According to new reports, Josh D’Amaro has allegedly scrapped the original plans for the forthcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom. Early concepts included a Maleficent coaster, a family friendly dark ride, and restaurant themed to (or all people) Madam Medusa
D’Amaro has supposedly instructed Imagineering to start over and think bigger. Plus it, as Walt might say. It’s hard not to suspect the popularity of Dark Universe is behind this decision. New plans involve a Yzma coaster, a Maleficent dark ride on par with ROTR that utilizes the same ride system as POTC Battle of the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai, an Ursula flat ride, and a full blown dinner show hosted by Hades!
Since I’m stubborn and don’t want to pay to read an article, does The Wrap’s article confirm that the coaster is being based on Yzma (and hopefully Kronk)?
Here is a more practical (and free) article that examines the likelihood of all rumors. Basically NOTHING has been confirmed by Disney. It’s just one long chain of “inside sources”.
From my own perspective, a lot of these at least seem plausible. When Tropical Americas was first announced, I remember there being a rush of people begging for a “Pull the lever!/Wrong lever!” coaster. I like to think Imagineering was aware, and decided to save that idea for later.
The Maleficent coaster seemed to have evolved from the Night on Bald Mountain coaster idea from when “Dark Kingdom” was first conceived in the 90s. That would’ve been the lands headliner. But the Yzma & Kronk coaster will likely be the secondary attraction. I fail to see how a boat ride applies to Maleficent; I think she could be the star, but it should be a showcase of all of Disney’s most evil.
Madam Medusa owned a pawn shop, so I can’t imagine how a restaurant named after her would work. Maybe putting her name on the name of a shop would work. A Hades dinner theatre has the potential to be great. Instead of being a musical revue like Unfairly Ever After or the Hocus Pocus spooktacular, I think they should try and imitate James Woods’ comedic style. Make Hades like he’s the host of a late night talk show. He starts out with a monolog roasting Disney heroes, does some crowd work/insult comedy, and interviews a rotating cast of other villains (some in-character improv). Of course, this would have to be a once or twice a night thing, like Fantasmic. During the day, Pain & Panic can be running the place, and other famous henchmen can drop by.
Goddamn I should be working for Disney
Finally, an Ursula flat ride in a park that already has three other hub & spoke spinners feels insultingly lazy
My social media is full of sensationalized headlines about the rumors and reporting on them as if they are Disney confirmed.
Len’s most recent analysis on Disney Dish seems the most logical, and knowing that he has connections at Disney, a plussed up ride in Maleficent’s castle is the best idea that I’ve heard so far.
On the All Ears link, they speculated that it’s possible whoever started it meant to say Mad Madam Mim. I fail to see how that makes it better.
I offer up an alternative solution. Since MMM is magical, that puts her on par with the Fairy Godmother. So how about she operates an anti- Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique? Get made up to look like some kind of evil creature (since we’re ripping off Darkmoor, we need a counterpart to Dr. Pretorius’ lab)
