Disney Developing Film Based on Its Dumbest Attraction

Elizabeth Grunewald

The Pope of Chilitown
Oct 4, 2010
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Disney Developing Film Based on Its Dumbest Attraction

Disney looks to yet another theme park attraction for cinematic inspiration, and has Frank Zappa's son on hand to script it.

If you felt that basing a film off of a slow-moving theme park ride was a bit of a stretch, then you are in for a treat: Disney's most recent theme-park movie pitch is based on an attraction where you sit in a dark room for twenty minutes and listen to the sweet song of robotic birds. The L.A. Times [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/11/enchanted-tiki-room-ride-disneyland-movie.html] is reporting that The Walt Disney Studios is developing "an adventure film" inspired by Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room. Ahmet Zappa has written a script-because who better than Frank Zappa's son to write it?-and Disney is sure to cross-promote the crap out of it.

To be fair, a spokesperson for Disney clarified that "the project is not an adaptation of the attraction and is merely an action-adventure that mixes in Polynesian mythology." Zappa explicitly states that his script was inspired by the Tiki Room, though, so there's bound to be both birds and Tiki gods aplenty. As The Times notes, "there's not much known mythology behind the Tiki Room -- but then again, there wasn't much of one on "Pirates" either."

Disney's movie adaptations of theme park rides have enjoyed varied levels of success; Pirates of the Caribbean obviously did pretty well, while the Eddie Murphy vehicle The Haunted Mansion proved exactly as terrible as it sounded. While Disney has capitalized on the former, integrating the film's characters and situations back into the ride that inspired the film, it has all but forgotten the existence of the latter, to the extent of producing a second adaptation, helmed by Guillermo del Toro, less than a decade after the first's release (and subsequent failure).

Source: image [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/11/enchanted-tiki-room-ride-disneyland-movie.html])

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cjb909

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Oct 23, 2009
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Isn't the A.V. Club an arm of The Onion?
That would mean that someone is mistaking parody for news.

(Unless I'm mistaken and the AV Club is a legitimate arm of The Onion.
 

Shrike Malakim

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Oct 29, 2009
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cjb909 said:
Isn't the A.V. Club an arm of The Onion?
That would mean that someone is mistaking parody for news.

(Unless I'm mistaken and the AV Club is a legitimate arm of The Onion.
"Unlike its parent publication [The Onion], The A.V. Club is non-satirical, though much of its content maintains a similarly humorous tone."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A._V._Club
 

virtualbri

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Mar 26, 2010
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Ahmet is producing several feature film projects, some attached to Disney already, so as much as it's an easy shot to take at any Zappa offspring, it doesn't seem to be a joke project.

And *yes* there was a Country Bear Jamboree movie, which has been consigned to box next to the Ark of the Covenant, never to be spoken of again. By all accounts, it made "Haunted Mansion" look like Kurosawa.

I'd guess any Tiki Room movie would be about as connected as the Pirates movies, so while you might think the Tiki Room is the dumbest attraction ever (you obviously have never been in Innoventions, or just about anything added to the park during Michael Eisner's reign), the movie will live and die by it's own merits.

And regarding the Del Toro Haunted Mansion: Del Toro is a HUGE fan of the ride, and has mentioned the story will related to the "Hatbox Ghost" a legendary part of the ride that due to technical problems was removed in the first weeks of the ride's opening (and is rumored to be returning to the ride). He probably knows more about the ride that most of us. I think he's an inspired choice for the movie.
 

CopperBoom

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Nov 11, 2009
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cjb909 said:
Isn't the A.V. Club an arm of The Onion?
That would mean that someone is mistaking parody for news.

(Unless I'm mistaken and the AV Club is a legitimate arm of The Onion.
AV Club is real... and also the only part of Onion I enjoy.
 

VondeVon

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Dec 30, 2009
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"Based on" seems deliberately misleading. The guy said he was just inspired, right? Just because he was sitting in a room listening to false birds instead of in the park listening to real ones, does that invalidate it?
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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When I read the headline, the first ride that popped into my mind was "It's A Small World". They made a CG movie about a bunch of owls, I guess a CG movie about a bunch of parrots and stuff wouldn't be a stretch.
 

boholikeu

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Aug 18, 2008
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Am I the only one that actually likes the Tiki Room?

And if I remember correctly, isn't it also the only place Disneyland serves alcohol?
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Arkvoodle said:
I was thinking "didn't they do The Country Bears years ago???"
They did, that was about on the level with Haunted Mansion, and most likely the Tiki Room.
 

Josdeb

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May 22, 2008
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Did anyone ever see the movie Disney made based on the Tower of Terror attraction?
It was... interesting. I can't really comment on the quality of the movie, as I was fairly young when I saw it and I can't remember if it was average or terrible.