Theme Park Responses

Pirates of the Caribbean
The experience was pretty immersive. I found the story to be pretty captivating. Probably my favorite part was Jack Sparrow's introduction where he starts off looking like a skeleton and transforms into his human form. It was a pretty convincing effect and I was surprised to see it. Some parts like the blue cavern I tended to zone out and didn't really grasp or retain. There was a lot of screen animation which would've been fine, but I felt like there could've been more 4D effects. When the ships emerged, I would've liked to have seen some water splashing or spraying the riders, to really submerse them into the experience. I did like the climactic battle, can the cannon shot into the water was a nice touch–I just wished there was more of that.

The connection of the work I was able to make was a recreation, or at least similar storylines to the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which is about Davy Jones going after Jack Sparrow for his debt to him. We see elements of the movie in the ride, like the Kraken and the rise of the flying Dutchman.  I think it's interesting that in this ride we actually get to see a full view of the Kraken when in the movies, we only see parts of it. Having seen the movies, I was able to connect all the plot points from the movies with the ride and it made it a much better experience, in my opinion.

Another median that I would adapt this into would be a graphic novel. The same scenes would be illustrated in the graphic novel. And to keep the forward momentum, the sequences of the panels would merge into one another. To add the immersive elements to the comic, I would have the water and explosive elements run outside of the panel gutters and surround the frames. 

Wakanda Theme Park Proposal

     The Wakanda Theme Park’s iconic structure will be the waterfall that’s featured in the royal matches for King of Wakanda. At the bottom of the waterfall, is a panther statue similar to the one under the Black Panther HQ. The underlying story theme is that this theme park is Wakanda’s way of showing the technology, culture, and world of Wakanda to the real world. While meant to be educational, there was a confliction of ideas between how Wakanda should be shown to the world, so this park has been turned into a theme park to show the wonders of this hidden world to visitors.

      One of the main attractions of this theme park is a simulation ride that gives the impression that nanites are building the simulation around the ride. These nanites recreate the world of Wakanda for the riders and take them on a journey through the world of Wakanda as shown in the movie. Riders travel through the cities, mountains, and the underground world below.

       The other attraction is a roller-coaster that takes the appearance of the rail train that’s underneath Wakanda. The simulated ride takes you along the tracks that T’Challa and Killmonger fight on and you watch the two duke it out. When they clash, the energy expelled from their suits hits the rollercoaster, and the impact is simulated to the riders as if they can feel the impacts. In one scene, Killmonger throws T’Challa at the train you ride and you can see Black Panther in full view on the ride before he jumps off and enters the fight again.

       One of the waiting lines to these attractions recreates the look of the black panther ancestral plane. The purple lighting and aesthetic of the spirit realm. The guests are treated to sound of ambiance as they walk through the halls to the ride. Another waiting line recreates the scene at the museum with all the African Artifacts. Guests walk through the line and see the artifacts displayed and can read the info under the artifacts. Some of the artifacts include the row of masks including the one Killmonger wore, along with weapons and tools featured in the movie and some based on real African artifacts.

       An element of the park that provides guest with an interactive experience are bracelets that are featured in the movie. These bracelets light up purple when guests use them to access certain areas of the park that they’ve paid to enter. Different levels of the ticket you purchase gives you different accesses to the park.

       Parts of the park are dedicated to the different tribes and their culture. As you visit the different tribes, you earn a collectible pin that represents that tribe; there’s one pin for each tribe.

Lothoresa's Inner Shores

On land, creatures similar to Komodo dragons, but with six powerful legs, are the apex predators of the wild shores. Their long tongues are barbed with hooked spikes and they wrap their tongues around the necks of creatures and pull them closer in order to bite their neck. The bacteria in the mouth of the basilisk-like creature will infect the prey. Even if the prey manages to escape, the infection will eat away at the creature and kill it. The dragon stalks its victim until it meets its inevitable fate.

The Drill Divers are seagull type creatures. They walk on their four wings similar to a Quetzalcoatlus. With their four wings and their drill-like beak, they dive in a spiral into the ocean at a speed strong enough to pierce the hard scales of the dragonfish. When the drill divers successfully pierce their prey, they are strong enough to carry their prey out of the water and to land where they bring to their young or to their flock. If the dragonfish is too big, they'll sacrifice the use of two of their wings to carry the fish and only use the front two in order to get to land, but they're slower in this state and more susceptible to being attacked by the six-legged dragons.

Dragonfishes are a common species of fish around that populate the tops of the coral reefs. Dragonfishes are thought to be able to live on forever. They develop a hard shell over their bodies, and the longer they live, the harder this shell gets. Drill Divers are prominent around the shores preventing Dragonfishes from getting too large, but some dragonfishes do escape the drill divers attacks and live long enough to not only survive the attack but also becomes too heavy for the birds to carry away.

Exoplanet: Lothoresa

Lothoresa once had three massive volcanoes that dominated the planet's surface. These volcanoes overtime formed continental-sized atolls with giant coral reefs acting as natural barriers for the land. The mountains continued to erode until they formed abysses. Hypothermal vents formed at the bottom of these abysses, kick-starting life.

Two of the atolls remained closed off from the rest of the worlds oceans and life in these pocket oceans evolved separately from the open oceans. The sea creatures here retained the form of their primordial ancestors while the rest of the sea life continued to evolve. Intelligent life that evolved to walk on land later built their civilizations on the shores of these great abysses. The giant coral reefs that have formed near the shores of the abyss act as a barrier between the primordial creatures and civilization. The ocean of the northern hemisphere is almost entirely frozen in the winter seasons. The hypothermal vents of the northern-most abyss allow the pocket ocean to become a natural hotspot. The thermal lakes allow life to survive in this pocket of the world.

The Village of Quillville

Location: Near the Unnamed Forest where the animals consider the Lion its King in the Quadling Country.

The Hollowed Trees of Quillville:

Quillville is a small village of porcupines. They live in hollowed trees, with berry bushes surrounding the floors of these trees. Travelers know they’re in Quillville when they begin to see quill sheds stuck in the trees and ground, though a villager will come by and pluck the quills that are stuck in the pathways. Wooden panels are nailed to the trees and lead up to the higher hollows.

The Cowardly Lion takes a stroll through the forest. He doesn’t realize that he’s stumbled into the middle of Quillville until he almost runs into the back of a porcupine. He yelps and steps backwards, only to see another porcupine behind him. He takes a look of his surroundings and sees porcupines moving in haphazard, yet orderly, pathways. He quickly tries to leave the village but every which way he nearly meets the barbed ends of hundreds of quills. A young porcupine named Will sees the lion in distress and comes to his rescue. The lion speaks of the tales of lions and thorns and pleads with the young porcupine to not meet the same fate. Will leads the lion through twist and turns along the pathways.

Shadow the Shrouded Woman

Shadow is an introverted woman who roams the depths of the forest. She wraps herself in a black cloak. She says that she's completely alone and that she has no friends. She thinks she's socially awkward and unapproachable.

However, she often finds travelers who get lost in the forest. Shadow will hide from them initially, but if approached or asked, Shadow will reveal herself willingly. She's eager to talk to the lost travelers and will help them out of the forest.

Even though she sees herself as scary and alone, over time she's helped many travelers. She's quite caring for others well-being.

When Shadow looks east, outside of the forest, she sees towns with homes in them. People talking and playing, and she watches as the travelers she's helped joins the towns. Projecting herself onto the travelers who are joining the townspeople

Shadow gathers nuts and berries she finds south of the forest and stores them in her cloak. She hardly needs to eat, but she gathers these for the travelers who are most likely hungry on their journey.

To the west, Shadow sees her home. The darkness of the forest where sunlight can't reach. This is where Shadow lives. Where she isolates herself.

A trail that runs along the north side of the forest. Often, this is where the travelers come in from after falling off of the trail.