Disneyland was revolutionary when it opened, effectively creating the theme park. It created many new types of rides but what they have been masters at is the dark ride. When Disneyland opened it featured three dark rides in Fantasyland. These three rides really showcase the three main types of dark rides still being created today for IP based attractions. For the rest of the article, we will refer to them as the book report ride, the original story, and the adventure.
The Book Report Ride
Peter Pan's Flight gives us the first of the book report ride. That means it is basically a retelling of the original story. It condenses the entire film into a ride that's less than ten minutes. Other more modern versions of this concept include Journey of the Little Mermaid and Splash Mountian. The problem with this type of ride is that it forces you to rush through the story, meaning some parts get missed or glossed over. The best example of this is how the entire final battle of The Little Mermaid is condensed into a cutout in the background of a scene. This does a disservice to scenes people may expect to see in a ride. This type of ride does, however, allow you to step directly into your favorite scenes, directly living in the locations from your favorite movies.
The Original Story
This is the most creative of the rides and it has given us some interesting attractions. The Disneyland opening day equivalent for this would be Mr. Toads Wild Ride which takes the basic premise of the Toad short film and has you take your own joy ride with Mr. Toad. This ride gave us the Disney interpretation of going into hell. In recent years this has become the most common dark ride type to be built as it is the easiest to convert into immersive experiences, with entire lands (Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Pandora), using this concept. It allows you to live your own story in the style of the one you know and love, while also creating new concepts to fill in any gaps in the source material. It is risky, however. Sometimes it gives you classic characters that become a part of the lore of a franchise, like Captain Rex from the original Star Tours. Other times you get the Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management, an original combination of two Disney animated classics that completely misses the magic of their source material.
As I already said, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge uses this general concept for the entire land and both attractions and the jury is still out on whether this land will be a success. This land was a big risk and we shall see if it was worth it.
The Adventure
Snow White's Scary Adventure is different than the other two rides as it makes you a part of the action, with you really taking on the role of Snow White. This concept has since expanded to you going on the journey along with the character. This version never really caught on with most rides that actively involve the rider falling within the original story category as there were problems with riders not understanding the full story of Snow White's Scary Adventures due to the absence of Snow White. The closest we have to a modern equivalent of this is the Buzz Lightyear dark rides which take you into the Buzz Lightyear TV show from the Toy Story franchise where Buzz needs your help to defeat Zurg. The Tron roller coaster could also be considered a part of this concept as it features you needing to ride a light cycle.
Nice post! Originally all of the Fantasyland dark rides were of the "Adventure" type, allowing guests to experience for themselves the hero or heroine's journey and face the dangers he/she faced instead of just watching recreations of the scenes from each movie. For example, Peter Pan's Flight's original ending had riders entering Skull Rock where they would encounter Hook and Smee tying Tiger Lily to a rock. Hook would then order Smee to fire at the intruders and the boats would narrowly miss the shot before escaping back outside.
ReplyDelete