News 'Beyond Big Thunder Mountain' Blue Sky concept revealed for Magic Kingdom

[Disgruntled Walt]

Must we get another Soarin' ride? Even Soarin' 2.0 with the new patent isn't exactly a gamechanger.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Must we get another Soarin' ride? Even Soarin' 2.0 with the new patent isn't exactly a gamechanger.

I'd be SHOCKED if that's what we're getting for COCO.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

I'd be SHOCKED if that's what we're getting for COCO.

I've heard that on this forum multiple times in the last 24 hours, so I don't know what to think!

 

[BrianLo]

We have a source from earlier this week at a WDI presser....

​

Then came presentations by portfolio executives from Florida who provided new details about the plans for Tropical Americas in Animal Kingdom and Beyond Big Thunder at Magic Kingdom. This was the meatiest portion of the presentation, with new substantive details about the Dino-Rama replacement featuring Indiana Jones, Encanto, and Coco plus brand-new concept art for the area.​

I Went Inside Imagineering

"I wish I could be here every day," said Disney CEO Bob Iger to kick off an Imagineering presentation I attended. He was joined at the front of the small conference room by Parks Chairman

www.disneytouristblog.com

But this is the BBTM thread. I posted that in the DAK Expansion thread...

News - 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

Okay more important: What kind of food do you serve at an archaeological dig-themed restaurant across from the Indiana Jones Adventure? Ribs.

forums.wdwmagic.com

The back-and-forth we've seen with the art is atypical, and a direct result of them knowing what properties they wanted to use and which areas they want to develop and redevelop, but not having a clue what and where.

The Moana art we saw for AK was first drawn for another location. Same for Zootopia. The Encanto and Coco grafts had a similar path. BBTM had a very unlikely path due to development costs until relatively recently, so the cards seems to have been shuffled again. Coco, Encanto, and Moana have immense internal support. Getting Coco into AK was a no-brainer with the Tropical Americas land, but the as-designed Coco E-Ticket is absolutely the leading candidate to anchor BBTM.

I was all ready to admit defeat and move on… but you guys perhaps missed Tom’s more specific quote from the AK article. The team continued to only talk about Encanto and Indy…

“Vaughn also indicated that Imagineering had considered several options for Dino-Rama and Tropical Americas, but that Encanto and Indiana Jones “rose to the top” because they give Imagineering “so much to play with.” Vaughn also indicated that there’s “a long way to go and a lot more to discover, but our team in Florida is all over it.

All of that suggests Tropical Americas featuring Encanto and Indiana Jones is the plan for Dino-Rama. Coco also seems to maybe have a place in Tropical Americas, with a carousel replacing TriceraTop Spin, restaurant replacing Restaurantosaurus, and courtyard architecture reminiscent of Santa Cecilia. Beyond the concept art above, I saw concept art reflecting the latter during a recent visit to Imagineering.”


While I want to stoke the hair pulling conspiracies, I do want to adjust my positioning. I think the carousel is indeed Coco for now… and I think the weirdness about this is exactly all to do with the BBTM project. It certainly seems like they aren’t willing to let go of the Coco E-ticket. Whether that means they are trying to downplay Coco, because the real presence is still on the table for later, OR if they are still willing to late pivot the Coco elements to Encanto (if they go all in on Coco for MK) are two good explanations for why they are being so weird.

Though the ‘it’s definitely not and never was a Coco spinner’ seems to be least likely now.

 

[Brer Panther]

“Vaughn also indicated that Imagineering had considered several options for Dino-Rama and Tropical Americas

If one of those "options" still involved dinosaurs, I'm gonna be really frustrated.

 

[TalkingHead]

If the blog brigade was brought in for the song and dance, WDI must really be sErIoUs this time. Did Lou Mongello’s invite get lost in the mail?

 

[WaltWiz1901]

Just gonna throw in my two cents regarding a villain-centric (mini-)land and say that it could work...if, as was said previously, they went with a specific concept (like a dark forest or haunted village) and stuck to whoever would fit the direction being taken. Just making it a place for all of the villains to pal around isn't that good a look

 

[Parker41056]

Disney's an entertainment company full of creatives, if they want to create a villains land, it can be well executed.

EPIC universe is setting the bar with their dark universe land. Disney will have to go deeper, more immersive to raise the bar.

 

[GenChi]

I'm admittedly very interested in their internal stats where they are getting that Coco of all things is going to be generate so many visitors that they need to make two brand new rides for the film at different parks so there aren't these like 5 hour waits, but at the same time Frozen is only popular enough for the hand me down EPCOT ride

 

[MagicHappens1971]

EPIC universe is setting the bar with their dark universe land. Disney will have to go deeper, more immersive to raise the bar.

I think they have the ability to do that. I can picture it, I wish they would do it completely inside, that’s definetly not happening though.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I'm admittedly very interested in their internal stats where they are getting that Coco of all things is going to be generate so many visitors that they need to make two brand new rides for the film at different parks so there aren't these like 5 hour waits, but at the same time Frozen is only popular enough for the hand me down EPCOT ride

The carousel is light theming, it’s just an IP that fits the general theme. No one is going to ride the carousel because it’s Coco themed.

 

[Teddybearre]

So, can one of our insiders confirm, that basically phase 1 of Beyond Big Thunder Mountain will be a Frontierland expansion, and then a phase 2 will debut as a new "land", whether its Villains or whatever else they come up with??
And then the new Moana attraction will open up before either phases of Beyond Big Thunder Mountain?

I asked some sources outside this thread, and they all said that they haven’t heard anything about Coco coming to MK, so I’m very very skeptical about that.

 

[MisterPenguin]

If you want to see dinosaurs, go to Feathered Friends in Flight.

 

[BrianLo]

If the blog brigade was brought in for the song and dance, WDI must really be sErIoUs this time. Did Lou Mongello’s invite get lost in the mail?

Tom said 10 serious journalists/media present and then 10 blogosphere.

It does sound like a sentiment shifter - and it is showing some signs of working. I’m surprised they didn’t just hold off until D23.

 

[OSUPhantom]

Tom said 10 serious journalists/media present and then 10 blogosphere.

It does sound like a sentiment shifter - and it is showing some signs of working. I’m surprised they didn’t just hold off until D23.

I think they wanted to follow up the board fight with some confidence boosting measures

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I think they wanted to follow up the board fight with some confidence boosting measures

I also think they’re finally ready to commit the capital and they want the blogosphere rattling about it and starting buzz

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Tom said 10 serious journalists/media present and then 10 blogosphere.

It does sound like a sentiment shifter - and it is showing some signs of working. I’m surprised they didn’t just hold off until D23.

Waiting until August would mean waiting until after the Epic Universe preview centre opens and tickets go on sale.

These two companies are going to be battling for media attention, so any gap in announcements is an opportunity

 

[BrianLo]

Waiting until August would mean waiting until after the Epic Universe preview centre opens and tickets go on sale.

That’s true. I actually think this is the best evidence that Josh is actually plugged into sentiment better than any park exec before.

Basically as soon as the green light (Florida agreement, proxy battle) allowed they wanted to be in front of media, to right the narrative.

 

[britain]

I have to hand it to him, Josh previously seemed very ineffective. But he probably was just treading water while the Chapek fiasco was going on.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I think they wanted to follow up the board fight with some confidence boosting measures

In general, park fans are always angry after a quarterly call or shareholder meeting because they aren't about the parks.

Having fresh meat to throw to them to distract them is the best course of action!