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

[CoasterCowboy67]

That isn't what anchor attractions have traditionally done. Name one that amalgamates various unrelated IP instead of just having a series of internally consistent self-contained rides that are either IP-less or focus on a single IP.

The difference is that this land, by definition, is named and based on a bunch of different unrelated characters. That itself has no precedent. The entire premise is that somehow we have been transported to some town/valley/gorge/whatever where all the Villains have congregated. This has to be to the case, as I cannot imagine them attempting to justify Maleficient’s castle next to the Andes for the Yzma ride and Greece for the Hades dinner show…if we’re to have 3 perfectly self-contained IP rides as you describe. So, if you’ve brought us to this land where all the Villains are meeting, why *wouldnt* the anchor attraction then allow us to experience why they have all gotten together and what it is they’re doing?

 

[James Alucobond]

There’s only reason to create a villains land is to create an environment where they all interact outside of the confines of their film’s storyline.

Strange definitive conclusion to come to when there are many other reasons they might want a villains area. They may just want an area where the rides can truly have a villain-centric perspective without the expectation that the heroes will appear.

The difference is that this land, by definition, is named and based on a bunch of different unrelated characters. That itself has no precedent.

The land doesn't have an official name yet, and it's not really without organizational precedent. Most modern Fantasylands already have a bunch of adjacent princess castles and combined M&G locations even though they don't interact within the context of their respective rides.

 

[mattpeto]

Screeeech. The sound of the brakes going on. Probably for the best in the long run. Interesting times.

Get the Popcorn ready.

I’m very tippy toey around this at the moment but I wouldn’t argue against it.

I would add from a comment I read earlier in the thread that the anchor attraction was never “full” of villains.

I’d be happy with the themes I’ve heard. But that’s just me.

I'll pry a bit.

You like the change of direction overall or just with Villians Land itself?

"Never full of villians" - but now it might be?

Was it the tone of the land that your now "happy with the themes"? Maybe not as dark?

 

[lazyboy97o]

The difference is that this land, by definition, is named and based on a bunch of different unrelated characters. That itself has no precedent. The entire premise is that somehow we have been transported to some town/valley/gorge/whatever where all the Villains have congregated. This has to be to the case, as I cannot imagine them attempting to justify Maleficient’s castle next to the Andes for the Yzma ride and Greece for the Hades dinner show…if we’re to have 3 perfectly self-contained IP rides as you describe. So, if you’ve brought us to this land where all the Villains are meeting, why *wouldnt* the anchor attraction then allow us to experience why they have all gotten together and what it is they’re doing?

How is the Jungle Cruise justified being next to the Enchanted Tiki Room? Lands mixing locales isn’t new.

 

[Touchdown]

Not to mention the hundred acre wood being further from London then Germany.

 

[bmr1591]

Alright, here’s my ‘market’ take. Small sample size, but consider it as you will.

I work with hundreds of Gen Z teenagers daily and have for about a decade. I’m in a city that loves Disney and it’s not a surprise when there’s a break that a ton of them travel down to Disney World. That’s what they do. With all of that said, I have never, not even once, heard one teenager mention watching TENG. I haven’t even heard quote the ‘wrong lever’ as a meme. I understand it’s a small subset that doesn’t represent all of Gen Z, but to say Disney is choosing that IP to appeal to Gen Z is such a head scratcher to me.

Now, Millennials are a little different. They know the IP and if you say the ‘wrong lever’ quote they’ll laugh. That said, I don’t know any who’d put that in their top 10. I was born in ‘91, so I’m right in the heart of Millennialism, and I can’t think of anyone who would choose a TENG family coaster over a Maleficent thrill coaster.

All that to say, who’s the coaster for? Families that are mid on the IP? Don’t get me wrong, I know it has fans, but online voices are much louder than actual visitor opinion. I don’t know anyone who would hear “Hey, the landmark attraction of Villains Land is a kiddie coaster themed to TENG on the level of Slinky Dog!” and rush to book a trip.

I understand people want the land family friendly. I don’t disagree. But you can have one actual thrill attraction in a land based on villains, who are supposed to be at least a bit scary. If they don’t, it’s gonna be a colossal financial mistake. Not because I say so, but because they’d be failing to actually market this new, groundbreaking land to anyone.

 

[Touchdown]

It’s not like ENG is replacing Mal, she is going to be the main character in the premiere dark ride of the land. That’s where she belongs too, the coaster is the secondary ride.

 

[britain]

Just want to point out that Disney has already made a coaster (partially) inspired by ENG.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

Why are so many of us glossing over the fact that now there is apparently a "main" attraction and a "secondary" attraction in this land.....

We were told by Disney that there were TWO MAJOR ATTRACTIONS. In other words - TWO MAIN ATTRACTIONS. Why does either the dark ride OR the coaster have to be "secondary"? They were always supposed to be on the same E-Ticket Level. Unless I just didn't understand Josh at all at D23 2024......

Also, why are some posters making it like a 'this or that' situation. Or being OK with one of the rides not being major anymore? After reading some posts, I feel like people like me are being looked at as outlandish to have been expecting a major roller coaster with a bunch of theming and 'maybe' some higher thrill than something like Tron, in addition to a major dark ride on the level of Rise? I don't understand why? We're all just going off the little info we were told!!

 

[James Alucobond]

Alright, here’s my ‘market’ take. Small sample size, but consider it as you will.

I work with hundreds of Gen Z teenagers daily and have for about a decade. I’m in a city that loves Disney and it’s not a surprise when there’s a break that a ton of them travel down to Disney World. That’s what they do. With all of that said, I have never, not even once, heard one teenager mention watching TENG. I haven’t even heard quote the ‘wrong lever’ as a meme. I understand it’s a small subset that doesn’t represent all of Gen Z, but to say Disney is choosing that IP to appeal to Gen Z is such a head scratcher to me.

Now, Millennials are a little different. They know the IP and if you say the ‘wrong lever’ quote they’ll laugh. That said, I don’t know any who’d put that in their top 10. I was born in ‘91, so I’m right in the heart of Millennialism, and I can’t think of anyone who would choose a TENG family coaster over a Maleficent thrill coaster.

All that to say, who’s the coaster for? Families that are mid on the IP? Don’t get me wrong, I know it has fans, but online voices are much louder than actual visitor opinion. I don’t know anyone who would hear “Hey, the landmark attraction of Villains Land is a kiddie coaster themed to TENG on the level of Slinky Dog!” and rush to book a trip.

I understand people want the land family friendly. I don’t disagree. But you can have one actual thrill attraction in a land based on villains, who are supposed to be at least a bit scary. If they don’t, it’s gonna be a colossal financial mistake. Not because I say so, but because they’d be failing to actually market this new, groundbreaking land to anyone.

Why can't they be thinking about it in reverse, i.e. imagining the type of ride and environment they truly want and then picking an IP that fits well with the concept? This is probably preferable to forcing certain properties into the land even if they don't exactly mesh with the infrastructure just because of perceived marketability. If the land is enticing, it will be so on its own merits, not because of the specific IP that appears in each ride.

Why are so many of us glossing over the fact that now there is apparently a "main" attraction and a "secondary" attraction in this land.....

We were told by Disney that there were TWO MAJOR ATTRACTIONS. In other words - TWO MAIN ATTRACTIONS. Why does either the dark ride OR the coaster have to be "secondary"? They were always supposed to be on the same E-Ticket Level. Unless I just didn't understand Josh at all at D23 2024......

Also, why are some posters making it like a 'this or that' situation. Or being OK with one of the rides not being major anymore? After reading some posts, I feel like people like me are being looked at as outlandish to have been expecting a major roller coaster with a bunch of theming and 'maybe' some higher thrill than something like Tron, in addition to a major dark ride on the level of Rise? I don't understand why? We're all just going off the little info we were told!!

An E and a D would still be two major attractions. A land should have a variety of offerings that draw different wait times; it was always worrisome to me that this land had no announced C tickets or below.

 

[eddie104]

Call me skeptical but I have hard time believing the plans for this land are in flux currently.

I feel like they already made the pivot to more “family friendly” a long time ago and we are now seeing the aftermath of ideas.

Josh becoming CEO has been a “dirty” little secret for more than a year now. Any influence he had on the new plans has probably been set in stone for some time now.

 

[MrPromey]

Emperor's New Groove was really the first major sign that the Disney Animation renaissance was over. You could argue also that making Fantasia 2000 an IMAX exclusive killed its box office potential. I had to drive all the way to Baltimore from the Philly suburbs to see it back in the day.

Yup. I had to do my nearly two hour each way drive to see it, too!

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Well this is just beginning…..

More info will be coming out and then the real ranting shall begin.
Like Martin said, get your popcorn ready.

But yes, think of this project as Fantasyland with Villains.
This is the direction I am sensing from my limited take.

Family friendly was always the goal, and anyone assuming it was going to be a darker and a more ‘scary area’ to the Park was setting themselves up for disappointment.

Hoping for the best.
Keeping my expectations in check.


-

Exactly. They would never build a truly scary land at MK that would frighten little ones. Families are and will always be Disney’s primary demographic. Not sure why anybody expected any different.

 

[Movielover]

Expectation: It’s going to be sooooo cool when they say “pull the lever!” and the ride vehicle drops!

Reality: “Pull the lever!” (Wait 30 seconds, nothing happens) “Pull the lever!” (Wait thirty seconds). “Dear guests please stay seated in your ride vehicle-“ “Pull the Lever!” “-as we are working through a brief operational issue. Please stay seated.”

What will actually happen is the "Pull the Lever" moment will be part of a very elaborate and cool preshow that Operations will deem not worth the effort and bypass down a backstage hallway a month after opening to save one minute of line time.

I wish I was joking...

 

[aladdin2007]

If true its all sounding a little too much like another toy story land, which is a downgrade, not bigger bolder. I get the need for family aspect, thats fine (a villains version of fantasyland is fine if done right but I want a classic busbar dark ride out of it, never happening I know) but diluting it all down to dusting off a cheap spinner plan, doing a kiddy coaster etc (minus the boat ride), come on Josh and Vaughn, look next door at that pile of the worst thing to come out of Imagineering in years. We don't need or want more of that caliber.

But will see, theme wise why they are ignoring Nightmare before Christmas is beyond me, thats such a big merch cash cow. If going to dust off anything would love to see the Bald Mountain concept that was pitched for 20,000 leagues, it would just look so good to have a new mountain range at the park, since they keep taking away. Imagine that at night!!!

A few posts or couple pages back someone mentioned leave it to Disney to take a grand concept and turn it into trash,,,,while that may be a bit much and extreme, I get the sentiment of it. Why do I feel like Vahle is getting his hands in this and wringing out the creativity to cut costs.

 

[CoasterCowboy67]

How is the Jungle Cruise justified being next to the Enchanted Tiki Room? Lands mixing locales isn’t new.

The land doesn't have an official name yet, and it's not really without organizational precedent. Most modern Fantasylands already have a bunch of adjacent princess castles and combined M&G locations even though they don't interact within the context of their respective rides.

Adventureland and Fantasyland -- in both name and implementation -- are defined by broad literary, geographic, and period themes. They are not defined by the convening of specific characters the way Villains land is, regardless of what Villains land gets called. Fantasyland is not the same as a "Princess Land" in name, intent, or execution. Shadowland (or whatever they may call Villains land) is still a Villains land, because the main thematic thread of the land has already been told to us to be the intersection of specific characters.

I am arguing that if you've already created a land justifying intersectionality of characters we know do not normally co-exist, why wouldn't there be an attraction that shows the Villains together doing what they congregated in that land to do in the first place? It’s what is obviously begged by this entire premise, and baffling they wouldn’t go in that direction. There's no precedent for a land that is telling us specific characters have gotten together outside of where they normally would be, so its irrelevant to say there is no precedent for an IP mash-up attraction.

BTW, Kingdom Hearts depicted classic Disney Villains congregating at Maleficent's castle >20 years ago

 

[MrPromey]

ok im not reading 20 pages because I am so exhausted from this week, but IDEA! I doubt they would do this but it would make me happy, what if we were getting both what was announced plus this. Like what if its we are still getting the crazy adult Malificent / chernabog coaster and a dark ride but we are now also getting a ENG coaster, a small spinner, and a boat ride.

Like what if we got 5 rides ...

Personally, I never expected a crazy coaster in the MK. I don't really expect a crazy coaster in WDW, period. The number of people here who apparently consider TRON to be a thrill coaster kind of proves my point about the audience Disney appeals to and that's fine.

There are plenty of other places across the world to get that, including in the Orlando area.

Unless they're willing to blow sight-lines out of the water and seriously move away from immersive theming, they'll never be able to compete with Universal on that anyway so why even bother?

What I was expecting though was a darker theme to it - not scary but a little creepy. Something maybe in step with Escape from Gringots which is a very accessible thrill ride featuring rather minimal actual coaster aspects but with theme and story telling aimed at something beyond the lowest common denominator.

To me, that's what this rumor suggests we're losing.

 

[aladdin2007]

Personally, I never expected a crazy coaster in the MK. I don't really expect a crazy coaster in WDW, period. The number of people here who apparently consider TRON to be a thrill coaster kind of proves my point about the audience Disney appeals to and that's fine.

There are plenty of other places across the world to get that, including in the Orlando area.

Unless they're willing to blow sight-lines out of the water and seriously move away from immersive theming, they'll never be able to compete with Universal on that anyway so why even bother?

What I was expecting though was a darker theme to it. Something maybe in step with Escape from Gringots which is a very accessible thrill ride featuring rather minimal actual coaster aspects but with theme and story telling aimed at something beyond the lowest common denominator.

To me, that's what this rumor suggests we're losing.

agree

 

[britain]

Josh becoming CEO has been a “dirty” little secret for more than a year now. Any influence he had on the new plans has probably been set in stone for some time now.

Hmm... you know, the one thing that IS new is that Dana is president of the company. Sure, Josh might have been fine with the direction the land was going, but Dana - not Dana the potential CEO, but Dana the actual next president - she might now have felt comfortable enough to say, "Ahem, I actually see some problems with this direction. Can we tweak the focus?"

And Josh, having promised that she can lead with a fair amount of autonomy, may be saying, "Sure, as long as it achieves good financial / brand goals, sounds good."

I agree that there is something about the "Now that Josh is CEO, he's going to change things" narrative that doesn't quite seem right since he's been head of Parks for so long now. Perhaps this is the story behind the story.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

An E and a D would still be two major attractions. A land should have a variety of offerings that draw different wait times; it was always worrisome to me that this land had no announced C tickets or below.

You may be right I suppose, but when I hear someone say two major attractions, my mind is automatically thinking two E-Ticket Level attractions. A similar coaster to Hagrids and a similar dark ride to Rise is what I was always expecting. I guess what matters is what people consider Hagrids.. I consider that a major E-ticket type coaster, and have been hoping Disney would do their version of a highly themed coaster like that.