DL's Winnie the Pooh attraction

[X-S Tech]

I got to ride test Winnie the Pooh today!!! Ok it's not that great. It's a fine dark ride definately on the level of the best DL fantasyland attractions but no, it doesn't even compare to the Florida version. What I was really excited about was the music. Does anyone know anything about whether or not they used music from another park? I have the TDL Pooh Disc but can't tell. I only got to ride it a handful of times. For the record it sounds like the queue music may also serve as area music for that area of Critter Country. I'm not sure if it will replace the old loop completely or if perhaps that will be utilized somewhere else (inside the Splash queue perhaps.
The safety instructions are cute though, in the English version Tigger tells us that, "Being safe is what Tiggers like best!". Hmmm. I seem to remember a little incident with climbing a tree and not being able to get down.....

 

[xfkirsten]

Oooh! Yay! I'm not sure about the music, but how is the ride different than Florida??

(sorry if this is a bit off-topic!)

-Kirsten

 

[X-S Tech]

As I remember Florida's you start out in the Blustery day (rabbit's garden, Pooh on balloon,etc...) then you go through owls house which has fallen over, then you bounce with Tigger, then into Poohs house. Pooh falls asleep, and you have the heffalumps and Woozles dream. The Watering can heffalumps become the rain and we enter the Floody Place, Pooh rescues piglet and the party at the end. I may have left out one or two minor things.
The Disneyland version starts out Blustery but with less action most noticeably without the rabbit's garden segment. Then to the Floody place. this has some nice effects and is probably my favorite scene, though I don't remember the Florida version of this so I don't know what's new. It does lack the rain falling on the book pages and washing the letters away though (my favorite in Florida). Owl's house is relegated to a flat on the side of the track, you don't get to go through it like in Florida. Then we see tigger bounce out of 2 hiding places but that's all, we do not bounce with him. You enter pooh's house and see him Fall asleep (same as in Florida though it doesn't get dark on the sleeping Pooh so the Dream Pooh isn't as visible. I like the Florida version better) You follow a 3d projection of pooh through a dark patch into the heffalumps and woozles section, which is probably comparable to Florida. Then you see Pooh in a mountain of Hunny (a fairly stiff figure with some simple but mechanical motion) You hear Piglet trying to wake pooh up as the dream ends and then you pass pooh's bed and see his friends throwing him a party in his kitchen (The party in Florida takes place outside and is much more reminiscent of the scene in the cartoon) you then exit the building past flats painted to look like presents from each of his friends.
Like I said it's a fine little attraction which I don't think I'll ever get tired of, and kids are gonna love it. But no there's nothing original about it. The big improvement over Florida is the queue which really feels like the 100 acre wood, with the pines and stream, though of course that's what Critter Country felt like before. The vehicle is beautiful though awfully big, there's almost more charm to the Florida hunnypots, and while the motion base is on it, they just roll through every scene (like the jolly trolley). i thought the intent was for them to float through the water scene, bounce through the Tigger scene (at least for 5 sec) etc.....

 

[xfkirsten]

Hmmm... sounds like something I'll have to check out when I get back to CA...

It won't be the same without boucing with Tigger though... (sniffle)

-Kirsten

 

[Dznygrl]

NO BOUNCING TIGGER SCENE??? That is CRUD! It's the best part in the Florida version. Why on earth did they leave it out? ???

 

[X-S Tech]

As much as I think that they could have done more with the attraction, the one thing that they did not have is a lot of space, at least within the confines of the existing building. All told the former CBJ building holds far more than I ever thought it would but I guess certain scenes just wouldn't fit. And like I said some of the scenes that they do have seem much shorter. Of course the obvious solution would have just been to expand the building.

Another quick note, about the birthday party at the end. It really makes a significant difference in the atmosphere. The majority of the ride depicts indoor scenes. The first 2 scenes are outdoors, but the rainy scene is dark. The attraction lacks the bright forest feel. To me the scenes which are the most fantastic are the coolest (ie: a bright sunny day within a small room, or a rainstorm inside.). With the exception of the locale ambiguous heffalumps and woozles section the rest of the attraction takes place within pooh's house. This is significantly less interesting if for no other reason than that standard building techniques were employed to construct Pooh's house. In other words walls are straight, corners are 90 degress, etc... There may be a flat cutout of a support beam or imposing root but very little effort was made to make you feel like you were inside what could be a very cozy tree house.

 

[s8ntmark]

Oo! No BOUNCING?!! What UP?!! As if is isnt bad enough that we have to lose the bears to a Pooh ride but now its an INFERIOR Pooh ride!! If anything it should be Superior, they have 2 other very different rides to pick and choose from....OHHH! Its Paul Presslers last F-You to the passholders...I hate HIM!! I want to KEEEEL him!!! This is the bomb he set to go off after he left, Rrrrrrrrr!!!

Actually, I cant be too angry, I AM listening to my Kitchen Kabaret disc and it makes me pretty happy...

BUT STILL! Theres no excuse for an inferior attraction. But somthing does confuse me...if the vehicles DO have the motion control hydrolics...why arent they being used?

Come Dawson, The GAMES afoot!!

 

[X-S Tech]

Two more things.

One neat device used is the entrance. You load your beehive outside and then enter what used to be the entrance tunnel for CBJ, now painted more like an old red barn. You travel a few feet and two barn doors swing outward as if you are exiting the barn into the forest, and then you proceed to pass layers of blowing leaves. The effect is a nice transition from the appropriate but ultimately too realistic world of Critter Country to the similar but more childlike pooh realm.

And didn't we hear somewhere that the attraction was going to be longer than the one in Florida? I heard it would be a bit better (which can I guess be a matter of opinion) I definately remember being told longer also.

 

[s8ntmark]

Hey XS~

Does our Pooh have the Books, I know you mentioned that they dont have it in the Rain section of the ride, but does that mean the whole ride is bookless? That was such a cool effect...And Hunny Hunt has an even cooler effect with you actually going INTO the books...

 

[DC-88 Spaceliner]

I'm still confussed as to just what is the theme of Criiter Country now?? ..........just some random depository for anything they think will sell ??. Incidently English do not paint barns red.........this was an American tradition as red ship hull paint was very readily available in colonial times.....sorry the John Hench in me..........Very glad to see they kept the ol' jamboree bridge.........



DC-88 SPACELINER

 

[LilSimba]

I went on the Pooh ride at WDW last October, so I'm a little up to speed here. I know they're coming close to opening, but there's often a rough edge here and there on a new ride. I'm certain there's both a bouncing car and floating car effect that just haven't gotten working yet. You're right s8ntmark, it woudln't be right, and I'm certain that this being an early test ride many things might not be up to speed yet. Read some of Bob Gurr's articles on Laughingplace.com about this sort of thing - they're a treat.

I would think it would be a shame if the rained-out words don't make an appearance, that was a cool effect. X-S, does it look for certain the effect won't exist, or does it just appear unimplemented?

 

[X-S Tech]

No the attraction is now bookless, which actually is more appropriate in Critter Country (what would a giant book be doing in the forest?)

I think this makes perfect sense with Critter Country. I thought about the barn thing too, but we all know pooh has been so homogenized anyway. What would actually be cool now would be to further this forest theme. I always thought some sort of forest walk through would have made a cool attraction. Something where you could just wander and maybe kind of creepy and the light came through the trees. Very impractical I suppose (I can just imagine all the lost kids) but a nice idea. Who knows if they're even keeping the name Critter Country. Couldn't you see them doing what they did to Bountiful Valley at DCA and naming the whole area 100 Acre Wood after this one attraction and ignoring Splash completely. Now we have a Bug's Land which for some reason has Tractors in it....

 

[X-S Tech]

The ride definately has everything that was intended, except perhaps for a Pooh figure at the end party scene. I was told that there was a Pooh figure intended to be seen waking up from the dream (as it is we just see his empty bed with the imprint of his head still on the pillow). Perhaps this will be added. I would place money on the fact that the book effect will not be added. Assuming that there is no major effort to improve the attraction that is. Read the article on www.Miceage.com for a great article on Jay Rasulo and his opinion of the attraction. I would hope that the motion base is due for improvement. The first time through ours didn't do anything but we could see the car ahead of us doing it. We told the cast member afterwards that our motion base didn't work and they pushed a button on the vehicle itself that was supposed to reset the mechanism, but it didn't. Our 3rd ride through it worked but had just the one pattern of motion. I would suspect that this is all it's capable of. It begins rolling as you enter the first scene and goes the whole way through. There isn't a whole lot of motion they could do, just the floating effect and the bouncing would be appropriate, and the bouncing would be for an extremely short time. I guess they could kinda shimmy or something with the music in the Heffalumps and Woozles scene.

 

[X-S Tech]

Bruce Gordon, the Imagineer in charge of the DL Pooh ride gives us this info on the music:

"The music was arranged by Buddy Baker and recorded for the Florida ride. Buddy mostly used his original lead sheets for the recordings. We didn't record any new music, though some of the dialog is unique to Disneyland."

There you have it! Thanks Bruce!

 

[Gurgitoy2]

You know, all this talk about Pooh gets me to thinking. Why was a Pooh track never included on the WDW OA's? He's been there since 1999, so there have been ample opportunites to cash in on that. You would think a Pooh CD with all the attractiom music even (Like Tokyo disneyland's Pooh's Hunny Hunt CD) would sell like hotcakes in the Pooh store at the exit to the ride!

Of all the Fantasyland attractions, I would think this would be a no-brainer for the merchandise department.

 

[X-S Tech]

Perhaps it will happen now. I mentioned to Bruce that of course we would all love to see a CD of the attraction , though I know these things are out of his hands, and he agreed but was very glib. I am trying desparately not to read anything into that. But yes, as Disneyland knows you can slap Pooh on anything and it will sell. Here's hoping!

 

[X-S Tech]

A couple of more thoughts on the Pooh attraction. I almost wish I hadn't badmouthed Pooh so bad. It's been over a week since then and I want to ride it again. It's a good little attraction on it's own, it just doesn't survive comparison. I have a question for any of the Imagineers or ex as the case may be that frequent our board:

Why have we never seen a Snow scene in the Pooh attractions? I think that would be totally unique and very much in line with the Pooh films. The charm to me of the Pooh films was the environment of the forest (the houses in the trees, the woods itelf, open yet secluded). A scene in the snow would be so cool.

That's my two cents.

 

[Gurgitoy2]

Yeah, you could go through the seasons with Pooh. The shorts, and later the movie, did show seasonal changes. You had the "Blustery Day" which was in the fall, and then "Tigger Too" has winter scenes, and the "Honey Tree" segment could have been spring or summer.

It would be cute to have those changes in the attractions too, but oh well, not like we will get them now...

 

[X-S Tech]

They should pull out the Heffalumps and Woozles scene and do something in the snow. Or just one of the scenes that we missed out on. I know this scene is so crucial to the "story" but it's the least interesting. Just a bunch of hypercolor animals jumping around or spinning.

 

[X-S Tech]

The narrator for the Winnie the Pooh attraction (Dl at least but probably WDW as well ) is veteran voice over and character actor, Pete Renoudet, best known as the voice of Henry the Bear in the Country Bear Jamboree.