NeverlandClub23 said:
I strongly disliked the original IASW. But reluctantly I went on the newly refurbished IASW and thought it was amazing. I loved all of the colors and different scenes. This is one of the only Disney rides that I actually like better after it has had an overhaul (unlike Journey into Imagination...). Anyone else feel the same? Or did I just have a really bad experience when I was 11 and being stuck in the last room with "It's a Small World" being sang over and over again?
I have amazing family memories of seeing IASW in
Disneyland right after it was brought back from the '64 NYC World's Fair.
We all LOVED it!
Back then it had MANY different recordings of the song with unique full orchestral arrangements behind each version. There were full-sized Hi-Fi "theater speakers" throughout the ride (Altec "Voice of the Theater" if anyone knows about such things) and it sounded so GOOD in there.
I have no idea how many (and what kind) of tape playback systems ($$$) they had to operate simultaneously to get that many recordings to play in (mostly) sync. There were no compact discs or digital players... only reel-to-reel (and later, "cartridge") studio tape players. It was a staggering technical feat to get all those individual "tracks" to play at the same time.
(I remember each "room" was in sync, with the music being slightly "off-sync" as you passed into the next gigantic room).
We bought the LP record back then (not even released in STEREO, just Mono) of the music and I memorized each version (I was in grade school then).
Since that time there have been many "modernizations" of the attraction.
When IASW came to WDW, it already was "pared-down" from the Disneyland original. And even the original California version was "down-graded" over the years.
Gone where the massive (and superior-sounding) theater speakers, replaced with much smaller speakers of lesser quality.
The music tracks where re-recorded with "smaller", simpler arrangements using fewer singers, and in fewer languages.
The dolls still wiggled and spun but it was... NOT THE SAME!
Well now, in 2005-6 the WDW version of IASW underwent an UPGRADE.
Many (most) of the dolls were replaced (or at least repainted).
The sets and interior walls were coated in a new deeper, richer color scheme.
The load-area was improved by the addition of an elaborate new animatronic "clock" mounted in a surround-setting that has a similar feel to the (much larger) Disneyland IASW exterior.
But, during the new construction period, I heard a RUMOR of something that raised my hopes (although tempered with the "real-world" skepticism that said, "Why bother to spend time and $$ on such things?")
Still, when I got to ride IASW after it reopened in WDW...
My own ears confirmed it... YES, the ORIGINAL 1963-64 SOUNDTRACK (that I had loved and "lived") had been RESURRECTED, and digitally RESTORED!
There are MANY added individual speakers in each doll-vignette, each with its OWN version of the song (again, with the elaborate individual track from 1963-4)
What a joy it was to hear the old familiar tracks that my family (brother, two sisters, Mom and Dad) had loved so much in the '60's!
The current "finale" room is a new recording (as the old one had an actual "ending" that just didn't fit with the modern-day ability to "seamlessly" loop the tracks). But even the new finale track is carefully crafted in the same style as the original version... well-done!
To me, IASW is BACK!
So, again, if you don't know or care about these kind of things, don't bother to ride IASW. Its going to seem like that "same-old, once-is-enough" kind of ride.
But to an "old-time Disney veteran" its a trip back in time to when Disney was still the name of a MAN... who loved his park... and nothing was too good to lavish on the guests who came to visit.
A special THANKS to those Imagineers who painstakingly and "lovingly" restored each of those amazing old audio tapes. And made them (again) a part of the Happiest Place on Earth for us "kids" to enjoy.
