The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

[Datameister]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Well, the problem is that it feels like the schedule you offer is similar to what Imagineers apparently have to deal with. Now while that may be good training for any potential Imagineers, it also illustrates the frustration they must have to deal with in trying to develop quality creative attractions.

I don't think you'll find many attractions that were designed in 48 hours. Actually, Disney spends years on most things they create. A few weeks isn't all that long by comparison - it seems quite appropriate, since we won't necessarily have to deal with the realities of keeping the hourly capacity high, drawing up detailed plans, working with building codes, etc. But two days leaves enough time for initial brainstorming, and that's about it, especially if you're working in a team.

[bfdf55]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

I don't think you'll find many attractions that were designed in 48 hours. Actually, Disney spends years on most things they create. A few weeks isn't all that long by comparison - it seems quite appropriate, since we won't necessarily have to deal with the realities of keeping the hourly capacity high, drawing up detailed plans, working with building codes, etc. But two days leaves enough time for initial brainstorming, and that's about it, especially if you're working in a team.

Actually, the time alloted for the blue sky portion (that relates the the theme of this thread) has been whittled down over the past decade. Instead of allowing reasonable time to develop a successful concept, the time alloted is driven by the "blue sky budget".

Of course the amount of funding for that (or any portion in the development of an attraction) sometimes depends on whether the team is one favored by WDI management.

[Explicit]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

That's what I figured. Sorry MiceChat, you're just going to have to wait. And then you'll track the progress of it. There's going to be a whole series of project tracking threads about it, and you'll all get into huge debates about budget cuts and what Disneyland really is and what it's meant for, and then when it opens there will be a huge line that will require the central hub to host switchbacks. Yes, it will be that good. But the reason I'm so proud of it is because it's so ingenious, yet it's so familiar and simple, and though it has a good story behind it, it isn't forced on guests, and it will be fun, and it will be immersive, and it will take guests to a beautiful place.

And that's all I'm going to give away. You'd better start a project tracking thread now, because it's just THAT GOOD.



Rant over. Thank you for listening.

Wait so your saying when Roller Coaster Tycoon 4 comes out we might see it?



























jk

[Datameister]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Fair enough, bfdf55, but I don't get the impression that the blue sky phase for a whole new attraction ordinarily lasts 48 hours - and this competition doesn't just simulate the blue sky phase anyway. I thought we were supposed to settle on a concept and pitch it.

[Garfieldo]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Hmm, I'd been considering posting a thread just like this.

Anywho, sounds like fun! I honestly don't care about credit, so count on me using my best ideas for this!

And then you'll track the progress of it. There's going to be a whole series of project tracking threads about it, and you'll all get into huge debates about budget cuts and what Disneyland really is and what it's meant for, and then when it opens there will be a huge line that will require the central hub to host switchbacks.

Awesome! I can't wait to argue over its thematic relevance!

[Karalora]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

I've finished a basic write-up, and now I'm debating whether or not to attempt drawing any concept art. I'm not much of an artist, see...

[bfdf55]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Fair enough, bfdf55, but I don't get the impression that the blue sky phase for a whole new attraction ordinarily lasts 48 hours - and this competition doesn't just simulate the blue sky phase anyway. I thought we were supposed to settle on a concept and pitch it.

Of course things aren't that tight (I'm sorry that I don't do emoticons. I guess that might have helped). But, as I mentioned, the time allowed for just coming up with an idea that has a good possibility of success has been continually reduced over that past decade.

Yes, it appears that (SOME) projects take years to go from idea to opening. That doesn't mean that they all need to. But the blue sky portion (one of the more critical elements of a successful attraction) seems to be getting the least support.

[dl_appurtenant]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Great idea! I'll definitely be participating when I can.

I'm guessing the simple prompt 'Design a ride for Toontown.' leaves it very open ended...like...the space that I want my ride to go in can not even exist? Or no?

Also, I think we might want to put a limit on when we can actually post our projects. Like maybe a week from the deadline to the actual deadline? I think this would be better so that we're not burrying projects and that we won't have anyone else's projects in our minds while designing our own. Yay, nay?

[disneylandfan95]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Great idea for a thread! I will be posting my ideas!

[LittleImagineer]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Ummmm, I would enter the contest, but I can't upload pics or use anything on the computer to make pics so idk how I would express my ideas. I could always explain but that's not the same

[LittleImagineer]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

That's what I figured. Sorry MiceChat, you're just going to have to wait. And then you'll track the progress of it. There's going to be a whole series of project tracking threads about it, and you'll all get into huge debates about budget cuts and what Disneyland really is and what it's meant for, and then when it opens there will be a huge line that will require the central hub to host switchbacks. Yes, it will be that good. But the reason I'm so proud of it is because it's so ingenious, yet it's so familiar and simple, and though it has a good story behind it, it isn't forced on guests, and it will be fun, and it will be immersive, and it will take guests to a beautiful place.

And that's all I'm going to give away. You'd better start a project tracking thread now, because it's just THAT GOOD.



Rant over. Thank you for listening.

Yup. I'm going to have to agree with you and Mr Wiggins now. I guess I'll just have to wait for when I'm really working for Disney! We can be Imagineering pals one day. Ahaha.

[Brer Mole]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Oooo... sounds like a fun thread.

Going along with the OP about working in groups, if anyone cannot/doesn't feel like drawing concept art, I'll take a crack at it at least. If my drawing doesn't come out the way you expected it, that's fine. I'm just putting it out there.

[bfdf55]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Oooo... sounds like a fun thread.

Going along with the OP about working in groups, if anyone cannot/doesn't feel like drawing concept art, I'll take a crack at it at least. If my drawing doesn't come out the way you expected it, that's fine. I'm just putting it out there.

This is beginning to sound like one of those Imagineering intern programs where teams pitch concepts to creative execs. Great training I guess.

[pianoman13]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Yup. I'm going to have to agree with you and Mr Wiggins now. I guess I'll just have to wait for when I'm really working for Disney! We can be Imagineering pals one day. Ahaha.

Going off of what they said... this wouldn't be an issue if this was a private club on the web or something. Because I most certainly want to become an imagineer, so all that just kinda makes me sad that I probably shouldn't partake in this. Maybe if I remain vague enough... hah

[Nautilus]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Go ahead and post your ideas; even if you have the slightest chance of being being hired by WDI, chances are slim that you would get hired anyways, then chances are very slim if you would even be allowed to pitch the idea unless you painstakingly climbed your way to a higher position and chances are very slim that you would even pitch the same exact idea word for word and drawing for drawing. I wouldn't worry about saving ideas for WDI.

[sleepyjeff]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Oooo... sounds like a fun thread.
Going along with the OP about working in groups, if anyone cannot/doesn't feel like drawing concept art, I'll take a crack at it at least. If my drawing doesn't come out the way you expected it, that's fine. I'm just putting it out there.

Great, I've an idea but no artistic talent whatsover.

Mickey and the Beanstalk:
QUEUE; the attraction really begins in the queue itself where we see the forlorn cow belonging to Mickey, Goofy and Donald. Our line goes around their dilapadated home where if we peak inside the windows we catch a glimpse of them sitting around the dinnerless table.

RIDE VEHICLES; the vehicles are suspended from an overheaad track similar to Peter Pan except in this case there are 3 rows of seats with a total capacity of 10 guests. The vehicles are mostly green with brown trim and look vaguely like a giant bean sprout.

SCENE 1; in the first scene our ride seemingly goes up and up and up as the ground appears to get further and further away until we pass thru the clouds themselves.

SCENE 2; approaching the Giant Castle in the distance we witness Mickey and friends get attacked by huge dragonflies.

SCENE 3; The tiny visitors from Happy Valley make themselves at home and feast on the Giants dinner table.

SCENE 4; With the harp playing a lullaby Willie is drifting off to sleep and Mickey and gang are making their escape...just as our vehicles pass in front of the giants face his eyes shoot open!

SCENE 5; Rapidly our ride vehicles decend the beanstalk in a full out race to the bottom.

GIFT SHOP: The gift shop will have one distict feature, a roof that periodically gets lifted up as everyones favorite Giant, Willie peaks inside


Here's my very ameturish attempt at concept art:

Left click on pic to enlarge-

[Karalora]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Okay, I've refined my idea to the point where I think it's worth posting. Here goes!

*****

THE GREAT TOONTOWN BANK HEIST


This ride combines the overall “look and feel” of Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin with the motion simulation of the Indiana Jones Adventure and the shooting-arcade interactivity of Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters to create a dark ride adventure that is both fun and funny for the whole cartoon-lovin’ family.

Concept

The nefarious Beagle Boys have escaped from jail and robbed the First National Bank of Toontown! Every available police officer is on the case, but the wicked Beagles have gone to ground in the seedy Back Alleys of Toontown, where everyone is a crook. It’s up to the guests, armed with comical “stun guns,” to clean the place up and catch the Beagle Boys before they get away with all of the town’s money!

Location/Footprint

The entrance to the ride is located in the Downtown area of Toontown, where all the “official” buildings are such as the bank and City Hall. A section of the employee access road immediately behind the facades has been re-routed to dip underground, and the queue for the ride built over it, leading around the back of Toontown to the show building, which is built in the space formerly occupied by Gadget’s Go-Coaster and the Chip & Dale Treehouse. The exterior of the building is decorated to look like a new apartment complex called Rubber Arms. (For added laughs, an array of “door buzzers” has been added to the visible portion of the building for guests to push in order to hear what the residents have to say!)

Pre-Show

The queue takes the guests through sets designed to look like the Toontown Central Post Office, First National Bank, and finally the Police Station.

The Post Office walls are bedecked with portraits of the Beagle Boys and other wanted criminals, with posted rewards (in “simoleons”) corresponding to the points they will be worth as targets on the ride later on. They all look like extremely stereotypical cartoon lowlifes, with eyepatches, snarling expressions, heart-shaped tattoos that say “MOM”, that sort of thing. TV sets in the corners, such as might be installed to keep people entertained while waiting for an available postal clerk, display a continuous loop of animated “news story” about the recent bank robbery and other crimes.

In the Bank, the giant safe door swings forlornly back and forth, its hinges creaking, so that everyone can see it has been cleaned out. Nearby is the office of the bank’s president, Scrooge McDuck. His door is closed and his window shade is drawn, but his silhouette (a digital projection effect) can be seen against the shade and his voice can be heard as he shouts over the phone at the Chief of Police. The Chief apologizes that most of the city’s cops are currently attending the annual Policeman’s Ball, but he’ll assign every remaining officer to the case and recruit some emergency volunteers to make up the difference.

The Police Station is the most elaborate portion of the queue. Simple moving figures of desk cops can be seen at their workstations, while an audio-animatronic Chief of Police (an original character who looks like a bulldog), standing in front of a city map, explains how to recognize criminals and how to operate the “stun guns” in order to catch them. He also encourages guests to tag anything that looks like it might be stolen goods (i.e. is marked with a target), so the police can pick it up as evidence later. And he lets guests know that he will keep in touch with them via radio during their foray. All this information is repeated in sign form in case the noise level prevents guests from hearing the Chief or they just aren't paying attention to the audio.

The Ride Itself

The ride vehicles seat four apiece and resemble cartoonish black-and-white police cars. Each one is equipped with four of the aforementioned “stun guns”—laser emitters of the same type as those used on BLAB, but the casing is molded to resemble a boxing glove on a retracted spring, with the laser in the “knuckles.” Pulling the trigger causes the glove to pop out slightly as the laser flashes. Each vehicle is also equipped with motion-simulation technology similar to that of the Indiana Jones Adventure, though the motion is much gentler—this is a challenging arcade-style ride, not a thrill ride.

As the vehicle sets out, the Chief of Police comes over the “radio” speakers, reminding the guests to watch out for more than just the Beagle Boys. The first portion of the ride is called Larceny Lane, and is populated by a few small-time crooks worth only a small amount of points. This gives guests a chance to get used to the “stun guns” while there’s not much at stake yet.

Then the car makes a sharp turn (the motion-sim platform tilts slightly) into Lower Beagleville, and riders get their first encounter with the Beagle Boys! A whole clan of them! “Careful!” says the Chief. “They’ve got dum-dums!” Sure enough, the Beagles are holding silly-looking guns and firing “dum-dum bullets” at the guests, as evidenced by puffs of air and little flicks of light coming at them from both sides. Extra points can be scored by shooting the guns so that the Beagles drop them. As the car progresses through the set, more Beagles pop up in the windows of the run-down buildings, out of manholes, etc. At the end of the scene, a trio of Beagles in prison stripes—the escaped bank robbers—can be seen loading sacks of money into the back of a van. Lucky guests can shoot a hidden target on the sacks for lots of bonus points. “That was them! Don’t let them get away!” the Chief bellows.

The car turns again, into a narrow street. There are no crooks here at first, but there are valuable things they have stolen—TV sets, heaps of jewelry, rare paintings—all with targets to shoot. Halfway through this section, there is a screech of tires and the Beagles’ van pulls out from a side alley in front of the ride vehicle and drives ahead of it for several seconds, exposing a high-value target. At the end of the scene, the Beagles swerve off again and the riders lose sight of them.

Now the car enters Shady Acres, the really rough part of town, and the guests can tell because the vehicle starts to bump and jolt like it’s running over potholes (more motion-sim). All of the hoodlums living in the Back Alleys are alerted to their presence now, and there’s no end of thieves and ruffians to take aim at. Attentive guests will recognize them from their Post Office mugshots. The track winds around and the car tilts, all the extra movement making it that much more of a challenge to get in a clean hit and score points, but to make up for it, all the targets here are high-scoring. All the while, the Chief is shouting “helpful” advice such as “Look out!” or “Get ’em!”

Now comes the climax: a final showdown with the Beagle Boys! The track here makes a wide turn around a central area in which the Beagles’ van, covered on all sides with targets, is doing donuts, offering every side to the guests in turn. Just before the guests’ car leaves the scene, headlights flash and more cop cars pull up to the van, surrounding the Beagles. One set of “headlights” on each side of the track is actually a camera flash, photographing the guests.

For the denouement scene, no points are scored and the motion-sim comes to an end. The guests find themselves cruising alongside the First National Bank as the Chief congratulates them over the radio and an audio-animatronic Scrooge thanks them for their help and promises to cut them a check in the morning for a number of simoleons equal to their final score. As they leave the scene and return to the boarding area, he can be heard to mutter, “Of course, simoleons aren’t legal tender outside Toontown!”

Post-Show

The exit queue passes back through a hallway of the Police Station. A door to the break room is open, leaving visible a box of donuts on the table and a TV set showing the same animated news program seen in the Post Office, only now the anchors are announcing that the Beagle Boys and several other notorious Toontown criminals have been arrested. Just before the exit, which debouches near Donald’s Boat, there is a bank of computer terminals that guests can use to bring up their photos and e-mail them to themselves, as on BLAB. They can also get a printed card with an alphanumeric code on it, and use this code at the Disneyland Photo Center to order a print of their photo, or of the promised check from Scrooge.

[basketbuddy101]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

I'm in :-)

[KEBSD]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

Love this idea, and if people are really serious they may consider entering this afterwards. This is a great opportunity to see the talent we have on this forum =]

Yup. I'm going to have to agree with you and Mr Wiggins now. I guess I'll just have to wait for when I'm really working for Disney! We can be Imagineering pals one day. Ahaha.

I'll be there right next to you guys!

[sleepyjeff]

Re: The Disneyland Imagineering Competition

THE GREAT TOONTOWN BANK HEISTConcept

Awesome:thumbup: