Antarctica is not a bad ride, it's just not a ride that should have been marketed to adults.
Considering this was marketed to families, you're not helping it's case by saying it shouldn't have been marketed to adults when that is half of any family.
OK, your over reacting here. The ride is not terrible, most people are expecting Disney level themeing but are disappointed when you can see the "Ice Caves" natural vent shaft and black walls! It's SEAWORD dude! You are over seeing the environmental meaning of the ride. Brian morrow had a low budget and he did the best he could. The main problem is people talk during the pre-show and then they don't understand the ride.
SEAWORLD Had way more money for JTA but Antartica is a cute attempt at a Disney level dark ride. And what about PUCK? He cute and make $$$ I have a puck plush....
"You are over seeing the environmental meaning of the ride."
I do have a question about overseeing the "environmental meaning" of the ride, what environmental meaning? SW is usually pretty good about putting in and talking about one in a attraction, but there is none of that in Antarctica. Antarctica is "Here's a baby penguin named Puck, Antarctica is apparently beautiful and dangerous, and you're going to see things from Puck's unique POV". There's not a peep of protecting the environment, global warming or anything of the sort. It's really hard to oversee a environmental meaning when it's not there.
"The main problem is people talk during the pre-show and then they don't understand the ride."
Even if people were silent and heard the entire pre-show, that wouldn't help one bit. This is where the abysmal storytelling comes in right off the bat. The first pre-show is summed up thusly.
- Here's a Gentoo colony in Antarctica, a blizzard is coming and they're moving to shelter. But one egg has yet to hatch.
- Here's puck, time is running out for him. Soon he'll lose his fuzzy dow and get waterproof feathers, where'll he'll eventually dive into the sea for the first time "to begin the greatest adventure of his life". (So until he dives into the sea, the greatest adventure of his life doesn't start, got it.)
- Everybody take shelter, there's many dangers in beautiful Antarctica and "
Alone we will not survive, but together we'll thrive."
An' as for the second preshow.
- We're safe from the storm, and now Puck is old enough to explore on his own! (They just threw the whole "
Alone we will not survive, but together we'll thrive." ending line/idea from the 1st preshow right out the window, just like that.)
- Puck has a cleaver new way to see the world, and you will see the world through the eyes of Puck.
Ok, so we're seeing Antarctica all through the eyes of Puck, essentially his POV. That's all we're given, and the POV angle is damaged right off the bat with seeing Puck in the first part of the ride. Normally if you're seeing a POV of a character, you're not seeing that character themselves. (Think of the original Snow White Adventures ride where we were seeing the whole thing through Snow White's POV)
So the rainbow brite room is Puck's special and unique POV on how he views the world. This is literally the only room which really follows what was established to us in the preshow. That's because right afterwards...
...we then we go into the video screens where the whimsical/unique POV is thrown out the window since those scenes are played straight with no unique view from Puck and once again, we're seeing Puck himself so the POV angle is thrown out as well. (An' once again, the whole "
Alone we will not survive, but together we'll thrive." line is shot dead by stating that Puck is now ready to hunt on his own. Apparently being alone -is- the way to survive here.) This is no fault of the audience, yes the ones who talk over the preshows will not understand it. But's that's also the case for those who do listen to it. Even if you listen to both preshows, it's still not going to make sense with the ride not following through with what it establishes. That is just bad storytelling on SW's part.
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Ultimately, you also have to look at this. A:EotP was the largest single attraction expansion in the park's history, they were hoping for this attraction to do gangbusters for attendance, merch etc. But after it opened, it didn't bring in the attendance, it didn't bring in the reception they wanted, it didn't bring in the $$$. It laid a big fat egg, and for a big addition like this to do that, it hurts the park, plain and simple.