Disney Imagineering has offered its first look at “Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout,” the attraction that’s set to replace the Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure Park in Anaheim. The premise is that the building belongs to The Collector, the enigmatic character played by Benicio Del Toro in the movie. The guests are his “VIP Guests” who are taking a tour of his building as he shows off his newest acquisitions: the Guardians themselves.
The ride follows Rocket as he escapes from the collection alongside his teammates.
The thing about this attraction is that at its core, it’s the same type of ride. The “elevator drop” elements of the Tower of Terror remain, so you can probably guess what the basic ride will revolve around. What is different, however, is essentially everything else.
As you can see from the video, the exterior design elements are all being changed, but the original building itself (as well as its dimensions and basic shape) appear to be the same. As well, there are apparently going to be show changes that are said to customize each ride for guests. How they’re aiming to accomplish that remains unclear, but those who have been on Tower of Terror know that there’s plenty of time in which the ride’s story can be conveyed.
The video also shows concept art of the queue/entry area. Whereas the Tower of Terror had a classic old Hollywood hotel theme, this will have the Collector’s museum or collection, filled with the assorted strange things he’s amassed. Will Cosmo be there? Probably not. He did escape during the movie. But my imagination’s certainly running wild thinking of what could be in there.
Back when the ride redesign was first rumored, it was met with a lot of controversy. Tower of Terror is a much-beloved attraction, one whose Twilight Zone-inspired story made it an instant classic in many hearts. Those rumors were surrounded by even more rumors (aren’t they all) that current Disney Parks leadership wasn’t happy about how they weren’t taking advantage of the Disney/Marvel partnership, tasking Imagineering with finding a way to put Marvel up front in its park offerings.
On top of that, Disney was set to renegotiate its licensing of the Twilight Zone property and premise. So, changing the ride to reflect an in-house property as opposed to paying to license an outside one makes sense, at least financially speaking.
Thus, it is said, “Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout” was born.
The Tower of Terror still stands in the park, and Disney is certainly taking advantage of its imminent closure with special blackout nighttime rides, instituted as a means of saying goodbye to the longstanding ride.
Personally speaking, I hesitate to pass too much judgement on the ride as it obviously hasn’t been built yet and there’s no way to know what it’ll really be like. That being said, if the concept model here is an indicator of what to expect, then I’m a little disheartened by the fact that it still looks just so similar to the original ride. There’s no getting away from the somewhat iconic silhouette of the Tower of Terror without committing to a complete overhaul of the show building. The mere shape of it will stir up those memories for many park enthusiasts.
While I definitely feel a sense of loss from losing such a classic attraction, I find my curiosity about this ride piqued.
What do you think? Will you be checking it out when it drops (heh) in Summer 2017?
(via CBR)
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