The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

BuzzedPotatoHead89

BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
It’s really simple. A good movie does not equal a good ride. These movies are about the development of the characters something that does not really translate to a built environment.
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Agreed. Ironically enough I’d argue the inverse is true too that sometimes bad movies make good rides (See: Splash Mountain 1.0, Toad, arguably Cars).

Watching these videos I’m just really confused. In part I’m thankful we didn’t get this at DLR but it’s concerning that so much money can be spend on such a mediocre ride experience. There are impressive moments to be sure (Ballroom scene, Beast transformation), but the overall this strangely is the problem of too much budget in arguably all the wrong places (or not enough inspiration?) from the grandiose but unwelcoming scenes and awkward ride vehicles.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Wait, Chris Merritt worked on this?

Now I'm even more bummed.

I guess I couldn't point to any other attraction he directly worked on offhand, but his books are fabulous. Maybe he's just not the level of designer that he is writer/park enthusiast?
 
D.Silentu

D.Silentu

Well-Known Member
Having just watched the ride through, I must admit that I appreciate what Imagineers were trying to do. I can't think of another ride that is entirely based around enveloping guests in Disney's hallmark musical numbers. I know this thought motivated The Little Mermaid ride, but the only scene that has the effect of a big production number is "Under The Sea", also the only one we seem a part of. Executed correctly I think this is a neat idea. The preshow is very impressive, but I think it starts things off on the wrong foot. The ride's theme is the music, that notion should be presented right away. As it is, I think it mismanages expectations for the ride, much like Mission Breakout's otherwise excellent preshow.

"Be Our Guest" serves as a solid proof of concept for the idea of a ride as a musical. I love how the scene starts and then builds upon itself leading to a delightful crescendo. The other scenes seem to lack this rising action. I'm unsure it was a good idea to make "Something There" such a major scene. It's a song I like and quite important for the characters, but the sequence itself is not dynamic, which the ride reflects. I also wonder why the movie's namesake song and accompanying ballroom dance was reimagined. They would have done better to recreate the scene from the movie, again employing an evolution of effects as in "Be Our Guest".

Reading through all your thoughts, I have seen many proposals for alternate versions of the ride that I find appealing. However, I don't think the concept they chose is flawed, just implemented unevenly. The previous E-ticket that Disney opened was an action packed, chase based adventure. They don't all have to be that way. I can't vouch for the logic behind some of the decisions made here, but I can imagine a Frozen attraction in the future learning from this approach and becoming a contemporary classic.
 
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SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
I had to see it for myself....

IMG_20200923_145547.jpg
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
D.Silentu said:
Having just watched the ride through, I must admit that I appreciate what Imagineers were trying to do. I can't think of another ride that is entirely based around enveloping guests in Disney's hallmark musical numbers. I know this thought motivated The Little Mermaid ride, but the only scene that has the effect of a big production number is "Under The Sea", also the only one we travel through. Executed correctly I think this is a neat idea. The preshow is very impressive, but I think it starts things off on the wrong foot. The ride's theme is the music, that notion should be presented right away. As it is, I think it mismanages expectations for the ride, much like Mission Breakout's otherwise excellent preshow.

"Be Our Guest" serves as a solid proof of concept for the idea of a ride as a musical. I love how the scene starts and then builds upon itself leading to a delightful crescendo. The other scenes seem to lack this rising action. I'm unsure it was a good idea to make "Something There" such a major scene. It's a song I like and quite important for the characters, but the sequence itself is not dynamic, which the ride reflects. I also wonder why the movie's namesake song and accompanying ballroom dance was reimagined. They would have done better to recreate the scene from the movie, again employing an evolution of effects as in "Be Our Guest".

Reading through all your thoughts, I have seen many proposals for alternate versions of the ride that I find appealing. However, I don't think the concept they went with is flawed, just implemented unevenly. The previous E-ticket that Disney opened was an action packed, chase based adventure. They don't all have to be that way. I can't vouch for the logic behind some of the decisions made here, but I can imagine a Frozen attraction in the future learning from this approach and becoming a contemporary classic.
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Good points, and I agree that an entirely music-based attraction isn’t a bad idea in itself. But...if they’re going to ignore all the movie’s dark and thrilling scenes, why make it a ride at all? Why not create a spectacular AA show of the type Disney hasn’t tackled in eons?

Because the whole idea of “dancing ride vehicles” doesn’t work. Forcing an audience to “sway” in time to a song is a one-trick pony. It works for Be Our Guest (it would work a whole lot better if the vehicles weren’t the size of Sherman Tanks) and gets more and more annoying from there. And it works for the finales of Hunny Hunt and Efteling’s Symbolica because those rooms have so much going on in them.

But after Be Our Guest it’s a double whammy of annoyances:

1) Trying to force emotion down riders’ throats by having these elephantine vehicles spin to romantic ballads is condescending and...and... is “twee” the right word here? I think that’s it.

2) It’s really awful when 90% of the room is taken up by those freaking giant Cheerios bowls and the expensive AAs become nearly insignificant in the landscape. Then you spend most of your time in the room waiting for your turn to get a decent look at the characters and then—-whoops— now you’re forty feet away from them again, but that’s okay because you’re daaaaancinggggg.

And the finale might be the worst-designed ride scene in Disney history. Again, 90% of the view is of the other ride vehicles, only now more brightly lit so everything looks even *more* Exact-Opposite-of-Immersive.

Did I mention how much I dislike those stupid vehicles? 😄
 
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1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
Thanks for sharing. It’s obvious the imagineers were thinking that BATB is a musical and they were just going to highlight all the songs. The problem with that is that’s ALL they did except for the transformation scene that comes out of nowhere. The first two scenes are way too long. I guess if there goal was to have us “live” in those scenes where those songs took place they achieved it. It’s like ok we feel like we re there but this is way too long with nothing happening or changing. With that said I’m sure these scenes with all of the effects and projections come across way better in person.

Another thought - why are these dang imagineers taking themselves so seriously. Reminds me of Galaxies edge. So because we entered Beasts castle we can’t have a Gastons tavern scene or Belle in the town? Personally, I would have preferred for them to establish the Beasts castle as mysterious place and build some suspense instead of throwing us directly into “Be our Guest.” It’s like they toss out the suspense built up from the well done (yet long) pre show immediately. It would be like getting out of the stretching room in HM and walking immediately into the graveyard with all the jovial singing ghosts. Speaking of HM this ride should have definitely used the omnimover system and would have worked much better If they let us wander through beasts castle a bit. Give us some intimate scenes in hallways and bedrooms between the big dance/ song scenes.

Here was their thought process. BATB = musical. We need to use trackless vehicles so guests can feel like they re dancing to all the songs. Flow be dammed. Suspense be damned. World building be damned. Overall ride experience be damned.
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Perfectly said.
 
1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
Rich T said:
Better pacing, for sure, but...(and acknowledging it’ll be more spectacular in person)... There’s so much effort put into so little content here. Be Our Guest is the best part (no denying it’s incredibly cute), but then—Ugh— The Something There room is so empty and dull. There’s something really wrong when most of what you see are other ride vehicles jostling around while you wait for your few seconds near the AAs. Plenty of time to look up at the warehouse roof.

And getting a Prince Mannequin AA dancing with Belle at the end is such a weak finale (there’s a reason the film rushes by that final dance to get to the credits) and—again—you spend more time staring at the vehicles in your line of view... while trying to avoid looking at Mrs. Potts...
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Excellent points. Totally agree with you.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
Wait, Chris Merritt worked on this?

Now I'm even more bummed.

I guess I couldn't point to any other attraction he directly worked on offhand, but his books are fabulous. Maybe he's just not the level of designer that he is writer/park enthusiast?
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He used to have a website but it is no longer up. I know he was a lead designer for Far Far Away at Universal Studios Singapore. He worked on Shanghai Disneyland but I am not sure what specifically.
 

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