Photo TR: A Tale of Two Brand New Florida Attractions

Both Universal Studios and Disney's Hollywood Studios had passholder previews today for both their brand new attractions: The Simpsons Ride at Universal, and Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney.

I figured I would attend both of these events and post a bunch of pictures for you wonderful TPR members.

We will be back to those later, let's go ride.

While they ran out of buttons, they still had free Squishee coupons.

Let's go pick up some free stuff.

Woo! Hoo! I happen to be a passholder.

Which way to the new ride again?

Including a ride description.

Something new has been added.

Here is the brand new park map.

Mental Note #1: They do not open the uber secret entrance until later in the day.

Ok, that might be too mean. So I guess we shall check out the new ride.

Maybe we should go see The Blues Brothers instead.

Getting tired of them yet?

See what I mean?

There have placed a lot of new Simpsons signage all over the Universal complex.

It is the truth, The Simpsons are now open at Universal.

The Simpsons Ride!

This one was totally my favorite. This would be the ultimate Dave Thomas dark ride.

I thought the mock ride posters were quite cool.

Here are the ride rules.

Only to be kicked out of his ride.

Doc Brown showed up as well.

Even Mike and Jahan as ride operators has been "Simpsonized".

As well as classic theme park themed Simpsons classics like Duff Gardens.

They ran brand new animated segments.

At least there was about 30-40 minutes worth of Simpsons stuff to watch while you wait.

Welcome to Krustyland!

While the queue was full, the line was constantly moving.

I do not think they have express passes for this yet. I am not really sure.

Wow, only a 70 minute wait? Awesome, let's go ride. (Make sure you ride this at park opening!)

Krusty must be hungry.....and is a cannibal.

To enter the building you have to walk through Krusty's mouth.

Well...I guess its still in preview mode. But its on the map so its officially open now.

The Simpsons Ride is now open!

More of The Simpsons Ride

Let us go ride! Yeah, this is the back of the ride vehicle.

Itchy and Scratchy are used for the ride rules review.

Sideshow Bob is back.

Yet another preshow movie.

These rooms are now decked out with Krusty stuff.

Welcome to the 2nd preshow room.

Looks sort of like another classic attraction from another park....with Ghostbusters.

There is even nudity!

Here are a few little bits from the 1st preshow video.

I thought it was pretty neat.

We made it into the preshow ride area.

Almost there.

I totally spy a credit.

It was just about our turn.

So again, this massive line moved right along.

They had both movie domes working!!!

SPOILERS AHEAD: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

Ok onto my review of the the attraction itself. (Sorry that there are no pictures or a ride video as those are not allowed on this attraction). I should start off by saying that I am a HUGE Simpsons fan. I have all the DVDs so far released as well as several Simpsons fan books. The very first Simpsons episode I have ever seen was from season one. Episode #7G12: Krusty Gets Busted which was directed by Brad Bird who is best known for being the director of such Pixar hits as The Incredibles and Ratatouille as well as a personal favorite of mine, The Iron Giant. This episode is where Krusty The Clown's sidekick, Sideshow Bob, framed Krusty with an armed robbery charge to try to get back at him for years of abuse he has received for being Krusty's sidekick. Through Bart's and Lisa's actions, they were able to prove Krusty's innocence and found enough evidence to put Sideshow Bob away in jail. Over the years, and many Simpsons seasons, Sideshow Bob would find a way to escape from prison to try to seek his revenge against the Simpson family. The Simpsons Ride is based on yet another attempt at Sideshow Bob trying to get rid of The Simpsons family once and for all. This time, Sideshow Bob tries using ride attractions, such as roller coasters, dark rides, and yes even a drop tower (which actually would count as a credit!!), as his choice of deadly devices.

From the preshows, and the actual ride itself, it is evident that the Simpsons writers are huge theme park fans. There are plenty of references that poke fun at Disney/Busch Parks/Universal/Ride Operators/Insane Queue lines/Roller Coasters/Drop Towers etc. etc. The ride portion of the ride really is just the old Back To The Future ride with a brand new Simpsons overlay. I still hit my head on that damn vehicle roof when I sit on the back row.

I am sure there will be a debate on the style of animation they used for the ride itself. Instead of using the traditional 2-D animation style that is found on the TV and the movie, they decided to animate the ride using 3-D animation. I have to admit I found this to be a little disappointing as the ride looks more like the Simpsons video game on Xbox360 rather than a normal Simpsons TV show. The ride itself is a bit smoother than Back to The Future, which is a good thing, but it still has a few of the same problems. If you remember it was always better to be in one of the middle cars in the ride theatre. Whenever you are in one of the off-center cars, you are simply not as immersed in the ride action...especially if you are in the back row of the ride vehicle.

Instead of using film like they did with Back to the Future, they decided to project the ride movie using a digital projector. This will insure that the ride movie will be as bright in year 5 as it is in its first year. So no more film scratches and dust!

I liked the ride, but it certainly isn't one of Universal's signature attractions like Men In Black, The Mummy, or Spiderman. It would be something that I would ride on occasional visits, but its not something I would run to every time I was in the park.....Like I do for either Men In Black or The Mummy. That said, I am sure you guys will enjoy it whenever you come and visit Universal Orlando.

I am such a geek, I actually own all of those.

Onward to a general park update:

Yeah, its open! Let us head on over to IOA.

Does not look like it, but I am sure it will be busy really soon.

Anything behind the gate yet?

Let's head on out.

More open space.

Its really strange how open this area is now.

Anything special?

Could it be?

It will also do its business over there as well.

The new roller coaster station will be built right over there.

I won't be able to do this a year from now.

The train is back as well.  They placed these vehicles at the end of the street near the Blues Brothers stage.

Look what we found, plus this one actually runs.

Mmmmmmm......Squishee.  Though they do not have Vault Squishee.  Sorry Robb!

Looks like I am tall enough.

A short IOA update!

Harry Potter from Jurassic Park.

I have no idea when they will open the bypass bridge, but it looks almost finished now.

This crane will be super busy for a while.

Accoring to Universal, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will open Fall 2009.

The building is huge.

A lot has been done since my last visit. Any idea if this is going to be the new dark ride?

Wow, what is that over by Flying Unicorn.

Blizzrock returns to its lair.

The DD castle really looks more creepy with its new color of paint.

The current Mythos menu.

Ok, let us head on over to Disney's Hollywood Studio to check out the brand new Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

This is why we are here.

This area really looks different now. I guess it is now Pixar studios.

You must have an AP pass, and an ID to check out the ride during passholder preview.

There is something behind those bushes.

I still stumble and call this place MGM.

Its totally a brand new park credit!

You know there is a lot of people here when you park in Music.

For whatever reason, this reminds me of Downtown Disney at the Disneyland California Resort.

There were a lot of classic toys represented all around the ride bulding.

Yes they do have a single rider line. But for you awesome TPR readers, we waited in the long line.

Some of the construction walls were still up.

They are not operational yet.

Fast Pass.

I am sure one of you readers has more information.

I am not really sure how he works. He talks to people in the line, but a lot of what he said seemed kind of random.

Mr. Potato Head was quite cool. Notice he has his ear in his hand.

If you saw Toy Story, you would recognize this.

My mom threw away my tinker toys....

Hee hee....Its a barrel of monkeys.

I thought the worn crayons were a nice touch.

Or was that Candy Mountain...now I am confused.

Which way to Candy Land?

I loved View Master when I was a kid. Do they still make them?

Let the extensive queue line theming begin.

I did not see any ride restrictions for the ride anywhere.

Its now only a hour wait......yea!

Yes, it is a trash can.

Ok onto the ride station and the ride itself.

Each ride vehicle is named after a lesser-known character from the movies.

There is a cool seperate handicapped loading area.

Each vehicle holds 8 people.  You sit two by two/back to back.

Ride track with ride vehicle.

Ride track.

The line on the right is the single rider line.  You DO NOT see any of the normal queue in the single rider line.

Hey ladies, how is it going!

The ride is also in 3eeeeeeeee-Deeeeeeeee!

Bye Bye, Toy Story Mania.

I wonder if the next shooting dark ride will be based on Tin Toy.

Here are a group of riders check out scores. I got around 147,000 on my play.

Closer look at the cannons.

After pulling your pull string hundreds of time, you are simply exhausted.

What is the name of this ride again?

Having fun yet?

My camera does not take pictures in 3D.

Concentrate on your targets!

You end up pulling this knob/pull string hundreds of times while you ride.

Before you start playing, there is a short video of onride instructions.

Will and his camera.

We got the pig vehicle.  Maybe I should lay off those Drake's Cakes.

They made this one for Jahan.

Ok, onward to my ride review.

Yes, this is pretty much the Pirates of the Caribbean game that is found at Disneyquest, though you are in ride vehicles. I will say that the game is A LOT OF FUN, but there is really nothing too special about it that sets it apart from other top-tier Disney attractions. Though I am sure that was not the point of the ride. Its a really good solid D-ticket attraction that was really needed for this park. Each of the games were fun, I especially liked the ring-toss game as well as the one that shot small squirts of water at players whenever they hit the bottle targets.

The 3-D effect was good, but I honestly did not care for the whole pull-string cannon as your gun. I found that I had quite a few "mis-pulls" as you tried to hit as many targets as you could during each game session. Plus, I can't imagine how often they will have to fix or replace the strings after a day's worth of game playing. While it is a nifty novelty for the guns, I would rather have a button to push. As for the ride itself, I honestly was expecting more than a large room with a bunch of video screens. While the lighting was good, I think that it lacking in the personality that was on full display in the queue. Plus some of the pacing seemed a bit off during the ride. There were times where it looked like we were going to get ready to play on a screen (ride vehicle stops and everything) only to start moving again to pass right on by to another area of the buidling. There were quite a few times (I think 3) where the game seemed to get held up for whatever reason (Probably loading issues). Though they really planned ahead for this, because if you are ever stuck in front of a screen whenever the ride stops, you get an extra non-scoring session of a game.

I think Toy Story Mania is a fun attraction/game, though I was honestly expecting more. This really could have been a cheaper attraction at Epcot's Innoventions (minus ride vehicles), and still would have been a success. They really could have just replaced, "Where's The Fire" with the Toy Story games and still have pretty much the same attraction. Though they would have to remove "Fire's" more impressive attraction theming. Seriously, just like "Fire" you would just run to each room instead of riding in a ride vehicle.

I am sure it will be a hit among families and those who are looking to take a break from riding Tower and Coaster for a while.

I thought it would be fun (or maybe the rum is flowing too freely at the Johnson household), to make a short video for you TPR members.

May I present you: Toy Story Mania: The Home Version.

toystorymaniatprfinal.wmv

Toy Story Mania: The Home Version.

^ LMAO! Although I'm confused. This home version pretty much looks like the videos I've seen of the real version!

These two sentaces of your review say a lot:

Yes, this is pretty much the Pirates of the Caribbean game that is found at Disneyquest, though you are in ride vehicles.

They really could have just replaced, "Where's The Fire" with the Toy Story games and still have pretty much the same attraction.

This is pretty much what I expect. And hey, I do *like* Where's the Fire at Epcot, so that's a good thing. I was just originally expecting it to be a bit more.

Oh, well...it will be something to at least soak up a bit more time on our visits to the Studios that we can take KidTums on.

--Robb

Well said. Great vid too.

I believe Mr Potato Head is operator controlled. They have a bunch of preprogrammed phrases that they mix and match.

How long were you in the first preshow @ Simpsons? I discovered today that all booths actually have 3 or 4 different things they say.

That made me even more excited for the Simpsons Ride opening on the West Coast!

I believe Mr Potato Head is operator controlled. They have a bunch of preprogrammed phrases that they mix and match.

 

How long were you in the first preshow @ Simpsons? I discovered today that all booths actually have 3 or 4 different things they say.

I think around 10 minutes. I noticed, on the sides, there are a few seperate shows that goes on seperate from the main preshow. I know that Groundskeeper Willie was working a booth for a few minutes. I think Moe was as well earlier.

Several Simpsons characters work at these booths. I think Moe was here a few minutes ago.

Great TR. As someone who is a bigger fan of Back to the Future than The Simpsons, I'm still mourning the loss of that ride but this one looks like a worthy replacement. It's nice to also see the queue line of Midway. I'm warming to that ride more and more actually.

I should finish this up with a few random pictures from Walt Disney World:

And I leave you with an upsidedown photo of Mickey.

Yes, it is a train. Though unlike Disneyland, this one does not have a dark ride portion in Tomorrowland.

I could spend hours on this.

I had no idea they were doing the Pirate and Princess Party this month.

Must Buy!

Hey Scott, did you see these shirts yet?

The wait time sign was having some problems, the real wait was about 10 minutes.

Gulp!!!

Oh, I guess I can go ride "Good" Tower.

Even Jesus has the credit.

This would look really awesome in my living room.  How much for the tower model?

Toy Story Mania: The Home Version = Hilarious !

Oh and is that "You've Got A Friend In Me" in spanish...? Nice.

Nice reviews, and that video made me LMAO!

--Jay

Wait...you could spend hours on the People Mover or El Toro!?!?

Just kidding, I know it's both!

I should probably be warned before I start watchinig TPR videos elevated off the ground.

Hahaha, Seriously the first Wii Play game was just like it.

I want to go on Simpsons Ride. I actually for the first time see a queue I don't think I would get bored in easily.

Something else I just realized about this that kind of bums me out - the "mounted" gun.

Anyone who has been on Disney World's Buzz Lightyear versus every other version of the ride knows that it's biggest weakness is the mounted guns.

I wonder if TSM could have been any better with detachable guns? Or does it just simply not matter since there really isn't anything to "aim" at since you're looking at a TV screen that's directly in front of you?

--Robb

Lmao...

I love the home video version Eric!

It seems to me that queuing for these rides will be almost as fun as riding them.

Erik, that has to be one of the strangest videos I've ever seen, but it was so funny!

The mounted guns are actually fine for this attraction. Like you said, they work because you are facing a single screen during each game event.