Originally Posted By elene I'm not sure why they changes some of the dialog in the other scenes (besides the final scene) of COP. Why did they take out "The robins are back...its a sure sign of spring"? I just isn't the same without the original dialog to me. But it is better than not having the attraction at all! I'm a little surprised they never moved it back to Disneyland. I always sort of thought they would one day.
Originally Posted By danyoung >I'd like to see CoP restored to its original state, with the original fourth act, and the exit past the Progress City model.< I'm not sure the WDW version ever went past Progress City, did it? I thought that was unique to DL.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA At WDW, Progress City got chopped up and added to a scene that the PeopleMover would roll past.
Originally Posted By barboy4 "Some cool and advanced AAs have been created, the Lava Monster in Tokyo Disneysea and even Stich are advanced and amazing." As for pissed off Mrs. Lava monster I give you the "cool" (crazy cool if I were to say) but I'm not sure about being terribly advanced as for movements. Maybe she does have them but she comes across as more simple to me. Potatoehead, Hopper and C3P0 look to have many advanced movements. Oh and curious and defiant monkey boy moves quite nicely too
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Barboy4 - my point -- and I didn't write it very well in my original post - is that, while there have been some advances in AA figures, (I agree with your additional picks) there has yet to be a real breakthrough or leap in AA technology. Showing, at least in my mind, just how advanced 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was when it was created in 1967.
Originally Posted By barboy4 Yes, Jim you make a lot of sense. When Pirates kicked off in '67 it ripped us guests a new one-- we didn'tknow what hit us. Pretty damn mindblowing for its day. Based on logical/safe extrapolations AA advancements after 50 years should have been at the point where the guest can not tell living vs engineered based on choreography and synchronized character voices. But in fairness Universal did give us those freaks in the Gringot bank. WOW! Are there 10 of them working the counters? I forgot. But they look extremely lifelike. Amazing AA figures. Pretty disappointing.
Originally Posted By barboy4 I mean I find it overall disappointing considering it's been close to 50 years.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip My guess is Disney lost interest in the continued development of AA's because of the inevitable expense of maintaining and repairing mechanical devices. Disney found electronic imaging much cheaper to create and maintain and something that young people today are more familiar with anyway. I don't know that anyone misses AA's other than older folks like us. And even I think they are not ESSENTIAL in an attraction. I enjoy them, but you can have a quality attraction without them.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Still, Disney's very best attractions have AA's in them. When they only use video/electronic imaging, you always know they are not real. Granted, you know AA's aren't real either, but they feel more real because they are tangible.
Originally Posted By barboy4 "My guess is Disney lost interest in the continued development of AA's because of the inevitable expense" Ya I know what you mean......I always put laminate floors and countertops in my rentals because my customers(renters) have little appreciation for the finer things like hard wood, tiles or granite. My "customers" don't deserve $10 per sq. ft flooring......give 'em the .79 crap.
Originally Posted By danyoung There's something to be said for the new AA figures in SDMT. Disney has used projections before, most notably in Buzz Lightyear. But now they're using them for an entire attraction, and they look spectacular! It'll be interesting to see how the projections hold up after a few years.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I agree that the Dwarf AAs look really good! From what I've seen, it seems like they'll use similar figures for the Frozen ride in Norway at Epcot As you said, it will be interesting to see how these look in a few years. Buzz looked great when he first appeared, but seems dated now (though it should be a simple update). While they look great with cartoon figures, it makes me wonder if they'll keep the old-style faces for more realistic figures; I just can't imagine something like that would ever look good for the humans in Pirates of the Caribbean or Spaceship Earth One huge drawback to them is if/when the projectors eventually fail (dead bulb, loose wire, etc). With older AAs, part of it might not move correctly but the ride can probably continue to operate for the rest of the day. With projected faces, as soon as any one projector dies, there's really no way to hide it; the attraction would need to be closed immediately. In an ideal world, the maintenance would be so good on the old and new figures that this would never be an issue, but we know that's not realistic
Originally Posted By monorailblue I wouldn't put it past them to run an Attraction with a faceless character. The days when Show was truly prioritized over Efficiency are long since over in many respects. Back in the day, there were several characters in Pirates at Disneyland that were deemed critical--if any of them malfunctioned, the ride was 101 until they were fixed. The captain of the Wicked Wench, the Auctioneer, and I can't recall precisely the other(s). But I've seen numerous reports over the past few years of them running the Attraction with those AAs out of commission.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Is it a drive for efficiency or guest demand for one of Disneyland's most popular attractions? My guess is that many guests would rather go on Pirates with an AA not working than not go on Pirates at all. I think in recent years Disney has been much more concerned about giving guests what they want (except for lower prices). That is good in some respects and in other respects results in letting the tail wag the dog. What guests want does not always result in the best park experience.
Originally Posted By hopemax Exactly. From the book of Mick & Keith, Chapter 8, verse 2. "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you find you get what you need."
Originally Posted By monorailblue One manifestation of what I was describing was major changes to maintenance staffing in the mid- and late-90's. Whereas previously most major Attractions had dedicated maintenance staff on duty during operating hours (and, often, basically around the clock), there was a strong shift to teams of roving maintenance personnel which lead to shifting much maintenance effort solely to after-hours times. So if a critical AA went down on Pirates in 1992, the ride went 101 and it was attended to immediately. By 2012, the ride stays open and, hopefully, it gets looked at that night. The most obvious manifestations of the general maintenance declines include the Columbia and Thunder deaths, both of which were directly attributed--at least in significant part--to a variety of ineffective and faulty maintenance practices. But I think you're also right: people don't care as much. With the park bursting at the seams with people who have been trained that they should never have to wait for anything (FastPass, etc.), the idea of taking a major Attraction offline to address even a critical component of the Show has become an absurd notion (Expedition Everest is a perfect example).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros ^^Everest also has the additional problem of being in a park with very very few other major attractions. When/if it's closed, there's really not much else in the park for guests to do. To my knowledge, it has never had a scheduled refurbishment in it's 10 years of operation (nor has Kilimanjaro Safari in its 17 years; Dinosaur has had a couple week-long refurbs through the years in addition to the conversion from Countdown to Extinction) If something like POTC at DL shuts down, it's a bummer for people who wanted to see that specific attraction, but there are plenty of other options in the park for them to choose from
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<If something like POTC at DL shuts down, it's a bummer for people who wanted to see that specific attraction, but there are plenty of other options in the park for them to choose from.>> True, but a major disappointment for someone like me whose "home park" is WDW. When I go to DL the main attractions I want to see are those that do not exist at WDW and those that are clearly better than the equivalent attraction at WDW. DL's Pirates is high on my list of attractions I want to experience.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I feel your pain. I make at-least-annual trips to DLR, and haven't seen the non-HMH version of their Mansion in 4+ years. Usually, the attraction is closed when I visit (because installing Christmas decorations over a busy holiday like Labor Day weekend makes so much sense), which makes it even more frustrating At the very least, the WDW HM is generally regarded as being a little better, but it still makes me sad to miss it at DL
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Hey -- when I was a pre-teen / teen (mid-to-late 70s) we would take our annual trip to Disneyland in the first week of December. Matterhorn bobsleds were down for rehab on every visit for probably 5 years running. We were disappointed, but not to where it ruined our entire visit.
