This was the only non-Disney ride that featured a song that stuck in my head for weeks after riding it. It was simple but brilliant. I'm grateful to have ridden it a few times, but will always miss it. A museum in Oceanside, CA had an exhibition dedicated to Rolly Crump. It was great and featured 1 or 2 items ( gypsy wagon ) that would end up being missed in DL but featured in Knotts. I've met Rolly twice, he's larger than life. The Iron Reef attraction wasn't disappointing ( to me ) but seeing Knotts Beary Tales come back would be highly welcomed, I can't wait to see it. If anyone from Cedar Fair is reading, KEEP THAT THEME SONG!
And now it has opened. And it is better than expected. Hopefully, we'll see a couple more figures put in over time. The new one does an incredible job of honoring the original and does it far better than what Disney could do with Journey Into Imagination. All thanks to Chris Crump (Rolly's son who also worked on the original) and people who understood the ride through and through. I know the 4D stuff isn't for everyone, but at least it does it differently than your cookie cutter shooter. There is parallax screens, scents, charm, awesome music and more sets than the eye could see. Its one of the best and sadly (like the original) the videos do not do the thing justice. Its why having videos on preserving dark rides is a blessing and a curse. The best part is having the option to not play the game, which is what I'll probably do after I have my fill of blasting the pies and coyote family haha. Seems like an exercise on the arms! My only criticisms about it are very minor things and do not hurt my review on the ride. This is due to knowing the ride inside and out to where I own the props and the photographs with friends. These include missing characters such as Wally the Wirewalker and Madam Wong (My favorite character they could have slightly redesigned). The digital Wagons in Fortune Teller's Camp and Country Fair are not as creative as the original (look at Theda's for example) and are just reskins of the Wanda Fox wagon; which is a great design but seeing its reuse all over is quite redundant. But at least the awesome Puppet Show one is in! That and most of the Weird Woods characters didn't make it in. But other than that, I still love the new ride! My favorite element is the new characters such as Crafty's pups. Those guys are an adorable and welcome addition to the lineup of memorable KBT characters. The new Bear-y family-members Mary and Bumble are kinda hit and miss for me.
I never knew why Knott’s Beary Tales was removed? It was so good!!! I never saw any merchandise other than the little full color booklet which I bought. 🤔 The dinosaur ride was horrible! 😖
I grew up just a few hundred yards from the entrance on Western Ave went to Walter Knott Elementary and worked at Knott's when I turned 18 in 1978, I was a ride operator and first worked on Cycle Chase then Beary Tales, a friend and I perfected the Dr Fox and Bear spiel on the Berry Wagon in the que as well as Dr Fox in the Fair, we were a big hit at Knotts employee parties ( Which were great!! ) one of the positions was inside the ride to make sure no one damaged the characters or even worse if they were smoking a match or butt could burn the whole ride down in a few minutes. It was a great summer and I still have a few friends some 43 years later, video brought back some great memories!!
I remember seeing Beary Tales first hand, I made my mother ride it with me over and over. That was back in the late seventies. I saw the new ride presentation on youtube. I have to say if they were smart, they would rebuild the original attraction. It isn't like Knott's doesn't have another much older attraction that was modernized. :)
Excellent coverage of Bear-y Tales. Also, you may want to get hyped for the new KBT. It looks like it might be better than anticipated if you followed the latest Knott's posts!
I LOVED this old ride! I really like the animatronics. The 3D rides gives me headaches and make me disoriented sometimes. I’ve even had my eyes checked but they are fine. Also miss the ocean ride, the dinosaur ride, and the soapbox races! That ride was amazing!
I have to admit that I never saw that ending twist coming. So it's coming back THIS YEAR. I do wonder if there will a review for the revival of this ride ?
I liked Knotts Beary tails and went on it many times when I was a kid/teen. I love you did a story on it, thanks for that. Kingdom of the dinosaurs was awful, I worked for the company that built the trex for it and as a young adult spent a lot of all nighters repairing it. We called him "shreader" because that was what he did best to himself. I went on Iron reef back in February, it was an Ok ride but I thought it needed a motion base to put it over the top. If there going to revamp it back to Beary tails add some real objects and animation to fill it out. Projected 3d animation still feels flat in my opinion.
Not in California, so I can't ride this, now that it's "back," but watching the videos on the internet, and fondly remembering the original (as a kid I grew up about four blocks away from Knott's), while it's not the near perfection of the original attraction, it still seems to maintain some of the original feel ... as long as they are still pumping in the boysenberry smells, it's probably acceptable. Sure wish they'd never closed the original, though. The four things I miss the most from the Knott's I grew up with were Knott's Berry Tales, the Corkscrew, the Parachute Jump, and Jungle Island! Those were the good old days!
I loved Knotts Bear-y Tails when I was a kid. It was so fun and cute with a great story. Rolly was a genius! Can you do one on another Knott's ride? It was very short lived, and it was the Wacky Soap Box Racers. That was also so much fun.
Visited Knott's a lot during the 90's, before CF took over the park. I greatly miss Kingdom of the Dinosaurs and I also remember the Windjammer coaster, miss those two rides. Never got the chance to ride Soap Box Racers, They should bring the Parachute ride to the Sky Tower. During 2010's, CF took Knott's back to the 90's by refurbishing many rides, including Ghost Rider. Hopefully the park will also bring back the Reflection Lake water show.
Well, the new ride wasn’t much of a success as it should have. It’s heartbreaking to learn about recently. I am actually gonna be retiring from championing the Bear-y Tales once this book project I am releasing is out. That and I am working on a dark ride project that is gonna continue where the classic ride left off. But its gonna be a different approach from Bear-y Tales and there will be animatronics involved…
They're likely going to go beyond Iron Reef. Since they really want to do this new ride right after Reef's poor reception. It is just that Knott's has been so vague about the new ride. Especially a lot more now due to the unforeseen stuff going on right now.
Everyone keeps talking about Voyage to the Iron Reef like it was some huge failure. Was it that bad? I rode it back in Feb of this year and thought it was great! Not like the best ever, but i thought it was very good at least.
People just don't like it for a number of reasons. 1. It lacked character and charm when compared to Bear-y Tales and Kingdom of The Dinosaurs 2. Development looked rushed and not thought out well 3. A terrible capacity and loading system (you would have to be there in person to experience this one)
If it remains a screen animation "4D" ride, not unlike the "Iron Reef", it will flop quickly... BUT, the cost of "reprogramming" video is cheap... So they'll toss it after a year or so and "reprogram" something else, all the while never realizing that the appeal of the dark ride is the animatronics used to tell the story. The imaginations of Walt Disney, Walter Knott, Rolly Crump, Xavier Atencio, Bud Hurlbut, and the rest of the original Imagineers appears to be lost in the world of amusement park entertainment today. All (including Disney) appear to have tunnel vision due to the cheap price of video ride theming...
It's a crime against humanity that we will never get a proper Bear-y tales dark ride with animatronics. Shooting at a projection screen just doesn't do it for me anymore. 😕
