IMAGINEER THAT: The return of Captain EO

Boo-ya!

I guess I kinda surprised ya since it’s been 2 MONTHS since I made a post over here. Yeah, life’s on the way, I have school and a project to make on my game design school (which I haven’t even started, oh boy…) but thanks to the newest Betamouse podcast, I have decided to re-start my Disney blog (and maybe even change hosts, but we’ll talk about that later). So I’ll come back with an new Imagineer That, the section where I talk about something that’s going on the Disney world.

Let’s begin.

Picture from Gobstopper

So HISTA is finally gone from all the theme parks (but Disney PR is trying to make us think that its coming back, nah uh, Disney, you are not that dumb- besides, Bob Iger, your CEO, pratically changed World of Color because it was too old. Wait, isn’t HISTA too old too? Oh yes it is- 16 years! ) and Captain EO is coming back. So from it, I got two points that could pretty much change the face of an pavillion and all the parks.

• There is a public for old attractions:

Sure, go ahead, disagree me, it just got public thanks to MJ’s death, BUT- most of these folks that visited the attraction were nostalgic fans, who told their kids how good it was. And since the chance to watch it has appeared, can you imagine how excited the parents (who loved the attraction back at its time) and the kids (who always heard how fantastic it was) to watch it again? Disney, THERE IS A PUBLIC TO OLD ATTRACTIONS! You don’t need the newest Pixar character or the best 4-D technology- these attractions have such an emotional feeling to these people that when you bring them back, you are sure to have huge crowds- and its May, already 3 months since opening and there still are long lines on Captain EO at Disneyland. Disney, can you remember of any attractions with huge connections with your guests?

Can you? (picture from Flickr)

• Imagination really needs to change

Ok. We already knew that. We still can’t explain how in the world can HISTA still get crowds at Orlando but at Disneyland it deeply fails- but Imagination really needs to change, but, hey, you don’t need to remove the Imagination Institute theme! I mean… Just remove it, so we can’t have an certain 3D show coming back. And for the love of god lets bring a certain bearded man back. But why Captain EO showed how Imagination needs to change? First of all, if HISTA wasn’t really satisfying the Imagineers, why would they replace it? And wasn’t it obvious that the Magic Eye Theater hasn’t been touched in a LONG LONG TIME. It NEEDS this update. And thats why Imagination needs to change? The theater NEEDS to be updated, to be refurbished. Once again, it needs to change.

He is still famous- he appeared on South Park!

And thats all for today’s Imagineer That.

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IMAGINEER THAT: Honey I Shrunk the Audience

Honey I Shrunk the Audience is going to be kicked off Disneyland to make way for Captain EO. Who didn’t expect that?

But let’s stop the HISTA bashing and lets go back in time and actually see who is the culprit behind HISTA. Lets look at the available options and why HISTA might be leaving not only Disneyland but also EPCOT and Tokyo Disneyland and, well… every single park. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first edition of Imagineer That, where we analyse the current situation of attractions and what could be their future.

The history starts back at 1994 with HISTA being the replacement for Captain EO at the Magic Eye Theater. In 1998, HISTA moves over to Disneyland since its popularity is incredible at EPCOT. A refurbishment based on HISTA is planned for the Imagination pavillion. Soon, HISTA kicks Captain EO out of every single Disney Park and becomes the single 3D movie after Captain EO to be featured in every park. But in 2002, together with Figment being brought pack to the pavillion, Disney management begins to note something: While HISTA is very famous and always packs a full house at EPCOT, in the other parks it hardly has a mildly filled theater. Disney was late in noticing that HISTA wasn’t made to be a long-lasting attraction. They were late, very late, and they wanted to forget that HISTA had an encounter with being outdated.

In 2009, popstar Michael Jackson dies. Soon, a movie made of his rehearsals for the This is It show is released. The movie makes millions. And someone on Disney was certainly looking at that. And soon, rumors began to float that Captain EO was going to do the unexpectable: kick the shrinking butt of HISTA out of the Magic Eye Theater and make a limited engagement. Nothing like that was done on Disney Parks history. In D23, rumors were killed. But they were strong rumors, cause they soon got back to action, and in December, it was announced that in February 2010, Captain EO would make limited engagement. But the most important thing was this thing: HISTA was getting kicked off Disneyland’s Magic Eye Theater. And people were sure, it wasn’t coming back.

However, HISTA might be having a short life in the other Disney Parks. According to some researches, Kodak will be one of the marks that will disappear in 2010. If Kodak goes off, the Imagination pavillion gets un-sponsored. And unless Disney wants another Wonders of the Ghost Town, Disney will surely do something with the pavillion. And do you really wanna know the reason that some of the things that are on the Imagination pavillion still are there until this very day? Cause Kodak wants. No Kodak, no restrictions. HISTA may soon be entering the Extinct Attractions Club.

But what will happen to the Imagination pavillion? Bring back Dreamfinder? The original version? Keep the Imagination Institute? The answers lie on the future. And since we are no time travelers, we’ll leave them there… for now.