If you’ve been around Disney Parks enthusiasts long enough, eventually you’re bound to hear complaints about “book report” rides – times when Imagineers simply condense a 90-minute film into a 3-minute dark ride, sending guests passively traveling through scene after scene, in order, hitting the same notes, songs, and plot points as the film. Frankly, “book report” rides can be a bit of a bore. They’re just somewhat creatively uninteresting, aren’t they? Like, “Oh, coming up next is the scene where Ursula casts the spell. Then they’ll do ‘Kiss the Girl.’ Yep, I remember this.” These quick, three-dimensional retellings rely heavily on nostalgia (since there’s certainly not enough time to tell the full story or to earn any of the nuance and emotion that these films are so known for) and, almost always, fail to capture your favorite moment with the weight and wonder of the film.
So when Tokyo Disneyland announced a new Beauty and the Beast E-Ticket dark ride, there was little doubt among fans that it would be a “book report” ride… but at least it would be a well-deserved one! After all, surprisingly few anchor attractions have come from Disney’s ’90s staples, and Beauty and the Beast is often considered one of the greatest films of all time! So if any timeless tale in Disney’s portfolio deserved an epic E-Ticket retelling, it would be Belle’s.
Fans could practically picture it: shuffling through a French town just steps behind Belle as villagers sing of her oddity and smarts; entering a Tavern to the robust chorus of “Gaston,” traveling through wolf-infested wooded with our frightened heroine and coming upon a castle where great mystery awaits, passing through the forbidden West Wing, watching the Beast and Belle dance together in a snowstorm…
Yet when The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast opened in September 2020, none of those scenes awaited within… So is Tokyo Disneyland’s Beauty and the Beast ride a “book report”? Weirdly, no. It’s something even stranger… and maybe, something entirely new. And as for the mixed reception YouTube viewers have given this distinctly different dark ride experience? Well, we’ll let you be the judge…
Technology tells a story
For about as long as Disney Parks have existed, Imagineers have been expanding their toolbox of storytelling tech. Seriously, to look into the kinds of rides and on-ride narratives at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and beyond is to see storytelling change as new technologies enter Walt Disney Imagineering’s portfolio.
Think of Disneyland’s 1955 Opening Day dark rides – Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. On these zippy dark rides through painted panels and flat facade sets, Imagineers had envisioned that guests would become the hero of each respective story; that they’d personally experience the frights of the Wicked Witch, the wonders of flight over London, and the mayhem of motormania. That’s why, for the first thirty years of the park’s history, guests wouldn’t actually see Snow White, Peter Pan, or Mr. Toad in the rides bearing their names.
By 1967, think of how things had changed! The invention of a high-capacity, high-efficiency ride system (for “it’s a small world”) inspired a big narrative change in Imagineering. On Pirates of the Caribbean, guests sailed through larger-than-life scenes picking up bits and pieces of conversation. Walt likened the experience to being at a cocktail party, where guests might hear new dialogue on each ride-through.
The next massive leap forward was, without a doubt, the invention of the simulator. On STAR TOURS and Indiana Jones Adventure, a narrative wasn’t just unfolding around guests; it was happening to them; because of them. The age of the simulator set a new standard by not just allowing guests to pass through Imagineered worlds, but to be a part of them; to finally become the hero of the story Walt had hoped back with those Fantasyland classics.
When Tokyo Disneyland debuted Pooh’s Hunny Hunt in 2001, it, too, seemed like a radical technological leap. Now, multiple vehicles at a time could be pulsed into a ride, diverging down different paths, reversing and turning in different directions, and even dancing around one another. Through its subsequent installations in Mystic Manor, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, STAR WARS: Rise of the Resistance, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, LPS dark ride technology has indeed expanded Imagineering’s capabilities by allowing vehicles to circle around rooms, stop for show scenes, and separate and regroup from other vehicles as needed. And since multiple vehicles could enter a scene at once, they could also linger a moment rather than rushing forward to make room for the next car in the name of capacity.
So when Disney announced their newest trackless dark ride, fans took note. Given the ride system’s auspicious debut and its headlining uses since, would Tokyo Disneyland’s Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast become a new magnum opus of trackless dark rides?
Tales as old as time
In 2009 (and 2011), the big news out of the semi-annual D23 Expo was the announcement of a long-sought-after New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Thought to be a response to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the transformation of the eastern half of the park’s Fantasyland would at last strip away the pastel tournament tent style that Disneyland had undone in the ’80s. But Magic Kingdom’s revitalized storybook land would borrow from the formula Hogsmeade had invented by bringing to life mini-areas (what Disney would call them today, “neighborhoods”) themed primarily to two films from the Disney Renaissance.
Here at Theme Park Tourist, our recent movie-by-movie dive into the rides of the Disney Renaissance revealed something surprising. It turns out that – despite the generation-defining slate of animated films Disney released in the ’90s – even the fairy tale pillars of the Disney Renaissance (1989’s The Little Mermaid and 1991’s Beauty and the Beast) hadn’t exactly had their day in Disney Parks. New Fantasyland would fix it, with “neighborhoods” recreating Prince Eric’s seaside castle and Belle’s provincial French town.
Even if New Fantasyland would finally gift these two timeless Disney hits with permanent, built-in recognition in the Parks, what they didn’t feature between them was a single E-Ticket ride. Sure, Beauty and the Beast would gain the unique walkthrough / meet-and-greet / mini-show Enchanted Tales with Belle and the gotta-see-it, hot-ticket Be Our Guest Restaurant. The Little Mermaid would fare better by way of receiving a family dark ride, carbon copied from Disney California Adventure. But sure, these were not the end-all-be-all of Disney’s love letters to two of their biggest films ever… Right? (A later revision to the plans added the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to act as the land’s anchor, sacrificing the Lost Legend: Snow White’s Scary Adventures in exchange.)
In 2016, the Oriental Land Company (owners and operators of the Tokyo Disney Resort) brought their own project to the table. Reconfiguring grander plans they’d initially released in 2015, Tokyo Disneyland would begin work on a New Fantasyland that would focus almost entirely on Beauty and the Beast. The sensational new mini-land would bring to life Belle’s village, the Fantasyland Forest Theater… and a new E-Ticket ride themed to the film… to our count, the first ever E-Ticket ride themed to a movie of the Disney Renaissance…
Far flung fantasies
Naturally, it’s not unusual for casual theme park fans and Imagineering fans to focus on the Disney Parks in the United States. Sure, there’s a sense that cool things are happening across the sea, but for most Americans, the Disney Parks in France, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo are merely “bucket list” destinations. Sure it’s mind-boggling to step into the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor, or to imagine what the Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre á la Lune must’ve been like… but generally, fans of the U.S. parks seem to agree that what happens overseas stays overseas. In other words, “Wake me up when TRON Lightcycle Power Run comes to Magic Kingdom,” right?
Typically, it’s only once an international Imagineering project actually opens that Disney fans pile on board the bandwagon, begging Disney to bring the finished project stateside. (And yes, we, too, await Mystic Manor’s arrival in California Adventure, or Journey to the Center of the Earth coming to Animal Kingdom). Those first point-of-view videos captured by adventurous theme park explorers are usually American fans’ first real glimpse into what Disney is doing outside of the U.S. (and usually, outside of America’s tried-and-true portfolio of Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars).
So sure, among Disney Parks fans, there was a latent sense that Tokyo Disney Resort was building a Beauty and the Beast attraction. And doubtlessly – given the resort’s history – it would be the definitive, no-holds-barred, Blue Sky, un-budget-cut version of a Disney Renaissance E-Ticket. But after its 2016 announcement, most Disney Parks enthusiasts simply turned their attention back to stateside projects…
Until about two years ago. That’s when the first mouth-watering teaser from Walt Disney Imagineering suddenly elevated expectations for this Japanese E-Ticket, and began the preemtive chorus of pleas to bring it to Florida and California. In a surprisingly robust reveal, Disney posted a sneak peek behind the making of the ride that’s worthy of the Imagineering Story. Sure, fans got the footage we expected – like how artisans carefully sculpted and crafted every square inch of the park’s then-under-construction recreation of the Beast’s castle, shaming Magic Kingdom’s Polly Pocket miniature version. But it also revealed something big…
One of Disney’s more quiet revolutions in the last decade or two has been its incredible advances in Audio-Animatronics technology. Since our Countdown of the Best Animatronics on Earth was initially written in 2014, we’ve found ourselves updating the list every few months as unbelievable Audio-Animatronics debut in seemingly every headlining Disney ride. The so-called A-100 figures – operating off of electronics rather than fluid hydraulics – are capable of unimaginable realism. But even still, we hadn’t seen anything quite like the figures that would star in the new Tokyo ride.
A figure of Belle, seating in a plush chair with a book in hand.
A figure of Belle, frightened and shrouded in a travel coat, arm outstretched with a flickering lantern as she walks – yes, walks.
A figure of Belle standing with her horse, Phillipe, as in the film’s “Belle (Reprise”).
A figure of Belle and the Beast standing together in their “Beauty and the Beast” yellow dress and suitcoat.
Now there was no denying: given Tokyo Disney Resort’s seemingly bountiful budgets, Disney’s trackless dark ride technology, radical advances in the Audio-Animatronics area, and one of Disney’s most beloved, sensational, adventurous, and epic movies ever, Tokyo’s Beauty and the Beast ride would be among the greatest E-Tickets of all time. For two years, fans readied for this ride’s debut. They fitted blueprints into Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, imagining how the ride could be duplicated back to the U.S.; they dreamed of puttering through provincial towns, racing through wolf-infested woods with Belle, dancing through a tavern as villagers sing an ode to “Gaston,” and watching as the Beast and Gaston battle along stormy rooftops…
Then the ride opened, and what awaited inside wans’t exactly what most had expected.
Disenchanted?
From “being” the characters in Fantasyland favorites, to drifting through scenes in Pirates, to starring roles thanks to the simulator, it’s not every day that Disney Parks introduce a whole new genre of guest experience. But when The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast debuted September 28, 2020 (six months after scheduled, and in a country closed to outside visitors thanks to COVID-19), fans gathered around YouTube to find that Disney had indeed rewritten the rules of the ride once again. And this time, reception was… well… mixed.
The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast is a trackless, LPS dark ride – and the first of Disney’s batch to also include a motion-base platform. Technologically, it’s among Disney’s coolest. I mean, 6 ten-person teacups are dispatched into the ride at once – an awesome capacity and a literal and figurative dance of vehicle positioning that’s astounding to watch. But narratively, this new attraction is very unlike any that’s come before.
Is it a “book report”? Weirdly, not exactly. It’s both something more than that, and something less. Maybe it’s just something different. If you haven’t, watch for yourself and see if you can figure out how to categorize this new ride:
Does the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast retell the story of the film, condensing its 90-minute plot into a 3-minute ride? Not really… For example, the ride’s first scene – right off the bat! – is “Be Our Guest,” a song that occurs 38 minutes into the original film. Guests spend two full minutes in that scene, merely dancing along to the showstopper as the room gradually transforms with more and more projection and props. The Belle Audio-Animatronic (that many seemed to assume was reading a book or telling a story to frame the ride) merely sits at the head of a table, smiling for the duration.
From there, guests’ teacups travel into the second scene, “Something There,” the film’s (underrated!) unspoken love long as Belle and the Beast see each others’ better sides. Here, the six teacups spend over two minutes in a relatively barren scene, circling around surprisingly simple, snowy scenery. There’s not much to do for those 120 seconds except appreciate the Belle and Beast animatronics… but two minutes of instrumental is a lot of time to scrutinize the lovely figures which look wonderful but, frankly, don’t do a whole lot. In other words, while they might’ve been stunning in passing, as the central (and only) focus of an extended scene, it feels like the ride needs more. Even having placed this scene in the castle’s library rather than its obviously-contrived and stark “outdoor courtyard” would be a bit of an improvement.
Traveling on, a corridor of mini-scenes show Belle and the Beast after their famous ballroom dance (insinuating we just missed it), then the shadows of intruders attacking, then the Beast’s revival and return to human form (via an impressive Pepper’s Ghost effect and a projection-based transformation of the castle’s hallway) in a rapid-fire, 60-second showcase.
Finally, it’s off to the ride’s third major scene – and its finale: Belle and a transformed Prince dancing together in the Grand Ballroom. By far, these are the most fasincating of the ride’s Audio-Animatronics figures in practice, given that the ballroom dance between the two looks so effortless and real. But this scene, too, lasts a full two minutes, with only changing lighting and the looping Audio-Animatronics to keep guests’ attention. As “Beauty and the Beast” crescendoes, the teacups exit the Ballroom and align with an unload area.
Our Thoughts
It’s honestly quite tough to compare the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast to anything you’ll find at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort. By default, the closest comparison might be The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, but even then, the Little Mermaid dark ride uses a more traditional ride system to tell a more traditional “book report” story.
In this case, Disney Imagineers seemed to use the trackless dark ride technology for its massive capacity (able to dispatch six very large, 10-person vehicles into the ride at once) and its grace. Paired with the motion base, these vehicles can “dance” around each scene, circling the room as riders sway to the songs. It’s not really meant to introduce the story of the film or even to relive it, but to participate in three of its most showstopping songs. The atmosphere appears to be one of a show, where you might foot-tap, clap, or even sing along out loud. Interestingly, it seems that Tokyo Disneyland – in some ways – revived the concept of a Beauty and the Beast Audio-Animatronic dinner show once developed for Disneyland Paris, and simply decided to have guests ride through it rather than eat through it.
To our thinking, Tokyo Disneyland’s new ride is a category all its own; not a “book report” ride, but a “sing-along ride.” Culturally, we’d expect that fits very well with the Tokyo Disney Resort, where Japanese guests queue for hours and hours to meet obscure characters, enter lotteries to gain access to shows, and politely, unobtrusively (and without flash!) photograph stage shows with great fervor. It’s not even unusual for the resort’s shows to capture the soundtrack from a film, but completely shuffled so as to make the flow of the story practically illegible. To that end, Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast feels like it fits right in; a larger-than-life, high capacity show with performers who never get tired and never need a break.
But after the first videos of this distinctly-Japanese E-Ticket surfaced, suddenly many fans changed their tune about bringing a clone of the experience back home. Suddenly, some fans who’d once wished that EPCOT would recieved a copy of Beauty and the Beast rather than the Modern Marvel: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure decided they were content with their Disneyland Paris hand-be-down. It’s definitely true that the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast probably isn’t exactly what you thought it would be; it’s probably likely that every Audio-Animatronic Disney teased ended up used in a very different context than you imagined.
You might even feel the unspeakable notion that Tokyo Disneyland’s new ride… well… isn’t the Beauty and the Beast ride you’d personally waited 30 years for. Maybe it’s that the new ride is tuned into a cultural difference between the American and Japanese audience. Maybe it just needs to be seen in person to be believed – an impossibility during the ride’s initial opening months due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
But now we leave it to you: would you like to see this new “sing-along dark ride” added to EPCOT’s France, or to Disneyland or Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland? Does it feel like it fits among Fantasyland classics? More to the point, is it a new anchor, or a rare miss for Disney Imagineering that fails to capture the romance, adventure, and story of its source material? Let us know in the comments below or when you share this story with friends!
