A Very Merry Christmas to all of the people who haunt these discussion boards. I haven't been able to post here over the latter half of 2015, but that doesn't mean I am not always around in Spirit. To my real world friends here, and to everyone reading along, a happy and healthy and chaos-free 2016.
With that in mind, just like the goodies you woke up to in that ratty old Santa's stocking, let's have a few Spirited musings to help aid the digestive system on that big roast that Aunt Carol overcooked, shall we?
Let's get Star Wars out of the way since every fanboi and his uncle Bob want to make it the second coming. Saw it. Liked it. Thought it was fine popcorn entertainment that got the series back on track after the horrific last trilogy. No, it wasn't great. Not by a long shot. And if you're going to see it 5-6 times, well ... I think you have too much time on your hands and lack of respect for $$$. I've never seen a film that was worth more than two showings in a theater during an original release window. But whatever ...
Oh, and not nearly enough Carrie Fisher or backstory about just how she and Han had a brat together who has a fixation with masks and, apparently, is a young Snape on the loose from Hogwarts!
And was it just me or was BB-8 referred to by name an inordinate number of times to make sure all those mommies and daddies, especially those who have arrested development 30-ish fanboi sons who like to play with toys, would know exactly what toys to buy?
Yes, Disney really didn't care about Arlo and Spot ... I mean The Good Dinosaur at all. The only two things that Robert A. Iger, Your Friendly Neighborhood Weatherman, cares about is Star Wars and another galaxy far, far away.
Anyone think Rich Greenfield of BTIG got a Christmas gift from DIS? How about a severed horse's head in his bed from Zenia. Doesn't he know the importance of staying on script? The Burbank-approved script?
The security theater at the theme parks really is too much. Does anyone stop and think that any potential evildoer realized long ago where the vulnerable spots were and are? Think CM jobs, access points, the resorts ... just about anywhere ...'cause that's why it is called terrorism. (And to hear rubes talking about how it makes them feel safer. Do these people even have the capacity to think critically?)
Ah, let's move on to more important things. Like Shanghai Disneyland. You recall that one, right? Bob Iger's vanity project.
I could write a few thousand words here about everything that has transpired since we last spoke, but I am sure that the bloggers will all be writing about this, right? And Tweeting?
Countless delays. Parts that would arrive in 36-72 hours in the USA, take a month and then aren't up to specs. Internal dates ... deadlines pass by and nothing happens. Imagineers getting sick on site and demanding to go home. Last opening I heard ... well, why does it matter? It will change.
Last week, SDL GM Phil Gas held a large meeting for all US-based salaried cast where he pontificated for quite a while on how amazing and MAGICal the project was and how work was moving along splendidly. Now, he said this to the people on the ground who have been living the nightmare for years. Audible groans and laughs were heard. But everyone gathered there figured this had to be it. This had to be the big deal, the real deal, the DATE was coming.
And ...
He thanked everyone for their efforts and handed out tickets to see The Force Awakens. REALLY! No, you can't make this stuff up.
Which leads us to Bob Iger's uncomfortable televised interview with Bloomberg that was quietly released on Monday. An interview in which he puked forth how happy the company has been with Star Wars (gee, with a 'shove it down their throats the world over for the past year' model, who ever saw that coming?) An interview in which he was clearly caught off-guard (maybe Zenia was hanging with gal pals Ursula, Maleficent and Cruella for a Lonely Evil Gals Holiday Party in Van Nuys) by questions on SDL.
Bob admitted that once again he wasn't able to live up to prior word and announce an opening date before the end of the year. He was also not forthcoming on having one soon. Simply saying they'd announce something in early 2016 ... because ... you know ... you can simply say on Feb. 3rd that SDL will debut on June 11th. There's no need to have a buildup and media splash. No need to allow people (or simply myself and
@Lee and
@WDWFigment and a few others here) to plan ahead. Besides, this park isn't really for people more than a few hundred miles from Shanghai and its amazing (and visible approximately 31 days a year) skyline.
But then ... well, Bob came apart. He basically said the Chinese weren't capable of building complex things like theme parks (I am sure he simply forgot the venues of the Beijing Olympiad, the thousands of miles of new high-speed rail or even all of those skyscrapers hiding in Shanghai's fog). He came off defensive. His quotes and demeanor came off offensive to his Chinese 'partners' so what did he do?
Nothing. Z and her team put the press on Bloomberg and ... voila ... suddenly the video was gone from the 'net (sound familiar at all?) and when it returned it did so with ALL of the China questions and responses scrubbed clean. Like they never happened. Unfortunately, Willow doesn't work for Bloomberg and the print story is (as of now anyway ... and I am not in the States, so things could be different there) still there with all those quotes that Bob wishes he never said.
The rest of the financial media that covers DIS basically ignored that anything had come out at all because that is how a free press operates in a democracy doncha know?
I know this doesn't bother most of you and that's kewl. I'm not overly interested in Star Wars myself, but it's a discussion board. When the head of the world's largest media and entertainment corporation, one with a network news division under its umbrella, actively tries to suppress (and succeeds in censoring viewpoints and) words, even his own, that run contrary to his business interests, I think it's a hell of a lot more important than how much money Mark Hamill was paid for his day (or was it two or three due to weather?) of work on SW TFA.
Disney and Bob are failing miserably in China. Failing in a way that SW can't hide or cover for. Failing in a way that all of the low-lifes playing the social media whoring game can't cover up for (notice how many now actively link to DIS owned sites that sell merchandise?) And the thing is, it's likely to only get worse. ...How many times do you rebuild the same faulty structure using materials that come from the family of an official indicted and jailed on graft charges before you ask yourself, ''What is our exposure when this hits?'' ... You can't bury things like this and think that your takeover of social media means no one will find out. They always do, it's just a question of when and how.
I do love all of those added attractions that the $800 million 2014 cash infusion has provided for though.
So, UNI bought all of that land that probably a dozen people here said they were after going back two years. Doesn't guarantee a third park just yet, but I would be very surprised if a decade from now UNI didn't have three parks (not including the Volcano Bay project) either open or close to it.
Finally, nothing has made me sadder or madder in my fan life as seeing what is about to happen at DL. Star Wars has no place being shoved into Walt's park. Into a tiny little area with no room for real expansion. This is cheap and lazy and will alter the park in a way nothing else has for 60 years. Trees that date to Nature's Wonderland days are slated for slaughter for shops that will sell lightsabers (or maybe not anymore, we just don't know!)
If Bob is so sure about Star Wars, then he should have greenlighted quality temp attractions (Launch Bay isn't it; folks at WDI are embarrassed by it) that could keep the fires burning for 3-5 years while building a third gate with a major SW component if not an entire park. Destroying one of DL's last major areas that Walt oversaw for SW attractions ...well, I don't have anything good to say.
Oh, and someone tell my pal Phil that Toontown at DL simply got a stay of execution as it won't be here all that many more years. It just simply won't be leaving for SW product, but for things that are more fitting of the area that surrounds it.
Again, to all, Happy Holidays!
