At its core, I hear where you're at and I don't disagree completely.
I still can't wrap my head around people saying this is a "waste of space", when it's taking literally building out on a parking lot and expanding the boundaries of the park. That's where I think some of the opinion here may be bias-influenced: the project is taking away a forum favorite (and personally one of my mine too) and therefore it can't be a positive when it's all complete.
The issue isn’t so much that the project is “wasting space.” MGM has plenty of space. The problem is twofold - the project makes poor use of space in multiple ways and seems very certain to fail at “placemaking” because of this and the sprawl, out of proportion to what the project demands or can meaningfully use, highlights how unnecessary it was to kill Muppets.
The artful use of space to create areas that FEEL right, that FEEL like someplace else, is a huge part of the theme park art. A land like Diagon uses space in a much more thoughtful, artful, meaningful way then one like TSL and that’s a big reason Universal’s land FEELS like a lived in city while MGM’s FEELS like an amusement park area. I’m no expert in the field and others here can surely articulate this more skillfully then I can, but whether a space is big or small, it needs to be organized in certain ways to create the desired effect among guests. The failure to use space well is why SWl feels empty and dead in many places or why the EPCOT hub now feels like a disorganized maze. Monsters is marrying a well-made (though by no means perfect) urban area designed by long gone Imagineers with a vast, vast concrete sprawl punctuated by a warehouse, all with one way in or out. And again, that mismatch of areas coupled with the voluminous amount of nothing around the show building vividly illustrates how arbitrary the closure of Muppets was.
When the entire land opens, it will be a net-gain on capacity and a true expansion of the park.
It will be a net gain on capacity for some guests - not for guests with young children or disabled guests or elderly guests or unusually shaped guests. Disney NEVER used to build these attractions and it’s a big part of what made them special. Now it’s a majority of what they build.
Monstropolis will have a theater show with a meet & greet area, a playground, upgraded dining and finally a new roller coaster in the land.
You are making A LOT of assumptions here. Let’s imagine the theater is getting a full new film. What do you think are the odds it will be as good as Muppets? If it’s on the level of Zootopia, has the park increased or decreased in quality with the replacement of Muppets?
I don’t count formal meet n’ greets as a particular positive. It’s also not an addition - the Monsters have had dedicated spots in the Studios before.
The playground is another sign that Disney has lost its way. The rush to build play areas is a byproduct of Disney’s obsession with building major attractions families can’t ride together - they’re a stark betrayal of Walt’s original vision for the parks.
As for upgraded dining - I would be very surprised if Pizzarizzo doesn’t just get a new name and keep a very similar menu. If you’re a big fan of sushi - theme park sushi for timid eaters - sure, it’s an upgrade. Otherwise, the changes in dining will likely be a lateral move.
Yes it's pushed out quite far and I'm confused why that's a bad thing? Maybe they are doing that for sightlines or future expansion (potentially towards Star Tours).
This is the kind of wishful thinking that can be so annoying. It’s equalivent to the desperate claims that Disney was just saving the dead space of Animation Courtyard for something grand and new - a claim we heard for 20 years that has now been definitively proven to be nonsense. Again, MGM has plenty of space. What they are building here is a massive dead end that makes poor use of space.
And replacing Star Tours would make the park weaker.
