I have been a fan of Jenny’s for a while and this video is like precisely everything she’s great at, her mind for little specific details and her delivery of those little details (like her segment on how the people working at the park have to stay in a sense of character that differs from anyone else at the park) are so illustrative. Weird decision by Disney to spend so much time and effort and money into making a theme park around a film that seems to have mostly died in public consciousness.
The fact that they followed through on the Avatar park and didn’t end up getting around to making a real-life MYST island frustrates me. Why couldn’t they have made that mistake and lost money while letting me and my little niche group of fans have fun in a pretend version of a work I liked instead of making a mistake and probably losing money while letting a different group of fans have fun in a pretend version of a work they liked? Life is unfair sometimes.
So I watched this video expecting another kind of abandoned video where these people break into Horizons while It’s closed to go exploring. What I didn’t expect was the adventure of two very close friends as they literally turn the ride into their own secret club house.
Defunctland’s seaons finale just went live and it’s about Hong Kong Disneyland and the end of Michael Eisner’s run as CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens this week in Disneyland!
For anyone interested, the dedication ceremony is going to be streamed live tomorrow May 28, 2019 at 8:20pm PST here.
As expected the merch is incredibly expensive but I hear the $200 custom lightsabers are actually very nice quality, hefty collectibles. Are any of y’all planning a visit soon?
Dying to go to Galaxy’s Edge, excited to see how it all pans out with all the interactive stuff they have planned. But do they actually have y’know… rides?
any of y’all been to Lagoon in salt lake city? that was my absolute fav as a kid and I have such fond memories of that place. tried to go once as an adult and got rained out, but I’m dying to go back.
I’m pretty psyched for a big Disney World trip I’ve got planned with friends for next year, I haven’t been in something like 15 years (and only once, since my family preferred the coziness of Disney Land). I am going to buy the overpriced lightsaber.
I mainly blame Jenny for reminding me of how cool theme parks are.
The two rides at Galaxy’s Edge are Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance. Some more info here.
I’m primarily looking forward to Rise of the Resistance because I love me a dark ride and I’m incredibly interested in seeing the latest tech and animatronics. Unfortunately, Rise of the Resistance isn’t finished yet and won’t be opening along with the land this week but the initial reviews for Smmugler’s Run have been very positive.
Currently guests are limited to only 4 hours in the park and a reservation is required. Even with these measures the crowds will probably still be miserable. I’ve heard 3 hours just to create a light saber and 2 hours Smuggler’s Run.
As Star Wars is very hot on the forum right now I would be remiss not to mention that the big E ticket attraction for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Rise of the Resistance opens today in Disney World for media previews.
If you don’t mind spoilers, check out new promo images from the ride here.
Dark rides are my favorite so I’m really looking forward to this one. Give me animatronics ! They’re really hyping it up as the most advanced ride they’ve ever made so hopefully it lives up to it!
The robot designs here are so good.
Also, if anyone hasn’t take a look at what Disney is doing for Tokyo Disney with their upcoming Beauty and the Beast ride. It feels like someone at Disney cracked an animatronic code about two years ago and we are starting to see the fallout. That Belle robot can walk.
Was going through some videos and gosh, the Haunted Mansion 50th Anniversary event at Disneyland back in August looked so cool. I’m a big fan of Disney putting actors into their rides during these special events.
I just went to Magic Kingdom about a month ago. After growing up in the area getting to see it through the lens of my more recent education was a trip.
The biggest thing I noticed was how hard so much of the park leans into this idealized, mythic turn-of-the-century aesthetic that is almost entirely irrelevant in most media. Like we have this silly Doomer '80s bisexual-lighting craze that refuses to die out, and '50s nostalgia is nothing new, but the Main Street USA aesthetic that Walt was clearly obsessed with is so rarely seen that a lot of the details that were clearly meant to signpost to midcentury audiences seem sort of quirky or absurd nowadays.
Country Bear Jamboree, in particular, is just such a damn weird attraction. It’s aggressively rooted in what I think is Appalachian culture and specifically a late '60s / early '70s Yankee pop-cultural view of Appalachian media culture from, again, the turn of the century. With whom are these jokes supposed to land, exactly? Not to say it’s not appreciated.
Also, this is more than a bit passe, but the Tiki Room is both problematic and the very definition of comfy (especially on a hot Florida afternoon) and the Haunted Mansion always has and always will slap.
me 
