Disneyland's Rise Of The Resistance - Reviews, Criticism, Deep Thoughts

FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
All you have to do is look up vs at the flat sightlines to the ground sets in nearly every scene and see the tops of the back of the sets and of course the rigging behind the vines used to obscure the ceiling. And don't look back after you've passed scene (pirates is the same).. and don't look opposite a show scene...

Splash is very much your typical field of view set design... built based on the rider's line of focus. I already mentioned there are show lights seen in RoTR... but the environments are still 360 way beyond anything in splash or others before it.
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Sure, but why are you turning around and looking behind you, when everything has been carefully crafted to direct your attention in a certain direction?

To quote Passport2Dreams:
It's time to talk about magic, and no, I don't mean Disney Magic®, I mean stage magic. What is stage magic? I'm sure none of you are under any real life belief that the magic hat really is empty, right? What is magic? It's misdirection. Penn and Teller define misdirection as knocking over the scenery on stage left while the Amazing Vanishing Duck is yanked offstage to stage right. Of course, if you don't look stage left, the illusion is ruined. But if you aren't willing to go along with the illusion, why are you there in the first place?​
...​
But, you know, it's one thing to build your attraction so that your show building is impossible to see, and it's another to build your attraction with a show building that nobody ever sees. The public isn't stupid; they don't think the animals on the Jungle Cruise are real, but the simple fact is that there are tens of thousands of people roaming around the Magic Kingdom daily who never see any of these massive gray warehouses.​

To me, this is one of the biggest reasons that WDI's recent offerings have fallen flat. Instead of coming up with tricks to misdirect the guest's attention away from utilitarian infrastructure (whether it's a building, electrical equipment, emergency exit, etc.), they decorate it to the hilt and come up with overly-complex backstories of why each element is there. The result is a muddled environment that's highly detailed on the micro level, but fails to fully engage on the macro level, because it's more focused on justifying flaws than highlighting the focus.

Furthermore, Disney's most lauded environments are full of nooks and crannies that are just out of view, leaving it up to the guest's mind to fill in the blanks of what might be back there. Whether it's the stormy windows along HM's portrait gallery, the peek-throughs to adjacent scenes on Splash, or the alleyways just out of view in POTC's burning village, they engage the imagination to fill in the blanks and makes small spaces feel larger. By implying something that's not really there, these spaces are able to add depth that takes guests longer to absorb, and makes the experience more repeatable. While ROTR's hangar is surely impressive in scale, it can more-or-less be absorbed in a single moment for what it is: a big empty warehouse space.

Yes, ROTR's sleek hallways fully envelope the guest's potential field of vision, but are they visually engaging? Do they direct attention where it needs to be directed? Or are they just detailed for the sake of being detailed? Far too often, it seems like WDI misses the forest for the trees. Instead of asking "How can I make this look like it belongs?" they should ask more "How can I direct attention where it's needed?" It's great that they have 360 theming, but if it doesn't help make it a positive experience, what's the point?
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
FerretAfros said:
Yes, ROTR's sleek hallways fully envelope the guest's potential field of vision, but are they visually engaging? Do they direct attention where it needs to be directed? Or are they just detailed for the sake of being detailed? Far too often, it seems like WDI misses the forest for the trees. Instead of asking "How can I make this look like it belongs?" they should ask more "How can I direct attention where it's needed?" It's great that they have 360 theming, but if it doesn't help make it a positive experience, what's the point?
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Hey trust me... I was very vocal about “detail, but soulless” for things like new fantasyland. Basically calling it a airhead bimbo... but I don’t feel the same way at all about the rise environment.

My point above was very much about the “bones” of the attraction, not the net effect... because it was about calling out the hypocrisy of how people have been tearing attractions down for missing elements... and then when that is done to the 11s... they don’t respect it at all.
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
My point above was very much about the “bones” of the attraction, not the net effect... because it was about calling out the hypocrisy of how people have been tearing attractions down for missing elements... and then when that is done to the 11s... they don’t respect it at all.
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I do respect Rise. It’s a very impressive attraction. I don’t tear down Indiana Jones, Radiator Springs, Splash, Tower, Pirates, or Haunted Mansion. They are the ultimate Disney attraction and this one joins the ranks.

I disagree that it somehow breaks the mold by putting up a plastic looking ceiling... the same plastic ceiling that’s in the space mountain cue in California.
 
Communicora

Communicora

Premium Member
I finally got to experience RotR yesterday! It really is a feat. I agree with many of the criticisms, but there is some delightful Disney magic that elevates it for me. I may have even teared up a bit when the music swelled in the cannon room. It really tapped into the love I have had for Star Wars since the age of five.

The staged boarding builds the excitement and, even though I have seen a ride through or two, that moment when the transport doors opened and we saw a very in character silhouetted first order officer in front of us with the giant hangar behind, chilled me for a moment. I also jumped and gasped at various thrills during the journey through the star destroyer. I guess there are benefits to being a bit high strung. ;)

People talk a lot about rerideability as a measure of quality. For me, the most rerideable attractions are thrill rides like roller coasters, but I would never rank one higher than my holy trinity of it's a small world, Pirates and Mansion. I’m NOT putting Rise in that pantheon, but it is a similar type of experience. You can savor it without feeling the need to immediately jump back in line.

Let’s hope they can work out the technical issues so more people can experience this and with less angst.

If you get this far, thanks for reading my ramblings. I'm operating on not enough sleep and trying to write on my iPad so I’m sure there are many errors!
 
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SSG

SSG

Well-Known Member
As for getting on Rise, I had two very different experiences. Wednesday it opened fairly late; it was nearly 10 before I saw BGs being called. Things moved for a couple of hours and group 32 was called before noon. When we got there, we were told it just broke down. We went to DTD for lunch (and shopping for the wife). We checked that things were going again and returned to GE. We went in and through the Q. From entering to exiting was about 60 minutes.

Thursday was bad. No BGs called until around noon. My wife’s sister and her family (husband and 3 teenage girls) had met up with us Wednesday, but Thursday was their first chance to ride. With some help from me, they had BG 25 so we were going through together. Now I love my in-laws and would murder anyone acting improperly toward my nieces, but they can be a handful if things aren’t going right. SiL was very concerned that Rise wouldn’t open at all, but it finally started to move, and we went in as a group of 7 recruits around 1:30. We got through most of the Q and just before the pre-show started, THE GD THING BROKE DOWN AGAIN.

So we waited. And waited. Waited. SiL is flipping her lid. I told her resolving a break down usually took an hour but it was sometimes longer. She decided they would stick it out. It was just over two hours before we allowed to go ahead.

All in all, it was about 4 hours from start to finish. In tight quarters. With my wife’s family.

Pity me.
 
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