Harry Potter ride: a possibility?

[KentB3]

There has been a lot of talk about the rumored Harry Potter ride a WDW, which was to be built for Disney-MGM or EPCOT's World Showcase United Kingdom. The rumor got started about 2 or 3 years ago, when someone at Disney-MGM (on a day Michael Eisner was in the park) who was assumed to be an Imagineer, spoke on a cellphone conversation "I need those Harry Potter ride storyboards ready by Monday". Whether this person actually was a WDI Imagineer remains to be seen. Shortly after that, Universal Orlando President Bob Gault was asked at a meeting, "Has Universal pursued Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?" His reply was, “Disney has Harry Potter wrapped up. We will check into Lord of the Rings."

I was seriously considering adding a Harry Potter ride to my Disney Studios theme park. It would be sort of a combination Great Movie Ride and Star Tours, with a ride through of the Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, with depictions of various scenes/events from the various Harry Potter books and movies.

Is it a possibility? It should be possible, since Disney/ABC owns the network television broadcast rights to ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ – a deal that allegedly cost Disney around $100 million. Also, Harry Potter books are sold at Disney-MGM and World Showcase UK (as far as I know), and music from the Harry Potter movies plays at Disney-MGM near The Great Movie Ride.
Also, I am a big Harry Potter fan myself, so it really would be great to include this ride in my Disney theme park resort!

BTW, keep in mind that my Disney theme park resort would be a join venture between Disney (owning about 75% of the theme park resort) and a company similar to Oriental Land Company (owning the remaining 25%). I do know that this is the most likely way Disney would ever open another theme park resort in the U.S., especially after the fallen Disney's America planned for northen Virginia near Washington D.C. Also, I believe WeirdOne planned a similar joint venture for his OUTSTANDING Down Under Resort created here on the Imagineer forum, which was to be owned jointly between Disney and a company called Gold Coast Land Company, as far as I know.

FYI, Oriental Land Company owns Tokyo Disneyland, not Disney. OLC buys the rights to use Disney's characters and rides in the parks, and has done a VERY impressive job with running/designing/creating Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea; the latter of which is a truly amazing park! Just thought you'd like to know! :animwink:

 

[ImaginEAR]

Do it! Do it! Ignore the flames from all the Harry Potter haters, make the ride! With your Imagineering talent, it could turn out AMAZING!

 

[KentB3]

Do it! Do it! Ignore the flames from all the Harry Potter haters, make the ride! With your Imagineering talent, it could turn out AMAZING!

Thanks so much! I really appreciate that!!!!! :sohappy: :sohappy: :animwink:

 

[Since1976]

A Peter Pan-type ride would be ideal, as we could ride/fly through and relive the best scenes in the movies.

If anything like this ever happens, I think Disney would probably wait until all 7 movies are released. And that should be sometime around 2010!

 

[ImaginEAR]

A Peter Pan-type ride would be ideal, as we could ride/fly through and relive the best scenes in the movies.

If anything like this ever happens, I think Disney would probably wait until all 7 movies are released. And that should be sometime around 2010!

Oooo... ya! We can fly around on broomsticks (err... that can be fixed...) and see scenes from the books like Harry with the Mirror of Erised, in the Chamber of Secrets, saving Sirius, the finhal task of the Triwizard Tournament, in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries, and other important parts in the series. There can be a whole Harry Potter mini-land!

 

[stitchcastle]

You could make a whole HP themed land like "Hogwarts" and make it like the conservation station where you have to go to it via the train (Hogwarts Express) only. you could also have an interactive Sorting hat ala Turtle Talk. Plus you could theme the Womping Willow into a spinner ride (like Dumbo) with cars as the vehicles. you could even have an E-ticket ride for each of the seven books. plus free-roaming AA Hippogriphs. You could also have the entire labyrinth from the TriWizard Tournament as a play area (ala Alice's Curious Labyrinth in DLP)

If you wanna go all-out, you can make an entire HP theme park with that street where Gringotts is (i forgot the name ) as the mainstreet and Hogwarts castle as the main Wienie and the main entrance could be platform 9 3/4. "lands" could include Diagon Alley, The forest, Hogwarts (duh), that village near hogwarts, etc...

Harry Potter has a broad enough history to make an entire theme park out of, just like The Wizard of Oz.

 

[ImaginEAR]

I really like that idea stitchcastle!

Wait... do you hear it? Muppets' Harry Potter...