Animatronics at it's best: Dionsaur!

[Karl C]

I have been and always will be a Pirates of the Caribbean fan. All the way back to day 1 at Disneyland when the ride first opened. I never figured any ride could beat "Pirates" for action and motion (tough not as a ride as a proper). At least until Dinosaur came along. From the pirates first jerky animatronic motions of the 60's to today's latest version in The Great Movie Ride and "Hopper" in "It's Tough to be a Bug." Wow. Who ever thought a machine could be made to look so real and mimic life so believability as Disney has and then put them to use as simple and not so simple props like Tiki god's, grasshoppers, ghosts and ride pre show MC's.
Growing up in Disneyland I was scared to death riding the Disneyland Railroad and that terrifying last 100 feet of tunneled track that housed that those dinosaur eating dinosaurs running and flying around in fear of their life's from the erupting volcano and the ever present spitball on the glass. I covered my eyes in fear and hunkered down low so as not to be eaten myself. Man that was scary stuff. So when it became my turn to be the brave dad and take my 9 and 11 year old kids on what I knew was going to be an encounter with the latest mix of a high technology motion ride coupled together with the biggest and badest dinosaur that was ever brought back to life in the ride "Dinosaur", I figured they would be terrified just as I was. Wrong. No. Really wrong. Didn't phase them a bit. When the ride was over, boy was I pumped. A little loud. ehh, but so what. Now the kids, well I figured they would be the 1000th and 1001st to be accepted into the Haunted Mansion. Nope wrong again. They spent 10 minutes fighting over the iguanodon hand puppet that was tossed onboard just as the ride ended. We had to go a 2nd time so we could get one for each of them. Go figure.

 

[jimmytammy]

Glad to hear you enjoyed Dinosaur so much. It is a great ride. Our kids today arent fazed as much by things as we were coming up. I think they are exposed to so much more now than we were that rides like that just dont affect them the way it still does us. Im glad they still have an affect on us though

 

[PrincessAurora]

How can you tell? It is so dark in that ride that in my opinion, it hides a lot of the detail. I would have like to see more of the dinosaurs but felt that the gloom factor was a minus.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

Having not been on the ride before, I'm curious about the hand puppet tossed on board. Is this something that happens to each Dinosaur! car or was that something odd that occurred.

Thanks!

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

HOw dark is the ride?

 

[PatriciaH]

I love the detail in Dinosaur also. If you can, try to catch a repeat of the Travel Channel's "Secrets of Animal Kingdom." The Figures in Dinosaur are not animatronics but actually hydraulic! The show goes behind the scenes and shows how they work.

 

[Karl C]

Animatronic vs Hydraulic, ok there is a big differance. To me it's the illusion that counted and the overall experience of the ride.
As for as the iguanodon puppet, at first we thought someone had just left it behind but as we were wondering around before we rode again, the wife and I noticed alot of these being played with. We thought there are to many of these around and that people are can't be buying them all so they must have tossed it in during that dark period just before the ride ends.

If anybody knows for sure let me know. If so, do they do it all the time or was it just a one time thing while we were there?

 

[PatriciaH]

We got a Dinosaur hand puppet with a Happy Meal at Restauranosarous when we were there last time. Is it a rubber head that you can stick your hand in and move like a puppet?