Thanks for posting that link. The changes do really make a difference imho, but the animation was a bigger issue with me than the hair. I'm happy with the changes.
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Little Mermaid Ride Adjustments
- Thread starter dreamscometrue
- Start date
Thanks for posting that link. The changes do really make a difference imho, but the animation was a bigger issue with me than the hair. I'm happy with the changes.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I thought the old CGI animation looked worse than the beehive hairdo. The new hand-drawn animation that replaced the CGI when the ride reopened from rehab yesterday looks MUCH better, but is hard to capture in video or photographs. You just have to ride the Mermaid ride for yourself to get it! :lol:
Here's the Before and After on Ariel's new hairdo in the Under The Sea musical production number room;
Ariel's Hairdo Before - DCA's Little Mermaid Ride Circa 2011
Ariel's Hairdo After - DCA's Little Mermaid Ride Circa May, 2012
Compliments of a great Disneylander who always gets the best and latest photos and videos from happenings in Anaheim, MintCrocodile and his Magic Eye Blog... http://mintcrocodile.blogspot.com/2012/05/little-mermaid-ariels-undersea.html
Scuttle
Well-Known Member
Wow...you JUST joined and you already know about Doom and Gloomers? Something tells me we've seen you here before.
Yep me to. Pretty sure it's the same person that has been trolling this site for months now.
Neverland
Active Member
Those rocks are not entirely on top of the show building. They're next to it. It's sort of a rock tunnel, hiding a road that is next to the building, between Mermaid and Circus.
And am I the only one who doesn't see much of a difference in the animation? o_0 It still looks cg to me. Not saying Disney is lying or anything, but man, they shaded the crap outta that, and it looks pretty stiff. But hey, I'm going by a video, not real life.
DisneyLuver91
Member
I didn't honestly notice a difference either until I watched the video that someone posted just a few hours ago. I noticed it was definitely more "clear" than the original movie animation, but a lot less 3D than the ride animation. Just keep your eyes peeled and you may see it.
HMF
Well-Known Member
Wow...you JUST joined and you already know about Doom and Gloomers? Something tells me we've seen you here before.
Possibly several times.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
The two buildings are "clearly" the same width. The load area is located at the very edge of both buildings. The "extra rows" at DCA are under the blue roof. The space to the right at WDW (under the rockwork) is for Ariel's M&G
Here you can see how everything lines up exactly the same way in both buildings.
So, this thought just came to me...
The DCA and WDW versions of Little Mermaid will be identical from the load belt to the unload belt. The Omnimover has an identical footprint, and the ride's rooms and sets and animatronics are identical, with the WDW version getting the upgrades to animatronics and projections that DCA's version just got last week.
So... Is this the first time that a ride has been cloned directly for both Disneyland and WDW? I've only been on the WDW version of Midway Mania twice, but I seem to remember it was set up differently and the track in the beginning and end of the ride was changed noticeably. But other "cloned" attractions between California and Florida have noticeable differences to the sets and/or ride systems and tracks; Pirates, Mansion, Space Mt., Jungle, Small World, etc.
Is this the first time a ride itself, not counting the queue or building facade, has been cloned directly and precisely for the two coasts?
etwtec
Active Member
So, this thought just came to me...
The DCA and WDW versions of Little Mermaid will be identical from the load belt to the unload belt. The Omnimover has an identical footprint, and the ride's rooms and sets and animatronics are identical, with the WDW version getting the upgrades to animatronics and projections that DCA's version just got last week.
So... Is this the first time that a ride has been cloned directly for both Disneyland and WDW? I've only been on the WDW version of Midway Mania twice, but I seem to remember it was set up differently and the track in the beginning and end of the ride was changed noticeably. But other "cloned" attractions between California and Florida have noticeable differences to the sets and/or ride systems and tracks; Pirates, Mansion, Space Mt., Jungle, Small World, etc.
Is this the first time a ride itself, not counting the queue or building facade, has been cloned directly and precisely for the two coasts?
I think most attractions are different to some degree. I really do not understand why LM has to be identical to DCA... but whatev.
All in all something else to ride at MK... but like you all said nothing to be overly excited for.
jt04
Well-Known Member
Except for those in the target audience. Obviously you are not in that demo.
The idea for exact clones is to save on costs at every step. Design, engineering and maintenance. Of course it is not a clone in the sense that it will have an entirely different show building etc. Essentially a "World Showcase" style pavilion is being designed around the ride at WDW. Considering the ride itself lasts less than 10 minutes, having all the other immersive theming will make all the difference in enhancing the guest experience.
And the crowds will prove that this attraction is something they are more than a bit excited about. Some of you are just a bit out of touch with the average visitors' expectations.
Funny it seems to be mostly the same people who dissed the purchase of Pixar and then did the same when Disney purchased Marvel. Huh.
Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
Why does everything with you have to be part of some larger conspiracy??? I personally couldn't have cared less about the Marvel thing and was happy about Pixar, and I'm not doing cartwheels about TLM. I also have three girls, all of which are ALSO looking at it as another ride at the MK to do (which is great), but fully understanding their day won't consist of seeing how many times they can ride it.
Why?? Because that's the response an attraction at this level deserves. We've been on the attraction at least a dozen times in DCA... Have you?
There are a lot of great things in the ride (Scuttle, Ursula AA)... But there are some things that could have been done much better (lame AA's in Under the Sea, continuity issues I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread). The ride isn't a homerun. It's good... We like it a lot. But it's not on par with HM or Splash (when working).
It has nothing to do with any other grand schemes... It just "is what it is"... Which, to us, is a good dark ride based on a movie that should have had a dark ride 20 years ago. I can tell you one thing... At WDW, it will NOT be a "can't miss" attraction for us... Not when FP is going to bog everything down. We'll get our fill of it over at DCA if the lines are crazy.
sponono88
Well-Known Member
A side-by-side comparison video of the ride updates are featured in this new video by SoCalAdventureHD1
[youtube]QOW4VlFc2Ck[/youtube]
The Ariel animations are more fluid and have more detail, especially in the descent scene where she brushes her hair, for example. Looks really good!
[youtube]QOW4VlFc2Ck[/youtube]
The Ariel animations are more fluid and have more detail, especially in the descent scene where she brushes her hair, for example. Looks really good!
TP2000
Well-Known Member
For those keeping score at home, after dozens of rides on the DCA version I've clocked the Mermaid ride at DCA at right at 5:15 minutes if the Omnimover isn't slowed for wheelchair riders.
If it slows for wheelchairs once or twice during your ride, you can get up to a 5:45 ride time, but Mermaid is always much less than a 6 minute ride.
jmpresney
New Member
Hey all. I rarely ever post - pretty much a lurker - but work took me to Costa Mesa for the last two weeks and I was lucky enough to ride both versions of the ride. The animation sections are still CG. I'm not a computer animation expert so I'm sure this terminology is all wrong, but it appears that they just applied a different filter or removed a couple layers from the animation to make it look more hand drawn. Her face looks pretty convincing. Her arms and legs still have some of the "3D" look. All in all it does look greatly improved. Her hair in the Under the Sea scene looks great from certain angles and passable from others, but again it's a pretty big improvement. When I saw the first version, the clamshell in front of me was laughing at the swirly hair. It's hard to say but the scene seemed a little darker too. Not a whole lot, but some. It's still bright though. ANYWAY - the improvements do help - a lot.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
So, this thought just came to me...
The DCA and WDW versions of Little Mermaid will be identical from the load belt to the unload belt. The Omnimover has an identical footprint, and the ride's rooms and sets and animatronics are identical, with the WDW version getting the upgrades to animatronics and projections that DCA's version just got last week.
So... Is this the first time that a ride has been cloned directly for both Disneyland and WDW? I've only been on the WDW version of Midway Mania twice, but I seem to remember it was set up differently and the track in the beginning and end of the ride was changed noticeably. But other "cloned" attractions between California and Florida have noticeable differences to the sets and/or ride systems and tracks; Pirates, Mansion, Space Mt., Jungle, Small World, etc.
Is this the first time a ride itself, not counting the queue or building facade, has been cloned directly and precisely for the two coasts?
While the scenes in MK's LM might be the same, it's too bad that they didn't take advantage of the extra space in MK to build a bigger show building that could accomodate better transitions from one area to the other. An extended dive under the ocean, or a more gentle transition from the "Under the Sea" musical to Ursula'a lair would greatly improve the ride as the DCA verison seems to be too jumpy, in terms of the transitions.
The Kiss the Girl scene is OK in DCA, though feels claustrophobic like much of the ride. The clams shells sort of make a quick journey through the scene (you feel like you're pressed against a wall), in the concept art, the clamshells weaved in between the trees in this scene and there was more atmosphere.
Small changes like these would add more "magic" to the ride, though would require a little more space . . . too bad TDO didn't insist that they get to plus their version of the ride and use space to an advantage. There's plenty of space behind LM's show building, all they'd have to do is move the road back.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
In the end it comes down to money. It's just cheaper to build if they are the same.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
It might be cheaper in the short term to simply cut and paste the blueprints . . . but how much really would it be to hire an architect to design a bigger show-building, and to extend the track some?
Given that MK is competing with Harry Potter, and that the success of the Fantasyland expansion will be judged in large part on the reaction to LM, it seems to make sense to go for broke. In the long run, if the ride is uber-immersive and well done, it'll draw in guests.
I still don't see how the company can blow $200 million on John Carter, which costed much more to make, and yet underinvest in a ride which will be seen by millions for decades.
In terms of new attractions, I think that Disney should be blowing people minds with new immersive sets in order to truly compete with Transformers and Potter.
In the long term, MK would have been better off with a plused attraction.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Did you ever go to the Blue Sky Cellar exhibit back in late 2010 and into 2011 when it was all about The Little Mermaid ride? They had many different track map versions of the ride on display that showed the evolution of the attraction from 2006 through 2009 when construction started.
What was and is obvious however is that Mermaid was built for DCA's plot of available land first, and then cloned directly for Magic Kingdom. But at MK the facade and surrounding development of the ride is very different. Just adding a massive Standby queue, plus a Fastpass queue, triples the amount of land needed for queue at Magic Kingdom. Whereas at DCA the queue is a few short turns and a switchback in a garden area near the ride, and then in the entry doors and on to the load belt. Much, much less space is taken for queue at DCA, and a year later the ride usually has only a 5 to 10 minute wait, with lots of empty queue still left over.
The other thing to note is that at DCA at least, The Little Mermaid ride is a HUGE improvement over what was previously in that space from 2001 to 2008; the boring and very lightly attended California history movie Golden Dreams. To have that history movie in a cheap stucco theater replaced with The Little Mermaid (even with the soft serve hairdo on Ariel in 2011) was a giant step forward for DCA, and a big win for its growing roster of attractions.
The merits of The Little Mermaid versus the ride it basically replaced at Magic Kingdom, on the other hand, is still a subject of debate.
Disneyfanman
Well-Known Member
So, this thought just came to me...
The DCA and WDW versions of Little Mermaid will be identical from the load belt to the unload belt. The Omnimover has an identical footprint, and the ride's rooms and sets and animatronics are identical, with the WDW version getting the upgrades to animatronics and projections that DCA's version just got last week.
So... Is this the first time that a ride has been cloned directly for both Disneyland and WDW? I've only been on the WDW version of Midway Mania twice, but I seem to remember it was set up differently and the track in the beginning and end of the ride was changed noticeably. But other "cloned" attractions between California and Florida have noticeable differences to the sets and/or ride systems and tracks; Pirates, Mansion, Space Mt., Jungle, Small World, etc.
Is this the first time a ride itself, not counting the queue or building facade, has been cloned directly and precisely for the two coasts?
Toy Story Mania, It's Tough To Be a Bug. Soarin'? I can't think of any others except for Dumbo, and those differences are growing with the New Fantasyland.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
Its Tough to be a Bug isn't a ride