The Official "Pre-Show" Thread: Love it or Hate it?

[Parkscope Joe]

Then there's some scenarios where the pre shows are even better than the attraction. I'm looking at you, Jimmy Fallon!

I have a larger thoguht/blog post I'll just put here on pre-shows, their function, and necessity, but maaaan.... this preshow safety rap is really one of the bests.

 

[ladiesman217]

I recently went to EPCOT for a day solely with the intent of riding Cosmic Rewind all day. Ended up getting 8 rides on it and the pre-show truly ticked me off by the third time around. Its just so ridiculously long, the acting is horrible from everyone (except Bautista, he's actually doing a petty good job as Drax), and the guests in there are the absolute worst. Marathoning Cosmic Rewind and having to wait an hour long line every time really isn't too bad for me, its the pre-show that truly takes a toll on me every single time.

Compare this to the many times I've marathoned Mission: Breakout. I tend to usually get 20 rides on Mission: Breakout when I do full day marathons on it and out of the hundreds of times I've ridden it, I've never found the pre-show annoying. I actually enjoy watching it. Its quick, it's pretty cool thanks to the matched energy between the screen and the physical environment/Rocket animatronic, to the point, and the people are (usually) not mobbing the exit door like on Cosmic.

It honestly makes me wonder just how different that original pre-show on Cosmic Rewind would have been if they kept the Rocket and Groot animatronics and (physical?) Milano ship in the background.

 

[Jake S]

It's funny, because I was thinking about writing something about Poor Queue Management in Disney theme parks. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Cosmic Rewind and Rise of the Resistance all do the same thing. They structure the queue to, at some point, "no longer have a line." This is reinforced by frustrated employees. There's no line, they say! Fill all available space, they say!

If you comply, you'll soon find out that, whoops, there is still a line. And now the most sociopathic among us have been rewarded for barreling their way to the "front" of the previous room. It sucks! Just build a line and let me stand in the line, thank you! Stop trying to engineer your way around human behavior.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Some Preshows I think are good and set the tone and either don't waste too much time or are so cool you don't mind it being a little longer

1) Haunted Mansion (might be the best pre show of all time)
2) Star Wars ROTR (this one is longer for sure and two rooms but both make you feel like your in Star Wars and have not bugged me yet)
3) Mickey and Minnies, Its mostly a screen but the song is well done its short and they do the cool trick where you walkthrough the screen after
4) GOTG Mission break out is mixed The Rocket AA is pretty good and its not too long, I think the only reason I have issue with this is the 10+ min line after this point slowing the pace down
5) Dreamworks theater Kung Fi Panda. Not amazing but I will say compared to other screen pre shows this one does try some things like the Hammer moving...and it is fun seeing all the dreamworks characters talking to one another. Shout out to Shrek 4D for also being fun

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

Cosmic Rewind's preshow is frustrating primarily due to guest behavior and not having the entertainment/added value to the story to warrant it. If the ride is running normally, being stuck at the back on the room adds 2-3 minutes max to the pre-load ramp. I've stopped attempting to be near the doors unless I luck out with positioning because the mad dash once those doors open has gotten more aggressive in the past year.

Compare that to Rise of the Resistance where nobody is rushing to get on board the transport ship due to CM control and most guests either not knowing the surprise capture or wanting to take a photo of the stormtroopers. Rise feels like a full experience with the pre-shows, and the presence of the first two was definitely missed when I went on Single Rider a few weeks ago.

 

[TheGentTrent]

For motion simulators, there's really no getting around the benefit of pre-shows. You have to wait for each ride cycle to complete, so might as well have something to watch during it.

Where it can get frustrating is on constantly cycling attractions like ET, Dinosaur, or Tower of Terror where you want to marathon some rides while wait times are short and there isn't a single-rider line available to bypass the pre-shows. That's when I mentally check-out of the experience and want to just get on the ride.

 

[Clive]

You know what, here's a quick breakdown of my opinions for Universal Orlando's compulsory preshows:

Great

• Monsters Unchained. Stunning animated figures, strong writing, propulsive pacing.
• Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. The rap is fantastic, and the 30 Rock holding areas with seating, games, strong AC, and entertainment are novel. The one real successful execution of a "queueless" experience in a domestic theme park.

Good

• E.T. Adventure. It's extremely quick, features a warm performance by Steven Spielberg, and does its job of both establishing the stakes and the need for the interplanetary passport in the next room.
• Cirque Arcanus. I love just about everything about the Cirque preshow except for the audience flow and sight lines. If you don't know where to position yourself, there's a good chance you will miss some of the best illusions and visuals this attraction has to offer. The writing here is overall very good, and aside from some awkward and unconvincing business involving house elves, the show elements are all well-executed. If the audience area featured tiered viewing platforms, similar to the second and third rooms in the defunct Poseidon's Fury, this would shift into the "great" category for me.
• Men in Black. Both the "Universe and You" and elevator bits are brief and necessary to the storytelling. The budget clearly went elsewhere, though, as there's nothing compelling to look at during either. The effectiveness of the Universe and You bit is also dependent on the team member's delivery.
• The Simpsons Ride. I know we're all sick of the ride at this point, and I haven't personally been on it in literally years. Still, I don't think you can deny that the preshows are consistently funny and packed to the gills with quality gags.

Fine

• Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. If the ride still had 3D and included the original first preshow, I would've bumped this up to "good." You move through two highly themed and memorable settings with very different vibes and storytelling delivery mechanisms. The writing is also excellent. The loss of the original first preshow knocks it down a notch, as the replacement bit simply isn't as funny or relevant. What was once a pretty essential, satirical beat of the experience now feels like another holding room, albeit a detailed one.
• Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. The reality that this preshow is regularly turned off and skipped speaks to its lack of substance. The plot setup is appreciated, and the performances are fine, but we've seen the musion illusion done better elsewhere. None of it's very convincing, and the lack of physical, animated effects to accompany the pixies is a disappointing omission. It's inoffensive but also inessential.
• Fast and Furious Supercharged. I know people ironically like these, and I respect Universal for letting the team members ham it up, but the best you're going to get is "best of a bad situation," which is still bad. Wildly unclear why there are two of these, followed what's essentially two more on-ride preshows once you've boarded the bus. The only reason this isn't in the lowest category is that it's frequently more entertaining than the ride itself.

Actively Bad and Detrimental to the Experience

• Escape from Gringotts. Copying and pasting from my post in the prior thread here: I think the first preshow has really underrated writing, and in isolation it isn't an issue... but there are actually three preshows you have to get through, plus an additional wait, to actually get on the ride. (Bill's Office > Antechamber Before Elevators > Elevator.) Only one of those, the elevator, is especially exciting to experience. Even cutting out the antechamber spiel would help, but the flow unfortunately wasn't designed for that, and it's where Universal sticks the requisite warnings about the true nature of the ride.
• Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. I see what they're going for here, but the non-verbal delivery simply doesn't work. People don't have the attention spans or the critical thinking to follow what the vague cues are telling you to do, and they forget all the instructions by the time they actually get on a vehicle. Many probably don't even understand that the ride is essentially an interactive shooting gallery with more steps until the ride has already started. They already bothered to allow Toad and Toadette to speak elsewhere, so they should've bitten the bullet (bill) and let Lakitu deliver actual dialogue to explain what's going on. Furthermore, there should only be one preshow room. I have no idea why there are two. I actually enjoy the ride quite a lot, more than many here, but the interminable length of these preshows are a big reason why I don't do it all that much out here in Hollywood.
• The Bourne Stuntacular. The preshow here is the #1 reason I do not see Bourne more than once per trip despite really enjoying the show. It is is punishingly long, repetitive, confusing, and further held back by a shockingly disengaged, mediocre performance by Julia Stiles. Terminator 2: 3D used the same space far more effectively through tighter, better-executed media elements and the amusing, memorable crowd work of the Kimberly performers.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Joe's Thesis on Preshows and Queue Design

Hello! This post is a breakdown of preshow theory I've been developing for a few years now, based on talking to friends in queues, disassociating in the queues when my social battery is low, and my background in industrial engineering education.

What is a preshow?

(Voyage of the Little Mermaid show holding area. A voice-over and Cast Member preshow spiel occurs here.)

A preshow is a theatrical moment that occurs before the main attraction. Preshows range from the simple to the complex, from an employee-delivered narration before theater doors open to a multimedia extravaganza using actors and prerecorded moments. They can be whole other attractions or films worthy of awards, to a safety briefing. They can be instrumental for understanding the attraction or completely unrelated. Preshows have existed in some form in parks since Disneyland's opening, but in my eyes, the first true preshow started with the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. I will use that preshow (Ghost Host opening and the stretching room) as a case study throughout my post.

Elaborate, walkthrough queues might have preshow elements, but they are not themselves preshows. Instead, these are just elaborate queues or standalone walkthrough attractions. Examples of this include Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Battle at the Ministry.

The Types of Preshows

When forming a taxonomy of preshows, I feel the deliniation starts in the designated function of the preshow:

Functional

Functional preshows are preshows that exist due to a need in attraction design. The first examples of this were theater productions where guests would need to wait outside the theater for their performance. A simple narration, music, or film is performed before the theater doors open. This is what I'll call a cycle load preshow. Another example of a cycle load preshow is Star Tours at DL and DHS. On ST, guests are assigned a departure bay to wait as the guests on the ride go through their experience. As the ride cycles, a preshow of entertaining vignettes of droids working plays before an entertaining safety spiel occurs. The preshow lasts from the bay doors closing to the bay doors opening.

While cycle preshows are the most common type of functional preshow, function also applies to other technical aspects of the attraction experience. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland has a major elevation change in the queue in order to transport guests under the DL train tracks. To facilitate this, Disney added two massive, themed elevators disguised as parlors. The functional preshow here is to disguise a transition with the elevator. This was such a successful preshow and iconic moment that purely aesthetic versions of this preshow were replicated for HM's around the world.

Largely, I find functional preshows are non-offensive and don't waste my time - they want us in the theater as quickly as we do!

Other examples include:

• The Tiki Room
• Mission: Space
• Soarin'
• Smuggler's Run
• Flight of Passage

Aesthetic

Aesthetic preshows are ones that are added to an attraction queue independently of attraction design. The first pure aesthetic preshow in the modern context, IMHO, is the Living Seas at Epcot. Disney had a continuously loading ride vehicle that was placed between two preshows that held guests back for purely informational and aesthetic reasons. Guests could, in theory, walk from the main entrance, through the theater presentation, and right through the fake hydrolators, and onto the ride. In fact, that happened in the past and is how the Living Seas with Nemo ride operates now, no movie, no fake elevator. The attraction that popularized the concept, though, would be the Tower of Terror at DHS, more on that later.

This Queue-Preshow-Queue-Load design quickly spread through the themed design industry and continues to be used to this day. When it works, it works, setting up a fun transition from a general theme park space to a more specific environment. But when it doesn't, these preshows feel like static waiting to prevent us from riding the attraction. Because the aesthetic preshow does not hinge on a function of the attraction, it says more about the designer's philosophy and tastes than almost any other design choice. Let's go over some examples of good and bad aesthetic preshows:

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Bad

My least favorite preshow in the parks right now is the one at Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind in Epcot. One of the core issues with the attraction is that they decided Epcot in and of itself is a design style or theme. It is not. One of the design decisions was to lean into the UoE/Living Seas/Test Track 1.0 preshow style of holding rooms. There are three preshows for this ride, but in actuality, they only recognize two of them as preshows. The first merge room is a holding area with a preshow spiel about the attraction as a fake Functional Preshow for the next room. This attraction posits we had to wait to see a presentation by Glenn Close's GOTG character before getting a "live" feed of Terry Crews. We're being directly talked to before we enter the next chamber, which is supposed to be the ACTUAL attraction: a teleportation to a ship in lower orbit above Earth. WOAH! Except it's just another exposition preshow before we're allowed out. So of course everyone at this point is bored of this and just huddles at the three double doors on the far right of the preshow. We all know this is a coaster, stop wasting our time. Too much preshow, too much chaos.

Rock'n'Rollercoaster doesn't have a bad preshow that is overly long. It's not boring or never-ending. Instead, it suffers from another issue: poor planning. The holding area post-merge is too small for the preshow space, which itself is too small for the attraction's demand! So what you get is one of the most uncomfortable experiences at a Disney park. I swear, they could just put "fill in all space" spiel on a button and just mash it non-stop. I hope the Muppets redo fixes this issue.

Good

The Tower of Terror at DHS is one of the best preshows in theme parks. The quad load nature of the attraction creates a near continuous loading experience for guests, but Disney created two holding areas themed to libraries. Here, guests see an introductory TV spiel about The Twilight Zone and this special episode we're in. Then the stormy night on the TV manifests in the real world as a lightning strike takes out the power in the library, and a hidden passage opens. The Tower of Terror library echoes the Haunted Mansion preshow - from the spooky nature to the dead-end design that reveals a hidden exit.

Monsters Unchained's two preshows are my favorite preshows right now. The whole queue and set-up for the attraction is fantastic, just don't think about how you walk up a flight of stairs to ascend underground. The first preshow functions as a merge space with a quick and entertaining preshow with Ygor. It's iconic. Then the main preshow occurs with Victoria and her monster. Universal could have really drawn out this preshow to highlight the technical aspects of the show, but instead, nothing overstays its welcome and they unveil new surprises throughout the whole show. What makes this preshow really brilliant is it acts as a buffer before the non-mandatory lockers for loose items, an issue that VelociCoaster and Stardust suffer from.

Other Examples:

• E.T. Adventure
• Men in Black
• Mickey & Minnie Runaway Railway
• Dinosaur

Fun Fact: Going through my head, I believe IOA is the only major Orlando theme park not to have this type of preshow!

Hybrid Designs

A recent phenomenon has been trying to utterly break and bend the queue concept to the breaking point. Technology caught up with the general public, with automation and JIT techniques from the 80s and 90s manufacturing could be deployed in theme parks, plus sophisticated new concepts and demands of the general public.

Rise of the Resistance at DL and DHS offers the most complex and "an attraction in itself" queue and preshow experience that's a hybrid of an attraction, a functional preshow, and an aesthetic preshow. First, let's break down Rise into two components: the first is the ship transit with Lt Berk that gets intercepted by the First Order, and the second is the elements on the First Order ship & our escape. The first component is a functional preshow before the transit ride. Then after the transit ride is a promenade area with the Stormtroopers before another queue, before an aesthetic preshow. While the interrogation rooms are a great concept, and the "break out" effect is one of the coolest around, it's still a design choice to have single preshow rooms for the ride vehicles instead of a steady stream of trackless vehicles. I appreciate the creative decision, though.

Race Through New York managed to be the most mid-2010s attraction ever: a Jimmy Fallon starring simulator with virtual line and queue-less systems. Despite the fancy return times and app-based integration, when you boiled it down, it was just a bunch of aesthetic gates to reduce a longer wait into smaller components. The return time windows were designed for an hour's capacity, then that was broken down into 6 subgroups equal to the 10-minute capacity of the attraction. Your wait on the first level museum and the second floor entertainment and lounge space was artificial. But that doesn't mean there isn't an actual functional preshow here, as the safety rap preshow happens while waiting for the ride to cycle.

When It's Just Part of the Show

A quick note about when the preshow isn't one. The filmed segments from Earthquake/Disaster are part of the attraction, including the introduction spiel from our host. Same thing for Poseidon, once we saw Taylor, we were already in the attraction. The attraction isn't just the water show room or the tram disaster - it's the whole experience.