Fantasyland & Avatar "blown" / compared to WWOHP (Really)? + Star Wars Land thoughts

[NuJoy]

We reluctantly bought this ridiculous thing for our tween daughter who loves Star Wars after she begged for it all week of last trip.
So. Embarrassing.

 

[Joben]

okay so now I need to know where you got the Ewok head cover so I can get it for my 30+ year old sister (I'm not joking)

 

[NuJoy]

okay so now I need to know where you got the Ewok head cover so I can get it for my 30+ year old sister (I'm not joking)

The Star Wars store at Star Tours.

 

[cvjpirate]

Let me say I am pulling for a Star Wars land myself. I believe Harry Potter is here to stay and will bring in big bucks for a very long time for US.

Just if Disney is going to bring Star Wars to the theme parks lets do it right or not at all. Don't just do a ride, meet and greet, restaurant with bar and of course the gift shop. Make me believe I am a part of the Star Wars saga and you will have me hooked.

 

[DaveRH]

I believe HP will become one of those long standing memorable franchises, but it's relatively new.

I don't really want to try and say which is better, but don't discount Star Wars, it's been around since the 70's and has survived 3 horrible movies.

 

[clsteve]

Debating SW over HP is like debating which color is better - green or blue.

Both have potential as anchor franchises in the Theme Park world. Both are multi-generational.

The difference is that HP is now an established Theme Park gorilla.

The ball's in Disney's court.

I love both and hope they deliver as well as Uni have.

 

[ponyboy]

Personally, I think Star Wars has nothing on Harry Potter. If Disney doesn't hit it out of the park with the next movies they will really have nothing. Harry Potter has like 7 recent movies that were defining to a generation. Star wars has 6, the first three were awesome and defining to a generation, the next three kind of sucked and were more about CGI than anything else. The generation that star wars captivated is now in their 60s, and their kids have moved out of the house. Their kids are now having kids and those people grew up on Harry Potter killing the box office and a few crappy star wars movies here and there. Sure Star Wars will draw crowds however I really don't think that they will be able to maintain public interest for the next 20 years like Harry Potter will UNLESS the new movies are absolute classics (which I doubt they will be honestly)

I'm in my mid 30's and most everyone my age loves Star Wars. That's what we grew up with. That's what we played on the playground in elementary school. When I was little most of my toys were Star Wars stuff.

Because of that all of my kids grew up watching star wars movies, they have star wars legos, light sabers and all kinds of other star wars toys. They watch the star wars off shoot movies on netflix. They have star wars video games. They are more excited than I am about the new star wars movies coming out and unlike me, they liked the last three star wars movies because they're younger and didn't care as much that they didn't really fit with the first three.

You're far underestimating the reach of the star wars franchise.

 

[Hoodie]

Huge SW AND HP fan here. I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old. I ache for Star Wars Land. Took the 5 year old on Star Tours on our last trip and he truly believed that we had travelled to a different planet. And he hadn't seen any of the movies yet!

We just started introducing both HP and Star Wars to him. He's fascinated by Star Wars. He is OK with Harry Potter so far. It's still a bit over his head, although he does quote Harry often.

The issue with HP is when to introduce it. The books (and movies) worked so well for the first generation of kids because they grew up with them. The first book or two is OK for 5, 6, 7 but the last couple of books are far too old for them. Not only the subject matter, but Rowling's writing style matured greatly between the first couple of books and the last few. I've always maintained that WWOHP was a bigger risk for Universal than people realized because it hadn't stood the test of time like Star Wars has (and that was before Disney had purchased SW). Star Wars is pretty consistent on story/theme and doesn't pose the same problem.

I'm hoping Disney does an even better job at a Star Wars land than Universal has done with HP, but I can't wait to go to both!!

 

[MuddyTires]

The generation that star wars captivated is now in their 60s, and their kids have moved out of the house.

Wait, wut?

 

[MuddyTires]

From May 2013, but...

In 2013, supported by a robust co-branded merchandise program with LEGO and the continued Angry Birds Star Wars collaboration, the evergreen brand remains popular as ever, even among younger generations; Star Wars is still the No. 1 licensed toy in the U.S. among boys.

http://www.licensemag.com/license-global/top-150-global-licensors

Overall, it was the 5th strongest toy license for 2013 and for Q1 2014:

http://www.licensemag.com/license-global/licensed-toy-sales-increase-2013

 

[ponyboy]

My kids are 7 & soon to be 5, and know nothing about Harry Potter. Never seen any of the movies, never asked about the books. But they both have light-sabers, my son has a huge Star Wars figures collection, and they watch the movies, all 6 of them, on a regular basis. My son particularly likes Episode II.

My kids are 10-17 and they all know Harry Potter but it isn't a big thing to them, it's just a series of movies. They don't have and have never asked for any Harry Potter toys or anything else related to the movie. I like the movies and I'll watch them when they come on and they may or may not watch it with me, just like any other movie.

When we were in Galveston this summer my wife got irritated at the younger boys because they opted to stay and watch Star Wars on DVD than go to the beach a couple of times. We brought the DVDs from home but their idea of a vacation was to sit around doing nothing watching Star Wars in Galveston while the rest of the family was at the beach.

From seeing my kids and their friends, who are always at our house, I just don't think Harry Potter has the staying power of Star Wars.

 

[derekleigh]

I do think SW Land will Disney's answer to WWOHP. While both are very different, they have a lot of parallels, the most notable being is this: both have wowed and captivated multi-generational audiences. IMO, HP is today's version of SW.

But the biggest advantage SW has is there will be new movies, games, toys, etc in the future. HP will have minimal new material.

 

[jesswindsor]

I think U.S. did a fantastic job with H.P. Saying that, if Disney would decide to do a land or something for Star Wars I think it would be amazing and be more Popular than HP. Disney theming and attention to detail is great. To me Disney doesn't need to have an answer to H.P. Look at what all Disney has done in the past. And who knows what they have comming in the future. I'm not a huge Avatarland fan. I never thought that Avatar could compete with HP. But I don't think it was suppose to compete with HP. Animal Kingdom needs help, and they chose Avatar to help. I'm sure that what ever Disney does with this, it will be Great.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

Personally, I think Star Wars has nothing on Harry Potter.

Like everyone else, I couldn't disagree more. I am 54 and love Star Wars. My son 28 and daughter 26 love Star Wars. I know a bunch of 40 something's, 30 something's, teens, and little kids that love Star Wars. The universe is broad and the products are endless. Star Wars is like no other fantasy or sci-fi property in the world and has stood the test of time in spades. There are always lots of SW toys at Walmart and ToysRUs. Maybe a few HP toys, but HP is a limited universe with limited toys. And, while it is a great and special property that should do well for Universal for many years to come, it will never have the depth or breadth that SW does with all generations of boys and girls.

I couldn't disagree with this more - and we are actually reading "Prisoner of Azkaban" aloud to our daughter as I type. My kids, including my 13 year old son, really enjoy HP. HP is big. Good for Univ Studios, and good for us. I actually enjoy visiting U.S. now, unlike before HP. It is well done. Again, congrats to U.S.

Star Wars, however, is not just big. It changed American Culture. The cultural impact of Star Wars cannot be overstated - kinda like Elvis or Sgt. Peppers. Disney now owns that cultural phenomenon. ...AND boys love Star Wars. The same 13 year old mentioned above wears a Star Wars shirt to school once a week or so. He won't wear his HP shirts - too kiddie. I predict that once Hollywood Studios opens the new huge "Star Wars Land" (or whatever they call it), that it will begin to rival Epcot as the #2 park in Orlando.

Really, Star Wars is three times the size of Harry Potter now. Twenty years from now it will be even bigger.

Take it for what you will but Star Wars will have the largest presence at WDW by far from what I have heard at least(brother in law). Anaheim will have some mainly a Tomorrowland/SW reboot with some Meet and Greets etc.

Again take that as you will and thats at the moment, nothing is beyond planning at this stage. As for the HP vs Star War’s as a fan of both, HP is not going anywhere, but comparing it to Star Wars is like comparing a gorilla to a baboon by weight, and thats without the new Abrams movies.

Points for a unique but appropriate analogy!

They are both great properties, even though I significantly prefer Star Wars.

The main difference is that Star Wars has already passed the test of time. Harry Potter has not.

Apparently, 60 year old men.

 

[dinolounger]

don't kid yourself into thinking that Disney won't have the last laugh with SW.

Thank you, but please wake us all up (if we are still alive) when Disney actually does something with SW, instead of wasting time, money and brand equity on a movie about blue people that no one (including those who saw it) came even name a single character of.

 

[csm101]

As it stands today ahhh ya WWOHP is a better fit than Fantasy or Avatar lands. Star Wars would have been a much better overall choice for WDW to make. Let's see how it all plays out.

 

[vandy]

We can debate all we want, the movie impacts, the lasting popularity and so forth, but for me it's all immaterial until Disney actually puts in a SW land or themed rides. The Star Wars legacy will probably make it more difficult for Disney to produce an area/park that lives up to the hype. It's easy to speak highly of HP at UNI because it is there now, up and running. SW is still just an idea for Disney and nothing for us to experience. They could hit a huge home-run with this, or they can bring disappointment to us all by not putting in something that lives up to the SW brand or even worse, what the fans think should be done. If what they put in is a disappointment, the legacy of the movies won't help much. Time will tell and unfortunately we will probably be waiting for quite some time.

 

[circus4u]

Disney: Star Wars attractions announcement in 2015

http://www.mynews13.com/content/new...ticles/cfn/2014/8/5/disney_star_wars_att.html

 

[dinolounger]

Disney: Star Wars attractions announcement in 2015

http://www.mynews13.com/content/new...ticles/cfn/2014/8/5/disney_star_wars_att.html

Another vague and non-committal Iger pronouncement.

 

[ahoyle]

Just curious, who here that actually likes Star Wars and Harry Potter, and goes to both US and Disney, have any confidence that Disney will pull off anything as good as US did with HP with Star Wars?

Also, I've never met one person in real life that loves Star Wars and hates or is naive about Harry Potter. Usually the SciFi/Fantasy fans love all the classics that are well done, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. No one knows what these franchises will look like over the next decade, but if you look at the past decade, HP dominated Star Wars. Wasn't even close. And while I am definitely a SW fan over HP, if someone told me a new SW was coming out next summer side by side with a new HP, and to bet on which would have the bigger box office, I would bet on HP. Although I think it would be close and if given odds I would take SW!

That said, just taking a snap shot today, I definitely think SW is the bigger franchise, primarily due to what it does with cartoons, games, and toys, are quite far beyond what HP has done. But they are in the same weight class, its not a heavyweight vs a lightweight here.