ChrisM
Well-Known Member
Spot on.
NRJ would be greatly improved with a couple full scale AA animals (and would be a legitimately solid attraction with those and if it was just a little bit longer with a Pirates style drop).
Oh well.
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News Zootopia and Moana Blue Sky concepts for Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Spot on.
NRJ would be greatly improved with a couple full scale AA animals (and would be a legitimately solid attraction with those and if it was just a little bit longer with a Pirates style drop).
Oh well.
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I think NRJ is a legitimately solid attraction as-is -- it's one of the best C tickets at WDW, if not the best.
Of course it would be better if it was longer with more AAs, but then it's a D or even an E ticket. Which would be great, but I don't think that was the intent.
Of course it would be better if it was longer with more AAs, but then it's a D or even an E ticket. Which would be great, but I don't think that was the intent.
pdude81
Well-Known Member
DCLcruiser
Well-Known Member
What is the purpose of the ride? What is the quest, or the adventure, or the peril, or the excitement? It's just a song and some neon jelly fish. It's not worth it.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
Something needs to go horrible wrong?
DCLcruiser
Well-Known Member
It's Pandora. Humans in mechanized suits invading an alien world with banshees (fine, this land takes place after that). Something exciting should happen on the ride.
PotC is more exciting and engaging, and it's the same slow boat with a song.
gorillaball
Well-Known Member
Does something "exciting" need to happen on every ride? I like it (other than the already mentioned length etc).
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
You could say the same about "It's A Small World". Or PeopleMover. Or any number of rides.
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
While I don't think the length of Na'vi River Journey will ever be expanded, I could see one day a few animal animatronics being added to the ride. There are a number of areas on the ride where there is empty space and not much happening where the presence of an animatronic creature would do a lot to liven things up.
Since it's unlikely that an expansion of Pandora would be ready in time for Avatar 2 (2022), Avatar 3 (2024) or Avatar 4 (2026) I think it's possible that a few animatronics could be added to the ride at some point in the next 5 years to give the land something new and shiny until a much larger expansion is ready.
Since it's unlikely that an expansion of Pandora would be ready in time for Avatar 2 (2022), Avatar 3 (2024) or Avatar 4 (2026) I think it's possible that a few animatronics could be added to the ride at some point in the next 5 years to give the land something new and shiny until a much larger expansion is ready.
DCLcruiser
Well-Known Member
It's a movie about action/adventure. So, yes, it should. Or at least give us some reason to be interested, why are we on the river, where are we going, what will we discover!? A new human outpost? A new alien animal? I don't want a book report, but I don't want to be bored either from a zillion dollar expansion. The scenery is good inside, but the land outside is even more impressive. So the bioluminescence inside isn't as much of a wow.
I hear you, but I consider those rides acceptable as "my feet hurt, let's sit and relax" rides. Pandora (film) has an energy to it.
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
The purpose is that you get to be in a jungle on an alien planet -- it sells that hard. It's one of the more immersive/transportive rides at Disney.
It's all subjective/a matter of taste, of course, but while I do like Flight of Passage and think it's a good attraction, I actually enjoy NRJ more.
Suspirian
Well-Known Member
Its so bizarre to me that The Lion King, the same movie they're milking nostalgia from via cgi remakes, has very little presence in Disney theme parks globally. Seems very weird and near-sighted to prioritize an IP like Zootopia over that.
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Well, Lion King has that underlying theme of a primitive existence and natural selection... that whole circle of life jingo. Care to explain to junior why Simba's jowls are covered in blood while he gleefully chomps away on one of his neighbors or even better Little Red?
Zootopia doesnt have to face those hard facts as they have stores to buy food in
SpectreJordan
Well-Known Member
Honestly, that whole area needs a retheme. I like the idea to expand Magic Kingdom, but it's crazy they're thinking of doing that before they do anything with the giant dead area in their second busiest park.
As someone who is a fan of the original movie, I do not think you can better manifest the IP in the parks than Festival of the Lion King, unless you wanted to replace it with an abridged version of the Broadway show (beyond unlikely). This might sound weird, but the very nature of Disney Renaissance movies: a marriage of so many technical disciplines working at their highest levels to produce a self-contained end product, I think anything that attempts to transform those characters and their worlds into a kinetic theme park attraction would wind up feeling too alien to the IP, or too closely mirrors a book report to be meaningful.
Modern theme park experiences, for all of their strengths and faults, aspire to be transportive to a living environment. For The Lion King, the world you can be transported to is in Kilimanjaro Safaris. You can't retell a Shakespearean play in the world of a Savannah excursion in real life--they couldn't even keep the goofy, nebulous story they had on the ride.
Zootopia and Avatar are not nearly the movie that The Lion King (1994) is, but they do lend themselves more easily to a transportive experience in a theme park.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
It's the Animal Kingdom... no it shouldn't.
FigmentForever96
Well-Known Member
The purpose of the ride is to simply be an extension of the land you’ve been exploring. Its simply a vessel to further explore and drive the narrative the entire land is trying to showcase the moment you walk into it. Whether it does that well or doesn’t is probably more in the eye of the beholder but it earns more respect from me when I see it as an extension versus just a stand alone.
JustInTime
Well-Known Member
WDW is covered on the Lion King front. We went to DL in 2019 and were shocked to not see a single thing for it though. I guess there just aren’t many places it fits. But the good news is that since then, DL has gotten a show and it’s almost getting a large segment in the new World of Color. So it’s a start!
DCLcruiser
Well-Known Member
Then it needs to highlight the animals of Pandora more and be less about 1 animatronic singer. I just don’t find it engaging or very interesting.
If it had a 5 minute wait and there was a third ride, maybe. But as the only other ride in the most popular part of the park, it’s a let down. Not worth the time to ride.