MK Villains Land Announced for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

[Purduevian]

No insider information... but just a few guesses.
1) Villains coaster will be the most thrilling ride in magic kingdom... I'm going to guess an inversion or 2 to make it stand out and clearly show this is not a kiddie ride (inversion will be visible from the land). Not quite RnRC level of thrill, but close.
2) Dark ride will be either trackless or a boat ride... but will be designed as a 2000+pph people eater
3) The surprise will be they build a very large area of this land indoors "under" the castle (think mermaid lagoon at TDS).
4) Inside the indoor "dungeon" will be a restaurant, merch, and the flat ride.

I know they can only expand so far east without being in the fireworks fallout zone... but what if that area was indoors?

 

[mattpeto]

No insider information... but just a few guesses.
1) Villains coaster will be the most thrilling ride in magic kingdom... I'm going to guess an inversion or 2 to make it stand out and clearly show this is not a kiddie ride (inversion will be visible from the land). Not quite RnRC level of thrill, but close.
2) Dark ride will be either trackless or a boat ride... but will be designed as a 2000+pph people eater
3) The surprise will be they build a very large area of this land indoors "under" the castle (think mermaid lagoon at TDS).
4) Inside the indoor "dungeon" will be a restaurant, merch, and the flat ride.

I know they can only expand so far east without being in the fireworks fallout zone... but what if that area was indoors?

I love all of those but they have to figure out a way to relieve pressure off the hub. For me that's a critical part of this expansion.

 

[Purduevian]

I love all of those but they have to figure out a way to relieve pressure off the hub. For me that's a critical part of this expansion.

That is a good point... maybe only the big dark ride will be inside to give a large courtyard for fireworks viewing. It also hinders my idea that the coaster would weave in and out of the land (like velocicoaster), as screaming guests throughout the land might not be the best for fireworks viewing (although maybe it adds to it)

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

So an outdoor coaster doesn’t break immersion but a flat ride does?

It would if it featured visible nondiagetic elements, e.g., being an “exposed steel” coaster like The Incredible Hulk at IoA.

So far, Disney has never made an “exposed steel” coaster, outside of (a) auto-themed coasters in “amusement park” themed lands (or “coaster play set” in the case of SDD), and (b) junior coasters confined to ToonTown-type lands.

Apart from those, Tron is the closest they’ve gotten to an exposed steel coaster, and I do fear that it’s the thin edge of their trying to move in that direction for cost-savings, but Tron is mitigated by the exposed part being one segment and integrated with the canopy (as well as the vehicles being heavily themed). The Spider-Man coaster coming to Shanghai might be the first—and would be a devastating shift for those who value immersion in Disney parks.

Outdoor roller coasters that are immersively themed, e.g., Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Expedition Everest, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Grizzly Runaway Mine Cars, not only don’t break immersion but contribute to it.

EDIT: no “Steven Dwarfs”!

 

[Purduevian]

Steven Dwarfs Mine Train

 

[TheMaxRebo]

View attachment 870040

Well, kids do yearn for the mines, so that checks

 

[Purduevian]

Well, kids do yearn for the mines, so that checks

It was just a joke based off a typo... but any theme park would make bank if they made a minecraft ride/land. Since Microsoft and Nintendo are direct competitors... I don't see universal getting the rights. I also don't think Disney would want to license it with all their current unused IP... That leaves 6flags/cedar fair which wouldn't make a quality enough ride :/

 

[TheMaxRebo]

It was just a joke based off a typo... but any theme park would make bank if they made a minecraft ride/land. Since Microsoft and Nintendo are direct competitors... I don't see universal getting the rights. I also don't think Disney would want to license it with all their current unused IP... That leaves 6flags/cedar fair which wouldn't make a quality enough ride :/

Disney also owns part of Fortnight which is kind of a competing brand to Minecraft

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

It was just a joke based off a typo... but any theme park would make bank if they made a minecraft ride/land. Since Microsoft and Nintendo are direct competitors... I don't see universal getting the rights. I also don't think Disney would want to license it with all their current unused IP... That leaves 6flags/cedar fair which wouldn't make a quality enough ride :/

Minecraft enters real world with $110m global theme park deal

Exclusive: Block-building game to appear in theme parks, hotels and stores, starting in UK and US

www.theguardian.com

 

[RSoxNo1]

Depends I suppose, TRON is around 1600 an hour, GoTG 1700 an hour, slinky dog around 1400 I believe. JC is 1800.

JC is a surprisingly high capacity ride, guess just due to number of people per boat. It is slow loader/unloader which I think can make the line feel worse.

It does take up a lot of real estate though so capacitor acre is probably not the best but remember looking the capacity and was expecting it to be lower

Jungle Cruise's actual capacity is well lower than that. @lentesta may be able to speak to it. But it's demand has shifted relative to capacity. If I had to guess I'd say it's in the 900-1000 GPH rnage

Having villains be the most intense coaster at MK would be great. Especially if the second ride is a dark ride or boat ride. It would give a nice spectrum of coasters from kiddie to intense- Barnstormer-SDMT-Thunder-Space-Tron-Villains.

We did some armchair Imagineering on my show on villains rides and the concept that we each came up with independently was a Villains land that's self aware of its location within the Magic Kingdom. That led us to the non-coaster ride concept of Villains revisiting other attractions in the park as the story trope. If that's done well, it could be a remarkably ambitious idea.

There are plenty of great coasters, but for the other attraction to be an ambitious dark ride of the scale of Rise of the Resistance, Ministry of Magic or Monsters Unchained is an absolute must for this land.

Hulk is much faster and those restraints are killer. I need to brace my head.

I think we’ve reached the point where we can stop with over-the-shoulder restraints. If a lap bar works on a zero-g stall, it can work for everything.

The Hulk (and RNRC for that matter) are such head bangers, it's not worth riding.

 

[RSoxNo1]

HS is in desperate need of just some more flat / spinner rides. Heck, even a AIW style book report ride or omnimover would do wonders.

This has absolutely been the need for that park. A carousel in Toy Story Land should absolutely happen as an example.

If Animal Kingdom doesn’t get the Lion King flume ride from Paris, OMG.

I was very surprised that this wasn't announced at the D23 Expo. Here's hoping it gets announced next month at Destination D.

That's the irony. They announced a bunch of stuff for WDW but none of it was particularly what those parks needed. Meanwhile, actually doing a pure addition of TLK to Africa or Moana to Adventureland would have really been awesome. Instead, everything has to involve removing something already there.

Disney has the tendency to do that. For me the two recent additions / announcements that fit that category are TRON and the Monster's Inc Coaster. Both are welcome additions, but neither really satisfies the immediate need for the park at the time.

With that said, in the case of both of these things, they're still added capacity in parks that all need that added capacity. While these things are under construction / in development, that's the time to update existing attractions and add the smaller B-ticket flat rides.

The cute-ification of AK is probably inevitable, but I wouldn’t call it a no brainer. Thus far the newer rides have been things like FOP and Indy, which are more in keeping with the original spirit of the park (we’ll see how Encanto turns out.)

I may be jinxing it, but I actually think we've managed to largely dodge this bullet. The Tropical Americas plaza is absolutely more befitting of that park than Dinorama or the Zootopia / Moana suggestion. It was a very pleasant pivot that I welcome wholeheartedly.

There's a bit of mental gymnastics to put Encanto and Indy in the same land, and then connect that land to DAK, but the leap isn't a huge one. I'd love it if the land hand an animal walk through, but two D/E-tickets (one family friendly), a carousel and a play area make for a very solid land on paper.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Variety isn't created solely by ride systems. EPCOT had more variety than most parks.

Different levels of mediocrity?

So an outdoor coaster doesn’t break immersion but a flat ride does?

As long as the theme of the Roller Coaster is that it's a Roller Coaster, you can have exposed steel. "The Villains created a twisted roller coaster to torture you" is in line with sales pitches we've had recently.

So when Piston Peak and Villains Land are open, how many ILLs at MK?

I was thinking about this recently as well.

First and foremost, I hate tiers and think three advanced LLs is excessive. I do however, really appreciate the rolling 3 LLs as a perk. My personal preference would be 1 advanced LL, two rolling LLs upon entering the park, no tiers in any park.

The line skipping rules generally have a 4 year or less life cycle, but assuming everything stays the same, I'm guessing MK's LL will evolve as follows:

• Tiers remain and Mine Train and TRON are ILLS until Cars opens
• Cars opens, Tiers remain with some mobility (Thunder or Tiana's moving to tier 2), Mine Train to tier 1, Cars and TRON are ILLS
• Villains opens, Tiers are removed, Villains rides are ILLS, TRON and Cars move to Multipass. I could also see 3 ILLs with Cars remaining.

I love all of those but they have to figure out a way to relieve pressure off the hub. For me that's a critical part of this expansion.

Do you mean in the context of Fireworks viewing? If there's a way to incorporate any Villains facades into nightly fireworks performances, I'd absolutely welcome that.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Villains opens, Tiers are removed, Villains rides are ILLS, TRON and Cars move to Multipass. I could also see 3 ILLs with Cars remaining.

That would be great is tiers are removed, definitely a negative of the new system (and FP+).

Going to be interesting if willing to go to 3 ILLs or not

 

[Brer Panther]

That led us to the non-coaster ride concept of Villains revisiting other attractions in the park as the story

I'm sorry, I really do not want to criticize your ideas, but I really wouldn't want the dark ride to be "Villains invade other iconic Magic Kingdom attractions" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm just exhausted by "meta" humor, but I think that would be pretty cringe-worthy.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

I'm sorry, I really do not want to criticize your ideas, but I really wouldn't want the dark ride to be "Villains invade other iconic Magic Kingdom attractions" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm just exhausted by "meta" humor, but I think that would be pretty cringe-worthy.

Villains running their own park, while meta, is perfectly on-point. Either being shunned from experiencing Magic Kingdom park because they're villains or because they "can do it better", a trope allowing their seedy, sinister ways to color their own attractions.

Plus, as we well know, a carnival aesthetic is perhaps the easiest to theme and backstory. A dark Tunnel of Love ride with Hades, a spinning Ursula flat ride, Yzma Bumper Cars, an Evil Queen Poisoned Apples concession stand. Its the kind of "creatively-lazy" idea that seems to resonate within Disney.

And it could very well work. I don't necessarily like it either, but it has a sort of believability to it. I'm with you though, hoping for something else.

 

[Brer Panther]

Plus, as we well know, a carnival aesthetic is perhaps the easiest to theme and backstory. A dark Tunnel of Love ride with Hades, a spinning Ursula flat ride, Yzma Bumper Cars, an Evil Queen Poisoned Apples concession stand. Its the kind of "creatively-lazy" idea that seems to resonate within Disney.

I meant more along the lines of the villains parodying actual Magic Kingdom attractions. Like, a scene where your vehicle enters a replica of a scene in It's a Small World, and then Ursula pops up and trashes everything... probably making some sort of comment like "That song is so annoying!". THAT'S what I think would be cringe-worthy.

 

[Jedi14]

The coaster probably going to be explained to be “thorns” growing in the land.

 

[Fox&Hound]

Wasn’t that one of the original proposals for California Adventure paradise pier redo? While I hope for more too, I did not hate this either.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Wasn’t that one of the original proposals for California Adventure paradise pier redo? While I hope for more too, I did not hate this either.

Would clash with Storybook Circus similar aesthetic.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm sorry, I really do not want to criticize your ideas, but I really wouldn't want the dark ride to be "Villains invade other iconic Magic Kingdom attractions" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm just exhausted by "meta" humor, but I think that would be pretty cringe-worthy.

Villains running their own park, while meta, is perfectly on-point. Either being shunned from experiencing Magic Kingdom park because they're villains or because they "can do it better", a trope allowing their seedy, sinister ways to color their own attractions.

Plus, as we well know, a carnival aesthetic is perhaps the easiest to theme and backstory. A dark Tunnel of Love ride with Hades, a spinning Ursula flat ride, Yzma Bumper Cars, an Evil Queen Poisoned Apples concession stand. Its the kind of "creatively-lazy" idea that seems to resonate within Disney.

And it could very well work. I don't necessarily like it either, but it has a sort of believability to it. I'm with you though, hoping for something else.

The pitch was effectively villains recruiting villains from other attractions around the park, culminating at the top of Cinderella Castle. At that point, they could make a decision to have the dystopian view of the park from atop the castle or have heroes win out in villains land.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I personally love the idea of the Villains being totally aware of the land's location on the outskirts of the Magic Kingdom. Ultimately it would be all about execution and poor execution absolutely would be cringe worthy. Good execution could make for several wow moments and an incredible experience. Having said all that, this is fanboi wishcasting and it does not seem to be the approach they're taking.