News Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Historical Construction/Impressions

[Supreme Leader]

Spoiler: A little ROTR.

Ok this pleases me.

 

[TROR]

Advertisement

I think it looks good.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I thought we were being recruited by Princess Leia and Ray. Who's this lady? Aren't there any real characters in Galaxy Edge?

 

[Anjin]

I thought we were being recruited by Princess Leia and Ray. Who's this lady? Aren't there any real characters in Galaxy Edge?

Vi Moradi is one of the few walk-around characters in Galaxy's Edge. Which does make it odd that she has to speak to you via hologram if you're both on Batuu...

 

[Phrubruh]

Vi Moradi is one of the few walk-around characters in Galaxy's Edge. Which does make it odd that she has to speak to you via hologram if you're both on Batuu...

She's got stuff to do elsewhere in the base.

 

[mickEblu]

Vi Moradi is one of the few walk-around characters in Galaxy's Edge. Which does make it odd that she has to speak to you via hologram if you're both on Batuu...

This reminds me of how counterintuitive it is to do original stuff with very well known IP. We get on ROTR and the villain is Kylo Ren yet we have this obscure character Vi Moradi that “Scott Trowbridge” made up talking to us via hologram? I think the imagineers think that it somehow gives more weight and believability to Batuu being this real place. But In reality I just think it waters down the experience. People want to see the characters they know in STAR WARS land. I don’t think combining original characters with known ones from the movie is a good idea, especially humanoids. People would be much more excited seeing a Leia hologram there or something. Again this is the imagineers putting this damn Batuu story nobody cares about before fans/ human beings desires.

Honestly my takeaway from Batuu is that when creating a land based on IP you have to go ALL IN because you have already set an expectation of what fans/ guests are going to see. If you re not going ALL in you may as well just create an original land not based on IP. In themed entertainment, I’m not sure you can split the difference.

 

[TROR]

Create an original experience but sprinkle it with characters and aspects of the IP. That's how a successful, big IP attraction works. Indiana Jones Adventure is an original experience but still has Indiana Jones and the big boulder. Star Tours is an original experience but still has Threepio, Artoo, and Endor. If Star Tours was going to the planet of Batuu and Artoo wasn't the co-pilot, you begin to wonder why have Star Wars be the IP at all. If you're not going to have the main character of the new trilogy fill her role (which, to be clear, I think she still is and this hologram in the ad is a placeholder), don't make it Star Wars to begin with.

 

[Phrubruh]

This reminds me of how counterintuitive it is to do original stuff with very well known IP. We get on ROTR and the villain is Kylo Ren yet we have this obscure character Vi Moradi that “Scott Trowbridge” made up talking to us via hologram? I think the imagineers think that it somehow gives more weight and believability to Batuu being this real place. But In reality I just think it waters down the experience. People want to see the characters they know in STAR WARS land. I don’t think combining original characters with known ones from the movie is a good idea, especially humanoids. People would be much more excited seeing a Leia hologram there or something. Again this is the imagineers putting this damn Batuu story nobody cares about before fans/ human beings desires.

Honestly my takeaway from Batuu is that when creating a land based on IP you have to go ALL IN because you have already set an expectation of what fans/ guests are going to see. If you re not going ALL in you may as well just create an original land not based on IP. In themed entertainment, I’m not sure you can split the difference.

Oh course it had to be a woman. That way little girls can relate to the ride better.
I'm surprised they are letting Finn do anything in the ride. Finn/Rose are the JarJar of the sequel trilogy.

 

[SuddenStorm]

This reminds me of how counterintuitive it is to do original stuff with very well known IP. We get on ROTR and the villain is Kylo Ren yet we have this obscure character Vi Moradi that “Scott Trowbridge” made up talking to us via hologram? I think the imagineers think that it somehow gives more weight and believability to Batuu being this real place. But In reality I just think it waters down the experience. People want to see the characters they know in STAR WARS land. I don’t think combining original characters with known ones from the movie is a good idea, especially humanoids. People would be much more excited seeing a Leia hologram there or something. Again this is the imagineers putting this damn Batuu story nobody cares about before fans/ human beings desires.

Honestly my takeaway from Batuu is that when creating a land based on IP you have to go ALL IN because you have already set an expectation of what fans/ guests are going to see. If you re not going ALL in you may as well just create an original land not based on IP. In themed entertainment, I’m not sure you can split the difference.

Being fair, the Imagineers created Rex to fly the Starspeeder in the original Star Tours- instead of using a pre existing character. And no one complained.

But Star Tours also used classic OT characters in the queue, and ended with the trench run- the most iconic scene in Star Wars. Which is far more then Rise of the Resistance seems to be offering.

 

[mickEblu]

Being fair, the Imagineers created Rex to fly the Starspeeder in the original Star Tours- instead of using a pre existing character. And no one complained.

But Star Tours also used classic OT characters in the queue, and ended with the trench run- the most iconic scene in Star Wars. Which is far more then Rise of the Resistance seems to be offering.

Star Tours and Indy are great examples of IP being used in an original way on attractions. On Star Tours you have the Trench run, Star Wars score and C3PO/ R2D2 in the Q but you also have Rex, an original funny and lovable robot. But let’s not compare a wonderfully designed Robot AA with great voice acting to a human “CM” (I know she’s an actor but when the majority of people see her first as a character/ CM walking awkwardly around the land that’s how they ll view her) that somehow found their way onto ROTR with all the characters we ve seen from the last trilogy. In that way it doesn’t strengthen the concept that we re on Batuu, it actually cheapens the fantasy of being in the world of the last trilogy and brings me back to reality and a bunch of other awkward decisions they made with GE. She could be walking around the land but having her on the attraction is a misstep IMO.

Me highlighting Vi Moradi (?) on ROTR was just me highlighting how psychologically it can actually make the attraction less immersive (hate this word now) instead of more. My overarching point of that post however, was that I believe creating an original 14 acre land land based on IP is counterintuitive. Ambitious but counterintuitive. And when Chapek started hacking away the budget it went from being counterintuitive yet ambitious to damn near crippling it’s chance of being a hit. Again, my personal biggest issues with land have nothing to do with characters, timelines or trilogies and everything to do with the fact that the place feels like an abandoned movie set as well as the fact that one ride that is open is very underwhelming. The chosen bombed out desert village aesthetics don’t help either.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Yep, there needs to be a balance of the new and the old which makes GE work for me mostly. It’s based on the sequel trilogy but there’s a ton of the original trilogy sprinkled around. Of course if you ignore that and go in with a chip on your shoulder you won’t enjoy much of anything. You end up like the ramp guy.