So, will history repeat itself? That's hard to say but given some of the names attached to this, it's kind of hard to discount it entirely. Also, given some of the names involved, it's just as easy to.
Just what is being planned? Well, if it's to be believed, a $3.5mil dollar theme park is in the works for the Forth Worth, TX area that should open in the year 2020. The folks behind this are boasting quite a bit about it's promise, but I'm going to err on the side of caution and say that not everything below is likely to happen, if the entire thing does at all.
Why? We'll get to that, but for now here's all the details of this supposed new mega theme park coming to Texas!
The proposed park, DreamScape Texas, would be close to 5,000 acres in size and boast some really unique and never before seen elements in a US based theme park. Things like a massive indoor ski resort for bobsledding, skiing and snowboarding as well as many others. So, here's some of the highlights, DreamScape Texas would include a number of lands within the park; Dreamscape Tinsel Town, Nadia's Storybook Land, DreamScape Metropolis and a Wild West themed area, all surrounding the DreamScame Mountain...the park and company's logo.
According to those at the press conference, a ton of preliminary work has gone on and they even have a site in mind somewhere in the area of Fort Worth. How that shakes out is anyone's guess. Also, as I mentioned above, they have quite the roster of folks on board for this one. Several previous Disney execs and some folks that specialize in other areas, like indoor ski resorts. The entire project will include not only the theme park but hotels, golf courses and of course a movie studio as well.
Certainly looks impressive from that park map there and definitely a lot here to talk about. So, we'll do this section by section and see what comes of it all before looking at the "iffy" bits of this whole thing. First stop? Dreamscape Metropolis.
Modeled after New York City, this area will boast a few rides as well as couple of shows. Most notably, the Stock Exchange roller coaster (no, I'm not making that up) and a bumper car ride that's modeled after the famous New York City yellow cabs. Looks like the area will come complete with it's own Statue of Liberty and other iconic buildings and sights from the city as well. From the larger map above, looks like there could be another coaster in this area as well.
Next up on our little tour is Nadia's Storybook Land. This one will be a large one and if anyone is out there wondering just who Nadia is, we are too. No clue who she is an the folks at DreamVision weren't really much on details either. This is definitely an attempt to mimic the iconic Fantasyland at Disney but has a few interesting items floating about.
For starters, that's an interesting and unique entrance design. Now, for the rest of the area? Well, again, not much to go on but by the footage shown in the press release video, it's definitely similar to other fantasy/storybook areas out there.
From the looks of it there's quite a few things going on here, but have to say that the chocolate log flume thing looks pretty cool. The rest, seems to be standard fare as far as these areas go and there's really no word on other kinds of rides other than the concept art below showing some kind of butterfly flyer ride and a themed area. What's in those buildings? Hard to say. Could be stores, eateries, etc.
The next area, that seemed to be fairly glossed over is Tinsel Town. Overall, seems to be the obligatory "Hollywood" themed area that will showcase various movies and other things. Just what do they have in the plans? Well, looks like they'll have a few different things here. The most obvious? An earthquake themed attraction, now...where have seen that before?
I'm going to guess that there's a couple of shows in here as well as some other ride which looks water themed? Hard to say, but it could also be some kind of show building as well. They also showed concept art for some kind of space ride. Maybe that's some kind of simulator or something of an homage to sci-fi movies? Again, not many details here for a park that's only 5 years away from opening.
The last "land" for the park is set to a Wild West kind of theme and for Texas, that makes a lot of sense to be there. No real clue as to what kind of things will be included in it but can guess on a few shows and a couple of rides at the very least. As you can guess, they were pretty scarce on the details here as well.
However, wait...is that Wonka in there? Did they neglect to say anything about this or are they just doing some wishful thinking here? I'm not sure but that seems like a weird addition to me.
Again, all of this surrounds the centerpiece of the park, the huge hulking mountain that will likely be seen from a good bit away. Not a bad statement to make but what about what's inside? Well, they're saying that it will be some kind of huge indoor ski resort like out in Dubai. Definitely interesting but hugely expensive to maintain. Can it be done? Sure. Likely to be done? Hard to say.
Looks like there could also be some kind of ride or train attraction that either goes through the mountain in some way or around it. Not really sure. Kind of hard to tell from the images but apparently there's also the option of taking ski lifts and other things up to the top. Why? Well, there's a restaurant at the top, where else would you put one, right?
Inside the mountain is of course the whole skiing, sledding and snowboarding area. Which, given the size of the mountain, could easily fit inside the structure and be the largest in the world as they're claiming it to be upon completion.
So, that's pretty much everything as far as lands go, but that's not all. Theme parks need a lot more than just that these days and if you're going to go after Disney or Universal, need to offer the full package. So, of course, there's the entrance and the "Main Street" area of the park, which much like Disney, will offer up retail and eating experiences as well.
That could be at the little bridge area that's shown in the picture to the left here. Would make sense if that's the case.
Now for the iffy and down right absurd bits. The folks running this little endeavor have a slightly shaky past with promising large scale theme parks. Not long ago, Rick Silanskas, promised a similar attraction in Lake County, FL. As you can guess, that never happened. No clue why, but it just never materialized and that was six years ago now. Curious.
Also, it seems rather odd that a production company that has only produced a 6 hour concert and firework show, as well as a short animated movie (which is beautifully done by the way)of less than 3 minutes is getting enough funding for not just one $3.5billion dollar theme, but a second in Alabama. That screams "Stop the Presses" right there in more ways than one. Oh, let's not forget about the $2billion dollar theme park and movie studio that's opening in South Africa in 2017. All this from a company that only makes about $390,000 a year as of 2011. There's also talks of another in China on top of all this. That's a ton of things going on and something just doesn't add up here at all when you start looking at things.
Even weirder in all this is apparently the company trademark was abandoned in 2014 and there's a slew of other things that just smell fishy about the whole thing too. They've also said these things before, back in 2013 to be exact. On top of that, the city of Forth Worth doesn't seem to know much about this project either. Wouldn't you bring in city officials and all for your "big announcement"? I dunno, I think I would as the cat would be out of the bag and them involved shows your actually doing it. Maybe that's just crazy talk though and I'm not saying they're not genuine in their desire, or that they won't succeed, but the track record here isn't exactly promising.
If Logan and Silankas really want to emulate Walt Disney as they say, wouldn't actually producing movies to see if there's a following and get funding be the right way to do this? Not saying it's impossible in the way they're doing, but it definitely raises some eyebrows to all of us here at ISI. Even more so when comments like, “Although they are being built simultaneously, each has separate themes, rides and attractions that embody the DreamVision family brand" are being tossed around. What family brand are we talking about here? I'm sure that almost no one has heard of DreamVision in the general public, let alone globally as some claims go, and not many have seen their movies, oh wait...there aren't any outside of Hooked. I tried to find any info and I couldn't find a single shred of evidence of them out there.
Look, I could be wrong and they could pull it off, but this seems like a lot going on all at once and if they do, it'll be a major coup in the theme park industry. They've got three theme parks to build now, one supposedly opening in 2017 and the other two set to open in 2020. That's five years and they don't even have a site and haven't broken ground yet? I just don't know. Seems like another pipe dream, but at least it isn't the guy that just got sentenced to jail for claiming Disney was opening a park in the same area, right?
They've got a lot going on and I'm not going to hold my breath on this one, but we'll bring you the latest updates on this project, if there are any, and the next announcement that's scheduled for Weds, February 11th for the other theme park they have planned in Muscle Shoals, AL.
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