Universal To Open Harry Potter "Land" in Florida

[reyquila]

I dont care for Harry Potter!!! Let them have it and Disney will be forced to come up with something bigger and Disneyish!!!

[Disney-Fan]

Disney will be forced to come up with something bigger and Disneyish!!!

And for the first time ever, I agree with something reyquila has said.

[kbehm29]

Not really presenting any "new" information....but I found this over on Mouse Planet:

Upcoming in 2009: a Castle battle between Cinderella and Hogwart's
The announcement that Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure park will soon be host to "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" has spurred much speculation as to how Disney will react to this new competition. While Walt Disney Imagineering is settling in after its recent management shakeup, it is a good bet that they will soon be cooking something up to keep people on-site at Walt Disney World rather than heading over to the new $230-$265 million creation up I-4. While many possibilities are floating around on the Internet, it's likely that no decision will be made until new Imagineering honchos Bruce Vaughn and Craig Russell have enough time to give a good look at everything that is currently floating around the Glendale offices. It's fairly certain, however, that there will be some sort of response, as Harry Potter presents a much more formidable challenge than all of the other attractions currently at Universal.

[Disneyfreak1990]

http://www.screamscape.com/html/ioa_-_p ... _arm_0.htm
there is a proposed map for Harry Potter land

[neurotic_Donald_Duck]

thats still to bad they
didn't get it, i just want the
park to get bigger and bigger!

[kbehm29]

Jim Hill Media has an article about how he thinks Disney will compete with Harry Potter by converting Adventureland into a "Pirate Land".

I rather hope not. They can come up with something better than that - I'd rather see them add a castle/attractions following the Chronicles of Narnia line.

[PeterPanfan]

Do they still have the Chronicles of Narnia tour attraction at MGM?

[Disney-Fan]

Jim Hill Media has an article about how he thinks Disney will compete with Harry Potter by converting Adventureland into a "Pirate Land".

That's kinda lame, especially since that actually limits Adventureland's theming options whereas now they can still add pirate attractions everywhere and still have the other attractions intact. Lucky for us Jim Hill has been known to just throw rumors out there and see what sticks.

[Disneyfreak1990]

you really shouldn't believe anything uless it comes from the mouth of Disney or Miceage first since they're the most reliable.

[Prudence]

I seem to be in the minority here, but I'm looking forward to this. However, I know many Harry Potter fans outside of this forum. I wonder if the theme park designers will remember Durmstrang or Beauxbatons.

[Disneyfreak1990]

People big news. disney has released their response to Harry Potter, Pixarland. it's going in Disney-Pixar Studios and will get rid of the backlot tour. it would be great if they used a popular non-pixar franshise for once like a star wars or indiana jones area instead of pixar since its just overkill now just like high school musical and pirates.

[Loomis]

Not sure about how long a whole Potter land would be sustainable.

Sure, Potter is the bee's knees right now. With one more book and two more films to go, it is sure to have a media frenzy about it from now until then. However, what happens after 2010 when the films are over? Will there be as big a crowd for it then? Or will it become another run-down amusement park based on a 'fad'.

Now, I could be completely wrong, and the Potter craze might last forever. However, at least Universal and Disney theme parks have the diversity of a number of different films and franchises to draw upon. Potter has one franchise. I can only imagine so much can be done, and it being interesting for so long.

Still, I hope they prove me wrong. I just think it would be better off as one big E-ticket in an existing park.

[Disneyfreak1990]

i agree with you Loom. a pixarland will not last long unless they just keep adding a ride every year for the films coming to promote it.

[SpellWovenNight]

I don't think Disney will have to worry much about the new Harry Potter land. I'm sure there will be a rush to go there when it first opens but I think the rush will fade down quickly and they won't have a that much buisness. I just don't think it'll be as memoriable and family friendly as Disney can be.

[neurotic_Donald_Duck]

first opens but I think the rush will fade down quickly and they won't have a that much buisness

I don't know Harry Potter is a really
huge deal i think it is here to stay!

[Fflewduur]

The Potter franchise is unlike anything I've seen before. It's set records for publishing and popular literature in a time when the printed page is on its way out; the release and massive-scale simultaneous reading of the last novel was a truly global event: if readers had a World Cup, Deathly Hallows was it. The first of the books has only been around for a decade, and the first six are already in the top twenty best-selling books <b>of all time</b>---with another 13 million in sales, Sorcerer's Stone could take #8 from The Book of Mormon. Ultimately Potter's staying power will be unknown for some time, but I have to imagine a great many children yet unborn will be raised on the adventures of the Boy Who Lived...

I think the idea of a Potter park has great potential. Lots of pre-Imagineering has already been done, seems to me: I wanted to walk through Diagon Alley and Hogwarts after the very first film. (From what I've read it seems fashionable to bash the early Chris Columbus films these days, but I liked the way they meandered and moved at their own pace and became absorbed in the little discoveries along the way; I liked the sense of sweetness and light they have, especially because it makes the growing darkness that much darker...)

Seven novels and five finished movies seem to me to provide a lot of source material. I can see how themed eateries might provide the greatest challenge; people might buy Bogie-flavored Beans, but they don't have to eat them. How to make a full meal magical? Who's going to produce butterbeer? Will it be available in nonalcoholic and adult varieties? Besides food and drink, the merchandising practically writes itself, and between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade there are a couple commerce locations ripe for re-creation. But Potterpark will make or break on its attractions...

How many attractions does it take to make a new park? How many super-headliners, how many of lesser stature? Then---how many things are there in the books and the films that you'd want to DO? There has to be a Quidditch experience of some sort, I think. There has to be something in which patrons get wands in their hands: wizard dueling would be excellent, but I'd settle for some sort of interactive Introduction to Spellcasting. I could see a Ron & Harry's Wild Ride based on their trip to Hogwarts in the flying Anglia from the beginning of Chamber of Secrets. I could see a total riff on Fantasmic, some kind of puppetry-&-pyro-&-projection spectacular featuring Harry the Hero's Bravest Moments---

---not that I think any of them might be used, or are even good ideas. Point is, I'm just a fan talking out his posterior, and it doesn't seem to be very hard to find ideas for places to <i>begin</i> imagining attractions.

But for me the real point is that <i>I'm</i> interested enough to go to the trouble to think about it and write this post. I'm almost 40; I can remember my first trip to WDW in 1974. My mother's brother worked there for MAPO for a while in the late 70s and early 80s. My kid sister and I got used to going every so often, and even after the divorce and our family fell apart and realigned and did weird and twisted things, even on opposite sides of the fence, we <i>went</i>, and we felt connected to and through Walt Disney World. When my mother was killed in an accident I spent what was probably too much of her life insurance on joining the Disney Vacation Club; she'd been wanting to get me a Golden Key, the lifetime passport to WDW, as a graduation present, but they hadn't been available for some time...After our dad died a year later my sister and I finally healed the rift between us rent by the divorce, and we did a lot of it courtesy of the DVC. She was living with me when she died last month of cancer at the age of 32, a year after finishing law school. On her myspace page she lists "Main Street, USA" as her hometown. In going through her things I've read that she felt more comfortable and more at home there, had more good memories of family & friends there than she ever did from any of the number of places we had to call "home" for a time. Which is more confessional than I like to get in a forum. Point is, from Disney's point of view, I have a very strong and (what I believe to be) unique relationship with the Happiest Place On Earth---which cannot possibly be a unique feeling---that results in a resolute brand loyalty specific to the <i>parks</i>. The filmmakers have let me down and picked me back up over the years, but my emotional investment in the Magic Kingdom etc has been unwavering. We'll do Sea World every few (or several) years, and Busch Gardens if we head down the road, but I've never ever ever been to Universal and fiercely, almost irrationally, maintained a passionate disinterest in discovering if I might be missing something. The Simpsons was my favorite show for a decade; I read a Simpsons ride is going in at Universal and I don't bat an eye. But Harry Potter? Harry Potter is...Something Else Indeed.

The folks at WDW have done their best to make leaving the property <i>unwantable</i>, and I never want to anyway...but I think I'll want to see this Potter park. And that's where the commercial threat for Disney is, I think: more than anything else the competition has put up, Potter provides serious temptation to a wide spectrum of Disneyfan and Disneyguest to leave Disney property. It all depends on the quality of the magic, doesn’t it?

What is Disney's countermove? Seems like they're considering over-Pirate-ing the MK. If they could work things out with Lucas I think they'd be better off with an immersive Star Wars minipark...

[toonaspie]

Universal Studios lacks an emphasis on family-oriented attractions (which makes the Disneyland/Disneyworld franchise successful). The only way I can see this Harry Potter park work is to pull off alot of Disney-style imagination. I think it would suit the land well. If Harry Potter's World was nothing but a bunch of thrill rides and/or too kiddie rides, it would hardly be a threat to Disney at all.

[PeterPanfan]

Fflewduur-Sorry about losing your family... I know how you feel.

Where the HP Park is...I'M GOING!

[Siren]

For the HP park, they are converting much of Lost Continent to HP glory and there is some hidden acreage there that will also be utilized. And they plan to take away some employee parking. There is some rumors swirling around the park employees that the main attraction ride will be a ride in the flying Ford Anglia. If that is true, we can expect a ride following the Hogwarts Express, and a good walloping from the Womping Willow before finally ending up flying/driving through the Forbidden Forest. Right now, it apparently is under the code name "Project: Strongarm".

There are plans for some sort of stage show, but no idea what it may be about. The Dueling Dragons and Flying Unicorn coasters will be adapted to fit into the HP mold. Dueling Dragons will most likely be developed to reflect the Triwizard Tournament. Flying Unicorn may be Buckbeak ride. Hogwarts Express will be there, but likely not as a ride. More like a picture opportunity.

[kbehm29]

I, for one, think Harry Potter enthusiasm is here to stay. Similar to how Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are timeless classics, I believe Harry Potter will be standard read-fare for all youngsters/adults for decades to come.

There is no doubt a themepark will be successful, even after the last movie has run it's course in theaters.