Snoopy Sunday Matinee

Joe Cool's Driving School

As Kings Dominion transforms Nickelodeon Central into Planet Snoopy, the most work so far has been on upgrading a unique kiddie car ride from Rugrats Toonpike to Joe Cool's Driving School. Here, kids get a chance to drive "real" cars on trackless city streets.

After taking a quick driving lesson kids are led out into a little cityscape where they pick a car and have a turn at driving through the little town. I suppose there are some sort of sensors in the car that prevent it from banging into other cars and driving through intersections without caution. However, Elias still managed to clip a curb on his journey.

The cars have all been given fresh paint jobs and each adorned with the likeness of a Peanuts character. When Tanner called out to Elias, "What car did you get?" Elias leaned over and checked out his hood and screamed back, "I've got Franklin!" I knew my work as a parent was done because no other kid in the park that summer will know who Franklin is.

Tanner behind the wheel of his Charlie Brown roadster.

Joe Cool's Driving School also features a faux gas station where kids can drive through. The graphic design of the station is reminiscent of an old Sinclair gas station.

There are big 3-D statues of most of the Peanuts gang throughout the attraction. The city that the kids drive around is so big that it was hard to get good pictures of some of the characters.

Here's Linus and his security blanket...

...and Lucy and her psychiatry booth (awesome!)...

...and good ol' Franklin!

Here's a shot of the attraction at night from the Eiffel Tower. It's a pretty impressive amount of land that they devoted to this ride.

Snoopy Comes to Kings Dominion

As I've mentioned, this year Snoopy and the Peanuts gang take over the duties as Kings Dominion's park mascot. The park has been promoting an all-new kids area called Planet Snoopy, which has also been introduced at several other parks owned by parent company Cedar Fair. From looking at other park's websites, it seems that Kings Dominion's Planet Snoopy hasn't quite got the same attention as Kings Island, Carowinds or any of the other Cedar Fair parks.

Planet Snoopy now covers the area formerly called Nickelodeon Central. Four attractions have been given an overhaul. Nickelodeon Space Surfer, a giant swing ride, has been given a new color scheme and rechristened Flying Ace. The water playground known as Green Slime Zone is now called Snoopy's Splashdance. A nice reference to a mid-80's Peanuts special, but just a new sign was added - nothing else. Paramount Showplace, which recently housed a live show featuring Nickelodeon characters and originally presented a dolphin show is now Peanuts Showplace where the show Camp Snoopy Day can be seen. (Except on Thursdays, which is when we were there.)

The most effort has been put into the Rugrats Turnpike which is now Joe Cool's Driving School. It's pretty neat...and we have enough pictures of it to share it with you tomorrow in it's own post.

This is Elias following Snoopy's footprints along a path leading to the Joe Cool's Driving School attraction.

An odd addition to Planet Snoopy is this giant moon bounce which isn't listed on the park's website or in the guide map at the park. It didn't look open when we passed by it, either.

One of my favorite spots in the original layout of the park was the old Hanna-Barbera toy store. Of course, that's gone now. But so is the lame-o Nickelodon store that was in the space for a while. Now the building is home to Snoopy Boutique, an awesome shop which I easily could have dropped $300 bucks in.

The outside of Snoopy Boutique is lined with these large comic strip frames. Great picture opportunities.

Among all the really cool stuff they have in the store, there are plush of all of Snoopy's brothers and sisters. Where else are you gonna be able to take home your own Marbles, Spike, Andy, Belle or Olaf? Well played Cedar Fair merchandising department...well played!
And look at this....Franklin and Pig Pen even get their own plush! How cool is that? Franklin never gets any love!

The strangest thing in Planet Snoopy is that instead of playing the jazzy Vince Guaraldi Peanuts music that everyone instantly associates with Charlie Brown cartoons, through out Planet Snoopy they were playing Hannah Montana songs. Schroeder would be mortified!

They are off to a good start with Planet Snoopy, but they need to keep going with the rest of the kids section and bring it all together under one Snoop! Some of the other kiddie rides need a Peanuts makeover. Perhaps next year we'll see the rest of Kings Dominion's kiddie section get the same attention as other parks in the chain. Until then...Good Grief!

It's An Obscure Ride, Charlie Brown

I've mentioned before not to ask me why I search for the stuff I do on YouTube, but one of my favorite subjects to find videos of is cartoon themed amusement park rides in other countries. I recently discovered a place called Snoopy's World, an outdoor playground which can be found on a balcony of a 49 acre mall in Hong Kong called New Town Plaza. This place actually looks more like the kids section of an amusement park than it does a simple playground. There's some play areas for the kids and some shops and even an eatery...and it's all surrounded by giant statues of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. What caught my eye is the playground's boat ride, which appears to just be called Boating Canal. I gotta tell ya...the ride looks pretty sweet. Guests board a canoe with Beagle Scout Snoopy as your guide as you travel through a few Peanuts inspired scenes. Here's an overview of the ride:

It's kind of simple looking but you gotta applaud what they're trying to do.

Now, here's the video that tipped me off on this whole Snoopy's World venture. This clip is just someone's private home video but it shows off the scenes of the ride nicely. Just give the video 20 or so seconds to get to the footage of the ride...



I'm not quite sure what any of that really has to do with Snoopy...especially the scene where Snoopy reenacts Saving Private Ryan, but I'd be willing to hop on an 18 hour flight to Hong Kong - just to check it out!

Peanuts From The 70's

• I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on this new DVD set at the end of next month. Paramount continues it's parade of releases from the Charlie Brown vault with Peanuts 1970's Collection Vol. 1. There will be two new specials added to my collection: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown and Play It Again, Charlie Brown. Th two disc set also features these previously released to DVD titles:
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
• It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
• There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown
• You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown