Thursday, July 14, 2005

Disney is the Man!


Haunted Mansion
Originally uploaded by erickpineda527.
El and I both grew up going to Walt Disney World many times with our families. Even though I've been there countless times we ended up buying annual passes to the theme parks - we never seem to grow tired of the park.

Last night on a whim we went to the Magic Kingdom. It's A Small World had been closed for quite some time for "refreshing" and we both hadn't been there in years.

We arrived at the park via monorail/tram around 9pm and had an agenda as to what we wanted to see. With only two hours and most of the crowd enthralled by the Electric Parade we were able to zip in and out of most rides no problem. We managed to hop onto the Small World, Pirates of the Carribbean, and Buzz Lightyear attractions among others.

One of my favorite rides has always been the Haunted Mansion and it never fails to entertain. It's pretty amazing how the Imagineers came up with some of the ride's more interesting features. Even the "ghosts" you would think as holograms or some other hi tech gadgetry is nothing more than basic, old school optical illusions. Uncle Walt is the man. Basic. Simple. Entertaining. A true craftsman's art.

Of course, for every great classic there's one ride that just sucks ass - namely Stitch's Out of Space (or whatever the heck it's called) attraction. Now normally I wouldn't put anything negative on my blogger but for the love of Christ was it bad. What the heck was the movie about anyways? What now unemployed designer/engineer brainstormed this P.O.S.?

Oh it looks great going thru the queue with the nifty animatronics and high falutin' gadgetry. You get into a round room lined with seats with safety bars over them. You think you're going on some crazy looking Gravitron ride and behold! You merely sit in the dark with speakers screaming in your ears and getting sprayed with different smells and water. Wow. Really interactive. And then you leave...

And you wonder why Disney's stock along with their animation/park reputation continually declines. Best to stick with their tried and true formulas.

1 comment:

XOsunnydaysXO said...

that haunted mansion looks fun! i always liked those kinds of rides too...i look forward to the haunted houses at theme parks and fairs the most.