Toy Story Mania!

Grab a pair of 3D glasses, climb aboard a carnival-themed tram vehicle and zip through a gallery of midway-style games inspired by the Disney-Pixar Toy Story films in this interactive attraction designed for the entire family. Toy Story characters host different games-matched to the character's animated personalities, that challenge both beginners and experienced gamers, as players of all skill levels have fun on Toy Story Mania! in the Pixar Place area at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Follow the trajectory of the virtual objects as they travel towards their targets through a dazzling 3D landscape. For an added "4D" element, you can feel them as they whoosh by. Watch out for the water-filled balloons, they pop and splash. Points pile up when you hit your mark. Keep your eyes open for hidden targets with bonus points that promote you to a different level of play. Your score is recorded and compared to other players' tallies. Play Toy Story Mania! again and try for the day's high score. It's a ride that's a game, or is it a game that's a ride?

Entering the Toy Story Midway Mania building is like walking into a retro child's toy box. The queue is adorned with super-sized board games and playthings: Crayola crayons, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Tinkertoys, Viewmaster reels, A Barrelful of Monkeys, Checkers, Little Golden Books and much more. A large audio-animatronic Mr. Potato Head stands at the end of the main queue room. This very sophisticated audio-animatronic is able to interact with guests, follow them with his eyes, tell corny jokes, sing, and pick out people in the crowd for special attention. He can even reach up and remove one of his ears!

The attraction features five mini-games after a practice round, each of which includes at least one "Easter egg" that can trigger additional targets or gameplay changes. These games include:

• Pie Throw Practice Booth - This a practice game where guests use their shooters to throw pies at the targets that Buzz and Jessie are holding. No points are awarded in this game.
• Hamm & Eggs - Hosted by Hamm and Buttercup (a toy unicorn from Toy Story 3 with heart-shaped nostrils). Players use the shooters to toss eggs at barnyard targets such as cows and ducks and knock them down.
• Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts - Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts invites riders to shoot their virtual darts at all-new balloon targets in a primeval world filled with volcanoes and lava balloons. (The new game replaces the original Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop.)
• Green Army Men Shoot Camp - A ball-throwing game, and the object is to break as many of the moving, bouncing plates as possible. As Sarge yells, "I am not your mother -- break those plates!"
• Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers - Hosted by Buzz and the Little Green Men. Players attempt to toss rings over aliens and rocket ships.
• Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery - The final game is Woody's Rootin' Shootin' Gallery, where Woody and Jessie encourage players to throw suction cup darts at targets. Then there's an extra Woody's Bonus Roundup game. First players shoot at targets mounted on rolling mine cars, and then a stationary target pops up in front and players must fire their shooters as rapidly as possible.

Each game is 30 seconds long. The characters count down the last five seconds. There are additional "4-D" effects to some of the games, like a puff of air as an object whirls past, or a spray of water after popping a water balloon.

Each guest's score is recorded by an onboard display screen as points are acquired with individual toy cannons firing simulated projectiles at virtual targets. Toy Story characters including Woody, Hamm, Buzz Lightyear, Rex and Trixie appear during the attraction's different games.

Touring Tips

• Toy Story Midway Mania is a very popular attraction and wait times are frequently in excess of one hour. Use Disney's FASTPASS, a return voucher offering little or no waiting time at select attractions. Note that this attraction is so popular that FASTPASSes are frequently gone by noon, if you want to ride, arrive early!
• Because each car holds 4 passengers, Cast Members frequently will call for single riders or a party of two to fill a car. Be sure to keep your ears open!
• Small children are also able to ride on an adult's lap if they are facing forward with their legs securely underneath the safety bar.
• The ride is about 5 and a half minutes long. Sometimes there are delays at the end of games or between games, so it can take longer than that.
• In each of the games there is at least one "Easter Egg", targets that can trigger the appearance of bonus high-value targets or other changes. For example, in the Ring Toss game, if players can toss rings over all of the aliens in the rocket ship, then a big robot will appear and open its mouth, which has a large target in it. Depending on how much time is left in the game, it will open multiple times, with higher point values each time.
• Watch for loose change in the prize scene, Hamm is carrying more than $6 in coins when his cork pops.
• Toy Story Midway Mania is very popular with children and adults. There are a number of high value targets that are at kid's-eye level, and easier for them to see.
• Immediately across from the entrance to Toy Story Mania is a character greeting area that features Buzz, Woody and other Toy Story characters throughout the day. Check your Guide Map for times and locations.
• The cars do spin, but it's not a crazy spinning like the Mad Tea Cups at Magic Kingdom. It's more of just a quick turn to get to see the next screen.

Facts

• Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and inspired by Disney-Pixar's Toy Story franchise, the attraction was first unveiled during a press conference at Walt Disney World in January 2007 and opened officially on May 31, 2008.
• A much larger-than-life Mr. Potato Head is the "Boardwalk Barker" who welcomes you to the Toy Story Mania! attraction. With more lines of dialogue than any other Audio-Animatronics figure ever created for a Disney Park, Mr. Potato Head yuks it up with you and keeps the jokes cracking until your carnival tram whisks you away to where the midway action is.
• Toy Story Midway Mania! is one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering, costing an estimated $80 million to design and build. Many of the parts for the attraction's control system came from two of Disney's corporate sponsors, Siemens AG and Hewlett-Packard.
• The control system is divided into three components: one for the ride vehicles, one for the games and one more for the attraction's special effects. Programmable logic controllers in the vehicles alert the control system wirelessly via ProfiNET RT to the vehicle's speed and location. The central controller then sends its instructions back to the vehicles using a hard-wired network within the track. The one-way communications flow adds a factor of safety, even though the wireless network is protected against outside interference, such as a denial-of-service attack.
• The attraction features more than 150 PCs, which includes one HP Windows XP PC for each of Midway Mania's 56 game screens, as well as others that control the special effects at each game. At the game screens, two tracking systems provide the game control system with the vehicle's exact location, making sure that gameplay is not affected by even minor differences in vehicle position. According to Jody Gerstner, executive director of show and ride controls, "The game doesn't care if the car parks in the same spot every time. It just needs to know where each car has actually parked, and it can compensate."
• As the games are software-based, changes can be made to the attraction's lineup of games without significant effort. In April 2010, Disney Parks announced plans to replace "Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop" with "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts." The change took place on May 21, 2010. The new game includes one of the new characters from the Toy Story 3 feature film, which was released in June 2010.
• Music for the queue area was arranged and recorded by Jennifer Hammond at Capitol Studios with a live orchestra. More than an hour of music was recorded, all based on the first two Toy Story scores composed by Randy Newman.
• Similar technology has been used in Disney attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold at DisneyQuest and several Buzz Lightyear attractions. According to Disney, it is the first attraction created simultaneously by Walt Disney Imagineering for two theme parks.
• In May 2010, several changes were made to the games, to include characters from Toy Story 3. Rex was replaced in the Hamm and Eggs game by Buttercup, a unicorn, While Bo-Peep's Baaa-loon Pop, was replaced by Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts.