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Jun. 10th, 2003 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darcydodoYesterday I went to Disneyland Paris. By the time I got back, I was far too exhausted to write an entry (and, more to the point, I really was too exhausted to sit there doing nothing in the computer room when there were three people in front of me waiting for the computers). So now I'll put off my two homework exercises and my shower in order to write this. Priorities, right? :)
I'm really glad I went to Disneyland. Besides there being a lot of little kid in me still, it's just generally really cool. This is in terms of special effects, some great rides, and the more "academic" aspect of comparing how things work at D.Paris versus the Disneyland at home. (I'm going to judiciously apply the cut-tag to one or two things that seem longish. Everything's part of the narrative, though!)
Theoretically, everything is in French and English at D.Paris. This is not actually precisely the case. All the tourist signs are in both languages, and I think all of the workers are required to speak both. It gets more interesting when you look at the rides, though. If there's a short announcement, it will generally be repeated in both languages. The "oh no, you're in a room with no doors and windows, etc." speech at the Haunted House (or Phantom Manor, as it's known at D.Paris) is only in French, because at home it's timed to take the full time the pictures are lengthening, etc., and they've kept that here. The pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean were speaking French, but the song was still in English. (Of course, most of the songs were only in English, because they won't, generally speaking, re-record those.) The spirit globe in the haunted house interchanged French and English; by contrast, all the characters on the Snow White ride were speaking French. I like the evil queen speaking French, it's much more scary and villainous-sounding. We also took the little boat through the Pays des Contes Fées, and all the titles of the fairy tales were written in French, which was very sweet. What was possibly the best thing in terms of the all-French, though, was Sleeping Beauty's Castle. The entire story was laid out in the pages of books positioned around the room, and it was all in French. Absolutely adorable. I took a couple of pictures; I'm hoping they come out without the flash. (I'm being more hopeful about my pictures from the day before, by the way; I was reassured by the two photography experts in my little group that these pictures would probably come out, ISO 400 w/o flash, and I think there was about the same amount of lighting in the two rooms.) What I wasn't so pleased about, on the other hand, was the translation of "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" and Jules Verne's Time Machine into French. In the case of the former, it's particularly bad, because it's a movie and it's been dubbed into French. At least they had headphones with other languages, which is good, but the newscast that they show you beforehand just had subtitles in other languages. Which got behind, and it's not as though it would've been very disastrous to have the French in the subtitles there rather than the English. That's what they did in the little videos before Space Mountain, after all. As regards the Time Machine, it was mostly OK that the main language was French, because the Time Keeper is a robot and so you can't tell what language he's speaking anyway, apart from what you actually hear. But from the movements of people's lips in the film, I could tell that it was originally filmed mostly in English but with a few sensible bits actually in French (Gérard Depardieu was an airplane controller). I'd have liked to hear it simply done like that. But of course, the English was all in English, and the French was all in French. One of the more amusing things, though, was Star Tours. C-3PO spoke in French, rather than English, but he sounded exactly like himself. They must've gotten Anthony Daniels to read the French. Anyway, it makes perfect sense, 'cause 3PO is a translator robot anyway. ;)
I should probably describe the people I went with. There were four other girls. Two were people I'd met during the barbeque the other night: Lindsay and Robin. Lindsay is Texan (goes to A&M) and straight-laced religious, but very nice about it. She reminds me of Anne in some ways, and she also reminds me of Anne before she had cancer, in some ways. It's mostly inflection and word-choice, though. Robin goes to, I think, an Illinois state college. She's one of the photography experts I mentioned, because her first major in college was photography, and she's still quite serious about it. Then there were Sharon and April. April was mostly quiet and, I eventually decided, not very bright. But she was very nice, so that made up for it. Sharon was cool. She's a graduate student in mediaeval history, at University of Colorado at Boulder. She's just going back to school after 10 years, and she did in fact remind me a little of Linda. Not lots, but a bit. She and her husband ran a photography studio for much of the ten years that she wasn't in school, so she is, of course, the other expert I mentioned. I got on with her quite well.
OK, so. Thunder Mountain was fun, of course, but I never got the stomach-dropping sensation that's its hallmark for me. (It was the ride after which, when I first went on it years ago with Nina, my mother had to put a name to "losing one's stomach" for me.) It's possible that it wouldn't do that at home any more, either, and that the tracks are in fact identical. But I don't think so.
The Indiana Jones ride was completely different than the one at home. Here, it's a pure rollercoaster, and a real rollercoaster: you go backwards, you go upside-down.... At home, it's a theme ride. That was another thing, most of the theme rides here seemed to be more about the going through on a single level than about a ride combined with a theme. Even the Snow White ride, which had a lot of the same character actions and scenes, was all on a single level. But maybe they reserved the other more for the Walt Disney Studios, or whatever the second park in Paris is. (We didn't go there; not enough time, and not enough money.) Anyway, though, I like rollercoasters, so it was very cool, just a slight surprise when it was nothing like what I was expecting.
Space Mountain is also more intense, and really cool. Both those rides, incidentally, have a slight problem with the way the safety gear works: you constantly get your ears boxed and your head bashed. I was very glad I didn't have a headache!
I'm also convinced that Star Tours has more movement here than at home: I really don't recall ever actually hanging suspended from my seat at Disneyland. But Robin said she was sure that it was like that at Disney World, so it could be that I'm misremembering, or it could be that both the others are different from at home.
I could go through and describe every ride I went on, but that would be tedious and a bit pointless. They're Disneyland rides, I mean really. But there were two things that were absolutely fantastic. The Time Machine display, which apparently is originally from the Epcott Center, was wonderful. It's a movie that completely surrounds you, because there are screens going in a circle that actually show the full 360º. I was constantly twisting around trying to see what was behind me as well as what was in front of me. Breathtaking views of French countryside, and Mont St. Michel, and vistas of snow-capped mountains, and train tracks, and other gorgeous images.
The other thing was Captain Nemo's submarine. It's a walkthrough tour, and it's actually like a museum. Sadly, I was sort of being rushed through both by the people behind me and by my companions in front. I would have gone back at the end, but I got there 15 minutes before closing, and they'd already shut the entrance. I was not happy about that. But there are gorgeous paintings on the walls (they're textured like actual oil paintings, but I can't figure out if they're real paintings or just reproduced by some sort of advanced Disney-technology), and astrolabes and papers and all these other sorts of artifacts. I think the paintings were my favorites, though. Despite having obviously decided that this would be the one time in my life I go to Disneyland Paris, I will probably retract that vow, simply because I so want to see the submarine again and go through it slowly. It's not at either of the other Disneylands, so it's actually the only way I'll get to see it.
Now I had probably better go do my homework. I can't imagine there will be any massively exciting things that take place today; tomorrow, though, I'm planning to go to the Louvre for a few hours after class.
ETA: Remembered I wanted to comment on It's A Small World, too. This has always been one of my less favorite rides; I think there was a brief period when I was small that I loved it, and then I started finding it very very boring. Partially because the song gets stuck in my head, I think. And I didn't find the visual aspect particularly stimulating. But in France, it's a completely different story. For a start, I think that, being much older than the last time I went through the ride, I was able to appreciate the interesting cultural aspects of the ride. And, secondly, there are masses more cultures in the French version, with really cool traditional costumes. Apparently they even had a Mayan group, but I didn't notice them. This is another ride that I would love to go through several times, because there's so much detail that it's impossible to notice everything on just one trip.
I'm really glad I went to Disneyland. Besides there being a lot of little kid in me still, it's just generally really cool. This is in terms of special effects, some great rides, and the more "academic" aspect of comparing how things work at D.Paris versus the Disneyland at home. (I'm going to judiciously apply the cut-tag to one or two things that seem longish. Everything's part of the narrative, though!)
Theoretically, everything is in French and English at D.Paris. This is not actually precisely the case. All the tourist signs are in both languages, and I think all of the workers are required to speak both. It gets more interesting when you look at the rides, though. If there's a short announcement, it will generally be repeated in both languages. The "oh no, you're in a room with no doors and windows, etc." speech at the Haunted House (or Phantom Manor, as it's known at D.Paris) is only in French, because at home it's timed to take the full time the pictures are lengthening, etc., and they've kept that here. The pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean were speaking French, but the song was still in English. (Of course, most of the songs were only in English, because they won't, generally speaking, re-record those.) The spirit globe in the haunted house interchanged French and English; by contrast, all the characters on the Snow White ride were speaking French. I like the evil queen speaking French, it's much more scary and villainous-sounding. We also took the little boat through the Pays des Contes Fées, and all the titles of the fairy tales were written in French, which was very sweet. What was possibly the best thing in terms of the all-French, though, was Sleeping Beauty's Castle. The entire story was laid out in the pages of books positioned around the room, and it was all in French. Absolutely adorable. I took a couple of pictures; I'm hoping they come out without the flash. (I'm being more hopeful about my pictures from the day before, by the way; I was reassured by the two photography experts in my little group that these pictures would probably come out, ISO 400 w/o flash, and I think there was about the same amount of lighting in the two rooms.) What I wasn't so pleased about, on the other hand, was the translation of "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" and Jules Verne's Time Machine into French. In the case of the former, it's particularly bad, because it's a movie and it's been dubbed into French. At least they had headphones with other languages, which is good, but the newscast that they show you beforehand just had subtitles in other languages. Which got behind, and it's not as though it would've been very disastrous to have the French in the subtitles there rather than the English. That's what they did in the little videos before Space Mountain, after all. As regards the Time Machine, it was mostly OK that the main language was French, because the Time Keeper is a robot and so you can't tell what language he's speaking anyway, apart from what you actually hear. But from the movements of people's lips in the film, I could tell that it was originally filmed mostly in English but with a few sensible bits actually in French (Gérard Depardieu was an airplane controller). I'd have liked to hear it simply done like that. But of course, the English was all in English, and the French was all in French. One of the more amusing things, though, was Star Tours. C-3PO spoke in French, rather than English, but he sounded exactly like himself. They must've gotten Anthony Daniels to read the French. Anyway, it makes perfect sense, 'cause 3PO is a translator robot anyway. ;)
I should probably describe the people I went with. There were four other girls. Two were people I'd met during the barbeque the other night: Lindsay and Robin. Lindsay is Texan (goes to A&M) and straight-laced religious, but very nice about it. She reminds me of Anne in some ways, and she also reminds me of Anne before she had cancer, in some ways. It's mostly inflection and word-choice, though. Robin goes to, I think, an Illinois state college. She's one of the photography experts I mentioned, because her first major in college was photography, and she's still quite serious about it. Then there were Sharon and April. April was mostly quiet and, I eventually decided, not very bright. But she was very nice, so that made up for it. Sharon was cool. She's a graduate student in mediaeval history, at University of Colorado at Boulder. She's just going back to school after 10 years, and she did in fact remind me a little of Linda. Not lots, but a bit. She and her husband ran a photography studio for much of the ten years that she wasn't in school, so she is, of course, the other expert I mentioned. I got on with her quite well.
OK, so. Thunder Mountain was fun, of course, but I never got the stomach-dropping sensation that's its hallmark for me. (It was the ride after which, when I first went on it years ago with Nina, my mother had to put a name to "losing one's stomach" for me.) It's possible that it wouldn't do that at home any more, either, and that the tracks are in fact identical. But I don't think so.
The Indiana Jones ride was completely different than the one at home. Here, it's a pure rollercoaster, and a real rollercoaster: you go backwards, you go upside-down.... At home, it's a theme ride. That was another thing, most of the theme rides here seemed to be more about the going through on a single level than about a ride combined with a theme. Even the Snow White ride, which had a lot of the same character actions and scenes, was all on a single level. But maybe they reserved the other more for the Walt Disney Studios, or whatever the second park in Paris is. (We didn't go there; not enough time, and not enough money.) Anyway, though, I like rollercoasters, so it was very cool, just a slight surprise when it was nothing like what I was expecting.
Space Mountain is also more intense, and really cool. Both those rides, incidentally, have a slight problem with the way the safety gear works: you constantly get your ears boxed and your head bashed. I was very glad I didn't have a headache!
I'm also convinced that Star Tours has more movement here than at home: I really don't recall ever actually hanging suspended from my seat at Disneyland. But Robin said she was sure that it was like that at Disney World, so it could be that I'm misremembering, or it could be that both the others are different from at home.
I could go through and describe every ride I went on, but that would be tedious and a bit pointless. They're Disneyland rides, I mean really. But there were two things that were absolutely fantastic. The Time Machine display, which apparently is originally from the Epcott Center, was wonderful. It's a movie that completely surrounds you, because there are screens going in a circle that actually show the full 360º. I was constantly twisting around trying to see what was behind me as well as what was in front of me. Breathtaking views of French countryside, and Mont St. Michel, and vistas of snow-capped mountains, and train tracks, and other gorgeous images.
The other thing was Captain Nemo's submarine. It's a walkthrough tour, and it's actually like a museum. Sadly, I was sort of being rushed through both by the people behind me and by my companions in front. I would have gone back at the end, but I got there 15 minutes before closing, and they'd already shut the entrance. I was not happy about that. But there are gorgeous paintings on the walls (they're textured like actual oil paintings, but I can't figure out if they're real paintings or just reproduced by some sort of advanced Disney-technology), and astrolabes and papers and all these other sorts of artifacts. I think the paintings were my favorites, though. Despite having obviously decided that this would be the one time in my life I go to Disneyland Paris, I will probably retract that vow, simply because I so want to see the submarine again and go through it slowly. It's not at either of the other Disneylands, so it's actually the only way I'll get to see it.
Now I had probably better go do my homework. I can't imagine there will be any massively exciting things that take place today; tomorrow, though, I'm planning to go to the Louvre for a few hours after class.
ETA: Remembered I wanted to comment on It's A Small World, too. This has always been one of my less favorite rides; I think there was a brief period when I was small that I loved it, and then I started finding it very very boring. Partially because the song gets stuck in my head, I think. And I didn't find the visual aspect particularly stimulating. But in France, it's a completely different story. For a start, I think that, being much older than the last time I went through the ride, I was able to appreciate the interesting cultural aspects of the ride. And, secondly, there are masses more cultures in the French version, with really cool traditional costumes. Apparently they even had a Mayan group, but I didn't notice them. This is another ride that I would love to go through several times, because there's so much detail that it's impossible to notice everything on just one trip.
