Fans Slam Latest Disney Plans, Say There’s No Magic

in Disney Parks, Theme Parks

Family in pandora at Disney's animal kingdom in walt disney world resort

Credit: Disney

The Disney Parks have been announcing major changes to their stateside Parks over the last few years.

The most recent addition to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which is an area themed around the world of Star Wars, featuring two rides and several shopping and dining experiences. However, both Parks have focused heavily on retheming areas to feature one specific IP, or intellectual property.

Walt Disney World has done more of this recently, with the opening of Pandora: The World of Avatar and Toy Story Land, although Disneyland has made similar changes with Pixar Pier and Avengers Campus. It’s not just whole areas receiving an IP retheme, but individual attractions as well, with Splash Mountain being redesigned to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in both Parks within the next year.

san-fransokyo-art
Credit: Disney

The focus on IPs has drawn criticism from Guests and fans online lately, with people wondering why Disney is relying so heavily on its IP-based media instead of using original ideas the way the Parks have been up to this point. Users like @August_Macias agree,

“Single IP Lands sound interesting at first…but it becomes extremely limited in attraction ideas and entertainment in the long run. Galaxy’s Edge has this problem where it such a nothing land with a really cool dark ride.”

He follows up by saying that he thinks Galaxy’s Edge is actually boring, with tons of theming but no entertainment or “exploration.”

galaxy's edge disneyland
Credit: ITM

Several commenters stated that the Parks should’ve stayed with “genre lands,” like Adventureland or Tomorrowland, and added IP-based rides that fit into those areas rather than basing entire sections of the Parks around a single franchise.

Most, if not all, of the major rides and attractions that have been announced over the last few years have been based on IPs, like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and the San Fransokyo area coming to Disney California Adventure. Although the focus on IP attractions may be an effort to appeal to children, there haven’t been too many original concept-based attractions, and the Parks seem to be struggling more for it.

 

in Disney Parks, Theme Parks

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