BrianLo
Well-Known Member
No grief from me, I totally understand your point. In my mind it falls into some of those tropes, but manages to skirt several other plaguing problems in themed design. It's certainly not a little Mermaid by the book retelling. There are clear scenes that recall the movies and the actual town scene that functions as a "look at all your favourite characters", but there is a different original narrative to the ride than the movie.
It's not an excellent narrative, nor does it scrape much beyond a narrative for a 3 year old, but in no way is RSR a total failure in this regard. That's more a dysfunction of Cars as a medium. However, I think most people once upon a time had very, very low expectations for that land and in many ways they escaped many tropes WDI has fallen into.
Mermaid is the DCA prototype of something really going amuck. There is a reason though many people consider Mystic Manor superior to RSR, despite the obvious gobs of cash spent on RSR, the over the top scale - compared to a relatively intimate dark ride. As you've pointed out, that definitely comes down to narrative. On the opposite spectrum, there are times when a ride's sheer imagination allows one to kind of put aside a messy narrative, like Forbidden Journey.
There is something potentially commendable about what they are doing with Star Wars. Even if Disney as a corporation nearly fell into the rehash bin with original plans - and needed a swift kick in the behind by the board. I'm hopeful it will work out, but if IP is our only future, I'm glad there are at least a few people who understand you can create an original narrative and not a physical rehash of a movie.
