A Spirited Perfect Ten

[hopemax]

Yet, since the early 1970's, I've loved the parks. The rides, the lands, their design, their history...all of that.
Back then, characters and 'toons were not a major part of the experience. Sure, you might stumble on a character (Just recently found an old one of a 5yr old me and a Robin Hood, who even back then I knew was just a guy in a suit.) but it was a surprise, not a expectation. You might ride an attraction with a 'toon tie-in, but it was the exception, not the norm.

Much of my frustration with the current direction of the parks likely has to do with my rejection of the idea that everything has to promote the brand or sell a plush or rehash the plot of a movie I have no fondness for.

Keep your Frozen nonsense. I'll be over here riding Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion.

Thus all the conversation about what is "Disney." And while the younger crowd goes nuts over All Star Movies, and the older would rather stroll along the banks of the Sassagoula River. That was part of my point of an earlier post, that old Disney looked outward, found something interesting, and put their own little twist on it. This Disney, is so IP driven, and looking outward is almost even "bad." Eventually, you can't look outside, even if you wanted to, because there will be a whine, "but that's not Disney." So I do wonder when things like HM, Pirates or WDW's Small World transition from "classic Disney" to "weirdly out of place, not Disney at all." (already seen it in trip reports on the DIS). They'll throw in characters when the can, remove what is to expensive to operate, and then you've taken a multi-tool and turned it into a screwdriver.

 

[hopemax]

Here are the main reasons I don't enjoy the Disney Parks anymore.

1. Stagnation
2. Shilling the "Brand".
3. Toddler Kingdom

They haven't add a lot over the last 15 years and most of what they have added either is shilling the brand or designed for toddlers, or both.

For the last two, they've taken the world's perception of Disney (IP driven and for little kids), and turned Disney into that, instead of trying to maintain what Disney was, which was a heck of a lot more. But if management thinks that that is all there is to Disney, what do we expect.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

This is what happens when Corporate Lackeys with no experience creating or running theme parks, and quite frankly wouldn't be caught dead in one unless being paid to be there, are put in charge of creating theme parks.

Literally all they can dream up is how best to leverage the hottest new IP in the parks as cheaply as possible.

 

[Quinnmac000]

The Zootopia Teaser isn't a teaser....this is a teaser.... a teaser is to get people to get hyped about a film. Frozen's olaf was great because it did create hype even if the film was nothing like that.

 

[Mike S]

Just gotta say how much I'm loving this latest topic. To anyone who looks at my profile it's no secret that I'm a child of the 90's. Even though I grew up during a time where Disney was consistently releasing great movies what I loved the most was Walt Disney World and it wasn't because of characters. Even though I have an idea of how everything works now, relatively simple effects in rides like The Haunted Mansion had me absolutely floored as a child (Endless Hallway, Madame Leota, the Ballroom Ghosts, etc). Spaceship Earth was a favorite of mine as well.

 

[Magenta Panther]

The Zootopia Teaser isn't a teaser....this is a teaser.... a teaser is to get people to get hyped about a film. Frozen's olaf was great because it did create hype even if the film was nothing like that.

Frankly, that doesn't look all that interesting to me. It looks like Pet Home Alone, and it's hardly an original idea.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Just gotta say how much I'm loving this latest topic. To anyone who looks at my profile it's no secret that I'm a child of the 90's. Even though I grew up during a time where Disney was consistently releasing great movies what I loved the most was Walt Disney World and it wasn't because of characters. Even though I have an idea of how everything works now, relatively simple effects in rides like The Haunted Mansion had me absolutely floored as a child (Endless Hallway, Madame Leota, the Ballroom Ghosts, etc). Spaceship Earth was a favorite of mine as well.

Yeah, I remember how happy I was when I left the theater after seeing "The Lion King". Kids were dancing around singing "Hakuna Matata" and a lady next to me was gushing about how CUTE Pumbaa was, and a magazine at the bookstore next to the theater had a picture of Simba on it giving a thumbs up. Oh, and during the movie, all of them manly, manly crying when Mufasa's ghost showed up. Ah, golden memories...

 

[Tigger1988]

The Zootopia Teaser isn't a teaser....this is a teaser.... a teaser is to get people to get hyped about a film. Frozen's olaf was great because it did create hype even if the film was nothing like that.

Again, simply because YOU (general "you") DIDN'T LIKE it doesn't make it not a teaser.

That's like saying a certain TV show isn't a comedy because it didn't make you laugh.

 

[Chicagoshannon2]

So, the previews for Zootopia and Good Dinosaur should be attached to all showing of Inside Out. And again, Disney just fails miserably at marketing their own films!

Now Good Dinosaur does look good, but the trailer really doesnt give you much more than the asteroid that killed the dinos never happened. I understand that there has been massive changes to Dino that delayed its 2014 opening, including getting rid of basically the entire voice cast except one actor and replaced them with new people because of how vast the story had changed, but at least they give you more than Zootopia;s trailer!

Zootopia's trailer is even worse that the trailer for Frozen! I dont know how that is possible, but it is! Its bascially Jason Bateman telling us that animals walk on 2 feet and wear clothes, and im not kidding, thats it! No mention of any kind of story whatsoever, who the characters are, etc. It has to be one of the most boring, uninteresting trailers i have ever seen for a kids movie. The trailer doesnt even appeal to kids at all! I just dont understand their film marketing for their prized animated features! its mind boggling!!!

If i made a movie, and all they did for a trailer is put a talking fox in front of a white background telling people nonsense for a minute and a half, i would demand some answers on what the heck is going on with the marketing of my film!

Totally agree with this. I just took the kids to see Inside Out so saw those previews. I have no idea what either of those movies is supposed to be about. I want to want to see those movies but the previews were not good.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Well my sides just entered orbit: A blog created by an ex-"John Hammond Imagisaur" for a "Sea World/World of Color-esque" 10th anniversary spectacular pitch that ended up getting him fired from Jurassic World.
http://www.wowenough.com/new-blog/

The theme song demo is great.

 

[hopemax]

This is what happens when Corporate Lackeys with no experience creating or running theme parks, and quite frankly wouldn't be caught dead in one unless being paid to be there, are put in charge of creating theme parks.

Literally all they can dream up is how best to leverage the hottest new IP in the parks as cheaply as possible.

I kind of imagine a discussion like this:

"Jurassic World showed that there is still lots of interest in dinosaurs by people of all ages. We should do something new in Dinoland."

"It's too early to know if the Good Dinosaur will be a viable franchise, and we already did something loosely with Dinosaur, and nobody cares about that movie anyway. No, dinosaur investment is not a sound idea."

No thought even given to non-IP concepts, even though I'm sure Rohde and Co could come up with something. AK might be the only place where a sliver of hope exists that something non-IP could break through, but for how long.

 

[Quinnmac000]

Again, simply because YOU (general "you") DIDN'T LIKE it doesn't make it not a teaser.

That's like saying a certain TV show isn't a comedy because it didn't make you laugh.

However you have to market to your audience which is probably Disney's biggest problem this year. They have been going for broad groups instead of marketing to certain subsets of persons with targeted marketing. I see the Zootopia teaser and its trying way too hard to be smart "adult" kid movie in the marketing.

Don't get me wrong I find the secret life of Pets teaser not that great as well. But it follows 3 principles. 1. Humor, 2. Simplicity to it caters to the lowest denominator, and 3. relate-ability....which is what put Pixar on the map with Toy Story.

Inside out teaser...followed that same principle. Humor, simplicity, relate-ability

What i'm getting from Zootopia is a possible Tommorrowland sort of promotional mess.

 

[culturenthrills]

I gotcha. Well, for those who are not familiar with the term here is an article that makes reference to get a better idea of the context.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...or-genisys-super-bowl-commercial-drops-early/

NO. THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO START TALKING ABOUT TERMINATOR!

Watch out or Mom'll be back.

 

[Bairstow]

Frankly, that doesn't look all that interesting to me. It looks like Pet Home Alone, and it's hardly an original idea.

Fat pet Home Alone.

Well my sides just entered orbit: A blog created by an ex-"John Hammond Imagisaur" for a "Sea World/World of Color-esque" 10th anniversary spectacular pitch that ended up getting him fired from Jurassic World.
http://www.wowenough.com/new-blog/

The theme song demo is great.

Needs music:

 

[FigmentJedi]

I kind of imagine a discussion like this:

"Jurassic World showed that there is still lots of interest in dinosaurs by people of all ages. We should do something new in Dinoland."

"It's too early to know if the Good Dinosaur will be a viable franchise, and we already did something loosely with Dinosaur, and nobody cares about that movie anyway. No, dinosaur investment is not a sound idea."

No thought even given to non-IP concepts, even though I'm sure Rohde and Co could come up with something. AK might be the only place where a sliver of hope exists that something non-IP could break through, but for how long.

As insane as it sounds that a Disney executive would think that just plain dinosaurs cannot stand on their own, I believe it.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Needs music:

The guy wrote a song for the show too.

 

[Cesar R M]

Is the Zootopia trailer actually a trailer? I thought it was classified more as a "teaser" than a proper trailer.

Agree, its a teaser not a trailer.
Teasers are very short and are just a super quick introduction to the movie.

 

[Cesar R M]

The guy wrote a song for the show too.

wow.. is that.. Jurassic park meets Circle Du Soleil?

 

[Cesar R M]

You don't make movies.

This decade Disney Animation had- Tangled with $591M, Wreck-it-Ralph with $471M, Frozen did $1.274B (This is the one you also said had a crappy teaser), and Big Hero 6 did $652M

So I am going to have to nod in the direction of Disney's marketing department vs your opinion. Track record and all- don't take it personally.

to be completely honest.. the CONTENT of the movie is what counts imho.

 

[cdd89]

I'm not sure I agree that all attractions inspired by movies are crap. Sure, many derivative attractions may be insipid, unoriginal and inherently shallow, but just look at Pirates, which was based off that hugely successful franchise; Tomorrowland which was based off the Tomorrowland movie; and even Space Mountain which was based on a building depicted in that movie and seems to be a firm favourite1. Even Tower of Terror and the Haunted Mansion were inspired by Disney's lesser known eponymous movies.

I'm not sure how everyone else in this thread has made these glaring omissions.