Avengers Campus: E-Watch! (Waiting on the new ride)

[MistaDee]

When I mean fleshed out I’m referring to the world building of a singular location. Star wars has great story building but again there isn’t a planet with an iconic weenie, detailed villages, food, and culture that will be instantly recognizable and fun to explore. Star Wars is very spread out and in doing so many of the locations are way to grand in size and scale to be built out. This is a wayward rephrasing of the “anchoring on a single location.”

Seems to be a lack of knowledge/limitation of imagination on your part rather than the IP itself. Here's your tatooine weenie:

explorable! It’s autocorrect being stupid as usual.

Tattooing has its interesting places, but it’s all sand (“I hate sand!” -Anakin) and no natural greenery. Green is very important to make something feel fresher and grandiose. When you see all the same color pallets everywhere it gives a placebo effect making the entire land ~10 degrees hotter in florida climate.

Trees > Sand!

Ah yes, Disney is incapable of rendering deserts within their theme parks...that's why everyone hates Big Thunder Mountain and Radiator Springs....

Exactly what I’m talking about. Star Wars goes over way too many planets in its films in a matter of minutes, and very little are visited twice aside from Tatooine. Too many mini lands in a Star Wars land makes it a mess (+way too expensive) yet a big land won’t pay off if it really only covers a planet seen once. In both scenarios you’re left wanting more.

This is the real challenge for Star Wars: it's not a lack of recognizable, relevant or thoroughly fleshed out locations - it's having too many of them.

What this really comes down to is two elements to make a IP land-worthy or attraction-worthy. First, it contains a singular built out area that is recognizable and relevant, and second, it has potential for cool attractions. Star Wars and Avengers both don’t have the first, which makes strong attractions necessary. That’s why star wars has attraction potential and not land potential.

Now that I think of it, why exactly are we talking about this?

I couldn't disagree more honestly. Keep Star Wars name out ya dang mouth when talking about IP that can't support a land. Avengers/MCU I'm absolutely on board, but I think I've demonstrated that Galaxy's Edge is an issue of execution.

 

[Professortango1]

Hard disagree. Tatooine is far from the only recognizable destination in Star Wars. To claim it's not interesting in any way is both a personal value judgement and rather unimaginative. Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, Jabba the Hutt's palace, pod-racing courses, tusken raider caves, camps, canyons,


Again, this is kind of an insane take. Just off the top of my head, the "consumer" (I prefer guest...) would be able to recognize:

the Death Star,
the ice planet Hoth,
the redwood forests of Endor,
Coruscant's Jedi temple, Galactic Senate and city-scape
Dagobah, Yoda's swamp
Bespin the cloud city,
Mustafar, the hot lava planet that birthed Darth Vader

Even less iconic locations like Naboo's palaces, the Wookie home world of Kashyk, Yavin 4 where the Rebels had their base, Geonosis,


Hopefully we can at least agree there are sufficient fleshed out worlds to work with. As for how to execute a Star Wars world that can only pull from a couple of the above places, that's a far trickier question to answer.



I won't pretend I have a perfect answer for exactly how Disney should have implemented Galaxy's Edge. I think avoiding a specific time period would be wise, but I'd take a Tatooine with Mos Eisley and Jabba's Palace over the very mid Batuu that we did get. Having part of the land take place on a Star Destroyer you can explore beyond the portion of the queue we got on Rise would also be interesting.

I'd also say saving room for future expansions that could take place on Coruscant or Mustafar, maybe accessible through hyperspace tunnels of some kind would be preferable than simply expanding Tatooine.

While the structures and crashed ships look cool, this isn't exactly an environment that I want to hang out in for hours. Luke and Anakin hated it so much that they were willing to give anything to get away from it.

Hoth - Snow with small outpost. Not much to explore.
Endor - Redwood Trees with small outpost. Not much to explore.
Dagobah - A gross swamp. Not much to explore.
Mustafar - Volcano planet with nothing but factories and lava.

Heck, even the cooler areas like Cloud City and Coruscant are still pretty one-note and bland in terms of design. Naboo is the prettiest planet I've seen in the films. But are any Star Wars fans clamoring to explore Naboo and board a ride that explores the Trade Federation?

Star Wars is a road trip fantasy story where instead of the Dread Pirate Robert having a sequence in the Fire Swamp and another at the ruins on top of a cliff it has sequences as a swamp planet and another at a planet that looks like ruins. There isn't any main location of Star Wars that features visually appealing vistas, a variety of iconic locations within that planet, and acts as a centerpoint to a variety of adventures. Naboo is the closest we get.

 

[Professortango1]

Seems to be a lack of knowledge/limitation of imagination on your part rather than the IP itself. Here's your tatooine weenie:

View attachment 813743


Ah yes, Disney is incapable of rendering deserts within their theme parks...that's why everyone hates Big Thunder Mountain and Radiator Springs....

Big Thunder is an arrid location amidst Frontierland. A land which is bordered by a giant river with plenty of greenery and a bright and optimistic boom town. Tatooine doesn't have a giant river. It doesn't have greenery of any kind. Little tranquil areas like the old mine shaft and pond with jumping fish do not exist in Tatooine.

With your image above, what's your proposed land? A land of barren rockwork, long expanses of flat baked land, and one giant building to explore? I mean, we basically got structures that look like that AND rockwork that has a similar harshness and scale. The difference is they were also able to build other structures, plant trees and greenery, and make the land work as a theme park land, which the above does not. They took Tatooine and added trees and more buildings. And a forested area because theme park people like trees and water and things that provide visual beauty and make the land seem less hot and dry. Originally there was to be even more greenery, but the fireworks launching overhead made them scale it back and I think that was a mistake, as the more Naboo-inspired rockwork and cliffs looked far more appealing.

 

[sedati]

Having finally seen it myself I do believe creating Batuu was the way to go. It's a Star Wars hodge-podge that somehow also feels cohesive and unique. They laid an amazing foundation. It could use more finishing touches, but as a land it's solid. The area around the Falcon is as perfect as any theme park get IMHO.

The opportunity to plus and expand is bountiful. There was a concept for a more urban/Coruscant type area. The Bounty Hunter ride looks like it will finally give the Studios their long lost "Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers" shooting-from-vehicle ride. Speeder bike concept looks great as well and we could go from bustling streets to forest etc.

 

[Mediatetv1]

Or WDI could drop the "edge" from the name, go with Star Wars Galaxy and rejigger it to where you can visit five iconic Star Wars locales within the current 14 acre footprint. Maybe, just maybe this is the course correction that has been approved. But how would I know that.

 

[mickEblu]

Or WDI could drop the "edge" from the name, go with Star Wars Galaxy and rejigger it to where you can visit five iconic Star Wars locales within the current 14 acre footprint. Maybe, just maybe this is the course correction that has been approved. But how would I know that.

Are you hinting that this is the current plan? Had they gone this route from the beginning with maybe 3 locales it could have worked but to retrofit 5 Star Wars locales in the current footprint sounds like a terrible idea.

 

[Disney Irish]

Or WDI could drop the "edge" from the name, go with Star Wars Galaxy and rejigger it to where you can visit five iconic Star Wars locales within the current 14 acre footprint. Maybe, just maybe this is the course correction that has been approved. But how would I know that.

That would require a complete overhaul of the entire land, and most likely the 2 attractions, which would undoubtedly cost almost as much as GE did initially if not more. Why would they do that when they can just improve what is already there for much much cheaper?

That seems very unlikely to me, given that they can't even get a TL overhaul completely approved for Disneyland in the last decade. Seems like if this was something being purposed in WDI, its one of those thought exercises for training the future generations of Imagineers, not a real project.

 

[Disney Irish]

Are you hinting that this is the current plan? Had they gone this route from the beginning with maybe 3 locales it could have worked but to retrofit 5 Star Wars locales in the current footprint sounds like a terrible idea.

I doubt its a real project, this is from a poster who just joined 30 minutes ago and their only post.

 

[mickEblu]

I doubt its a real project, this is from a poster who just joined 30 minutes ago and their only post.

I mean you never know. They may have created an account just to share the info. Or they might think they have some real info from a credible source when in reality they don’t. Or they could be lying. Either way, the idea sounds Awful lol.

 

[Disney Irish]

I mean you never know. They may have created an account just to share the info. Or they might think they have some real info from a credible source when in reality they don’t. Or they could be lying. Either way, the idea sounds Awful lol.

Actually thinking about it, I doubt they would do that with the entire land. It would be too cost prohibitive to do that, most likely costing more than the land itself. Something Disney we know would most likely never do.

But......they could do it with Smugglers Run and maybe the upcoming Mando/Grogu mission is just the start of new missions and new locales to come. I'd be for that, but an overhaul of the entire land that is only 5 years old, nope.

 

[Mediatetv1]

Are you hinting that this is the current plan? Had they gone this route from the beginning with maybe 3 locales it could have worked but to retrofit 5 Star Wars locales in the current footprint sounds like a terrible idea.

3 new familiar areas plus two existing ones that incorporate the two rides.

 

[Disney Irish]

3 new familiar areas plus two existing ones that incorporate the two rides.

That description makes even less sense. It would be a complete mess in transitions and make absolutely no sense to guests. If you would have said this was an idea for Smugglers Run, rather than the land itself, it would have been more believable.

 

[mickEblu]

3 new familiar areas plus two existing ones that incorporate the two rides.

Interesting. Ok I’m going to guess Endor where ROTR is? Tatooine for area around Falcon? Where the heck do you put 3 other areas? I could see two areas as the land was designed to have two between the ROTR side and Falcon side. Anything little parcel of land in addition to these or (slicing these areas up) isn’t really set up to be its own area.

Pooh goes away in this scenario doesn’t it? Maybe Endor goes where Pooh is but they flip the entrance to the other side of the building.

 

[Disney Irish]

Interesting. Ok I’m going to guess Endor where ROTR is? Tatooine for area around Falcon? Where the heck do you put 3 other areas? I could see two areas as the land was designed to have two between the ROTR side and Falcon side. Anything little parcel of land in addition to these or (slicing these areas up) isn’t really set up to be its own area.

Pooh goes away in this scenario doesn’t it? Maybe Endor goes where Pooh is but they flip the entrance to the other side of the building.

How would transitions even work in this scenario? Would it even make sense to guests to go from one (I don't even know what to call it, mini-lands?) area to the next within the existing footprint of how the land is built?

 

[mickEblu]

How would transitions even work in this scenario? Would it even make sense to guests to go from one (I don't even know what to call it, mini-lands?) area to the next within the existing footprint of how the land is built?

It doesn’t really. You could kind of sort of do 3. Maybe call the village around Falcon Tatooine with some finessing. Area around ROTR can stay put as Batuu and if they use Pooh building maybe have Endor there.

 

[chadwpalm]

So in the 5 minutes it takes to walk across Galaxy's Edge we are supposed to portal between 5 planets?

It cost 1 billion dollars to build these lands. They aren't going to upheaval them after 5 years. The rock work is congruent throughout the whole land.

If there weren't an Avatar land, 4 new attractions, DisneylandForward, Eastern Gateway, and the prospect of an updated Tomorrowland on the horizon I might believe it........j/k.....I still wouldn't believe it.

It's about as believable as the gold-plated turd I dropped this morning.

 

[Disney Irish]

It doesn’t really. You could kind of sort of do 3. Maybe call the village around Falcon Tatooine with some finessing. Area around ROTR can stay put as Batuu and if they use Pooh building maybe have Endor there.

The only way I could see it work is -

1. If they tear down the entire land and start from the ground up, something we know they won't do.

or

2. They stick to locales that are similar to the aesthetic of Batuu to make transitions easier. Which at that point you might as well just still with Batuu and improve what is already there.

The outlier as you said for the DL GE is the Pooh area which would become Endor as you mentioned. But even then that is still only a single location, not 5.

Plus it doesn't even take into account the Market area and the food locations, which are built to Batuu. So are we to lose those to build a new locale? Or are they just to be rethemed to a new locale, which is a waste in my opinion and really wouldn't make sense to guests.

More and more this whole idea feels like its trolling now.

 

[mickEblu]

Not that we haven’t discussed this in the past but it’s foolish to think that the future of the Pooh building doesn’t belong to Star Wars. Whether that factored into their decision to rename the land Bayou Country I’m not sure.

 

[Disney Irish]

So in the 5 minutes it takes to walk across Galaxy's Edge we are supposed to portal between 5 planets?

It cost 1 billion dollars to build these lands. They aren't going to upheaval them after 5 years. The rock work is congruent throughout the whole land.

If there weren't an Avatar land, 4 new attractions, DisneylandForward, Eastern Gateway, and the prospect of an updated Tomorrowland on the horizon I might believe it........j/k.....I still wouldn't believe it.

It's about as believable as the gold-plated turd I dropped this morning.

Exactly, it makes absolutely no sense especially given the mention of keeping the 2 attractions in Batuu. So you go from one new locale at the entrance from Bayou Country to Batuu for Rise to another new locale for the market and the food court back to Batuu for Smugglers to another new locale for the other entrance from FantasyLand.

Makes no sense.

 

[Disney Irish]

Not that we haven’t discussed this in the past but it’s foolish to think that the future of the Pooh building doesn’t belong to Star Wars. Whether that factored into their decision to rename the land Bayou Country I’m not sure.

I still could see them putting a 3rd attraction there for GE. But a whole new locale, I'm doubtful. But that I can leave open as a possibility. But to retheme the entire land that is only 5 years old to multiple new locales just seems like a huge no.

If this idea is for real and comes to light, then I'd really come over to your side and say that WDI has lost it.