Snapshots and Impressions of Disney Infinity

NOTE: All the pictures in today's post were snapped with an iPhone pointed at my (very cheap) little television screen. This game looks much, much better in person.

Barbosa finds the Hatter's tea party...and doesn't know quite what to make of it.

Disney Infinity is a huge, sprawling game, so full of possibilities and options that no two people will play it in quite the same way. We'll have a complete review later this week, but here are our impressions after several hours inside Infinity's strange, astonishing world.

Mr. Incredible borrows Mulan's horse. And yes, that's an Autopia Car

The game is brilliant, beautifully animated, and an absolute blast to play with. And that's the key to Infinity: you don't simply play through it like a normal video game. You play with it, tweaking it, experimenting and changing it around as you go.

Resisting Infinity Collector Madness

I love the design of these figures. I've just got to keep telling myself this is enough. This can be my entire Infinity collection. I don't need 'em all.

I don't need 'em all.

I…don’t…nnnnn……

Indiana Jones: Exiting the Temple

A few weeks ago, we took a trip through the amazing entry queue of Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Today, we're finally dropping the other shoe and hiking along the equally lengthy (but far less creepy) exit passage.

We're still giddy from the thrill of the ride, but it's about here that everyone suddenly realizes that, yes, it is a long way back to Adventureland. Love the off-kilter lamps provided by the archeological team--a subtle sign that we're safe and returning to a more familiar form of civilization.

The journey's not without a few creepy touches. Listen for the sound of bats squealing and flapping about inside these caverns.

Indiana Jones and the Long...Long...Long Entry

Today's post is rated PG-13, because we're heading into the wondrous, occasionally gruesome, amazing--and amazingly long--entry to Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

The ride is a huge, sprawling, multi-level Adventureland attraction -- which Disneyland's Adventureland has absolutely no space for. The clever solution involved building the ride's entrance and exit (set in a ramshackle base camp) on a modest strip of Adventureland real estate, while locating the ride itself far, far away on the other side of the park's railroad tracks.

The journey to the ride thus becomes an adventure in itself and an important part of the story. Darn good exercise, too.

The base camp setting and "recently discovered" temple entry immediately cast us as the main characters in this story. It's our decision to enter this temple.

The Five Best Moments in Adventureland

Just a few paces from Main Street U.S.A, you can find yourself suddenly surrounded by unfamiliar gods, skulls on posts and snakes in barrels. Welcome to Adventureland, home of a fearless archeologist, a man raised by gorillas, an infamous jungle tour company, and one very enchanted roomful of tikis.

If you count the Jungle and all of the Indiana Jones attraction, Adventureland is enormous -- but you'd never guess from the one small, crowded avenue that handles all the foot traffic.

It'd be easy to make a short list of the best attractions in Adventureland, but I'd like to focus on the best moments the land has to offer. Here's a quick list of my five favorite Adventureland moments, starting with #5:

Here they come...

5) The Jungle Cruise piranha attack. I love the whole Jungle Cruise, but the piranha attack near the end is very clever and actually makes people scream...in a good way.

Indiana Jones Fastpass

Today we take a look at the Fastpass waiting time display tower for the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye -- and what a wild, goofball, ramshackle-looking construction it is. Disneyland's Adventureland is more or less themed around the idea of Western civilization sticking its nose into places and situations where it doesn't belong, and that goes double for the Indy ride's entry area.

What a gloriously intentional mess this thing is. By all rights, it should look awful, but its crazy angles and mismatched materials make it all the more fun to look at. It's also a great foreshadowing of the chaos that awaits ahead, and a clue that the archeological camp you're about to enter is not run by the best-funded or most well-organized explorers on Earth. Call me paranoid, but if you put your trust in those guys, there's a very good chance something is going to go horribly wrong...