raymusiccity
Well-Known Member
Agreed. Another example is the wasted effort to have oversized imprints of Andy's sneakers in the walkway.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
DHS Toy Story Land expansion announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
I like the idea of the footprints, but I think you're right that it's another point at which the scale of the land loses consistency.
And listen, there's room for artful fluctuation of scale - That's what Forced Perspective is, after all. But Toy Story Land doesn't create the successful illusion of distance with its Forced Perspective, in basically any instance. Which seems a little lazy, considering all the toys in the land exist and WDI could have played with them to mock up size relationships beforehand and then have their scales massaged to suggest they're bigger than they are. Instead it feels like Jessie was made arbitrarily bigger than Rex, and Rex was made arbitrarily too small just to fit him on top of a Jenga tower, when the sizes of those things just don't align at all.
EDITED To Add: I am aware that in the case of something like Rex, as well as some other pieces in the land, Disney was simply replicating elements that had been created for the other Toy Story Playlands around the world and making use of them again in Hollywood Studios. So they were working backward from existing assets rather than developing things organically based on any unique need or opportunity in Florida. Which is another example of them cutting a corner rather than creating a custom experience. That isn't itself a damning notion, but it speaks to the larger issue that the land was underdone despite the cost.
Last edited:
doctornick
Well-Known Member
This is my take too. I agree with the larger complaints about inefficient use of the land. There should have been another ride and/or playground and/or show plus an indoor dining and a proper shop. There’s just not enough there given the size and DHS’ needs. And the lack of shade definitely shows the designers live in California and don’t seem to understand Florida’s climate.
I think the complaints about the aesthetics or appearance are massively overblown. At least it’s a generally consistent theme within the land. I think it’s far better than the Kidzone in Uni or Pixar Pier. At least there’s a sense of place.
FerretAfros
Well-Known Member
Additionally, what’s the deal with all the play sets? It’s not how real kids play, and it’s not how Andy plays. Real kids mix and match things from various sources to create something new. The films established this early on, including Andy’s penchant for decorating cardboard boxes into whatever he needs for how he’s playing at a particular moment.
Yet the Toy Story lands have always relied on overly contrived play sets for convenient backstories for what’s there. Midway Mania is actually a play set that we never saw in the move, just one that exists in the exit of the DCA version. Slinky Dog Dash is a manufactured toy, complete with decals marking the rows and safety gates for the load station. None of it makes sense as a real toy, nor does it really follow the philosophy of how toys interact in the movies.
It’s all just so forced, and none of it feels organic to the world we’re allegedly in. I would say that it’s the most cynical, corporate way to create a land based on toys, yet for some reason, they’ve never been clever enough to actually sell any of these play sets in the adjacent gift shops.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I will agree with you on the Midway ride. But in defence of Slinky, the story behind it is that Andy took a toy coaster set and modified Slinky Dog so that he could be the ride vehicle.
Now in the movie, Andy would’ve also done stuff like making a Lincoln Log Cabin as a tunnel, or would have Rex attacking the track. You know, stuff we all would’ve done as kids, mixing all of our toys together. But I guess they didn’t have the budget for that.
SplashJacket
Well-Known Member
The Great Rex Track Attack would be a cool addition to the ride, but would probably come across as horrifying for little kids. Oh what could have been!
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The budget was ridiculously high. The problems have nothing to do with cuts that didn’t happen.
The restaurant also isn’t filling in space, it’s an expansion because the land is so poorly laid out.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
I don't know what you people are talking about, our family loved Lego Toy Land at Universal Hollywood Studios, even if my 3 three old did throw up after riding the swirling aliens.
Getting the pictures with Buzz Lightyear and Optimus Prime was the highlight of our day, along with the Shamu show.
Getting the pictures with Buzz Lightyear and Optimus Prime was the highlight of our day, along with the Shamu show.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
2 of the rides have height requirements. They’re also both awful capacity. The idea to make a Toy Story Land is not inherently bad, but I don’t think they really succeeded in giving DHS more to do for families with young children.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
I think one of the most egregious aspects of Toy Story Land for me is that despite all that money and space, we only got an additional 3 min of ride time compared to what was in the park before before. 
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Yeah, although Aliens' is pretty low (basically just no hand held infants). If you are going to go with some flat rides, they should have had a package of like 3 of them, not just the one whip ride. And if you are going to cover them (which makes sense in Florida), they you could have put them under part of the roller coaster track and used the space better. No reason they couldn't have also added a teacups type ride, carousel, or a dumbo spinner or even a version of the Slinky Dog spin rides from the other TSLs (though would be another theme given Slinky's use in the roller coaster). A bunch of flat rides wouldn't have been my preferred plan but at least it would have added more rides to a park that needs them.
Last edited:
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
I think some people over-analyze TSL. It’s a fun kiddie land. As for issues of scale, sometimes the same toy is made in different sizes. We literally own differently-sized Buzz Lightyears. Are we meant to assume the two movies with Andy as a child are meant to show is every toy he ever had? That’s ridiculous.
Slinky Dog is exactly like something my son would make. It’s a roller coaster made up of dozens of different toys all slapped together. I admit you need to suspend disbelief for some issues of scale (the loading room in TSM comes to mind) but we do that all the time elsewhere in the parks, so I don’t know why that’s so hard here. You can easily see the back wall of scenes in Living with the Land as you float by a bright, spinning UFO (that makes really good-smelling food) yet we eat that up even if it’s honestly not much better than dioramas at any museum.
Slinky Dog is exactly like something my son would make. It’s a roller coaster made up of dozens of different toys all slapped together. I admit you need to suspend disbelief for some issues of scale (the loading room in TSM comes to mind) but we do that all the time elsewhere in the parks, so I don’t know why that’s so hard here. You can easily see the back wall of scenes in Living with the Land as you float by a bright, spinning UFO (that makes really good-smelling food) yet we eat that up even if it’s honestly not much better than dioramas at any museum.
Actually, any diorama at any museum, if they were to announce that a desert only seems to be dead but is really full of life, would show that life in the diorama instead of faking us out looking around intently for the thing they said was there but isn't to be seen at all.
Anyhoo... Also, any appearance of Tinkerbell in the park is a huge disruption in scale. Or any small animal portrayed by a human in a fur costume... looking at you, Mickey, Remy, and Gus Gus.
"The toy soldiers in this Christmas parade aren't to scale!!" Said no one ever.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I think if our only metric of success is that it’s a “good kiddie land”, then it only seems fair to compare it to other kiddie lands.
Fantasyland, the original kids land, has 5 dark rides, 2 “flat rides”, and 2 boat rides at Disneyland. None have a height requirement. It also has a family coaster with a height requirement. At Magic Kingdom, there are 3 dark rides, 1 3D show, 1 boat ride, 2 play areas, 2 flat rides and 2 family coasters. All of these cover a wide variety of IP.
Now let’s look at Toon Town. Weaker than it was at launch, Toon Town still has quite a few play areas (with the park and all of the houses), a good dark ride, and a small family coaster. Pretty decent theming all around too. It’s also getting an update with more play areas, and a new dark ride.
Now going back to Toy Story Land. There’s an arcade shooter dark ride, a flat ride with a height requirement, and a family coaster with a height requirement. The only thing that everyone in the family can do for sure is the shooter, and even then, it is possible that some kids might be too young to properly grasp the controls. For young babies/toddlers, there’s nothing in this land for them. No play areas. No shows. No all inclusive dark rides.
Even the failed Bugs Land was better at being a land for young children than TSL. 5 flat rides (one of which played out like an outdoor dark ride), a play area, and a show (that admittedly would scare some kids).
Dinorama, a worse land than TSL, still has more for young kids to do with Triceratops spin and the dig site play area.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
You should ask actual children which land they prefer. TSL is rather popular with my kids. And DL’s Fantasyland is an unfair comparison. They build nothing like that anymore. Even Disneyland took 3 decades to build all of those rides. Pinocchio wasn’t until the ‘80s! Our TSL has been open 3 1/2 years and is receiving updates and expansion already. That’s pretty good for Disney.
Also, ever been in DL’s FL on even a moderately-busy day? It’s jam-packed with people.
Are we really comparing those tiny Bug’s Land rides to TSL’s rides?
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
But how old are your kids? Are they older than 6? Are they able to ride some of the other height requirement rides like Tower of Terror, Rise of the Resistance, Star Tours, etc? It’s not the theme that’s the problem. What DHS needed was more rides without a height requirement. More rides that could accommodate for families with young children (and older guests that don’t like thrills). We’ve had a net gain of 0 in that department at DHS in the last 10 years.
As far as the land getting updated in “only 3 years”, what it is getting is a gift shop and an indoor restaurant. As far as I am aware, these were things most of us were expecting to come with the land when it opened. Every new land built at WDW in the last 20 years has had a gift shop and a restaurant. That’s just the bare minimum.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
The paths admittedly meander, but I’m still searching for the sit-down on Pandora and Batuu.
They‘ve also added a lot of shade structures. As for kids, the average 3-year old can ride everything in TSL. That’s pretty successful by my estimate. They’ve done better than Universal, certainly. I felt for the family with a toddler being turned away from The Cat in the Hat.
Bocabear
Well-Known Member
the expansion is in the form of a restaurant which was always planned to be there in some form and a shade structure... also a necessary thing due to lack of planning. I will not applaud these additions anymore than I would applaud changing out burned out lightbulbs. This is not really an addition as much as a completion...