ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
The LA Times recently reported the ride is beat-for-beat ToT. Even Florida's Buzz isn't a beat-for-beat copy of Dreamflight despite sharing the same facilities much like MB.
I want to be clear that I don't have any ill will for Rohde, Gunn or Fiege, but they were handed a good bit of "clay" to bring the Guardians to the Disneyland resort. Plus, I know what Joe looks like when he's truly passionate about something, and this ain't it. There were so many options for the Guardians, even semi permanent ones like...
If the goal was to have a new Guadians thing for cheap, Joe could have pitched something that is more in tune to the spirit of the films than a crappy overlay of ToT. And who knows, maybe a lukewarm reception to MB may force Marvel to take a more activist role in the development of future projects as Lightstorm and Lucasfilm have.
- A stage show, not unlike the ones that were once staged at D-MGMS for new animated releases. DCA has spaces that could accommodate such a show with minimal impact to the park.
- A GotG parade
- A GotG Awesome Mix Karoake carosuel theater show in TL. Even if it were to actually close for the Guardians to be relocated to a proper MVL Land, all the AAs could be repurposed, saving $$$. And it would give DL much more capacity than SW:LB.
Mission BREAKOUT and that rumored Cap/Avengers Mega E for SDL/DCA suggests that it will fall in the Pixar category; some really excellent attractions/environments like Cars Land and Tokyo's Monsters Inc with UNI/Six Flags level offerings like TSL and Buzz. For what Disney charges and the incoming goodwill that guests have for these films, that's absolutely unacceptable. And you're right, a land like Pandora works through, not against DAK's theme, but Marvel Land and SWE aren't comprable to that. Now that UNI can do a classic Disney level environments with the Wizarding Worlds and the upcoming Nintendo World, what makes the Marvel and Star Wars offerings belong in the Disney parks? Because now that Disney, under the Bobs, has embraced the UNI multiplex model, what distinguishes these efforts from the competition in a uniquely Disney way? They could just as easily be in a UNI park.
Rides also have budgets and knowing Iger he did not give WDI a large sum to work with so Rohde did the best he could given constraints of available time and budget.