On...Being A Part of the Magic

[Not the blog post I intended to write this week! But that's how writing works. I wanted to write about the new Villains show at Hollywood Studios, as a counterpart to my thoughts on the refreshed Little Mermaid show. But I couldn't think about the show in terms of innovation and creativity without thinking about my conversation with Philander on guest experiences of attractions. What I thought would just be a bit of introductory context, ended up being a little bit of a longer post. So I went where the words took me. 😊]

When I visited Disneyland a few weeks ago (August 2025), I was so incredibly fortunate to cross paths with Disney Legacy Cast Member, Philander (a.k.a. philanderc85 on Instagram). Philander is a VIP Tour Guide at Disneyland, but he also does a fascinating series on Instagram about Imagineering and the history of the Disney Parks.

My (academic) interest is mostly on the films -- don't get me wrong, I'm a Park Girl as much as the next Disney Adult, but my first love has always been storytelling, and the way Disney tells stories through their films. Part of the reason I love the Disney parks -- over other theme parks -- is the way Disney Imagineers integrate storytelling into the attractions. So I really appreciate the opportunity to meet and talk with people who have similar Disney niche interests and knowledge, especially when they're about things I don't know much about. (I think this is something the majority of my favorite Disney content creators have in common...)

Secretly, I really hoped I'd get to meet some of those content creators in the parks on my trip. It's a random thing to have on a Disney Parks bucket list, I know -- and not something you can exactly plan. Once I step inside that Disney Bubble, I'm all in. The real world -- the news, social media -- they kinda cease to exist. My one exception (/guilty pleasure) is to play Disney: Rich or Famous though...

So when my friend and I turned the corner to head into Cars Land at the same time as Philander was...I fear I squealed like the excited fangirl I was in that moment. (And it's not the first time I've done so either...a story for another day.)

Long story short, Philander was so kind and gracious, and we were able to chat for about 15-20 minutes. I asked him about innovation and creativity -- the purpose of the trip out there, after all -- and something he said really stuck with me.

We were talking about rides & attractions at the parks, and one thing he mentioned regarding innovation was the way certain attractions, like Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout or Rise of the Resistance, make you, the guest, a part of the narrative.

That is, there's a difference between these attractions and ones where, like Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion, you're just a passive observer of the story. On Haunted Mansion, for example, your ghost host welcomes you to the mansion, and then intones:

Our tour begins here in this gallery. Here, where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state.

You then board your Doom Buggy, and the tour continues through the mansion, with the Ghost Host reminding you that "if you should decide to join us, final arrangements may be made at the end of the tour." The ride takes you through the different rooms as well as to the graveyard outside, but you're simply an observer of the "999 happy haunts." You don't interact with either the host or the ghosts. The one exception is at the end, when you're warned to "beware of hitchhiking ghosts" and Ezra, Phineas and Gus "materialize" alongside you.

Some of the newer attractions, however, have a bit of a different approach. I could do a whole post on Rise of the Resistance, so I think one of the best examples is Tower of Terror, and its Disneyland counterpart, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. In the original Tower of Terror, the pre-show script invites you onto a maintenance service elevator:

The time is now, on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed. Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you. We invite you, if you dare, to step aboard because in tonight's episode you are the star. And this elevator travels directly to . . . The Twilight Zone." 

Which, sure. You're invited to star in "tonight's episode," but you're still a bit detached from the storyline overall. You're not engaging with the original narrative; instead, its clearly stated that "the time is now, on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed."

When the ride was re-themed to feature the Guardians of the Galaxy and fit into Avengers Campus in California, the pre-show evolved a bit -- beyond the necessary changes to fit the existing IP:

Listen up! He's gonna put you on a gantry-lift for your tour. I'm gonna sneak on top of your lift, and take us all the way to the big ole generator control room. I'm gonna blast that thing, and destroy all the control systems, which will open up every cage in this freak show and free my friends. Our buddy, Mantis, is in the getaway ship, waiting for my signal. And then we'll be on our merry way! BUT... this plan won't work unless YOU help. I don't have clearance: My hands don't scan, yours do. If you raise your hands, I get the clearance and the chaos begins! [laughs] It's a fool-proof plan! [my emphasis]

In this refreshed version of the attraction, the audience is drawn into, and made part of, the story.

Will the ride still go as planned if you don't raise your hands up when Rocket tells you to?

Of course.

Will it be as fun?

Maybe.

(Will I internally judge you a little bit for not embracing the magic? Heck yeah.)

But -- especially on Tower of Terror -- there's a really cool cohort effect that can take place when you're all seated and the ride begins. You probably don't know anyone else on the elevator, and you probably won't interact with them again for the rest of the day, but for that brief moment in time, you're bonding and laughing and screaming with each other. And the new changes to the pre-show script ripple out to effect the whole narrative of the ride, prompting that bonding a little earlier, making YOU a part of the narrative.

Philander believed that attractions like these were innovative in both technology and storytelling.

I thought about that a lot as I hopped on over to the East Coast...

In The Little Mermaid show I posted about last week, guests are very much passive observers of the story. It's not a bad thing! It actually makes sense, given that the show was opened in 1992 at the time when Hollywood Studios was designed to counter Universal Studios and offer a "behind the scenes" look at movie-making-magic. The Villains show is new, and is more in line with the refreshed Guardians pre-show.

I hope to get into that next week, but I think this strategy of...not quite "immersing" but "engaging" the audience in the story is a really cool one.

with philanderc85 @ DCA in August