Toy Story Mania ride to take it up a notch

[crazy4wdw]

Toy Story Mania ride to take it up a notch

Disney officials promise the new attraction will deliver a 'personalized,' interactive experience.

Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 27, 2007

Toy Story Mania may be Walt Disney World's most interactive ride yet when it opens next year at Disney-MGM Studios, continuing a trend for "personalized" attractions and other experiences.

The new attraction, announced Friday at Walt Disney World, will merge the ride-through shooting theme of the Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin ride at Magic Kingdom with newer technologies to let riders and characters communicate with one another, and to let the ride computer tailor each rider's game. Another Toy Story Mania is being built at Disney's California Adventure theme park.

"We're taking the Toy Story characters you know and love and combining them with incredibly crazy video gaming for what we call 'Toy Story Mania,' " said Tom Fitzgerald, executive vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company that designs Disney attractions. "Toy Story Mania is the next-generation interactive ride-through experience."

Visitors will ride through a series of scenes appearing as carnival midway games such as the ring toss and dart throw. The visitors will get to play at each booth, running up score tallies. Technology will allow them, with virtual images and 3-D glasses, to see themselves "shooting" rings, pies, eggs and other objects at targets.

Other technology will allow Toy Story robotic characters to talk with riders, maybe even giving them tips. And a computer will track how well each visitor is doing and adjust the game's skill level along the way, Fitzgerald said.

Disney World President Meg Crofton said the new ride continues Disney's growing trend toward developing attractions and other experiences that are more personal and customized.

Crofton cited similar robotic communication technology that will be used in the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club opening this spring in Magic Kingdom. She also cited the millions of giveaways and guest-employee interactions that Disney calls "magic moments" under the current "Year of a Million Dreams" promotional campaign. Such "immersive experiences," she said, are the direction for Disney World.

"There is no exit strategy for 'magic moments,' " she said.

Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.

 

[MJMcBride]

Imust say I'm much more excited by this then the Laugh Floor, but enough with Pixar already. Besides, this you know a Cars makeover of the Speedway is coming

 

[rodkenrich]

The Toy Story Mania attraction should make Universal's Men in Black attraction look like a simple carnival ride.

 

[EUROPACL]

The Toy Story Mania attraction should make Universal's Men in Black attraction look like a simple carnival ride.

Great let us know when they do that to Spiderman.

 

[leahlovesdisney]

Besides, this you know a Cars makeover of the Speedway is coming

Really? Just last night I was saying they should do that!

but enough with Pixar already

I concur with that. And don't forget the rumour about getting rid of COP for an Incredibles rollercoaster.

 

[MJMcBride]

Really? Just last night I was saying they should do that!

well, I would love to take credit for that but it just seems so obvious. The speedway needs some help, they keep doing Pixar things, etc etc etc

 

[Another Voice]

"We're taking the Toy Story characters you know and love and combining them with incredibly crazy video gaming for what we call 'Toy Story Mania,' "

I remember a place called “Disney”. They built the places that every child wanted to see, that every adult yearned to be real. The worlds that could only be found in stories, the worlds I pictured in my head as my father read me a book.

But there they were, in true life as they could be. Everything my childhood wished I could do, but my adulthood told me I could not.

I could sail along with a pirate battle; explore a haunted house for ghosts, rocket through outer space, or rest in the shade of the castle that guarded it all.

But those days seem to over - the time when adventures came from the heart. Now Disney gives me tie-ins, trinkets and margins. Joy is no longer measured by how high my child’s imagine can soar, but by sales per square foot they extract.

So now I can sit firing my faux-cannon at faux-carny games in faux-3D CGI while a cartoon that sounds like Tom Hanks gives me tips – and reminds me the Nintendo Wii version of the ride is available at the gift shops. We play ski ball with Stinky Pete and Jesse runs a mean game of “Guess Your Weight”. Oh the joy we’ll have – so the ads tell me.

But that’s not the world of toys that I imagined. And not one I much care to see. There are too many dreams, too many wishes to waste time on things so small.

So I’ll be off to fight dragons, to seek Cave of Wonders, to sail the canals of Old Mars. Thanks Disney for your offer, I know you’ve tried your best.

But I think this time I’ll save my travel money and I’ll keep real imagination alive,

I’ll read a book to my son instead.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

I remember a place called “Disney”. They built the places that every child wanted to see, that every adult yearned to be real. The worlds that could only be found in stories, the worlds I pictured in my head as my father read me a book.

But there they were, in true life as they could be. Everything my childhood wished I could do, but my adulthood told me I could not.

I could sail along with a pirate battle; explore a haunted house for ghosts, rocket through outer space, or rest in the shade of the castle that guarded it all.

But those days seem to over - the time when adventures came from the heart. Now Disney gives me tie-ins, trinkets and margins. Joy is no longer measured by how high my child’s imagine can soar, but by sales per square foot they extract.

So now I can sit firing my faux-cannon at faux-carny games in faux-3D CGI while a cartoon that sounds like Tom Hanks gives me tips – and reminds me the Nintendo Wii version of the ride is available at the gift shops. We play ski ball with Stinky Pete and Jesse runs a mean game of “Guess Your Weight”. Oh the joy we’ll have – so the ads tell me.

But that’s not the world of toys that I imagined. And not one I much care to see. There are too many dreams, too many wishes to waste time on things so small.

So I’ll be off to fight dragons, to seek Cave of Wonders, to sail the canals of Old Mars. Thanks Disney for your offer, I know you’ve tried your best.

But I think this time I’ll save my travel money and I’ll keep real imagination alive,

I’ll read a book to my son instead.

Well said!!

 

[patsal]

I remember a place called “Disney”. They built the places that every child wanted to see, that every adult yearned to be real. The worlds that could only be found in stories, the worlds I pictured in my head as my father read me a book.

But there they were, in true life as they could be. Everything my childhood wished I could do, but my adulthood told me I could not.

I could sail along with a pirate battle; explore a haunted house for ghosts, rocket through outer space, or rest in the shade of the castle that guarded it all.

But those days seem to over - the time when adventures came from the heart. Now Disney gives me tie-ins, trinkets and margins. Joy is no longer measured by how high my child’s imagine can soar, but by sales per square foot they extract.

So now I can sit firing my faux-cannon at faux-carny games in faux-3D CGI while a cartoon that sounds like Tom Hanks gives me tips – and reminds me the Nintendo Wii version of the ride is available at the gift shops. We play ski ball with Stinky Pete and Jesse runs a mean game of “Guess Your Weight”. Oh the joy we’ll have – so the ads tell me.

But that’s not the world of toys that I imagined. And not one I much care to see. There are too many dreams, too many wishes to waste time on things so small.

So I’ll be off to fight dragons, to seek Cave of Wonders, to sail the canals of Old Mars. Thanks Disney for your offer, I know you’ve tried your best.

But I think this time I’ll save my travel money and I’ll keep real imagination alive,

I’ll read a book to my son instead.

So very sadly, true.

 

[leahlovesdisney]

well, I would love to take credit for that but it just seems so obvious. The speedway needs some help, they keep doing Pixar things, etc etc etc

I see what you mean. The speedway has been the same for a long time.

 

[MJMcBride]

I see what you mean. The speedway has been the same for a long time.

Plus, its kind of boring as it is now.

 

[Carnotaurus]

the carnival idea seems a little goofy, but i don't mind the pixar tie-ins. the pixar movies are as imaginative and entertaining as any of the disney classics -- maybe more so because they themselves are original ideas.

after all, "peter pan" and "cinderella" and "snow white" were retreads of books and fairy tales.

 

[ChrisFL]

the carnival idea seems a little goofy, but i don't mind the pixar tie-ins. the pixar movies are as imaginative and entertaining as any of the disney classics -- maybe more so because they themselves are original ideas.

after all, "peter pan" and "cinderella" and "snow white" were retreads of books and fairy tales.

Agreed, I mean what other recent Disney movies could they do rides on? Brother Bear? Chicken Little? Im still of the belief that Pixar rides aren't a bad thing since that's the only successful animation that Disney has been a part of (mostly) the past several years

 

[Another Voice]

It’s a simple matter of creative incest.

Disney is spending all it’s time and effort on re-selling us the same products over and over and over and over again.

We had the Toy Story movies, enough Toy Story merchandise to clog a Toy R Us, we’ve had television series and animated shorts and DVDs and re-releases of DVD and special edition DVDs and special re-releases of the special edition DVDs. We had stage shows and parades and attractions and attractions and attractions and stores upon stores.

All to resell us the same property.

And now their “new” ride is nothing but a ride system with the thinnest of excuses to resell us the Toy Story characters all over again. No one who actually saw the movie came out of it thinking “if only I could play ring toss with the Piggy Bank!”.

It’s time Disney created something NEW. The last direct movie-tie ride in the original ear was ‘Alice in Wonderland’ right after Disneyland opened. After that, they focused on making NEW stories, NEW adventures and NEW ideas.

Think about the rides that bring people to WDW, the really popular ones? How many are based on a Disney movie? – ‘Pirates’, ‘Haunted Mansion’, ‘Space Mountain’, ‘Big Thunder Mountain’? Only ‘Splash Mountain’ has a direct tie-in to a movie when it opened, and that movie hasn’t been seen but the public in twenty-five years.

Real growth comes from creating new characters and new stories. The parks are the perfect place to create those. But that’s hard and it’s challenging.

So Disney takes the easy and cheap way out once again.

 

[Lilolvr]

Not every ride can be on E:E scale. That just opened last year.

 

[EUROPACL]

Not every ride can be on E:E scale. That just opened last year.

Thank God...I'd rather they be on HM scale.

 

[MJMcBride]

Not every ride can be on E:E scale. That just opened last year.

Very true. But the speedway has never appealed to me personally. It always seemed "less themed" then many of the other attractions.

 

[raidermatt]

Not every ride can be on E:E scale. That just opened last year.

Nobody complained about the scale of the ride.