One
oft-repeated wish in the Disney theme park fandom is for some
permanent attraction based on the Disney Villains brand. A Villains
ride, or a Villains land (often envisioned as an offshoot of
Fantasyland)...sometimes even an entire Villains park,
with themed areas based around individual members of the brand.
On the whole, the conceit seems to be the result of Disney's own
relentless trend toward character branding running smack into the
young adult taste for the dark and edgy. Most Disney animation
showcases pretty black-and-white morality, and if the good guys come
across as unappealingly twee (as they often do, thanks to
child-oriented marketing efforts), there's only one place left to go.
To be honest, I don't think a Villains-themed area, ride, or park
would really work. Disney Villains is very much like Disney
Princess—a marketing brand that involves characters from several
different movies but keeps them rigorously separated instead of
allowing true crossover interaction. With Disney's theme parks in
thrall to its branded IPs, I can't see the Imagineers being allowed
to do anything really satisfying with the concept. Something like
Princess Fantasy Faire
squeaks by because its target audience is fairly undiscriminating
about these things. I doubt the fans wishing for a Villains
attraction would be content with a collection of meet-and-greet
spots.
On the other hand, there's all kinds of fun to be had with
layering the Villains on top of what's already there. “The Villains
take over” is the plot bunny for a hundred and two Disney fanfics
(including part of my own Crowns of the Kingdom as well as my
flight of fancy about the ultimate
Disneyland-based video game), but few people (myself included)
really explore the potential. Disney itself rarely goes farther than
the odd Halloween event, wherein the takeover seems limited to a
particular live entertainment location and is quickly defeated. I'm
thinking it could be fun to examine the possibilities if the Villains
really did take over Disneyland and parcel it out amongst themselves.
Actually, let's make that both parks, maybe even the entire
Disneyland Resort. There are a lot of Villains, after all—even
considering only those from the Disney Animated Canon—and one of
their qualifying traits is that they don't play well with others.
They need a lot of territory to avoid getting up in each other's
business and fracturing the whole coalition.
For this bit of spitballing, I'll be deviating from my usual practice
of examining the themed lands in map order: Main Street,
Adventureland, etc. An awful lot here hinges on what goes on at the
epicenter of Villain activity: Fantasyland.
As a final note before we dive in, Disney's last few movies have
surprised audiences (or not, depending upon how shrewd they are as
viewers...no comment on my end) with the identity of the real
Villain. So SPOILER WARNINGS apply to the rest of this post!
