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So, You Want to be an Imagineer Season 19 - Madcap Circus [CONCLUDED]
- Thread starter JokersWild
- Start date
Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
Not surprised.
spacemt354
Chili's
While you may feel that way I hope you realize how impressive your artwork has become and how much more of a team player you have become just in the last few comps. So much so that you were voted in by your peers here to the Imagineering Hall of Fame Class of 2020
So on one hand while you seem to take the elim well don't hold yourself to such a low bar unless it's just a coping mechanism or something - be proud of what you accomplished and how much you have grown!
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Going live in three hours.
Tiki is tired so we're going to be cancelling the show tonight. However, he's 2/3 the way through his feedback so it should be up soon. I'll have mine up at some point today as well. So expect feedback as well as a winner within the next 24 hours.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Really sorry guys. I'm at the tail end of an exhausting work week where I spent roughly seven hours a day outside in weather teetering on 100+ degrees. If I ended up doing the show tonight it would have mostly been Jokers talking to himself with an occasional half-awake comment on my end. It'd be WONDERFUL to get a back-up person to do these podcasts with as Jokers is only available over the weekends, so by all means speak up if you'd like that position.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
My written feedback will still be in late tonight, but in the meantime...RESULTS
In third place is...
In second place is...
In first place is...
PoMVP for this round goes to
In third place is...
Team Ringling. This team got saddled with BY FAR the hardest IP to work with, so don't feel too bad about this. While your attraction had a great flow to it, the chosen presentation style resulted in a lot of awkward descriptions that made it hard to visualize. In addition to that, the Lych storyline just didn't gel with the vibe of the rest of the attraction, and the urban CN City land surrounding the attraction felt very out of place. A valiant effort that ultimately fell short.
In second place is...
Team Bailey. This team literally went By the Books as far as delivering a super solid "Book Report" style dark ride. I think that approach works rather nicely with the storybook quality of Over the Garden Wall as a whole, so don't thing too hard on it. While the soundtrack was a killer addition, at the end of the day this ended up being an incredibly grounded project that just happened to get beaten out by a GAMECHANGER.
In first place is...
Team Barnum. What can I say? Why the "Midway Mania on steroids" vibe I was getting felt a little less than E Ticket at first, I've got to give all the props in the world to a ridiculously creative presentation style that is TRULY one of a kind from anything we've seen presented in this game. Along with that you did a great job taking the foundations of the IP and building it up into its own unique story. A true grand slam of a project and a brilliant way to end out the pre-merge phase of the game.
PoMVP for this round goes to
@Outbound for once again coming up with a truly innovative presentation style.
Like we said, this season is absolutely the strongest performance I've seen out of you in the almost ten years that I've been playing and judging these games that you've participated in. If you can keep the level of quality and passion that you showed during the Seuss project, you could easily make it to at least the semi finals in one of these games. I totally sympathize with being unconfident in your ability, or getting stuck on details, or your work not being up to your personal standards, but sometimes you just gotta force yourself to push through it. So please, keep trying. Try to break yourself out of that self-defeating attitude. I know it's hard, but it'll be infinitely helpful to you to try to work past that.
You've been improving with each season, and I can't wait to see what you do during It Could Always Be Worse. Just try to be confident in yourself.
Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
I think the main problem was that so many of the projects we did were based on things I don't know anything about or had little to no ideas for. So really, all I could do was provide concept art for 'em.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Team Ringling
First of all, I'd like to acknowledge that Adventure Time is a very distinct "one of these things is not like the other" situation as far as an IP choice goes, which I absolutely don't fault you for. There's a TON of hours worth of content vs. Over the Garden Wall essentially being a feature film and Infinity Train being something you could easily binge in an afternoon if you really wanted to. Because of this, I'm giving you a lot of leeway as far as lore and characterization is concerned. To tell you the truth I'm pretty lost on that stuff myself outside of the first season. In the long run I really wish we would have done either an animated series that didn't have to be tied down to Cartoon Network, or something like Rick and Morty which isn't as tied down by continuity.
I'll start with the positives. As far as a layout goes this might have been the most clean out of the three. It's not the most flashy by any stretch, but the text was really easy to read and I'm a sucker for yellow on blue haha. I think overall you had the right idea with the attraction itself being an overview of the Land of Ooo. Most of your character choices felt very on point and Lumpy Space Princess as the ride vehicle was inspired! Story-wise, the biggest flaw I had was with the use of the Lych. While he's certainly an imposing figure, I just don't think his appearances blended well with the rest of the attraction's more laid-back atmosphere. I think it would have worked better as a build-up more in line with how the Jurassic Park/World boat rides approach their headlining dinosaur. Maybe have a tranquil ride through the land with subtle hints of the damage the Lych has done leading up to one or two AA encounters towards the end. Spreading it out felt like a little bit of a tonal whiplash. Personally I think the Ice King would have worked better as a primary antagonist.
The blog format ya'll went with was a really cool idea, but I've yet to see this idea live up to the full potential it very much does have. The big problem here was because of the first person POV I found a hard time keeping track of the more technical elements of the attraction. Distinguishing what was and wasn't a screen was a chore, and the dialogue/character interactions felt very rushed over for what's an incredibly character-focused IP. The park choice was certainly original, but I felt the CN City Block urban atmosphere very much clashed with the neo-fantasy vibe of Adventure Time. I certainly think a sub-land would have been a more smooth transition. Overall this was a flawed project held together by a really strong sense of pacing. It's not perfect, but I'll be the good cop in this situation and say that for a team with very little knowledge of the IP you definitely came together as a unit and pulled off a solid attraction.
Team Bailey
First things first, the music loop was a BRILLIANT addition to your presentation! I don't think any animated project in the past 20 years gives me as much instant nostalgia as the opening chords of the first song, and the playlist just got better from there. OMG the super dramatic foreign version of Potatoes and Molasses was just *chef's kiss*. As for the actual project, I will admit I think I would have preferred this in a more proper theme park instead of a weird off-shoot tourist trap type situation. As Space mentioned, there's NO WAY it can fit within the borders of Salem itself. I think this would have fit perfectly at a boutique Six Flags park to give it a big dark ride to set itself apart. I guess my Discovery Kingdom bias is showing haha.
The attraction itself is pretty dang fantastic. While it's certainly the most "Book Report" of the three, you guys sell the fairy tale aspects of the story so well that it hardly matters. I get a sort of Hadestown "this has happened before, and it will happen again" vibe from this which coming from me is a BIG compliment. I really vibed with the fall atmosphere. It feels like the perfect Halloween Dark Ride. Don't really have ton to say about it beyond that. I think you guys really took the reigns on the IP and ran with it. Loved the flipbook presentation style which really drove home the Fairy Tale of it all. Other than that, the strengths of the IP really showed through within the actual project and pretty much spoke for itself. All in all a fantastic effort.
Team Barnum
This really is the biggest "Gamechanger" presentation so far this season, and that's exactly what sent it over the edge to give it the win. At first giving it a shooting element was something I was really nervous about. I just don't think of shooting dark rides as E-Tickets. The execution however gave me the vibe of Silver Dollar City's "Time Traveler", a groundbreaking spinning coaster that was a first of its kind to use launches, inversions, and an insane 90 degree drop out of the station to set it apart. This really feels like the shooting dark ride version of the "Mack Extreme Spinning Coaster" with just how much variety you added to the concept.
It goes without saying that his is an IP with limitless potential, so having a variety of different outcomes and scenes made all the sense in the world. I really loved how you tied this back to Tulip's story but still evolved things with its own lead character (a PIVOTAL move in terms of capturing a distinct story) and a general continuation of the Infinity Train saga that still felt like a solid introductory point for people just getting into the franchise. It really feels like a best of both worlds where the more you know about the IP the more rewarding the Easter eggs are, but it can still stand on its own as a Radiator Springs Racers/Flight of Passage sort of example of an E-Ticket that has a lot of qualities that stand alone from the IP and rise above to pure artistry.
The scene transitions and callbacks blended very well with new ideas in a way that felt incredibly on brand. Book Five is definitely a tantalizing notion for fans of the series so I give you kudos for tackling that and really making it work. I also sort of applaud you for ignoring Book Four generally speaking haha. It's not a bad season, just a terrible one to go out on and felt really disconnected from the overall storyline. I could go on like a broken record about how good the scene choices were and how cool the presentation style was, but I think you get the gist. God I really love how much of a high note the pre-merge went out on.
First of all, I'd like to acknowledge that Adventure Time is a very distinct "one of these things is not like the other" situation as far as an IP choice goes, which I absolutely don't fault you for. There's a TON of hours worth of content vs. Over the Garden Wall essentially being a feature film and Infinity Train being something you could easily binge in an afternoon if you really wanted to. Because of this, I'm giving you a lot of leeway as far as lore and characterization is concerned. To tell you the truth I'm pretty lost on that stuff myself outside of the first season. In the long run I really wish we would have done either an animated series that didn't have to be tied down to Cartoon Network, or something like Rick and Morty which isn't as tied down by continuity.
I'll start with the positives. As far as a layout goes this might have been the most clean out of the three. It's not the most flashy by any stretch, but the text was really easy to read and I'm a sucker for yellow on blue haha. I think overall you had the right idea with the attraction itself being an overview of the Land of Ooo. Most of your character choices felt very on point and Lumpy Space Princess as the ride vehicle was inspired! Story-wise, the biggest flaw I had was with the use of the Lych. While he's certainly an imposing figure, I just don't think his appearances blended well with the rest of the attraction's more laid-back atmosphere. I think it would have worked better as a build-up more in line with how the Jurassic Park/World boat rides approach their headlining dinosaur. Maybe have a tranquil ride through the land with subtle hints of the damage the Lych has done leading up to one or two AA encounters towards the end. Spreading it out felt like a little bit of a tonal whiplash. Personally I think the Ice King would have worked better as a primary antagonist.
The blog format ya'll went with was a really cool idea, but I've yet to see this idea live up to the full potential it very much does have. The big problem here was because of the first person POV I found a hard time keeping track of the more technical elements of the attraction. Distinguishing what was and wasn't a screen was a chore, and the dialogue/character interactions felt very rushed over for what's an incredibly character-focused IP. The park choice was certainly original, but I felt the CN City Block urban atmosphere very much clashed with the neo-fantasy vibe of Adventure Time. I certainly think a sub-land would have been a more smooth transition. Overall this was a flawed project held together by a really strong sense of pacing. It's not perfect, but I'll be the good cop in this situation and say that for a team with very little knowledge of the IP you definitely came together as a unit and pulled off a solid attraction.
Team Bailey
First things first, the music loop was a BRILLIANT addition to your presentation! I don't think any animated project in the past 20 years gives me as much instant nostalgia as the opening chords of the first song, and the playlist just got better from there. OMG the super dramatic foreign version of Potatoes and Molasses was just *chef's kiss*. As for the actual project, I will admit I think I would have preferred this in a more proper theme park instead of a weird off-shoot tourist trap type situation. As Space mentioned, there's NO WAY it can fit within the borders of Salem itself. I think this would have fit perfectly at a boutique Six Flags park to give it a big dark ride to set itself apart. I guess my Discovery Kingdom bias is showing haha.
The attraction itself is pretty dang fantastic. While it's certainly the most "Book Report" of the three, you guys sell the fairy tale aspects of the story so well that it hardly matters. I get a sort of Hadestown "this has happened before, and it will happen again" vibe from this which coming from me is a BIG compliment. I really vibed with the fall atmosphere. It feels like the perfect Halloween Dark Ride. Don't really have ton to say about it beyond that. I think you guys really took the reigns on the IP and ran with it. Loved the flipbook presentation style which really drove home the Fairy Tale of it all. Other than that, the strengths of the IP really showed through within the actual project and pretty much spoke for itself. All in all a fantastic effort.
Team Barnum
This really is the biggest "Gamechanger" presentation so far this season, and that's exactly what sent it over the edge to give it the win. At first giving it a shooting element was something I was really nervous about. I just don't think of shooting dark rides as E-Tickets. The execution however gave me the vibe of Silver Dollar City's "Time Traveler", a groundbreaking spinning coaster that was a first of its kind to use launches, inversions, and an insane 90 degree drop out of the station to set it apart. This really feels like the shooting dark ride version of the "Mack Extreme Spinning Coaster" with just how much variety you added to the concept.
It goes without saying that his is an IP with limitless potential, so having a variety of different outcomes and scenes made all the sense in the world. I really loved how you tied this back to Tulip's story but still evolved things with its own lead character (a PIVOTAL move in terms of capturing a distinct story) and a general continuation of the Infinity Train saga that still felt like a solid introductory point for people just getting into the franchise. It really feels like a best of both worlds where the more you know about the IP the more rewarding the Easter eggs are, but it can still stand on its own as a Radiator Springs Racers/Flight of Passage sort of example of an E-Ticket that has a lot of qualities that stand alone from the IP and rise above to pure artistry.
The scene transitions and callbacks blended very well with new ideas in a way that felt incredibly on brand. Book Five is definitely a tantalizing notion for fans of the series so I give you kudos for tackling that and really making it work. I also sort of applaud you for ignoring Book Four generally speaking haha. It's not a bad season, just a terrible one to go out on and felt really disconnected from the overall storyline. I could go on like a broken record about how good the scene choices were and how cool the presentation style was, but I think you get the gist. God I really love how much of a high note the pre-merge went out on.
Thank you for all the feedback!! I’m so glad you enjoyed our project!!
It’s great to go out of the team-based game with another win!
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Going live with the Black Widow podcast for those interested.
Hey, guys. Reviews are going to be a bit short, but here they are:
Team Ringling - Adventure Time: Journey to Distant Lands
Adventure Time was definitely the most challenging of the three. Tiki and I went back and forth a lot when trying to find a third IP for this prompt with Adventure Time really being the only one that was thematically consistent with Infinity Train and Over The Garden Wall. While I think that you guys did a pretty good job seeing that (honestly very surprisingly) none of you had watched the show before, I think that your project could have benefitted from just a bit more research, and more importantly, some story rework.
First off, I think I enjoyed your mall land more than Tiki did. It was definitely less than ideal, but it makes sense as a CN City analogue. I also really liked your preshow. An antiques shop makes for a really cool introduction to the Land of Ooo. Past that, we get to my biggest problem with your project - the story. The characterization of The Litch was a bit off, which is ok for your lack of familiarity with the show. In the early seasons, The Litch was the looming big bad of the show. He didn't really do much, but he was this constant malevolent force and embodiment of evil. I think that your use of the character kind of trivialized him. The Ice King very easily could have, and should have, been the main villain. Keep things simple, y'know? It also didn't make sense that Finn and Jake didn't know who cursed the guests when he was literally the first character introduced in the attraction. I can understand it from the perspective of Finn and Jake not seeing The Litch do this, but if they're aware that the guests are cursed shouldn't they be able to figure out who cursed them? Despite the story issues, the other characters were used very well for an attraction based off of early Adventure Time. And I really liked the Sweet P ending.
I'd also like to touch briefly on your presentation as well. I appreciate the lengths you guys went to to make it feel like a series of reports, but it lead to some sloppy writing at times. There were tense changes throughout, and generally I feel like you guys were limiting yourselves a bit by trying to keep your descriptions "in world." I like the idea, but it could have been a bit more cohesive.
All in all, despite the issues I had, I generally enjoyed your project a few tweaks to the story, a bit more research, and, most importantly, some more cohesive writing would have really made this good project great.
Team Barnum - Infinity Train: The Fifth Chapter
Right off the bat you call this the Fifth Chapter when the seasons are called Books. Past that egregious error, we have one of the most innovative presentations I've ever seen. Right off the bat, the interactive presentation was great. It made your project just that more engaging and made it feel like I was actually experiencing your attraction (-insert Really Makes You Feel Like SpiderMan meme here-)
On to the actual attraction, while I love the content, I'm not too crazy about the set-up. I don't think that Kelsie was really needed. For such a freeform attraction, your experience didn't really benefit by her addition since the train itself sort of naturally pushes guests forward. The branching paths and interactivity you integrated so well would have been benefitted even more by a looser, more personalized story for the guests rather than having them sort of passively accompany some girl. That being said, I think you justify her rather well with the themes of art and creativity - I just would have liked to have seen guests as more central to the story. And while I liked seeing Lake and the other Book 2 characters, personally I would have rather One-One introduce guests to the train through the introduction video that's shown in the series (I think it shows up in the first episode of Book 2.).
And of course, the actual ride is great. I love the branching paths. It's a super unique concept that makes a ton of sense for an IP like Infinity Train. If I had one nitpick it's that some of the rooms end up feeling a bit samey at times, but that's not a huge huge deal when there's such variety to begin with.
Really fantastic job, guys. A well deserved win.
Team Bailey - Into The Unknown
I've made it no secret that OTGW is my favorite of the three. Thankfully, you've done full justice to this special show. I was really worried when reading your brainstorming when I started seeing mention of an Autumn theme park with a Pottsville land, but thankfully it didn't take up too much of your project. Honestly, you really didn't need to mention it at all - I don't think the project would have been missing anything by omitting both the park and the surrounding land. And, as has been said ad nauseam, Salem is a bad spot to put this park. I've been trying to think of a better place, but there isn't really anywhere it could go in the Boston area. Maybe closer to The Berkshires, like near North Adams or someplace weird like Sturbridge? It'd be sort of central and still distinctly New England.
I know that you were worried about being the ride being too much of a book report, but I think that you struck a nice balance. For such a short series, OTGW has such a rich world that is just begging to be explored. While I wish that you separated your attraction from Wirt and Greg just a bit more to explore The Unknown more deeply, the scenes following the show were really well designed, and the original additions were all great as well. The only one that I really didn't like was the skinless witch. It sound like a great scene, but it was a bit too close to Lorna, especially with were showing up later in the ride. Other than that, all of your original elements were great, and fit really well with the rest of the story. I also really appreciate you focusing so heavily on the music. The music of OTGW is really the heart of the show and was the big thing I was looking for in this project, so I was really happy to see it play such an important role in the attraction.
Really fantastic job, guys. If I'm being perfectly honest, I think this was my favorite of the three. This is a fantastic love letter to the show.
Adventure Time was definitely the most challenging of the three. Tiki and I went back and forth a lot when trying to find a third IP for this prompt with Adventure Time really being the only one that was thematically consistent with Infinity Train and Over The Garden Wall. While I think that you guys did a pretty good job seeing that (honestly very surprisingly) none of you had watched the show before, I think that your project could have benefitted from just a bit more research, and more importantly, some story rework.
First off, I think I enjoyed your mall land more than Tiki did. It was definitely less than ideal, but it makes sense as a CN City analogue. I also really liked your preshow. An antiques shop makes for a really cool introduction to the Land of Ooo. Past that, we get to my biggest problem with your project - the story. The characterization of The Litch was a bit off, which is ok for your lack of familiarity with the show. In the early seasons, The Litch was the looming big bad of the show. He didn't really do much, but he was this constant malevolent force and embodiment of evil. I think that your use of the character kind of trivialized him. The Ice King very easily could have, and should have, been the main villain. Keep things simple, y'know? It also didn't make sense that Finn and Jake didn't know who cursed the guests when he was literally the first character introduced in the attraction. I can understand it from the perspective of Finn and Jake not seeing The Litch do this, but if they're aware that the guests are cursed shouldn't they be able to figure out who cursed them? Despite the story issues, the other characters were used very well for an attraction based off of early Adventure Time. And I really liked the Sweet P ending.
I'd also like to touch briefly on your presentation as well. I appreciate the lengths you guys went to to make it feel like a series of reports, but it lead to some sloppy writing at times. There were tense changes throughout, and generally I feel like you guys were limiting yourselves a bit by trying to keep your descriptions "in world." I like the idea, but it could have been a bit more cohesive.
All in all, despite the issues I had, I generally enjoyed your project a few tweaks to the story, a bit more research, and, most importantly, some more cohesive writing would have really made this good project great.
Team Barnum - Infinity Train: The Fifth Chapter
Right off the bat you call this the Fifth Chapter when the seasons are called Books. Past that egregious error, we have one of the most innovative presentations I've ever seen. Right off the bat, the interactive presentation was great. It made your project just that more engaging and made it feel like I was actually experiencing your attraction (-insert Really Makes You Feel Like SpiderMan meme here-)
On to the actual attraction, while I love the content, I'm not too crazy about the set-up. I don't think that Kelsie was really needed. For such a freeform attraction, your experience didn't really benefit by her addition since the train itself sort of naturally pushes guests forward. The branching paths and interactivity you integrated so well would have been benefitted even more by a looser, more personalized story for the guests rather than having them sort of passively accompany some girl. That being said, I think you justify her rather well with the themes of art and creativity - I just would have liked to have seen guests as more central to the story. And while I liked seeing Lake and the other Book 2 characters, personally I would have rather One-One introduce guests to the train through the introduction video that's shown in the series (I think it shows up in the first episode of Book 2.).
And of course, the actual ride is great. I love the branching paths. It's a super unique concept that makes a ton of sense for an IP like Infinity Train. If I had one nitpick it's that some of the rooms end up feeling a bit samey at times, but that's not a huge huge deal when there's such variety to begin with.
Really fantastic job, guys. A well deserved win.
Team Bailey - Into The Unknown
I've made it no secret that OTGW is my favorite of the three. Thankfully, you've done full justice to this special show. I was really worried when reading your brainstorming when I started seeing mention of an Autumn theme park with a Pottsville land, but thankfully it didn't take up too much of your project. Honestly, you really didn't need to mention it at all - I don't think the project would have been missing anything by omitting both the park and the surrounding land. And, as has been said ad nauseam, Salem is a bad spot to put this park. I've been trying to think of a better place, but there isn't really anywhere it could go in the Boston area. Maybe closer to The Berkshires, like near North Adams or someplace weird like Sturbridge? It'd be sort of central and still distinctly New England.
I know that you were worried about being the ride being too much of a book report, but I think that you struck a nice balance. For such a short series, OTGW has such a rich world that is just begging to be explored. While I wish that you separated your attraction from Wirt and Greg just a bit more to explore The Unknown more deeply, the scenes following the show were really well designed, and the original additions were all great as well. The only one that I really didn't like was the skinless witch. It sound like a great scene, but it was a bit too close to Lorna, especially with were showing up later in the ride. Other than that, all of your original elements were great, and fit really well with the rest of the story. I also really appreciate you focusing so heavily on the music. The music of OTGW is really the heart of the show and was the big thing I was looking for in this project, so I was really happy to see it play such an important role in the attraction.
Really fantastic job, guys. If I'm being perfectly honest, I think this was my favorite of the three. This is a fantastic love letter to the show.
PerGron
Well-Known Member
Looking at it, the only option really would be to replace Salem Greene Golf Course which sits at about 156 acres, plenty of space for a park and parking. I hate golf courses and see them as a blight on land development so post-humorously for this project, I say we replace that and put the new park in Salem still. That being said, obviously that wasn't in the project, so just an addendum after the fact
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
NEW TEASER FOR THE NEXT PROJECT. BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.
DisneyFan18
Well-Known Member
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Mickeynerd17
Well-Known Member
Humbly Presents:
The Wild Dalmatian Escape!
Bambi: Song of Seasons
and Dumbo's Frightening Flight
Team Danny DeVido Act 8 Project
docs.google.com
Project 8 Eliminations
As most of you know, unfortunately @AceAstro was eliminated in 10th place, making him the first member of the jury. AND, @Mickeynerd17 has opened Walt's Vault, causing him to be whisked away by the dreaded Clown Car for the round, meaning that he cannot play in this round, but is also safe from elimination.
Reviews will be coming over the next 24 hours like usual. Live show should be Wednesday night.