News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[the_rich]

Does this look like a massive waterfall coming from the peak to anyone else? It's giving me grizzly peak vibes.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Seems like significant water features planned

 

[RSoxNo1]

Does having attractions based on movies really add that much to the bottom line? Like if that Cars ride opens tomorrow what percentage increase would they see over sales of cars plushies and blu-rays or whatever?

To me it’s a really backward way of thinking about things that’s stuck in the 80s. Like by the time The guardians of the galaxy attraction opened the series was done and James Gunn has gone on to greener pastures. In a few years it’s just going to be “that coaster based on an old movie” and will just end up dated like the Ellen adventure every passing year.

Same with Star Wars land they tied it so heavily to the sequel trilogy which A) No one was all that crazy about and B)was already OVER by the time the land opened and now they have this land junking up the property that they really don’t know what to do with. It’s telling that the Star Wars hotel was closed and the galaxy’s edge for Paris was quietly cancelled and replaced with lion king.

Personally I think it's short sighted and probably isn't much more than a year one marketing push. They're also never capitalizing on these things in a timely manner for the impact to be that substantial. What's more likely is that they're managing expectations here. Guests expect their movies to be represented in the parks.

Personally, I think the IP mandate was determined by executives in board rooms and not creatives. If you'll allow some self promotion, I wrote this 9 years ago:

Tim Grassey - Addicted To The Easy Money

On June 18th 2010, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter changed the way that people think about theme parks. J.K. Rowling created a world that was all encompassing and Universal Creative reproduced it as an

www.micechat.com

 

[MisterPenguin]

Here’s another question I have, and maybe @lentesta could help answer it. Wouldn’t it be less expensive to expand the footprint of FL and MK than demolishing what is there already and then building on top of TSI and ROA? It seems like Disney has plenty of space.

As mentioned above, the space that RoA is on is 'zoned' for development, whereas the forest beyond ROA isn't development-ready either geographically or permit-wise.

Also, there's a question of how to get to that forested area (Beyond Big Thunder Mountain. You have things in the way: TBA, BTM, RoA, HM, and IaSW.)

One of them has to dramatically change in order to access the BBTM. (I would have built a better IaSW in Epcot and raze the current one in MK.)

 

[DarkMetroid567]

It's in the video Walt made announcing "The Florida Project."



Timestamp: 1:35

Thanks! Do we know if any subsequent leadership has referred to it?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Warning to all of you, WDWPro has gone raving mad about it! This is scary!

Look at his video thumbnails. Crazy left the train station years ago.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Now we have Moana, where does that go? Animal Kingdom!

Oh... there's a lot of people who will fight you on that one!

 

[Incomudro]

Absolutely could go the other way, but Josh did mention something about places to explore, so it sounded to me like they'd be including some concepts from TSI into this new area.

Disneyland Paris does something kinda like this, with their Adventureland, as their island is strictly for Big Thunder.

Yeah, I just don't buy the current Disney speak of "places to explore" anymore.
What does that mean to them now?
It's so deliberately vague.
A dead end with an Easter Egg in it?
Something you can scan with a phone?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Thanks! Do we know if any subsequent leadership has referred to it?

The previous CFO mentioned portion sizes. Does that count?

 

[Purduevian]

Yeah, I just don't buy the current Disney speak of "places to explore" anymore.
What does that mean to them now?
It's so deliberately vague.
A dead end with an Easter Egg in it?
Something you can scan with a phone?

Its a land of exploration and adventure... maybe we should just rename it to Adventureland! Heck maybe we should rename the whole park to Disney's Adventure World Orlando.

 

[Quietmouse]

Seems like significant water features planned

I mean the concept art does show a water fall.

 

[erasure fan1]

Disney Princesses, as a franchise, $45b. Cars, $21.5b. Princesses had a 70 year head start. There are also 21 movies vs 3 and 13 different princesses.

So yes, it kinda is 'on the same planet', if we're being completely honest.

I'm not sure I trust a site that pulled it's info from Wikipedia. But that's still less than half, so maybe not same planet but continent.

Again, placement is the issue, as well as removing RoA. But the IP isn't the problem, and it isn't a 'not relevant' IP like you said.

Agreed. And I didn't say the ip was an issue. I've said bring a cars ride to wdw since radiator springs. I also didn't say that it's not relevant. I said it's not that relevant now unless you're a male kid. And the performance of the last movie confirms that. This is a money play, plain and simple. They are going to sell millions upon millions of toy cars. And good for them, that's what they want. Imagination is a complete joke. But they keep it because figment sells. They don't care about our feelings for tsi or roa or if it even makes thematic sense. It's why I'm so surprised they haven't put in a nightmare b4 xmas ride. Jack sells tons of merch as well. I'm not knocking cars as an ip. But in the pantheon Disney ips, it's way down the list for things to go into the magic kingdom, the highest profile park in the world in my opinion.

 

[Kamikaze]

Another thing about this that I think a lot of the cheerleaders are missing. For a significant percentage of our limited natural lifespan on this Earth, MK will be a huge ugly pit. They didn't have to choose this.

Just ... wow.

 

[CSOM]

I'm in a weird camp here. Cars Land in DCA is great. Radiator Springs Racers is an amazing attraction, the backdrop is beautiful and I even like Junkyard Jamboree. I'm not a fan of Rollicking Roadsters, but it's not meant for me anyways.

I think Cars is a bit of an odd fit for this area, but we're also not getting new additions that are free of IP. I like that this is potentially a new ride system for the anchor attraction and that it's not a clone of RSR, even if it's an inferior attraction (we don't know whether or not it will be).

What I actually do like is the placement. This is very valuable real estate that was remarkably under utilized. Don't get me wrong, water has a place in Disney Parks and that aesthetic will be missed, but I actually like this choice.

For me, the Rivers of America weren't sacred. I couldn't tell you the last time I went to Tom Sawyer Island or went on the Liberty Square Riverboat. There is ALWAYS outrage if Disney removes anything, they know this and it's why they didn't reveal this on Saturday night. I'm sure (as evident by a 136 page thread) that TSI and the Riverboat carried with them precious family memories and you're probably just as upset as I was when Reflections of Earth went away.

For me, Cars is a weird choice that I don't love but I'm taking a wait and see approach. However, expansion in to this area is something that I fully support.

I'm with you

 

[Kamikaze]

I'm not sure I trust a site that pulled it's info from Wikipedia. But that's still less than half, so maybe not same planet but continent.

The numbers are more or less correct. Obviously changed a bit since that was written. But they're close enough.

And 70 years is a large amount of time to build up a lead.

 

[danlb_2000]

Oh... there's a lot of people who will fight you on that one!

Just like Imagineering I forced an IP in to make my joke work.

 

[James Alucobond]

Poll question:

If this ride was not attached to the cars ip, but was rather called “mickeys off road racing”, and the cars were skinned to be old classic looking cars with the same racing wilderness theme would there be less back lash?

Or is this all to do with getting rid of the boat and river ?

I think this would be fundamentally designed differently to begin with if the ride vehicles were evocative of a time period more consistent with Liberty Square and Frontierland. With this design, it seems very much centered around concealing what doesn’t fit until that’s revealed by circling around and entering through the back. You could spare more space for additional water rather than cliff faces and walls of trees if the ride content were different. The cars contribute to the problem not just because they’re anachronistic but because they necessitate a certain kind of design to hide the anachronism.

That said, I am probably more go-with-the-flow than others here purely because I do think it will ultimately look fine and feels designed from all angles. I’m generally more triggered by things like the TRON box or the Cosmic Rewind box.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Poll question:

If this ride was not attached to the cars ip, but was rather called “mickeys off road racing”, and the cars were skinned to be old classic looking cars with the same racing wilderness theme would there be less back lash?

Or is this all to do with getting rid of the boat and river ?

If the cars fit the time of the area (so up to 1920’s with Tiana I think?) that would be much better for the theme of the land, yes.

Also…. If they could have kept the River in tact so the steamboat could make a short loop around the new attraction - even better.

 

[the_rich]

@lentesta @wdwmagic @Moth @PREMiERdrum
Am I wrong in thinking that there is a rather large waterfall that flows into a river of sorts separating the new ride from liberty square? That's what the concept art seems to depict.

 

[KDM31091]

A waterfall or small pond or puddle is not the same thing as a huge river, I'm sorry. It is not going to add the same atmosphere or vibe or kinetics. Is it better than no water yes, hopefully they follow through and place it in locations that maximize the visibility and kinetics. But, this is a huge loss no matter what.