Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway - Disneyland

[Magic Feather]

Or how about making the train car tip forward a bit during the waterfall sequence? From what I understand it does not do this at WDW. Not sure what the point of including that scene was without the ride vehicle at least simulating the fall a little bit. Was this a budget cut as well as whatever the heck went wrong with the Tornado room?

I think it actually does do that in WDW (very subtle effect, but I think it is slightly raised and lowered).

 

[mickEblu]

I think it actually does do that in WDW (very subtle effect, but I think it is slightly raised and lowered).

oh interesting. I had read otherwise. Well hopefully they crank it up a few notches to make it feel more in sync with the imagery. But yeah would have made no sense for the ride vehicle not to simulate any sort of movement there.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Will it still have the dancing scene? That's a deal breaker for me.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Are trackless rides overrated? Slow romps through Big warehouses with less intimate show scenes just so we can have multiple ride paths? Why are they so popular? Or are they just popular with the people making them?

Pooh’s Hunny Hunt hit it out of the park that it basically caused this obsession over wanting “trackless rides” over here. The truth is, it never really was about the ride system.

We want an attraction with the same level of detail, life, and energy as Pooh. It’s especially evident when you compare it to our adequate, but rather lifeless Winnie the Pooh rides. I suspect if the Winnie the Pooh Ride in Florida opened with the same level of detail and animatronics as Hunny Hunt, but on a track system, the “trackless craze” wouldn’t be what it’s become among theme park fans.

 

[NateD1226]

Pooh’s Hunny Hunt hit it out of the park that it basically caused this obsession over wanting “trackless rides” over here. The truth is, it never really was about the ride system.

We want an attraction with the same level of detail, life, and energy as Pooh. It’s especially evident when you compare it to our adequate, but rather lifeless Winnie the Pooh rides. I suspect if the Winnie the Pooh Ride in Florida opened with the same level of detail and animatronics as Hunny Hunt, but on a track system, the “trackless craze” wouldn’t be what it’s become among theme park fans.

Which sucks because we never really got another "Hunny Hunt" level ride. Now they just stick some screens in and call it a day.

It went from this amazing, surreal ride:

To cheap rides with barely any details or life to them:

Honestly they have been getting a bit better. M&MRR has a lots of fun details and scenes (even though all of it is screens) and the new Beauty and the Beast ride opening in Tokyo in a few weeks looks very promising.

 

[BayouShack]

Also... no other trackless ride takes advantage of its system as well as Hunny Hunt does when you’re dancing in the Heffalump scene. 6 cars dancing around, plus a fake one with figures in it.

 

[mickEblu]

Which sucks because we never really got another "Hunny Hunt" level ride. Now they just stick some screens in and call it a day.

It went from this amazing, surreal ride:
View attachment 497602View attachment 497605

To cheap rides with barely any details or life to them:
View attachment 497606
View attachment 497607

Honestly they have been getting a bit better. M&MRR has a lots of fun details and scenes (even though all of it is screens) and the new Beauty and the Beast ride opening in Tokyo in a few weeks looks very promising.

which is funny because it was probably cheaper to build than both Ratatouille and Mermaid. Well maybe if you don’t include the trackless system. Regardless Hunny Hunt with a busbar would be better than Mermaid, Ratatouille and MMRR. And for my taste ROTR too.

 

[DrAlice]

I agree that an Omnimover doesn’t guarantee a good ride but then again any ride system doesn’t guarantee a good ride unless one is looking for pure thrills. I think the difference is a trackless ride inherently has a disadvantage. Of course, execution is key and as we see with Hunny Hunt, trackless rides can be great. Here, stateside, it seems they use trackless rides not necessarily to give us the best ride experience but more to showcase tech that Tokyo’s had forever and to give us multiple ride paths. I always say I’ll take one good ride over 2 or 3 possible mediocre ones. I don’t know, maybe it’s done for the AP culture that needs the variation in their rides/ visits. I mean, I’ve literally seen a woman on mermaid stay staring at her phone on social media the entire ride.

I think that trackless rides are at a disadvantage in the way an omnimover is not. They have to figure out how to make these enormous show buildings accommodating multiple ride paths somehow feel more intimate and/ or theme much more wide open area. It doesn’t seem that they re all that concerned. Maybe they feel that with explosions, Star Wars characters on screens and giant AT ATs that people won’t care. With that said, I also understand ROTR might not be the best example and maybe the theme/ aesthetic of being in a Star Destroyer just isn’t my cup of tea.

Maybe we don’t have a big enough sample size? Maybe what makes Hunny Hunt great is that it’s just an attraction that was executed wonderfully (At the right time by OLC) that just happens to be trackless. They just haven’t figured out how to nail it stateside yet. MMRR looks fun (kind of) but also kind of big and empty in parts. Then you have small scenes like the tornado they manage to completely mess up somehow. So maybe it’s not the trackless ride system so much as it is the people who are making these attractions today compared to the people/ company of the past. I believe we do have a generation of imagineers who don’t quite get it in the way the generations that came before did. Maybe it’s not completely their fault and the evolving technology at a certain point became more of a hinderance. I do believe that we may have reached that point in Society in general as well.

With all of this said, I do still stand by my original point. Sure, Imagineers may not be as good as they were and yeah Disney May tie their hands more than in the past but I think the trackless rides do put the imagineers at a disadvantage as they have so much more square footage to theme and make convincing. POTC and HM are huge but don’t have the tech that requires all the stuff on the ceilings and they are true dark rides which hel
With an omnimover like Mermaid they screwed up royally in every way. I mean not only is the omnimover the wrong ride system for the IP (obviously should have been a boat ride) but the execution is terrible in almost every way possible. A dry little mermaid ride with no water on an omnimover that passively goes around every scene like we re watching a movie from home except with almost none of the drama. With that said, I go on pretty often at DCA because of the ever present the short line even when the park is busy. I also don’t hate it as much as it sounds. When I’m at the park I’m not thinking of what it should be or what it could have been, I’m enjoying it for what it is.

I keep wondering what all the hate about mermaids is all about. But now that you mention it should've been a boat ride, I won't un-see that.

I always appreciated the omnimover because it keeps the line short. The ride itself is similar to the fantasyland dark rides with the abrupt happy ending. Perfect? No. Family favorite anyway? Yep.

Hoping for a good MMRR. I'm not expecting HM style quality. I just want something cute and fun that doesn't have a ridiculously long line.

I guess that means I've settled when it comes to modern imagineering. I don't think the sharp pencil boys allow them the freedom of their predecessors.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I keep wondering what all the hate about mermaids is all about. But now that you mention it should've been a boat ride, I won't un-see that.

I always appreciated the omnimover because it keeps the line short. The ride itself is similar to the fantasyland dark rides with the abrupt happy ending. Perfect? No. Family favorite anyway? Yep.

Hoping for a good MMRR. I'm not expecting HM style quality. I just want something cute and fun that doesn't have a ridiculously long line.

I guess that means I've settled when it comes to modern imagineering. I don't think the sharp pencil boys allow them the freedom of their predecessors.

The Little Mermaid cost $150 million dollars. The problem isn’t the sharp pencil boys.

 

[DrAlice]

The Little Mermaid cost $150 million dollars. The problem isn’t the sharp pencil boys.

Lol... point taken.

Again, the ride is about what I expected, so perhaps that's why it's never bothered me.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Lol... point taken.

Again, the ride is about what I expected, so perhaps that's why it's never bothered me.

I’ve used this before, but it’s a D-Ticket with the size and cost of an E-Ticket defended as a C-Ticket. $100 million was Expedition Everest money, not Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride money. The additional $50 million came from the attempts to fix the ride.

 

[Brer Oswald]

My distaste for Little Mermaid comes from my apathy towards the film itself. To me, Disney movies (and Fantasyland in general) are Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Mr Toad, Alice, Peter Pan And Winnie the Pooh.

I do like the Florida mermaid’s Queue.

 

[NobodyElse]

Lol... point taken.

Again, the ride is about what I expected, so perhaps that's why it's never bothered me.

"sharp pencil boys" ?
"point taken" ?

I see what's going on here.

 

[D.Silentu]

I keep wondering what all the hate about mermaids is all about. But now that you mention it should've been a boat ride, I won't un-see that.

To further illuminate the feelings surrounding The Little Mermaid, a few years before the ride was announced there was a video feature with Tony Baxter where he talked about a proposed version of the attraction, complete with an animatic. Most consider it superior.

 

[DrAlice]

"sharp pencil boys" ?
"point taken" ?

I see what's going on here.

I really wish I had been SHARP enough to have planned that. Sometimes the humor just WRITES itself.

 

[DrAlice]

To further illuminate the feelings surrounding The Little Mermaid, a few years before the ride was announced there was a video feature with Tony Baxter where he talked about a proposed version of the attraction, complete with an animatic. Most consider it superior.

I figured this was probably the case. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

[Practical Pig]

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I so, you may not to watch this:

 

[mickEblu]

I so, you may not to watch this:

so if I’m seeing this right it was going to be a boat ride in water on top of some sort of see through glass but then would turn into Peter Pans flight for the underwater scenes? Yeah we got screwed. Just look at the difference of the “kiss the girl scene” where you go through the bayou and feel like you are there as opposed to the “vignette” we just go around on the omnimover.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

so if I’m seeing this right it was going to be a boat ride in water on top of some sort of see through glass but then would turn into Peter Pans flight for the underwater scenes? Yeah we got screwed. Just look at the difference of the “kiss the girl scene” where you go through the bayou and feel like you are there as opposed to the “vignette” we just go around on the omnimover.

Would've been suspended the whole way through. You can see the rail at 0:35 on an above water scene.

On a sidenote: I wonder how they would've achieved the storks pulling the reeds away at the beginning of the Kiss the Girl scene.

 

[Practical Pig]

so if I’m seeing this right it was going to be a boat ride in water on top of some sort of see through glass but then would turn into Peter Pans flight for the underwater scenes? Yeah we got screwed. Just look at the difference of the “kiss the girl scene” where you go through the bayou and feel like you are there as opposed to the “vignette” we just go around on the omnimover.

As @Sharon&Susan said, It also looks to me like the vehicles are suspended throughout. The scene work and flow is all much superior, but the defining difference for me is that transparent-with-effects barrier between above water and below. This version takes you on a journey though the emotional world of the film instead of flashing some book report imagery imitating the film.