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[experiment627]

Interactive dark ride using projection screens, laser guns and 3D glasses to present Toy Story-themed midway games.

Due to open at both Disney's California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios parks, 2008.

For DCA, part of the DCA $1bn masterplan.

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For a few weeks now, rumours have been circulating around the net about a new dark ride attraction that might be built at the Disney-MGM Studios as well as California Adventure's Paradise Pier area. At the moment, this ride is referred to as "Midway Mania"... (for whatever that's worth).

Anyway, I stumbled across one sentence in yesterday's MiceAge Update: "In its [placemaking] place, most of that money is being poured into the new Pixar-themed Midway Mania ride, the first Disney dark ride to require its riders to wear 3-D glasses."

Now... of course there are already attractions that use 3-D glasses, most prominently "SpiderMan" at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando.

But back in my mind (a very dusty, cob-webbed place, by the way  :wink: ),  this line by Al Lutz triggered something: I remembered a very old rumour...
Way back in 1999 / 2000 there were claims that Disney was looking into shutting down the "Great Movie Ride" at its WDW Studio park, replacing it with a brand new E-ticket attraction. Now rumour was that this replacement project would heavily feature the Disney villains - and a brand new technology, using projectors - and CAVE technology.

Now CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) is already being used as a tool for creating three dimensional virtual environments, for example in urban planning. Even the Disney imagineers used it to create areas of DCA and Hong Kong Disneyland.
So far, this technology is mainly used on computer screens - but the created images could be used to being projected on larger screens. And with 3-D glasses these environments could look quite real... In short: this technology is a bit reminiscent of the holo deck as seen on Star Trek.

Doing some research I stumbled over this Orlando Sentinel article from February 15, 2000:

Disney's Big Secret May Rock Your World
by Mike Thomas The Orlando Sentinel February 15, 2000

Beam me up, Mickey. When it comes to Rumor World, Disney is the undisputed champ. Whole Web sites are devoted to what the Mouse is planning next at its theme parks. I would not lower myself to engaging in such speculation. Until now! Because Disney is meddling in something that can best be described as a Star Trek holodeck.

Imagine being trapped in the Mummy's tomb. Or being hacked to death by the Seven Dwarfs. Well, I've been checking into this and . . . it's true! Sort of.
The technology is called Cave- Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. It will be the next big- possibly huge- breakthrough in theme-park entertainment. It will make current simulator rides look like Model T's.

To understand Cave, consider this: With current 3-D technology, you look at the three-dimensional forest. But with Cave, you can't see the forest for the trees. That's because you are surrounded by the forest. The dirt road you see goes on forever, both in front of you and behind you.

How is it done? The Cave itself is a boxed theater with screens for walls.
Three-dimensional images are projected on the screens, surrounding you with the scene they create. "We have created earthquakes with the floor moving, and ceiling tiles and light fixtures falling on your head," says Dennis Jones, a professor at Virginia Tech, which is building the world's largest Cave, a 20-by-20-foot theater.

In a cave, Jones says, you can stand on the edge of the Grand Can-yon and look down at the river thousands of feet below. Or you can tour the Kremlin . or take a space walk. Or, perhaps, you'll be able to mingle with some of the world's greatest movie villains at Disney in a few years. Here's what I know:
People familiar with such things say Disney has one, maybe two, Caves, and has spent millions on them.

Here is what I also know: Disney is planning a big new ride to replace the Great Movie Ride at MGM/Disney Studios. One concept being considered is a ride that would bring guests in contact with great movie villains. Here is what I think I know: This ride would incorporate Cave technology. Guests would interact with three-dimensional villains.

Imagine being in Dr. Frankenstein's castle and having the monster sneak up behind you? Lance Hart runs the Screamscape Web site, which is devoted to news about the theme-park industry. He keeps in touch with Disney Imagineers, and said he has heard the time frame for such a ride has been moved up to the next three or four years.

There still are technical challenges. For one, the projectors are a bit fuzzy and can even flicker. This could take a couple years to fix, said one expert. Or if Disney pumps big bucks into it, it could take less than a year. But even existing projectors used in the handful of caves in operation at universities and military- training centers are good enough that people sometimes put their hands through screens while trying to grab imaginary objects.

Another hurdle would be developing software. As with all new projects, Disney isn't talking about this one. Says one technician who has worked with the company, "They are so competitive. There is more secrecy in working with the theme parks than the military." There is one drawback to all this. You'll still have to wear those goofy glasses.

(Source: //http://www.wdwmagic.com/disney_archive1.htm)

So, I have to wonder, has Disney finally found a way to bring this amazingly new technology to its parks? Could "Midway Madness" be the "next big thing" in the world of theme park entertainment? (Or am I just reading way too much into this?)

I remember seeing one of these Travel Channel / Disney documentaries (which I sadly don't have anymore) in which an Imagineer hinted at the possibility of combining theme park and virtual environments... So could this be it?

I am really intrigued by this project (if you weren't able to tell 'till now  :wink: )


(For more information on CAVE: //http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=125725)

[Dlrpfan]

wow interesting.I hope these plans do go ahead! MGM needs a new attraction to make the rides a bit more exiting

[Maarten]

Wow, this sounds really cool. Just one thing bothers me; the Midway Mania theme. Why does it have to be Pixar again? Dear Walt Disney Imagineering, I hope you guys will get allowed by the merchandise-freaks at the top of the company to use your imagination once again. Pixar doesn't belong in Paradise Pier. At MGM it would fit rather well I have to admit, depending on its location ofcourse.  

In a recent Jim Hill atricle, Jim mentioned some plans for new attractions/replacements and closures at the Disney-MGM Studios. Attractions like Sounds Dangerous, Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Who Wants to be A Millionaire? are going to be closed in a couple of years. According to Hill, Walt Disney World management wants a Nightmare Before Christmas darkride at the Studios...  

In my opinion Midway Mania should replace Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Animation Courtyard really seems the place where it belongs.

[Mansion Staff]

yay.
new rides...replace the not so interesting ones(sounds dangerous.ect)
with lovely new ones!
...just not my beautiful movie ride!

[Anthony]

New information from MiceAge:

The days of cheap fixes and lowered expectations for DCA have apparently come to a very quick end once Lasseter took the DCA plans home with him earlier this summer. Before the remake of Paradise Pier and the removal of Route 66 and Golden Dreams can take place though, the new Midway Mania attraction will open in June, 2008. Most of the operational and artistic elements of the expensive new ride have been hammered out, and it really is going to rewrite the book on what a Disney dark ride is. With an hourly capacity of just over 1,500 riders per hour it will keep the lines relatively short compared to the more traditional dark rides that only handle 600 or 700 riders per hour.

The basic plotline to this attraction is that the Toy Story gang has created a series of midway games for you to play, and they are all themed to their individual character. Riders will sit in rather traditional looking dark ride vehicles that have a cannon mounted on a rotating turret for each seat. The vehicles will travel through the show building and come to a stop in each show scene, where a different midway game is laid out for riders to play. The plan is to have a half dozen different midway games offered up to each car, with a bonus round at the end to determine the winner in each car.

After an animatronic Mr. Potato Head acting as a midway barker lures you in to play, you move from one game to the next during the 5 minute long ride. For instance, the vehicles would come upon Little Bo Peeps Balloon Pop where you play the famous water gun race found at most county fairs. That would be followed up by the Green Army Men Shooting Range with moving targets coming at you, or Barbie's Beach Ball Bash throwing balls into rings. A Frontierland-style shooting gallery and a Rex the Dinosaur Red Hot Dino Dash amongst lava flows and erupting volcanoes are also planned.

What has the designers most excited, and where the huge costs come into play, is the interactive elements and extremely sophisticated technology needed to pull all of this off. The riders would be wearing 3-D glasses, and the animatronics and some of the special effects would be controlled much like the Roz figure on the Monsters Inc. ride where specific lines and reactions are directed at specific riders. It all promises to be very impressive and WDI plans on offering up several "How Did They Do That?!" moments throughout the ride. Older folks may find it a bit too frantic, but much like Buzz Lightyear the kids will instantly take to it and likely outscore their parents on the first ride. With all of the randomization and individuality offered up by each show scene, it's also an attraction that is going to have immense repeatability. And just as nice is that the construction of this large attraction and its boardwalk frontage will erase much of the bland, generic strip-mall look that Paradise Pier was saddled with by the original designers.

Source: http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al091206b.htm

It sounds like a Disney attraction version of Nintendo's Mario Party games!  In other words: awesome.

[Anthony]

LaughingPlace.com has a great report from Friday's press event, with lots of new stuff shown from "Toy Story Mania!".  The videos show more too.

:arrow: http://www.laughingplace.com/Lotion-View-365.asp

Sorry to always put a Paris perspective on things, but this has to join Philharmagic as the most likely expansion options for Toon Studio, don't you think?  It's probably a fairly small ride too, since there's no sets, just 3D screens.

Some of the concepts are the same style as Crush's Coaster/Cars too, you can tell from the style of the people:



I guess Mr. Potato head will be where Buzz is in Astro Blasters?

Edit: By the way, if they need a theme to slot this into WDS - go with a TV Gameshow!!!

[penfold12]

Mr Potatoe Head sounds fantastic, but the ride otself im not fully sold on, yet. Kinda got high hopes for it, but I keep thinking of those video games that have are made up of loads of little games and how lame they are.

[Anthony]

Mr Potatoe Head sounds fantastic, but the ride otself im not fully sold on, yet. Kinda got high hopes for it, but I keep thinking of those video games that have are made up of loads of little games and how lame they are.

Yeah, it's like a 3D ride-through version of Mario Party.

I think it sounds brilliant, especially the interactive Potato Head.  The only thing that worries me slightly is how it might make Buzz suddenly seem quite boring, since as Tom says in that video, "you're just shooting the same targets over and over.."

[Kinou]

MAn, yout sentence Baloo jsut made me wonder how cool would it be to have a ride like this with Nintendo characters!! If only Disney had the rights...

[The Butlin Boy]

WOW, this ride looks amazing! I really hope that this comes to Paris

[Owain]

Construction at DCA;









And MGM;













//http://www.disneygeek.com/updates/

[Dlrpfan]

while i was at DCA it looked very well blank just a couple of holes dugso great too see some progress!

[Owain]

What i have been thinking is wont the ride shake and be very loud as california screamin' goes over it ?

[Dlrpfan]

yea and also it looks rather small i thoght that it was going in the old who wants to be a millionare play it building as thats still vacant

[Riebi]

bigger and colored:

 :arrow: http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/data/50 ... oor-02.jpg

That´s a blueprint of the ride. The first is from convrsboy from the forum of wdwmagic.com, the second from mickhyperion also from this forum.

For the second blueprint:

Standby Queue - Bright Green Line
FastPass Queue - Bright Pink Line
Merged Queue - Aqua
Loading - Yellow
Handicapped Loading - Light Purple
Handicapped Loading Track - Yellow Dotted Line
Unloading - Plum
Ride Beginning - Red
Ride Option A - Blue
Ride Option B - Green
Ride Conclusion - Orange
Ride Track - Yellow Line
Maintenance Track - White Dotted Line
Maintenance Building (Right Side) - Beige
Bathrooms (Bottom) - Beige