The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Season 7: Fantasmic Journeys [CONCLUDED!]

AceAstro

AceAstro

Well-Known Member
AceAstroReview.png


@DashHaber

To start off, I think the IP choice is a great one. TMNT is a great IP and I think an attraction would work well. While I love Revenge of the Mummy, it very clearly doesn’t work in New York theming wise. The switch to TMNT makes sense, I just wish there was a bigger explanation of why it made sense.

Getting to the queue, I absolutely love it. It feels like such a typical Universal queue in the best way possible. It fully immerses you into the story instantly while also showing off more of the TMNT universe. I’d want to stay in the queue as long as possible!

When you first mentioned the slot car dark ride, I wasn’t sure if it would work. After reading through this project, I think it definitely has potential! My biggest concern with it is that typical sewer tunnels aren’t very large but the slot car vehicles are massive so I worry about losing immersion when these sewer tunnels are 10+ ft wide.

I think the attraction itself is a lot of fun. One tip: it would be super helpful to have the ride layout before the writeup instead of afterwards just to have a general sense of the movement in my head before reading the scenes. I think the scenes themselves are very ambitious in scale. A lot of Animatronics “dropping down” would more than likely be more static than ideal just from a maintenance stand point. That being said, the scenes themselves flow very nicely from one to another and I think they would work as an overall attraction quite nicely.

Overall, I think the ride has an extremely solid premise/ idea, there was just a few spots where I feel it fell short. That being said, I wish you luck through this and thanks for playing an incredible season!
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@Pi on my Cake

To start off, Five Nights at Freddy’s is an IP I am not extremely familiar with. I played the first two games when they came out but that was about it. But I know the lore runs deep throughout it and I think that really works here. Universal is excellent at taking lore/ story deep IP’s and immersing guests into the attraction/ land.

Starting with the presentation, I love the intro phone call. It totally immerses me back into the game. It fits the style to perfection. The slides presentation just adds into that! I love the backstory you have created. I was definitely curious how you were going to make it work but putting Fazbear in charge of Universal AA’s is a nice seamless transition. I think the location you chose makes a ton of sense. A replacement to the Simpsons is definitely coming soon-ish and FNaF allows the general feel of the area to stay the same to it works as a new IP transition.

The queue is fabulous. I love how Jimmy’s virtual queue is set up and I think you use that set up to your advantage here. The three lobby’s are great! I think the Museum Room is a great way to introduce the lore to people who may not be familiar with the IP. The showcase room would be an incredible room for fans of the IP to see these full scale AA’s up close. And the arcade room is a nice way to hint at what is to come. The only thing I would have done is maybe start with the arcade room and end with the museum room. That way the lore is more fresh on guests mind and they can play the arcade games with hints of things to come first and get that explanation right after.

Getting into the ride itself, it is very solid and well thought out. It’s clear your familiarity with the IP is strong as the attraction itself flows very well. There is never a point in the ride write-up where I feel something is jarring or super out of place. It feels like the IP was built for a dark ride and it would be an IP I would have never even thought of choosing.
To conclude, I love how you tied it together at the end with HHN, the celebration, etc. All of it is extremely fitting for this IP and I think would just make it even more immersive.

I loved the anagram of who this project was sponsored by. I expected nothing less ;)​
 
tcool123

tcool123

Well-Known Member
tcool123 said:
So who's everyone rooting to win, except just can't choose yourself ;)
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In terms of final projects my personal favorite was @Pi on my Cake and that's coming from someone who's only knowledge of FNAF is from when I was in middle school watching GameThreory's videos.

HOWEVER, looking at the overall season @Tegan pilots a chicken really has done an amazing job.
 
AceAstro

AceAstro

Well-Known Member

@Tegan pilots a chicken

I absolutely love this intro. All the build up to the Chaos-verse is just perfect!

Then you nailed what the major issue with Disneyland’s Tomorrowland is. I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there but demolishing everything (including Space Mountain) is a bold call. Disneyland is “sacred” is a lot of ways so this would more than likely receive a lot of pushback (especially when the new built up area’s buildings use basically the same footprint).

That being said, unless I missed it, does the Chaos-verse include Avengers Campus in DCA? If so, it feels weird to have two Marvel lands in the resort while losing Tomorrowland for it.
The queue is stunning. I think it is a nice set up and stroll but the hall of armor would be an unreal reveal. It would definitely have people taking pictures with it while waiting in line. The queue could be the Hall of Armor alone and be a win but there are so many great details through the rest of the queue it is definitely a great look.

For the ride system, I am blown away. I can’t recall times when people have made their own ride system that wasn’t just beyond a “Universal version of this Disney ride system” so I love that you did that. I think it is a very ambitious system!

Getting into the ride itself, I absolutely love the layout and scenes. I have always been a big fan of Iron Man and I think this coaster lays out a story perfectly. It’s a fun story line that I think is busy enough to allow re-rideability but isn’t too busy that guests get lost on their first ride. And it wouldn’t be Marvel without a post-show! I think it fits the rest of the ride quite nicely.
Overall, I think this is a very solid E-ticket final project. The story, coaster, land, etc. all tie into each other quite nicely with nothing feeling extremely out of place.
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@Shannoninthemagic

Starting off, I absolutely love Broadway so I was excited about this ride. I think it’s replacement for GMR ride is questionable however as it would potentially make more sense if they were keeping a “highlight” ride to do updated films instead of new Broadway licenses but that is a minor nitpick. I am always a fan of ride stats to add to a project’s realism so I love that they are added here!

Getting into the ride itself, I love the show choices you went with. Besides the Disney section, I think Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and West Side Story are all great sections. That being said, this ride uses 29 shows. In comparison, Great Movie Ride had 12. I love all the shows that were used but it feels like it is slightly too large of a scale for one E-ticket.
All in all, I absolutely love the concept, ride stats, etc. that have been laid out, I am just concerned that the sheer number of scenes is 2.5x too many for an attraction of this scale.​
 
AceAstro

AceAstro

Well-Known Member
@ThemeParkPriest


I love the detailed rationale given here. Typically, rationale is a quick blurb and we all accept it. Here, it is clear that you have put a ton of thought and effort into not only the attraction and how it works, but why it works.

I think Animal Kingdom is a great choice for location. As a huge Animal Kingdom fan, there is definitely something missing from the park and I think this is a great way to address it.

For the Seas of Life, I love the location, and façade (the art is a great touch). That being said, here is where I start to struggle with the project. From the layout, it just feels like a re-organized Living Seas pavilion. We have an Omnimover through the tank, hydrolators, and a Coral Reef restaurant. While I adore the Living Seas, a lot of this is very reminiscent of that instead of something brand new and standalone.

Getting into the ride itself, I love the feel and idea of it but I am not sure about the message. While it’s not as prevalent in 2003 as it is now, a big thing with Animal Kingdom is Animal Conservation. This ride feels very informative on the animal as a whole but I would have loved it to focus on the animals and their environment (are they endangered? If so why? How can it be fixed? etc.) to sort of tie in with the park, and the Conservation station next door.
Overall, this project has one of the most realistic approaches to realism I have ever seen (not just in this stanza, but across my whole time here) but I do have concerns about how Epcot-y it feels.
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@Sharon&Susan

Starting off, I am a HUGE Universal Studios Hollywood fan so I am glad someone did their final project in this park. And, while I’m not an expert on the IP, I have played a ton of Crash Bandicoot games. That being said, I am torn on the IP choice for the time period. June 2005 would be the midst of Disneyland’s 50th celebration so Universal would definitely want to cash in on that. But I struggle with the Crash as the choice. It’s not like it’s 2020 with Nintendo being worked on. Unless I am mistaken, Video Games in the parks in 2005 would’ve been unheard of. Do I think it could work? Probably. It just feels like Crash is such a risky IP choice as the first Video Game theme park representation.

That being said, I absolutely love this attraction. It feels very Indiana Jones Adventure without just being Indy (EMV, Temple, etc.). The queue would be unreal to see in person. It would be absolutely massive and the scale of it would be stunning to walk through trying to find every little Easter egg.

Getting to the ride itself, it really stands out to me. The ride feels very go-go-go which the EMV system works perfectly for. The scenes all fit together nicely and while it is only a 6 scene ride, I don’t feel like anything major is missing. Lastly, that ride layout map is incredibly detailed and I would have loved it to start instead of at the end of the ride.

Moving to N. Sanity Island, a minor note is I would have loved this before the ride. While the ride is the main focus of the prompt, I feel like N. Sanity island is brief enough that it gives us a layout of the area and serves as a nice introduction. Lastly, I loved the continued path afterwards of what happens after the ride opens to continue the timeline.

Overall, while I wasn’t sold on the IP choice at first, the mini-land and E-ticket’s descriptions really proved that while the IP may be a risk, a solid write-up and story makes it work.​
 
AceAstro

AceAstro

Well-Known Member
@JokersWild

I wasn’t sure at first which direction you were going to park-wise. Instead, you went very outside the box and it worked. The prompt said to use your favourite park, if it was fictional, so be it. And I think going that route really worked for you! The biggest concern to me was whether or not half of the project was going to be explaining the park. But I think you did it in a really solid narrative form that gave us the important details without bogging it down too much. Through the backstory of Chapter 1 and the overall descriptions of Chapter 2, I got the gist of the project without feeling lost or the focus being on the wrong subject.

Getting to the ride, I adore the set up. The ride vehicles look awesome and work so well for an attraction like this (I love the sketch of them). While trackless might be obvious, I think it fits quite well for this style of attraction. My one nitpick with that however is that we have trackless ride vehicles but then they all follow one path? I feel they could have branched off from each other more. Where we time travel is something I didn’t expect. Typical a time travel ride goes to the dinosaurs and then back to more recent times. To see that we go back to the beginning of time was definitely a shock but I am not complaining as it was a rather unique twist. Instead of focusing on the obvious areas to travel to, we get a nice mix of time periods which makes this ride really unique in that regards! It’s informative on a whole new set of times guests may not focus on otherwise.

In conclusion, I think this project was very solid and while ambitious in idea, the execution was absolutely nailed so the risks definitely paid off. Thank you for the Foreword and I am glad you had a lot of fun this season, I think we all learned a lot through the season!
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@tcool123

You have already sold me just by the name alone!

The backstory is great. I love the approach of including an explorer’s journal as a way to explain what all happened before to tie into now. Continuing past that, I love the introductions of the Gods. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with a ton of information but each introduction is short and to the point so that we can get the important details without getting bogged down.

I think the location is an interesting choice. The Lost Continent is definitely lacking on content right now so that aspect fits. An attraction like this definitely fixes that issue. That being said, you mention that the attraction is connected to Skull Island: Reign of Kong but then is put on the opposite side of the park. I know making it work beside Kong wouldn’t be easy, it just feels weird to have them not located beside each other.

Getting to the queue, I absolutely love it. It is so detailed and everything about the Egyptian culture ties into the queue just perfectly. Someone who is big on Egyptian Mythology could just walk through this queue and be happy without even stepping on the ride. It’s details are incredible!

The ride system here definitely works and I think it fits into a classic Universal style. The implementation of the Spider-Man system is really the perfect fit for this style of attraction. My biggest concern here is there was just a massive queue and pre-show and then the first scene of the ride is still briefing. While I love it, that feels like that could border on information overload for someone not super familiar with what was happening. From that point on, the ride is incredible. It all flows together extremely well with each scene clearly being thought out fully. At no point is there a scene that I feel doesn’t fit or is jarring as the entire long set up and briefing really pays off in the end attraction.

Overall, even with tiny nitpicks, this is a super ambitious project that I think was pulled of quite well, and would be a solid attraction if it were to exist in real life!​
 
tcool123

tcool123

Well-Known Member
AceAstro said:
I think the location is an interesting choice. The Lost Continent is definitely lacking on content right now so that aspect fits. An attraction like this definitely fixes that issue. That being said, you mention that the attraction is connected to Skull Island: Reign of Kong but then is put on the opposite side of the park. I know making it work beside Kong wouldn’t be easy, it just feels weird to have them not located beside each other.
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The connection is meant to start off Universal's version of SEA hence the distance.
 

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