-Team Purple Reviews-
@Disney Dad 3000 - No Submission
Unless, I missed it you didn't submit anything. You did submit back for Scene 2 for the first individual round (though a bit late), but you have not been as active throughout the rest of the game as a lot of the other players. This shouldn't be too big of a mark against you, but this may effect things during the next eliminations heading into the finals having missed once and had spotty activity.
@Disneylover152 - No Submission
Unless, I missed it you didn't submit anything. You also did not submit back for Scene 2 for the first individual round, but you have been active throughout the rest of the game, so this shouldn't be too big of a mark against you. But this may effect things during the next eliminations heading into the finals having missed twice.
@Evilgidgit - Bedknobs & Broomsticks: Enchanted Travels
This was a wonderfully outside the box project! You don’t see Bedknobs & Broomsticks get much love from Disney or from Disney fans. But what better time to build a ride than right when it comes out at peak popularity! It is clear this is an idea you have wanted to do for a while and had a definite passion for! Overall, I thought this was a pretty great project that did a great job at telling a story in dark ride form.
Fantasyland style dark rides are not usually good at telling stories more complex than “wander around till something bad happens and then we escape and/or get sent to hell.” Yet, you manage to tell the story in such a simple, concise, visual, and streamlined way that you make a rather complex plot (by dark ride standards) work very well! That is something that I think might be the strongest part of the project. You took what is usually the biggest weakness of this style of ride and made it work as its biggest strength!
That is something you are really good at. I remember in the Lilo & Stitch project, I was really unsure of how the ride would blend into Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland without changing a lot, yet your write up entirely sold me on it! You have a knack for turning weaknesses into strengths!
Plus, just overall this was a strong dark ride concept!
There were some negatives though. Relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but definitely some negatives that hold your project back a bit. Primarily as they relate to the scene itself.
First off, the facade and queue seem perfect for modern Fantasyland, especially over in Disneyland. But for 70s Magic Kingdom with this ride type, it is (and I’m aware this is gonna sound weird) too good. This was an era where the queues and facades were all the festival tents and switchbacks. Your queue is excellent and immersive and realistic scale for a dark ride, but it is too much Fantasyland in this era. It would stick out pretty heavily in Florida Fantasyland at the time.
Also, I’m not sure if this as a substitute/replacement for Snow White works. Snow White’s Scary Adventures were famous for being… well… scary. A substitute/replacement for that ride at opening day should match that scary tone. If you had modelled this more on the whimsical tone of Peter Pan’s flight (flying beds actually flying could have been a neat touch) or the madcap tone of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, this would have made a lot more sense. As it stands, it feels less of a substitute for snow White and more of just an excuse to do a dark ride.
Summing it all up, this is an excellent dark ride with amazing story telling that would be sure to have many classic scenes that would be remembered for years to come, but some issues with how it fits into the land and as a substitute for Snow white might hold you back.
@nated1226 - No Submission
Unless, I missed it there you didn't submit anything. You did submit back for Scene 2 for the first individual round and have been active throughout the game, so this shouldn't be a major mark against you.
@PerGronStudio - Sleepy Hollow
Perhaps the most unique presentation of the competition so far! It isn’t super complex and flashy, but the simple intro and outtro and font change did a great job themeing your presentation as a secret imagineering document and was an excellent touch adding a lot of charm and character to your project. It was a small thing, but it was a unique thing that really helped you to stand out!
The idea behind this was really strong tying Sleepy Hollow more into Liberty Square as a thematic fit while not losing the charm of the original land. It also does a great job of serving as a successor to Haunted Mansion without feeling like just a retread of the ride with the Headless Horseman added in. This is very much its own unique ride while also serving as a fantastic spiritual successor and substitute for the Haunted Mansion. A perfect fit for the prompt! Only thing that didn’t blend is the stretching room. It felt like you included it just because of it’s fame with it really not fitting here. A different preshow could have improved the project more.
The addition of other spooks, creatures, and ghosts known to the New England area was a smart evolution of the source material! It feels like maybe a bit of a stretch going from the classic short with one ghost that was implied to possibly just be a prank from Brom Bones to a world full of ghastly ghouls. Yet, it works really well in your write up!
I remember
@kmbmw777 doing a Brave rollercoaster in the first round of Sorceerer’s Apprentice Season 4 (it was a part of the infamous 84 page Fantasyland expansion) that involved Merida having to battle a dragon. On one hand, adding a dragon is a pretty big leap from the movie. Yet, it worked the way it was executed without feeling too random or like too much of a stretch. Your project did a similar thing. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see one or two more unique ghosts in your write up besides just the banshee woman. Even just in a passing mention of ghouls also found in the ride, if not full explanations.
Also, the ending with Ichabod… At first while reading, I thought that seemed a step too far and perhaps too dark. Granted, this park also opened with ride that ends in Hell, so maybe this isn’t too far. Yet, Ichabod being shown to be dead unlike the more ambiguous ending of the short feels like perhaps a step too far into a dark direction.
BUT
The ending that bookends the attraction back in the Inn with another party showing Ichabod as a ghost still happily eating away as he did in life was the perfect light hearted, reassuring not to end on! It was a great, fun way to end the potentially too dark attraction. It is like how don Bluth says that you can make a kid’s movie as dark and scary as you want as long as it ends happy. You manage to end happy and create a great experience! And the bookending nature of the last scene being a call back to the first scene was great!
Summing it all up, there were some small issues here and there with grammar and tone, and a ride layout map would have been nice, but despite these this was an incredible attraction that fit the prompt perfectly and is something I could see being a classic for years to come!
@TwilightZone - Space Patrol
Let me start by saying that I love this concept! This is something Disney should build today as a part of their Tomorrowland refresh! It manages to be fun and whimsical and dark and goofy and exciting all at once and without IP. I love the story and the dual sided nature of the 2 different ride experiences. It is very clever and fun! And a great series of set pieces too.
I’m gonna assume you meant Buzz and Monsters Inc becoming connected for the location? Or was there meant to be a bridge over to the Stitch building? The writing was really unclear on that, but for the project as a whole, the writing tended to be simple in an effective, straight forward way. I definitely think that in future round, trying to push yourself to try more detailed writing could really help you to grow more as an Imagineer. But as it stands, you have a knack for communicating a lot very simply which is a great talent unto itself. Basically what I’m saying is that your writing isn’t bad, but you tend to write the same way for every project, I think you could start to grow more by pushing yourself more with writing!
I really admire how you have been pushing yourself with more art! And your art is pretty good too! It has a real character and charm to it! Well done there! You have a pretty decent amount of art too, even if most of it is pretty simple. For a presentation like this, more art that is simpler tends to be better than one grand art piece.
My last big positive thing to say is that Tomorrowland at park opening was the land with the most empty space and the most needed. Your choice of that location was a very smart one that could have really helped the park in its early year.
There are some problems with this though.
First off, the technology for a lazer blaster ride was about thirteen years away from being ready in 1971. Keeping track of scores on individual cars about twenty years away at least. It might be weird to imagine with how commonplace that tech has been in theme parks and amusement parks worldwide for the last 20 years, but integrating video game ideas into rides was a really high tech concept when it came out. And 1971 was over a decade before the NES released. So, that is sadly a big blow to your realism.
Also, this doesn’t feel like much of a substitute for Mr. Toad. That ride is known for its dark, abrupt ending and you do have that. But most of what makes Toad special and memorable is its madcap style of tight corners and crazy things happening. What you took from Mr. Toad is its most controversial aspects (mostly hell) and made them even more intense.
Summing it all up, a really clever and fun dark ride in an area of the park that could really use it, but you missed the mark on the two major parts of the prompt (being a substitute attraction and being in the early 70s) making this feel more like a generically good ride than a good ride for this round.
-Team Orange Reviews-
@AceAstro - Huayna Mountain
While reading this I at first found myself thinking “these sattelite maps with a green blob for the mountain is neat, but knowing how talented Ace is, I was hoping he’d do a bit more than a green blob” and then I got further into the project and found the amazing map with the mountain looking eerily authentic to the actual map of that era integrated perfectly!
Also, while reading this I at first found myself thinking “This write up is good, but as someone who has never gotten to ride the Matterhorn, it is a bit tough to follow. With how reliant this write up is on knowledge of the original including a ride through video would have been great” and then I got further into the project and found that not only is there a ride through video, but one OVERLAID WITH YOUR NEW ELEMENTS!
What I’m saying is that your project did an amazing job at consistently giving me exactly what I was wanting from it!
The art and the video are absolutely incredible! How each element would work is crystal clear! The writing is simple, yet clever and clear. The concept is strong. The ideas are strong. The execution is strong. And that video was perfect.
Plus, this being on the left side of the park would have gone a long way towards balancing out space Mountain on the other side of the park.
There are some small negatives though. For one thing, taking an elevator below the train tracks is great in California. Almost certainly impossible in Florida. You can barely go 2 feet underground without hitting water. Going over the train tracks instead of under would have worked a lot better. As much as I did love the mine elevator preshow with the rising rock walls. Very cool. Though perhaps a bit confusing to do that drop deep into the mines only to exit the cavern shortly after back on ground level before boarding.
Also, with Space Mountain being similar in layout and using a nearly identical ride system/double track layout, it might have been smart for you to either use a different coaster type or make a not that Space Mountain was changed in this timeline. A bit of repetitiveness in ride type isn’t too bad. But look at the three different Fantasyland dark rides at opening. Peter pan was suspended, Mr. Toad was more of a traditional Pretzel style for tighter turns, and Snow White was longer for broader turns. A bit more to differentiate your ride from Space Mountain design wise would have helped.
BUT these problems were minor in what was an otherwise amazing project!
Summing it all up, your idea was clever and unique and extremely well communicated with an amazing map and an amazing video with some minor problems with integrating it into Florida holding it back from being perfect.
@D Hindley - Mythic River Boats
What a fantastic first project for the scene! This was exactly the kind of project I had in mind when writing this scene. You manage to capture all the elements that make Storybookland Canal Boats a classic while also making your attraction feel distinct and unique! The idea of adding another small land to Magic Kingdom at opening is a really interesting one and I could see it blending really well as a sort of connection to Fantasyland while still feeling unique sort of like Critter Country and Frontierland back West.
With your time restraints, I know you were dissapointed in not being able to make any original art, but your use of reference photos is so excellent that it really doesn’t hurt the project. Original art can almost always improve projects (especially with art as good as your’s), but this is a great example that a lack of original art or having a very simple presentation doesn’t make a project visually bad. While Docs isn’t always the best choice because it can help make projects look plain, I personally would rather it be used as a way to get around the 10 picture limit on forum posts over splitting projects over multiple forum posts. One last note on presentation, there are some small mistakes in grammar or phrasing and polish, but considering your time restraints and how few and far between they are, I’m not gonna hold that against you at all.
Overall, I don’t have too much to say about the ride through itself beyond that I love it. The perfect balance of blue sky and realistic with some show scenes that would become instantly iconic. My only concern is that the giant minotaur head and the trip through the underworld may be a lot more intense and scary than the Monstro mouth and the Cave of Wonders from the original. But neither is intense to the point of being a serious concern. Thebes with its statue garden of heroes and Medusa’s temple are probably my personal favorite parts but it is all very good!
Summing it all up, the (very understandable) lack of polish might keep this from breaking the top 3, but this was still an incredible project demonstrating a great understanding of Greek myths, what makes Storybookland Canal Boats a classic, and the scene itself even with your lack of availability this round!
@OutboundFlight - The PeopleMover
Wow! This was not something I was expecting to enjoy as much as I did when I saw the initial concept. Yet, you did an amazing job with it! Feels equal parts classic Epcot and classic Disney. A grand evolution of the Train Ride from Disneyland with its dioramamas as a transport option.
Your writing is incredible with an incredible flow to it! It is just astoundingly well written and inviting making me feel like I was actually riding it as I read. The amount of reference photos was incredible and the choices of photos was great (side note, one of the benefits of this being just a fun competition is that you don’t actually have to cite source for photos like you do in school, but I like that you thought about that and wanted to be honest and all. Usually, I’d only say to cite the source if it is fan art or from someone else on the forum). Your map was perfect and very helpful too btw.
Overall, just a great flow to this and a great read with a really clever pacing and selection of scenes. Also, making it better handicap accessible was a very nice touch!
There are some potential issues I see. For one thing, the PeopleMover with its very futuristic design and style might look out of place in Adventureland/Frontierland and Fantasyland. However, it is mostly entirely hidden in those lands. It appears to be visible as it crosses the speedway, but being over the speedway gives it some wiggle room as that already is an imperfect fit at the edge of Fantasyland. The only real problem are is crossing Tom Sawyer Island. I understand needing it to do that to have the station where you wanted int and to travel through the Mansion, but I think a more elegant solution rather than cutting right over the island would have really helped as I can’t imagine a way for that to blend into the environment.
Also, the PeopleMover travels faster than a regular dark ride (much faster than a boat ride or an omnimover). And for a transportation ride around the park, slowing it down is not really practical option. Some of your scenes (especially in the Medieval section) feel too large scale for this ride type. Focusing more on the atmosphere rather than on having a large number of animatronics would have worked better. This is one of the few times static figures would have been more effective.
One last positive note I thought of while writing this. The PeopleMover being elevated would have gone a long way towards helping to solve the biggest issue with the Train! The tracks have always been on of the most complicated and limiting things making expansion of the parks a pain. An elevated track guests can just walk under or rides can just go under would be amazing for the future of the park!
Summing it all up, replacing the absolutely iconic Train with an extended PeopleMover is a risky idea, but you pull it of while also bring a bit of classic Epcot to Magic Kingdom, but there are some definite thematic issues with this ride type and vehicle traveling through the entire park.
P.S. Your ride traveling through Huyana Mountain may be my favorite small detail of the round!
@pixie_princess - Down the Rabbit Hole
You have one of the best sense of color of anyone on this board. The gray and pink color scheme of your presentation was simple, yet effectively and blended excellently with the colors of Wonderland, In the movie, as well as in all the reference photos you chose, Wonderland is often seen with bright, yet not unnaturally bright, colors contrasting against relatively dark backgrounds. Your pink text against the gray background popped and also made the colors of your photos pop as well. I’ve seen it time and time and again, you have a real sense for colors and how to make them work together and it just seems so natural.
I love this concept! Blending Alice and the Matterhown is a very clever and crazy idea! The location you chose was perfect for it with the big open space being right near the Tea Cup ride. Very good use of the map btw! It may not be anything too flashy, but I know that maps (or rather a lack of) has tended to be an issue with you in the past, so while simple this was a nice sign of progress.
I would have liked a bit more detail on the ride through. You started out real strong with the detail in your write up, but from the Doorknob onward each page is basically “and then this character is there.” Some more info would have been very helpful there. Especially in terms of environments. Are we in the woods the whole time? Is this ride mostly dark with just the figure and important bits lit up like Rockin Rollercoaster? Detail has been an achiles heel for you in the past and it definitely hurt this one too. Considering the beginning is so detailed and the ride itself is much less so (increasingly less so as time goes on), I get the sense that this was perhaps done last minute. More detail isn’t always needed, but establishing the setting is a very important detail that is needed. And large empty spaces on slides really highlights the parts where detail is lacking.
Either way, in the future, it would help to either start with the ride through and do the queue last or combine rooms into just being sections of the ride. The last three scenes could have easily just been one Tea Party section. The tweedles could have been in with the flowers as a Forest Section. The doorknob in with the oversized objects as one Shrunken section. Things like that. As it stands, it looks like you laid out all the slides and then ran out of time to finish them. Combining and simplifying your parts could go a long way towards helping you not have to rush as much (or at least not seeming as rushed). Then, expand later if you can and have time.
Also, as I mentioned in AceAstro’s Review, this is rather similar to Space Mountain in layout and very similar in ride system. Your’s is also right near Space Mountain. BUT your ride through differentiates itself more from Space Mountain with the much more colorful and unique visuals. I still would have liked to see a different coaster style used or at least an ackknowledgement of the similarities to Space Mountain.
Summing it all up, your concept is great and your presentation is beautiful with fantastic use of colors and visuals to communicate everything, but the lack of important details and rushed feeling hold it back a bit.
@TheOriginalTiki - Nature’s Wonderland Resort
Let me start by saying that I love this!
Let me follow this up by saying that I’m rather torn on this.
On one hand, this makes a great spiritual successor/ substitute for Minetrain through Nature’s Wonderland (one of my personal favorite lost attractions I never got to ride). It also fits beautifully into the timeline of Disney history tying together time lines for both parks in subtle/clever/realistic way. So, you truly captured the spirit of what this scene was about.
On the other hand, this wasn’t what the prompt was for. “You must each create a new substitute attraction in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom,” was the prompt. What you made was neither an attraction nor in Magic Kingdom. It was a resort near by. So, while you captured the spirit of the scene, you did actually do what the prompt said.
The resort itself is fantastic though! I’m such a sucker for campground projects and was very close to having one this season, so I am glad to see someone did one! The blend of regular rooms hidden by rockwork and campgrounds was brilliant. Maybe a bit too extravagent for realism, but this was also an era where Disney was at their most extravagent doing things like creating a water bridge over road just so there would be no overpasses visible around the Seven Seas Lagoon or buying a small city worth of swamp land to build one park and trusting they’d use the rest eventually.
Country Bear Jamboree was a huge draw back then, So, having an extended exclusive version at the campground would be a huge plus in the 70s! It is kinda funny, I almost think the resort is enough of a draw already that this was unneeded. But it is a very nice bonus. My only real concern with it was that the more cartoony bears might feel out of place when the Nature’s Wonderland Resort as a whole is a lot more grounded in a realistic aesthetic. But it isn’t too far outside that aesthetic to be a serious issue. It is a bit of a stretch thematically from the rest of the resort though.
Overall, I love it a lot! It just has the big problem of being neither an attraction nor in Magic Kingdom. You follow the spirit of the prompt enough that I won’t mark you down too much for that, but it definitely is enough outside the prompt for this scene that I have to mark you down for it. Which is a shame because this is such an excellent project with a clear amount of passion.
Summing it all up, not an attraction. Not in the Magic Kingdom. Otherwise, astounding.
I like your flow and design tactics, especially the assisted boarding and accompanying image which was innovative and custom - nice job. The flow through the attraction as well was believable and well written. You have really improved since the early days of the comp in those departments! In the end, while perhaps not the 'most' realistic proposal, I appreciate the ambition and continued improvement.
