I don't want to sound insulting, but, just like Sounds Dangerous, it seems to me the that general public just doesn't get the purpose or the message. The screens are an example of current communication technology. Had that been first introduced in 1982 everyones jaw would still be wide open from the revolutionary thing that was happening. You are riding in a familiar train type vehicle. At the beginning you go up an incline and a picture is taken. You continue the ride and there on the end your face shows up on an individual screen and is later displayed on a huge screen after you exit the ride all timed to be right where you are at the time. We have become so jaded with technology that we cannot see just how great that event was and how, when it came to communication it was a pretty recent development. 15 years before that wouldn't have been even remotely possible. However, instead of thinking man that is cool, (even if corny) we are upset because a few projected scenes, technology dating back years and years, is considered something special, but, that part, which was anything but inexpensive is considered a cheap substitute. I believe Martin when he says that there were other things that were left out, for whatever reason they had, but, something that doesn't exist is no more impressive then a technology that does. Yet, we can't see past that. It's like saying.... if only I had been born rich instead of incredibly good looking.
The same thing applied to Sounds Dangerous. We went to an attraction whose purpose was to emphasize sound effects. Remember the sound effects show, previously. Or maybe that was the problem. It was a very daring attempt. A movie starts and gives you an image that you are watching. Then after all the basics have been covered you lose the visual and the rest of the story is told completely through sound. The story actually works, we can visualize in our minds everything that is happening because of the sounds that we are hearing. Nope... completely missed by the public. Why did the show half a movie and then stop it... how lame. I didn't want to hear it I wanted to see it. My, my didn't we just go to a sound effects show more graphic then any other one ever shown. Guess not!
Another that was lesser was the objection to Test Track early on. No real story, just a ride... big deal. Never once taking into consideration that the focus of the attraction was the car. You allowed yourself to ride in a car that didn't have a driver. It was completely controlled by a computer. It went fast, it went slow. it slammed on the brakes, all with no driver. You didn't think that there was a person in a booth making each car do those things by remote control did you. Yet, no one was seeing the technology that enabled that machine to reach speeds of 64 miles per hours with no one at the wheel (there was no wheel, that was the only thing done mechanically by the slot in the floor steering the vehicle) and no one died or went zooming off the track into a deadly pile of scrap plastic and people. The car was the attraction.
It just seems to me that we are so overloaded with technology that we fail to see the obvious unless someone is whispering in our ear telling us what is impressive. Perhaps Disney should just go back to standard omni-mover attraction with simple age old illusions, like Peppers Ghost. The rest seems to be wasted on us. That is how I see it, others may not. Doesn't matter... I was able to enjoy the "dumb" screens, the sounds that told the story and the machine operating without a human at the wheel. That is all that I needed.
