dweezil78
Well-Known Member
My guess is the Blackpool ride was "inspired" by the Disney ride. The Upside Down Room was created for Disneyland, and is a location that doesn't even exist in the film or books (it's based on a brief sight-gag in the movie where Alice doesn't realize she's hanging upside down in a rightside-up room). The DL ride's unusual 2-level indoor/outdoor layout is a result of it's particular location in a very tight space: It has to climb up over Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and then back down again. The Disneyland Upside Down room, like the whole ride, was very stylized and based on the designs of Mary Blair, while the Blackpool version is very generic- looking. And those cheshire cat vehicles are very noisy and clunky compared to the arrow-designed caterpillars.
The Blackpool ride kind of reminds me of those imitation Disney animated movie knock-offs you see on DVD a week after a new Disney film hits theaters (Ice Princess!). I mean...did Blackpool even bother to get the rights to the Willy Wonka music? But, what the heck, it still looks like a fun dark ride, and Disney certainly doesn't have exclusive rights to Wonderland.
Some interesting history about the ride here: http://www.dldhistory.com/disneyland-article.asp?Page=5&Ident=2056&FilterBy=Current
Both rides were developed by Arrow - w/ DL's opening in '58 and Blackpool's in '61. I suspect track layout is nearly identical, but a lot of the scenery was changed due to licensing issues.