I haven't been since August and only Splash Mountain had what I would term ''issues'' ... beyond that, show quality is still worlds better than the swamps (gotta love that Pirates at MK is now a water ride!) I do recall one ride on RSRs where we didn't have audio as well. But you can't compare DL to MK when it comes to show quality, although Colglazier is just waiting for a job in Burbank and then Mary Niven will wind up leading the resort ... which if you knew her back when she first came to Disney as I did, you'd find shocking beyond belief.
*Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group and Kathleen Kennedy made that call, not Disney.
*Lucasfilm did not shackle "visionary director" JJ Abrams creativly. Michael Ardnt was Lucasfilm's chosen writer before a director was even selected. His version of the film focused primarily on earlier iterations of Rey and Finn with little time spent with the trio; Luke, Leia and Han. This comes from the premise of George's outline, two kids discover the force. When Michael Adrnt left Ep. VII, it was reported that JJ wanted there to be more time spent with the trio. [1] (The final film begins to fall apart once Han and Chewie enter the Falcon, everything before that is really, really good.) On an episode of the "Meet the Movie Press" podcast, Devin Faraci described JJ and Michael's working relationship as one of patience on Michael's part.[2] Michael even asked JJ to go with him to meet the Pixar Braintrust in Emeryville for constructive criticism on the script; which JJ reportedly refused. It has been since reported that Ardnt felt the film, the version focusing on the new characters, needed a years worth of work. [3][4] But Bob and Disney had already locked the film into 2015 and the best they could get was December. JJ was the one who brought Lawrence Kasdan on to make the film feel more like the OT. This is a JJ Abrams film, not the byproduct of a Lucasfilm committee.
In 1977, George Lucas showed a cut of "Star Wars" to his filmmaker friends. The screening did not go well and his friends didn't fully understand what George was going for because he had trouble articulating certain things to the viewer. That meeting lead to Brian DePalma writing the now legendary opening scrawl among other changes that gave us "Star Wars". [5] The biggest problem with the prequels was that George never sought criticism from anyone and those closest to him at Lucasfilm felt intimidated in doing so. When George created "Star Wars", he wasn't George "The Creator", he was a guy who needed a job after "Anerican Graffiti". George had to write five drafts to convince 20th Century Fox to greenlight production on "Star Wars". When you say things don't work on a fundamental level with a near theatrical cut of the film, as George did with "Phantom Mennace" there is a problem. [6]
As Lucasfilm begins to make Star Wars films, main saga and anthology, at an annual clip, they need to find a way to give filmmakers freedom to make what they want, but also be able to make these films the best they can be. The prequels were the uncompromised vision of one Mr. George Lucas, as was Mr. JJ Abrams's episode VII for better or worse.
According to multiple insiders, the reason for the parting of ways was not due to a timeframe issue, as has been reported, but rather due to a difference of opinion of which characters to emphasize.
Arndt is said to have focused on the offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), with the original trilogy's heroes taking on supporting roles. Abrams, however, wanted Episode VII to focus on the classic trio of characters, so audiences could have one more chance to enjoy them before a fitting send-off. The new characters, the offspring, will now be in supporting roles, according to these sources, and take center stage in Episode VIII and IX. Some characters have disappeared from the Arndt script and new ones are being added.
Lucas had written what Kennedy describes as a "brief synopsis" for the sequels, but those ideas were treated as a starting point, at best. Abrams spent eight months or so working on a script with screenwriter Michael Arndt (of Little Miss Sunshine fame), with occasional help from Kasdan and Simon Kinberg (of the X-Men franchise). They came away with essentially nothing. Arndt said he would need 18 more months to finish – way more time than Disney or Abrams wanted to spend. "Movies are just like life," says Kasdan, sounding very much like the dude who wrote Yoda's best lines. "They are infinitely complicated and incredibly simple. I think that what had eluded the group was finding the simple spine of the story."
“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ***,” Arndt said (via EW). “It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.” Apparently the issue was Luke’s presence was always upstaging everyone in the script. “It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt continued. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.’”
[5] Peter Biskind "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls"
Chapter 12- Star Bucks Pgs 334-335
[6]
The Beginning: Making Star Wars Episode I
55:00-56:22
Additionally, George sought help on writing/directing the prequels from some of the people who worked with him on the OT including Kasdan and Kershner and pals like Spielberg, Chris Columbus, and Robert Zemeckis, but they were either busy with their own projects or felt George should do it himself or both.
*Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group and Kathleen Kennedy made that call, not Disney.
*Lucasfilm did not shackle "visionary director" JJ Abrams creativly. Michael Ardnt was Lucasfilm's chosen writer before a director was even selected. His version of the film focused primarily on earlier iterations of Rey and Finn with little time spent with the trio; Luke, Leia and Han. This comes from the premise of George's outline, two kids discover the force. When Michael Adrnt left Ep. VII, it was reported that JJ wanted there to be more time spent with the trio. [1] (The final film begins to fall apart once Han and Chewie enter the Falcon, everything before that is really, really good.) On an episode of the "Meet the Movie Press" podcast, Devin Faraci described JJ and Michael's working relationship as one of patience on Michael's part.[2] Michael even asked JJ to go with him to meet the Pixar Braintrust in Emeryville for constructive criticism on the script; which JJ reportedly refused. It has been since reported that Ardnt felt the film, the version focusing on the new characters, needed a years worth of work. [3][4] But Bob and Disney had already locked the film into 2015 and the best they could get was December. JJ was the one who brought Lawrence Kasdan on to make the film feel more like the OT. This is a JJ Abrams film, not the byproduct of a Lucasfilm committee.
In 1977, George Lucas showed a cut of "Star Wars" to his filmmaker friends. The screening did not go well and his friends didn't fully understand what George was going for because he had trouble articulating certain things to the viewer. That meeting lead to Brian DePalma writing the now legendary opening scrawl among other changes that gave us "Star Wars". [5] The biggest problem with the prequels was that George never sought criticism from anyone and those closest to him at Lucasfilm felt intimidated in doing so. When George created "Star Wars", he wasn't George "The Creator", he was a guy who needed a job after "Anerican Graffiti". George had to write five drafts to convince 20th Century Fox to greenlight production on "Star Wars". When you say things don't work on a fundamental level with a near theatrical cut of the film, as George did with "Phantom Mennace" there is a problem. [6]
As Lucasfilm begins to make Star Wars films, main saga and anthology, at an annual clip, they need to find a way to give filmmakers freedom to make what they want, but also be able to make these films the best they can be. The prequels were the uncompromised vision of one Mr. George Lucas, as was Mr. JJ Abrams's episode VII for better or worse.
According to multiple insiders, the reason for the parting of ways was not due to a timeframe issue, as has been reported, but rather due to a difference of opinion of which characters to emphasize.
Arndt is said to have focused on the offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), with the original trilogy's heroes taking on supporting roles. Abrams, however, wanted Episode VII to focus on the classic trio of characters, so audiences could have one more chance to enjoy them before a fitting send-off. The new characters, the offspring, will now be in supporting roles, according to these sources, and take center stage in Episode VIII and IX. Some characters have disappeared from the Arndt script and new ones are being added.
Lucas had written what Kennedy describes as a "brief synopsis" for the sequels, but those ideas were treated as a starting point, at best. Abrams spent eight months or so working on a script with screenwriter Michael Arndt (of Little Miss Sunshine fame), with occasional help from Kasdan and Simon Kinberg (of the X-Men franchise). They came away with essentially nothing. Arndt said he would need 18 more months to finish – way more time than Disney or Abrams wanted to spend. "Movies are just like life," says Kasdan, sounding very much like the dude who wrote Yoda's best lines. "They are infinitely complicated and incredibly simple. I think that what had eluded the group was finding the simple spine of the story."
“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ***,” Arndt said (via EW). “It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.” Apparently the issue was Luke’s presence was always upstaging everyone in the script. “It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt continued. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.’”
[5] Peter Biskind "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls"
Chapter 12- Star Bucks Pgs 334-335
[6]
The Beginning: Making Star Wars Episode I
55:00-56:22
Indeed, he said there would only ever be 6 films. I still wonder how Iger managed to make him change his position on that other than the obvious monetary benefits.
Please... Stop. Go read what you can find since the deal was announced and don't reply again until you've done your basic homework. You are coming off like a crazed hermit who is still claiming the world is flat. You are so out of sync with the interviews from all the players over the last few years it's impossible to have an intelligent discussion with you at this time. All I can say is... No
Additionally, George sought help on writing/directing the prequels from some of the people who worked with him on the OT including Kasdan and Kershner and pals like Spielberg, Chris Columbus, and Robert Zemeckis, but they were either busy with their own projects or felt George should do it himself or both.
I suspect there's a few theme park analogies you could have:
Force Awakens fans = "Maelstrom sucked, Frozen is way more popular! Thank God Disney has replaced it with what people really want!"
Force Awakens detractors = "Maelstrom wasn't perfect, but at least it fit the theme and was trying to be original, and at least some respect should be paid to the what the pavilion was originally intended to be."
The currency we're talking about here is creative capital. Without it, Disney would be in the poorhouse, and they have unwisely spent nearly all of their trust fund without replenishing it under Bob Iger.
I would rather have a creative person like Lucas than a corporate-minded number-cruncher like Iger any day. Last time I checked it was Lucas's creation. he has the right to do whatever he wants with it.
I suspect there's a few theme park analogies you could have:
Force Awakens fans = "Maelstrom sucked , Frozen is way more popular! Thank God Disney has replaced it with what people really want!"
Force Awakens detractors = "Maelstrom wasn't perfect, but at least it fit the theme and was trying to be original, and at least some respect should be paid to the what the pavilion was originally intended to be."
Well you can put me in the category of being a fan of this movie. Yes it was fan service, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
It wasn't the most amazing story but neither was the original one. Alas, the table has been set for a really good story in Ep8.
At the end of the day? I'm happy to have a Star Wars movie in the theaters. I'm happy to see Harrison Ford being a badass on screen again. I'm happy to see him and Carrie Fisher rekindle the chemistry that even at our grandparents age still exists. Yes, R2 ex machina. (There was a slightly better way to do that but at least it wasn't flying around with jet packs like in the opening of revenge of the Sith)
I get that he was searching for his perfect vision of the films but I'm not sure he would have ever reached a point where he could have achieved that, I get the impression there always would have been one more little thing bugging him that he would have had to go back and "fix".
Precisely. There was also a massive butterfly affect that he apparently was completely blind to. It's been analyzed to death elsewhere, of course, so it's not really productive to get too deeply into it - but with each new change it was like "why change this, which makes no sense, and instead if you are going to change - change the things that would benefit!" Example - in the Blu-ray cuts - the CGI rock that suddenly appears in front of R2 when he's "hiding" and then magically disappears a shot or two later (and no explanation for how he could have gotten around it). It was like, "the slight suspension of disbelief required to think he'd remain unnoticed" versus creating a brand new continuity error over something that no one reasonably would have thought about to begin with.
I've said from the start, if the SE's had just been clean-up jobs with a bit of polish here and there, even if vast parts of the space battles had been redone - no one would have cared. It's the constant nonsensical revisions and intention changes between the SE's, the 2003 versions, the 2011 (Blu-ray) versions. Much can be said for the prequels - there is so much contradiction between the OT and the PT, but in truth, when you make a list of them - you see how easy they would have been to eliminate nearly entirely. Just changing one line here or there - but nope, let's not only contradict, but create new holes while we are at it.
It's interesting - because for years on the Internet people have said that the PT "hate" isn't as big as one might think. I don't like the "hate" word, because it sounds too uneducated - too knee-jerk - as folks can have very well-thought-out and reasoned explanations for their disdain. That said - TFA bringing Star Wars back up into the larger cultural conversation has been fascinating - nearly every review I've read of TFA has made some reference to the PT being disappointing at the least (and many calling them disastrous at best).
What's been most interesting, though, is how the vernacular has sprung up around referring to the now three trilogies. People don't seem to generally know or care as to how much Lucas has or has not been involved. What you hear over and over though is the OT refereed to as "the REAL Star Wars" - you know, not like those - other movies a few years back. This "new movie is back to the REAL Star Wars"...which, I am sure, if you are George Lucas, must really get in your craw, especially since it's not some studied fan thing but simply the nomenclature that has sparked up from the laymen audience.
As an aside, Lucas has plenty of time on his hand and tons of money. Nothing is stopping him from continuing to execute his creative vision if he so chooses in some novel new project. Maybe he'll grace us with another Strange Magic someday....
But when fanbois turn around and attack George for being honest, I still have a problem with it. To me, it rings very much like the anti-Walt sentiment that is quite popular in fan circles today because Disney and The Weatherman most assuredly do not follow the mindset that created the MAGIC. It's like ''Eff George Lucas and Walt, I don't care about them. I care about BB-8 and Thor and Elsa and ... STAR WARS LAND!!! That is going to be soon awesome, doncha know. No one will be hanging at Diagon Alley in 4-5 years (at best) when it opens! UNI will be begging DIS to take the Marvel characters back so they can keep the lights on!!!''
I really can't understand how the same fans can with a straight face one day criticise Iger for not thinking about what Walt would have wanted, and playing it safe, not trying anything creative, then the next day criticise Lucas for wanting something a bit more experimental, less corporate, and not just blindly saying how amazing the movie is 'because it's Disney!'.
I think Force Awakens will drop quite a bit in the rankings once the excitement dies down and people have a chance to watch it a few times on Blu-ray. It's too riddled with holes and ridiculousness (the Spaceballs-esque Death Star size comparison scene being the worst offender) for the fans to keep it on its pedestal for too long.
Then, So be it. instead we have a bunch of imbeciles claiming their childhood has been ruined and harass the creator of the thing they loved so much to begin with so much that he ends up selling his baby to a heartless corporation..
I think Force Awakens will drop quite a bit in the rankings once the excitement dies down and people have a chance to watch it a few times on Blu-ray. It's too riddled with holes and ridiculousness (the Spaceballs-esque Death Star size comparison scene being the worst offender) for the fans to keep it on its pedestal for too long.
Quite the opposite, really. The "holes" people supposedly see (as though the OT were made of plot steel, which it assuredly was not) become much more obviously nuances of the plot and are actually rather genius. It's not until the second or third time around that you see what's really going on.
The complaints I hear folks make are laughable because they either never saw any of the original films (if they complain about too much "coincidence" in TFA - talk yourself through the first half of the original film - it's called the Force putting folks in the right place at the right time, just like it was in setting up the OT), or they didn't pay attention to the film they just watched (I see so many people saying X, Y, or Z was unexplained -
like "What made Finn suddenly have a change of conscience" or that "fissure suddenly showing up out of nowhere between Ren and Kylo!" - oh, you mean part of the earthquake caused by the superweapon that has been going on around them for the past 10 minutes they have almost fallen into numerous times??
).
The remainder of most of the complaints folks list are clearly part of the mystery we are supposed to be guessing about - which is why we are only a third of the way through this trilogy. Other than that? It's really personal preference versus a mistake they can point out (personally, I wish Carrie Fisher had been in every scene, LOL, for example). It's not that it's a perfect film, I don't honestly believe there is any such thing - but one that pretty much completely fulfilled it's purpose and expectations for the vast majority of folks. There may be some big terrible things in there - but I have yet to see anyone be able to point any of significance out that don't fall into one of the "really?" categorizes above.
I really can't understand how the same fans can with a straight face one day criticise Iger for not thinking about what Walt would have wanted, and playing it safe, not trying anything creative, then the next day criticise Lucas for wanting something a bit more experimental, less corporate, and not just blindly saying how amazing the movie is 'because it's Disney!'.
I think Force Awakens will drop quite a bit in the rankings once the excitement dies down and people have a chance to watch it a few times on Blu-ray. It's too riddled with holes and ridiculousness (the Spaceballs-esque Death Star size comparison scene being the worst offender) for the fans to keep it on its pedestal for too long.
I keep wondering when the fans are going to realize that Leia did nothing in this film. Not much different than the (allegedly) coked-out Leia from Jedi. Continuity, I guess?
I suspect there's a few theme park analogies you could have:
Force Awakens fans = "Maelstrom sucked , Frozen is way more popular! Thank God Disney has replaced it with what people really want!"
Force Awakens detractors = "Maelstrom wasn't perfect, but at least it fit the theme and was trying to be original, and at least some respect should be paid to the what the pavilion was originally intended to be."
