I am glad that some kids will enjoy this, but the issues as I see them:
1. The video show teenagers jumping and running around, pretty quickly, in a darken play area. The pizza joint near where I live has one of these and they limit the age of the kids to under 8 or something as obviously, big teenagers can seriously hurt pre-schoolers, and even kids 8 and under, you can't have toddlers playing in this thing with bigger kids, period.
Legally, Disney is going to have to limit the age of the kids or else be faced with a slew of lawsuits when the first kid gets hurt. I bring this up as I'd hate to see a young kid get hurt!
2. The video shows parents playing. 95% of parents won't want to play in this structure, and as it should be age limited, they'll have to be outside of it. It is silly that they show a parent going down the slide as by and far that won't happen, or even be allowed to happen. The happiest memories are when parents are doing things with their kids, like tossing balls in hoops or playing some other game.
3. I ain't the top 1%, but this structure is very similar to many ones at pizza joints and mcdonalds. The young imagineer talking about her team working on this probably contracted out most of this stuff to a company that does this. Not that that's wrong, but this is just Disney following what cheap pizzerias and McDonald's does, not creating something totally new like a play area that doesn't involve nets and stuff, but which parents can play with their kids.
4. The special effects don't look good. Dumbo circles in a very tiny circle. They could have made it so the Dumbo swooshes all over the tent. More expensive, but might as well go all out . . .
5. Cheap burning building. It is just flat plywood painted to look like a burning building! Why not a sculpted thing with fiber-optic generated fire? Kids appreciate the pluses too, and Walt never underestimated his audience's intelligence to appreciate quality attractions, and they ability to recognize cheap stuff.
6. Lack of anything to look at. At least when you're waiting outside with the old Dumbo you could look at Fantasyland, the castle . . . there's one Dumbo, some generic circus stuff and . . . nothing much else. Where's the circus posters and all of the details? A three year old might not notice, but a lot of parents might hate the claustrophobic feel with little to do. I say claustrophobic as the climbing thing takes up all of the tent wall space, and you DON'T feel like you are visiting the circus, just a play area with some light circus theming.
7. If I (horror horror!) want to ride Dumbo without a four year old, do I really need to carry a pager while I watch other people play with their kids? Hopefully this is what the two Dumbos are for, interactive queue and not. I would want to wait outside as I really don't like these sorts of play areas as they are a mob scene and usually very loud.
1.5 stars out of 4. Air conditioning and shade a plus, good for a very narrow range of kids, boring and probably too loud for everybody else. I can see a parent getting bored sitting on that bench, wishing their was something they could do with their daughters . . . oh wait, that's what happened to Walt. I guess everything goes full circle! Some families with small kids will avoid the ride, Seriously, because it might be too loud inside and because parents might be afraid of injuries and not like having to police their kids from thirty feet away while they climb to the top of the burning building.
It's hilarious where the imagineer says that the big play area with nets is "really taken from the final scene of Dumbo." Because they tried to catch Dumbo in a net? It was taken from McDonald's . . . there is much Dumbo in there, only one Dumbo that is flying around in such a small circle it looks like he is spinning. She can't wait to show it to guests? Well, I'd guess I'd be excited if I worked on something for months, but its nothing new, except for the virtual queue, and the play area lacks some of the modern interactive gizmos/electronics you'd expect from Disney, and some of the games that have been hinted. Eventually, this area may become so packed that they'll have a line to get into the virtual queue, otherwise they'll risk accidents with kids slamming into each other.
