Voyager: n. A long journey to a foreign or distant place, especially by sea.

In Short:

Time Voyagers is a computer generated animated film, shown in a themed 4D Cinema - the extra dimension being the fact you can "feel" the movie.

Statistics:

Opened: 2008
Manufacturer: 3DBA and Kraftwerk Living Technologies
Area: Calypso Quay
Ride Type: 4D Cinema
On Ride Photo: No
Official Rating: Thrilling and Fun

Capacity: 492 guests/show
Ride Duration: 8 minutes

Photos:

Video:

See Time Voyagers in action: TTP Park Video can be found in Downloads.

TTP Review:

Time Voyagers replaced Pirates 4D in 2008, after 9 years of the old film showing at Thorpe Park. Whereas Pirates 4D contained real scenes shot on location (and real actors - Lesley Neilson was a star), Time Voyagers is a CGI feast - everything was made on a computer. It was originally made exclusively for Gardaland in Italy for 2007, but when Merlin and Tussauds merged, Thorpe Park pinched Gardaland's attraction and dubbed English audio onto the film. Et voila - their new attraction for '08 - a journey through space and time with Bix and Ting, your metallic guides.

It's not good. Everything feels rushed. The English audio is sometimes hard to understand, the plot is thin at best, and a lot of the old Pirates 4D theming has been ripped out to leave the Theatre feeling a bit souless. A lot of the effects seem to be there for the sake of it, rather than because they enhance the experience. And simply replacing the P4D sail outside with a Time Voyagers one and calling it the new attraction is a bit cheeky.

Having said that, it does appear that Thorpe Park have worked on the effects within the Theatre, so they should be more reliable. Some effort has been put into theming, too - there is an impressive mural on the right hand wall of the Theatre depicting the deep sea voyage. But the fact remains that Thorpe Park thought that they could just swap an established, funny film with a humourless, incoherent film, and that would be OK. The film isn't even as long as P4D (8 minutes!), and it feels like a distinct lack of effort has gone into the whole affair. It even still shows the Gardaland logo at the end of the film!

4D films in Theme Parks lose their appeal pretty quickly anyway, but more so when the quality is as poor as this. Time Voyagers is definitely a downgrade from what was there before. Give it a go only if it's rainy day or you've done everything else on Park.

Positives:

• Nice to see a new film after 9 years of the Pirates 4D.
• It's an indoor attraction, which Thorpe Park needs more of.

Negatives:

• Nowhere near as good as Pirates 4D. Soulless, humourless, dull.
• Too short.
• Attraction seems completely out of place considering the area of the Park it resides in.

Your Reviews:

"Pirates 4D was reluctantly retired as the film was in analogue format on a proper film reel and unfortunately disintegrating. A digital format was unable to be sourced and so here we have Time Voyagers for the short term until a proper use is found for the theatre!"
Anon, Thorpe Park, UK.

If this is the case, then we hope that the Park can find a more effective use for the Theatre very soon!