Subsonic Radio

Wizzard419 wrote:This ride is also why I think the little mermaid ride that was built twice in the US is such a terrible ride, no effort was put into it, bad storyline, and it suffers from the problem of telling the story at you rather than telling it to you/placing you in it.

SPOT ON!

It is as if they had a $5,000 budget to make both the WDW and DLR versions of TLM. Do they (the folks who own the foreign Disney parks) have unlimited funds at their disposal or something? Is there a problem with the creative process the American Imagineers use when coming up with and choosing new rides and attractions? Joe Rohde did a good job coming up with things at AK...but that was a long time ago. So...it's either a problem of money...lack of creativity...or the PTB not allowing anything of value to be done in the American parks.

It is actually a different company that owns the international parks (in the case of HK it is a company that is partially owned by Disney and the local government). So they have less mouths to feed, which can lead to a greater budget.

Yeah, I knew they were owned by separate entities. It's just sad how stymied the creativity appears to be in the American parks. I know Tony Baxter alluded to it in his retirement statements. I hope my DS (1 year old) will see a resurgence in the Disney parks as he grows up...the same way I did throughout my childhood (child of the 80s).

The creativity is still there, the big issue is probably that almost all of the creatives are only contract, which means other parks can use their staff as well. The reason we probably won't see rides like that is that Disney does not have to fight as hard here since it is fully established. There is also the possible issue that theme parks may start scaling back simply because there are better, less expensive forms of entertainment that are also more readily updated/

Very cool looking effects but it seems like it would get a little boring pretty quickly.

Wizzard419 wrote:...This ride is also why I think the little mermaid ride that was built twice in the US is such a terrible ride, no effort was put into it, bad storyline, and it suffers from the problem of telling the story at you rather than telling it to you/placing you in it.

I've yet to experience the Little Mermaid attraction yet (looking forward to seeing it in December!) but from the videos I've seen of that attraction, compared to this Mystic Manor video ~ I would have to agree. It doesn't look as fancy or nice...

I am Sulley wrote:Certainly looks like a cool ride.
There would seem to be potential for some sensory effects too e.g. cold, heat, wind etc. Does anyone know if they have done this That would make even better

Wizzard419 wrote:According to the documentation, they do have temperature effects as well as wind effects for the various events in the ride.

Neat!

I have to agree with the sentiments that the creativity exists here in the states, but the money and driving force to attract/keep guests is lacking Plus, I'm not sure about the people of Hong Kong, but I don't think the Japanese would continue to go to Tokyo Disneyland if it wasn't good. As much as we all complain, we all can't wait to get back to WDW...

Don't forget that in Orlando, most of the guests do not return every year, or possibly ever, since the financial and time commitments of the trip are so much greater so fewer updates. As opposed to dlr where it seems like everyone has an AP so they have to do more timely updates.

As for the higher speed track-less cars... I wonder if there is some safety regulation that is keeping them out of the country? I don't think Disney owns the tech, so you would have expected someone to use them by now.

Wizzard419 wrote:Don't forget that in Orlando, most of the guests do not return every year, or possibly ever, since the financial and time commitments of the trip are so much greater so fewer updates. As opposed to dlr where it seems like everyone has an AP so they have to do more timely updates.

As for the higher speed track-less cars... I wonder if there is some safety regulation that is keeping them out of the country? I don't think Disney owns the tech, so you would have expected someone to use them by now.

I might have to do some digging about whether there is something keeping those out of the US. I think it is mostly $$$$ though. It made TDL's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh so cool though!

It might also be the money, but it seems odd since they spent the money on tech to make it possible to have cars race each other in RSR. They have done trackless, unmanned cars before (Universe of Energy and ToT) but they move so slow and there is no potential for collision.

mindflipper wrote: Actually, you're missing inthe video the back story. Do you remember the stereotyped Brit AA at the beginning/end? He's a collector of rare objects from all over the world. You're going on a tour of his collection, but his monkey Albert causes mischief by opening an enchanted music box, which appears to have the power to bring all the objects in his collection to life (much like the movie "The Night at the Museum"). It would have been nice if we could have gotten video of the ride before being seated in the ride vehicle.

Ah, thanx, that helps a lot. I guess since I figure I'll probably never get to that park, I don't quite follow the preliminary plans as much as I just catch videos on YouTube.
Oh, I have to add, the armor scene immediately brought "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to my mind..."We're Knights of the Round Table...

Woah, that was quite awesome.

I hope I get the chance to ride it some day, because if it was that impressive from just watching it on a low quality video.. then..

mindflipper wrote:For those of you who would like to see the pre-ride opening that sets up the ride, the following youtube video includes that part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PARisuRu-Y

I kept waiting for him to say "thank you for patronizing Shrunken Ned, the jungle's only self service witch doctor!"

I think it's really funny that SeaWorld has been bragging about their trackless Antarctica ride and how its one of the first attractions to ever use it while Mystic Manor and even Winnie the Pooh's Honey Hunt have been using the same technology.

Cardinals314 wrote:I think it's really funny that SeaWorld has been bragging about their trackless Antarctica ride and how its one of the first attractions to ever use it while Mystic Manor and even Winnie the Pooh's Honey Hunt have been using the same technology.

...and Aquatopia (DisneySea), and the upcoming Ratatouille attraction at Disneyland Paris...

Maybe one of the first in the US? Certainly not the first overall. Still, why let facts get in the way of a good marketing line?

The trackless rides are very impressive. Both from a technical and fun point of view. The fact that you have no indication of where you're going next (other than the tyre marks on the floor going off in multiple directions) and that each time you ride you could go a completely different way through the same scene of the ride adds a whole new level of fun to the attractions. The Heffalumps and Woozles scene in Pooh's Hunny Hunt in particular was very impressive (There's up to nine guest vehicles in the room, and one vehicle which has heffalumps and woozles in it - all moving around the room doing different things)

Amy wrote:

Wizzard419 wrote:As for the higher speed track-less cars... I wonder if there is some safety regulation that is keeping them out of the country? I don't think Disney owns the tech, so you would have expected someone to use them by now.

I might have to do some digging about whether there is something keeping those out of the US. I think it is mostly $$$$ though. It made TDL's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh so cool though!

Wizzard419 wrote:It might also be the money, but it seems odd since they spent the money on tech to make it possible to have cars race each other in RSR. They have done trackless, unmanned cars before (Universe of Energy and ToT) but they move so slow and there is no potential for collision.

I doubt the reason they've not added them to the US parks is related to the speed they go. There's sensors around the bases of the vehicles that I'm fairly certain are there to stop the vehicle if it gets too close to something. Part of me thinks it's probably more to do with those vehicles being a lot more expensive to create than their track-using counterparts.

That having been said, though, how many totally new dark rides have been built in the US parks in the last ten years? Little Mermaid is the only one that springs to mind, and they decided to use the omnimover system for that (presumably because it has higher capacity due to the whole continuous loading thing, but it could also be related to the fact that the Little Mermaid ride was originally designed for Disneyland Paris in the early 90s*).

Andy.

* It amuses me that they never mentioned that it was originally designed to open in Disneyland Paris in 2004, and most people forgot all about it. See this video from the Euro Disney Grand Opening TV special. (The US hosts of the show sound almost bored compared to the UK ones (which is the only version of the show I've seen all the way through, but that's the only video I could find quickly on youtube )) It does show on there that the guests would ride in something similar to the Peter Pan's Flight vehicles, though. The Little Mermaid DVD that was released a few years ago actually has a virtual ride-through of the ride as it would have been if it were built - here's a youtube link for that. I've not seen the ride at DL/WDW, so I've no idea how close it actually is to the original designs from back then. It could be completely different. Anyway, I've drifted somewhat off topic now

acp wrote:...
* It amuses me that they never mentioned that it was originally designed to open in Disneyland Paris in 2004, and most people forgot all about it. See this video from the Euro Disney Grand Opening TV special. (The US hosts of the show sound almost bored compared to the UK ones (which is the only version of the show I've seen all the way through, but that's the only video I could find quickly on youtube )) It does show on there that the guests would ride in something similar to the Peter Pan's Flight vehicles, though. The Little Mermaid DVD that was released a few years ago actually has a virtual ride-through of the ride as it would have been if it were built - here's a youtube link for that. I've not seen the ride at DL/WDW, so I've no idea how close it actually is to the original designs from back then. It could be completely different. Anyway, I've drifted somewhat off topic now

That is funny that they include the video like it was actually built but never was...
As for getting off topic, you're a mod so I think it is ok!

Amy wrote:

acp wrote:...
* It amuses me that they never mentioned that it was originally designed to open in Disneyland Paris in 2004, and most people forgot all about it. See this video from the Euro Disney Grand Opening TV special. (The US hosts of the show sound almost bored compared to the UK ones (which is the only version of the show I've seen all the way through, but that's the only video I could find quickly on youtube )) It does show on there that the guests would ride in something similar to the Peter Pan's Flight vehicles, though. The Little Mermaid DVD that was released a few years ago actually has a virtual ride-through of the ride as it would have been if it were built - here's a youtube link for that. I've not seen the ride at DL/WDW, so I've no idea how close it actually is to the original designs from back then. It could be completely different. Anyway, I've drifted somewhat off topic now

That is funny that they include the video like it was actually built but never was...

I've not watched it in a while, but the Disney (UK) website lists it as "The Little Mermaid Under the Sea Adventure: The Virtual Ride", and had a short video with imagineers talking about it, called "Behind the Ride that Almost Was with Disney Imagineers". A quick search on youtube doesn't show anything up for that, and it's a while since I last watched it, so I can't remember exactly what was said in it.

As for getting off topic, you're a mod so I think it is ok!

Nah, it just means I'm more likely to get away with it