Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout announced for Disney California Adventure

[Practical Pig]

I vaguely remember the Gummi Glen stuff in the surrounding area but never rode the MBC. Or is it the Disney afternoon stuff I'm remembering? Talespin etc.

I always get annoyed when I realize their are closed Disneyland attractions that I could of rode but my parents never took me on for some reason. ATIS being the best example. I guess after seeing the video that @Dr. Hans Reinhardt posted I can forgive them for not taking me on MBC.

OMG, I freaking loved ATIS as a child! Have you watched this virtual recreation on YouTube? It can't replace the personal experience of course, but nothing can:


I'm feeling like maybe I should say something about GOTG MB soon if I'm going to keep talking.

 

[October82]

And TOT didn't?

DCA's ToT was a mixed bag as far as design is concerned. Thematically ToT was far superior to GotG, and much of that superiority is found in the simplicity of the concept. ToT resonated with people because it appealed to a huge amount of cultural knowledge, and that is something that is inherent to the ToT concept and not the IP attached to it. It isn't something that Mission Breakout has, but it is something that certainly some Marvel properties can produce, and that includes GotG.

 

[October82]

Part of the argument has been how the Hotel theme is a perfect fit and the MIssion Breakout is being shoehorned. I'm saying the existing ride mechanism may better serve the new theme over the previous, in part due to such engineering concerns. Certainly I know there are things that we overlook when riding a theme park ride. No where has anyone said the Tower needed a re-theme because of the elevator sliding backward. But if the new concept is to be picked apart, then I see no reason why the old one can't be as well.

I don't think anyone disagrees that there is room for criticism of both attraction concepts, but we're talking about a difference of degree here. A supernatural elevator in an abandoned hotel from a bygone era is a simple concept that lent itself well to the Twilight Zone IP and the parks that it was built in. The ride system and the building were designed with this concept in mind from the ground up.

I'm not sure how we can really say that a haunted elevator isn't sold in a visceral way by moving in an peculiar direction. Although the execution at DCA was driven by engineering, it was an effect produced at great expense for DHS. There's a reason for that. We shouldn't overlook this, but that doesn't mean that it is grounds for criticism.

GotG is a straightforward conversion done quickly and cheaply. It's not that GotG can't be made to fit - I'm sure it'll end up being a decent enough experience, probably with some line about why we're essentially in an elevator that moves backwards - but at best it's not something that will win any design or theme awards.

 

[mickEblu]

OMG, I freaking loved ATIS as a child! Have you watched this virtual recreation on YouTube? It can't replace the personal experience if course, but nothing can:


I'm feeling like maybe I should say something about GOTG MB soon if I'm going to keep talking.

Cool! I need to watch this with some VR glasses.

 

[Practical Pig]

Cool! I need to watch this with some VR glasses.

Maybe I should have said "digital recreation" instead of "virtual recreation." I don't know enough to say whether the video will work with a VR headset.

Also check out the Disney History Institute video that will load following the video in that link. It has some piecemeal grainy footage of the actual ride and interesting commentary. ATIS is obviously very dated now, but it was 1967's peak of edutainment.

Oh, and GOTG MB ... exterior half bad, half "meh" ... interior experience TBA.

 

[mickEblu]

Maybe I should have said "digital recreation" instead of "virtual recreation." I don't know enough to say whether the video will work with a VR headset.

Also check out the Disney History Institute video that will load following the video in that link. It has some piecemeal grainy footage of the actual ride and interesting commentary. ATIS is obviously very dated now, but it was 1967's peak of edutainment.

Oh, and GOTG MB ... exterior half bad, half "meh" ... interior experience TBA.

Cool thanks. I will definitely Check it out on a night where Spring Forward has not gotten the best of me.

And I hear you. The GOTG exterior isn't all bad. I'll admit, the view from Harbor is a definite improvement over all. (Not sure I'll care much about that when I'm in the park though).

I'm sure the interior experience will be fun, even if it loses all of that timeless appeal that was so great. I'm going to miss that distorted jazz music that played in the queue and outside the most.

And oh yea I'll admit I also do know enough about VR. Haha

 

[SuddenStorm]

OMG, I freaking loved ATIS as a child! Have you watched this virtual recreation on YouTube? It can't replace the personal experience of course, but nothing can:


I'm feeling like maybe I should say something about GOTG MB soon if I'm going to keep talking.

I wasn't alive when this around, but it seems like an actual track ride would take up a lot more space then the few simulators they use in Star Tours. Does anyone know if there are any remnants of ATIS in the building?

 

[yookeroo]

I really can't buy the argument that the Twilight Zone is a better thematic fit for a drop ride. That show was more,about clever writing and social commentary and twists. Very little about screams thrill ride. It's more tacked on than GOTG.

 

[Phroobar]

He was bored, and The Motor Boat Cruise wasn't nice.

The kid looked like he was having a grand time! He didn't look bored at all.

 

[sedati]

Tower of Terror, much like Star Tours, was a ride system in search of a theme. The ride mechanism dictates most everything and the theme is simple dressing. Something could be said for the layout of the original tower, but I think it's obvious that the second generation tower makes it very clear that the design was mechanism first, capacity second, theme a distant third. The argument that the layout was dictated by the Twilight Zone theme, or even just a Haunted Elevator makes no more sense than it does that the Simulator used in Star Tours was dictated by it being in the Star Wars universe. These rides are very different from any dark ride or coaster where the layout can be very unique and tailored to the story being told. These two are very simple and inflexible. A cabin with a window on a simulator base and a box that travels up and down a vertical shaft. Star Tours can be easily refitted to be another space ship, or it could be a submarine, or any other take on the flying theater concept. The Tower ride can easily be refitted to be anything that travels up and down. An elevator is an obvious choice, but it's not the only one. Strip away the fake windows and you see that the odd shaped building is not intentionally a hotel- it is a giant ride mechanism in a shell that looks like an oversized bookend.

Too many here seem to suffer from a severe nostalgia bias coupled with a harsh negative outlook disguised as chivalry protecting poor sweet Disneyland's virtue.

 

[Travel Junkie]

Too many here seem to suffer from a severe nostalgia bias coupled with a harsh negative outlook disguised as chivalry protecting poor sweet Disneyland's virtue.

TOT isn't in Disneyland and isn't that old. Nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

 

[Practical Pig]

Too many here seem to suffer from a severe nostalgia bias coupled with a harsh negative outlook disguised as chivalry protecting poor sweet Disneyland's virtue.

I'm one who objects to the new exterior tower design based solely on how badly it clashes with other park theming, so I suppose I'd be one of your masked defenders of poor sweet Disneyland's virtue, in spite of the fact that the tower is in a different park.

I have no particular interest in the Twilight Zone theme, and certainly not a lick of nostalgia for it. I also have no opinion about the GOTG theme inside the building and won't until I experience the re-themed ride. The Marvel world and my own don't overlap, and I'll only be interested in how the actual GOTG MB ride experience compares. Acceptably is my current expectation.

 

[mickEblu]

Too many here seem to suffer from a severe nostalgia bias coupled with a harsh negative outlook disguised as chivalry protecting poor sweet Disneyland's virtue.

More like holding them to standards that they've set.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Does anyone know if there are any remnants of ATIS in the building?

The queue in the front room with the Star Speeder being serviced, where the Mighty Microscope sat, is basically the same.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

Not to hammer a point, but Twilight Zone stories were always more nuanced and layered. I wouldn't even put this within the realm of "Outer Limits," or "Amazing Stories." The simple scenario we got was more fitting for "Tales From the Crypt," "Goosebumps," or even "Tales From the Hood."

Nah man. Imagine, a guy gets into an elevator thinking its gonna take him to floor 4. When he gets out, he's in a totally different realm/dimension. Enter Rod Serling with his saucy voiceover. THAT is Twilight Zone. Remember the episode where the kids went swimming in the pool and when they surfaced they were in the backwoods in a lake with some new Huck Finn type kid and his grandma??

Sure there was nuance and layers to the show, but you can't expound as much on a 2-3 minute ride experience.

Though if we're gonna get specific, haunted elevator would have made a great episode of Tales from the Darkside.

 

[Earl Sweatpants]

It says Twilight Zone to you because for the entirety of your life, the Twilight Zone IP has been attached to a built structure, an experience that you have had first-hand, and one that has clearly been very impressionable upon you. If you did market research in 1985, long before the Tower of Terror was constructed, and in a survey listed dozens of random words underneath the name twilight zone and asked survey-goers to identify which words the Title reminds them of, there would be no statistical significance to the frequency with which Haunted +/or Elevator are selected.

Again, you have it backwards. I agree with you that if someone pitched Twilight Zone to you, the words "haunted hotel" might not come up, but it wasn't pitched that way. The haunted hotel concept came first, followed by the appropriation of the Twilight Zone theme, hence why it worked and was duplicated globally.

 

[Professortango1]

No, I think it's a structure that's meant to house a drop ride. The hotel aspect is simply set dressing. The elevator concept works well for a drop mechanism, but not so well as I've never been in an elevator that starts off by moving backwards.
This is a simple IP swap. It's no more forced than putting a restaurant in the Carthay Circle THEATER.

But we are talking about the development and fit of the concept in DCA are we not? Moving backwards is unique to the second generation towers and is an oddity that may be thematically rectified in the new iteration.

If you like I'll rephrase what I wrote:
"The Disney MGM Studios elevator concept worked well for a drop mechanism, but not so well in the later versions as I've never been in an elevator that starts off by moving backwards."

"You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to take the strangest journey of your lives. Your destination? Unknown. But this much is clear: a reservation has been made in your name for an extended stay."

This is an uncommon elevator, it doesn't take you up and down, it takes you into The Twilight Zone. One of many reasons I prefer the DCA version.

 

[mickEblu]

"You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to take the strangest journey of your lives. Your destination? Unknown. But this much is clear: a reservation has been made in your name for an extended stay."

Too soon. Too soon

 

[sunsetblvd26]

This is an uncommon elevator, it doesn't take you up and down, it takes you into The Twilight Zone. One of many reasons I prefer the DCA version.

That's no different than DHS. In fact I think DHS's gets across that story better.

 

[Professortango1]

That's no different than DHS. In fact I think DHS's gets across that story better.

DCA's has the bookend of the elevator being pulled from reality and pushed back into reality. DHS' Tower doesn't have that, it just starts. The DHS version is tied to the TV show more with the ride mentioning we are being put into an episode of the show and images/iconography being tied to the 60's show. The DCA version takes the concept and moves it away from being a literal copy of the show and into its own entity more.