Something wicked this way comes…
Details for the new land that will bring together a host of iconic Disney villains were revealed at D23 on Saturday, including the area’s official name and some specifics about the two big attractions and narrative that will bring the characters together.
The area that has commonly be referred to as Villains Land since the project was introduced last D23 will now be known as … Villains Land. (Hey, it works.) And it keeps with the naming convention of most areas of the Magic Kingdom, the most-visited theme park in the world and the crown jewel of the sprawling Walt Disney World resort outside of Orlando, Fla.
Now, for the storyline that brings the dastardly characters together.
The team was hugely inspired by the work Walt Disney Animation Studios has done on their classic animated movies and the work that they continue to do (“Hexed,” previewed the night before, looks like it’s just begging for a theme park land with its alternate world full of witches).
Inspired by these fairy tales, where usually about straying away from a safe path into a dangerous forest (which helps since many of the stories are about characters leaving the safety of childhood for the more untamed land of adulthood), the team at Walt Disney Imagineering became intrigued by the idea of a wishing well.
But not the usual wishing well that helps your dreams come true. What if this was a broken wishing well? And a mysterious stranger made an evil wish at the wishing well and the consequences were that it broke the well and infused poisoned magic into the land? Now the villains, hearing about this untapped, deeply cursed magic, are drawn to the land to conjure their own nightmares.
Disney also teased some of the costumes for the characters in the land, which they promise to be bespoke and reflect the overall elegant aesthetic of the area.
But what about the rides?
Well after some noodling on a rollercoaster themed to “The Emperor’s New Groove,” developers have gone back to another attraction themed to Maleficent, the dark enchantress from Disney’s 1959 masterpiece “Sleeping Beauty,” later embodied in live-action by Angelina Jolie in a pair of films. She will be chasing visitors through the briar patch and around her mountaintop fortress. Also teased was an additional element that Imagineers “haven’t done before on a Disney coaster,” but are keeping a secret.
As for the E-ticket dark ride attraction, it is set inside the Evil Queen’s Palace from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Walt Disney’s first animated feature. Visitors will go down into the catacombs and encounter the Magic Mirror, which transports the group to a “mirror realm,” conjuring visions of various Disney villains. It seems to be similar, at least in spirit, to the way in which the upcoming Avengers: Infinity Defense at Disney California Adventure will take visitors into different Marvel worlds.
Additional details of the land, including specifics on the retail and dining operations and whether or not the Magic Kingdom Railroad will have a stop at Villains Land, are being kept buried in the thicket of the briar patch. But we’re still a few years away from Villains Land opening.
