Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Autopia should be upgraded and keep its place in the park. The rides that actually should go are Buzz and Star Tours (Star Tours should be moved). Keep the Subs but ax the Nemo attachment.
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News Main Street Cinema Chapeked - UPDATE!!
- Thread starter Disney Analyst
- Start date
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
There aren’t allowed to be any more relaxing places at the park
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
We all agree that Autopia should be elevated and weaving through TL. Why don’t they just combine the Tron and old Rocket Rod’s concept and give us Autopia 3.0 or more like 5.0 at this point? Why can’t Autopia be the thrill ride weaving through TL on the elevated tracks? I know it’s not IP. But it’s not like Tron is selling a ton of merch.
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britain
Well-Known Member
Whoa! What if they employed some self-driving tech to create a virtual track for your vehicle? This way, you could really drive, really steer, and even really drive AROUND slow pokes ahead of you, but the car will keep you from bumping and crashing!
All of a sudden, Autopia is like something from... THE FUTURE!!!
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
That would be amazing! I figured making Autopia a thrill ride would imply some Self-driving backstory by WDI but to actually make them self driving with the ability to drive - that would be awesome.
Let there be benches!
Mac Tonight
Well-Known Member
YES!
TROR
Well-Known Member
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
This is just amazing. Not that they removed the merchandise, that they slapped some benches in there to give people more incentive to go in.
Mac Tonight
Well-Known Member
Cause benches were against Walt's original vision, right?
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
Correct. They've never been in there in 60+ years.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Maybe you could throw virtual turtle shells at people and see the fab five racing along with you as you drive pass various rides.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Now see, there's a good idea to bring some unique merchandise into that ignored little theater. They could set up a little backlit display of these old film strips and cels at that back curtain area, with a cash-wrap to the side. You could go in and watch these wonderful old cartoons and buy a little piece of them as a unique Disneyland souvenir.
But that type of thinking requires more than two minutes of thought, and also requires a certain level of knowledge of the park and respect for what it's mission statement is. The average 30 year old manager on Main Street USA in 2019 obviously lacks those skills you just displayed in a casual Internet post. The average store manager in 2019 thinks it's "good enough" to move some generic Mickey Mouse t-shirts and Made-In-China chunks of plastic crap, set up junk displays in front of the screens, and watch the dollars roll in.
It's great news that Disneyland management got caught with this tacky and boneheaded stunt and had to reverse their decision. But it's still troubling that enough salaried manager types on the Disneyland payroll thought this was an okay thing to do in the first place.
Whatever they do with the offerings in here, they need to keep a few benches in there so people don't have to sit on the ground like a homeless encampment.
When your customers have to sit on the floor to watch a cartoon, it's time to move some seating in there. That this little theater sat abandoned and ignored for so long tells me that the management here wasn't paying attention, and didn't care enough for their customers (people they have the gall to label "Guests") to provide some seating for them. That's just basic courtesy and being a good host.
It's nice they got caught being tacky and were forced to be better hosts to those who wander in to this attraction. A shame they had to be embarrassed publicly in the media in order to get there though.
What exactly is futuristic about decade old subs?? That should go too as the Autopia. This is basically all about nostalgia and why TL will continue to look like something from the 1970s and not the 2070s. People want TL 'revitalized' but it will still feel too dated and not fully themed if you can't get rid of the stuff that keeps it looking that way. None of this stuff fits anymore. Yes MAYBE they can find a way to make the Autopia actually not feel like you're just driving a car around a track but nearly every MK park has had this ride and no one has come up with a way to make it feel anymore than that in all this time.
I guess they could ax the subs themselves but keep the concept of futuristic under water vessels, but it should feel like something more than boarding a 60 year old submarine.
Its pretty funny, they claim they want more foot traffic in the place but then they never did anything like adding a few seating options in all this time to convince people to stay more than a few minutes. I really do like going in there. No, its not a huge priority but I usually stop in every time at night. But most people don't want to just stand watching the cartoons either, especially if you already been on your feet all day. More would come in if they knew you could sit and take some time to relax while watching. The Animation Studio in DCA figured this out years ago and added a lot more seating after the first few years it opened.
And if you wanted to sell something inside, fine, but keep it in line with the theme at least. Sell food items like bagged popcorn, drinks, candy, etc just like if you were going to to a real movie theater. Encourage people to buy something like that, give them a place to sit inside so they can eat it and watch. That's why people were so put off by it, it wasn't just because they were selling stuff inside, it was mostly the way it was done. It was rushed, crass and just completely out of theme.
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
So make it fit. It’s not impossible to make cars and submarines futuristic.
I don’t care about the other Disneyland-style parks.
But no one HAS in all this time, in any of the parks. You don't have to personally care about the other parks, the point is no one ANYWHERE has ever figured out a way to make them more futuristic and why most of them have simply been dumped and rightfully so. These will probably be sticking around AS IS for the next 60 years because of the nostalgia factor and Walt Disney personally created them so its harder to dump than the other places. But they really should've been gone decades ago now. And that's space they can create actual attractions that fit the theme of the land. TL will always feel and look outdated with these around.
TROR
Well-Known Member
No, nobody has put in the effort to make them more futuristic. We can rattle off a list of ideas on this forum of ways to fix the rides and I’m sure WDI has thought up even more (though I doubt they’re any good). Hong Kong’s did an ok job by having electric cars.
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Okay? So Disney should make it happen. They’re not going to, most likely, but they should.
Because no one probably thinks its worth the effort. Even a bigger reason to get rid of them because no one seems to think superficial changes will do all that much. And I'm under no illusion either will ever go. Even when it was rumored they were closing the subs a few years ago the internet nearly blew up over it, so it will be there as long as the park is. But its only there because of nostalgia, not because it fits the theme.
This is what is so funny to me, people get so upset about adding something clearly out of theme like GOTG (and I agree with that) but then will fight tooth and nail to keep stuff that is clearly outdated and no longer fits either which isn't any better IMO. This is why at the end of the day Disneyland is still an amusement park as it is a theme park, because people want to keep the rides they like, no matter how out of place or outdated they are.
And HKDL cars was OK, I rode it, but end of the day it was still just modern day cars circling a track. Being 'electric' didn't make it feel anymore futuristic or make the experience feel any different. And why they didn't last long.