Dead2009
Horror Movie Guru
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2019
Tokyo Disneyland surprised everyone with the announcement that the park would be closing down their current Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters dark ride (that just turned 20 years old). The attraction will close in October 2024 and be replaced by a new interactive dark ride themed to the Wreck-It Ralph animated film series. According to the press release guests will “enter the candy-themed racing game Sugar Rush, which is being attacked by Sugar Bugs – glitches created by King Candy. Guests team up with the beloved film characters Ralph and Vanellope to transform the Sugar Bugs back to their original “kawaii” confectionery such as cookies and cakes.”
While the final name for the new dark ride has yet to be announced, the park did confirm that it would be ready to open sometime in 2026 and that the neighboring “Planet M” gift shop will also be rethemed.
The timing is interesting, as the park’s Tomorrowland will be undergoing some significant changes over the next two years, with the closing of Space Mountain taking place on July 31st 2024, shortly before Buzz Lightyear closes. However the new version of Space Mountain will not be ready until sometime in 2027. The closure of both attractions, located right down the center of Tomorrowland itself, will create an interesting void, but also makes one wonder what other changes could be in store for Tokyo’s Tomorrowland going forward.
This will also be the second of the Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides closed to be transformed into new attractions. The first one was at Hong Kong Disneyland which opened in 2005 and closed in 2017 to be transformed into a Marvel themed ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!” dark ride. Other than the soon to close ride in Tokyo, the other remaining Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides are located at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (opened 1998), Disneyland (2005), Disneyland Paris (2006) and Shanghai Disneyland (2016).
https://screamscape.com/html/tokyo_disneyland.htm
While the final name for the new dark ride has yet to be announced, the park did confirm that it would be ready to open sometime in 2026 and that the neighboring “Planet M” gift shop will also be rethemed.
The timing is interesting, as the park’s Tomorrowland will be undergoing some significant changes over the next two years, with the closing of Space Mountain taking place on July 31st 2024, shortly before Buzz Lightyear closes. However the new version of Space Mountain will not be ready until sometime in 2027. The closure of both attractions, located right down the center of Tomorrowland itself, will create an interesting void, but also makes one wonder what other changes could be in store for Tokyo’s Tomorrowland going forward.
This will also be the second of the Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides closed to be transformed into new attractions. The first one was at Hong Kong Disneyland which opened in 2005 and closed in 2017 to be transformed into a Marvel themed ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!” dark ride. Other than the soon to close ride in Tokyo, the other remaining Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides are located at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (opened 1998), Disneyland (2005), Disneyland Paris (2006) and Shanghai Disneyland (2016).
https://screamscape.com/html/tokyo_disneyland.htm
