The Great Movie Ride II - Main Competition Thread

D Hulk

Well-Known Member
HULK REVIEWS.jpg

TOUCHWOOD PICTURES
FINDING NEMO UNDERWATER ADVENTURE


The prompt: To develop a theme park based on any one film featured on the old Great Movie Ride from Disney/MGM Studios. While the prompt allowed for a vast range of creative freedom, it was conceived as a boutique park project. As you discovered early on, it just isn’t realistic to expand a single movie into a vast park on the scale of Magic Kingdom. Rather, with over 100 famous movies covering every genre, and with absolutely any sort of park style in play, you had the opportunity to stray far, far from the norm. Behind the scenes, @Disney Dad 3000 & I discussed our own approaches to this prompt. I landed on an Adventures of Robin Hood (1939) boutique park featuring historical reenactment and stunt shows in the vein of France’s Puy du Fou. Didn’t flesh it out, but I found the prompt very freeing.

When working as a group, there’s a habit to default to the lowest hanging fruit. No one became a passionate defender of something personal or esoteric, so the group slowly gravitated back towards the same familiar Disney properties which form the bedrock of Armchair Imagineering. For a park style? Magic Kingdom! This is…very traditional. From veteran players, I see it as a deliberate choice to accommodate newer players who only want to wallow in familiar Disney tropes. Fair enough.

Even with our half-week extension, a Magic Kingdom scale park is extremely ambitious. (Needless to say, project scope informs how you present it.) This is a whole lot to bite off and chew. A lot more than a boutique park like, say, SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove.

Perhaps inevitably, with player retirements along the way, this titanic Magic Kingdom variant morphed into a single land in the final day. (Some other ideas got fleshed out enough that I’d like to see them pop up again, especially @ThemeParkPriest ‘s 10 Commandments area.) So we finally wound up with a Finding Nemo park in Sydney, something with a scale and theme closer to Discovery Cove. Some veterans discussed a marine park approach. This bolder concept is still visible in fleeting moments, when Underwater Adventure threatens to be more experimental and experiential, like an aquarium attraction meshed with an animal interaction facility…like Discovery Cove. But the group-wide instinct to default back to the Magic Kingdom template is oh so very strong, so in the end we have a simple land project.

I appreciate the map showing the location within Sydney. That’s the one moment where this feels like a park, not a land. I’d be interested to know more about ticket packages, about how you sell 1/8th of a Magic Kingdom and make it a large enough draw to drive visits. What’s the park’s headliner? Is it anything more than a transplanted DisneySea land? Underwater Adventure was formed in a last minute rush, limiting its potential to go deeper with design considerations.

The park/land design takes strong inspiration from DisneySea’s Mermaid Lagoon, which is a good choice. That’s an excellent template for creating a family-friendly “underwater” land. My favorite part of this project are the simple descriptions of how this space would look; simple land descriptions are often overlooked in team projects. Seaweed Segue is a strong opening statement with the swaying kelp effects. Nemo’s Odyssea is a charming version of a Fantasyland dark ride, with a well-chosen ride system and the most complete description. It too is a major winner.

There seems to be a “find & replace” going on with some Mermaid Lagoon features. Flying Fish Coaster becomes Moonfish Express Coaster, in place of Blowfish Balloon Race we get Crush’s Totally Tubular Turtle Twister. There are already A LOT of Nemo attractions in Disney parks worldwide, and only some of theme are duplicated here. While I usually dislike cloned attractions, I do wonder why there’s no Turtle Talk, no Crush’s Coaster, no Submarine Voyage or Living Seas. Had you chosen something less overrepresented, or even - gasp! - a non-Disney concept, you could've avoided such comparisons.

South Pacific Swirl, a river rapids ride, gets the briefest description? This would be by far the largest ride here, it needs a whole lot more if you plan on including it. Would this even be indoors or outdoors? The Harbour Sea Aquarium, the section which intrigued me the most coming into this project, gets extremely short shrift.

Then we get to Nemo’s Homeland, a Nemo-themed mini-land within a Nemo-themed mini-park. It reads like a second park proposal. Like multiple players did the same thing. Here we get a whole bunch more flat rides, a few restaurants with nice concepts, and Finding Nemo: The Musical somehow wedged in between menus. Which suggests another path not taken. Could the Musical have become your big draw, expanded into a Broadway caliber headliner? With the whole park built around the theater venue, a bit like the Vegas show prompt?

There will be fewer active players going forward. If any upcoming prompts truly inspire you, do not hesitate to grab a leadership role. Do not wait for others to do that.

I’ll be absent for roughly the next two weeks, on a wilderness expedition and without internet. I leave you in the confident hands of Disney Dad. Good luck, Touchwood!​
 

Disney Dad 3000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DD Reviews.jpg

This week our esteemed Touchwood Pictures was tasked with creating a new theme park utilizing any film represented in some fashion in The Great Movie Ride attraction. With The Wizard of Oz and its Land of Oz as a blueprint, we left open the possibilities for this park to be as small (or large) and as unique as you would like to take it pending on film choice and genre. With the varied list of films from the attraction, we had hoped to give you as much freedom to incorporate a film and/or theme not typical to the grander parks that get a great deal of focus on the forums.

I will say, @D Hulk and I were worried for a time that you may have made this prompt more difficult than we thought it would be. Going from a singular film within the prompt (or franchise of films per a mid-week request) to what was potentially going to be a 5-6 film (none related) mega park proved to be a major undertaking before settling into a more cohesive franchise in the final days. I will say, I was intrigued by a brief mention of Citizen Kane’s inclusion and seeing you stretch your legs with that film, or even some work that was put into a 10 Commandments land for the mega park. All that to say, do not be afraid to take some chances or a big swing with an out of the box idea. As our lone studio, there is absolutely no pressure, just let your imaginations flourish!

Let’s check out Finding Nemo Underwater Adventure Park!

With Nemo, Dory, and gang as the film choice, I think you made many of the most logical choices you could with location, setup, and scale. This had to be a bit more than a boutique park with enough attractions to warrant using the IP, and what you have done here coupled with the aquarium and proximity to the zoo could make this a solid trip for guests wanting to explore this world further.

One thing I will note off the bat, and this is probably due to the changing status of the park/direction, there is some language confusion on this being a park or land, but I know what you meant. Going in the indoor route, ala DisneySea and Mermaid Lagoon, is a nice play here to really help with the immersion factor. With all that is included here, I am curious about the size of the park as it would seemingly need to be much larger than the 3+ acre Mermaid Lagoon, though not unheard to have a massive indoor park as some you may recall from Warner Brothers’ Park in Dubai and SA7. The land’s entry provides a nice segway into the park, though I would love to hear more in later portions how you utilize the indoor location to enhance the overall experience. Love the original drawing for a park map!

Nemo’s Odyssea is a well thought out and described dark ride and reminds me a great deal, solely from some bits of story, of Epcot’s Nemo & Friends attraction. That being said, it sounds worlds better as a ride experience and using suspended dark ride technology would accentuate the idea of gliding through the waters. Moonfish Express takes the role of Gadget’s Go Coaster and Crush’s Twister the parks’ spinner. Though it goes up and down and spins? Warning, if you cannot ride Cosmic Rewind, stay away from Crush’s (jk). With a slow turning motion, that might prove for an interesting twist for certain spinner attractions.

South Pacific Swirl and the Aquarium are up next, and to me at least, seem to be what would be the headliners of your park. Unfortunately, they have the least amount of description, which is understandable with the flow of the project. I would love to hear more about SPS, the EAC, the HSA and whatever other anagrams I can come up with. It is an intriguing idea to have a rapids ride in an “undersea” park, but very interesting at that and how the movement and flow of the attraction would mimic the EAC. This is a concept, outside of the competition, which would be great to see fully fleshed out as a standalone project to see what one could produce. We'd have been happy to grant another day if needed max out these ideas.

Nemo’s Homeland provides a solid line up flat rides, 4 in fact, to help round out a lineup of I believe 8 attractions. Its lack of inclusion on the map artwork (which was well done by the way), speaks to the fluid nature of the project. I was a little confused if this was going to be a specifically different themed area within the park, or if it was just more of an organization tool to designate an area of smaller scale attractions for all heights. As it appears the goal was to make this a sizeable park, the inclusion makes sense, and you left no stone unturned with which to utilize the Nemo theme.

The dining included to round out the pitch is super detailed here offering numerous options, and all including menus. Guests would certainly not go away hungry. I would love to see a mockup of one of these thrown into the pitch for a visual representation. I could see having some fun with exteriors but the descriptions here food and restaurant wise do a solid job. While I enjoy the musical at Disney's Animal Kingdom, bringing it to this park feels a little odd for me for some reason, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Thank you again for the time and effort put into this project. While I personally would have loved to see a more unique film chosen with what was offered, I think you did max out the possibilities of the IP/Film as a park. This season has been a struggle at times to get everyone on board, so if a few of you have the makings of a pitch, go with it, and let your teammates join in when and where available. We have a couple of scenes left and want to offer you maximum time to flesh things out, but also to make sure that time can be put to good use for your talents!​
 

Disney Dad 3000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry for the delay! Yesterday was a day, and then some tech issues uploading this week's video. But moving on!
‐‐--‐--------‐-------------------‐-------------------------------------

Welcome back to The Great Movie Ride Imagineers.

Thanks to our friends here at Manhattan Beach Studios, you were able to shoot that last scene across the Pacific on the continent of Australia. Taking full advantage of the shoot anywhere, shoot anyplace technology The Volume offers, the producers look forward to where your creativity leads us for our next scene. With an extended shoot on the last scene, and still one more scene to film here on the west coast, this place is starting to feel a bit like home as we are fully settled in.

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Home. Such a powerful word and a bedrock of human society. It can mean and be many things to different people. Home might be the suburbs, an uptown apartment, a camper, nothing but a suitcase and hotels around the world, or a motorcycle and the open road and beyond. It is also a topic the Disney company has tackled in numerous fashions from its earliest days both in and out of the theme parks.



Walt Disney’s original visions for The Experimental Protype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) and what a master planned city could become was maybe a bit impractical, but a fascinating and forward-thinking look into the future. While it never came to fruition, it did lead to various elements of inclusion around the Disney World resort, and nuggets here and there within several attractions. EPCOT though would not be Disney’s final foray into planning a community.

Not far from the theme parks that dominate Walt Disney World, work began in the 90’s on a master planned community that would become Celebration, Florida. While nothing like the ideas for EPCOT, it showed Disney’s willingness, at the time, to look back to their founder and his desire for a Disney planned community. They would eventually divest control of the town, but they weren’t done with their housing ambitions, leading to the creation of Golden Oak in 2010, an upscale collection of homes situated within the resort. This new development, while grand on the home sizes and prices, not so much on the community aspect.

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Flash forward to present day, and the Disney company is at it again, with maybe their most ambitious (outside of Epcot) housing plans yet. Cotino, a Storyliving by Disney Community has been announced and recently broke ground in Ranch Mirage, California. Not much is known about this master planned community and what is in store beyond numerous pieces of concept art, a highlight reel video, some recent street layouts and mentions from Disney execs and Imagineers. It will be a fascinating watch to see what Disney’s newest iteration of community becomes, how much the Disney brand is included, and what, if any innovations they make for this new venture.​
 
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Disney Dad 3000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
SCENE 8
Location: The Volume

There's No Place Like Home


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- THIS WEEK’S SHOT LIST -


Design the next Disney master planned community


With the creation of Disney's Storyliving brand, and announcement of its first venture, Cotino, we are looking to you create the next Disney master planned community. As we are filming this in The Volume, any location around the world is open for development.

The type of community, design, activities, layout, technical advances, Disney branding and more that you do or don't include is entirely up to you. As Disney looks to make a continued push with this Storyliving brand beyond Cotino, they are looking to you to create something that will stand as a banner accomplishment for the company from a creative perspective, and importantly, entice people to live there.


This Project is due Sunday July 31st at 11:59 PM EST
(Note this date is only a placeholder if you need more time)

Time Zones

Walt Disney World- 11:59 PM
Disneyland Park - 8:59 PM
Disneyland Paris - 5:59 AM
Disneyland Tokyo - 12:59 PM​
 

Disney Dad 3000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DD Reviews.jpg

This week your challenge was to create and design a new master planned community as a follow up to Storyliving by Disney's first, Cotino. Details on Cotino are fairly sparse, though as the days pass, access to more details and concept art finds its way to the public. Disney has an interesting history when it comes to housing and building communities, so it will be interesting if Cotino is simply a plus sized Golden Oak or morphs into something decidedly different. For Touchwood Pictures, you were able to interpret your ideas for a Disney branded community in just about any fashion you desired.

Let's check out The Biltmore Community Center by Disney!

Considering I don't live too far from Asheville and know the area and Biltmore well, you have struck a good nerve with me right away and your location choice. Opting for the East Coast and a markedly different climate than Cotino and Florida easily sets up the development for a unique tone and setting from previous Disney offerings. Tying into the Biltmore estate is a solid choice, and while the stylings may not have mass appeal, it is an interesting enough option that evokes fairytales and storytelling Disney is known for. I will say I am not uber crazy about the community's name. For me it evokes more of a local rec space for kids. I don't have a hit name top of mind, but if the Biltmore name was to be used, perhaps something along the lines of xxxxx at Biltmore by Disney?

As many times as I've been to the mountains, I honestly don't think I remember seeing the name Etowah so good on you for finding this location. Distance wise it seems a bit further than I would prefer to have quick access to the amenities of Asheville, but I know land in that area is likely tough to come by between the national forest and towns. If you aren't building a golf course, placing this nearby one is a good choice and there are a number of good ones in the western part of the state. This location is just a stone's throw from Pisgah National Forest, Sliding Rock and other outdoor sites and within manageable driving distances of whitewater rafting and a casino for nice day trips.

I love the mixture of housing types you have gone with. While a Disney apartment probably would not be cheap, they and the townhomes offer up a great alternative to those not looking for or able to afford the larger homes. As you noted, it would also help cater to a variety of clientele age ranges. I could also see people utilizing these, especially the smaller units, as 2nd homes of some fashion.

The Fairytale Park is great, in fact I'd love to see the fairytale angle fleshed out even more across the community, The play area seems a fitting inclusion and with its central location a great community space it seems for kids and adults alike. Every large-scale community needs a pool, and I would have loved to see you all go ham on this one. One thing I would recommend is making this indoors as opposed to outdoors to provide year-round use. With this location the pool wouldn't be useable from October to May, unless its heated?

Cheerwine, Bojangles and BBQ you are speaking my language. I was worried at first seeing the train station on the map, but your light-rail explanation makes sense and noise wise not nearly as intrusive as the train I was imagining. Good thoughts here on connecting to other local modes of transport and finding ways to connect the community at large. The community trolley as well is a nice touch!

Overall, a solid pitch for a new community. While going all in on the inclusion of Disney branding was not a requirement, I was a bit surprised not to see it worked in a little more in various aspects. That being said, the aesthetic you've gone for here would provide a unique setting with which to sell potential residents. Thank you all once again for your efforts!​
 

Disney Dad 3000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Greetings Imagineers.

Scene 8 is in the books, and while @D Hulk is now back from conquering the Grand Canyon and Colorado River, won't be available for reviews this week.

We have made the determination at this time to go ahead and make Scene 8 the final scene, and formally end The Great Movie Ride II. We want to thank everyone that participated at any point during the season whether it was one scene or many from Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, and our final Studio Touchwood. It was a pleasure to have you all aboard.

Best of luck to you all.​
 

ThemeParkPriest

Well-Known Member
View attachment 657623

Greetings Imagineers.

Scene 8 is in the books, and while @D Hulk is now back from conquering the Grand Canyon and Colorado River, won't be available for reviews this week.

We have made the determination at this time to go ahead and make Scene 8 the final scene, and formally end The Great Movie Ride II. We want to thank everyone that participated at any point during the season whether it was one scene or many from Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, and our final Studio Touchwood. It was a pleasure to have you all aboard.

Best of luck to you all.​
Thanks for the great season! I enjoyed being both a guest judge and a contestant! You can always save that other scene for Season 3 (or something similar)!
 

AceAstro

Well-Known Member
View attachment 657623

Greetings Imagineers.

Scene 8 is in the books, and while @D Hulk is now back from conquering the Grand Canyon and Colorado River, won't be available for reviews this week.

We have made the determination at this time to go ahead and make Scene 8 the final scene, and formally end The Great Movie Ride II. We want to thank everyone that participated at any point during the season whether it was one scene or many from Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, and our final Studio Touchwood. It was a pleasure to have you all aboard.

Best of luck to you all.​
Thanks again to you and @D Hulk for such an amazing season! Lots of prompts I would’ve never even thought about so had a lot of fun through the whole thing!
 

spacemt354

Chili's
Thank you both for a great season! Always prompt feedback and great advice. And a game filled with some very unique prompts

The Vegas project was one of the most original prompts and projects I can remember from recent memory and this one in Scene 8 was one that I would really like to do again.

Out of curiosity because we mentioned in the PM we would be good continuing on with Scene 9 - what was the final scene?
 

spacemt354

Chili's
SCENE 5
Location: Pigeon Forge

Dark as a Dungeon

- THIS WEEK’S SHOT LIST -

Design a new dark ride for the Dollywood Theme Park


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This week, your Studio teams are tasked with creating a new dark ride for any location within Dollywood. Dark rides are a blind spot in the park's offerings with all of the coasters, flat rides and entertainment that are currently offered. Management is looking to you for help in creating this new experience for the park's guests.

The type of dark ride, theme, etc. are entirely up to you but should be a logical fit for Dollywood and align with the park. IPs may be used if desired, but only in the instance where it is a current relationship the park may already hold (no buying IP's) or a natural connection to the Dollywood brand via music, etc.

This week's Guest Judges:
@Chaos Cat
@Outbound

This Project is due Saturday July 2nd at 11:59 PM EST

Time Zones

Walt Disney World- 11:59 PM
Disneyland Park - 8:59 PM
Disneyland Paris - 5:59 AM
Disneyland Tokyo - 12:59 PM
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member

Of course Dollywood gets the first major modern Vekoma coaster in the US. In retrospect that makes perfect sense and I really should have seen it coming. I think the most exciting part of this is how much it rounds out Wildwood Grove as a land. It's a really great area to walk through at night, but this will for sure be the big cornerstone the land needs and hopefully take some of the demand off of Dragon Flyer. I think the park desperately needs a proper dark ride to compliment Mystery Mine and Blazing Fury as themed experiences, but this is definitely another worthy investment. I do hope the coaster is a bit more forceful than Firechaser, which is a really fun ride with some great theming but lacked any kind of pop in the thrill department outside of the launches.

I feel bad for bailing on this comp, as it did have an excellent roster of prompts. My Lagoon trip happened to land on the Vegas coaster prompt which I would have loved to work on if the timing was better. After I got back from the trip work just got really crazy and my schedule never recovered after that. I really do think a more short term elimination-based competition work work well, as I think the structure of eliminations does add a level of interest and drama that the non elimination ones just don't. I think the pop in/pop out structure, as well intended as it is, works better in the context of larger brainstorming efforts. I've also been playing around with the idea of doing an Armchair Imagineering comp in the Prometheus style using Zoom or Streamyard. I absolutely don't want the concept of Armchair Imagineering comps to fade away, but I do think we as a collective group should be looking into ways to evolve the concept. As great of a hub as this site is, message boards are a dying art and diversifying how the games can be played could really give this community a boost. I've been wanting to bring the idea of Armchair Imagineering to the broader Facebook ORG scene for a while now.
 

ThemeParkPriest

Well-Known Member
I feel bad for bailing on this comp, as it did have an excellent roster of prompts. My Lagoon trip happened to land on the Vegas coaster prompt which I would have loved to work on if the timing was better. After I got back from the trip work just got really crazy and my schedule never recovered after that. I really do think a more short term elimination-based competition work work well, as I think the structure of eliminations does add a level of interest and drama that the non elimination ones just don't. I think the pop in/pop out structure, as well intended as it is, works better in the context of larger brainstorming efforts. I've also been playing around with the idea of doing an Armchair Imagineering comp in the Prometheus style using Zoom or Streamyard. I absolutely don't want the concept of Armchair Imagineering comps to fade away, but I do think we as a collective group should be looking into ways to evolve the concept. As great of a hub as this site is, message boards are a dying art and diversifying how the games can be played could really give this community a boost. I've been wanting to bring the idea of Armchair Imagineering to the broader Facebook ORG scene for a while now.
Yeah, I think the Prometheus style competition could potentially work well. We would want it to be online-safe, maybe even limit it to 18+. I'm watching Season 2 of Prometheus even though Tiki isn't in it this year, so it's pretty entertaining. And Imagineering has the added benefit in that it is a real interesting (and real) theme.
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
@JokersWild and I are about to launch our latest collaboration: Ranking 65 different WDW attractions!
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Here are the 65 attractions we'll be ranking in this series. Every episode after the bottom five will cover ten attractions a piece. All the meet n' greets and certain theater shows have been cut. The newest attractions (Ratatouille, Cosmic Rewind, Tron) will NOT be included. Runaway Railway and the Mickey Shorts Theater are the newest attractions on this list.

Alien Swirling Saucers
The American Adventure
Astro Orbiter
The Barnstormer
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
Country Bear Jamboree
Dinosaur
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Expedition Everest
Festival of the Lion King
Finding Nemo: The Musical
Flight of Passage
Grand Fiesta Tour
The Hall of Presidents
Haunted Mansion
Impressions De France
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
It’s a Small World
It’s Tough to be a Bug
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Journey of the Little Mermaid
Jungle Cruise
Kali River Rapids
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Liberty Square Riverboat
Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy
Living with the Land
Mad Tea Party
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
The Mickey Shorts Theater
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Mission Space
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
MuppetVision 3D
Na'vi River Journey
One Man’s Dream
Peoplemover
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pirates of the Caribbean
Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel
Rise of the Resistance
Rock N’ Roller Coaster
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Slinky Dog Dash
Smuggler’s Run
Soarin’
Space Mountain
Spaceship Earth
Splash Mountain
Star Tours: The Adventure Continues
Swiss Family Treehouse
Test Track Triceratops Spin
Tomorrowland Speedway
Tom Sawyer Island
Toy Story Mania
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Walt Disney World Railroad
 

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