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

[neo999955]

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.

Truly anything less than the quality, length and joy of Hagrid's would be a disappointment.

I personally also think that level of thrill is appropriate here (not that it couldn't go harder), but that is separate from the others which are more important.

 

[Jedi14]

Unless it's the Zootopia show in Animal Kingdom which virtually everyone hates judging by the reaction on this forum.

This forum honestly is not a good scale of general opinions.

 

[neo999955]

This forum honestly is not a good scale of general opinions.

Yeah, that's always the case for things like this, but it is filled with the most dedicated fans and that's a very important demographic as well.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Yeah, that's always the case for things like this, but it is filled with the most dedicated fans and that's a very important demographic as well.

Despite the fact that many talk about how unimportant the posters in this forum are to the overall operation and financial success of the parks.

 

[Touchdown]

I think a lot of you are negatively reacting to “family coaster” and you need to reexamine that, Hagrids is a family coaster here’s a few others that are quite thrilling:

 

[GhostHost1000]

For those who thought this was going to be a more adult style villains land and anything like the concept art, go ahead and lower your expectations. In fact, we probably all should based on recent history.

 

[Dranth]

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.

Could be wrong, but my understanding for the new role for Dana puts her in charge of and gives her a lot of leeway in Entertainment, not Experiences. Not that she couldn't weigh in on the parks, but it isn't really her area.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

I think a lot of you are negatively reacting to “family coaster” and you need to reexamine that, Hagrids is a family coaster here’s a few others that are quite thrilling:

I agree that Hagrid's is a family coaster. And that's what I was always expecting for this coaster.

I can't speak for everyone, but my negativity is coming from the fact that the article is implying we should be thinking more to the level of Slinky's and not Hagrid's or even Cosmic Rewind (which I think are all family coasters).
My problem was never with it being a "family coaster".

I think there's also a bit of confusion going on in these threads with people arguing in favor of a major coaster wanting Disney's Velocicoaster versus Disney's Hagrid's and we're all being grouped in together haha. I would love Disney's version of Velocicoaster, but I was never expecting that.

 

[britain]

I agree that Hagrid's is a family coaster. And that's what I was always expecting for this coaster.

I can't speak for everyone, but my negativity is coming from the fact that the article is implying we should be thinking more to the level of Slinky's and not Hagrid's or even Cosmic Rewind (which I think are all family coasters).
My problem was never with it being a "family coaster".

I think there's also a bit of confusion going on in these threads with people arguing in favor of a major coaster wanting Disney's Velocicoaster versus Disney's Hagrid's and we're all being grouped in together haha. I would love Disney's version of Velocicoaster, but I was never expecting that.

There are so many lenses of nuance with this article, and we simply don't know why he chose to compare it to Slinky.

Is Slinky being referred to simply because it's less intense than what they were going to build? Is it because it's a very kinetic part of its land - like Berk's coaster - and not hidden behind a mountain of rockwork? Is it because of its happy and fun tone, even though it's actually pretty intense for its youngest audience?

 

[DrStarlander]

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.

I think people were responding to the concept art fairly in terms of their expectations of tone.

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.

Perhaps at Disney there's not an obvious precedent beyond Fantasmic or other shows. But Monsters Unchained at Epic successfully amalgamates characters/IPs as an example. But I also I think The Great Movie Ride is another example which amalgamated IPs in order to successfully serve as a thesis-statement ride for the DIsney-MGM Studios theme park. I think with the conceptual nature of Villains Land, a thesis-statement E-ticket dark ride is what a lot of people are expecting. They want Disney to "tell the story they have in mind."

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.

Yes, which is why if they pursue a keep-IPs-separated approach, they should just expand Fantasyland, as these IPs are already related. And save the VL acreage for something else.

I think there's a bit of confusion going on in these threads with people arguing in favor of a major coaster wanting Disney's Velocicoaster versus Disney's Hagrid's and we're all being grouped in together haha.

When Universal built Stardust Racers they built two coasters sharing acreage and loading infrastructure. Disney could do that in Villains Land, creating a more thrilling coaster and a lite coaster, intertwined, sharing a theme and loading. Kids could ride the lite coaster and aspire to graduate up to the more thrilling coaster.

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

I think the comparison with Slinky Dog is confusing because it's probably just in reference to the thrill level, but we can't help also thinking of Slinky Dog's scale/immersion level. Maybe the comparison should say something like "the thrill level of Slinky Dog with the scale/immersion level of Big Thunder" - which, IMHO, would be great.

EDIT: I see that @britain beat me to essentially this same observation seconds before I posted it!

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

Truly anything less than the quality, length and joy of Hagrid's would be a disappointment.

I personally also think that level of thrill is appropriate here (not that it couldn't go harder), but that is separate from the others which are more important.

I would even go as far as to say I wouldn't even mind the thrill level of Slinky's, but the theming and story (or lack of with that ride) is not at all what I want or expected for this.

Hopefully it's just worded weirdly in that article and what they meant is expect Slinky (height requirement and thrill) but they are still theming it highly and putting a well rounded story around it.
But if it's just a coaster like--> leave the station--> quick gag of "PULL THE LEVER"--> And off on a bare bones coaster like Slinky..... yeah, that's no bueno for what was promised to us as one of two major attractions.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

I think the comparison with Slinky Dog is confusing because it's probably just in reference to the thrill level, but we can't help also thinking of Slinky Dog's scale/immersion level. Maybe the comparison should say something like "the thrill level of Slinky Dog with the scale/immersion level of Big Thunder" - which, IMHO, would be great.

EDIT: I see that @britain beat me to essentially this same observation seconds before I posted it!

I just replied to someone else basically theorizing if this is the case. I hope it is.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

There's so many lenses of nuance with this article, and we simply don't know why he chose to compare it to Slinky.

Is Slinky being referred to simply because it's less intense than what they were going to build? Is it because it's a very kinetic part of its land - like Berk's coaster - and not hidden behind a mountain of rockwork? Is it because it's happy and fun in tone, but actually pretty intense for its youngest audience?

I think you nailed it with this post. I just posted a reply to someone else starting to theorize myself why Slinky was chosen as the comparison.

 

[easyrowrdw]

Call me crazy, but their info on what the land has is pretty much 1:1 what I did for site-that-shall-not-be-named’s podcast. Yzma coaster, Shanghai-style boat ride, Hades restaurant, and a spinner attraction (we initially had it as the infamous Ursula spinner, as the article on this art mentions, but it was changed to a sorcerer’s battle between multiple villains using the Luigi’s system to be more unique)

View attachment 909386

In a world of AI, what are the odds this site asked ChatGPT what the lands plans are and it scraped the article about my park map artwork and thought it was real?

Oh wow. Was this your armchair ideas or what you were “reporting” based on the info y’all had gathered?

 

[Suspirian]

I'm a bit confused by the idea of taking inspo from Isle of Berk when it and other recent Universal efforts seem to be attempts at taking that same family demographic that usually airs towards Disney. If Epic has something for everyone wouldn't you want to have the same? What would a toned down Villains Land be attracting that wouldn't be done by Monstropolis or Piston Peak or Tropical Americas or-

 

[doctornick]

I think the comparison with Slinky Dog is confusing because it's probably just in reference to the thrill level, but we can't help also thinking of Slinky Dog's scale/immersion level. Maybe the comparison should say something like "the thrill level of Slinky Dog with the scale/immersion level of Big Thunder" - which, IMHO, would be great.

EDIT: I see that @britain beat me to essentially this same observation seconds before I posted it!

This is my hope too. It's too vague at this point to know for sure, but I think the implication of using SDD as a reference is in regards to thrill/intensity and hopefully not length/theming. Especially if WDI has been given a larger budget and told to be "bigger and bolder".

SDD level of intensity plus BTMRR/Everest level of details and theming would IMHO be a huge win.

Also, if it really is a coaster set to Yzma, it basically means they have to have a drop track part, right? I mean that's exactly what "pull the level" and we fall would lead to. That alone would be something new for WDW and add some thrill element.

 

[phillip9698]

For those who thought this was going to be a more adult style villains land and anything like the concept art, go ahead and lower your expectations. In fact, we probably all should based on recent history.

I wasn’t even expecting something for adults. I just thought it could handle being for people above 4 years old.

This is a massive disappointment.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Slinky Dog is a really weird comparison because of the basic exposed steel.

Why not compare it to 7 dwarves mine or big thunder? If we are going big here…. That’s the level of theming I want.

 

[Stripes]