The Off Topic Topic

[alex_1]

Didn't feel it was necessary to make a whole new thread about it so I thought I'd post here. Superman Escape was on enough ballots to make it on the Mitch Hawker Poll for the first time in a few years. Nice to see it placed a very respectable #21 in the world! That makes it the highest rated Intamin Accelerator, with it surprisingly placing 9 spots above Storm Runner.

[pin142]

Hey Dreamworld did great too in managing to crack the top 200 with Tower of Terror at 168. Maybe they will be lucky enough to steal 150th from Scooby next year. New additions saw the El Loco beat the Skyloop by 39 places (182nd vs 221st). Dreamworld again choosing well with new additions.

[kujotess]

Does anyone have a video of the Looney Tunes Easter show that's at Movie World right now?

Edited March 29, 2013 by kujotess

[JD_bunnies_supporter]

http://movieworld.com.au/latest-news/lot-sale.aspx Although it was last year, theres some pictures of the old cars from Lethal Weapon, and another random theme park stuff that were being sold in that auction. Not sure if anyone else had come across this.

[buzzkill13]

Nevermind - wrong sale

Edited April 2, 2013 by buzzkill13

[westical]

http://movieworld.com.au/latest-news/lot-sale.aspx Although it was last year, theres some pictures of the old cars from Lethal Weapon, and another random theme park stuff that were being sold in that auction. Not sure if anyone else had come across this.

Refer previous page.

[Gazza]

Just discovered this recently, but who reckons this is the coolest ride advert they've ever seen?

[JacobSibbald]

That left me speechless!

[mba2012]

That is an amazing video.

[Linus1995]

That's awesome... I've always liked it when theme parks use more 'movie-like' advertisements. I think it really adds to the mystery and theme of the ride. Instead of the stock footage of the coaster with the standard "A dazzling 50m drop with 10 inversions! Ride now!" Nothing against the marketing people at MW, but I believe the marketing of SE could have been done much better than it was, not saying that it was bad though! Although I understand there are many time and budget limitations on marketing things, if they focused more on the dark ride section and the idea of a subway caving in PLUS the speed and whatnot, then maybe it would have been more appealing. End of my mini rant. I just really like it when parks do ads like this

[pin142]

It seems that this has finally sold, begs the question of who was stupid enough to buy it. Although at 1.1 million + shipping it is well within the budget of a certain local park known for making poor decisions of late. Severely doubt that is where it will end up though. http://www.intermarkridegroup.com/roller-coasters/vekoma-boomrang-rc1300

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Eyes peeled peeps....... let's see where this ends up...

[themeparkgc]

Screamscape recently reported that the ride has been seen on trucks in the US state of Georgia with labels stating it is going to a Wonderland park in India. Here's the full post:

One of our readers came across a truck hauling a section of old yellow Arrow / Vekoma style track across Georgia (USA) this past week. One of the dark colored support pieces below it had some interesting words spray painted on it as well... “Mumbai” (as in India) and what looks like “Wonderland”. The identity of the track was a mystery to me for most of the day. At first I could only think of two old retired Arrow coasters that had yellow track and dark supports: Double Loop at Geauga Lake and Python at Busch Gardens Tampa, both of which were torn to pieces and sold for scrap. With a little help the identity of the coaster was discovered as being the Zoomerang, a Vekoma Boomerang, at the former Alabama Adventures park, since renamed Splash Adventure when they closed the amusement side of the park after the 2011 season. This coaster has some serious miles on it… and may be the most well traveled coaster in the world. It started out at World Expo Park in Australia back in 1988 where it was known as Titan, then it moved to Wonderland Sydney as Demon from 1992 to 2004. From there it make the journey to America to become Zoomerang from 2005 to 2011. As for the new destination of the coaster... while there is a Wonderland park in India, it is located far inland about 850 miles to the North-East from Mumbai. Mumbai however is just the port city and Nhava Sheva is the largest container port in all of India. In the meantime… if you are traveling the highways of Georgia, keep your eyes peeled for more track. Another piece on a different truck was spotted again just a few hours ago.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Interesting that it may be headed to a SECOND 'wonderland'

[kujotess]

Do you think Sea World will be getting this?

[MaxxTheMonster]

So it seems MW is joining forces with the Pyjama foundation and having a PJ party themed night event ...

"Experience the wonder of Warner Bros. Movie World by night including all your favourite rides* & attractions in the comfort of your PJ’s. By attending this amazing event, you’ll be helping to support children in foster care. There will be live entertainment, face painting, photo booths & prizes. Plus help us to break the world record for the biggest Pyjama Party of all time!"

Would be nice to see them do this sort of thing more frequently in conjunction with other foundations to raise money as well as giving the public other nights to attend instead of just 2 periods during the year.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

rides*...

*excludes wild west falls

[MaxxTheMonster]

True but given the fact that all of their night events have WWF closed not much of a suprise.

[joz]

It's at night and in the middle of winter. Damn straight WWF will be closed, who on Earth would want to go on it? Also just in response to the previous commenter - I haven't seen any of the new Spongebob stuff, but it does seen more suited to a theatre than the Spongebob ride film that's in there now. A few 4D effects and a new movie with random elements? Yes please!

[Reanimated35]

Didn't really seem thread worthy. I'm sure an admin can move if they think otherwise.

So apart from a completely bullshit headline and opening to the story, we have this...

DISNEYLAND in Southern California has been evacuated following an explosion.

Initial reports indicate the blast happened in a bin in the area of Mickey's Toontown.

''Was sitting in Toontown at Disneyland and something exploded in the trash can. I felt the sound waves of it and Toontown is closed,'' Shawna Gonzales tweeted.

Authorities said the blast may have been due to dry ice in or near a trash can.

No injuries were reported in the blast, which was called in about 5.30pm Tuesday (local time), Sgt Robert Dunn of the Anaheim Police Department said.

''As a precaution we have evacuated Toontown,' Sgt Dunn told The LA Times.

He said the dry ice appeared to have been placed in a plastic bottle. Officers on the scene were gathering evidence.

Fire crews are at the scene.

A bomb squad from the Orange County Sheriff's Department was responding. No other details were immediately available. ***

Bullshit aside, it will be interesting to see what it actually turns out to be.

For those who hate news.com.au writing (don't we all)...

>Small explosion in trash bin in Toontown, Disneyland, CA

>Toowtown closed - not the whole park as mentioned in the title

>Might be related to dry ice in or near the bin

>Investigations continuing

Edited May 29, 2013 by reanimated35

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I think Rappa needs to re-write this one...

[jjuttp]

Someone must have gotten frustrated with Push....

[colliric_855]

The technical department at Village Cinemas is currently investigating the possibility of installing Australias' first outdoor 3D Cinema at Coburg Drivein.... They are investigating the feasibility of installing a Dolby3D installation there, instead of the usual RealD. Dolby have confirmed their 3D technology works outdoors(RealD doesn't)... Interesting stuff... So I thought I'd post it here...

Edited May 30, 2013 by colliric_855

[rappa]

What does RealD's technology have to do with outdoors? It's all to do with the screen surface, nothing to do with the environment.

You really are an expert on all things, master at none aren't you?

[colliric_855]

What does RealD's technology have to do with outdoors? It's all to do with the screen surface, nothing to do with the environment.

You really are an expert on all things, master at none aren't you?

Yes it is... The quality takes a big hit when watching outdoors... Why? because the Screen's Brightness is already significantly dimmed by the 3D effect, the silver screen and the polarized glasses, and outdoor films already tend to be even "darker". What I mean is that light may reflect on the screen occassionally, causing the image to be somewhat harder to make out, and to minimise this, outdoor cinemas cannot run films until well after sunset. Not to mention you may be sitting further away from the screen and looking through a windshield too. In order for RealD to work outdoors as well as it does inside, the distribution companies would have to produce seperate much brighter prints of each film just for projection outdoors(which they will NEVER do, why would you?) in order to accont for issues that only Outdoor cinemas suffer from. This is NOT the case with Dolby3D which has a higher fidelity, less ghosting and non-polarized 3D glasses(but the glasses therefore cost alot more).

Additional to that, RealD does not work with conventional projection screens, which most current outdoor cinemas are. Outdoor screens are more difficult to replace than indoor ones, especially Drive-in screens. You effectively have to bulldose it to the ground and build a new one(which for a drive in would naturally cause business issues, given they can only run films at certain limited times, and only have 3 or 4 screens at most) ... or if you've got the space, just build a new one(still much more expensive, and heck most Driveins already useup whatever land they have... Think about it, replace a screen at a hefty cost, or just install a better more expensive 3D technology that may have more expensive non-standard glasses, but none the less works on the already existing screen and doesn't suffer from the same brightness issues, and overall would probably be cheaper to install in your particular outdoor cinema, given installing the other one would mean bringing out the wrecking crew and having a despretly needed Screen out of action for potentially months, and you would be getting potentially a technology that wouldn't even work well.

So I'm glad they are looking into this at Village, they obviously know the Coburg Drivein does need to be able to run 3D films(to remain somewhat profitable), and now that Dolby3D has been tested outdoors and works, they could certainly take that option. Why do you think RealD has never been put on an outdoor screen despite the projectors being able to do it(particularily at Village, who have replaced all their projectors including the outdoor cinema ones, they also replaced many of their screens too... but not the Outdoor ones, because it costs too much to justify).

Here are two great sites:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1085037/reald-vs-dolby-3d

http://www.slashfilm.com/qa-best-3d-format/

The "Silver Screen Issues" or "Reflection Problems" mentioned in these two is the reason why RealD cannot be used in outdoor cinemas currently. Dolby3D can be customized at a higher brightness with "Dual Projection" as is stated in that Slashfilm article.

And the world's first installation of an outdoor 3D setup explaining why they choose to use Dolby3D, "It's more advanced" and "It's the only one that works outdoors":

http://www.galaxydriveintheatre.com/faqs/

http://www.cinelinx.com/movie-news/item/654-north-texas-home-to-worlds-first-3d-drive-in-theater.html

Edited May 30, 2013 by colliric_855