<![CDATA[io9: disneyland]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: disneyland]]> http://io9.com/tag/disneyland http://io9.com/tag/disneyland <![CDATA[Monsters Inc. Now Taking Applications In Tokyo]]> Looks like Tokyo's Disneyland is getting some new additions, like one awesome Monsters, Inc. plant from the adorable CG Disney movie. This has the potential of being seriously awesome. Will there be a door docking station? What about a team of disinfectant-toting, hazmat-suited monsters in case any monster gets too close? And most important, will you get to ride the doors across the factory? The actual attraction will be called Monsters, Inc: Hide and Seek, and will open on April 15, 2009. [Disney and More]

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<![CDATA[Ride the MagLev Train from One Fake Place to Another]]> U.S. President Bush has authorized construction companies to use $45 million in federal money to construct a maglev train between two amusement parks: Disneyland and Las Vegas. It will be the first levitating train in the U.S., zooming along at up to 300 mph, though the Bush Administration's choice of route is somewhat odd. A trainline on that exact route was canceled in 1997 due to lack of interest from riders. Maybe the levitation thing will get people interested again — they can fling themselves around in mad teacups at Disneyland in the morning, levitate to Vegas in the afternoon, and gamble their life savings away in the evening. I love the future. [AP via Slashdot]

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<![CDATA[The Magic Kingdom And The Strip, United At Last]]> In a few years, you could take your kids to Disneyland and pick up a hooker in Vegas — all in the same afternoon. The future of entertainment could change drastically if the American Magline Group succeeds in building its maglev express train from Disneyland to Las Vegas, with a top speed of 300 miles per hour. Seen in this newly released model image, the Disneyland-Vegas maglev is moving forward despite criticisms that it would be a "gambler's express." And it could receive some federal money, once maglev opponent George Bush is out of office. Photo by AP/Damian Dovarganes.

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<![CDATA[Tomorrowland Sucks]]> Disneyland promises visitors through its gates four separate worlds that are supposed to thrill and delight you: Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. While the other lands deliver on that promise, Tomorrowland seems like it got stuck in Yesterdayland. Once a portal to the future, the amusement park has now been surpassed in coolness by several new museums. What went wrong?

Walt Disney once said, "Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future." However, it looks like that blueprint is sponsored churros and Coca Cola, and has no clue what it's doing. Which might not be too far off from the actual future we're heading towards as a society.

Tomorrowland has been reworked and relaunched three times by Disney since the park opening in 1955, with the most recent facelift happening in 1998. But 10 years haven't even passed since then and the park feels incongruous and meandering, plus the "Rocket Rods" attraction that replaced the boring "People Mover" hasn't worked since 2000, yet it still sits there, looking like a heap of junk. Visitors to Tom Morrow's (an animatronic goof-bot voiced by Nathan Lane) "Innoventions" seek the exits within moments of entering what used to be the kitschy but cool "Carousel of Progress." Mostly because they take everything that is cool about science and make it as much fun as getting a root canal. Plus, "Star Tours" feels like it's about 20 years too old, which it is.

Over the past few years they've attempted to zap some life back into Tomorrowland by adding Buzz Lightyear's Astro-Blasters, which is basically a video game turned into a ride (riders get a gun and "blast" aliens with it throughout the ride, which keeps track of your score), and the Jedi Training Academy, which is a stage show aimed at turning tots into lightsaber-wielding badasses. They get to face off with Darth Vader, who could quickly turn them into padawan-cutlets if not for the cutesy power of the Force. it just doesn't work for a place that's supposed to be showing us what the future is like. You mean, we get to see more Star Wars in the future? George Lucas will be so pleased.

What's really sad is that it's been 20 years since Space Mountain opened, and that's still the coolest attraction in Tomorrowland. With all of the gee-whiz special effects and design innovations we've had along the way, Disney chose to upgrade Space Mountain for a limited time last summer with music from The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Give us a break. It's high time that Tomorrowland started living up to its name and wowing us with the possibilities of unknown worlds and the wonders of science.

Here are a few places that manage to get it right:


  • SFM.jpgThe Science Fiction Museum: Located in Seattle, this museum dedicated to all things science fiction is massive, fun, and has a roof made out of glass so you can see the stars at night. It's couple with Paul Allen's Experience Music project, and will keep you entertained all day.

  • rose_center.jpgThe Hall of the Universe at the Rose Center for Earth and Space: This giant explorable hall feature a circular staircase that tells you how the universe formed as you climb up. It's housed inside the giant glass and steel cubic Rose Center, and shouldn't be missed if you visit New York City.

  • Explora.jpgThe Exploratorium: San Francisco's huge science museum near the Golden Gate Bridge recently got a makeover, and it puts an strong emphasis onto hands-on exciting experiences about science. It might look like ancient Roman history outside, but inside it's a whole different world.

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<![CDATA[A Post-Apocalyptic Magic Kingdom]]> Jeff Gillette, "Disneyland Destroyed," acrylic on canvas

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<![CDATA[Futurama Release Party Brings Out Paparazzi]]> Thursday night, Fox threw a redcarpet hootenanny at the Arc Light in L.A. for its first direct-to-DVD feature release of Futurama. "Bender's Big Score," which comes out November 27, marks the sporadically amusing franchise's return to grandeur. The occasion was celebrated, of course, by making voice-over artists pose for paparazzi shots and trotting out a guy in a Bender suit. Klaatu barada nikto! Gallery and spoilers after the jump.

Boy, does that Futurama crew ever think Fox is a band of imbeciles! The first ten minutes of the movie is an attack on the network suits, with retribution for premature axing of a show that never had good ratings to begin with meted out in classic, knee-jerk gag-writer fashion: The execs are ground into a fine pink powder that has a multitude of uses, from weaponization to soothing jock itch.

The plot exerts, overexerts, and then overexerts some more. It's a time-travel conceit, with the Bender the alcoholic robot sent back and forth across the continuum by nude aliens to steal Earth's most lucrative treasures (the Mona Lisa, the Guttenberg Bible, heaps of precious metals). The head nude space alien talks like Paul Lynde. Fortunately, the animation is awesome, culminating in a legitimately thrilling space battle in which the Futurama cast wins back the planet by decimating the nude aliens' fleet of solid-gold-and-jewel-encrusted Death Stars.

The best part of the whole evening was when the projector went haywire and the actors, led by voice-of-Bender John DiMaggio and Groening himself, were forced to do some improv group standup. Afterwards, our correspondent fled before they turned on the booze spigot for fear that Katey "Voice of Leela" Sagal would have one too many Heinekens and want to start feeding him miniature chocolate merlot cupcakes.

Not surprisingly, almost everyone involved with Futurama thinks citizens of the future will study the show. "This show get more right than previous depictions of the future," said Phil "Voice of Hermes the Jamaican Bureaucrat" LaMarr. "They're gonna say 'Those guys were pretty close,'" said Maurice "Voice of Morbo" LaMarche.

Head writer David X. Cohen was a tad overawed by the bright lights. "This is return in style!" he said of the release, which is the first of four full-length Futurama DVDs to be produced. He also tossed props of a haughty sort to the Internet faithful: "It's a great example of the DVD age and rabid fandom coming together."

Rabid indeed.

Groening rolled up late to the carpet in a stretch limo and, not noticing that he had missed a button on the fly of his jeans, said that if he could go back in time like Bender, it would be the Disneyland of the Eisenhower Era, when creative geniuses of immense net worth such as himself could get in and not have to wait in line for 17 hours to check out the new Nemo ride.

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<![CDATA[Robot Theme Parks Don't Need No Stinking Humans]]> RoboKorea.jpg
South Korea is spending more than $1.6 billion (!) to build not one but two robot theme parks set to open in the year 2013. They'll only be 250 miles apart from each other, so if you're in Korea you won't have far to go to visit one of these robotopias. That's some serious cash spending for robots going on, and if you thought things couldn't get much stranger, Korea is also developing a robot "Code of Ethics" to stop android abuse.

As illustrated by the photo above, the robot on the left is showing off a "not in the face!" reaction to being touched by the woman on the right, so the Korean government is in the process of drawing up this code of ethics so that one day when these androids become sentient they won't immediately wipe the human race off the face of the earth. Instead, they can head to Robo-Land.

South Korea also wants to have a robot in every home by the year 2020 (coincidentally, the year that the internet will control your whole body), which means roughly 10 million robopeeps. You can bet they'll need to blow off some steam from time to time, and thankfully the country will have two destinations for them to choose from. While it hasn't been revealed what rides will be at these parks, the dancefloor will sadly be lacking in innovation with only one dance going on. Move over Disney, there's a new kid in town... and he runs on batteries.

Robot love: South Korea to build robot theme parks [NetworkWorld]]]>
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