Rivers of America (plus Railroad & Dioramas) Re-Imagineered 2017

[George Lucas on a Bench]

We're still discussing Tarzan? Let's move onto the Casablanca scene. They should put the plane in the DL Jungle Cruise like at WDW.

Having experienced the new DLRR, here are my thoughts:

- Static jaguar is charming
- New Frontierland scene doesn't work very well from the train. It seems designed to be viewed from everywhere else, with the train being part of the scenery. From the train, you are riding above a multitiered environment from an awkward viewpoint. Even that charming great big rock basically can't be seen from the train. Does it wobble? I don't know. I couldn't see it. I could see The Haunted Mansion from an apparently new angle.
- It looks like they tried to make the entrance to Toontown resemble the tunnel from the movie AKA the Griffith Park tunnel. It's kinda bootleg, really, even though it's trying to be charming. This is the point where things start to fall apart. There's literally a schoolyard chain link fence. The brief views of Fantasyland are charming as always, but they are immediately followed by a decidedly cold industrial-looking backlot area with the "Agrifuture" billboard. The future looks rough, but then Prince did warn us on the Batman album. I was really hoping they would spruce up this section where the train seems to make a wrong turn into the Disneyland ghetto.
- The bullet hole in the glass in the Grand Canyon scene remains. The projections weren't offensive, but I don't think they add anything.
- The dino scene looks awesome. They added new projections of lava exploding out of the volcano and you expect to see Anakin and Obi-Wan floating by on a giant thing. Still, I just can't take my eyes off that old-school charming rotating tin foil lava effect.
- As with Tom Sawyer's Island, they seemed to just let the stations sit for a year and a half, falling into disrepair. The Main Street station needs extensive roof work from what I saw while stuck in a long line and there are some gnarly holes in the wall. It was a perfect opportunity to make Toontown and Tomorrowland stations less crappy. Oh well.
- Announcements sounded new to me. New as in either edited or alternate recordings.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Sorry, it was the bolded part that confused me. I assumed you thought the commenter was suggesting placing Tarzan not in Adventureland, but along the Rivers of America. Did you mean to say "railroad"?


I think we may all agree that seeing Tarzan in the American frontier would be absurd.

No worries. I meant river, as the train now travels along it.

 

[Brainleech419]

I was really hoping they would bring back the Burning Settlers Cabin. I wasn't optimistic about the rumored Rainbow Caverns homage, but the Cabin still burns in Tokyo I was hoping ours would burn here again.

it was in Adam the woo video

 

[britain]

Great picture, had to share:

https://mobile.twitter.com/disneygeekcom/status/891478886571286528

 

[Deleted member 107043]

ImIgineer Kim Irvine hosts this nice little promo reel highlighting Friday's press festivities.

 

[NobodyElse]

- Static jaguar is charming

Static jaguar (or panther) is about one step up from a large garden gnome. Last time I noticed it in place it seemed like something they had picked up from the going out of business sale at Bob's Taxidermy in Fullerton. So, yeah... charming, I guess.

I think it would be more realistic / effective if he was in a crouching or pre-pounce position. (If necessary for better visibility, they could build up his perch a bit.) They could earn a few bonus points for having the tail twitch, so that riders could occasionally notice the detail.

Cats in that type of position would naturally be very still (as opposed to standing upright with their mouths permanently open.)

Just my opinion...

 

[mickEblu]

Static jaguar (or panther) is about one step up from a large garden gnome. Last time I noticed it in place it seemed like something they had picked up from the going out of business sale at Bob's Taxidermy in Fullerton. So, yeah... charming, I guess.

I think it would be more realistic / effective if he was in a crouching or pre-pounce position. (If necessary for better visibility, they could build up his perch a bit.) They could earn a few bonus points for having the tail twitch, so that riders could occasionally notice the detail.

Cats in that type of position would naturally be very still (as opposed to standing upright with their mouths permanently open.)

Just my opinion...

Or they could just remove it. That would also be an upgrade.

Or... I've said this before and no one can confirm. They had skull rock of something like it in that area at one point in the late 80s. They could put that back

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Looks like it is in a pre-pounce position!



Main Street station has some gnarly holes that look like the result of crudely attaching/removing the bent rails up there. I guess? As you get close enough to this window, any attempt at "forced perspective" is, well, out the window! And it's just a little window with a balcony that Michael Jackson could have only fit the baby on. It's really charming, but I couldn't help but notice disrepair. Again, this stuff was closed for a year and a half. While many are gushing over the new scenes, we still have a schoolyard chain link fence leading to Toontown and the awful Tomorrowland section where they insultingly play "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" on the muzak as you view pure ugliness.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

HKDL's Jungle river functions as their ROA with the DLRR passing along its shores. It works surprisingly well. I would be OK with Disney adding a few brief glimpses of DL's Jungle Cruise from the trains as an upgrade to that segment of the route.(skip to 1:55)

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I actually consider Main Street to NOS a sort of design flaw. While it does take you to a great location, it doesn't really take you that far on the train itself. You stop after not even a minute? Still, there would be no ideal place to relocate the station due to the awkward layout of the park's west side and you're just stuck with a really, really short ride with not much to look at. Same pretty much goes for Toontown to Tomorrowland, only that offers really terrible views.

 

[disneyC97]

I understand that, but Tarzan makes zero sense, in my opinion, hence my question.

My winky face emoji didn't make it into my post.

That said, how bout just Jane's AA elephant from that scene?

 

[TP2000]

Great picture, had to share:

https://mobile.twitter.com/disneygeekcom/status/891478886571286528

My gosh. I really think Disneyland just got the best Railroad and Frontierland in existence. Tokyo and Paris used to beat Anaheim in those two categories, but no longer.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I prefer the woods in WDW with Pocahantas singing.

 

[BrianLo]

I actually consider Main Street to NOS a sort of design flaw. While it does take you to a great location, it doesn't really take you that far on the train itself. You stop after not even a minute? Still, there would be no ideal place to relocate the station due to the awkward layout of the park's west side and you're just stuck with a really, really short ride with not much to look at. Same pretty much goes for Toontown to Tomorrowland, only that offers really terrible views.

Certainly a point could be made towards eliminating one, or even both of those stations.

I have a feeling whenever tonorrowland is reconfigured the train stop will change. Being shoved down that corridor is pretty awful.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

It's wedged in there in a typically awkward Disneyland way. You can hear Harbor Blvd. right on the other side of the hedges.

 

[britain]

Kudos to whoever fought to have an outcropping of rock at the tip of the island here. It's things like the shore on the right matching the shore on the left that makes this feel like the places that really exist in the southwest US, and not a theme park.

Even the magnificent DLP Frontierland doesn't quite have the same overlapping 'multi-plane-camera' type of effect that DL has here. Their Big Thunder is a powerful presence, and it has some effect on their shoreline, but DL has replaced their wall of green with cliffs and valleys, some wooded, some dry and bare, hidden canyons, and open vistas.

This creates the impression of a Frontierland that goes on and on, rather than one that was in the thick of a wild forest, but not much else.

 

[jbradway]

The smoke from the cabin is coming out the chimney. The cabin does not appear to be burning.

 

[TP2000]

View attachment 219440

Kudos to whoever fought to have an outcropping of rock at the tip of the island here. It's things like the shore on the right matching the shore on the left that makes this feel like the places that really exist in the southwest US, and not a theme park.

Even the magnificent DLP Frontierland doesn't quite have the same overlapping 'multi-plane-camera' type of effect that DL has here. Their Big Thunder is a powerful presence, and it has some effect on their shoreline, but DL has replaced their wall of green with cliffs and valleys, some wooded, some dry and bare, hidden canyons, and open vistas.

This creates the impression of a Frontierland that goes on and on, rather than one that was in the thick of a wild forest, but not much else.

Totally agreed.

As a reminder, here's the similar view for this part of the river from about the 1970's to 2015.

 

[180º]

I'm in the park right now, and the Disneyland Railroad is having a rough day. There was an unexpected closure earlier and now they are operating the railroad with all stations except NOS closed. Trains arrive every ten minutes, so I imagine there can't be more than two on the line. I assume NOS was chosen as the sole station for now because it is ADA compliant and can use the adjacent park as queuing space.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

It was closed constantly yesterday as well.