animagusurreal
01-31-2005, 08:43 PM
Hello,
Your friendly aspiring Disney attraction reviewer here, with a couple sample reviews of "Tower of Terror" and "The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh". Comments are appriciated :)
Thanks,
Brent
"A Ride of *Some* Gravity..."
DCA's "Tower of Terror" Drops Expectations, But Still Thrills
by Brent M. Parker
WDW's "Tower of Terror" already towered amongst the world's great thrill rides when Disney's California Adventure broke ground on their remake - and, like most remakes, DCA's versions sits squarely in the original's shadow. Perhaps wanting it to match the rest of the park, Disney cut a few corners, but the bare essentials of a headliner are still there - an iconic structure, a distinct thrill, and a fastpass station.
Knowing only the legend of the Florida version, I was expecting a full-scale show ride, like "The Haunted Mansion", only with drops to boot. "Terror", as it turns out, is much more spare in its theming. However, its hotel setting does have some atmosphere. The neglected grandeur of a bygone era, including classy, creepy portraits, gives way to an ominously rumbling boiler room (that would have been all the more ominous if it weren't glowing with neon paint and black light.)
For me, the most disappointing aspect of the whole experience was the scene-setting video. The manipulation of Rod Serling's image is decent, but the black-and-white look of the "film" is far from authentic, (Indiana Jones' newsreels are far more convincing,) and, overall, it just doesn't feel like an real episode of the series. As a result, the concept of actually being in a Twilight Zone episode suffers a little.
The ride vehicle is ostensibly a service elevator, the regular guest elevator having been destroyed by a disasterous lightening strike many years earlier. On your way up, you experience 3 very cool Haunted-Mansion-style effects, heart-pounding suspense building with each opening of the doors. And then, the meat and potatoes of the ride - the drops. "Terror" takes Splash Moutain's concept of alternately lulling and thrilling the rider, randomizes it a la Indiana Jones, and compresses it into about 2 minutes. The resulting effect toys with both gravity and the rider's mind. The rising out of your seat effect is somewhat reminiscent of Six Flags Magic Mountain's "Superman: The Escape", though occuring more often with less intensity. That's about all there is to say, really - if "California Screamin'" is a whole meal of thrills, "Tower of Terror" is a few rich, concentrated bites.
There is one last big surprise, though - just as you expect to experience the drop to end all drops or for the car to slide into some final, spectatular effects room, Serling's voice-over chimes in, and it's all over. And while what happens next is rather frightening, it's hardly a twist ending - you look around and suddenly find yourself in a gift shop!
The ride did leave me quivering pleasantly in my sneakers, and was a pleasurable attraction experience, though I felt no urge to commemerate it with a $17.00 photograph.
And speaking of which, one last tip - it might be more convincing to ride the ride at night, when the flash of the obligatory camera before the first drop might double for the lightening of the ride's storyline.
----------------------
"Oh, Pooh...
Latest Disneyland Attraction is No Honey of a Ride, But Sweet Enough"
by Brent M. Parker
Disneyland's first new attraction in 8 years (excepting the swiftly shut down Rocket Rods) arrived with little of the usual Disney fanfare - it didn't even rate a major T.V. promotion. That's probably because Critter Country's "The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh" feels like less like a than a spectacle in its own right than something for Splash Mountain fastpass holders to do while they wait. This seems curious considering that the bear of very little brain has managed to maintain a very large, multi-generational fanbase. And while this ride has more to offer dragged-along parents than the stuff of DCA's "Flik's Fun Fair", it isn't quite worthy of the Pooh legacy - or the removal of "The Country Bear Jamboree", which the ride replaced.
Pooh is, if nothing else, the park's most lighthearted "dark ride" (ride that utilizes black light.) It won't send you to a witch's castle, or a weasel gang's lair, or to Hell, as some other dark rides have been known to do. The word that best sums up the whole experience is "cute." Even the heffalump and woozle "nightmare" sequence feels something like "It's a Small World" goes funhouse.
Most of the characters and scenery, (particularly the globs of hunny,) have a pleasant, plastic-cartoony look reminiscent of Toontown.
Disney attempts to cover up their lack of investment in this attraction by leaning heavily on Pooh's storybook origins - it has the feel of a ride-through illustration. Pooh, Tigger and company are not represented by Disney's trademark audio-animatronic figures, with their complex movements, including lip-synched dialogue. Instead, we get limited-motion figures whose speech is part of the piped-in narration. This ploy is especially transparent since Pooh's splashy neighbor has more animatronics than any other attraction in the park.
Not that Pooh is without any razzle-dazzle - there are a couple of fine effects tossed in, though they seem only a sample of what the ride could have been.
While lacking the interactive spin of Toontown's "Roger Rabbit" dark ride, the beehive-shaped vehicles add a little to the flat-tracked journey with some gentle, "Jolly Trolley"-like rocking. It's particularly effective as you "float" through The Floody Place. Unfortunately, the vehicles don't bounce when you're invited to "follow the bouncin' Tigger!"
The ride generally has short wait times and abundant fastpass. We didn't wait more than 15 minutes. Of course, this is essentially a case of "you get what you wait for," but considering how long lines can be for "Roger Rabbit" or the Fantasyland dark rides, it's a pretty good bargain.
And now I'd like to close with a few inches of blank page (a.k.a. a few moments of silence) for the dearly departed Country Bears.
-----------------
Your friendly aspiring Disney attraction reviewer here, with a couple sample reviews of "Tower of Terror" and "The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh". Comments are appriciated :)
Thanks,
Brent
"A Ride of *Some* Gravity..."
DCA's "Tower of Terror" Drops Expectations, But Still Thrills
by Brent M. Parker
WDW's "Tower of Terror" already towered amongst the world's great thrill rides when Disney's California Adventure broke ground on their remake - and, like most remakes, DCA's versions sits squarely in the original's shadow. Perhaps wanting it to match the rest of the park, Disney cut a few corners, but the bare essentials of a headliner are still there - an iconic structure, a distinct thrill, and a fastpass station.
Knowing only the legend of the Florida version, I was expecting a full-scale show ride, like "The Haunted Mansion", only with drops to boot. "Terror", as it turns out, is much more spare in its theming. However, its hotel setting does have some atmosphere. The neglected grandeur of a bygone era, including classy, creepy portraits, gives way to an ominously rumbling boiler room (that would have been all the more ominous if it weren't glowing with neon paint and black light.)
For me, the most disappointing aspect of the whole experience was the scene-setting video. The manipulation of Rod Serling's image is decent, but the black-and-white look of the "film" is far from authentic, (Indiana Jones' newsreels are far more convincing,) and, overall, it just doesn't feel like an real episode of the series. As a result, the concept of actually being in a Twilight Zone episode suffers a little.
The ride vehicle is ostensibly a service elevator, the regular guest elevator having been destroyed by a disasterous lightening strike many years earlier. On your way up, you experience 3 very cool Haunted-Mansion-style effects, heart-pounding suspense building with each opening of the doors. And then, the meat and potatoes of the ride - the drops. "Terror" takes Splash Moutain's concept of alternately lulling and thrilling the rider, randomizes it a la Indiana Jones, and compresses it into about 2 minutes. The resulting effect toys with both gravity and the rider's mind. The rising out of your seat effect is somewhat reminiscent of Six Flags Magic Mountain's "Superman: The Escape", though occuring more often with less intensity. That's about all there is to say, really - if "California Screamin'" is a whole meal of thrills, "Tower of Terror" is a few rich, concentrated bites.
There is one last big surprise, though - just as you expect to experience the drop to end all drops or for the car to slide into some final, spectatular effects room, Serling's voice-over chimes in, and it's all over. And while what happens next is rather frightening, it's hardly a twist ending - you look around and suddenly find yourself in a gift shop!
The ride did leave me quivering pleasantly in my sneakers, and was a pleasurable attraction experience, though I felt no urge to commemerate it with a $17.00 photograph.
And speaking of which, one last tip - it might be more convincing to ride the ride at night, when the flash of the obligatory camera before the first drop might double for the lightening of the ride's storyline.
----------------------
"Oh, Pooh...
Latest Disneyland Attraction is No Honey of a Ride, But Sweet Enough"
by Brent M. Parker
Disneyland's first new attraction in 8 years (excepting the swiftly shut down Rocket Rods) arrived with little of the usual Disney fanfare - it didn't even rate a major T.V. promotion. That's probably because Critter Country's "The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh" feels like less like a than a spectacle in its own right than something for Splash Mountain fastpass holders to do while they wait. This seems curious considering that the bear of very little brain has managed to maintain a very large, multi-generational fanbase. And while this ride has more to offer dragged-along parents than the stuff of DCA's "Flik's Fun Fair", it isn't quite worthy of the Pooh legacy - or the removal of "The Country Bear Jamboree", which the ride replaced.
Pooh is, if nothing else, the park's most lighthearted "dark ride" (ride that utilizes black light.) It won't send you to a witch's castle, or a weasel gang's lair, or to Hell, as some other dark rides have been known to do. The word that best sums up the whole experience is "cute." Even the heffalump and woozle "nightmare" sequence feels something like "It's a Small World" goes funhouse.
Most of the characters and scenery, (particularly the globs of hunny,) have a pleasant, plastic-cartoony look reminiscent of Toontown.
Disney attempts to cover up their lack of investment in this attraction by leaning heavily on Pooh's storybook origins - it has the feel of a ride-through illustration. Pooh, Tigger and company are not represented by Disney's trademark audio-animatronic figures, with their complex movements, including lip-synched dialogue. Instead, we get limited-motion figures whose speech is part of the piped-in narration. This ploy is especially transparent since Pooh's splashy neighbor has more animatronics than any other attraction in the park.
Not that Pooh is without any razzle-dazzle - there are a couple of fine effects tossed in, though they seem only a sample of what the ride could have been.
While lacking the interactive spin of Toontown's "Roger Rabbit" dark ride, the beehive-shaped vehicles add a little to the flat-tracked journey with some gentle, "Jolly Trolley"-like rocking. It's particularly effective as you "float" through The Floody Place. Unfortunately, the vehicles don't bounce when you're invited to "follow the bouncin' Tigger!"
The ride generally has short wait times and abundant fastpass. We didn't wait more than 15 minutes. Of course, this is essentially a case of "you get what you wait for," but considering how long lines can be for "Roger Rabbit" or the Fantasyland dark rides, it's a pretty good bargain.
And now I'd like to close with a few inches of blank page (a.k.a. a few moments of silence) for the dearly departed Country Bears.
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