EPCOT Test Track to be reimagined

[aladdin2007]

I questioned Disney opening a Ratatouille ride over a decade after the movie, and it’s still immensely popular. Like, I can’t believe how much merchandise that rat sells. I think the cuteness factor of Groot and Rocket will be enough to keep Guardians at least as popular as Ratatouille.

and yet the rat merch selection has dwindled in offerings this year, I don't know what they are doing but they had a lot more different things prior to choose from. The one small section of the store (still a stupid location for the merch) has very little now with only a few things to pick from....I know back to testtrack sorry.

 

[osian]

The reason we don’t see original attractions anymore is because the ip route has proven to be successful and feature less risk than creating something entirely original.

I see it the other way around. Picking a specific IP is no less risky than an original concept, it's not guaranteed success, and it's not proven to be more successful than original.

Case in point: Galaxy's Edge. Not the biggest success with an absolutely gigantic IP.

Erm, and that hotel thingy.

Harmonious: designed solely to advertise IP.

And when the franchise goes out of favour or licenses expire...an expensive revamp.

The real reason, as has been mentioned before, is Iger who does not have a parks vision. The parks were successful in the first place without being totally IP. This is all about One Man's Vision. And it's not Walt's.

 

[FiestaFunKid]

Let's face it, there is no "risk" to Disney Whatsoever...they can take an obscure old IP no one remembers and create an engaging attraction based on it and have an extremely popular and memorable ride that sells merch... Likewise they can create an IP for a ride and do the same... The perception that IP is the factor that makes an attraction great or not is just false...The only "risk" is if they value engineer an attraction to death and people don't like it...
Rocket Rods could have been successful if it was a good attraction.... it was certainly not a lack of IP that was the problem... No IP no matter how popular could have saved that ride.... Likewise the old boat ride at DAK...adding "Radio Disney" to it could not help what could have been a great attraction that was unfortunately killed by budget cuts... That is the only risk aside from finally tipping the bucket cost-wise to the consumer....which they are getting perilously close too....
.

I personally agree with the spirit of all of this, the overall risk to Disney is miscalculated and even greater in the long term by over-focusing on IP. Essentially every ride I loved in the 80s/90s was based on decades old IP or none at all.

However, how leadership perceives personal risk is much different. These hyper-rising execs have been chasing these coveted positions their entire careers by managing various internal initiatives and promoting (and spinning when needed) them as success after success. They've taken extensive executive leadership training and are always focused on the next promotion - and what clear steps/achievements are needed in the short term to get there. They are unlikely to put this personal agenda (obsession at times) and the big $$ at risk by pushing for investment that could result in them owning blame without data backed reasoning and derailing their next move. Josh seems like a nice guy who loves the parks - but I'm not sure he is the rare leader who puts aside self serving motives for the long term vision of the parks.

 

[ChrisFL]

Gary Owens was fantastic

That is true

 

[Orange is the new Red]

If we wanna go outside of Disney parks, I can see Hagrid's or velocicoaster over at IOA as being seen as iconic rides, but in regards to Disney parks I don't think so

Hagrids and Velocicoasters are great coasters, but that’s what they are. They are lightly themed coasters with wonky animatronics., especially Hagrids. Are they fun? Heck yeah, but for me they are coasters. To be honest Universal doubling down on Coasters for EPIC is a potential mistake.

I personally see Star Wars, TRON, GOTG , Pandora, and others as legacy type rides. To say otherwise isn’t exactly being fair.

 

[Bocabear]

I don't know about Tron.....

 

[FiestaFunKid]

Hagrids and Velocicoasters are great coasters, but that’s what they are. They are lightly themed coasters with wonky animatronics., especially Hagrids. Are they fun? Heck yeah, but for me they are coasters. To be honest Universal doubling down on Coasters for EPIC is a potential mistake.

I personally see Star Wars, TRON, GOTG , Pandora, and others as legacy type rides. To say otherwise isn’t exactly being honest.

Agree on Velocicoster - but I'd say Hagrids is at least on par with Tron (and Mine Train) from a theming perspective.

See your point on too many coasters with little theming though - that is a Six Flagish MO. They weren't going to go the screen heavily route again, so maybe it pushed them here.

 

[Orange is the new Red]

I don't know about Tron.....

I think that’s fair. For me the aesthetic that it brings at night is amazing and the ride is great or at least what’s there but it’s a bit short.

 

[Bocabear]

I think it looks slick at night... by day it is a sore thumb in Tomorrowland... Visually does not feel like it is part of anything....and I think the storyline of the ride feels nonexistent... It could have been great at DHS because they could have had an entire land based on the Game Grid and then a jumping off place for things like Wreck It Ralph...

 

[DisneyCane]

I think it looks slick at night... by day it is a sore thumb in Tomorrowland... Visually does not feel like it is part of anything....and I think the storyline of the ride feels nonexistent... It could have been great at DHS because they could have had an entire land based on the Game Grid and then a jumping off place for things like Wreck It Ralph...

I generally think Tomorrowland looks much better at night (even long before Tron). That land and HM are the two areas in MK that rise to another level at night.

 

[ChrisFL]

I feel like Disney was going to start making Tomorrowland have some changes to fit more aesthetically with TRON then decided to just remove things and do some wonky paint jobs instead

 

[Jayspency]

I generally think Tomorrowland looks much better at night (even long before Tron). That land and HM are the two areas in MK that rise to another level at night.

Whenever I think of tommorowland at night I always think of the 1994 version. Am I the only one who thinks the sci fi aesthetic of that version is better than the current one

 

[Streetway]

Whenever I think of tommorowland at night I always think of the 1994 version. Am I the only one who thinks the sci fi aesthetic of that version is better than the current one

No you are not. Bring the Buck Rogers aesthetic back!

 

[MisterPenguin]

They could have kept the UoE theme and just made it that you were going back in time to see the Dinosaurs and it still would have worked.

Energy has nothing to do with dinosaurs. That was a marketing campaign of Sinclair. Science had known that petroleum wasn't dead dinosaurs way before that. In the Ellen version of the ride, Nye had to admit the dinos had nothing to do with the history of energy, only that they 'were cool.'

Edutainment should have real, truthful education if it's going to be called that.

 

[DisneyCane]

Energy has nothing to do with dinosaurs. That was a marketing campaign of Sinclair. Science had known that petroleum wasn't dead dinosaurs way before that. In the Ellen version of the ride, Nye had to admit the dinos had nothing to do with the history of energy, only that they 'were cool.'

Edutainment should have real, truthful education if it's going to be called that.

They were part of the ecosystem that led to petroleum even if it wasn't specifically the dinos.

 

[MisterPenguin]

They were part of the ecosystem that led to petroleum even if it wasn't specifically the dinos.

All that reaching is going to leave stretch marks.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Whenever I think of tommorowland at night I always think of the 1994 version. Am I the only one who thinks the sci fi aesthetic of that version is better than the current one

Uh the current night aesthetic is still pretty much the same

 

[DCBaker]

Here's a brief look at the entrance area from today:

 

[Jayspency]

Here's a brief look at the entrance area from today:

The fact that they havent removed the marquee yet while having already removed the blue car from the marquee tells me that its just going to be reused. Also I notice that the entire interior track has been removed from the track frame (at least on the high speed loop track pieces)

 

[dmc493]

Not necessarily true, it just might not be their priority right now