| Toy Story Midway Mania! | |
|---|---|
 | |
 The former entrance to Toy Story Midway Mania! at Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| Area | Pixar Place (2008–2018) Toy Story Land (2018–present) |
| Coordinates | 28°21′22″N81°33′41″W / 28.355991°N 81.561285°W /28.355991; -81.561285 |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | May 31, 2008 (2008-5-31) (Pixar Place) June 30, 2018 (2018-6-30) (Toy Story Land) |
| Closing date | June 11, 2018 (2018-6-11) (Pixar Place) |
| Replaced | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It! |
 Lightning Lane available | |
| Disney California Adventure | |
| Area | Paradise Pier (2008-2018) Pixar Pier (2018–present) |
| Coordinates | 33°48′17″N117°55′26″W / 33.8045901°N 117.9238468°W /33.8045901; -117.9238468 |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | June 17, 2008 (2008-6-17) |
| Lightning Lane available | |
| Tokyo DisneySea | |
| Area | American Waterfront |
| Coordinates | 35°37′28″N139°53′13″E / 35.6245305°N 139.8869587°E /35.6245305; 139.8869587 |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | July 9, 2012 (2012-7-9) |
 Disney Premier Access available | |
| Ride statistics | |
| Attraction type | Shooting dark ride |
| Manufacturer | Sansei Technologies |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Theme | Toy Story Midwaycarnival games |
| Music | Randy Newman Jennifer Hammond |
| Vehicle type | Game Tram |
| Riders per vehicle | 8 |
| Rows | 4 |
| Riders per row | 2 |
| Duration | 5-6 minutes |
| Queue host | Mr. Potato Head |
| Ride hosts | Woody Buzz Lightyear |
| Sponsor | Kao Corporation (Tokyo DisneySea) |
 Wheelchair accessible | |
 Assistive listening available | |
 Closed captioning available | |
Toy Story Midway Mania! (also known asToy Story Mania!) is an interactive4-Dtheme park attraction, located at threeDisney theme parks:Disney's Hollywood Studios at theWalt Disney World Resort,Disney California Adventure at theDisneyland Resort andTokyo DisneySea atTokyo Disney Resort.
Designed byWalt Disney Imagineering and inspired byDisney·Pixar'sToy Story franchise, the attraction was first unveiled during a press conference atWalt Disney World in January 2007. TheFlorida version was officially opened byTim Allen on May 31, 2008, on the same date that the Buzz Lightyear action figure launched onboardSpace Shuttle flightSTS-124 (whose objective was to deliver the largest module of the space station -Kibō, theJapanese Experiment Module pressurized section, developed byJAXA),[1][2] while the California version officially opened on June 17, 2008.[3][4] The Japan version of the attraction opened on July 9, 2012.[5]
Park guests wear3-D glasses (Carnival Games Goggles) aboard spinning vehicles that travel through virtual environments based on classic carnivalmidway games.[6][7] Ride vehicles seat up to eight in four back-to-back pairs. Small children are also able to ride on an adult's lap if they are facing forward with their legs securely underneath the safety bar.
The attraction features five mini-games after a practice round, where the player can hit targets from 100 to 5,000 points. Each mini game includes at least one "Easter egg" that can trigger additional targets or gameplay changes. In order, the games are:
Each guest's score is recorded by an onboard display screen as points are acquired with individual toy cannons firing simulated projectiles at virtual targets.Toy Story characters includingWoody,Hamm,Buzz Lightyear,Rex, Trixie and many more characters appear during the attraction's different games.
Similar technology had been used in Disney attractions such asPirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold atDisneyQuest and severalBuzz Lightyear attractions. According to Disney, it is the first attraction created simultaneously by Walt Disney Imagineering for two theme parks.[8]
The line at both parks features a largeMr. Potato HeadAudio-Animatronic figure that interacts with guests through pre-recorded snippets of dialogue performed by late comedianDon Rickles, who voiced the character in theToy Story films. The sophisticated figure identifies people in the audience, sings and tells jokes.
Only five mini-games can be used at a time. So far, only one game has left the attraction. On May 21, 2010, the original dart throwing game, Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop, was replaced with "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts" (updated with the release ofToy Story 3).[9]
At its debut, Toy Story Midway Mania! was one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering, costing an estimated $80 million to design and build.[6] It marked the company's first use ofindustrial Ethernet for a ride's control system.[13] Many of the parts for the attraction's control system came from two of Disney's corporate sponsors,Siemens AG (fromSpaceship Earth) andHewlett-Packard (fromMission: Space).[13] The ride was the biggest system that had been built at the time and ran on one of Disney's most advanced automation systems to date.[14]
The control system is divided into three components: one for the ride vehicles, one for the games and one more for the attraction's special effects.[13]Programmable logic controllers in the vehicles alert the control system wirelessly viaProfiNET RT to the vehicle's speed and location. The central controller then sends its instructions back to the vehicles using a hard-wired network within the track. The one-way communications flow adds a factor of safety, even though the wireless network is protected against outside interference, such as adenial-of-service attack.[13]
The attraction features more than 150PCs, which includes oneHPWindows XP PC for each of Midway Mania's 56 game screens, as well as others that control the special effects at each game.[13] At the game screens, two tracking systems provide the game control system with the vehicle's exact location, making sure that gameplay is not affected by even minor differences in vehicle position. According to Jody Gerstner, executive director of show and ride controls, "The game doesn’t care if the car parks in the same spot every time. It just needs to know where each car has actually parked, and it can compensate."[13] Additional sensors in the spring-action shooter provide information on its orientation, which is fine-tuned using data on the position of the ride vehicle at the screen and the rotation of the seats on the vehicle base.[13]
All three sub-systems work together to handle any contingency. For example, if a delay or other vehicle stoppage is detected (such as might occur if the loading and unloading of the ride vehicles is taking longer than expected), the control system can command the affected game screens to launch a non-scoring practice round, so that guests may continue to shoot targets while they wait. Similarly, it can instruct the show control system to play an audio spiel telling guests about the delay.[13]
As the games are software-based, changes can be made to the attraction's lineup of games without significant effort. In April 2010, Disney Parks announced plans to replaceBo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop withRex and Trixie's Dino Darts. The change took place on May 21, 2010.[15] The new game includes one of the new characters from theToy Story 3 feature film, which was released in June 2010.[15]
In October 2014, Disney's Hollywood Studios began testing a new procedure that would require all riders to have FastPass reservations for the attraction.[16] The test, scheduled to last only a few days, eliminated the standby line that is used by visitors who have not already obtained a FastPass ticket for the ride, either because they had all been claimed or they were holding FastPasses for other attractions.[16] Some analysts suggest that this process could become more common in years to come as amusement parks attempt to keep guests from getting frustrated or waiting in extremely long lines.[16]
The attraction is being referred to as bothToy Story Midway Mania! andToy Story Mania!. While the attraction marquees and some in-park signage read the former, the latter has been used in press releases to the news media,[17][18] used in both resorts' advertisements, and on the disneyland.com, disneyworld.com, and official promotional website for the attraction, along with attraction merchandise. Websites for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World both identified the attraction with the registered trademark "Toy Story Midway Mania!" as of September 2014. As of February 2019, the attraction is known as "Toy Story Mania!", except for the Disney California Adventure version which is still known as “Toy Story Midway Mania!”
Music for the queue area was arranged and recorded by Jennifer Hammond atCapitol Studios with a live orchestra. More than an hour of music was recorded, all based on the first twoToy Story scores composed byRandy Newman.[19] It went on to be featured at Toy Story Lands across the globe.
Disney Interactive Studios released aToy Story Mania!video game in September 2009 exclusively for theNintendoWii console.[20] The game features gameplay and levels similar to those in the theme park attractions, along with original levels and features.[20]Jakks Pacific also released their "Plug It In & Play TV Game" version ofToy Story Mania! in 2010 featuring the original levels & Infini-D technology (Infini-D glasses are included). A version forXbox 360 andPlayStation 3 was released on October 30, 2012, and developed byHigh Voltage Software.[21]
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| Hollywood Boulevard |  | |
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| Echo Lake | ||
| Grand Avenue | ||
| Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge | ||
| Toy Story Land | ||
| Animation Courtyard | ||
| Sunset Boulevard | ||
| Entertainment | ||
| Restaurants | ||
| Future | ||
| Other | ||
