The Seas with Nemo & Friends (Attraction)
The Sea's With Nemo and Friends is an attraction located in Epcot. If you are looking for the pavilion which houses the attraction see: The Sea's With Nemo & Friends.
Attraction History
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a dark ride attraction which replaced the former Living Seas attraction in 2007. The Living Seas pavilion had originally included a movie theater, a dark ride (known as the Sea Cabs) and Seabase Alpha, which featured various aquamarine exhibits. After entering the Living Seas, guests would watch a preshow film titled "The Seas" before boarding their Sea Cabs and heading for the Seabase. While aboard their Sea Cabs, guests would travel through the pavilion's 5.7 million gallon aquarium, before reaching their destination. The structure of the pavilion remained unchanged until 2001 when the Sea Cab portion of the ride was discontinued. Although the track and Sea Cab's were still visible to guests, the ride ceased to function. Now, after watching the Sea's video (or skipping it altogether) guests were required to walk to Seabase Alpha. This change led to a decline in attendance for that pavilion, which many guests referred to as "The Dead Seas". Following United Technologies dropping of it's sponsorship, and the success of the Disney-Pixar movie Finding Nemo, it was decided that the pavilion would tie in with the movie. In 2004, a new attraction was added to Seabase, titled, Turtle Talk with Crush. The new interactive show proved to be so popular, that it was decided that the whole pavilion would receive a Finding Nemo theme. From 2004 through 2006, almost every part of the pavilion was renovated or removed. The exhibits in Seabase Alpha were changed to tie in with the the movie, Turtle Talk with Crush was expanded, and the pavilions store, restaurant and color scheme were completely changed. The final phase of the renovation came In 2005, when the pavilion was closed so that work could begin on a new dark ride attraction. The new attraction was originally referred to as "The Clamobile attraction", but it was eventually also titled, The Seas with Nemo & Friends. To create the ride Imagineers used the existing Sea Cab track, plus additional track added to the former location of "The Seas" movie theater. The concept of the attraction, was that guests would board their Clamobiles and follow Merlin and Dory as they once again searched for Nemo. To do this, characters from the film are projected onto screens, which guests pass by in their "Clamobile". The Clamobiles are in fact restructured Sea Cabs, which are now shaped like clams.
Imagineer Jerre Kirk oversaw the creation of the attraction, which features cutting edge technology. The first three scenes in the attraction are set in a coral reef. To create this environment, Imagineers used "very thin castings of fiberglass", which had never been done before. The final scene in the attraction features the animated characters swimming with real marine life, in the pavilion's giant aquarium. To create this effect, Imagineers needed a new kind of projection technology. Disney had never projected animation into an aquarium before, but Research and Development Designer, Alfredo Ayala, came up with the new projection technology that allowed Disney to create the scene, using special effect glass. After much trial and error with the new projectors, Imagineers were able to create the environment that they wanted. The final scene also features Nemo and the rest of the characters singing "In the Big Blue World" which was taken from the Finding Nemo - The Musical attraction. Finally, on January 24, 2007 the Seas with Nemo and Friends was officially rededicated and opened to the public.
