[tigger]

Great job everyone! Those were all great solutions and a big way to go to PrincessJill and Seattlereadbear on the tie.

Now on to Task 5...Mr. Potter? what are you doing here?

Disney Central Apprentice Task 6:

Did you know the Disney/ABC has licensed the rights to the Harry Potter franchise. This task has three parts dealing with integrating Harry Potter into the Disney Parks.

1) Come up with an Harry Potter themed attraction. This can be a dark ride, 4D movie, etc.

2) Which park would you locate it in, and where in that park.

3) Come up with a promotional event for Harry Potter like Star Tours has and any other follow on promotional structures (restaurant/store/snacks).

Post your solutions below. This task will be locked on Tuesday at 6pm EST. Voting will then begin and beheld until Thursday at 6pm EST and the next task listed.

If you have any comments of questions please post them here at the DC Apprentice Discussions referencing the task number and/or poster.

Good Luck!

(If you have not already familiarized yourself with how DCA is played please see this link. Share your best and most creative ideas. And most of all remember to have fun!)

Score:

Name - Task 3/Totals
Aggie_10 - 0/9
anaheimboy15 - 2/5
Brer Rabbit - 0/2
Disnatic - 0/1
disneyguy - 2/7
Karliebug - 0/1
lawwin - 0/2
MerlinMatt - 3/15
PrincessJill - 4/4
seattlereadbear - 10/4
Towncar T - 0/3
Willbegone - 0/3

[anaheimboy]

hmmm....I somewhat like this idea...I'll most likely be posting over the weekend. :-)

[anaheimboy]

Hey yall, well I just decided to post my solution now. Ok well first off as we all know Harry Potter is a book based on that kind of fun "witchy" theme. Well I think this theme would fit perfectly in New Orleans Square. And the park it would be located in would be of course Disneyland park.

So first off I would have a dark ride attraction. It would be based on a year at Hogwarts along with some of the fun that goes along with it. The quiditch (spelling ?) games and that sort. Mine would be more based on the second book "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" with the thrill and mission on finding who opened the chamber or secrets ( I know we all know this story but I personally liked this book and think it would fit in well).

The out side facade would have a NOS style theme but with that good old Harry Potter look and you would enter a Hogwarts style looking castle building.

The ride would start you out as entering the school and starting off as going through a tour of the school and that sort then all of a sudden everything goes bad becasue it seems someone has opened the Chamber of Secrets. Then from there its your mission to find who opened it. Then as you go through figuring it out you get more clues on who did it until near the end you figure it out (it has the "answer" of course for smaller kids) and everything is all good again (I know this isnt a good discription but Im sure most of us get the plot). I personally think kids would enjoy this type of ride, but thats just me.

Now as for the store. As you exit you would enter into a Harry Potter type store possibly named something like The wand shop or something like that (?)with some NOS type things and there you could buy all types of things from the books and that sort and you could get costumes that match the movie type and all that good stuff, everything that goes with Harry Potter. And in the store would also be an entrance to a resturaunt (Theres also an entrance on the outside too of course).

Now the resturaunt's name would be something like The Broom Stick Eatery and it would have all assortments of foods and the foods would have cool but funny names that would go along with the Harry Potter theme and the resturaunt would be based on and all around Harry Potter of course. It would have a main theme on The Main Dinning room and there would be the changing pictures and the lights would be like the flickering candles and they would be "floating" and that sort and during the holidays they would add like "floating" pumpkins or christmas decorations. And the tables that you would sit at would be in the form from the book but they would be seperate for privacy. Above each section of tables there would be the four sections. You know Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Griffendor, and Slitheren so that way you could choose to sit under what is your favorite.

Well thats my solution, I know its not all to good but I think it goes well and I like it. Enjoy.

[dznygrl]

OMG, I know I heard about this before, but I completely forgot until now! Disney and Harry Potter--quite possibly my two favorite things in the world!!!!

Okay, here goes nothing...

My Harry Potter Plan!
The way I see it, nothing is too elaborate for Disney, right?? So my idea (as usual) is quite elaborate and would be a humongous undertaking. But I believe the finished product would be worth it.

Part 1/Part 2: Harry Potter Attraction & Its Location
The Location--
This attraction would be located in Disney-MGM Studios. I am not sure on the exact location in the park, but it may need to be an expansion due to the size I am envisioning.
I feel that putting it in the Studios is most appropriate, because the Studios is all about "stepping into the movies." A perfect fit for the attraction described below.
The Attraction--"World of Harry Potter" (working title only!)
My Harry Potter attraction would be a combination dark ride/walk-through interactive exhibit. The journey would begin as a dark ride, where guests board vehicles similar to plain sedans like the "Muggles" would drive in Harry's hometown. The cars will drive through the streets of Surrey, ending up on Privet Drive. As they travel down Privet Drive, guests will be able to see into the windows (and hear the noises/conversations) going on inside the houses. Once they encounter Number Four (the Dursleys' house, of course) they will get to see the event in which Harry is visited by Dobby the house-elf, and Dobby wreaks havoc on the Dursley family.
Then the cars will travel quickly around the corner into blackness, and slowly come to a stop. Guests will disembark, and file into what looks like a large "fireplace." (Think a Haunted Mansion stretching room that can accommodate a large number of people.) "Mrs. Weasley" will appear (produced by a hologram) and throw "floo powder" into the fireplace, and suddenly green smoke and flashing lights will appear.
The special effects will vanish as suddenly as they began, and doors will have opened on the opposite side of the "fireplace" from where the guests entered. They will exit into Diagon Alley!
Now this version of "Diagon Alley" will consist of walk-through interactive exhibits themed to the very last detail. People will feel (to an extent, of course) that they are really on Diagon Alley, shopping for school supplies for another year at Hogwarts! All cast members will be dressed in the traditional witch/wizard colorful cloaks, and will use all of the HP lingo such as "Muggles," "Squibs," etc. etc. etc.
Guests can walk through shops such as Ollivander's, where they can "select their wand" (this will consist of walls of what appear to be boxes of wands. Guests will really only be able to push a button on each box, and a magical sound will occur, either a "shatter" to indicate this is the WRONG wand for them, or a "flourish" to indicate they have found the perfect wand!) and also Gringott's bank (minus the goblins) where guests can "withdraw" funds from their account (by purchasing little drawstring bags of souvenir "Knuts"), etc. etc. etc.
There will be other walk-through exhibits themed to various shops that Harry, Ron & Hermione have entered in the books, and also a few shops (including a candy shop where guests can purchase Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, and more!) and of course a clothing shop where they can purchase all sorts of HP merchandise, from the modern-day sweatshirt to the official Hogwarts cloak.
Another attraction on the street will be The Leaky Cauldron, a family restaurant themed to look like the dark (and slightly creepy) tavern which Harry has visited with Hagrid. The fare will be served family-style, and will consist of basically gut-busting fare...ribs, fried chicken, beans, salads, etc.
One of the final items guests will be able to enjoy is a walk-through portion of Hogwarts castle. They will have to board "horseless carriages" to do this (just another short dark ride) so as to create the seperation between Diagon Alley and the journey to Hogwarts. It will include several classrooms, the Great Hall, and possibly a few other simple things like teacher's offices. To be able to build a full-scale replica would be utterly fantastic, but we all know this is impossible. So it would be kept fairly simple, but extravagant enough to please any drooling fan.
Once guests have toured all that they wish to see of Diagon Alley & Hogwarts castle, they can return to the "fireplace," get dusted with "floo powder," and return from whence they came!

Part 3: Harry Potter Promotional Event
Ah, just as Star Wars Weekend is heaven for any SW fan, "Another Year At Hogwarts" will be a mecca for hard-core Harry Potter fans, young and old alike.
This one-weekend-a-year event will take place (naturally) at the Studios, somewhere during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when crowds are normally slower. "World of Harry Potter" (working title only!) will come alive with holiday decorations, and new activities/exhibits will be available. For example, maybe a "hidden" shop that is only available during that special event.
Throughout the entire park, cast members will have special HP stamps that are themed with such icons as owls, wands, robes, broomsticks, Quidditch balls, etc. Fans can pick up a book for free (much like an autograph book, but a ragged-looking schoolbook much like Hogwarts students would carry) and go on a mission around the park trying to collect every stamp. (Think Epcot FunStops). Once they have collected every stamp they need (about a dozen or so) they can take it to World of Harry Potter and exchange it for a "reward." (Don't worry, they still get to actually keep the book as a souvenir!) The "reward" will be a class at "Hogwarts." The classrooms that are normally walk-through exhibits during the rest of the year will now be used as actual "classrooms," where cast members will be in character as Hogwarts "teachers." Guests can walk in and "sit in" on these classes, which are basically just funny role playing. Guests will get asked Harry Potter trivia questions, and commended when they are right or reprimanded when they are wrong.
We would avoid playing actual teachers from the books, just because of discriminating fans. (Hard to please indeed!) But they would still be fun characters, who seem like they could believably belong among Hogwarts staff.
It is for this same reason (discriminating fans) that I entirely avoid the possibility of CMs playing the Harry Potter characters. As much as it would be wonderful to meet-and-greet with the characters, between the phenoma of the books and the movies, it would be very difficult to live up to expectations of young fans. It may work for Star Wars Weekend, but HP has a much larger YOUNG fanbase, and seeing the characters they love in person could end up being very traumatic if it's not JUST SO! Therfore, that issue is entirely avoided!
I also wanted to include things like The Hogwarts Express, but having an actual train would be quite complicated. I understand that skipping some of these details could leave the attraction lacking, but I hope the rest of it would suffice to make up for these omissions.

~~~~~~~~~

OY, I told you it was a very elaborate idea! But this kind of stuff just flows in my veins...I had to let it out somewhere. Hope y'all liked it! Sorry it was so long...

[SeattleRedBear]

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[pkc123]

If these 3 solutions are an indication of the excellent talent DC has,this is going to be an extremly hard decision to make.Excellent job guys and girls.

[disneyguy]

OK My idea would be a mini-Diagon Alley. For those of you who don't read the books this is where Harry goes to buy his supplies for Hogwarts, as well as a place that he visits during is time at Hogwarts. The books have many vivid descritions of stores on this street. 1st off the location of this would be in Epcot, more specifically in the England Pavillion. Diagon Alley would include many of the shops that you hear about in the book. I want to apoligize as I do not remember all the names, but I will do my best.

The Rides:
1) Gringots: Remember those wonderful carts that take your through Gringots?? Well you get to try them out!! This would be a mini-roller coaster. Each cart would be similar to a "mine train", and would only hold two people to a car, with two cars connected. Pre show would show you the bank, and lay down the usual plot. You simply will be going to your vault, and maybe getting a little prize at the end.

2) 4D Tour of Hogwarts: This ride would take you on a tour of Hogwarts, and go exploring with Harry and his pals. It would be basically a cross between Star Tours and It's Tough to be a Bug. This ride would be fairly long so that it incorporates a lot of the book. Also, so that riders don't get motion sickness only certain portions would be a motion simulator.

Shops
Of course you have to have shops, you are at Disney!!! You would have plenty of shops (ie. The joke shop). I wish I could remember more of these wonderful books!!

Food
The main dining expirience would be Dining at Hogwarts. This would be a very large resturaunt, and of course the sky would have to be on the ceiling(Yes, this is very posible with modern magic)! You would be seated a large tables, and there would be a buffet. This resturaunt would serve Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. And you would get the food that is described in the book.

There would be lots of cafes, and shops where you could purchase food. One of the shops would be where you can purchase Bernie Bots Every Flavor Beans.

There would also be tons of character interaction from Harry and pals, Hagrid, Dumbledore, and more. There would also be a once a day show where Voldemort appears and attempts to mess with people on the street.

[PrincessJill]

Disney and Harry Potter – could there be a better combination?? This was a lot of fun to come up with, but I should apologize ahead of time for the length. :(

I would put my Harry Potter creation in MGM. I don’t know as much about MGM, so I don’t have an exact place to put it. But I’m picturing another city set up – to go along with Hollywood Blvd and New York St, we would now have Diagon Alley as well. The street would have a brick archway out in front, as if you had just pushed the brick that made the wall slide back for you. Inside on Diagon Alley on both sides of the street would be all kinds of shops and little snack places and a restaurant, and at the end of the street would be the actual ride. The shops would of course be taken out of the HP books, and they would be from other areas too – not just Diagon Alley – so that more could be done with the HP theme. For example, Diagon Alley would have stores like Flourish & Blotts (which could sell all kinds of books, notebooks, paper, that kind of thing… like the Wonderful World of Memories store at Downtown Disney) and the Quality Quidditch Supplies Store (which could sell things more for kids, like HP toys, costumes, etc). But it would also have stores which in the books were located in Hogsmeade too, like Honeydukes Sweet Shop (HP-themed candy of course, like the every-flavor beans, chocolate frogs, licorice wands, etc), Zonko’s Joke Shop (a magic store), and the Three Broomsticks (which would be a counter service type restaurant). The big restaurant would be the Leaky Cauldron, and would be a sit down restaurant with waiters and all that. It would serve typical Disney restaurant food as well as HP-themed food, like cauldron cakes to eat and butterbeer or pumpkin juice to drink. Other HP-themed snacks could be sold in little stands along Diagon Alley. Just for fun, the Shrieking Shack could be on Diagon Alley as well. It would be like Mickey and Minnie’s house where you can walk through and interact with things – push buttons, open things, etc to hear screams, see things move, etc.

The actual ride would be at the end of the street, right in the middle. The facade would be the Hogwarts castle, and the line would begin when you walk through the front doors. The waiting area would wind through the foyer of the castle and would have lots of detail to set the mood - candles burning, brooms leaned against the wall, pictures hanging with the people in them moving around, etc. The ride would load at the end of the foyer into 2-row cars that could go forward on the track as well as turn side to side, like Spaceship Earth, to let the riders see the scenes better. The ride would follow the story of the first HP book, the Sorcerer’s Stone. It would be basically a classic Disney ride with animatronics telling a story room by room, but with a few added touches. If Disney wanted to, they could add new rides on Diagon Alley themed for each book.

This ride would go from the foyer into the Great Hall, where little animatronic kids and teachers would be sitting around at the tables watching the Sorting Ceremony. From there, it would go into the Gryffindor tower and show Harry, Hermione, and Ron talking about sneaking out at night to meet Draco for the duel he planned with Harry. The ride would be moving slow and would give people enough time to catch the dialog in each scene so they knew what was happening, since the scenes would obviously have to be pretty condensed. The next scene would show Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the closet room with Fluffy the 3-headed dog growling at them. The next would show the three of them gathered around Harry’s new broom (also talking about their encounter with Fluffy so the scenes seem to progress and not just be random scenes thrown together). The next room would be kind of like the room in Buzz Lightyear where there’s a movie screen around the car and the car moves through it. This movie screen would show a Quidditch match, and all the players would be flying all over the screen, as if the people on the ride were right in the middle of the action. The sound playing would include the crowd cheering and the announcer broadcasting the plays. When the car reaches the end of the screen, the announcer would... um… announce that Harry had won the game. The next room would show Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the library, and their conversation would show that they knew about the Sorcerer’s Stone and what Fluffy was guarding. The next room would be bigger and would have many different scenes all together, showing the different traps they had to get through to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone, like Fluffy, the chessboard, the potions, etc. After this room they would finally get to the scene with Quirrell holding Harry in front of the mirror. The mirror could have a repeating clip projected onto it, to show Harry’s reflection dropping the Sorcerer’s Stone into his pocket. The car would then go into a dark tunnel, another movie screen like Quidditch, but this time it would flash short clips on different areas of the screen, showing Harry fighting Quirrell and Voldemort and ultimately defeating both. The last scene would take place in the Great Hall again and would show Harry, Ron, and Hermione clearly standing out from the rest of the students as Gryffindor is presented the House Cup. The ride would empty in the same room that it had loaded.

As far as promotional events go, there could be a big HP party every so often, taking place only on Diagon Alley. Guests would be encouraged to dress in HP costumes, and maybe even the stars from the movies (teachers included!) could make an appearance. There would be different areas set up along Diagon Alley for the party that there wouldn’t normally be, like an area devoted to a trivia game with prizes, or a booth set up to learn how to make your own HP-themed food (kid-oriented – weird colored food and stuff like that). There could also be little stations set up where kids could attend “class” – little 5-minute presentations on HP class subjects, like divination, transfiguration, etc. They could use the subjects as a basis for making a craft or something that kids could take with them as a souvenir. There could be a HP character look-alike contest, a Sorting Ceremony (with free buttons or something given out to show what house you were in), and a wizard chess game (with people standing in for the pieces, like in “HP & the Sorcerer’s Stone”). Something fun as well as useful would be “Talk Like Harry Potter” booth, where they could hand out translations of British slang used in the books.

Well I guess that’s it! Sorry for the length, I get way too into these things.

[disneyguy]

You have a few more hours to get your responses in.

[MerlinMatt]

Clearly, this is an MGM thing.

I would open a new section of the park called Magic and locate it behind Star Tours and the New York area. The main access road would need to be moved to accomodate the new area.

The central ride would be a virtual reality ride similar in concept to the Back to the Future and Spiderman rides at Universal. Riders would take a ride on the magic bus and speed through London, taking an exerpt from the most recent edition of the movie. The ride would end at Hogwart's, where, taking a page from Epcot, there would be a "Harry Potter Pavillion" where you could walk through various rooms at Hogwarts to see creatures and magic. It would be a short guided walking tour (5-10 minutes).

There would be a restaurant themed after the great hall with a ceiling that would change throughout the day. It would serve traditional american fare, but everything would have mystical sounding names.

In the middle of Magic there would be a tree that moves throughout the day, responding to weather and people walking by. It would seem "aware" of everything that was going on and definately protective of itself.

There would be a series of gift shops themed after Hogsmead? (I forget the name of the place) and of course a saloon/cafe with similar theming. At the gift shops, there would be magic gifts, a candy store with all sorts of mystical sweets and a clothing store with current fashions as well as some of the more dramatic fashions from the movies.

The promotional event would be an annual visit from JK Rowlings where she would tell stories about Harry that were never written. The event would include a "fantasy gaming" convention that would include Dungeons & Dragons, Pokemon & Yugi-Oh!

[tigger]

This Task is closed...go vote.