Just some added info I didn't have time for earlier:
This 'initiative' is very late and very thrown together. It speaks to Disney not having faith in its product to begin with. Frozen may well be the highest grossing animated picture of all-time, but in no way, shape or form did Disney ever have faith (other than maybe its creators in their dreams) that this would be much more successful than Princess Tangled was.
I so wish that I could drop an anecdote about someone VERY high up's reaction to the film just a little over a month prior to release, but I'd likely be a real Spirit if I did. But understand this: Disney and its leadership didn't have the faith in this and it is nothing new. The only films they feel can't miss today have Marvel in front of them.
This isn't Michael Eisner's Disney that at the very least staged lavish parades and shows and, sometimes, real attractions that debuted along with the films throughout the 90s.
I almost decided to 'conceal, don't reveal' this whole thing because what I'd most like to write about is what I can't write about (at least for the foreseeable future).
More details:
Both DCA and HKDL (and looks like DLP can be added now thanks to a kind source) will be getting temporary attractions that will very likely be there for years. And I use the word 'attraction' very liberally here. Think meet-and-greet-and-gropes and singalongs and things of that nature. They will not be replacing anything right now, just utilizing existing and or new real estate.
Frozen will NOT be replacing Aladdin in the short term, especially with Robin Williams' passing, but could very well wind up in the Hyperion down the road AND at whatever you want to call the Studios park at WDW (Tangled was supposed to replace Beauty and the Beast, but it took so long to move thru approval that it won't happen now.)
None of this affects Maelstrom, which is in its final full month of operation now.
If I could armchair Imagineer a bit (something I generally despise because it always seems to be stuff of fifth gates or moving attractions from park to park ... Small World to EPCOT anyone?), I can't fathom a more perfect major addition to MK than Frozen. A park that lacks capacity and (unlike other WDW gates) actually needs more every day. A park that has been denuded over the last 15 years and feels like a concrete wasteland. A park where the IP would fit perfectly.
Just imagine a giant show building way yonder in Fantasyland. One that looks like an ice palace. Inside, multiple rides (think what was done with Mermaid Lagoon in TDS) ... a few cheap carnie types ... you know like Sven's Special Sleds ... one E-Ticket type attraction ... a QSR ... a shop or two ... all with ICE Cold AC in a perpetual twilight sky. Again, if I can spitball this all in 10 minutes, then why can't WDI's talent come up with better and why can't Iger, Staggs, Rasulo, Crofton and Co see the big picture here?
Nope. It's all going to be a rush job (again, except likely Tokyo and, if they decide on it, Shanghai) because they never had faith in this film ... and they don't have faith in any IP they put out these days that doesn't have Marvel on it. And we all know just how little Disney can do with Marvel at WDW. (And at the rate they are going, Disney will build Marvel stuff elsewhere just about the time people are tired of the IP).
Hope that helps explain the news and puts into perspective stuff you'll be hearing in the near future.
