jeudi 8 janvier 2015

Disney is Changing California Adventure's Condor Flats into Grizzly Peak Airfield

By Robert Niles: As we mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, the Condor Flats land at Disney California Adventure has closed, and it is not coming back. At least, not with the same name and theme.

The park's new guidemaps have greyed out the area,


DCA map

And the construction walls have announced the new name, "Grizzly Peak Airfield."




The main reason for the refurbishment is to upgrade the projection systems on Soarin' Over California, the only attraction in the land. Screen-based attractions in theme parks ought to look better than anything a visitor can see on his or her television at home. With recent rapid advances in consumer electronics, that's not a sure thing any longer. Expect to see parks move toward more aggressive refurb schedules for screen-based attractions until either we hit the next tech plateau or the parks just surrender and decide they can live with an inferior product. (Some will. Some won't. Your predictions welcomed in the comments.)


While they're at it, Disney's taking this opportunity to strengthen one of the weaker themed areas in the park. A test pilots' desert airstrip could provide a solid theme for an entertaining land, but Disney didn't really develop that theme in any meaningful way. Soarin' Over California is a gentle tour of the state in vehicles that look like giant hang gliders, not a high-G thrill ride through the skies in high-tech jets. There's nothing in Condor Flats that evoked a feeling of exhilarating, seat-of-your-pants, "The Right Stuff"-style exploration of the frontier above us. Instead, we get a rather barren short transition between the lush Grizzly Peak and the delightful new Buena Vista Street.


Timing didn't help anyone develop fondness for this area, either. California Adventure opened in early 2001, just months before the 9/11 attacks that created a national fear of flying. Instead of providing an inspiring narrative that could help visitors move beyond that fear, Disney made ham-handed design decisions that, if anything, subconsciously referenced the attacks, with an airplane flying through the facade of the Taste Pilot's Grill restaurant and having the center stripe of the Condor Flats runway line up perfectly with the scorched exterior of the Tower of Terror across the park.


Disney's new plan for the area will make the former Condor Flats an extension of the much more beloved Grizzly Peak, with better landscaping and decoration to match the rest of that land. The "Airfield" part simply acknowledges the presence of Soarin' Over California, which — as one of the more popular attractions in the park and its original hit — ain't going anywhere. But instead of being contained within a desert testing ground, Soarin' Over California now will take off from something like a mountain valley national park airstrip, which is probably a more appropriate way to frame the attraction. Heck, cut the opening shot of the Golden Gate bridge and the film could start with us flying above a "nearby" Sierra Mountain river.


The new Grizzly Peak Airfield, with the refurbished Soarin' Over California, is scheduled to open by this summer.


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