A Spirited Perfect Ten

Bolna

Well-Known Member
You miss my point. I strongly doubt that someone who can afford DCL cruise rates and goes on one of the iteneraries that involves Norway (or any country) is going to avoid Port Excursions in said country.

What makes me upset is them using Frozen as some sort of "cultural ambassador" for Norway.

At least Mulan makes SOME sense, as it's based in China. Or Snow White in Germany. Or Belle in France.

Frozen is based in a fictional land "inspired" (they say) by Norway, and "based" (also a joke...it's not even close) on a Danish fairy tale. It's about as accurate and effective as learning about Canadian Culture by watching South Park.

If you dumb subjects down, you'll end up with dumb subjects. If you dumb experiences down, you'll end up with dumb experiences, and that's exactly what that is. Why someone needs "Anna and Elsa" to "help" (as the Disney blog says in their marketing for it) learn and experience Norway is beyond me.

While I would usually agree with you in general about the ridiculousness of Frozen being considered to be "Norwegian", I do think in this context it is not as bad as in others. I think this excursion (and it is only being offered in ONE port that will be visited on TWO cruises in 2015 - we are speaking about a total of maybe 200 passengers being able to go on this one excursion) will be a great opportunity for families to actually learn about Norwegian culture. And it will maybe get people to sign up for an excursion that teaches them more about the country they visit than other supposedly kid-friendly excursions which tend to be more activity based, less learning based. If this helps to get kids interested in another country's history and customs, I think it is a good thing. It is in no way portraying the country only as the country of Anna and Elsa.
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
I've already said on here that we need some sort of differentiation between the Disney "brand" and the Disney "company".

Honestly, it would make a lot of sense for The Walt Disney Company, a multinational mass media conglomerate, to change to a different name. Unfortunately, there just isn't a good option for a name -- the easiest way to do that is when another large company is purchased and their name is adapted. But what would TWDC use? Capital Cities?

I actually think using something like Retlaw would be as good as any option. But still completely unrealistic.

If you rename TWDC to a different name, then you avoid any confusion about the brands the company owns. It becomes clear that "Disney" refers to Mickey and the animated film history and the theme parks, etc. while Marvel, Lucasfilm, Muppets, etc. are just different brands owned by the same company.

ABC comes to mind and in a way fitting as Iger came from there.
 

ABQ

Well-Known Member

RayTheFirefly

Well-Known Member

Donald Razorduck

Well-Known Member
Some random thoughts as I read through this thread.

The Weather Channel is awful these days.

Love me some Indy. Would love to see it rebooted, always thought the natural home for it is Animal Kingdom where a ride could actually incorporate real animals in it.

Marvel needs to stay out of US parks. I think it's more than enough material for its own park, and I've said it before in my short time here, in Texas around the Houston areas but San Antonio would be fine as well. Bush International is a major international airport, Southwest is building an International terminal at Hobby to see serve Central and South America. Doesn't have to be Houston. Dallas is fine, but more prone to cold snaps. Waterpark needs major indoor components like the rumored UNI park in Orlando.

Speaking of UNI, watching the Puss in Boots coaster in Singapore. Appears to be a new inverted ride concept like Mack's at Europa Park but by B&M.

I hate Avatar, I hate that it's going in Animal Kingdom. My kids watches it, never mentioned it again.

All this movie talk, no John Carter references? See no, Speak no?

Frozen deserves to be in Disney World. Hate characters making a home at Epcot in a ride form. It's lazy and uneeded. Son't need characters to have hit attractions. Test Track and Soarin' prove that out. I don't mind reusing ride systems (Test Track, Radiator Springs) as long as it's layout isn't identical and theming is much different, otherwise it's a Six Flags boomerangs and drop towers with a shared DC theme.

I feel Disney Studios is a natural fit for Pixar and the acquired IPs, DisneyWorld and Disneyland belong to Disney only in my wishs and dreams.

I liked Oz, It's a worthless IP without the rights to the original as a franchise. Lots of ride ideas though. It should have been a TV show. That brings me to this, could Disney create a Marvel Channel. It would feature live action shows at night like Agent Carter and Shield and cartoons of others during the day. Show the Marvel movies that have run their course via release at the theaters, on demand, and retail levels. Ironman and Avenger marathons and so on.

Disney needs a ship at Galveston/Houston longer than they do. Here's to two more ships soon. Would love to see New Orleans used by Disney too.
 
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ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Spirited Big Picture Musing:

Well, I guess Juno (when did we start naming winter storms?) derailed this into At The Movies With Some MAGIC.

It is always something. Tomorrow, it will be fanbois talking about DL's 60th media event (BTW, any bloggers, lifestylers, podcasters or just members of this community going to be there?) and trying to extrapolate things that aren't there based on what they so desire.

Me?

I'm very interested in who replaces Bob Iger in 2018 (yes, that does seem so long compared to 2016). I think that's more important than any other topic here, but I realize that I'm not everyone.

I did get one very unexpected, and insightful, bonus of the storm that walloped (love that weather terminology ... bet Bob still recalls when he was using words like that) parts of the NE today. It allowed me to spend some quality time talking Disney with someone who is paid highly to follow the company and was snowed in at home all day.

He/she read both of the stories we were talking about here. But said that colleagues likely read the Huff Po column because it was a strict business op-ed piece by someone in the industry.

Said the impact on it wouldn't make any difference to Bob, but that it just added ''more gravitas'' to the reason Bob got two more years: namely, the Street doesn't have any faith in Rasulo and Staggs to be a No. 1. Said that ''your (my) issues with Bob wanting to open the beachhead in Shanghai and watch Star Wars explode as a Disney property or wanting to watch the box office tally on a few more billion dollar Marvel films are all true, no doubt, but they're ancillary. Bob is remaining because Disney hasn't come up with a legit candidate they can sell to the Street to replace him.''

The long and short of it is that if Wall Street had any faith in these guys, both with numbers/strategic planning pedigrees, Bob likely would be gone in June of next year regardless of anything else.

I keep saying ... telling people ... that the next head of Disney won't be one of these men and Disney's publicity machine kicks in (at least I don't believe the vast majority of fans have any degree of warmth in either individual) with all the PR and planted stories designed to create a false reality.

I've talked a lot about change here. I think people often don't understand that it comes slowly ... sometimes slower than climate change. But big change absolutely can happen. For Disney, that would be an outsider running the company. Not as farfetched a reality as it would have been a few years ago.

Oh, and I'll weigh in on the Indy rumor that Deadline put up by first saying it's old. People were mentioning the very talented Chris Pratt (who was great as usual in Parks and Rec tonight) as a possible Indy before GotG became a huge hit. I think he'd make a great one, actually. But I'll also say that Disney is in no hurry whatsoever to reboot the franchise. It could happen ... but it is many moons away.
Do you think there's any chance Iger will stay on as Chairman of the Board for a short period after the new CEO takes over? I think it could help ease the anxiety from Wall Street. It may possibly delay meaningful change though. I would hope that the CEO/chairman positions are split apart after Iger steps down.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
it's because more people are familiar with those objects and story due to religious influence.
But in the movies, its not just religious influence. They tell the story about how these artefacts have something special about them...the power they supposedly wielded.

The cup for example, could heal anyone.
 
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Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
How about visiting Norway as being the gateway to learning about Norway?

It is a bad thing.

Just imagine how ignorant your child will be when she meets someone who says they are from Norway and they ask "Do you know Anna and Elsa?"
or if they have "snow monsters and ice castles".
 

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