Originally Posted By Anatole69 Yeah my problem is the build up for this ride had me expecting an E-ticket. As it stands it looks more like a run of the mill fantasy land ride. I was hoping for more, since the animatic they made for the previously proposed Little Mermaid attraction for Disneyland Paris left me feeling underwhelmed. I got to hoping this would be at least upscaled significantly from that... but based upon the drawings released before and the video, it looks like it might be exactly what I first thought it would be, and that leaves me feeling a little cold on it. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "As it stands it looks more like a run of the mill fantasy land ride." I'm not sure I would say that based on the costuming, lighting, ride system, and the elaborate AA figures. This seems quite a bit more advanced than Peter Pan, Snow White or anything in Fantasyland other than of IASW. "I got to hoping this would be at least upscaled significantly from that... but based upon the drawings released before and the video, it looks like it might be exactly what I first thought it would be, and that leaves me feeling a little cold on it." My issue from the start with this attraction is that it is yet another girlie character driven princess thing. In my opinion Disney really needs to inject a little more testosterone and maturity into its new offerings in Anaheim. You know things are bad when I'm more thrilled about the new tiki bar at the DLH than I am about DLR's newest ride. At least Star Tours is finally being redone, and while I wish they'd drop the Star Wars theme, I'm excited by it.
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle My issue with this ride is that I already know the story. I can't get too excited about something that I've already seen on film. Doesn't leave much to the imagination.
Originally Posted By gadzuux Really? You've likely seen the other movies too - Peter Pan, Snow White, Alice and the rest. It's not so much about retelling the story as it is giving people an opportunity to be immersed in the environment of the story. And in LM's case, about revisiting the musical numbers from the movie. I know how all these stories end - that's not what I'm looking for from a disney attraction.
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle ^Yes, I have seen those other movies. And those rides don't really excite me either. Not to say I don't enjoy them to some degree, but the experiences I enjoy most at Disneyland are those that are unique to the parks. Yes, I know the Indiana Jones movies, but the Indy ride takes me on a new adventure - not just a scene-by-scene re-hash of one of the films. Same concept for Star Tours. It's even better when you have a completely unique experience like HM, Pirates, etc. I would have much rather seen a LM ride that took the caracters from the film and took me on a new adventure, rather than just taking me through the movie.
Originally Posted By Britain Eh, I don't want Snow White to take me on another adventure. I don't want Peter Pan to take me on another adventure. I don't want Mr. Toad, Alice, or Pinocchio to do anything different than tell me THEIR singular story. To do anything else implies "Sequels" and its appropriate for Star Wars and Indy, but not for the animated films... AND I DON'T acknowledge the existence of the Little Mermaid sequels, thank you very much.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I'm with MW, in that if it's TOO close to the movie, what's the point? The FaL rides that work the best, IMO, have always been the ones that aren't linear; that aren't taking you through the literal plot of the movie. PPF is very loosely "Flying in a pirate ship over London and Neverland." Yes you see the movie's characters, but it's not the plot of the movie. MTWR is "speeding through London with Mr. Toad, noted bad driver," and that's pretty much it. They just immerse you in the environment of the film, and they work great. Snow White and Pinocchio are more linear and as a result, IMO, less successful. Alice is somewhere in between, and therefore in the middle of the success scale. Of course, I haven't ridden LM yet and it's nice to see more advanced AA's and an omnimover in a ride like this. If the lighting, music, etc. contribute to a great ENVIRONMENT, I'm sure I'll enjoy the ride. If it's too "plot-ty," I think that will actually take away from it. I don't want a sequel, or different adventures; but you can't tell the whole 80-90 minute movie in 5 minutes anyway, so these rides are more successful when they're impressionistic rather than linear.
Originally Posted By gadzuux And again - it seems they're taking us through the musical numbers from the film, not so much retelling the story.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< And again - it seems they're taking us through the musical numbers from the film, not so much retelling the story. >>> ... and I suspect that even if they are attempting to tell the story, to most guests it will appear to simply be a collection of the musical numbers, and it will be enjoyable for what it is. I'll make the comparison with "Under the Sea", which is the live performance theater attraction at Tokyo DisneySea that's based on The Little Mermaid. It kind of tries to go along with the movie's plot, but parts are missing. Its runtime is 14 minutes, and they do a few songs, so obviously it's a much-truncated version as compared to the movie. There's kind of a plot that moves along, but the main thing is that you get to hear the songs, and are immersed in the world of TLM and get to watch the performance. I think that DCA's TLM ride will be the omnimover/AA version of this: just good, clean fun with familiar songs and interesting visuals. It doesn't have to be a lot more complicated than that.
Originally Posted By Westsider Manfried, buddy, Al is right on this one. The official ticketed Cast Member Previews organized through the Cast Activities Department begin the 20th. That's where you have to have tickets to get in, the Attraction is in full show mode, you can bring three guests with you, you get your Little Mermaid luggage tag as a free keepsake, and then you get to stay in the parks for the rest of the day for free. They purposely invite thousands of people on those Preview days so they can build up a solid queue and test out all sorts of crowd control logistics and scenarios. The previews happening this week are actually for training purposes for the Attractions Hosts/Hostesses who will staff the attraction. They are only letting you in with an Company ID through a side door for an hour or two at a time, and there is no guarantee the ride will be operating throughout. No guests allowed. The primary goal here is to allow the new CM's to get trained and signed off on the new attraction, to build up a pool of CM's big enough to keep it staffed during the CM Previews and soft openings in a couple weeks while they continue to train even more CM's. Yes, the CM's acting as test riders get to "preview" the new attraction. But it's a very on-the-fly thing, and not really the "official" Cast Member Preview days as Al correctly noted begin on May 20th. When I went on it a couple things weren't working, and I could tell where they needed to fix some other stuff. It wasn't in full show mode yet. As for the ride.... yeah, I've been on it a few times during the testing earlier this week. But since they had a bunch of signs up clearly forbidding talking about it on the Internet, and the ride was staffed with a bunch of CM lookouts in the rocks along the track and catwalks above the show scenes to prevent photography, I can't say anything about it. They must have learned something from the testing previews they did on Star Tours last week where they never said one word about not talking on the Internet, because they had managers at the Mermaid load area verbally telling people not to talk about this on the Internet. In addition to all the warning signs. I gotta respect the verbal and signage warnings for Mermaid that were totally lacking at the Star Tours testing/training. I'll keep mum on it. But I'm sure there's reviews out there already.
Originally Posted By lesmisfan "Lemisfan, I see how you placed it between the FL dark rides and HM. Where would it fall if placed next to Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters?" that is a toughy, mainly because they are both really well done, but i put my money on mermaid only for the fact im not huge for the buzz attraction. but they are very close.
Originally Posted By planodisney The reviews I have seen have ranged between extremely positive and extatic.
Originally Posted By planodisney A far as I'm concerned, if it's a step up frpm a FL darkride and a good 1 1/2 minutes longer in ride duration, then it's a huge step up fpr DCA. Just what it needed. RSR will provide the huge E-ticket.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>>My issue with this ride is that I already know the story. I can't get too excited about something that I've already seen on film. Doesn't leave much to the imagination.<<< And there is my major bug bear with the tooning of parks. Not much to inspire or make you want to repeat it. and I agree with Hans, my complaint of Disney of the last 10 years is the testostrone is pretty much gone. And a lot of the fans like it that way it seems. Last month in DLP, there was a guest complaining there were too many Nightmare Before Christmas products and how that was not very Disney, another one came off Phantom Manor stating "That was not very Disney". Both comments made me really angry, Disney is delivering what the sheeple expect. I always felt the Little Mermaid was the most overrated animated feature of all time, and is one of my least favorites. But I have to give this attraction props. It looks cute and has turned out better than what I expected, delivering something Paradise Pier needed (even if Golden Dreams was more to my taste, though a Drak Ride Version of Golden Dreams would have been even cooler).
Originally Posted By ChurroMonster Additions, enhancements, and re-do's over the last decade: Nemo Subs replacing, well, nothing Buzz Lightyear replacing empty building Pixie Hollow replacing Ariel's grotto Princess Fantasy Fair staging hostile takeover of Fantasyland Theater Winnie the Pooh replacing Country Bears Mickey's Fun Wheel replacing Sun Wheel Toy Story Mania replacing closed food locations and a lot of empty concrete Playhouse Disney Monsters Inc replacing shuttered attraction which shall not be named Silly Symphony Swings replacing giant orange Little Mermaid replacing empty theater World of Color replacing scenic lagoon Goofy's Sky School theme change It's a Small World toons added Haunted Mansion Holiday New Fantasmic dragon Fantasmic digital projectors added Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-thru reborn Aladdin show replaced something Avalon Cove becoming Ariel's Grotto Brother Bear added at RCCT A Bug's Land Carsland (coming soon) Space Mountain's rebuilt track PoTC character additions Tower of Terror Star Tours 2 Jungle Cruise additions of armed monkeys and pirahna Pirates Lair additions of film characters Tiki Room refurbishment Alice in Wonderland's lovely scaffolding Remember Dreams Come True Captain Eo's return Who Wants to be a Millionaire Play It! X-Games Live! Grand Californian expansion Disneyland Hotel redo Rivers of America animal and keel boat additions Grizzly Rapids slight re-theming Paradise Park replacing Golden Gate concrete basin--err Park Paradise Gardens food court enhancements Maliboomer Park (or whatever it's called)replacing the Maliboomer Rockin' Space Mountain & Cali Screamin' SM Ghost Galaxy GlowFest ElecTRONica Toy Story parking lot Buena Vista Street (coming soon) I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff but I think if we are to assess what direction the resort is taking then everything has to be taken into consideration. Seems a little heavy on the toonification to me but not as much as I thought before coming up with this list.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I think TDL has the best park upgrades, but DLR has the second best. - Anatole
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I always felt the Little Mermaid was the most overrated animated feature of all time, and is one of my least favorites.<< While I agree that it's increadibly overrated, I would say that Cinderella is just a hair past it. Boring characters, no real story development, and very dated songs. And yet it's the one that they promote more than anything. While I think TLM is a middle of the road movie that gets a lot of promotion, I would have to honestly say that Cinderella is one of the worst in Disney's library, yet it is promoted more than any other. Just doesn't make any sense.
