Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

[Alastair]

I'd debate that. From what I can see there it looks really good. Yes, it needs more scenes but for the money they've spent it's far better than say... Ice Age 4D?!

I'm tempted to drive the 140 miles to Blackpool just for this!

Hardly fair to compare it with Ice Age 4D. The combined cost of Sub-Terra and Ice Age was around the same as W&G (£5-6m).

 

[James]

I'd debate that. From what I can see there it looks really good. Yes, it needs more scenes but for the money they've spent it's far better than say... Ice Age 4D?!

That's a bit of a silly comparison money wise. They are completely different sizes and different attractions. Hardly comparable.

 

[Michael]

The POV does the ride no justice at all in my opinion! Have any of you actually rode it yet or are you just judging it off the POV?

 

[Dar]

I'm making a judgement on the basis of the POV so I know whether I need to budget in a trip to Blackpool "urgently" or if it can wait until I can next be bothered. It can wait on that basis.

 

[Thomas]

I apologise for getting the finances of the attractions slightly confused. Both attractions (Wallace and Gromit and Ice Age 4D) are aiming to attract families to their respective parks. In my eyes Wallace and Gromit looks to be better at attracting families because the IP has wider appeal.

Theming wise it looks superb, it looks exactly like Wallace and Gromit should, yes there are too many dark parts, but the scenery itself is of a very high standard.

Yes, I'm going off a video off the internet, but it's enough to encourage me to go!

 

[Ben]

Wow that is a bad dark ride. Its got all the thrills of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while removing that dull lift at the end. Oh wait, no they got it the wrong way around.

They lost gold mine and the lovely restaurant and gained an expensive IP with barely any content inside.

For the second time in a week Im going to say the same thing about the place...

I think Id have preferred a fountain now.

 

[Tom]

It will appeal to its target market perfectly. It's a better edition than a theatre of wooden boxes and poorly timed sprays of water purporting to be a 4D cinema. The characters all look fantastic and Aardman have certainly modelled them, judging by their quality.

The only thing it needs is a bit of drama for a finale - maybe a small explosion from a gadget going wrong or something.

 

[Wilsy]

It's a shame that its just a random collection of scenes broken up by black walls between each one.

There was the chance here to do a brand new story but unfortunately they didn't take that direction.

For something which, according to their ticket pricing, is meant to be on-par with Valhalla, it is disappointing.

Not even sure why people are comparing it to Ice Age at Alton Towers though, considering they have totally different budgets and purposes.

 

[Dave]

It either needed to take one film and run with the whole story (no issue with that, it creates a narrative). OR create a new story for the ride.

The quality of the scenes look ok though, there is just a lot of black bits and its all a bit mixed up.

 

[Adam James]

The ride is still in the process of not being officially open, and therefore the POV isn't the finished product. Whilst a POV can give a good idea of airtime and layout for instance with a coaster, the same can't be said for the same for a dark ride.

Whilst I haven't been on it myself yet, some tweaks are set to improve the experience over the next few weeks.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

It either needed to take one film and run with the whole story (no issue with that, it creates a narrative). OR create a new story for the ride.

This is my issue with what I've seen. They should have stuck with just one film, or made a unique story. There's nothing wrong with the quality of the theming at all - it looks cracking - but the narrative should have been consistent, and that's why for me it looks quite disappointing as they could have had so much fun with the IP.

 

[Martin]

Goldmine, what have they done to you?

 

[thefatone]

Along with the majority opinion - shame. Genuinely thought they were making a unique storyline to the ride.

I don't want to ride through an advert for the films. This is why I dislike Ice Age & rubbish like Bubbleworks. The only benefit of charlie is that it's not mix-match load of crap. It tried.

Bugger. What a waste of money.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I usually try to avoid judging dark rides from POVs, But this does look a bit random. The models seem pretty good, but it's hard to judge their size from that video. The could be life size or smurf sized!

It does seem that Raptor Attack is still the only dark ride in the history of the world to be improved by a retheme, rather than ruined. :/

 

[djtruefitt]

I really thought they would create a new theme based on Wallace creating this new "Thrill O Matic", instead its just a hash of old and new films.

 

[Ash84]

Rode Thrill-o-matic yesterday....hmmm. :/

I'll start by admiting I have never watched Wallace and Gromit in my life, so I know nothing about the story(s)/adventures they get up to.

I thought a lot of effort had gone into making it work, however it lacks any consistant story throughout the ride, to someone like me, its all very randomly placed anomatronics with the same handfull of characters not really progressing at all.

The bueatie of the Gold Mine is it was a generic theme, it was set in the past as as such, never dated (something thats already set in the past will never look out of date, be it 1970, 2012 or 2060) I'll be amazed if this is still going in 20 years time. However, its meant to deal wih the parks customers TODAY not in 20years time, and that I think it will do well.

I rate the ride 7/10, around the same as I would have the Gold Mine, however my ridership on that attraction will drop considerabley. Where as the Gold Mine was a ride I did on almost every visit to the park, this will appear on my ride count about as often as Alice In wonderland (2-3 a year)

Ash

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

The bueatie of the Gold Mine is it was a generic theme, it was set in the past as as such, never dated (something thats already set in the past will never look out of date, be it 1970, 2012 or 2060) I'll be amazed if this is still going in 20 years time. However, its meant to deal wih the parks customers TODAY not in 20years time, and that I think it will do well.

I actually disagree about Wallace & Gromit being dated in 20 years or so. The films have a timeless charm to them, and they are already being shared from generation to generation. I think it's one of the few home-grown British IPs that will stand the test of time.

 

[Ted]

The bueatie of the Gold Mine is it was a generic theme, it was set in the past as as such, never dated (something thats already set in the past will never look out of date, be it 1970, 2012 or 2060) I'll be amazed if this is still going in 20 years time. However, its meant to deal wih the parks customers TODAY not in 20years time, and that I think it will do well.

Considering that there was no special made in 13 years (1995 to 2008) yet during that time the Wallace and Gromit brand was till iconic, I seriously doubt that this ride will be dated in 20 years time. Also you can't predict the future and there might be another Wallace and Gromit short film.

 

[Benzin]

I would say the odds on another W&G film hang on how Peter Sallis goes in the future... Since he's not looking great right now, I wouldn't hold my breath...

Rest of the post stands...

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

I would say the odds on another W&G film hang on how Peter Sallis goes in the future... Since he's not looking great right now, I wouldn't hold my breath...

Rest of the post stands...

Aardman actually have a really good stand-in for Sallis. There's a Wallace & Gromit game on Xbox and PC in which Sallis wasn't involved, so they used one of the official stand-ins who sounds uncanny. It might not be the same, but the potential is still there to do another should they wish.