So, You Want to be an Imagineer Season 19 - Madcap Circus [CONCLUDED]

JokersWild

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
*ineligible

And, just in case there is confusion, the parks that are listed as "Tier Three" will be for the Center Ring bonus of +5 points. Essentially, the weirder the park the higher the ring bonus.
I haven't been Project Leader since Project 2 (before the team swap), shouldn't I still be eligible for team leader?
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
*ineligible

And, just in case there is confusion, the parks that are listed as "Tier Three" will be for the Center Ring bonus of +5 points. Essentially, the weirder the park the higher the ring bonus.
I had it more in my head that the easiest parks were "Good Weird", the mid-tier parks were "Vanilla", and the hardest parks were "Bad Weird". But close enough haha.
 

JokersWild

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
JokersWIld's Slightly Brief Reviews (I Lied. These Are Not Brief At All)
Hey, guys. First I just want to mention how happy I am with how you guys took this twist. This was a pretty bizarre prompt and I appreciate you all taking it in stride. With that out of the way, let's get to the reviews.

Team Bailey - Seuss Landing: Revamped
First off, I'm really glad to see @monkey92514 take the helm for this project. He hasn't played in a really long time, but it's great to see him back and seem to start hitting his stride after so many years away. And this project was so perfect for him with him being one of the biggest fans of IoA's current Cat in the Hat ride.

Onto the actual project. I really appreciate the short poems that @PerGron wrote to sort of set the scene for each segment of your project. While your presentation obviously wasn't anything special, the poetry really helped elevate your project to feel just a bit more Seussian.

Your attraction is just a mess, and I mean that in the best way. The timelessness of Seuss is gone, replaced by the weird goofy humor that could only be found in a misguided movie for millennial children. If I had any complaint it's that I think it was weirdly...boring. Like I feel like you guys followed the film a bit too closely. The world of the film is really bizarre, but it has a really interesting aesthetic and "rules," I guess you could say. I think that this would have been a touch stronger if you guys separated the attraction from the story of the book and film and focused more in on the essence and general insanity of the film. Something more akin to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride would have worked just a touch better for an attraction like this rather than a pretty close retelling of the film's story. Other than that, for what it is, I think that this is a great adaptation of the film that captures that essence and feel of it rather well - it just left me wanting a bit more.

I really like how you've centered literally the entire land around Mike Meyer's Cat in the Hat. It wasn't necessary, but it's funny to think that Universal would go to such lengths to market this film. I think that all of these overlays are great. I'm not sure how I feel about giving the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride spinning capabilities, but I appreciate the idea. What's in the Hat is a great visual, though I'd miss the water elements of One Fish, Two Fish. I don't have too much else to say - everything here is just really solid.

I would like to mention the structure of your project briefly. I know that Cat in the Hat was the focal point of your project, but when you're doing an overlay for an entire land it'd be better to put the walkthrough first. Give us a feel of the land and what you're doing to change it before showing us the specifics. I could kind of infer what was changing and how as I was reading the project, it was just kind of weird to me to have all of the attractions and dining/ shopping explained to me before the land as a whole was.

All in all, great job. Everything made sense for a Cat in the Hat land and you guys certainly captured the tone and feel of hte film. I really enjoyed it - I was just left wanting a bit more at some points.

Creativity: 8/10
Detail: 8/10
Presentation: 7/10
Realism: 8/10
Teamwork: 8/10
2nd Ring Bonus: +3
Total: 42/50

Team Barnum - A Chaosverse Seuss Landing
First off, really fantastic map, @Outbound. I love your map and it's been great to watch them get better and better with each passing game.

I really like the setup here. I think it makes a lot of sense for The Grinch to have always been a part of Seuss Landing. A Grinch ride has been rumored forever, the timelines match up fairly well, and if we're being honest, The Lost Continent was a bit ill-conceived in the first place.

The centerpiece of your project, Mt. Crumpit Christmas Caper is a lot of fun. I feel kind of weird about The Cat in the Hat being the moral compass of the attraction, but I guess it makes sense since you've framed it as being an overlay for a solo Grinch attraction. Honestly, I think that the Cat is a bit out of place in the attraction as a whole. I don't know if that was a conscious decision, but it very much felt like he was just kind of inserted into the attraction. It was still a lot of fun, but I think that a bit more care should have been taken to properly work the Cat into the attraction. With a little tweaking, and a bit more focus on it in the project, I think this could be something really great.

Despite the strength of Grinch x Cat I think that the real winner here is Seuessafari. This is just such a natural choice for a Seuss Land. Seuss Landing does have something sort of similar with If I Ran The Zoo, but it absolutely pales in comparison to this. Everything here just works, the Seussian Jungle Cruise boats, the general feel, and of course the animals. This is just a ton of fun and I wish this was real. Like Tiki said, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is a nice little Storybookland equivalent, though I am a bit confused by the name. Maybe something like Oh The Places You'll Go would have worked better?

The flatrides were fun. I was a bit put off by Yertle The Turtle when it was first suggested if only because of the book's meaning, but it's still a fun flatride. Cat in the Hat is another highlight. I love the idea of a funhouse based around Cat in the Hat and despite the overlay, it just seems like it would be a lot of fun.

And this is also where you guys start to lose focus a bit. The focal point of the project was supposed to be the Grinch and Cat in the Hat attraction. There's just SO MUCH here (and don't get me wrong, I really love everything you've presented) that what is supposed to be your focal point gets lost in the shuffle and honestly overshadowed by some other parts of your project.

To circle back to Whoville, since it's at the end of your project. I really enjoyed it. I think it might have been a bit better to place it where Mulberry Street is just so it's in closer proximity to The Grinch, but everything here makes total sense and is done very well. Pretty much exactly what I'd like to see out of a Grinch land.

All in all, I'm torn. I really love certain aspects of this project - just not that aspects that were supposed to be the focus. I think that with a bit of refocusing and some slight tweaking of some of the attractions (Mainly Grinch/Cat) this could be an almost perfect Seuss land if you ignore the film overlays. Great job!

Creativity: 9/10
Detail: 8/10
Presentation: 9/10
Realism: 8/10
Teamwork: 8/10
Center Ring Bonus: +5
Total: 47/50


Team Ringling - Seuss Landing Expansion Project
Another very solid project despite having the smallest team. Getting right into it, I really love the idea of The Jungle of Nool. Total sidenote that isn't anywhere near what the project was asking for and this won't reflect in your scores, but I would have loved to have seen a Horton darkride especially since you guys gave him a subland. The story of the book would lend itself really well. The flatride and restaurant are nice, but I'm not sure if they really justify the subland.

Of the two Whovilles, I think I prefer your team's. It felt a bit more cohesive and better integrated into the attraction. The Whoville Banquet Hall is a great little restaurant. The menu looks great!

The Grinch's Double Cross is absolutely the best of the attractions presented this project. I love the idea of having two different experiences that interweave. This is a great update on the system we tried with the Tom and Jerry attraction last season, and definitely better executed. I'm also really happy to see just how detached this is from the stories of both characters' books/ movies. This is just a really fun, super out there and madcap experience from star to finish.

Sorry this review was a bit shorter than the others. I'll go into more detail when we do a live show. Really fantastic job, guys. Despite having the smallest team, I think that you guys came out with the most solid project of the three.

Creativity: 9/10
Detail: 8/10
Presentation: 8/10
Realism: 9/10
Teamwork: 8/10

Center Ring Bonus: +5
Total: 47/50
 

spacemt354

Chili's
Project 3 Reviews
Part 1 of 3 (others will be coming throughout the day)
Team Barnum
Candy Calamity

Hershey is one of the few parks in this round that I have experience traveling too. While it's not my favorite theme park in the world, I fell much like Disney's Hollywood Studios for example, it has the footprint and potential to be great. I think choosing Hershey for this project was a great decision. I won't speak too much on the brainstorming of each team which I typically do since this was last week, however I will say I listened to the podcast before writing these and could perhaps clarify something that brought down the scores a little.

The chaosverse from @Tegan pilots a chicken was a branch alternate reality timeline that was influenced in some of the SA7 projects, particularly her finale with Iron Heart. The removal of the 'ill-conceived' Candemonium coaster - that may have stemmed from the choasverse, where there's an alternate timeline where maybe it was ill-conceived and thus was able to be removed before it broke ground. That is the only justification for it, and while I love the outside the box thinking, I feel like it also could have been better worded in the project itself. Because at face value without the added context it does read a bit fantastical of a choice.

The attraction itself taking a tour of the factory but in coaster form is a bit similar to the actual Hershey factory tour dark ride, so while it's a great concept I'm not sure I like it repeating the same thing. Could this have been simply a coaster without the elaborate backstory needing to be on the ride itself? Perhaps the queue could have taken influence from the backstory allowing the coaster room to just be a coaster, similar to Velocicoaster.

The physics of the ride was a little off to me as well. While I'm not a math wiz like @Pi on my Cake or @kmbmw777 - the flow described in the ride feels like when playing Planet Coaster and it doesn't have enough inertia to make it around a loop. Fahrenheit is imo the most intense coaster in the park, and it seems like this one is even more intense than that!

But all that aside - fantastic artwork, especially the coaster layout, the Hershey art, and all the banners - I loved the simplicity of this format. While I was hoping to see something in RCT3 or Planet Coaster to get the true visual of this attraction, I realize the shortness of the round and the limitations during the week. So maybe a future project down the road I would love to see what this ride would look like from start to finish as opposed to just reading it. Maybe it changes people's perspectives?

In the end this was a solid project with some budding teamwork after the swap with some interesting pairings. Looking forward to the future of this team!

Creativity - 9/10
Detail - 9/10
Realism - 7/10
Presentation - 9/10
Teamwork - 9/10
Bonus + 5
-----------------------------
Total: 48/50
 

Tegan pilots a chicken

Sharpie Queen 💜
Premium Member
Who knows? Maybe it’ll come up again soon in another competition… 🙃
5D5AD2E2-870B-49A1-8564-CB68EAF1992C.jpeg
 

spacemt354

Chili's
Project 3 Reviews
Parts 2 and 3

Team Bailey
Lycan

This one was a real winner - from the website to the backstory, everything about this project seemed to click even for a novice like myself who hasn't been to the park and only knows of it through YouTube videos. The totality of the project really stood out to me as the selling point. From the Twitter, to the advertisements, to the artwork, and everything in between I think just off the bat I have to acknowledge the fortitude of this team in putting out the project.

Getting into the specific we can start with the location - in which I think you picked on that suited the theme you were going for with this coaster. It seems Disney should have kept a tighter grip on Joe Rohde as his backstory plans seem to now have evolved to Alton Towers... Jokes aside it was very well done. Something as more of a personal challenge for @PerGron who has established himself as the animal and backstory guy, I think you have the potential to be so much more! I think you have the opportunity to teach your teammates how to write a backstory so that everyone on the team can excel and that will leave more time for you in future projects to do other things that you haven't had the chance to work on previously because you either jump on a backstory or are stuck as the 'animal guy'. Nevertheless though, just food for thought in the future to improve, but overall everyone on this team did great. The coaster was wonderfully described and themed, the website as said previously was fantastic, and the artwork/ads to top it off really put this a step ahead.

I don't have too many criticisms other than the personal challenge like I said above for people to try various other 'jobs' rather than what they're already good at. Not necessarily if you're pressed for time, but if there's a challenge everyone feels comfortable with the source material it would be neat to see the roles swapped. Great work!

Creativity - 10/10
Realism - 9/10
Detail - 9/10
Presentation - 10/10
Teamwork - 10/10
Bonus + 5
----------------------
Total = 53/50

Team Ringling
Star Trek: The Final Frontier

While there isn't as much to say about this project, for various reasons that don't need to be rehashed so late, I will say that the autopsy on this one I see potential (and not just because I know the results of the next project lol)

But because there are elements of this presentation that despite all the troubles in regards to drop outs as well as unfamiliarity with coasters, the way the presentation started I think should be commended. The way it's written feels very realistic and despite the oddity of the coaster itself, I think that realism and setting the stage for the attraction with those first few slides did impress me. Then after that, in all regards, the descriptions and Star Trek theme do feel a little underwhelming. But be it for timing sake or just a lack of interest in coasters, it's all good. I will say though that the Minecraft was once again well done. That is another element that again if detail is lacking, you could have made up for it with more visuals, especially something coaster-based that kinda needs visuals if the description is lacking, because otherwise the reader doesn't know what is happening on the ride.

So overall, I'll leave this one be and focus more on project 4, which I think was a stronger turnaround from this project.

Creativity - 9/10
Realism - 6/10
Detail - 6/10
Presentation - 9/10
Teamwork - 7/10
Bonus + 5
-------------------------
Total = 42/50
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom