Star Wars & Toy Story lands and more coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios

[HostDave]

--from the Orlando Sentinel:

Disney's Hollywood Studios will get a major makeover, with new lands based on Star Wars and Toy Story.

A Star Wars land will also open at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., the Walt Disney Co. announced at D23, a biannual fan conference. The addition of new lands was among a slew of Walt Disney World news announced at the Anaheim event, including a new theme for the Soarin’ ride at Epcot next year.

No timelines were given for the new lands.

The Star Wars areas will each be 14 acres — Disney's largest single themed land expansions ever. Each will include an attraction that will put visitors into a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. Another attraction will place guests behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon.

The theming will be hyper-real, Disney executives promised. Guests' experiences will include a taste of blue milk.

The land “will introduce you to a Star Wars planet you’ve never seen before — a gateway planet located on the outer rim, full of places and characters familiar and not so familiar,” Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, told D23 fans.

“The inhabitants of this remote frontier town — one of the last stops before wild space — will operate every store and restaurant. Every single thing will be in story.”

The 11-acre Toy Story land at Disney's Hollywood Studios will be based on the character Andy's backyard. Guests will feel like they are shrunk to the size of a toy.

“We really want people to feel like they’re in that movie,” said Kathy Mangum, a Walt Disney Imagineering executive, speaking at D23.

The land will include two major attractions. Visitors will ride on the back of Slinky Dog in a family coaster. On a second ride, the Toy Story green aliens will take people for a spin on their own flying saucers, with the famous arcade-game claw looming over them. The existing Toy Story Mania will also get a third track.

The new attractions will intensify the arms race between Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. Universal has boosted its attendance with Harry Potter-themed lands. It will open a King Kong ride next year and a water park called Volcano Bay in 2017.

Because of its multigenerational appeal, Star Wars especially will turn Hollywood Studios into a destination, said Duncan Dickson, associate professor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Now, he said, people don’t travel to Orlando specifically for the Hollywood-themed park.

“It creates the same kind of destination drive” as Harry Potter lands did for Universal Orlando, Dickson said. “If I’m living in Oshkosh, I’ve got to get down there and see Star Wars.”

Even before Disney bought Lucasfilm and took control of the “Star Wars” franchise in 2012, the two had a long relationship through Hollywood Studios. Star Wars Weekends are a big draw. Children can attend a Jedi Training Academy there, engaging in lightsaber battles with Darth Vader. In 2011, Disney revamped Star Tours, one of Hollywood Studios' original rides, which takes visitors through key movie scenes.

At Star Tours on Saturday, a cast member rushed through the ride's lines, excited to share the news with guests and co-workers: “We're getting a Star Wars land.” Cast members were seen asking guests exiting the ride — especially those wearing Star Wars T-shirts, hats and other paraphernalia — if they heard the news.

As construction is underway, Hollywood Studios will in the short term bring in new, smaller Star Wars attractions and events. Later this year, Star Tours will include a new adventure featuring locations and characters from the upcoming film, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The seventh installment in the Star Wars series will come to theaters in December.

Star Wars Launch Bay, an interactive experience that will preview the new movie, will open later this year in the Animation Courtyard. It will include opportunities to visit with Star Wars characters, special merchandise and food.A new seasonal event called Season of the Force beginning in early 2016 will feature a new fireworks show set to the score of the Star Wars movies on weekend nights.

Jedi Training Academy will also get an update, with a new villain to battle.

In general, entire areas with multiple attractions, restaurants and retail based on one franchise have become a trend for theme parks. Harry Potter lands at both of Universal Orlando’s theme parks have been enormously successful.

At Animal Kingdom, Disney is creating Pandora, based on the movie “Avatar.” Disney also gave more details Saturday about that land, set to open in 2017. A ride based on the banshee characters will be called “Flight of Passage.” A gentler boat ride will take visitors through a bioluminescent forest.

Also at Animal Kingdom, African wild dogs and hyenas will join the other animals in Kilimanjaro Safaris, which will be extended to run after dark next spring. The “Rivers of Light” nighttime show also will debut in the spring.

At Epcot, the California-themed Soarin' ride will get a new theme and name, “Soarin' Around the World,” next year.

But it was the new Hollywood Studios lands that stole the show.

The new lands at Hollywood Studios are expected to give a big attendance boost to the least-visited of the four Walt Disney World parks. Its last major addition was Toy Story Midway Mania, which opened in 2008.

Disney recently brought in longtime Magic Kingdom vice president Phil Holmes to oversee Hollywood Studios. During Holmes’ tenure, Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland underwent a major expansion.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios already has undergone many changes in the past year. American Idol Experience, the Studio Backlot Tour, the Legend of Capt. Jack Sparrow and the Magic of Disney Animation have closed. The massive sorcerer’s hat that had been criticized by many fans was taken down in January. Disney recently gave The Great Movie Ride a makeover.

But the park has been in a transition for years. When it opened in 1989, it was a combination theme park and production facility called Disney-MGM Studios. It was based almost entirely on behind-the-scenes peeks at show business. Attractions gave visitors firsthand looks at sound effects and TV production. There were three soundstages, and tourists could watch animators at work.

Creating movies and TV shows became a shrinking part of the Disney theme park's business, and several of the filming-focused attractions closed.