The whole world is already familiar with superhero movies, but how do you translate it into a physical experience? In recent years, Disneyland Paris has worked hard to attract visitors to the Marvel universe. The result, the Avengers campus, opens July 20 at Walt Disney Studios Park. “We put our soul and our bliss into this,” Artistic Director Beth Clapperton told NU.nl.

Help Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s real name) avoid double robot disaster, or shoot into the universe as a superhero on a roller coaster: these are two soon-to-open attractions in the French theme park.

Thanks to an investment of €2 billion in 2018, Walt Disney Studios Park will expand significantly in the coming years. The first result of this is the Marvel Avengers complex. The main land, already open in Los Angeles, contains many attractions centered around superheroes. Some of them are taken directly from the United States, others can only be found in Paris.

“A few years ago, we started discussing how we could translate the Marvel universe into something physical,” says the designer. “Start with the basics; they are always epic stories with a human core. We wanted to create a place where the Avengers could make.”

“The story now is that they want a world with more heroes. They hope to discover and train new superheroes through their campus. Within that it has to be about core principles, such as optimism and the power of cooperation. In appearance, we have kept more movies and stories. The comic has been released.”

Compress the story for a few minutes

Clapperton often translates films into attractions. She previously worked on the gravity featured in the Pixar movie ratatouille were based. “You start with a story and then compress it into a four or five minute experience. That’s never quite the same as an hour and a half movie. So you have to slice it and sharpen it.”

“In the meantime, you should also think about how you want to communicate your attraction. Is it going to be something you’re actually walking around in, are you going to see pictures of a movie? You’re looking for bits of tools to tell the story.”

Beth Clapperton is working on new attractions at Disneyland Paris.

movie power

Clapperton explains that the process of translating a movie into an attraction takes years. “I started this project in November 2018, but a smaller team had already started it a year ago. The whole process is divided into three parts. After the concept stage where you let your imagination go, everything is designed with 3D graphics, to start the real production. These three phases take about the same time.”

With so much already being invented in the world of movies, Clapperton also had to move on the beaten path. Don’t you feel discouraged by that? She replied, “Certainly not.”

“Conversely. The richer the Marvel universe, the more ways we find ways to tell a story. When you translate something cinematic into a physical world, you sometimes experience physical limitations. For example, we don’t have a cinematic trick to make someone fly, if Imaginators We use other tricks. You also have many creative possibilities to tell a story there. I find that just as powerful as the movie.”