"Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush!" will debut on July 9. In the press release announcing the new experience, Disney said:
“Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush!” will be a whole new way to experience a land in a Disney theme park. Instead of watching the story unfold, guests will be part of the story themselves – naming, creating and developing their own characters and influencing the direction and action of the story’s first chapter. The story will involve entertainment, merchandise, food and more – throughout Frontierland.
Here's the new backstory: The people of Rainbow Ridge, the town at the end of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, are trying to move into the adjacent Frontierland now that their town's been dried up, and there's that darned roller coaster riding through it every few seconds. (Okay, I added that last part.) But the people of Frontierland, being good Orange County NIMBYs, are having none of that, and want to keep those Rainbow Ridge outsiders out. (Wow, this could get uncomfortably dark really quickly.)
We've written in the past about the potential for theme parks as entertainment platforms, beyond being collections of distinct rides and attractions. Like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter inspires interactive play, especially with its new wands, Disneyland's new Frontierland experience could help bring a new sense of imaginative play into the land. Unlike with Potter, fans won't come into the park with any knowledge of this new Frontierland story, so Disney will have to construct a way to inform guests as it inspires them to want to take part. Then, Disney will have to hope that the whole thing won't be hijacked by a small handful of annual passholders who decide that they're going to be in charge and try to run it.
Perhaps starting this in July, when Southern California and SoCal Select annual passholders are blocked out of the park, might help minimize that risk. Ultimately, though, it all comes down to execution, and Disney's ability to inspire people to play well together. Are you interested? Might you join in if you'll be at Disneyland this summer?
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We go to a renaissance festival several times a year, and few of the patrons even know that there is a story line to the festival....and they don't care. We rarely even bother with the story line, but spend our time exploring the faire, its entertainment, shopping and food choices, and if we do stumble across a storyline activity going on we might stick around to watch it, but if we haven't seen what leads up to it we might not bother to follow it any further.
Is a story line or backstory interesting? Yes, but possibly more so to serious "theme park insiders" than most guests. It will be interesting to see how successful Disney is at getting more than the above mentioned handful of annual passholders involved.
Lame backstory. It won't make up for the Harry Potter Diagon Alley, which is just amazing.
If any place should have the backstory, they missed out with Main Street. Main Street used to have an authentic experience, but they turned it into a generic mall. They missed the boat with the New Fantasyland. I don't see how they can exploit the immersive land experience without starting from scratch and build it from the ground up.
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