A Visit to the Muppet Show
Nov. 26th, 2005 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosOn Day 2 of Actually Being in the Parks, we hit Disney's California Adventure, a first for me.
Wandering through the Hollywood Boulevard area, we almost walked past the "Muppets in 3-D" attraction. I might have continued on by -- although I've always loved the Muppets -- but the guide books all agreed this was a Must-See.
The entry leads guests into a green room area, where two sets of three-in-a-row tv screens display a preshow of the cast getting ready to do the show. The broadcast is arranged so each of the three screens shows 1/3 of a stage, so characters move from one screen to another as they cross. The room has a lot of set dressing, including costume and props boxes for the various characters. There's also a carpet to sit down on, if you want to.
The main viewing room looks like the auditorium from the original Muppet Show -- including a balcony box inhabited by life-size Statler and Waldorf muppets who kibbitz and heckle throughout the show. Everything is gold and red, and the seats are the comfiest in the park: red plush, with thick cushions. (In itself worth the visit, after a long day of walking!)
What's neat about both this 3-D attraction and (the far less satisfying) "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" is that the Disney designers don't content themselves with 3-D effects. They reach out and touch you -- and at the Muppet Show, the characters literally come off the screen. When Miss Piggy sings, soap bubbles rain down from the ceiling. When she gets so outraged by Bean the Bunny's misguided attempts to help that she fires him, and he runs away, he appears in the box opposite Statler and Waldorf: a real live (if you'll forgive the expression) muppet, not an onscreen image. When the gang realizes Bean has run away and goes to look for him, Sweetumps comes out and is there in front of the audience. There is an orchestra of penguins in the pit. At the very end, a canon fires from behind the crowd, and blast holes appear in the walls.
The 3D effects were very good, and it was a lot of fun to have Kermit & Co coming out of the screen to talk to us.
At the end, I walked out feeling like I had really been at the Muppet Show.
Wandering through the Hollywood Boulevard area, we almost walked past the "Muppets in 3-D" attraction. I might have continued on by -- although I've always loved the Muppets -- but the guide books all agreed this was a Must-See.
The entry leads guests into a green room area, where two sets of three-in-a-row tv screens display a preshow of the cast getting ready to do the show. The broadcast is arranged so each of the three screens shows 1/3 of a stage, so characters move from one screen to another as they cross. The room has a lot of set dressing, including costume and props boxes for the various characters. There's also a carpet to sit down on, if you want to.
The main viewing room looks like the auditorium from the original Muppet Show -- including a balcony box inhabited by life-size Statler and Waldorf muppets who kibbitz and heckle throughout the show. Everything is gold and red, and the seats are the comfiest in the park: red plush, with thick cushions. (In itself worth the visit, after a long day of walking!)
What's neat about both this 3-D attraction and (the far less satisfying) "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" is that the Disney designers don't content themselves with 3-D effects. They reach out and touch you -- and at the Muppet Show, the characters literally come off the screen. When Miss Piggy sings, soap bubbles rain down from the ceiling. When she gets so outraged by Bean the Bunny's misguided attempts to help that she fires him, and he runs away, he appears in the box opposite Statler and Waldorf: a real live (if you'll forgive the expression) muppet, not an onscreen image. When the gang realizes Bean has run away and goes to look for him, Sweetumps comes out and is there in front of the audience. There is an orchestra of penguins in the pit. At the very end, a canon fires from behind the crowd, and blast holes appear in the walls.
The 3D effects were very good, and it was a lot of fun to have Kermit & Co coming out of the screen to talk to us.
At the end, I walked out feeling like I had really been at the Muppet Show.
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Date: 2005-11-27 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-27 06:13 am (UTC);-)