MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Speaking of Peter Pan, I noticed that Tokyo's version recently (not sure when) got an overhaul. Numerous scenes were actually gutted, removed and rebuilt closer to the California version. It also got a lot of new digital mapping effects. It's worth mentioning because IF WDW's is ever updated, I suspect the result will be similar to if not identical to Tokyo. The reason is because WDW and Tokyo are, or were prior to this rehab, exact clones of one another and originally shared the same scenes and track layout. It would be easier to replicate the newer Tokyo version at WDW than replicating the DL version exactly. Here is a video from Tokyo's new Peter Pan-
The changes are interesting and substantial. Far more substantial in fact than Disneyland's recent overhaul. The nursery is largely unchanged with the exception of Pan's newer animated shadow (a welcome addition, though they opted not to include the new flying figures of the Darling children from DL). The flight over London is now somewhat rearranged, also seems flatter and less 3-dimensional in places (again similar to Disneyland's version, though still with some depth). The following scenes with the Flight over Neverland were all gutted and replaced with new ones. They now include a replicated Flight over Neverland scene taken from the California version, which has a miniaturized island surrounded by a starfield. The next room contains new versions of the Mermaid, Lost Boys and Indian scenes. The remaining scenes with Skull Rock and after are largely the same as before, though with new lighting digital mapping effects.
I've got some opinions about the overhaul, but i'll put it in spoiler tags so it won't clog the thread as much (kind of a long post)-
I have to admit, i'm torn over some of these changes. In a lot of ways the ride looks awesome, the new digital mapping effects are fantastic of course. But some of the forced perspective and pacing in the reconstructed scenes are not so great. And I say this as someone who feels the Disneyland version is generally superior. The problem is that attempting to bring Tokyo's closer to the Disneyland version sort of didn't work when they only changed about a third of the ride. I suspect these issues are probably related to the different track layout and room dimensions, along with what order they were placed in.
I prefer the original more 3-dimensional look of the Flight over London scene, it's the one thing I feel WDW's and Tokyo's versions had going for them over the London scenes at California or Paris. Granted this is a personal opinion, and some buildings are still 3D, but the alterations makes it seem like the people in charge of this overhaul did not understand or perhaps notice the buildup as you're taking off from the nursery window. Starting after you exit the window, objects and buildings below gradually become smaller and smaller, a simple yet effective forced perspective trick that made it feel like you were gaining altitude. The rearrangements of the buildings in the London scene IMO negatively affects this pacing.
The miniature Neverland model looks very strange and kind of bad, it has a different design from Disneyland's or even the movie (particularly the mountains), so I would not blame the forced perspective here. Not sure why they didn't just replicate the island model from Disneyland and Paris... The three following scenes with the Indians, Lost Boys and Mermaids looks good individually, but they're clustered far too close together. Disneyland's versions (at least the Indians and Mermaids, I don't know if DL actually has the Lost Boys scene) of these scenes are separated into different rooms in a different order, Tokyo's are just lining the walls in a single room. While the Neverland scenes in the pre-refurb Tokyo version were also grouped relatively close together, the ride previously had a very different way of pacing itself (with far more forced perspective effects using setpieces of shifting sizes to convey more gradual altitude variations). I wasn't really 100% satisfied with the way the original ride handled the Neverland scenes either (worked wonderfully during the initial London takeoff however), but this new version just introduced different issues entirely (pacing and poor order/placement) in the attempts to bring it closer to the DL version. So IMO, Disneyland and Paris still contain the overall best execution of the Neverland scenes...
The new scenes I feel were adapted from Disneyland without much thought put into how the placement and pacing would work with Tokyo's different track layout and room dimensions. The scenes that weren't structurally altered but were just plussed with better effects and figures came out the best IMO. The scenes from Skull Rock onward seem relatively unchanged besides some minor plussing to lighting and such.
The soundtrack seems unchanged, which is still completely different from Disneyland. DL takes more direct soundclips from the film, more of an orchestral score with variations in tempo and even lyrics. They use several songs from the film as well (not just You Can Fly, but also clips of Second Star to the Right and Pirates Life). The WDW/Tokyo version just uses a consistent tempo of the "You can Fly" theme played at a slower pace, with only some different instrument samples in certain scenes (same song throughout though). I've always preferred DL's more varied movie based soundtrack much more. The ride system is also unchanged from pre-rehab, still slightly different from Disneyland (Disneyland's stops to load/unload while Tokyo/WDW remains in motion during load/unload).
I prefer the original more 3-dimensional look of the Flight over London scene, it's the one thing I feel WDW's and Tokyo's versions had going for them over the London scenes at California or Paris. Granted this is a personal opinion, and some buildings are still 3D, but the alterations makes it seem like the people in charge of this overhaul did not understand or perhaps notice the buildup as you're taking off from the nursery window. Starting after you exit the window, objects and buildings below gradually become smaller and smaller, a simple yet effective forced perspective trick that made it feel like you were gaining altitude. The rearrangements of the buildings in the London scene IMO negatively affects this pacing.
The miniature Neverland model looks very strange and kind of bad, it has a different design from Disneyland's or even the movie (particularly the mountains), so I would not blame the forced perspective here. Not sure why they didn't just replicate the island model from Disneyland and Paris... The three following scenes with the Indians, Lost Boys and Mermaids looks good individually, but they're clustered far too close together. Disneyland's versions (at least the Indians and Mermaids, I don't know if DL actually has the Lost Boys scene) of these scenes are separated into different rooms in a different order, Tokyo's are just lining the walls in a single room. While the Neverland scenes in the pre-refurb Tokyo version were also grouped relatively close together, the ride previously had a very different way of pacing itself (with far more forced perspective effects using setpieces of shifting sizes to convey more gradual altitude variations). I wasn't really 100% satisfied with the way the original ride handled the Neverland scenes either (worked wonderfully during the initial London takeoff however), but this new version just introduced different issues entirely (pacing and poor order/placement) in the attempts to bring it closer to the DL version. So IMO, Disneyland and Paris still contain the overall best execution of the Neverland scenes...
The new scenes I feel were adapted from Disneyland without much thought put into how the placement and pacing would work with Tokyo's different track layout and room dimensions. The scenes that weren't structurally altered but were just plussed with better effects and figures came out the best IMO. The scenes from Skull Rock onward seem relatively unchanged besides some minor plussing to lighting and such.
The soundtrack seems unchanged, which is still completely different from Disneyland. DL takes more direct soundclips from the film, more of an orchestral score with variations in tempo and even lyrics. They use several songs from the film as well (not just You Can Fly, but also clips of Second Star to the Right and Pirates Life). The WDW/Tokyo version just uses a consistent tempo of the "You can Fly" theme played at a slower pace, with only some different instrument samples in certain scenes (same song throughout though). I've always preferred DL's more varied movie based soundtrack much more. The ride system is also unchanged from pre-rehab, still slightly different from Disneyland (Disneyland's stops to load/unload while Tokyo/WDW remains in motion during load/unload).
