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

999th Happy Haunt

Well-Known Member
I can’t believe I’m actually reading this. Having Darth Vader and original Luke available in that land would absolutely have a major impact on how the average person feels about it.

Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable and iconic villains of all time in any source of media. He absolutely is not just swappable with any bad guy in a cape. On pretty much every first time trip I go on with people, at some point I end up having to tell them Darth Vader won’t be in the land. He is the character they ask to see/meet like clockwork. Spending the amount of money they did on this land and excluding all those original trilogy characters ranks as one of the most egotistical and idiotic decisions Disney has ever made, that’s how bad it is.

It’s like you are saying you could swap Mickey Mouse and Chuck E Cheese because at the end of the day they are both rodents. Good grief!
Could not agree more these last few posts cannot be real
 

bmr1591

Well-Known Member
A Slinky Dog Dash (even if it’s short and has a bunch of strewn props on a field, which I don’t think is the implication) and Shanghai Pirates would not be financial failures. They’d both be 2 of the 10 most popular rides on property.

That's fair. My point is that if their goal is to reach older kids (10-15) in a park that's overflowing with attractions for little kids (3-9), it would be a failure to create a kiddie coaster. Disney World is designed to be a park for the entire family. You don't look at Dumbo and say "Oh, this is exactly what a 14 year old wants to ride." You design a ride that the 14 year old will enjoy. Maybe their little brother isn't in, but that kid walks away thrilled about how awesome the Villains coaster was, while little brother talks about how epic the Barnstormer was. The park being designed for the whole family doesn't mean every attraction needs to be perfect for a five year old.
 

veritas55

Active Member
What keeps my head in my hands are these horrible phrases concerning the coaster: "like slinky dog dash" and "now a secondary attraction." An extensive, well-themed, mountain-based coaster winding around the land and twisted thorns looked (and seemed) great.

Something akin to Hagrid's in both theming, story, length, and thrill is just perfect. A quick, secondary, ENG's coaster seems disheartening, but let's see what prevails...
 

flyerjab

Well-Known Member
If I recall correctly, didn’t Josh say he wants to bring more classic experiences back to the Disney parks? To me, that would indicate ride style from more of a forgone time in the company’s history. I would expect longer, more themed with more AAs over the use of screens.

If this is truly the case, I would not expect a white knuckle roller coaster experience. How is that classic Disney? And maybe SDD is a more modern example for comparison. Maybe a more apt comparison could be BTMRR instead; a classic Disney coaster that has a decent ride time and modicum of intensity, is also highly themed and is still a family coaster with a high capacity.

If it’s that type of coaster, coupled with a mega E ticket indoor boat ride, a ride for smaller children and a new train station, this is a good mix.
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
In all fairness most kids don’t require billion dollar high tech rides to have a fun time either. Put in a large indoor playground and a scrambler and let’s call it a day if we are just focused on what would give kids a fun time.
Yes, and in fact what kids really want is for their parents to put their phones away, get off social media and work emails, and interact with them. That happens to occur at a theme park more than at home (but it can happen at the beach, camping, etc. too).
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Im not sure why people are so incredulous they would make a Rescuers dining area but think an Emperor’s New Groove e-ticket makes total sense.

Bias towards their own nostalgic favorites and movies they're more familiar with

Hercules was one of the lower grossing films of the "Disney Renaissance" but is now a major part of this land and Disney's newest cruise ship. We've reached a point in the nostalgia cycle where anything from the mid 90s to mid 2000s is considered prime material by those who are now old enough to be designing things for Disney and paying for their product.

Cars, Monsters Inc, Emperor's New Groove, Hercules, etc all fall under this umbrella

I guess Indiana Jones Adventure does too as the ride first opened at Disneyland in 1995.
 

DisneyHead123

Well-Known Member
My thought, fwiw, is that it would be silly for Disney to compete for thrill seekers and teenagers (who, anecdotally, often seem to go through an “anti Disney” phase when they want to be seen as grown up). Disney parks have an established vibe that works extremely well. Frankenstein-ing that with a couple of out of place things, that still wouldn’t be enough to attract those looking for a truly intense experience, wouldn’t be a good idea to my mind.

That said, I do think the Disney demographic is split between families and adults at this point. And even for some families, the interest in Disney is no doubt driven primarily by the parents. Or alternately, they take one or two kids with an entourage of accompanying grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. They’ve always threaded that needle well, to my mind, but I see Villains being a challenge given the dark source material.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
If I recall correctly, didn’t Josh say he wants to bring more classic experiences back to the Disney parks? To me, that would indicate ride style from more of a forgone time in the company’s history. I would expect longer, more themed with more AAs over the use of screens.

If this is truly the case, I would not expect a white knuckle roller coaster experience. How is that classic Disney? And maybe SDD is a more modern example for comparison. Maybe a more apt comparison could be BTMRR instead; a classic Disney coaster that has a decent ride time and modicum of intensity, is also highly themed and is still a family coaster with a high capacity.

If it’s that type of coaster, coupled with a mega E ticket indoor boat ride, a ride for smaller children and a new train station, this is a good mix.
No one has any idea what we are going to get here and its going to be a long time till this opens for previews, I agree, Disney is not going to put a white knuckled coaster in here, they leave those to Universal.

If we were to get a nice family coaster, and indoor boat ride and a train station, this would exceed my expectations as I am still shell shocked by the failed 5 year transformation of future world at EPCOT.
 

MouseEarsMom33

Well-Known Member
Catching up on the villains news and these are my thoughts:

-Maleficent as the key villain of the main ride makes a ton of sense and I don't see another choice that would be better. Hoping for Shanghai pirates or something similar.

-ENG - I am not surprised by the news on the coaster. Since Villains Land news came out, I have seen multiple posts about people wanting a pull the lever coaster, so it's not like it's a brand new concept. But the idea is likely favored by minority vs majority. I don't think ENG should be a sole focus of the coaster when there are only 2 large rides. I think by pulling a lever, it could take us to a section of villains land with some other villains present, and then Yzma says "wrong lever" and we go to another section until we end up to where we are meant to go. Using this approach, I think it's a great way to incorporate ENG with other villains. I think it could feel like Hiccups wing gliders as well depending upon how much of Villains Land it covers. If you incorporate a lever, there has to be a stop, with a drop or backward movement for wrong lever. It think this could really work, but they need more than ENG.

I also think it's a good idea to change the focus from Dark Universe to Isle of Berk. Magic Kingdom is meant for anyone, especially families. One of my pre-teen kids did not like and wanted to leave Dark Universe. I doubt Disney would want this in their #1 theme park that they position for families. Can you imagine kids getting scared and not wanting to go back to Disney?
 

DrStarlander

Well-Known Member
Looking at the layout and some assumptions so far (that the rear facility is a train station, that the East facility is the indoor E-ticket, and that the West facility is where the shops and Hades dinner show are, some questions come to mind:
VL-RR.png

1. If the train station is an outdoor, visible freestanding structure, as typical in Disney castle parks, that scale of structure doesn't seem substantial enough to be the landmark "weenie" at the end of the village. Of course it can have a tower, and I'm hoping that the land has a clock tower and humorous glockenspiel show, but why have the building oriented obliquely to what appears to be the town square?

2. Yes, I get the train station needs to have a loading platform parallel to the train tracks but the frontage of the structure could face the town square while the platform at the rear is parallel to the tracks (see the "alternate shape").

3. Or, the train tracks could have more of an 'S' curve as at Disneyland (post SWGE) as seen in green and the building as designed could be rotated to face the town square.

4. But even more of a question, why would the train station be the weenie and focal point anyway? Yes, the railroad is an important part of the park but it's hard to see it as central to the Villains theme or placemaking, and the aesthetics of the train chugging along the back of the land (if visible) and the train station being the weenie, would seem to be a non-sequitur. Why the emphasis on that? Is the train station and bright red train what they'd want showing up in the photos looking down the town square, roughly where Hogwarts Castle is in Hogsmeade. I find that very surprising.

4. But one way I can understand it is if the train station is actually an "underground"/tunnel train station in which case this building has an interior themed as a cave and the structure is concealed behind rockwork anyway and the orientation is irrelevant...allowing the railroad tracks to take the most direct and efficient path. In this case, the train station isn't visible and isn't the weeine. but rather the mountain, forced perspective Maleficent castle, etc. would be (behind it).

5. But another question I have is around the common assumption that the E-ticket is going in the East facility. I understand why that would seem likely, it's the biggest building. But that would then make me think the Hades dinner show is in the West facility -- where else would it be? (If it was also in the East facility, that would reduce the space for the attraction significantly.) So the issue is: if the Hades dinner show is in the West facility, how will the train tracks run through this building? Even if the track/tunnel is at the back of this building, isn't that an obstruction to kitchen/backstage operations to support this restaurant and likely neighboring retail? I guess the kitchen could be at a lower level than the track, it just seems complicated. It's a smallish point but it's a reason why I think the West facility may be a show building more than a facility for retail/F&B. We've seen them run tracks through show buildings.
 
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Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
No one has any idea what we are going to get here and its going to be a long time till this opens for previews, I agree, Disney is not going to put a white knuckled coaster in here, they leave those to Universal.

If we were to get a nice family coaster, and indoor boat ride and a train station, this would exceed my expectations as I am still shell shocked by the failed 5 year transformation of future world at EPCOT.
Why would you build a train station so close to the neighbouring one in Frontierland? Would only make sense if they were demolishing the nearby one, and why would they do that unless they have alternate plans for the ride it’s connected to?
 

phillip9698

Well-Known Member
isn’t the main point for Walt building a theme park was to have a place to take his kids that didn’t bore him to death? Kids having fun is half the equation there.

I love Disney World and hope I can manage to go a few more times before my kids are grown but once they move out on their own I have no interest in going without them.

It was because he saw kids playing while adults were sitting on benches watching. He wanted parks where EVERYONE could enjoy the attractions together. In no way shape or form did he ever say the included attractions should be catered exclusively to 4 year olds.

Its perfectly fine that you have no interest in going without your kids. Me and my wife have gone numerous times without our kids and enjoyed every second of it. My dad never got a chance to go when he was a child, when we took him as a 65 year old man, he was smiling ear to ear. Thats what it means to build things everyone can enjoy if they so choose.
 

MouseEarsMom33

Well-Known Member
They are expanding the size of the park with Villains Land. I think they will want to add another train station, similar to DL. Otherwise, people will need to backtrack to get a train that will pass by the land they initially came from. That would by annoying to many guests, especially if they are tired at end of the night.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
I can’t believe I’m actually reading this. Having Darth Vader and original Luke available in that land would absolutely have a major impact on how the average person feels about it.

Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable and iconic villains of all time in any source of media. He absolutely is not just swappable with any bad guy in a cape. On pretty much every first time trip I go on with people, at some point I end up having to tell them Darth Vader won’t be in the land. He is the character they ask to see/meet like clockwork. Spending the amount of money they did on this land and excluding all those original trilogy characters ranks as one of the most egotistical and idiotic decisions Disney has ever made, that’s how bad it is.

It’s like you are saying you could swap Mickey Mouse and Chuck E Cheese because at the end of the day they are both rodents. Good grief!
Sorry, to most people I know, Darth Vader and Kylo Ren are just the bad guys in Star Wars movies. One was the villain the trilogy from 40-some years ago and one is the villain from the new trilogy about 10 years ago. One is a winy middle-manager black knight with a deep voice and the other is a winy nepo hire black knight with a raspier voice.

It's like Daisy vs Minnie. I'm sure people have their favourites, but they are both thinly drawn female versions of their male counterpart.

I have never had to "have the talk" with a friend about "hey buddy, just so you know, there's no Darth Vader in this land. I know ...I know...We have a similar guy, but I get that you're going to be feeling some big feelings. Maybe you want to scream 'nooooooooooooo" dramatically. I'm so sorry."

Kylo with the stormtroopers IS interchangable with Vader with the stormtroopers. It's a lateral move for most people. It won't change the experience.
 

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