Phantom Theater revival concept

[Swiftdrawer]

Many people on here have been talking about bringing back the Phantom Theater to replace Boo Blasters. And I believe it’s the way to go. With how Boo Blasters has had its blasters no longer make noise for years, I don’t think they have plans to keep Boo Blasters around forever. The idea of Boo Blasters was always just a retooling to replace the Scooby Doo elements that were in the Scooby Doo and The Haunted Mansion that was rethemed into it. A pretty cheap way to create a IP with the stuff they could keep from Scooby Doo. Cedar Fair attempted to become somewhat known for dark rides in the last decade though that didn’t get too far. Bringing back Phantom Theater would be a huge sell for Kings Island. The marketing, the merchandise, potentially Phantom Theater treats, so many possibilities. And they don’t have to recreate the original Phantom Theater. They could tie in the new version with the original as well as Phantom Theater Encore, telling us of what happens after Encore. As a fiction writer who has written around 3 million words of fiction, I know very well the different directions in storytelling they can go with.

My concept for a Phantom Theater revival is to have it set after Encore, in which something changes in the spirit world. After the Phantom Theater returns for its encore, demand from both the living and the dead causes someone to bring back the Phantom Theater, reopening it to the public somehow and ushering in a new era for it. The living owners of the building housing the returned Phantom Theater would have ties to Kings Island’s storyline really set up by both Area 72 and Adventure Express’s refurbishment 2 years ago. The storyline connects Flight of Fear, Orion, The Beast, Mystic Timbers, and more already. They could go with a story that some people connected to the Miami River Company saw the Phantom Theater return only to vanish again and tried to break the curse that keeps the Phantom Theater from only returning once every 50 years and they contact possibly CHAOS Labs or even Madame Fatale to see about doing something about the curse because of all the smiling faces who enjoyed the Phantom Theater when they saw it too.

Eventually, they overcome the hurtles required to bring it back and contact the spirit world in order to aid in making that happen. And riders would experience the grand reopening of the Phantom Theater, rather than just an Encore. All new scenes and animatronics would show a performance filled with more energy than ever before and even introducing new elements such as some featuring Larry, naturally. I was born after the original ride closed so I never got to ride it sadly but still, the dream for enhancing Kings Island to make it even more fun would involve Phantom Theater’s revival as a key project. But they can go even further. They can tie in more things that already exist along with a revived Phantom Theater into the storyline for Kings Island. That includes the haunted houses. But will a Phantom Theater revival actually happen? Not for a while. Between the merger and all the cost cutting measures lately and the elimination some positions in Six Flags this year, I doubt they will be focusing on it any time soon. That said, many dark rides are cheaper than a big steel roller coaster like Diamondback, Banshee, or Orion. And they already have the building, ride vehicles, and omnimover system. Personally, if I were in charge of Kings Island’s future direction, I would heavily emphasize the art of storytelling, something that appeals to all ages and demographics.
 

Such storytelling would also include turning Soak City into something more unique in theme, likely dividing the water park into areas themed to various bodies of water. You could make the case for retheming it around Ohio itself given the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Let me know what y’all think about my concept. The backstory I propose isn’t perfect in my perspective. It’d be better to introduce some new faces who have nothing to have with Area 72 or the Miami River Lumber Company who are nerds really into the supernatural.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

A new Phantom Theater would be awesome! I really like when references are done indirectly as easter eggs, rather than having them be direct tie-ins. Connecting this storyline to the rest of the park would likely best work if it were done like it is over in Area 72. Kings Island would need to put a good chunk of money into making this project worthy of the name, and would also need to dedicate a nice portion of the maintenance budget into keeping it maintained. It would behoove them to create B-modes for each scene as well. Cedar Fair was developing a plan beginning around 2012/2013 to install new interactive dark rides in their parks, but it never panned out like they had hoped. See Wonder Mountain's Guardian (Canada's Wonderland) and Knott's Bear-y Tales (Knott's Berry Farm) to find out how the first two installations went. What do you think should happen with the other three Boo Blasters rides if KI received a new Phantom Theater? Could they also become a smaller PT, or should those parks look into updating using another Sally Dark Rides property? Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion is also licensed through SDR, so Cedar Fair could have chosen to keep that version of the ride. Hopefully sometime soon Boo Blasters (technically Ghost Blasters 2.0 with an overlay) will get a good retheme that is not just a bunch of screens and frame sets. Screens, while cheap and easy, would not live up to the rides that have filled that building with joy since 1972. 

For a Soak City retheme, I'd go more for something like River Country was at WDW and call it Wildwater Country or Wildwater Junction. There could be a wooden water tower right as you enter the water park (therefore having a tower at the entrances of both the dry park and water park) with some Ohio River and Little Miami River theming. Cedar Point Shores can keep the Lake Erie theming to themselves. Moving away from the tropical theming could certainly make the water park more unique and stand out more. Now if only they could do something to deal with their capacity issues...

 

Welcome to KIC!