Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights: Where
are the Disney video game
references at the parks?
Every once in a
while, I like to browse through
YouTube and see Disney parks
videos. On occasion, I stumble
upon the comments, and one of
the most common is: where is
Kingdom Hearts at the park?
Sometimes it's 'I want to see
more Kingdom Hearts stuff at the
parks,' other times it's 'there
should be a Kingdom Hearts
attraction!' This led me to try
and answer the question: just
where are the references, not
just to Kingdom Hearts, but all
major Disney video game
franchises, at the Disney theme
parks? The answer won't be
simple so hang on tight!

Disney loves to
reference their own movies,
characters, stories, TV shows,
and even their attractions, both
existing and retired, at the
parks in many unique ways. For
example, at the Magic Kingdom
you can see
Cinderella's Wishing Well,
which references the scene where
Lucifer chases Gus Gus while he
is carrying beads, at Disneyland
you can see statues of Aurora's
forest friends around her
castle, and even at Disney's
Hollywood Studios you can dine
while being surrounded by props
from famous Disney movies. So
with all of these references to
many of Disney's own projects,
where are the video game
references?
Disney's first
major franchise based around a
video game world was TRON.
Released in 1982, TRON
tells the story of Kevin Flynn
as he is digitized into a video
game world of his own creation
and is forced to partake in
games of survival with other
programs. One of them, TRON,
becomes his ally as they
uncovered a conspiracy going on
in the real world that threatens
the stability of the digital
world they are in. The film,
while at first wasn't a box
office darling, quickly gained a
cult following thanks to its
then revolutionary use of
computer graphics to convey an
alternate universe. It was also
a movie that celebrated the
endless possibilities of
computers, the games we played
and how we communicated with
each other. TRON was so
inspiring that it led an unknown
animator to pursue a career in
computer animation. That man was
John Lasseter, and his company
became known as Pixar. Such is
the legacy of this little movie.
With TRON
being Disney's premiere video
game based franchise, it was
briefly seen at Disneyland,
specifically on the now extinct
People Mover. The People Mover
is a futuristic transportation
system that takes guests around
Tomorrowland and through its
attractions. While not as fancy
or as iconic as the Monorail,
the People Mover has become a
classic among Disney theme park
fanatics. Despite being one of
the original attractions at
Disneyland, it no longer exists
there. In both versions of the
People Mover, guests could enter
tunnels that depicted a scene,
sometimes related to the
attraction, other times imagery
of the future (like Walt's early
concept for EPCOT). For a period
of time, one of the tunnels
hosted a TRON scene depicting
the famous light cycle race
using projectors that surrounded
the vehicles.

In 2010, the
cult success of TRON and
many of its spin off projects,
such as video games and comics,
allowed Disney to create
TRON: Legacy, a sequel to
the original film which brings
back many of the classic
characters. Now, instead of it
being all about video games, it
was all about the digital world,
the software it can create, and
digital life. The movie was much
more visually ambitious as the
first and was fairly successful
at the box office and with
critics. Disney understood the
potential the film could have
with both old fans of the first
movie, as well as brand new fans
that were getting to know the
TRON universe, so they
filled both parks with many
references and attractions to
TRON: Legacy.
At Disneyland,
Disney presented a night show
called ElecTRONica, a techno
music inspired dance party
hosted by the charismatic
Eckert. There was also a 3D
preview of the film nearby, and
even an arcade inspired by
Flynn's Arcade in both films.
Sadly, with the hype of the film
waning as the years went by, the
whole show and its attractions
closed down in 2012, leading way
to the Mad T Party. The arcade
is now an Alice in Wonderland
themed arcade hosting classic
arcade games, and ElecTRONica
made way for the Mad T Party
band. Around the same time, the
nighttime spectacular, World of
Color, featured a brief segment
on TRON: Legacy at the
end of the show.

At Walt Disney
World, Disney did something that
divided fans greatly: they
adorned one of the Monorail
vehicles with a decal featuring
TRON: Legacy. Many fans
enjoyed that it made the vehicle
look very sleek and futuristic,
and with it making the rounds at
EPCOT, fans just couldn't get
enough of it. Other fans,
though, thought the decal turned
the Monorail into a shameless
promotional vehicle, the kind
you would expect on buses and
cabs at major cities. Still,
Disney kept the affectionately
named TRONorail for a long time
until the even more infamous
Avenger-rail took its place.

Last year,
Disney released their 52nd
animated classic, Wreck-It
Ralph. With the film being
all about the worlds of classic
video game characters, Disney
would adorn itself with
references to both the film and
the games mentioned within it.
Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope
hosted meet and greets at both
Disneyland and Walt Disney
World. As expected, their area
was decorated with lots of video
game references, Disneyland
featuring a row of classic
arcade cabinets at the
Tomorrowland arcade, while at
Walt Disney World there is a
whole area themed to Game
Central Station (to see all the
references thrown in,
check out this article from last
year). If the success of
Wreck-It Ralph results in a
timeless legacy, you can bet you
will be seeing more of him and
the games at the parks.

One of the major
Disney video game projects of
the last few years has been Epic
Mickey. I have talked about both
games extensively in the last
few weeks so you can read about
them in extensive detail
here and
here. Unfortunately, the
projects have not been as widely
accepted as, say, the latest
Pixar or Disney movie, so Disney
has no plans to further extend
the legacy of Epic Mickey at the
parks. However, the success of
the game did inspire Disney to
do more with Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit beyond the game and the
DVD sets of the Oswald cartoons.
Merchandise featuring Oswald has
sprung up, including the now
famous Oswald ear hats. At the
renovated Disney California
Adventure park, on Buena Vista
Street, there is a shop called
Oswald's Tires that dedicates
itself to selling Oswald
merchandise. Surely, the games
helped Disney fans get
acquainted with a forgotten
Disney character, and thus have
a bigger role in the parks.

Finally, the
question that inspired this
whole article: just where are
the Kingdom Hearts references at
the park? Now if you are a fan,
prepared to be disappointed. The
reason we have yet to see
Kingdom Hearts at the parks is
because the series is primarily
owned by Square Enix. Yes, they
have to license the characters
and stories from Disney, and
they co-develop the games with
Disney Interactive. However, the
whole concept and design of the
franchise was created primarily
by Square Enix, specifically
series creator Tetsuya Nomura.
The gameplay design, the
original characters, and story
that surround the Disney
characters and stories belong to
Square Enix. In other words, if
Disney wanted to do a whole
attraction or have grand meet
and greets with the characters,
they would have to work with
Square Enix to make it happen
and most likely spend a lot of
money in the process. That's a
lot of things to do for a series
that primarily followed by
gamers and role playing
fanatics. And in case you feel
that this wouldn't be the case
at Tokyo Disneyland, this
applies there too. It's a
complex legal issue, that's for
sure. I too wish the series
would somehow appear at the
parks, but for now, we should be
content meeting the Disney
characters we know fully exist
now.
And that, my
friends, are the Disney video
game references you can or could
find at the parks. Yeah, it's
not a whole lot, because sadly
video games have yet to be as
regarded as film, television or
books, and Disney's own presence
in the video game industry is
very limited. Hopefully as both
TRON and Wreck-It Ralph continue
to inspire Disney fans and
gamers, Disney will continue to
keep them alive and implement
them in creative ways at their
parks around the world.