Disney Infinity: A Park Fan's Review

Disney Infinity will delight you, inspire you, challenge you and cheerfully empty your wallet. Its methods for coaxing you to buy more and more of its world could be considered ruthless, except for one important factor: Like a Disney park, it gives you more than your money's worth.

In that respect, you could easily think of Infinity, the company's toys-come-to-life-in-a-video-game juggernaut, as Disney Parks: The Home Edition. If you laid it out in theme park terms, the experience would look something like this:

The game is stuffed with elements geared specifically toward park fans, from actual park music and vintage sound effects to an impressive Matterhorn complete with a working bobsled rail slide. Epcot fans will love the inclusion of Spaceship Earth, plus the game's introductory sequence that casts you in the role of One Little Spark of inspiration.

Mrs. Incredible parks her Tron Recognizer in Tulgey Wood.

The clever design sends you into a vast, anything-goes "toybox" world where you can combine themes and characters in any way you wish, selecting from hundreds and hundreds of parts to build your own games with your own rules--anything from racetracks and shootouts to pinball machines, obstacle courses and soccer fields. You don't have many parts available at the start, however. To get them, you have to venture from the toybox "hub" into the Playset worlds, which are large, scripted film-specific adventures (Infinity's version of E-Ticket attractions).

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……

Audio-Animatronic Mater

Through great craftsmanship and clever technology, Radiator Springs Racers pulls off the amazing trick of bringing full-sized automobiles to life. The entire cast is amazing, but Mater is the jolliest and most wildly expressive of the crew.

His believability holds up under close inspecton; In the first encounter, he's right up in your face, chatting happily and driving backwards as he leads you into trouble.

His commentary with Lightning at the ride's end is equally fun; Disney should seriously consider making this duo their official DCA ambassadors.

The audio-animatronics on RS Racers have played a huge role in DCA's turn-around, and they give the ride a heart and soul that the entire park was missing in its early years. It's great to see Disneyland's neighbor finally benefit from some classic E-Ticket magic.

Holly Shiftwell in Tron-derland: Radiator Springs is Coming to Disney Infinity

Decked out in monster-truck tires, Holly Shiftwell from Cars 2 carries Violet from The Incredibles through a Tron loop in Wonderland as the Caterpillar's alphabet smoke rings drift upward.

I can't wait for the June release of Disney Infinity (the company's highly-anticipated answer to Activision's mega-hit Skylanders franchise) and its recently-announced first expansion set, Cars. Here's another shot:

Missile-equipped Mater somersaults in front of Cinderella Castle while Sully pilots a Recognizer. These images from the latest game trailer highlight a few of the potentially "infinite" user-created mash-up scenarios in the game's Toy Box Mode, which will also give players the ability to design their own race courses for use by all Infinity characters.

Skylanders Meets Vinylmation in Disney Infinity. Oh, My Aching Wallet.

Disney just announced an upcoming product likely to drain Disney fan bank accounts around the globe. Get ready for Disney Infinity, a cross-platform game world that combines the figurines-beaming-down-into-a-video-game concept of the mega-hit Skylanders with the collectible Disney hook of Vinylmation.

Vinylmation Negotiation (with Fish Heads & Crumbs)

Disney Parks don't need Casinos. They've got Vinylmation. So far, I've been able to restrict my collecting to a few wonderful examples provided by family generosity and chance. Don't, however, ask me how many die-cast Pixar Cars I've purchased -- but, with Cars, you know what you're getting. Of course, the thrill of opening a mystery box is what makes a Vinylmation purchase so much fun -- and so potentially addictive.

Presenting a Vinylmation as a gift can lead to...complications. Time for Fish Heads & Crumbs...

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."