Armchair Imagineering: Plussing the Show

“Always plus the show,” Walt Disney was known to say. I have no idea if he innovated the practice of using “plus” as a transitive verb, but fans have picked it up right alongside other Disneyland insider jargon, including “weenie”* and “protein spill.”** To Walt, “plussing” meant any sort of improvement on what was already there, but as language does, the term seems to have evolved. When most people talk about “plussing,” they are definitely not referring to new attractions or even wholesale renovations of existing ones. Nor is the term used in connection with essential maintenance—fixing a broken animatronic is not plussing…more like “un-minusing.”*** Plussing, rather, is making a small improvement to the park—a new garden planter here, an array of verisimilitude-enhancing props there, an Easter egg added to a show scene to reward the sharp-eyed and/or well-read.

There is no hard bright line separating the mere plusses from more significant alterations, but we know the difference when we see it. The 2015 changes to the Matterhorn are too extensive to be considered plusses, but the revamp of Big Thunder Mountain’s climactic scene might count. The addition of a cross-country skiing troupe to A Christmas Fantasy Parade definitely counts. Here’s another great example, spotted (by yours truly) just over a week ago in the Enchanted Chamber:

Pictured: The funniest scene in any Disney movie ever. Period.

There is an infinite “possibility space” of plusses that could be made to Disneyland. Here are some I would like to see.

“it's a small world”

I've thought for years that that the first big scene, the Far North, should feature a representation of the Aurora Borealis. Not too long ago, a projection-based version was installed near the Canadian Mountie between this scene and the next, but they can do much better. What I envision is a curtain of shimmery, iridescent fabric hung from the ceiling on a flexible rod, with motors moving it in S-curves. Or maybe two or three such curtains, hanging at overlapping heights and moving on slightly different cycles. For best results, it should span the waterway so that boats pass underneath it (much like the North Wind rig installed as part of the holiday overlay).

Alice in Wonderland

I am not crazy about all of the relatively new projection mapped effects on this ride. For one in particular, I have more of a nitpick than a serious objection: the red paint splotches that appear to splash on the hedges in the “Painting the Roses Red” scene. For some reason, the blotches appear continually and then fade out while you watch. Paint does not behave this way, and I think it would be just a tad more effective if they all remained visible until your caterpillar passed by, at which point the projectors could reset.

Disneyland Monorail

It occurs to me that it would be fairly nifty if the car interiors were not all virtually identical. There's not a lot of room for variety in such small spaces, but they could re-upholster the seats in different colors, maybe tinker with the sound system to have characters give the prerecorded spiel, a different one in each car (but still overridable by the driver's mic). It would give people the opportuntity to have slightly different experiences from the same ride and increase the value of this Disneyland staple for very little cost.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey

Were you aware that this ride contains the only honest-to-goodness holographic effect in the entire Disneyland Resort? Strange but true! It's in Lampwick's hand mirror, which briefly and unspectacularly shows a greenish image of his (human) face before the figure rotates, turning the mirror away from you and simultaneously revealing that he is turning into a donkey before your very eyes!

I can see what they were going for—they wanted something like the Queen's transformation in Snow White's Scary Adventures, where she is plainly visible “reflected” in her big mirror and then whirls around as a crone. Anyone can figure out how that one is done; I suppose the hologram-in-a-hand-mirror was supposed to be more impressive? “Look, it's just a hand mirror, so there can't be another Lampwick figure in there—he must really be transforming!” Except you can barely see the holographic image and it doesn't look remotely convincing anyway.

My point is, they should replace it with a little LED screen that can display a more noticeable, full-color animation of the human face shifting toward donkey features while the mechanical ears of the solid figure pop out.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Have those paintings of the Marc Davis pirate designs always been on the walls of the inside queue area? I only remember seeing them starting with the Nineties refurbishment that also did away with the girl hiding in the barrel. Regardless, they're there now and a staple of the ride's imagery.

And then there are these two:

Taken by himself, Jack looks great—nearly photorealistic. Barbossa, however, looks awful. (What happened there, anyway?) But neither one of them looks like a Marc Davis design. I think they oughta redo these paintings as Davis-style caricatures, to match the others. They want the film characters to be part of the ride? Then they should make them part of the ride, not set them apart visually like this.

That was fun. I might do this again sometime!

* A conspicuous visual element that entices guests in a given direction.

** If you don't already know, then you don't want to.

*** My term. I want credit.