GotG:MB was not a direct result of Iger/Chapek wanting to stuff IP in the parks

Rodj

Rodj

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Like many others on this forum, I had believed that Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was a decision from the Bob's. That was until Behind the Attraction aired today and shed new light onto the situation.
In it, it stated that around June 2016, Imagineers were tasked with getting a new attraction up and running by Memorial Day 2017, no specifics on what it needed to be or what it was themed on. As it was a short deadline and due to lack of space(explained in Imagineering Story), they did not have the time to build up a new attraction, so they looked at changing up an existing attraction. They brought in Joe Rhode to help them choose what ride, and his eyes set on the Tower of Terror as he didn't view it in his eyes as a hotel and instead just a structure that can be modified to look as something else besides a hotel. It was settled, the Tower of Terror would be rethemed, but they had no clue on what to retheme it to and have it be an easy job. Coincidentally, GotG Volume 2 was being worked on at the time and the Imagineers liked the first movie, so they decided to theme it on that IP. Again due to time constraints, they could not really modify the ride system either, so they only had time to reskin and reprogram the ride.

What this says is that it was never Bob Iger's and Chapek's decision to specifically target Tower of Terror in DCA for a Guardians of the Galaxy retheme, but rather the Imagineers decision(specifically Rhode) due to time constraints. Tower of Terror in DCA was getting a retheme even before Guardians was considered, and if they had more time, they would of made it even more drastically different than what it is currently, or even avoided the casualty of the ToT completely and chose something different. This also puts to rest the rumor of Tower of Terror getting rethemed due to the cost of the CBS license.
I highly recommend watching the episode as it goes much more deeper than what I explained here.
 
aliceismad

aliceismad

Well-Known Member
Rodj said:
In it, it stated that around June 2016, Imagineers were tasked with getting a new attraction up and running by Memorial Day 2017, no specifics on what it needed to be or what it was themed on.
Click to expand...
That seems an unreasonable deadline for any ride that isn't a retheme of an existing ride based on existing IP. New ideas take time for development.

I am looking forward to watching the series. But I do think some of the Disney+ shows are made in a way that presents Disney in the best possible light.
 
Sharon&Susan

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
Rodj said:
Like many others on this forum, I had believed that Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was a decision from the Bob's. That was until Behind the Attraction aired today and shed new light onto the situation.
In it, it stated that around June 2016, Imagineers were tasked with getting a new attraction up and running by Memorial Day 2017, no specifics on what it needed to be or what it was themed on. As it was a short deadline and due to lack of space(explained in Imagineering Story), they did not have the time to build up a new attraction, so they looked at changing up an existing attraction. They brought in Joe Rhode to help them choose what ride, and his eyes set on the Tower of Terror as he didn't view it in his eyes as a hotel and instead just a structure that can be modified to look as something else besides a hotel. It was settled, the Tower of Terror would be rethemed, but they had no clue on what to retheme it to and have it be an easy job. Coincidentally, GotG Volume 2 was being worked on at the time and the Imagineers liked the first movie, so they decided to theme it on that IP. Again due to time constraints, they could not really modify the ride system either, so they only had time to reskin and reprogram the ride.

What this says is that it was never Bob Iger's and Chapek's decision to specifically target Tower of Terror in DCA for a Guardians of the Galaxy retheme, but rather the Imagineers decision(specifically Rhode) due to time constraints. Tower of Terror in DCA was getting a retheme even before Guardians was considered, and if they had more time, they would of made it even more drastically different than what it is currently, or even avoided the casualty of the ToT completely and chose something different. This also puts to rest the rumor of Tower of Terror getting rethemed due to the cost of the CBS license.
I highly recommend watching the episode as it goes much more deeper than what I explained here.
Click to expand...
The rumors of a Guardians of the Galaxy retheme for TOT leaked early spring 2016 (I want to say March or April, but definitely before the end of May). So either Disney is lying or someone made a very lucky guess OR Disney straight up stole their new ride idea from a fake leak.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Rodj said:
Like many others on this forum, I had believed that Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was a decision from the Bob's. That was until Behind the Attraction aired today and shed new light onto the situation.
In it, it stated that around June 2016, Imagineers were tasked with getting a new attraction up and running by Memorial Day 2017, no specifics on what it needed to be or what it was themed on. As it was a short deadline and due to lack of space(explained in Imagineering Story), they did not have the time to build up a new attraction, so they looked at changing up an existing attraction. They brought in Joe Rhode to help them choose what ride, and his eyes set on the Tower of Terror as he didn't view it in his eyes as a hotel and instead just a structure that can be modified to look as something else besides a hotel. It was settled, the Tower of Terror would be rethemed, but they had no clue on what to retheme it to and have it be an easy job. Coincidentally, GotG Volume 2 was being worked on at the time and the Imagineers liked the first movie, so they decided to theme it on that IP. Again due to time constraints, they could not really modify the ride system either, so they only had time to reskin and reprogram the ride.

What this says is that it was never Bob Iger's and Chapek's decision to specifically target Tower of Terror in DCA for a Guardians of the Galaxy retheme, but rather the Imagineers decision(specifically Rhode) due to time constraints. Tower of Terror in DCA was getting a retheme even before Guardians was considered, and if they had more time, they would of made it even more drastically different than what it is currently, or even avoided the casualty of the ToT completely and chose something different. This also puts to rest the rumor of Tower of Terror getting rethemed due to the cost of the CBS license.
I highly recommend watching the episode as it goes much more deeper than what I explained here.
Click to expand...
The episodes so far pay scant lip service to some awkward decisions. Content and style notwithstanding.

The Imagineering Story was more honest (and better IMHO)
 
Model3 McQueen

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
When Chapek was named chairman in 2015, there were rumors of him throwing a fit (not literally but figuratively) because Disney wasn't using their acquired IPs (Marvel, at least) in their parks as much as they should. This happened about a year before rumors broke of Mission Cheapout.

So not only is modern Disney predatory, but they're liars as well.
 
MorphinePrince

MorphinePrince

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
The episodes so far pay scant lip service to some awkward decisions. Content and style notwithstanding.

The Imagineering Story was more honest (and better IMHO)
Click to expand...
Is it true that WDW's Tower was saved from the same fate as DCA in the final hour by George K? If you can answer, of course.
 
yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
As far as I've ever heard, DCA's Tower of Terror was underperforming as a "draw" to the park - guests would cite it as something they enjoyed doing once they were at the park, but wouldn't cite it as a reason they came in the first place. For such a large, expensive attraction, that's pretty lousy. Tower was meant to be a Marquee attraction and guests didn't seem to think it was.

So, Imagineering was tasked with turning it into something that would make guests say "I came to DCA specifically to see this!" - and since Marvel was already on the table as a Land for the park the idea was floated to bring Tower into that, which would give the insanely popular franchise its debut attraction quickly and would whet guests' appetite for more to come.

The timing with the Guardians sequel release made sense for #Synergy, and thus Mission: Breakout! was born. Had an Iron Man movie been coming out that summer it seems entirely possible the ride would have been transformed into Stark Tower. But that's how the chips fell.

Of course, that's not exactly the story that Disney wants to tell, which is why they don't say that on an show dedicated to exalting the genius of the Tower of Terror. But they didn't reskin the DCA Tower because it was OVERperforming.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
As far as I've ever heard, DCA's Tower of Terror was underperforming as a "draw" to the park - guests would cite it as something they enjoyed doing once they were at the park, but wouldn't cite it as a reason they came in the first place.
Click to expand...
Ironically the Paris version has now been plussed to make it very much re ridable as we know.

There’s also no reason why it couldn’t also offer another alternate version(s) later in the day if needed - the one redeeming feature I found of Breakout. But hey. Guardians of the Galaxy is so California.
 
Last edited:
Inspired Figment

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
IMO, it’s Disney putting a PR spin on the whole thing to avoid criticism of upper management and instead throw their (in their eyes) “disposable” imagineers & employees under the bus as, my personal belief is upper management has no genuine appreciation or care for WDI’s creativity & talent unless it’s simply to bolster good PR for Chapek’s (aswell as Iger’s) shortsighted vision of what Disney is. ‘That’s It’. Not to mention, the attraction is popular.. so, There ya have it.
 
Last edited:
Inspired Figment

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
Granted, while I know Imagineers certainly aren’t perfect by any means and I’m sure have made plenty of bad calls/creative decisions in the past… the majority of the blame has almost ‘always’ fallen on short-sighted upper management; not providing the proper support & respect to the values & qualities vital to the company’s long-term success in the first place, thus putting way too much pressure & limitations on Imagineering below.. and as a result, the quality of the projects suffer.. aswell as the ethics & morale within WDI. It’s all thanks to upper management’s BS that it’s become the lousy political cesspit it is now.. where imagineers now work in a toxic culture full of fear & control and have to pull “political maneuvers” & support bad ideas/ creative decisions in order to get any input, promotions, or real support within the company.

Speak up for the values upper management doesn’t care about whatsoever that are truly essential to the company’s survival and risk either losing your job or basically just get left to table scraps. Hence why folks like Joe Rodhe, Tony Baxter, and a number of others have went & supported or went along with things they typically wouldn’t have.. before they eventually got tired of it and were like, “screw this.. I’m out.”. and “retired” the way they did.
 
Last edited:
Splashin' Ryan

Splashin' Ryan

Well-Known Member
Sharon&Susan said:
either Disney is lying
Click to expand...
ding! 🔔ding! 🔔ding!🔔 we have a winner!
Disney parks blog and PR will cover up and lie about projects and canceled announcements until the cows come home simply to make it look like they were never wrong to begin with. (Need I mention their flat out denial of a Moana retheme to tiki room only to find out there was a plan for it and even concept art 😬)

Regardless, the only time we ever hear about what's really truly going on behind the scenes from Disney themselves is decades after things happen such as the time and money constraints when building DLP discussed in the Imagineering story.
Anything more recent such as the Al's Toy Barn being cut or the Galaxys edge restaurant being cut or possibly the festival Pavillion at EPCOT being cut won't be talked about for years or even more likely now, until a total change of executives. (New Bob doesn't seem to like to think that he's wrong in any of his decisions)
 
yoda_5729

yoda_5729

Well-Known Member
I do agree that the Disney PR will always try to save face and protect it's higher ups and image, I did find it surprising they so definitively laid the idea for Galaxy's Edge to be based on the new trilogy at the feet of Bob, I'm assuming Iger. Instead of deflecting it to an imagineer decision the show stated that the imagineers came up with ideas that weren't of the modern trilogy until Bob requested it be the new films. The imagineers hadn't even seen the movies by then.

With that being an astronomically expensive project, and the disappoint many fans have in it being based on the modern as apposed to the legendary Star Wars years, I found it surprising they were able to lay the decision on one of the Bobs. It shows though how misguided it was, because at the opening of Galaxy's Edge in California Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams, George Lucas were there, but I don't remember a single person from the new trilogy shown.
 
Model3 McQueen

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
yoda_5729 said:
. The imagineers hadn't even seen the movies by then.

With that being an astronomically expensive project, and the disappoint many fans have in it being based on the modern as apposed to the legendary Star Wars years, I found it surprising they were able to lay the decision on one of the Bobs. It shows though how misguided it was, because at the opening of Galaxy's Edge in California Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams, George Lucas were there, but I don't remember a single person from the new trilogy shown.
Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, I don't think Chapek, Iger, or Kathleen Kennedy know anything about the original star wars trilogy except for what they remember maybe when they saw it once back in the 70s.

I wonder if Chapek would call the trilogy 80 years old, and consider the ewoks and wookies as "happy slaves".
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom