Outbound
Well-Known Member
Guest reviews inbound! First I wanted to congratulate both teams on a fantastic first round. Both teams are starting the season with the best foot forward, and I'm excited to see where things go from here!
Team Chapek - Final Frontierland
Echoing Tiki, this project isn't immediately as distinctive as its competition - but that quickly changes as you delve deeper into the project. You've taken a relatively straightforward approach in "traditional Frontierland meets quirky Space Western" and made it your own. To this end, the vibrant and neon AI Art plays a surprisingly significant role. Coupled with a stylistic introductory theming description, and it instantly sets the tone and ambiance of the land. It's both distinctly Frontierland and distinctly something new. I can immediately imagine Final Frontierland at night evoking the same all-encompassing, dream-like wonder of Cars Land in DCA.
Moving into Final Frontierland's attractions, I appreciate the relatively scaled-back approach, with only one e-ticket, one show, and one flat. I think it's easy in Imagineering projects to fall into a bit of a cascade - idea upon idea spiraling into a menagerie of sublands and e-tickets. But sometimes the best approach can be through restraint. It draws focus towards smaller details, streetsmosphere, and shopping/dining and creates believable opportunities for future land expansions; while I won't directly compare the two projects, I will say I find Final Frontierland more realistic than Tundraland thanks to this.
However, thanks to said realistic adaption of Final Frontierland into a retheme of Tokyo's Westernland, attraction flexibility is somewhat limited. For these constraints, you've done an excellent job reimagining Thunder Mountain and the Country Bear Theater as whimsical space westerns. Wonder Mountain reminds me of a Twisted Colossus, reinventing an old and established attraction into something new, exciting, and surprising. Its increased intensity fits the more fantastical Final Frontierland perfectly.
But more exciting to me is Enos’ Fantastic Intergalactic Hoedown. @Brer Panther did a fantastic job not only adapting a wonderful format to a new setting (animatronic shows are a truly underrated attraction type) but he really made it his own. From the colorful characters to charming and imaginative new innovations, for me, this is truly where your projects' theming and ambiance are able to shine.
Last, Buckshot Bart is small, simple, and straightforward... yet also such a great double-punch of one additional attraction with some great oneshot worldbuilding. And concept art is a chef's kiss!!
Moving into restaurants, dining, and streetsmosphere. I won't delve too deeply into these elements as I'm only guest judging, but I really appreciate the care and detail going into these elements of the land. The prose for Jupiter's Steakhouse in particular is a stand-out. And crafting custom menus is one of those small but so significant extra details that really round out the project.
Overall this is a superb example of why sometimes you don't need a mind-bending pitch for a project - sometimes an early creative spark, a passionate team, and a whole lot of charm can create something special in its own right. The carefully-crafted details and distinctive ambiance of this seemingly straightforward retheme truly become your own. This is an excellent first swing for the team that -- as a newer generation of players -- is somewhat the underdog, and as I see it you've knocked it out of the park. And with a shorter, more comedic round in store, I'm excited to see where Team Chapek goes from here.
Creativity - B+
Realism - A+
Teamwork - A
Charm - A+
Overall - A
Team Eisner -- Tundraland
What's this? A stunning, naturalistic wonderland? A detail-rich backstory? Environmentalist undertones and an immersive non-IP universe? Yep, that's a PerGron project!
Jokes aside, I'm glad to see this expansive project come together. Because even if PerGron had the initial pitch, it truly was a team-wide effort, from expanding on the backstory together to filling out each small piece of the project. Watching it behind the curtain, it was like everything slowly falling into place. This a bold vision from a team that has many "heavy-hitters" as Tiki puts it, but everyone worked together wonderfully.
The story of AtomiCo and Whitley Mountain is incredible, and it's lovely to see reflected across the land. The world is itself visually stunning, highlighting the dangers of AtomiCo's exploitation of it. The conflict between the heated corporate town and rugged frontier outlaws is experienced between its two sublands. And each of the projects' many attractions showcases a different perspective and view of this immersive world. Guests walking through the land are experiencing the story for themselves, yet, and this is probably your greatest accomplishment of all - it never feels overwhelming.
However, I do think at times this project goes a bit large-scale. There are two "e-tickets", one of which has two distinctive paths, not to mention a large-scale river rapids ride. Four major attractions are a lot, especially for what I am assuming is a land that will open all at once. I can definitely see comparisons drawn to Galaxy's Edge here, but even that is smaller in scale and based on a massive IP. For that reason, I do feel this project is very much Blue Sky, even if incredible in its own right.
Escape from Tundra Mountain is the definite highlight here. I love the decision to present two paths to the ride, quite literally riding on both sides of the conflict. Even though AtomiCo is clearly our villain, I appreciate shedding some three-dimensionality on them. The slot car is the perfect balance of dark rides and thrill rides to emphasize the unique story and dangerous environment. With its dueling nature not only in the final race but overall story and experience, this is really the next evolution of the Test Track -> RSR formula.
Expedition: Down is an interesting spin of the classic "drop tower in Frontierland" model. Big fan of the more sinister, scary element, and the Almoc are an intriguing piece of world-building. Yet... I wonder if this could have been combined with Tundra Mountain. While different ride systems, both major attractions here are based on the principle of entering a frozen ice mine to discover a dark secret. Still, I'm a big fan of this ride's more unique approach. Our final major attraction is Enderby Excavators, a river rapids ride. It's a solid attraction, but I think it could use a bit more love. It sort of sits at an interesting middle ground, where I'm not sure I'd prefer it lean more towards the rest of the project, and AtomiCo - Resistance conflict, or move away towards something different, thereby giving us a new perspective. Overall, I think both secondary e-tickets don't quite match up to the high bar set by Tundra Mountain, but they are still wonderful additions to the project.
But Tundraland Cavern Exploration - despite its a-ticket status - is a surprising stand-out! I really appreciate the colorful details added to such a minor area. It's a whimsical evolution of the classic Tom Sawyer's Island, and its inclusion helps round out the land greatly. Likewise, a Snowbus Peoplemover is an interesting form of transport, and while I was initially skeptical, I'm surprised by how well it worked. For entertainment, I'm also a big fan of Southern Lights, although I'm not sure if it's particularly realistic of a Disney park (save maybe classic Epcot). Even for the Walt era, I think this might've been better served as "edutainment" - with perhaps some quirky astronomer and animal sidekick on screen or animatronic guiding us through the aurora australis.
Tundraland's shopping, dining, and smaller entertainment venues are other highlights, and as with my other review, while I won't go into too much depth, I appreciate the care taken to each. I do think given the massive scale of this land in attraction count, perhaps more retail/snack stands could be included, but from what you have I enjoyed giving each subland its own shopping and dining, and the contrast that comes from each. Last, this is the smallest thing, but that "Lego Tundraland" is wonderfully charming.
Overall, this is a truly incredible project in both scale and imagination. After this grandiose first project, I'm very much excited to see where Team Eisner goes from here! It's interesting how similar yet distinctive each project is: while both are set in the snowy frontier, Tundraland masters vision and scale, while Final Frontierland masters ambiance and smaller details. Both teams and projects are truly excellent; it'll be an interesting show tonight!!!
Creativity - A+
Realism - B+
Teamwork - A
Charm - A+
Overall - A
Team Chapek - Final Frontierland
Echoing Tiki, this project isn't immediately as distinctive as its competition - but that quickly changes as you delve deeper into the project. You've taken a relatively straightforward approach in "traditional Frontierland meets quirky Space Western" and made it your own. To this end, the vibrant and neon AI Art plays a surprisingly significant role. Coupled with a stylistic introductory theming description, and it instantly sets the tone and ambiance of the land. It's both distinctly Frontierland and distinctly something new. I can immediately imagine Final Frontierland at night evoking the same all-encompassing, dream-like wonder of Cars Land in DCA.
Moving into Final Frontierland's attractions, I appreciate the relatively scaled-back approach, with only one e-ticket, one show, and one flat. I think it's easy in Imagineering projects to fall into a bit of a cascade - idea upon idea spiraling into a menagerie of sublands and e-tickets. But sometimes the best approach can be through restraint. It draws focus towards smaller details, streetsmosphere, and shopping/dining and creates believable opportunities for future land expansions; while I won't directly compare the two projects, I will say I find Final Frontierland more realistic than Tundraland thanks to this.
However, thanks to said realistic adaption of Final Frontierland into a retheme of Tokyo's Westernland, attraction flexibility is somewhat limited. For these constraints, you've done an excellent job reimagining Thunder Mountain and the Country Bear Theater as whimsical space westerns. Wonder Mountain reminds me of a Twisted Colossus, reinventing an old and established attraction into something new, exciting, and surprising. Its increased intensity fits the more fantastical Final Frontierland perfectly.
But more exciting to me is Enos’ Fantastic Intergalactic Hoedown. @Brer Panther did a fantastic job not only adapting a wonderful format to a new setting (animatronic shows are a truly underrated attraction type) but he really made it his own. From the colorful characters to charming and imaginative new innovations, for me, this is truly where your projects' theming and ambiance are able to shine.
Last, Buckshot Bart is small, simple, and straightforward... yet also such a great double-punch of one additional attraction with some great oneshot worldbuilding. And concept art is a chef's kiss!!
Moving into restaurants, dining, and streetsmosphere. I won't delve too deeply into these elements as I'm only guest judging, but I really appreciate the care and detail going into these elements of the land. The prose for Jupiter's Steakhouse in particular is a stand-out. And crafting custom menus is one of those small but so significant extra details that really round out the project.
Overall this is a superb example of why sometimes you don't need a mind-bending pitch for a project - sometimes an early creative spark, a passionate team, and a whole lot of charm can create something special in its own right. The carefully-crafted details and distinctive ambiance of this seemingly straightforward retheme truly become your own. This is an excellent first swing for the team that -- as a newer generation of players -- is somewhat the underdog, and as I see it you've knocked it out of the park. And with a shorter, more comedic round in store, I'm excited to see where Team Chapek goes from here.
Creativity - B+
Realism - A+
Teamwork - A
Charm - A+
Overall - A
Team Eisner -- Tundraland
What's this? A stunning, naturalistic wonderland? A detail-rich backstory? Environmentalist undertones and an immersive non-IP universe? Yep, that's a PerGron project!
Jokes aside, I'm glad to see this expansive project come together. Because even if PerGron had the initial pitch, it truly was a team-wide effort, from expanding on the backstory together to filling out each small piece of the project. Watching it behind the curtain, it was like everything slowly falling into place. This a bold vision from a team that has many "heavy-hitters" as Tiki puts it, but everyone worked together wonderfully.
The story of AtomiCo and Whitley Mountain is incredible, and it's lovely to see reflected across the land. The world is itself visually stunning, highlighting the dangers of AtomiCo's exploitation of it. The conflict between the heated corporate town and rugged frontier outlaws is experienced between its two sublands. And each of the projects' many attractions showcases a different perspective and view of this immersive world. Guests walking through the land are experiencing the story for themselves, yet, and this is probably your greatest accomplishment of all - it never feels overwhelming.
However, I do think at times this project goes a bit large-scale. There are two "e-tickets", one of which has two distinctive paths, not to mention a large-scale river rapids ride. Four major attractions are a lot, especially for what I am assuming is a land that will open all at once. I can definitely see comparisons drawn to Galaxy's Edge here, but even that is smaller in scale and based on a massive IP. For that reason, I do feel this project is very much Blue Sky, even if incredible in its own right.
Escape from Tundra Mountain is the definite highlight here. I love the decision to present two paths to the ride, quite literally riding on both sides of the conflict. Even though AtomiCo is clearly our villain, I appreciate shedding some three-dimensionality on them. The slot car is the perfect balance of dark rides and thrill rides to emphasize the unique story and dangerous environment. With its dueling nature not only in the final race but overall story and experience, this is really the next evolution of the Test Track -> RSR formula.
Expedition: Down is an interesting spin of the classic "drop tower in Frontierland" model. Big fan of the more sinister, scary element, and the Almoc are an intriguing piece of world-building. Yet... I wonder if this could have been combined with Tundra Mountain. While different ride systems, both major attractions here are based on the principle of entering a frozen ice mine to discover a dark secret. Still, I'm a big fan of this ride's more unique approach. Our final major attraction is Enderby Excavators, a river rapids ride. It's a solid attraction, but I think it could use a bit more love. It sort of sits at an interesting middle ground, where I'm not sure I'd prefer it lean more towards the rest of the project, and AtomiCo - Resistance conflict, or move away towards something different, thereby giving us a new perspective. Overall, I think both secondary e-tickets don't quite match up to the high bar set by Tundra Mountain, but they are still wonderful additions to the project.
But Tundraland Cavern Exploration - despite its a-ticket status - is a surprising stand-out! I really appreciate the colorful details added to such a minor area. It's a whimsical evolution of the classic Tom Sawyer's Island, and its inclusion helps round out the land greatly. Likewise, a Snowbus Peoplemover is an interesting form of transport, and while I was initially skeptical, I'm surprised by how well it worked. For entertainment, I'm also a big fan of Southern Lights, although I'm not sure if it's particularly realistic of a Disney park (save maybe classic Epcot). Even for the Walt era, I think this might've been better served as "edutainment" - with perhaps some quirky astronomer and animal sidekick on screen or animatronic guiding us through the aurora australis.
Tundraland's shopping, dining, and smaller entertainment venues are other highlights, and as with my other review, while I won't go into too much depth, I appreciate the care taken to each. I do think given the massive scale of this land in attraction count, perhaps more retail/snack stands could be included, but from what you have I enjoyed giving each subland its own shopping and dining, and the contrast that comes from each. Last, this is the smallest thing, but that "Lego Tundraland" is wonderfully charming.
Overall, this is a truly incredible project in both scale and imagination. After this grandiose first project, I'm very much excited to see where Team Eisner goes from here! It's interesting how similar yet distinctive each project is: while both are set in the snowy frontier, Tundraland masters vision and scale, while Final Frontierland masters ambiance and smaller details. Both teams and projects are truly excellent; it'll be an interesting show tonight!!!
Creativity - A+
Realism - B+
Teamwork - A
Charm - A+
Overall - A
