Pinch me, I'm dreaming. It can't possibly be that Disney has created a slow-moving, family-friendly dark ride with state of the art effects, can it? With no reliance on physical thrills? Even—dare I say it—the kind of ride Disney was justifiably famous for in the 1960s and before? Perhaps even... the kind of ride Walt Disney himself would have liked?

Well, it's true. All that and more. The Seas with Nemo and Friends doesn't just represent the resurgence of Epcot, though I thought about making that connection, until I remembered that the original EPCOT Center of 1982 wouldn't be caught dead with a movie tie-in to an animated fish. The focus back then was edutainment, and this wouldn't have been a very good fit. So we can't responsibly say that Epcot has gone back to its roots.

But we might get away with claiming that Disney has. What's the consummate Disney ride? What conforms to the "Griffith Park Credo" of letting families ride together but still impresses with visual effects and tricks? Probably Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion, if you ask most folks. The new Nemo ride doesn't quite reach those dizzying heights of success. Nor does it try to; it's a more modest offering, and with a modest budget to match. But that led to relatively modest expectations, at least from me. And yet the result is charming, immersive, interesting... almost a match for the Haunted Mansion, and that's not a comparison I make lightly.

The theme isn't on par with Mansion, and the story isn't nearly so universal and timeless. So in that respect, Nemo is still just a dark ride. But for my money, it outstrips every single dark ride out there like Snow White, Roger Rabbit, and even Peter Pan. There's no hugely inventive ride system like on Pan; it's just perfect execution in scene after scene that adds up to a real "wow" experience.

The Living Seas, as seen in 2004.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Let's look at specifics (warning: the rest of this article contains spoilers - click on this link to avoid them). Out front, the new signage beckons visitors as the familiar waves crash over the rocks. But is it my imagination, or did they tone down the startlingly loud pop that accompanied each wave?

Nearby, three animatronic (well, minimatronic) seagulls blink and look around occasionally. Every few waves, they start up a round of their famous chorus "Mine! Mine! Mine!" and then lapse back into silence. Quite a few people were taken with this detail, and I have to say I found it disarming, even cute.

There's just something humorous about the programming
of these seagulls. The crack comedic timing helps, too.

Amazing how the addition of fish icons can take a wave graphic
that looked dated and make it suddenly seem modern.

The entrance door is still the same.

Once you step inside, you'll recognize the winding switchback that was present here in the Living Seas days. The layout of this front room hasn't been altered a bit, though the theming is entirely different, the floors are brand new, and even the queue walls have been redone, so it's really just the layout that remains. In place of bare walls and diving artifacts, we now see a simulation of a beach, with clumps of beach grass and faux sand in each corner, punctuated by bits of wooden fence and signs that point out we're at Coral Caves Beach.

It's the old switchback you may remember.

Watch for movie references in the signs.

Other signs warn of jellyfish and turtle habitats, and even caution that sharks have been sighted in the area (in short, everything we remember from the movie). One sign proclaims that "fish are friends," and another capitalizes the first word of its motto: "Nautical Exploration / Marine Observation"... spelling out N-E-M-O to the careful observer.

More movie references, and the N-E-M-O sign.

A nearby fish finder chart lists the usual suspects in Coral Caves, and wouldn't you know it, we've seen all of them in the Nemo movie.

These fish look familiar!

Just up ahead is full-size lifeguard station, splashed over and over again with its number: 5A. I racked my brains the first two times through the attraction, trying to find a connection, since the number was repeated so often and I assumed it must be important somehow. It wasn't until I gave up and tried to find homage's in the ride and queue to the Living Seas that it occurred to me: 5A can be read, especially by those Internet users who pride themselves on writing words using numbers, as "S.A."—short for Seabase Alpha. Imagineer Kevin Rafferty is heading up the show elements of this new ride, but I didn't get a chance to ask him if this is really what's intended (well, OK, I didn't see him).

All I had to do was look for an "alpha" somewhere as a tribute.

The queue turns to the left, as it did back in the days of the Living Seas. Here the scenery changes; the walls are rocky and there are giant pillars encrusted with barnacles. After a while, you realize that we're thematically leaving the beach to walk under a pier, and up ahead, animated waves crash near the ceiling and imply that our walk under the pier has brought us underwater.

A walk under the pier. (The light levels are low from here on into the ride,
that's why the following photos may be dark, blurry and/or grainy.)

In the next room (this was a portion of the waiting area in the old Living Seas), we find ourselves even deeper underwater. Here there are switchbacks, and overhead hang several scrims, upon which are projected light ripples to complete the illusion of being underwater. Pier pylons punctuate the space, and our handrails in this room are metal, bulging with rust, as if they've been undersea for years. The attention to detail is invigorating.

Gentle background music from Nemo completes the scene.

A second room of switchbacks is next (this was a portion of the Hydrolators in the old Living Seas, but not all of it), and here again we're underwater. The primary set piece in this room is the underside of a boat, harking back easily to the scene in the movie when Nemo is first spirited away. There are water-ripple effects in the ceiling of this room that mimic what you might have seen in Winnie the Pooh: concentric circles of neon-like lights illuminating and radiating outward. The boat illusion is complemented by such a ripple effect too, and it is pretty effective. The artistry and timing here are so good, I almost believed that the boat rocked side to side slightly. Humorously, there's even an anchor dangling down into space.

The second room and that boat above.

Just up ahead is a brief straightaway and then the loading zone.

There are glass etchings on the panels facing the clamshells.

The Cast Members implored (commanded?) us not to use flash photography, as it would break the ride. This was repeated on every visit my first day (Friday), so eventually I asked an expert, who replied that this was in fact the case during trials. These days, my expert said, it's more likely that a flash would only break the one special effect with the angler fish (see below), but not shut down the ride.

Needless to say, I took no flash photos, but I wondered if we'll see breakdowns in the ride after the general public gets in there. On one of my ride-throughs, the angler fish was in fact broken even though nothing else was. But by Saturday, no one was urging me to avoid flash photography, and I did see other people taking flash photos, with no ill effects to the ride.

The boarding zone reminds me of the Magic Kingdom's Peter Pan or Buzz Lightyear rides—there's a long stretch of moving walkway that matches the speed of the clamshells. The Omnimover vehicles, shaped like clamshells, are presumably replacements and not reworkings of the old sea cabs. They are surprisingly close together; this ride must have one heck of an hourly through-put.