Soarin

[manning]

in the Disney file it is mentioned that in addition to a third theater all will get upgraded projection.

 

[Jake]

Hope so. Film is getting faded, colors are not grate anymore and there dirt in the projector, or damage film?

 

[jcnewton]

All are being upgraded to digital projection. Once the new theater is up and running, they'll stagger the closing of others to complete the upgrades.

 

[Dfan79]

I heard they are going to be digital. It keeps the images much clearer for a much longer time. That's why the Little Mermaid movie looks so bad, they still use the old projections.

I'm excited and interested to see what movies they will have with the ride. I've read that they are going to have random movies of different cities, much like they did with Star Tours. This way people will want to ride it more than once each trip.

 

[rteetz]

All are being upgraded to digital projection. Once the new theater is up and running, they'll stagger the closing of others to complete the upgrades.

Correc the third is being built as we speak and will open early next year. Once that opens another will close and so on until late 2016 when all are up with new digital projections.

 

[rteetz]

I heard they are going to be digital. It keeps the images much clearer for a much longer time. That's why the Little Mermaid movie looks so bad, they still use the old projections.

I'm excited and interested to see what movies they will have with the ride. I've read that they are going to have random movies of different cities, much like they did with Star Tours. This way people will want to ride it more than once each trip.

It will be more like soarin around the world. It will debut in Shanghai first as an exclusive but should come to Epcot in 2017 or maybe a year or two after. They will not have different versions like star tours however.

 

[manning]

it's being driven by technology. Movies are done digitally now. I saw a piece on TV about it. A small town theater had to scrape up the money for a digital projector because they could no longer get movies on film.

 

[Dfan79]

It will be more like soarin around the world. It will debut in Shanghai first as an exclusive but should come to Epcot in 2017 or maybe a year or two after. They will not have different versions like star tours however.

That's cool, I didn't read about the Shanghai part. The world idea sounds great, but it themes seems to go better with World Showcase. I guess it's impossible to do a future theme though. Unless Disney has some kind of time traveling device. But if they did they wouldn't have passed on Harry Potter or made John Carter and Tomorrowland.

 

[skier_pete]

Hope so. Film is getting faded, colors are not grate anymore and there dirt in the projector, or damage film?

This is a midunderstanding amongst fans. The print is actually changed frequently (about 3-4 times a year) but degrades quicker in Florida than in California due to the humidity (they didn't design things right for the environment). The digital projectors - which are now in place in California - will eliminate this. My guess is once the new theater is up they will take each of the old ones down to replace the projector system. (It won't take long, but even taking the theater down for several days is something they don't really want to do.)

Soarin' Round the World - which was mentioned elsewhere in this thread - is set to debut in Shanghai, and therefore won't debut elsewhere before then. It's hard to predict exactly how they will use the 2nd film - probably Disney doesn't know yet. While many frequent visitors would love a new film, the old one would being satisfying to a lot of newcomers, so do they run one theater with the old film and two with the new? I doubt Disney even knows how they are going to do it.

 

[DDLand]

This is a midunderstanding amongst fans. The print is actually changed frequently (about 3-4 times a year) but degrades quicker in Florida than in California due to the humidity (they didn't design things right for the environment). The digital projectors - which are now in place in California - will eliminate this. My guess is once the new theater is up they will take each of the old ones down to replace the projector system. (It won't take long, but even taking the theater down for several days is something they don't really want to do.)

That's interesting, I didn't know that. What I will say is there has been a discernible drop off in quality over the last decade. You can't tell me the awful spots have been there the whole time. Is the physical projector breaking down? That would explain it.

 

[Josh Hendy]

Perhaps the master in California has been degraded slowly over time due to being pulled out and used to generate new prints. If that is so, they could presumably digitize and restore the master and then produce perfect prints whenever needed by printing from digital to film - until they get around to installing digital projectors.

Either way, any of the problems with Soarin' due to degradation of the film or the inability to take down such an important attraction are entirely caused by Disney themselves, by not making new films and not building/updating sufficient attractions in Epcot. A ridiculously penny-pinching and shoestring operation when you consider the gigantic revenues and profits of WDW. Even more ridiculous is the fiasco of re-showing Captain EO and then replacing it with movie trailers ... in a pavilion named "Imagination" no less.

 

[Napria]

While many frequent visitors would love a new film, the old one would being satisfying to a lot of newcomers, so do they run one theater with the old film and two with the new? I doubt Disney even knows how they are going to do it.

I don't know, but switching completely over to Soarin Around the World makes sense in Florida. The original Soarin that is playing is Disneyland California's thing, with all scenes being from the West Coast and the ending being at Disneyland. No big loss to WDW. And if anyone wants to see it for nostalgia or just because they've never seen the original, they can go to California, unlike truly retired attractions (oh how I regret never having seen the original "Journey" with the Dreamfinder!)