What if Disney bought Bionicle?

Disney has acquired a new asset to their media empire: Bionicle. They plan on making a huge multimedia franchise of it. Will there be movies? Will there be TV shows? Will there be a theme park land (which makes a little more sense than Avatar land, I think there are more Bionicle fans than fans of that movie)? Will Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau make a Disney+ show of Toa Lhikan and his journeys? Well let me know what you think would happen!

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Okay, i just wanted to address this before I talk about other things. First, making a section of a Disney park isn’t just about fans, it’s about atmosphere. Can they make you feel like you’re there? Otherwise, it simply looses the magic and it doesn’t have the same effect. That’s always been what Disney World has banked on compared to other theme parks. It’s selling point has always been immersion. You step in the gates and it really does feel like you are in a different world. So, while Pandora and the Avatar movies don’t have near as many fans as some properties they could have chosen, it was easily adaptable to an immersive world, especially in the Animal Kingdom. (I’ve been to it, it was awesome let me tell you.)

Anyway, on to the rest in order.

Movies: More than likely.

TV Shows: Maybe, but I’m still somewhat of the mind Bionicle doesn’t translate to TV well.

Theme Park Land: Probably not, simply because i think it’d be too difficult to make it immersive, yet stay well grounded. Could it be done? Sure. Could it be done to Disney’s standard? Maybe, but not without more time and money than Disney would be willing to give to a comparatively niche franchise. Though, if it were to be built, I have a feeling it would probably be put in either TomorrowLand at Magic Kingdom, or some of the empty pavilions (maybe imagination? It could use some sprucing up) at Epcot (excuse me as I bemoan it’s decline in recent years). However, if it’s movies are big enough blockbusters, they might consider putting it in Hollywood studios instead.

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On one hand, you could argue that if Disney bought Bionicle, they would likely screw up the franchise like they did with Star Wars. On the other hand, it could also succeed and turn into a global phenomenon, like it happened with the MCU. I think it all comes down to how the franchise in handled. Before the MCU, Superheroes weren’t very big in pop-culture, since most of the previous attempts on making movies based on Marvel Superheroes ended up being failures (with a few exceptions, of course, but still) And after carefully planning the MCU before it even started, the franchise became one of the greatest in cinema history, with Endgame becoming the highest grossing movie of all times. Not only did the franchise please the older fans of Marvel comics, but it also brought in a lot more new fans which weren’t interested in the comics.
With Star Wars, on the other hand, due to it’s very successful track record of movies, Disney had way too much confidence in the brand, and started the sequel trilogy without even planning it out. And so, it ended up being a massive failure that actively hurt the brand.
If Disney were the purchase Bionicle, I’m pretty sure a similar scenario to the MCU will occur. Since Bionicle isn’t a big-name franchise that is easily bankable, they would have to plan it out very carefully, and give the best they’ve got to it, in order to appeal to the exiting fans, and get in new fans at the same time.
There is a debate to be had on whether Disney would be the right company to own the Bionicle IP, but if they managed to achieve such great success with the MCU, I’m pretty sure the same thing could happen with Bionicle.

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I have been to Pandora as well, it is an amazing land and Flight of Passage is one of the best rides at WDW.[quote=“ProfSrlojohn, post:2, topic:51760”]
(excuse me as I bemoan it’s decline in recent years)
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I feel your pain: RIP Maelstrom.
Hollywood Studios might have room for a Bionicle land. I think they have some unused land for a galaxys edge expansion but I might be mistaken. Epcot might be the best hope for Bionicle; Imagination like you said is in much need of an overhaul. But I always pictured they could turn Test Track into Test Track: Le Metru Moto Hub very easily.
There is land at Animal Kingdom for a expansion but “extraterrestrial wildlife” has already been taken for that park. Lastly is Magic Kingdom. They could do something in Stitch as that rides closed or Monsters Inc as I dont think that attracts that many people. At the very least we could get Its a Small World (Because We all Live in a Giant Robot) where they replace all the animatronics with life size McTorans who endlessly sing :smile: !!

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Okay, now that just sounds Alstair Swinnerton’s bad fever dream.

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Well Disney owned Miramax when the first three movies were made so technically Disney Bionicle already exists.

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No.

<Disney already owns far too much. I don’t want them destroying BIONICLE’s reputation like they did with Star Wars. Tired of Disney nowadays.>

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######Tell that to the Spider-Man stunt robot designed solely to do flips in the sky a couple times a day.

It might be a niche franchise, but cutting-edge robotics and effects are sort of Disney Imagineers’ forte.

They’d have a field day with an IP composed entirely of (outwardly) robotic characters and elemental, island environments.

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True, but again, budgeting is a concern. I’d doubt the higher-ups would be willing to give them the time and money for it to pay off.

To some extent they kinda already have this with Pandora. Very tropical, with mechanical components mixed in. Obviously, this would be much more even compared to Pandora, where the flora very much dominates.

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Mike Bloomberg owns a company called Bionicle Plumbing, so there’s a possibility he could buy it.

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It might be the fact I’m a bionicle fan but that just does not sound like a good business name. Bionicle plumbing? Really? It’s just such a weird word for a professional company.

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Well, considering that Disney buying Bionicle is itself a far-fetched unlikely-hood, I think it’s more interesting to consider the best-case scenario things they could do as opposed to what they would logically do.

Because obviously they aren’t going to give the time of day to a small, niche franchise, and that’s no fun to talk about.

But personally, I don’t imagine an “immersive” Mata-Nui to be something particularly difficult for a Disney-level theme park to create. Considering most Disney parks are already located in tropical locations and the most well-known Bionicle locations are mostly just natural islands, making segments of the park jungle-like is well within their limits. Just look at many of the locations in the Animal Kingdom.

As for the “Bionicle” aspect, that’d be pretty easy too. I can easily see scale replicas of the Mata-Nui Telescope or the Kini-Nui. They’re basically just big buildings, which again, Disney does very well (the Tree of Life or Spaceship Earth come to mind).

Combine that with immersive sounds and maybe a few scattered Rahi animatronics and I’d say you’ve got a nice attraction on your hands.

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Obviously, I doubt they could make the telescope work, for simple fact that they don’t want any of the parks visible from the others, excluding the Tower of Terror, which is visible from Epcot, but it’s disguised to look like part of the Morocco pavilion.

The only ride I want is a Bohrok Adventure ride. Driving around in the dark using the little carts used in the Haunted mansion and other such rides.

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Just be careful; the designers wanted to make a tatoine park galaxies edge. Now just guess who decided to go and screw it all up in favor of the new “movies”?
Disney has gotten too big to the point it doesn’t matter what fans want; all that matters is what they want.

I don’t even want lego to do anything with bionicle after all the respect they gave it in 2015

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You must be real fun at parties.

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I really don’t think it’s any secret I don’t like Disney.

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You have made it transparently clear in basically every thread I find you in, yes.

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They could make it a virtual telescope and have you look around the island of Mata Nui.

Probably just be easy to make it MNOG themed and have mine-lifts and Ussal rides.

The weirdness is that Lego already has a themepark called Lego land. Don’t Bionicle rides already exist?

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You know what happened to SW? That’d happen, but probably even worse because Bionicle doesn’t have enough major pop-cultural presence to warrant any kind of effort. Of course, Disney will inevitably buy out the entire entertainment industry anyway, so they’ll own Bionicle in due course.

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I’d rather Bionicle remain dead than see it be assimilate into the mouse

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