Armchair Imagineering: Improving WDW's Magic Kingdom

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Big Disney Fan
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Armchair Imagineering: Improving WDW's Magic Kingdom

Post by Big Disney Fan »

This thread is for improving WDW's Magic Kingdom. It's based on this particular thread: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=633711. And this one, too: http://www.visionsfantastic.com/forum/f ... ing-29712/.

Anyway, this thread involves things I would do to improve WDW's Magic Kingdom. Comment on them if you wish. Or share your own ideas for improvements! This can be for anything you'd do regarding improvements for the Florida resort's first park.

Anyway, let the fun begin!
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Post by WonderlandFever »

Looks good so far. I would love to have that scene back where the pirates shoot at each other too. Did you have any plans for the Liberty Riverboat?
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

Well, here's the first of the changes made to the Magic Kingdom (and MEW, please forgive me if I copy you on any of this). As stated before, I want to go around the park. This means we start at where else but Main Street. This is almost fine as it is, but nevertheless, there are some things that would be still be changed here.

First and foremost, beautification! From the entry gates to the Partners statue, anything and everything that can be considered a part of Main Street will be brightened, beautified, and just made nicer. Any and all paint chips (applying to the entire park) and faded paint will be taken care of thanks to the help of stronger and more colorful paint that can better stand the Florida climate. All foliage will be freshened up and brightened as if to appeal more to the naked eye. They will also smell rather pleasant to boot. The lighting fixtures will continue to have fire in them (if they haven't been doing so already) to warm up the occasionally-cold night air and will also receive a fresh coat of paint. Walt and Mickey will also be given a good polishing up, as will Roy and Minnie. The land will receive new pavement and the vehicles will be cleaned up and given any necessary fixtures.

Next time, I will go into more specific detail on other things in the area, but until then, any ideas for Main Street here?
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Post by FigmentJedi »

For Main Street, it'd be nice to de-Walmart some of it. Make the Main Street Cinema an actual cinema again that would have a rotation of Mickey and Oswald cartoons.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

To finish up Main Street...

All the shops in the park will sell only certain items in them, rather than the same items in all of them. That's right, the shops will just sell items themed to what they are. A big hint would be the name of the establishment in question. The exception will be the Emporium, which will be the Magic Kingdom's World of Disney store. It will sell anything and everything a Disney park fanatic would hanker for: everything from clothing, plush toys and candy to books, park DVDs and expensive sculpture. It will also receive new carpeting and wallpaper. The window displays will also be replaced.

The rest of the shops will sell pretty much anything its name says it has. For instance, the Main Street Athletic Club will sell sports-themed items.

The Main Street Vehicles will be cleaned up and any parts that need to be fixed or replaced will be. The Town Square Exposition Hall will become the new home of Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, which will have been relocated here from its old home at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It's actually a new version of the old Walt Disney Story, so it's like going back to basics here. In the exit, there will be a new Blue Sky Hall, which displays all future projects for the Magic Kingdom. The WDW Railroad will probably receive a new train (name currently unknown) and a new spiel will be used.

Okay, that ought to do it for Main Street. It's pretty much fine how it is now. What do you think of this?
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Post by Super Aurora »

well my fan made map pretty much sums up Magic Kingdom.

I would also like Animal Kingdom to have a South American section as it has so many animals from the Rain-forest to choose from. If you have Africa and Asia, might as well have South America also. There's some stuff from Disney Sea I'd like to have in WDW also.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

I would think that an overhaul like the one depicted on your map might be a shade difficult to pull off for real.

Anyway, we next move on to Adventureland. We'll start with a classic: Pirates of the Caribbean. But first, I have something to say...

Now, I really don't think it's physically possible to do anything outrageous with that one. We would have to bulldoze the entire ride building and rebuild it from scratch. You have to remember, adding in Pirates at the park was almost an afterthought. For various reasons, obvious ones, I might add, they initially considered not building and instead build the Western River Expedition, but they couldn't build it in time for the park's 1971 opening. And instead of being happy about the lack of Pirates, guests balked at it and when Burbank heard about it, the Imagineers decided to give the guests what they wanted. But the bigwigs wanted it to be smaller than normal, for various reasons, such as room in Adventureland. Florida's ride became notorious for being a "Cliff-Noted" version of the Disneyland original.

So I'm afraid we can't do too much with Pirates. It was always a condensed version of DL's (like I said, adding this in was almost an afterthought), so if you want to lengthen it, you'd be going for broke with the changes. You can't change too much without changing it all.

Now, obviously, while it would be nice to bulldoze the ride and rebuild it from scratch, I don't think it's really feasible, financially, logically or physically. So instead, I'll just work with what I've got. MEW, if you're reading this, please forgive me for any copying of your words on my part.

As with the ride in Disneyland, it will be a win-win for ride and movie fans. The ride changes begin even before you reach the entrance. The barker parrot will be returned, though maybe placed under the present black sail outside the entrance that bears the ride's name. Then the real changes start after you get into your bateau and cast off. The Davy Jones waterfall will be relocated to directly above the single waterfall.

Before you reach that, you will hear the "Dead Men Tell No Tales" line accompanied by Paul Frees' "No fear have ye of evil curses..." line, remastered and played by way of a special set of speakers that will be installed to make the voice float around to various points of the room. Meanwhile, before you go past the ghost ship in the storm, you will see a new treasure trove scene similar to other rides out there, but in this case, the skeleton would be created by way of an old Pepper's Ghost effect thought of for the ride way back when:
Image

Davy Jones and his waterfall will become more HD (Is that what you would call it?) and that's about it. This waterfall will be relocated directly above the actual waterfall you go down.

This, of course, lands you in the "bombarding the fort" scene. Here, the dialog is almost left alone - "almost" in the sense that any mentions of Jack Sparrow will be removed from Barbossa's dialogue. If edited correctly, there won't be any worry about having to have Geoffrey Rush re-record more lines.

The well scene will lose its current dialogue and return to the old dialogue respectively. Jack will still remain hiding behind the dress-wearing mannequins. The new assumption is that rather than looking for Jack, the pirates are simply looking for the town's treasure. Jack, of course, who obviously isn't a part of the crew (Barbossa is presumably their captain after all) is secretly searching for the treasure himself, thus why he appears to have found it at the end of the ride.

The chase scene will have a very controversial change: The pirates chasing ladies for love... again. That means that the Pooped Pirate will be back in action here, once again holding the frilly pink underskirt and bragging about the woman to whom it belongs. The terrified girl pokes her head out of the barrel and looks around, quickly ducking back down at the sight of the barking dog which grabs the Pooped Pirate's attention. The pirates and the ladies will chase each other around in circles.

What's that? Where's Jack, you say? Well, he's moved to the far left side of the scene. Here, a pirate has fallen asleep in a drunken stupor, the key to the town's treasure vault tightly gripped in one hand, and the map leading to it in his lap. On either side stands a horse and a goat, both watching as a sneaky Jack attempts to steal the map and key. Right as Jack is about to get it, the animals make noise, causing him to retract as the pirate makes some horrid noises in the form of snores. Jack goes back and, of course, the animals react. This never-ending sequence is guaranteed to garner a few laughs.

The burning town scene will now have a new sight: a rowboat with two very intoxicated pirates seated in it and filled to overflowing with rum bottles, including some in the water nearby. The fire effect will be made more realistic than ever, as not to allow the shadows of the flapping curtains to appear.

Finally, a brand-new scene will be added. After you go through the treasure room, with Jack seated in it, the old way of disembarking the boat and going up an escalator to leave is now gone for good. Instead, you end the ride the same as in Disneyland: by going up a waterfall! But in this case, the ride's up-ramp will resemble the cargo ramp-type thing used in Paris' version. It's also home to a new version of an old scene: the arsenal, where various intoxicated pirates take potshots at each other, at the guests in the boats and at barrels full of explosives. And instead of just being them singing the classic song, it will involve them speaking like how the pirates in the Disneyland ride speak, when the ride was shown on television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYdPjyfs64 (wait until 7:35).

Once at the top of the waterfall, you disembark from the boat, down a new exit path that still leads into the same POTC-themed shop as before.

So concludes the improved POTC at WDW's Magic Kingdom!
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

I don't see any drastic problems with Pirates of the Caribbean, certainly none that would make me want to bulldoze it and start from scratch. I would like to see the barker parrot back, along with a few of the older things that have been changed over the years, including the original end scene in the treasure room. That being said, I like Jack Sparrow being in the ride, though for some reason, I personally would like to see the old pirate captain return in place Barbossa.

All in all, I do think Adventureland needs a new ride even though there is no room for one at the moment. I've always wanted Disney to make a Jungle Book attraction, though my idea for the ride is too similar to Jungle Cruise and I wouldn't want to see an original attraction that I love to be replaced.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

I think that the Jungle Cruise does need an update, though what, I have no idea.

Moving on elsewhere in Adventureland, the Swiss Family Treehouse will be altered to a more pirate theme, not unlike the pirate theme added to Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland.

And I would also restore the Tiki Room back to its old Tropical Serenade self. That's right, the Tiki Room will be drastically altered, back to its original, non-Iago-and-Zazu, Tropical Serenade self. After that, the changes don't stop there. There will be the freshening of the attraction itself (that clacking sound from the animatronics will be silenced), new color, updated special effects and animatronics, and an all-new sound system to make the show have a crystal clear quality to it. The waiting area will receive some updates, too, mainly to accommodate the revised version.

The two birds in the waiting area will now provide an overview of the show, putting it into context. One bird, colored orange, is named Clyde, who speaks a rural dialect. His partner is colored blue and named Claude, speaking with a British accent. Clyde will be voiced by Blake Clark (the new voice of Slinky Dog) and Claude will be voiced by Eddie Izzard.

Anyway, I've thought of two other things for eateries in Adventureland. They both involve preexisting eateries that will be renamed and, in some cases, rethemed. One is the old Adventureland Veranda, which will be back in business once again, but in this case, its theme will be altered. Say hello to The Adventurer's Club, a new version of an old favorite from Pleasure Island. It will be pretty much the same thing as before, but scaled down to fit within the area of the old Veranda, but it's the same restaurant. It will be a sit-down restaurant.

The other restaurant is El Pirata Y El Perico. It will be renamed to The Buccaneer Bar (it's just a working name and may or may not be renamed) and its menu will be altered to be more health-conscious and feature local Florida specialties. Those of you who mourn the loss of its Mexican fare, don't you worry! I have plans for this in Frontierland... :wink:

What are your ideas/thoughts here?
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

For me, I would leave Swiss Family Robinson as it is now. I like the restaurant ideas.

I agree about the Tiki Room. I've never had a problem with Iago and Zazu being in the show, but I think now is the time to freshen it up. It seems a lot of people would like to see the original show restored and I would agree with that.
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Post by carolinakid »

I would hate to lose the Treehouse( from one of my favorite films) to more pirates (not a fan, except for the attraction itself). I would restore the original Tiki Room or at least lose the cacophany of Iago & Zazu and bring back more of the original songs. Adventureland needs a table service restaurant, too.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

Before I leave Adventureland, I will address one last thing: shops. Once again, the contents will be revised to be less homogenized than before. Island Supply will now feature all things Hawaiian, not just clothes, but also fresh fruit, perfect for eating on the go. Agrabah Bazaar will be renamed Agrabah Marketplace and now place more emphasis on all things "Aladdin". Pirate's Bazaar will remain, as will its selection of pirate-themed items, but expanded to include all things pirate-related, such as swords, eye patches, hats, "hooks", gold doubloons and jewelry, and it will also remodeled to allow for the new exit path of Pirates of the Caribbean.

And remember when I said I would be relocating the Mexican fare from El Pirata Y El Perico (now renamed The Buccaneer Bar)? Well, it will now be in Frontierland, as part of the overhauled menu of another classic: the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. No longer will it be a burgers-and-fries spot. Now it will serve up a menu similar to the one that used to be used at Rancho del Zocalo at Disneyland: namely, a mix of both Mexican food and Western barbecue specialties, such as Smoked St. Louis Ribs, Ranch-Style Barbecue Chicken and an El Grande Barbecue Platter.
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

BigDisneyFan wrote:And remember when I said I would be relocating the Mexican fare from El Pirata Y El Perico (now renamed The Buccaneer Bar)?
It's now the Tortuga Tavern so your suggestion for a name change wasn't far off.
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