Wild mouse ride will be re-themed for Goofy at Disney's California Adventure

The artwork for this in the Blue Sky Cellar looks pretty good. This ride, and the area around it was probably the biggest problem with California Adventure. It is a standard off the shelf Mack Maus ride, with very little theming. What theming there is, was a poor attempt to tie into the car-culture of California and the Route 66 era of the Drive-in crazed mid 50's-60's. The same situation exists with Dino-Land USA in Animal Kingdom. That is to say, that theming an area to look like a tacky roadside stand or carnival (no matter how expensive it was to do), gives you an area that ends up looking like a tacky roadside carnival.

I understand what they imagineers were trying to accomplish with the Route 66 area, even the oversized "Burger invasion", the neon, the tiki mod of Pizza Oom Mow Mow. Problem is, it just didn't mesh together, and ended up looking cheap (even if it wasn't) and in the end, unsightly.

The recently completed (expensive) overlay to the standard Zierer Wave Swinger is really nice, and continues the Victorian boardwalk theme, while replacing the ugly "Orange" shell. Opening up the ride actually adds to the kinetic energy of the park, as the swings are now hard to miss as they fly through the air.

Goofy's Sky School will still be a standard production model Wild Maus. However, the new overlay should remove some of the tackiness of the previous theming, and will blend in with the (rendered to be gorgeous) Little Mermaid building, and in the end, look like a "Disney" park.

It's certainly not a great looking ride, the worst looking Disney ride? This revamp will really help improve that area of DCA. Looking forward to it.

I would say, the first time I saw the Orange Stinger, Muholland and the others I thought the concepts were neat, but that novelty wore off just too quickly.

I guess I would just rather see this mouse removed all together for something else... it's just too low capacity as a stand-alone. DCA is looking great, though.

If my remembrance of Disney Fan site information is correct, they did originally plan to remove the wild mouse, and I think there's still a chance this theme re-do is just a temp fix. With the rides being removed or shut down for work and areas of the park inaccessible, they couldn't afford yet another ride to be unavailable until at least the Little Mermaid and Cars rides are up and running. Same reason the Space Shot is still standing, as its days are very numbered.

I think as of right now, all the "original" rides are up and running in some form or another, except for Golden Dreams. I've been there twice and my 2002 experience didn't hold a candle to my 2008 experience.

Have to admit, I give DAK some grief for the "themed" Primeval Whirl. But Mulholland Madness had no better theming than any typical major-chain park on their standard mice...seriously, SF did a wayyy better job with the Dark Knight rides.

So yes, this was a badly-needed upgrade. Let's see if the bland mouse comes out more "Disney-fied" this time around.

I'm I the only one who thinks this is still going to be an "underthemed" ride? The concept art looks the same as it is now, but with different paintings and a few towers added. It's still a standard mouse with not much else happening.

If they wanted to execute a theme better, the whole thing would need to be enclosed ala Kennywood's Exterminator and/or add some more track or something before the main lift.

Despite the Disney charictor being added, it still doesn't look very "Disneyized" to me. To shake that "on the cheap" reputation it already has will take a complete tearout and rebuild with something more interesting than a standard mouse. Side note... I like a standard mouse, but Disney can (and should) do better.

That's the general problem at this point, though, in that you really can't enclose the thing and add scenes or such. They're working with a generally very compact and limited area. The best they can do for now is make it fit the theme of the area better until there's a more permanent solution.

Why can't it be enclosed? The building doesn't have to be all that much larger than the ride itself.

I'm not sold on the retheme either.

I give DAK some grief for the "themed" Primeval Whirl.

What, you don't appreciate irony? They went and built an old abandoned parking lot from scratch, just to plunk the ride on top of it! That's delicious.

Edited to add: unfortunately, almost no one gets the joke. Too bad, too, as I think it's one of WDI's better ones.