Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! Reviews, Photos, Info

[MisterPenguin]

I don't know what a gantry lift is really supposed to describe but if it's not a hotel elevator, the doors thing bothers me less.

A gantry is a (usually) scaffold-like structure to create a high beam from which you can hang things, especially a pulley from which you can create a lift/elevator system for materials or people. Often the pulley can slide along the top beam so that the things/people being hoisted can move laterally as well as up and down. Modern elevators and cranes have supplanted the widespread use of gantries. Consequently, a work-elevator meant more for supplies than people will sometimes still be called a gantry lift/elevator.

 

[flynnibus]

This ride wouldn't actually fit well in WDW as the layout is very different and is broken up into two separate shafts and a slow forward-moving show scene.

So what... make the transition room the power generator scene and stretch it out in how the scene plays.

 

[flynnibus]

Floating paper mache eyeballs, windows changing to black and white window from the opening credits, E=MC2 floating via visible line...that's camp. Cheese. Corn. Fun, and jt fits the original story pf going intinto an episode of an old TV show. [

No it's not. Someone queue up the princess bride meme...

 

[Professortango1]

No it's not. Someone queue up the princess bride meme...

1. something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, self-consciously artificial and extravagant, or teasingly ingenuous and sentimental.

Stylized, self-consciously artificial. Seems to describe using billions to replicate cheap 50's era Television effects which aren't meant to look real nor convincing.

 

[Professortango1]

I think you're mixing up the meaning of fact and opinion. It's not a fact that the WDW tower is "campy" that's an opinion. Both rides took you into the Twilight Zone, but the WDW version does make it more apparent that you're part of the episode. The ride immerses you into this world, slowly building up the creepiness and mystery of the Twilight Zone, climaxing with the 5th Dimension Room. Eerily your elevator moves forward and you hear the haunting narration from Rod Serling. Then you drop.

Ending the ride in a different area like the WDW version works to the rides advantage IMO. It helps prove that you were not on an ordinary elevator, you really did leave the hotel, and the Twilight Zone is "real". You see some artifacts from the show to pay homage to the source material and then you're finished.

It is 100% a fact that the DCA tower was built on the cheap in order to get a well known attraction into a dying park. Some of the changes worked, some hurt the experience a little. Generally, people prefer the tower at WDW over the one at DCA. That's a well known opinion, and if your party of riders feels differently that's ok! Just please don't discredit things just to make your argument that DCA's tower was better stronger.

I'm not discrediting, I'm referring to what the people who buit it said.

As for the ending, I loved having it bookended as DCA's was. Having the same CM close the doors and open the doors really led to some amazing performances. No longer was the bellhop a theme park employee loading you in and another helping you unload, now it was personal. This bellhop was sealing in your fate and smiling knowingly upon re-entry. It really helped the horror concept because it became a "did that really just happen?" effect while the people outside the experience insist that you were only in their for a moment, it must have been your imagination. Classic psychological horror. Loved it so much!

 

[Curious Constance]

(That's the cue for @Curious Constance to tell us how great Iger looked anyway.)

Where have you been? I did that pages ago.

 

[dweezil78]

I'm not discrediting, I'm referring to what the people who buit it said.

As for the ending, I loved having it bookended as DCA's was. Having the same CM close the doors and open the doors really led to some amazing performances. No longer was the bellhop a theme park employee loading you in and another helping you unload, now it was personal. This bellhop was sealing in your fate and smiling knowingly upon re-entry. It really helped the horror concept because it became a "did that really just happen?" effect while the people outside the experience insist that you were only in their for a moment, it must have been your imagination. Classic psychological horror. Loved it so much!

If people were able to somehow forget they'd spent the day in a Disney theme park I suppose it could cross into psychological horror... alas, even with the most greatest stretches of suspension disbelief, I don't think anyone (sans maybe those just over the height requirement) ever come near the point where they question whether or not that experience just happened because they see the same CM before and after the experience. I can totally see Joe Rohde explaining it this way though.

 

[Professortango1]

If people were able to somehow forget they'd spent the day in a Disney theme park I suppose it could cross into psychological horror... alas, even with the most greatest stretches of suspension disbelief, I don't think anyone (sans maybe those just over the height requirement) ever come near the point where they question whether or not that experience just happened because they see the same CM before and after the experience. I can totally see Joe Rohde explaining it this way though.

Of course people don't take it as reality. When people see a psychological horror film, they know they are in a movie theatre watching actors. Good storytelling allows us to suspend disbelief and accept the world presented to us.

 

[dweezil78]

Of course people don't take it as reality. When people see a psychological horror film, they know they are in a movie theatre watching actors. Good storytelling allows us to suspend disbelief and accept the world presented to us.

True...but, IMO, guests were never able to suspend disbelief to the extent you're implying here with DCA's ToT where there's any real impact of what you're calling psychological horror. It's easy to claim that was the intended effect and reasoning behind budget-cutting decisions, but if you asked anyone riding if they ever actually experienced that way, I think you'd be hard pressed to find people who said yes. Just as there are a lot of movies that are intended to scare, laugh, thrill, but never actually do for several reasons. Not to say DCA's ToT was a bad ride by any stretch, but I don't think the scares went a whole lot deeper than the screams coming from people while dropping and maybe those who are creeped out by ghostly little children.

 

[SSG]

OK, I'm sold on MB. The exterior is still a horrorshow but the ride looks amazing and it's first on my list for my next trip.

 

[dweezil78]

From what I understand, only 3 of 6 songs are currently up and running -- Hit Me With Your Best Shot, We Want the Funk, and Burning Love. Not sure if there's a different drop profile/video sequence for each, but seems like there's definitely more to come. Not sure what the hold up is.

 

[flynnibus]

This looks like it will be like TSMM - Fun and connects with guests... but weak on the core themes that make an attraction timeless or consumable by all.. Basically, 'a cheap sugar high'. So it will be loved by the masses... decried by the traditionalists. Certainly a move towards 'just make it fun, and ignore the bigger theme park'

By upping the intensity of the pacing and sensory load it will increase the appeal to the younger audiences. The theme of course is hot now. It will be interesting to see how the concept ages.

 

[mickEblu]

This looks like it will be like TSMM - Fun and connects with guests... but weak on the core themes that make an attraction timeless or consumable by all.. Basically, 'a cheap sugar high'. So it will be loved by the masses... decried by the traditionalists. Certainly a move towards 'just make it fun, and ignore the bigger theme park'

By upping the intensity of the pacing and sensory load it will increase the appeal to the younger audiences. The theme of course is hot now. It will be interesting to see how the concept ages.

Great post. To Disney, I don't think it matters how it ages because in 10 years they can just tear it down and turn it into the next Marvel IP.

It's seems the current strategy is to cater to the attention deficit that society has today. Do you know how many people I see browsing social media while on rides? Seems the goal is to create either interactive attractions or attractions with variability. Which are both great but is all about execution. IMO both of these types of attractions we have seen Disney do so far ( ST 2.0, TSMM, GOTG) are all fun but lacking. With variability you have more flash but less substance. More scenarios so people stay off their phones but disjointed and non memorable stories. TSMM is a lot of fun and very repeatable but the "sets" are weak and there obviously is no story.

I think the modern day holy grail would be an interactive attraction with POTC level theming/ atmosphere which from what I understand may be the Battle Escape attraction in SWL.

Anyway I think there is a place for rides like GOTG, ST 2.0 and TSMM at Disney parks.
After all, to be honest as much as I think an attraction like Indy is amazing, Id be lying if I said I don't have more fun these days on TSMM. It's just sad seeing something like TOT being downgraded in so many ways.

 

[Californian Elitist]

This looks like it will be like TSMM - Fun and connects with guests... but weak on the core themes that make an attraction timeless or consumable by all.. Basically, 'a cheap sugar high'. So it will be loved by the masses... decried by the traditionalists. Certainly a move towards 'just make it fun, and ignore the bigger theme park'

By upping the intensity of the pacing and sensory load it will increase the appeal to the younger audiences. The theme of course is hot now. It will be interesting to see how the concept ages.

Most definitely.

 

[Curious Constance]

OK, I'm sold on MB. The exterior is still a horrorshow but the ride looks amazing and it's first on my list for my next trip.

My mini, male me has already informed me we will NOT be using fastpass for this attraction because he wants to savor all of the collection details.

Did I give birth to some geniuses or what?

 

[flynnibus]

Great post. To Disney, I don't think it matters how it ages because in 10 years they can just tear it down and turn it into the next Marvel IP.

I think it matters.. they certainly would like attractions that don't need replacing every 5-10 years. But they are also acknowledging they don't need to hold out for that with every attraction.

TSMM is a lot of fun and very repeatable but the "sets" are weak and there obviously is no story.

My issue is I'd like to ensure experiences that are deeper and longer (that can even include the queues and preshow). I don't like things that go 'BOOM.. and then done'. Disney has a history of creating longer, more engaging experiences that aren't necessarily so disjointed as you move from attraction to attraction. This 'its fun within itself.. nothing else matters' risks devaluing that continuity and integration we've come to expect from a Disney property. It's not about how many trinkets or details you load into an area.. it's what they are there to do!

In some ways some of these additions reek a little of the Disney Channel 90s stuff the parks did for awhile. Bright, disjointed, shoved in. We saw how that went... but yet during that same time they still had the skills to build some of the masterpieces.

WDI certainly has mastered some new skills when it comes to technology of late, and the AA figures of late (Frozen and forward..) are leaps ahead of where they were prior. Video integration is well done, video based effects (BTMRR), AAs... sets.. It's like the core bits are there.. and its just about pulling it together. Hopefully SWL is that moment.

 

[MisterPenguin]

If you're going to argue over what is 'camp' it would be helpful to have a common definition of the term:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)

 

[mickEblu]

I think it matters.. they certainly would like attractions that don't need replacing every 5-10 years. But they are also acknowledging they don't need to hold out for that with every attraction.

I agree that it matters and that Disney would prefer rides to last longer than 10 years. However as long as a ride is screen based, they could swap themes relatively easily and inexpensive while ensuring they are always Showcasing the hottest IP.

 

[sunsetblvd26]

For people saying they are a little disappointed in Pandora, I refer you over to tge Pandora forums on this site.

...which are brimming with positivity. Sure, there's always going to be a select few that are critical of everything, but if you truly read any of the Pandora threads here and came away from them thinking the vast majority of people were disappointed, then, well, I don't know what to tell you. You're just actively seeking out and clinging to negativity.

I know whenever I ride Florida's, the hallway scene always ends with mocking laughter due to the camp

I have been on WDW's tower a countless amount of times- this scenario or anything even close to it has literally never happened. Perhaps I'm just some strange miraculous outlier, but it sounds to me that it's much more likely you simply misread the situation of people enjoying themselves and having fun with their friends and family in the anticipation.

The DCA version cut that line as it was convoluted as to why a hotel would send us into an old TV show mixed with a haunted hotel story.

No, it was cut because this design was far cheaper to build. The DCA version's differences may have ended up having some nice positives and appealed to you more overall, but you're fooling yourself if you think they built a smaller version for any reason other than to get it done quicker and cheaper.

I wasn't saying campier as a negative, just a fact.

Just going ahead and calling your opinion a fact is never going to convince someone of something.

 

[Tom Morrow]

The Twilight Zone show was not campy at all, but the Florida version could really use a revamp, as the overuse of the items from the opening sequence is indeed campy. Get it? The window broke like in the video! And here it is breaking again! And a THIRD time! The items do nothing at all to enhance the story of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. They are also representing ideas, the idea of the Twilight Zone, not what you would literally see in the Twilight Zone, because the Twilight Zone isn't one specific dimension or whatever, it's a blanket term for weird, ironic, supernatural happenings.

I also say that the Florida tower needs a serious breath of life because it's honestly looking very tired. All the dramatic lighting inside is gone and turned up to bright levels, the audio is all out of sync and the levels are all over the place, the whole thing looks and feels pretty tired. I don't want a new story, but I would like them to enhance the current one and bring the ride up to 2017 standards.

I hate this new trend of only needing one or two good animatronics per ride- It would have been cool if they found ways to incorporate a lot more new animatronics.

Vs. Tower of Terror, which has zero animatronics?