Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Once And Future King...
It's hard to believe, but fourteen years ago today Disney released "The Lion King" in America...
The Walt Disney Company's thirty-second feature length animated film went on to break box office records and become the highest grossing animated feature ever(until "Finding Nemo" unseated it from the throne). The film will go on to inspire a truly amazing theater adaption and sell merchandise for the Mouse beyond any bean counter's most optimistic estimates...
It was the last of the four films that marked the Second Golden Age of Disney Animation(SGA). While other films will go on to do everything from great, good to disappointing, no film since has achieve the success of "The Little Mermaid","Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin" or "The Lion King".
One of the interesting things about the SGA is that no rides were ever completed of these films. While proposals were made nothing ever came to fruition...
That will change beginning next decade...
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7 comments:
What about the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride at DW? There's one ride for you. (-:
Disney certainly moved more toward live shows for tie-ins SGA tie-ins. Mermaid, B&B, and LK all have live shows at various Disney parks. The B&B show has been running for 13+ years.
"One of the interesting things about the SGA is that no rides were ever completed of these films. While proposals were made nothing ever came to fruition..."
This is incorrect. As far as themed attractions that are specifically named from any of the SGA films, WDW Magic Kingdom has had the "The Magic Carpets of Aladdin" for years. Tokyo Disney Sea has the Mermaid Lagoon land that is host to "Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster" and "Scuttle's Scooters".
If we include themed attractions not dedicated to a character, but the movie theme, the list grows.
I'm talking about immersive, dark rides that are D to E Tickets... I don't consider the Aladdin Carpet ride anything more than a C.
As for Tokyo DisneySea, the rides are part of the Little Mermaid, but there secondary characters and don't really focus on Ariel... that being said, they're incredibly detailed C-Tickets as all rides in that park are.
Sorry if I wasn't specific, but I was just finding it interesting that all the old classic First Golden Age films had rides. I should have said that there are none with the main characters that focus on the story in the films. A narrative kind of thing... The Little Mermaid attraction in DCA and it's sister/clone in MK will be the first of these. Now if they'll get around to a real Alladin carpet adventure or Lion King adventure thrill ride I'll be jumping up and down. Until then...
Honor, there are rides and attractions, but none that you would consider dark rides/ride throughs. I still consider Triton's Caroussel at DCA, Magic Carpets of Aladdin (horrible title) at MK, Voyage of the Little Mermaid at DHS, the former Legend of the Lion King at MK, Festival of the Lion King at DAK, Aladdin Stage Show at DCA, Beauty and the Beast Stage Show at DHS as well as the previouly mentioned in Tokyo. With the new Little Mermaid dark ride coming to DCA as well as being planned in WDW, I think those four films are well represented.
I should think it would be pretty easy to combine the tech of Soarin' with the 3-D intensity of Mickey's Philharmagic and make a terrific Aladdin ride. It's weird that it hasn't happened.
I'm not down on Disney parks being Pixar-centric right now, not at all, but it would be nice to have some fun D- to E-ticket rides that reflect past Disney masterpieces.
Over ar Disney Quest in Downtown Disney, they have a virtual ride on Aladin's carpet.
Kevin...
I like that idea of re-programming Soarin'. If Disney had Soarin' set up with a new Imax digital projector as opposed to the film-based, they could actually make the attraction dynamic, much like the latest incarnation of Tower of Terror. The film is awesome, but on special occassions such as Christmas, Halloween, or one of the many Disney celebrations, they could certainly run dynamic shows as Limited Engagements.
Wow....that's a pipe dream and a half! Sign me up to beta test that one!
Honor Hunter...I understand where you're coming from. Big ticket rides, NP. You are correct on that. They've done a nice job with some of the shows and small-ticket rides for theming. Too bad we don't have some of what you refer to. Let's see how it pans out the next few years.
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