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News Remy's Ratatouille Adventure coming to Epcot

_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
But... but... WDI, and THE Zach Riddley on Instagram, have put out multiple marketing- and PR-approved statements that they are storytelling all over the park. SSE is supposedly going to be all about storytelling. Moana is going to tell us about the journey of water through storytelling. HARMonius is going to be about storytelling. Etc etc etc. That must mean they know what they are talking about, right?
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EXACTLY. See? Nothing to worry about!
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
This. I think people (and by people, I mean whoever is designing things at WDW these days) seem to have forgotten that creating a themed environment is storytelling. The original “imagineers” (and maybe the second generation after them) understood this.
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I don’t think it has been forgotten. Instead the story has been changed and this combined with other factors that have just made things worse.

This expansion is not about giving people a slice of France. It’s focus is instead on giving you a totally zany ratatouille adventure as a rat running around the world. That is something different and therefore the result should be something different. Earlier in the thread @yensidtlaw1969 pointed out how the animated film is not a realistic portrayal of France and how the sensibilities and exaggerations of the film are brought to real life in both iterations of the ride. It’s also an explicitly theme park experience and the references being recalled are more and more based on parks and branding, not the real world. The western portion of the expansion is an odd bit of this, giving far too much deference to the poorly executed but existing yellow facade. The “details” that matter aren’t the use of some obscure type of ornamentation based on a local tradition but the latest Hidden Mickey or whose birthday is on the license plate.

This then all gets kicked down a bit because it is “just a theme park.” There is a lack of respect for the medium. It’s just the imitation of movies. The view that work is of little importance is going to seep into how much care it is given. All of this is further compounded by the awful built environment in which so many of us live every day. We’re not familiar with some of these things so we don’t really recognize them. This expansion is probably very familiar and therefore comfortable to many because it is the sort of contemporary development aesthetic we see all of the time. Main Street, USA was once nostalgia and now sprawl is our collective nostalgia, something currently reflected throughout popular culture.
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
The canopy that blocks the attraction entrance is supposed to be that portal.
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That works for me too. I don’t mind because the addition is behind the pavilion and you have that bit of a walk to transition to it. If they had built it along the promenade right beside the OG pavilion I’d be bothered by how jarring the difference is. So although I was originally upset by it, I have made peace that I get to keep my original pavilion out front, and have the new addition around back that I know my niece and nephew are going to love.

I also think having a few more family rides in world showcase will help get kids more engaged in the area and hopefully a side effect of that will be learning a bit about these countries. Now WS will have more of a balance between things like frozen and ratatouille and the cirrclevison and theatre shows.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
This expansion is not about giving people a slice of France. It’s focus is instead on giving you a totally zany ratatouille adventure as a rat running around the world. That is something different and therefore the result should be something different.
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This is what I was trying to say. I agree with you—“forgotten” isn’t the right word when it comes to storytelling, maybe a better word is “convoluted?” With the Ratatouille expansion, they’re telling a different story than they were with the pavilion, and “magical portal arches/canopies” aside, it doesn’t seem to work well here. The transition from “idealized France“ to “cartoon Paris” is only part of the problem.

Also, many Disney guests may not be well-versed in the elements of design and planning that you’ve helpfully laid out above, but I think many (not all) will nevertheless feel the differences. Thoughtful people may not be able to pinpoint exactly why the space feels, off, but they certainly recognize that something doesn‘t quite ”work” (at least in the ways that other lands/areas in the parks do).

It used to be what we referred to as “the Disney difference,” but now I’m not sure what to call it.
 
larryz

larryz

post hoc ergo propter hoc
Premium Member
castlecake2.0 said:
That works for me too. I don’t mind because the addition is behind the pavilion and you have that bit of a walk to transition to it. If they had built it along the promenade right beside the OG pavilion I’d be bothered by how jarring the difference is. So although I was originally upset by it, I have made peace that I get to keep my original pavilion out front, and have the new addition around back that I know my niece and nephew are going to love.

I also think having a few more family rides in world showcase will help get kids more engaged in the area and hopefully a side effect of that will be learning a bit about these countries. Now WS will have more of a balance between things like frozen and ratatouille and the cirrclevison and theatre shows.
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And you can't discount the new "TacoVision" screens in the lagoon...
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
This is what I was trying to say. I agree with you—“forgotten” isn’t the right word when it comes to storytelling, maybe a better word is “convoluted?” With the Ratatouille expansion, they’re telling a different story than they were with the pavilion, and “magical portal arches/canopies” aside, it doesn’t seem to work well here. The transition from “idealized France“ to “cartoon Paris” is only part of the problem.

Also, many Disney guests may not be well-versed in the elements of design and planning that you’ve helpfully laid out above, but I think many (not all) will nevertheless feel the differences. Thoughtful people may not be able to pinpoint exactly why the space feels, off, but they certainly recognize that something doesn‘t quite ”work” (at least in the ways that other lands/areas in the parks do).

It used to be what we referred to as “the Disney difference,” but now I’m not sure what to call it.
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I think believing your customers are too stupid to notice is a horrible way to run any business, especially one supposedly built around experience and service. But then there are things like the crêperie thread where people earnestly argue that how buildings look has no bearing on the theme park experience.
 
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Prototype82

Prototype82

Well-Known Member
I'm going to shift some focus away from the sign discussion and ponder this: Is this driving anyone else nuts?
Screen Shot 2021-02-25 at 12.55.57 PM.png
 

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