Disney Haunted Mansion Update Rumors - Beyond Tiki

T Tangaroa Tiki Socialite Joined: Apr 25, 2002 Posts: 1566	T Tangaroa Posted posted on Thu, Mar 2, 2006 7:25 AM On 2006-03-01 19:13, PockyTiki wrote: duuuuude. Disney always puts a legend or story behind their rides. I was just looking on some of the major WDW websites and they specifically tell you the stories behind some of the rides. Yes - in some they do (Indy and Big Thunder are two that come to mind) - but in my opinion, this doesn't work. Mainly because of people's (lack of) attention span. Ask the average Disney park tourist what the "story" is after riding, and most can't tell you what that would be... Even still - Indy sets up a story of sorts (There is a temple in India dedicated to the God Mara, who will grant you several wishes supposedly - Indiana Jones has been excavating it, and now has gone missing. Now you are supposed to go find him. So you get in a jeep (!) and start driving through the temple)... But once inside the ride, there is no story. No plot points or story arcs. Just a bunch of things that happen - several vignettes. Then you get off the ride. Big Thunder has a back story about a gold-filled mountain that has some kind of curse behind it. But how many guests pick up on that? It's not explained in the queue - you just walk through this little mining town, get on a train that takes you into a tunnel & suddenly goes out of control. The rest of the ride are fast glimpses of Davis-esque gags while the roller coaster runs its course. No story - just a ride with scenes. But more specifically - Pirates & Mansion were both designed NOT to have a cohesive storyline - just for that reason. Marc Davis (who did a huge amount of the design for these two attractions) told me he talked with Walt Disney about this quite a bit. They both were of the opinion that they shouldn't push a "story", because rides in a theme park aren't the same as a movie going experience (i.e. - your head is pointed straight at the screen, and usually you are there for the whole presentation). Marc didn't want to do this, as he felt that in a ride you don't have control as to where people look at any given time. Therefore - it's easy for a guest to miss out on a key plot point (Indy again comes to mind - who really gets all that back story?), and therefore miss out. It's akin to watching a movie, and turning around to look at the people behind you at some point, then looking at the ceiling, then back to the film. You will have missed something. Dark rides are like that - you can't help but look all around at everything. You aren't locked down or forced into looking in one direction (although the Omnimover in Inner Space & Mansion was an attempt at that). So if you are riding Pirates, and you miss the gag of the drunken Pirate singing with the pigs because you were looking at the other side of the show - does it wreck the ride? No. You have much more to see still... Trust me - Ken Anderson, Rolly Crump & Yale Gracey (among others) all really tried to give the Mansion a storyline. Many concepts - from a murderous sea-captain (look at the Mansion weather vane some time) to a jilted bride, to a "Blood Family were all presented to Walt. Work began on Mansion in the late 50s - it didn't open until 1970! There are many reasons for this - but Marc Davis (and this was his opinion) felt that it took so long because Walt didn't buy into telling all these convoluted stories - he just wanted it to be fun! This is a weird nit-picky thing I (obviously) feel strongly about! We tried to re-tell the story of Sindbad on the 'Sindbad's Seven Voyages' dark ride at Tokyo DisneySea. While I love what we did, I'm not sure the story (and all of SIndbad's adventures) comes across. http://www.christophermerritt.com/Sindbad.html I think the confusion here is Disney's amazing detail they put into their attractions that others don't. People walk away from Pirates or Mansion and say, "Wow! What a great ride! I really liked the story." But what they mean, is the amazing detail & the well executed scenes have impressed them. It makes me nuts (and once again, perhaps I need to get out more) when I hear an Imagineer talk about the wonderful story of the Castle, or the amazing story of Autopia (or whatever project they are on). They don't mean story - they mean experience, environment - whatever. [ Edited by: Tangaroa 2006-03-02 07:37 ]

On 2006-03-01 19:13, PockyTiki wrote:
duuuuude. Disney always puts a legend or story behind their rides. I was just looking on some of the major WDW websites and they specifically tell you the stories behind some of the rides.

Yes - in some they do (Indy and Big Thunder are two that come to mind) - but in my opinion, this doesn't work. Mainly because of people's (lack of) attention span. Ask the average Disney park tourist what the "story" is after riding, and most can't tell you what that would be... Even still - Indy sets up a story of sorts (There is a temple in India dedicated to the God Mara, who will grant you several wishes supposedly - Indiana Jones has been excavating it, and now has gone missing. Now you are supposed to go find him. So you get in a jeep (!) and start driving through the temple)... But once inside the ride, there is no story. No plot points or story arcs. Just a bunch of things that happen - several vignettes. Then you get off the ride.

Big Thunder has a back story about a gold-filled mountain that has some kind of curse behind it. But how many guests pick up on that? It's not explained in the queue - you just walk through this little mining town, get on a train that takes you into a tunnel & suddenly goes out of control. The rest of the ride are fast glimpses of Davis-esque gags while the roller coaster runs its course. No story - just a ride with scenes.

But more specifically - Pirates & Mansion were both designed NOT to have a cohesive storyline - just for that reason. Marc Davis (who did a huge amount of the design for these two attractions) told me he talked with Walt Disney about this quite a bit. They both were of the opinion that they shouldn't push a "story", because rides in a theme park aren't the same as a movie going experience (i.e. - your head is pointed straight at the screen, and usually you are there for the whole presentation). Marc didn't want to do this, as he felt that in a ride you don't have control as to where people look at any given time. Therefore - it's easy for a guest to miss out on a key plot point (Indy again comes to mind - who really gets all that back story?), and therefore miss out. It's akin to watching a movie, and turning around to look at the people behind you at some point, then looking at the ceiling, then back to the film. You will have missed something. Dark rides are like that - you can't help but look all around at everything. You aren't locked down or forced into looking in one direction (although the Omnimover in Inner Space & Mansion was an attempt at that). So if you are riding Pirates, and you miss the gag of the drunken Pirate singing with the pigs because you were looking at the other side of the show - does it wreck the ride? No. You have much more to see still...

Trust me - Ken Anderson, Rolly Crump & Yale Gracey (among others) all really tried to give the Mansion a storyline. Many concepts - from a murderous sea-captain (look at the Mansion weather vane some time) to a jilted bride, to a "Blood Family were all presented to Walt. Work began on Mansion in the late 50s - it didn't open until 1970! There are many reasons for this - but Marc Davis (and this was his opinion) felt that it took so long because Walt didn't buy into telling all these convoluted stories - he just wanted it to be fun!

This is a weird nit-picky thing I (obviously) feel strongly about! We tried to re-tell the story of Sindbad on the 'Sindbad's Seven Voyages' dark ride at Tokyo DisneySea. While I love what we did, I'm not sure the story (and all of SIndbad's adventures) comes across. http://www.christophermerritt.com/Sindbad.html

I think the confusion here is Disney's amazing detail they put into their attractions that others don't. People walk away from Pirates or Mansion and say, "Wow! What a great ride! I really liked the story." But what they mean, is the amazing detail & the well executed scenes have impressed them.

It makes me nuts (and once again, perhaps I need to get out more) when I hear an Imagineer talk about the wonderful story of the Castle, or the amazing story of Autopia (or whatever project they are on). They don't mean story - they mean experience, environment - whatever.

[ Edited by: Tangaroa 2006-03-02 07:37 ]

Post #218377 by Tangaroa on Thu, Mar 2, 2006 7:25 AM