New details emerge about Disney’s Toy Story Mania dark ride

Visitors will be “shrunk” to the size of a toy as they climb inside a virtual reality video game in the $80-million Toy Story Mania dark ride debuting at Disney’s California Adventure in summer 2008, according to a pair of press reports.

A New York Times story takes readers behind the scenes of the new attraction with pictures of an animatronic Mr. Potato Head, who will greet visitors in the queue, and time-lapse video of the months-long construction process inside the ride building. In another photo, Disney Imagineers test-drive a plywood and 2-by-4 version of a taped-together ride vehicle.

The NYT story traces the evolution of the new ride from a fact-finding tour at the Los Angeles County Fair in September 2005 to concept sketches, foam models and computer blueprints to a final real-world test with 400 volunteers sworn to secrecy.

The in-depth report includes a detailed discussion of the $1-million animatronic Mr. Potato Head who will sing and interact one-on-one with visitors in line with the help of an unseen ride operator monitoring a dozen video screens.

Comedian Don Rickles, who voiced Mr. Potato Head in the movies, recorded 750 words and four original songs to bring the 5-foot, 2-inch animatronic character to life. Serving as a carnival barker, Mr. Potato Head removes and reinserts his ear while giving clues to spotting key targets and gaining high scores.

Over the weekend, the Orlando Sentinel’s Theme Park Rangers blog also got a preview of the new Toy Story ride, which will debut at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida around the same time as it does at the California attraction.

The back story of the ride involves the toys from the movies finding a midway game play set under Andy’s bed and deciding to set up their own carnival, according to the Theme Park Rangers story. The ride starts with a virtual cream pie target practice session using a spring-loaded cannon capable of firing 60 rounds per second.

The five midway games in order (with hosts in parentheses):
* Egg toss at farm animals (Hamm)
* Dart toss at balloons (Bo Peep and Wheezy)
* Baseball throw at plates (Green Army Men)
* Ring toss, considered the hardest game (Buzz Lightyear and Little Green Men)
* Saloon scene, considered the easiest game (Woody, Jessie, Prospector and Bullseye)

Players’ scores are shown at the end of the ride ranked highest by hour, day and all-time records.

You can read more about Disney’s $1.1-billion California Adventure expansion plans in our preview series.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Image: Disney]

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 3:34 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under Disney's California Adventure, Family & Kids, San Diego, Southern States, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.