Disneyland unveiled its new Star Wars Season of the Force celebration in last week and the new Tomorrowland offerings serve up a galaxy of disappointments. From underwhelming memorabilia displays in the new Star Wars Launch Bay to terrible food at the Galactic Grill and boring clip shows at the Tomorrowland Theater; Season of the Force has very little content for guests that’s actually worth spending any valuable vacation time on. The shining stare of Season of the Force may just be the popular Hyperspace Mountain, an overlay that only scratches the surface of what Star Wars could offer for a proper Tomorrowland overlay if Disney had cared to spend a little more money. Meanwhile, the parks are in full holiday mode as Disneyland doubles up on popular entertainment in an effort to spread out big Thanksgiving holiday crowds.
Before we get started, I’d like to give a huge thanks to film and theme park blogger David Daut who has joined me today in a co-review of the new Star Wars Season of the Force offerings.
Don’t miss your weekly Disneyland Resort crowd forecast — provided by our friends at Mouseaddict — in the Weekly News and Information Roundup at the end of today’s update!
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We’ve got a Thanksgiving-sized update for you all today on everything Star Wars happening at Disneyland. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s jump right in!
| Welcome to the Holidays! |
While the 90-degree weather over the weekend didn’t help sell it, the holidays are certainly in full swing across the Disneyland Resort. We gave you a broad sampling of the offerings over the last two weeks and we’ll have even more in-depth holiday coverage in the weeks ahead.
Keep in mind that as Disneyland enters peak Thanksgiving holiday crowds, the park is ramping up entertainment offerings to try to spread out holiday crowds. The schedule below is running daily now through November 28.
- A Christmas Fantasy Parade — 1:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
- Paint the Night Parade — 5:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m.
- Disneyland Forever fireworks — 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
- Fantasmic! at 9 and 10:45 p.m.
- Pixar Play Parade at 5:45 p.m.
- World of Color – Winter Dreams at 9 p.m.
- World of Color – Celebrate! at 10:15 p.m.
Poinsettia flower baskets are now up in Town Square
Disney California Adventure is in full holiday mode as well, with Buena Vista Street being one of the best areas to celebrate the season in the entire resort.
| Season of the Forced |
The big news over the week was, of course, the official debut of Disneyland’s new Star Wars Season of the Force offerings in Tomorrowland. As we always do in Dateline Disneyland, we have a full in-depth look at these new offerings for you today. However, as Disneyland jumps head first into its new Star Wars mania, I have come to the realization that I am woefully unprepared to speak with any authority on topics related to Star Wars. I’ve seen the films and enjoyed them, but they were never a major facet of my life like a lot of Disney films have been or as Disneyland itself is. Because of this, I decided to do something a little different for this week’s review of Star Wars Season of the Force and enlist the help of my good friend David Daut.
David is a film student and blogger that primarily writes about film and television but has done his fair share of theme park writing as well. I asked David to contribute today because he is a big fan of both Disneyland and Star Wars. To illustrate this, David is prone to writing, for reasons unknown to mankind at large, thousand-word critical analyses of Star Wars Rebels television episodes and spent a full summer playing Disneyland’s “Legends of Frontierland” interactive game. Yes, he’s totally nuts but when it comes to both Star Wars and Disneyland, he’s invested and well-versed. So while today’s coverage will still include my own quick-read commentary with our usual in-depth photo coverage, you’ll also find gray insets with longer thoughts and analysis from David who is coming from this as a fan of Disneyland and Star Wars alike. So let’s get going and welcome David to the blog:
- From David:
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Hi, my name is David. You may know me from the summer I spent pretending to be a cowboy at Disneyland or that time I called the Parks and Resorts presentation at the 2015 D23 Expo a garbage fire. But I’m not here this week to talk about legendary outlaws or incendiary refuse, no I’m here to discuss that greatest of all drivers of internet traffic: Star Wars.
I’m going to cut to the chase and say that “Star Wars: Season of the Force” is a mixed bag with more bad than good currently in the mix. From the moment you enter Tomorrowland (which feels like the hairy wart marring Disneyland’s otherwise beautiful features on the best of days) you’re assaulted with Star Wars themed decorations that run the gamut from merely tacky all the way up to a declaration of war against good taste. On the tacky side of things, you have vinyl banners hung from virtually every elevated surface that display silhouettes of characters from the seven feature films and two TV series as well as smaller banners advertising attractions mere steps away from their actual marquees. It’s like they ordered a bunch of these things for Downtown Disney, but decided to string them up from the rafters in Tomorrowland itself. On the more aggressively bad end, you have things like the new archway entrance to Galactic Grill (formerly Tomorrowland Terrace) which looks like someone took a growth ray to a cheap plastic toy and plopped it down in the middle of a theme park. The blue-gray boxes at the bottom, unenthusiastically textured in a poor attempt to blend in with the Tomorrowland aesthetic, are my personal favorite touch. |
At night, Tomorrowland is transformed with the help of lighting effects and projections that sounds great on paper but comes off feeling just as rushed as the rest of the land’s Season of the Force overlay.
I shared my thoughts on the new Star Wars special menu items in last week’s blog, and while I certainly didn’t like the food I could tell it lacked any authenticity to the Star Wars universe. Note: Photos in this Star Wars food section are from last week’s blog. More photos of the food offerings can be found there.
Being a Star Wars fan, David certainly has more insight on the challenges Disney faces in making authentic, themed Star Wars food offerings. Note: I treated David to the Dark Side Chicken Curry Pizza and Forest of Endor Pasta at Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port for the purpose of this review. While I have also sampled some of the other Star Wars food offerings, David has not.
- From David:
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Speaking of food, I would be remiss not to mention the unholy abominations Disney is serving up on paper plates as part of this celebration. Andy already covered this in last week’s column, but I really cannot begin to describe to you the horror of these entrees. That Dark Side Chicken Curry Pizza is among the worst things I’ve ever put in my mouth. There are a few problems with attempting to do Star Wars food; first of all, the food is barely featured in the films. The reason why blue milk has become such an irritating fixture of the fandom is because it’s essentially the only recognizable food item in any of the six films. The other problem is that the setting of Star Wars is completely imaginary, so you can’t really pull in elements of the real world. Universal has been so successful with using food to reinforce the setting of their Harry Potter environments because they’re able to not only pull iconic elements from the books themselves, but also fill in the gaps with food that is native to the real world locations that series is based in. Doing Star Wars food right would require basically inventing wholly new food items that are different from anything else sold in the resort. That’s obviously a daunting task, especially for what is ostensibly a temporary promotional event, but surely they could have come up with a solution better than inedible food named using bad puns. Even something easy like changing the menu listing for coffee to ‘caf’ and serving it in a souvenir mug would have been way more appealing than what they have now, and would have also maintained the integrity of the fiction.
But the less said about the food the better, so let’s instead switch gears and talk about what surely you’re all most interested in: the attractions. |
Below, David’s personal favorite: the Dark Side Curry Chicken Pizza from Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port.
Here, the First Order Specialty Burger is an angus beef and chorizo patty with fried cherry peppers and spicy lime aioli on a dark bun.
The Pastry Menace and Darth by Chocolate desserts (yes, those are their real names).
I shared my thoughts on the Hyperspace Mountain overlay to Space Mountain last week, noting that while the experience is fun, it suffers from using the same projector setup that the Ghost Galaxy overlay uses, meaning low-resolution TIE fighter projections that are often woefully out-of-scale. Still, as David explains in more detail, the score is really what helps make this overlay work.
- From David:
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After spending the last 800 words mercilessly skewering “Season of the Force” let’s talk about the aspect I enjoyed the most: Hyperspace Mountain. This ‘temporary’ overlay for Space Mountain attempts to transform the classic roller coaster-type ride from a simple space flight to a space battle above the planet Jakku (the desert planet you’ve seen in all the Force Awakens trailers). My expectations for this one were fairly low going in, as I (correctly) assumed it would be using the same projector set-up installed for the dismal Ghost Galaxy overlay, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is not only worlds better than Ghost Galaxy, but is genuinely a lot of fun on its own merit. The big thing that sets it apart is the music. You can’t go wrong with a John Williams score, and it’s certainly far more effective than the Ghost Galaxy soundtrack which I can only assume was composed frantically at 2am the morning before the deadline. The music – much like the Giacchino score used in Space Mountain’s traditional version – is perfectly timed with the movement of the coaster so that it enhances the sense of speed, making it feel as though you’re going faster than you are. The ride pulls from the music cues of the original film (primarily “TIE Fighter Attack” and “The Last Battle”) giving it a classic Star Wars feel, and despite being set in the orbit of this new planet, the visuals are all reminiscent of the original trilogy. The visuals themselves work for the most part. Again, it’s much better than the visuals used in Ghost Galaxy, despite using the exact same projector set-up, and there are some neat new effects in the bowels of the coaster that simulate blaster fire between enemy TIEs and your own rocket. The only place where the overlay falters is in the top of the dome; you’re supposed to be in the midst of this massive space battle, but because they’re constrained to the Ghost Galaxy projection setup, you’re only given an underwhelming glimpse of a minuscule Star Destroyer before the coaster kicks off in earnest. The rest of the ride really does work, though, and it’s one of the better temporary overlays Disney has done in recent years. The problem, however, lies in that word “temporary.” Hyperspace Mountain will almost certainly stick around until Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters next Christmas, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it lasts longer than that. This is an effective overlay and a fun change of pace, but it’s not something that should become a semi-permanent fixture in the park. There’s an aesthetic disconnect between the world of Star Wars and the 2001-inspired look of Space Mountain, and it’s a bit thematically weird to have a celebration of space combat take over an attraction that was originally a celebration of space exploration. Put simply, this is not a satisfactory replacement for Space Mountain, and having it stick around indefinitely will undermine the aspects that make it work as an overlay. |
Below, our on-ride video of Hyperspace Mountain:
Worth noting: the exterior speaker and projector set-up for Ghost Galaxy is still in place but is currently not being used for Hyperspace Mountain. Are they still working on getting exterior nighttime projections up and running?
Star Wars: Path of the Jedi is about a 10-minute Star Wars clip show without any real rhyme or reason. The show title implies a linear story but it haphazardly jumps around scenes from the Star Wars saga with no real focus or clear intent.
- From David:
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Moving on from Hyperspace Mountain, we have the Star Wars: Path of the Jedi clip show in the Tomorrowland Theater. This one baffles me. It’s essentially an 8-minute long recap that presents an abbreviated summary of the six Star Wars films thus released before culminating in the final trailer for The Force Awakens. What confuses me is that I don’t know who the target audience is for this. It’s not really rousing in the way that would get fans fired up, and at least here in the states, I doubt that anyone who is not already intimately familiar with these films is going to be persuaded to see the new one based on this kind of haphazardly cut together recap. If Shanghai Disneyland were open today, this would make all the sense in the world, since the Chinese mainland has never had exposure to these fixtures of western culture, but Shanghai doesn’t open for at least another year, so I’m just not sure who this is designed for.
The one interesting aspect of this is that while all of the footage comes from the recent Blu-ray releases, there is a small handful of clips that deviate from the latest tinkerings of Mr. Lucas. The most obvious of these is when Darth Vader turns on his Master and kills the Emperor, he remains stoically silent as was the case in the original 1983 release of Return of the Jedi. This, along with some rumors that were floating around last year leads me to believe that Lucasfilm is currently sitting on a yet fifth edit of these films that maintains the bulk of Lucas’ changes while dialing back some of the more contentious alterations (including Darth Vader’s “NOOOO!” and Greedo shooting first). If this is true, that means it might be a long time before we see proper releases for the original theatrical cuts, which is incredibly frustrating. The Star Wars special editions are an atrocity, and I for one won’t settle for a new edit that is merely less bad than the previous three. But we’re here to talk about theme park stuff, not my malcontent with the nature of the Star Wars home video releases, so let’s move on to the next major part of this: Star Wars Launch Bay. |
Of course, the silhouette mural of the “Tomorrowland” film skyline is still on the wall in the queue area because, you know, painting over it would take time and money.
Posters for Launch Bay, Star Tours, and the Force Awakens are up in the waiting area.
Being only vaguely familiar with Star Wars, this show was a total disaster for me. While David felt the show might play better to a Shanghai Disney audience, I felt lucky that I at least had a cursory knowledge of Star Wars to understand what I was seeing at any given moment. Frankly, I can’t imagine anybody unfamiliar with Star Wars could walk away having learned anything about the series or being enticed to watch the films. It’s just random scenes tossed together, out of order, with no explanation, and for no reason. Of course, there’s the added bonus of the Tomorrowland Theater’s bouncing floor and in-theater wind and lighting effects. Huzzah?
The biggest feature of Season of the Force is the new Star Wars Launch Bay in the back of Tomorrowland, in the newly re-named Tomorrowland Expo Center (formerly Innoventions).
Somehow, Launch Bay is perhaps the most soulless offering of the entire Seasons of the Force line-up. At least John Boyega seems truly engaged and excited to be a part of Star Tours, and Hyperspace Mountain is some solid fun. But the big centerpiece of all of Tomorrowland’s Star Wars mania—the Launch Bay—completely fails to launch in every way possible. The entire enterprise feels rushed and poorly-conceived and instead comes off as a very obvious effort to sell more high-end merchandise instead of truly engage Star Wars fans and excite the movie-going public. Below, the famous “A long time ago…” line painted on the side of the old Carousel Theater.
The main entrance to Launch Bay…
As part of the Star Wars Launch Bay project, most of the mechanics to make the historic Carousel Theater spin have now been removed and the theater is now locked in place. A rotating building wouldn’t work with the current Launch Bay layout inside, but removing the mechanics guarantees no spinning in the future. This change isn’t due to the addition of Star Wars, but is reportedly a reaction to a lawsuit that was filed against Disney regarding injury from the building’s rotating platform during its Innoventions’ run.
With the Carousel Theater no longer able to spin, there’s not much point left in keeping it around. Hopefully Star Wars won’t linger for years and Disneyland can build something worthwhile here.
When you step through the Launch Bay entrance, you enter a strange dead space before passing through automatic doors.
- From David:
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Launch Bay, which is an exhibit of Star Wars props and models, along with a couple of meet and greets and a gift shop of extravagantly priced merchandise, is exactly what I expected it would be, but also somehow worse. When this was first announced back at the D23 Expo, I assumed that most of the content within would be recycled from the Star Wars Celebration and D23 conventions from earlier this year, and that assumption turned out to be correct. What I didn’t predict is that not only would the exhibits themselves be repurposed from these conventions, but the space itself would just look like a generic convention hall. Compare the concept art to the finished product, and the lack of effort put into this is just astonishing.
No effort was given to theme this to make it feel like a real place, instead it’s just a generic space filled up with Star Wars props. The one area in the entire building that even attempts to be transportative – a small cantina room tucked away in a back corner of the building – is so profoundly pathetic that they would have been better off to not even bother. The press release describes it as being “inspired” by the likes of the Mos Eisley cantina in the original film, but it seems to have been given the least amount of effort and care imaginable. There’s a barely three-dimensional bar top with cheap looking drink bottles behind the counter, there’s a plastic Dejarik (holographic chess) table in an alcove that you can’t interact with in any way, as well as a prominently placed Sabaac (space poker) table that lacks any cards with which to actually play the game. Say what you will about Legends of Frontierland, but at least their card table had, you know, actual cards. What makes all of this even more unforgivable is that this very year, Star Wars Celebration set up a cantina set that was far more elaborate and authentic for a four day convention. This pile of trash is going to stick around for a minimum of six months and they couldn’t even be bothered to put in the same amount of effort that was given for a set that was only used for four days. But hey, this cantina has light fixtures made from battle droid heads because that’s a Star Wars thing, right? …right? |
Below, the concept art Disney released for Star Wars Launch Bay – a far cry from the finished product.
Preview Gallery
What’s strange about Star Wars Launch Bay is that it is apparently divided into multiple, distinct galleries and areas. This division of space is apparent to the guest, but what isn’t apparent is that each of the galleries has a specific theme or purpose. There’s no clear signage indicating that each gallery is supposed to be, and in most cases, the galleries are actually multi-use areas. For example, the entrance area of Launch Bay that every guest emerges into after stepping through generic automatic sliding doors, is also the Preview Gallery for the upcoming film.
Perhaps the name “Preview Gallery” is giving the space a bit more credit than it deserves; after all, it only has two display cases pushed up on either side of the space, with the main purpose of the area being an entry way that features custom carpet that evokes the iconic scrolling text seen at the beginning of every Star Wars film. Of course, good luck reading it because, being an entryway, people are constantly walking over it.
The “Dark Side” and “Light Side” cases in this area feature replicas of props from the upcoming film.
Launch Bay Theater
Immediately to the right of the entrance, the Launch Bay Theater is nothing more than a large-screen television and a few benches showing a video on loop of the Force Awakens filmmakers discussing their experience working on the new film.
In terms of new footage and information in this film, my understanding is that there is none. It’s essentially a sentimental fluff piece about how important Star Wars is to all of these people.
High-quality theming!
Off to the side of the Launch Bay Theater, a replica of the Rey Speeder from the upcoming film is on display.
Starship Gallery
The Starship Gallery connects to the Launch Bay Theater and is home to four large display cases that feature models of Star Wars starships and costumes from some of their pilots.
There’s not much to the theming of the space, aside from crate-themed display cases and some minor wall decals.
Crates! Wow!
The Cantina
Next to the Starship Gallery is the most bizarre waste of space in the Launch Bay — the Cantina. Disney’s press release explains that the Catina is “inspired by the unsavory ‘hives of scum and villainy’ in the Star Wars galaxy” with the implication that it’s a mash-up of multiple cantinas seen in the Star Wars universe. This is a bizarre design choice to make since just making something that actually resembled the Cantina from Mos Eisley would have been far more interesting and appropriate than an amalgam of cantinas (are there even multiple well-known cantinas in the Star Wars universe that we’ve seen?).
Inexplicable droid heads being used as lighting fixtures mark the entrance to the Cantina for reasons unknown.
To add insult to injury, the Cantina takes up a large footprint inside the Launch Bay with no seating, no actual drinks (alcohol or otherwise) being served, and nothing to actually engage with. The holochess game table on display does nothing at all — what’s the point? And if translating Aurebesh is your forte, a couple of friends that translated some of the alien script on the walls told me that it’s often just incoherent gibberish or, when it is trying to actually say something, characters are often backwards or incorrectly used. If they can’t get this sort of thing right here, do we have any reason to believe they’ll get it right when the 14-acre land opens in the back of Frontierland?
A Sabaac table that you can’t actually engage with in any way.
A bar top with lazy glass bottles on display. Why aren’t they at least serving blue milk here? Or, if that’s too much to ask, then why not just sell bottled Coca-Cola products and make it a themed vending cart?
Don’t miss the tiny corner with a holochess board that does nothing at all.
Star Wars Game Center
The Cantina empties into the Star Wars Game Center that features stations to play the latest iteration of Disney Infinity, now featuring Star Wars characters, in a barely-themed environment.
Chewbacca and Light Side Gallery
Next door to the Game Center, the Chewbacca meet-and-greet queue takes up most of the space in what Disney’s press release refers to as the Light Side Gallery. The Gallery amounts to a couple wall display cases showcasing Jedi lightsabers and a display case that is only accessible by waiting in the queue for Chewie that features rebel flight helmets.
Seems pretty sad to double-dip on an area that acts as a queue and call it a dedicated gallery space in your press release.
Darth Vader and Dark Side Gallery
Next door to Chewie, Darth Vader’s meet-and-greet queue fills what Disney calls the Dark Side Gallery.
Launch Bay Cargo
Of course, the Launch Bay exits through a gift shop, which appears to be the biggest area of the Launch Bay. The gift shop here makes no effort to disguise itself as anything other than a blatant cash grab, which is to be expected. What is surprising, however, is just how much cash Disney wants for the items on display. Costumes, statues, and art on display range from $100-$9,000, and only some items come in at more affordable prices. This shop is for the Star Wars collector with money to burn. Below, a sampling of the shop’s pricey retail offerings.
Commemorate this remarkable attraction (and shopping experience) with a t-shirt!
Disney also has D-Tech on Demand in the building, and you can order your very own custom Star Wars (or Marvel) smart phone case with just a few taps on the iPad screen.
Jedi Archive Central Area
The various areas of Star Wars Launch Bay are all connected via a large area in the center of the building, which retains the stairs from Innoventions, but now without the treehouse of the future.
Giant bookcases reminiscent of those from the Jedi Archives seen in Star Wars Episode II.
As a theme park experience, Launch Bay is not a good attraction. It’s a terrible excuse for a movie preview center, offers an underwhelming collection of memorabilia from the previous films, and gives absolutely no insight on what is planned for Disneyland’s Star Wars Land. It’s a ton of space with no real purpose other than to ultimately sell high-end collectibles and PhotoPass pictures with Darth Vader. Some folks I’ve talked to have said that, if nothing else, at least it’s better than Innoventions, and truthfully I don’t know if I can even agree with that. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s better – and really, there’s so little here in way of content that the change from Innoventions to Launch Bay is a lateral move at best. Disney skimped on this project in just about every aspect — it isn’t high quality, it isn’t immersive, the items on displays aren’t originals, and no real sneak peeks are given. The whole affair doesn’t even match the quality of offerings presented at a four-day Star Wars convention that took place down the street. The only thing Launch Bay has going for it that Innoventions did not is the Star Wars brand name.
Of course, Star Tours gets in on Season of the Force celebration. By and large, simply in terms of the theme park experience, the new Star Tours scene—which takes you to the planet Jakku from The Force Awakens—is now the strongest in the ride’s line-up. The scene is engaging, cinematic, and actually just a lot of fun to experience — a far cry from most of the other options Star Tours: The Adventures Continue has to offer. For me, the scene skews a lot closer to the original Star Tours by taking you into very obvious Star Wars environments without the rider needing to be a huge Star Wars fan or privy to the new ride’s incessant need for cheap fan service and Easter eggs to enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun and if you are a big fan, it’s likely even more fun. Unfortunately, as David notes, the quality of the new scene only goes to underscore how poorly the CG has aged through much of the existing Star Wars scenes and just how bad those scenes are in general.
- From David:
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Finally, there’s Star Tours. I’ve made no secret about my distaste for this current iteration of Star Tours in the past – one that trades the expert pacing of the original attraction for a herky-jerky mishmash of empty fan service, made even more incoherent by a misguided randomizer – but that’s a discussion for another column. Instead, let’s focus on the new scene. The scene in question is currently locked in as the second destination in the sequence, and it recreates the chase between the Millennium Falcon and TIE Fighters through the bones of a downed Star Destroyer that has been so prominently featured in the Force Awakens trailers. When you emerge from Hyperspace and enter the atmosphere of Jakku, you find yourself in the middle of this chase with Finn (John Boyega) himself showing up on your monitor to offer advice on how to best avoid being blasted to smithereens. You end up flying into the heart of the Star Destroyer where your Starspeeder is set upon by scavangers, before you manage to escape to the stars and receive a transmission from BB-8. The scene itself is actually fairly strong, and almost certainly the best individual scene in the mix, but the quality of the scene only serves to highlight how truly bad the rest of the ride really is. On the first time riding this, I got stuck with the Naboo scene following my time on Jakku and I’m still sore from the quality whiplash this put me through. Beyond that, they ride’s already flimsy pretense of being set between the original and prequel trilogy films is now completely shattered by throwing in events that wouldn’t happen for another 30-40 years. It is now not only possible, but likely to be escaping Imperial era TIEs in the opening, fighting First Order era TIEs in the second scene, and then being under attack by Clone Wars era droid starfighters in the third. It’s as if the Starspeeder-1000s’ hyperdrives were replaced with flux capacitors causing temporal leaps every time you make the jump to light speed. As Disney is so eager to tell you, they are “all about story,” well the story of this ride never worked in the first place, and now they’re not even bothering to try. If Disney intends to add more scenes from the sequel trilogy into the mix (and they definitely intend to) they really should shut down the ride and do a proper 3.0 version, but they’ve spent too much money too recently on The Adventures Continue for that to be a realistic proposition, so they’ll just continue shoving new scenes into the mix, further wrecking any semblance of coherence the attraction might have had. Not to mention the fact that despite all of these glaring flaws, the attraction is still hugely popular. |
Of course, BB-8 is your transmission because he’s cute, right?
A look at Tomorrowland at night, lit up for Seasons of the Force.
- Some final thoughts from David:
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Ultimately that’s what frustrates me most about all of this. Disney put a bare minimum of effort into this, but like pigs, people are tripping over each other in a mad rush to gobble up whatever slop Disney puts in front of them. Disney should be doing better than this, but what motivation do they have to do so when their audience doesn’t demand better? After all, we saw all of this happen before with Frozen – the residue of which is still clinging to the corners of the parks – so should we be surprised they’re doing it with Star Wars.
That doesn’t let Disney off the hook, though. They’re capable of so much more than this, and this half-hearted effort to shamelessly shill their big holiday event movie is not a good look. It cheapens the whole enterprise, and frankly, it casts some serious doubts on whatever Disney has planned for Star Wars in the future. The concept art we got at the D23 Expo for Star Wars Land is spectacular, but if you compare the finished version of Launch Bay to the concept art released in the very same presentation, we’re already seeing a dramatic scaling back of ambition in favor of grasping at low hanging fruit. How much confidence does it inspire when a restaurant promises you a filet mignon, but brings out freezer burned White Castle burgers as the appetizer? I’m a big fan of Star Wars, and I’m a big fan of Disneyland, so of course I want to see them do something great, but all of this is so far from great that it’s shaking my faith in the notion that they won’t cut a whole slew of corners in the three or so years it’ll take to construct Star Wars Land. As competitors continue to aggressively raise the bar, the folks at Disney should be mortified to put out this kind of lackadaisical mess. While Disney continues to cheerlead itself with cries of “no one can touch us!”, it would be wise to remember that summertime is not the only thing that comes before the fall. |
The Star Tours side of Tomorrowland is lit in blue for the Light Side, with the Buzz Lightyear side of the land lit red for the Dark Side.
Star Wars Launch Bay entrance at night
The Observatron at the center of Tomorrowland lights up at night with spotlights but the hulking remains of the old Rocket Jets-turned-kinetic-sculpture still don’t spin. There are random and inexplicable fog machines that go off, cause why not?
When you add it all up, Star Wars Season of the Force seems like a poor way to roll out Star Wars at Disneyland. While I don’t believe this is necessarily an indication of what we can expect from the upcoming 14-acre Star Wars Land, it is worth noting that Scott Trowbridge, the lead Imagineer behind Season of the Force, is the same man steering the ship on the upcoming land. Save for Hyperspace Mountain, nothing in Season of the Force is worth doing more than once and things like Star Wars Launch Bay that should occupy a good chunk of your time has so little to see and do that you can easily be done in 15-20 minutes, if you don’t care about meeting Chewbacca. As a Star Wars celebration, Season of the Force is a huge missed opportunity to do something truly special to celebrate the films and their fans. Instead, Season of the Force does little more than shove empty Star Wars marketing loosely disguised as theme park attractions down your throat at every turn. I fail to see the value in bombarding guests with a plethora of low-quality offerings dressed up with Star Wars logos. The cash registers may ring now but could the cheapness of things like this end up contributing toward Star Wars fatigue and push the public to burning out faster?
Tomorrowland feels busy as everybody seemingly rushes to see Season of the Force but those crowds don’t really seem to be materializing inside the attractions specifically made for Season of the Force. The exception here is Hyperspace Mountain, which seems to be the only offering getting bigger-than-average crowds. Even on Sunday, as Disneyland was doubling up on entertainment for huge holiday crowds, Star Wars Launch Bay was a breeze to navigate, Path of the Jedi was a ghost town, and Star Tours posted average wait times. Maybe word has already spread that there’s nothing to see here.
| A Marvelous Failure |
It’s hard to imagine but against all odds, the newly reopened and supposedly-enhanced Super Hero HQ on the top level of the Tomorrowland Expo Center manages to take Star Wars Launch Bay and make it look like an E-Ticket masterpiece.
You can enter Super Hero HQ from the side ramp or from the stairs inside the building.
The entrance to Super Hero HQ.
You walk in through an awkward corridor.
If you’re entering Super Hero HQ from inside the building, you have to find your way with the glamorous unlit signage
The existing Thor meet-and-greet and Iron Man Tech exhibit remain pretty much as they were before. Untouched, save for perhaps some new paint in some areas.
The X-Box area leftover from Innoventions remains in place, now renamed as the Super Hero HQ Game Center. The reality here being that Disney is still under contract for the X-Box sponsorship of this area.
If it looks like a massive waste of space up here, it’s because it absolutely is.
Next to the X-Box area, the former Siemens interactive area is now more or less just open, unused space.
The area that previously housed the Siemens “Power City” shuffleboard-type game is now just empty. The projector housing is still intact above the area, and signage explaining the Siemens game was swapped out for a graphic of the Infinity Gauntlet, cause why not?
The globe feature, leftover from when AT&T sponsored an exhibit here, now displays random Marvel character graphics and the touch-screen devices here previously used for an interactive Siemens offering are now so you can order Marvel-themed D-Tech smart phone cases that you can pick up downstairs.
Awkward corner with a display case of Marvel D-Tech cases. Wow, there’s much to see and do up here!
Random posters and graphics are up on walls
Next door to the former Siemens area, the Asimo Theater has been removed and the space is now a new shop — After all, what else could they have possibly put up here?
The design of the shop is so horrifying in its poor taste that it looks like it could have been cloned from California Adventure’s Sunshine Plaza or Hollywood Pictures Backlot areas, circa 2001.
Character logos on retail shelving units.
Want some high-end Marvel art?
What’s interesting about Super Hero HQ is that it can’t decide if it wants to be tied to the comics or to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s a little of both around here and none of it is done particularly well.
Meanwhile, the already-cheap Captain America meet-and-greet was quickly rethemed (repainted) and given a new name that has absolutely no actual relevance in the Marvel comics or films.
The V.A.U.L.T. acronym literally references nothing in the Marvel universe — it’s just something Disney made up so this space could be an open-ended meet-and-greet area.
The signage for V.A.U.L.T. suggests Spider-Man can be easily switched out for other characters in the future.
Wow, great theming/giant vinyl decal.
A lot of the Captain America props have been swapped out for other Marvel film prop replicas.
Some Cap stuff remains.
And inside, Spider-Man makes his Disneyland debut.
| Refurbishment Roundup |
In Disneyland, work on the walkway between Frontierland and Fantasy Faire has finished up but the path still wasn’t open on Friday.
In Tomorrowland, the Tomorrowland Terrace stage has emerged from refurbishment but wasn’t raising up on Friday.
The large fern planter bowls are now a metallic silver
I’m very happy to see this stage retain its gorgeous retro-style design
Looks great.
In New Orleans Square, the temporary bridge that is being used to support temporary electrical and piping infrastructure while the permanent infrastructure for the buildings is under refurbishment got some additional lighting installed to help with safer guest flow in the evening.
The temporary wall on the left was previously just tarp. The wall is new, along with the lighting fixtures.
New decorative banners are up as well.
In Disney California Adventure, the Cove Bar’s expansion project continues…
There’s not much progress to see from the guest’s view at the upcoming Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters attraction…
Part of the word “Tires” has been removed… Getting ready to put in the new ride’s name?
In Grizzly Peak Airfield, walls are up along a large portion of the restroom building’s facade. The restroom facility is still open for use, though.
 Enjoy retro fun just steps away from Disneyland at Howard Johnson Hotel & Water Playground A short walk from the park, HoJo Anaheim is conveniently located next to Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland with nearby dining, freeway access, FREE parking and FREE Wi-Fi. For more information on HoJo Anaheim, room rates, or to book your stay today, visit HoJoAnaheim.com/MiceChat Save with MiceChat & Passholder Discounts Every Day! The HoJo Anaheim is now offering daily discounts for MiceChat members and even DEEPER discounts for Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders! For more information visit the HoJo Anaheim Innsider Boards which features an up-to-date listing of available nights, or call (714) 776-6120 and ask for In-House Reservations to book. If your date isn’t listed, the HoJo Anaheim still offers rooms for 20% off their best available rate if you call (714) 776-6120.  |
| Weekly News & Information Round-Up | ||
| Weekly Theme Park Hours November 23-29, 2015 |
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| [B]Disneyland Park[/B] | [B]California Adventure[/B] | |
| Daily: 8 am – 12 am | Daily: 8 am – 11 pm | |
| [CENTER]For a complete listing of theme park hours, visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar[/CENTER] |
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| [center]Closure and Refurbishment Schedule[/center] | ||
| [b][center]Disneyland Park[/center][/b] | ||
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| [b][center]Disney California Adventure[/center][/b] | ||
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| [b][center]Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels[/center][/b] | ||
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November 23-29
The free Mouseaddict app for iPhone and iPad features more than five dozen categories of searchable resort information, weather forecasts, park and show schedules, the latest news and articles from MiceChat, and more. Download free on the App Store or at mouseaddict.com.
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| [center]Headline Roundup A quick look at noteworthy Disney theme park headlines from around the web.[/center] |
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| OK – that wraps up this week’s Dateline Disneyland. What do you think of the new Star Wars Season of the Force offerings? Are we being too hard on them or do you agree they’re as disappointing as we think? Join the discussion and share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Thank you again to David Daut for his help reviewing Star Wars Season of the Force. To read more of David’s film and theme park writing, visit his blog. A very happy Thanksgiving to all of our U.S. readers! Special thanks to our Dateline Disneylanders!
Benjamin, Mark D., Bruno, and Casey! To help support Dateline Disneyland and get some fun swag in return, visit our Patreon page now! For more Disneyland news, be sure to read MiceChat’s weekly In the Parks blog. And be sure to check out our sister blog, Dateline Disney World – a fantastic weekly photo blog covering Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Thanks for reading. See you at Disneyland! |
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