Disneyland’s “New Guardians Of The Galaxy” Attraction

Captain EO is gone for now, sad but true.  (Official Disneyland websites say it WILL return, never fear MJ fans.)

What took it’s place at Disneyland you might ask?  Why, a new 3D experience at the park in California, where you can catch a limited time intergalactic preview special in-theater effects of Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy at the Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland.

I will warn you now, this CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE UPCOMING GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY FILM.

Our good friend Scott Muchow was kind enough to give us a write up of the experience tonight:

OK, GOTG preview. It did it’s job well and made me want more. I can pretty much guarantee we saw the opening 6 minutes of the film, it even had the main title nestled snuggly in there about 30 seconds in. Which was followed by an extended trailer, most of which we have already seen. Although, I don’t remember a scene where Groot is chewing on his own leaf followed by the group’s embarrassed reactions.

The film opens on a long shot of a planet, then text comes in saying “Motag: Abandoned Planet”. We see Star Lord’s ship landing and then cut to him in long coat and helmet braving the torrential rain while navigating the rough ruinous terrain. With the help of a fancy 3D projector gadget he watches the past unfold before him in live action while looking at ruins of a city long forgotten. He enters the ruins, presses a button that dissolves the helmet and slaps on his walkman, the sounds of “Come and Get Your Love” play over the scene. He dances and slides “singing in the rain” style while kicking these little dinosaur rat things out of the way, even picking one up to use as a microphone while he lip-syncs the song. Star Lord uses his rocket boots to propel him over a chasm filled with nastily looking giant eel things and then uses a special key to open the large doors to what can only be a vault, or tomb maybe.

Anyway, he uses a gravity type gadget to remove an artifact from it’s forcefield shielded pedestal, and thats when the “police” dudes barge in. We then get the scene that we have already partially seen. The “I’m Star Lord man” scene. There is more conversation than we have seen before with Peter talking about being a junker, the main dude saying no you are wearing “???” armor then we get the Star Lord quote. He proceeds to escape by somehow shocking the two dudes behind him and then shoots from the hip the main dude in front of him. However, it only knocks him down and he gets up and fires back. Quill does a fancy “Matrix” dodge and lands on the floor activating his rocket boots again to escape through the hole the guy just blasted open.

There is a chase to his ship, another use of the gravity gadget on the “police” dudes surrounding his ship and a narrow escape. The scene cuts away with Star Lord in his ship being blasted upwards by a water spout and him barely able to stop the subsequent descent back to the ground.

So, opinions. I thought it was awesome. Was it straight out of Raiders (Of The Lost Ark) and Empire (Strikes Back)? Damn right….and I loved it! Right down to the artifact from a pedestal and the “bad guys’ setting up a tripod cannon while the Falcon flies away. I don’t care, those movies are part of my core geek and well done allusions to them are the bubbles in the champagne. Yes, there is probably a ton of CGI, again, don’t care, it’s a space adventure and you have to expect that. I am sure there will be the standard detractors and haters saying it is regurgitating what we love or relying too much on computers but meh, whatever. Peter Solo Jones is a kick ass character and if the rest of the movie is like this beginning, I will be seeing it multiple times. It looks fun without being camp and epic while still having heart.

(There is no word on how long GoTG attraction will be hanging out at the House of Mouse, so get down there and check it out!)