Re: [The Smiler] Ride Reviews (Spoilers!)
To try and disprove a few people's notions that I don't "get" the Smiler, simply because my review wasn't glistening, I'll try and go into more detail about the footage on the videos and what I thought about it all.
The first video screen I talked about was the one before you enter the projection mapping room. The fake disclaimers such as being told not to ride if you have a "yellow headache" or "throbbing earlobes" is clearly an attempt at humour and an obvious link to the disclaimers read out by the Lord of Darkness in the Oblivion queue. But the disclaimers given in the Oblivion queue don't last too long so as not to overdo it. Smiler's video on the other hand keeps showing more and more and you quickly forget the others that the video presents because of how many it tries to cram in, as though they were trying their hardest to make sure you find it funny.
Compare it to someone saying the same kinds of meaningless jokes over and over again. The random nature of one or two to begin with is funny, but if they say more which are similar and continue with the same 'random' gags, the first few lose their effect (just look at the way in which the Monty Python 'Spam' song can divide people
). Its usually a child that churns out the same or similar jokes (or Family Guy just doing something weird when they don't know how to move the plot along, etc...), but here I'd expected a little more variation. That's not to say it's all bad as focusing individually on things such as a "yellow headache" do fit the context of the ride as there's clearly no such thing but because it implies that there is, besides the fact that it's obscure (which would probably create a little tension for a few who may not "get" it, as some might say), it also highlights the human testing and research base theme for X-Sector by linking the ride with the field of medical research, just like Oblivion does.
It is relevant and it is humourous, but where I dislike the video is due to the way in which there's no variation. Where the Lord of Darkness differs is that he also laughs about people who may actually be afraid of the ride, the way he uses unconventional insults such as calling people who may crumble at the thought of experiencing Oblivion for themselves as "basket cases" and the way in which they relate the weight of a shuttle to that of an elephant. If Oblivion's video kept describing different random things that weigh the same as a shuttle, would the original elephant link be as funny? Maybe, but the effect would be weakened and it becomes clear that they're trying to tell you that THIS IS THE FUNNY BIT SO YOU HAVE TO LAUGH NOW.
Now on to the shop videos. The reason before why I said that I think they're not quite as funny as they perhaps could have been was the way in which they focus on products far more than they should. We're in a shop, we get it. We're surrounded by the products you're showing so you don't need to focus on them for so long. It might not have been so bad, had they not done the mirrors adding products on to people stood in front of them, but the combination strikes me as a little odd. There's a big, big focus on products. I think more could have been done to vary the videos so that this wouldn't have stood out so much for me and others who were watching them whilst we waited for the ORPs to be printed. Perhaps adverts showing a more 'joyful way of life', advertising other aspects of being a "smiling advocate" and hinting at some kind of reason for being corrected such a 'special project' being worked on for all advocates (to also further add mystery and depth to the Smiler and X-Sector theme) might have been more effective, but all we really get is a QVC style channel. It's funny in itself, and an original idea for a theme park, but again, I think the idea, much like the yellow, smiles and general concept of the Smiler itself, is focused on far too much, as if the creators became so absorbed in it that they forgot about variation.
Too much of something weakens the effect it can have on people, hence why Fawlty Towers (
) was only 12 episodes long rather than 50.
But as I've already mentioned, the Smiler's theme concept is definitely a unique one and it's Alton Towers down to a T and I doubt you'd find a ride with a similar idea anywhere else. Unlike Th13teen, I'm don't doubt Smiler deserving the 'SW' status (even though that's also something people laugh about because it's just a code and nothing else, apparently). Smiler could be more refined and some of the satirical and comedic elements could have been a little more refined or subtle (i.e. the washing machine animation blip on the Marmaliser being a short and simple nod to the enthusiast community who mulling around a hypothesised rotating element that would have clearly been impractical and pointless).
I do stand by what I said, but that doesn't mean that I think it's an awful ride. Surely an 8.6/10 rating is more than enough evidence that I liked it?
