Harry Potter in Disneyworld?

[ta2edgoofy]

When J.K was thinking about making the harry potter films she first went to Disney and ask for them to back her with the making of the films. Disney said to J.K that the film would not make any money so Disney backed out. However when the films came out Disney was the first company to go and ask if they could do something with harry potter like rides or shows a bit like star wars weekends. Disney wanted Disney characters to be potter characters so mickey as harry and so on. J.k said no and Universal ask her to make the wizarding world of Harry potter. But dont worry disney fans when the harry potter world opens disney has some plans to get back sales. starting with the new upgrade of space mountain.

this makes no sense, the books were highly successful and no one in the world thought that the movies would fall flat, but thats not the root of this whole thing. its that harry potter and disney just dont fit.
just take for example magic, its something that just happens when you enter a disney park, we have all felt it in one way or another, but in harry potters world you have to go to school for 7 years to control it and a large part of the story is about dark magic, which is something that does not exist when you are talking about disney magic. i am so glad that this is not at WDW (if you couldnt tell already) because the scope of it is huge, and to do it right, you would have to dedicate a whole park, not just a land

[MagicMom]

I agree that Potter is better off at IOA. That walkthrough Poseiden show is not great. They also have the Deuling Dragons coasters in that area with a huge castle as the queue. I wonder if they are converting that into Hogwarts.

[Souldier]

i still dont see how that is winnning
i mean i dont even see disney doing an attraction dealing with harry potter, there is entirely too much information. the story doesnt really warrant a real life counter part. i think thats why disney had no interest, there is no way of doing it properly, everyone would be mad that you left out this little part, or this character. and the books are based on children getting into places they arent supposed to be then fighting the most evil person in the world. i dont see how that can translate into a land or even an entire park. to me it just doesnt work, and that why it fits so well at universal, because they are about rides and not themes, and this is a weak attempt at being a theme park
/rant

Have you ever read the books....?

There are SO many places that can be in a Harry Potter themed land.

Hogsmede, The Forbidden Forest, Hogwarts Castle, Diagon Alley,

And I don't get why you said Universal is about rides, and not themes. If they were ALL about rides, they wouldn't be building this place at all. And I don't get how this is a weak attempt at being a theme park. ._.


Anyway,

I CANT wait for The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter.

[clion]

the books were highly successful and no one in the world thought that the movies would fall flat

Where do you work up that the movies have fallen flat? According to one site, the six Potter films have a worldwide gross of more than $1.5 BILLION. I don't think that's "flat."

[Souldier]

where do you work up that the movies have fallen flat? According to one site, the six potter films have a worldwide gross of more than $1.5 billion. I don't think that's "flat."

ditto!

[doconeill]

Where do you work up that the movies have fallen flat? According to one site, the six Potter films have a worldwide gross of more than $1.5 BILLION. I don't think that's "flat."

I don't think they were saying that they did - rather, that no one in their right mind thought they would, at least after the first one...

[zippitydoodah]

Ya they werent saying that the movies fell flat... the comment was because someone stated that disney didnt want anything to do with the movies because disney thought the movies would fall flat.... and the person was saying that that can't be true because the books were SO huge that everyone knew the movies would do great. So..."no one thought the movies would fall flat", so its rediculous to assume that disney didnt want a part in them because they thought this.

[Stitchgirl1]

Apparently the big stumbling block with the Harry Potter attraction at Disney was that JK Rowling wanted each and every ride to empty into Diagon alley and they said it just wasn't feasible.

I think it fits better over at Universal anyway, don't get me wrong I do like the Harry Potter books but they just don't have the Disney brand of magic for me.

[garryz]

No way, that will never happen. Disney at one time had a chance to obtain hp rights. But it never went through

[garryz]

What I heard was Jk wanted too much control. And as you know that does not work with Disney. So Disney pulled out

[VGL_Lynx]

I also heard the nail in the coffin was Rowlings level of control over concepts and ideas for the Park. One often repeated thing was that she originally wanted all visitors to go through Diagon Alley. That means touching the bricks in the right order, wall opening up, etc.

Disney DID do a presentation on their concept of a HP Land/Attraction. What my contacts tell me is at that time Disneys ideas about throughput and crowd management didn't mesh with her concepts of individualized experiences for guests. This was a couple of years ago, before a lot of the stuff that we are starting to see in the parks now was being shopped around.

It'll be very interesting to see what Universal pulls off. I've never been a big fan of their parks, but this has a different feel to it. They are using the principal production desinger from the movies to drive the Theme Park designs, so it will all be very "synergistic" (sigh). I hate catch phrases...

Anyway.... Dueling Dragons is on the dock to be rethemed to blend into the "Potterverse" as well. They are rumored to be re-themeing the MagiQuest "Wizard Wand" LBE attraction that is in some parts of the country with the HP IP. For that attraction you pay for your wand, which is actually a wireless gaming device. You modify it with stones, jewels, etc. and you go through a walk through environment using your wand to cast spells on video and AA enemies. The Wand tracks your experience, saves your spells, levels up, etc.

Interesting times are coming to be a guest in Orlando.

For Magiquest info, go here:

http://www.magiquest.com/

http://jimhillmedia.com/ updated a BIG section on Universals HP plans today as well. Video and everything.