Once Upon a Time Imagineers created new stories and experiences for us all but in recent years every new attraction has been IP driven. Do you think we will ever see a unique attraction rather than an IP tie-in again?
Don't get me wrong I love getting to ride the stories of my favorite characters but the majority of my favorite attractions are actually the non Disney IP driven attractions... Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Mission Space...
Just wondered what your thoughts were...
Tower of Terror is IP - Twilight Zone - though not Disney owned.
Mission Space also was based on IP - it was just unsuccessful IP - it was tied into the movie "Mission to Mars" (2000), which also featured Gary Sinise. The ride was in early design phase when the movie was developed/released. When the movie bombed, they pretty much eliminated any notice of tie-in. From wikipedia
Among the items on display are props from the 2000 film Mission to Mars, including the rotating "gravity wheel" from the predecessor X-1 spacecraft,
SPLASH! Its the movie Splash with Tom Hanks! I win!!
You jest, except that Eisner had it named Splash mountain in part because they had a movie coming out with that name. Again from Wikipedia:
The name was later changed to Splash Mountain after then-CEO Michael Eisner's mostly-ignored suggestion that the attraction be used to help market the film Splash.
That is exactly where I was coming from with this thread.
I think, and please correct me if I am mistaken, the last major E-Ticket at WDW that didn't have an IP tie-in was Expedition Everest? So I guess that is in itself proof to some degree. Perhaps it's a case of when the right 'idea' comes along.
I do agree that EE was the last major non-IP ride. I am in the corner that it is VERY unlikely that we will ever see ANY sort of attraction not based on some sort of IP. (Though the point of the Asian parks is a good one, but those parks are not wholly run by Disney corporate - so I will remain focused on the US parks.)
To point out, though - though the early days of
Disneyland there were not necessarily a lot of specific product tie-ins, almost everything in the park was directly tied in to Walt's movies and TV shows. Adventureland was originally going to be called "True Life Adventureland" while Frontierland was modeled after the hugely popular Davy Crockett tele-movies. The fact is, rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion were generally the EXCEPTION and not the rule.
The fact is, a good attraction can be a good attraction regardless of whether it is based on good IP,lousy IP, or no IP. The example of Splash Mountain was already brought up, but it is excellent. Even at the time that the ride was created, there was already a negative connotation with Song Of The South, and it quickly reached a point where the movie has been completely buried in history. Yet the attraction is fantastic, but based on lousy IP. It's why I hate the argument "I won't like Avatarland because I don't like Avatar." A good attraction is a good attraction. You don't think less (or more) of Mission:Space now that you know it was based on a movie, do you?
