New Magic Kingdom Attraction To Replace Lion King

[lrodk]

WDWMagic posted today that they have been informed by a very reliable source, that within 12 months, Legend of the Lion King will close, to be replaced with an all new 3D show, currently title "Mickey's PhilarMAGIC".

The story of the show will be based around Mickey Mouse taking us through a journey of the greatest Disney Music and Movies of all time.

The show will have extensive in-theater effects - including a motion base floor to the theater, changing sets, in-theater props, fog and fibre-optics. FASTPASS will also be added to the show.

The show has apparently just received capital funding, so barring any late changes, it appears to be a definite go. Opening date is set for 2003.

 

[PJesse25]

Didn't this building originally house a similiar show called something like the Mickey Mouse Revue? I know I've read something about that show and always thought it sounded like a great one. I hope this turns out to be reality. I've been so distressed with all the closings lately!

 

[larworth]

Sounds like a good replacement.

I've always wondered why they haven't put a 3D movie back into MK after the closing of the Kodak 3D movie that I believe was actually in this building before the LK Show.

 

[hedgehogcs]

Didn't this building originally house a similiar show called something like the Mickey Mouse Revue? I know I've read something about that show and always thought it sounded like a great one.

The Mickey Mouse Revue was an excellent show - or at least the way I remember it from my childhood tells me it was great. I just know I loved it - we saw it several times when I was little.

This show does sound really great...with the technology available, they could really do something like this up right. Hope it happens!

 

[Another Voice]

It seems that new attraction rumors have been sweeping across the boards this last week. Before anyone packs their bags to enjoy Maroon Studios or this Mickey Show, let me throw a bit of cold water here (there’s your cue, JeffH). This is budget season throughout all of Disney, the time of year when all of the designers at WDI and all of the Ops people at WDW submit what they want to see for the upcoming year. The “just received capital funding” line simply means that the show made it into WDI’s preliminary budget. From there, it gets rolled up to the Attraction’s budget, then up to the Corporate budget, and then because it will cost money, it goes to a single desk behind Dopey at Team Disney Burbank. At each and every single stop, any of these attractions can be killed for any reason.

Things are particular difficult this year. First, everyone at WDI is scrambling to save their jobs and so more projects than normal are being thrown around. And with all of the projects, there’s a fair amount of politicking and publicity that goes on to help get a project funded. You can expect to hear about a few other great new attractions as people try to build up support in the company for their plans. Second, and more specific to the WDW rumors, word from inside is that California Adventure is no longer just Disneyland’s problem. Financial results to Wall Street are reported at the Attractions group level, so in order to keep the numbers up cuts are and will continue to be made at WDW to offset “problems” at California Adventure. And this includes capital spending. The strong numbers from Attractions will be needed to offset the continuing decline from Consumer Products and to overcome the now expected less-than-giant box office for ‘Pearl Harbor’.

I’m not saying that none of these attractions will ever be built, only that there’s a long, long trail to travel between design and starting construction. “Space” at EPCOT has been in the budget for 20 years and it’s only now taking shape (and at a fraction of its designed size). It’s fun to discuss rumors, just don’t get excited until you see the FastPass machine spit out the ticket.

 

[YoHo]

AV, That's harsh, we can dream can't we? If we can dream it, then we can do it! remember?

I find it interesting that this is the exact same rumour we heard about Hall of presidents a couple months ago.

 

[Lewisc]

AV Disney needs some new attractions to keep repeat customers. Recycling a movie theater is about as cheap as you can do one. I think Captain EO was here before it moved to EPCOT.

 

[larworth]

Brrrr, pardon me why I dry myself off.

Thanks AV for the protocol. It does make sense that in these times of great job uncertainty people are throwing out any good idea hoping one sticks and it gets them through to the next round of lay-off. There are still people at WDI to lay-off aren't there?

YoHo you're right about a simlar rumor for HOP. My assumption is that this type of attraction would have some possibility to make it further up the line, since it probably could be done on a modest budget, and every other WDW park has a 3D flick, except MK. Take-out the moveable floor and it could really be done on the cheap. But I don't see why they would want to put $ here with all their other needs?

What is confusing about the DCA mess is it appear to be in a state of limbo. They cancelled Pooh and Buzz at DL to free up $ for DCA. If they rob funds from WDW than they should have the $'s, so why aren't they actively moving ahead with attractions that will be ready for 2002/2003?

Armageddon was cancelled and the next wave of rides (RnR and ToT) seem to be on hold. They must be so unsure of how to fix it that they have decided they need to relook at all the possibilities.

 

[Another Voice]

Sorry for the cold water everyone. I guess that too much surfing out here let’s me tolerate stuff colder than most.

To answer the two key points, the problem with the current rumors is that NO ONE knows exactly what’s going on. And if they think they do, the plans are changing all the time. Screamscape.com is reporting that even the ‘Pearl Harbor’ elements from the rehab of the Backlot Tour’s water effects tank have been cancelled. At California Adventure, they announced to the press that ‘Armageddon’ was starting construction – now it’s been flat out cancelled as well. There were reports of marking balloons flying for the ‘Tower of Terror’ clone, and now that project’s been cancelled (or postponed depending on the rumor).

To the second point, it all goes to the scramble for money. The cuts across the parks are not being made so that additional attractions can be financed for California Adventure. The cuts are being made to offset the financial losses that DCA is generating. Wall Street is expecting a nice jump in revenues and earnings this quarter due to the opening of DCA, and that money isn’t going to show up. But the company still needs to show that Attractions’ income is up in the 5% to 7% range for the quarter. Disney will juggle the financials and the quarterly statement will read something like “a full quarter from the new Disney’s California Adventure Park and higher per capita guest spending”, but it will really come from reduced operating expenses from the parks and resorts (e.g., budget cuts).

What little of the “savings” that are being spent are being spent on a massive ad campaign for California Adventure. You honestly can not surf around the TV channels out here without seeing an ad or tie in for DCA and the Southland is plastered over with DCA billboards and bus stop posters. Most of the suits are convinced that there is nothing wrong with the park beyond the bad word of mouth (by the way, the Disney “favorable buzz” campaign has started on the internet; let’s see if they find us out here). Since there’s nothing wrong with DCA, why spend millions to fix a non-existent problem?

It’s not fun being in the ‘gloom and doom club’, but a dose of reality is necessary medicine from time to time.

 

[Bob O]

Well i hope this rumor does come true. Ive seen the lion king show way too many times at MK and its replacement sounds great.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

Ok,

I believe that the primary reason for the workforce reduction plan was to boost the stock price. Despite improvement in earnings of the past year in nearly every division the stock price has been steady around the 30 dollar range. Since the primary goal of any publicly held company is to return profit to it's investors the board at Disney saw a work force reduction as a way to boost share value. Additional cost cutting measures were made last year when earning results were rather low. Similiar cost cutting measures have not been announced for this year.

I do not think that the average performance of Disney's California Adventure (I will not call it a failure as long as it earns money for the company) will affect continued growth at Walt Disney World. Over the past several years we have seen a reduced investment in the World because of the cosntruction of DCA as well as Animal Kingdom and the new resorts opening in WDW. However now that they projects are complete I expect new projects to occur more frequently at WDW.

Even if the new projects are planned for DCA I do not except that funding will be diverted from WDW since on a normal basis each operation has its own budget. Also just because someone saw balloon tests does not mean that construction will begin the next day. Many times balloon tests are done to create concept art to pitch and idea. the height tests give the artists the proper relationships to the other attractions in the area. Many ideas are created everyday at WDI (Imagineering), not all of them become reality, however these ideas are never thrown in the trash. They are saved and may be brought back to life years later.

In the second quarter of this year (ending March 31 and therefore including a full month of DCA operation)Disney's earnings report was effected by the elimination of the Disney Internet Group tracking stock. However when you look at the base figures the picture is much brighter. For example net income and earnings per share for the quarter increased 33% and 36% to $391 million and $0.19, respectively and Parks & Resorts revenues for the quarter increased 5% to $1.6 billion (which would have been more if not for the pre-opening costs at DCA)

Now to the heart of the matter. I think that a Mickey themed 3D movie is very likely for the Legend theater. Management is looking to reduce the prevalence of the Lion King now that the movie's popularity has subsidied and they are stuck with a glut of Lion King attractions and theming. With the success the animated 3D movie Its Tough to Be a Bug another one makes sense especially with the focus returning to Mickey.

With increased special effects technology a truely immersive 3D experience is now available and a Mickey themed adventure would fit great in Fantasyland, even better than the Lion King.

 

[ContempoSMT]

that would be great it sounds awesome and it would lure me to go in fantasyland because it would be there

 

[larworth]

On With the Show, I hope you are right about a return of investment into WDW. My fear is that when they announced they were significantly cutting the capital budget for this year (and into the near future), now that DCA was finished, it would essentially keep WDW at its’ recent lower level. Please let me be wrong.

If there is anyone from accounting lurking out there come on and give us some real data about investment history at the parks.

DCA apparently has failed to live up to Disney’s initial expectations. It may eventually be a good investment long-term, but it looks like it will be later rather than sooner. If the new park fails to deliver enough cash to provide an acceptable return on the billions spent, than I’m pretty certain the stockholders will deem it a failure.

Interesting to hear the LK comment. I would not have thought about there being a glut of LK attractions. In fact for being their most successful movie I have always been surprised that they were content to invest very little of a permanent nature in LK based attractions.

Wow, if the mega hit LK can’t support some type of legacy character/story based attraction that will be here twenty years from now than why keep trying to play the movie synergy game with their other e ticket concepts. Doesn't look like it makes much difference long-term.

 

[All Aboard]

Perhaps not a "glut", but there are three Lion King based shows at WDW. Legend, Festival and Circle of Life. Since Festival is far and away the best of the three, Legend is dispensible. But, it doesn't seem to be poorly attended. If a new attraction is to go there, it would have to drive overall attendance. Does Mickey have that kind of draw anymore?

Interesting though, several months ago the rumor surfaced that LLK was on its way out. Several of our cast member friends here jumped in and told us we were crazy and that "they should know, they work there." Perhaps those rumors were not so far off base in the first place.

 

[larworth]

I agree that Legend could go. It meets a need, but hardly one of their best efforts.

I don't know what the shelf life of Festival will be. Being a show I assume that at some point it will run its' course. Interesting to think that 5 years from now there could be scant little reference to the LK at any of the parks.

Everyone wants to be the next LK. I guess huge box office success doesn't necessarily get you a seat at the table with Mickey and Pooh.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

You must remember that the Disney fiscal year ends September 30th, just in time for the kick off of the 100 years of magic celebration. I expect that there will at least 3 new attractions announced during the last 3 months of 2001. Dont forget "Its the Start of Something Big!"

 

[All Aboard]

But, wouldn't you want the attractions in place when the celebration begins? You would if they were to be an intregral part of the celebration, which I don't think they will be. Perhaps the strategy is to draw guests in and sell them repeat visits with gobs of develpment. (Space, Dinorama, Mickey Show, New Blvd at Studios, etc.) "Thanks for coming to our 100 years celebration, hope you liked the new parades. Come back next year and experience all this great stuff we are building." Might work.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

Well in order for the new attractions to have been ready for the celebration they would have had to been started two years ago when disney was really in a slump and they were announcing cost cuts all over the place or have built some more cheap spinners.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

But, wouldn't you want the attractions in place when the celebration begins?

No. You've already sucked in the crowds with the "Special Event" of the year, in this instance Walt's 100th. What you want to do is create a buzz (not just a rumor) but actual construction of something that will be there when these folks come back next year or two years from now.

OH MY GOD!!! I'm thinking like Ei$ner now!!!! HELP!!!!!!

 

[All Aboard]

So, in other words DVC... just what I said.