The Rumor Tracking Thread

[Farro]

Is anything else at Epcot (besides the two rides and Harmonious) being worked on construction wise? All the tear-downs, are they working on anything going up in it's place or is it all sitting dormant right now?

The Moana water feature?

 

[osufeth24]

Can Disney even do something with BP? I remember there being some unknown about who's all included in the deal with Universal

 

[Mit88]

It’s not like they can’t take a risk here or there tho. I don’t mind IP when it works and works well. Original stories also work too though and for ever 5-10 IP based things 1-2 original things would be nice.

If nothing else, do it outside of the parks. There’s 100% still a market for an Adventurers Club. You don’t need Pleasure Island to have it. In the parks, Epcot and AK should have more original attractions. But what do you do in AK that blends with the idea with the park that doesn’t fall flat like Kali River? Dinoland absolutely needs to go. I love Dinosaur, but that area is in BAD shape. I was embarrassed for Disney walking through there in August. Would a scaled down version of Beastly Kingdom work?

Cosmic Rewind really doesn’t work without the IP attached, and they probably didn’t have room in Tomorrowland/DHS for that massive building. I get MK and DHS going full IP. Tron I believe should have abandoned the IP in MK. It’s such a niche property that doesn’t have a wide fan base that it could have easily been tweaked to an original story while keeping the exact same attraction layout

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Is anything else at Epcot (besides the two rides and Harmonious) being worked on construction wise? All the tear-downs, are they working on anything going up in it's place or is it all sitting dormant right now?

The Moana water feature?

There is work going on to the center of World Celebration area - most specifically with the updated MouseGears

As far as I know the Inspriation Point with the new Walt Statue is still happening as is the Moana water area .... not sure about anything else, might just clean it up, add some tables and more permanent "booths" for the festivals for now

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Can Disney even do something with BP? I remember there being some unknown about who's all included in the deal with Universal

it is a complicated contract, but my understanding is they cannot use the character Black Panther, but less clear if they could use Wakanda without the character

 

[Mit88]

Can Disney even do something with BP? I remember there being some unknown about who's all included in the deal with Universal

What I heard a while ago, and could be wrong is that Disney would need to establish the idea for the attraction before the character was included in the Avengers on screen. Once they were introduced with the Avengers, Disney couldn’t use them (at WDW). So like Cosmic Rewind was already being developed before they showed up in Infinity War. So Black Panther wouldn’t be able to be adapted into anything in the parks if those rules are true

 

[SMRT-1]

TBF when has that mattered regarding SW content in the parks? The random scenes from Star Tours take you into scenes from all 9 films - you fly from a battle on Naboo in Ep1 to the trench run in Ep4 on the same "trip" (or one of the timeline-tossing variants described here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Tours_–_The_Adventures_Continue#Ride_experience )

Which is part of why I said I can see them doing it.

However, my point was that, regardless of whether they actually do it or not, it doesn't make sense given that, unlike Star Tours, Galaxy's Edge is explicitly set at specific date in the timeline and was intended to be immersive. Having characters from different time periods breaks the immersion. The SW IP presence in the rest of the park is not intended to be immersive (the AT-AT in front of Star Tours is missing one side because it's supposed to be a movie set) which is why you can see Darth Vader elsewhere in DHS, but not in SW:GE and why it's more forgivable (although still silly) that things like Star Tours or SW M&Gs don't stick to a single timeline.

 

[rteetz]

If nothing else, do it outside of the parks. There’s 100% still a market for an Adventurers Club. You don’t need Pleasure Island to have it. In the parks, Epcot and AK should have more original attractions. But what do you do in AK that blends with the idea with the park that doesn’t fall flat like Kali River? Dinoland absolutely needs to go. I love Dinosaur, but that area is in BAD shape. I was embarrassed for Disney walking through there in August. Would a scaled down version of Beastly Kingdom work?

Cosmic Rewind really doesn’t work without the IP attached, and they probably didn’t have room in Tomorrowland/DHS for that massive building. I get MK and DHS going full IP. Tron I believe should have abandoned the IP in MK. It’s such a niche property that doesn’t have a wide fan base that it could have easily been tweaked to an original story while keeping the exact same attraction layout

Pandora is Beastly Kingdom. Joe Rohde in his interview with OC Register basically said that.

This is WDW, you have the blessing of size. Guardians could have went wherever they wanted.

I’m not saying take a coming attraction and make it original. That’s not how this works. You take an original story and build the attraction around that. Haunted Mansion was originally supposed to be a walk through.

 

[YesterDark]

Well, personally I don't think Black Panther or Zootopia fit in Animal Kingdom very well. I see AK much more about habitats and conservation - Black Panther is more about that culture and developing technology, etc. (unless they spin it how technology can fit in the natural world without negatively impacting it). Zootopia is anthropomorphic animals living in a human style world, so sort of the exact opposite of what Animal Kingdom is

As for IP, I don't mind using it where it makes sense. I am not a fan of shoehorning it where it doesn't fit well, and also would appreciate some new rides base on new ideas - and then you can go the other way and make shows about the characters developed for the attractions. I think if there was even one or two non-IP attractions in development it would help balance things. Just feels like it has swung too far to IP and only IP not matter what

I can talk for an hour about this one with you and @rteetz but my opinion briefly is this:

Dinoland is far from your definition of Habitat and Conservation as you can get and we're not even considering the original Beastly Kingdoms that was planned with unicorns, dragons, and scorched knights. So I think Zooptopia can fit in nicely if you can fly through the air of Pandora and time travel to dinosaur times.

Animal Kingdom is about a lot of things in my opinion, Habitat and Conservation is totally part of that, but it's also about celebrating the world and it's myths and stories that have to do with Animals - real or imagined.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I can talk for an hour about this one with you and @rteetz but my opinion briefly is this:

Dinoland is far from your definition of Habitat and Conservation as you can get and we're not even considering the original Beastly Kingdoms that was planned with unicorns, dragons, and scorched knights. So I think Zooptopia can fit in nicely if you can fly through the air of Pandora and time travel to dinosaur times.

Animal Kingdom is about a lot of things in my opinion, Habitat and Conservation is totally part of that, but it's also about celebrating the world and it's myths and stories that have to do with Animals - real or imagined.

right, but myths and stories about where creatures (real or imagined) where actually set ... not them living in cities and acting like humans.


Just to spin this - one interesting IP to potentially put in AK, if the film does well, would be Raya and the Last Dragon. The story unfolds in the fantasy world of Kumandra in ancient Asia, where humans and dragons lived together peacefully

might be a bit duplicative between already having something a bit of fantasy in the Asia section (with Everest) and with something dragon like (with FoP, in Pandora) ... but I'd rather see something like that in AK than Zootopia


(though to be fair, I will be a total hypocrite and enjoy the land if it gets built and is done well ... I might just make a comment every time we go there)

 

[rteetz]

I can talk for an hour about this one with you and @rteetz but my opinion briefly is this:

Dinoland is far from your definition of Habitat and Conservation as you can get and we're not even considering the original Beastly Kingdoms that was planned with unicorns, dragons, and scorched knights. So I think Zooptopia can fit in nicely if you can fly through the air of Pandora and time travel to dinosaur times.

Animal Kingdom is about a lot of things in my opinion, Habitat and Conservation is totally part of that, but it's also about celebrating the world and it's myths and stories that have to do with Animals - real or imagined.

Dinoland was meant to be temporary or at least not what it became due to money. I feel Dinosaur the ride does fit the vision but the surround land does not. They can and should keep the prehistoric aspect IMO.

Zootopia will NEVER fit in my eyes. You cannot convince me otherwise.

 

[mattpeto]

I can talk for an hour about this one with you and @rteetz but my opinion briefly is this:

Dinoland is far from your definition of Habitat and Conservation as you can get and we're not even considering the original Beastly Kingdoms that was planned with unicorns, dragons, and scorched knights. So I think Zooptopia can fit in nicely if you can fly through the air of Pandora and time travel to dinosaur times.

Animal Kingdom is about a lot of things in my opinion, Habitat and Conservation is totally part of that, but it's also about celebrating the world and it's myths and stories that have to do with Animals - real or imagined.

I agree. If you want strictly a Zoo, it's already too late for AK.

 

[Mit88]

Pandora is Beastly Kingdom. Joe Rohde in his interview with OC Register basically said that.

This is WDW, you have the blessing of size. Guardians could have went wherever they wanted.

I’m not saying take a coming attraction and make it original. That’s not how this works. You take an original story and build the attraction around that. Haunted Mansion was originally supposed to be a walk through.

Yeah but there’s still full fledged ideas from Beastly Kingdom that could come to fruition in a scaled down form within that park. I’m not sure what’s usable in the land surrounding the park in terms of what’s marshland and able to be built upon, but there’s a lot of untouched land behind the park as you can see from the top of Everest, but all we hear about is the expansion pad by Pandora.

The only other park that I could see Cosmic Rewind thematically in would be DHS, and I just don’t see where they could put that ride building. It looks to be about 5x the size of the RNRC ride building, and that’s not taking into account the queue portion, which seems to be an immersive queue experience that I wouldn’t want sacrificed. It would also work in MK, but again, where do you fit it?

Idk, I think you could definitely take a clone of a ride and make it special with a different story. Look at Indy and Dinosaur. Same ride, but one is revered as a legendary attraction, the other is meh. They could have made Tron in MK a different story and used the canopy’s to tell a story that made it different, and better than the one that already exists. Tomorrowland is in such a weird position where anything put in there is in danger of becoming outdated very quickly. I think there’s more potential for original ideas in areas like Adventureland and Frontierland, but neither have an expansion area. Well Adventureland might if what they were doing 2 years ago with testing the land integrity was true

 

[YesterDark]

right, but myths and stories about where creatures (real or imagined) where actually set ... not them living in cities and acting like humans.

Zootopia is a story about animals living in cities.
Dragons are about flying/fire breathing animals living in caves on mountains of gold.

I mean I don't really see a difference. It's all story time.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Zootopia is a story about animals living in cities.
Dragons are about flying/fire breathing animals living in caves on mountains of gold.

I mean I don't really see a difference. It's all story time.

but it is about Dragons acting like dragons

Zootopia isn't animals acting like animals

I don't see how you don't see the difference


... but just talking in circles now I suppose

 

[BrianL]

but it is about Dragons acting like dragons

Zootopia isn't animals acting like animals

I don't see how you don't see the difference


... but just talking in circles now I suppose

Yeah, I think I agree. Zootopia is just a bit off from the AK vibe, not necessarily because of the anthropomorphic animals though. I mean, A Bug's Life, Lion King, Finding Nemo - those are all represented and the animals don't strictly act like animals. They are in their natural environment though and I think that may be the difference.

 

[SMRT-1]

Zootopia is a story about animals living in cities.
Dragons are about flying/fire breathing animals living in caves on mountains of gold.

I mean I don't really see a difference. It's all story time.

Think of Beastly Kingdom like Pandora. The animals are fictional, but they're still animals, and presented in their "natural" habitat. Anthropomorphic animals walking around a human-like city dressing and acting like people is more than a bit different.

 

[The Pho]

I’m not sure what’s usable in the land surrounding the park in terms of what’s marshland and able to be built upon, but there’s a lot of untouched land behind the park as you can see from the top of Everest, but all we hear about is the expansion pad by Pandora.

There are several very large expansions pads.


Edit:Just to add
Planet Watch is 11 acres. The train uses 12.5 acres. And there is a 32 acre plot between Planet Watch, the train, Maharajah, and Kali. Among several other smaller areas.

 

[rteetz]

I agree. If you want strictly a Zoo, it's already too late for AK.

No and I don’t think anyone wants that. However AK has a very specific overarching message that even Pandora stick too.

 

[rteetz]

but it is about Dragons acting like dragons

Zootopia isn't animals acting like animals

I don't see how you don't see the difference


... but just talking in circles now I suppose

You’re 100% correct tho