The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure

[n747]

Original theme and unique preshow.

Since the omni is going to be travelling at a lower speed, the ride time will be nice and long. There is a lot of movement in the mansion, but it's spread out, really dark and it features some pretty dated animatronics. TLM is slated to be concentrated, slow, and quite colorful/bright. They can't afford to use dated animation technology since so much will be seen. I don't think the majority of us will be disappointed with this one!

I was originally concerned with the brevity of the ride's layout - but if we're going to be crawling through these scenes, there will be plenty of time to soak in the ride's atmosphere.

[Ben]

Well that's sort of my thought... It's hard to believe that comparing TLM to HM would be a "disappointment", unless it was filled soley with mannequins like MI. HM isn't an advanced system of animatronics. It falls behind POTC in my opinion.

[socalkdg]

So what do you think that TLM is going to lack in comparison to HM? Detailed scenes, number of animatronics, or overall presentation? Is it supposed to be more like static figures?

The queue and the pre-show are the two biggest differences, plus length of the ride.

If you have seen the queue for Nemo at the Seas at Epcot, that is amazing. I just don't see TLM having the room for a nicely themed queue. A nice touch might be to include some aquariums with various fish to look at, as well as a section that mentions the mystery and myth of mermaids.

[Camino]

I like the aquarium idea, having all sorts of salt water fish, powder blue tang, longfin bannerfish, you know so kids will see them and think of other movies that deal with the ocean haha.

[Jspider]

Original theme and unique preshow.

Since the omni is going to be travelling at a lower speed, the ride time will be nice and long. There is a lot of movement in the mansion, but it's spread out, really dark and it features some pretty dated animatronics. TLM is slated to be concentrated, slow, and quite colorful/bright. They can't afford to use dated animation technology since so much will be seen. I don't think the majority of us will be disappointed with this one!

I was originally concerned with the brevity of the ride's layout - but if we're going to be crawling through these scenes, there will be plenty of time to soak in the ride's atmosphere.

Even with the lower speed I'm not sure that your going to be able to claim too significant a length on this attraction. I'm sure that even if it goes slower it isn't going to be running in crawl mode or anything .

You say mansion is spread out but you really are hitting effects and such at pretty rapid pace. I mean I think they COULD do better but the fact that they really haven't is worth noting.

My hope is seeing how well they have done the sets in the Epcot Nemo and knowing they've probably learned even more about simulated underwater environments since. Hopefully they combine it all with some skillfully designed animatronics and the whole thing comes together well.

I think its a bit soon to try to gage how good or bad the animatronics turn out to be but I do hope this ride is as best as it can be. Just remember Pirates/Mansion are a pretty high standard and we've gotten into a pretty bad pattern of raising up hope that rides will strike at this level only to be let down again and again

[mark]

Maybe a better comparison for look is Mermaid Lagoon's interior at Tokyo Disney Sea.

[igmo]

Even a modest pre-show goes a long way in making a dark ride feel much bigger - even the AA in the Buzz queue comes to mind as making that experience feel more "full." It's a shame Ariel's won't have a pre-show of any kind. That could take a "good" dark ride and elevate it to "great."

[Buzz&Pirataes88]

i think the need for a preshow isn't necessary because scuttle is the narrator and sets up the back story for us. There's no plot, to do list to complete, or "suddenly something went wrong" circumstances... it's just the music and the story.

[Jspider]

i think the need for a preshow isn't necessary because scuttle is the narrator and sets up the back story for us. There's no plot, to do list to complete, or "suddenly something went wrong" circumstances... it's just the music and the story.

Fair enough, but still preshow is nice. It'd be cool to have a detailed queue that slowly moves you from one local to another. I get why that couldn't happen but honestly DCA has a few too many outdoor switchbacks. This rides saving grace will be its capacity .

[Warting Wafer]

Is the Disney World version getting a big fancy queue?