Soarin' Over California VS Soarin' Around the World

[danyoung56]

I've hear that stated before about the Taj Mahal, and I just don't believe it. They may have CG'd some of the water, or some of the people in that scene. But the building itself really does look that "unreal".

 

[Distant]

Great question! Soarin California was my favorite ride at Disney and it prompted me to begin to plan to take my 75+ year old parents to Disney. (Who had not been since 03 and who lived in CA for 9 years.)
This ride esp was Disney at its best.

However, by the time we actually got to Disney 2 weeks ago, the ride changed to Soarin around the world.
I thought- no biggie. It will still be great, and should be better than ever.

Wrong! IMO the California ride was head and shoulders better than the World ride.
There were distortions and out of focus pictures on the World ride.
Plus there was no theme, just a haphazard jumble.

I'm very disappointed Disney did away with this ride and wish they would bring it back somehow.

 

[MMouse1972]

The new one is a CGI crapfest! Very dissappointed. Doesn't the Mouse now own ILM among other highly respected CGI animation companies? If all they were doing was a 90% CGI movie, they certainly could have done more / earlier / better versions. The Taj Mahal scene especially is embarrasingly bad. Why did they even bother "filming" any of Epcot with an actual helicopter, as the reports came out a few years ago? For what turned up in the finished product, they could have just CGI'd the whole thing and saved the cost of the helicopter / film crew and applied it towards better CGI (yeah, I know how trivial these savings are compared to animation, etc). As many have pointed out, the CA version was beautiful, even if dated. The scenes "flowed" together and JG's music was amazing. The new one has too abrupt scene changes with almost every one of them resulting from something flying, exploding, etc right in your face. Even the "in your face" scene changes in CA were done much better. If they insisted on doing so much CGI, then at least make it good / photorealistic CGI! This looks like the '90's crap from the Star Wars "Special Editions". Wait a second, maybe now I've discovered who did their work.....'90's ILM?

 

[daringstoic]

The smells were definitely better in the CA version. I wish they would've left that one at DCA. I like the idea of having similar yet different experiences on each coast. The new World theme makes so much more sense for Epcot though and I really enjoy it (though my not-super-Disney-even-though-I've-dragged-him-there-twice boyfriend insists that putting Epcot at the end after landmarks like the Great Wall of China and the Matterhorn was a bit cheeky - he never saw the original version that ended at DL). As others have mentioned, I've noticed more distortion in the World version. We were sitting in the middle of the front row on the right-hand column on our last visit and the Eiffel Tower was completely crooked.

 

[Bpmorley]

I'd like the new one more if it wasn't crooked.

 

[Bairstow]

Toss up for me.

"California" used actual photography but the entire experience was compromised, if not completely ruined by the contaminated projector and constantly deteriorating filmstock.

"World" appears crisp and beautiful, but the actual content of the show is mostly, if not entirely fake CGI, so the experience is lifeless and disjointed in comparison to original.

 

[Scrungo]

I was never too big on either Soarin', but I can see World being a more speculator experience to the common guest than California.

Film production though I have to say World did a better job with it's transitions than California. Where California was a hard cut to the next area, World "tries" to do transitions, even if it's something flying into the camera every 30 seconds which definitely isn't gaudy or annoying.

 

[marialexus]

I really miss Soarin' Over California! If they would have just digitized and improved the resolution then left it alone it would have been great. I hope they come up with an option to see it again.

 

[justintheharris]

California hands down. The only thing World does better is giving a more crisp picture. The distortions, over use of CGI, the lack of memorable smells, and the wonky transitions just make it a total miss for me

That's the best summary I've seen

 

[Model3 McQueen]

SoC had a beautiful, rather patriotic tone to it. I'm not a fan of Soarin' Around the World mainly because it doesn't pull the same emotions out of me as SoC did.

 

[MrsPrice96]

I LOVED Soarin' California! It never got old for me and the smells were amazing. The new one doesn't bring the same excitement.

 

[JohnD]

Glad I have the original soundtrack from the 2013 WDW CD.

 

[dougquestion]

My wife and I liked Soarin' Over CA and we really wanted to like Soarin' Around the World. But the distortions of SAW if you sit on the far right or far left are pretty bad. And for the transitions between scenes we don't like seeing something thrown in our face. SOC was more fun.

 

[JusticeDisney]

For me its called boring i really dread going on it what ever seat im given picture just awful mostly because of the type of screen used the bendy shapes at the top and edges bugs me my wife likes it but our kids have the same issues as me.

Wait, if you dread going on it, then why do you go on it? What am I missing here?

 

[Bairstow]

Is any of the footage in "Around the World" real or is it all CGI?
I know Disney supposedly shot a bunch of digital footage for it, but having finally seen the finished attraction I wouldn't be surprised if the film they shot was only used as reference material.

 

[WondersOfLife]

It's the same experience to me, personally.

 

[justintheharris]

Is any of the footage in "Around the World" real or is it all CGI?
I know Disney supposedly shot a bunch of digital footage for it, but having finally seen the finished attraction I wouldn't be surprised if the film they shot was only used as reference material.

Some scenes are completely fake. I know the Taj Mahal one is.

 

[Bartledvd]

Wait, if you dread going on it, then why do you go on it? What am I missing here?

Because it does not hurt me or scare me and my wife likes to go on it. Would not be a very good husband if a sent her alone so i just put up with the distortions and awful cgi and let her enjoy it.

 

[JohnD]

Some scenes are completely fake. I know the Taj Mahal one is.

That's the allegation anyway. I know the elephant, killer whale, airplane, kite, whatever, for the transitions are CGI. And, sure, so are the fireworks and (shocker!) Tinkerbell. Don't know about scenes. To say that the Taj Mahal is "completely fake" is to say not any part of the entire scene was shot using a flyover but all generated by computer. Is that what you are saying? And how do you "know"?

Welcome aboard, by the way. For the record, I don't play the "I'm better than you because I have more posts game" like some others do. You could be a real expert having just joined. But, please show how you "know" the Taj Mahal is fake. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying you're right either.

 

[danyoung56]

Is any of the footage in "Around the World" real or is it all CGI?

As far as I know, all of the footage is real. It's only the transitions (and some of the characters, like the polar bears and the elephants) are CGI.