Dark Ride Loading: Pinocchio's Daring Journey

The five Fantasyland dark rides each have a unique style to their loading area, but all aim to provide a smooth transition from the (relatively) real world to the glowing black-light realms inside the building.

At Pinocchio's Daring Journey, we feel as if we're entering a picture book that's springing to life, with three-dimensional set pieces emerging from background paintings.

A Tribute to Monstro, Fantasyland's Biggest Villain

Welcome to Whale Poetry Thursday! What better subject than the wondrous and despicable Monstro, who stars in two Fantasyland attractions: Storybook Land Canal Boats and Pinocchio's Daring Journey. The Disney Hipsters have the realm of park Haikus perfected, so all I can do is pay homage to Lewis Carroll and Isaac Watts...

How doth the massive angry whale
Improve the flower beds
And swallow elder toymakers
N' little woodenheads.

How scarily he lunges forth
By Daring Journey's track

And grosses out canal tours
With his epic layers of plaque.

The Pinocchio That Never Was (with Fish Heads & Crumbs)

The entry for Pinocchio's Daring Journey, featuring the cheerful title character, misleads some first-time riders into thinking it's a happy trip through a puppet show. If you've seen the film, you know how that scenario plays out, and the ride is every bit as dark and full of villainy.

During the film's production, Walt Disney and co. made a wise decision when they scrapped their original concepts for the character -- which stuck fairly close to the book version -- in favor of a more likable, naive personality an audience could actually care about. Carlo Collodi's book is an amazing work of fantasy, but his Pinocchio is one of the most obnoxious, self-centered and irritating characters in children's literature.

Thank goodness you don't have to worry about running into that version of Pinocchio on the Disneyland dark ride. Er....

A Disney Nut Reviews The Hobbit

I'll get straight to the point: if you loved Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, you'll love The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. If you didn't like the former, you won't like the latter -- because,  above all else, Jackson has crafted this new film to be an exact stylistic match to the trilogy in dialogue, design, music, pacing, tone and even the gore-level.

In other words, Jackson has taken J.R.R. Tolkien's charming, amazing children's novel prelude to his later epic Rings saga and -- much as he did with the trilogy films -- turned it into a huge, sprawling action movie full of visual wonderment. Rather than skew the film towards the younger audience the book was written for, Jackson has made a movie for older fans of the Rings films.

Personally, I loved the heck out of this movie -- all nearly-three-hours of it. Is it perfect? No. Does it seem a bit padded-out to make it merely the first third of a new trilogy? A bit. Is it full of enough magic, heart, great acting and jaw-dropping spectacle to make it worth seeing? Absolutely -- unless, as mentioned above -- you didn't like The Lord of the Rings.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey in 1983

Pinocchio's Daring Journey opened in Disneyland as part of the massive Fantasyland remodel in 1983. Then and now, guests encounter a bit of foreshadowing as they enter the queue and pass this deceptive, cheerful poster for Stromboli's show.

The above image is from this past summer, but all the following photos are from my family's first trip to "New Fantasyland" in the summer of 1983.

Ride vehicles designed to look hand-carved by Geppetto begin the journey by entering Stromboli's Theater. Guests have about two seconds to watch Pinocchio on stage before veering to the right as "Something Goes Terribly Wrong."

WDW 1993: Dreamfinder & Figment

Epcot's original Journey Into Imagination quickly became one of my top three favorite attractions in all of Walt Disney World when my family visited the resort in 1993 (it tied with Horizons and Cranium Command). I couldn't get enough of Dreamfinder and Figment, and took several trips through the ride during our stay.

Journey Into Imagination astonished me with its ingenious little vehicle trains as they swiveled sideways to follow the revolving stage for the song One Little Spark -- what a brilliant way to stage a full-length musical number on a ride!

The musical and dramatic interplay between Dreamfinder and his newly-created friend Figment throughout the remainder of the ride made the adventure a warm-hearted, unforgettable experience. I'm very glad Figment still exists on the reworked version of the ride, and I hope someday Dreamfinder returns to the park as well. They're too good as a team to keep apart forever!

WDW 1993: Epcot's Wide Open Spaces

The vast skies and stunning vistas of 1993 Walt Disney World formed the biggest ongoing "Wow" factor during our first-ever visit. We particularly loved the surreal and wonderful landscapes of Epcot. The weather was a real character, too, and we experienced more than one of the awesome 2:00 P.M. cloudbursts which lasted just long enough to sucker us into buying ponchos. We learned our lesson; the next time, we just shopped 'till it ended.

Different view, same day. I think I rode Journey Into Imagination eight hundred times. Okay, maybe more like six...(It tied with Cranium Command and Horizons as my favorite thing in Epcot).

WDW folks say it a lot, and it's true: pictures don't do World Showcase Lagoon justice (especially mine). In person, I could just stare out across the water for an hour. And I would've, but I really wanted to get to Maelstrom.

More WDW 1993 soon!

Darker Than You Think: Pinocchio's Daring Journey

I love the whimsical puppet theater exterior of Pinocchio's Daring Journey at Disneyland. Yet this 1983 dark ride is a lot spookier than it appears from outside. If you've seen the classic film, you know why.

My family witnessed a little scene while waiting in line. A nervous little girl asked her father, "What's going to happen on this ride?"

"Happen?" snapped the Dad, confused by the question. "Yer gonna see Pinocchio!" The girl was not reassured; clearly, she (unlike her pop) knew the story.

Yes, folks, "Yer gonna see Pinocchio." Yer also gonna get locked in a cage by Stromboli, stumble down Tobacco Row, watch kids turn into donkeys, nearly get shoved into a crate, and get attacked by Monstro the Whale, all while Jiminy Cricket yells, "Look out!" and "You're going the wrong way!"

I love this ride, but -- similar to what happens with Snow White's Scary Adventures -- parents should remember that Disney dark rides reflect their source material quite well, and Pinocchio's journey is loaded with villains, threats and narrow escapes. Just as with all good films and rides, the happy ending must be earned.