Retro Recaps: Sport Goofy in Soccermania

Retro Recaps is where we will look back at old television episodes from the past, and analyze their story, content, and much more.

If you grew up in the 1980’s like I did, then you may recall Disney’s rise to providing after-school programming that seemingly started with the series Ducktales. Loosely based on Carl Barks’ comic series that made Scrooge a wealthy adventure-seeker (sometimes accompanied by Donald Duck and his nephews), the television series would spawn everything from video games to a feature-length film. But unknown to most people, Scrooge and the nephews shared in a ‘pre-adventure’ in Duckberg that was several years in the making due to the production stopping and starting up again.

Though our familiar cast of ducks figure into the main cast, the true herald of the show is Goofy (or ‘Sport Goofy,’ if we go by the title). Word was, this short only aired once on television, almost a year before Disney debuted the Ducktales TV series. So what did Goofy and Scrooge do in Duckburg before Launchpad McQuack and the others came out to play? Let’s find out:

After an updated opening reminiscent of the beginnings of the original Goofy short-subjects (this time with some action-packed music by composer John Debney), we find ourselves in Duckburg, where a (somewhat) familiar structure towers over much of the city: Scrooge’s money bin.

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Inside, we find Scrooge swimming around in his loot.

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Shortly after we meet Scrooge, we meet Huey, Dewey and Louie. When they ask Scrooge to help support the city’s sports program, he agrees, but balks when he finds out how. The boys request Scrooge purchase a trophy for the city’s soccer tournament. The one they want is only $1.49, but that’s enough to still make Scrooge sweat.

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Hoping to get out of the obligation, Scrooge goes swimming in his money, and comes across an old beat-up trophy, that he happily provides the boys.

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Needless to say, the three are upset at Scrooge’s miserly ‘donation,’ but their mood soon turns to shock when a dog claiming to be the curator for the Duckburg Museum of Antiquities sees the trophy, and confirms that it is in fact an ancient artifact worth over $1 million!

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The revelation soon makes the local newspaper, and Scrooge goes through the roof (literally in one scene) when he realizes he’s just given valuable property away! Shortly afterwards, he visits the boys with a huge new trophy, but they refuse Scrooge’s offer for a trade, claiming if he wants his million dollar trophy back, he’ll need to sponsor the winning team.

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Scrooge (grouchily) concedes defeat, and agrees to sponsor the boy’s team, as well as giving in to their request for a new soccer ball. Going to a local sporting goods store, they are serviced by Sport Goofy (why they don’t just call him Goofy is never explained). Scrooge and the boys watch as Goofy effortlessly stocks the shelves in less than a few seconds, and demonstrates some impressive soccer skills. Needless to say, Scrooge eagerly requests that Sport Goofy join the team.

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The boys then introduce Scrooge and Sport Goofy to the team that will become The McDuck Greenbacks. However, Scrooge’s mood turns from sure to shocked when he finds out that the group the boys have assembled are clueless regarding soccer. Even so, Sport Goofy eagerly agrees to coach them.

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Meanwhile, in a rougher side of Duckburg, we encounter The Beagle Boys. The lead Beagle Boy informs his brothers that they will be participating in the upcoming soccer tournament for the trophy.

Of course, the Beagle Boys know nothing about soccer, and resort to cheating. Naturally, since this is a cartoon, they manage to cheat their way to the finals against the McDuck Greenbacks.

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Eventually, Scrooge finds out the bookkeepers are placing 1,000,000:1 odds in the Beagle Boys’ favor of winning the game. Naturally, Scrooge knows the kind of scoundrels that the Beagles are, but Goofy seems oblivious to his tirade.

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Goofy tells the rest of the team to go home and rest, but after getting ready for bed, he finds he has some company.

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The next day, the city’s stadium is packed with citizens come to see the big game.

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Plus, where would we be without product placement?

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Scrooge soon after arrives in the locker room of the Greenbacks with some new jerseys, but loses his cool when he finds that Sport Goofy hasn’t shown up, and the Beagle Boys have left a note for the team.

Scrooge panics at first regarding what to do. He attempts to give the team a pep talk, but it comes off more like a demand that they win back his trophy. This leads to the team sadly trudging out onto the field, as the crowd reacts in shock when the announcer mentions that Sport Goofy has not appeared.

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Meanwhile, Sport Goofy is being held at the Beagle Boys’ hideout. Even though he’s tied up, he stays in high spirits as the game begins.

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As expected, the Beagles use all sorts of methods to cheat on the soccer field. Scrooge and the crowd watch as the Beagles use everything from an oil slick-

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– to bricking up their goal. The referee is blind to most of this, as his glasses keep getting knocked off.

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Back at the Beagles’ hideout, Sport Goofy gets ahold of a knife, and manages to cut his bonds and escape. After outrunning two of the Beagle Boys, he makes his way back to the stadium, surprising everyone when he leads the dejected Greenbacks back onto the field for the final game.

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The Greenback’s luck soon turns around, as Sport Goofy’s soccer prowess ends up tying the score.

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However, as the clock ticks down to the final seconds, the Beagle Boys gang up and tackle Goofy. This illegal move is the only one that the referee manages to catch, and Goofy is awarded a penalty kick.

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The Beagle Boys then attempt one last trick by rigging the soccer ball with explosives-

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-but the plan manages to backfire on them, and Goofy ends up making the winning kick!

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Scrooge eagerly gets his trophy back, and then publicly declares that he will donate it to the Duckberg Museum (on condition that his donation is tax-deductible!).

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The final shot shows the Greenbacks and Scrooge taking a team picture with Sport Goofy, who delivers a parting line: “If you play fair, and work together as a team, anyone can be number one!”

As the credits roll, we get a shot of the black-and-white team picture, along with a reprise of John Debney’s score.

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And that was Soccermania. The episode is definitely one of those anomalies in the history of Disney animation. When I first saw it, it was packaged along with numerous shorts from Goofy’s long and storied career of playing sports such as football, hockey, and skiing.

Even though it was released around the same year as Ducktales, the voicework in Soccermania is also quite jarring. One example is Scrooge McDuck, who is voiced this time (and only this time) by Will Ryan. In Mickey’s Christmas Carol (made in 1983), Alan Young voiced Scrooge, and after Soccermania, has been voicing the richest duck in the world ever since.

There is rumor that the creation of Soccermania was several years in development. At one point it was shelved, and then put back into production. It’s possible that the production and voice work of the short could have taken place prior to Mickey’s Christmas Carol, but not a whole lot of information exists on the production, let alone what the original incarnation was compared to the final product.

The depiction of The Beagle Boys (all voiced by Will Ryan) matches their comic incarnations, in that they are all the same body type, albeit each one is missing a separate numbered prison tag. This was supposedly their first animated television appearance.

There are a couple more visual items in the short that did catch my eye.

Word is that an early concept of Roger Rabbit shows up in the crowd scenes. Here’s a clip (you be the judge):

As a kid, I remember cracking up and loving the numerous manic expressions that were given to Scrooge. Scrooge did get manic in Ducktales, but many of the things he did failed to compare to a lot of the funny moments in Soccermania. Here’s my favorite example:

One of the storyboard artists on Soccermania was the late Joe Ranft, who later went on to work at Pixar. One gag he did in Toy Story 2,was showing the toys in a dream of Woody’s, playing cards. However, they are all playing cards with the Ace of Spades, which in some cultures, is considered ‘the death card.’ In Soccermania, the Beagle Boys are seen playing cards, hinting that maybe they should do something for Goofy ahead of the big game. As they laugh, they throw down their cards, revealing the following shot:

Ever since finding the ‘Ranft’ connection, I did wonder if this may have been his story handiwork as well. As a kid, I had no idea the significance of the cards, so this shot almost acts as something the adults watching the show could pick up on. That’s something that seems to be lacking in some shows today (subtle jokes to the adults, not ‘death cards,’ though I haven’t seen many of those pop up on television either).

Soccermania is one of those animated shorts that has stuck in the back of my head for many years. While the quality of the animation is not up to par as some of their later efforts, I felt it was worthy to be a contender here in my Retro Recaps section. If you have fond memories of this episode, or are part of the production crew who could shed a little light on the making of the episode, by all means, please leave a comment.

Retro Recaps: The Story of Anyburg USA

Retro Recaps is where we will look back at old television episodes from the past, and analyze their story, content, and much more.

Ever since the first previews rolled for PIXAR’s 2006 release Cars, there has been a great cry of foul regarding the company’s adventures making a world of living vehicles populating a landscape that looks largely comprised of human-built things.

What I find funny is that the film’s director, John Lasseter, borrowed his concept of window-eyed vehicles from several of the animated shorts made by the Walt Disney Company. Notable among them was Suzie, the Little Blue Coupe, a short that I loved for its vehicular depictions, so one can say I was instantly sold on John’s concept.

In the mid-50’s, the animation division of Disney was starting to wind down regarding short animation productions.Quality began to be scaled back from the previous decade,  and quite a lot of the non-film animation output, was used towards educational purposes instead. One of these was 1957’s The Story of Anyburg, USA. It’s title is rather vague, notably in regards to the opening title card which shows a courtroom. So what’s the news out of Anyburg? Let’s find out.

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As our short opens, a narrator tells that our story is about to take place “within the borders of a great, enlightened, and civilized country.” We then see an overhead view of the United States, that quickly dissolves into one with white lines representing roadways, and numerous little rectangles representing vehicles. However, the movement of the vehicles is more chaotic than orderly.

We then find ourselves viewing the (now-small) town of Anyburg. I say town, because according to its local signage, its population has decreased from that of a small city (30,000), to a small town (500). The narrator then goes on to say that while ‘homicide on the highway’ was not that different from other places within the United States, the local citizens were getting fed up with their traffic situation. One example is seen below:

Eventually, the citizens of Anyburg decide to place the blame for these troubles upon the automobile, and a trial begins.

With a grumpy judge presiding over the trial, we are then introduced to an ‘angular’ prosecuting attorney (voiced by Hans Conried),

and a ‘well-rounded’ defense attorney (voiced by Bill Thompson).

The prosecuting attorney starts off the trial by bringing three automobiles to the stand. Unlike “Suzie the Little Blue Coupe,” the vehicles and humans can communicate with each other.

The first car on the stand is a green coupe, who is intimidated by the prosecutor. He is accused of speeding and crashing into a restaurant, before driving away from the scene. The car sheepishly confesses to this.

The next car is a red sports car, who is accused of ‘guzzling alcohol,’ and speeding. When questioned if the accusations are true, the sports car casually agrees.

The third car is an older vehicle, who’s ‘crime’ is being unsafe. With only one eye (or windshield) intact, a rattling frame, and non-safe tires, the prosecutor plays to the jury, claiming the vehicle is the kind “every safety test shuns!”

After each car is cross-examined by the prosecuting attorney, the defense attorney is given a chance to do so as well, but he busily scribbles away on some papers and replies, “no questions.”

The prosecutor then plays testimony from those in the automobile industry. They hear from vehicle builders, and persons working to increase safety in vehicles. However, they also say that though there is a great deal of investment to improve automobile safety, accident rates continue to rise.

Testimony is also given by a man who designs super-highways. He speak passionately of the hours of work put into his job, and the lane lines and safety signs added, but breaks down in tears, feeling that the automobiles have made a mess of his work. The prosecuting attorney also says that automobiles see these highways as playgrounds where they could disobey rules.

“There’s only one end to this tale of woe,” says the prosecuting attorney, gesturing wildly to the jury, “The automobile, has GOT to GO!!!”

With this line, the prosecutor rests his case, and gives the floor to the defense.

The defense attorney then pulls down a screen, and shows a speeding car. However, he then tells the viewer to take away the vehicle, and we are left with a speeding man.

As we watch, the speeding man attempts to race a train to a crossing, but he ends up being hit, sustaining heavy injuries, and ending up in a body cast.

The next thing we see, is a weaving, ‘drunk’ car. Like the last example, the car is removed, and we see its drunken passengers are responsible for its weaving motions. The defense attorney is heard to say that drinking-and-driving is wrong, and to prove this, we then see the men and the vehicle crash into a telephone pole.

The next section is quite interesting. We see a police line-up and three people standing before it. The defense attorney claims that they are all ‘ordinary citizens.’

However, the defense attorney tells how each of these innocent people can be dangerous.  Each of them has been found guilty of such crimes as reckless driving, hit-and-run, and speeding. In a Jekyl-and-Hyde type transformation, we see each of them go from an ordinary citizen, into a crazed lunatic. One example is a woman who was charged with hit-and-run. Below, you can see the before-and-after results:

“I think we all know who the criminal in this case really is,” the defense attorney says as the lights in the courtroom come up, “”It’s you. And you. And it’s me too!”

It is then that the attorney realizes, that everyone in the courtroom has left! However, there are three notes left in crucial areas. In the jury box hangs a paper that says “Not Guilty.” On the judge’s bench, rests a paper that says “Case Dismissed.” Even the prosecuting attorney was kind enough to leave a paper behind saying, “You win!”

The attorney and the cars celebrate their win, and the end results cause many people to look in the mirror for whom to blame.

The narrator returns, saying that the end results of the trial seemed to work, as common courtesy on the highway seemed to return. We see the defense attorney stopping at a cross-walk to let a woman and several children pass. What’s interesting to note is his automobile, which has eyes in its headlights, not its windshield.

We then get another view of Anyburg, with cars yielding the right-of-way, and the world seeming to have learned its lesson.

But, as can be expected with human beings, the peace and tranquility is fleeting, and within a matter of seconds on-screen, traffic patterns return to the following:

“Well, it was a nice try,” says the narrator, as we return to an overhead map of the United States, and its ‘highways of death’. “And where there’s light, there’s hope…let’s hope.”

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And that was The Story of Anyburg, USA. From the information above, it doesn’t sound quite as happy-go-lucky as a Mickey Mouse cartoon, but I love it for the fact that it shows often how frivolous some lawsuits and court cases can be. And of course nowadays, we see plenty of idiotic trials brought to life that we often say, “if you just did this or that, you wouldn’t need to have a trial!”

The story of Anyburg was written by Disney Studios veteran, Dick Huemer. Working with the studio for over 30 years into the 1960’s, he worked everywhere from short cartoons, to the studio’s animated features like Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. Huemer’s hand was in several other educational shorts from the studio in the 1950’s. These included the shorts on music titled Melody, and Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom.

The short’s director was Clyde Geronimi, also a seasoned veteran of the studio. Though starting off as an animator, Clyde eventually spent over 20 years directing shorts and films for The Walt Disney Studios. Also of note, was that he was the director for Suzie the Little Blue Coupe.

Of course, automobiles would continue to figure into many of the studio’s productions, and I often loved watching them. From Mr Toad and his mad obsession with motorcars, to Goofy in 1950’s Motor Mania. Motor Mania could almost be seen as a precursor for Anyburg, as it also deals with courtesy and reckless driving. And in 1965, Goofy would also star in two driving education shorts, titled Freewayphobia, and Freeway Troubles.

The Story of Anyburg USA was only released once on DVD, in the now-defunct Walt Disney Treasures set titled, Disney Rarities. The set includes shorts from 40 years of the studio’s libraries, and is pretty easy to find on the secondary market.

Cars Land Review, pt 2: The Rides of Cars Land

This is a multi-part review of Disney’s California Adventure’s latest addition, related to the PIXAR film, CARS.

( For Pt 1, The Theming of Cars Land, click here )

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When Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, one thing a number of visitors said the new park was lacking, were rides. While several rides were available in the park, it seemed that the management was looking into making DCA more of a destination spot for teenagers and older visitors (with plenty of disposable income).

New rides and refurbishments were added to California Adventure over the next 11 years of its operations. With the opening of Cars Land in June of 2012, the new themed area also ‘came standard’ with 3 new rides. In this second segment of our 3-part review, we’ll take a gander at each of them.

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Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

The Story: At the entrance of Radiator Springs, lies Mater’s Towing & Salvage yard. However, in the wake of Radiator Springs receiving more traffic in recent years, Mater has decided to find a way to entertain many of the town’s guests. His solution? A junkyard jamboree, in which a number of little baby tractors and their tractor-trailers do a little square-dance inside of the junkyard. Nearby, a jukebox made up of old car parts plays the square-dance songs, of which Mater sings each one.

The Ride: Two yards in the junkyard each feature 3 circular turntables, on which the baby tractors move around on. As they go around the circles, their trailers ‘whip and whirl’ around. The ride lasts around 2 minutes, and is based on the square-dance songs that Mater sings.

The Theming:Unlike the rather unkempt look of the junk yard in Cars, it appears Mater has tried to make his place more presentable. The leaning shack in which Mater makes his home is there, and there are a number of rusty car parts on the premises. For the crowds, large shaded ‘sheds’ have been installed, with fans inside to keep air circulating for the crowds.

One of the most fun areas of the queue is after you first enter. Along one wall, are mementos from the adventures Mater had from the Cars Toons shorts, Mater’s Tall Tales.

The junkyard’s jukebox is also a way for Mater to have a presence in the ride, without him actually being there. The songs Mater sings are randomized, with a special ‘easter egg’ song that pops up in the rotation once every hour. 5 of the songs are also included on the exclusive Music of Cars Land CD (which can be found in Sarge’s Surplus Hut at Cars Land).

The Verdict: If you don’t like being whipped and whirled around, then this ride isn’t for you (I saw a couple 3-4 year-olds who didn’t seem to be having fun). However, the unpredictability of the trailer moving around did put a smile on my face. I think it also helps if you ride with more than just one person (I had to hold onto the front safety bar so as not to be slammed into the sides). This is a nice ‘couples’ ride, or maybe a 3-person experience if the riders are small enough). It’s a fun little mini-thrill with a cute little theme.

I was a little disappointed to see that the baby tractors in the ride had stationary rear wheels, but as the ride starts going, you soon could care less about that. As well, using 3 rotating platforms helps make the ride more fun, instead of the standard ‘figure eight’ that could easily have been used.

A nice little side-attraction is that near the entrance to the ride, there’s a small baby tractor you can take photos with.

As of my writing this article, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, with its short-but-sweet 2 minute running time, makes it a ride that has very few long lines during the day. Some people have said that you can take your time and experience the ride later, and I’d have to agree with them. I rode the ride a second time around 8 pm one evening, and got on in less than 10 minutes. Dad-gum!

Final Grade: B

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Luigi’s Flying Tires

The Story: Much like Mater, Luigi and Guido have decided to also welcome new guests to town. Out behind the Casa Della Tires, Luigi has spruced up his garden and tire storage yard. Supposedly, a special variety of the Fettucine Alfredo tire has the uncanny ability to float on a cushion of air, and Luigi and Guido invite guests to enjoy themselves by jumping onto these special tires, and floating on a cushion of air. The special event is dubbed The Festival of the Flying Tires.

The Ride: Guests are invited to climb aboard the 2-seater flying tires, and as they rise off the ground, guests move their bodies in the direction they wish to ‘fly,’ and the tires will follow suit.As you ride, Italian-style music plays over the speakers, as everyone makes their tires ‘dance on air.’

The Theming:The queue area that leads you through Luigi’s Casa Della Tires and into the rear of the store is quite a treat. Railings in the queue are capped by small tires, and we get plenty of familiar visual reminders from the film series. These include the tire showroom, and the tryout mirrors (complete with simulated roadway to see how your new tires will look once they hit the pavement!).

As we leave the main showroom, we find ourselves back near Luigi’s office, with several display cases showing mementos that Luigi and Guido have collected both in Radiator Springs, and from going around the world during Lightning McQueen’s entry to the World Grand Prix in Cars 2. The display items are quite plentiful, and unless the line is moving really, really, really slow, it’ll take you a few trips back to see them all.

Once you make your way outside, you’ll find the garden is decorated with hubcaps, pennants, and plenty of Italian-style decor. There’s even a sculpture of the Italian race car Francesco Bernoulli on display in the garden.

At night, the lights strung overhead illuminate the ‘festival,’ and make it quite a sight.

The Verdict: When this ride was announced as being an homage to Tomorrowland’s Flying Saucers ride, many Disney fans cheered (myself included!). Having seen video of people on the single-occupant flying saucers from Disneyland footage, I too was excited to give these a try. Though much like Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, the Flying Tires don’t feel right unless you have 2-3 people in your tire.

Word is that many first-timers were unclear how to fly their tires, even with numerous signs leading up to the ride. One remedy was a small queue before you get on, in which a Cast Member and a volunteer, tell about how to use your body to steer. I raised my hand to volunteer, and was rewarded for my bravery:

Ta-Da! I’ve earned my wings (in sticker form)!

Strangely enough, the tutorial was done when I went on the ride in the morning one day, but when I went on it during another evening, there was no tutorial.

I almost equate the ride to being like bumper boats, but on air. A big problem is that due to the size and amount of tires, there can be small bottlenecks of people here and there. The controls were also updated in the last month or so, with the exclusion of a spin-control, and plans are to remove 20-pounds of unneeded material from underneath the tires, which should help make them easier to steer (how this will affect the ride, we haven’t heard yet).

To up the ‘fun factor’ during the first few months, 4-foot beachballs with Italian flag colors were added, and this seemed to make the ride more fun, as people were trying to smoosh the balls with their tires, or catch and throw them. One time, my tire and another person’s caused one of the balls to fly about 12 feet in the air!

A week or so after my visit, reports were coming in that the beachballs were removed, as a way to help the ride’s loading time (which often stretched to an hour).

A lot of people have considered the flying tires the ‘dud’ of Cars Land, but I think the ride just needs some more fine-tuning to it. After all, Disneyland was not a great success when it was first opened. If the lines are short enough, I’d recommend getting on, as it has a nice team/family feel to it, and the queue experience helps with my final grade below.

Final Grade: B

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Radiator Springs Racers

The Story: The denizens of Radiator Springs (in association with the Racing Sports Network), are hosting a big race in and around town, and you are one of the big race-day participants!

The Ride:You and 5 other passengers are seated in an open-top vehicle. You’ll drive through Ornament Valley, make your way into town to prepare, and then go hood-to-hood with another car, vying for first place!

The Theming: The queue areas in Disney attractions are often known for their attention-to-detail, and with Racers, we have one of the most eye-opening queues that winds its way through the outdoor setting.

As you make your way through one of three different lines (there are separate lines for single-riders, Fastpass riders, and stand-by riders), you are treated to some really intricate theming. Racers zoom over 2 bridges above you, but as we get closer to the rock-work of Ornament Valley, we come across a new site: some of the first buildings constructed after Radiator Springs was founded! We find Stanley’s Oasis, and even the fabled springs that the town was named after, water bubbling from a radiator-like rock-cropping. A fun game that I and alot of people played, was trying to toss a coin into the bubbling water on top (someone even threw a dollar bill into the water!).

Loading up inside the Comfy Caverns Motor Court, a historical part of Radiator Springs.

Eventually, you make your way into an exposed side of the nearby mountain range, where you come across the Comfy Caverns Motor Court. This will serve as the loading area for the vehicles. Once you’re safety belt is secure, and Sheriff gives you the safety spiel, you’re on your way.

Much like in Cars, the first leg of your journey takes you on a picturesque sight-seeing tour around Ornament Valley, even viewing the spectacular waterfall that took Lightning McQueen’s breath away (right before Sally snatched it away a few seconds later).

Before you know it, you’ve entered into a cave, where you then encounter several familiar faces, before making your way into Radiator Springs, where your car is spruced up for the big race. You can either get some new white wall tires from Luigi’s, or a new paint job from Ramone’s. You’ll then get a little pep talk from Doc Hudson (done up in his Fabulous Hudson Hornet decals!), before Luigi and Guido drop the starting flag-

-and you’re off at speeds up to 40 miles an hour, racing through the hills! You’ll take banked turns, power over hills, and much more, as you attempt to win the big race! Who will win? Well, you’ll need to hop in a car to find out for yourself.

The Verdict: One thing that alot of Disneyland fans have decried, has been the lack of a big E-Ticket attraction installed on the resort grounds. The last time the park had such a ride open, was in 1995, with Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye in Adventureland. This is one of my family’s favorite attractions, and I still recall the 3-hour lines that stretched into Frontierland that summer of 1995.

While I held Indy at the top of my list, Radiator Springs Racers is one of those theme park attractions that just ups the ante in a whole new way, and has knocked Indy to #2 on my list! This is the kind of ride that if you go into it without knowing a thing, I guarantee you’ll come out in an amazed state of shock and awe.

What helps is that the theming for the ride extends all the way out to the tips of Radiator Springs, insulating you in the world of the ride before you even get into the line. Such a feat has not been done so well in the American parks until this ride!

John Lasseter was a former Disneyland ride operator, and one can see how his experiences at Disneyland and as a person who worked for both Walt Disney Feature Animation & PIXAR, shaped this attraction. The ride is also one of the first I’ve seen, that follows a 3-act ‘story’ structure. This helps get you into the groove of the ride, and builds up your excitement before you eventually get to the race.

The interior dark-ride portion of the ride is truly incredible, with over 20 audio-animatronic vehicles based off of the Cars characters. Each uses multiple techniques to make the characters come to life. It’s one thing to make animatronic figures of humans, but full-size vehicles are another matter entirely, and here, the results made me feel like a kid again!

While I was at the Disneyland Resort, I rode Racers 7 times. Using the single-rider lines, my 40-45 minute wait times were usually helped along by chatting with guests and families in line. Several of them, when they found out I was going on the ride again, seemed to grow more excited. On the way out after the race, I’d see the guests who I talked with, and upon asking how they liked the ride, all of them excitedly told me that they enjoyed the experience. One family of 5 loved it so much, that they immediately got back into the single-rider line after the race! A couple I talked to were surprised that the ride vehicles had a top speed of 40 mph. To them, the cars seemed to go much faster.

When I visited the park in early August of 2012, the Fastpasses for Racers were often gone an hour or so after the park opened, and the regular stand-by line had wait-times of up to 2 hours! Some are predicting that over the course of the ride’s first year, the crowds will start to die down, and a more manageable wait time will be on hand (I could easily see this ride hitting average wait times of 45-60 minutes, much like popular rides like Indiana Jones and Space Mountain).

Rumor currently circulating online, is that the company wants to find a way to transplant Racers down to Walt Disney World. Personally, I say leave the ride as a California exclusive. Each park needs a major attraction to get people to visit. Besides, Walt Disney World has had plenty of ‘toys’ on their property over the years, that it’s time that the Anaheim parks had something bright and shiny to entice guests.

Doc Hudson (aka Paul Newman) lives on inside “Radiator Springs Racers,”serving as your crew chief in the big race.

We truly have a winner on our hands here, Ladies and Gentlecars. If you do make it to Disney’s California Adventure, you owe it to yourself to go on Radiator Springs Racers at least once. I’ll leave it to you if you deem it worthy enough to hop back on right afterwards.

I’d also recommend taking a ride after dark. The illuminated rock work of Ornament Valley is quite striking at night.

Final Grade: A+

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Even with two B-grade rides and an A+ ride, Cars Land has plenty of stuff that will surely keep attracting people to Radiator Springs. In a way, Cars Land improves over the the last Disneyland expansion I recall: 1993’s Mickey’s Toontown.

Mickey’s Toontown gave us a wonderful representation of the place where Mickey and his friends lived, but was often short on attractions for everybody. Alot of the places to visit (such as Goofy’s Bounce House, and Chip n’ Dale’s Treehouse), were more kid-friendly than family-friendly. In fact, there were only two ‘rides’ in Toontown one could go on as a family: Roger Rabbit’s Car-Toon Spin, and Gadget’s Go-Coaster.

A still from the Cars Toons short, “Time-Travel Mater.”

One fun little thing that was done for the opening of Cars Land, was the creation of a special Mater’s Tall Tale short, in which Lightning McQueen and Mater travel back in time, and meet the town’s founder, Stanley. The short almost serves as an unofficial travelogue as to what you may encounter, with the majority of things being what you’ll experience when you ride Radiator Springs Racers!

If you visit California Adventure at the time of this posting (September 2012), you can see the short running on a loop in the Blue Sky Cellar right near the entrance of Cars Land. The cases and walls are lined with concept art and models of the creation of the new land as well. (By the way, if you go and see a a couple guys named Marc or Stevens, tell them Michael says “Hi”)

Even though this was in the case as you made your way through Luigi’s Casa Della Tires, I decided to save this as my closing image. A fun little reference to Disney’s films, in the form of a town film festival. The host names on the poster are vehicle variations on PIXAR Producers Darla K Anderson (producer of CARS), and Denise Ream (producer of CARS 2).

( For Part 3, The Eateries of Cars Land, click here )