News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

[lazyboy97o]

Pardon me while I sum up everything with one image.

That picture is about execution, not philosophy.

Oh I see why everyone is upset, because an IP doesnt fit the vision of an EPCOT that was created several decades ago. But things change, visions change. Again, theme parks can't stay the same forever.

Part of the announcement was the claim that the original vision is being reinforced, not replaced.

With GotG, technically it's set in the PAST, as GotG 2 takes place in 2014.

The Marvel Theme Park Universe is distinct from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The suspended (vekoma) style is pretty much considered a dead coaster platform anyway. I'm not even sure Vekoma will still build one.
B&M pretty much killed them with the inverted concept. It's simpler, easier to maintain, easier to load and unload.

Vekoma still sells suspended coasters. They’re now available with their newer track design.

 

[PREMiERdrum]

Vekoma still sells suspended coasters. They’re now available with their newer track design.

I assumed he was meaning the Vekoma flyers, which the marketplace soundly rejected.

-PREMiERdrum, who has more credits on XFlight/Firehawk than he can remember. Ouch.

 

[ford91exploder]

Just not in the same way as modern Disney is doing it.

You mean small scale thinking and redecorating around the edges?...

 

[ford91exploder]

I'll say this I strongly disagree with what they are doing to Epcot Center (I wanted them to go back to their roots not dumbed down "family friendly" take). However I do admire the ambition of it all. We never saw anything like this during the second half of Eisners tenure and was one of the biggest reasons I along with thousands of other shareholders voted him out.

Big scope thinking and radical redesigns are what Walt Disney was all about.

Yup, Disney was at one time the standard setter who broke new ground all the time, Now its all about 'industry parity'

 

[MuteSuperstar]

I guess one of the things that bugs me is how short most of the new stuff is....between Rat, Tron and Guardians, how much actual ride time are we looking at? 5 minutes?

But hey at least the endless queues will be elaborate. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that new stuff is finally coming, but trading longer immersive attractions for blink-and-you-miss-it blips just doesn't do a lot for me. But I have long since resigned myself to the fact that it seems most people don't actually want to be on long attractions anymore. UOE was excessive, I will admit, but are people's attention spans so destroyed, and their phone obsessions so all-consuming that they can't handle something that lasts even 10 mins?

Spoiler

Yes

.

 

[jensenrick]

Can I propose the 24 hr rule? You get 24 hrs from the announcement to get all your complaining and how much you hate this talk out, after that let's talk about the actual ride and move forward. Just like Epcot is doing.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! 24 HOURS?! oH my sides! tRY 24 years, and even then . . .

 

[jensenrick]

For energy? Indoors. With some unusual characteristics if they can get it to work.

Any hints on the unusual characteristics, please oh please?

 

[Dapper Dan]

I guess one of the things that bugs me is how short most of the new stuff is....between Rat, Tron and Guardians, how much actual ride time are we looking at? 5 minutes?

But hey at least the endless queues will be elaborate. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that new stuff is finally coming, but trading longer immersive attractions for blink-and-you-miss-it blips just doesn't do a lot for me. But I have long since resigned myself to the fact that it seems most people don't actually want to be on long attractions anymore. UOE was excessive, I will admit, but are people's attention spans so destroyed, and their phone obsessions so all-consuming that they can't handle something that lasts even 10 mins?

Spoiler

Yes

.

I don't think the issue is that guest attention spans can't handle longer rides, rather that theme park companies don't want to pay for them.

 

[invader]

I don't think the issue is that guest attention spans can't handle longer rides, rather that theme park companies don't want to pay for them.

The more time someone spends in line or on a ride the less $$$ they're spending on food or merch.

 

[jensenrick]

The saddest part to me is that a pavilion about energy would never be so relevant as it would be today. I'm so sick of reading people giving the state of the current attractions as a reason that Guardians has to come in. Bull. Stop playing into TDO's hand. They let these attractions limp along with no maintenance to the point of being on life support, and then act like they're doing you a favor when they replace it with something from the latest flashy movie that conveniently lessens their maintenance and upkeep load. It's gross, and it's far below the company that set the standard for themed entertainment and world class guest experiences.

Why can't they create a brand new updated attraction that still meshes with the ideals and mission of Epcot? Surely nobody can sit there with a straight face and tell me that a Guardians roller coaster was the best choice for a new Epcot attraction. Especially when this 2 minute experience that families will not be able to ride together comes at the expense of a long-form family dark ride that challenged guests to critically think.

I agree with just about everything you said, except the part where the ride "challenged guests to critically think" - Not unless they knew almost nothing about energy, and were just discovering this 20 year old info.

 

[trainplane3]

For energy? Indoors. With some unusual characteristics if they can get it to work.

Unique like this prototype Vekoma's been working on for a year?

NL2 recreation, but it's based on the built prototype at Vekomas HQ.

 

[jensenrick]

I'm optimistic that they will incorporate the Guardians of the Galaxy characters in such a way that it is still relevant to Future World and educates us about energy. If you think about it, Universe of Energy currently uses Jeopardy to teach us about Energy. Jeopardy is an IP not owned by Disney and Marvel is, so you could argue that this would make it "more Disney". Just like Figment teaches us about imagination, the Guardians will replace Bill Nye and Ellen to teach us about energy.

Oh, that's just so sweet- but it's not gonna happen.

Spoiler alert- no tooth fairy either.

 

[jensenrick]

It's crazy to me that there's no announced plan to repurpose the dinos for a diorama along MK's RR. That could easily soften the blow for some folks.

Yes, it looks to be a Star Blaster: http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Blaster

"The Star Blasters are capable of creating an energy barrier by linking to adjacent ships."

That seems pretty relevant to an energy pavilion.

View attachment 215811

That would certainly be true - if they weren't completely fictional. But other than that little detail . . .

 

[monothingie]

I've never understood the argument that Disney can only base attractions on successful movies. How many of the millions of people that ride Splash Mountain every year are actually familiar with the movie? If Splash Mounting didn't exist today and they were building it and themed it to Home on the Range, or Kali River Rapids to Brother Bear, would people stay away in droves just because of the movie not having done well? I believe Tron is a great IP for that ride because it just plain looks cool. I'm sure there will be millions of people eagerly queueing up for that ride and a good deal of them will never have watched the movie or played the arcade game. I argue that what makes a successful ride is an actual good ride.

This works on franchises that have generational staying power. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc can last for decades and still remain popular. Was Tron ever that popular? Will Gaurdians of the Galaxy be as popular as it is today ten years from now? To shoehorn in an IP for the sake of it, is extremely shortsighted. Look how dated UOE with Ellen was 20 years later. Imagine these rides unchanged for 20 years...

 

[flynnibus]

I wouldn't call it Lazy. I would call it risk management. When you are smaller and newer you take more risk, you have less to lose and more to gain. Once you get to the size Disney is you don't push the envelope as much, you have more to lose and less to gain.

Disney was already the king of of an industry they essentially invented with Disneyland... then had the stones to not repeat Disneyland, but instead set off to build Epcot and the Florida project. Then even when they did the MK they instead went bigger and better than anything before... and move into the entire vacation resort concept. All while being at the top... and the company being bigger than it ever had.

Or how about when Disney got into the cruise lines?

There is still plenty to gain... Disney is just risk adverse in most things.

 

[Maeryk]

We are still all assuming "coaster" and "thrill ride". It might just be the most awesome dark ride Disney has ever built.. after seeing the Vekoma prototype actually running (real life, not sim), it's not a terribly fast ride.

 

[Suchomimus]

You mean small scale thinking and redecorating around the edges?...

Well if you're talking modern day Disney then yes.

 

[Rodan75]

I could totally see this attraction keeping Energy as its theme. It is 'Universe of Energy' and not 'how to make petroleum companies look better of energy'. So I could see the pre-show/ line organically talking about how other civilizations across the Marvel Universe use renewable energy sources.

This could turn into a less preachy more edutaining way of accomplishing the mission of UoE.

Or they could just be breaking out of the collector's newest collection.

 

[Dapper Dan]

The more time someone spends in line or on a ride the less $$$ they're spending on food or merch.

True, but the more people you have in line or on a ride, the more people you can fit in your park.

 

[jensenrick]

Why does Ellen care lol?

She doesn't want to be associated with the corpse of OG Epcot either, and who could blame her?