Pandora Spoiler Thread

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Yep, sitting on the back of a replica Banshee would have been so distracting. Definitely a better ride with something more generic so I only pay attention to the movie screen.

Well, yeah. I think it might work better for the conceit of the ride.
You're still in your own body when you sit down on the restraint, but after everyone is locked into place and the doors blocking your view of the screen are lifted away everyone's consciousness is suddenly transferred to the avatar bodies. If there's always a bunch of fiberglass banshee heads sitting on the front of the seats you lose that.
 

djdan888

Active Member
Starting to see a few negative reviews for Nav'i River Journey. Mostly about not much going on and boring but technically beautiful. I was really hoping for something similar to Shanghai Pirates. I hold out more hope for FOP, but was really hoping River would be a bang wiz ride too. Not a thrill ride, but just you know, exciting. I will try to reserve judgement for when I go on the 14th. This is why I shouldn't watch preview videos..lol.
 

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Starting to see a few negative reviews for Nav'i River Journey. Mostly about not much going on and boring but technically beautiful. I was really hoping for something similar to Shanghai Pirates. I hold out more hope for FOP, but was really hoping River would be a bang wiz ride too. Not a thrill ride, but just you know, exciting. I will try to reserve judgement for when I go on the 14th. This is why I shouldn't watch preview videos..lol.

All I've got to go on are the videos that have been shown on Youtube, but it seems like both the rides have analogs in the Land pavilion at Epcot.
Flight of Passage is a more thrilling version of Soarin' and Navi River Journey is a gussied-up version of Living With the Land without the restaurant.
 

jt04

Well-Known Member
Pretty sure the best comparison for NRJ is one of the nature trails at DAK. In that light and with the beautiful queue I consider it a solid D ticket. IMO.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Something more than Its a Small World on Steroids. It will be nice, but do you honestly se re re-rideablity in it? One nice animatronic is not enough.

Personally, I expect RJ to be the more re-rideable of the two, even if it doesn't have much going on. I love dark rides and, particularly, dark water rides - and I'm not particularly excited by simulators and actively dislike the Simpsons-esque load procedures (I go to Uni all the time and enjoy classic Simpsons but almost always skip the ride because of the pre-shows).
 

Figment2005

Well-Known Member
Something more than Its a Small World on Steroids. It will be nice, but do you honestly se re re-rideablity in it? One nice animatronic is not enough.
Living with the Land really doesn't have much going on other than the occasional change of plants in the greenhouse, yet I find myself riding it every time I go to Epcot. The pull to reride an attraction depends on the person. If someone just wants a pleasant place to get out of the heat, wants to look into the details to see what they missed, or maybe they just want to enjoy the ambience. I assume there is a lot going on outside of what the cameras have caught so far. Sadly I won't be able to ride until I get back from vacation, but I'm quite optimistic about what I have seen.
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
Has anyone noticed that it appears as you pass the Na'vi Shaman you can see the underside of her arm which is just metal and gears? Really takes away from the show.
 

Atomicmickey

Well-Known Member
Has anyone noticed that it appears as you pass the Na'vi Shaman you can see the underside of her arm which is just metal and gears? Really takes away from the show.

I hadn't, but now that I go back and look, you're right. Just a glimpse. Wouldn't be hard to fix, just add a bit of garment, there. Perhaps they will before open.
 

sedati

Well-Known Member
Re-watching some of the videos of the River Journey, I'm confused and intrigued by how the screens in the ride are used. You can reference the DIS video for this:



In both the Viperwolf and Hexapede (deer like creature with a frill) scenes there is some noticeable multi-plane effects- as we move, layers of background shift independently depending on their distance as opposed to a single flat image.
In the Viperwolf scene (2:00) this seems to be achieved through a layering of physical sets and screens. There is a foreground set, then a partial screen that the wolves appear on (which actually triggers plant effects in the foreground,) then either another set or at least a flat cut-out, through which is seen another screen in the background. As the boat passes by at 2:10 I count five separate layers and four in the area I had previously assumed to be a single screen.
The Hexapede scene (2:50) has me stumped. The boat approaches head on. I think there is some layering going on, but the screen seems to adjust with the viewers position. Is this paralaxing or something else? Paralaxing only works if it is tracking the boat (a flat image but with a depth of field effect timed to the POV of the viewer.) Other scenes with the Navi passing alongside (3:20) do not seem to achieve this and its background looks much flatter in appearance despite the distance they are also depicting.

Any thoughts?

Also at 3:20- giant insects running along the overhead vine.
 

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Re-watching some of the videos of the River Journey, I'm confused and intrigued by how the screens in the ride are used. You can reference the DIS video for this:



In both the Viperwolf and Hexapede (deer like creature with a frill) scenes there is some noticeable multi-plane effects- as we move, layers of background shift independently depending on their distance as opposed to a single flat image.
In the Viperwolf scene (2:00) this seems to be achieved through a layering of physical sets and screens. There is a foreground set, then a partial screen that the wolves appear on (which actually triggers plant effects in the foreground,) then either another set or at least a flat cut-out, through which is seen another screen in the background. As the boat passes by at 2:10 I count five separate layers and four in the area I had previously assumed to be a single screen.
The Hexapede scene (2:50) has me stumped. The boat approaches head on. I think there is some layering going on, but the screen seems to adjust with the viewers position. Is this paralaxing or something else? Paralaxing only works if it is tracking the boat (a flat image but with a depth of field effect timed to the POV of the viewer.) Other scenes with the Navi passing alongside (3:20) do not seem to achieve this and its background looks much flatter in appearance despite the distance they are also depicting.

Any thoughts?

Also at 3:20- giant insects running along the overhead vine.


I think maybe what you're seeing is just an effect of a substandard recording.
When I watch the better videos out there the musion eyeliner projection elements are very clearly two-dimensional in their own plane, or at least, they appear to be on video. This is definitely something that one would need to see in person to give a good opinion of. You're right that there's occasionally combination of Eyeliner projection, plastic shrubbery, and background projection to give the illusion of depth, but I'm not seeing any paralaxing. What I do see is that the ride always uses turns and plastic plants on the side to limit the lines of sight through which you can view the tableaux, which is a much simpler way to negate the need for compensate for a changing point of view- just control it.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
Living with the Land really doesn't have much going on other than the occasional change of plants in the greenhouse, yet I find myself riding it every time I go to Epcot. The pull to reride an attraction depends on the person. If someone just wants a pleasant place to get out of the heat, wants to look into the details to see what they missed, or maybe they just want to enjoy the ambience. I assume there is a lot going on outside of what the cameras have caught so far. Sadly I won't be able to ride until I get back from vacation, but I'm quite optimistic about what I have seen.

If for anything river ride will be relaxing. Return value is questionable especially for more than 20 minutes wait. I still say looking at fake plants and lights is not exciting.
 

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
If for anything river ride will be relaxing. Return value is questionable especially for more than 20 minutes wait. I still say looking at fake plants and lights is not exciting.

Fair enough, everyone's different so maybe it's not for you. You could however say the same for every none thrill ride "Who thinks singing dolls is exciting", "Who thinks looking at pretend pirates is exciting", "Who thinks looking a pretend movie characters is exciting" or "Who thinks looking at pretend dinosaurs is exciting" etc.
 

OvertheHorizon

Well-Known Member
Re-watching some of the videos of the River Journey, I'm confused and intrigued by how the screens in the ride are used. You can reference the DIS video for this:



In both the Viperwolf and Hexapede (deer like creature with a frill) scenes there is some noticeable multi-plane effects- as we move, layers of background shift independently depending on their distance as opposed to a single flat image.
In the Viperwolf scene (2:00) this seems to be achieved through a layering of physical sets and screens. There is a foreground set, then a partial screen that the wolves appear on (which actually triggers plant effects in the foreground,) then either another set or at least a flat cut-out, through which is seen another screen in the background. As the boat passes by at 2:10 I count five separate layers and four in the area I had previously assumed to be a single screen.
The Hexapede scene (2:50) has me stumped. The boat approaches head on. I think there is some layering going on, but the screen seems to adjust with the viewers position. Is this paralaxing or something else? Paralaxing only works if it is tracking the boat (a flat image but with a depth of field effect timed to the POV of the viewer.) Other scenes with the Navi passing alongside (3:20) do not seem to achieve this and its background looks much flatter in appearance despite the distance they are also depicting.

Any thoughts?

Also at 3:20- giant insects running along the overhead vine.

Yes, I noticed the same thing as you - The multi-plane effects. Disney took the innovation of the multi-plane camera that Walt (and team) developed, and put it into creative use for the projection effects. I suspect it will look even more impressive on the actual ride than in video of the ride. Regarding the crawly creatures on the overhead vines (a cool effect), we know that flexible LED screens exist, and it appears that they have wrapped one of those around a large vine. You only need to add 3-D elements to complete the vine and it creates that effect.

I've been impressed by what I've seen so far in videos. Pandora: World of Avatar looks like a wonderfully immersive environment. Since it may be a year until I can get a Fast Pass, I look forward to lots of walks through this environment by day and night.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
Fair enough, everyone's different so maybe it's not for you. You could however say the same for every none thrill ride "Who thinks singing dolls is exciting", "Who thinks looking at pretend pirates is exciting", "Who thinks looking a pretend movie characters is exciting" or "Who thinks looking at pretend dinosaurs is exciting" etc.

I thought about that too. But those rides are actually exciting. From what I gather River is a combination of video screens. With the exception of the navi does anything else in there move?
 

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
I thought about that too. But those rides are actually exciting. From what I gather River is a combination of video screens. With the exception of the navi does anything else in there move?
There are some small helicopter lizards suspended from the ceiling that spin around, and some of the plants are gimmicked to look like the projections are moving them, but nothing substantial, no.
 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="mergatroid, post: 7695203, member: 72941""Who thinks looking a pretend movie characters is exciting"[/QUOTE]
Depends entirely on the movie. In this case it's a movie full of characters no one cares about or remembers the names of. The ride looks relaxing, I'll give it that. Okay, I'm sounding more cynical than I mean to. At least some real talent and effort has gone into creating these attractions.
 

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