Kennywood and New Garfield Attraction

Hello Coaster Fand Who are Now Busy Finding The Perfect Sled Riding Hill,

I know there has been a lot of talk with Kennywood retheming The Old Mill to Garfield. I just noticed and have seen the new preview for the movie Garfield. It's due to be released this coming summer (I don't know the date though.) The movie reminds me very easily of Cats and Dogs.

Looks like Kennywood could easily be helped out by this and their timing of the retheming + all the marketing of the movie, and bringing back the slowly fading Garfield to the public.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

The timing of the rethemeing was no coincidence.

Yea, its being redone as a garfield dark ride by a company called "dark rider". The company has also done some work with cp,sf and also is responsible for the spiderman ride at niagra falls.

It is a fairly new company. And althow I am not thrilled about them ruining the old mill, I am confident that this company will do a good job.

Being a life long fan of Garfield I am natually curious to see how this turns out.

It's' going to be called "Garfield's Nightmare" and according to KW's website it says something about "a food-induced nightmare". "The fat cat's comfortable world will get turned upside down when all his favorite things turn on him".

Hmmmm, the revenge of lasagna? :-) Anyway, I thought Odie was already Garfield's nightmare. LOL!

-Tina

Don't forget about Nermal. Garfield was always trying to mail him to the other side of the world.

kpjb is right on as many people have already noticed and some pointed out in other threads.

-Danny

Well, given that he's a full-time employee at the park (that's what the "kp" in "kpjp" is for), it shouldn't come as any surprise that he's right...

It's good to see Garfield getting some much needed publicity! The movie sounds awesome. Will the park start serving lasagna now? ;-)

-Tina

Not exactly Greg since the movie and dark ride aren't directly related. Tomb Raider: The Ride was announced right after the movie came out and both were "Paramount" projects. While Scooby Doo dark rides have opened at Paramount Parks while the movie was planned and released in 2001, Scooby Doo is a Warner Bros. film. Timing is obvious (I hate to use the word, but parks aren't stupid and decide things "accidently") to me, but I'm sure only people in planning and design at KW along with whoever they decided on the ride with would "know because of" the reasoning and timing. If 20th Century Fox sat down with Kennywood and decided on the release date/ride opening year, then that will be a true shocker. ;)

-Danny *** Edited 1/11/2004 12:09:31 AM UTC by Koaster King***

Well, if Kennywood works with Paws (the people that bring you Garfield), and Paws works with 20th Century Fox, then it might be more of a planned opening than you may think. Since the Old Mill has been in dire need of a renovation for several years, and Kennywood has been involved with Garfield for several years, then they could've worked this out.

Possible but not probable that 20th Century Fox would give a blown nose to when a dark ride was opening at a park in West Mifflin, PA. I'm pretty certain Fox didn't care when Storm Force opened at Islands of Adventures when X-Men came out in 2000. Or Sony with Men in Black 2 and Spider-Man for related rides. It means a lot more to the parks adding or who have a ride to advertise with a movie than a movie advertising with a park adding a ride.

-Danny *** Edited 1/11/2004 2:49:03 AM UTC by Koaster King***

But what about the other way around? The movie would spark an interest in Garfield again, and as a result people might want to ride Garfield's Nightmare. Fox wouldn't get much out of it, but Kennywood certainly can.

My guess would be Kennywood knew it wanted to retheme the ride for a couple of years (since it starting going "Bad"...props wise.) You can find many websites stating when movies are coming out at least two years in advance. Sure some change for one reason or another...same with video games. But if it's not going to be a gigantic multi-million/billion blockbuster they usually stay pretty close to the opening day. And I'm willing to bet they knew about the Garfield movie (of which movie theaters are now advertising as I just saw tonight.) Either way they probably knew about 12 months in front of the release date which gives them plenty of time to make props/storyline/etc since the existing ride is already in place. I'm not a big fan of Garfield, but I'll take any dark ride as long as I know it's not getting torn down.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

Exactly Phantom and that's what I said here, "It means a lot more to the parks adding or who have a ride to advertise with a movie than a movie advertising with a park adding a ride" and there would be your reasoning Kennywood would have to add Garfield, just like you said in sparking a new interest. That's why the thread was brought up to begin with.

-Danny

Speaking of cartoon characters that have lost popularity, what ever happened to the Smurfs? They were widely popular back in the 80's.

I would love to see a sky blue colored kiddie coaster themed after the Smurfs. :)

"Escape From Gargamel" - that'd be a smurfing good coaster, Chitown. :)

Actually, I hate (hated?) the Smurfs. I'd only ride if Azrael got to eat them.

Maybe a "Wild Smurf" coaster - a wild mouse with little blue "Smurf" cars and every other car is "Azrael" trying to catch them. Kind of like the wild mouse coasters that alternate between mouse and cat cars.

And just for the record - I think Danny talked in circles to look like he was making a point ;) (the same point that I think PhantomTalis made in the first place - even if the wording was a bit misleading)

And even if he wasn't - it would be kind of obvious that it's Kennywood captalizing on the movie, not vice versa. Lots of energy working out the detauils of the obvious in a few posts up there...then again that was a lot of typing for me to point that out, huh?

At any rate retheming Old Mill to Garfield = eh.

Cats eating smurfs = Yipee!

I have to admit, I love the Smurf wildmouse/cat idea.

Uh huh Gonch. Just say if you were confused and I'll clarify. What I said was more linear than you'd think and just because there's similar references doesn't mean they're similar points repeated (Tomb Raider--> Garfield--> Scooby--> Men in Black). =p

Who said the movie would be capitalizing on the ride or who said PhantomTails made the point before I did before RollerCoasterGod did before I did weeks ago in another thread? Even though it should be *obvious*... ;)

-Danny *** Edited 1/12/2004 5:57:28 PM UTC by Koaster King***

Why can we not just get a new coaster. I do agree the old mill needs work. It looks bad, but not as bad as the old Chalet ride by the thunderbolt used to look when I was a kid. I think this will be interesting. I pray that sometime before I die Kennywood will get a new coaster, and they better hurry I am already 25

Why can't we just get a new coaster? "Budget" and "space" come to mind immediately. Kennywood can't just slap down a new coaster every year...