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Background
WALL-E’s Operation: Green Planet is an all new attraction acting as the featured new ride for Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland overhaul. The attraction occupies the building that formerly housed Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, both of which closed to make way for this attraction. Despite having been separated into two different show spaces prior, this new attraction makes use of the entire building to offer a richly detailed and immersive experience for riders.
Ride System
Operation: Green Planet is unique for its innovative combination of multiple ride systems to create one memorable attraction. The ride is overall a dark ride but in terms of how that experience is delivered, it is part omni-mover, part trackless, and part suspended ride. Imagineers recognized that the WALL-E IP brought with it possibilities for innovation and decided that a combination ride system could offer them more expansive horizons than a traditional straight forward ride system.
Of course with such ambition came a great deal of problem solving and innovation. To make the ride move through these three differing types of systems, Imagineers had to develop groundbreaking new ride operation technology and innovate Disney’s already complex backend system to handle the needs of the new attraction. Imagineers felt strongly about the project however, seeing it as a perfect challenge for Tomorrowland. Though not the first combination ride Disney has developed, the way it moves between its different forms is by far the most complex.
The ride will be boarded by guests similarly to Haunted Mansion (using the continuous transit boarding process) and. The first portion of the ride is the omnimover portion where multiple ride vehicles will move close to another through various scenes. At the proper moment, the ride vehicles will separate to enter the trackless portion. From there, an all new, never before seen product of Imagineering will allow the ride vehicles to be lifted into the air via a robotic arm system similar to the KUKA arm, but from above rather than below to move through the shorter suspended portion before being returned to the ground to end with a return to the omnimover formation. All the while, they will be able to use a light ray to interact with the scenes similar to Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek. Unlike Haunted Mansion, the ride vehicle count is smaller, with guests boarding clusters of 8 pods that can seat three riders each for a total of 24 riders per cluster.
Queue
Guests will enter from the former Space Ranger Spin entrance and find themselves inside of an all new research facility that has been built on the previously abandoned Earth by the refugees from the now docked Axiom. Winding through the facility, guests will get a look at various plants being grown and different agricultural experiments being undertaken. Near the end of the first section of queue, guests will be moved into a pre-show room.
Pre-Show
In the first pre-show room, guests will watch a film featuring Captain B. McRea of the Axiom. Captain McRea will explain that it has been three years since his ship landed on Earth with the help of WALL-E and EVE. In those three years, the people of the Axiom have made great strides in reintroducing plant life to the dying Earth. They have been trying to make contact with other Buy n Large evacuation vessels similar to the Axiom that have been out in space asking them to return home. They have recently become aware of a vessel near to Earth called Novia. Novia, according to the Axiom’s computer, is carrying technology that may help the refugees further their mission to replant Earth, however the ship’s AI is not responding to any calls and seems to be refusing to return the ship to home.
WALL-E and EVE have decided that they will be using one of the Axiom’s exploration pods to venture into space, board Novia, shut off its AI system, and bring it back down to Earth. An animatronic WALL-E appears in the pre-show room greeting guests and through a series of sounds and a few words interpreted by McRea, the guests are invited to join the mission. They will enter pods of their own equipped with a special light ray that when pointed at exposed electronic parts can render the electronics inoperable. Guests will help disable the AI to help Novia, and all of her passengers, return to Earth to continue to help make it green.
WALL-E rushes off to prepare as McRae wishes them all luck. The doors then open out to the loading platform which looks like the inside of a ship bay in the Axiom where exploration pods are waiting for guests.
Ride Through
The omnimover section of the ride begins with guests boarding their pods and the 8 pod cluster moving from the bay into a tunnel that simulates leaving the bay and jetting off into space. This effect is achieved via lighting and projections on the inside of the tunnel. The vehicles come out of the tunnel into a giant room that is filled with starlight to make it appear the pods are flying through space. A miniature model of the Novia is in the distance. We see WALL-E and EVE passing by in their own pod as the guest’s pods turn to face another projection screen showing them coming right up on the Novia.
The pods move through an open hanger door and find themselves moving through a bay similar to the one on the Axiom. McRae comes through the speakers to tell riders to grab their light rays as the AI has already become aware that the guests are on board. They are instructed to, whenever they see one of the AI system’s many droids and access points to shine their light ray at it to fry the circuits. Up ahead, a massive door opens out into the ship proper.
Here, the pods separate and the trackless portion of the ride begins. Guests pass through one of the corridors of the Novia with various animatronic droids appearing trying to stop the pods from proceeding further. When a guest shines their light ray onto one of the droids, the droid will stop moving and appear to short circuit. There are a few times where they will pass open access panels on the wall that control the ship’s AI and when light is shined on them, they glow and appear to spark and short out.
The pods move from the corridor into one of the main atriums of Novia where they pass by many passengers on their floating chairs being moved around the ship. This room is big, but it’s made to look even bigger via trickery with perspective and projection. Some of the passengers of the ship are animatronics and guests can short out their hover chairs by shining their lights onto them. Many hundreds of thousands of more passengers are shown via projection. Once more, the pods are continuously attacked by AI droids that guests are meant to disengage.
Moving out of the atrium, the pods find themselves moving along a work access corridor where they are cornered by the main AI unit itself: the ship's wheel. WALL-E and EVE appear in animatronic form, pushing a button that opens an airlock hatch to try and save the guests from being attacked.
It is here that the suspended section begins. From above, arms similar to the KUKA arm connect with the ride pod and lifts the pods off the ground. For a moment, they fly around the corridor they’re in, being jostled around by the change in pressure from the open airlock until they get swept outside into space. The pods enter another room darkened but lit by stars made to look like the expanse of space. Guests see that they’re now flying through space above the Novia. Guests can see a projection of WALL-E moving himself around with his fire extinguisher like in the movie in this scene. McRae’s voice comes over the speaker telling guests he’s electronically maneuvering the pods back to the Novia.
The pods turn and guests find themselves riding along the hull of the Novia where they return to the ship via an exhaust port. They move briefly through the interior machinery of the ship before coming out inside the captain’s bridge. They’re still flying around the space with an animatronic captain fighting the AI wheel down below the guests. Guests are instructed to attack the AI wheel with their light rays, eventually causing the AI to completely short circuit. The pods leave the bridge as they hear the captain announce he’s got control of the ship.
The pods are returned to the ground where they once more cluster up and return to the omnimover formation. The pods move through the atrium of the Novia once more as the ship begins to make the descent to Earth. They see on screens around them the people of the ship starting to try and walk just as the people of the Axiom did. A large door opens up revealing the ship has landed. The pods pass by animatronic WALL-E and EVE holding some of the tech the mission was mounted to retrieve as McRae congratulates everyone on a job well done. The pods return to Axiom’s launch bay and guests disembark.
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