Inside Out is an absolute hit. Don’t take my word for it, check the box office numbers. The latest Pixar film made more than $90 million in its opening weekend in the US alone, and has since made an additional $100 million after its 2nd weekend. On top of that, people are calling it one of Pixar’s best films ever, being mentioned in the same breath as Toy Story, Up, and Finding Nemo. It’s fair to say that the people at Pixar really have a sound mind for making great films.
So should Inside Out be the next step for the Disney Parks? If there is one thing they know how to do, it’s capitalizing on their popular properties. Need an example? How sick of ‘Let It Go’ are you right now? You can’t go anywhere without seeing or hearing something ‘Frozen’ – and we’re still a year out from Frozen Ever After opening.
So will we see Inside Out get the same treatment? And if so, where do you put an attraction? The obvious choice is Epcot – as the characters can easily fall into an “edutainment” attraction – but where in Epcot do you put an attraction that will bring “Joy” to park-goers?
…and Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger for that matter.
There are two choices that make perfect sense for its location, but both options have their pros and cons.
It could fit into the Imagination Pavilion, and maybe highlight the creative portions of the mind that are explored in the movie – or they could choose the currently unused Wonders of Life Pavilion, and model the attraction after the old ‘Cranium Command’ attraction.
On the surface, Wonders of Life seems like the obvious choice. It’s possible that Cranium Command was a quasi-inspiration for the movie itself. A themed attraction taking the place of the old one seems like – dare I say – a no-brainer. However, this would pose some problems. Wonders of Life is only used for special events on a seasonal basis. Capacity could potentially be an issue as well. Would they theme the entire pavilion? Would Disney willing to reload the pavilion and make some more new attractions to go with it? There are a lot of questions that come with Wonders of Life.
Imagination, on the other hand, is up and running. In fact, it’s even the location of the temporary Inside Out sneak preview. They could base an attraction on an adventure with the “imaginary friend” from the film (I’ll leave it at that and spare you the spoilers). However, this would require some serious renovations as there’s no perfect location for an attraction. That is, unless they were simply going to make it a show of some sort and replace Captain EO. The other option would be to replace Figment and seqeeze an innovative and entertaining attraction into the pavilion, but would Epcot fans be willing to part ways with one of Disney’s most beloved original characters?
There is no completely perfect choice. No matter what they do, there will be a lot of work that comes with creating this new attraction. Let’s just hope that wherever they put it, they make a great new attraction that people can get excited about.
