Enchanted Forest

Obviously, any self-respecting theme park will have an entire land – likely in the rear center of the park – themed to works of fantasy and fairytales. Problem is that Disney's beloved collection of animated classics and cross-generational appeal is missing from Paramount's library, so their best emulation of Fantasyland will be divided into three sub-areas, each more astoundingly unexpected than the one before.

The land will be entered via Sleepy Hollow, based on Tim Burton’s 1999 film of the same name (coincidentally, also starring Johnny Depp). A morose and grey village, the Sleepy Hollow sub-section might not look much like Disney's Fantasyland, so instead consider it the park's version of Libery Square - a colonial plot connecting the frontier and fantasy areas. This area of the land will be centered around the dead tree from the film, and would likely prove to be an atmospheric and stylish area.

Since Sleepy Hollow is a very blatant take on Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square, it'll likewise include the park's haunted house, in this case a 3D attraction incorporating live actors. 

The second sub-area is themed to 2008’s Nickelodeon-branded fantasy-adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles. Like Rango, we have to wonder if the designers behind this park had any foresight whatsoever, or if they were tasked with cramming the hottest films of the late aughts into the park with no care for the future.

Put another way: The Spiderwick Chronicles debuted in 2008. By the park's announcement in 2010, it must've already been clear that the Nickelodeon film was far from evergreen and that it had already slipped out of pop culture. Now, today, we can see very clearly that today's children are already unaware of the film – a problem that'll get worse with each passing year. Does Paramount really have no property that can fit in the obligatory "family fantasy land" with more longevity and staying power? The Spiderwick Chronicles is the best they've got? Either way, this sub-area within Fantasyland... er, Enchanted Forest... will include a shooting dark ride that may be trackless, revolving around the hunt for the film’s antagonistic Ogre.

The final area within Enchanted Forest will be a fantastical realm based on 2007’s Stardust, a film that certainly has never entered public consciousness for even a moment. This area will include the park’s carousel, a kid’s roller coaster, a hedge maze, and a boat ride through a world inhabited with fairies (albeit, different fairies than the ones you’ll see in the Spiderwick Chronicles dark ride...).

The resort’s second deluxe in-park hotel will border the Enchanted Forest.

Plaza Futura

Containing the park’s equivalent of Tomorrowland (in name and placement), Plaza Futura will be chiefly based on Paramount’s Star Trek, making it perhaps the only land in the park with a big name to draw on. Star Trek arguably has a fan base equivalent in size and fervor to Star Wars, and the property may be Paramount's coup... Like Disney's Tomorrowland, Plaza Futura is poised to contain the park's more thrilling rides set amid a space-themed port. 

So far, we know of two of the land's offerings: the first is a flight motion simulator ride through the Star Trek universe. If that sounds blindingly similar to Disney's Star Tours (a flight motion simulator through the Star Wars universe), then we're on the same page. The concept art above signals that the planned Star Trek ride is likely a very intentional and exact rehash of Star Tours, just given a Star Trek overlay. 

The second attraction is so far referred to as the Warp Speed Coaster. While at first glance, it may be understood as the equivalent of Space Mountain, the launched, 100-foot tall coaster takes place entirely outdoors but for its launch. You could call it an original. 

Despite the almost complete immersion into the Star Trek world, this Plaza Futura land is not entirely dedicated to the franchise... It's also planned to be home to a restaurant themed to War of the Worlds. Yes, a restaurant.

Our Thoughts

Paramount Park is going to be pretty impressive to look at. The details are there, and it appears that landscaping and architecture will be thoughtful and extravagant. But it feels like something is just... off. The sincerely odd choice of intellectual properties used in the park is just unsettling. Were people really clamoring for a Stardust ride? Is Spiderwick Chronicles the best Paramount can find in their canon for a Fantasyland? Is Rango the studios’ most worthy Western? Is Mission: Impossible the best fit for Spider-Man’s incredible motion-based dark ride technology?

Star Trek may be the park’s saving grace, but even that will amount to a lightly themed outdoor roller coaster and a very blatant rip-off of Star Tours.

It feels like Paramount Park lacked an identity. With almost exactly the same layout as Disney’s Magic Kingdom parks (clockwise from entry, featuring lands based on adventure, frontier, fantasy, future) and drawing on a less-than-stellar collection of films, Paramount Park felt a little soulless. At the end of the day, if you can't beat Disney's castle-park formula (and trust us, you can't), then avoid it. Shoehorning in Paramount's less-than-stellar films just for the sake of having lands that match Disney's is just... stupid. It feels like it lacks an identity... It's empty. 

And with seven hotels depending primarily on the park to fill their rooms, empty is the last thing developers would've wanted the park to be. Not to mention, almost all of the films planned for the park are from 2006 - 2010. You could argue that they made sense in 2010 when the park was announced, but really... did they? A permanent theme park with permanent lands and attractions needs properties that don't age. Even by 2010, it should've been clear that many of the stories selected for Paramount Park simply weren't going to be classics 20 years later. Even now, 5 years later, most of the intellectual properties planned for the park are completely and utterly forgotten by pop culture. So what might the park have looked like in 2020? 2040? 2060? If they can't stand the test of time, why have them at all?

Paramount Park was also budgeted at €390 million (about $530 million), which is about half of what Disney invested in fixing Disney California Adventure eight years earlier. And when investors announced that construction would start in 2014 with a 2015 opening, you have to wonder how grand the park really could've been if they thought it would've taken only a year to build. Even assuming it had opened in late 2015, that wouldn't have been even two years of construction, when a single well-done land at a Disney Park can take 3 - 5 years.

Even more surprising, Paramount owned and operated parks in the United States for years, designing and building attractions based on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Italian Job, The Outer Limits, and Nickelodeon, all of which could really easily support their own themed lands, but were entirely absent from Paramount Park plans in any way.

So now it’s up to the people to decide. Will Paramount Park still appear, and be a runaway success and finally prove that stories beyond Universal and Disney's canon can support a thoughtful and detailed park? Or is this park dead on arrival and drawing from a lackluster collection of stories? Will it even be built at all? Looking at these plans today, is this park even worth building? Or is this on-again-off-again park doomed to wither one way or another?