A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation , sound, music and special effects . Appearing as early as the 19th century, such exhibits include tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories. Dark rides are intended to tell stories with thematic elements that immerse riders, which unfold throughout the course of the attraction.
87-495: Ice Age Adventure was a dark boat ride at the amusement park Movie Park Germany at in Bottrop, Germany . The ride opened on 15 March 2005 as a replacement for the defunct Looney Tunes Adventure ride, and closed for good on 1 November 2016 before being replaced by Movie Park Studio Tour in 2021. On 30 June 1996, Warner Bros. Movie World Germany opened with a dark ride named Looney Tunes Adventure , modelled after
174-491: A buried wire for navigation. Others, such as Star Wars : Rise of the Resistance at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park , Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disneyland or Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy at Disneyland Paris and Epcot , use Wi-Fi and RFID -based local positioning systems . The system provides more versatility for the vehicles to move in randomized patterns. The magnets in
261-461: A sardonic personality, although it is not intended to be nasty. He was sent by his pack to retrieve the human baby called Roshan; When he found Roshan in Manny and Sid's care, he pretended to lead them to the humans, but instead planned to lead them into an ambush by the pack. When Manny saved his life, Diego had a change of heart, confessing about the pack and sacrifices himself to help them escape. He
348-464: A boulder, but to no avail, while a snow flurry occurs from above. Guests then go past a scene with the Dodo Birds fighting for the last watermelon, while Sid watches and points out that this the strangest thing that he has ever seen. After that, guests meet Scrat, who is in a somewhat unfortunate situation, and go past a third scene with Sid, Manny and Diego, where Sid is finally no longer sure about
435-417: A caring nature, and is voiced with a lateral lisp . Little is known from Sid's life other than that Sid once lived in a tree with other sloths that always wanted to leave Sid behind when the migration occurred, using several different ways to leave him behind. What is clear is that Sid's mother always told him that "bad news is just good news in disguise" before abandoning him for good. He accidentally starts
522-507: A certain number of arms and legs. Ride requirements are created to ensure all guests’ safety throughout the ride and are posted throughout the attractions’ queue to prevent the companies’ liability if a rider is physically harmed. However, according to Title III of the Americans Disability Act it is illegal for amusement parks to discriminate against any persons with disabilities from equal enjoyment of goods of services in
609-665: A crush on Peaches. Louis makes a small cameo in Ice Age: Collision Course . Shira appears in Ice Age: Continental Drift as part of Gutt's crew, and is Captain Gutt's pawn. She is a dazzlingly beautiful, female Smilodon and Diego's lover resembling a white tiger . She makes her first appearance in Scrat's Continental Crack-up: Part 2 standing next to Captain Gutt, who is holding Scrat. It
696-470: A dance element (tapping buttons on the restraints) later. The Walt Disney Company is the first to develop a trackless ride system for its dark ride attractions. Trackless dark rides utilize automated guided vehicles that do not require guide rails , and thus are able to cross existing paths, reverse, and rotate. Some trackless dark rides, such as the Big Red Car Ride at Dreamworld , relied on
783-414: A fire in the first film and learns how to do it properly towards the end. He also shows this skill in the second film, where he is worshiped by a tribe of "mini-sloths" who call him "Fire King" and try to sacrifice him. In the third film, he adopts a trio of baby T-Rexes, and is forcibly taken to the underground dinosaur land by their mother, requiring the others to come and save him. In the fourth film, it
870-540: A group of saber-toothed cats in Ice Age . They targeted Roshan as revenge on his tribe because half of their pack was killed by them and used to make their clothes. Diego was formerly of this group before he defected to Manny and Sid's side. Soto is a violent and sadistic Smilodon who is the leader of a pack of saber-toothed cats. He wants to eat Roshan in vengeance for the murders of several of his pack-mates. As part of his plan to kidnap Roshan, Soto plans an attack on
957-629: A means of previewing complex new ride vehicles such as the free-ranging vehicles used in "Pooh's Hunny Hunt". Moreover, this computer visualization is a powerful tool for transcending language barriers. Showing a virtual prototype of "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" to Japan was a cause of the implementation of the ride at Tokyo Disneyland due to its use of imaging over speech. Some dark rides are intense for riders, as they contain vigorous themed elements such as flashing lights, black light effects, sudden drops, stoppages, or other turbulent movements that may be harmful to impaired riders. As more thrill rides are created,
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#17327902328911044-418: A pterosaur and save Sid from a lava flow heading downwards. In Ice Age: Continental Drift , they have more minor roles than in the previous films but do partake in the final battle with Gutt's crew fighting Dobson by hopping on his back and having a rodeo, but accidentally let him charge into Manny and, later Shira, knocking them onto the other ship. Peaches is the daughter of Manny and Ellie , born in
1131-634: A public place of accommodation. Therefore, companies such as The Walt Disney Company are required by law to accommodate any person with a physical disability who still meets the ride requirements. This often includes guests who use wheelchairs or crutches. Services such as the Disability Access Service (DAS) at Disney theme parks instates equality between disabled and non-disabled riders in its theme parks and resorts, making these attractions largely accessible for its guests. Companies such as Universal Studios offer similar services such as
1218-503: A roller coaster does not make it a dark ride. Dark coasters are roller coasters that feature heavily themed layouts, special effects (such as animated characters, fire, smoke, and sound/lighting effects), and a dark ride portion that abruptly transitions into a roller coaster-style layout with heavily banked turns, sharp turns, steep drops, and helices. Some of them include backward motion, and many have launch mechanisms rather than lifts. Examples include: Test Track at Epcot , Journey to
1305-510: A scary theme are called ghost trains . The first ride to use the name "Ghost Train" was that of Blackpool Pleasure Beach . The ride was imported in 1930 and originally called The Pretzel (due to the curving shape of its track layout); but as pretzels were little-known in Britain, it was soon renamed after The Ghost Train , a play which ran for a year in London, a film adaptation of which
1392-441: A scene where Scrat is desperately trying to bury an acorn in his collection and accidentally causes a crack that runs throughout the ride as a trail of red LED lights (the crack could also be found in the pattern on the path from the exit from Adventure Lagoon to Nickland). They then meet Sid, who is sleeping and hanging from a tree trunk. Sid slips off the trunk in his sleep, wakes up, sees the guests and greets them. He then notices
1479-604: A space-constrained building. Prominent examples include Disneyland's Snow White's Scary Adventures , Pinocchio's Daring Journey , Peter Pan's Flight , Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland , which all rely on the use of blacklights in almost every scene. The first dark rides appeared in the late 19th century and were called "scenic railways" and "pleasure railways". A popular type of dark ride commonly referred to as an old mill or tunnel of love used small boats to carry riders through water-filled canals. A Trip to
1566-893: A stationary core with show scenes. The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Railroad both include brief dark-ride scenes, but for the most part transport guests outdoors. Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom , Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain at several Disney parks, and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars at Hong Kong Disneyland likewise include some dark-ride elements, but function primarily as indoor/outdoor roller coasters. List of Ice Age characters The following
1653-558: A teenager in Ice Age: Continental Drift . She is self-taught to do some possum moves just like her mother. In Ice Age: Collision Course , Peaches is now a young adult and prepares to marry a male mammoth named Julian. She does not appear in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild nor is she ever mentioned. Gladys "Granny" is Sid 's grandmother. She joins the herd after her own family abandons her. She had an allegedly imaginary pet named Precious, which showed up at
1740-452: Is a list of the characters in the Ice Age films, mentioned by a name either presented in the films or in any other official material. Each character includes a summary when possible, the voice actor or actors associated with the character, and a description of the character along with any aliases, spouses and the character's species. Manfred "Manny" is a woolly mammoth . His personality
1827-468: Is a young and courageous mammoth who is Peaches' fiancé and part-time member of The Herd and The Brat Pack. Julian may be somewhat absent-minded, but is devoted and caring toward Peaches, and wants to be part of her family. Brooke is a British ground sloth living in Geotopia who becomes Sid's love interest and new girlfriend. She appears in Ice Age: Collision Course . It is not known what becomes of
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#17327902328911914-414: Is able to fend off Diego, whose mission is to retrieve him. However, she is cornered over a waterfall. In a desperate attempt to save her son, the mother leaps over the waterfall, holding the baby tightly in her arms. They are both found by Manny and Sid at the riverside. Using what little strength she has left, she gives the baby to Manny and Sid in hopes that he will be safe with them. Soto's Pack are
2001-466: Is also mentioned that (much like Diego) Shira left her pack to join Gutt's crew. Over the course of the film, however, Shira ultimately chooses to leave Gutt's crew, and join the Herd at Diego's side. In Ice Age: Collision Course , she is now married to Diego and wants to start a family with him. She is completely absent from The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild without explanation or mention. Julian
2088-513: Is described by Park World magazine as "one of the most idiosyncratic dark rides". It is themed to a school exam, with riders individually answering multiple-choice questions throughout it. Riders are graded on their responses, and each receives a school report at the end of the ride. While technically a coaster, the Gekion Live coaster at Joypolis had elements of a dark ride. It used to have a shooting element, only for it to be refurbished with
2175-471: Is known today, debuted in 2000 at Tokyo Disneyland's “ Pooh's Hunny Hunt ” attraction– a dark ride based on Disney's 1977 hit animated feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh . However, while Pooh's Hunny Hunt pioneered the trackless ride system, it was Hollywood Studio's Tower of Terror and Epcot's Universe of Energy attractions that first utilized the technology. The use of virtual reality in
2262-449: Is prevented from entering the space, and only show elements that fluoresce under ultraviolet radiation are seen by the riders. The size of each room containing a scene or scenes is thus concealed, and the set designer can use forced perspective , Pepper's ghost and other visual tricks to create the illusion of distance. Typically, these experiences also use a series of opaque doors between scenes to further control riders' views within
2349-433: Is rescued by her family and she fights the pirates alongside them. Crash and Eddie are two twin brother opossums. Adoptive brothers of Ellie, they cared for her and taught her to hang by her tail from a tree branch when she slept, as they did. They are shown to be adventurous and fun-loving, courtesy of the fact that they're both very stupid. Though they are around the same age as Ellie, they are not nearly as mature. In
2436-452: Is revealed that his full name is Sidney, though this name was also used in a deleted scene of the first film. When he, Diego and Manny are on the ice and are forced up by a water spout , they see a rainbow in the bright blue sky as he told them that "there is a rainbow at the end of every corner." A mechanical version of Sid appears in Robots during the miming scene. Sid was built along
2523-477: Is shown to be aloof, grumpy, sarcastic and standoffish, but is otherwise loving and courageous. In the first film, while passing through the icy cave, the herd discovers cave paintings of Manny with his wife and son, who were killed by humans ; this is a very sentimental moment for Manny, since he failed to protect them. Manny finds love with Ellie in Ice Age: The Meltdown . In Ice Age: Dawn of
2610-916: The Roxy 4D-Kino until 2018. One of Ice Age Adventure ' s Diego animatronics could be found in the Roxy 4D-Kino's entrance lobby, and another Diego animatronic and a Manny animatronic could be found as circus animals in Circus of Freaks during the Halloween Horror Festival . From 6 October 2018 to 2019, the ride was used for the Halloween Horror Festival as Wrong Turn . Five years after Ice Age Adventure ' s closure, Movie Park Studio Tour , an Intamin Multi Dimension Coaster, opened on 5 July 2021 in
2697-543: The United States , and Thinkwell were in waders walking through the filled trough carrying animatronics through the ride to get them loaded in, installed and wired in place of the animatronics featured in Looney Tunes Adventure in time for Movie Park Germany's opening on 19 March 2005. Garner Holt Productions also participated in the ride's design. The cost to license the soundtrack from Ice Age
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2784-432: The third film , Crash and Eddie travel with the others to the dino jungle to save Sid from Momma, and both grow to idolize Buck, the one-eyed dinosaur-hunting weasel who helped them find Sid. They also mention they never liked Sid. This is not true however (as they were at the time being affected by the gas within the "Chasm of Dead"), due to helping Buck save Sid from his incoming death. Crash and Eddie, along with Buck, ride
2871-641: The Attractions Assistance Pass (AAS). The DAS pass allows guests to reserve a spot in an attraction's line, select a time to board the attraction, and return at their scheduled time. This allows guests who cannot physically wait in a trackless dark ride queue to still ride without being present at the queue, but still wait the same amount of time as other abled guests. Many trackless dark ride queues are tight, enclosed spaces for guests to wind through, which are often difficult for people with wheelchairs or other amenities to navigate. Moreover, as
2958-522: The Australian Warner Bros. Movie World 's Looney Tunes River Ride . On 3 April 2004, Warner Bros. Movie World Germany was acquired by StarParks. This acquisition resulted in various Warner Bros. -licensed properties being removed from the park including DC Comics and Looney Tunes . The following year, Movie Park Germany opened with Looney Tunes Adventure being rethemed to Ice Age Adventure . In later years, Ice Age Adventure
3045-523: The Center of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea , and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure each use a slot car track rather than that of a roller coaster, but they provide a similar pairing of dark ride scenes with a high-speed thrill ride. Saw – The Ride at Thorpe Park features an enclosed dark section with strobe lighting and special effects, before the car enters the outdoor section of
3132-462: The Dinosaurs , he is anxious when Ellie is pregnant. At the end of the film, he becomes the proud father of a baby daughter named Peaches. In Ice Age: Continental Drift , he gets into an argument with his teenage daughter before being pulled away in by the drift with Diego, Sid and Granny. He and the team later encounter a group of pirates led by Captain Gutt. When the team escaped they destroy
3219-510: The Dinosaurs' world whilst they were under attack by a pack of Guanlong. She appeared close to end of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs . At the end of the film, she returned to the surface with her parents and the rest of the group. She is voiced by Ciara Bravo in Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas as a kid, and Keke Palmer in Ice Age: Continental Drift as a teenager, and also as a young adult in Ice Age: Collision Course . Peaches appears as
3306-714: The Moon began operation at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition . Marvin Rempfer and Leon Cassidy of the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company patented the first single-rail electric dark ride in 1928. Historically notable dark rides include Futurama at the 1939 New York World's Fair , and Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland . Modern attractions in this genre vary widely in technical sophistication. Smaller-scale rides often feature
3393-411: The ancient times, and find themselves in a cave with a campfire and two televisions displaying paintings that come to life and introduce the characters on their screens; sometimes there would be a cast member who would tell the ride's story to the guests (when the ride first opened, there was a video projection screen displaying the cave paintings coming to life and telling the characters' backstories; this
3480-437: The attractions’ floor keep the vehicles “on track” with a guiding master computer system telling the vehicles where to go. The earliest form of this technology existed in warehouses, where electric box lifts robotically moved across the floor to transport boxes. In addition, the technology has been used in autonomous vacuum robots that rely on motion sensors to freely roam the floor since 1996. The trackless dark ride system as it
3567-619: The country is The Haunted Mansion , first opened in Disneyland in Anaheim, California , on August 9, 1969. Interactive dark rides feature a component that allows riders to be involved in the attraction's story. The first interactive dark ride ever built is El Paso at the Belgium theme park Bobbejaanland . The vast majority of interactive dark rides are shooting dark rides, which require riders to aim and shoot at targets throughout
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3654-412: The crack, and as the guests approach Sid, he makes way for them by climbing back onto the trunk. Guests then go past a scene where Sid has missed his flock and joins Manny and Diego to escape the oncoming ice age, followed by another scene with the trio, in which Sid pushes a tree. The tree falls down above the guests and covers up a hole filled with lava. Meanwhile, Scrat attempts to stop the crack by using
3741-411: The day when a pack of saber-toothed tigers invaded their camp to abduct the youngest member Roshan in revenge for the tribe killing half of their pack. Nadia fended off an attack on Roshan long enough to run away quickly from Diego who was pursuing her. These dodos are portrayed as greedy for watermelons claiming it to be their private stockpile for the ice age. All these dodos hate to be extinct. While
3828-535: The development of trackless technology is often overlooked. The Disney VR Studio, founded in 1992, allowed the exploration of virtual reality technology for theme park rides. Before its role in the development of the trackless system, the VR Studio used virtual prototypes to model attractions such as California Screamin’ at Disney's California Adventure Park. Disney has used virtual simulations to allow designers to experience roller coasters before they are built and as
3915-415: The end and turned out to be real: a giant whale who defeats Gutt's crew (minus Squint) by blasting them away. In Ice Age: Continental Drift , Precious helped the group to Switchback Cove and Granny bids her pet a fond good-bye. Louis appears in Ice Age: Continental Drift as Peaches' best friend. He is a timid, well-spoken, and cute molehog (a portmanteau of mole and hedgehog ). He is shown to have
4002-563: The excitement. Although ever increasing investments are made in dark rides, empirical research in this area is relatively scarce. Based on a systematic literature review, a team of researchers from the University of Liechtenstein developed a model that illustrates the underlying effect mechanism that attendees of Dark Rides experience. The model suggests that "Storytelling" in Dark Rides influences an attendee's "emotional attachment" to
4089-638: The flood in the second movie, Ice Age: The Meltdown . She thinks she is a possum, as she was raised by Crash's and Eddie's mother when she was a calf, until she accepts the truth about what she really is, and joins the herd with her adoptive brothers. In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs , she and Manny are mates and Ellie is pregnant with their first child. When they find the Dinosaur World under their feet, they have to go in and search for Sid in Lava Falls. Despite being pregnant, she bravely went on
4176-431: The form typical of ground sloths, short, brushy tail, clawed hands and feet, a long thin neck, ovular head with bulbous eye on both sides and a pair of buckteeth. Sid's right front tooth was slightly bigger than the left, similar to his right eye, which was also somewhat bigger than the left, both eyes of which were pale green. Sid's pelt was dirty and tan, and became brown when the fungus it carried dried out, Sid attributing
4263-486: The guests go past a scene where Sid, Manny and Diego have safely arrived at a tropical island on the Southern Ocean . The boats stop at the unloading station where Scrat is frozen in a block of ice, and the guests are unloaded. After the ride, guests entered a souvenir shop (which Ice Age Adventure used to share with Mystery River ) to buy various Ice Age merchandise, as well as on-ride photographs taken during
4350-448: The human camp so that while he and three other pack members would attack the humans, Diego would sneak in, unnoticed, and abduct Roshan. Diego fails at this task, leaving Soto furious, telling Diego to bring Roshan to Half-Peak where he would meet with the others and threatens have him served as a replacement if he fails. Soto dispatched his fellow pack members Zeke and Oscar to warn Diego to hurry and bring Roshan or not return at all, though
4437-445: The human tribe shown in the first film. He was the father of Roshan and husband of Nadia, and cared greatly for his family, all the while leading them and the rest of the tribe as a nomadic group to travel from place to place. Nadia was the wife of the chieftain of a human tribe shown in the first film. Nadia had a husband named Runar and a baby son named Roshan. She and her family lived a peaceful life together with their tribe until
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#17327902328914524-413: The journey, and at one point had to save her mate and friends when they were trapped in the chasm of death. When very close to Lava Falls, Ellie goes into labour, and, with Diego's help, gives birth to a healthy female calf. She comes up with the name Peaches (who was named after the codeword that was used if Ellie went into labor on the trip) and Manny happily agrees. When they reunite with Sid and return to
4611-627: The most popular, yet break down the most often. Trackless dark rides often have some of the longest wait times at theme parks. Wait time data from Walt Disney World in 2022 shows that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has an average wait time of 127 minutes at Disney's Hollywood Studios park, whereas the average wait time for other Disney World, non-trackless attractions is just 36 minutes. Long wait times coupled with frequent ride stoppages can be vexing for guests, but may be well worth it to those who prefer trackless dark rides to other experiences. While some roller coasters may be indoors, simply enclosing
4698-421: The number of attractions that limit riders with disabilities increases. Most commonly, guests who are prohibited from riding are those who are too overweight for the ride vehicle to safely hold the guest's weight or prevent the safety harness from locking in place. Other ride restrictions include those who do not meet a certain height requirement or are too tall to clear the attractions’ set pieces, or those who lack
4785-404: The others will be waiting. Soto was later informed by other pack members Zeke and Oscar that Diego will bring Roshan back along with a wooly Mammoth called Manny who has been caring for Roshan along with Sid the sloth. Unlike the rest of his pack who are all saber-toothed cats , Lenny is a scimitar-toothed cat as stated in the book Ice Age: The Essential Guide . Runar was the chieftain of
4872-451: The people who did the voices from the film. The ride had a multitude of immersive special effects, including a real snow flurry, explosive steam geysers, smoldering fissure eruptions, and intense blasts of heat and cold. The audio, special effects and lighting system vendors were project managed by Thinkwell's European Technical Director, Philip Hartley, who was working alongside Philip Hartley Associates' technical co-ordinator Annika Oetken. It
4959-444: The refurbishment was cancelled since the ride did not quite fit the theme of Nickland. On 1 November 2016, Ice Age Adventure performed its last run, and a wreath was laid down at the ride. On 6 December 2016, it was announced that Ice Age Adventure would not reopen in 2017, because Movie Park Germany's 10-year licensing of the ride had expired. The ride's closure was also due to the cancellation of its refurbishment, and it resulted in
5046-490: The relationship after her appearance in the film, as she is neither seen nor mentioned in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild . Scrat is a saber-toothed squirrel in all five of the Ice Age films who is obsessed with collecting acorns , constantly putting his life in danger to obtain and defend them. He has his own stories in the films which are mostly independent of those of the main characters, though
5133-450: The rest of the pack, attacked the human encampment but were fended off by the humans' dogs who fought alongside the humans against the pack sending them off. One of the pack members Diego was expected to steal the baby Roshan from the humans but missed his chance when Roshan's mother Nadia escaped with her child through a waterfall. Bitter at Diego's failure the pack leader Soto orders Diego to retrieve Roshan and bring him to Half Peak where
5220-632: The retirement of the Scrat , Sid , Diego and Scratte walk-around characters in the park. Despite the ride's closure, the show building that enclosed Ice Age Adventure did not remain unused. The ride's queue area was converted into a picnic area, and the souvenir shop still exists, albeit used for used for Excalibur - Secrets of the Dark Forest . The boats used in the ride are used as additional boats for Bermuda Triangle: Alien Encounter , and Ice Age 4-D: No Time for Nuts continued being shown at
5307-477: The ride first opened, one of the Tweety animatronics from Looney Tunes Adventure could be found above Scrat during the third time that he got burned), and a light shines on Sid, who tries to get Manny through a hole. After that, Sid, Manny and Diego run up three hills, and the guests' boats are then lifted up a bridge leading to an ice palace (actually the castle from Looney Tunes Adventure , albeit remodelled) with
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#17327902328915394-550: The ride through the mediator of "Immersion". It is assumed that a person's prior knowledge about the ride's story and a person's cultural background have moderating effects on the relationship between "storytelling" and "immersion". Dark rides have a number of variations that are not necessarily mutually exclusive . In the United Kingdom , the Republic of Ireland , New Zealand , China and Australia , dark rides with
5481-723: The ride using handheld or vehicle-mounted light guns . Successfully shooting a target usually triggers special animation, such as flashing lights or moving the target. The more targets riders hit, the higher their scores at the end of the ride. The use of light guns varies between rides, from killing aliens on Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios Florida to calling turkeys on Gobbler Getaway at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari . The ride systems of conventional dark rides can be easily converted into shooting dark rides. Such conversions include Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back! at Alton Towers (until 2023 when
5568-435: The ride was altered) and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Disney's Magic Kingdom . The latter uses facilities that previously housed If You Had Wings , Delta Dreamflight , and Take Flight. A recent dark ride, Wonder Mountain's Guardian at Canada's Wonderland , has the world's longest interactive screen at over 500 feet (150 m). Among non-shooting interactive dark rides, Etnaland's award-winning Haunted School
5655-755: The ride. Particularly in Disney-built or -influenced parks, a number of attractions use traditional dark-ride features, such as animatronics and theatrical lighting, but are not "dark rides" in that patrons do not board vehicles. Examples include the walk-through dioramas in Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle , and theater-based Disney attractions like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln , The Hall of Presidents , The American Adventure and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room . Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (and its now-closed Disneyland replacement America Sings ) had four auditoriums that rotated audiences around
5742-402: The ride. Craig Hanna, Thinkwell's Chief Creative Officer and co-founder, flew to New York and met with Lori Forte, John C. Donkin, Chris Meledandri and Chris Wedge , the producers and director of the films, and got to meet the animators and understand the essence of the intellectual property. Later, Thinkwell's designers worked with Blue Sky's animators to pose the characters from the film for
5829-411: The ride. In the beginning, to save time, Thinkwell sent a team to Movie Park Germany, where they worked on-site in temporary offices that they provided for Thinkwell. They quickly developed the initial concept and full presentation to executive management, complete with layout, storyboards, scene descriptions and script in one week. On the night before opening, the last shipment of animatronics arrived from
5916-425: The right path. The crack ends, and suddenly, two fissure eruptions occur, scaring Sid, Manny and Diego and sending them into a panic (the fissure eruptions were achieved with erupting steam geysers and red lights from under the water). This also causes lava from an active volcano behind the trio to flow down. Guests then go past a scene where the lava burns Scrat's butt three times, causing him to pop out screaming (when
6003-481: The same building as the former ride. The coaster contains various callbacks to the park's defunct rides and attractions, including Ice Age Adventure ; Sid's tree trunk is seen in a storage room of film props, labelled as having been originally used in the fictional 2005 film The Crazy Sloth . The ride began with guests queuing outside a show building and entering a room with drawings of Scrat , Sid , Manny and Diego on its walls. They would slowly be introduced to
6090-471: The same sorts of simple animation and sounds used since the genre's early days, while more ambitious projects feature complex animatronics , special effects and ride vehicles utilizing cutting-edge technology. To improve the effect and give a sense of journey, passages in dark rides frequently change direction. Sudden curves give a sense of disorientation and allow new scenes to surprise the rider. The rides may also feature sudden ascents or descents to further
6177-489: The scene where Sid, Manny and Diego have arrived at the island. Thinkwell Group was contacted by StarParks because of its expertise in creating intellectual property -based attractions. The company brokered the relationship between 20th Century Fox and StarParks to bring Ice Age to Movie Park Germany. StarParks was worried about the cost of licensing a blockbuster intellectual property, but Thinkwell convinced them that it would not cost as much as they feared. The project
6264-535: The ship and take Shira with them. This enrages the Captain who hunts them down. Later on, he is almost manipulated by sirens . A running gag for Manny, shown in four of the five films, is that if a certain character were to refer to him as fat, he would often deny it, saying that "his fur is what makes him look big" and that "it's poofy". Sidney "Sid" is a ground sloth who is dull-witted, talkative, friendly, carefree, naive , accident-prone, patient and funny with
6351-426: The state of his pelt to his vegetarian diet, which he said led to a younger-looking pelt. In the behind the scenes, the creators combined the traits of three-toed sloths and ground sloths while designing Sid and the other sloth characters. Paleontologists have suggested that Sid most closely resembles Nothrotheriops shastensis among ground sloths. Diego is a Smilodon . He is Shira's love interest. He has
6438-436: The story, got their approvals quickly and went to work completing the design and fabrication to make opening day for the new season as Movie Park Germany. Blue Sky helpfully provided its 3D computer models of the characters to Thinkwell. This allowed Thinkwell to do CNC carvings for the audio-animatronics rather than traditional hand sculpting, which saved weeks, if not months, in production. 50 animatronics were designed for
6525-485: The surface, Ellie introduces Peaches to the herd's new home. In Ice Age: Continental Drift , she is an understanding wife and mother. Unlike her husband, Ellie recognises that her daughter is growing up and supports both Manny and Peaches when they argue. When the continental breakup happens she leads an evacuation route to the Land Bridge. She is briefly held hostage by the evil Captain Gutt and his pirate crew but
6612-469: The trackless ride systems are complex and the vehicles run constantly, more ride breakdowns and stoppages occur. Due to the many elements of these attractions, breakdowns occur more frequently and take more time to address. Hollywood Studio's Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had more than 540 unplanned stoppages in 2022, breaking down more than any other attraction at Walt Disney World that year. This can be frustrating for guests as trackless rides are some of
6699-399: The trio atop it. Sid pulls Manny by the trunk, and Diego pushes him from behind. As the guests approach the entrance of the palace, its color goes from ice-colored to lava-colored (the palace's color change was achieved with lighting effects) and steam erupts from both sides of the bridge. The guests enter the palace and their boats turn to the left, and a surprising drop occurs. After the drop,
6786-443: The two do intersect at times. Roshan , or " Pinky " as Manny called him, is the human baby that Manny, Sid, and Diego return to his father. He is the young son of a human tribal chief. While sleeping one morning, his tribe is attacked by a pack of smilodons. The leader of the pack, Soto, wants to kill the baby as revenge for the baby's father killing half the pack and using their skin for clothes and their flesh for food. His mother
6873-461: The underground dinosaur world with Buck. He changed his mind after managing to save the labored Ellie from a dinosaur attack. In Ice Age: Continental Drift , another Smilodon named Shira joins the group, and Diego feels attracted to her. During the end credits, Diego and Shira are seen nuzzling each other showing that they have now become a couple. Ellie is a female woolly mammoth, whom Manny, Diego, and Sid meet during their migration to escape
6960-501: Was announced at the 12th Annual Thea Awards , at IAAPA 2005, that Ice Age Adventure had won the outstanding achievement award in the category of "Limited Budget/Refurbishment". The award's presentation to Thinkwell was made at the Thea Awards Gala on 18 March 2006. Dark ride In its most traditional form, the term dark ride refers to ride-through attractions with scenes that use black lights, whereby visible light
7047-476: Was later replaced with the campfire and televisions). After the guests left the cave, the path would lead into the freezing cold, directly into a huge iceberg, which led to the loading station. Guests would get on 4 boats, each with 4 rows of 4 seats each, and they would see the Human Tribe 's village (complete with saber-toothed tiger pelts) on their left before being taken through the ride. They go past
7134-427: Was left for dead when the pack's leader, Soto, wounded him in an attack meant for Manny but he survived and joined Manny and Sid on their travels. In the second film , he was revealed to suffer from aquaphobia , but he eventually conquered it in order to save Sid, Crash and Eddie. In the third film, he began to fear that he was losing his predatory abilities from being in the "herd" too long, and considered staying in
7221-521: Was less than nine months from start to finish, which was about a third of the amount of time it would typically take to complete such an attraction. Thinkwell kept the existing ride system and reworked much of the existing theming from Looney Tunes Adventure to work with the new intellectual property. Unbeknownst to Thinkwell, its storyline was very similar to what Blue Sky Studios was developing for Ice Age ' s sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown . Thinkwell worked closely with Fox and Blue Sky to develop
7308-435: Was not received well by visitors to the park. Many of the ride's animatronics were broken and the special effects were not operating anymore. In 2012, Movie Park Germany promised that a major refurbishment in 2013 would be planned, with characters (like Crash , Eddie , Ellie , Peaches and Buck ) and scenes from Ice Age , Ice Age: The Meltdown , Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Continental Drift . However,
7395-577: Was prohibitive, so Thinkwell hired Jean-Francois Cote, a composer from Cirque du Soleil , and created their own that was reminiscent of the film's theme song, but was actually a whole new piece. They also had to hire German voice actors to do the voices of the characters in the ride. The voice actors from the German release of Ice Age , such as Otto Waalkes , who voiced Sid , were too expensive, so Thinkwell hired other sound-alike voice actors. Those actors were famous German comedians that were more popular than
7482-413: Was reciprocated with the news that alongside Roshan, Soto would receive a mammoth. During the final battle, Soto was sent flying into the side of a cliff where he was killed offscreen by the falling icicles. Zeke is an overactive Smilodon and a member of Soto's pack. Oscar is a tall Smilodon and a member of Soto's pack. Lenny is a rotund Homotherium and a member of Soto's pack. Lenny, along with
7569-403: Was showing in 1931. It was rebuilt in 1936 and has remained unchanged since. Blackpool Pleasure Beach is also home to Valhalla , a large indoor dark ride. In Australia, a dark ride is named The Ghost Train at Luna Park, Melbourne , and a similarly-named ride was destroyed by fire in 1979 at Luna Park Sydney . The concept is also popular in the United States . One notable ghost train from
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