The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
I grew up with old Fantasyland at DL, so any photo of it triggers all my childhood nostalgia like nothing else. I spent sooo much time staring at those dark ride murals while listening to the carousel music. Ah, meatball sandwiches at Hook's! Totally unmemorable food at that eating facility near Alice! Ticket booths! I rode the unfortunately-named Midget Autopia! I remember when the Snow White ride had strings hanging down in the dark that dragged across your face like spiderwebs!

But I was sooo glad when the 1983 remodel happened. I think everyone agrees FL looked the way it did up until then simply because Walt didn't have the funds to make it more elaborate. He would have adored DL's New Fantasyland.
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Macro said:
I'm sorry if my post didn't come across as funny. I was trying to make jokes past my bedtime.

Anyhow, the original Tomorrowland wasn't that great. The late 60's Tomorrowland was awesome. The earlier one not so much. Along with Flight to the Moon, Tomorrowland used to have corporate exhibits and something called the Flight Circle. Take a look at some of the pictures at that link. Oh My God. Yes, us old geezers still spell that one out. They operated control line model airplanes and boats. I'm not joking. Even to us at the time, that part of the park wasn't that special. It was quite a lot of interesting stuff in one place but Fantasyland was actually a lot more, umm... themey. And Frontierland and Adventureland were kind of cool. But pretty basic looking compared to now. I think they fixed the lands in the order of which had the most problems. When the park was young most of us preferred Fantasyland.

Forty years from now the kids will be saying, "Your park was crap! Your rollercoasters didn't even use holographic grav projectors." And then they'll speak in some acronym language you will not understand. Then you can be the old geezer and go, "Ya punks, we used steel tracks with real gravity and we liked it. And get off my lawn."


By the way, get off my lawn.
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Hahah no you re Funny. You just called me a punk so many times I started believing it.
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
Random thought of the day: Do you ever take off the “suspend disbelief” googles for a second mid ride and think “why am I getting so worked up about robots in costumes moving around with a music loop playing in the background?”
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On the great rides I grew up with (plus RS Racers), no. I'm still amazed at how effective and wonderful they can be. On some more recent rides that I've only experienced as an adult, however....specifically Mermaid... I'm usually sitting there wondering at what point Imagineering decided it was a good idea to take a great film, remove every single thrilling element from it, and then base the ride on what was left over.
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Rich T said:
On the great rides I grew up with (plus RS Racers), no. I'm still amazed at how effective and wonderful they can be. On some more recent rides that I've only experienced as an adult, however....specifically Mermaid... I'm usually sitting there wondering at what point Imagineering decided it was a good idea to take a great film, remove every single thrilling element from it, and then base the ride on what was left over.
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It happened to me on Pirates last week. But there is something to be said for the fact that I probably would never have this thought if I was not an AP, even though I only ride POTC 3-5x a year tops. The part of POTC that never gets old is the stretch from the blue bayou through the end of the caverns and into the pirate ship battle. Probably the best place making on any Disney ride on the planet.
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
It happened to me on Pirates last week. But there is something to be said for the fact that I probably would never have this thought if I was not an AP, even though I only ride POTC 3-5x a year tops. The part of POTC that never gets old is the stretch from the blue bayou through the end of the caverns and into the pirate ship battle. Probably the best place making on any Disney ride on the planet.
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That's my favorite section of ride, too (and why the WDW version kinda bummed me out. :D)
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Every now and then I see a photo that makes me remember things aren't as bad at Disney as I think they are.

This is a thing in Sacramento:
Holeinfoot.jpg
 
Practical Pig

Practical Pig

Well-Known Member
Rich T said:
Every now and then I see a photo that makes me remember things aren't as bad at Disney as I think they are.

This is a thing in Sacramento:
View attachment 259456
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So ... a children's play area with the severed stump of the giant beanstalk, and the severed foot of the giant. Jack was apparently a busy boy with that axe. And are there other body parts strewn about out of the camera frame? Are children crawling around inside the giant's severed head, popping out of his eye sockets like whack-a-moles just off to the left?

I need answers.
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Practical Pig said:
So ... a children's play area with the severed stump of the giant beanstalk, and the severed foot of the giant. Jack was apparently a busy boy with that axe. And are there other body parts strewn about out of the camera frame? Are children crawling around inside the giant's severed head, popping out of his eye sockets like whack-a-moles just off to the left?

I need answers.
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No...but there's.... THIS...
eeeek.jpg

Look. At. Her. Face.
 
SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Rich T said:
specifically Mermaid... I'm usually sitting there wondering at what point Imagineering decided it was a good idea to take a great film, remove every single thrilling element from it, and then base the ride on what was left over.
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Tony Baxter takes a few shots at Mermaid in his Season Pass interviews.

It basically boils down to 1. Budget and 2. The competency of the Imagineering crew on it. With IP- there's two trains of thought. 1. That it's your own adventure in the world created by the film (Temple of the Forbidden Eye) or 2. the book report- where you're taken through events from the film, as they happened, with little variance.

Mermaid is a lousy version of the book report, and it blows me away that they spent money putting it into DCA while trying to improve the offerings in the park.
 
SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
The treatment Fantasmic! got makes me very worried about the longevity and quality of any classic- or new- Disney show. Disney is so focused on showing off their new technology, that it seems they've forgotten that everything else has to be good also. It's similar complaint I have with World of Color and Disneyland Forever!. Either that, or I'm just not a fan of Davison's work.
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
SuddenStorm said:
Tony Baxter takes a few shots at Mermaid in his Season Pass interviews.

It basically boils down to 1. Budget and 2. The competency of the Imagineering crew on it. With IP- there's two trains of thought. 1. That it's your own adventure in the world created by the film (Temple of the Forbidden Eye) or 2. the book report- where you're taken through events from the film, as they happened, with little variance.

Mermaid is a lousy version of the book report, and it blows me away that they spent money putting it into DCA while trying to improve the offerings in the park.
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I think budget is somewhat of a cop out. Didn’t it cost at least 100 million or something like that? I think a clever team could have created something more charming with less. With that said, I think Mermaid is ok. They knew they wanted to do an omnimover for capacity reasons so it kind of limited their options. Another reason its kind of underwhelming, aside from it being a book report, is how we are physically moving AROUND the scenes and not THROUGH them. Almost hammering home the point that you are not on this adventure, you are just watching it.

They obviously weren’t going to make this like one of the weird/zany/ scary old school FL dark rides. They showcased the songs and almost gave DCA its own version of IASW if you will. I just think the IP deserved better and that they could have used the opportunity to redefine what a modern “Fantasyland dark ride” looks like. I think Frozen at Epcot did a much better job of this.
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
I think budget is somewhat of a cop out. Didn’t it cost at least 100 million or something like that? I think a clever team could have created something more charming with less. With that said, I think Mermaid is ok. They knew they wanted to do an omnimover for capacity reasons so it kind of limited their options. Another reason its kind of underwhelming, aside from it being a book report, is how we are physically moving AROUND the scenes and not THROUGH them. Almost hammering home the point that you are not on this adventure, you are just watching it.

They obviously weren’t going to make this like one of the weird/zany/ scary old school FL dark rides. They showcased the songs and almost gave DCA its own version of IASW if you will. I just think the IP deserved better and that they could have used the opportunity to redefine what a modern “Fantasyland dark ride” looks like. I think Frozen at Epcot did a much better job of this.
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I find it baffling that they took a movie full of very exciting scenes (shark attack, shipwrecks, storm at sea, Giant Ursula), removed anything remotely dramatic and turned the attraction into the most non-adventurous "adventure" ever.

Imagine if they took this approach to an Aladdin ride: You glide slowly past Aladdin singing about his dreams. Then you go through a big, obnoxious room where Genie sings "Friend like Me," but neither the effects nor the figures are impressive. Then you see a REALLY impressive Jafar figure, but he's not doing anything threatening. Then you see Aladdin and Jasmine singing Whole New World, but--again--no impressive effects. For the big finale, you see a tiny flat cutout of Aladdin fighting Snake Jafar way off in the distance. Then Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan wave goodbye. And the Sultan looks weird because they gave him realistic hair instead of the toony hair everyone else has. The end.
 
Curious Constance

Curious Constance

Well-Known Member
Rich T said:
I find it baffling that they took a movie full of very exciting scenes (shark attack, shipwrecks, storm at sea, Giant Ursula), removed anything remotely dramatic and turned the attraction into the most non-adventurous "adventure" ever.

Imagine if they took this approach to an Aladdin ride: You glide slowly past Aladdin singing about his dreams. Then you go through a big, obnoxious room where Genie sings "Friend like Me," but neither the effects nor the figures are impressive. Then you see a REALLY impressive Jafar figure, but he's not doing anything threatening. Then you see Aladdin and Jasmine singing Whole New World, but--again--no impressive effects. For the big finale, you see a tiny flat cutout of Aladdin fighting Snake Jafar way off in the distance. Then Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan wave goodbye. And the Sultan looks weird because they gave him realistic hair instead of the toony hair everyone else has. The end.
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Wasn't John Lassater lead on that project? Whatever creativity he has doesn't seem to translate well into theme park attractions. *cough* Luigi's Tires* *cough*
 

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