A Spider-Man ride which allows visitors blast bots with virtual webs in their bare hands and a show of power from the imperial guard of Wakanda are among the highlights of this new Avengers Campus at Disney's California Adventure Park, whose introduction was paused for approximately a year by the coronavirus pandemic before it opens to the public Friday.
The Avengers Campus attempts to become an immersive experience which allows visitors to become super-heroic across a set of rides, shows and eateries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"We are excited to finally open up the gates and let everyone ," Scot Drake, a portfolio creative executive with Walt Disney Imagineering, said in the playground Wednesday. "We had 70-plus years of stories and characters that are amazing to pull out of, 23 epic films, and for us it was,'What is the best way to receive our guests right in the middle of those stories, directly in the middle of the activity? '''
Central to that goal is"WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure," which combines classic ride structure with a range of cameras that catch guests' body movement and allows them to play with Peter Parker.
They're asked to aid onscreen Spidey Tom Holland fight an epidemic of small, smart and strong Spider-bots, creations he and a team of ingenious adolescents developed but lost control of in a classic building contributed by Tony Stark.
The experience looks like the videogame contest of Disneyland's Buzz Lightyear ride, but the actions and the technology behind it are in another galaxy. With no equipment necessary (although enhancement gadgets for your wrist can be bought next door), riders can blast swarms of the little spider-bots (which could also be bought next door), along with a couple not-so-little ones.
"What was really important for us was to try and produce the interface vanish so the guests had the superpowers themselves," explained Brent Strong, executive creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering. "So to be able to do that we did a whole group of invention to try and produce the technology as un-obvious as you can."
Journalists got to take the ride to get a few spins Wednesday. With each pass the encounter varies, as guests begin to master their web-slinging and determine they can do more than simply blast away with their abilities.
"You may begin to grab on to transport containers, open doors, develop things and shrink things," Strong said. "We've concealed a thousand Easter eggs and fun small surprises in there."
Elsewhere, royal music blasts to announce the marching arrival of the Dora Milaje -- the royal shield which protects T'Challa from"Black Panther." With their leader Okoye, the shaven-headed women of Wakanda twirl their spears and explain their fundamentals to provide wannabe warriors in the crowd a lesson in the fighting arts.
The show includes something uncommon for a day at Disneyland: a moment of silence for the dead. While Okoye tells the crowd she attempts to honor fallen kings and ancestors, the ritual, at a time of several such moments, feels to be an acknowledgment of the many deaths throughout the pandemic that retained the park dark for more than a year. (It also feels to be an acknowledgement of"Black Panther" celebrity Chadwick Boseman, whose death last year stunned the entire world )
The new segment was also built to incorporate"Guardians of the Galaxy -- Mission: Breakout!" A drop-tower ride with amazing songs set up since 2017.
The storytelling about the Avengers campus extends into the food, such as an outlet of the Shawarma joint which Iron Man indicates his allies hit up after the Battle of New York depicted in 2012′s"The Avengers." It had been open for sampling Wednesday and as Tony Stark asserted , it is, really, great.
Another Avengers Campus is intended for Disneyland Paris. The California version will have major additions.
A few of those heroes, in Marvel's films, are dead, and also for people who follow the events of this Marvel Cinematic Universe together with near-religious accuracy, it can be challenging to tell what time frame the campus is put in.
The founders say don't overthink it.
We've summoned personalities from across all space and time," Strong said. "Time is a lot more squishy than any of us think. Attempting to place a particular date to it could be challenging.
