TEAM GARFIELD
The World's Most Magical Celebration
Team Garfield burst out of the gate last weekend with some brilliant teamwork and fast-paced back and forth that would rival the Team Soul/Team Reality PMs of old. In fact, Garfield ended up winning the brainstorming page count battle after this was all done, so kudos in that department. As a leader, tcool used his experience and fortitude in order to get the brainstorming off the ground and sustain it throughout the week. The daily updates with regards to what was finished, what needed to be done, as well as the addition of the editable sheet really made a difference in organizing the contents of the project. Moreover, I think your energetic nature and natural kindness made it really easy to adapt for new team members as well, as the chemistry on this team was exceptional!
In the beginning of the week, there was a bit of a knowledge gap that needed to be filled about what the project entailed, and what was expected. Perhaps that came from many in the game being new to the SAU and adapting to the environment, but even still I think after all that adaption to produce a project of this magnitude shows clearly that this team had passion for the project.
And that passion would be what I'd focus on next - what you may see throughout the review is critique regarding this project's length. Across the board, detail is always appreciated, and there are many subtle points throughout this project that those small notes truly stood out (the ResortTV for example). But there were also times where the detail simply made the project a chore to read. While it's a feat and something to be proud of for essentially creating several items of what probably would be stand-alone submissions in other rounds, we also have to factor in what the *thesis* of this project becomes when there is so much that it drowns out the unique items from standing out as much as they could.
For instance, right off the bat, in both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot headers, the 'already announced' tab doesn't have to be so detailed, it could have been a sentence or two on the home page explaining that "all the previous announced additions to WDW (list) will be a part of our celebration" boom, done. So then, when the reader clicks on the first Magic Kingdom tab, instead of being underwhelmed reading previously known info, the reader can be bam! hit with the New Tomorrowland details! The reaction of the reader goes from a mundane transition to a 'wow!' transition.
That engagement is important as with something so lengthy, the reader needs to keep enthusiasm and not simply read a list of the most needed items of Walt Disney World. The detail within that list far exceeds expectations, and that's where I'm at a crossroads because there's about dozen+ amazing individual contributions that are projects in their own rank, mixed in with a dozen+ smaller, but predictable ones, and a dozen+ others already announced. So rather than simply being blown away by the contributions so I can brag about them in the review, I feel mixed because I also had to read things that weren't all that interesting as well and probably could have been cut down to a sentence or even cut entirely.
But if you didn't cut anything - what I really think would have helped this project is a trip guide! One of the emphasis points we had was grading the projects on whether or not someone in Cali for example would have to make the trip to WDW for the 50th. Must-see items! And while the project had plenty - could a family of four who only has 6 nights 7 days of vacation time, see all there is for the 50th? Or would they have to miss out on stuff? Because from reading it - I don't see how a family of four would have the time to do most of this, but perhaps I'm wrong and a trip guide would have a) shown that this isn't too much content and b) organized it in an engaging fashion so that despite the length, it doesn't feel like a list.
All that said, this is constructive feedback and isn't a sign that the work put into this project isn't noticed or appreciated. In fact the rest of the review will be highlighting some of the aspects that really impressed me.
Tomorrowland Overlay - Magic Kingdom. I really liked the Raygun Gothic approach to this land. The Adventures of Vince Quasar and Flight of the Navigator were two additions that would add some nuance to Tomorrowland and some longevity as well. Hayley's Cosmic Cantina was also a winner - Rings of Saturn appetizer (onion rings displayed by concentric size) - being my favorite menu item.
Celebrate a Wish Come True was such an incredible show. So detailed and I love how it addressed all the lands throughout the Magic Kingdom. the visuals provide enough detail here for my to get a grasp of the show, and the score choices as well were top notch.
The Excavator at Disney's Animal Kingdom and the overhaul of Dinoland to New Mexico was such a brilliant move. Not only to add more naturalistic settings to DAK, but also a new terrain as well to diversify it from the rest of the park. While an old concept, I think you added more originality to the land to justify the re-use of the classic coaster concept.
While a smaller addition, I appreciate the move of smaller flats to Inventus, something the park desperately needs. The Aladdin move fits like a glove, and the unique character in Tanuki was a neat mythological addition.
The Marketplace was such an incredible enhancement! While some of the stores like MrBeast seemed a little odd (maybe I'm getting too old for YouTube stars?) the map was excellent and some of the stores such as Thingamabobs were very original with the Danish Baroque architecture!
My last but not least favorite item is the MustDo Disney Redo - ResortTV is something realistically that should change with the 50th to keep up with the times, so that new 'Must-Do' list was one aspect of the many details in this project that I respected and truly appreciated.
There were many other components to this project - I can go through them one by one, but a lot of them to me felt self-explanatory. Such as the Yeti update, or the Big Thunder 3rd incline enhancement, these are among the items in the project I think didn't have to be fully written out, because I'm not sure how to react to them other than..."that makes imagineering sense." Much like the souvenirs and 50th merch, that all ... "seems reasonable" but to me, I don't want to fake react, or critique those either for being realistic. The EARidescent enhancements as well fall into this category of "cool" but moving on.
One large component of the project that I don't want to overlook either is Pixar Place - the effort put into the write-ups for all the attractions and the rationale for it replacing Maroon Studios makes sense, but it's also kinda safe. A Toy Story Adventure was an original take on Toy Story, and some of the shops were very well thought out like the Cereal Bar which was pretty cool. All that aside, this is an aspect of the project that if I'm being 100% real, didn't need to be in the project. To me as a reader, it's stuffing the project more than a Thanksgiving meal, for content that while good, also adds to the read and the reader will naturally wind up missing details or balancing the content effectively.
Overall, I must say that Team Garfield blew away expectations in terms of teamwork and detail, but a central identity to the 50th and perhaps a trip report style organization were things I thought could be improved to this already excellent project.
TEAM HOLLAND and TEAM MAGUIRE reviews coming up next...
