The beloved Tower of Terror ride at Disneyland California Adventure features some of the most elaborate themeing and set-dressing of any of Disney's built environments, consisting of a series of staged scenes that are reminiscent of interactive theater troupe Punchdrunk's sets, followed by a spectacular thrill-ride — it rarely has less than a 30 minute wait.
But it is to be a casualty of Disney's media property purchasing blitz. Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek is reportedly outraged that the Marvel acquisition has not resulted in any Marvel-themed rides at the Disneyland Parks, and has ordered the remake.
It's part of an ongoing series of controversial decisions by Chapek. For example, to absorb the cost overruns from Shanghai Disneyland, he's ordered $500M in cuts to Q3 operations at Disneyland — just as the park is experiencing record crowds.
The rethemed Tower will be part of a Marvel corner of California Adventure that will absorb the Monsters, Inc ride and the old Muppetvision theater.
And what does an angry executive team do in this modern age when a juicy rumor, that just happens to be true, leaks online? They issue Talking Points, of course! TDA’s Cast Communications team was instructed to send out vague and pointless “Talking Points” to the CM’s that instructed them to not believe everything they see online until it is confirmed by the Disney Parks Blog. Except many hourly CM’s who work the Tower of Terror attraction and its gift shop had known about this evolving plan for months prior to its online leak, as Imagineers and TDA executives spent plenty of early mornings and late nights inside the ride building testing out the new show proposals in the elevators and tinkering around the pre-show hallways and queue.
The current plan for Tower of Terror is to close the attraction this fall and give the entire building a full interior and exterior refurbishment so that the new version of the ride can open next May, with the Guardians of the Galaxy movie premiere held at DCA the same week the new ride opens. Assuming this gets the green light by August, and a disastrous Shanghai opening summer is about the only thing that could derail it at this point, the CM’s will be treated to another round of approved Talking Points that will somehow explain that they can now believe what they read online about Guardians of the Galaxy taking over Tower of Terror. The hourly CM’s, of course, are already several steps ahead of TDA.
This Tower of Terror proposal is part of a multi-year plan to get more Marvel into DCA, being pushed heavily by Bob Chapek. Since Chapek arrived a year ago as the new Parks Chairman, he’s been shocked to learn that after five years of owning Marvel there still isn’t a new Marvel ride in the California parks, and that the only thing TDA has done with Marvel is slap together some cheap meet n’ greets over the years. The plan now is to adjust the Marvel mega-coaster from its original spot in the Timon parking lot to fit into the northern end of Hollywood where Stage 17, Monsters Inc., and the unused Stage 12 buildings are. This would save Timon for future DCA expansion, and better use the under-utilized space on the opposite side of Hollywood Land.
MiceAge Disneyland Update – Guardians of the Tower
[Miceage]
(via Super Punch)
