Toy Story Mania!
| Toy Story Mania! | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disney's Hollywood Studios |
| Land / area | Toy Story Land |
| Type | Interactive 3D shooting dark ride |
| Opened | May 31, 2008 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Duration | About 6 minutes |
| Height req. | None |
| Status | Operating |
Toy Story Mania! is an interactive shooting dark ride in Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. Opened on May 31, 2008, as Toy Story Midway Mania!, it places riders in spinning vehicles in front of a sequence of 3D carnival games, firing virtual projectiles at targets with a spring-action shooter. Versions of the ride also operate at Disney California Adventure, where it opened on June 17, 2008, and at Tokyo DisneySea, where it opened in 2012.
History
The attraction was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering as a midway that could only exist as a ride: a set of classic fairground games — ring toss, dart throwing, plate breaking — rebuilt in three dimensions on large screens, with scores calculated instantly for each rider. Disney reported a development and construction cost of about 80 million dollars, and contemporary coverage described it as one of the most computer-dependent attractions the company had built, with more than 150 computers coordinating vehicles, screens and gameplay. It was the first attraction Imagineering designed for two parks at the same time.
The Florida ride opened in Pixar Place, a short street behind the park's Chinese Theatre, at a time when Disney's Hollywood Studios had few rides without a height restriction. It drew long queues from the start. In May 2016 a third track opened inside an adjoining soundstage, increasing capacity substantially without changing the games themselves. When Toy Story Land opened on June 30, 2018, the original Pixar Place entrance closed and a new entrance opened inside the land, turning the ride's queue to face the opposite direction.
Experience
The queue is themed as Andy's bedroom floor, filled with oversized board games, crayons, dominoes and a Toy Story-themed Monopoly board. An audio-animatronic Mr. Potato Head, styled as a carnival barker, speaks to guests in line, removes his own ear, and sings between remarks — at opening he was one of the most sophisticated talking figures in the parks.
Riders wear 3D glasses and sit in pairs, back to back with another pair, each with their own pull-string shooter and score display. After a practice round firing pies, the vehicle stops at five games: Hamm & Eggs, a knockdown game with farm targets; Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts, a balloon-popping game; Green Army Men Shoot Camp, a plate-breaking game; Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers, a ring toss; and Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery, a suction-cup shooting gallery that ends with a mine-cart bonus round. Hitting certain targets reveals higher-value hidden targets, which rewards repeat rides. At the end, each rider receives a score, an accuracy percentage and a virtual prize ranked by score.
In-ride effects beyond the screens include puffs of air and water sprays when balloons pop or targets break, which is why the ride is usually described as 4D rather than simply 3D.
Reception and changes
The ride has remained one of the park's most consistently queued attractions, in part because it has no height requirement and can be ridden by young children alongside adults competing for score. Its games have been updated periodically — a sequence themed to Toy Story 3 replaced an earlier Bo Peep game in 2010 — a flexibility built into the screen-based design from the beginning, since new games require software rather than new scenery.