Disney Now Builds Six Flags Attractions | Avengers Campus and W.E.B. Slingers Compared to Universal

wow okay so avengers campus at disney's california adventure just opened on june 4th 2020 and wow is this bad you know how i made that video about the creative bankruptcy of disney leadership and told you that disney thinks of its guests as idiots some people got strangely defensive about that but avengers campus is proving my point disney took its strongest brand which also happens to be the highest grossing movie franchise of all time and couldn't even be bothered to do anything remotely interesting this is very much a project guided by bob chapeck the current ceo of disney and former chairman of disney parks experiences and products his experience throughout the company has been very very clear cut staffing cut entertainment cut resort theming in perks cut experiences and raise prices it's clear to me that jpeg only sees the disney parks exclusively as a merchandising opportunity for all the criticism i've made of bob iger and how he fundamentally misunderstood universal success with the wizarding world responding desperately with ips in the disney parks avengers campus is a whole other thing it's the first real major jpeg project and reflects the attitude that disney can get away with six flags quality theming and attractions but while charging you disney prices the attitude is that if you slap a popular ip onto something you can get away with doing the bare minimum because disney guests will come anyways avengers campus with its emphasis on merchandise instead of actual park experiences is the ultimate signature land of jpec today we're going to be breaking down why avengers campus is so astoundingly bad and making the inevitable comparisons to universal's superhero island at islands of adventure we are of course also going to be talking about the groundbreaking spider-man attraction that premiered 22 years ago at that park and we'll be asking a lot of questions as to why anyone at disney thought that applying the spider-man ip to this dumpster fire would have ever gone well here's what's kind of astounding to me the marvel cinematic universe is the most popular film franchise in the world do the films have their share of problems sure they've often been criticized for playing things a little too safe and are meant to be as accessible as possible that being said these are well-made blockbusters that are driven by the characters and are a complicated interwoven series of films that connect as one larger story in a way that's easy to follow this is no mistake as the president of marvel studios kevin feige is a huge comic nerd and has spent his entire career as a producer trying to craft the best films possible with the marvel characters hiring directors who have a background in character-driven stories but are also marvel fans themselves is the recipe to their success disney acquired marvel in 2009 and while their new marvel studios was doing just fine it was the avengers in 2012 that really put them on the map since then they've been continuously producing the highest grossing films almost every single year seeing this success obviously disney wanted to capitalize on the popularity of these characters in their parks the first attraction to be announced would be the iron man experience for hong kong disneyland in 2013. the attraction would officially open in january 2017 as part of the first phase of retheming part of the park's tomorrowland into an avengers campus i'm not quite sure why i took disney three to four years to develop an iron man version of star tours but that's essentially what it is it uses the exact same technology with the atlas simulator vehicles but the story here is that guests are taking a tour of hong kong to see the arc reactor that powers the new stark tower on the tour the evil organization hydra unleashes robots on the city to steal the reactor and tony stark must come save the day using both his iron man suit and the help of the guests i wouldn't consider this attraction bad but it is pretty lackluster when star tours premiered at disneyland in 1987 it was incredibly innovative and exciting for its time since then though disney has cloned the ride in numerous parks and even used the atlas simulator for the 1989 epcot attraction body wars since then simulators have become commonplace not just in theme parks but even places like science museums malls and entertainment complexes simulators really need to be reinvented to stay relevant like soren did when it premiered in 2001. in 2017 flight of passage took that idea quite a bit further but flying theater simulators are becoming more and more common clearly they are the future of the industry for now so why produce a boring star tours clone themed to iron man it's just a poor decision and at best a mediocre attraction while hydra is an interesting organization with high profile villains in the films here it's faceless generic and boring for all the marketable iconography of superheroes and their villains disney made the bizarre decision to make things less interesting and this is a trend that we will see with the rest of their attractions where hong kong disneyland suffers the most though is through their newest attraction called ant-man in the wasp nano battle opening in 2019 it's a reskin of the buzz lightyear astro blasters it is probably the worst disney attraction ever created yeah even worse than superstar limo or stitch's great escape at least those attractions are so bad that they have a bizarre alert to them this though is unforgivable not a single target moves in what is one of the most blandly themed static rides ever created the idea here is that you shrink down to fight hydro nanobots alongside ant-man and the wasp i mean it's insane that anyone would have ever greenlit this it's one of those attractions where if you described a ride to someone who had never been to a theme park before and asked them to create something like it this is what you would get this is laziness at its finest but i think it's going under a lot of people's radar because hong kong disneyland is largely forgotten by the western community this is no doubt a jpeg approved project and really should have served as a warning sign of things to come the various buzz lightyear astro blaster attractions cloned around the various disney parks aren't particularly compelling but at least they're better than this we've quite literally reached the point where disney is creating click bait for their attractions you're drawn in by the ip or the title but once you're on the ride it's all filler and no substance this is definitely the worst example but we've already seen these types of cheaply made filler attractions in the us parks as well for example cars merch sells really well to young boys so that's why we have lightning mcqueen's racing academy at hollywood studios it's quite literally just all filler meant to draw you in with the name and trigger seven-year-olds to beg their parents to buy the merch at the carts outside this is the future of disney parks attractions under chapeck an avengers campus at california adventure is now the first full land that embodies this i mean just look at the marketing now that avengers campus is finally open it will inevitably draw comparisons to marvel superhero island at universal's islands of adventure so why is marvel at universal and not with disney on the east coast well since universal's contract with marvel predates disney's acquisition they of course had the theme park rights first when disney came to clarify the contract it was established that universal held the theme park rights to marvel characters in the us east of the mississippi and that anything to the west was fair game hence avengers campus disney could use marvel characters in the east but only if they didn't appear in some form at universal's park that left disney with their newly popular guardians the galaxy franchise as the only characters that they could really use that's why we're seeing a clone of universal's escape from gringotts being built at epcot with the guardian's theme it begs the question if the guardians of the galaxy are coming to epcot how will they tie in with the theme of this park here's a hint they probably won't if disney's other marvel attractions are any indicator this attraction probably won't be very good either let's go back to superhero island and avengers campus though you obviously know that i'm going to say that universal has the better land but what makes it different whereas avengers campus is very much based off of the mcu films superhero island works as a love letter to the comics it's very bright and campy reflecting in nandi's perception of the material as you enter you encounter the incredible hulk they launched a b m looper that is truly fantastic off in the corner you have the underwhelming storm force acceleron which is a lightly themed teacup spinner style flat ride as you can tell i'm not a fan but universal doesn't really have much for small children in this area there's also a small section called villains alley which acts as the entrance to the iconic towers of doctor doom's fearfall space shot flat rides aren't really my thing but the interior cue is really well themed the land's final attraction is the amazing adventures of spider-man which will be comparing and contrasting with disney's new spider-man dumpster fire in just a bit for now though i just want to focus on the content of both lands when i first saw the concept art for avengers campus i was initially concerned with how bland it looked i understand that the mcu would never translate into something like superhero island but there's actually a bit more color and variety than i anticipated so i'll admit that it looks pretty good however the land consists mostly of shows with laughably poor budgets first you have the ancient sanctum in which doctor strange enlists the help of the audience in defeating the interdimensional villain dormammu before i watch the video of the show i saw someone describe it as pulling rabbits out of hats and i thought it was a joke but nope the show is quite literally sleight of hand magic tricks for birthday party magicians moving on to the avengers headquarters we have the warriors of wakanda featuring the dora melange it's a weird 10-minute dance show where they sometimes twirl their spears and just yell a bunch about how great wakanda is there's not much to say about it other than it feels like filler because of how little the rest of the land offers the building also features a stun shell called avengers assemble featuring black widow and black panther teaming up against task master and two of his henchmen it's actually a show featuring some decent stunt work but you wouldn't know that because no one bothered to check if the audience would actually have any clear sight lines to the action after having watched a few videos it's definitely the layout of both the land and the building obstructing entire portions of the show and not just the camera work it's odd to me that disney once known for considering all the sight lines from every single angle couldn't produce a show that people could clearly see if you stand too close you can hardly see anything if you stand too far away the left balcony is obstructed by a tree maybe i'm wrong on this one because i haven't been there myself but i also haven't seen a single video that was able to capture the entire show clearly the last major show offered by avengers campus is another stunt show this time featuring spider-man i mean the stunt work isn't bad but it's not great either does it remind you of anything the most impressive part of the show is the so-called stuntronic [Music] it's something that is technically impressive but also highlights how limited the actual live stunt people are in comparison you can also see how the budgets for all the shows went into this one effect instead of the ancient sanctum being a high budget special effects show which would make a lot of sense all that budget probably went here again it looks great but the highlight of the show is the technical ability of this figure rather than you know the actual entertainment value of the show the rest consists of stun people on wires very clearly breaking the effect of spider-man's acrobatic ability obviously i would never expect people to do stunt work in an unsafe way but disney has so many creative people at their disposal was there really no better or more convincing way to pull these off had disney actually tried i'm sure that they could have actually figured something out as the show ends it turns into a meet-and-greet and i think that really sums up one of the major problems with current leadership i'm not the kind of person interested in seeing characters but i won't take that away from people who are however disney definitely seems to be on a trend of trying to sell meet and greets as attractions the underwhelming fantasyland expansion for magic kingdom didn't really add much and i'll never forgive replacing snow white's scary adventures with princess meet and greets it's not like the magic kingdom didn't have the space to add fairytale hall somewhere else but obviously a meet and greet is cheaper than an attraction and the maintenance that comes with it that really seems to sum up the experiences of avengers campus meeting the marvel characters is pretty popular so it seems that disney just developed a bunch of filler shows to allow you to photograph people in admittedly cool costumes here the photogenic nature of the characters takes precedence over the entertainment and while that isn't inherently bad the land doesn't offer much else how does this compare with superhero island though well that's not much better because it's just so ridiculously campy with the characters riding out on motorized tricycles that being said i do enjoy how it's in theme with the cambier aspects of marvel comics and at the very least it's kind of funny a distinct difference though is that the details of the land and its really solid attractions take precedence over the meet and greets the characters are a fun bonus but if they were the actual focus of the land i'm not sure that people would be too happy about it to digress from all the negativity though and before i move on to the rides that adventures campus actually does offer let's talk about the dining at pym's test kitchen here the premise is that pen particles are being used to shrink and grow food in creative ways and you know what it's funny and creative the restaurant has a few creative gags that you can find and the actual food itself follows with that humor it obviously won't be a conventional meal but the unorthodox portion mixing is simple and fun people think that i like to criticize disney out of bias but i have no problem praising them when it's deserved pym's test kitchen might not be a main attraction but i have to admit that i really like its humor and then i feel it stems out of actual creative endeavor [Music] avengers campus really began with guardians of the galaxy mission breakout in 2017 as the first phase a retheme of the former tower of terror it's actually a pretty decent attraction full of humor and detail that the rest of the land lacks except you pentest kitchen i like you a large chunk of the reason i think mission breakout is an acceptable attraction is because it feels like actual effort went into it and oh look joe roadie was involved well that makes a lot more sense now doesn't it the pre-show with rocket is really well set up and the elevator ride system works really well in conjunction with the action it takes the mechanics of the tower of terror and does some new things with them and how it bobs the vehicle and integrates the drops into the narrative of the show scenes instead of using them exclusively for thrills in general mission breakout is an improvement because the tower of terror here was always the inferior version compared to the one in hollywood studios the one there is longer and more complex with all newer versions lacking its lateral movement and so feeling like cheap band-aid fixes to parts that needed more thrill by converting the attraction into mission breakout the ride system now has its own unique identity however the retheme has one large issue in that it destroys the skyline of the park the new exterior might fit the cosmic marvel theming but it's an eyesore because of how visible it is from other areas of the park originally the tower of terror made a lot of sense for the california and hollywood theming and now it sticks out in the worst way possible like i said disney doesn't even try with its sight lines anymore it also raises the question what does avengers campus have to do with the california theme of the park i've previously discussed in another video about how this park has become a mess of throwing ipa around everywhere in the cheapest way possible cars land in its arizona setting is quite well themed but what does monsters inc have to do with hollywood the former bugs land which is where avengers campus sits now added nothing to the theme with its cheap flat rides for children and pixar pier is just the worst for all the complaints that the original park was full of cheap off-the-shelf attractions what was the idea behind adding cheap overlays instead of building something quality in their place it's frustrating and dca is still easily one of the worst disney parks if you can't maintain thematic integrity then why bother even calling it california adventure speaking of cheap let's now take a look at the new attraction for avengers campus called web slingers a spider-man adventure i have to ask disney why did you even bother first if you've ever been on universal spider-man attraction you know that the bar is set really high not only is it still a great attraction 22 years after its premiere but it was an industry game changer in how it seamlessly mixed superhero action on screens with physical sets and effects in a convincing way with disney though it was decided that people really like tom holland spider-man and so why not build an attraction on a six flags budget people like spider-man so they'll just show up anyways right there's this odd notion out there that disney is always at the forefront of implementing new technology in their parks the new spider-man attraction is essentially toy story mania but instead of using a gun with a pull string attached to the vehicle this vehicle tracks your hands and allows you to shoot webs that sounds pretty innovative but here's the thing disney outsourced the development of this attraction to triotech a company that specializes in lower budget screen based dark rides so did disney get priority access to this technology nope he was quite literally lifted from legoland california's ninjago the ride which premiered in 2016 allowing you to throw ninja stars in an arcade style ride experience that kind of ride is fine for a smaller regional park but is this really something worth paying disney prices for webslinger starts with a pre-show where it's established that you're touring the building for the worldwide engineering brigade or web and you meet up with a project lead who happens to be peter parker during the free show spider bots start malfunctioning and start to self-replicate with peter now dressed as spider-man enlisting your help to round them up before they get out of control this ride is just bad toy story mania will never go down as a disney classic but at least it's a competent experience in web slingers the attraction feels much lower budget i heard someone describe it as disney's equivalent to fast and furious supercharged judging from the quality of the animation i can't say that it's much better and even the general aesthetic of the experience is astoundingly boring if you were going to stick with the web shooting aspect why would guests want to shoot at generic spider bots universal spider-man attraction is far more dynamic and exciting with guests taking on the role of reporters from the daily bugle and getting caught up in a conflict between spider-man and the sinister syndicate even if it uses less popular villains like scream or hobgoblin the iconography and variety of its villain roster is a huge part of what makes it so fun this on the other hand is just generic arcade trash and the overall experience is unexciting one element of universal's attraction is just how carefully it tries to immerse you into the experience here though the transition between locations is pulled off poorly between these thin walls there is zero illusion of immersion here let me ask my audience this if you're going to a disney park you would expect better than six flags quality correct speaking of which here's justice league battle for metropolis an interactive shooter dark ride that has been cloned and is now located at seven six flags parks if you think of being hyperbolic about comparing the show quality of web slingers to six flags then here's a direct example to prove my point webslingers is a baffling disappointment disney took one of its most iconic superheroes and wasted him for a low budget ride to encourage merchandise sales if you haven't heard you can also purchase a web power band which is a wrist accessory that allows you to score more points on the attraction for 35 dollars for an additional 30 dollars you can add spider-man or ghost spider electric web tech or iron man or rescue repulsor blasts resulting in an astounding 65 purchase to one of other people on this attraction that's insane but i think it proves my point that chapex sees the parks exclusively for merchandising opportunities and the attraction costs are just an inconvenience it's too early to really tell how substantial these paid improvements are to the experience but from what i can see anecdotally online general observation seems to be that it makes a little difference essentially from what i can tell it's just an expensive up charge for an aesthetic upgrade this video didn't even address the hastily dropped avengers attraction that is supposed to be coming which is rumored to be a more advanced version of flight of passage regardless of what it actually turns out to be or if disney will even bother to build it i have really low expectations disney's history of not just recent attractions but marvel-based properties doesn't make me optimistic for the future whether that be the gringotts clone at epcot or the hastily tacked on avengers campus at paris's walt disney studios park the debacle of avengers campus should be setting off significant alarm bells if you're a fan of these parks it's a generic land focusing heavily on cheap photo op shows and an embarrassing contraction wasting the potential of one of the most popular characters in pop culture it's a land created almost exclusively for monetization and not for the experience of the guests if you watched my videos you see me criticize the stagnant galaxy's edge and point out the laziness of runaway railway and the various toy story lands around the various parks avengers campus is just another terrible addition continuing to solidify my point the disney leadership views the guests as idiots who will come for increasingly cheaper experiences if you slap a monetizable character onto them disney once stood as an industry leader renowned for its creativity and quality and its parks current disney leadership is riding off of an undeserved reputation that is long gone thinking arrogantly that the disney name alone will draw people in all this being said i think that it's important that the sustain for disney leadership be heard if you agree with the points i've made then i strongly encourage you to share this video around as consumers i don't think that it's acceptable to settle for the poor decisions of iger and chapek concerned only with profits for shareholders and not the guests experience disney parks have stood for so long as not just the gold standard of theme parks but also as cultural icons that's changing quickly and the more vocal of the outcry the more likely things are to change as always if you enjoy these types of video essays you can leave a like to boost them into the youtube algorithm and i always recommend hitting the subscribe button with bell notifications so you can be alerted when new videos are released [Music] hmm

Channel: Poseidon Entertainment

Views: 161,118

Rating: 4.7604465 out of 5

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Id: Y10fJ2j9IYA

Length: 26min 6sec (1566 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/tideblue]

I don't think the land is bad, exactly. But consider it is heavily dependent on live entertainment and specialized food and beverage, which can be cut back in slower times or dropped altogether. It's cool that they can add to this and evolve the land with new things over time, and they've already added walk-around Loki in his TVA clothes from the Disney+ show. This is something that Galaxy's Edge can't do, as it's "fixed" to a specific time, so they can't throw in the Mandalorian (despite it's crazy popularity), because they have to stick to their established time period. They can't drop in new elements as easily.

The other issue: They announced an Avengers E-Ticket way, way too early on, and it's hard to see this as anything more than a "Phase Two" between Mission: Breakout and the next E ride. The next Marvel ride for DCA hasn't even broken ground, and the mere fact that we know it's on the horizon sucks most of the oxygen out of Avengers Campus. For me, a East Coaster, I don't feel the need to see this land before it's complete... and who knows when that is.

To the second point, Disney announces things too early, says too much in advance, and really fails to deliver anything close to their hype. Contrast that with how Universal's been handling their projects lately, where they don't show off until the rides/lands are ready, and refuse to make splashy premature announcements to, I'm assuming, drive up Wall Street. I don't know how long Disney can keep doing that, and they've always done this to some extend (see also: all the unbuilt Disney projects), but it's really gotten more noticeable in the last few years.