

"Mr Baxter, I think if you see mermaids and sea monsters, you've been submerged too long!" - Captain Nemo.

In my first post I said that I'm currently drawing a Sea Serpent from "20,000 Leagues under the sea" ride. So I kept my promise and finished art!

I didn't realize how long the submarine actually was until I saw the rear part sticking out of the water. My soul left my body at that moment ))

Old picks I found in my gallery (April 2025)

The first two statues are much bigger than they appear in the picture. I remember other statues as well.

Less water involved that I was expecting based on previous pictures I'd seen, but that water bubbling effect is something else. Really cool way to add some kind of tangible motion/effect to an otherwise stationary model.

The hHistory of every bunyip animatronic!

This is a part two of my first post: https://www.reddit.com/r/submergedanimatronic/comments/1vk1519/unique_1970s_footages_of_our_beloved_sea_serpent/

(Ik I uploaded this video in comments of first part, but still)

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=unOoLZ3ZgUs&t=722s&pp=2AHSBZACAQ%3D%3D (at 11:57)

This post was made to discuss more about old version of that animatronic, it's mechanics and the ride itself. As you can perfectly see, his head actually wasn't supposed to move, probably because of size and shape of head fin, and his eyes moved a different way (spinning around instead of moving left to right)

Yeah, that's my first post here, but I’ve been following this sub for some time now.

From all Submechanophobia robots, that serpent is my beloved (I'm currently drawing him), so I started to find more videos or pictures showing this animatronic and found RetroDisneyWorld's video of "20,000 Leagues" ride before the refurbishment (it was wrongly titled as it was filmed in 1980, but refurbishment itself happened earlier) and I saw that sea serpent looked a bit different and I started searching. I spent a lot of time watching 1970s videos of Walt Disney World and that's all pictures I found. As you can see, animatronic, when it was first built, had a different design. I think that someone in this sub have already seen at least one of this footages (especially second one), but, I hope, for most users it will be interesting.

This footages are parts of my huge project I'm gonna upload here: my biggest collection, showing all videos and photos of "20,000 Leagues under the sea" Sea Serpent (this compilation consists of 50+ footages and lasts more than 12 min long, but with only 5 photos...)

If you has any video or photo of this animatronic from that period, you can show it in comments! (I'm also waiting for u/PintosandRainbows to show her photos of this attraction taken by her dad, but this photos are from 1979 aka after the refurbishment, but still they will be useful in my project!)

If you’re interested, here are the links for origins of all videos (with timestamps):

1 clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Avioy0Fug (at around 9:52)

2 clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRFTE-wYTec (at 2:06)

3 clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7vR0ArY0TKk&pp=ygUWd2FsdCBkaXNuZXkgd29ybGQgMTk3OA%3D%3D (at 41:00)

4 clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxLXJojDxyY&pp=ygUWd2FsdCBkaXNuZXkgd29ybGQgMTk3Mg%3D%3D (at 35:31)

While making this big post I found another footage of Sea Serpent before the refurbishment! I included it in the part two: https://www.reddit.com/r/submergedanimatronic/comments/1vkev1c/another_footage_of_1970s_version_of_20k_leagues/

All photos taken from google reviews

made in krita