Home > Diorama > Diorama Storyline Nearly every Disney attraction--from an otherwise simple ride like the StarJets, to something as complex and immersive as Universe of Energy--has a "storyline," more often known as a "backstory." Sometimes this "backstory" is immediately apparent to visitors; other times it is used more as a "guide" for the Imagineers, to keep the elements of an attraction in a coherent order, with proper "pacing." Even if you aren't aware of the subtle details of the backstory, chances are it guides you enough through the attraction, that you get the fundamentals, or at least the sensation that the Imagineers are trying to convey. Universe of Energy's Primeval Diorama undoubtedly presented serious challenges to conveying the details of its "backstory." With no dialogue (at least in the original version, and limited dialog within the Diorama in Ellen's Energy Adventure ), Imagineers had to rely on visual cues to carry the story forward. That's a pretty tall order, considering that the Diorama presents, in a matter of minutes, nearly 300 million years of Earth's history! In the original Theater I film, we witnessed the creation of fossil fuels, from plant and animal matter deposited millions upon millions of years ago. As the film comes to a close, we witness dinosaurs in a lush primordial forest. The narrator dramatically beckons us to "come with us now, and experience a few moments of that dark and mysterious past." As we enter the Primeval Diorama, we are cast back nearly 300 million years, to a dank and murky swamp. We're in the Carboniferous Period. A thick blanket of fog covers the ground, giving the space a surreal, dream-like quality. A pungent, earthy smell fills the air. A fierce storm that began in the film, is now raging in this mysterious realm. Lightning flashes and prehistoric trees sway in the wind. It's easy to imagine that we have indeed entered the world we'd just seen in the film. Suddenly we're an anacrhonism. An Edaphosaurus and giant Millipedes eye us curiously as we pass. We settle for a moment, then push forward. Directly ahead a placid family of Brontosaurus (Apatosaurus), frolic in a shallow pond. The storm has passed, and the horizon lightens with the sunrise. One of the adult Brontosaurus slowly lurches forward to get a better look at the strange creatures from a far-away time. In a matter of moments--and a few dozen feet into our journey--we've already covered more than a hundred million years. We've left the Carboniferous period behind, skipped over the Permian and Triassic periods, and have entered the early Jurassic. As we move deeper into the diorama, the Jurassic period continues to unfold, with Trachodons to our left, and a fierce fight scene between a Stegosaurus and Allosaurus directly ahead. A careful observer might also notice a subtle shift in the scenery: the lush greenery is giving way to rocky outcroppings, and the fight to the death between the two dinosaurs hints of the struggles ahead. Massive rock formations teeter and threaten to tumble down upon us, belying fierce geologic activity. We've entered the Cretaceous period. It's now a mere 65 millions years in Earth's history, and the landscape is changing dramatically, becoming more and more hostile. A family of Ornithomimus to our right watch helplessly as one of their own is trapped in a bubbling mud pit. To our left, a fierce Elasmosaurus lashes out, and Pteranodons squawk from their perches high on the rocks. The anguished cries of these creatures reach a deafening din, echoing the chaos that threatens to envelop them. Perhaps they sense that their world is coming to an end. Just ahead, a volcano's violent eruption spews pungent, sulfurous death, signalling the end of the Cretaceous period, and ultimately the mass extinction of the magnificent creatures we've just witnessed. We narrowly escape the violence of the scene ourselves, passing into a cavern at the base of the volcano. The final chapter of the dinosaurs' history is scribed into the surrounding walls of rock, as fossil remains. Our Travelling Theater disappears into a thick wall of fog, emerging on the other side, back in the present. Epilogue The backstory of the Universe of Energy's primeval diorama was conveyed with surprisingly few elements: changes in topography; a couple of teetering rocks; a plaintive Ornithomimus trapped in a mud pit; sound effects; smells. Unfortunately, over time, even these cues have largely been lost. The fog, wind effects, teetering rocks, and smells were either disabled or fell into disrepair over time. With the transition to Ellen's Energy Adventure, still more of the already tenuous backstory was lost. The once elegant transition from Theater I to the diorama--which dramatically thrust us from world we saw in the film, to the "reality" of the Diorama--gave way to an arguably very clumsy segue. The Diorama is now more uniformly green, with fresh plantings in place of the increasingly barren and rocky topology once found as the Diorama wound through the Creataceous. The Elasmosaurus, which previously tormented guests, lashing out toward the Traveling Theater, now focuses his attention on an Animatronic Ellen. The most striking change was to the former "mud pit" scene, where a family of Ornithomimus once watched helplessly as one of their own struggled against death in a bubbling volcanic mud pit. The forbidding topology, the steaming vents of hot volcanic gas, and most of all the Ornithomimus' plaintive cries demonstrated the unfolding demise of the dinosaurs. Now the same Ornithomimus is incongruously playful, spitting water at passing guests, surrounded by greenery. Guests may not take too much stock of the loss of an individual show element, and for many the cues may not have been enough to convey the full backstory when they were working. But even if guests didn't walk away realizing that they'd traversed hundreds of millions of years, perhaps in its ideal form (as described above) they at least left with some sense of how incredible their journey was. Related Pages Diorama Timeline Take an interactive, graphic look at how the Diorama is divided among the 5 periods represented. Gallery: Dinonsaurs (Original) Get a closer look at how the Dinosaurs looked before the 1996 Rehab, including a larger version of the Ornithomimus photo above. Gallery: Dinonsaurs (Post-Rehab) View the dinosaurs (and surrounding topography) as it now appears, following the 1996 Rehab.