Hundred Acre Goods vs Pooh Corner

[Disneylover152]

While I disagree that Pooh’s better, I’m glad you enjoy the attractions, and you make a great point about the originals still existing.

Technically I didn't say Pooh was better, I just said that I enjoy Pooh more than Country Bears/Mr. Toad.

I wasn't alive to see Disneyland Country Bears or WDWs Toad, but I think that Disneylands Mr. Toad is a much better attraction than either of the Poohs. And I personally don't like the Country Bears, but I can agree that the Country Bears is a better attraction than Disneylands Pooh.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

IMHO, only good Disney created Fantasyland styled dark ride/ C Ticket dark ride since Disneyland Paris opened is Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. Not really a fan of Monsters Inc., Mermaid, or any of the Poohs.

There have been a few good E Ticket ones though like Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Mystic Manor. Waiting to ride Rise of the Resistance and Runaway Railroad for myself so I don't have any opinions on those ones/

 

[Californian Elitist]

The one thing Disney got right for Pooh at Disneyland was the surrounding aesthetic. The entire area, including Pooh’s Corner, is very well done and quite charming. The little creek is the best part.

 

[Brer Panther]

a wonderful Imagineering creation was bulldozed and replaced with a cheap, lackluster ride

the scenery is more obviously flat and with fewer dimensions than older attractions and the figures more static.

Not trying to talk smack about Mr. Toad, but that ride had just as many (if not more) flat plywood cutouts and static figures as Pooh. It wasn't exactly the most high budget Disney attraction either.

If Pooh had replaced any other attraction than Mr. Toad, you likely wouldn't hate it as much.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

If Pooh had replaced any other attraction than Mr. Toad, you likely wouldn't hate it as much.

Like Country Bear Jamboree?

 

[PiratesMansion]

Not trying to talk smack about Mr. Toad, but that ride had just as many (if not more) flat plywood cutouts and static figures as Pooh. It wasn't exactly the most high budget Disney attraction either.

If Pooh had replaced any other attraction than Mr. Toad, you likely wouldn't hate it as much.

Touche on the flat plywoods of Toad.

But I'd still prefer a unique take on an anarchic dark ride that takes riders to hell vs. Pooh.

And I say that as someone who thinks the original Pooh shorts are arguably underrated and loves Hunny Hunt.

 

[Brer Panther]

Like Country Bear Jamboree?

Well, Disneyland's Pooh IS pretty bad. I love the Magic Kingdom's Pooh ride, though.

 

[mickEblu]

Why does everyone hate on

The

At Disneyland ?

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

It's a relic of The Wonder Years, when Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harris seemed to want to ruin Disneyland, but yet 2020 actually made us nostalgic for beyond simply Rocket Rods and Superstar Limo.

 

[Disneylover152]

The one thing Disney got right for Pooh at Disneyland was the surrounding aesthetic. The entire area, including Pooh’s Corner, is very well done and quite charming. The little creek is the best part.

The area around Pooh, including the interior of the gift shop, really feels like it's always been at Disneyland. It was built in 2003 but the facade of Pooh Corner and the charm the area has feels like it could have been built in 1955.

 

[mickEblu]

The area around Pooh, including the interior of the gift shop, really feels like it's always been at Disneyland. It was built in 2003 but the facade of Pooh Corner and the charm the area has feels like it could have been built in 1955.

I agree with sentiment but I’d say it’s a little too polished for 55. I’d give you late 60s though.

 

[mickEblu]

It's a relic of The Wonder Years, when Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harris seemed to want to ruin Disneyland, but yet 2020 actually made us nostalgic for beyond simply Rocket Rods and Superstar Limo.

I mean I wouldn’t scoff at a $100 ticket for Pixar Pier (only) at this point

 

[Californian Elitist]

The area around Pooh, including the interior of the gift shop, really feels like it's always been at Disneyland. It was built in 2003 but the facade of Pooh Corner and the charm the area has feels like it could have been built in 1955.

I agree that it looks like it’s been there for a while. 1955, no haha. It took a few years for Disneyland to become aesthetically pleasing to the eye, not that there weren’t beautiful areas in the park when it first opened.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Why does everyone hate on

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The

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At Disneyland ?

Because they lost a park classic not just for Pooh, but a version of Pooh that is widely viewed as a lazy, cheap ride that didn't even live up to either of the two versions of it that already existed.

As much as I'm not a fan of the Florida version, it is nonetheless true that even if they didn't want to clone the Tokyo version, they already had a version of Pooh that was fine from WDW that they could have brought over. Of course, it is possible that they had site constraints that prevented them from flat-out duplicating the WDW blueprints that I'm not privy to. But if that is true, or there are other legitimate reasons explaining why the attraction took a different approach at DL, they are underrepported, and so the narrative has become, whether fully accurate or not, that apparently the WDW version just wasn't cheap enough for the DL of the early 2000's, so they had to go and cheapen it more.

Compare the different versions and DL's, charming setting aside, is easily the worst.
Disneyland's:


Walt Disney World's (and HK and SDL):


Tokyo:


While so far as I know he didn't have much of a role in its design/construction/etc., Tony Baxter has talked about how he viewed DL's Pooh as a step backwards in one of the two episodes of the Themed Attractions podcast he appeared on (starts at about 36:00, and while he dances around his true feelings a bit, the implication is clear, and it's hardly a ringing endorsement of the DL attraction or the people responsible for building it): https://www.themedattraction.com/tony-baxter-interview-pt-1/

If it had to be broken down to one overriding flaw, I'd say it's the cheapness. Say what you will about modern Disney, but other than Pixar Pier, at least their modern attractions don't tend to look insultingly cheap in the way that the Pressler/Harris stuff often did, which certainly included the DL Pooh attraction. If they had even just cloned the WDW version, I don't think DL's Pooh would have quite the reputation that it does.

 

[mickEblu]

Because they lost a park classic not just for Pooh, but a version of Pooh that is widely viewed as a lazy, cheap ride that didn't even live up to either of the two versions of it that already existed.

As much as I'm not a fan of the Florida version, it is nonetheless true that even if they didn't want to clone the Tokyo version, they already had a version of Pooh that was fine from WDW that they could have brought over. Of course, it is possible that they had site constraints that prevented them from flat-out duplicating the WDW blueprints that I'm not privy to. But if that is true, or there are other legitimate reasons explaining why the attraction took a different approach at DL, they are underrepported, and so the narrative has become, whether fully accurate or not, that apparently the WDW version just wasn't cheap enough for the DL of the early 2000's, so they had to go and cheapen it more.

Compare the different versions and DL's, charming setting aside, is easily the worst.
Disneyland's:


Walt Disney World's (and HK and SDL):


Tokyo:


While so far as I know he didn't have much of a role in its design/construction/etc., Tony Baxter has talked about how he viewed DL's Pooh as a step backwards in one of the two episodes of the Themed Attractions podcast he appeared on (starts at about 36:00, and while he dances around his true feelings a bit, the implication is clear, and it's hardly a ringing endorsement of the DL attraction or the people responsible for building it): https://www.themedattraction.com/tony-baxter-interview-pt-1/

If it had to be broken down to one overriding flaw, I'd say it's the cheapness. Say what you will about modern Disney, but other than Pixar Pier, at least their modern attractions don't tend to look insultingly cheap in the way that the Pressler/Harris stuff often did, which certainly included the DL Pooh attraction. If they had even just cloned the WDW version, I don't think DL's Pooh would have quite the reputation that it does.

Nice breakdown. I know why people hate it. I just wanted to post a pic of Winnie from the Wonder years.

As far as Pooh at Disneyland looking cheap ... I dunno. I’ve never been on WDWs version or Hunny Hunt so as someone who’s not comparing (even subconsciously) it’s mediocre for me. I don’t think the word cheap comes to mind. I think the perpetual 5 minute waits, not comparing it to better versions and charming queue /exterior give me that perception. It doesn’t really scream cheap if you re just comparing it to other Fantasyland dark rides at DLR.

To be honest, waiting 5 minutes and riding Pooh beats waiting 45 and riding Pan.

 

[mickEblu]

I’d love to see IASW get some love. Not sure how much work it would be to make it flooded like WDW but at the very least some projections and do something to hide those ceiling tiles. They found a way in the Africa room.

Absolutely loved IASW holiday the last couple years. Their were a few really nice additions. None of them really fixing my issues with the attraction of course.

 

[disneyC97]

Interestingly the shop at Walt Disney World is a re-themed version already. When the Pooh attraction opened in 1998 that had the more traditional tent facade and the merchandise location next-door was called “Pooh’s Thotful Shop” (yes with that spelling). A quick google search will show its prior look/name.

 

[FerretAfros]

The one thing Disney got right for Pooh at Disneyland was the surrounding aesthetic. The entire area, including Pooh’s Corner, is very well done and quite charming. The little creek is the best part.

While I agree that the Pooh stuff (other than the ride itself) was incorporated very well into its surroundings, it's worth noting that most of that area long pre-date the 2003 renovations. Most of the buildings and landscaping date back to the 1972 opening of Bear Country, with some modifications for the 1989 Critter Country conversion, and further 2003 changes.

The covered bridge entrance to the Pooh dark ride was originally the entrance for the Country Bears, which explains why it feels so oversized for such a ho-hum attraction. The stream was part of the original Bear Country, but had to be partly rerouted for the new outdoor loading area; the charming critter homes along the bank fit right in with the area's design intent.

The facilities have changed names and exact uses a few times, but have always managed to maintain the same cozy-rustic atmosphere. Even the additions of the cartoonish honey pots in the land's central planters manage to stay on the right side of being "too much." I'm certainly grateful that DL's Pooh aesthetics are more natural and textured than WDW's, but that's more due to decisions made during the 70's than the 00's. Had the area been designed from scratch during the Pressler/Harris era, I'm sure it would have the same tacky and dated flat graphic design as WDW's.

That said, both Hundred Acre Goods and Pooh's Thotful Shop are more clever and descriptive names than Pooh Corner.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

The reason it looks good is because it was built decades ago when more of the classic WED guys were working and you didn't have these Tesla-driving hipsters obsessed with "Immersion" and making everything rocks and damaged buildings. Despite being themed to animals, Bear Critter Country still feels like nostalgic warm homey southern human architecture. Basically, the talking animals would still want to live like us and not in caves, rundown buildings and in villages filled with broken robots.

 

[DisneyAndUniversalFan]

Nice breakdown. I know why people hate it. I just wanted to post a pic of Winnie from the Wonder years.

As far as Pooh at Disneyland looking cheap ... I dunno. I’ve never been on WDWs version or Hunny Hunt so as someone who’s not comparing (even subconsciously) it’s mediocre for me. I don’t think the word cheap comes to mind. I think the perpetual 5 minute waits, not comparing it to better versions and charming queue /exterior give me that perception. It doesn’t really scream cheap if you re just comparing it to other Fantasyland dark rides at DLR.

To be honest, waiting 5 minutes and riding Pooh beats waiting 45 and riding Pan.

Couldn’t agree more, Pooh at DL is so underrated