Change Languages on the attractions of the park

glorfindel · November 20, 2012, 09:43:05 PM

Hi,
I have a technical question: in your opinion is it possible to change the languages on the attraction like Phantom manor, Tower Of Terror , Pirates Of The Caribbean, Pinocchio, etc?
I mean, it could be interesting to promote, during the low season, a "German week" with all the attractions and Disney dream translate in German, an "Italian Week" with the attractions in Italian, etc.
I think it could be useful to attract people from different Europe nation, and in particular German that now represents only the 2-3% of the visitors.
The question is: is that feasible? Do anyone have an opinion about the technical problems of this idea?
Because i think that, with a proper dubbing that respect the time and the synchronization, it could be quite simple to change the track on the computer that manage the attraction. Otherwise, if this could be so simple, the Disneyland marketing department would probably developed this idea during this 20 years of activity.

Any suggestion?

Bye

Festival Disney · November 20, 2012, 10:49:38 PM

My suggestion would be make every attraction English :thumbs:

Zee79 · November 21, 2012, 12:23:51 PM

Quote from: "Festival Disney"My suggestion would be make every attraction English :thumbs:

I agree with this to up to a point. Majority of nations can understand English to a certain degree so it would be feasible, however the option to have rides/performances in other languages would also have to still be given. i know people from different nations come in to the shows that are in English so there is evidence to support this but i think this is because their language isn't always an option.

It would be nice if rides, performance and characters spoke English- Mickey Mouse in particular but that is because it would suit us

DedicatedToDLP(Steve) · November 21, 2012, 12:35:52 PM

Although I speak English I quite like a lot being in French. It being in France and the biggest number of visitors coming from France means that will probably never change. I think you could have occasional different language performances but not a whole week, as that would alienate your core market for that whole week. If people in Germany aren't attracted by it being a Disney resort with some of the best entertainment and attractions in the world, I highly doubt adding some German will make much of a difference. It would also put off a lot of other countries too. You can bet that the vast majority of UK visitors would not set foot in the park during German week and probably none of the others either.

At the moment visitors know about or cope with the different languages but if you so bluntly advertise the fact during 'x' week it will only be in one language, you'll get all but that body of people visiting, and even then occupancy would probably be way down on the normal.

captain rocket · November 21, 2012, 01:03:17 PM

What a can of worms this could open!
I don't believe that offering shows etc in different languages would affect attendance at all, I am quite happy with the balance as it stands. The only change I would love is to bring back the voice of Vincent Price in Phantom Manor, I believe that this attraction is the poorer without him!

Josh · November 21, 2012, 01:35:44 PM

There's been rumours that park tickets will soon be replaced by wrist bands with RFID chips that stores your name, hotel, etc. One thing people have been suggesting is that it could store your language and personalise attractions for you where possible. It would be awesome if that actually happened.

DedicatedToDLP(Steve) · November 21, 2012, 01:46:11 PM

Sounds like an interesting concept, though I guess it would mean you'd have to wear Wi-Fi headphones if you wanted anything but the native language. Apart from the huge cost, I think it would spoil the atmosphere to only hear the sound in your own personal space and not with everyone else, not to mention it would look awful to see attractions full of people with headphones on.

DLRP Roundup! · November 21, 2012, 06:03:07 PM

Tower of Terror, and I believe Pirates both do run in English on occasion. ToT definitely.

In Florida they handle this occasionally with particular times that are in a different language, usually Spanish.

Zee79 · November 21, 2012, 08:39:03 PM

Quote from: "Trekkie101"Tower of Terror, and I believe Pirates both do run in English on occasion. ToT definitely.

In Florida they handle this occasionally with particular times that are in a different language, usually Spanish.

I have heard POTC in English once last year at christmas and it sounded funny at first with use to it being in French.
I wouldn't like walking around using headphones to hear my language, would be annoying.

Josh · November 22, 2012, 02:26:18 PM

Quote from: "PirateSteve"Sounds like an interesting concept, though I guess it would mean you'd have to wear Wi-Fi headphones if you wanted anything but the native language. Apart from the huge cost, I think it would spoil the atmosphere to only hear the sound in your own personal space and not with everyone else, not to mention it would look awful to see attractions full of people with headphones on.

In cases where you'd have to do something ridiculous like that, I agree. But if it's something like The Visionarium, it would have made selecting your own language a lot easier. xD But it would also be good for rides like ToT. Imagine you walk into the pre-show room and a computer detects that most people in there are English, so it automatically plays the English dialogue.

nathalie · November 22, 2012, 02:31:17 PM

But then other people will be bummed, because there are still people out there who don't know any English.

Same goes for Phantom Manor.
Been in there bunch of times, and have no clue what so ever what it's about, lol.
When being in the ride, it feels like a mix of The Corpse Bride and Haunted Mansion.
But it'll always be a big :?: for me, haha!

Or if a large group of Spanish / Italian people suddenly walks in.

CafeFantasia · November 22, 2012, 04:41:26 PM

Quote from: "Josh"There's been rumours that park tickets will soon be replaced by wrist bands with RFID chips that stores your name, hotel, etc. One thing people have been suggesting is that it could store your language and personalise attractions for you where possible. It would be awesome if that actually happened.

I actually "invented" that idea, almost 10 years ago now. It's online if you know where to look

I think it's perfect. The languages you can understand (in order of preference) would be stored on your Park Ticket. You'd perhaps have a Disney Parks account, with all your personal details stored on it. You'd fill it in once online, and then whenever you visited the parks, Disney would be able to invisibly customise the experience to you. You wouldn't even be aware of it. You'd just end up understanding more of what was spoken/said in various attractions.

I'll give you an example. For an attraction like Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney would know that your boat had 70% guests that understood English on it, and 30% that understood French. So, as your boat passed through the various show scenes, the dialogue spoken by the pirates would shift towards being mostly English, with some French. For the next boat passing by, the languages spoken could switch to German, or Dutch, or Spanish.

DedicatedToDLP(Steve) · November 22, 2012, 04:49:18 PM

It sounds good in theory, but something like POTC has big open areas with several boats in at the same time, and if they all had different language requirements it would be impossible to localise for each boat as each one would be in conflict with the other. Rides like Phantom Manor would be even worse as the Doom Buggies are so close to together and you couldn't take the popular average as the line of DGs are constantly moving.

I can only see this working for shows and not for rides.

CafeFantasia · November 22, 2012, 05:54:46 PM

But, Pirates of the Caribbean is already a collision of dialogue and languages overlapping each other, like a cocktail bar full of French and English people. So, I don't see how a customised audio solution would be a negative.

The way I imagine it is, the dialogue for your boat would travel WITH your boat. In the event of the vehicles not having on-board audio systems (i.e. Pirates of the Caribbean's boats) the relevant dialogue would just gradually fade in and out, as you travelled past the speakers.

DedicatedToDLP(Steve) · November 23, 2012, 10:36:51 AM

Alternating English and French is manageable as the whole room is one language and then another. But if each little section changes within an open room, to a different language, I think the concohpny of soundtracks would interfere with each other.

The problem I see with soundtracks being localised to a vehicle is that you don't get the proper atmosphere of the attraction, where the sound should be coming from specific parts of the room/area.

What attractions would people want to see in different languages? I guess Pirates of the Caribbean is an obvious one as we've been talking about it, but there isn't actually a great deal of audio. it's just a few soundbites as the story is told in what you see. I have to say that I've never experienced an attraction in Disneyland Paris and wished it was in English as I didn't understand it, the visuals are so strong that they tell the story without the need for detailed dialogue.