1/1 Scale Ariel <3
Thu 2011/10/06 08:06 JST
Even if you don't know me or follow my blog, you can tell just by looking at my mascot that Ariel, Disney's The Little Mermaid, is my #1 waifu! When Ariel's Undersea Adventure, a ride 20 years in the making, finally opened in Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA (USA), you know I had to go check it out!
Disneyland Park's brand new Mickey's Soundsational Parade also featured Ariel, so I had to make sure I got a Park Hopper Ticket that would allow me to visit both parks! Go to my blog for my thoughts on the new attraction and as well as photos from both California Adventure and Disneyland, where the new Star Tours ride also just opened (and where you can find that sweet Stormtrooper Donald)!
thats a lil strange that Ariel's ride is in California Adventure park... Don't they usually try to keep the "core princesses" in the "Magic Kingdom" main park
That would be at Disney World in Florida, where they have MUCH more space. California Adventure is next to Disneyland, in, well, California. The property has been practically locked for ages; this is evident if you compare the footpaths of Magic Kingdom to those of Disneyland, which are far narrower than the MK ones. Basically, building something new at DL would probably entail tearing down or converting an older attraction, something the MK has enough luxury of space to avoid on many occasions.
Yeah I know, the park is literally across the plaza ^_^ Been to it few years back
for some reason I thought they'd move the StarWars ride over to California-side, and put Ariel into that space. It just seemed like core classics stayed in that park, while Pixar and other things (Muppets! Twilight zone!) were for the other park ^^;
You're right, Florida parks are a planet when compared in size to the Cali one (we dun even get Ariel 'till next year!)
Thing is, the Star Tours ride fits pretty nicely into Tomorrowland in Disneyland proper, whereas in the CA Adventure side they've got that whole aquatic-themed boardwalk area, which was apparently inspired by the bizarre combination of turn-of-the-century amusement parks and Little Mermaid, so I guess that's the logic of putting it over there.
Yeah, even Walt himself commented on the difference when he purchased the land for the Florida parks, calling it "a gift of space". It's no wonder it's branded as "world" instead of "land"!
Yeah, while I'm not thrilled the ride is in California Adventure, it's also cool there aren't any other princesses there to vie for attention. ;) Triton's Carousel and Ariel's Grotto are already there so it does fit in with the whole Paradise Pier area. Just wish they had an actual gift shop for the ride, but I'm sure there will be eventually. Of course, the only times I saw flesh-and-blood Ariels were in Disneyland Park -- during the parade and once when she and a couple of other princesses were going on break.
New Tomorrowland in Walt Disney World, on the other hand, is a MAJOR expansion. I saw a model of it at the D23 Expo (blog post coming soon) and I can't wait to visit when it's done! The ride will be in Eric's castle with a statue out front and a character meet-and-greet nearby. I just can't believe it's taken them so long to do something with the property that single-handedly revived their animation studio....
Oh, I'm sure Disney won't pass up the chance to hawk merchandise for very long. XD Merchandise and Disney feature films have gone hand in hand since the release of Snow White, so I think it's practically a given they'll have some sort of gift shop/stand for things eventually to carry on the tradition. Interesting they don't have the live Ariel there yet, but I have a suspicion that'll also be temporary.
Oh, that sounds fabulous, actually! You have a point on that too. It IS pretty weird they haven't done much in the parks for Little Mermaid given how it jump-started the Disney Renaissance. Why they didn't leap right on it kind of makes sense--I mean, at the time the studio was just short of going belly-up and making pretty much any animated feature was for them a gamble, so they probably needed the revenue to keep the studio up rather than to fuel park attractions. Why it took this long though is more enigmatic.
Ha ha, yeah, Disney's certainly known for their merchandising! I just wish more of it wasn't so girly. I've even had to resort to making my own Ariel shirt. ^^; And it'd be interesting to see if they're going to put an Ariel in each park. It might confuse some kids. xD
I know, the time of the corporate raiders is way in the past! (Now they're the corporate raiders!) Maybe I'm just biased, but it used to make me so mad to see TLM passed over for the more recent features when they did new rides and shows and whatnot. *cough* Beauty and the Beast on Broadway *cough* But even just in terms of general merchandise everything seems very much aimed at little kids now. I remember they used to have all sorts of neat higher-end things back when I couldn't afford them. orz
And high-five to a fellow Disney history fan! ^^
Disneyland was kind of blocked in by all the hotels and such that sprouted up after the park opened, so they didn't have much space to expand in. Even the Disneyland Hotel didn't belong to Disney back in the day; it was owned by another businessman. That's why Walt bought so much land for Walt Disney World -- he didn't want to be hemmed in by seedy hotels.
When they decided to make Disneyland a resort they knocked down the old parking structure and built California Adventure on top of it. They had the terrible idea of building the park on the cheap and most of the rides were off-the-shelf. DCA was hemorrhaging money the first few years before they decided to put the Pixar stuff over there, which might be why all the "new" stuff is more closely associated with DCA.
The new Star Tours is pretty much the same as the old one with new dressing, so the added cost of moving them prolly wouldn't really make much sense. At any rate, the ride fits with the theme of Tomorrowland rather nicely. Plus, the other Lucas property, Indiana Jones, is also in Disneyland Park.
OOooh so cool! I want this!
ha ha, i totally would've bought one if he came with a lightsaber.. there's one of donald as darth maul but he didn't look very good, lol..
Ah but I'm satisfied with the Ducktrooper XD Looks pretty cool at the angle you took too ^^
oh, thankies! i was actually trying to get a good shot of him without the other figures they had.. i think there's a jedi mickey, darth vader goofy wearing boxer shorts (you can see his legs in the picture), and the donald darth maul..
LoL I didn't even know what that was until you told me XD Now I cannot unsee Goofy's boxer shorts!
such is the power of the dark side!! LOL
i actually have a picture of the full goofy figure; i can link it if you want ;)
ah, and there's a minnie leia also; forgot about her!
Oh yes, please do. I'd love to see them. Sorta a fan of Disney and Star Wars ^_^
[replying to the your comment below]
i'll try to dig the pictures up.. i took over 2000 photos when i was there so it might take a bit! xD;;
maybe i'll just put up the whole collection of figures in another post so everyone can see them.. :3a
Your photos are up! Enjoy! ^^ http://www.figure.fm/post/en/32592/Disney+Star+Wars.html
the original statue of the Little Mermaid is located in Denmark. and comes from the story of the little mermaid. from Hans Christian Andersen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid
http://www.copenhagenpictures.dk/mermaid.html
yes, i remember seeing the statue for the first time at the end of an old non-disney cartoon that is more faithful to the original where she, ah, turns into sea foam.. :<
disney actually shows the statue in an episode of the little mermaid tv series..
maybe one day i'll be able to visit copenhagen and see the statue in person! ^^
Ariel is so lovely ^_^ she is my second favorite princess as Jasmine is my first :D VERY lovely shots! :D
Ah, Jasmine is one of my favorites also! Aladdin definitely numbers among my top five Disney films. They need to make a ride for that movie as well!
And thanks so much! It was very hard to get useable pictures since the ride and Audio Animatronics never stopped moving. I was also taking pictures and video at the same time so it was kind of a challenge! xD My blog and Facebook have TONS more pictures so be sure to check them out!
so cute :3
xD