Marvel Studios Presents...
Big Hero 6: Operation Expo
Replacing Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin as well as Monsters Inc Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom, will be an interactive D-Ticket dark ride attraction based on the 2014 Disney animated feature, Big Hero 6.
Join Hiro, Baymax and all of your favorite heroes as they present their science projects from the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology at a convention held in the Tomorrowland Expo Center. While all seems to be going to plan at first, a menacing villain in Yandroth, attacks the science fair in an attempt to steal the Baymax technology. You must join up with Big Hero 6 and defend the expo from Yandroth by piloting your own transport vehicles throughout the center, destroying Yandroth's pursuits.
Ride Overview
The exterior design of the Tomorrowland Expo Center will remain relatively similar in accordance with the rest of Tomorrowland proper. The colorful neon designs and metallic overhangs that represent the building that stands today will still be the same, aside from a fresh coat of paint and new signage indicating the attraction inside. The entrance to the former Buzz Lightyear attraction will now be the exit from Big Hero 6: Operation Expo.
From the map above, guests enter from the Tomorrowland Plaza walkway and into the Expo Center, looking at all of the science projects on display, before boarding tour vehicles to take you to the demonstration labs of the expo. During the attraction, the vehicles branch off into 3 separate tracks, allowing more capacity and unique experiences for guests to explore.
From the Peoplemover, guests looking down into the attraction will be able to witness the final battle with Yandroth in an epic display of visuals and precision accuracy of the riders taking on Yandorth's wrath.
Queue
Inspired by the Robot Exhibition Hall in Big Hero 6, guests will enter the Tomorrowland Expo Center and be amazed at all the technological innovation that surrounds them. An immersive display of the latest and greatest in scientific research is abound. Guests are able to interactive and read the new advancements in science and technology as they roam the switchbacks of the queue, exploring the various easter eggs scattered throughout the displays as well.
Expo Center Presentation Examples
Continuing throughout the expo center, guests then reach an oval shaped room where Fred in his mascot costume as an animatronic is interacting with guests before they enter the loading area (this is a similar presentation style to Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story Midway Mania).
Fred moves around and interacts with guests as they walk by with lines such as "Dude loving the Goofy Shirt!" Or if he sees a picture of one of the Big Hero 6: "Hey that's a great pic of my friend Go... I mean, of those guys from San Fransokyo I know have absolutely no way of knowing personally!"
This fun, interactive animatronic experience leads guests into the loading bay to take you to Hiro and Baymax's demonstration room.
Ride Vehicles and Loading Area
The ride vehicles are designed as expo tour vehicles designed by Hiro that will take guests around to the various demonstration points in the Center.
Like everything at the Expo, these tour vehicles are State Of The Art, Prototype, Self Guided, Tour Vehicles (In other words, they're Golf Karts with so much tech stuffed on them that there's only room for two guests each. Each vehicle contains two laser pointers which, when pointed at the various QVC codes throughout the expo, will bring formation up on the onboard screens.)
The vehicles themselves have a capacity of 4 guests, with the back row slightly elevated above the first row. The 4 guests together create the impression of working as a 'team' (a Big Hero 4 team one could say) rather than the duo matchup in the former Buzz attraction or the back to back seating arrangement of Toy Story Midway Mania.
From the loading dock the vehicles proceed in groups of three down a short hallway, passing posters of various past events that have taken place at the Expo Center. Guests will find that if they point their lasers at the codes on theses posters, it will bring up info about these former events.
Some these former events include:
- Transportaion Expo, presented by XS
- The Monster Comedy Concert
- Space Cadet Recruitment
- The Dreamflight Acadamy 1998 Graduation Ceremony.
From here the vehicles move on to the first demonstration, where guests find Hiro Himada frantically getting ready.
Scene 1 - Hiro Presentation
As usual, Hrio not ready. In his frantic attempts to start the presentation he stubs his toe, the resulting cry of pain activates Baymax, who greets the guests in his usual manner, "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion.
Despite the rocky start, Hiro tries to begin his presentation, but they are inturrupted by rumbling, he runs off to check it out, Baymax follows, but even the vehicles are faster than he is.
Scene 2 - Yandroth's Vengeance
The vehicles follow Hiro into the central Hall, which is Pandemonium, at the center is a tall man with pointed ears in a green, futuristic suit.
"I am Yandroth, Scientest Supreme, I hereby proclaim dominon over all of your technology!"
Lightning bolts fly from his hands, and several of the nearby tech begins to go berserk.
Noticing that the guests are strapped to their seats, Hiro hops underneath their vehicle and hotwires the laser pointers, making them more powerful. He shouts at guests to get going. And the vehicles begin to move on.
From here, each of the three vehicles takes a different, randomly assigned path, guests can be clued in to the direction they're going based on Hiro's instructions from the On-board Screen. Each track is accompanied by one of Hiro's three friends:
Gogo,
Honey Lemon, and
Wasabi.
The lasers are now designed for each guest to rack up 'Hero Points' -- in defeating Yandroth's reign.
For hitting
light green hexagons, guests receive 100 points
For hitting
orange pentagons, guests receive 250 points
For hitting
pink triangular stars, guests receive 500 points
There are also easter egg challenges and bonus rounds, such as the water challenge in Honey Lemon's track, which gives guests anywhere from 300-1000 bonus points.
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During all of these eclectic tracks, on-board audio of Fall Out Boy's song Immortals from the film, plays along as you blast away to the beats.
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Gogo Track
"Quick! Follow Gogo. We need to stop those machines, find the main power switch and shut them down!"
The vehicles pass by an animtronic of Gogo already suited up and ready to go, "Try to keep up" she says. The vehicles move on to the next room.
Scene 3 - Wind Tunnel
Originally meant to demonstrate advancements in aerodynamics, this wind tunnel's fan has picked up speed under Yandroth's power, and is now blowing random debris at the guests. Guests have to blast the debris out of the way as they pass through.
Scene 4 - Robotic Arms
The latest in robotic advancements are on display here, and they've all gone nuts! Robotic Arms swipe at you from left and right, firing at an arm will disable it for a couple seconds, allowing the vehicle to move onto the next room.
Scene 5 - Earthquake Room
Designed to simulate realistic earthquakes, large heavy blocks of steel drive themselves downward, shaking the whole floor, if they keep going like this they'll shake the building apart, but the shaking is keeping from maintaining her balance. Firing at each block will temporarily stop them. Both guests riding get a bonus if they manage to stop all the blocks shaking at once!
Scene 6 - Power Switch
We pass an animatronic of Gogo, who has managed to find the main power switch, she switches the power off, and nods at the passing guests, "Not bad, for noobs. Let's go take care of Yandroth!"
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Honey Lemon Track
Scene 3 - Volcano Project
This is where we are first alone with Honey Lemon and don’t have the rest of the guests with us. This is where we run into the first problem. We see someone was working on a high-tech version of a classic Science-fair volcano where the chemicals are a lot more dangerous for humans to inhale but makes a much larger explosion so the student takes the risk. The trick to this volcano is that all the chemicals are on a table underneath and when a corresponding timer hits 0, all the chemicals will combine to make the eruption, far too early and far too dangerously. However, with the timer for when it was going to erupt in Yandroth’s control, the guests have to make sure to shoot the chemicals before they get into the volcano causing it to erupt. After successfully suppressing the volcano situation, the guests continue along to the next scene.
Scene 4 - Putting out the Fire
After pulling into this next scene, the guests see another science fair project where the student decided the basic version of the project was too easy and took this project to the extreme. Here is where they come face-to-face with a large scale lava lamp made with real lava! As Yandroth stormed through this area he smashed the glass of the lava lamp causing the lava to slowly flow through the room and soon the rest of the building. By the time the guests enter this room the lava is already starting to block their exit out of there so they need to find a way to cool of this lava. And fast. Luckily, the student knew the dangers of this project so all around the room there are different sized buckets of water. The smaller the bucket of water, the more points you get! Eventually, the guests will clear up the lava with the water and continue on to the next room.
Scene 5 - Yandroth's Tricks
This is where the guests hit the real danger though! This student wanted to build a machine to fire potatoes further than any regular old potato gun could dream of! The only problem was, Yandroth now had control of this Potato-firing machine. When entering the room, it is clear that this machine has already started firing potatoes but all over the place with no real target. Not knowing where this is aiming is bringing a high concern to Honey Lemon wanting the guests to take out this robot as fast as possible as it seems like there is no foreseeable end to the number of potatoes this robot has. After some key dodges lead by Honey Lemon, the guests finally destroy the robot narrowly avoiding getting hurt. This is where the guests head on to the last solo room.
Scene 6 - Pink Explosions
Lastly, we come towards Honey Lemon’s creation for the expo. Her idea is that if we attack Yandroth long enough from the front, she can sneak around to the back of him and apply the ball of brittlement to his legs hopefully crippling him long enough to take him out. While guests fire at him, he constantly catches Honey Lemon and throws her back towards us, after 4-5 attempts of trying to sneak around him she finally succeeds and removes some of the armour from his suit. We use this moment of him being crippled to escape on to scene 7 to meet back up with the other ride vehicles.
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Wasabi Track
Scene 3 - Nanotechnology
Your vehicles enter into a nano-particle physics experimental presentation gone array, as microscopic energy rays open up all around you. Wasabi flies in and tells you to aim at the circular gravitational anomalies to close the nano-particles from engulfing the expo center. You shoot and point all around the room as Wasabi cheers you on going into the next room.
Scene 4 - Time Warp
While your attempts were valiant, one of the time warps opens up and begins to engulf the whole expo demonstration room. From the room, you can see portals to the other nano dimensions as well as characters from other worlds in the multiverse. A brief nod to other Marvel characters including the Guardians of the Galaxy can be seen in this room, as your objective is to close all of the portals before you are sucked into one. This battle continues onto the next room as Wasabi claims to have found a weakness in the crystallization machine and if he can point it at us, we the guests can destroy the vortex.
Scene 5 - Inner Space
Continuing on from the previous room, dozens of portals are open above you with multi-colors and stars all around the expo room, as you race against time in order to stop Yandroth's wrath.
"I think I got it heroes! Follow me! We're gonna shut this down" Wasabi exclaims as you proceed towards the crystallization room.
Scene 6 - Crystallization
You finally reach the crystallization portal and all lasers are aims and fired around the generator and the surrounding area to not only rack up points but to also help Wasabi stop the portals from forming. As the generator is shut down, Yandroth's plan is just about vanquished as you meet up with the rest of the team for one final confrontation.
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Peoplemover Scene - All Tracks
Scene 7 - Confrontation
This scene is where all of the vehicles meet back up together to try and defeat Yandroth one last time. Similar to the final scene you see in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, there will be clear areas the Big Hero 6 team want you to focus on as it is the weak spots that were infiltrated earlier in the attraction. After a couple of good shots, Yandroth is visibly slower, eventually crumbling down, before being finally defeated by the teams at the end.
Scene 8/9 - Finale and Unload
After turning the corner you meet up with the team again where you see Yandroth cuffed up to be taken away. Here we have the entire team on a screen in the distance standing on top of the rubble of the battle both thanking the guests for their help as well as waving goodbye to them, hoping that next year’s Expo will go off without a hitch.
Attraction Statistics
Ticket - D-Ticket
Type - Interactive Dark Ride
FastPass+ - Yes
Height Restriction - None
Attraction Time: 4:45 mins
Wheelchair Transfer - Yes
Operational Capacity - 2,150 guests per hour
Theoretical Capacity - 2,400 guests per hour
Gift Shop - Tadashi Station
As guests unload from the vehicles they will walk into a quaint shop called Tadashi Station with various merchandise from the film and attraction. Here you can purchase trading pins, shirts, shorts, assorted clothing, POP! dolls, backpacks, and much more.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Big Hero 6: Operation Expo serves to not only fill the void of interactive attractions left behind by Buzz Lightyear and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor - but to expand on their offerings giving guests a popular and sleek new attraction for Tomorrowland for the whole family.