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View Full Version : Where is the whimsy?



potzbie
08-01-2005, 01:28 PM
My least favorite rides at Disneyland Park are "Its A Small World" (IASM) and "The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh" (MAoWtP).
(Gee, it is nice for MOUSEPLANET to provide a glossary of abbreviations.)

Why? Because they are not whimisical.

I think of the theme from "Gilligan's Island" when I think of the speed of the boat for IASW:
"... six passengers set sail that day
on a three-hour tour,
A three-hour tour."

Dolls don't do anything for me.
Dressing them up, and having them kick the can-can only goes so far.

I notice that, unlike all other rides at DL, the walls and roof of the IASW building's interior are visible as walls and roofs, and not integrated thematically.
This is a disappointment. -- It gives the appearance of a county fair ride, instead of the Hollywood illusion of a complete environment.

That is, for other dark-room rides, the roof simulates night, and you cannot see the walls because the scenery covers 100% of the bare wall, where it is not flat-black.
That is why PETER PAN works -- You do fly over London, and you do fly over the Island.
That is definitely "whimsy."

The MAoWtP ride likewise strikes me as slower-than-normal and lower-tech-than-normal.

Contrast this with dark-room rides like ALICE IN WONDERLAND, where there is some whimsy in the scenery, or MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE, where you do meet a train head-on (almost), and do end up in hell.
(Now, THAT, my friend, is whimsy!)

I don't see any whimsy in IASW or MAoWtP.

Do YOU see whimsy?
Do YOU ride it again and again?

blueckles
08-01-2005, 01:38 PM
I don't know so much about it having "whimsy", but I enjoy going on IASW from time to time. It's especially nice when you are looking for a cool, relaxing place to take a break from the heat at. I also enjoy looking at the different scenes. Call me optimistic, but it also sends a pretty good message :)

As for the Pooh ride, I could go either way on that. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. And personally, I like the Pooh ride at WDW better.

Shortiemetoo
08-01-2005, 02:37 PM
I like IASW... Partly because of the message it sends and partly because there is so much detail that went into those "little can can dolls" as well as the rest!!
Winnie the Pooh...if it had been there when I was a child I am sure that I would have felt completely different about it than I do...but I sure saw a lot of very happy, smiling excited children coming off the ride...and they all wanted to "go again Mommy!" So I think it serves a purpose for that reason.

I just wish they would bring back the country bears....in DCA...near GRR somewhere! Now that would be cool!!! :D

pisces
08-02-2005, 02:40 PM
Yes, I hear what the poster is saying.

When I was a child .....Small World was everything to me. It loses something with age....my age, that is.

But, I still like it. Certainly the outside of it, at Christmas is beautiful and classic, plus the outside music. Because of the extensive Christmas decorations, I think that brings high expectations for the actual ride....there's this discrepancy between what you expect from the ornate and outside lighting and music, whereby the actual ride, itself doesn't live up.

But, I think the trick is to put yourself back into the space and time, where you were a child. Imagine you are a child, and try to develop, or grab hold of that wonderment, for a time, or for the length of the ride.

Rather than wait for the ride to "wow" you.... go in to it ready to be "wow-ed" because you're determined to go back to that sense of childhood newness, where everything is fascinating, and interesting.

Try to find something new to be interesting, every time you ride.

Rather than looking at Winnie the Poo as just a bunch of cardboard cut-outs moving in and out. Brush up on the tale of Winnie the poo, and read it the night before, and then develop the child-like state of mind, and sense of wonderment before you board. You might see it in a new way.

MsYumiBr
08-02-2005, 02:51 PM
Peter Pan was my favorite ride at 7. I didn't reach ride height until I was 10 so things were limited. I LOVED the music. I remember it being very loud and thrilling. Now it's "Mommy, why does Peter Pan smell like popcorn?" :rolleyes:

coronado_g
08-02-2005, 05:34 PM
I enjoy the Small World but I've often wished they would do something with the ceilings and walls. Of course, this is how it's always been so can't see them changing such a classic favorite just to spruce up the interior architecture. Guess the outside more than makes up for the plain inside walls.

3894
08-02-2005, 05:36 PM
In my book, IASW is chock full o' whimsy. Love that ride.

KeithOfTerror
08-02-2005, 08:47 PM
When you hit a certain age, you lose your innocence and all of a sudden magic kinda disappears. Winnie the Pooh is a thinly-veiled acid trip, and there's more innuendos in Small World than a Mexican can choke his chicken to (not profane, its in the ride, I swear...).

animagusurreal
08-02-2005, 10:54 PM
I still think IASW it pretty whimsical, though the celing thing bugs me, too. I guess maybe they couldn't make it as dark as Pirates or the dark rides, without changing the bright mood of the ride, and that's why it's more noticable?

Up until my mid-teenage years, I adored Small World. That was the #1 reason to go to Disneyland. The gurgling mermaids cracked me up laughing (I still get a chuckle out of that.) I went on it time before last and it wasn't the same, but I'm a big fan of Mary Blair's 1960's art design, and the abundance of things to look at.

That was one of my problems with Pooh (though I do find it rather whimsical) - you look a scene once and you've pretty much got it. Really, I like the first two "weather" scenes and the Pooh-floating into-his-dream effect pretty well, but I felt that the ride cars should bounce along with Tigger, and I was rather dissapointed by the Heffalump and Woozle scene. That's such a very animated animated scene in the movie, so its weird for me to see it represented by such limited and non-movement figures - even the characters with the swirly-effects don't move their "bodies." And Tigger on top of Pooh - that's a real cute sculpture, but Tigger - energetic Tigger of all characters - needs to move, IMHO. Also, I really could tell that I was in a small room during that scene.

It always strikes me as funny that Song of the South, which hasn't been seen by the general public in decades, has the AA filled Splash Mountain, while Pooh, which seems just as popular as ever, has the more limited-movement figures.

3894
08-03-2005, 03:41 AM
Winnie the Pooh is a thinly-veiled acid trip, and there's more innuendos in Small World than a Mexican can choke his chicken to (not profane, its in the ride, I swear...).

And then there's Alice in Wonderland. One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small ... Hookah-smoking caterpillar, indeed.

But innuendos in It's A Small World? :confused:

KeithOfTerror
08-03-2005, 10:31 AM
But innuendos in It's A Small World?

When you're in the Mexico segment, look for the little boy choking a chicken in time to the music...That one's pretty much the best one of all the Disney inside jokes...