Sneak Peek – Special Features Archives - Page 2 of 5

May 4, 2024May 8, 2024

From “Netflixland” to “Max World,” Imagined Lineups for Streaming Giants’ Could-Be, Imaginary Theme Parks

When it comes to intellectual property (IP), it’s tough to beat The Walt Disney Company. Not only does Disney have over a century of its own, homemade IPs and definitive fairytale adaptations to tout (everything from Mickey Mouse to Maleficent; The Little Mermaid to Mirabel) but decades of high profile, high-cost acquisitions have armed Disney with priceless character portfolios from ABC, The Muppets, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th Century. It all adds up to a roster of stories, characters, and brands that make Disney the one to beat in the “IP Wars” that power merchandising, streaming, and the box office.

But in the last few decades, Disney’s meteoric acquisitions have been seen and felt in their theme parks, too. Don’t misunderstand. We’re not huge fans of how Disney Parks have gone decades without original rides, or how the Parks seem to be “buckets” meant to collect from Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars instead of creating new stories all their own… but there’s no question that as a battlefront in the IP Wars, theme parks have become the newest places to see beloved, blockbuster stories come to life…

Pages: 1 2 3 4

March 31, 2024April 10, 2025

The Kong Effect: 11 “New” Disney & Universal Rides That Have Actually Outlived Their “Classic” Predecessors

For almost as long as designers have been adding things to Disney Parks, they’ve been taking things away. In the name of progress, expansion, modernization, changing trends, or funding, sometimes beloved attractions are simply lost to time. As readers of our Lost Legends or our THEN & NOW layout series know, even Walt Disney World’s “blessing of size” doesn’t guarantee that classics are spared from the wrecking ball.

Given that fan-favorites are talked about like the timeless, definitive highlights of Disney Parks, sometimes it can be shocking to discover that… well… time moves on! Here, we’ve collected 9 rides Imagineering fans still tend to think of as mere “replacements” that actually lasted longer than the “classics” they took the place of! Prepare to have your mind blown.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

February 4, 2024June 14, 2024

Park Paths: The Histories and Personalities of Disney & Universal Theme Parks As Seen from a New Perspective

“Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” Since 1955, those words have welcomed guests into Disneyland, and their spirit pervades Disney theme parks across the globe. Filled with artistry, history, and memories, each of them is, in some ways, alive, with its own unique personality.

At Park Lore, I’ve been working on a very, very niche personal art project that I’m excited to finally share: a look at the histories and personalities of the theme parks we love… as told by their pathways. Made possible by the support of Park Lore members, each of the hand-drawn illustrations you’ll find below is part mathematical model, part artistic abstraction; colorful lines that would be meaningless to most, but that can be mapped with memories for some! I sure hope they connect with you and inspire you to see each park’s story in a new light…

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

January 29, 2024January 29, 2024

Comparing Kingdoms: Diagramming Disney’s Six “Castle Park” Ride Lineups, Exclusives, & Overlaps

There’s nothing quite as distinctly Disney as the “Disneyland-style” theme park. Since Walt’s original magic kingdom opened in 1955, the tenets of a “Castle Park” have been written and rewritten, from Anaheim to Orlando; Tokyo to Paris; Hong Kong to Shanghai.

Here at Park Lore, we explored that evolution in our must-read Park Paths Special Feature, seeing how the histories and personalities of each park can be read in its pathways. That’s probably as close as we can get to comparing the more qualitative aspects of each “Castle Park” – their malleability and rigidity; their revelatory spaces and discovered ones; their naivete and certainty.

So today, we wanted to compare those six sister parks more quantitatively. Luckily, our By-The-Numbers miniseries in Park Lore’s Extras Collection gives us a perfect place to start: their rides (note that as in that feature, we mean ride – not attractions, shows, walkthroughs, etc. which would be far too subjective and cumbersome to include as you’ll see below…).

After many, many, many drafts and attempts to get it just right, we’ve assembled a one-of-a-kind, six-way Venn diagram to see both the shared rides and – just as interestingly – the rides exclusive to one “Castle Park” versus its sisters. We’ll reveal each park’s exclusives one by one below, but if you’re as fascinated by this “Comparing Kingdoms” graphic as we are, you can purchase poster and canvas prints (or tees to give people behind you in line something to study) at Park Lore’s Shop.

This in-depth article is just one entry in Park Lore’s one-of-a-kind Special Features collection, where we explore the threads that connect between rides, parks, and pop culture! From Imagineering’s secret Society of Explorers and Adventurers, to the history of Chuck E. Cheese; from Disney and Universal’s AVENGERS: “Custody War” to the two-part tale of animation’s rebirth in the generation-defining ’90s Disney Renaissance!

Special Features are typically available exclusively for those who support this evolving theme park history project with a monthly Membership. It’s been unlocked for a limited time, but if you enjoy what you read, consider becoming a Park Lore Member for as little as $2 / month!

Pages: 1 2

January 20, 2024February 6, 2025

Fantastic Beasts and How To Lose Them: Thoughts on the Wizarding World’s Retraction and How Universal Can Adapt

In July 2011, it ended. Adapting the final novel in rags-to-riches author J. K. Rowling’s young adult fantasy book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 marked the eighth and final entry in the film series that had defined pop culture for a generation. For a full decade, fans had aged alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, starring as the heroic trio in the once-in-a-century, intergenerational story; a world that captivated Millennials, then grew up with them; a pop culture phenomenon to rival Star Wars. And now, it was over.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

November 24, 2023November 24, 2023

Could Bob Iger Be Disney’s Last CEO? Thoughts on the Improbable Possibilities of a Disney•Apple Merger

“With every success the company has had since Steve [Jobs]’s death, there’s always a moment in the midst of my excitement when I think, I wish Steve could be here for this. It’s impossible not to have the conversation with him in my head that I wish I could be having in real life. More than that, I believe that if Steve were still alive, we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously.”

Those words were written by Disney’s then-exiting CEO Bob Iger in his 2019 memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime. A reflection on Iger’s once-unthinkable proposal to rebuild Disney’s then-burned bridge to Pixar by purchasing the still-young animation studio outright, Iger discusses his deep friendship with Apple / Pixar founder Steve Jobs, how much Disney learned from Pixar’s culture and creativity, and – most importantly – how, to Iger’s thinking, Disney and Apple might’ve merged if Steve Jobs hadn’t died in 2011.

Pages: 1 2 3

October 28, 2023December 30, 2023

Reimagining Magic Kingdom: An Armchair-Imagineered Blue Sky Build-Out of Walt Disney World’s Iconic Theme Park

“Armchair Imagineering.” For Disney Parks fans, it’s a skill that’s learned early, and practiced often. Almost inescapably, theme park aficionados can’t help but to imagine what could be; what we think should be; what we would do if we were given creative control of a theme park we love and an unlimited budget to make it happen.

If you’ve been around Park Lore for long, you might have already stumbled on my hand-illustrated, ideal build-outs of Disney California Adventure, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It takes dozens of hours over the course of months to draft out these imaginary redesigns, so it’s probably no surprise that those park build-outs are some of the projects here at Park Lore that I’m most proud of, and reader comments, private emails, and shares on social media regarding them are some of the kindest, most creative, and most thoughtful feedback I ever receive.

So I guess all of that fueled me enough to finally do something I never thought I would: to tackle a “Castle Park.” And not just any Castle Park…

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

September 21, 2023November 14, 2023

Universal Rises: A Big Picture Reflection on the “Turning Tide” in Central Florida Theme Parks, Ten Years Later…

A lot can change in ten years.

Don’t believe us? Just flashback to summer 2013 and you’d find yourself in a very different Orlando… There, you’d marvel at the brand new MagicBand, daydreaming about Disney’s promises of how it’ll eventually personalize the Parks to you; you’d fill your day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with The Great Movie Ride and The Backstage Studio Tour, wondering what Disney might do with its brand new, $8 billion acquisitions of Marvel and Lucasfilm.

If you visited Orlando in summer 2013, you’d wander through Camp Minnie-Mickey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, wondering why – three years after announcing it – Disney hadn’t begun construction on its land themed to James Cameron’s Avatar. You had never heard the song “Let It Go,” much less imagined that the upcoming movie Frozen might replace EPCOT’s Maelstrom. And you’d be far too busy with the #LimitedTimeMagic campaign to wonder what Disney would do for its 100th Anniversary a decade later.

Oh, and in 2013, it’s likely that you’d callously spit in the eye of Disney’s generous gifts of Magical Express, FastPass, Extra Magic Hours, and resort transportation to book yourself an Uber to that other theme park resort up the road… After all, Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter isn’t just the talk of the town; it’s the project around which the whole themed entertainment industry has reoriented itself. The age of the “Living Land” has arrived… And as a construction site at Universal Studios Florida begins to take the shape of Diagon Alley, the battle for Orlando doesn’t seem as clear-cut as it once did… “Could the momentum finally be behind Universal and not Disney?”

Pages: 1 2 3

July 27, 2023July 27, 2023

The Tipsiest Place on Earth: The “Tradition” of Walt’s Dry Disneyland & How Alcohol Leaked into the Magic Kingdoms

“I am a big believer in tradition,” Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “This just seemed like one of those traditions that if we changed it the empire wasn’t going to crumble.”

As with most of Disney’s most controversial changes, it was a subtly worded post on the Disney Parks Blog that made the announcement: when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland Park in May 2019, one of its in-universe food and drink stops adding to its “Living Land” status would be Oga’s Cantina – an alien-run watering hole servicing pilots, bounty hunters, smugglers, and galactic travelers with “choices for kids and libations for adults.”

Fans knew exactly what that meant. For the first time in its sixty-year history, alcohol would be available to the public at Disneyland. True to form, that ruffled a few fans’ feathers. Of course, the ban on booze at Disneyland and its “castle park” siblings isn’t quite as cut and “dry” as generalizations would have you believe… And the story of drinking at Disney Parks is far from finished… Let’s dive in…

Pages: 1 2 3

July 7, 2023July 17, 2023

WARNER BROS. WORLD: What We’re All Missing in the Middle East’s Blockbuster New Theme Park

It’s not every day that we see a major, innovative, and immersive new theme park open in the United States. That makes sense. For at least the last few decades, the American theme park market has left behind a “growth” phase and settled into a “maturing” phase. Like a sponge that can’t hold even one more drop of water, many analysts see the theme park landscape of North America as “full.” (For example, 2025’s Epic Universe will be the first major, destination park in the country since 2001’s California Adventure.)

But elsewhere, it’s a very different story. Across the world, brand new parks – many designed and built by the best in the business, rooted right here in America – are opening to brand new audiences. Today, we want to highlight one and the industry shifts that brought it to life. Join us as we set the stage for Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and highlight some of the incredible attractions in this 21st century park!

Pages: 1 2 3