My New Pooh Review...Comin' Right at You!

[roymccoy]

Okay...I finally got on the new Pooh ride at DL today. We had went out two other times to go on the ride and had broken down so the third time was the charm!

First off, I give it a C+ and here's why:

I thought overall that it was a cute ride. It's definitely better than a lot of the stuff over in DCA and it had nice theming. Then I got to thinking...I think that I was just happy that a "Disney quality" dark ride could still be planned and built at DL. I was beginning to think that Disney no longer even knew how to build a Disney quality dark ride. The Pooh Ride is on par with Pinnochio and Snow White in Fantasyland, but that was built in the 80's, so I guess if that's the bar then it's an okay ride. I personally thought that 20 years later they could have really blew us away with all the new technology available but it's basically on par with the stuff in Fantasyland from twenty years ago. (Didn't they use 8086 IBM computers in the mid 80's?)

The new ride system that allows the cars to "bounce" up and down was kind of a let down. Big deal...the County Fair's have had that for a long time. I don't get it.

I have riden the Pooh Ride at WDW and I noticed that the DL ride is made a little cheaper. (Surprise, surprise) There were a lot more cardboard cutout drawings of the characters
instead of the full-size characters like at WDW.

Can they please make these new ride vehicles a little bigger for our knee's please??!
I'm not Shaquille O'Neal or anything but my knees hit the front of the car and it was hard to get on and out of the ride.

The ride loads outside and then the cars go into the show building. This was obviously done for economic (cheap) reasons because the old Country Bear building wasn't big enough for a loading area and show area inside. What do they do when it rains? Are the cars just going to get wet? Sounds like a blast! I bet they build some sort of structure around that area very quickly.

There seemed to be more of a followable storyline to the Pooh Ride at WDW. The DL one didn't seem to tell much of a story. Pooh's sleeping....wow.

Like I said, it fits in perfect compared to the 1980's era rides in Fantasyland. I was sort of hoping to be blown away by all the new technology that I know must be available out there for dark rides. There really isn't anything new or exciting about this ride. Not even fiber-optics, virtual reality or holographic images. Just an Alice and Wonderland copy with a Pooh storyline.

IMHO

Roy

Oh yeah, the adjoining new Pooh Shop and Candy Store is bigger than the ride. There should be a statue of Paul "The Gap" Pressler inside.

 

[hookedup]

Roy I hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread too with my 2 cents (as if that ever stops me! LOL )...

I was disappointed in the cars - When our 3 year old ds sat in the front row he couldn't see over the front row (and he is 39 inches!) so the middle row is better for young ones. If you sit in the back row you can't turn around and see stuff behind you either.

Like in Flicks at DCA I can't understand why rides for little ones are so little kid unfriendly. I was thinking perhaps they are really taking into consideration some saftety requirements. I just find it sort of ironic when a ride for small children is not very fun for them because they can't see it!

 

[year2late]

Roy, did your child enjoy it?

 

[roymccoy]

Yep....the kids loved it. Maybe that's all that counts!

Roy

I will point out, though that my kids like to watch somthing called "Spongebob Squarepants"....I don't know if their taste is all that refined yet. ;-)

 

[year2late]

Originally posted by roymccoy
I will point out, though that my kids like to watch somthing called "Spongebob Squarepants"....I don't know if their taste is all that refined yet. ;-)

Since (IMHO) they both have the same target audience, lack of refinement in taste should not be too big of an issue.

That being said.....I miss Country Bears!

 

[disneychrista]

Maybe my memory is failing me but I thought our version had less cardboard cutouts then WDW's (of course with the excpetion of all the heffalumps and wozzels).

I do agree that the WDW version has a much better/followable storyline then our version does. And even though it is not an issue with my family, I can agree that the ride vehicles are TOO big, especially the back seat.

I too miss the bears and always thought that they could have updated the show very easily with some of the newer country songs. Friends in Low Places, Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares and others would have worked very well, IMO. I did enjoy the tribute to the Bears in the Pooh ride.

 

[Lynn-Marie]

Roy!

Don't tell me you're an old Doug and Emmy Jo fan!!!

"It's the new zoo revuuuuue... comin' right at you...
... with Doug and Emmy Jo... every day's a different showwww!"

Okay... I see we both like Disney and kiddie shows.

 

[Darian]

Hey Roy,

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth as well. DW and I thought the ride was cute, colorful and might be a bit scary for some younger children. I'm afraid the WDW version just blows it away though. The Imagineers did what they could with the slashed budget they got, but those missing dollars are all too apparent.

To me the Pooh ride is greatly inferior in creativity and execution to both Pinnochio and Snow White. When you look at all the subtle detail in Pinnochio - the architectural details on the buildings in Gepetto's village... the 3D effects, lighting.. etc it just seems like such a better ride. Much more detail.

In the Pooh ride, that level of detail work is lacking. The painting of the ride decorations are also very simplistic = cheap. I'd give the ride a C - personally.

Darian