News Avatar Experience coming to Disneyland Resort

[mickEblu]

I think it would it would be a shame if it was cancelled because there is so much potential and that when considering the alternatives there are few aesthetics/ settings or attractions that I would find more appealing. Granted, would Zootopia or Monsters fit better in that location? Sure. If they come to the conclusion they could spend half the amount on a Monsters Inc coaster for example and people would be happier why wouldn’t they do it? And here’s the kicker- Zootopia and Monsters sell way more merch than Avatar.

Ideally it would be Avatar in Simba and Monsters in the backlot/ bus transpo.

Well I see that Fresh Baked likes my theory as well as 200 wishful people in the comments section. All bots/ people working undercover as part of a nefarious Avatar hate campaign no doubt.

 

[mickEblu]

On a related note, watched the Zootopia ride POV for the first time in a while. Man, it looks awful. Here’s to hoping Avatar doesn’t get outright cancelled and replaced with that in the backlot. That would be a worst case scenario.

 

[DLR92]

Please Disney, give us this instead:

 

[mickEblu]

Please Disney, give us this instead:
View attachment 909286

What is that ?

 

[Disneyland/DCA]

Is that the Dick Tracy ride?

 

[DLR92]

Is that the Dick Tracy ride?

Yes!

 

[Disney Irish]

What is that ?

Its the Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction that was rumored for a long time.

 

[DLR92]

I couldn’t help, but every time I leave to home. After the park closed. I’m always in awe seeing downtown Los Angeles skyline at night. Seeing the skyline makes me think of this attraction planned for Disney MGM studios.

 

[MK-fan]

On a related note, watched the Zootopia ride POV for the first time in a while. Man, it looks awful. Here’s to hoping Avatar doesn’t get outright cancelled and replaced with that in the backlot. That would be a worst case scenario.

I just rewatched it too and yeah it’s just not great looking. Disney doesn’t do a great job with ride hybrids with screens and this ride relies too heavily on screens. It compares a lot to the Ratatouille ride and runaway railway in some ways. Runaway Railway works with screens because it makes you feel like you’re in the cartoon world but it’s used lazily on Zootopia.

 

[coffeefan]

On a related note, watched the Zootopia ride POV for the first time in a while. Man, it looks awful. Here’s to hoping Avatar doesn’t get outright cancelled and replaced with that in the backlot. That would be a worst case scenario.

A Zootopia land would be an improvement to the land staying as is. But, Avatar would of course be more grand.

 

[EagleScout610]

Obviously what happened -

 

[TheDisneyParksfanC8]

Dave thinking Avatar might be moved to Simba is foolish. Cameron himself had a say in where it ended up, in large part to the PPH looming being a no go for him.

 

[britain]

Its the Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers attraction that was rumored for a long time.

Rumored? It was officially announced by Eisner himself at the beginning of the Disney Decade. Canceled due to Euro Disney financial strain and Dick Tracy the film not doing enough box office. It was going to be in Tokyo Disney Sea too but got replaced with Tower of Terror. (According to Jim Hill, it's what got TDS the greenlight from Oriental Land executives because their wives loved shooting tommy guns in WDI's mock up of the attraction!)

It probably wouldn't have survived after Columbine, so it might be for the best that it didn't get made. But maybe on a timeline where it WAS built, Columbine wouldn't have happened!? Somewhere in the multiverse everything worked out great.

 

[mickEblu]

I just rewatched it too and yeah it’s just not great looking. Disney doesn’t do a great job with ride hybrids with screens and this ride relies too heavily on screens. It compares a lot to the Ratatouille ride and runaway railway in some ways. Runaway Railway works with screens because it makes you feel like you’re in the cartoon world but it’s used lazily on Zootopia.

I get the sense that more effort went into Zootopia. I think if MMRR works better is because they didn’t have to worry as much about the screen integration with the physical sets as there is far less of that stuff. It’s easier for the rider to buy in without those two things clashing.

 

[mickEblu]

Dave thinking Avatar might be moved to Simba is foolish. Cameron himself had a say in where it ended up, in large part to the PPH looming being a no go for him.

Interesting. Not sure I’ve ever considered it from that angle. Do you know this for a fact? I’d imagine though with proper placement of the land/ show building and with all the rock work facade that they’d be able to block it out?

 

[GravityFalls]

Interesting. Never considered it from that angle. I’d imagine though with proper placement of the land/ show building and with all the rock work facade that they’d be able to block it out?

The imagineers have full renderings of the park that they can view and manipulate in a 3D environment (and even walk through with VR headsets), so they should have a very good sense early on in any development process of the exact shaping the land would have to be to obstruct existing buildings.

In the case of the backlot, I'm sure all these concerns that are being brought up again by us fans have been worked out by Imagineering already in a virtual environment (hiding the monorail, thematic transition from Hollywood Blvd to the new land, the backside of the rock work being viewable from the pedestrian bridge, etc.). Probably years ago at this point.

 

[mickEblu]

The imagineers have full renderings of the park that they can view and manipulate in a 3D environment (and even walk through with VR headsets), so they should have a very good sense early on in any development process of the exact shaping the land would have to be to obstruct existing buildings.

In the case of the backlot, I'm sure all these concerns that are being brought up again by us fans have been worked out by Imagineering already in a virtual environment (hiding the monorail, thematic transition from Hollywood Blvd to the new land, the backside of the rock work being viewable from the pedestrian bridge, etc.). Probably years ago at this point.

Oh I’m sure they have the technology. The question is if Cameron objected to its placement at Simba because of the PPH. I’d imagine with proper placement of the land and show building on the Simba lot could have obscured it but I could be wrong. It’s not like the Hollywood backlot is constraint free. You have the monorail, the Hyperion, much less space to work with etc.

 

[GravityFalls]

Oh I’m sure they have the technology. The question is if Cameron objected to its placement at Simba because of the PPH. I’d imagine with proper placement of the land and show building on the Simba lot could have obscured it but I could be wrong. It’s not like the Hollywood backlot is constraint free. You have the monorail, the Hyperion, much less space to work with etc.

Disney's contract with Cameron's team predates the acquisition (the original AK contract that is either a template for future lands or mentions future projects), so we are probably looking at a scenario where the contract states "near zero visual intrusion from the outside world" and the Imagineers have looked at several spots available and what it would take to meet those requirements. Not so much a formal veto, but more of a design brief that they think would be difficult to meet at the Simba parking lot location.

 

[TheDisneyParksfanC8]

Oh I’m sure they have the technology. The question is if Cameron objected to its placement at Simba because of the PPH. I’d imagine with proper placement of the land and show building on the Simba lot could have obscured it but I could be wrong. It’s not like the Hollywood backlot is constraint free. You have the monorail, the Hyperion, much less space to work with etc.

Disney's contract with Cameron's team predates the acquisition (the original AK contract that is either a template for future lands or mentions future projects), so we are probably looking at a scenario where the contract states "near zero visual intrusion from the outside world" and the Imagineers have looked at several spots available and what it would take to meet those requirements. Not so much a formal veto, but more of a design brief that they think would be difficult to meet at the Simba parking lot location.

IIRC building a berm or whatever else to fully obscure Simba would have put costs through the roof.

 

[Disney Irish]

In my opinion I think with Disney's acknowledgment that Avatar is still happening and that any delay to the closure of Monster is no actual delay in Avatar opening means whatever plan they had previously as far as location is still intact and hasn't changed. Which means in my opinion it puts it at less than 1% chance of Avatar not going into the Backlot. As any other location is still a ways out in time frame.

And so really the only question is scale, has it changed? If anything I can see them wanting to go bigger rather than cut back. So on that front I think we might see more updated concept art coming out with more details at D23.

And the final telling thing, if we still see movement over the next 6-12 months (if we haven't heard anything by D23) of demo happening in the rest of Backlot, well that is the telltale sign that everything with Avatar is a go, because anything else would have Disney announcing it.