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DHS Disney Confirms Muppets Take Over Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios

FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
Cmdr_Crimson said:
Hey, he did direct a ton of Pinky and the Brain Episodes tho...
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Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I think Peter Hastings was a great writer on Animaniacs & Pinky and the Brain. But he literally has stated in various interviews about it that he really wasn’t passionate about or enthralled about being brought into The Country Bears, that the company really was treating it more as an afterthought than a major project. nobody was taking it seriously apparently.
 
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FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
One other fun fact btw, brought up by former imagineer, Terri Hardin who was Big Al’s puppet/suit performer. In the end credits, there was supposed to be a scene where Big Al sang his iconic “Blood on the Saddle” song. Guess what was cut in the final film? I swear.. lol!
And yet, the funny part about all of this, nearly everyone you talk to that was nostalgic about the Country Bears at Disneyland (my family included). Will ‘always’, ‘always’ bring up to you, how they loved Big Al and him singing “Blood on the Saddle”. You know what you didn’t hear them reminisce on? Big Al singing about losing the love of his life while on a hike, only having a swiss army knife on him. Same goes for Teddi Berra’s “Come up and see me sometime” line, know what you didn’t hear them reminiscing over? Her singing “Singin’ in the Rain”. So yeah.. something was certainly “fishy” going on over there during its later years in the late 80s-early 2000s… They knew the original was more popular/memorable and yet they kept the show the vacation hoedown in California specifically. Not in Florida, not in Tokyo. Tokyo rotated between all 3 shows. (The way it should always be). So yeah, I don’t get it. lol :
 
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FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
Brer Panther said:
Wasn't Treasure Planet sabotaged by Disney as well?
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Not entirely sure tbh.. but one thing I know was that at the time, besides Winnie the Pooh’s theatrical features and the Direct to DVD sequels at the time, Disney was trying to steer away from traditional animation and most theater goers were going to see CGI animated films over traditionally animated ones. You can thank the clear success of Pixar and some of DreamWorks CG films at the time for this trend, also we have to take DreamWorks’ traditionally animated films and their box office performance at the time into consideration too. Seems now though we’re finally starting to see some turning back to 2D alongside CG as folks want more of a variety of films now.
One story that both makes me laugh and shocks me though, was apparently the folks behind Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers were hoping it’d be released theatrically in ‘04. The thinking at the time was “Hey, it’s Mickey & Friends. Of course it’ll sell tickets. It’s practically guaranteed”. Sadly that didn’t happen. Infact, Donovan Cook, the director of said film, said he nearly got thrown out of the studio and got into multiple fights with the higher ups over suggesting this notion. They were dead set on releasing it direct to dvd only and not releasing anymore traditionally animated films theatrically it seems. With the exception of Pooh’s Heffalump Movie in ‘05.
 
FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
IMG_9790.jpeg
 
jah4955

jah4955

Well-Known Member
FigmentsBrightIdeas said:
Yeah, if you read David Koenig’s book “Realityland”, they mentioned how a queue rope change sabotaged attendance numbers to give them evidence it was losing popularity and thus could/should be changed the way it was, also looking at home video footage from 95-98, you’ll see how signage & marketing changed aswell as monorail spiels to make Honey, I Shrunk the Audience the main/must see attraction and not Journey Into Imagination anymore like it always was before. I’ve posted/shared evidence of this in the main Figment thread if you’re curious. Wild. But yeah, funny how they never had to make some drastic changes in guest flow & marketing during the Captain EO days and yet specifically during Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’s days they did. Ridiculous the tactics Disney makes to sabotage things from time to time. Mickey Mouse Works & House of Mouse have a similar story when it comes to marketing. On merch at the time, they seemingly intentionally made sure the show was mentioned in the most missable way possible. On the ‘back’ of the tags/boxes on merch rather than the opposite. Then they totally changed gears when Mickey Mouse Clubhouse made its debut in ‘06.
Sadly this kind of thing happens more often than you think.
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I knew you'd bring the receipts @FigmentsBrightIdeas (++++++++) 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
 
FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
jah4955 said:
They definitely did that to Rescuers Down Under....another underrated film...visually stunning among many other merits.
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Absolutely, and as a result Mickey got screwed for a while too. Same thing happened releasing Runaway Brain in front of “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court” which was a bit of a weird move. This was prior to Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas being released straight to video, Mickey Mouse Works, and House of Mouse. But yeah, due to Mickey & Friends in Prince & the Pauper being placed as a featurette before it, that also was deemed a failure sadly.
Which is funny, since Mickey’s Christmas Carol was placed in front of a rerelease of the original Rescuers feature in ‘83, and in Europe or the UK, infront of a rerelease of The Jungle Book. That was considered a BIG success and a saving moment for the Animation Studio at the time, and it continued to do super well in TV airings and home video releases.. yet now in Mickey documentaries you see produced by the company now, they say it was “too safe” and “not actually a Mickey short”. Wild, WILD revisionism. But I swear, watch “Story of a Mouse” on Disney +. That’s what they say. By that logic I guess Muppets Christmas Carol is too safe and not really a Muppets film. Lol! I swear man..
 
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jah4955

jah4955

Well-Known Member
FigmentsBrightIdeas said:
Absolutely, and as a result Mickey got screwed for a while too. Same thing happened releasing Runaway Brain in front of “King Arthur’s Court” which was a bit of a weird move. This was prior to Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas being released straight to video, Mickey Mouse Works, and House of Mouse. But yeah, due to Mickey & Friends in Prince in the Pauper being placed as a featurette before it, that also was deemed a failure sadly.
Which is funny, since Mickey’s Christmas Carol was placed in front of a rerelease of the original Rescuers feature in ‘83, and in Europe or the UK, infront of a rerelease of The Jungle Book. That was considered a BIG success and a saving moment for the Animation Studio at the time, and it continued to do super well in TV airings and home video releases.. yet now in Mickey documentaries you see produced by the company now, they say it was “too safe” and “not actually a Mickey short”. Wild, WILD revisionism. But I swear, watch “Story of a Mouse” on Disney +. That’s what they say. By that logic I guess Muppets Christmas Carol is too safe and not really a Muppets film. Lol! I swear man..
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Ohhhh...so much here (& I still haven't carefully read all of your other posts from the last 12 hours lol).

nb: I'm glad you made a muppets tie-in ;)

To put it kindly, and as I was bracing myself for, "Story of a Mouse" was not an enjoyable watch for me.

And I think I'm one of the biggest Mickey fans ever (at least regarding his history....even the parts that contradict each other as Ned Flanders said!).

I'm glad Disney's recent online free re-release of 1983's "Christmas Carol" has 13 Million views so far. Something else I will never, ever tire of watching over and over for so very many reasons (at least this part of the post is perfect timed!).

To be nasty-mean....1990's Prince & Pauper is only a hair less than Christmas Carol.

They did handle 1995's Runaway Brain horribly in my opinion. My theory, since 1995, was they were hoping it'd "prop-up" Kid in King Arthur's Court. The film was "Meh" to be nice.

Toy Story 2 was meant to be direct to video...but turned into one of the biggest hits of 1999 (which was a HUGE summer for cinema).

Remember?????: "If you're going to watch only one film this year....watch Star Wars"
 
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FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
In regards to The Muppets though. It really is funny, cause they seemingly do everything except consult with Frank Oz and other folks that have had some issues with the more modern Muppets works lately. Not entirely sure why either.. like, why on earth wouldn’t you deliberately want to get somebody that’s worked with Jim directly and known these characters well for decades? He’s also not getting any younger. It’d be nice to really get some OG folks in to directly work with some of the new people so they can pass down that knowledge directly. And while I have hope for the new Seth Rogan produced show, seems it’s making a direct effort to harken back to its original format but tastefully updated. I just hope it really stays true to the characters and makes a point to let the performers improv while working with a writer, that again, really gets things. That’s part of why the combination of Jerry Juhl and and the performers worked so well.
 
jah4955

jah4955

Well-Known Member
FigmentsBrightIdeas said:
In regards to The Muppets though. It really is funny, cause they seemingly do everything except consult with Frank Oz and other folks that have had some issues with the more modern Muppets works lately. Not entirely sure why either.. like, why on earth wouldn’t you deliberately want to get somebody that’s worked with Jim directly and known these characters well for decades? He’s also not getting any younger. It’d be nice to really get some OG folks in to directly work with some of the new people so they can pass down that knowledge directly. And while I have hope for the new Seth Rogan produced show, seems it’s making a direct effort to harken back to its original format but tastefully updated. I just hope it really stays true to the characters and makes a point to let the performers improv while working with a writer, that again, really gets things. That’s part of why the combination of Jerry Juhl and and the performers worked so well.
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Indeed.

Goelz seems to have consistently been, "go along to get along." I certainly got that.

Oz still looks like he's in outstanding shape based on recent media. Not too late for Disney to reconsider reaching out?

I always loved, since childhood, how "Muppetty" many of the performers' names are! 🏆
 
FigmentsBrightIdeas

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
On the topic of changing Muppet*Vision 3D. Also makes me laugh that right when they announced the changeover from MuppetVision to Monstropolis, they gave Frank a Disney Legend award (possibly to shut him up) and they have the ‘gall’ to replace it with a Monsters, Inc. attraction. As it’s been known that Henson actually wasn’t very happy at the time that Pixar beat them to the punch of making a monsters film, let alone featuring some Henson performers for some of the background cast. And while true, the biggest reason is because Pete Docter is a huge Muppets/Henson fan, I can’t help but think Disney deliberately put both Docter & Oz in an awkward position like this to shut them both up.. it also doesn’t help matters that apparently Pixar isn’t being used for any new animation featuring the characters as of late, it’s instead being farmed out to another studio. Granted, I have no idea regarding this, but was Turtle Talk with Crush & Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor animated by Pixar, or were they also farmed out to another studio to render/rig up? I know It’s Tough to Be a Bug at DAK & DCA apparently wasn’t, but also I know Pixar did the animation I believe for both Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin/Astro Blasters & Toy Story Midway Mania.. so, yeah, I dunno. Lol
 
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jah4955

jah4955

Well-Known Member
FigmentsBrightIdeas said:
On the topic of changing Muppet*Vision 3D though. Also makes me laugh that right when they announced the changeover from MuppetVision to Monstropolis, they gave Frank a Disney Legend award (possibly to shut him up) and they have the ‘gall’ to replace it with a Monsters, Inc. attraction. As it’s been known that Henson actually wasn’t very happy at the time that Pixar beat them to the punch of making a monsters film, let alone featuring some Henson performers for some of the background cast. And while true, the biggest reason is because Pete Docter is a huge Muppets/Henson fan, I can’t help but think Disney deliberately put both Docter & Oz in an awkward position like this to shut them both up.. it also doesn’t help matters that apparently Pixar isn’t being used for any new animation featuring the characters as of late, it’s instead being farmed out to another studio. Granted, I have no idea regarding this, but was Turtle Talk with Crush & Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor animated by Pixar, or were they also farmed out to another studio to render/rig up? I know It’s Tough to Be a Bug at DAK & DCA apparently wasn’t, but also I know Pixar did the animation I believe for both Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin/Astro Blasters & Toy Story Midway Mania.. so, yeah, I dunno. Lol
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The timing is hard to dismiss.

Like how awkward it felt to have Dreamfinder there when Tony Baxter got his Legends.
 

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