Mousekingdom Blog

Travel Weekly magazine here in the US had a 3-page spread on Disney’s just-announced Year Of A Million Dreams promotion, which starts this October (see Andy’s post below for more info). And, one of the new features they highliighted for 2007 was a complete revamp of the classic Space Mountain ride in the Magic Kingdom (which, as most people will know, is drastically different from the DLP version), to include lasers, an electronic light show and a rock and roll theme.

Overlooking the debate on whether or not a classic ride like this actually needs such a garish overhaul (I reserve the right to change my mind about it when I see it!), it is intersting that there is NO mention of this new version of SM anywhere in Disney’s current barrage of marketing material for YOAMD. Considering this new version of the ride is supposed to open next spring, it seems Disney are trying to provide a kind of drip-feed of information to keep the momentum moving on what may, I suspect, be a sluggish promotion campaign (great if you have young children fantasising about princes and princesses, but very little to entice anyone else).

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on Disney in this instance, but I do feel they have some paper-thin ideas as the basis for YOAMD and all they are doing is plugging away at today’s current fad for Princesses and Pirates without actually offering anything new. And, when you consider all three new attractions announced so far for next year are just Pixar re-treads of existing attractions, it makes you wonder where all the real creativity has gone, especially after the launch of Expedition Everest, which truly IS a fantastic example of the Imagineers’ art.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Disney Company, Disney Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.