Imagineering a Geronimo Stilton Theme Park
Bringing the fabumouse children’s book series to life!
The following exercises are from Khan Academy and Disney’s course, “Imagineering in a Box.”
Exercise 1: Your Own Land
Question 1: What kind of land will you create? What is the name of the land?
- Inspired by one of my favorite children’s series, I will create a Geronimo Stilton theme park. Geronimo Stilton is an anthropomorphic mouse from New Mouse City who stumbles into adventures that take him all across the world and throughout history. He is a self-proclaimed scaredy-mouse yet is ultimately courageous, humble, and fiercely kind. His quirky adventures have spanned ten different series, including ‘Thea Stilton Mouseford Academy,’ ‘Cavemive,’ and ‘The Kingdom of Fantasy.’ After evaluating the settings and stories from each of the 10 series, I decided to focus on ‘The Kingdom of Fantasy,” and specifically the first book.
- With all this in mind, I decided to call this new theme park: Geronimo Stilton and The Kingdom of Fantasy.
Question 2: What is a story that takes place in this world? What do you imagine happening in this world? How do you want this world to make people feel?
- Just as Geronimo embarked on a quest to explore the 7 kingdoms of The Kingdom of Fantasy, guests can do the same. The lands include the Kingdom of the Witches, Kingdom of the Mermaids, Kingdom of the Dragons, Kingdom of the Pixies, Kingdom of the Gnomes, Kingdom of the Giants, and Kingdom of the Fairies. Each kingdom will have lore-specific attractions, from the food to the rides to the infrastructure.
- Because each guest will have their own unique, nonlinear experience at the theme park, authentic environmental storytelling is crucial. Guests should feel like they belong in the story, that they are embarking on quests just like Geronimo. They should feel like characters in The Kingdom of Fantasy.
- To accomplish this quest-like experience, guests will be given a ticket wristband that mimics the magical music box that guided Geronimo, complete with the seven gemstones linked to each kingdom. Gemstones will light up according to the kingdoms the guests enter. Guests can also download the theme park’s app, which will serve as a guide for the park.
Exercise 2: Theme
Question 1: What do you imagine it feels like to be in your land? What do you imagine people might learn when visiting your land? What do you want them to think about after leaving your land?
- Geronimo holds several values dear: kindness towards others, bravery in spite of circumstance, and the desire to do good. I will focus on the theme of bravery when designing the park, as it is the throughline of all of Geronimo’s adventures. For example, guests may feel challenged by the exhilarating rides or the otherwordly settings, but they will hopefully channel nerves into excitement and discover each land to be uniquely interesting and worthwhile. When they leave the land, guests should feel like they have conquered their own quest and fears.
Exercise 3: Layout
Activity: Start a rough draft of a map for your own land. Don’t worry if you don’t have the whole land planned out yet. You can leave a lot of blanks for future ideas. Focus more on the style of your map, what it looks and feels like.
Key attractions within each land are detailed in Exercise 4: Building Design.
Exercise 4: Building Design
Activity: Find or take some reference images which look similar to the buildings you imagine in your own land (you can also sketch designs if you can’t find references.)
I will first compile 3–4 key landmarks and details for each kingdom, and then detail the type of attraction.
Kingdom of the Witches
- Wicked Witch Woods — a dark ride through the forest while shooting at witches
- Phoenix Nest — a Tilt-a-Whirl ride where each swing seat is phoenix-themed and the top of the ride is a nest
- Fortress of Fear — a drop tower in the dark where senses will be heightened
- Color: Red, Gem: Ruby, Metal: Bronze
Kingdom of the Mermaids
- Coral Staircase — a water ride that goes up and then down a pink “staircase”
- Pink Pearl Peak — a panoramic tower with a revolving observation deck
- Coral Castle — a beautiful aquarium
- Blackbeard’s Ship — a pirate ship ride
- Color: Orange, Gem: Topaz, Metal: Silver
Kingdom of the Dragons
- Little Bridge — a scenic walk across “lava”
- River of Fiery Lava — a water ride where the water is dyed red
- Dragonaire — a freefall ride from the top of the palace
- Color: Yellow, Gem: Citrine, Metal: Gold
Kingdom of the Pixies
- Mischievous Signs — a small park with larger than life illusion games
- Green Labyrinth — an interactive maze or alternatively a flat ride with pop-up scares
- Big Bluebell — a swing ride stemming from the bluebell stalk
- Color: Green, Gem: Emerald, Metal: Brass
Kingdom of the Gnomes
- Toy Factory — a large merchandise store where you can also play with toys
- Three Gnome Square — a central street/town square with musical performances, parades, stores, and dancing
- Big Bark Lodge — the largest food court in the park
- Color: Light Blue, Gem: Sapphire, Metal: Tin
Kingdom of the Giants
- Lake of Willingness — an “ice” rink with bumper cars
- Road of the Ancient Kings — an icy roller coaster ride
- Falcon’s Beak — an illusion house where everything is giant-sized
- Color: Indigo, Gem: Amethyst, Metal: Titanium
Kingdom of the Fairies
- Fountain of Youth — a water ride down a waterfall
- Valley of Blue Unicorns — a merry-go-round on unicorns
- Crystal Castle — the most beautiful castle of all
- Color: Violet, Gem: Diamond, Metal: Silver
For more building design references, see Exercise 10: Mood Boards.
Exercise 5: Landscape and Plant Life Design
Activity: Find one or more reference images for both the plant life and landscape of your land. How do these images reflect the theme and story of your land?
See Exercise 10: Mood Boards.
Exercise 6: Materials
Activity: Create a collage of material references for the surfaces in your land. You can do this physically or virtually. It should contain images of every surface you can think of: roofs, floors, doors, interior/exterior walls and even small details such as door handles.
See Exercise 10: Mood Boards.
Exercise 7: Color
Activity: Create a color palette for your land. To do this choose 3–5 key colors which will be used throughout your land and reflect the theme and atmosphere you hope to create. You can do this physically (paint/pencils) or digitally.
- Kingdom of the Witches: Red, purple, blue
- Kingdom of the Mermaids: Orange, pink, blue
- Kingdom of the Dragons: Yellow, orange, red
- Kingdom of the Pixies: Green, blue, brown
- Kingdom of the Gnomes: Light blue, brown, green
- Kingdom of the Giants: Indigo, white, blue
- Kingdom of the Fairies: Violet, blue, rainbow
Exercise 8: Sound Design
Activity: To help bring your land to life you will need various layers of sound. In this activity you will need to find, create or describe different sounds such as: soundscape (a constant background sound such as rain or ocean waves, music (a song which reflects your land), and sound effects (randomly occurring sounds such as a lion roar or lightning strike).
- Kingdom of the Witches: The soundscape will be a mix of werewolf & wind howling and witches cackling. Sound effects will include batwings flapping, rats scurrying sounds, and scorpion tails clacking. There will be eerie and dramatic music near the royal palace.
- Kingdom of the Mermaids: The soundscape will be bubbles and fish fin swishes. Every once in a while, there will be a hissing sound from the sea serpent and scuttling sounds from sea animals. There will be melodic music near the royal palace. Every hour, mermen will blow their horns and a chorus of mermaids will sing, “The Song of Sirens,” a dangerously soothing tune.
- Kingdom of the Dragons: The soundscape will be recurring lava bubbling and volcano eruptions. There will also be rumbling sounds from Mount Thunder and smoking sounds from the royal palace. The sounds of dragon wings flapping in the air can also be heard and the occasional dragon roar. At the entrance of Dragonaire, there will be a dragon who beats a gong once per hour.
- Kingdom of the Pixies: The soundscape will be rustling grass and a light breeze. Near the door of the land, there will be the voice of the Sea of Grass, which warns visitors to, “Beware of the pixies! Beware of their tricks!” There will also be zipping sounds to imitate flying pixies. As guests travel near the royal palace, King Charles’ violin sounds can be heard.
- Kingdom of the Gnomes: The soundscape will be of crackling leaves as guests enter the land. In Three Gnome Square, there will be lots of music and dancing in the streets. In the Toy Factory, there will be whistling sounds of working gnomes and engine sounds of churning machines. Since gnomes are very kind, there will be upbeat, happy music in the background.
- Kingdom of the Giants: The soundscape will be howling wings and crunching snow. There will be distant sounds of giants’ footsteps and snoring. Every so often, guests will hear a falcon’s screech or a polar bear’s roar.
- Kingdom of the Fairies: The soundscape will be sound pattering sounds of fairy wings, and there will be a sweet, twinkling music accompaniment. The Fountain of Youth will sound like a crashing waterfall, and the Valley of Blue Unicorns will feature hoove sounds and galloping sounds throughout. Nightingales are also common in this kingdom, and they will sing with a silver voice. Guests will also be able to hear pegasus wings flapping from above.
Exercise 9: Menu and Food
Activity: How do food options make sense in your land?
There will be kingdom-specific food options in each land, but the Kingdom of the Gnomes will have the largest food court in the Big Bark Lodge. Storywise, this makes sense because gnomes are kind, hospitable creatures, and the King and Queen served Geronimo lasagna and noodle soup when he arrived at their court. In the theme park, the Big Bark Lodge will have food stands with different options: lasagna, pizza, fries, soup & salad, etc. Since it is located centrally in the park, it will be accessible from the other kingdoms.
Exercise 10: Mood Board
Activity: Create a mood board for your land by assembling all the references you’ve collected thus far (materials, buildings, colors…etc). Feel free to add additional images that help you visualize and feel the mood of your land. There are no “rules” to follow except the more references you can find the better.
The left mood board is a compilation of graphics from the book, and the right board is additional references to help bring the book to life.
