Speak for yourself.
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The Miscellaneous Thought Thread
- Thread starter mickEblu
- Start date
Speak for yourself.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
There's a name from the past I'd forgotten about. Good question, where is he nowadays? And his ex-wife, who branded herself as the Fabulous Disney Babe, was an interesting character too. Haven't heard those names in years and years.
I helped orchestrate the overthrow of Michael Eisner and installed Bob Iger into his rightful place on the throne!
Be nice to me, or I'll come for you too.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
Did some googling, she has a podcast with her new husband but its under Jim Hill's (her ex's) network.There's a name from the past I'd forgotten about. Good question, where is he nowadays? And his ex-wife, who branded herself as the Fabulous Disney Babe, was an interesting character too. Haven't heard those names in years and years.
I helped orchestrate the overthrow of Michael Eisner and installed Bob Iger into his rightful place on the throne!
Be nice to me, or I'll come for you too.
Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 20: More tales from Disneyland’s early days
streetwriterpodcast.blogspot.com
truecoat
Well-Known Member
There's a name from the past I'd forgotten about. Good question, where is he nowadays? And his ex-wife, who branded herself as the Fabulous Disney Babe, was an interesting character too. Haven't heard those names in years and years.
I helped orchestrate the overthrow of Michael Eisner and installed Bob Iger into his rightful place on the throne!
Be nice to me, or I'll come for you too.
For a short time, I wondered if you were WDW1974.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
The story of pre-Depp POC was painted with broad strokes with the guests as the main characters: Your peaceful bayou cruise takes a weird wrong turn and you fall into caverns haunted by pirate ghosts, where you find a cursed treasure which sends you back in time to witness the events leading to the deaths of the crew, whose remains you saw previously.
HM is similar in its broad you-fill-in-the-blanks storytelling. My own objection to anything in the Iger quote would be the implication that this kind of attraction is outdated.
Guests, to paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, just wanna have fun. There can be no story, a suggested story, an open-ended story or a very linear story. Let’s look at some recent popular examples:
Frozen Ever After — Barely any story
Flight of Passage — All set-up and atmosphere
Navi RJ - No story
Mystic Manor - Full story
Ratatouille - Loose story
Hagrid’s - Full story very broadly told
Velocicoaster - All set-up and atmosphere
Rise of the Resistance - Full linear Story
Cosmic Rewind - A full story riders largely ignore
Monsters Unchained - Broad, linear story
Battle at the Ministry - Full linear Story
Hiccup’s Wing Gliders - Full Story
Big Bear Mountain - Very Loose story
Tron - Loose story
Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train - No Story
TBA - Pre-school-level story with zero drama
RSR - Loose story
And so on. Anything can work if done well. I’ll take 1967 PoC over 2024 TBA any day, any year, any century.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
I don't think you have to worry about Iger's comments in this regard, the public already has an opinion about them. Many jokes have been told about many Disney attraction being outdated.
Heck Simpsons themselves have taken cracks at Disney attractions like Pirates many times for being outdated.
So really the public perception on many attractions is that they come across as outdated, hence why Disney ends up trying to "plus" them up to keep them relevant which many fans hate. Its a never ending cycle.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
It looks like OC and most of SoCal is going to have an unusually cold and rainy weekend in a few days. As I've been contemplating doing a Disneyland day in December, and it looks like a wet winter is already upon the Southwest...
What's the process with making a ticket reservation and then cancelling it if it rains? If I make a ticket reservation for the 3rd week of December now, but 72 hours out the forecast is for 54 degrees and rainy skies, can I just cancel it easily on the App and reschedule for another day later?
Maybe I'm overthinking this and they make it very easy to cancel and reschedule a few days out. Do they?
What's the process with making a ticket reservation and then cancelling it if it rains? If I make a ticket reservation for the 3rd week of December now, but 72 hours out the forecast is for 54 degrees and rainy skies, can I just cancel it easily on the App and reschedule for another day later?
Maybe I'm overthinking this and they make it very easy to cancel and reschedule a few days out. Do they?
Yeah it’s easy. I believe you can even cancel day of and just move your reservation but I’m 100% certain you can cancel / reschedule up until midnight the day before.
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Rich T
Well-Known Member
Anyone can make fun of anything, and everything that’s in the public consciousness is fair game for parody, especially when it comes from a huge company that prides itself as the be-all end-all of quality and wholesomeness. I loved Universal’s Simpsons parody of PoC as much as the next guy.
That doesn’t, however, mean the PoC model of storytelling is outdated. Most attractions need occasional updating and modification, but—as they say—one shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. ANY form of storytelling on an attraction can work. Pirates’ narrative flow is so solid that it has withstood multiple tweaks of varying quality over the many decades.
Again, I’d take PoC over TBA’s linear but (IMO) repetitive and preschool-level story presentation every time. And it’s not because one form of narrative is superior to the other. It’s what the creators DO with that narrative structure that counts. Attractions don’t always need obvious linear storytelling to be compelling and popular. It’s the end result that counts.
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Disney Irish
Premium Member
And I appreciate your stance here, and in many regards I don’t disagree with you. Everyone has an opinion on what makes the best type of attraction, and honestly none of those opinions are wrong, they are just different opinions.
To bring this back to Iger’s comments, I don’t think you have to worry in this regard. Iger has stated it’s one of his favorite attractions. So in this by extension Disney itself doesn’t see it as outdated, but rather something that can continue to be updated and tweaked without changing the overall “story” structure. So I think it’s safe for many years to come.
Honestly this whole thing has really being made too much of. Should Iger have maybe been more careful with his words, yeah maybe. But I still don’t think he is really that wrong.
SuddenStorm
Well-Known Member
Excited to hear that trip report.
Show quality on most attractions is the best it's been in years. Entertainment is lacking. Employees can have full tattoo sleeves now. No ladies and gentlemen and no splash.
But what's left of classic Disneyland looks great.
DLR92
Well-Known Member
I love our Pirates of the Caribbean. I prefer the simplicity of having no concrete storyline. I do not mind the current form of the Auction scene either.
I DO wish Disney could redo the citizens chasing the pirates. Like make special platforms for them to actually RUN instead of having them run in circles statically.
I DO wish Disney could redo the citizens chasing the pirates. Like make special platforms for them to actually RUN instead of having them run in circles statically.
SuddenStorm
Well-Known Member
Modern WDI fundamentally misunderstands storytelling in an attraction.
1. We shouldn't be active participants. This comes across as cheesy and lame.
2. We shouldn't be expected to listen to dialogue to understand what's happening. The set design should do that.
3. It should not be a linear story, but instead a series of experiences that culminate in a finale that feels satisfying.
Pirates does all of these exceptionally well. Haunted Mansion does also. And Indiana Jones.
Splash Mountain had you jumping in and out of Br'er Rabbit's story, but understanding that wasn't at all important when it came to enjoying the attraction. 30 years later, WDI felt that flume needed dialogue spoon fed to us like we're toddlers. "We're looking for musicians for a party" "Wow! They sure can play" "We're going to shrink you now!" "Wow, these small musicians sure bring the heat". It's a fundamentally lesser attraction.
gerarar
Premium Member
Just to follow up on this now that the Halloween season has passed.
A few former full-time CMs that played roles like the Evil Queen, Maleficent, etc. have officially been let go. Some also posted farewell posts.
This one (viral Evil Queen) has over 1.5m+ views!
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Gee, it's almost like they were being honest and they were, in fact, being phased out.
I for one am shocked, shocked!!!
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Fun fact, I noticed this past trip that staff at Universal and Knott's were also using "friends" instead of "ladies and gentlemen."
Perhaps harder to notice because those parks don't really have as many positions that require their staff to interact with/direct guests, but nonetheless, this is not just a Disney thing anymore.
