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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
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 It was originally made exclusively for Gardaland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 a nice
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 appropriate film for Calypso Quay with
a Sci Fi film, and that would be OK. The film isn't half as funny
as P4D, or as long (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. It's not bad
as such, but definitely a downgrade from what was there before.
Give it a go if it's rainy day or you've done everything else
on Park.
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