Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt A Disney Park Blog post reveals that a new (sort of) backstory has been revealed for Big Thunder Mountain RR along with interactive queue enhancements. <a href="http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/11/walt-disney-imagineers-unveil-the-backstory-of-barnabas-t-bullion-prioprietor-and-president-of-big-thunder-mining-company/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DisneyParks+%28Disney+Parks+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" target="_blank">http://disneyparks.disney.go.c...dfetcher</a> Thoughts?
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Not necessary. I think it would have been better to have a loose backstory here. Having Big Thunder Railroad owned and operated by an angry tyrant, Robber Baron is not entertaining and unnecessary to enjoy the ride. Why go there? As for gold, where is the gold at Big Thunder Mountain? You'd think that Disney would put sparkly gold somewhere on that ride. How soon before we can anticipate a backstory for Mission Space that involves egotistical NASA management/ technician types that rushed space ships to production before working all the possible bugs out, thus placing people in harms way?
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper I guess someone at WDI needed to justify their job, huh? Overall it's not a big deal, but it is a little confusing to see them spending time and money on writing new stories for old attractions rather than pushing for the old attractions to actually be treated well.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom This reminds me of when I created a backstory for the mega store on Main Street and Spirit complemented me. I figured everything else in the MK has a backstory, why not the mega store on Main Street as well.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA As an actor, sometimes it can be helpful, when preparing for a role, to create a 'backstory' for your character. Maybe it involves where the character is from, what he does for a living, is he married etc. Of course some aspects of a character are inherent in the script and what the author has written. A backstory might help an actor lock in some details and help him play the part more effectively. Now, whatever that exercise might be, it's up to the actor to bring that character to life. The actor does not step on stage and say "hi audience members, , I did a backstory on my character and this is who he is" Same with these. 'Backstory" exercises that Disney publishes. As visitors to the park, and to Big Thunder, Why not let us discover the details on our own? Don't tell me how to feel. You create the environment and I'll experience it the way I want to. It's like Buena Vista Strret at DCA -- it's Walt's California, and this shop is this and this building is that. Whatever...
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper This also reminds me of the story for the new Beauty and the Beast area in Fantasyland. Ready for this humdinger? So, the area is set after the movie. Never mind that Gaston is still alive and loved by the town, but the Be Our Guest restaurant is supposed to be Beast's Castle. Beast does meet and greets, the rose is still there, but the giant music box is supposed to be a gift given to Belle and Beast from Maurice. Well, turns out the rose is just a "phantom" to remind Beast not to go back to his old ways (I though his love for Belle was that, but whatever). Also, for Enchanted Tales with Belle, the magic mirror in Maurice's cottage sends you BACK IN TIME to when the castle wasn't cursed. Or something. And this isn't just CM hearsay. These are the official WDI stories. All this comes back to WDI's crazy notion that "It's all about story". They're too focused on making stories for attractions that they end up doing mental gymnastics to make one fit. They need to get off this "story" kick and get back to making EXPERIENCES. That's what makes the classics great. Not a linear, strict narrative.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA ^^^ blecch. Thanks for sharing all that -- good grief. Again, if the "story" you've created is strong enough and well-executed enough, you don't need all this explanation. (See also: per-show for 'Countdown to Extinction" and/or pte-show for 'Back to the Future: The Ride") Imagine if today's Imagineers had been in charge of the "story" for "Pirates of the Caribbean" at Disneyland. Maybe some voice over / narration would have been added, so we derpy tourists understand what's going on, LOL!
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Well, they already added a derpy story to Pirates when they added Jack there haha
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Not necessary." Well I'm assuming that the back story (which already existed but in a slightly different version) is being used to help explain the interactive preshow set up. I believe the article says this. I'm going to assume that much of this will be used in the rumored Big Thunder TV show.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper The "story" of Big Thunder used during the concept creation was very different. basically that the mountain is cursed and the mines have long closed due to a great flood. The trains were still going due to the curse. And yes, it's there for the interactive queue, which are going to become a necessity due to Fastpass+, IMO. I doubt very much that the story will play into the TV show, but we'll see.
Originally Posted By rockcow1 ABC doing a tv show based on Big Thunder. <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/13/abc-big-thunder-mountain/" target="_blank">http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11...ountain/</a> Getting started for that I suppose.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Speaking of interactive queues. WDW needs to add sofas to the standby line queue for Toy Story.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I'm going to assume that much of this will be used in the rumored Big Thunder TV show.>> No connection at all. They have been developed in isolation.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "...basically that the mountain is cursed and the mines have long closed due to a great flood. The trains were still going due to the curse." Different, yes, but radically different, no. The premise of both back stories is that a curse which has caused calamity and strange happenings around the mountain The new Barnabas T. Bullion character fleshes it out a little bit. Is this change better or worse? I guess we'll see. BTW, I just noticed that DL.com has the Legend of Big Thunder posted on the attraction's internet page. How long has that been there? <a href="http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/big-thunder-mountain-railroad/" target="_blank">http://disneyland.disney.go.co...ailroad/</a>
Originally Posted By leemac <<I guess someone at WDI needed to justify their job, huh? Overall it's not a big deal, but it is a little confusing to see them spending time and money on writing new stories for old attractions rather than pushing for the old attractions to actually be treated well.>> You'd have to ask WDI-FL about that. The NGE budget was committed a long time ago so technically it hasn't been diverted from anything else. The spend is coming from that bucket. Obviously you could argue that the whole NGE budget has been diverted from new capacity of course.
Originally Posted By leemac <<They need to get off this "story" kick and get back to making EXPERIENCES. That's what makes the classics great. Not a linear, strict narrative.>> The story "kick" has been going on for more than a generation now. Both DCA and TDS are entirely comprised of closed narratives with massive show bibles to back them up. The issue has always been about communication. To satisfy the social media troll WDP&R PR feel the need to divulge everything at soon as possible. The backstories for DCA and TDS are out there but they weren't forced into the public domain. Both parks left guests to explore on their own and their experiences were not dependent on being force-fed a convoluted backstory in advance.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Which is why I find it perplexing when people get slightly riled up or annoyed by these "revelations" about back stories. As Disney fans we all know that they exist, so why be taken aback when the stories surface as part of a marketing program? More to the point though, I'm curious to know exactly what the interactive elements will be and how they'll tie into the story.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <No connection at all. They have been developed in isolation> Why am I not surprised? Synergy! Where art thou?
