Volume 3, No. 8. April 25, 2003
New Arrivals
It’s
a dark ride!
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, announces the arrival of The Many
Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, April 10, 2003. Measurements: 836 feet (255
meters) of track, 11 scenes, 25 animatronic figures, 22 vehicles carrying 6
to 10 passengers on a 3 1/2-minute ride.
The critics were not kind. Disneyland’s newest dark ride elicited little
more than yawns from press pundits and yaps from Disney-baters who complained
that the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a step backward from
the park’s rollicking, technology-rich, thrill-giving Indiana Jones
Adventure.
Pooh IS a step back, which is precisely why it should earn the park kudos,
and in fact does earn smiles and wide-eyed wonder among the younger set. This
ride is in a class of the dark ride genre that Disney pretty much has to itself.
“It’s a classic Disney dark ride long overdue for Disneyland,”
said John Stone, senior show designer for Walt Disney Imagineering who was art
director for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
The ride in fact has been 12 years in the sketch books, but only when the Country
Bear Theater was removed did the park make space for a new version of Pooh
which already was operating in Tokyo and Orlando. The Disney World Pooh
served as the Disneyland version’s genesis, altered significantly to fit
in an existing building. Disneyland’s Pooh uses the original building’s
three big rooms for its various scenes; guests move from scene to scene with
only acoustic walls providing the transition. Guests ride “hunny beehives”
through Hundred-Acre Wood, Floody Place, Pooh’s cottage and the psychedelic
Heffalumps and Woozles dream sequence.
Disneyland Resort officials had long planned a media event for the opening of
Pooh and "Playhouse Disney—Live on Stage!," but in the
wake of the war in Iraq they decided to cancel the ceremonies. Media that had
already made plans could still come for the official openings, and it turned
into a typical Disney-catered day for dozens of reporters and broadcasters.
Part of the press privilege was use of the Fast Pass line at Pooh. Good
thing; on this overcast, chilly Friday, the park was packed, and Pooh
was popular. The critics that count most seemed pleased.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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