First off, WOW. This entire thing blew me away. Granted, I'm a fan of the film, so I'll start with that perspective first. As a fan, I am absolutely blown away by the great amount of movie-to-attraction detail. The first preshow room pays so much homage to the film that it's almost ridiculous. (In a good way, of course.) Three of my favorite details from this room are the three shelves on the back wall that sport the macaroni rocket, Gru's hand-drawn picture of himself from his childhood, and his cardboard space helmet. The preshow video here does the film great justice, and matches the atmosphere perfectly. For people who aren't familiar with the film, the first preshow is certainly geared to introduce them to the characters and let them get a feel for each character. The second preshow is wonderful. The use of the minions here is hilarious, and matches what you see in the original film, and then some. And though you don't realize it at first, this is where the story line truly starts, with all of the hints to the finale; I love how this is cleverly hidden. The ride itself is ADORABLE. There wasn't a single moment that I wasn't smiling, (except perhaps in the anti-gravity recycling room). The story is direct, and doesn't stray far from where it is supposed to, besides the anniversary side-plot. (This is something I absolutely HATED about Jimmy). The post show is wonderfully fitting. Though I refused to partake, I still appreciated it.
Now from a theme park nerd's point of view.
This is everything that Jimmy was not. Good riddance to Jimmy.
Let's start with the queue video. It actually helps sum up the film's events, and gears you up for the attraction itself. It actually serves a purpose, as opposed to Jimmy's queue video, which was more of a mash up of Nicktoon clips that were intended as shameless marketing, and had nothing to do with the ride's story. (Didn't even give a hint to it!) Onward to the first preshow room. (The operative word here being "first.") Having two preshow rooms did worlds of good for crowd flow and capacity. The longest wait I endured was 60 minutes. If this were Jimmy, it would have been 120, and Hell, I wouldn't have even been in line. Once again, I stress that the first preshow's room has an amazing amount of detail. Universal Creative really put though into this, going so far as to display Gru's family tree, and including the girl's drawings. And again, the video does worlds of good to introduce those who aren't familiar to with the film to Gru and the girls. The second preshow room had me smiling from ear to ear for every six of my rides. (Yeah, I sneaked in a sixth ride this morning before I left). The fact that they actually reworked this room and didn't just leave it (this also applies to the first room as well, really), is pure genius. Jimmy's one preshow room was stiff, and you missed so much when you had to watch two different screens, (that happened to be on two different walls, mind you) to get the full story was ridiculous. Anybody that stood in the front of their row ended up directly under the three-part screen, and missed everything that happened on it. Having reworked the shape of the space for better flow and viewing was a spectacular idea, and OH MY GOD, thank you for removing the extraneous screen. Being able to get the full story from ONE direction is smart, simple, and just plain common sense. The use of the fart gun and the body scan is a great way to put interaction to the audience, and I applaud it. (Though I certainly didn't like being accused of not taking a shower for 4 out of my 6 rides). The ride was phenomenal. The tech in here is wonderful, and as violarum mentioned earlier, the movements are very smooth. I'm also glad to see that the old Spongebob water effect was not only used once again, but was also touched up. By the time that Jimmy was closing, this effect was either breaking, or simply being put to rest. You could really only feel it in the front cars. Now, it can be felt all the way in the back of the room. The ride film, thought it has it snags here and there, (most notably between "resist the banana!" and "what are you doing in the restricted section?!") it is otherwise, very well done. I will point out though that it seems a bit blurry toward the finale, when we attend the carnival/party. I'll also note that this had better cinematic quality than Jimmy did, as far as story. Especially in the recycling room.
My major critiques are few. Violarum really hit the nail on the music and the awkward silences, though I will point out that Gru does greet you in the lab via audio briefly before the actual video starts, which is a nice touch, and the TMs did the best they could to keep us preoccupied. But what really irked me was something that might actually be a mistake on Illumination Entertainment's part. The first two thirds of the second preshow video is unfinished. I first noticed it with Gru's eyebrows. They are white for a good amount of time before they finally turn black, right about the time when the girls enter. After a few rides, I realized that this wasn't the only unfinished thing. It is actually all of the shadows. The value changes dramatically at the point where the girls come in, and believe me, it is not a change in the light source. The value changes completely. I have to wonder if this is a mistake, or if this just simply isn't the final video, and this is just being used for the meantime while Illumination delivers a final product. I did not notice this in any of the other videos, so it truly baffles me.
So with all that said, I'll repeat what I posted last night... I love this attraction with all of my heart.