Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!
















Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Glorious Mr. Lincoln


It's time to catch up on a bit of news that I haven't had time to post about...

Mr. Lincoln is back in his rightful home! Out with Mr. Martin and in with the Mr. Lincoln. The world seems to be back in its proper order now. It is as if we had been rotating off axis ever since a certain little birthday celebration. Things are now back to the way they should be.

I take it as a reassuring sign, in these days where I disagree with almost everything that is going on in the parks, that there are some within the bowels of WDI that still get it, still care, and that they have some degree of clout to pull off the preservation of these little things.

My "top hats" off to the team that put my Mr. Lincoln back where he belongs. He looks better than ever. Now- just don't touch him. Leave him alone. Don't change a gesture, a brow shape, a blink! Just leave a good thing be- for a long, long time to come!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Set It In The Past!

I'm sure it's not news to anyone by now, but Mr. Guillermo Del Toro is set to direct a new incarnation of Disney's Haunted Mansion.

Given how hard the first attempt was botched, and lets not forget how it bad it was, heads should have rolled with some of the basic bad decisions that were made before it left development. I'm sure after the Pirates films hit there were many a Disney exec that had a severe bout of the shoulda-coulda-woulda's in regard to the franchise that Mansion could have been. Time has passed, transgessions and blasphemies have been learned from and the second go around seems to have the deck stacked!

The main character will be the Hot Box Ghost- slam dunk! The other thing I know Mr. Del Toro will not miss (besides not involving Eddie Murhpey) is to set the film in the past! It should be a cardinal rule that any classic Disney ride that is developed into a film be set in the past.

The rumors of Jungle Cruise movie still linger and I'm sure if Del Toro's HM is a hit it, the likely hood will dramatically increase. If that ever comes to light, please guys, set it in the past!! And get Christopher Walken as the skipper... oh and make sure Shrunken Ned gets in the script too! That's just gold.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

“Dispatch from Disneyland"


One of the first things I noticed when I started this blog was how kind and friendly everyone was in the Disney Blog community. People have been so helpful with sharing information linking posts etc it really is a fun little community of us geeks!

I love the idea of crowd funding and have seen it in action with animators getting their own short films funded, produced, and distributed. It's an amazing way of directly supporting unique projects. Which is why we need to support one of our own. John Frost over at the Disney Blog is crowd funding his new book "Dispatch from Disneyland: The Fireworks Spot and Other Tales.”

Jump over to John's post here for more info... or you can donate directly here. The best part is if you already have an Amazon account you can sign in and donate in about 1 second using your Amazon info.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Land of the Broken Yeti

I’ve recently returned from the land of the broken Yeti- aka Animal Kingdom. It had been 8 years since I'd last been to WDW. There were a handful of new attractions I was very eager to see. And there were some attractions I found disappointingly still in existence. One of the biggest things I had been looking forward to was Expedition Everest.

The country regions of Animal Kingdom I find absolutely amazing. To me it hearkens back to the core feeling that Walt Disney intended in his parks -a wonderment of the world about us, of times and far reaching places that don’t need brands and tie-ins to justify their marketability. I’m sure there were some within WDI that would have much rather seen this:


But alas Joe Rhode’s vision was left alone and an unbranded creative vision emerged -the likes we have not really seen since!. An E-ticket ride with no tie-in, with no Pixar characters, with no 3d technology, no game element. A simple idea based on a mythical legend set in an intriguing local.... So you can imagine I was very enthused to get strapped in and take a whirl through the land of the ferocious Yeti. The ride, the surroundings, the detail were all exquisite- the structure and the line itself were a true reassurance that Imagineer’s, unobstructed, left to do what they do best- do their best!

The ride was absolutely amazing except for the fact that I never saw the alleged Yeti! I assume since the allusive Yeti wasn’t working the lights were kept off him? I did see his elbow one time when someone’s flash went off as they were taking a picture. I went on it three times and on three different days and he was never working. Talk about a disappointment. The Yeti is the star of the show, his size and ferocity is inferred with the destruction of the tracks and fleeting footprints, his silhouette is hinted at for a brief moment, you hear him grumbling around certain turns, and then… nothing! Maybe an elbow if you’re lucky.

So I asked around only to hear my Yeti is “…usually broken, more often than not!” How disappointing.

After the third and last time I gave the Yeti to show himself, to no avail, we headed around the back of the attraction. It was so frustrating to walk around a corner and see a giant jarring Cal-Trans orange Dinosaur and cheesy carnival game after cheesy carnival game with the mountebank like employee’s huckstering you over to play over load speakers. That corner transported me from the Himalayas to Camp Snoopy in 2.2 seconds.

It's no wonder it looked like a ghost town. I couldn’t help but think that the cost of design, construction, and day-to-day pay roll for this "land" could pay to fix the Yeti that people were waiting 2+ hours to not see. This is precisely the garbage Walt reacted to while sitting on that bench with his daughters that inspired him to make something better.







It’s a shame that one of Disney’s best additions runs broken most of the time. The Yeti needs to be fixed. "Fix the Yeti Campaign" anyone?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Change


I was at the park this past weekend and I noticed a handful of recent changes. Some of the changes were a nice sign of things to come and others a not so nice sign of things to come.

-There are new gates/doors on the trams! Yeah! I don't know how so many people survived without these for so many years. They are really fun with strollers too since the doors don't stay open.

-The rails for the red cars are slowly being dropped into California Adventure. I'm utterly blah about the changes on the backside of DCA but the new Hollywood area I have high hopes for. Definitely a good sign.

-And there are Marvel toys on the shelves inside the parks. That didn't take long did it? This was not surprising but still disappointing to see. I wouldn't mind if they were in a store in Downtown-Not-So-Disney. But in the parks is a whole new can of worms!