Pixel du Jour

Dinosaur Downer

I just finished this week’s WDW Radio podcast, which was all about the Animal Kingdom attraction, Dinosaur. On the podcast they pose the question of what you would change with the ride, and surprisingly they had nothing to say in this department. I have a whole lot to say. I’ll preface all of this with the statement that I do like the attraction, and I still ride it every time I go to Animal Kingdom. In fact it was my favorite attraction up until Everest opened.

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Disney Parks & Outside Franchises

There’s been a lot of complaining on the Internet in the wake of the Disney Parks / Avatar deal. Lots of people are upset at the prospect of Disney bringing an outside property/franchise into one of their theme parks. They say it isn’t right, and that the Mouse should focus on developing their own internal ideas.

I’m not saying that’s wrong, as I too would love for more original properties in the parks. I just think these claims are unfounded. This is not uncharted territory for Disney. There are numerous instances of Disney bringing in outside franchises. In every instance, the attraction has been at the worst average and at the best brilliant. Here’s a list of the ones I can think of off the top of my head. If you’re opposed to Avatarland on the grounds of it being an outside property, then you should’t be queuing up for any of the following.

1) Numerous Indiana Jones attractions - Temple of the Forbidden Eye at Disneyland & Tokyo Disney Sea, Epic Stunt Spectacular at Hollywood Studios, Temple of Peril at Disneyland Paris. (I personally put Temple of the Forbidden Eye near the very top of my list of favorite / most impressive attractions, right behind the Tower of Terror.)

2) Star Tours and the Star Wars inspired stage shows at various parks.

3) The Rock ‘n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith

4) The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (arguably Imagineering’s crowning achievement - at least in my opinion)

5) MuppetVision 3D (at the time of its opening, Disney did not own the Muppets outright)

6) The Jules Verne inspired attractions and lands in various parks, especially Disneyland Paris’ Space Mountain and Discoveryland in general, and Tokyo Disney Sea. (I’ll admit this one is a bit of a stretch due to these properties being in the public domain, but I think they deserve a mention.)

7) American Idol Experience. (I haven’t actually seen this, so it may well indeed be an exception to my statement about all these attractions being at least average. But if so, it’s the only such one.)

Based on this track record, there’s no reason to expect Avatarland will be a subpar experience. If Disney can successfully slot Indiana Jones and Star Wars into Disneyland (the most sacred of all their parks), there’s no reason they can’t do the same with Avatar in Animal Kingdom. As such, I remain cautiously optimistic in regards to Avatarland.