CMU School of Drama


Monday, September 26, 2016

The Tron Realm - Where Science-Fiction Meets Reality

Carlist.my - Malaysia's No.1 Car Site: Shanghai Disney Resort and its alliance participant SAIC-General Motors today opened a new experience inside the park dubbed the Tron Realm, Chevrolet Digital Challenge. The new attraction is sponsored by Chevrolet and offers visitors a chance to be immersed in a highly imaginative and innovative world of technologically advanced marvels.

2 comments:

Natalia Kian said...

I think it's fascinating to see an attraction which exposes the process behind the magic in a setting such as Disney, where faith, trust, and pixie dust are more the norm. Instead of cartoonish architecture and glitter-doused costumes, all of which are designed to conceal the surprisingly advanced technology which makes their world go round, The Tron Realm seems to do the opposite, allowing audience members to participate, understand, and integrate their own ideas into a world and an activity which might otherwise remain just a fantasy. It is one thing to bring Ariel and Rapunzel and Kristoff to life on stage, to see them walking around the park and to visit rides and restaurants themed towards their cinematic universes. It is a whole other thing, however, to interact with the fantasy as an audience member, to help in whatever small part to build upon the invention of the wonder. The process seems to take audience members from the house and place them in the wings, over the shoulders of directors and designers, helping to invent the world into which they want to be transported. I think this idea, if it goes as planned, could be the next step in the development of audience participation, and in bringing those which live vicariously through their favorite fantasy worlds into a participatory role.

Zara Bucci said...

Tron has been getting a ton of media attention for being extremely technologically advanced and incorporating components that test the guest’s imaginations and allow them to create elements of the world that they are in. I think that it is absolutely amazing the way that they are fully immersing their audience into this high tech world. I have been following everything in the new Shanghai Disney Park for years and have looked at renderings of Tron from the very start. The new Tomorrowland looks absolutely stunning. Exactly what I would picture Tomorrowland to look like if it had been created today. However- one downside to this ride and other elements of the area… It is 2 million dollars over budget! Disney wanted to make everything so extreme and so true to what it would actually be like that they sacrificed budget over quality. So it looks amazing but it definitely cost them. The entire park was 1 billion dollars over budget.