Why Does Mermaid Use Screens?

[menamechris]

Yes I understand that. But again, let the attraction open first and experience the ride before questioning it's elements.

As RSoxNo1 asked, I would also like to know - Does this mean our version of the ride at WDW will be any different than the one in DCA? I understood it as they would be identical in every way except the building its in.

If I watch a movie at a friend's house, and then watch it again at my house. My opinion of it will be the same.

But then again, maybe you know something we don't...

 

[BryceM]

One thing I would love to see on this ride is Part of Your World: Reprise. The part where Ariel is singing on the rock to Prince Eric as he walks away and on the last line the wave crashes behind her. It's such an iconic scene.

 

[danlb_2000]

Praise for a picture of the construction for the fantasyland expansion, or saying how wonderful the area looks is different than having a negative opinion on a ride before anyone has been on it. The pictures are real and they are complete, or close to it. The praise comes from how great the pictures look which makes people more excited for the area.

Saying an attraction will be sub-par before it is built does not have as much validity. It's mostly based off of personal bias, and some details of the attraction written down on paper.

Take the castle wall for example. I just saw it yesterday in person. It looks fantastic. And people who have seen it in the pictures posted on this website and how wonderful it looks will give it praise with hardly any backlash of let's wait till the finished product. This happens because it is a completely different situation. Sure there is bias in that too, but the bias is based off something real, and not a something hypothetical and variable to change because it is not complete. If someone said the castle wall looks good back in 2009, I would say let's wait till the final product. Now that the castle wall is here, the opinions, good or bad, have a lot more validity to them. And we also have something real to base our opinions off of.

I am not a big fan of premature criticism, but Mermaid is a little different since we have heard from a number of sources that the ride portion will be identical to the one at DCA which is open and people have ridden.

 

[Tim Lohr]

I don't have anything against "screens" in rides, I loved the old rides with 16mm/35mm film projection screens "If you had Wings", "Horizons", "Journey into Imagination"... and "Soarin'" is an Imax screen.
What I liked about those effects is just the fact that you didn't see them in everyday life, it's something you could only really see in WDW, but the new Mermaid scenes on the HDTVs seem a little under whelming to me, only because I an HDTV in my living room, and there's no real mystery to how it was done, so those effects aren't so special to me personally
That being said though I don't know how they would make an animatronic Ariel and Eric kiss, because Ben Franklin and Mark Twain at the end of the American Adventure don't quite manage to shake hands, and they're much further away from the audience than the Mermaid AAs

 

[The Empress Lilly]

No one seems to have mentioned that mixed media sets including screens is a longstanding Disney dark-ride tradition. A few examples: If You Had Wings, Mexico, original Journey into Imagination, many others. Who knows, maybe they wanted to continue along that line.

I mentioned it! I mentioned how Horizons - considered the greatest AA-driven ride ever - massively relied on video.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

One thing I would love to see on this ride is Part of Your World: Reprise. The part where Ariel is singing on the rock to Prince Eric as he walks away and on the last line the wave crashes behind her. It's such an iconic scene.

Yes! How could this not be in the ride!

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

I don't have anything against "screens" in rides, I loved the old rides with 16mm/35mm film projection screens "If you had Wings", "Horizons", "Journey into Imagination"... and "Soarin'" is an Imax screen.
What I liked about those effects is just the fact that you didn't see them in everyday life, it's something you could only really see in WDW, but the new Mermaid scenes on the HDTVs seem a little under whelming to me, only because I an HDTV in my living room, and there's no real mystery to how it was done, so those effects aren't so special to me personally
That being said though I don't know how they would make an animatronic Ariel and Eric kiss, because Ben Franklin and Mark Twain at the end of the American Adventure don't quite manage to shake hands, and they're much further away from the audience than the Mermaid AAs

I agree.

The great 360 circle-vision, or large screens in some Epcot pavilions, and in the screen in Soarin' is out of most people's everyday experience, it is something that takes it to the next level.

Also, screens don't look too bad in Epcot/Tomorrowland as screens are part of the future. But I think why the screens look odd, (at least to me) in Mermaid is because classic Fantasyland attractions most happened in the past, certainly before television screens, so I think that is why the screens look out of place in Mermaid. Whenever I see the "transformation to a human" screen, I immediately imagine a big LED television behind the fake rocks, sort of takes me out of Ariel's time.

I think you are right in that it would be hard to have two animatronics kiss, the "Kiss the Girl" scene doesn't need this as they only come close to kissing. But, in the movie, don't Ariel and Eric kiss on the ship, not in some little palace or something? I think in the film Ariel kisses Eric a couple seconds too late, and turns into a Mermaid, not that she kisses him and instantly gets her voice back, which is what is implied.

I think the paper cut-out Ursula/silhouette kissing scene should be replaced with something similar to the scene on the boat, Ursula "crawling" along the deck at Eric, Ariel, have King Triton in the background, or maybe one of Ariel/Eric dancing in his castle or something, with a side scene of Sebastian being chased by the knife welding chef.

Then maybe as the last scene have the wedding part on the boat, you don't exactly need to have Ursula blowing up, IMHO. Eric's boat is a big part of the film, but isn't in the ride anywhere, and MK's LM didn't use it as part of the queue, which would have been my idea, more iconic than Eric's castle, IMHO.

 

[BryceM]

Yes! How could this not be in the ride!

Its my favorite part of the movie!

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Its my favorite part of the movie!

'Part of Your World' is the emotional and thematic core of the movie. Everything revolves around it, around its several versions.

A little mermaid sat on the rocks in the surf, looking at the world she desperately wants to be part of, this IS the story. Such a pity that only the version in her gadgets and gizmo's cavern is included!


Part of Your World also happens to be one of my favourite Disney songs period.

Maybe they'll play the song outside, with Ariel sitting on the rocks, gazing at the castle, the place where the people are:

 

[BryceM]

Yes, I love Part of Your World and the reprise. I start getting chills the moments she starts singing on the rock.

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

'Part of Your World' is the emotional and thematic core of the movie. Everything revolves around it, around its several versions.

A little mermaid sat on the rocks in the surf, looking at the world she desperately wants to be part of, this IS the story. Such a pity that only the version in her gadgets and gizmo's cavern is included!


Part of Your World also happens to be one of my favourite Disney songs period.

Maybe they'll play the song outside, with Ariel sitting on the rocks, gazing at the castle . . . ]

I don't think they are going to put an animatronic Ariel, or even just a fiberglass Ariel on the outside of the ride, and that the Ariel in the photo above is similar to the Belle sitting her village, just something added to make the photo look more connected to the film.

I think they could have had a scene in the ride with Ariel on a rock, looking at Eric on the beach trying to spot her, sort of sets up the romantic part of the film without him just being the guy who kisses her and breaks the spell (which didn't happen exactly that way in the film but happens in the ride).

You are right though, Ariel on her rock looking at land is the iconic scene from the film, and the reprise of "Part of Your World" after Ariel saves Eric is more emotional/dramatic than the Grotto stuff, IMHO.

 

[ScoutN]

Your glass is definately more than half empty.

My glass is neither half full nor half empty as I chose to use an adequate sized glass for my drinks.

Saying an attraction will be sub-par before it is built does not have as much validity. It's mostly based off of personal bias, and some details of the attraction written down on paper.

Personal-bias or off the word of verified/trusted users/insiders that have stated that there is nothing over impressive with the ride and a huge budget cut target? The latter is the better answer. So where is there void that you think you can fill with personal-bias?

Since we are on the note mind reading then I say there are screens because the Yeti made WDW afraid of AAs! Sounds about as bad as what I quoted, yes?

 

[RonAnnArbor]

This is all sort of mute isn't it, since the ride is identical to the one in California....You can see the entire ride here:

 

[danlb_2000]

This is all sort of mute isn't it, since the ride is identical to the one in California....You can see the entire ride here:

Actually, this is a better video to go by since it has the recent changes that were made to the ride which we assume will also be in the WDW version:

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

This is all sort of mute isn't it, since the ride is identical to the one in California....You can see the entire ride here:

Don't know when that video was shot, but around 1:20 you can see about four empty clam shells. Happened quite frequently when I visited.

Will the two Mermaid rides be identical? Here some reasons they might not be:

1. Mermaid's queue in MK is much more elaborate, Scuttle's scanvenger hunt, lots of rockwork, so there is this difference.

2. We know that MK's loading queue mural is much more . . . romantic, photo-realistic, than the cartoonish one in DCA.

3. On the official Disney blog, the moderated mentioned that there would be "slight" differences between the insides of the two rides, what that means is up to anybody's interpretation. The second half of Mermaid in DCA looks somewhat "unfinished", I think they might try to improve up on these scene for MK. Why not? No reason to repeat the same mistakes of DCA, plus given that the queue/rockwork in MK's Mermaid is better than DCA's queue/exterior, it leads me to believe that there is more budget to play with in MK.

4. They did change Ariel's hair, and some of the screen effects in DCA's Mermaid, they know that the ride is underperforming if the queue is empty most of the time. If these changes were made, then perhaps a higher up is okaying some other fixes for Mermaid that they are aware are problems.

5. MK had bigger room for a showbuilding, yes, MK's showbuilding is similarly shaped, but I believe that it is a little bit bigger, plus there is a large storage space in the back, I think if they wanted to, they could easily extend the ride and add some another scene, or extend some of the existing scenes.

 

[alissafalco]

The Ursula cut out actually bothers me more than the soft serve dole whip hair. I also didn't like the repeating spinning/dancing starfish in 2 scenes.

 

[danlb_2000]

Don't know when that video was shot, but around 1:20 you can see about four empty clam shells. Happened quite frequently when I visited.

Will the two Mermaid rides be identical? Here some reasons they might not be:

1. Mermaid's queue in MK is much more elaborate, Scuttle's scanvenger hunt, lots of rockwork, so there is this difference.

2. We know that MK's loading queue mural is much more . . . romantic, photo-realistic, than the cartoonish one in DCA.

3. On the official Disney blog, the moderated mentioned that there would be "slight" differences between the insides of the two rides, what that means is up to anybody's interpretation. The second half of Mermaid in DCA looks somewhat "unfinished", I think they might try to improve up on these scene for MK. Why not? No reason to repeat the same mistakes of DCA, plus given that the queue/rockwork in MK's Mermaid is better than DCA's queue/exterior, it leads me to believe that there is more budget to play with in MK.
.

The part in bold assumes that Disney believes that there is actually something wrong with the second half.

 

[jensenrick]

Why not use screens?

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

The Ursula cut out actually bothers me more than the soft serve dole whip hair. I also didn't like the repeating spinning/dancing starfish in 2 scenes.

Yeah, the cut out Ursula is a tricky thing as a lot of guests miss it, IMHO, and unless you've seen, and remember, the film, you might not understand what scene it was referencing. Even then, it just such a small thing that I don't take it seriously as "being" Ursula. I think they could build a small Ursula sized animatronic, like maybe the size of Sebastian, to imply it being a distance away, but doesn't make sense why she would "self destruct" in the middle of the ocean unless it was from jealousy.

I also didn't like the repeating starfish and critters in the second scene, the wedding scene, which I think should focus on Ariel, Eric, Triton, Sebastian, maybe Flounder, and maybe even Ursula who was in that final scene in the film where a lot of significant things happened.

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

Why not use screens?

To use screens, or not to use screens, that is the question.