Top 10 Attractions with a Story (Part 2)

Before I start, a few announcements:

- I HAVE A RADIO! Thats right, e veryday, at 3PM EST or 4PM EST (except weekends), you can hear to a daily block of Disney Music w/ me as the host. Yay. Go to http://disneysource.listen2myradio.com/

- I’ll be travelling tomorrow and won’t be back until next week, last week before school. So don’t expect any posts as frequent as the last months. But I WON’T STOP POSTING.

With no further delay. Let’s move.

Number 4: Spaceship Earth

You can’t beat Spaceship Earth in history terms. Maybe because the history existed even before the ride existed. Hell, we are the attraction’s story! We make the attraction’s history! You can beat a history where YOU is an important part of it. And thats why Spaceship Earth gets number 4. I can’t dream of Spaceship Earth not telling the history of mankind. Well, the ride is about mankind, right? So if the world ended… What would happen to Spaceship Ear- GAH! What a confusing history!

Number 3: Horizons

Do you enjoy Spaceship’s Earth new finale? Then you should enjoy its cousin that inspired the creation of all those “Create your Tomorrow” – Horizons. Instead of being the generic attraction about the future, it was actually about how each generation imagined the future. Sounds familiar? The new Spaceship Earth is all about how each generation created the next generation’s future. Kinda the same concept. And there’s more: you could choose your own end. Way to go Imagineers. How about you stop with the character/prop is missing story and start to take basis of all those stories that made guests come back and back to EPCOT Center? Speaking of stories that should be bringed back…

Number 2: Journey into Imagination and Cranium Command and Mickey’s Philharmagic

Wait just a jiggy there, Stratofarius! One attraction is about Imagination. The other is about the Brain. The other is about Disney Movies. What do they have in common relating to the story? Well, simple: because they all had touches by the Animation Studios. Journey into Imagination: Figment and Dreamfinder, the first characters created just for a theme park, cartoony-like, made with the help of the Animation Studios. The Cranium Command: the pre-show is animated. Mickey’s Philharmagic is basically the 3D version of Disney Classics. And not only that contributes on the visual character, it allows the story writers to set their fancies free and create totally new stories for the rides (except for Philharmagic, it has some Fantasia objects – the Hat). And that is why those three attractions get the number 2 spot. I almost didn’t include Philharmagic here because it is the prop is missing and we must find it story. All over again.

But hey, the next ride is actually ORIGINAL!

Number 1: Space Mountain 2009

How hard it is to put a story on a rollercoaster? Not hard. Big Thunder Mountain did it. But how hard it is to put a story on a rollercoaster that since its first days NEVER had a story? And thats why Space Mountain 2009 gets the trophy. With the recent updates, we actually received a story for the ride: The whole mountain is actually like the TTA – a station where you go on a ride to other galaxies (including one of Horizon’s Choose your Tomorrow destination). The post-show changed to have a story. The queue changed to have  a story. And you know how hard it is to update classic attractions: When Haunted Mansion was being updated in 2006, there was a lot of fear in the Disney community- It was one of Walt’s last creations after all. And that applies to Space Mountain too. And thats why it gets Number 1. Congrats, Imagineers.

Top 10 Attractions with a Story (Part 1)

Stories. Everyone has one. How your cousin jumped off the window AND survived or even how you like to dance the cha cha cha everytime you play some random Playstation 3 game, stories are always fun to hear and to tell. And Disney did something new. Kicking the “its just an attraction” argument out of the way, every attraction tells a story. Well, some. Welcome to the newest edition of Top 10 Disney! I wonder how much it will take until we have a Top 10 Top 10 of Stratoblog. Really. So here it is, my chaps, the Top 10 Attractions that have a Story!

Number 10: The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion has  a great sto- what? Are you telling me you didn’t knew it had a story? Well, since the newest updates, it had. Don’t you wonder why there’s a new bride at the attic? Well, my duty is to inform so, here it goes. Since 2007, the Haunted Mansion has a storyline, and it envolves Constance, the bride on the attic, and the fact that she kills her husbands. DoomBuggies.com tell us that:

While much of Constance’s story is left to the imagination, there are some hints in the newly-packed attic that give guests insight into the character. A series of wedding portraits are displayed among the various wedding gifts and ceremonial trappings scattered throughout the attic – and as guests pass each photo, the heads of Constance’s former grooms disappear from, and then reappear in each portrait. In one portrait, Constance holds a rose while posing next to her groom named “George,” echoing one of the stretching portraits at the beginning of the ride that picures a widow holding a rose as she stands over the grave of her dearly departed husband George, whose headstone has been hacked at with a hatchet.

This new bride – by turns comical and menacing – offers pithy comments to guests as they pass through the attic, such as “in sickness, and in wealth,” or “’til death do us part,” as she raises and lowers a gleaming hatchet that appears out of thin air, then disappears again.

Of course, that is only part of the story behind the Haunted Mansion. Master George, Madame Leota, everything you see on the ride is part of the story. Take the Backstage Magic tour if you want to know more, or watch the movie! Thinking about it, just take the tour, please.

Number 9: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Another one from the “I didn’t knew this had a story” series, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has a pretty weird story. Not the fact that it’s weird, but because there are 2 stories! That’s right, 2 storylines. The first one is this: when you say the mountain’s name, it floods or something like that- well, a disaster occurs, but the other one is that the train you are riding in is actually haunted: that’s why there is no driver. While you may think that the second version has more proofs that its true, the first one is explaining why is the town flooded. But if you want to tell the story to someone, tell them the second version: its the most known one and it will probably make a lot of sense. Also, you don’t want your friend screaming: “BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN! BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN!” the entire ride, do you?

Number 8: The Original Living Seas

Oh snap! I guess you didn’t knew this had a story, did ya! Well, almost every single pavillion had a story. But the Original Living Seas had a story and a layout that made you understand that story. The queue had props from movies about water and yada yada but the pre-show placed you in the history, introducing you to Seabase Alpha and why is it there, and why is it used. According to the pre-show its a research facility, and you are invited to join. To do that, you’ll have to go underwater- by the Hydrolators, then take a Sea Cab to Seabase Alpha and then visit all the exhibits. One more trip back to the surface by Hydrolators and its over. If your skipping it, you’ll never really understand the history, so thats why Disney made the original layout force you to understand the history. But before the Seas became Seas with Nemo, they destroyed one of the pre-show theaters so you could go directly to the Hydrolators. Then the Seacabs were removed: you just walked to Seabase Alpha. The history layout was broken. And down with the history went the Living Seas.

Number 7: Over 15 attractions

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Three Caballeros and the Gran Fiesta Tour, but lets talk about the history, right? It’s concert time, and Donald goes missing, so the other Caballeros go find him. Sounds familiar? How about the story from all the Nemo attractions? Well, its this: Nemo is missing and you go with the other characters around the seas to find him. Still doesn’t sounds familiar? How about the Monsters Inc attraction at DCA? Boo has gone missing in Monstropolis and guests join Mike and Sully so they can find her. Notice a pattern? And that isn’t for the newest attractions only: Splash Mountain! Br’er Rabbit goes missing so Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox go find him so they can make him their dinner. MuppetVision! Bean Bunny goes missing and Sweetums and the other Muppets try to find him. Dinosaur! PhilharMagic! Alien Encounter! Stitch’s Great Escape! So many attractions use the same story. But luckily this is ending, with the new Toy Story Midway Mania the combo was broken, since it isn’t the same story. Some of these attractions are excellent, some are not, but the story is just repeated. Over. And over. And over.

Number 6: Honey I Shrunk the Audience

With Honey I Shrunk the Audience leaving Disneyland (and maybe the other parks), I’ve developed a strange feeling of nostalgia when hearing or talking about the attraction. Maybe it’s because I’m looking beyond the bad things and looking at the good things on the attraction, especially the story. I mean, its such a good story that it got an entire refurbishment based  on it. What kind of attraction ever did that before? Huh? Hu- What? Dumbo? Get out of here, you silly reader- Dumbo doesn’t have a story.

Right?

Number 5: Dumbo

Actually…

Number 5: All Fantasyland Rides

I’m doing number 5 based on them because they are based on amazing stories and, most of the times, they re-tell them to us. Take Alice in Wonderland, for example: amazing animation, amazing ride! Dumbo! Mr. Toad! Peter Pan! Snow White! Pinocchio! Mickey and Pals! Other Disney movies! The possibilities are endless! And thats why they take Number 5.

To be continued!