Toy Story Midway Mania

Toy Story Midway Mania is a family attraction that allows guests to use toy cannons to shoot objects via a 3D projection in a series of midway carnival games. In Toy Story Midway Mania, guests enter an area designed to look like the Pixar Studios campus of Emeryville, California where the toys from the Toy Story films have just discovered the latest toy that Andy has received and start to play with it. Andy has received a midway carnival game and leaves for the day and when Andy leaves, the toys come to life and start playing and there are so many toys that they flow out of the Pixar building (the Pixar building being the building where the Toy Story films "live") and you as the guest are shrunk down to the size of a toy as you enter the queue and are instantly no taller than the electrical outlet that runs along Andy's bedroom wall.

Inside the Toy Story Midway Mania queue, you will find a cavalcade of classic toys, many of which older guests will identify with from their own youth while younger guests will recognize many brands that still exist today, such as Candy land, Monkeys in a Barrel, Battleship and Chutes & Ladders. The highlight of the queue being an interactive Mr. Potato Head audio-animatronic that can sing, talk and move much of his body and perform some very amazing feats unseen by other audio animatronics to date.

The actual ride puts guests into ride vehicles that swiftly move guests in front of giant screens where guests put on their 3D glasses and use their cannons to shoot targets on the screen. Gameplay was designed by Disney Imagineers to cater to the skill level of anyone and guests who aren't adept at video games will find the game adjusting to their skill level while advanced gamers (or at least those who re-ride quite a bit) will find the game becoming a bit more difficult. Toy Story Midway Mania begins with a training game (worth no points) and is meant to acclimate guests to how the game works. Very quickly guests are whisked off to play a series of four games that feature different Toy Story characters coupled with different game types such as ring toss, dart throws, baseballs and even egg toss. After each game guests can track on their onboard screen their overall score, their score for the round they just completed and their accuracy level. The game is more than just shooting targets as some targets trigger special effects (such as water being sprayed at the guests or wind being blow) as well as including secret targets that create big point opportunities and thrown into the mix are some fun Toy Story film references.

Toy Story Midway Mania's goal is to provide a family attraction that everyone can ride and will leave guests wanting ride over and over again and largely the attraction succeeds in it's ambition. One of the most common responses of guests who ride for the first time is for them to want to ride it again. Toy Story Midway Mania is a wildly addicting game that really appeals to everyone in the family, a rare feat among most attractions, and the trend that newer Disney attractions are going for (such as Soarin and Expedition Everest).

The Toy Story Midway Mania queue is visually engaging and will require multiple visits to the queue to be able to see all of the gags and references the queue contains. The FASTPASS queue contains it's own shorter queue area that has unique references that one cannot see from the regular queue line and all of this detail is classic Disney design that has made Disney Imagineers the gold standard of theme park designers the world knows today.

The ride itself is a fun experience and most guests will get the hang of the game and how to shoot effectively about a third of the way into their first game. The training scene that is in the beginning of the game is a little too short for most guests to truly master shooting but the game is intuitive enough to make it easy for anyone to feel like they can competitively play. While riding over and over again is a regular desire of most guests, it should be noted that many guests complain of arm fatigue after two or three consecutive rides due to the repetitive nature of the firing mechanism of the gun. It's not a major problem by any means, but alternating shooting arms between games may be a good strategy.

Overall, Toy Story Midway Mania is a success and a fantastic addition to the Studios. For those guests who do not care to ride the thrill rides on Sunset Boulevard, this will be the first viable alternative that can compete for guests who may skip over the Studios all together or limit their touring of the park to a half day. The ride has a large capacity to handle guests, similar to Space Mountain's ride capacity, and should prove to be popular with guests throughout the day. While the ride enjoys a great deal of popularity (especially in it's first year of existence while it's novelty is high), it likely will not as big a crowd as Tower of Terror or Rock 'n Roller Coaster but this is a solid headliner attraction. There is no age or height limit for Toy Story Midway Mania so anyone can ride and there is the FASTPASS option. To be certain, this is a not-to-miss attraction that will very quickly become a favorite of all of those visiting Disney's Hollywood Studios.