Disney, it’s time to be afraid, slightly afraid.
Let’s be honest: what sounds cooler to transform into a theme park experience: Avatar, Marvel, or Nintendo? Besides Star Wars, there is no major intellectual property in the next five years that sounds as intriguing to make rides and attractions out of then the House of Mario. As a matter of fact, its Nintendo’s stubborn Japanese business practices that for years had been hampering on its potential success and potential earnings. More people know about Mario than Spider-Man. Super Mario isn’t just a video game character, but a global pop culture icon---and Universal claiming the theme park rights is nothing short of brilliant. When it seemed like there would be no way to recover from Disney’s New Fantasyland and expansion ideas, here comes the perfect blend of properties to slowly but surely add to the upcoming theme park battles.
The potential is ridiculous. Although it would serve much, much, much better as a theme park all by itself, having at the most a section or two in the Universal parks is not a bad gig at all. Mario can have his slow ride(s) for the kids, Donkey Kong can have his massive water ride, Pokemon can have an immersive experience (A Pokemon Stadium, despite being impossible in limited space, would be nothing short of jaw-dropping), and then we can see Kirby and Star Fox with roller coasters. Let’s not forget potentially giving Metroid a killer indoor horror coaster/experience and F-Zero/Mario Kart go-kart or racing attractions. Let’s not forget Luigi’s Mansion, Wario, Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus, Earthbound, Pilotwings, among others.
Unlike the gamble of AvatarLand (which let’s be honest has been losing momentum for years), there is absolutely nothing risky about claiming Nintendo. Despite the WiiU failing miserably, the software from Nintendo always does extremely well, and let’s not forget the great numbers being put out by the 3DS. And here’s this fun fact: in each of the last five years at least one of Nintendo’s main franchises has a game in the top 5 on global sales---Pokemon being the top franchise in recent years.
So Universal has revved up its competitive edge in recent years by taking The Simpsons, Transformers, Harry Potter, Despicable Me, and now Nintendo. As for Disney there is….um…Avatar…and…New Fantasyland. Disney is looking more and more dated and more and more lost as the properties are piling up in Universal and they are doing an awesome job fanning the flames after seeing Marvel become a purely Disney entity. And although Universal will require at least two decades before it ever has even an outside shot at gunning for Magic Kingdom success, I am sure they will be more than happy settling for aiming at surpassing Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom in the coming years---which is entirely and wholly possible.
The fact that Nintendo had not become a theme park before is absolutely silly, especially when the Wii was ruling the entertainment universe. But better late than never I suppose, as Nintendo can definitely use some American exposure and can use some good marketing. Despite the limited scope, theme parks are perfect marketing ploys. 90 million people visit Florida from all over the world. If we can get just half of that population to say something nice about a certain movie or game that was first unveiled in one of the theme parks, that’s at least 225 million people getting involved in the conversation (assuming that one individual talks to five people).
Although none of this is set in stone, I can see Marvel getting replaced in Islands of Adventure. I can see Spider-Man being the most painful departure, but the other rides getting makeovers and a few crucial changes. Hulk can easily become repainted and transformed into a Star Fox ride for example. I can see all the Marvel character interactions become Nintendo character interactions. I can see Nintendo-themed restaurants, gift shops, and can even see an entourage of Nintendo arcade games in the near future. As long as Nintendo doesn’t butt heads with Universal the way the Harry Potter crew battled Disney, then I can see both companies making fantastic money off of this partnership. Long gone are the days when Nintendo screwed over so many companies they accidentally created their own worst enemy----the Playstation from the disgruntled and vengeful company of Sony.
But what about Disney? How can Disney possibly counter this? Star Wars needs to be announced excruciatingly soon, because that’s the only thing out there by Disney that has a chance at ruining the momentum of Nintendo becoming part of Universal Studios. New Fantasyland has been a hit (slightly, nobody talks about The Little Mermaid to be honest), but Epcot hasn’t gotten anything worthy of mention, Hollywood Studios is a dismal disaster, and Animal Kingdom’s expansion hasn’t exactly been tuning heads. Star Wars and Indiana Jones needs to expand, and very soon. Not just in Orlando either, Disneyland should probably look into transforming a little more of their Tomorrowland into a bigger Star Wars presence.
Bottom Line: It will take potentially a century before Universal can boast better numbers than Disney---that is how badly Disney World owns the theme park industry. Magic Kingdom has more than double the attendance of Islands of Adventure, and if you combine the people visiting the original Universal park it STILL won’t match Magic Kingdom’s 18 million (and climbing). Nonetheless, the other parks in the Disney catalog have been weakening, and it’s only a matter of time before Universal Islands of Adventure can potentially sneak in to the 5 most-visited American parks. Sometimes the slowest defeats are the most painful---just ask Sea World what happened to them.
Disney should not be scared at the news, but they should be worried. There’s blood in the water, and Nintendo becoming a Universal staple feels like a missed opportunity in the part of Disney and feels like a major step forward in Universal’s recently incessant efforts to combat the pixie dust. No part of this deal feels hollow, as Nintendo has dozens of memorable and recognizable characters that can be a part of wonderful upcoming (and preexisting) experiences. Universal hasn’t disappointed in any of their recent updates, and I don’t see them fumbling Nintendo either.
At the end of the day: Nintendo wins, Universal wins, Nintendo fans wins, Orlando definitely wins, and Disney loses---despite being far in the lead.
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