This ride write-up was not an easy one to do. For one, I hadn't added to my Bible World project in a while. Secondly, it's a bit controversial. How do you point out the evil of sin in a theme park ride? In a way that is appropriate for kids? What sort of ride story can take the place of a shooting ride like Buzz Lightyear? I posted this ride to my Bible World thread a couple of weeks ago but didn't get any positive reactions The Saint's Sin Blaster Bible: Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s letters Here in Apostolic Age Land, guests will join the early saints in bringing the Gospel to bear in the world. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin has been redesigned to allow guests to blast targets of sin found along the ride. Each room focuses on a different city found in the 1st Century (the city is listed in English at the beginning of each room; also a map in the queue shows the travels). All of the scenes are rated PG. The journey begins in Jerusalem. There are people tempted to greed with money bags and others tempted to gluttony before the poor and hungry. When guests hit the targets, the money and food move towards the impoverished. In one area, they see someone who is about to be stoned (like the account of St. Stephen in Acts 7). When the target is hit, the people lower their hands with stones. The magician Simon is about to pay for a priest to ordain him, but when his target is hit, he turns away. People are turning away from non-kosher foods but their target turns them to food since God has made everything clean. Finally, guests will see individuals (like Saul) persecuting Christians; their targets turn them away from the Christians. The next scene is Lystra (in modern day Turkey), which the Romans had built as a fort near the mountains. There are several mentions of Lystra in the New Testament as Paul visited it a few times after it was established as a local community. Guests will be able to hit targets that destroy false gods. Paul and Barnabas are at the far end of the room with people kneeling before them about to worship them. When the target gets hit, the other characters stand up. The third scene is Galatia. The targets in this scene are those sins of the flesh outlined in Galatians 5:19-21: sexual immorality (people changing to modest dress), witchcraft (liquids are spilt over), jealousy (frowns changed to smiles), fits of rage (fists being lowered), and drunkenness (people turning from cups of alcohol). In the 4th room is Ephesus. The targets in this scene are those sins mentioned in Eph 5:3-6 as well as some actions in the Acts of the Apostles. Like Galatia, there are some “sensual” targets. Also, some “foolish talk” is taking place in a tavern; it ceases when the target is hit. There is a false exorcism taking place by some non-Christians; when the target is hit, a Christian “pops up” with a crucifix. Finally, there is a gathering of silversmiths building silver shrines of Artemis. When the target is hit, the silversmiths turn away. Next, guests are found in the Corinth. The targets here are similar to the Ephesus room as outlined in 1 Cor 6:9-10. The beating of Sosthenes from Acts of the Apostles is also shown here; when the target is hit, the offenders turn from him. In the final scene, guests are transported to Rome. At the Coliseum guests can blast the roaring lions, which changes the scene into a lion laying down with a lamb. Someone about ready to commit arson (resembling the Great Fire) has the fire extinguished when the target is hit. A Roman about to leave their newborn baby in a box instead brings the baby up to their chest. There is also a cross and a person with a sword–signs of the crucifixion of Peter and the beheading of Paul; the holders lower their torture weapons when their target is hit. At the end of the ride, guests will have their scores totaled and the “top sin blaster” will be awarded.
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I made it to the finals for the long-running Imagineering competition called "Manor of Mysteries." I have submitted my final project and so have my two fellow finalists. Due to my involvement earlier in the competition, I had a pass that I used in the semifinals that assured me of one of the 3 final spots.
The final prompt was wide-open--armchair Imagineer anything. It wasn't a shocking way to end what had basically been a competition of team projects, but it still caught me off-guard. I settled pretty early on a recent real-life theme park scenario. Disney owns The Simpsons now but the show is found in Universal parks currently. Universal wants to retire The Simpsons now even though they could probably wait til 2028. I decided my project would be what would be the replacement to The Simpsons land. I set my sights on Universal Studios Florida as I thought the park needed some attention now that a third park was opening up on the resort. After looking at the Intellectual Properties that Universal owns, I settled on Trolls as a franchise as a great replacement to The Simpsons, especially due to its bold colors. I learned at that point that Universal Studios Florida is actually getting a Trolls ride soon; I just was not familiar with all of the Universal news! So I shifted my focus to Universal Studios Hollywood--a park that visited in rather recently in 2019. At this point, I will send you to my final project of "Trolls Land": sites.google.com/view/trolls-land/home. Below is the ride layout for "Trolls: Color Rescue!", which utilizes the same building as The Simpsons: Ride. Between two different Imagineering competitions and my annual silent retreat, I haven't had time to post much on here. Below was my winning entry for a pitch for a parade at Universal Studios Florida.
Scooby-Doo and the Monster Rally Parade at Universal Studios Florida Bringing together Universal’s love of monsters, Americans’ obsession of decked-out cars, and everybody’s favorite mystery-solving dog, “Scooby-Doo and the Monster Rally” parade at Universal Studios Orlando will surely excite guests of all ages. Based on the 1988 movie “Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf,” Scooby-Doo and gy must race the scariest monsters who process through in the following vehicles: Werewolf Wagon, Freaky Frankenwagon, Slime Speedster, Couldron Coupé (Witch Sisters), Bone Bomber (Bonejangles the skeleton), Mummymobile, Split-Personality Special (Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Snyde), Dragon Dragster (Dragonfly), and the Dracmobile (Dracula). Merry Christmas!
I continue to stay busy in the Manor of Mysteries competition (we are starting to have eliminations). A new competition (One Sentence) that is of a less-involved nature has also started. In our recent Manor of Mysteries challenge, my team was tasked with creating a holiday land focused on a winter holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, Diwali, Valentine's Day). As we were discussing how to proceed, someone on the other team forced us to include live reindeer and not do Christmas. We went forward with a Valentine's Day themed land as an extension of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland Paris. The reindeer are a part of Adventures by Disney promotion to get more people to sign-up for a new itinerary to northern Norway. The land can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/teamlore-project9/home. For Project Five, my team was tasked with expanding the lore of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.) at Walt Disney World parks. I ended up creating a ride for Epcot’s Italy pavilion focused on Fr. Antonio Piaggio, who created a machine to study the scrolls of Pompeii. Read about my ride idea here: sites.google.com/view/teamlore-project5/epcot?authuser=0
For Project 3, my team was asked to create a small ("boutique") Halloween theme park. I had the family-friendly land and included IPs such as Charlie Brown, Scooby-Doo, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Casper. For our project starting with my land (Halloweenland), you can find it at the following link:
sites.google.com/view/teamlore-project3/halloweenland As mentioned in my D23 post, the biggest news for Disney theme parks is that Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom is being redesigned as a Tropical Americas land. It will include the first-ever Encanto ride as well as an Indiana Jones ride.
As a warm-up to a new Imagineering competition called "Manor of Mysteries," a group of us took on the task of creating the land given some of the parameters (while having free reign on other parameters, such as the locations of the IP-driven rides). The following Google Site explores the land but starts first with the Encanto water ride I designed called "Encanto: Antonio's Adventure": https://sites.google.com/view/manor-mysteries-project-0/attractions/encanto. Credits to muppetsfan#1 for the Indiana Jones write-up. September 9th (yesterday as I write this) was the day of the Destination D23 Conference’s Disney Parks Panel. I did not realize that until after the Panel was finished, which is pretty telling of itself. For one thing, the odd-numbered years for D23 (“Destination D23”) are generally the off-years for parks announcements. However, the very disappointing announcements at the 2022 D23 Conference (which should have had major announcements, especially due to Universal’s investment in parks) kept me from seeking out information about the Parks Panel this year before it actually happened. Mickey Views’ video sums up the updates from the Parks Panel but also expresses the disappointment of the announcements: I share the disappointment. Now granted, there were some announcements that were not on my radar. However, many of the things that were announced are still far from starting construction on, so they seem to still be rather “blue sky.”
The biggest update was on the current Dinoland U.S.A. at Animal Kingdom. The announcement in 2022 was rather blue sky–a Moana-themed land but really just concept art. Apparently Disney Imagineering has modified its plans in the past 12 months. Now the land will be themed to “tropical Americas” and house rides such as an Encanto dark ride (replacing the defunct Dinorama coaster) and an Indiana Jones jeep ride (like Disneyland but replacing Dinosaur). In addition, the plan is to re-theme the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” in the Tree of Life to a Zootopia-themed show. There is disagreement as to whether those IPs belong in Animal Kingdom; I tend to agree with those who say that it is not keeping with animal and habitat conservation efforts as is the major thrust of Animal Kingdom (for example, Encanto would better work as a Colombia pavilion in Epcot and Indiana Jones would work better in Hollywood Studios). However, the plans could have been more disruptive to Animal Kingdom’s theme if, for example, Zootopia had received an urbanized land like what Shanghai Disneyland is opening soon. The other major news that I took from the announcements is that Test Track at Epcot is going to be rethemed thanks to the partnership with Chevrolet. It sounds like it will incorporate some of the “edutainment” (i.e. educational and entertainment) elements of the original pavilion World of Motion. There were other small announcements for the various parks, but I will not discuss them here as they are not anything that excites me significantly. In short, I feel a little better about the 2023 Destination D23 announcements than the 2022 D23 ones. However, I stated last year (click link) that anything short of major announcements would be troubling for Disney. Since there were not really any major announcements this year, I would say it is time for Disney to step aside and let Universal take over the lead company on theme parks. Bible: Rev 11:19, 12:1-6, 10; Ps 45; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56 (although the assumption is not explicitly found in the Bible, the passages are used at Mass on the feast day) Catholic Feast Day: August 15 Mary’s assumption was declared a dogma for Catholics in 1950 by Pope Pius XII although there was wide understanding and support of the belief since the early Church. For example, a Latin document named "Transitus Mariae," (meaning "The Crossing Over of Mary") is an extra-biblical account that dates back either the second and third centuries. The Catholic Tradition of the Assumption is that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into Heaven. The phrase “at the end of her earthly life” can be believed in one of two ways–either when she died or when she fell asleep (sometimes called “dormition”).
“Assumption Orbiter” in Apostolic Age Land replaces Astro Orbiter. At the center of the ride (where a golden sphere is located right now) is Mary lying on the ground. Going up the tower are parts of a mobile (stars, planets, etc.) that give the impression that guests are making their way up to Heaven. When it is their time to ride, guests board one of 12 capsules. Each of the capsules (which can hold a maximum of 2 guests) is supported by an angel who follows the up-down direction of the rider’s controls. The ride takes 90 seconds. |
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