As a regular visitor to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, I have my favorite attractions that I always try to ride whenever I’m there. One of my favorites is Soarin,’ a flying theater experience that truly makes you feel like you’re soaring through the air. I’ve always been partial to the original Soarin’ Over California to the current Soarin’ Around the World, and one of the reasons is that the newest version of the attraction has had an unbearable technical problem that drives me crazy.
One of the iconic places you visit on Soarin Around the World is the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, because the Eiffel Tower is very tall and very straight, the screen being used is not flat, and the camera zooms in very close. The tower gets hilariously distorted to the point that, especially if you are sitting off-axis, the tower literally curves. But as of today, our international nightmare is over, at least at Epcot.
Soarin’ Around The World Has Been Updated At Epcot
Today a new version of Soarin’ Around the World debuted unannounced in the Epcot version of the attraction, be. The main reason for the change was to update the final scene. At the end of the film the “flight” goes over Epcot itself. However, Epcot looks a lot different now than it did eight years ago when the attraction debuted.
The new version of the final scene shows Epcot as it looks now, with the new World Celebration area rather than Future World on display. That change certainly makes sense. After Epcot’s massive five-year update the front of the park looks almost nothing like it once did, so seeing the old version of the park during Soarin’ while it works as nostalgia, isn’t what Disney likely wants people to see.
But while Imagineering was in there updating the end of the film, they also made a significant quality of life improvement by fixing the Eiffel Tower sequence. In the old sequence, the camera viewed the tower closely, and at an upward angle. In the new version, the camera comes at the tower from a distance, and from a downward angle, which eliminates the distortion.
Bring The New Soarin To Disneyland Now Please
Now we just need to get this change added to the Disneyland version of Soarin.’ Perhaps it wasn’t worth the time and effort to fix just this one part of the film when it came to Disneyland. The end of Soarin’ at Disney California Adventure shows Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. and Sleeping Beauty Castle, two areas that are the least likely to ever change.
However, now that the work has already been done, it seems like it’s a lot less work to simply add the new Eiffel Tower segment to the DCA version of Soarin.’ The majesty of the entire attraction is legitimately damaged by the silly visual distortion and it needs to be gone now.
There are some attractions that have tried to emulate Soarin' but not are quite as good. Soarin is one of the best attractions at Disney California Adventure. I'd also argue that due to its location, the version of Soarin' at Disneyland Resort is better than the one at Walt Disney World. Unless they just want to put Soarin’ Over California back at Disney California Adventure permanently. That would be fine too.
