Atlantis The Lost Empire: Submarine Voyage

Yes, you read that correctly.    You see back when this great gem of Disney film was released there were plans to reopen the Submarine Voyage ride in Tomorrowland that was originally themed to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and re theme it to Atlantis: The Lost Empire.   

 Sadly,  because of the under performance of this film, the ride idea was scrapped but the idea of re theming the Submarine Voyage wasn't  dropped as  instead it was  brought back to life as the Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage.  

While I will say that Nemo is a good film, part of me wishes that the Atlantis theme was used instead for a a few reasons.   First, I just feel as though Atlantis would have made more sense as the replacement for Submarine Voyage than Finding Nemo.    Also  this is just my thinking but with Atlantis being more of an adventure film than Finding Nemo, I just feel there is more they could have done because while Disney is usually very good about their rides and how they theme them. But again I just feel that Atlantis would have lended itself a tad more to a submarine ride than Nemo for the fact  that I really think is there more they could have done with Atlantis than with Finding Nemo.   To be fair, I have not been back to Disneyland since Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage opened but from what I have seen of it on Travel Channel, it does look to be  an all right ride but I just can't help and think that having gone with Atlantis would have given this ride some sort of edge that would make stick out more than the other rides. Also with this ride being located in Tomorrowland, I just think that Atlantis fits better into the theming and concept of Tomorrowland than Finding Nemo.   Finding Nemo just feels too modern to Tomorrowland and even though Atlantis is  set in the past, the look and feel of the vehicles has more of a futuristic feel to it with all the steampunk designs.    

How awesome would it be to ride in this?

Now this isn't to say that Finding Nemo is bad because again I haven't been to Disneyland since  the ride re-opened but I just think Atlantis would have made for a more entertaining ride.  Also Disney did try and promote the ride with both meet & greets with the characters from the film such as Milo and the sign letting guests know what was to come with this ride.

I have to say that I think that they actually got the look of Milo down pretty well but just as with the ride once it was scrapped,  Milo and the rest of the characters disappeared from the park to never be seen again.   

I just really think that having gone with Atlantis over Nemo would have given the ride a far more interesting story and probably would have been a bigger challenge for the Imagineers to bring to life. Though they have pulled off many great feats before and plus could you just imagine the visuals that they could have come if they had gone with Atlantis? I bet ya, it would have been  visually stunning.

Now the last thing I kinda wish to bring up is that around the time of Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage's opening, I started to notice a  wave of Pixar rides in the park.  I have nothing against Pixar as I love most of their movies but I just feel that Pixar is starting to take over and that we aren't getting enough rides based on the Disney films from that aren't Pixar.  Now yes, The Little Mermaid ride just opened in California Adventure  earlier this year and the Fantasyland expansion in Disney World is mostly just Disney films but still as much as I like Pixar,  I just feel like the parks are relying on them too much.    

This is probably just nitpicky but really we  are allowed to be nitpicky about something and just something that I have observed over the past few years.   Does it make it right or wrong? That's not for me to say but I just wish the parks would have more  just Disney themed rides.  Granted, the Fanstayland expansion is a start and we will see. where they go from here.

In the end, it isn't surprising that the Atlantis theme got dropped because as stated, this film didn't perform very well while in theaters whereas Finding Nemo with majority of the Pixar films was a hit. Though it does make me wonder, what the Submarine Voyage would've been like had they stuck with the Atlantis theme.