Taking the Mickey: A Save Disney Quest

Might want to underscore why you're choosing to focus on that a bit more. Otherwise it just comes off as odd, because we're not really known to have an oar in the battery field yet.

I figured I'd let it trail off the idea is to have Mike talk about the electric cars and some of the excitement that has come out of the partnership, since we the players don't know all the details
 
[X] Executive Interview v2

(If I write more Mega Man omake, please know that my primary motivation is getting the ideas out, because I don't think that I'll ever write them in actual context or anything, so no rewards are necessary, in case you thought I just wanted more modifiers. Also, this is me lo-key providing pressure to get the Harmony Gold Minky Momo dub on Disney Channel)

Omake: Double Star Press Release

Disney Channel has greenlit a pair of children's animated series: Star Darlings, a boarding school story about girls learning to grant wishes, and Star and the Forces of Evil, a comedy about a magical princess adjusting to life on Earth. Both are set to premiere in 2015.


Created and executive produced by Ahmed Zappa, Star Darlings follows a group of "starlings", a sort of magical alien, as they attend Starling Academy and go on missions to grant wishes on Earth. The series will follow the "Star Darlings", a group chosen for an experimental program in which students are sent to infiltrate groups of human children to better understand them, so as to better grant their wishes.

Star and the Forces of Evil, created and executive produced by Daron Nefcy, follows Princess Star Butterfly, 13-year-old monster-fighting heir to the throne of Mewni, as she is sent to Earth to learn how to control her powers. Befriending schoolmates Janna Ordonia and Marco Diaz, the three go on adventures both on and off Earth.

"Both Star series continue Disney's trend of strong female protagonists, as well as both being in the 'magical girl' subgenre, popularized by The Magical World of Gigi, which made its US debut on our very own Disney Channel. Despite both being magical girl shows, Daron and Ahmed both offer their own distinct twists on the formula," says Disney Television Animation Senior Vice President Eric Coleman.
 
I figured I'd let it trail off the idea is to have Mike talk about the electric cars and some of the excitement that has come out of the partnership, since we the players don't know all the details
What Mike knows (and has enough understanding of to talk semi-confidently about) is that the imagineers have managed to pull together a couple of disparate people working on battery tech, and they produced a battery big enough and long lasting enough to be a viable part of the auto industry, instead of solely gas. If pressed for details, he'd be able to say "They called it Nickel Metal Hydride, and that the recharge capacity of the battery lasted longer the more often it was charged."
 
What Mike knows (and has enough understanding of to talk semi-confidently about) is that the imagineers have managed to pull together a couple of disparate people working on battery tech, and they produced a battery big enough and long lasting enough to be a viable part of the auto industry, instead of solely gas. If pressed for details, he'd be able to say "They called it Nickel Metal Hydride, and that the recharge capacity of the battery lasted longer the more often it was charged."

Thank you. Added into The Great Communicators v2. Since I was the only one who voted it for it, I just editted it in.
 
Omake: Double Star Press Release
Not quite long enough to get added, but it was cute.
Thank you. Added into The Great Communicators v2. Since I was the only one who voted it for it, I just editted it in.
Also to clarify, GM isn't the one who came up with the battery tech, they're just the sponsors of the ride. They already have world of motion in EPCOT, and jumped at the chance. Stanford Ovshinsky was a major scientific/engineering contributor, if you're looking for a name to throw around.
 
Not quite long enough to get added, but it was cute.

Also to clarify, GM isn't the one who came up with the battery tech, they're just the sponsors of the ride. They already have world of motion in EPCOT, and jumped at the chance. Stanford Ovshinsky was a major scientific/engineering contributor, if you're looking for a name to throw around.

Thanks, I wasn't looking forward to givng GM a huge spotlight but shining a light on an inventor, that is far more palatable. Hopefully Ovonics manages to remain independent in this world
 
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Thanks, I wasn't looking forward to givng GM a huge spotlight but shining a light on an inventor, that is far more palatable. Hopefully Ovonics manages to remain independent in this world
To borrow the opening blurb from his Wikipedia page, for those wondering who he is:

Wikipedia said:
Stanford Robert Ovshinsky (November 24, 1922 – October 17, 2012) was an American inventor, scientist and engineer who over a span of fifty years was granted well over 400 patents, mostly in the areas of energy and information. Many of his inventions have had wide ranging applications. Among the most prominent are: an environmentally friendly nickel-metal hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; flexible thin-film solar energy laminates and panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD discs; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change memory.
 
Well while voting is going on I've thought of some further development on Hollywood Studios.

Since it seems like most of us want to go for a Medium sized park that means up to 6 lands, and up to 24 rides, although I really don't think we need to stretch to the max here... Leaving an extra land and some empty ride slots will allow for later expansion, and also some room for future rides if we need it. I'm trying to include as many people's ideas as I can, and there are still plenty of slots. Now onto the land write ups of which I have Five, and some ride suggestions. Also when I use Italics and underline it is referring to a property we may need to acquire permission to use

Backlot
This is the entrance area to the park, sort of our Mainstreet equivalent. It is specifically decked out to look like a Golden Age of Hollywood. Backlots, prop museums and displays, movie posters, and three central icons. The Unisphere, with a pair of Mousears is at the center of a fountain, that is clearly from water pumped from a scaled model of the Warner Bros. watertower. As the Muppets are frequently seen throughout the park, they occassionally modify the central icon: From A large Miss Piggy Statue standing in front of it, to an animatronic Beeker trying to gesture to guests from the water tower to get down, to the most subtle where a Kermit is simply sitting between the ears on top of the Unisphere. The less said about the scheduled "Fozzie Improv" in front of the Unisphere the better.

In this area of the park I could see 3 rides: The "Backlot Tram", the Muppets Show Theater, and the Great Movie Ride.

The Backlot tram is sort of like the railway that surrounds the magic kingdom but it lacks any other stop. The guests board vehicles that match the "Universal Studios Backlot Tram" and go around the park with a variety of showcases and dioramas from various studios. One interesting feature is that while the tram riders can clearly see inside the park at times, the park guests cannot, and the narration explains that it movie magic that keeps them hidden (Mostly accomplished through clever line of sight tricks, one way windows or other tricks), also some demonstration similar to Disaster Canyon appears.

The Muppets Show is a recreation of a 1940s style Nickelodeon starring the Muppets Show "Live Taping". I don't have many ideas for this but Muppetvision 3D is what I was thinking

The Great Movie Ride, well it is ride through the magic of cinema. Don't see a reason to change what isn't broken.

Metropolis
A section of the park that is called Metropolis, but is very much done in a modern New York City style of architecture. Unlike Disneyland or Disney World, skyscrapers with forced perspective tricks seems to dominate. Guests feel as if there are in "Metropolis" complete with the occasional entertainer dressed as Clark Kent and Lois Lane, where Clark asks tugging on his tie if anyone has seen a phone booth. The Metropolis theming is supposed to match the Action genre, hence the following rides

We have secured the rights to making a Superman coaster, why don't we go all in and make a hanging coaster, that let's people fly like Superman. Imagine the launch tube, and that classic John Williams score plays as guests are shot out of a cannon to go save Metropolis. Maybe a few sections where the track is over the paths and as a result guests "fly" through Metropolis.

If Metropolis is our stand-in for Ghostbusters then why not recreate the Ghostbusters Station House, complete with an Ecto-1 parked ready to deploy. The Spooktacular show is good, I see little reason to change it... but... well this section is in italics for a reason. The rights as far as I can tell aren't under WB, Disney or Universal, but they might be with Columbia Pictures.

In terms of another ride for this section of the park I was thinking of "Kong" over Earthquake. Kong we can sell the station as the "Roosevelt Island station" and just follow that. This ride's first version I think was in the Universal Studios backlot tour in Hollywood so, why not include it.

Enclave
A section of the park that unlike the hopeful optimism of Tomorrowland is the gritty almost cyberpunkish atmosphere of Enclave. The section of the park's story is that this is an enclave of "Yutani MegaCorp". The reason for the almost cyberpunkish "sci-fi" land is to contrast it heavily with the optimistic future of EPCOT and Tomorrowland literally down the Monorail line. Also unlike many of those attractions, some of these are scary. Aliens Encounter for instance. In terms of set dressing it looks like it was designed as a futuristic city that has fallen apart. Graffiti litters the streets, "flying cars" on fishing line dart overhead, and other cyberpunkish elements exist.

Star Tours would be in this section of the park. We might have to talk to George for permission

Aliens Encounter


Back to the Future simulator as well, probably on the border between Metropolis and Enclave. Doc Brown's time experiments "accidentally bringing the future to the past"

Miskatonic College
The section of the park dedicated to Mystery and Horror, sort of designed to look like a decrepit and ancient New England college campus where mysteries and monster lurk. Various faculty doors list various fictional mad scientists and archaeologists, and "School Cafeteria" is actually one of the larger eating areas in the park. In the distance eagle eyed guests might spot the Bates house sitting on top of a mound. Other classic film props and references litter the area from Horror and Mystery films. An Animatronic Humphrey Bogart can be seen in one of "upstairs offices" just "off-campus" where he's dressed up as from Casablanca, Maltese Falcon or one of the other film roles.

Given the fact that we have access to Universal's classic horror films, it would be criminal for us not to use them in a dark ride of some sort.

The Tower of Terror was one of Disney's most popular rides for a reason. However it is based on the Twilight Zone and I'm not sure where the rights are right now.

Furthermore given the college nature of things we could add an Indiana Jones attraction. Whether this is the Stunt Specatuclar or the Dark Ride I don't know. But... we need access to Indiana Jones


I also had an idea for a sort of Haunted House dark ride, but in two portions. The first part uses every special effect possible to scare the heck out of the guests, and in the second half the dark ride takes on an educational role, showing how the scares happened, and even showing guests who boarded the ride after you, their scares, while you watch from another perspective learning how the scare occurs. If done I imagine the ride will have the following review "It scared the sh** out of me, and then lectured me on why I shouldn't have been scared.

Toontown
What can I say about Toontown that isn't seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A land where toons come to life. A place with a restaurant where an animatronic Donald and Daffy Duck musically duel it out. A place of wacky geometry. If it's on the coast of an artificial lake we could park a recreation of "Steamboat Willy" and set up a place to have Meet and greets with Bugs and Mickey, Donald and Daffy and others

We already have "Hey There Gorges"

Perhaps a Whitewater rapids ride similar to Popeye's in Islands of Adventure but themed for Black and White era Mickey, Minnie, Bluto hijinks?

Perhaps a kid playground area themed to Scrooge McDuck Moneybin (massive ballpit with discs instead of balls, and other Duckburg activities)

Obviously also a Who Framed Roger Rabbit Ride.

A Sixth Land?
Other contributors have proposed a Laugh or Comedy land, but I'm not really sure what to do for theming or rides in this area. Anyone have any thoughts?

At present the above we have 5-6 lands... and 17 rides. We can go up to 24, but it's probably a bad idea to max out like that maybe shoot for 21?

So let's start the discussion. Thoughts? Ride suggestions? theming suggestions? Show suggestions? Sky's the limit here... We won't have a second chance at an opening day.
 
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At present the above we have 5-6 lands... and 17 rides. We can go up to 24, but it's probably a bad idea to max out like that maybe shoot for 21?

So let's start the discussion. Thoughts? Ride suggestions? theming suggestions? Show suggestions? Sky's the limit here... We won't have a second chance at an opening day.
I like your ideas, and I have only a couple of suggestions for rides, or perhaps a few ideas for some other parts that can be added to some of the areas.

First, perhaps a Hannah-Barbera ride? I'm not sure if they are under any of the studios, but having a ride in which we can travel to many of the different worlds, from the Jetsons, to Scooby-Doo, to the Flintstones, would be really fun.

Second, a ride involving Jaws. Having it go through a river, thinking that it's all good, when suddenly you now have to deal with a murderous shark who appears at any point and then have to kill. Thrilling and fun fro all.

Third, a ride involving Van Helsing chasing after Dracula, leading to afinal showdown, where perhaps we can have some audience interaction. Perhaps choosing volunteers at the beginning who then play a critical role in helping Van helsing defeat Dracula once and for all.

Also, the Enclave part, exactl which movies are they referencing here? If that land is supposed to be the dark mirror to EPCOT then it's supposed to be a Dystopia. Aside from Alien, Can we add the Predator as well? It will air in 1987 if I recall correctly, and a ride based on the Predator, where you are the prey trying to escape would be amazing.

Heck, we could have the Aline and the Predator run around the park, with the Predator chasing and hunting the Alien.
 
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I like your ideas, and I have only a couple of suggestions for rides, or perhaps a few ideas for some other parts that can be added to some of the areas.

First, perhaps a Hannah-Barbera ride? I'm not sure if they are under any of the studios, but having a ride in which we can travel to many of the different worlds, from the Jetsons, to Scooby-Doo, to the Flintstones, would be really fun.

Second, a ride involving Jaws. Having it go through a river, thinking that it's all good, when suddenly you now have to deal with a murderous shark who appears at any point and then have to kill. Thrilling and fun fro all.

Third, a ride involving Van Helsing chasing after Dracula, leading to afinal showdown, where perhaps we can have some audience interaction. Perhaps choosing volunteers at the beginning who then play a critical role in helping Van helsing defeat Dracula once and for all.

Also, the Enclave part, exactl which movies are they referencing here? If that land is supposed to be the dark mirror to EPCOT then it's supposed to be a Dystopia. Aside from Alien, Can we add the Predator as well? It will air in 1987 if I recall correctly, and a ride based on the Predator, where you are the prey trying to escape would be amazing.

Heck, we could have the Aline and the Predator run around the park, with the Predator chasing and hunting the Alien.

Hanna-Barbera is independent... but due to be swallowed up by Ted Turner... we might not be able to get it (I would love to see a Wacky Racers autopia), we can try but I think the Department of Justice woudl start looking at us funny with too many collaborations.

A ride involving Jaws I think would fit in best in a border area of Miskatonic (if there's an artificial lake then it we can just position it appropriately) Good suggestion. Also I like the idea that on one coast we have Steamboat Willy, and on the other side Jaws.

I was more going for a Blade Runner esque feel but I cannot think of a ride for Blade Runner (well besides a horribly inappropriate astro blasters to shoot replicants...). Blade Runner is WB after all and maybe Ridley Scott is interested in something. Not sure what though. Predator and Alien might work quite well. Terminator ... who knows where those rights are in 1986. They seem to follow Cameron but... <shrug> Cyberdyne Systems Show?

A Helsing/Dracula ride might very well work.

Also I just had a thought we might want to add the Hitchcock Art of Cinema show somewhere in the park too.
 
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Hanna-Barbera is independent... but due to be swallowed up by Ted Turner... we might not be able to get it (I would love to see a Wacky Racers autopia), we can try but I think the Department of Justice woudl start looking at us funny with too many collaborations.
Shite. Would have been cool, but we dion't need the scrutiny now.
A ride involving Jaws I think would fit in best in a border area of Miskatonic (if there's an artificial lake then it we can just position it appropriately) Good suggestion. Also I like the idea that on one coast we have Steamboat Willy, and on the other side Jaws.
I like it. Perhaps a ride as well involving Popeye having to fight either Bluto or the Goons.
I was more going for a Blade Runner esque feel but I cannot think of a ride for Blade Runner (well besides a horribly inappropriate astro blasters to shoot replicants...). Blade Runner is WB after all and maybe Ridley Scott is interested in something. Not sure what though. Predator and Alien might work quite well. Terminator ... who knows where those rights are in 1986. They seem to follow Cameron but... <shrug> Cyberdyne Systems Show?
Cameron sold the rights for one dollar to Gale Anne Hurd as he felt that otherwise he would not be able to do the movie.

Cyberdine...Yes that definetely works, and it would be very interesting to see.

We can also include Robocop as well! It would fit perfectly in the Enclave area. We can have a ride about going on a tour of Omni Consumer Products where they talk proudly about how it was a great idea to privatize the police force, then we have the ride be about how some of their attempts at replicating Robocop have gotten loose, and now the real Robocop appears to save them all.

Something like that, since the first Robocop is coming out in 1987, but we can make it work. We can have Cyberdine for Terminator, Weyland-Utani for Alien (and Predator if we go that route) and Omni Consumer Products for Robocop.
A Helsing/Dracula ride might very well work.

Also I just had a thought we might want to add the Hitchcock Art of Cinema show somewhere in the park too.
Perhpas that can go in the Miskatonic part?
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Crazy7s1 on Nov 15, 2019 at 11:29 AM, finished with 66 posts and 12 votes.

  • [x] Plan: The Great Communicators v2
    -[x] Sharing: It's great, and I couldn't ask for a better person to share it with.
    -[x] Challenge: (write-in) Frankly it was dealing with the whole package. My time before this was live-action films only. Which is only a small facet of the greater whole that is Disney. Breaking it down into pieces is what made things manageable, but looking at it as a whole... the biggest concern I had was making sure that that special spark of Disney magic didn't fade. Given the reception of some of our recent projects it seems America agrees.
    -[x] Success: My team. Everyone in the office has really come together to do the best job we can. I'm just the guy making sure everyone else has what they need to do the best job they can.
    -[x] Coming Soon: We've partnered with Warner Bros. and Universal to start the work on a new park in Florida, closer to Orlando than the rest of the parks. It's still on the monorail line, though. It's a whole park dedicated to the art of film, animation, and television.
    -[x] Patents: (Write in) It's what Walt would have done. Disney is at its core about imagination, innovation, dreams and discovery. We're not an energy company. We're not a think tank either. Keeping the patents to ourselves wouldn't have been in line with what's at the core of the Disney company, and getting those patents out meant that every single potential future Tesla, Edison, and Einstein could get their hands on them, experiment, tweak, adapt and innovate, and be inspired.
    -[x] 2055: You know if you had asked me that a month ago, I would have had a very different answer. As spectacular as George, Carl, Ridley and Nintendo's contributions have been, the most amazing one I have seen is at Asteroid Autopia, not for the thrills but for how an invention by Stanford Ovshinsky has brought the future to today.
    -[x] The challenge. There's always an interesting new challenge to tackle, a new idea to try and bring to life. Working at Disney is never boring.
    [X] Executive Interview v2
    - [X] [Sharing] It's an honor to be considered on equal standing with the Commander-in-Chief. To be honest I'd say out of the two of us, he's got the easier gig. He answers to the American public, I answer to shareholders. [Laughs] But in all seriousness, I admire his ability to take challenges by the horns and wrestle them into solutions.
    - [X] [Biggest Challenge] Frankly it was dealing with the whole package. My time before this was live-action films only. Which is only a small facet of the greater whole that is Disney. Breaking it down into pieces is what made things manageable, but looking at it as a whole... the biggest concern I had was making sure that that special spark of Disney magic didn't fade. I'm no Walt... but I'd like to think that he'd consider the company in good hands as it stands.
    - [X] [Secret to Success] Delegation and having the right people on the right job. Out latest hotel likely wouldn't have opened nearly so quickly if not for putting Elizabeth [Plater-Zyberk] on the job. And that goes for every single member of the staff, from Jeff [Katzenburg] and Don [Bluth] down to the janitors and gardeners at the parks. Everyone pitches in and pulls together. Without them, I wouldn't be here today.
    -[X] [Upcoming] "Oh there's quite a bit that's coming, but I have to keep some things under my hat. [laughs] Right now I'm really looking forward to our next big picture, a combination live action/animated film that's really pushed things to new heights. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is going to have quite a few familiar faces... including some that you may not expect! [chuckles]
    -[X] [Patents] Frankly, I did it because Disney is at it's core about imagination, innovation, and dreams. It's what Walt wold have done, I think. We're not a power company. We're not a think tank either. Getting those patents out meant that every single potential future Tesla, Edison and Einstein could get their hands on them, could experiment, tweak, adapt and innovate. Instead of a handful of new designs and proofs of concept, we're looking at hundreds. And it's having a massive knock-on effect as more people look at the patents and wonder "Hey, what if I did this instead of that?" I look forward to reading about what else may come out of it... even if I need one of the Imagineers to break down the hard science for me. [laughs]
    -[X] [Tomorrowland] The second floor has literally added a new level of entertainment to Tomorrowland. The shows and character meets have blended to really bring back the original sense of wonder and imagining what's next for future, who or what we may someday encounter out among the stars, so long as we continue to reach for it.
    - [X] [Favorite part] The feeling that I'm contributing to the world, helping dreams and fantasies for the young and old come to life. Inspiring new minds, and taking older ones back to more care-free days. And having a huge group of incredible people surrounding me, all contributing in their own way, while working towards their own dreams.
 
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