Tuesday, June 2, 2026
I rode the new Phantom Theater at Kings Island...
...and it was fine. I definitely have notes. As expected, the animatronics and sets by Sally are extremely budgeted but very much appreciated. That said, the overall execution could've been better.
The recycled castle exterior is disappointing. Was great for Scooby but really doesn't set the theater tone this new attraction is going for.
The interior queue / preshow is fine. The audio can be a little hard to understand, which seems like a common complaint. The cats voice is also annoying. Frustratingly, the No Legs Larry preshow instructional video looks awful. It looks like was made with microsoft paint and they use "Larry" making it himself as an excuse for why it looks that way. Seriously, why not make it look like it's drawn with crayon with stick figures, you could have Larry drawing himself as being jacked. You could even have it drawn out in real time like a ghost is drawing it. Like their own explanation for the video could've led to a much more humorous, and pleasing looking instructional video than what we got. A wasted opportunity.
The hallway immediately following with the portraits doesn't really work for me. Artwork looks like adobe after effects manipulation, possibly even ai, but it's the portrait filter effect that completely blurs the image when viewed from an angle. Probably shouldn't have put these in a tight hallway, as they work better from a distance.
Now onto my biggest disappointment with this attraction, the interactive elements...or lack there of. I felt like I had no effect on the scenery or outcome of the story. Hitting a ghost note didn't do anything other than increase your score. In Scooby Doo I had different targets to hit which could revel secrets within the scene. Ghost notes on the other hand just feel like an after thought. Like the entire attraction was built already and they decided at the last minute to project notes on the background of all the scenes. No variety, no invested interest, no replay value. If it's between interactivity and ride capacity, I'll take the capacity.
Another problem with the attraction is the tone. There is no variety. The original Phantom Theater had spooky moments to go along with the goofy moments. This new version seems all goofy. None of the characters have angry faces anymore and most of the scenery is free of dust or cobwebs. It's just the same bright lighting and smiling faces all throughout. After awhile it all starts to feel samey.
Lastly, the big "show" scene with all of the acts together is terrible. This replaced the show stopping peppers ghost scene from the original but damn does this need a lot of work. To start with, the staging is BORING. The characters are cramped in a plain looking room (stage), all evenly spaced apart, all standing on circus stands. They should all be spread out on different levels of the stage, surrounded by unique props and scenery representative of their acts. Remove the rotating Larry to expand the scene if you must, as a lone rotating character serves no purpose.
End of the day, its an improvement but also a missed opportunity.