Harry Potter & The Battle at the Ministry - Reviews, Photos & Media

[Freak]

That part used to have a physical effect of an actual physical railing that would rise when you "dropped" but that effect broke a bit after opening and hasn't returned since. That part also used to have a stronger drop but it seems to be a point of contention because some people say there was a stronger drop there while I've heard from others it only felt stronger because of the physical railing effect. It was very convincing in making you feel like you fell more than you did. There are also some other effects that have been broken/turned off for awhile, including a giant physical pendulum that fully swings in front of the ride vehicle and a screen that pops down in front of the final umbridge with Higgledy on it.

Oh interesting. Might explain why the ride felt more screen-heavy than it should. Kinda hard to visualize the screen coming down scene. Is there any video footage of those effects in question?

 

[sonoma15]

Oh interesting. Might explain why the ride felt more screen-heavy than it should. Kinda hard to visualize the screen coming down scene. Is there any video footage of those effects in question?

The first POV has the railing working and the 2nd POV has the other two effects working:

 

[Freak]

The first POV has the railing working and the 2nd POV has the other two effects working:

Ohhh got it. The screen with Higldey on it was actually working on my ride. I thought you were talking about the courtroom scene.

Yeah the physical pendulum looked awesome. That’s definitely a Rise-caliber effect right there.

Also I looked up “battle at the ministry all effects working” and saw a video on Reddit where it showed the lights on and the railing effect reset. It was really cool!

Thank you for showing me the POVs! Now I have a complete visual of what didn’t work.

 

[sonoma15]

Ohhh got it. The screen with Higldey on it was actually working on my ride. I thought you were talking about the courtroom scene.

That's great to hear, it's been down on my last couple of rides!

 

[Hatetofly]

The repetition of scenes at the beginning of the ride is a massive miss imo too. I would have loved to have been a fly in the room during the design phase, because surely someone had to have spoken up and been like hey this seems…repetitive doesn’t it? I’m sure there are reasons for the choice but man it sucks that style of scene makes up a good portion of the rides opening. Not to mention the scene is lackluster compared to many of the other highly immersive scenes across the rest of the ride.

 

[Clive]

The repetition of scenes at the beginning of the ride is a massive miss imo too. I would have loved to have been a fly in the room during the design phase, because surely someone had to have spoken up and been like hey this seems…repetitive doesn’t it? I’m sure there are reasons for the choice but man it sucks that style of scene makes up a good portion of the rides opening. Not to mention the scene is lackluster compared to many of the other highly immersive scenes across the rest of the ride.

It's the same issue as Fast & Furious: Supercharged (Orlando): It's effectively an on-ride preshow.

 

[sonoma15]

It's the same issue as Fast & Furious: Supercharged (Orlando): It's effectively an on-ride preshow.

The issue with Supercharged isnt that it just has the on ride preshows though, the issue (at least for me) is you watch 2 preshows in the queue already then have to sit through 2 on-ride "preshows"

 

[Clive]

The issue with Supercharged isnt that it just has the on ride preshows though, the issue (at least for me) is you watch 2 preshows in the queue already then have to sit through 2 on-ride "preshows"

I would argue that gives Supercharged two major issues before you reach the rest of the ride, which is its own third issue!

 

[SkiBum]

I would argue that gives Supercharged two major issues before you reach the rest of the ride, which is its own third issue!

Not to mention the fourth issue regarding why it was built to begin with.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Now for the ride itself, it’s awesome. There are some flaws with the ride that I will address shortly, but the clear standout scene was the library scene with the animatronic death eaters. Holy cow that was incredible. If you told me they hired a live actor to play the death eater I would’ve believed you. The fluidity was so life-like. Loved how the first one moved with your vehicle.

I was hoping for a ride full of these moments, instead it feels we get three big scenes. It's an oddly paced ride because our ride vehicles are so large we basically get 2x the amount of time at a show scene than in Transformers, for me giving it a pacing similar to Gringotts. And that's ultimately the flaw of the ride, it feels like they perfected Gringotts and not made something turely new, like Rise.

 

[simon]

I was hoping for a ride full of these moments, instead it feels we get three big scenes. It's an oddly paced ride because our ride vehicles are so large we basically get 2x the amount of time at a show scene than in Transformers, for me giving it a pacing similar to Gringotts. And that's ultimately the flaw of the ride, it feels like they perfected Gringotts and not made something turely new, like Rise.

Agreed, building the largest show building for filling up 70% scenes with a screen in front of the vehicle. This seems pretty ineffective as well. We also need to acknowledge that those mini LED are extremely expensive as well and having bunch of mini LEDs wall of 3 stories high may exceed the cost of having an actual physical set.

 

[Disneyhead]

Agreed, building the largest show building for filling up 70% scenes with a screen in front of the vehicle. This seems pretty ineffective as well. We also need to acknowledge that those mini LED are extremely expensive as well and having bunch of mini LEDs wall of 3 stories high may exceed the cost of having an actual physical set.

It is, for sure, more expensive than practical sets. But you can't really do a multidimensional elevator any other way. I know, ToT is multidimensional and slow and clunky. I don't think the "problem" with this ride is a tech/ride system problem as much as just bad storytelling.

 

[Mad Dog]

It is, for sure, more expensive than practical sets. But you can't really do a multidimensional elevator any other way. I know, ToT is multidimensional and slow and clunky. I don't think the "problem" with this ride is a tech/ride system problem as much as just bad storytelling.

Yes, you hit it right on.

 

[simon]

It is, for sure, more expensive than practical sets. But you can't really do a multidimensional elevator any other way. I know, ToT is multidimensional and slow and clunky. I don't think the "problem" with this ride is a tech/ride system problem as much as just bad storytelling.

I agree, utilizing the screen for the first 1 min before the main scene can be reasonable. since the pacing of the ride is built up as an aggressive multidimensional elevator travel. But from the main archive scene to the time room, I think it should have stayed as a physical set primarily, similar to or more than Unchained does. As the anchor attraction of the Epic Universe.

In my opinion. For the dropping scene, they could have staged Umbridge animatronics at the top and built a moving eurmoet animatronic on the bottom that runs towards and simulates hitting a vehicle once the vehicle is dropped, and cut to the elevator and eurmoet animatronic scene shortly (cutting the entire screen scene for budget saving for physical set)(This may satisfiy people who were expecting Beijing-level dynamic interactive animatronic movement)

In the time room, I think they are overutilizing the screen even though it can be represented physically. So staging Harry and Ron, Hermione, Death Eaters, the full trio of AA for semi-final pacing impact with a more physically moving pendulum.(Zero screens, only projection with foggy wind effect to save cost) And in the final collapsing scene, cut some of the LED panels to the maximum viewpoint of the vehicle and make this viewable LED panel follow along with the vehicle(similar to FJ but flatten mini led), so we don't need to install and waste many unnecessary, very expensive and long mini led panels anymore to save budget for the more physical set for that scene.

That was my opinion on the idealistic balance of physical and digital sets for the largest and most ambitious attraction in the Epic Universe without touching the storyline.