Step Inside the Walley World From the Original 'Vacation'
With the Vacation franchise’s quasi-reboot out in theaters this weekend, many moviegoers will be looking back on the Griswold family’s original cross-country adventure from 1983. As in the new film, in which Ed Helms and Christina Applegate take the lead, the ultimate destination in the Harold Ramis-directed film was Walley World, a fictional theme park located in Southern California.
Related: 25 Raucous, Road-Trippy Facts About the Original ‘Vacation’
The original film, National Lampoon’s Vacation, was written by John Hughes, based on a short story he had written about his own family’s botched trip to Disneyland. Obviously, they couldn’t use Disney intellectual property for the film — Vacation was gleefully off-brand and also released by rival studio Warner Bros. So the production came up with a fictionalized place called Walley World that featured a talking moose instead of a mouse and a mustachioed founder named Roy, which was the name of Walt Disney’s brother. And because they couldn’t shoot at Disneyland either, Ramis and Co. made use of two different California locations: Santa Anita Park, which is actually a horse racetrack, and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, one of the bigger theme parks in the nation.
The big theme park seen on the horizon in the parking lot (above) is very obviously a matte painting — remember this was pre-digital animation. The painting suggests a bigger fantasyland than we’re ever shown in the film, which mostly keeps to the entrance and a few rides, all of which were actual attractions in Magic Mountain.
The big gag is that Walley World is closed for renovation when the Griswolds finally do get there — sans their hubcaps, dignity, and a chunk of their bank account. Enraged, Clark goes rogue, forcing his way in to the magical fictional park. There are two roller coasters prominently featured in the film: A wooden coaster called the Screemy Meemy (which was really called the Colossus), and the coaster they ride at the end (real name: Revolution).
If you’re looking to make a pilgrimage and live out the Griswold’s very eventful day at the park, beware that it will be incomplete at best: The Colossus, which at one point was the tallest wooden coaster in the world, was closed last summer. And the Revolution was altered many years ago, adding in neck harnesses to keep riders more safe (much to the consternation of the 296 people that signed this online petition).
On the bright side, there are plenty of Walley World souvenirs to buy online now.
Take a ride down the Revolution roller coaster:
