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What movies would make fun theme park rides?
Kings Island unveiled its latest roller coaster Wednesday, the Diamondback. The ride will feature 10 vertical drops, including drops of 193 feet, 131 feet, 129 feet, 110 feet and 106 feet.
I guess they forgot to mention the last drop: the one where your lunch drops about 2 feet into the nearest trash can. No thanks. Too much for me. Nothing short of a quadruple date with Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet and a resurrected Grace Kelly circa 1954 would get me on that near-death experience.
But I’n not really here to discuss my aversion to mega-coasters. Bringing the topic around to movies, as this blog must, I’m here to ask: What movies would make for fun theme park rides?
Right now Disney is working on a ride that was obvious to everyone from the moment they saw Monsters Inc: an inverted roller coaster based on the door room sequence from that film.
But what other possibilities are there? What about Aladdin? This movie did get a ride, but I was disappointed that it was basically a clone of the Dumbo ride. I always thought the escape from the Cave of Wonders would make for a cool simulator ride, along the lines of Star Tours - which, incidentally, badly needs updating. I don’t think it’s changed one iota since it debuted in 1987.
If I wanted to be facetious, about how rides keep getting more and more perilous, I could suggest a coaster where there’s an actual gap in the track the cars have to jump. That could be based on The Dukes of Hazzard, or perhaps less embarrassingly, Speed.
Or what about: Apollo 13: The ride, which will have a first hill so high, riders are required to wear oxygen helmets?
Now that my suggestions are getting goofy, it’s time to turn the floor to you: What movies could make for cool theme park rides? If you can’t think of any try this on for size: What are your favorite rides/attractions associated with movies? Two of mine: The late and lamented Back to the Future (now The Simpsons Ride) at Universal, and Peter Pan’s Flight at the Magic Kingdom.
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Comments
By Donald Gallegos
August 13, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this
I know many of you think that making fun of kids (yes, these are kids too) with disabilities is funny, and that those of us who are offended just need to get a sense of humor.I’ve heard complaints that this is just another extension of censorship, let them make their movie and if you don’t want to see it then stay home.I would just ask you to step back and try to see a more macro view of this issue.If you just take a few minutes it is not hard to empathize with a parent who has a child like this, or that child, his sibling or their friend to realize that there is no honor in this kind of humor.The trouble is Ben Stiller is a very funny guy and a LOT of people will see this movie.And it is running right at the end of summer right before these kids go back to school.I know it’s rated R but don’t fool yourself into thinking that kids won’t see it.And if they don’t see the whole movie, clips of the “funnier scenes” will manage to permeate into our culture through YouTube or various other media over the internet. And imagine them going to school for the first time, just a few weeks from now, excited, enthusiastic and a little scared.This kind or BLOCKBUSTER comedy where the likes of Stiller, Downey, etc have actually made a movie that makes these kids the butt of their jokes is nothing less than sad.You don’t have to be a kid with a disability to identify with cruelty or humiliation, you just have to think back to being a kid. It wasn’t right then and it isn’t right now.I was raised to stand up and defend the little and weaker folks.That’s all I’m asking of the adults of my community.Don’t support a film like this whose main thrust is to poke fun at these kids.For those of us who know these kids, have them as members of our family or work with them, we know the truth, that they are special and offer a unique and refreshing view of the world.When we laugh at them behind their backs we become less than human ourselves, and that is not really funny at all.By SRCputt
August 7, 2008 4:54 PM | Link to this
Yup, Bdub, Universal neglected the upkeep at Back to the Future, and then blamed lack of audience when closing the best movie ride ever. And for people who read this blog and notice I agree with Eric most of the time: you’ve just found one difference. I am actively looking forward to riding the Diamondback.By Sir Critic
August 7, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this
I’m afraid, so Bdub. The only way to ride Back to the Future now is to go to Universal in Japan. The ride was rather poorly maintained in its later years. The last ride I took in 04 was VERY rough, but I still miss it. I understand The Simpsons ride is pretty good, though. Look fast for a tribute to BTTF on that ride. As for Iron Man, good thought. That would have fit right in at KI, since it had been a Paramount Park, and Iron Man was distributed by that studio.By Bdub
August 7, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this
noooo…. don’t tell me Back to the Future is gone. I am taking my kids to Universal next summer, and I already told them about that one, darn it. Movies that immediately come to mind is Wall-e and Ironman. Wall-e would be a fun adventure ride through space …. and Ironman, a steel coaster (actually the red and yellow diamond back could’ve worked)