Guardians Tower announcement Saturday in SD ...

[Andrew C]

More terrifying than the person on Twitter who blamed the GotG redo on a Zionist conspiracy?

 

[asianway]

In D&D you were a wizard, warrior or thief (i'm oversimplifying) but Knights and Princes just not there, You could be a paladin but that's as close as it gets.

Wizard, Ranger, Cavalier, Thief, Barbarian, & Acrobat

 

[Variable]

I'm old and I can tell you that boys never fantasized about being princes or knights. At least not since the 16th century. Back in the 20th century boys fantasized about being Cowboys & Indians, army soldiers or Marines, astronauts, and any number of comic book superheroes.

LOl well, I'm "a boy" .. knights once in awhile, sure. Until oh, 3rd or 4th grade. Then it was war man! Us vs the commies or the Nazis! But princes? No, they were too pretty and wore those frilly clothes. Then of course Monte Python hit, and we had to ride in search of the Holy Grail ... but that's another story, punctuated with talk of great tracks of land and nuns

 

[Matt_Black]

Wizard, Ranger, Cavalier, Thief, Barbarian, & Acrobay

Wait, wait, wait... I think we need to clarify what edition we're talking about here. I'm a Second Edition baby, and the classes were Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Druid, Specialty Priest, Wizard, Specialist (focusing on a specific Wizard School, like Illusions), Thief, and Bard. A few books added a new class every now and then, like Psionicist.

Now, within those classes, there were what were called "kits", ways to customize the class for a player. For instance, the Thief class had a "Fence" kit, which was a thief who specialized in selling stolen merchandise.

And this is just in general. We're not going to get into all the variations introduced in the various campaign settings, of which Planescape was the best and I will hear no argument otherwise.

 

[Matt_Black]

But princes? No, they were too pretty and wore those frilly clothes.

Ah, but kids dress up as Dracula, and he's the PRINCE of Darkness!

 

[Variable]

In 1971, Liberty Square was themed like that.

Big thing was the shooting gallery too.

 

[Variable]

Ah, but kids dress up as Dracula, and he's the PRINCE of Darkness!

He's a dandy boy that couldn't get girls the honest way

 

[WDWFigment]

A point I neglected to mention was the crazy idea that the Twilight Zone IP had become too old, too obscure. That it needed to be updated for today's Jobian society.

BS!

First, if that were the case, then Disney would have swapped Splash Mountain (oh, let's also not point out again that Dumbo and Peter Pan are as racist as Song of the South!) in three parks and Mr. Toad in one park (or two if we include DLP's fast food locale) and the Swiss Family Robinson at two etc etc.

Quality attractions succeed or fail based upon the experience, not the source material. Sure, quality and well-known material can only help, but Disney could open an amazing attraction based on Atlantis or Treasure Planet and ... fans would flock to them.

Also, there seems to be some idea that CBS holding the rights was an issue. Totally incorrect. CBS will still hold the rights for attractions in O-Town and Paris. And Disney is not going to be saving much, if anything, by removing the IP from DCA based on what I know about these type of contracts.

Finally, I know some people are surprised the attraction will remain open until after the Christmas holidays. What you may not know is that outside work on the building will begin long before the attraction shuts down.

It doesn't take a genius to realize the licensing agreement between CBS and Disney for Twilight Zone usage is probably for a de minimis amount. It's not as if Twilight Zone was some hot property that Disney would've overpaid for even back in the early 1990s. It's about as popular then as it is now. Tower of Terror has done as much for CBS in maintaining/elevating the brand awareness of Twilight Zone as use the name has for Disney. It's a mutually-beneficial relationship.

If anything, the cost of licensing out the music that will purportedly be used in the Guardians Tower will be significantly more costly than licensing the TZ brand and trade dress. That is, assuming Disney doesn't go the cheap route and use different music. (Big assumption.)

 

[Variable]

I would like to be one of these knights though....
View attachment 153625

They weren't the swiftest Andrew!

 

[Variable]

No but you can deal with that by having nuggets etc 'off menu' so if the guest WANTS them they are there just not a primary offering, Just like you can get chicken fingers and Mac-n-Cheese at the Leaky Cauldron.

Remember most chain restaurants have 'off menu' or 'secret menu' items. Like really big burger stacks and 'Animal Style' at In-n-Out burger.

Yeah. Off the menu. I'm going to go into a vegan restaurant some day and oder a steak, off the menu. I wonder how well that will work?

 

[ford91exploder]

Yeah. Off the menu. I'm going to go into a vegan restaurant some day and oder a steak, off the menu. I wonder how well that will work?

I hope you are kidding not what I meant at all. Here for example is a 'Secret Menu' website

http://secretmenus.com/mcdonalds/secret-menu/

All that's required at Skipper is * Childrens Items on Request * as a line on the menu does not spoil the theme and it fixes the 'finicky eater' problem.

 

[ford91exploder]

That is a real Twitter account? Good grief.

Not for long....

 

[WDWFigment]

It will be beloved because today's fans are not what I would term Disney fans largely, they are BRAND extensions of the many different IPs/brands controlled by TWDC.

I would not be shocked to see them take a shot at people like myself that are critical of what Marvel and Lucas are doing to dilute the real BRAND -- Disney. It's OK, I can take criticism much better than Joe Rohde can anyway.

BTW, did you see that he retweeted @WDWFigment's glowing review of Tiffins, which by all accounts (except for crazy O-Town lifestyles with too much time and money who have dined there 10 times already) is not doing well due to its exotic menu and crazy for a theme park price points, was retweeted glowingly by the man, the myth, the earring?

You're right that I posted a glowing review of Tiffins. I also commented extensively on price points (and that we did the $28 Taste of Tiffins menu because I wasn't willing to gamble on the costlier options).

In the past you've lamented the degradation of Disney dining, and how things are being "Walmarted" to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The homogenization of menus also bothers me, which is why I'm a fan of restaurants like this (and Skipper Canteen) that are more exotic.

The prices are up there, there's no denying that. Personally, though, I take far greater issue with some crumby burger at Pecos Bill being $16 (yes, really) than food that is actually high quality having (what I think is) standard Disney mark-up. (Actually, for $28, I'd consider several of the Taste of Tiffins options to be good values in real world terms.)

Maybe I'm just another crazy lifestyler, but I realize I'm going to be overpaying for food virtually anywhere at WDW, but my strong preference is in favor of quality, ambitious menus if that is going to be the case. From that perspective, I have a hard time knocking Tiffins. (Maybe that wasn't your intent?)

The same applies with Ample Hills (which I saw you mention previously). The sundaes there are $8.50, but the product is unique and incredibly high quality (particularly the butter cake one). From my perspective, the value proposition is significantly better there than $4.79 hot fudge sundae at Aunt Gravity's. The latter is $4 cheaper, but it's also the same ole generic soft serve sundae you could buy anywhere. The former is a premium product.

Extending the examples further, I think you'd agree that All Star Sports is overpriced at $100/night, but a harbor view room at Hotel MiraCosta is not overpriced at $300/night (even if that is a tough pill to swallow).

I have no issue with Disney (or any company) charging premium prices, so long as they are delivering a premium product.

 

[Variable]

yeah I know what you meant
its a big thing now, the hidden menu. Why, its so hidden, everybody's doing it

 

[ford91exploder]

A bit of googling turned up the BK "Suicide Burger" 1000 Cal and 2500 Mg Sodium..

 

[RSoxNo1]

I've sorta said all I feel is needed on this topic and I am on holiday and really this is no longer news as I told y'all it was coming quite a while ago (just ask the good folks who monitor me for TWDC), but a couple of things really bother me.

This idea that the relative merits of WDW's ToT somehow in any way, shape or form make this OK in Anaheim. They do not. Again, Disney has spent $2 billion on revamping DCA since 2008 to make it more cohesive and quality and one area where it was just fine thematically was having that attraction in that corner.

If you think that what happens at one resort is OK, because there are multiples and you are lucky enough to be able to go to them, then -- as I've said repeatedly for months -- it's time to rip out the MK's lousy version of Pirates because there are four better versions around the globe and you could do so much in that building with that ride system.

Really look forward to the excuses and explanations for the GotG attraction coming to The Corpse of EPCOT. How many pages of mostly drivel did the excusing of Frozenstrom bring here? This will easily be double or triple ...fanbois are more into talking raccoons with guns than singing snowmen and an ice princess who might or might not be a lesbian, but why do we care anyway?

There seems to be this disconnect with fans of today, mostly either Millennials or people who only started visiting WDW post 2000, that just tossing random IPs/franchises anywhere is fine because Bob Iger and Chappie say so. That again is not the case. What you are really saying is you don't care about what Disney parks were all about, you care about today's hot IP and when in FL you'd really like it if every park was the MK etc.

Indeed, people in the fan community tend to view me as crazy when I state that DAK is by far my favourite park at WDW today because it is the ONLY one that has remained true to its mission statement and even adding Pandora doesn't really harm or change that because of the messages in Avatar.

If you don't get why the Star Wars Experience doesn't belong taking up a huge piece of DL real estate or why adding a Guardians overlay to the ToT just are not right, then you don't get the basics of setting a time and place and truly transporting you. This is the same crap as liking Princess rooms at Dixie Landings or Pirate (and the removed Nemo) rooms at CBR or having carpeting (again, thankfully removed) at the Beach Club with Ariel's friends all over it.

Disney used to be about visiting different idealised times and places, some that existed, some of fantasy. It wasn't about stepping into a BRAND. And, fundamentally, you either get that point or you do not.

This branding is 100% fueled by the success of Potter. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of why people like that land. Disney is turning into Universal, crapping on nostalgia and praying on familiarity.

 

[RSoxNo1]

One thought's been bugging me: if it is true what we say and IP doesn't matter, then why does it matter what IP ToT has?

'Quality attractions succeed or fail based upon the experience, not the source material'. So if a quality attraction such as ToT succeeds based regardless of source material, then it will still succeed despite GotG.

That's looking at the attraction by itself. Much like Frozen Ever After, I expect Mission Breakout to be successful and popular. But that doesn't necessarily make it the right decision. I'm on the "i'm ok with it" group, but you can't argue that at the very least Tower of Terror as it's currently constituted is a substantially better fit for DCA's theme than Mission Breakout. These types of things DO matter. A better direction would be to make Hollywoodland more in line with Sunset Boulevard instead of ripping out the only thing that made sense for that area of that park.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm old and I can tell you that boys never fantasized about being princes or knights. At least not since the 16th century. Back in the 20th century boys fantasized about being Cowboys & Indians, army soldiers or Marines, astronauts, and any number of comic book superheroes.

One of the most ridiculous things to come out of the New Fantasyland announcement of 2009 at D23 was Jay Rasulo's idiotic and vapid description of all the Princess Meet n Greets and Girl Power Attractions coming to the new land. And then they had some WDI intern quickly paint in boys pretending to be valiant knights with cardboard shields while their sisters were swept away to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for their glitter hair makeover.

That 2009 D23 Expo announcement proved to me that Jay Rasulo was nothing more than a clueless stuffed shirt, and WDI was belching out marketable mish-mash meant to please executives and a slim slice of customer demographic. No 8 year old boy would want to hang out "pretending to be a knight" in a Princess Palace when he could be getting ready to puke on Space Mountain or throwing dirt clods on Tom Sawyer Island. Jay Rasulo was an idiot.

#ThanksBruceVaughn #ThanksChrisBeatty

 

[Variable]

A bit of googling turned up the BK "Suicide Burger" 1000 Cal and 2500 Mg Sodium..

Put a little Heinz 57 on that baby!

 

[seabreezept813]

Sure it can, they could decide to retheme Splash Mountain to Zootopia. Imagine how deep the depression would run.

And that would be my bottom line..there is no Disney without my favorite laughing place