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Dark ride

A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, such exhibits include tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories. Dark rides are intended to tell stories with thematic elements that immerse riders, which unfold throughout course of the attraction.

Terminology
In its most traditional form, the term dark ride refers to ride-through attractions with scenes that use black lights, whereby visible light is prevented from entering the space, and only show elements that fluoresce under ultraviolet radiation are seen by the riders. The size of each room containing a scene or scenes is thus concealed, and the set designer can use forced perspective, Pepper's ghost and other visual tricks to create the illusion of distance. Typically, these experiences also use a series of opaque doors between scenes to further control riders' views within a space-constrained building. Prominent examples include Disneyland's Snow White's Scary Adventures, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Peter Pan's Flight, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland, which all rely on the use of blacklights in almost every scene.

History
The first dark rides appeared in the late 19th century and were called "scenic railways" and "pleasure railways". A popular type of dark ride commonly referred to as an old mill or tunnel of love used small boats to carry riders through water-filled canals. A Trip to the Moon began operation at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Marvin Rempfer and Leon Cassidy of the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company patented the first single-rail electric dark ride in 1928. Historically notable dark rides include Futurama at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

Modern attractions in this genre vary widely in technical sophistication. Smaller-scale rides often feature the same sorts of simple animation and sounds used since the genre's early days, while more ambitious projects feature complex animatronics, special effects and ride vehicles utilizing cutting-edge technology.

To improve the effect and give a sense of journey, passages in dark rides frequently change direction. Sudden curves give a sense of disorientation and allow new scenes to surprise the rider. The rides may also feature sudden ascents or descents to further the excitement.

Empirical research
Although ever increasing investments are made in dark rides, empirical research in this area is relatively scarce. Based on a systematic literature review, a team of researchers from the University of Liechtenstein developed a model that illustrates the underlying effect mechanism that attendees of Dark Rides experience. The model suggests that "Storytelling" in Dark Rides influences an attendee's "emotional attachment" to the ride through the mediator of "Immersion". It is assumed that a person's prior knowledge about the ride's story and a person's cultural background have moderating effects on the relationship between "storytelling" and "immersion".

Variations
Dark rides have a number of variations that are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Ghost train
In the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, China and Australia, dark rides with a scary theme are called ghost trains.

The first ride to use the name "Ghost Train" was that of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The ride was imported in 1930 and originally called The Pretzel (due to the curving shape of its track layout); but as pretzels were little-known in Britain, it was soon renamed after The Ghost Train, a play which ran for a year in London, a film adaptation of which was showing in 1931. It was rebuilt in 1936 and has remained unchanged since. Blackpool Pleasure Beach is also home to Valhalla, a large indoor dark ride.

In Australia, a dark ride is named The Ghost Train at Luna Park, Melbourne, and a similarly-named ride was destroyed by fire in 1979 at Luna Park Sydney.

The concept is also popular in the United States. One notable ghost train from the country is The Haunted Mansion, first opened in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, on August 9, 1969.

Interactive dark ride
Interactive dark rides feature a component that allows riders to be involved in the attraction's story. The first interactive dark ride ever built is El Paso at the Belgium theme park Bobbejaanland.

The vast majority of interactive dark rides are shooting dark rides, which require riders to aim and shoot at targets throughout the ride using handheld or vehicle-mounted light guns. Successfully shooting a target usually triggers special animation, such as flashing lights or moving the target. The more targets riders hit, the higher their scores at the end of the ride. The use of light guns varies between rides, from killing aliens on Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios Florida to calling turkeys on Gobbler Getaway at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari. The ride systems of conventional dark rides can be easily converted into shooting dark rides. Such conversions include Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back! at Alton Towers and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Disney's Magic Kingdom. The latter uses facilities that previously housed If You Had Wings, Delta Dreamflight, and Take Flight. A recent dark ride, Wonder Mountain's Guardian at Canada's Wonderland, has the world's longest interactive screen at over 500 ft.

Among non-shooting interactive dark rides, Etnaland's award-winning Haunted School is described by Park World magazine as "one of the most idiosyncratic dark rides". It is themed to a school exam, with riders individually answering multiple-choice questions throughout it. Riders are graded on their responses, and each receives a school report at the end of the ride. While technically a coaster, the Gekion Live coaster at Joypolis had elements of a dark ride. It used to have a shooting element, only for it to be refurbished with a dance element (tapping buttons on the restraints) later.

Trackless dark ride
The Walt Disney Company is the first to develop a trackless ride system for its dark ride attractions. Trackless dark rides utilize automated guided vehicles that do not require guide rails, and thus are able to cross existing paths, reverse, and rotate. Some trackless dark rides, such as the Big Red Car Ride at Dreamworld, rely on a buried wire for navigation. Others, such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park, Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disneyland or Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy at Disneyland Paris and Epcot, use Wi-Fi and RFID-based local positioning systems. The system provides more versatility for the vehicles to move in randomized patterns. The magnets in the attractions’ floor keep the vehicles “on track” with a guiding master computer system telling the vehicles where to go. The earliest form of this technology existed in warehouses, where electric box lifts robotically moved across the floor to transport boxes. In addition, the technology has been used in autonomous vacuum robots that rely on motion sensors to freely roam the floor since 1996. The trackless dark ride system as it is known today, debuted in 2000 at Tokyo Disneyland's “Pooh's Hunny Hunt” attraction– a dark ride based on Disney's 1977 hit animated feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. However, while Pooh's Hunny Hunt pioneered the trackless ride system, it was Hollywood Studio's Tower of Terror and Epcot's Universe of Energy attractions that first utilized the technology.

The use of virtual reality in the development of trackless technology is often overlooked. The Disney VR Studio, founded in 1992, allowed the exploration of virtual reality technology for theme park rides. Before its role in the development of the trackless system, the VR Studio used virtual prototypes to model attractions such as California Screamin’ at Disney's California Adventure Park. Disney has used virtual simulations to allow designers to experience roller coasters before they are built and as a means of previewing complex new ride vehicles such as the free-ranging vehicles used in "Pooh's Hunny Hunt". Moreover, this computer visualization is a powerful tool for transcending language barriers. Showing a virtual prototype of "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" to Japan was a cause of the implementation of the ride at Tokyo Disneyland due to its use of imaging over speech.

Social Barriers
Some dark rides are intense for riders, as they contain vigorous themed elements such as flashing lights, black light effects, sudden drops, stoppages, or other turbulent movements that may be harmful to impaired riders. As more thrill rides are created, the number of attractions that limit riders with disabilities increases. Most commonly, guests who are prohibited from riding are those who are too overweight for the ride vehicle to safely hold the guest's weight or prevent the safety harness from locking in place. Other ride restrictions include those who do not meet a certain height requirement or are too tall to clear the attractions’ set pieces, or those who lack a certain number of arms and legs. Ride requirements are created to ensure all guests’ safety throughout the ride and are posted throughout the attractions’ queue to prevent the companies’ liability if a rider is physically harmed. However, according to Title III of the Americans Disability Act it is illegal for amusement parks to discriminate against any persons with disabilities from equal enjoyment of goods of services in a public place of accommodation. Therefore, companies such as The Walt Disney Company are required by law to accommodate any person with a physical disability who still meets the ride requirements. This often includes guests who use wheelchairs or crutches.

Services such as the Disability Access Service (DAS) at Disney theme parks instates equality between disabled and non-disabled riders in its theme parks and resorts, making these attractions largely accessible for its guests. Companies such as Universal Studios offer similar services such as the Attractions Assistance Pass (AAS). The DAS pass allows guests to reserve a spot in an attraction's line, select a time to board the attraction, and return at their scheduled time. This allows guests who cannot physically wait in a trackless dark ride queue to still ride without being present at the queue, but still wait the same amount of time as other abled guests. Many trackless dark ride queues are tight, enclosed spaces for guests to wind through, which are often difficult for people with wheelchairs or other amenities to navigate.

Moreover, as the trackless ride systems are complex and the vehicles run constantly, more ride breakdowns and stoppages occur. Due to the many elements of these attractions, breakdowns occur more frequently and take more time to address. Hollywood Studio's Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had more than 540 unplanned stoppages in 2022, breaking down more than any other attraction at Walt Disney World that year. This can be frustrating for guests as trackless rides are some of the most popular, yet break down the most often. Trackless dark rides often have some of the longest wait times at theme parks. Wait time data from Walt Disney World in 2022 shows that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has an average wait time of 127 minutes at Disney's Hollywood Studios park, whereas the average wait time for other Disney World, non-trackless attractions is just 36 minutes. Long wait times coupled with frequent ride stoppages can be vexing for guests, but may be well worth it to those who prefer trackless dark rides to other experiences.

Enclosed roller coaster
While some roller coasters may be indoors, simply enclosing a roller coaster does not make it a dark ride. Dark coasters are roller coasters that feature heavily themed layouts, special effects (such as animated characters, fire, smoke, and sound/lighting effects), and a dark ride portion that abruptly transitions into a roller coaster-style layout with heavily banked turns, sharp turns, steep drops, and helices. Some of them include backward motion, and many have launch mechanisms rather than lifts. Examples include:

 * Flight of Fear at Kings Island and Kings Dominion
 * Blazing Fury at Dollywood
 * Revenge of the Mummy at many of the Universal Destinations & Experiences (themed to The Mummy film franchise, featuring a launch from the dark ride section into the coaster section)
 * Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at the Magic Kingdom and Shanghai Disneyland
 * Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster at Warner Bros. Movie World (a wild mouse roller coaster with a ghost-train section, vertical lift and backwards drop)
 * Space Mountain at Disney World, Disneyland Park, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland
 * Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain at Disneyland Park (Paris)
 * Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (themed to an escape from the haunted Bavarian Black Forest, with a free-fall track section)
 * Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT

Test Track at Epcot, Journey to the Center of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea, and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure each use a slot car track rather than that of a roller coaster, but they provide a similar pairing of dark ride scenes with a high-speed thrill ride.

Saw – The Ride at Thorpe Park features an enclosed dark section with strobe lighting and special effects, before the car enters the outdoor section of the ride.

Other attractions incorporating dark ride elements
Particularly in Disney-built or -influenced parks, a number of attractions use traditional dark-ride features, such as animatronics and theatrical lighting, but are not "dark rides" in that patrons do not board vehicles. Examples include the walk-through dioramas in Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and theater-based Disney attractions like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, The Hall of Presidents, The American Adventure and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (and its now-closed Disneyland replacement America Sings) had four auditoriums that rotated audiences around a stationary core with show scenes.

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Railroad both include brief dark-ride scenes, but for the most part transport guests outdoors. Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain at several Disney parks, and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars at Hong Kong Disneyland likewise include some dark-ride elements, but function primarily as indoor/outdoor roller coasters.

List of dark rides

 * Name in italics means that it has been closed; date of closure follows "−".

title: Dark ride


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Berkeley Breathed

Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed (born June 21, 1957) is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.

Early life
Born in Encino, California, but raised in Houston, Texas, Breathed attended Westchester High School in Houston.

Cartooning career
Breathed was first published when he was hired part-time by the Austin American-Statesman to draw editorial cartoons for the newspaper. This job was short-lived; he was dismissed shortly after one of his cartoons (about a bussing order imposed on the local school system) caused outrage. His first comic strip published regularly was The Academia Waltz, which appeared in the Daily Texan, in 1978 while he was a student at the University of Texas. During his time at the University of Texas, Breathed self-published two collections of The Academia Waltz, using the profits to pay his tuition. The comic strip attracted the notice of the editors of The Washington Post, who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip.

On December 8, 1980, Bloom County made its debut. It featured some of the characters from Academia Waltz, including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John. At its start, the strip's style was so similar to that of another popular strip, Doonesbury, that Doonesbury's creator Garry Trudeau wrote to Breathed several times to indicate their similarities. Breathed has acknowledged that he borrowed liberally from Doonesbury during his early career. In the Outland collection One Last Little Peek, Breathed even put an early Bloom County side by side with the Doonesbury comic strip from which it obviously took its idea.

Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning during 1987. The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until Breathed retired the daily strip in 1989, stating that he wanted to terminate the strip while it was still popular. At that time, he said, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators".

Breathed replaced the strip with the surreal Sunday-only cartoon Outland in 1989, which reused some of the Bloom County characters, including Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat. He ended Outland in 1995.

In 2003, Breathed began the comic strip Opus, a Sunday-only strip featuring Opus the Penguin, who was one of the main characters of Bloom County.

Several newspapers chose not to run the August 26, 2007, Opus cartoon because it might offend Muslims.

On October 6, 2008, Breathed announced plans to discontinue all work on comic strips with the final Opus strip to run on November 2, 2008. Breathed planned to focus on writing children's books. Breathed explained that he felt that the United States was going to face "tough times", and that he wanted to end the saga of his most memorable character "on a lighter note".

The last Opus comic strip appeared on schedule, but in what may be a comic first, the final panel required an online link. The final panel of the strip showed Opus sleeping peacefully in the bed depicted in the classic children's book, Goodnight Moon. This panel was available only online, and the Humane Society of the United States page that displayed it was later removed.

Breathed said that he had no regrets in leaving political cartooning, as he believed the atmosphere became too bitter for him to make quality cartoons.

In July 2015 Breathed hinted at a return to the strip when he posted a photo to Facebook of him at his computer, starting a cartoon entitled "Bloom County 2015". He added: "A return after 25 years. Feels like going home." The strip was later posted to Facebook. He has subsequently been posting new Bloom County strips via Facebook on an almost-daily basis, as of January 2018. (In 2016, "2015" was dropped from the new strip's name.)

In 2021, Breathed penned a series of strips featuring characters from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. Panels featured Watterson's Calvin as Spaceman Spiff and Hobbes the Tiger.

Other works
Breathed's syndicated and Facebook cartoon work has produced at least thirteen cartoon anthology books, as of January 2018. Starting in 1992, he designed a greeting card and gift ensemble collection for American Greetings, featuring the "Bloom County" characters Opus, Bill the Cat, and Milquetoast the Cockroach.

As of January 2018, Breathed has produced ten children's picture books. Two were made into the animated films: A Wish for Wings That Work (Amblin Television/Universal Cartoon Studios, 1991) and Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big (Nickelodeon Movies, 2000); one was made into the motion-capture film Mars Needs Moms (Disney, 2011). Another animated film; Hitpig, which Breathed himself loosely adapted from his book Pete and Pickles, was produced by Aniventure, and is set for a 2024 release.

Breathed's writing has also been featured in numerous publications, including Life, Boating, and Travel and Leisure. He produced the cartoon art for the closing credits of the Texas-based 2003 film Secondhand Lions, which featured a strip called Walter and Jasmine. The panels that Breathed drew for Secondhand Lions appear in his cartoon anthology book Opus: 25 Years of His Sunday Best, in which Breathed terms them "the comic strip that never was".

Breathed has been a supporter of the animal rights group PETA and illustrated the cover of earlier printings of PETA's cookbook The Compassionate Cook, or, "Please Don't Eat the Animals!", T-shirts, and other merchandise.

Breathed cameos as himself in the 2004 short film Tim Warner: A Life in the Clouds, a fictional tale about an unhappy cartoonist and his unfunny strip, The Silver Lining.

Personal life
Breathed is a fan of outdoor activities such as powerboating and motorcycling. In 1986, he broke his back in an ultralight-plane crash, later incorporated into a Bloom County storyline in which Steve Dallas breaks his back after being attacked by an angry Sean Penn. Breathed also nearly lost his right arm to a boating accident.

Breathed has said that he is an atheist, yet he doesn't fear death more than "sharing a room in a detox center with a sobbing Rush Limbaugh".

On May 18, 2008, in his comic strip Opus, Breathed announced he was suffering from a condition known as spasmodic torticollis.

Awards

 * Inkpot Award, 2010
 * Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, 1987
 * Golden Duck Award for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction for Mars Needs Moms! 2008 Picture Book

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Berkeley Breathed


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Born Again

Born Again may refer to:

Religion

 * Arhat or 'arhant', the Buddhist conception which succeeds the earlier Dvija concept in the Dharmic tradition
 * Born again, a Christian term for spiritual rebirth and salvation
 * Dvija, the concept of being "twice-born" prominent in Hinduism since classical times

Film and television

 * Born Again (film), a 1978 American film
 * Born Again (TV series), a 2020 South Korean television series
 * Daredevil: Born Again, an upcoming superhero television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Episodes

 * "Born Again" (The Americans)
 * "Born Again" (Doctor Who)
 * "Born Again" (Vikings)
 * "Born Again" (The X-Files)

Literature

 * "Born Again" (comics), a 1986 Daredevil story arc
 * Born Again, a 1976 book by Charles Colson
 * "Born Again", a 2005 short story by K. D. Wentworth

Albums

 * Born Again (Black Sabbath album), 1983
 * Born Again (Mica Paris album), 2009
 * Born Again (Newsboys album), 2010
 * Born Again (The Notorious B.I.G. album), 1999
 * Born Again (Randy Newman album), 1979
 * Born Again (Red Flag album), 2007
 * Born Again (Warrant album), 2006
 * Born Again (Wumpscut album), 1998
 * Born Again, by Blood Axis, 2011
 * Born Again, by Farmer Boys, 2018
 * Born Again, by Pat Boone, 1973

Songs

 * "Born Again" (SHY & DRS song), 2014
 * "Born Again" (Starsailor song), 2003
 * "Born Again" (Third Day song), 2009
 * "Born Again" (Tiffany Young song), 2019
 * "Born Again", by Austin French from the album Wide Open, 2018
 * "Born Again", by Badly Drawn Boy from Have You Fed the Fish?
 * "Born Again", by Bebe Rexha from Bebe, 2023
 * "Born Again", by Black Veil Brides from The Phantom Tomorrow, 2021
 * "Born Again", by Blood Axis from the album Born Again, 2011
 * "Born Again", by The Christians from The Christians
 * "Born Again", by Cory Asbury from Reckless Love
 * "Born Again", by Debby Kerner & Ernie Rettino
 * "Born Again", by Marilyn Manson from Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
 * "Born Again", by Rihanna from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music from and Inspired By
 * "Born Again", by Saint Motel from Saintmotelevision
 * "Born Again", by Supergrass from Supergrass

title: Born Again