Indyland?

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I certainly see this as a companion thread to this modern classic, but there's a tidbit of information in an interview I quoted there that bears some looking into. To whit, George Lucas's desire for his own theme park:

Tony Baxter said:
So one day they flew up to the Silverado Vineyards and had lunch with Diane Disney Miller as the host. They presented George Lucas the idea of bringing Star Wars to Disneyland. Lucas said he wanted to do a park himself, but he wasn’t able to afford it at the time. So his second choice would be to have something at Disneyland. Lucas was a Disneyland geek having had a lot of memorable experiences in the park growing up.

This, of course, was about Star Tours, and the notion of a Lucas park or a Lucas themed land occasionally shows up among Disney rumors. And that's certainly a part of this conversation - can Indy live alongside Star Wars in a themed environment, or is there just no real connection between them? (I suspect the latter.)

Could there be a whole Indiana Jones complex or land at a single theme park? Spending some time looking at the old plans for the "Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition" planned project would be a good start. This would have combined the Indiana Jones Adventure as we know it with a mine car attraction as well as guest appearances from the Jungle Cruise and the Walt Disney World Railroad. This might be something of a start in looking at just how much mileage you can get out of the Indiana Jones concept in a theme park environment.

Would an entire park be possible? Would it become a number of different Adventureland-type lands, themed to various areas? Some melange of Epcot Center's World Showcase, of Tokyo DisneySea's ports of call, and of Animal Kingdom's Asia and African continents? Would it be imperialist overkill? Too much of the same thing? Or could you really mix it up enough for it to work?

The question of <I>who</I> would make such a park seems, to me anyhow, to not quite be the point. After all, we have that other thread for that. But just how much can you expand the Indiana Jones experience beyond the precise character of Indiana Jones and still have it work without it becoming overly generic? Or is that all right - can Indy just be the jumping off-point?
 
Nice thread...

I could see it...a sort of gigantic Epcot, where cultures from around the world are represented around the park laid out geographically.

Actual countries encouraged to donate to the development/theme of thier country's attraction, (defray cost and garner approval).

Some will have to resign themselves to possibly objectionable material, but can be given the opportunity after the attraction to fill out historical fact...

The queue is designed to be a typical collegiate or appropriate classroom where a projected Indy introduces the theme of the attraction and his substitute teacher...he is after all somewhere in each attraction, excavating, setting off action ellements or ready to save your skin.

The attraction/ride ends appropriately in a museum type gift shop with props, books and native apparel which then leads into a location specific village type cafe near the entrance so people can hear you praise the experience...

The "Red Line" Sky Tram makes reaching the other side of the park a breeze...

Occational action sequences from the films or inspired by historical events are staged in public areas, (an evolution of the parade)...

Holidays for each culture are celebrated within the particular regions to keep things fresh...

Tours can be designed around many concepts, the evolution of weapons. Wars. Religions. Literature, any school curricullum really. Sports. Music. Art. Be a fine place for class trips!

The park itself can evolve and showcase certain cultures as new rides, ect...great promotion for travel, tourism.

Eventually countries would be lobbying for inclusion, and subsidzing the construction of the attractions!

The possibilities are ENDLESS...
 
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Goodeknight

New member
While I would love an entire Indy theme park, or an Indy/Star Wars park, I think it would be heavy overkill on the Indy side of things. You could do a lot of different rides and attractions with Star Wars, but I believe for the general audience the Indy stuff would get old. And most people would say, "I don't remember Indy finding Atlantis..."

That said, it seems to me the way to go would be a Lucasfilm park. HUGE Star Wars area with shows, rides, shops, etc. Good size Indy area with a few rides and attractions, even loosely related like a Disney-style jungle cruise.

And then individual rides or shows for all of the other memorable Lucas films (even if they were pre-Lucasfilm).

That would rope in:

* Willow
* American Graffiti (classic cars and rock 'n roll). That could include a 50s diner, rides, shows...
* (skip Howard the Duck)
* Hook
* Land Before Time -- kiddie dinosaur land
* Labyrinth is a maybe, too

I'd go.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
goodeknight said:
While I would love an entire Indy theme park, or an Indy/Star Wars park, I think it would be heavy overkill on the Indy side of things. You could do a lot of different rides and attractions with Star Wars, but I believe for the general audience the Indy stuff would get old. And most people would say, "I don't remember Indy finding Atlantis..."

And you're right, to a strong extent. An Indy park would be something of a marketing challenge (although: who doesn't love adventure?)

goodeknight said:
That said, it seems to me the way to go would be a Lucasfilm park. HUGE Star Wars area with shows, rides, shops, etc. Good size Indy area with a few rides and attractions, even loosely related like a Disney-style jungle cruise.

And then individual rides or shows for all of the other memorable Lucas films (even if they were pre-Lucasfilm).

That would rope in:

* Willow
* American Graffiti (classic cars and rock 'n roll). That could include a 50s diner, rides, shows...
* (skip Howard the Duck)
* Hook
* Land Before Time -- kiddie dinosaur land
* Labyrinth is a maybe, too

I'm dubious of it being based simply on the different Lucas franchises, whether it includes things beyond Indy and Star Wars or not. To just take the two, they are such wildly different franchises in terms of their setting and technological and cultural trappings that I don't see how they could share the same acreage in any meaningful way. (Which is to say, contra Stoo, that ownership isn't enough. That's why, for example, Monsters Inc. in Tomorrowland is a disaster.) What's the center of the park like? Or the entranceway? Is it a movie studio facsimile, and then you enter through the camera lens or something to go to each movie themed area? Or is everything you see themed as though it is the movie set for the worlds of Lucas, as the Disney Studios park treats it? You'd also end up doubling up on certain environments, to get both Indiana Jones's Middle East and Star Wars's Tatooine.

I get that it's the marketable approach. (Well, no: the marketable approach is a Star Wars park, full stop.) But it seems pretty hard to justify thematically.
 

The Drifter

New member
I'd imagine some attractions in the park would be set up like that show "Legends of the Hidden Temple". Guest could explore different ruins to find certain relics by figuring out clues throughout the park. One big scavenger hunt if you will.
I'd love to go to something like that.

Oh, and the foodstands would havw exotic treats from around the world, but just skip the "chilled a-monkey brains"!
 

fenris

New member
When it comes to theme parks... it's all about the rides! :D

IndyLand should have at least these ones:
1. Mine Car Coaster
2. River Rapids Ride (a very wet ride)
3. Log Ride (another wet ride)
4. Rocket Sled Coaster (ala KOTCS but with a loop-de-loop!)
5. Interactive Rides (like Forbidden Eye... just make it a little different)
6. 4D Rides (you know, those hydraulic seats in a theater)
7. Wall Climbing / Rappelling / Bungee Jumping (that's an adventure, right?)
8. A Giant Maze!!! (complete with Hovitos or Ugha Warriors that chase you around)
9. An Adventure Show like they have in Disney...
10. A giant Zip Line that spans the park from one end to another!!!​

And, of course, the mandatory Merry Go Round, Bump Cars, Mini Coasters and other common theme park rides... How to tie it up with the Indy theme? Dunno.

I like Rocket Surgeon's suggestion on the line queue... it sounds a lot like what they did with Harry Potter World.
 
The Bantu Wind can shuttle you to areas of the park, past an exploding/sinking Coronado, including a face off with a German Sub, (warning shots and all), Indy already on board...think of the cheers!
 

Goodeknight

New member
Oo! At the entrance to the park, the Cairo Swordsman could stand there, and everyone who wants to enter has to shoot him with a BB gun!

Indiana-Jones-vs-Swordsman.jpg


If you miss, guards in white coats throw you out a zeppelin window and yell, "No ticket!"

NoTicket.jpg


(Please send applications for the role of "Cairo Swordsman" to George Lucas/Skywalker Ranch...)
 
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Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
goodeknight said:
(Please send applications for the role of "Cairo Swordsman" to George Lucas/Skywalker Ranch...)

You know, while I am enjoying this thread, there is one big glitch with this park, and you touch on it here. Indyland full of real world villians. I mean seriously, can you have 'Nazi's' as fodder for family entertainment?

I doubt you get any serious investors wanting to be attached to blood libel for amusement.

BTW

Rocket Surgeon said:
The "Red Line" Sky Tram makes reaching the other side of the park a breeze...

Genius. Sheer Genius.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Pale Horse said:
You know, while I am enjoying this thread, there is one big glitch with this park, and you touch on it here. Indyland full of real world villians. I mean seriously, can you have 'Nazi's' as fodder for family entertainment?

I doubt you get any serious investors wanting to be attached to blood libel for amusement.

Which is why I think Indyland is a bad idea. The poor guy doesn't need any more nails in his coffin, and this is connected to Stewie's Disney thread.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Indy Jr said:
You know, I'd also want Jock to fly me around the park. Perhaps his snake too ;)

Hmm...a seaplane has some definite possibilities insofar as ride technology is concerned.

Edited to add: Pale, if the post you're making right now has an image of Goofy's Sky School, so help me...
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Montana Smith said:
Which is why I think Indyland is a bad idea. The poor guy doesn't need any more nails in his coffin, and this is connected to Stewie's Disney thread.


Well, the last thing I would want to do is to derail a thread by my most esteemed friend and colleague. If Stewie's thread is the Yin tending to the more practical and patent aspects of it all, then this thread can be the Yang, entertaining the creative and capitalistic side.

I for one would think the food themeing could be positively global. Without even have to go for camp from the TOD movie...
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Pale Horse said:
You know, while I am enjoying this thread, there is one big glitch with this park, and you touch on it here. Indyland full of real world villians. I mean seriously, can you have 'Nazi's' as fodder for family entertainment?

I doubt you get any serious investors wanting to be attached to blood libel for amusement.

Montana Smith said:
Which is why I think Indyland is a bad idea. The poor guy doesn't need any more nails in his coffin, and this is connected to Stewie's Disney thread.

That's certainly a valid point. Of course, you don't need to have a Berlin section, and so without a whitewashing, you can spend some time minimizing the actual Nazi presence. Again - there is Stoo's objection. But you won't be selling things with swastikas on them. And, as the experts on the German uniforms around these parts can attest, they aren't a necessity in most cases anyhow. Still: this is loophole hunting, and there's no denying that.

There was, however, the old Disney's America theme park notion, which in its initial imaginings saw the theme park form as one that could push forward the medium's potential as an educational experience (shades of YIJC here?) that dealt with big issues like War and Slavery and Immigration and Westward Expansion. There is some truth, after all, in the Nazi hunt for treasure, and the park could include that. So too is there ample room for some learning about actual world cultures, as Rocket's read on this could give way to, and as the recent exhibition shows some model for.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Double post...so what this time...

Attila the Professor said:
Edited to add: Pale, if the post you're making right now has an image of Goofy's Sky School, so help me...

There is a sort of 'Imagineers' thing going on here....but Indyland wouldn't be Disney...

So we'd have to call ourselves:

LucasArtsyologists
 
Pale Horse said:
You know, while I am enjoying this thread, there is one big glitch with this park, and you touch on it here. Indyland full of real world villians. I mean seriously, can you have 'Nazi's' as fodder for family entertainment?
773554628_52206f3f2a_z.jpg


As Montana usually notes, the Nazis are, for the most part NOT Nazis. German Solidiers walking around asking for your papers would be sufficient.

Is Pleasure Island still around? I don''t see why Indy Land couldn't have a section which caters to the older crowd, where the Haunted Castle is patroled by Nazi ghosts that Indy has previously dispatched...
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
I don''t see why Indy Land couldn't have a section which caters to the older crowd, where the Haunted Castle is patroled by Nazi ghosts that Indy has previously dispatched...

Instead of having Mickey guide you round, there'll be this guy presenting himself as the park commandant:

dead_snow_movie_image__7_.jpg


Vogel. Died 1938 in an unforseen tank accident, and still not very happy about it.

It wasn't that long ago that Disney sold these crates:

DSCN3589.jpg
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
Attila the Professor said:
I always figured Rocket would insist the park opens at Machete Landing...

South America works for that guy just as well.

Or just the machete...landing:

dead-snow.jpg


Let's push for the adult market here. ;)
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
You're all twisted...

...twisted I tell ya!

I'm sure there would be plenty of these opportunities walking around
354.jpg
 
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