The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction)
Encyclopedia
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride
Dark ride
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride where riders in guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music, and special effects....

 based upon the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977....

, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...

 books by A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...

. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...

 in the Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...

, Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland is located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is the first theme park located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and is owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks. The park opened to visitors on 12 September 2005...

. Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Pooh's Hunny Hunt is a unique 'trackless' dark ride located at Tokyo Disneyland. It is based on the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and is Fantasyland's most popular attraction.-History:...

, located in Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland
is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...

, is an entirely different "E-ticket class" attraction, featuring full audio animatronics and an innovative 'trackless' ride system.

Original proposals for Disneyland's Fantasyland

After the rise in popularity of Walt Disney's film adaptation of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977....

, Disney Imagineers made plans in the late 1970s for a Winnie the Pooh attraction at Disneyland's soon-to-be renovated Fantasyland. However in 1983, when the renovated Fantasyland reopened, a Winnie the Pooh attraction was notably absent.

Plans for location in Toontown

Following the success of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...

, plans were made for a new section of the park located behind Fantasyland. Called Mickey's Toontown
Mickey's Toontown
At the Magic Kingdom, Mickey's Toontown Fair initially opened as Mickey's Birthdayland on June 18, 1988. It became Mickey's Starland on May 26, 1990, and Mickey's Toontown Fair on October 1, 1996...

, this section of the park would recreate the Toontown that was seen in the film. One of the rides that would have gone on the east side of this land was a Winnie the Pooh dark ride in which guests would ride in "spinnable" honey pots (much like the Mad Hatter teacup ride
Mad Tea Party
Mad Tea Party is a spinning tea cup ride at all five Disneyland-style theme parks around the world. The ride theme is inspired by the Unbirthday Party scene in Disney's Alice In Wonderland...

 in Fantasyland) through what was conceptualized as the best scenes from the three Winnie the Pooh featurettes. The ride fell through before it could be made, though, and the space that this ride was to have taken up and vehicle design of this ride were worked into Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is a dark ride at the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland theme parks. The ride is based on the 1988 Academy Award-winning film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Both versions of the attraction are located in Mickey's Toontown...

.

Pooh arrives in the Magic Kingdom

Seven years later, during a period when the character was undergoing a resurgence in popularity, plans for a Winnie the Pooh attraction were approved at a different park: Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...

. That park's Fantasyland
Fantasyland
Fantasyland is one of the "themed lands" at the many Magic Kingdom-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Each Fantasyland has a castle as well as several gentle rides themed after Disney movies...

, much larger than the original Disneyland's, had the space to easily accommodate a new attraction. However, planners instead decided to utilize an existing structure: that of the Fantasyland attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park. It is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on the park's opening day in 1955. The ride's story is based on Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, one of the two segments of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and...

.

Protesting the closure of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

When some fans found out that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park. It is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on the park's opening day in 1955. The ride's story is based on Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, one of the two segments of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and...

 was being shuttered for a Pooh attraction, they protested against its closure, organizing mass ridings along with peaceful protests. Despite cries from fans, the Walt Disney Company went ahead with its plans and the first The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction opened in June 1999, proving popular with younger crowds.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is staying during the Fantasyland expansion. But it has recently gotten a new queue resembling the Hundred Acre Wood.

Pooh's Hunny Hunt opens at Tokyo Disneyland

The next version of the attraction, considerably different in configuration, was Pooh's Hunny Hunt, which opened in Tokyo Disneyland. Due to a closure of most of the Skyways connecting Tomorrowland and Fantasyland
Skyway (Disney)
The Skyway was a gondola lift attraction at Disneyland, at the Magic Kingdom, and at Tokyo Disneyland. Since all versions of this attraction took riders back and forth between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, the route from Tomorrowland was called Skyway to Fantasyland, and the route from Fantasyland...

 at Disney Parks across the world, including Tokyo, a space was left in its place. With a budget of over $130 million, and featuring a never-before-used 'trackless' ride technology, Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Pooh's Hunny Hunt is a unique 'trackless' dark ride located at Tokyo Disneyland. It is based on the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and is Fantasyland's most popular attraction.-History:...

 opened in late 2000 to large crowds and praise by many Disney internet fansites. To date, the attraction continues to have some of the longest wait times of any attraction at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

The Many Adventures goes to Disneyland

The only solution to complete the growing roster was to bring the Winnie the Pooh attraction to Disneyland. An original plan from the mid 1990s had an indoor and outdoor light boat ride featuring a Winnie the Pooh theme, which was shelved by 1999. So, a new dark ride was planned. However, Disneyland is the only resort of all five Disney Resorts to have little room for expansion. The only solution to open an attraction in the park was to utilize a current attraction.

Fantasyland was ruled out because it contained the least amount of available space and because of the age of its buildings; park managers anticipated that the attraction would be popular and decided to place it in an area that could better accommodate the crowds. Critter Country
Critter Country
When Splash Mountain opened at Tokyo Disneyland, Critter Country was specifically created for it. The only other attraction in this area is Beaver Brothers Explorer Canoes . Because of the land's small size and the popularity of Splash Mountain, Critter Country is extremely crowded throughout the day...

, a small parcel between New Orleans Square
New Orleans Square
New Orleans Square is a themed land found exclusively at Disneyland, though a similarly themed area can be found within Tokyo Disneyland's Adventureland. Based on 19th-century New Orleans, it was the first new land to be added to Disneyland after the park's opening. The land was opened to the...

 and Frontierland
Frontierland
Tokyo Disneyland's instance is known as Westernland, as "frontier" does not adequately translate into the Japanese language. The Mark Twain sails this park's Rivers of America...

 was ultimately chosen, since Winnie the Pooh already had his own greeting area in that land. The area already featured two popular attractions, Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain is a themed log flume attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories and songs from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South...

 and Country Bear Jamboree
Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as a former attraction at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are similar....

, the latter being the first attraction to open in the land (then Bear Country) in 1972.

Reformatting the Country Bear Jamboree

Imagineers chose to replace the Country Bear Jamboree
Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as a former attraction at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are similar....

 with Pooh due to its lack of popularity, which would require major excavation for space and leveling for the ride. When news of the former attraction's demise broke, many fans were once more upset at the loss of another classic attraction and again sought to change the park managers' minds. However, then-managers Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harris, both unpopular with Disneyland enthusiasts, ignored this and continued. The budget for the attraction was set at a reported $30,000,000, most of it dedicated to reformatting the Country Bear Jamboree
Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as a former attraction at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are similar....

 show building. When it finally opened in 2003, it received large promotions by park management and lines were somewhat long at first, but quickly dropped off.

Its turnover rate with guests was low compared to older dark rides in Fantasyland. Some Disneyland enthusiast websites are generally critical of the attraction, considering it cheap and a bad reminder of the Paul Pressler/Cynthia Harris era of Disneyland's management. However, for younger and other guests, the ride is considered fun and another addition to the park. Some columnists still poke fun at it by posting images of the attraction's average wait times of 2 or 5 minutes while other similar rides might have 30, 75 or even 90 minute waits, even on days when the park might be at full capacity.

Feedback of Disneyland version

Some of the ride's advocates have commented that the ride has low waits because it is hidden in the northwest corner of the park, yet said location is adjacent to Splash Mountain, one of the most visited attractions in the park, and near the Haunted Mansion, another popular classic attraction. However, amongst all four versions of the attraction, this one is the least popular, in terms of attendance.

Hong Kong Disneyland version opens

Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened in September 2005, opened with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as the only dark ride in Fantasyland (the only other dark ride in the park is Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters). It was the only dark ride in the Hong Kong Fantasyland until the opening of It's a Small World in 2008. It was based on a variety of versions of the attraction, but is most similar to the first version at the Magic Kingdom. It remains one of the most visited attractions in Fantasyland, with a usual occasion of running out of fastpasses and waits for over 120 minutes on peak days.

Magic Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland version

The ride vehicles go out of the load area, and arrive near a giant story-book showing Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, appearing in his popular books of poetry and stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. He has subsequently appeared in Disney cartoons....

. The vehicles arrive in the Hundred Acre Wood
Hundred Acre Wood
The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne...

 during a rather blustery day, with Piglet
Piglet (Winnie the Pooh)
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie-the-Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys/animals featured in the stories...

 holding onto a broom while being spun around. Pooh is holding onto a balloon while trying to reach for some honey, while Eeyore
Eeyore
Eeyore is a character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh....

 patronizes him. Meanwhile Roo
Roo
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. He is a young kangaroo and his mother is Kanga...

 begins to be blown away as Kanga holds onto him.

In Owl
Owl (Winnie the Pooh)
Owl is a fictional character in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books and in Disney's Winnie the Pooh cartoons. Owl's character is based on the archetype of the "wise old owl", although in the books, the quality of Owl's "wisdom" is sometimes questionable....

's home, everything is scattered about, including a rather curious picture of J. Thaddeus Toad himself handing a deed over to Owl. There is also a picture of Winnie the Pooh greeting Moley (Mr. Toad's sidekick), which is flat on the floor to the right. These were placed as a subtle tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park. It is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on the park's opening day in 1955. The ride's story is based on Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, one of the two segments of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and...

, the ride that The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh replaced at the Magic Kingdom (another tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom comes in the form of a Mr. Toad statue in the Pet Cemetery outside the Haunted Mansion
Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride located at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland. A significantly re-imagined incarnation of the ride, known as Phantom Manor, is located in Disneyland Paris...

 in Liberty Square
Liberty Square
Liberty Square is one of seven "themed lands" and is exclusive to the Magic Kingdom, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Themed after colonial America, replicas of both the Liberty Bell and Liberty Tree can be seen here. One of the most popular attractions in...

).

The ride then passes a second giant storybook page, where suddenly Tigger
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional tiger-like character originally introduced in A. A. Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals...

 bounces out, whilst the ride vehicles begin to bounce like Tigger. The ride follows Tigger through the Hundred Acre Wood, where he randomly pops up. Tigger bounces upside down at one point, before the ride moves on to Pooh's home. It transpires that Tigger has pinned Pooh to the floor as he tells him about Heffalumps and Woozles. Once in Pooh's house, Pooh falls asleep, and magically floats up into the sky, as the room blackens and is lit up by fibre optics (Pooh's floating is achieved with a Pepper's Ghost
Pepper's ghost
Pepper's ghost is an illusionary technique used in theatre and in some magic tricks. Using a plate glass and special lighting techniques, it can make objects seem to appear or disappear, transparent, or make one object seem to morph into another...

 illusion).

The ride vehicles then move into a strange room as Pooh floats through. There are objects with eyes and mouths, while giant woozles with jack-in-the-box necks move in front of the guests. The ride moves round some very strange objects: a purple woozle lights a heffalump, causing a giant smoke ring to come from its trunk (in the Hong Kong Disneyland version, it was replaced with a heffabee taking a picture of a tan heffalump in a green uniform), and a giant heffalump has holes that reveal the way out of the heffalump scene.

Other funhouse effects are seen as the vehicles make an escape out of the heffalump scene, indicated by an umbrella and a watering can pouring rain over a pot of honey. After this the vehicles arrive in a room painted with rain and cloud patterns, as thunder and lightning go off, and then reenters the Hundred Acre Wood, which is experiencing the rainstorm. The ride vehicles begin to "float", although this is achieved by moving the vehicles at a steady speed. Eeyore complains about the wind and then about the rain. Gopher squirts water out of his mouth. Roo, Rabbit, Tigger and Owl attempt to save Piglet from floating away, and the ride vehicles move to find Pooh flying around owing to the wind.

The vehicles move into the final scene, where everyone apart from Pooh is celebrating that the rain has gone away. Piglet was a sculpted figure with movement, while Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo are illustrations on the wall behind. The vehicles move past Pooh enjoying a load of honey, and then go past a page that reads "The End" before arriving back in the load area.

Disneyland version

Upon leaving the outdoor load area, the ride vehicles arrive indoors into the Hundred Acre Wood where Pooh is again trying to get the honey with the balloon. With Eeyore and the other characters is Gopher
Gopher (animal)
The term gopher as it is commonly used does not relate to any one species, but is a generic term used to describe any of several small burrowing rodents endemic to North America, including the pocket gopher , also called true gophers, and the ground squirrel , including Richardson's ground squirrel...

 who appears out of his hole to greet the guests. The ride vehicles move into the rain scene, moved from the second to last scene in Florida's to the second scene in California's. Most of the things at this point are identical to Florida's version. The ride vehicles move into the shortened Tigger scene, before moving to Pooh's bedroom where a similar part to that in Florida's version concurs.

The ride vehicles move into the Heffalump and Woozles dream sequence where the woozles with jack-in-the-box necks watch the guests. This version of the Heffalumps and Woozles scene focuses on the Heffalump and Woozle characters, with the absence of the objects with human eyes and mouths. A pink Tigger pins Pooh to the floor near some honey. Some of the effects at this part of the ride are similar to those at Florida's, minus a large balloon carrying Pooh above the guests. Instead, Pooh bobs up and down in a balloon suspended above a swirling whirlpool of honey. The mechanism was the one which once lowered "Teddi Barra" from the ceiling in Country Bear Jamboree
Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as a former attraction at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are similar....

, the Audio-Animatronic theater presentation previously housed in the show building.

As the ride vehicles leave this scene, a subtle tribute to Country Bear Jamboree
Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as a former attraction at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are similar....

 is suspended above the archway. The trophy heads of Max the buck, Buff the buffalo and Melvin the moose, audio-animatronics from Country Bear Jamboree, can be spotted if you look up and backwards while leaving the Heffalump/Woozle room. The heads were taken from theatre 2 of the Country Bear Playhouse. The vehicles enter the start of the finale scene where Pooh is enjoying a smackerel of honey. The Heffalumps can be seen flying off into Pooh's dreamland, prior to several of Pooh's friends tell him to wake up. Proceeding on, the ride passes Pooh's bed, before moving on to show Pooh's friends (this time all sculpted figures with movement) celebrating his birthday. As the vehicles move to the load area, several of the gifts Pooh received for his party are shown, and are moved back as the vehicles continue until they finally reach the load area.

See also


External links

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