rob@rar.org.uk
Skiing is best, Mickey comes next
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2000
- Messages
- 1,877
A couple of people who are planning DLP visits have asked me to repost my thoughts on the recent preview of the walt Disney Studios, Paris (my initial post was lost when the old boards went down). So, with apologies for repitition, this is what I thought:
First thoughts:
Well, I dont really know what to think! Im still in two minds whether I like it or not. It has lots of potential, but is not quite there yet.
There are some very good attractions: I thought the Moteurs... Actionstunt show was incredible, Catastrophe Canyon was a little better than I expected and the Reign of Fire scene from London was a nice addition to the Tram Tour compared to its cousin in Florida. I was captivated by Cinemagique - a funny, touching tribute to cinema through the decades, with a touch of live action thrown in for good measure. Think Forrest Gump, but interacting with movie history, not real history. First class! The RocknRoller Coaster was good (but it will suffer from comparisons with its far more accomplished big brother next door) and the Armageddon special effects show was exciting but all too brief.
On the other hand there were some aspects of the park I thought were dire. The Disney Animation Tour is a complete waste of space. Boring, unfunny, uninformative and the translation robs all but French-speakers of the live nature of the show. They also committed the cardinal sin of dubbing Walt Disney into French (big mistake, and one which I forecast they will change soon). Post show activities, potentially the most informative of the attraction if it is supposed to be based on how to do animation, were limited to French speakers only. I feared that the park would not be able to overcome the language difficulty, and I think my fears were justified. Throughout the whole of the resort, DLP resolves some of these challenges by having at least French and English spoken alternately, sometimes by different characters. So why on Earth did they dub Walt AND Roy Disney Jnr into French? Surely it would have been better to keep one speaking French and the other speaking English? I would have though it appropriate to keep Walt in his native tongue, not least because this is the only park in the Disney empire which carries the great mans name! Having the post-show animation lessons in French only potentially robs 60% or your audience from participating - not good!! This attraction needs some considerable revamping if it is to be a success. Despite the undoubted quality of Catastrophe Canyon and the Reign of Fire scene, the Tram Tour is quite dull. It badly need more props in the boneyard, and I would love to see each boneyard display with a sign saying what film it comes from. Most of the boneyard items are pretty much non-descript, and I guess most people will not recognise any of it - I certainly didnt. I hope this part will improve in time as they add stuff to it. More generally I was disappointed by the lack of movie memorabilia around the park - I would have thought that this would have added to the interest, but maybe it is too expensive for DLP to buy.
I think it is brave (or more likely just a financial reality) of DLP to place an essentially unthemed theme park right next door to the most richly designed Magic Kingdom. The Walt Disney Studios has very little to entertain guests as the move from one attraction to another. Sure, it is a pleasant environment and will improve when the greenery settles in, but the park will live or die on the quality and quantity of the attractions alone. I could spend a whole day in the Disneyland Park without riding a single attraction and still have a rewarding time. This would not be the case at the WDS. So for me the question is does the Studios currently have enough high quality attractions to give it good word of mouth, a feelgood factor and repeatability. Sadly my answer to this is no, not yet. The Tower of Terror (which clearly will be the focal point of the park) will add to its offering considerably, but this is still a year or two away. Even when this is built there will be very little for families with young children to do - a major problem is you want all guests to extend their stay at the Disneyland Resort.
The shops and restaurants seem OK, and I like the Stage 1 area. It's a sort of indoor Main Street, and gives a nice start to a day at the park. Streetmosphere and characters were frequently around, which is good. Particular merit goes to the Sully character from Monsters Inc - a simply amazing costume. I didnt do the Disney Television Tour or the Aladdin attraction (which looks severely out of place) and the Animagique attraction apparently is not yet ready (I have high hopes for this).
Overall what strikes you is how small the park is. When you exit Stage 1 you can see all of the park in a single glance. This compares very poorly with the park next door - I wonder how EuroDisney can justify the equal pricing structure, and whether this will lead to complaints of poor value-for-money? To head off potential complaints, one-day tickets for the Walt Disney Studios will also give guests access to the Disneyland park next door for the final three hours before closing. I think this is very clever - it will give guests enough time to see all of the Studios park as well as sample the best bits of Disneyland, all for the price of a one-day ticket.
Rob
First thoughts:
Well, I dont really know what to think! Im still in two minds whether I like it or not. It has lots of potential, but is not quite there yet.
There are some very good attractions: I thought the Moteurs... Actionstunt show was incredible, Catastrophe Canyon was a little better than I expected and the Reign of Fire scene from London was a nice addition to the Tram Tour compared to its cousin in Florida. I was captivated by Cinemagique - a funny, touching tribute to cinema through the decades, with a touch of live action thrown in for good measure. Think Forrest Gump, but interacting with movie history, not real history. First class! The RocknRoller Coaster was good (but it will suffer from comparisons with its far more accomplished big brother next door) and the Armageddon special effects show was exciting but all too brief.
On the other hand there were some aspects of the park I thought were dire. The Disney Animation Tour is a complete waste of space. Boring, unfunny, uninformative and the translation robs all but French-speakers of the live nature of the show. They also committed the cardinal sin of dubbing Walt Disney into French (big mistake, and one which I forecast they will change soon). Post show activities, potentially the most informative of the attraction if it is supposed to be based on how to do animation, were limited to French speakers only. I feared that the park would not be able to overcome the language difficulty, and I think my fears were justified. Throughout the whole of the resort, DLP resolves some of these challenges by having at least French and English spoken alternately, sometimes by different characters. So why on Earth did they dub Walt AND Roy Disney Jnr into French? Surely it would have been better to keep one speaking French and the other speaking English? I would have though it appropriate to keep Walt in his native tongue, not least because this is the only park in the Disney empire which carries the great mans name! Having the post-show animation lessons in French only potentially robs 60% or your audience from participating - not good!! This attraction needs some considerable revamping if it is to be a success. Despite the undoubted quality of Catastrophe Canyon and the Reign of Fire scene, the Tram Tour is quite dull. It badly need more props in the boneyard, and I would love to see each boneyard display with a sign saying what film it comes from. Most of the boneyard items are pretty much non-descript, and I guess most people will not recognise any of it - I certainly didnt. I hope this part will improve in time as they add stuff to it. More generally I was disappointed by the lack of movie memorabilia around the park - I would have thought that this would have added to the interest, but maybe it is too expensive for DLP to buy.
I think it is brave (or more likely just a financial reality) of DLP to place an essentially unthemed theme park right next door to the most richly designed Magic Kingdom. The Walt Disney Studios has very little to entertain guests as the move from one attraction to another. Sure, it is a pleasant environment and will improve when the greenery settles in, but the park will live or die on the quality and quantity of the attractions alone. I could spend a whole day in the Disneyland Park without riding a single attraction and still have a rewarding time. This would not be the case at the WDS. So for me the question is does the Studios currently have enough high quality attractions to give it good word of mouth, a feelgood factor and repeatability. Sadly my answer to this is no, not yet. The Tower of Terror (which clearly will be the focal point of the park) will add to its offering considerably, but this is still a year or two away. Even when this is built there will be very little for families with young children to do - a major problem is you want all guests to extend their stay at the Disneyland Resort.
The shops and restaurants seem OK, and I like the Stage 1 area. It's a sort of indoor Main Street, and gives a nice start to a day at the park. Streetmosphere and characters were frequently around, which is good. Particular merit goes to the Sully character from Monsters Inc - a simply amazing costume. I didnt do the Disney Television Tour or the Aladdin attraction (which looks severely out of place) and the Animagique attraction apparently is not yet ready (I have high hopes for this).
Overall what strikes you is how small the park is. When you exit Stage 1 you can see all of the park in a single glance. This compares very poorly with the park next door - I wonder how EuroDisney can justify the equal pricing structure, and whether this will lead to complaints of poor value-for-money? To head off potential complaints, one-day tickets for the Walt Disney Studios will also give guests access to the Disneyland park next door for the final three hours before closing. I think this is very clever - it will give guests enough time to see all of the Studios park as well as sample the best bits of Disneyland, all for the price of a one-day ticket.
Rob
