There has been talk about re-vamping El Rio del Tiempo at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot around the fan site circles. I think it would be fun to hunt for El Chupacabra. What is a Chupacabra you ask? It is a seemingly mythical creature that is said to exist in Latin countries. The translation is "goat sucker", which does not sound very Disney, but hear me out. In the late 1980's and early 90's there were many claims by the people of Latin countries that something or someone was killing off their livestock and sucking out the blood like a vampire. People claimed they saw a creature lurking in the jungle and caves that was causing all of the damage. Here are some artists renderings and "pics" of what they are said to look like.
The ride cue would have a Mexican man or woman telling us the history and the story of El Chupacabra to set the scene.
The boat system could be left in place and the scenes would be replaced with a jungle scene, cave scene, Mayan and Aztec ruins, etc. Then integrate AA characters of El Chupacabra. The boats would be fitted for a tour guide, like Jungle Cruise.
We would start out catching slight glimpses of El Chupacabra. Peeking around rocks, Just missing him running behind something and so forth. This version of El Chupacabra will be small and possibly slightly cute, about two feet tall or so. The tour guide would always be a second late in finding him, so the kids will get a kick out of his ineptitude. The ride will hit the 3/4 mark and finally the tour guide will spot the creature. He or She will then laugh and say, " Oh don't worry folks, that's just a baby Chupacabra. Nothing to worry about. We just have to make sure not to get between it and its mother.
The boat travels around a dark corner and BAM!! There is the full grown Chupacabra, maybe hanging over the boat in a cave or something. This version of the creature would be very menacing so as to scare everyone.
Ok, maybe not quite that menacing, but you catch my drift.
The tour guide would direct everyone to cover their heads and the boat would accelerate away from danger leading to the exit.
6 comments:
Maybe a good idea for an attraction at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, but it would never fit in to EPCOT...(but I gotta tell you, the idea sounds really cool and I'd love to see an attraction like you have described!!)
Please don't just look at the pictures and think that the monster has to look that scary. Also, I'm not so sure about "never fit in to Epcot" The Malestrom has some scary trolls just a few doors down. And don't forget about the alien from the movie Alien in TGMR, that thing looks just as nasty as the pics I provided. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
This is awesome! It never occurred to me that El Chupacabra would make for a good dark ride--and it's a shoe-in for the Mexico area. It is a proper theme, a part of Mexican superstition and done right would certainly bring a lot of folks into the building.
If anything, I think the only fault with the attraction, of course, are the legal ramifications. I doubt the Cast Members--and even the country of Mexico--would appreciate an attraction that seems to focus on the supernatural beast, but I'm aware that the point of Amateur Imagineer is to present all kinds of ideas, regardless of merit--and that's not to say Chupacabra Encounter is without merit! :-)
In this PC age, Imagineers have been turned into wimps by the legal department. There's no more chance taking--just people always going with a sure thing, and everything needs a warning spiel.
Keep sharing those ideas!
This sounds like a good idea, but like joe said, I doubt Mexico would want a ride based purely on supersition.
If I were to create a ride for Mexico I'd do one of the popular interactive shooting dark rides. The ride could be themed to a fiesta and rides would have to shoot pinatas. The ride vehicles could also look like different brightly coloured pinatas. The only problem I see with my ride is that soon WDW will have two shooting rides (Buzz Lightyear, and Midway Mania)
E.P.C.O.T. needs a GOOD dark-ride. The mexican pavilion deserves much better than what they've had for so long. And, please... NO SHOOTING AT CRAP RIDES! This park used to have an amazing array of dark rides which have almost all been replaced.
out of all the mythical, blood sucking creatures out there, the Chupacabra is almost certainly the sneakiest
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