For consideration of everyone, but especially those close to the parks' histories and the industry's inside secrets, I offer this question. What I'm asking specifically is when Disney last rolled out cutting edge technology and led the field in creating a new attraction, rather than simply following someone else's (e.g., Universal's) example in responding with similar attraction using comparable engineering.
I'm no expert in the history or the mechanics, but it seems to me, for instance, that "Expedition Everest" amounted to a sort of recapitulation of "Revenge of the Mummy," in terms of ride type and design.
So what was the last, huge, Imagineering break-through?
Was it "Mission: Space" or "Soarin'?" Or do we have to go further back to the EMV? Do the "living characters" count, or were they also done first somewhere else? What about "Toy Story Mania" and its technology?
And finally, and this is perhaps what prompted my question in the first place, what's on the horizon in terms of creating a never-before-imagined theme park experience?
I'm no expert in the history or the mechanics, but it seems to me, for instance, that "Expedition Everest" amounted to a sort of recapitulation of "Revenge of the Mummy," in terms of ride type and design.
So what was the last, huge, Imagineering break-through?
Was it "Mission: Space" or "Soarin'?" Or do we have to go further back to the EMV? Do the "living characters" count, or were they also done first somewhere else? What about "Toy Story Mania" and its technology?
And finally, and this is perhaps what prompted my question in the first place, what's on the horizon in terms of creating a never-before-imagined theme park experience?