Toy Story Midway Mania!

Toy Story Midway Mania!
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Land	Pixar Place
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Theme	Carnival Midway Games
Opening date	May 31, 2008
Hosted by	Mr. Potato Head
Music	Randy Newman Jennifer Hammond
Vehicle capacity	8
Cars per vehicle	2
Guests per car	4
Ride duration	5-6 minutes
Wheelchair accessible Assistive Listening Available Fastpass available

Toy Story Midway Mania!
Disney's California Adventure
Land	Paradise Pier
Opening date	June 17, 2008
Wheelchair accessible Assistive Listening Available

Toy Story Midway Mania!
Tokyo DisneySea
Land	American Waterfront
Opening date	May 31, 2012

Toy Story Midway Mania! (marketed as Toy Story Mania!^[1]) is an interactive 4-D theme park attraction, currently located at two Disney theme parks: Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.

Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and inspired by Disney·Pixar's Toy Story franchise, the attraction was first unveiled during a press conference at Walt Disney World in January 2007. The Florida version opened officially on May 31, 2008,^[2][3] while the California version officially opened on June 17, 2008.^[4][5] A new version of the attraction will be constructed at Tokyo DisneySea and is expected to open on May 31,2012.^[6]

Concept

Park guests wear 3-D glasses (Carnival Games Goggles) aboard spinning vehicles that travel through virtual environments based on classic carnival midway games.^[7][8] Ride vehicles seat up to four in back-to-back pairs.

Mini-games

The attraction features five mini-games after a practice round, each of which includes at least one "Easter egg" that can trigger additional targets or gameplay changes. These games include:

• Pie Throw Practice Booth (pie toss target practice game, a no points introduction)
• Hamm & Eggs (egg throw game now featuring Buttercup from Toy Story 3)
• Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts (dart throw game; once Bo Peep's Baa-loon Pop)
• Green Army Men Shoot Camp (baseball throw / plate breaking game)
• Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers (ring toss game)
• Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery (suction cup shooting game)

Each guest's score is recorded by an onboard display screen as points are acquired with individual toy cannons firing simulated projectiles at virtual targets. Toy Story characters including Woody, Hamm, Buzz Lightyear, Rex and Trixie appear during the attraction's different games.

Similar technology has been used in Disney attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold at DisneyQuest and several Buzz Lightyear attractions. According to Disney, it is the first attraction created simultaneously by Walt Disney Imagineering for two theme parks.^[9]

The line at both parks features a large Mr. Potato Head Audio-Animatronics figure that interacts with guests through pre-recorded snippets of dialogue performed by comedian Don Rickles, who voiced the character in the Toy Story films. The sophisticated figure identifies people in the audience, sings and tells jokes.

Former Mini-Games

Only five mini-games can be used at a time at Toy Story Midway Mania! The Following games have been featured as part of Toy Story Midway Mania! in the past, but have been since replaced:

• Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop (dart throw game) Replaced May 21, 2010 with "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts" (updated with the release of Toy Story 3)^[10]

Technology

Toy Story Midway Mania! is one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering, costing an estimated $80 million to design and build.^[7] It marks the company's first use of industrial ethernet for a ride's control system.^[11] Many of the parts for the attraction's control system came from two of Disney's corporate sponsors, Siemens AG and Hewlett-Packard.^[11]

The control system is divided into three components: one for the ride vehicles, one for the games and one more for the attraction's special effects.^[11] Programmable logic controllers in the vehicles alert the control system wirelessly via ProfiNET RT to the vehicle's speed and location. The central controller then sends its instructions back to the vehicles using a hard-wired network within the track. The one-way communications flow adds a factor of safety, even though the wireless network is protected against outside interference, such as a denial-of-service attack.^[11]

The attraction features more than 150 PCs, which includes one HP Windows XP PC for each of Midway Mania's 56 game screens, as well as others that control the special effects at each game.^[11] At the game screens, two tracking systems provide the game control system with the vehicle's exact location, making sure that gameplay is not affected by even minor differences in vehicle position. According to Jody Gerstner, executive director of show and ride controls, "The game doesn’t care if the car parks in the same spot every time. It just needs to know where each car has actually parked, and it can compensate."^[11] Additional sensors in the spring-action shooter provide information on its orientation, which is fine-tuned using data on the position of the ride vehicle at the screen and the rotation of the seats on the vehicle base.^[11]

All three sub-systems work together to handle any contingency. For example, if a delay or other vehicle stoppage is detected (such as might occur if the loading and unloading of the ride vehicles is taking longer than expected), the control system can command the affected game screens to launch a non-scoring practice round, so that guests may continue to shoot targets while they wait. Similarly, it can instruct the show control system to play an audio spiel telling guests about the delay.^[11]

As the games are software-based, changes can be made to the attraction's lineup of games without significant effort. In April 2010, Disney Parks announced plans to replace "Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop" with "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts." The change took place on May 21, 2010.^[12] The new game includes one of the new characters from the Toy Story 3 feature film, which was released in June 2010.^[12]

Locations

• Disney California Adventure: Paradise Pier, beneath the California Screamin' roller coaster, a space formerly occupied by themed midway games and food service locations. The area is designed to resemble a Victorian-era seaside carnival.
• Disney's Hollywood Studios: Pixar Place, inside the studios' former soundstages, which were most recently used for the park's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! attraction. The facade, as well as the surrounding area, resembles Pixar Animation Studios' campus in Emeryville, California.
• Tokyo DisneySea: Will be located in the New York area of the American Waterfront. Opening in 2012.

Name variation

The attraction is being referred to as both Toy Story Midway Mania! and Toy Story Mania!. While the attraction marquees and some in-park signage read the former, the latter has been used in press releases to the news media,^[13][14] used in both resorts' advertisements, and on the disneyland.com, disneyworld.com, and official promotional website for the attraction, along with attraction merchandise.

Music

Music for the queue area was arranged and recorded by Jennifer Hammond at Capitol Studios with a live orchestra. More than an hour of music was recorded, all based on the first two Toy Story scores composed by Randy Newman.^[15]

Merchandising

Disney Interactive Studios released a "Toy Story Mania!" video game in September 2009 exclusively for the Nintendo Wii console.^[16] The game features gameplay and levels similar to those in the theme park attractions, along with original levels and features. ^[16] Jakks Pacific also released their "Plug It In & Play TV Game" version of "Toy Story Mania!" in 2010 featuring the original levels & Infini-D technology (Infini-D glasses are included).

See also

• List of current Disney's California Adventure attractions
• Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction and entertainment history

References

1. ^ Darkbeer (23 May 2008). "Toy Story Mania! Disneyland Resort TV Commercial". SmugMug. http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/gallery/5003333_bqo6i#300077022_eHKx4. Retrieved 3 June 2008. 
2. ^ Bevil, Dewayne (11 May 2008). "Orlando theme-park goers preview Toy Story Mania". Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-toystory1108may11,0,5407682.story. Retrieved 12 May 2008. 
3. ^ Bevil, Dewayne (17 March 2008). "Toy Story Mania to surge in “late May” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios". Orlando Sentinel. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2008/03/toy-story-man-1.html. Retrieved 19 March 2008. 
4. ^ "Spring Into Summer Mania with New Vacation Package Offerings from Disneyland Resort". Disneyland Resort Newsroom. 14 April 2008. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080420070223/http://www.disneylandnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=285. Retrieved 27 April 2008. 
5. ^ Tully, Sarah (18 March 2008). "Shoot 'em Disney ride gets sneak peek". The Orange County Register. http://www.ocregister.com/news/ride-77333-games-disney.html. Retrieved 19 March 2008. 
6. ^ ""Cinderella" Attraction and Toy Story Mania! Coming to Tokyo Disney Resort". Joe's Tokyo Disneyland Resort Photo Site. 7 May 2009. http://www.jtcent.com/extras/news/news_090507.html. Retrieved 8 May 2009. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Brooks Barnes (2008-02-10). "Will Disney Keep Us Amused?". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/business/media/10ride.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/E/Entertainment%20and%20Amusements. Retrieved 2008-08-08. 
8. ^ MacDonald, Brady (17 March 2008). "Disney offers sneak peek at Toy Story Mania ride". LA Times. http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/disney-offers-sneak--1516/. Retrieved 19 March 2008. 
9. ^ "Toy Story Mania! Fun Facts". wdwnews.com. 23 May 2008. http://wdwnews.com/ViewPressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=109755. Retrieved 24 May 2008. 
10. ^ Schmidt, Chuck (2010-05-22). "Toy Story Mania: Updated, not outdated". SiLive. http://blog.silive.com/sinotebook/2010/05/toy_story_mania_updated_not_ou.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Ogando, Joseph (2008-06-20). "Disney Rides on Wireless Ethernet". Design News. http://www.designnews.com/article/46702-Disney_Rides_on_Wireless_Ethernet.php. Retrieved 2008-07-29. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Smith, Thomas (2010-04-28). "New Toy Story Mania! Game, ‘Toy Story 3′ Character Coming To Disney Parks In May". Disney Parks Blog. Disney Parks. http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/04/new-toy-story-mania-game-toy-story-3-character-coming-to-disney-parks-in-may/. Retrieved 2008-05-03. 
13. ^ "'Toy Story' Characters Challenge Guests to Ride and Play Toy Story Mania!". Disneyland Resort News. 20 March 2008. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080324162451/http://www.disneylandnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=267. Retrieved 29 March 2008. 
14. ^ "Toy Story Mania! Begins Challenging Walt Disney World Guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios". wdwnews.com. http://wdwnews.com/ViewPressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=105867. Retrieved 29 March 2008. 
15. ^ Goldwasser, Dan (2008-06-02). "Jennifer Hammond arranges Randy Newman's Toy Story scores for new Disney Attractions!". ScoringSessions.com. http://www.scoringsessions.com/news/136. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
16. ^ ^{a b} "Disney Interactive Studios Announces Toy Story Mania!, Inspired by the Disney/Pixar Feature Film "Toy Story," Exclusively for Wii". Business Wire. 2009-03-24. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090324005298/en/Disney-Interactive-Studios-Announces-Toy-Story-Mania!. Retrieved 2009-03-24. 

External links

• Official promotional mini-site
• Official California attraction page within disneyland.com
• Official Florida attraction page within disneyworld.com

Coordinates: 28°21′22″N 81°33′41″W / 28.3559912°N 81.561285°W / 28.3559912; -81.561285