thequeuelinelectures
Well-Known Member
The dementors always looked like someone made them in 15 minutes at a party city
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The dementors always looked like someone made them in 15 minutes at a party city
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
They looked better when they had arms
I'm going to avoid my own biased history here and look at this through the eyes of my daughters who at the time of this story (August 2017) were 12, 10, and 7.
We started our trip with 2 nights at Universal Orlando. 2 Nights, 3 days with Universal Express thanks to staying at the Portofino. They all loved Wizarding World. We then knocked out the rest of the parks and by the end of day two all three commented "The other rides all feel the same, can we go to WDW now?" The third morning they simply requested to do Forbidden Journey again but then all three voted to leave early to go to WDW. Side note, my 7 year old DID love RipRideRocket but I'm thinking in retrospect this more due to the fact that it was her first "big" coaster.
I bring this up because after multiple days at WDW, the unanimous "favorite ride" for these girls was Flight of Passage. So while I think of it as follows:
Just sharing a perspective...
We started our trip with 2 nights at Universal Orlando. 2 Nights, 3 days with Universal Express thanks to staying at the Portofino. They all loved Wizarding World. We then knocked out the rest of the parks and by the end of day two all three commented "The other rides all feel the same, can we go to WDW now?" The third morning they simply requested to do Forbidden Journey again but then all three voted to leave early to go to WDW. Side note, my 7 year old DID love RipRideRocket but I'm thinking in retrospect this more due to the fact that it was her first "big" coaster.
I bring this up because after multiple days at WDW, the unanimous "favorite ride" for these girls was Flight of Passage. So while I think of it as follows:
- Is it screens? Not entirely. Yes, they got bored of Universal's repetitive screen based rides but loved Flight of Passage...a screen based ride.
- Is it IP? At first I was thinking that the IPs of King Kong, Transformers, Simpsons, MiB, etc didn't apply much to them (they haven't seen any of those movies) and while I think that's an issue, none of them have seen Avatar either. Yet minutes after riding my youngest was walking around with a Banshee on her shoulder.
Just sharing a perspective...
And those fingers...
Marc Davis Fan
Well-Known Member
Come visit Universal Studios Hollywood! Our dementors still have arms AND fingers!
cjkeating
Well-Known Member
However, Disneyland Paris being Disneyland Paris most of the effects are broken 90% of the time.
Rat is has been in pretty good shape this year following its brief refurb last year.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
i wish it did...could have added a rotation joint to spin bench 360.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
how long before fire is turned off.?
dennis-in-ct
Well-Known Member
I just wish the ride was less nauseating. They can cut back on the swaying/rocking motion a bit to make the ride experience more comfortable. Gringotts is exciting and comfortable.
dennis-in-ct
Well-Known Member
Our family had a similar comment. Our daughter said “all the experiences felt the same” when we went to WDW for her graduation and did a day at universal.
Anecdotes are anecdotal. A friend of mine said his 7 and 10 year old girls are extremely bored of most of WDW. It's not like MK has a broad range of rides. Boat rides, dark rides, coasters, and a flume. How IOA's experiences all feel the same is a head scratcher, and one easily dismissed based on other biases. MK has FOUR essentially exact duplicate spinner rides!
I can't think of any two rides at IOA that are even remotely similar.
I don't recall "feeling" it, it's just that you see it on the underside of the grill on the table you are under. Could be done with a, wait for it, screen, too.
What can go wrong with it? The two or three small practical effects?
dennis-in-ct
Well-Known Member
The comment was said at the studios park - a lot of screens - minions, simpsons, transformers (atfter riding spiderman), twister, Shrek
Trust me - I enjoy universal - both parks.
Disney has more realized environments and varied experiences - they all *feel* different - at universal, the attractions all *felt* the same
This was her college graduation - so it's not a comment from a younger kid
Bleed0range
Well-Known Member
I agree the props certainly aren’t up to the Disney level. But they’re not horrible. The way the screens are used in relation to real elements is what I like about it. But yeah the spiders are particularly bad lol.
Compared to what? I don't see Disney doing better on anything except their AAs. I mean, bird on a stick? Dinosaur on a stick? Projections in NRJ? The difference with Potter is it's based on a REAL spider. How many rides at Disney are based on REAL worlds? Outside of the masterpiece Indiana Jones rides, that are 30 years old.
Bleed0range
Well-Known Member
Well yeah, their AAs. HP would benefit greatly from something as cool as Hondo is going to be. For an IP like HP, the ride really should have that kind of quality. I wonder if the new Hagrid ride will be any better.
Of course it's going to be better. You'll likely park in front of Hagrid for a while. Having an expensive AA on Forbidden Journey would be a waste, as you go past everything quickly. But the Whomping WIllow is mighty impressive, and doesn't need a strobe light.
Hondo is not even in a ride, he's preshow. Sorta like the Witch at Kong, you know the ride everyone dislikes for screens, yet has an amazing preshow AA. Yet Hondo, a preshow AA for an all screens ride is totally different, because.....
People are so quick to downplay Universal stuff, until they think about what exactly has Disney done better? I still argue Disney does hardly all screen rides lately. Even the worshipped Shanghai Pirates uses, guess what, Screens to set it apart from other Pirates iterations.
I'm interested to see just how much of a part screens are in RotR. The preview videos so far lead me to think they are a BIG part of it.
Like I've said before, Universal could have made Flight of Wizards, using the same tech from Pandora, and it would be panned. Disney makes a ride with a video with no story, a world that you can go on continuous thousand(s) foot swooping drops, and still come out above ground, and it's somehow a masterpiece because it pushes your legs apart a few times.
But MMRR will likely have no AAs. And they'll be deformed if they are.
MadTeacup
Well-Known Member
I'm fascinated you're impressed by the Whomping Willow. My first time I rode, I thought it was broken because only the one branch moves. For me, it's not so much the screens that make universal attractions sub-par. It's the lack of a physical connection to integratd them to the real world. Additionally, Universal sucks at telling stories in their newer rides. My first time on Kong, I was so confused that we left all the human characters behind only to hear audio that they somehow survived a seemingly impossible to survive attack. I want to SEE them survive. You argue Flight of Passage has no story. I argue is has multiple small stories that take place throughout a themed attraction much like the Haunted Mansion. There is no way to know if a Universal version of the ride would have been better. It depends on how they would have implemented a story and if they would have included similarly unique special effects. Disney at least tried something new. Universal's last 2 E-ticket equivalents used the exact same boring ride system and between them was the incredibly unoriginal Fallon ride system. Universal has built some great attractions with projectors. Spider used a first-of-it's-kind ride system. The scene where the projected Spidey lands on a physical fire escape that moves beneath him is pure genius. Since then, they have struggled to match Spidey's ability to mesh projections with the physical world. This is the kind of originality I'd like to see again moving forward. This is also the kind of originality I hope to see from MMRR. Unlike you, I expect some fun animatronics to play a part in the attraction.
Bleed0range
Well-Known Member
You sound a bit upset and condescending. Yeah, I know Hondo is preshow, but that’s still part of the ride. I’m not arguing that Universal does nothing but screens, I was arguing they don’t and HPFJ was a great combination of screens and props. Someone said the props could be better and I agreed.