Little Mermaid Ride Adjustments

InsiderImagine

Active Member
I have been hearing whispers that WDW is getting the "Prince Eric kills Ursula" scene, so hopefully this rumor is true because I would love to see this Little Mermaid ride almost perfected.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
wow, really? whats the big deal with a hair style? if this is all people have to complain about with the ride then id say they did a pretty good job. wish i had seen it before it got scaled down.

replacing 3d animation with 2 d? really???????????

The hair in question looked.... Well, have a look on YouTube.

It's great TDA and Burbank listen.
 

MichWolv

Born Modest. Wore Off.
Premium Member
wow, really? whats the big deal with a hair style? if this is all people have to complain about with the ride then id say they did a pretty good job. wish i had seen it before it got scaled down.

replacing 3d animation with 2 d? really???????????

The hair just doesn't work. My 2 year old pointed at it and said "Look Daddy, she has ice cream on her head!" :lol:

No, it doesn't ruin the ride, but it is a point where you are laughing AT the attraction, instead of with it.
 

ScoutN

OV 104
Premium Member
The hair just doesn't work. My 2 year old pointed at it and said "Look Daddy, she has ice cream on her head!" :lol:

No, it doesn't ruin the ride, but it is a point where you are laughing AT the attraction, instead of with it.

The writeup and images here pretty much are self explanatory.

http://www./2012/04/fan-criticism-s...nd-replaces-soft-serve-hair-and-cg-animation/
 

jjharvpro

Active Member
Is there any word if the ride will be extended for WDW yet? I am really hoping it is extended by a scene. It seems very short when you watch the videos and doesn't seem to flow very well at all.

I'm not sure, but I've heard rumors that we may be getting a small extra scene to make a more cohesive conclusion, which it needs.

Anyway, I can see (in the next few years or so) TDA/WDI deciding to close it down for a few months and then sprucing up the story's ending and the attraction overall.
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
You see, Disneyland actually responds and addresses criticisms and works to make the show better. WDW does not have to worry about that because the smallest bit of constructive criticism is immediately refuted and the one giving it is quickly labeled a "Doom and Gloomer".
 

Pioneer Hall

Well-Known Member
You see, Disneyland actually responds and addresses criticisms and works to make the show better. WDW does not have to worry about that because the smallest bit of constructive criticism is immediately refuted and labeled a "Doom and Gloomer".

Just like positive comments are deemed "pixie duster" or "defender of mediocrity"...its certainly a 2 way street.
 

MichWolv

Born Modest. Wore Off.
Premium Member
You see, Disneyland actually responds and addresses criticisms and works to make the show better. WDW does not have to worry about that because the smallest bit of constructive criticism is immediately refuted and the one giving it is quickly labeled a "Doom and Gloomer".

Just like positive comments are deemed "pixie duster" or "defender of mediocrity"...its certainly a 2 way street.

That's a bit of an over-simplification.

:hammer:
 

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
Definitely welcome changes. I know the exact moment of the movie that Imagineers were trying to represent with Ariel's soft serve hair, but unfortunately, it wasn't executed in a particularly good way. And the cg animation bugged me too.

The only thing left to fix is the ending (or lack thereof)...

The soft-serve hair effect looks really dopey. Like Bride of Frankenstein dopey. Thank god they're changing it!
 

Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
I rode LM last week in DCA . . . the entrance to the Ursula scene had better lighting, which was a plus, but they now project "bubbles" on the infamous Dole Whip Mermaid, and it looks more like disco light as she is one of the only figures in the ride that has this effect.

The wait time was 5 minutes, the five year old girl in my party rode it twice, only, after prompting, and declined to ride it a third time despite there being no wait. The clam shells were about half filled.

The worst part is the cardboard cut-out Ursula and the "finale" scene. Yeah, I guess its nice to see LM get married to Eric . . . but they are waving at us, the audience, changing the whole perspective of the ride. It is creepy. BTW, the finale scene reutilizes audioanimatronics from the Under the Sea scene . . . and worst part, they are dancing the same way! That's right . . . they couldn't spare the $$ to create original audioanimatronics for each scene. It would be like if Peter Pan's Flight had a finale scene where Peter, Wendy and the lost boys are waving at the ride vehicle, along with identical Captain Hook and Smee audioanimatronics messing around in the water with the crococdile with the same Nanna from the beginning.

Given that MK got the crappy version of pirates, I hope they get a much better version of LM. The scenes are still kinda of jarring, and too much lighting ruins the effect. I love MK's Pooh ride, and really don't like Disneyland's Pooh . . . same problems with LM in DCA, lack of "heart" and the scenes are generic (for LM) and jumbled together.

IMHO, poor Al Lutz on Miceage is in denial about LM's shortcomings and failure to connect with a lot of guests, when Carsland opens its going to make LM look pretty bad by comparision. Despite TDA's insistence that they learned from the past, DCA's LM looks like the imagineers ran out of money half way through to finish it. When WDW's LM opens, (and by the power of King Triton may it have one or more scenes added on), its going to give a lot of people visiting DLR Mermaid envy.
 

Skooterkid

Well-Known Member
Ariel's hair did bother me when I visited DCA in August, so I'm very glad to see this dealt with. Can't say I took much notice of the CGI 'ascent' and 'descent' but if the fans call for it then it's gonna be a positive change :) ...now all they have to do is sort out those creepy eyes :lookaroun
 

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
I rode LM last week in DCA . . . the entrance to the Ursula scene had better lighting, which was a plus, but they now project "bubbles" on the infamous Dole Whip Mermaid, and it looks more like disco light as she is one of the only figures in the ride that has this effect.

The wait time was 5 minutes, the five year old girl in my party rode it twice, only, after prompting, and declined to ride it a third time despite there being no wait. The clam shells were about half filled.

The worst part is the cardboard cut-out Ursula and the "finale" scene. Yeah, I guess its nice to see LM get married to Eric . . . but they are waving at us, the audience, changing the whole perspective of the ride. It is creepy. BTW, the finale scene reutilizes audioanimatronics from the Under the Sea scene . . . and worst part, they are dancing the same way! That's right . . . they couldn't spare the $$ to create original audioanimatronics for each scene. It would be like if Peter Pan's Flight had a finale scene where Peter, Wendy and the lost boys are waving at the ride vehicle, along with identical Captain Hook and Smee audioanimatronics messing around in the water with the crococdile with the same Nanna from the beginning.

Given that MK got the crappy version of pirates, I hope they get a much better version of LM. The scenes are still kinda of jarring, and too much lighting ruins the effect. I love MK's Pooh ride, and really don't like Disneyland's Pooh . . . same problems with LM in DCA, lack of "heart" and the scenes are generic (for LM) and jumbled together.

IMHO, poor Al Lutz on Miceage is in denial about LM's shortcomings and failure to connect with a lot of guests, when Carsland opens its going to make LM look pretty bad by comparision. Despite TDA's insistence that they learned from the past, DCA's LM looks like the imagineers ran out of money half way through to finish it. When WDW's LM opens, (and by the power of King Triton may it have one or more scenes added on), its going to give a lot of people visiting DLR Mermaid envy.

Great post and great critique of the attraction. It would be great to have something at WDW (that is also at DL) that is actually deemed "better". I haven't been to DCA since Mermaid opened so the only thing I could compare at this point were the show buildings, and ours already was blowing yours out of the water. I believe my comparison to your show building was that it looked like a Movico Movie Theater.
 

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
Just like positive comments are deemed "pixie duster" or "defender of mediocrity"...its certainly a 2 way street.

just to be fair....I believe it was The Mom who officially dubbed the titles and made it all official. Atleast the Pixie Dust Brigade anyway. I don't believe we had an official title for those who defended all that TDO does until that point.

HMF does have a point (which may be lost because of who said it). To this day there really hasn't been much (if any) evidence that TDO takes any feedback from WDW fans seriously enough to warrant a change. It really should not matter the tone in which the argument is presented...people, egos, and tone get lost on the internet anyway...but it doesn't mean that there isn't validity in what "Doom and Gloomers" point out. To just shrug off everything as not being a valid point because "They hate everything we do" is just nonsense and bad business sense. IMO anyway...gotta make sure I add that tag!

It's kind of like when you and Steve take all of the negative comments I make in one day (ignoring any positive ones that I have made) and come to a conclusion that all I do is whine and that I don't add anything of value to the conversation at hand. I think 5 years of posting history would show that I give praise when I think praise is due, and that I never have tried to pass off anything I say as fact. :cool::lookaroun
 

Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Great post and great critique of the attraction. It would be great to have something at WDW (that is also at DL) that is actually deemed "better". I haven't been to DCA since Mermaid opened so the only thing I could compare at this point were the show buildings, and ours already was blowing yours out of the water. I believe my comparison to your show building was that it looked like a Movico Movie Theater.

The MK's queue is great as you start the immersion in Ariel's world immediately, the DCA queue . . . its supposed to be in the style of old pier side amusement park 20th Century Aquarium. I can see why these type of buildings for aquariums went out of style as it looks as fancy as a Barnes and Noble and I didn't get the aquarium reference without reading about it and looking at old pictures. I think they made the building so tall in part so that it blocks out the Grand Californian . . .

Queues notwithstanding the show building part of the MK's Little Mermaid looks to be 40% bigger, go to Google earth and look at the show building sizes ( but keep the scale the same, you can see it in the bottom left of the satellite photo, I used the 100 ft/20 m scale.)

Just looking at show buildings, the MK's LM show building is about 30-40% bigger ALSO, the MK's LM's queue and is housed in a building next to it, if the ride load area is also in this rock-work part of the complex, then MK's LM is about 40 to 50% bigger than DCA's, space which I figure will be put to good use.

There are a good number of scenes in DCA's LM that feel claustrophobic, maybe because the show building is made to look impressive. Such as the "Kiss the Girl" scene, which in concept art was bigger as the omnimovers took a more circuitous route, and the Ursula scene in which the Ursula AA feels like it is too close to the ride vehicles.

While TDO gets a lot of comments about not responding to guests wishes, as the AP community grows there, and as they are competing with Potterland, I think that somebody at TDO figured that they needed a plussed LM for the Fantasyland Expansion as that will be the first new ride to open and first impressions are everything.
 

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