The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[mickEblu]

Okay so apparently it’s just The Evil Queen being cut. Gaston and Cruella stay.

The best of the 3 is being cut? Makes sense

 

[gerarar]

Okay so apparently it’s just The Evil Queen being cut. Gaston and Cruella stay.

That viral Evil Queen also plays Maleficent and Lady Tremaine.

Any news if those characters are also being cut? I recall that there's videos of Maleficent hinting at leaving too.

Also if Lady Tremaine leaves, Anastasia & Drizella must be too?

 

[Disney Analyst]

That viral Evil Queen also plays Maleficent and Lady Tremaine.

Any news if those characters are also being cut? I recall that there's videos of Maleficent hinting at leaving too.

Also if Lady Tremaine leaves, Anastasia & Drizella must be too?

I believe those characters aren’t daily (or weekly), and were already seasonal at Disneyland? (Not sure about Lady Tremaine’s past status?)

From what I understand, the regular villains will now just be Cruella and Gaston.

 

[Disney Irish]

Okay so apparently it’s just The Evil Queen being cut. Gaston and Cruella stay.

So as I suspected there was more to this story.....

From what I've read online one of the reasons being posted is that the character has become too viral and is being hounded by vloggers around the Park constantly shoving a camera in her face. So in order to keep guest safety a priority and not have hoards of vloggers hounding a specific character limiting guest access, they are putting a "pause" on her for awhile. I believe Jack Sparrow also had this done for awhile too back a number of years ago.

Once things die down a bit I suspect she'll be back in rotation just like Jack is.

 

[coffeefan]

Starting to be picked up by larger accounts.

The story is getting attention in non-fan spaces as well. DL has to know this is not a popular move.

 

[truecoat]

Cracking down on vloggers who negatively impact the guest experience would be a good start.

Start with a warning, then a 30-day ban, followed by a permanent ban.

Vloggers do provide free promotion for Disneyland, but they need to be reigned in, notably the live bloggers on rides.

 

[Disney Analyst]

 

[Distorian]

I didn't make it to Disneyland this year, but I did have the chance to visit the Grand Canyon earlier this year and encountered several big horn sheep. Naturally it reminded me of the Grand Canyon diorama.

I also did some traveling along Route 66. Some of these locations I remember seeing referenced in Walt Disney Imagineering: Behind the Dreams Look at Making MORE Magic Real as influences for Cars Land.

I also finally made it out to Walt's Barn in Griffith Park to see Sam Towler's Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland model.

Also while in LA I stopped by the Biltmore to see the lobby that inspired Tower of Terror's.

 

[Phroobar]

See how reality looks better than a theme park.

 

[Eyeontheglobe]

I can't believe they made a real place based off of the diorama!

 

[PiratesMansion]

With apologies, because this thought came into my head like a battering ram and now won't leave.

Here's the problem with Haunted Mansion Holiday.

The ballroom of the original attraction is an astounding marvel. Ghosts, seemingly conjured for real! Amazing! The whole ride has been building to this moment, and it has paid off! Alas, catharsis!

Until HMH season, that is. What's the focal point of the ballroom in the Holiday version? A gingerbread house and a very NBC-influenced Christmas tree. Where the ghosts become incidental and subservient to clutter. And the same could be said for pretty much every single room in the house.

And then when the original version returns, inevitably some will react not with satisfaction that the original, superior ballroom scene and the superior main attraction has returned, but instead respond that it feels empty without all of the loud nonsense that fills the place from August to January.

HMH has found a perfect way to both bury the original attraction under excess, and also con people into thinking of the original show as lesser, as sparse, as a deficit. In a way it speaks to the skill of the people who put it together, who were able to find a way to make an idea that makes very little sense and turn it into something no one questions. It'd almost be admirable if it weren't happening to my favorite attraction.

(And for the record, I like HMH...in November and December.)

 

[NobodyElse]

Here's my miscellaneous thought for the day:

 

[Parteecia]

@TP2000: Halloween costume winners?

 

[TP2000]

@TP2000: Halloween costume winners?

Thank you for the reminder!

I posted this in another thread about movie box office, but it's of value here too. I'll just quote what I already wrote over there last night around 10pm...

At exactly 9:30pm the porch lights went off and I closed for business. Nothing good ever happens after 9:30pm on Halloween. I'm now enjoying an hours-late dry martini, and checking my sporadic notes from this evening.

Here's the TP2000 Halloween Costume Pop Culture Barometer for 2025.

I got about 65 kids tonight, give or take. Not quite the 100-ish I'd usually get in my old SoCal neighborhood, but for a small gated community in a small city, it's not bad. I'm pretty sure some of the local kids invited their friends.

I can not thank @BrianLo enough for tipping me off on this phenom of the girl group from Korea who hunts demons! I got at least two dozen of them tonight! Most of those girls were in the 5 to 9 year old range, and were adorable, yet you could tell they thought they were being edgy. Also quite a few Princesses and pink royalty of various sorts for the girls. And a gaggle of Tween girls wearing full-face pink ski masks and stretch pants and toting their Dad's rifles; I have absolutely no idea what that was, but at least they were very polite.

On the boys side, Spiderman reigned supreme in the 5 to 9 year old age group. A close second was dinosaurs. Older boys went for sports stars, or a few soldiers, or general ghouls. The boys over age 10 kind of phoned it in this year, to be honest.

Best Boy Costume See's candy basket went to a Son/Dad combo. The son was a great looking TRex dinosaur, with an embedded roaring sound effect speaker in his costume. Dad was... Chris Pratt in khaki's and dino battle gear. Unfortunately, Dad looked nothing like Chris Pratt and probably never did even in college. But their combo together was hilarious!

Best Girl Costume candy basket went to a generic princess, but she had about 100 LED lights in her flouncy, white ball gown. She was like a one woman Electrical Parade. I could tell she had a vision for this Halloween, and darnit she brought it to life!

Best Family Costume candy basket went to a family of 5 I know just down the street. They were all Lego people, and Dad had clearly worked hard to create these sort of plasticky costumes that looked like Lego bricks, but you could still see their faces thru cutouts. Dad in Lego Suit N' Tie, Mom in Lego dress and bow, daughter in Lego dress and bow, boys in Lego baseball uniforms. Hysterical! I chatted with them for a bit as I know them, and the kids said they wanted to get the dog in on the fun but he ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to take part as a Lego Dog.

In short, here's my take on Pop Culture for 2025 from this evening....

Not a single Star Wars or Marvel thing at all. Korean Girl Group Demon Hunters, or what have you, ruled the night. Spiderman and dinosaurs were a very close second and third for younger boys. And for the 15th Halloween since the first Avatar movie came out and I started keeping track of all this, I had not a single blue alien anywhere in sight.

And now, to find my own tricks and treats in my well-deserved martini...

 

[Rich T]

Spent Halloween finally watching Wicked. As much as I still don’t care for the trend of twisting famous fantasy stories to sympathize with the villains, it’s hard to complain about such great performances, art direction and music. My minor gripes about the plot aside, this movie delivers an outstanding visualization of the Land of Oz. Now I’m actually hoping the rumors of a Wicked land coming to Epic or IoA become reality.

Today I dropped by Universal Orlando to hit a few rides and finally check out the Wicked walk-through prop museum/shop. Elphaba and Glinda walked right past me on their way to the meet n’ greet, and their spot-on resemblance to their movie counterparts was incredible.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Spent Halloween finally watching Wicked. As much as I still don’t care for the trend of twisting famous fantasy stories to sympathize with the villains, it’s hard to complain about such great performances, art direction and music. My minor gripes about the plot aside, this movie delivers an outstanding visualization of the Land of Oz. Now I’m now actually hoping the rumors of a Wicked land coming to Epic or IoA become reality.

Today I dropped by Universal Orlando to hit a few rides and finally check out the Wicked walk-through prop museum/shop. Elphaba and Glinda walked right past me on their way to the meet n’ greet, and their spot-on resemblance to their movie counterparts was incredible.

I was precisely the right age when Wicked hit Broadway, and as much as I wanted to hate the film, I couldn't help myself and the whole experience was perfect and thoroughly enjoyable. What remains to be seen is how much film 2 can improve upon the show's second act, which is wonky and doesn't hold up to scrutiny in the way of the first film/act.

Between Wicked and the lore of Oz in and of itself, there's definitely land potential there.

 

[Phroobar]

I saw Wicked when it was in L.A. It was fun but I've seen better musicals. However it did move at a good pace. I can't say that for the movie. The movie was slow and really didn't do a lot outside of the two main characters becoming friends. Only the last twenty minutes did it set up an actual conflict for the next movie. It set design and camera work was impressive. The musical numbers where top notch. Ariana Grande was a great successor for Kristin Chenoweth. The movie did get a little preachy though.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I saw Wicked when it was in L.A. It was fun but I've seen better musicals. However it did move at a good pace. I can't say that for the movie. The movie was slow and really didn't do a lot outside of the two main characters becoming friends. Only the last twenty minutes did it set up an actual conflict for the next movie. It set design and camera work was impressive. The musical numbers where top notch. Ariana Grande was a great successor for Kristin Chenoweth. The movie did get a little preachy though.

Wicked is definitely a spectacle show. It's very much like Frozen in that it's quite flawed, but I completely understand why parts of it have resonated deeply with many people.

It makes sense that the movie would feel slow, they spread out the first film to be longer than the entire show despite it only containing the first act. I'm hopeful that the added running time was to help clarify the second movie and fill it all with a better sense of payoff, though I suppose that remains to be seen.

I'm not really familiar with either leading lady's past work, but both were perfect for their roles, especially Grande.

Didn't really notice any difference in preachiness that wasn't already there in the show, though I imagine it might have felt more drawn out to fill the time.

 

[Rich T]

I saw Wicked when it was in L.A. It was fun but I've seen better musicals. However it did move at a good pace. I can't say that for the movie. The movie was slow and really didn't do a lot outside of the two main characters becoming friends. Only the last twenty minutes did it set up an actual conflict for the next movie. It set design and camera work was impressive. The musical numbers where top notch. Ariana Grande was a great successor for Kristin Chenoweth. The movie did get a little preachy though.

I do think the movie could have had 15 minutes or so trimmed; it almost feels like watching an extended director’s cut. My only real gripe (besides all the non-main-characters of Oz being portrayed as complete idiots) is that the whole animal-rights subplot just doesn’t integrate with rest of the film as well as they probably hoped it would, and it just feels clumsy and brings the movie down a notch every time the story goes there. Maybe Part 2 will make it work better.

But I loved just about every minute of the movie that did NOT feel like a shoehorned-in PETA ad. The two leads give phenomenal performances, and the direction and design are incredible.

On a side note, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t realize who the caged animal in the classroom was until I watched the film a second time yesterday.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Big Thunder opened today.