With Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Universal has set the bar even higher for dark rides. Problem is, Disney still hasn't been able to match Spiderman, a ride that's ten years old.
My frustration with Disney is they've gone away with what made their rides so special - live show elements, animatronics, etc. They've gone almost exclusively video. Save for one short encounter with the yeti in EE, every attraction they've made in recent memory has been video based like Nemo and Friends, and Soarin at Epcot, or "virtual" like Toy Story Mania and Mission Space. Even in EE, the first encounter with the yeti is just a projected shadow. The whole ride is a gigantic mountain roller coaster with ONE live show element. I realize a truly "live" dark ride takes much more time and money, but if Universal can do it, Disney should be able to right?
I'm holding out hope that the upcoming Mermaid ride at MK will be a generation defining ride, but I doubt it. I understand it will be omnimover based (2-dimensional compared to Forbidden Journey) and my fear is they will do the same cost efficient stuff they did with Nemo and Toy Story - dominate the ride with video screens.
My frustration with Disney is they've gone away with what made their rides so special - live show elements, animatronics, etc. They've gone almost exclusively video. Save for one short encounter with the yeti in EE, every attraction they've made in recent memory has been video based like Nemo and Friends, and Soarin at Epcot, or "virtual" like Toy Story Mania and Mission Space. Even in EE, the first encounter with the yeti is just a projected shadow. The whole ride is a gigantic mountain roller coaster with ONE live show element. I realize a truly "live" dark ride takes much more time and money, but if Universal can do it, Disney should be able to right?
I'm holding out hope that the upcoming Mermaid ride at MK will be a generation defining ride, but I doubt it. I understand it will be omnimover based (2-dimensional compared to Forbidden Journey) and my fear is they will do the same cost efficient stuff they did with Nemo and Toy Story - dominate the ride with video screens.