Mickey's Fun House or Mickey's Madcap Circus for MK's Storybook Circus (open brainstorming)

[mharrington]

I have been coming back to this time and time again...

I have had two different, competing ideas for WDW's Magic Kingdom's Storybook Circus, and they both are a dark ride involving Mickey Mouse. But I can't decide which one to choose. One is "Mickey's Fun House" and the other is "Mickey's Madcap Circus", which is an extension of Mickey's Big Top Spin. The big reason why I'm agonizing over which one to do is because there are pros and cons of doing either one. I even had a poll set up to pick and choose. I also tried to use the Disneyland Australia thread as a means of working on it before putting it into a real park.

First, I'll talk about Mickey's Fun House:

As stated countless times before, Mickey's Fun House is based on an old concept of "Mickey's Mad House", which was to have been created for the never-built Dumbo's Circusland at Disneyland. It was a wild mouse coaster in a dark ride environment through the old black-and-white Mickey cartoons of the 1930s. However, I have had very little information about it to go on, and I was pretty much left to come up with my own ideas from scratch.

Anyway, for my version, the concept is that Mickey has his own fun house for guests at this land. But Pete, no-good ruffian that he is, thinks it ruins his stint as a strongman. So he kidnaps Minnie Magnifique's Pirouetting Parisian Poodles and takes them into the fun house. Now Mickey has to get them back, and occasionally, he has help from Donald and Goofy. You first see Mickey introducing you to the fun house and you go through a pair of curtains into a cartoon world of old Mickey cartoons. You start out by seeing the boat from "Steamboat Willie". And from there, it goes through a variety of locations from similar cartoons. It starts off near a wharf with the boat ("Steamboat Willie") on it, but then it goes into several vignettes of Mickey shorts.

When I showed it for @MANEATINGWREATH, however, he legitimately argued about not putting scenes of old cartoon shorts into the ride, because he thought that he was picking up on a circus storyline with scenes from Mickey cartoons, and that one should be distinguished from the other. I pointed out that this was based on an old abandoned concept, but he insisted that a dark ride with scenes from cartoon shorts would work better in Toontown. I tried to explain that this was not necessarily for Disneyland Australia but for WDW's Magic Kingdom, which of course no longer has a Toontown. But he stood by his claim about not having cartoon shorts scenes and a circus in the same spot at the same time, because he thought it was too much.

Next time, I will get to Mickey's Madcap Circus and provide my arguments about that.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Which do you like better? Btw how are you Mharrington?

 

[mharrington]

Which do you like better? Btw how are you Mharrington?

I'm doing okay, I guess. And I don't know which I like better. I'd like to go with Fun House, but it seems like it doesn't really fits the circus environment.

Now, here's my concerns regarding Mickey's Madcap Circus:

It is an improved version of Mickey's Big Top Spin. @MANEATINGWREATH took it and made it his own somewhat, and it's certainly a lot better than what I could have done. Both my concept and his involves various vignettes of Disney characters in a circus setting. His concept was that Donald is no longer a snake charmer, but now in charge of seals. But one seal, Salty, escapes and Donald tries to track it down. Here's basically what MEW described in his verbal tour:

I'm thinking we have it held within the confines of a Barnum Museum-type structure, a la Basket Buddy's concept art seen in the prior link to Madcap Circus. Inside, guests meander through an immersive queue past the dressing rooms of the various performers, a select few complete with appropriate sound effects coming from within.

1. Minnie Magnifique and Her Pirouetting Parisian Poodles
2. Hyacinth Hippo: Ballerina of the Big Top (and Her Partner, Ben Ali Gator)
3. The Astounding Donald: King of the Seals
4. Madame Daisy Fortuna
5. Strongman Pete: Lifter of All Things Heavy
6. Professor Von Drake and His Deep Sponge
7. The Magnificent Roger & His Lovely Assistant, Jessica (Roger & Jessica Rabbit as magicians)
8. Pluto the Wonder Pup
9. The Flying Piggolinis
10. The Great Goofini - Reckless Rocketeer
11. Mickey Mouse - Ringmaster
12. Horace Horsecollar - Lion Tamer
13. Clara Cluck - Pitch Perfect Prima Donna
14. The Reluctant Dragon: Fire Eater (door complete with scorch marks and smoke)

After the winding corridor of dressing rooms, guests meander through the maintenance garage for the big top's various vehicles, including a Herbie-like clown car, a traditional circus caravan, and a Toon Town-esque fire engine, complete with flat tires. The maintenance garage gives way to an empty wild animal menagerie. It seems as if all of the animals have escaped, as evident by the twisted bars, animal shaped wall bursts, and paw prints on the hay-covered floor. Finally, the menagerie gives way to the load area which advertises in poster form the various acts of the circus, including, but not limited to:

1. Lambert, the Sheepish Lion
2. Willie, the Opera Singing Whale
3. Shere Khan - Man-Eater
4. King Louie: Last of the Jungle Swingers
5. Humphrey the Bear - Picnic Thief Extraordinaire
6. Salty the Seal
7. Clarabelle Cow, Queen of the Tightrope (her poster parodies HM; she stands on a tightrope high above Tick-Tock Croc)
8. Oswald the Lucky Lion Bait
9. Gargantua, King of the Apes (the gorilla from "Donald's Gorilla")
10. Goliath II - The World's Smallest Elephant

Guests then board a trackless ride vehicle (a circus caravan) and depart for the mayhem of the circus. Ringmaster Mickey introduces the three ring circus, giving way into the first major ride scene - a free-for-all spin around the first act of the circus, featuring various acts and gags. At the end of this scene, Donald, readying his seals for the performance discovers that one of his seals (Salty) has disappeared. Ever furious, Donald embarks after Salty, taking riders with him on an even more madcap ride, including a trip through the stationed circus train (past wild animals and into the nutty clown car), a dangerous stint through the prop storage, and into the grand finale, where Ringmaster Mickey pulls an unexpected Donald into the grand finale - the Dunk Tank act. Salty activates the dunk tank, plunging the whole circus into an "underwater" finale. If we flesh out the ride itself we can really make a merge of the two concepts.

He also thought of the ride itself as like Pooh's Hunny Hunt, in order to justify the large amount of characters. In each major show scene in trackless dark rides, the vehicles take their time, spinning around large show rooms and seeing various special effects and characters. He thought of using the layout of Mystic Manor as a format.

Anyway, now that that is all accounted for, I want it to be known that a huge footprint as that will surely be required for this ride is all well and good for Disneyland Australia. However, this is for WDW's Magic Kingdom, which means that liberties would have to be taken with making it work. In either case of Fun House or Madcap Circus, I was thinking of putting this into the space that is currently occupied by the Tomorrowland Speedway. In the case of Madcap Circus, I would think that Mystic Manor is a lot bigger than the space that Tomorrowland Speedway has to offer. Also, I was not happy with the fact that, in both my version and MEW's, there seems to be too many characters in there.

Okay, now that we got the information about the two rides out of the way, which one do you think would work better? That's what the poll is for, so you can vote for your favorite. And remember, if we went with the latter Madcap Circus ride, I would have to fit it in somehow. That means removing the Mystic Manor technology and really whittling down the number of characters featured.

Thoughts, comments, concerns?

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

There really good. I'm doing good just waiting to download Mewtwo.

 

[mharrington]

There really good.

Unfortunately, I have no idea which one to pick.

In terms of Madcap Circus, there's really no space for it, at least not for the size at Disneyland Australia, which means I would have to reduce the space and the amount of scenes in the ride. I would also be compelled to use different, more conventional technology as opposed to trackless like Mystic Manor.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

You could add it in Disney Kingdom Toronto since theres some space in Fantasyland, and ToonTown.

 

[mharrington]

You could add it in Disney Kingdom Toronto since theres some space in Fantasyland, and ToonTown.

When I create attractions like these, I try to be as realistic as possible. I'm trying to pick which one of these two concepts to put into the Magic Kingdom, not trying to include it into an entirely different park.

I just want to know how best to reduce the footprint for WDW's MK version so it can fit there.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

When I create attractions like these, I try to be as realistic as possible. I'm trying to pick which one of these two concepts to put into the Magic Kingdom, not trying to include it into an entirely different park.

I just want to know how best to reduce the footprint for WDW's MK version so it can fit there.

Like I said your choice.

 

[mharrington]

Like I said your choice.

Well, I just don't know how to do it. I'm trying to figure out how to get it to fit the space without compromising the concept. I have two problems that needs to be addressed: first, how to do the ride system in this likely-downsized version because the trackless system probably won't cut it; and second, what characters can stay vs. what characters should be removed. The thing is, Pete's Silly Sideshow nearby will now be home to several lesser characters instead of Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, who are all now in the ride. Some of these lesser characters were likely to be included in MEW's ride for DLA, but to include it into this version, too, would be redundant.

Please don't make do this all by myself! I need help with this.