As you know, Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland dark ride reopened last friday with a brand new and enhanced version including new projection effects, and more. You probably saw a video of the new ride already but i was waiting to have a really really good video before doing an article - you know how i am - and my good friend Dan from ThemeParkHD came back today with the best HD video, as usual.
And not only he has the best video but he also did a side-by-side comparison video which include in the same frame the new and the old version which is perfect to see clearly the differences. Talking about what's new i think that WDI not only did a great job, but a perfect job. They've succeeded to introduce new effects and to keep what was the best in the previous version. If they do as well as they did here on the Peter Pan and Mr Toad Wild Ride update next year it surely will be great.
You also probably have heard the rumor saying that the Queen of Heart was supposed to have in this new version the rear face projection effect, just like the seven dwarfs in WDW Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, and as we can see it's finally not the case. Apparently it's not that the Imagineers didn't tried but from what i've been told they hated the result and probably decided to cancel the effect which was indeed a wise decision. That said, i'm wondering if the rear face projection effect is not used at least in one scene, on the faces of the four cards that you can see below, the ones making an arch. Have a close look when you'll watch the video and let me know what you think.
On with the show now, and the first video is the best one that you can see of the new version. As usual, choose the 1080P definition and watch it full screen.
This next video is the side-by-side comparison video with the new and the old version together, perfect to see clearly the new effects.
And if you want to watch the best video of the old version "only" without the side-by-side, here it is.
Again, all my thanks to Dan from ThemeParkHD for his perfect filming. You can see plenty of his others videos, all great on his Youtube channel HERE.
Videos: copyright ThemeParkHD
To me, it doesn't look too much like the cards have the new projection technology. It looks just like a simple case of blacklight, you could tell that the blacklight has also been used to enhance the queen right next to them, so it would make sense. Do you think that imagineers still are gonna make a new queen animatronic? Or just leave her in her current state? I wonder if they still plan on using the animatronics for the other dark rides.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, i don't know. I've been told they intended to use the rear face projection technology on a lot of characters of Peter Pan's Flight ( Peter, Wendy, Hook ) but if the result is not at the height of their expectations, it might very well have been cancelled...
ReplyDeleteThere's something to be said about the original design of the Seven Dwarfs lending itself to rear projection in a way that Peter Pan and the others may not... they have cartoony, grotesque, large faces, and it makes those projections work quite well in the Mine Coaster (which I've been on). I'm not sure that the more realistic Peter and the children will work; perhaps Hook and Smee? Frankly, I don't think it's needed on that ride. But I really, truly like what I see in these videos; Alice was mostly fun because it was on two levels, and this takes it to another
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this update! The Fantasyland dark rides are the quintessential Disney attractions, and they needed an update, as the last one was done 30 years ago, in 1983. Now it looks fresh and current.
ReplyDeleteI heard they are doing almost all the AAs project faced but ofcourse characters like peter pan or alice will look like the witch or snow white in SDMT ofcourse characterized to themselves..
ReplyDeleteI heard they are doing almost all the AAs project faced but ofcourse characters like peter pan or alice will look like the witch or snow white in SDMT ofcourse characterized to themselves..
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