Thursday, August 15, 2019

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge : The Limits of Synergy


Star Wars Only has posted this video below in which they’ve got a point, and a big one: Disney doesn't understand Star Wars fans? The answer is: yes, for a big part, but what really screwed the opening of Galaxy’s Edge is to don’t have wait that Rise of the Resistance would be ready to open the land. The expected double-bingo with two openings instead of one didn’t worked as planned as we saw.

So, you’ll tell me: « well, when ROTR will finally open everything will go fine... » Well, yes and no. Yes, because the ride will be incredibly immersive, but no because they did another big mistake which is to have create a land storyline on the new Star Wars trilogy and not on the first ones. Did they forget that it’s the generation who are now the fathers and mothers of the children coming to DL, who are the ones paying for park tickets and hotels, etc? And for them Star Wars will always be Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi Wan, Yoda, AND Darth Vader. And you won’t find any of them in Galaxy’s Edge attractions , though Han Solo Millenium Falcon is indeed there with the Smuggler’s Run ride. Basically it’s like creating Peter Pan Neverland without finding Peter Pan in it. Or a Harry Potter land without Harry Potter, Hermione, Hagrid, and all the others good or bad guys of the saga. Would you even think doing such a mistake? Of course not.

So, what happened, how could they screwed something which was normally impossible to screw like creating a Star Wars land? If we except the greedy mistake of the supposed two openings instead than one at the right time with everything ready, the thing in my opinion which is responsible of this mess is Disney’s endless thirst for « synergy ». I bet you that if you won’t find any characters of the first trilogies, it’s because they were sure that they’ve been replaced in guests minds by the characters of the new trilogy, and that, in the name of the all powerful synergy, should be enough to bring in everyone at Galaxy’s Edge.

Well, no, it doesn’t work like that, everything has limits including synergy and Disney is learning it the hard way. That’s the problem with synergy: it’s made and work fine for people who don’t have insights. In two words, it’s an easy tool for people lazy to think a bit more deeply. And of course if you get it wrong when you spend one billion dollars on new lands, such a mistake becomes catastrophic at the end...




Picture: copyright Disney

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can we please stop all of these counter-productive arguments against Galaxy's Edge? Especially when it isn't fully realized yet? This video is especially offensive!

Anonymous said...

I fully agree.

I understand they intended to base the whole land on the most recent trilogy, so that they may encompass every other trilogy which occurred before. But the Original Trilogy is without question the most popular one compared to the Prequel or the Sequel Trilogies, so I don't think they made the right decision here.

The problem now comes down to a Star Wars-themed land without iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker or even Darth Vader. For example, I can't imagine the Wizarding World of Harry Potter only with characters from Fantastic Beasts.

Al said...

Many Disney and Star Wars are being too fast to label Galaxy's Edge as a failure.
The Q3 results only included 1 month of opening, with 3 weeks of reservation-only visits to the land.

I don't think they should have included more of the first 3 movies. They made the choice to build a new 'planet' and not a location from any movies. As you said, they have the millennium falcon. And I've seen the Chewbacca character in some videos. Hardcore fans don't like Kylo Ren, but who thought of asking the kids? Kylo Ren must be more relevant to kids than other SW villains.

Maybe they should have also opened additional 2-3 smaller attractions, but they didn't have the budget, and any fun fair-style attractions like Dumbo or tea cups would have killed the feeling of being transported to another planet.

Let's wait to see the attendance numbers once ROTR is open.

Q said...

I think it didn’t help the fact that they created a new planet ad hoc for the parks (batuu), a place nobody had a reason to care for. And 150 dollars 1 day park tickets :-/

Nic Kramer said...

Would it help if they migrate the Star Wars stuff (including Star Tours) from Tomorrowland to the new area? It would at least solve one problem.