Disney Parks is unveiling its first major new ride since December 2006 when Toy Story Mania! opens in late May at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, and in late June at Disney's California Adventure in California.
The 3-D ride was inspired by the Disney-Pixar films "Toy Story" and "Toy Story II."
To create the ride, "we merged the world of gaming and storytelling," said Diego Parras of Walt Disney Imagineering.
While in line, guests will be welcomed by an automated Mr. Potato Head, more than five feet tall, capable of engaging in two-way conversation.
They will then don 3-D glasses for the ride, for which they will sit in a carnival tram vehicle, complete with spring-action shooters that guests of all ages and skill levels will use during the ride's interactive games.
"As they play, guests can actually see the virtual objects they've launched leave their spring-action shooters and hit (or miss) the targets," Disney explained in a release. "And thanks to 4-D special effects technology, they may sense objects whirring past them as they pop out of the 3-D scenes."
On the ride, guests will take part in a series of five carnival-type, virtual games: "Pie Throw Practice," in which guests can try splattering targets with virtual pies; the "Hamm & Eggs" booth, in which players launch virtual eggs at various barnyard targets; "Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop," which presents a landscape full of balloon sheep, trees and other objects at which guests can launch virtual darts (a popped virtual water balloon might add an additional 4-D wet dimension to the game); "Green Army Men Shoot Camp," where the challenge is to break plates with virtual baseballs; "Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers," a ring-toss game; and "Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery," where players ride through Wild West scenes launching virtual suction-cup darts at targets.
Players' scores are tallied and they can see how they compared to other players. Toy Story Mania! will display the top scores of the day and the month.
Disney would not disclose how much it invested in the ride, but according to Parras, Disney has been developing the concept over the last five years, and it has been under construction for the last year. The entire Toy Story Mania! ride is about a five-minute experience.
The last major new ride to be unveiled at any of the Disney parks was "The Seas with Nemo & Friends," which opened in December 2006 at the Epcot Center in Florida.
"The new Toy Story Mania ride," said Parras, "truly brings new ways to experience Disney."
To contact reporter Michelle Baran, send e-mail to [email protected].