JokersWild
Well-Known Member
I still stand behind an An American Tail family coaster. Like a larger Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Of course, with sets as well.
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Don Bluth's Playland Open Brainstorming (Uniting Universal Round Two)
- Thread starter TheOriginalTiki
- Start date
Miru
Well-Known Member
I agree with that coaster idea. And how about a "The Pebble and the Penguin" Easter egg in there?
And what about Thumbelina as a meet-and-greet?
FigmentPigments
Well-Known Member
@TheOriginalTikiSo I've been thinking about Dragon's Lair. At first I thought it'd work best as a coaster, but upon further reflection I think we should go the Flight of Passage route and make it a simulator. This would retain the game's animated art style and video game roots. I'm picturing Dirk the Daring recruiting an army of Volunteer Knights to rescue Princess Daphne. That way would could have a "Calvary" of horses as the ride vehicles and very similar to Flight of Passage on the simulator it would actually feel like you're on horseback. Of course this attraction is going to include Easter eggs for Black Cauldron and Troll in Central Park.
At this point I think we can all agree on this lineup.
-The Land Before Time River Adventure
-All Dogs Go to Heaven water ride
-Dragon's Lair simulator thrill ride
-Banjo the Woodpile Cat Playground
-Anastasia stage musical
-Pinkie's Palace from Rock-A-Doodle
-Secret of NIMH Walk through
-Titan AE and Space Ace sci-fi sub area in an eventual Phase Two
-Still struggling to come up with something for An American Tail. I know a flight simulator was suggested. Anyone want to take a stab at it?
I'd be happy to write up Dragon's Lair and The Land Before Time if others can pitch in on the rest
What did you think of the below idea?
An American Tail could be a great E ticket. Guests could ride on a pigeon (???) and travel from Russia where cats are chasing us out of Russia onto a boat headed for America (No Cats in America) before being swept out to sea, and fly around the statue of liberty being build singing Never Say Never, and we absolutely have to have a towering AA of the Giant Mouse of Minsk!
FigmentPigments
Well-Known Member
I think much like what we did with Seuss Landing, the majority of the land will be connected by green spaces with some roads leading to the city.
The Land Before Time is set in some jungle areas, which can transition one way into the Dragon's lair area and the other way into the secret of NIMH area. Towards the back, guests head towards a "city" and can ride the All Dogs water ride and see Anastasia the musical.
A little out of the way park has a stone statue of Stanley and is the entrance way to over sized grass and objects and to the Thumbalina meet and greet. If guests continue down the path, they end up in the NIMH area. The overgrown grass can be the unifying element for these two area.
Through some back alley ways of the city, guests can get to "waterfront" where the American Tail ride is located. This is the transition area from pure human city with talking animals to just animals. Next guests come across the Banjo play area consisting of crates, cans, and tube slides. Around the corner is the Singing Cats Night Club and then Pinkie's Palace.
Thoughts?
The Land Before Time is set in some jungle areas, which can transition one way into the Dragon's lair area and the other way into the secret of NIMH area. Towards the back, guests head towards a "city" and can ride the All Dogs water ride and see Anastasia the musical.
A little out of the way park has a stone statue of Stanley and is the entrance way to over sized grass and objects and to the Thumbalina meet and greet. If guests continue down the path, they end up in the NIMH area. The overgrown grass can be the unifying element for these two area.
Through some back alley ways of the city, guests can get to "waterfront" where the American Tail ride is located. This is the transition area from pure human city with talking animals to just animals. Next guests come across the Banjo play area consisting of crates, cans, and tube slides. Around the corner is the Singing Cats Night Club and then Pinkie's Palace.
Thoughts?
Miru
Well-Known Member
Great! I like this setup. And maybe the Stanley statue could be joined by one of the protagonist of The Pebble and the Penguin somewhere.
FigmentPigments
Well-Known Member
I think so! There can be several statues of Don Bluth's "lesser" well received movies, like Bartok, as well.
Yes, this sounds perfect. Start in a naturalist setting just like Seuss, slowly transition into a waterfront city for American Tail and Pinkie's Palace. Liking that a lot. Banjo's junkyard as a transition works really well. I was thinking we could have a volcano as the main focal point of the Land Before Time exterior which would seamlessly transition into the Dragon's tower for Dragon's Lair.
Were going to need some help completing this. I'd be happy ot write up Land Before Time and Dragon's Lair but would appreciate if others pitched in for the rest of the ideas using this layout as a template.
spacemt354
Chili's
If there's a volcano as the main 'weenie' so to speak and bunch of naturalistic settings, would this land fit better in Islands of Adventure?
spacemt354
Chili's
Also this is just something learned from Club 32 parks - actually advice from a former imagineer Tom Thordarson who is known for drawing/designing the concept art for Journey to the Center of the Earth among other things.
His advice for us was to focus on the 'big picture' first, throwing out a bunch of ideas, and then narrow/focus as we go. Original with 32, we were focusing land by land similar to the format here, but his suggestion is to focus on what is the story of the park as a whole first and foremost, what's its purpose is, and the overarching themes/lands within the park. Then detail the lands themselves.
How that could be applied to this is maybe next round, instead of doing a land, we could design the rough outline for each park (both IoA and Universal Studios) and then after we have a basic map of our plans for both parks, it will be much easier to visualize and connect everything in later rounds, if we know where things are going to be placed.
The tough time I've been having with this round aside from not being familiar with the content is...I don't know where any of this is going within the park and how it fits in with what the purpose of the park would be. Having the context of its location and areas that surround it I feel will not only enhance the lands, but also make the project as a whole much more cohesive.
His advice for us was to focus on the 'big picture' first, throwing out a bunch of ideas, and then narrow/focus as we go. Original with 32, we were focusing land by land similar to the format here, but his suggestion is to focus on what is the story of the park as a whole first and foremost, what's its purpose is, and the overarching themes/lands within the park. Then detail the lands themselves.
How that could be applied to this is maybe next round, instead of doing a land, we could design the rough outline for each park (both IoA and Universal Studios) and then after we have a basic map of our plans for both parks, it will be much easier to visualize and connect everything in later rounds, if we know where things are going to be placed.
The tough time I've been having with this round aside from not being familiar with the content is...I don't know where any of this is going within the park and how it fits in with what the purpose of the park would be. Having the context of its location and areas that surround it I feel will not only enhance the lands, but also make the project as a whole much more cohesive.
Also this is just something learned from Club 32 parks - actually advice from a former imagineer Tom Thordarson who is known for drawing/designing the concept art for Journey to the Center of the Earth among other things.
His advice for us was to focus on the 'big picture' first, throwing out a bunch of ideas, and then narrow/focus as we go. Original with 32, we were focusing land by land similar to the format here, but his suggestion is to focus on what is the story of the park as a whole first and foremost, what's its purpose is, and the overarching themes/lands within the park. Then detail the lands themselves.
How that could be applied to this is maybe next round, instead of doing a land, we could design the rough outline for each park (both IoA and Universal Studios) and then after we have a basic map of our plans for both parks, it will be much easier to visualize and connect everything in later rounds, if we know where things are going to be placed.
The tough time I've been having with this round aside from not being familiar with the content is...I don't know where any of this is going within the park and how it fits in with what the purpose of the park would be. Having the context of its location and areas that surround it I feel will not only enhance the lands, but also make the project as a whole much more cohesive.
First off, I'm definitely getting the same feeling with Don Bluth's Playland. This is why this comp is so open ended though. We can easily switch it over to IOA. This means we have more of IOA developed at this point, but that's probably for the best considering the Studios park will probably be more basic. Don Bluth's Playland is essentially the Toon Lagoon for this Islands of Adventure as I've pointed out before. I was about to come on and suggest for next round we focus on Hogwarts Castle and one other element of the resort (probably either CityWalk or a water park) but you're right, it would be for the best if we had a layout to work with and time to craft the narrative flow of the main parks. That will definitely be the next prompt. I think this could lead to some interesting fill-in-the-blanks work as we could basically craft the Studios park partly based upon the locations of the Halloween Horror Nights mazes were developing this round. That way we'd at least have some kind of blueprint. As of now with Bluth going to IOA, IOA is MUCH more developed than the Studios park so that needs all the help it can get.
With that in mind, to contextualize Islands of Adventure a bit, I'm picturing a Port of Entry leading into a Hogwarts Castle. The Forbidden Forest would serve as the "hub" for the park which is technically in the middle of the Wizarding World land but also branches off into Don Bluth's Playland (via the Land Before Time Jungle) or Seuss Landing and the Trufula forest. That's a solid half of the park right there. The other areas could spin off from Playland and Seuss, maybe have one more area naturally connected to the Forbidden Forest.
spacemt354
Chili's
Basically what I'm thinking is take for instance the Back to the Future Ride prompt - we don't have to design the entire ride, but if it goes in the 'Studios' park -- we could have a San Francisco based land, with a Hill Valley section.
The Studios Park in Orlando is based around film locations so that could be a way to contrast the naturalistic Islands of Adventure. Have San Fran, New York, Chicago, or anywhere based on what the prompts coming up are. Then you can go in and flesh out the various locations in later rounds, but now with a bit of context to where it all plays out within the grand scheme of the park.
Jumping ahead a bit but to get a start on some of the concepts we'll explore next round with the park layouts...Islands of Adventure should definitely lean more towards fantasy and animation, while the Studios park should rely more on the classic franchises (Jaws, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park etc.) IOA we should aim to make the most detailed and immersive park in Universal's lineup, while the Studios park will be a nice compliment to that and feature immersive lands based around classic Universal stuff. I truly want to go out of our way to make this IOA special though. I think having the Forbidden Forest as a GIANT hub is a good step towards achieving that.
spacemt354
Chili's
So maybe if we have a full list of the prompts - we can try to create a rough map of both parks before continuing on. It doesn't have to be permanent and could always change going forward but at least it will help us with the individual prompts going forward.
For sure, I'll definitely set that up once we finalize stuff for this current prompt. Should have the next round ready to go tomorrow at the latest, with commentary from Dragon and I coming tomorrow night.
rawisericho
Well-Known Member
Just throwing this out there, what about the Dragon's Lair E-Ticket being done with a KUKA arm, similar to HPTFP?
spacemt354
Chili's
Seems like the progress has just kind of stopped over the last few weeks. Hope @TheOriginalTiki is alright
Anyway to quickly get it back going again - I made an approx sketch of the park layout based on stuff we talked about. Hogwarts at the front entrance, flanked on its right side by a transition from the Dark Forest into Suess Landing (forest themed)
Placements aren't finalized by it's a talking point to get this back moving again.
Anyway to quickly get it back going again - I made an approx sketch of the park layout based on stuff we talked about. Hogwarts at the front entrance, flanked on its right side by a transition from the Dark Forest into Suess Landing (forest themed)
Placements aren't finalized by it's a talking point to get this back moving again.
The90skid
Well-Known Member
Ok! One of my favorite movies just so happens to be All Dogs Go to Heaven, and while some have said that it's a little dark, I say go for it! (This is, after all, armchair Imagineering!) I liked the idea of a boat ride for this one, since the film takes place in New Orleans. I could easily envision an animatronic boat ride going through the events in the movie. The queue and ride building would be a big, island prison similar to the opening scene of the film (and if this is for an IOA park, this would be more natural to implement!). Guests could follow along the queue as Charlie and Itchy plan their big prison break, the plan being fulfilled in the first ride scene as the duo escapes to the Dog Casino (song: "You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down"). Next, the boats travel to a pier to witness Charlie's murder (obviously, guests will not actually see Charlie get hit. Instead, the tunnel goes black, and you hear a car crash). Next, we travel to heaven (song: "Let Me Be Surprised")! Charlie rewinds his clock, and meets up with Itchy and Ann Marie (song: "Money Montage") Anyway, you get the picture! My laptop is being uncooperative, so I can't type out a full ride through
spacemt354
Chili's
I get the gist haha -- sounds very cool!Ok! One of my favorite movies just so happens to be All Dogs Go to Heaven, and while some have said that it's a little dark, I say go for it! (This is, after all, armchair Imagineering!) I liked the idea of a boat ride for this one, since the film takes place in New Orleans. I could easily envision an animatronic boat ride going through the events in the movie. The queue and ride building would be a big, island prison similar to the opening scene of the film (and if this is for an IOA park, this would be more natural to implement!). Guests could follow along the queue as Charlie and Itchy plan their big prison break, the plan being fulfilled in the first ride scene as the duo escapes to the Dog Casino (song: "You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down"). Next, the boats travel to a pier to witness Charlie's murder (obviously, guests will not actually see Charlie get hit. Instead, the tunnel goes black, and you hear a car crash). Next, we travel to heaven (song: "Let Me Be Surprised")! Charlie rewinds his clock, and meets up with Itchy and Ann Marie (song: "Money Montage") Anyway, you get the picture! My laptop is being uncooperative, so I can't type out a full ride through