Welcome back to TAFI Throwback Thursday!
We have reached the Episode 7 Immunity Challenge in The Sole Imagineer Season 2: Redemption Island, and to celebrate the episode, we are going to take a look back to this time one year ago, as we saw one of the most bizarre and memorable presentations of Season 1 given by
@TheOriginalTiki
During the Episode 7 Reward Challenge, another fellow competitor
@Zweiland won the reward of tasking another competitor in the Episode 7 Immunity Challenge, with having to replace Autopia at Disneyland with an IP of the winner's choice.
The IP chosen was Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
In a drastic turn of events, Tiki turned a negative into a positive and created a memoriable project, now celebrating its 1-year anniversary this upcoming week.
Below is the post in all it's glory...and here's a link to last year's Episode 7 Immunity Challenge
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-sole-imagineer-an-imagineering-competition.894421/page-12
Beverly Hills Chihuahua: War of the Woof!
"My name is Papi. I am a descendant from an ancient line of proud warriors. My ancestors went into battle alongside Aztec soldiers. Today we move within the inner circles of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet. Who am I? The question is...what am I?"
I am a Chihuahua!
The turn of the decade was a strange time at Disney. The sure-fire Disneyland E-Ticket hit that was Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage had opened to a summer which saw a huge draw of crowds...but word of mouth and reviews of the attraction that were less than ideal. Meanwhile, the sure-fire stinker that was "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" turned into a surprise family hit that went on to spawn a trilogy. As Nemo's reputation dwindled and Disneyland fans wondered if something could to ultize that giant footprint that was the Sub Lagoon and Autopia, the Imagineers had an idea. An absurd, goofy, somewhat brilliant idea.
One of the biggest criticisms against Nemo was the fact that all around the attraction was predictable. From the lazy retread of the original film's storyline to the non-original IP that replaced one of Disneyland's most beloved unique attractions, the Nemo ride turned out to be a bore to all but its grade-school demographic.
The new attraction which will replace both the Submarines and the long-dated Autopia will be anything but predictable. Beverly Hills Chihuahua might seem like a head-scratcher of an IP to put into Tomorrowland, but the series outlandish tone and goofy concept made the property malleable to be turned into a loving homage of silly science fiction. With that in mind, the Imagineers have come up with a brand new E-Ticket adventure which pits the pampered pups against a slew of invading aliens. This is Beverly Hills Chihuahua: War of the Woof!
Changes to the Surrounding Area
War of the Woof will be a mostly outdoors attraction taking advantage of the large wooded area on the far side of Tomorrowland that used to be the footprint for Autopia. The submarine lagoon will be turned into a tropical lagoon. On top of the waterfalls will be a giant Aztec pyramid as seen in the film's trailer, which will become another iconic fixture in Disneyland's skyline.
The building that used to house the Autopia queue will be re-used. The area next to the previous Autopia as well as the Disneyland Railroad station will be made to look like modern day Beverly Hills, with glitzy houses and palm trees lining the area.
Attraction Storyline
The attraction will take place entirely in the year 2020, naturally setting it in the "Tomorrow" time line. Chihuahua fashionista Vivian Ashe (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is now in the business of designing all kinds of different technology exclusively for doggy use. One such example is a remote controlled Doggy floating device. You can see a variety of different dogs lounging in the waters of the old sub lagoon in their floaties. These are free-moving and floating advance AA creations.
Heading into the queue which serves as Vivian's giant fashion boutique (still a major part of her business) Inside we see various dogs from the film getting pampered and prepped, including trying on different outfits, getting their hair groomed and curled, and even applying "fur-die" a new color-changing invention by Ashe.
Vivian's niece Rachel is seen in the pre-show video from her trip to Mexico reporting to Aunt Viv that aliens have invaded. Vivian, concerned for Rachel's safety hatches up a plan using the recreational "Doggy Mobiles" which are electrically powered go-kart type mobiles which serve as more high tech and efficient versions of the Autopia vehicles.
The vehicles are actually driven on their own, but the illusion is that in the "front seat" (while you and four other people can sit in the two back passenger rows) is an AA talking dog. The following film characters will get their own vehicle. Depending on which vehicle you get, it changes up the story and the experience. Each vehicle comes complete with their own animal as well as an on board video screen so you can communicate with all the other characters. Each ride is a different experience!
The following characters will be represented with a Doggy Mobile.
-Papi
Papi is the hero of the story, and as such while you're riding in his vehicle you get to experience all the bold action. It's worth noting that all the vehicles will be trackless and there will be multiple different routes along the road which you can go down.
Papi's adventure starts by pulling into the woods of the Hollywood hills. Already the alien invaders have reached North America as we see War of the World style pods hovering over us. "Aie Chihuahua!" Papi exclaims. "We gonna be in some deep doggy dooty!"
The pods fire at us and we go down into a drop where we see on a video screen that Papi's girlfriend Chloe...Vivian's prized white Chihuahua, has been captured by the alien scum. Heading down into the back area of the woods where the "car park" used to be, Papi drives right into the "mother ship" of the invading aliens which has a classic "flying saucer" look and shape to it. We go through the ship avoiding AA aliens and rescue Chloe.
We then make a dramatic drop right into the sub lagoon where we see that the Doggy Mobiles are also able to float.
We zoom through the lagoon and into one of the caverns, which we see is contained within a deep catacomb of the Aztec pyramid at the top of the waterfall. The finale of the attraction is the army of Aztec chihuahuas as seen in the original film's trailer performing a sort of in unison "twilight bark" on the back side of the pyramid which appears to be working to draw away the aliens. Who would have known that the key to defeating the alien scum would be dog barking!
Continuing down the woods back towards the loading area, we see Papi retreat from our car and then see him and Chloe embracing on a rock right before pulling into the unload.
Chloe:
While Papi's ride is heroic, Chloe's will be a more "damsel in distress" point of view. Instead of heading up the Hollywood hills and meeting with the War of the Worlds style pods, guests in Chloe's doggie mobile drive through a forest and come face to face with an AA alien, and are then led directly to the mothership only to be "rescued" by Papi. The rest of the attraction plays out the same way.
Delgado
The German shepherd voiced by Andy Garcia was Chloe's main companion during the original film. His sequences (before all the attraction's vehicles meet back up for the mother ship scene ) will take place in Mexico around a series of Aztec temples. We get a few glimpses of the finale but not enough to fully give it away. We get an upclose encounter with another Pod type creature before Papi informs us that Chloe has been captured and we head straight for the mother ship.
El Diablo
Voiced by Edward James Olmos, El Diablo is the main villain of the film. His sequences will be chasing around the Delgado vehicle, so we'll be experiencing much of the same scenes except in pursuit of the other vehicle. Throughout the ride Papi and Delgado come on the TV and say that El Diablo will never get away with his plot.
Naturally, when we get to the mothersip sequence where everything meets up, we can see that El Diablo has teamed up with the aliens to try to claim Chloe as himself.
Chico and Manuel
Chico and Manuel are the film's comic relief henchmen, a duo consisting of an iguana and a rat. Chico and Manuel were sent out by El Diablo to try to round up the aliens, but as we see in their pre-mothership sequence they're failing horribly. The first couple scenes with these two go awry because of the controls of the vehicle being meant for a dog and not an amphibian or rodent. We continually feel like the vehicle is about to spin out as the duo carelessly steers. Reaching the mothership, we see Chico and Manuel betray El Diablo and join forces with Papi for the twilight bark finale.
There will be 15 ride vehicles total, three of each of Papi, Chloe, Delgado, El Diablo, and Chio/Manuel. Five cars will be launched at a time while the others get boarded, making for an efficient loading system. With the goofy 1950s science fiction tropes as well as the lovable characters from the film and the re-ride factor from the different vehicles, "War of the Woof" promises to be a howling good time for all ages!
Thanks for tuning into this week's TAFI Throwback Thursday! And tune in tomorrow for TSI Season 2's Episode 7 Immunity Challenge...maybe the Chihuahuas will strike again!
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