Disney's Reaction to Harry Potter Details?

[misterID]

Most of the Potter Killer plans for WDW are on hold.

Are they waiting to see what kind of impact HP has?

 

[RoRo]

I'm sorry you feel that way. The entire post was set up in a sarcastic tone. The comment about George Lucas should have been a dead giveaway. ill try to be more obvious next time and use a disclaimer I guess?

:veryconfu I get it but I didn't find it funny. I don't need a disclaimer.

 

[devoy1701]

What's funny here is the level of cynacism both on the Fantasy Land Expansion and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Most of the rabid Disney fan base is headed by adult males.

From a general marketing standpoint, the Fantasy Land expansion does not cater to those that drive internet message boards, while The Wizarding World of Harry Potter does.

I do think that many people on here are clouded by their Disney Rose Colored glasses. I think that if Disney had elected to outbid Universal on the rights to Harry Potter, and the exact same Harry Potter world was going into the Backlot Tour area of Hollywood Studios while Universal combatted this by actually adding family friendly (see princess meet and greets) attractions to IOA then this would be a completely different argument.

Harry Potter will undoubtedly increase Islands of Adventure's attendance. The question is will it be a repeat of the original Islands of Adventure opening where attendance was taken largely from the main Universal Studios park, or will it actually draw people away from Disney.

nope...I would still not be interested in anything Harry Potter.

:veryconfu I get it but I didn't find it funny. I don't need a disclaimer.

again, I'm sorry you feel that way. I guess you are not my target audience...i will remember this in future threads.

 

[maggiegrace1]

I see a couple of things in this discussion that are impossible to untangle.

1) Does FLE have anything to do with Potter. I don't think so. MK needed something new and nice. That's it.

2) Will Disney do anything directly to combat HP? Probably, but when is the key. I live in the midwest and for many, the Uni parks and to a lesser extent SW have already supplanted Disney as far as fun. Not everyone has thinks this, BUT it grows incrementally stronger over time. It's kind of like an iceberg carving out a valley. It moves very, very slowly. As a result, if Disney waits until there is an appreciable drop in attendance it may be too late. No matter how nice any response they have is, it will take quite a while to build the brand/rep back up. Thus, I would hope that some in the company are agitating for a response/announcement this calendar year.

See..I do not think Disney will ever really have a problem trying to build anything back up...in terms of losing guests and having to try and win people back.

Is FLE going to be as big a Harry Potter World?..probably not..I do not think Disney put this out there to compete against it..it has been planned for a while..I think..not sure.



I just do not see..IMO..Universal ever being better then Disney..and I think that while there may be people who now come to Florida just for Universal...the amount of people will never surpass the amount who come to Florida for Disney..:shrug:


IMO..in the end..Disney will always come out on top.


Just saying...:shrug:

 

[maggiegrace1]

I must say that the members of this forum lack a basic understanding of humor and sarcasm. Sheesh.

I laughed...:wave::shrug::lol:

 

[devoy1701]

Are they waiting to see what kind of impact HP has?

yes.

again, Disney is not going to take action against Universal right away. To do so would be to admit that they are worried about Universals impact on their place in the market. I don't think Disney has any reason to be worried though, and i don't mean this strictly talking about HP, but looking at each of the company's theme parks in general.

Disney is not a reactionary company in the Theme Park business... they are the trend-setter in the business. Regardless of if HP is wildly successful, Disney does not want to lose this perception that the general public has of it (I am not talking about fanatics like us who know more than the average public either) and to propose something new that is obviously supposed to outdo HP I think would send a signal that the company is worried that its position is faltering.

 

[devoy1701]

I laughed...:wave::shrug::lol:

thanks Maggie! i knew I wasn't that out of touch with these boards!

 

[maggiegrace1]

yes.

again, Disney is not going to take action against Universal right away. To do so would be to admit that they are worried about Universals impact on their place in the market. I don't think Disney has any reason to be worried though, and i don't mean this strictly talking about HP, but looking at each of the company's theme parks in general.

Disney is not a reactionary company in the Theme Park business... they are the trend-setter in the business. Regardless of if HP is wildly successful, Disney does not want to lose this perception that the general public has of it (I am not talking about fanatics like us who know more than the average public either) and to propose something new that is obviously supposed to outdo HP I think would send a signal that the company is worried that its position is faltering.

I completely agree..

thanks Maggie! I knew I wasn't that out of touch with these boards!

:lol:

Nope..and call me Dana....Maggie is the cutie in the avatar...

 

[Richterbon23]

I am going to Disney in August for 10 days but will definitely be going to IoA for at least 2 of those days!

 

[cmatt]

If you read my Dark Times topic, you how I feel right now. I thought Harry Potter would tell Disney to get off their fat and stop playing World of Warcraft....but it isn't doing much. :/

very much this - myself and the good lady are planning a revisit to mainly check out potter land

 

[Buried20KLeague]

There is a lot of talk on this forum about people thinking WWoHP is its own theme park. Who are the people that think this? I have ever met anyone nor heard anyone say that they think its its own theme park. Universal has not advertised it that way at all. You Disneyphiles are just beating on universal for no reason. Uni has outdone Disney on this one. By a lot. Like I said earlier, nothing TDO has done since AK can compete with WWoHP.

Seen on the TMZ main page as we speak:

Real Hogwarts to Open Soon!

​

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Muggles hoping to study at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry don't have to wait much longer -- because Universal Studios' Harry Potter theme park will open June 18!

Click here to read more on Too Fab!

​

:shrug:

People DO think it's gonna be a park. But I attribute that to most (normal) people's casual interest in theme parks, at best.

 

[RSoxNo1]

nope...I would still not be interested in anything Harry Potter.

It's obviously personal preference, but I do think that theme park attractions can be themed around anything and still be enjoyable. If the theming is thorough it's going to be impressive and worth experiencing regardless of your opinions on the subject matter.

I don't really understand the close minded mentality. I read the books and have seen the first 6 movies, mainly for the background they would provide me when experiencing this land. I am by no means enamored with them, but I did enjoy them. I am also not suggesting you or anyone else read the books or see the movies.

What I am suggesting though is that you do give the theme park attraction a chance. You, and the other people that have come out and said they would not be visiting IOA for Potter are all obviously theme park fans. You wouldn't be on this message board if you didn't care. For me personally, I'm not really a fan of American Idol, but I enjoyed the attraction over at Hollywood Studios. I had been on Splash Mountain 50+ times before seeing Song of the South. I've never read a Spiderman Comic book, but consider Spiderman one of the best attractions on the planet.

The quality of a theme park attraction is not entirely dependent on the subject matter of which it is based. This is why I find it so objectionable that people blame the Stitch character for Stitch's Great Escape, or make the general complaint that characters shouldn't be added to the parks. I don't have a problem with characters or brands being added to the parks. I have a problem with mediocre entertainment being added to the parks.

 

[PhantomX]

Tony Baxter retiring? The guy is still hard at work at DL.

in other news.. this looks amazing!

Here that sound kids? That's TDO's head getting bashed against the wall.

This is the kind of theming Disney used to do back in the 70s and 80s but not anymore. They fell way behind and now a rival has caught up. While Disney is busy making cheap attractions that use 3D and interactivity as a cruch (which isnt anything that you cant do at home anymore) Universal is building fully realized attractions with actual AA's and setpieces and beautifully themed queues and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

 

[Buried20KLeague]

FLE got the greenlight over the MI concept strictly because it serves a demo the Potter mostly doesn't. That has been my assumption since the FLe was announced. After reading of the intensity of the Potter e ticket and with personal knowledge of the intensity of DD, I now know my assumptions were right.

The FLE is brilliant 'counter-programming'. How Disney responds to directly compete with Potter will depend entirely on it's overall impact on WDW's bottomn line.

Nothing left to be said.

:wave:

Those "in the know" have said that the MI concept was complete blue sky, and never got any further than that. It may be a little bold for you to assume you now have proof that the two concepts were on side by side level, and they just chose one to run with.

 

[sponono88]

Here that sound kids? That's TDO's head getting bashed against the wall.

This is the kind of theming Disney used to do back in the 70s and 80s but not anymore. They fell way behind and now a rival has caught up. While Disney is busy making cheap attractions that use 3D and interactivity as a cruch (which isnt anything that you cant do at home anymore) Universal is building fully realized attractions with actual AA's and setpieces and beautifully themed queues and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

I think the whole attraction will be amazing, especially since they claim it will take one hour to experience the entire queue all the way to the actual ride. The link in the first post has really cool descriptions of the queue:

The next chamber is the portrait gallery; it is a very tall room perhaps only ten feet wide. On each of the four walls? Portraits of each of the four founders of Hogwarts.... and they move. And they talk. These portraits are unlike anything I thought was possible to do outside of the movies. For the portraits move, but their surface looks like dried oil on canvas. Also, they travel. Other portraits in this hall leave their frames and enter the portraits of others', often generating an immediate response of reproach from whoever is being disturbed. It is clever, and well-synced. It is J.K. Rowling's books brought to life.

they also mention a 3 dimension Dumbledore that welcomes the Muggles to Hogwarts, he is reportedly made out of laser/hologram technology. sounds really cool!

 

[misterID]

The TMZ thing I can't really pin on UNI, though.

Disney is not a reactionary company in the Theme Park business... they are the trend-setter in the business.

Not WDW. TDL/DisneySea, yes. WDW has not been the trend-setter in a long time. DLR is above WDW right now.

EDIT: I'd even put UNI above WDW on trend-setting, right now.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

This is the kind of theming Disney used to do back in the 70s and 80s but not anymore.

I'm just going to assume that you've never been to Disney's Animal Kingdom, which far surpasses anything Disney ever did in the 70s and 80s in the theming department.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

The TMZ thing I can't really pin on UNI, though.



Not WDW. TDL/DisneySea, yes. WDW has not been the trend-setter in a long time. DLR is above WDW right now.

EDIT: I'd even put UNI above WDW on trend-setting, right now.

WDW hasn't been a trend setter for some time. Name one major attraction they've opened in the last 10 years that has raised the bar the way this one will.

Crickets anyone?

I'd say the last time a bar was raised was when Indiana Jones opened, and sadly the version that WDW got was an extremely poor use of the technology.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

I'm just going to assume that you've never been to Disney's Animal Kingdom, which far surpasses anything Disney ever did in the 70s and 80s in the theming department.

And I'm going to assume you've never been to Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, which far surpasses anything Disney has done stateside in the last 20 years, period.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

And I'm going to assume you've never been to Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, which far surpasses anything Disney has done stateside in the last 20 years, period.

I have, actually.

So we're just going to also put that in the category of "Disney's Still Got It."

Though, I personally think that the theming of DAK is on-par with TDS.