Navi River Journey - What is the story?

KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Bairstow said:
Hi

It's also severely lacking in thrills and interactivity, but none of these are necessary a failing on the ride's part.
Not all attractions are supposed to tell stories.
Many of the very best attractions (Mansion, Pirates, Big Thunder) don't.
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I beg to differ on that.

IMHO, in the Haunted Mansion, you are a visiting ghost/guest who is being shown the plot by a ghost host. After you exit the ride, you are offered a stay.;)

Pirates = Alongside other pillaging pirates, Jack Sparrow is in search of the treasure. You get through the burning city following Jack's excursions, and then you find him in the treasure room as he triumphantly sings "Yo ho".

Big Thunder, eh, that one you may be right about.
 
crxbrett

crxbrett

Well-Known Member
MaximumEd said:
It’s a beautiful ride that would receive far less criticism if it had been about twice as long. Even with zero story. As soon as you settle in and start really taking it all in, it’s over.
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Yeah, that is probably my biggest issue with it for sure - it's about 3-4 minutes too short. A few more scenes and maybe 2 or 3 AAs instead of just one single AA would have made it fairly good instead of just alright or okay. It would have been cool to see a couple of the animals/creatures done as amazing AAs instead of screen projections.
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
crxbrett said:
Yeah, that is probably my biggest issue with it for sure - it's about 3-4 minutes too short. A few more scenes and maybe 2 or 3 AAs instead of just one single AA would have made it fairly good instead of just alright or okay. It would have been cool to see a couple of the animals/creatures done as amazing AAs instead of screen projections.
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This I think is one of the ride's main problems.

People relate to AA's, not to projections.
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Another problem, one of the ride's main problems, is that no individual scene holds any dramatic tension.

For a test - can you name anything that any animal does in the ride?

At Pirates, or the Jungle Cruise, the Mansion, SSE, every scene tells a story, in a single tableau. Somebody is doing something. Everybody knows the monk is sleeping and the drunk pirate is pigging out. In Na'vi, they just walk about in a dreamy manner. But that is supposed to be the rider's state of mind, not the preoccupation of the projected animals.


Why not have set the scene with an atmospheric start through dark caves (spooky), then a few pretty scenes where AA's hunt each other (scares and danger), play with each other (fun), care for new life (awws and tenderness), all ended with a large show stopper of a scene where you float around the big white tree as the Na'vi AA tells you - in English - about all the wonder of all of her planet (thus really yours) being interconnected (some wow and some meaning).
 
R

Rumrunner

Well-Known Member
KBLovesDisney said:
I haven't seen the movie Avatar (please no hate) and just want to know the concept of the Navi River ride.

Anyone have a quick paraphrase of the overall story of the ride from beginning point A to the end point B?

What you are supposedly doing/where are you going, your character aboard the boat, boat-ride build-up story, etc.?

Go!
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My family members that rode it basically said it was okay but there is little to make them want to ever ride it again.
 
geekza

geekza

Well-Known Member
MaximumEd said:
Are you saying that HM and Pirates doesn’t tell a story?
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Both are two of my all-time favorite attractions, but... no. They don't.

Haunted Mansion started out having definite stories (it was under development forever), but when Walt died, the Imagineers who were left in charge of the attraction kind of got into a masculinity-measuring contest over whose "vision" would dominate the ride. That's why the tone is so different between the two halves of the ride. Claude Coats wanted it to be scary and Marc Davis wanted humor. The final result is a mishmash of both. Somehow, it still works and does so beautifully, but it definitely lacks a central story.

As for Pirates, the Disneyland version, at least in its original incarnation, had more of a cohesive story. You were going through a time portal back to the era of piracy. I won't go into all of the story details, but they're fairly easy to find on the internet. The Florida version was rushed and pretty severely truncated. That's not to say I don't love it (though I feel that the original version is far-superior to the Jack Sparrow version), but it is more of a sensory experience with lots of random show scenes than one with any sort of discernable throughline.
 
KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Empress Lilly said:
Another problem, one of the ride's main problems, is that no individual scene holds any dramatic tension.
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I think that along with it being waaay too short disappointed me.

Even the Gran Fiesta Tour has something happening around each corner. Mind you, it isn't an impressive glowy scene with special screen effects, but you can easily determine what is happening.

Being someone who has never seen Avatar, I was so incredibly lost as to what was going on the entire ride, especially after the first room.
 
RustySpork

RustySpork

Oscar Mayer Memer
KBLovesDisney said:
I think that along with it being waaay too short disappointed me.

Even the Gran Fiesta Tour has something happening around each corner. Mind you, it isn't an impressive glowy scene with special screen effects, but you can easily determine what is happening.

Being someone who has never seen Avatar, I was so incredibly lost as to what was going on the entire ride, especially after the first room.
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The grand fiesta tour is entertaining, and fun..it is an order of magnitude better than NRJ in my opinion.
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
KBLovesDisney said:
I think that along with it being waaay too short disappointed me.

Even the Gran Fiesta Tour has something happening around each corner. Mind you, it isn't an impressive glowy scene with special screen effects, but you can easily determine what is happening.

Being someone who has never seen Avatar, I was so incredibly lost as to what was going on the entire ride, especially after the first room.
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I've seen Avatar. Twice. I own the 3d BluRay too. Great movie back then, not sure it will stand the test of time.

Even so, I too am at a loss as to what's going on in Na'vi. Ultimately I figured that nothing is going on, really. :confused:

I like this ride by defaul. There is nothing about it that irritates me. Whereas everything about Toy Story Land does. But there is also too little that I love about this ride.
 
KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Empress Lilly said:
I've seen Avatar. Twice. I own the 3d BluRay too. Great movie back then, not sure it will stand the test of time.

Even so, I too am at a loss as to what's going on in Na'vi. Ultimately I figured that nothing is going on, really. :confused:

I like this ride by defaul. There is nothing about it that irritates me. Whereas everything about Toy Story Land does. But there is also too little that I love about this ride.
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Out of curiosity, what irritates you about Toy Story Land?
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
KBLovesDisney said:
Out of curiosity, what irritates you about Toy Story Land?
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Oh, everything. Just the sheer look alone. It is big colourful oversized toon props land. The very idea that this is what a Disney park is about.

What a contrast to the breathtaking work of art that is the creation of heyday Hollywood in the park's front half. It is like Pop Century compared to the MK.
 

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