Studios new Guardians Of The Tower is a sure fire hit
Out with the old... I
Disney’s Hollywood
conic, classic television shows can evoke the same response from audiences decades after their initial appearance. We still laugh when we see a clip of
1951's “I Love Lucy” characters Lucy and Ethel losing the battle against a conveyor belt of chocolates. We still chuckle at the friendly/fiendish “Good Evening” greeting from the host of 1955's “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” And we still wistfully smile at the loving care of the Cleaver family in 1957's “Leave It To Beaver.” When “The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror,” based on 1959's “The Twilight Zone,” opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando in 1994, and the image of Rod Serling and the high-pitched guitar riff of “doo-DOO-Doo-doo, doo-DOO- Doo-doo” greeted us at the beginning of the ride, delighted shouts and screams arose from the crowds. Adults embraced the ride as if greeting a long lost friend, while children either had been educated by their parents about the original TV show, or were familiar with its TV reincarnations in 1985 and 2002.
So when Disney announced, in 2016, its plans to
revamp “The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror” in Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim into “Guardians Of The Tower,” based on the 2014 blockbuster film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Disney, “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” the protests were explosive. An online petition against Disney fought to keep the original ride, garnering over 35,000 supporters, claiming “to take away the 'haunted house' element would be a loss of genre balance to the whole park. Why replace a beloved attraction with something that is bound to be short lived? Why replace a truly inspired and original idea with a marketing ploy? Frankly, this sounds more like something that Universal Studios Hollywood would do. Not Disneyland.” The “marketing ploy” referred to was the simultaneous opening of the “Guardians Of The Tower” ride and the premiere of the film “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2.” No, I didn't sign the petition, and I can't really say I
was mad (I'm too old to get mad over stuff like that, a waste of precious energy), but I certainly was disappointed. My consolation was that the original ride is still in Orlando. And “La Tour de la Terreur – Un Saut dans la Quatrieme Dimension” in Disneyland Resort in Paris continues, while “Tower Of Terror” at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan always had a story line different from the TV show. In any case, I decided to go see “Guardians Of The
Tower” upon its 2017 opening. But where no education was necessary for the “Twilight Zone Tower of Terror,” I had to do my homework for “Guardians Of The Tower.” I borrowed my son's DVD and watched the movie for the first time, expecting a two-hour mindless CGI slam/fest. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it, particularly the characters (human and otherwise), and their relationships with
AUGUST 2017
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