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So close, and yet so far! :lol:
Please tell me those black things aren't speakers. With all the custom details covering the building I'd like to think they could have made the speakers blend in better.
The most noticeable change coming to the Mermaid ride will be a complete rework of the Ariel animatronic figure that appears in the big Under The Sea production number. Her swirling bouffant hairdo in that scene never quite looks right, and the hair on that figure will be changed for a more flowing version similar to the animated ‘do she sports at the beginning of the ride. Luckily for Imagineering there was an extra animatronic figure available that was slated to be used in the Florida version of the attraction, and they will instead send that figure to Anaheim after it receives its new look and reworked hairdo. A third version of that figure will then be created for the Florida version, based on the new look now headed to DCA.
Another change has been dictated by John Lasseter and several other artists from Disney’s animation studio in Burbank, and that’s the computer-generated projections of Ariel seen in the digital screens placed in the rocks at both the down-ramp and up-ramp in the ride. Lasseter has decreed that the computer animation created for the ride should be scrapped in place of new hand-drawn versions of that track-side animation. The computer version of Ariel getting her legs will soon be replaced with footage that more closely matches the hand-drawn look of the film from 1989. The Imagineers, prodded on by Lasseter and funded by TDA, are also planning to swap out some of the foliage, props and smaller sea creatures in the ride that don’t quite look right or that come across as looking two-dimensional. Most of those changes coming to the DCA version this spring will also make it into the nearly identical Florida version of the attraction that opens in late 2012.
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While it’s unusual for Disney to go in and make major changes like these to a new attraction, it’s a good example of just how important TDA and Burbank view this summer’s re-launch of DCA. The plan we’d told you about last year, dubbed Project Sparkle, is moving full steam ahead to make sure nearly every remaining DCA facility from 2001 has had a full refresh and refurbishment before the big party this June.
There’s other good news arriving even earlier this spring, as the Little Mermaid ride is now scheduled to close for rehab for the first week of May. John Lasseter has bought off on the plans to rework some of the weak links in the ride (he doesn’t just care about Anaheim’s Pixar rides), and the updated attraction should open by Saturday, May 5th. As we noted before, new hand-drawn animation of Ariel is coming to the projection screens near the beginning and end of the ride, and the computer animation has now been scrapped for the Florida version as well. Additional projection bubble effects are being added in the descent and ascent tunnels, and reworked lighting and additional props are being added to the Under The Sea and Kiss The Girl scenes. And, most noticeably, a new animatronic hairdo will be installed on the swimming Ariel figure in the middle of the ride, erasing her similarity to a Soft-Serve ice cream cone.
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