Disney: new mermaid ride
Disney’s California Adventure Reimagined: Fifth in a series
Everybody’s got to have a least-favorite actress. Mine is Whoopi Goldberg. I’ve been waiting six long years to wipe the memory from my mind of the first time I saw “Golden Dreams,” a Disneyfied docudrama of California history hosted by the star of “Theodore Rex,” “Fatal Beauty” and “Burglar.” Never heard of those movies? Trust me, you should count your blessings.
Which brings me to my point. God willing, sometime in early 2009, Whoopi should be permanently and irrevocably extracted from Disney’s California Adventure in favor of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid dark ride.
Dubbed a “musical underwater journey,” the family-friendly E-ticket will boast an eye-popping $100-million budget, according to MiceAge. Once construction is complete, all that will be left of the Golden Dreams theater will be a replica of San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts rotunda (and woefully bad memories my shrink has been unable to eradicate).
Artist sketches show Mermaid riders sitting in clamshell vehicles similar to the Haunted Mansion’s doombuggies, but Screamscape says it’s still possible an overhead track similar to Peter Pan’s Flight dark ride might be employed. Click here to take a point-of-view trip through an early concept of the Mermaid ride featured in the DVD extras of the 2006 special edition movie release (you have to scroll about halfway down the page to find it).
With a heavy emphasis on the movie’s soundtrack, Voyage of the Little Mermaid storyboards show the ride traveling through five scenes representing every major musical number:
* Part of Your World
* Poor Unfortunate Souls
* Under the Sea
* Kiss the Girl
* Part of Your World (Redux)
Outside the nautically themed queue building, the Mermaid Grotto will feature a sand castle play area, water garden and fountain for the little ones.
To follow the progress of all the planned improvements, check out MiceChat’s Project Tracker.
You can find all the blog entries in our California Adventure Reimagined series here.
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Images: Disney]
9 Comments on “Disney: new mermaid ride”
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November 14th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Boy we built this in the early 90’s at the Tujunga building in North Hollywood glad to see they are pulling it out of storage.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
I think the Voyage of The Little Mermaid ride will be a great ride for Disney’s California Adventure. I can’t wait till they till it opens in 2011!
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Mike C - I’d be interested in hearing how you built this.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Wow! This sounds really cool! I love the little mermaid and have always wanted to see a ride… I’m excited!
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
it is so cool to hear about a little mermaid ride
December 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Wow! I’ve been hearing rumors about this ride for a while now, glad to see it is tru! Hopefully they can bring this ride to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom!!
March 11th, 2009 at 7:39 am
shelby daniel
poor unfourtunate suols
watch you tube.
love ursual sea witch
May 21st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
mrj: I’m sure the Tujunga version was the mock-up of the attraction when it was slated for construction in Fantasyland (and in Paris) as part of the Disney Decade. Seeing how Eisner is gone and John Lasseter is a major player at WDI, the two probably are quite different. That said, with Baxter having a hand in both projects, I’m sure the best elements of the 90s version should be part of the new one.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I can’t wait for the little mermaid ride. Ariel has long been the red headed step child of the disney princesses. it is about time she gets some respect.