Lost Continent's Lost Ambitions

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
While I support the removal of what's left of Lost Continent, a land that has been chipped away at over the last decade+, if it does get replaced with another IP related addition something intangible, but meaningful, will be lost in the process.

Disney's great non-IP attractions work because they're akin to ride-through cultural osmosis. They take what is sometimes centuries worth of oral and media tradition and distill that into a digestible, cohesive experience that is both familiar and new at the same time. You needn't have read Treasure Island or watched Captain Blood to know the context for the tropes in Pirates of the Caribbean. They exist outside the park in our collective imagination. Disney took these and added new music and technology to bring them to life for a modern audience that was also nostalgic for an older generation.

Lost Continent took three of the most recognizable Western cultural fantasies of the 19th/20th centuries (Medieval, Arabian and Greek Mythological) and put them into one area, with the intent of replicating Disney's success with shows not based on any particular movies. Again, you don't need to know any specific details about Sindbad, Poseidon or tales of dragons to understand these experiences because they have existed for so long that their settings and characters are immediately recognizable to an American or European audience.

This is not to say that the execution of these specific attractions didn't leave room for improvement (a lot of improvement for Sinbad), but an attempt was made. In breaking out of the usual Universal mold of "ride the movies", they gave added resonance and meaning for a park that would otherwise be overly reliant on 2 or 3 big IPs.

Universal knows what works for them. They know "ride the movies" and are keen to leverage their IPs across all the parks they own. They view non-IP stuff as wasted potential for cross-promotion. Unfortunately, that's true of Disney now too, though it's a bit easier to swallow with UNI given their own history.

Still, I personally would welcome another Poseidon, flaws and all, over another Fast and Furious or other screen based dud.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Zelda has its own feeling of older storytelling traditions and myth building that would make it a good spiritual successor IMO.

If they replace this area with something like Secret Life of Pets, that would sting more.
 

EPCOTCenterLover

Well-Known Member
SLOP needs to be placed on the other side of the park where Cartoon Alley exists, as the first part of an redo. There's little for families with smaller kids there.
 

Nonja

Active Member
Retheme this area to Greece. Keep Poseidon and Mythos as they are, put a Troyan themed spinner in a corner and use the Simbad theatre for a Mamma Mia! live show or a Olympic Games themed comedy show or a Greek God stunt show.

Cheap temporal makeover while they find something better to put in the area.
 

GuyFawkes

Active Member
SLOP needs to be placed on the other side of the park where Cartoon Alley exists, as the first part of an redo. There's little for families with smaller kids there.
Do you really want a bunch of families with small children, strollers etc????? I simply didn't go to Universal until my kids were old enough for Universal. You don't have to be everything to everyone. Universal could bring in more people easily with some new attractions and filling up empty space at their parks. No need to go for the small children crowd.

I have multiple children so I can say that. There are plenty of places I have not brought my kids because it's just not the place for them.
 

Frankenstein79

Well-Known Member
The Lost Continent never made any sense. You can't have a whole park of IP's except for one land. It just never fit in with everything else.

There must have been a Movie IP that they were going to do, but a deal fell through. Like Lord of the Rings or Looney Tunes.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
The Lost Continent never made any sense. You can't have a whole park of IP's except for one land. It just never fit in with everything else.

There must have been a Movie IP that they were going to do, but a deal fell through. Like Lord of the Rings or Looney Tunes.
Nothing fell through and there are two such lands.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Lost Continent also used to be three sub-lands; Merlin Wood, Sindbad's Bazar and area around Poseidon (name escapes me).
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
The Lost Continent never made any sense. You can't have a whole park of IP's except for one land. It just never fit in with everything else.

There must have been a Movie IP that they were going to do, but a deal fell through. Like Lord of the Rings or Looney Tunes.
It wasn’t an IP park. It was a park themed to stories shown in books…and Lost Continent certainly worked. Kong messed with that. Any Nintendo IP would destroy it.
 

jonnyc

Well-Known Member
Is there enough space to do a full new land here? I assumed it would get absorbed into the Wizarding World at some point.
 

Frankenstein79

Well-Known Member
It wasn’t an IP park. It was a park themed to stories shown in books…and Lost Continent certainly worked. Kong messed with that. Any Nintendo IP would destroy it.

I don't know where you're getting that. Every land except for the Lost Continent/Merlin Wood area is based on known IPs.

... And no, it isn't about just books. Jurassic Park is based on the movies series (not the book). While Marvel and Toon Lagoon (sunday funnies) are based on comics.
 

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the original concept for IoA was in fact stories from various forms of literature including, yes, comic books, and I remember hearing Jurassic Park specifically originating from the book too, though Universal not being embarrassed to indicate that they were leaning heavily from the movies. But truthfully I can't remember where I saw/heard all that from. Perhaps from some media when the park first opened? Maybe from the tv special that was made for the park's opening?

In any case, Universal's current way of promoting IoA is leaning on collections of stories (wherever they come from.)

Lost Continent is honestly still my favorite area of that park, even with it being a shell of its former self, and even with current and past attractions not being quite perfect but still aspiring to be something really special, and I think it is. I want to see Poseidon's Fury live on with some updates made to the attraction, though I know that that's unlikely. Still, Universal has just promoted someone from their creative team to actually fully lead the parks, so perhaps certain special areas like this one can be revitalized without completely losing their original direction.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the original concept for IoA was in fact stories from various forms of literature including, yes, comic books, and I remember hearing Jurassic Park specifically originating from the book too, though Universal not being embarrassed to indicate that they were leaning heavily from the movies. But truthfully I can't remember where I saw/heard all that from. Perhaps from some media when the park first opened? Maybe from the tv special that was made for the park's opening?

In any case, Universal's current way of promoting IoA is leaning on collections of stories (wherever they come from.)

Lost Continent is honestly still my favorite area of that park, even with it being a shell of its former self, and even with current and past attractions not being quite perfect but still aspiring to be something really special, and I think it is. I want to see Poseidon's Fury live on with some updates made to the attraction, though I know that that's unlikely. Still, Universal has just promoted someone from their creative team to actually fully lead the parks, so perhaps certain special areas like this one can be revitalized without completely losing their original direction.
This is correct. That was the original concept and, indeed, every original land is based upon stories from books.

Comic books are books. Obviously.
 

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