More Monsters

Here are some more photos of Tokyo Disneyland's future attraction, "Monsters Inc. - Ride and Go Seek!". The photo below shows some construction work on the side of the building. I had to shoot this photo from second level of the Star Tours exit. They had covered up the opening that would normally allow guests to look down into this area with a wall, but they didn't cover it all the way...only about six feet up, so I was able to take the photo below the same way I took the shots from my last post.....by raising my camera above my head and shooting blindly. Note the attraction posters covered up with tape and plastic.

Two days later, this area was completely open to guests and I was able to walk right up to these posters and photograph them better.

The next shot is of the attraction's Fastpass distribution area. It pretty much looked finished and ready to go.....except for the covers over the machines.

Here's a close-up shot of the Fastpass sign.

And the last pic for today is a shot of the sign for the attraction's merchandise shop.

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I do have to say that I will rarely find anything to criticize when it comes to the Tokyo Disney parks, but I do just have this to say about the building's exterior paint job.....what is with the Disney Imagineers' love affair with this color? We saw it in Anaheim's new Tomorrowland of 1998, then again on the exterior of The Tower of Terror attractions in both California Adventure and the Walt Disney Studio Park in Paris. Now it turns up in Tokyo's Tomorrowland, when every other building in that land is painted in shades of gray, blue or white. I really don't get it.

And while I am already criticizing, I have one more complaint. What does Monsters Inc. have to do with Tomorrowland? I realize that the Imagineers have pretty much thrown themeing out the window completely....otherwise we would not have a Finding Nemo attraction in Tomorrowland in Anaheim, or Monsters Inc. attractions in Walt Disney World's Tomorowland and California Adventure's Hollywood Backlot. However, I always thought that when it came to Tokyo, they didn't mess around. After all, the Tokyo parks are not owned by Disney. Disney does still have some control in what the Japanese do and Disney still designs the new attractions for them, but the Japanese always seem to demand the best and don't seem to worry about cost as much as Disney does when it comes to their parks in the U.S.

I am hoping that when this ride opens, comparing it to Anaheim's Monsters Inc. attraction will be like comparing Tokyo's Winnie the Pooh attraction to Anaheim's......meaning, that it blows the other one completely out of the water. Then all will be forgiven as far as it's exterior color scheme and location. Okay, rant over.

My next post will include one last set of photos of the exterior of this attraction.