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MommyTo3Boys1Girl
12-12-2004, 01:27 PM
It seems to me that there are many people who do not care for Pooh. But, as adults are we really supposed to get that much enjoyment from it? I mean, does anyone have a child in the 5yo and younger group that doesn't like this ride? Personally my 3yo can go on it over and over and over and over. My 1yo thinks it is great too. Who are we, as adults to criticize Pooh? It wasn't designed to entertain us!

Opus1guy
12-12-2004, 01:36 PM
I like it fine. My guests seem to find it cute. The kids seem to like it too. No big deal. It's a quick dark ride in the old Fantasyland tradition/style (even though it's not located in Fantasyland). It's not anywhere as nice as Tokyo's, but then that's a different Pooh ride altogether.

stan4d_steph
12-12-2004, 01:45 PM
I like the ride fine. It's a nice little dark ride.

Darkbeer
12-12-2004, 01:45 PM
Who are we, as adults to criticize Pooh? It wasn't designed to entertain us!
But why wasn't it??? The Tokyo Pooh has many adults without kids waiting an hour or more to enjoy this attraction...

Why can't the Anaheim version be designed to please BOTH Adults and kids????

Seemed like the Pooh project was in a couple of parts, the "cheap" kiddie version (reports have it that more money was spent in removing the Country Bears and converting the building to a flat surface than to actually build the new ride... why:confused: )...

Then the Pooh shop, where a lot of money was spent in decorating the place.... Seemed like TDA's attitude was, give the ride to the kiddies, and the shop to the adults......

And why did they place a "kiddie" ride in Critter Country... there are two areas of the park that are designed for kiddie rides, Fantasyland and Toontown... But Toontown has a great ride for the family in Roger Rabbit, and Fantasyland has many family rides, where Adults and kids can both enjoy the attraction....

lisap
12-12-2004, 01:50 PM
And why did they place a "kiddie" ride in Critter Country... there are two areas of the park that are designed for kiddie rides, Fantasyland and Toontown...

I'm glad the Pooh ride is next to Splash. It gives the other half of the group something to do with the little ones while waiting for their party. I also like the landscaping and theming outside the attraction--very pretty.

3894
12-12-2004, 02:01 PM
The three of us - ages 47, 15, and 12 - enjoyed this one. It's happy.

Flint
12-12-2004, 02:13 PM
Who are we, as adults to criticize Pooh? It wasn't designed to entertain us!

That's my beef with it. The other dark rides weren't dumbed down to exclude adults, why did this one have to be?

kbanmen
12-12-2004, 02:29 PM
I love this ride too...especially when my see the expressions on the faces of my 4 and 2 year old who adore winnie the pooh...I think this is a great ride for the young and the old

VickiC
12-12-2004, 03:04 PM
I'm glad the Pooh ride is next to Splash. It gives the other half of the group something to do with the little ones while waiting for their party. I also like the landscaping and theming outside the attraction--very pretty.


Yep, I think it is perfectly placed in that regards.

As for Roger Rabbit being a kiddie ride, I would disagree. My kids haven't seen the movie, and won't for awhile and the entrance area scared them, I guess it was too loud/overwhelming, so they haven't even been on it.

kbanmen
12-12-2004, 03:08 PM
true Vicki..my kids are scared of the roger rabbit ride as well..I think its because they havent seen the movie as well

Uncle Remus
12-12-2004, 03:24 PM
the beef most people have with it is the lack of umm.. well... anything good. Kids like it because it puts them in an atmosphere with the pooh. The problem I had with it was that it lacked anything well done in it. Like everything is particle board and crappy animatronics (if we can call them that) that only do one thing (jump, look around, stare...) The only thing I thought was cool was pooh bear being taken into the dream world with a projection of him on the wall moving into the next scene.

Christiii
12-12-2004, 03:38 PM
if any of you have been lucky enough to ride the Toyko Pooh, or like me, saw the video of the ride on the internet..then you know whey we are dissapointed..and dont like our version. The Toyko ride shows what our Pooh shoulda coulda been..If we had nothing to compare it to then maybe...just maybe we would not complain, but to see such a state of the art AMAZING piece of work in Tokyo..well it just makes ours pathetic and embarassing...since we are the original park I think we should have the best of all the parks...not something just slammed together full of old store window props and painted cardboard... :rolleyes:

Opus1guy
12-12-2004, 03:41 PM
That's my beef with it. The other dark rides weren't dumbed down to exclude adults, why did this one have to be?

I personally don't think the attraction was "dumbed down" or excludes adults at all. Myself and most of the adult friends that we ride it with, like it just as much as most of the old Fantasyland dark rides. It's a simple pleasure that's every bit in the tradition and style of the best Disney blacklite dark rides, IMHO.

Of course, some attractions have their enjoyment quotient increased quite a bit when you get to see the total joy on the face of the child you are with. But even without kids in tow, we enjoy hopping on this one for the short and simple adventure into the Hundred Acre Woods.

While Disney is a family park where kids and adults are legended to enjoy the same attractions together, the reality is that many Disney attractions have always been geared more to one age group or segment than another. Sometimes the measure of an attraction's success at being a ride that the whole family enjoys, is simply having...say a kiddie ride that adults don't find sooooo objectionable that they want to sit it out.

Fortunately, most adults not only don't find the kiddie rides objectionable, but actually enjoy them on their own merits, and perhaps for the joy it brings on their children's or grandchildren's faces. Pooh succeeds well in this, I think.

You'll always find some folks that hate particular rides. I know many that refuse to go on It's A Small World, for example. To them it's a total kiddie ride with no interest to them at all. Heck, I know some that even refuse to go to Disneyland at all anymore!

The really great success of Disneyland being a family park isn't so much that every single attraction appeals to every single person in the family. It's really great success at being a family park is that Disneyland offers such variety of attractions, that there's enough to satisfy everyone in the family...overall...in the course of a day. Even if they had to endure a couple of the more kiddie rides mainly for the benefit of little Bobby. ;)

And of course the reverse is true too. Little Bobby often has to endure things most tykes don't want to go on, like Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln...for the main benefit of the adults in the family. Teaches everyone in the family to be a bit considerate of others wants and not just their own. And not just to go stomping off in a huff or splitting off from the family group to go ride the rides they want to go on, only.

But Pooh is just what it is...a standard "C" attraction. No more, no less IMHO. We certainly weren't expecting Indiana Jones or Pirates or anything like that out of it. Like many attractions...some like it, some don't. That's normal. But I personally think it meets the criteria of being a good quality "Disney" attraction, even if it's not for everyone.

kbanmen
12-12-2004, 03:46 PM
your right opus guy..it makes the criteria of a good disney family attraction, because families can enjoy it. Obviously teenagers wont...but disney to me is about Families..isnt it??

Christiii
12-12-2004, 03:49 PM
BUT those older rides we all love were pretty much satate of the art at the time they were built...Pooh is most definately NOT...as we can see by what Toyko did...it may not be "dumbed down" in some people's opinion, but if you go to the trouble of building a new ride, why not make it state of the art for TODAY, and not just throw something together to just take up space...its not like they didnt see the other Pooh and have something to shoot for. Roger Rabbit, the last dark ride, had a lot of depth and quality to it..you dont have to make Pooh fast or scary..just up to the standards of what Disney Can and HAS done

Opus1guy
12-12-2004, 04:07 PM
if any of you have been lucky enough to ride the Toyko Pooh, or like me, saw the video of the ride on the internet..then you know whey we are dissapointed..and dont like our version. The Toyko ride shows what our Pooh shoulda coulda been..If we had nothing to compare it to then maybe...just maybe we would not complain, but to see such a state of the art AMAZING piece of work in Tokyo..well it just makes ours pathetic and embarassing...since we are the original park I think we should have the best of all the parks...not something just slammed together full of old store window props and painted cardboard...

I think your "comparison" argument is valid in that this is likely what is happening to some degree.

But perhaps what you have to keep in mind is that is a different attraction. And that Disney continues and will always continue to build "A" "B" "C" and "D" attractions along with the big "E's." Not every attraction is or can be an "E" attraction. With a big difference between Tokyo's and Disneyland's Pooh, being the unique ride system itself.

But standing on it's own as a traditional "C" attraction that was planned on being that way from the start...it turned out well, IMHO. Tokyo's is more of a "D" attraction, IMHO. Some might even consider it an "E."

The very tradition and style of many of the classic dark rides are just painted cardboard props. That's the "style" that is deliberately intended sometimes. 2D tableaus. Or a mix of 2D and 3D elements. Even when Alice In Wonderland was re-worked, they they could have made it all 3D, but they felt it took some of the simplicity and fantasy out of it if it just ended up being "Alice of the Caribbean." Didn't have anything to do with lack of money. I think you'll see Disney continue to build these type of flat dark rides because the Imagineers like the style of them in certain particular cases. Maintains their "animated cartoon" like appearance. And there is a degree of charm that simplicity of design often imparts.

Hakuna Makarla
12-12-2004, 04:50 PM
Christii, where did you see a video of the tokyo pooh ride?
by the way, we thought it was so cute, and the colors blew us away.

Darkbeer
12-12-2004, 04:57 PM
Christii, where did you see a video of the tokyo pooh ride?
by the way, we thought it was so cute, and the colors blew us away.
Here is the famous video site....

http://www.barrybedford.com/

ENJOY! :fez:

Hakuna Makarla
12-12-2004, 05:08 PM
Wow awsome dark rides, thanks dark beer!!

ModHatter
12-12-2004, 06:13 PM
Well, let's keep two things in mind...

1) We're really talking to the wrong audience. I think members of a Disney discussion group are statistically more likely to enjoy Pooh than the average family.

And a related note, 2) Not all fans of the Pooh novels are fans of what Disney has done to them.

I think our Pooh was designed for a very limited audience. Which is fine and dandy for members of that audience. But I think the needs of that audience are met without the ride. Maybe add a well-themed Hundred Acre Wood character meet area if you want to expand character presence. Or heck, make a HAW Jamboree to export to the other parks. Why not create an attraction with a broader appeal, something more to offer than what amounts to clones of 50-year-old attractions? Even the Pooh projection someone mentioned was essentially just the hedgehog croquet ball from Alice... CBJ->Pooh is a lot like America Sings->Innoventions. The average park-goer either breaks even, or loses in the transaction.

sediment
12-12-2004, 07:49 PM
Two basic reasons why people don't like it:
1. What it replaced -- a true Disney animatronic classic.
2. What already exists today that wasn't built for DL -- TDL's Pooh ride.

One tenet I like to insist upon (but have no authority):
If you eliminate an attraction, a new attraction needs to be built that is better than the replaced one. This rule was broken by previous DL management, oh, about 30 times.

stan4d_steph
12-12-2004, 08:33 PM
Country Bears was tired and most of the time, empty. I enjoyed it as a kid, but never set foot inside after I'd seen the same show over and over. It had its fans just like Pooh does. Bears is gone and Pooh is here. That's the way it is.

Disneyfreak
12-12-2004, 08:40 PM
You have to be on crack to love this ride. :fez:

They should have given us the Tokyo version and I would have been happy.

ModHatter
12-12-2004, 08:41 PM
If you eliminate an attraction, a new attraction needs to be built that is better than the replaced one. This rule was broken by previous DL management, oh, about 30 times.

To hone that a bit... an analogous situation existed with PeopleMover. An attraction that still existed in the realm of tomorrow. RocketRods, on paper, could have been better than PM, hands down. But, even at its best, it still sounded like a better venue would have been Autopia. Still, it had potential. But they budgeted the potential right out of it.

I have yet to see a project CM Matt helmed from start to finish, and from the rumors of Monsters and Nemo, I am glad of that. However, one thing i have agreed on is his willingness to spend money to get a project done in the spirit with which it was begun. That is clearly something neither RR or Pooh got, and it shows in the results.

If you can't finance the project to the finish, don't start.

CoasterChickie
12-12-2004, 08:50 PM
The powers that be at DL must have been so pleased to be able to use all the paint that was left over from the Roger Rabbit ride on the Pooh ride.

The colors are really pretty...I guess the wee folk at DL can handle it much better than the rest of us because they sure seem to like it. Especially GrumpyUTboi's kids!