ONE LITTLE SPARK 3: THE SPARK SQUAD - HYPE/DISCUSSION/NONSENSE THREAD!!!

[Pi on my Cake]

Another question blast from the past!
​

To begin our journey we must travel to the beginning of time. No, not the big bang! That's too boring. We'll have to settle for the age of the dinosaurs... so welcome to the Animal Kingdom!

Dinoland USA was an opening land for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, dedicated to honoring animals long gone. Dinoland USA has the difficult task of countering Universal’s own Jurrasic Park. To be fair, Dinoland USA has its own unique premise: A small highway town hits dinosaur bones and transforms into a “fossil discovery park” complete with time travel accessories.

Unfortunately, this theme doesn’t quite stick, and the land ends up feeling terribly tacky and a sore thumb among one of the most well-themed Disney parks. Imagineers, you are going to fix that.

For this challenge, teams will overhaul Dinoland USA.
- The proposal may include refurbishments, replacements, and removals.
- You may opt for a different lore, but try to keep to the prehistoric theme.
- This scene will be an All For One- Group Based Project. Your whole team will work together to make the project.

This challenge is due in ten days. Monday, July 15th at 12:00 AM WDW Time, or Sunday, July 14th at 9:00 PM Disneyland Time.

Best of luck to both teams!​

How would you overhaul Dinoland? Especially relevant as a question now that one of the two main attractions has been demolished lol​

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

As a Dinosaur apologist who adores the ride, the story, the campy dialogue, and everything, I adore this preshow. That being said, I absolutely agree that I wish you could just skip it or have it be a part of the queue itself rather than a pre-show. It is fun (in my humble opinion at least) but when you’re like me and you try to ride the ride as many times as you can in a trip, it does become more of a pain in the butt than anything

I actually enjoy that preshow too, it's one of those so goofy it fits. What I hate is I usually end up timing the ride for a shorter wait, so when waits are low, you blow right through the best part of the entire queue that has diorama and skeleton. I wish there was a way to linger in there for the show.

Totally agree! I love it, but it needs a bypass or something lol

Oh, it has one, though not advised to be used except in extreme circumstances.

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

Re: Pre-shows

I’ve seen awful examples of pre-shows with much lower hourly capacities than their rides - Dark Knight at Six Flags Great Adventure - which always feel like they’re wasting your time. Sadly, Mystic Manor’s pre-show reduces its ride capacity, and besides it grows tedious on the 8th straight ride through. A shame, since generally it’s a fantastic attraction.

Attractions with staggered loads, like shows or theater rides (Flight of Passage), will inevitably see guests waiting in one spot for up to the length of the attraction. Pre-shows make sense here, though something like FOP’s is clearly stalling for time. Tiki Room at Disneyland does this sort of thing fantastically.

At Disneyland, Haunted Mansion’s Stretching Room serves a practical purpose to get guests below the railroad level, while also providing entertaining atmosphere which can easily be considered “part of the attraction.” There’s a bit more queue past these than at their Magic Kingdom counterpart, which in California results in bottlenecks instead of empty Doom Buddies. DisneySea’s Journey to the Center of the Earth does practical, atmospheric pre-shows the best with elevators which carry you upstairs while simulating a multi-mile dive into the earth, all without one word of dialogue, and with capacity to match the ride thanks to many elevators side-by-side.

Rides like Dinosaur or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster don’t need pre-shows for any operational reason, so these are purely artistic choices. Bad decisions, I’d say. Dinosaur’s pre-show is almost pure, uncut exposition, and not terribly entertaining beyond its MST3K value, so god help you if you wanna marathon that ride. I like Velocicoaster’s approach, with a pulsing queue instead of holding guests in place, which makes the pre-show easier to ignore on the inevitable half dozen rerides.

Dinosaur’s preshow worked really well when the ride/park was still new. That ride used to get extremely long lines. Today not so much. I quite enjoy the set up, but I wish they’d redo the film. It’s showing its age.

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

Another question blast from the past!



How would you overhaul Dinoland? Especially relevant as a question now that one of the two main attractions has been demolished lol​

I would turn all the effects back on in Dinosaur. It was a lot scarier when it first opened.

 

[ThemeParkPriest]

Another question blast from the past!



How would you overhaul Dinoland? Especially relevant as a question now that one of the two main attractions has been demolished lol​

Of course it would be interesting to have the exercise of re-designing Dinoland USA in some sort of a team competition game (again), but as I see it:

People generally like Dinosaur the ride. Maybe re-name it back to Countdown to Extinction so it is more clear as to what the ride is about.
I’d be in favor of keeping the land as is or re-theming it to prehistoric creatures (one of the suggestions was to put in a Horizons style ride where guests could choose which animal they could bring to life).
Change up the plants and other landscaping so you really feel like you’ve gone to another world when you enter land
Add a family coaster to the land
Other possibilities: another dark ride (perhaps in the Theater) and some other ride for children

"Dinosaur" gets the retro name "Countdown to Extinction." Refresh the pre-show
Dinosaur-themed family coaster
Theater in the Wild becomes a pre-historic creatures dark ride
Landscaping update
Bar added to The Boneyard

 

[ThemeParkPriest]

’ve seen awful examples of pre-shows with much lower hourly capacities than their rides - Dark Knight at Six Flags Great Adventure - which always feel like they’re wasting your time. Sadly, Mystic Manor’s pre-show reduces its ride capacity, and besides it grows tedious on the 8th straight ride through. A shame, since generally it’s a fantastic attraction.

Here's an example from David Younger's "Theme Park Design" book:

"the Mickey Mouse Revue (Magic Kingdom, 1971) was notoriously appended with a 300 person capacity preshow late into the design process, despite the attraction holding 500 guests at a time, resulting in performances to a part-empty theater throughout its run" (480).​

 

[Shannoninthemagic]

I would retheme it to South America
Keep dino,but retheme it to Indy ( Maybe a different quest then Lands? )
Add Empors new groove area, Maybe Yzma's roller coaster " Wrong lever Kronk." ( thinking that would take over hester's and chesters) If there's room to keep the spinner, change it into lammas
Maybe also add Encanto somewhere? ( Boneyard area maybe turns into a Casita playspace and a meet and greet section.)

 

[Lizzy May Bee]

Dinosaur is a stupid movie so base the ride off of a non-stupid movie or no movie at all and uh make the rest of the stuff less sickening and better.

 

[ThemeParkPriest]

Dinosaur is a stupid movie so base the ride off of a non-stupid movie or no movie at all and uh make the rest of the stuff less sickening and better.

I had my second seizure (of 2) after going to the late showing of Dinosaur and then staying awake for an EEG. Good times!

 

[Pi on my Cake]

Dinosaur is a stupid movie so base the ride off of a non-stupid movie or no movie at all and uh make the rest of the stuff less sickening and better.

Alternate idea: Base it off of an even stupider movie!

Mars Needs Moms the E-Ticket Experience coming to Dinoland!

 

[PerGron]

Alternate idea: Base it off of an even stupider movie!

Mars Needs Moms the E-Ticket Experience coming to Dinoland!

let’s just turn all of Animal Kingdom into a space park based on irrelevant IP. Can’t wait for Kilimanjaro Safaris to be a Starship Troopers bug shooting attraction.

 

[Chaos Cat]

I just someone call mascot suits "corporate fursuits" and now I must inflict those words on you all.

 

[Lizzy May Bee]

I just someone call mascot suits "corporate fursuits" and now I must inflict those words on you all.

Accurate

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

I would retheme it to South America
Keep dino,but retheme it to Indy ( Maybe a different quest then Lands? )
Add Empors new groove area, Maybe Yzma's roller coaster " Wrong lever Kronk." ( thinking that would take over hester's and chesters) If there's room to keep the spinner, change it into lammas
Maybe also add Encanto somewhere? ( Boneyard area maybe turns into a Casita playspace and a meet and greet section.)

That’s….
That’s a really awesome idea, Shan!!

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

I just someone call mascot suits "corporate fursuits" and now I must inflict those words on you all.

I HAVE DED

 

[PerGron]

Another question blast from the past!



How would you overhaul Dinoland? Especially relevant as a question now that one of the two main attractions has been demolished lol​

In all honestly, I think Dinoland should remain the weird land that it is. It’s kitschy and feels unique in the otherwise super serious Animal Kingdom. Now I adore DAK and it’s serious tone and nature (pun intended), probably more than Joe Rhode myself himself, but I think the contradiction in Dinoland fits.

My plan would see the land expanded to take over the Theater in the Wild building and create two unique sub-lands in Dinoland. The Dino Institute would remain serious with Dinosaur (though I’d change the name to CTX like everyone else) and I’d expand the museum to be a proper walkthrough. I’d also add in a boat ride ala The Jungle Cruise on a smaller scale with animatronic dinosaurs in it in order to provide a secondary family friendly attraction (could be another time travel thing, or just keep it animatronics as a model, I don’t really care either way.) Finally, I’d add in more animal exhibits of species that have been around since the dinosaurs (tuatara, keep the crocodile, etc) and animals that resemble/are descendants of dinosaurs (cassowary, shoebill, etc.) and maybe a few species extinct in the wild for good measure.

As for the Dinoland U.S.A. Side, I say go ham with it. Make it as kitschy and whacky as you can. Triceratops Spin should stay, maybe with a tower drop ride, a tilt-a-whirl, a mirror maze, etc. to really hammer in that this is a roadside tourist trap. Sprinkle in more obvious storyline touches like a plaque to Chester and Hester. I’d also feature a small walkthrough sort of like a haunted house that shows how dinosaurs were once presented, the claymation terrible lizards with scales and sharp teeth and weird lumps.

Focus half of the land on the serious perils of extinction and real paleontological research and whatnot while the other land shows us how dinosaurs and paleontology and even extinction were once considered, and may even be considered by more. Keep it weird, but not just to be cheap, but to really show the danger of apathy when it comes to conservation and extinction. While the dinosaurs may have disappeared long before us, learning from them helps us understand and protect the animals today. Apathy is cheap and tacky.

 

[MickeyWaffleCo.]

probably more than Joe Rhode myself

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

I think the biggest strength Dinoland has going for it right now is its sense of history and world-building. I actually really like the feel of the dino institute being this shady out of the way building and the rest of the land being taken over by fun-loving scientists who are crazy about the 1950s dinosaur craze. I would keep as much of that as I can while still...yes, taking an absolute bulldozer to all of Chester and Hesters. I would maybe turn that area into a college courtyard type of setting with the main Dino Institute building still looming in the back of the land. I'd definitely include something akin to the old Triceratops Encounter at Islands of Adventure. I'm also going to steal the Theater in the Wild becoming a slow moving, peaceful dinosaur boat ride idea because that would definitely round out the attraction roster. I'd also have walk-around dino institute members for streetmosphere and to flesh out the land and the tension between the goofy scientists and the money hungry institute. And of course I would give Dinosaur a MAJOR overhaul...remove any and all references to the movie, bring it back to the "Countdown of Extinction" glory, maybe even put in a new Carnatarous that's similar in scope and technology to the Jurassic World I-Rex. Contrast this with a really nice, peaceful boat ride that doesn't have any sort of scary moments and you'd have a real hit.

 

[Chaos Cat]

Does anyone else have a problem where they have an idea they want to share but then keep to themselves incase it can be used in a competition or am I alone on this?

 

[Lizzy May Bee]

Does anyone else have a problem where they have an idea they want to share but then keep to themselves incase it can be used in a competition or am I alone on this?

I’ve forgotten some of them at this point