The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction)

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. Pooh's Hunny Hunt, located in Tokyo Disneyland, is an entirely different "E-ticket class" attraction, featuring full audio animatronics and an innovative 'trackless' ride system.

Original proposals for Disneyland's Fantasyland
After the rise in popularity of Walt Disney's film adaptation of Winnie the Pooh, Disney Imagineers made plans in the late 1970s for a Winnie the Pooh attraction at Disneyland's soon-to-be renovated Fantasyland. However in 1983, when the renovated Fantasyland reopened, a Winnie the Pooh attraction was notably absent.

Plans for location in Toontown
Following the success of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, plans were made for a new section of the park located behind Fantasyland. Called Mickey's Toontown, this section of the park would recreate the Toontown that was seen in the film. One of the rides that would have gone on the east side of this land was a Winnie the Pooh dark ride in which guests would ride in "spinnable" honey pots (much like the Mad Hatter teacup ride in Fantasyland) through what was conceptualized as the best scenes from the three Winnie the Pooh featurettes. The ride fell through before it could be made, though, and the space that this ride was to have taken up and vehicle design of this ride were worked into Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

Pooh arrives in the Magic Kingdom
Seven years later, during a period when the character was undergoing a resurgence in popularity, plans for a Winnie the Pooh attraction were approved at a different park: Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. That park's Fantasyland, much larger than the original Disneyland's, had the space to easily accommodate a new attraction. However, planners instead decided to utilize an existing structure: that of the Fantasyland attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Protesting the closure of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
When some fans found out that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was being shuttered for a Pooh attraction, they protested against its closure, organizing mass ridings along with peaceful protests. Despite cries from fans, the Walt Disney Company went ahead with its plans and the first The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction opened in June 1999, proving popular with younger crowds. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is staying during the Fantasyland expansion. But it has recently gotten a new queue resembling the Hundred Acre Wood.

Pooh's Hunny Hunt opens at Tokyo Disneyland
The next version of the attraction, considerably different in configuration, was Pooh's Hunny Hunt, which opened in Tokyo Disneyland. Due to a closure of most of the Skyways connecting Tomorrowland and Fantasyland at Disney Parks across the world, including Tokyo, a space was left in its place. With a budget of over $130 million, and featuring a never-before-used 'trackless' ride technology, Pooh's Hunny Hunt opened in late 2000 to large crowds and praise by many Disney internet fansites. To date, the attraction continues to have some of the longest wait times of any attraction at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

The Many Adventures goes to Disneyland
The only solution to complete the growing roster was to bring the Winnie the Pooh attraction to Disneyland. An original plan from the mid 1990s had an indoor and outdoor light boat ride featuring a Winnie the Pooh theme, which was shelved by 1999. So, a new dark ride was planned. However, Disneyland is the only resort of all five Disney Resorts to have little room for expansion. The only solution to open an attraction in the park was to utilize a current attraction.

Fantasyland was ruled out because it contained the least amount of available space and because of the age of its buildings; park managers anticipated that the attraction would be popular and decided to place it in an area that could better accommodate the crowds. Critter Country, a small parcel between New Orleans Square and Frontierland was ultimately chosen, since Winnie the Pooh already had his own greeting area in that land. The area already featured two popular attractions, Splash Mountain and Country Bear Jamboree, the latter being the first attraction to open in the land (then Bear Country) in 1972.

Reformatting the Country Bear Jamboree
Imagineers chose to replace the Country Bear Jamboree with Pooh due to its lack of popularity, which would require major excavation for space and leveling for the ride. When news of the former attraction's demise broke, many fans were once more upset at the loss of another classic attraction and again sought to change the park managers' minds. However, then-managers Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harris, both unpopular with Disneyland enthusiasts, ignored this and continued. The budget for the attraction was set at a reported $30,000,000, most of it dedicated to reformatting the Country Bear Jamboree show building. When it finally opened in 2003, it received large promotions by park management and lines were somewhat long at first, but quickly dropped off.

Its turnover rate with guests was low compared to older dark rides in Fantasyland. Some Disneyland enthusiast websites are generally critical of the attraction, considering it cheap and a bad reminder of the Paul Pressler/Cynthia Harris era of Disneyland's management. However, for younger and other guests, the ride is considered fun and another addition to the park. Some columnists still poke fun at it by posting images of the attraction's average wait times of 2 or 5 minutes while other similar rides might have 30, 75 or even 90 minute waits, even on days when the park might be at full capacity.

Feedback of Disneyland version
Some of the ride's advocates have commented that the ride has low waits because it is hidden in the northwest corner of the park, yet said location is adjacent to Splash Mountain, one of the most visited attractions in the park, and near the Haunted Mansion, another popular classic attraction. However, amongst all four versions of the attraction, this one is the least popular, in terms of attendance.

Hong Kong Disneyland version opens
Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened in September 2005, opened with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as the only dark ride in Fantasyland (the only other dark ride in the park is Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters). It was the only dark ride in the Hong Kong Fantasyland until the opening of It's a Small World in 2008. It was based on a variety of versions of the attraction, but is most similar to the first version at the Magic Kingdom. It remains one of the most visited attractions in Fantasyland. It also features Disney's Fastpass.

MK Fantasyland Expansion
The Many Adventures wont be afected with the major fantasyland expansion, but recently won a new outdoor queue resembling the Hundred Acre Wood

Magic Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland version
The ride vehicles go out of the load area, and arrive near a giant story-book showing Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. The vehicles arrive in the Hundred Acre Wood during a rather blustery day, with Piglet holding onto a broom while being spun around. Pooh is holding onto a balloon while trying to reach for some honey, while Eeyore patronizes him. Meanwhile Roo begins to be blown away as Kanga holds onto him.

In Owl's home, everything is scattered about, including a rather curious picture of J. Thaddeus Toad himself handing a deed over to Owl. There is also a picture of Winnie the Pooh greeting Moley (Mr. Toad's sidekick), which is flat on the floor to the right. These were placed as a subtle tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the ride that The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh replaced at the Magic Kingdom (another tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom comes in the form of a Mr. Toad statue in the Pet Cemetery outside the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square).

The ride then passes a second giant storybook page, where suddenly Tigger bounces out, whilst the ride vehicles begin to bounce like Tigger. The ride follows Tigger through the Hundred Acre Wood, where he randomly pops up. Tigger bounces upside down at one point, before the ride moves on to Pooh's home. It transpires that Tigger has pinned Pooh to the floor as he tells him about Heffalumps and Woozles. Once in Pooh's house, Pooh falls asleep, and magically floats up into the sky, as the room blackens and is lit up by fibre optics (Pooh's floating is achieved with a Pepper's Ghost illusion).

The ride vehicles then move into a strange room as Pooh floats through. There are objects with eyes and mouths, while giant woozles with jack-in-the-box necks move in front of the guests. The ride moves round some very strange objects: a purple woozle lights a heffalump, causing a giant smoke ring to come from its trunk (in the Hong Kong Disneyland version, it was replaced with a heffabee taking a picture of a tan heffalump in a green uniform), and a giant heffalump has holes that reveal the way out of the heffalump scene.

Other funhouse effects are seen as the vehicles make an escape out of the heffalump scene, indicated by an umbrella and a watering can pouring rain over a pot of honey. After this the vehicles arrive in a room painted with rain and cloud patterns, as thunder and lightning go off, and then reenters the Hundred Acre Wood, which is experiencing the rainstorm. The ride vehicles begin to "float", although this is achieved by moving the vehicles at a steady speed. Eeyore complains about the wind and then about the rain. Gopher squirts water out of his mouth. Roo, Rabbit, Tigger and Owl attempt to save Piglet from floating away, and the ride vehicles move to find Pooh flying around owing to the wind.

The vehicles move into the final scene, where everyone apart from Pooh is celebrating that the rain has gone away. Piglet was a sculpted figure with movement, while Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo are illustrations on the wall behind. The vehicles move past Pooh enjoying a load of honey, and then go past a page that reads "The End" before arriving back in the load area.

Disneyland version
Upon leaving the outdoor load area, the ride vehicles arrive indoors into the Hundred Acre Wood where Pooh is again trying to get the honey with the balloon. With Eeyore and the other characters is Gopher who appears out of his hole to greet the guests. The ride vehicles move into the rain scene, moved from the second to last scene in Florida's to the second scene in California's. Most of the things at this point are identical to Florida's version. The ride vehicles move into the shortened Tigger scene, before moving to Pooh's bedroom where a similar part to that in Florida's version concurs.

The ride vehicles move into the Heffalump and Woozles dream sequence where the woozles with jack-in-the-box necks watch the guests. This version of the Heffalumps and Woozles scene focuses on the Heffalump and Woozle characters, with the absence of the objects with human eyes and mouths. A pink Tigger pins Pooh to the floor near some honey. Some of the effects at this part of the ride are similar to those at Florida's, minus a large balloon carrying Pooh above the guests. Instead, Pooh bobs up and down in a balloon suspended above a swirling whirlpool of honey. The mechanism was the one which once lowered "Teddi Barra" from the ceiling in Country Bear Jamboree, the Audio-Animatronic theater presentation previously housed in the show building.

As the ride vehicles leave this scene, a subtle tribute to Country Bear Jamboree is suspended above the archway. The trophy heads of Max the buck, Buff the buffalo and Melvin the moose, audio-animatronics from Country Bear Jamboree, can be spotted if you look up and backwards while leaving the Heffalump/Woozle room. The heads were taken from theatre 2 of the Country Bear Playhouse. The vehicles enter the start of the finale scene where Pooh is enjoying a smackerel of honey. The Heffalumps can be seen flying off into Pooh's dreamland, prior to several of Pooh's friends tell him to wake up. Proceeding on, the ride passes Pooh's bed, before moving on to show Pooh's friends (this time all sculpted figures with movement) celebrating his birthday. As the vehicles move to the load area, several of the gifts Pooh received for his party are shown, and are moved back as the vehicles continue until they finally reach the load area.

References to Previous Attactions

 * In The Magic Kingdom's Version, thre is a contribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. There is an image of Toadie handing over the deal to the building to Owl and a picture of Pooh with Mole.
 * At the Disneyland Version, a contribute to Country Bear Jamboree is seen. The trophy heads of Max the buck, Buff the buffalo and Melvin the moose, audio-animatronics from Country Bear Jamboree, can be spotted if you look up and backwards while leaving the Heffalump/Woozle room, on the archway.