Unveiling Villains Land: Behind a World of Wicked Wonders
Ahead of the Disney Experiences Horizons showcase, Walt Disney Imagineering expanded on the story, detail, artistic feel, experiences and name of the Villains Land coming to the Magic Kingdom. First of all, Imagineer Caroline May, Executive Creative Director for Walt Disney World, revealed that the official name for the land is…. Villains Land. As she said, “We know that there's already a precedent that's been set within Magic Kingdom, which is that 'land' is usually in the title, so we figured, why mess with a good thing? But we also know that that's probably what our guests are going to be calling it, so we like that.”
Speaking of May, she has a long history with Disney. She began her Disney career at EPCOT as a VIP hostess before eventually joining Walt Disney Imagineering, where she has spent the past 20 years working on projects around the world. Now, she is returning to Walt Disney World to help bring some of Disney’s most notorious characters to life in an entirely new way.
Going back to the land, Imagineers have been working with Walt Disney Animation Studios to create an original mythology inspired by the classic Disney animated films. Rather than simply assembling a collection of familiar villain locations, Villains Land will tell the story of a mysterious place that has been corrupted by dark magic. This massive project is on a similar scale to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and similar to that project, it begins with a story.
Like many classic fairy tales, the story begins when someone strays from the safe path and ventures into a dark forest. Deep within Villains Land will be a twisted and broken wishing well. Imagineers began thinking about the traditional idea of a wishing well as a place where people make hopeful wishes and wondered what would happen if someone instead used one to make an evil wish.
In the story Imagineering developed, a mysterious stranger does exactly that. The evil wish corrupts the well, breaking it open and allowing its poisoned magic to spread throughout the surrounding forest. Disney's villains eventually discover this corrupted place and realize that its magic can be used for their own purposes.
The villains harness that cursed magic to conjure their own lairs, creating the environment guests will explore when they enter the land. Rather than giving the entire area a single architectural style, Imagineers are designing each villain's home to reflect the personality and characteristics of its inhabitant. May noted that Disney's villains have "high standards" and "impeccable taste," with the elegance and sophistication of the characters influencing everything from the land's architecture to its costumes.
That mythology will provide the connective tissue for a land that draws upon multiple Disney villains without necessarily forcing all of them into the same preexisting story. It also gives Imagineers an explanation for how these very different characters and environments can coexist within a single corner of the Magic Kingdom. Cruella, the Evil Queen, and Dr. Facilier use the land’s cursed magic to conjure new lairs for themselves which reflect their own style.
Of course, the biggest question surrounding Villains Land has been exactly what guests will get to experience there. Disney previously announced that the land would include two major attractions, and we now know considerably more about both of them.
The first will be a thrilling roller coaster starring Maleficent. Guests will encounter the Mistress of All Evil as they race through enchanted briars surrounding her mountaintop fortress. May teased that Imagineers are developing elements for the attraction that Disney has never previously incorporated into one of its roller coasters, although she stopped short of revealing exactly what those innovations will be.
The second attraction will take a very different approach. Instead of another thrill ride, Disney is developing a theatrical dark ride centered around the Evil Queen's palace and the Magic Mirror. Guests will enter the palace before descending deep into its catacombs, where they will encounter the Magic Mirror. Rather than simply serving as another character within the attraction, the Mirror will effectively become the host of the experience.
From there, guests will enter what Imagineering is calling the "mirror realm," where the Magic Mirror will conjure visions of familiar Disney villains. The concept potentially gives Disney a way to feature a much broader roster of villains within a single attraction while still grounding the experience in the world of the Evil Queen.
May emphasized that the dark ride will make extensive use of special effects and practical show sets, describing Imagineering's approach as a "very theatrical expression." While Disney isn't revealing exactly which villains will appear within the mirror realm yet, the attraction sounds designed to celebrate the larger pantheon of Disney animation's evildoers rather than focusing exclusively on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Taken together, the two attractions also appear designed to showcase two very different sides of Disney's villains. Maleficent will anchor the land's major thrill experience, while the Evil Queen and Magic Mirror will provide the foundation for a more traditional Disney dark ride filled with physical environments and theatrical effects.
For May, part of the appeal of creating Villains Land is that these characters allow Imagineers to break some of the rules themselves. She described Disney villains as smart, stylish, funny and unapologetic about who they are, qualities that have given the design team permission to approach the land differently from other areas of the Magic Kingdom.
With a corrupted wishing well, a cursed forest, villainous lairs, Maleficent's mountaintop fortress and a mysterious mirror realm now part of the picture, Villains Land is beginning to evolve from tantalizing concept art into a much more fully realized place. And while there is still plenty we don't know, particularly about the technology behind Maleficent's coaster and the villains who will appear in the Magic Mirror's visions, Disney has now given us our best sense yet of the story guests will step into when they venture off the safe path at the Magic Kingdom.