GrammieBee
Well-Known Member
We will look forward to any future posts. Your information is most interesting.
Hoping you and your faamily will have a better New Year.
Hoping you and your faamily will have a better New Year.
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A Spirited Perfect Ten
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Well to bring the rest of us back down to reality, Big Hero 6 has made $211 million in the US so far. As I said in the last thread, that's higher than Tangled's adjusted total and second only to Frozen among Disney animated features released since the year 2000. It's also close to topping Box Office Mojo's pre-holiday forecast of $215 million total gross. If it makes $225 million, it will pass Wall-E to become the highest grossing animated sci-fi release ever (unadjusted, but still notable for a sub-genre with a less than steller track record). Considering it's a non-sequel to an obscure property, it has done very well.
Worldwide it has made $378 million, has "yet to open in 6 major markets", and is still making money in places where it has been released, Japan in particular. Going past $500 million is a given at this point.
In short, it's doing fine. I hope one day it will be considered justifiable to produce as sequel, as this is a very rare Disney animated release that actually demands one be made. Even a Marvel-weary Spirit would have to agree it's an entertaining film.
DistractedGenius
Active Member
Well to bring the rest of us back down to reality, Big Hero 6 has made $211 million in the US so far. As I said in the last thread, that's higher than Tangled's adjusted total and second only to Frozen among Disney animated features released since the year 2000. It's also close to topping Box Office Mojo's pre-holiday forecast of $215 million total gross. If it makes $225 million, it will pass Wall-E to become the highest grossing animated sci-fi release ever (unadjusted, but still notable for a sub-genre with a less than steller track record). Considering it's a non-sequel to an obscure property, it has done very well.
Worldwide it has made $378 million, has "yet to open in 6 major markets", and is still making money in places where it has been released, Japan in particular. Going past $500 million is a given at this point.
In short, it's doing fine. I hope one day it will be considered justifiable to produce as sequel, as this is a very rare Disney animated release that actually demands one be made. Even a Marvel-weary Spirit would have to agree it's an entertaining film.
I have to admit, for a studio that just put out one of the most successful releases of the decade, releasing a non-musical, sci-fi, obscure property film was a pretty risky movie. I feel that a lot of the disappointment with Big Hero 6 definitely has to do with the fact that it isn't pulling in Frozen numbers (that might change when it hits Japan, if it hasn't already. I know that particular opening is supposed to boost the numbers). And why should it? It's the polar (sorry) opposite to Frozen in every way. However, in terms of marketing, you can tell this one is getting the short end of the stick because people are still snapping up Frozen anything (trust me, as someone who had to try to find an Olaf plushie for my little sister, the hype/merchandise blitz is still there). That kind of shoots the success they were looking for in the foot. That's just my two cents. Sorry if this doesn't make any sense. It's late here but I wrecked my sleep schedule beyond all repair over winter break.
Longhairbear
Well-Known Member
We'll be there second week in Feb for a few nights, after that no plans made for the rest of the year, but not going to WDW, only DLR on points.Thanks. And right back at you!
And I will definitely be out there in 2015. The questions at this point are how many times and when ... before all hell broke loose, I was pondering a January/Feb. type visit when stuff is closed and crowds are down. But that's not gonna happen.
Captain Neo
Well-Known Member
The success of frozen and disappointment of big hero 6 should motivate Iger to reinvest in traditionally hand drawn fairy tales. Princess & the frog flopped because it was poorly done, bring in fresh talent and they can have movies that perform even better than frozen at the box office.
mikenatcity1
Well-Known Member
I'll say for merchandise on the Fantasy, it was far less than when I was on the Dream- The Fantasy seemed more generic while I got a few things that were Dream specific.
tigger1968
Well-Known Member
I kind of hate admitting just how excited I get seeing a new thread started by @WDW1974 but hey, I do. Always insightful and informative. Welcome back, Sir, and I'm sorry to hear your holiday season was less than magical. I hope the new year brings better things for you and yours.
I agree about the merchandise on DCL now. My last cruise was a 2013 Halloween cruise on the Dream and I was disappointed to find so little that was themed to the ship. Hopefully that changes down the line.
Always insightful and informative. Welcome back, Sir, and I'm sorry to hear your holiday season was less than magical. I hope the new year brings better things for you and yours.I agree about the merchandise on DCL now. My last cruise was a 2013 Halloween cruise on the Dream and I was disappointed to find so little that was themed to the ship. Hopefully that changes down the line.
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
well he went to Vero Beach and on a Disney Cruise...so..... I don't how well he tans and all but you might not be far off lol
Since my time will be limited, it would help if folks didn't inundate me with questions like ''what's going to be in Star Wars Land and when can we expect it?''
Perhaps we can 1. Honor Spirit's request for "no questions, please." 2. Keep things on topic (right
) so he has an easier time responding when he can find the time to drop in.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Sadly I don't see this happening, not after everything that has occurred in the past 15-20 years with CGI's lingering staying power and the decline of hand drawn across the entire industry. I love hand drawn animation and still have a distaste for most implementations of CGI, but the traditional methods feel like they're dead. Even Studio Ghibli's future is clouded (and the founders have publicly said that its demise is inevitable apparently).
I personally enjoyed Princess and the Frog a hell of a lot more than Tangled, and also find it infinitely better than Bolt or Chicken Little. It was actually Winnie the Pooh however that was the final traditionally animated Disney movie. Its poor performance cannot be attributed to any lack of quality, it's a great little film that got glowing praise but apparently awful box office sales. Many if not most Disney fans have forgotten the movie. The primary reason it flopped so hard is because some fool at Disney thought it was a good idea to release it the same day as the final Harry Potter movie. It never had a chance in hell of doing remotely well. The past three Pixar movies have been quite under par compared to their usual quality, yet they're still quite financially successful (particularly Cars 2 which has a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes). You can't always attribute box office sales to quality, there's quite commonly no correlation whatsoever. Disney recently shut down their hand drawn studios and got rid of the workstations and staff responsible for them. They clearly feel the proper course of action is computer animation. And I somewhat doubt one financial dud is going to change this over night. Frozen 2 will (unfortunately) solidify their decision to keep hand drawn out.
Even though a small part of hand drawn's failures can be blamed on poor quality (or more importantly poorly thought out marketing and release dates), I can't ignore that the general public shoulders a lot of the blame for scorning hand drawn as well. A lot of audiences from the past 20 years have grown up with CGI and expect that, not because it's objectively superior but just because it's what they've been conditioned to think is normal. For live action movies there's more of a dedicated and outspoken audience that protests the over saturation of CGI and favors practical effects (which is great because the idea has started catching on in the mainstream now with the new Star Wars reportedly using a lot of real visuals effects). There doesn't seem to be as large of a group trying to promote hand drawn animation however, a few perhaps but very small by comparison.
The only media where traditional hand drawn art still shows any life is in lesser known video games. Specifically artistic indie games (though Ubisoft's recent Rayman games as well as Child of Light have used a hand drawn style). But the demand for these is not very high compared to other genres. The money is in either very simplistic and poor mobile games or gritty and violent games such as shooters (where hand drawn visuals have no place and would actually compromise sales more than anything).
At this point the closest we are to getting a traditionally hand drawn movie at this point would be something along the lines of Paperman or Feast. And they're just creative animation tests probably not close to being able to be utilized in a feature length film (and may well never be). They're a hybrid of animation with both CGI and hand drawn, kind of similar to the tech first used in Tarzan. Tarzan is the one movie I feel really utilized computer animation incredibly well, it managed to bring the motion benefits of CG but still retained the elegant and artistic strokes of hand drawn).
EDIT- Sorry for the long post, it got away from me.
Mike S
Well-Known Member
Rayman Legends was a pretty good game. I especially liked the hand drawn art style in it.
bhg469
Well-Known Member
A very big thank you for the update @WDW1974 ... As for agent carter, I feel like this one may be a big fail. I just can't imagine this taking off. I must admit SHIELD was a snoozefest for a while and it just suddenly got good and Ienjoy it a lot now. This though... even the commercials for it make me want to snooze, that can't be a good start.
Atomicmickey
Well-Known Member
Thanks for stopping by @WDW1974. Here's hoping that things settle down enough for you to continue to stop by more than you think you will. Maybe you can be a little birdy on @Lee 's shoulder from time to time, because the info you have should be shared . . .
I'll echo your sentiments on the Dream, with a heavy sigh of regret that we didn't do Remy while on board. I guess that's a reason to return . .
And Big Hero 6 was a delight and a surprise, but for some reason, I even had to cajole my family over Thanksgiving to see it. That's something of the issue right there, intangible marketing issues that for whatever reason didn't attract in the way they needed to. To a person--everyone was very positive about the film, and came out saying it was much better than they thought it would have been. Baymax is a great, breakout Disney character.
I am at heart, a parks nut, so will miss your hints n' bits about upcoming things. I am excited to have three days at Disneyland upcoming, unfortunately on the cusp of Spring Break, so I cringe at the crowds. First time I will have my family with me at Disneyland, and I'm anxious to show them a different kind of magic out there. Here's hoping we don't get suffocated--I always plan our Disney trips around low crowd levels, this one will be the necessary exception.
I don't see any reason to go to WDW until at least Avatar and Rivers of Light are complete, and I'm really hoping for something significant with Star Wars.
That said, I think at this point, what I'd really love to hear about are better conditions and service standards for CM's at WDW. That's how you'd get Disney Dream like service. One would hope.
Though, I have a faux-five percenter Hawaii cruise approaching on the NCL Pride of America, and have been told that because of American staff, to not expect anything remotely resembling good service on the ship. Our entitled society may prevent that from happening at WDW ever again.
Anyway. Probably too much to ramble on about with your limited time, but thanks anyway . . .
I'll echo your sentiments on the Dream, with a heavy sigh of regret that we didn't do Remy while on board. I guess that's a reason to return . .
And Big Hero 6 was a delight and a surprise, but for some reason, I even had to cajole my family over Thanksgiving to see it. That's something of the issue right there, intangible marketing issues that for whatever reason didn't attract in the way they needed to. To a person--everyone was very positive about the film, and came out saying it was much better than they thought it would have been. Baymax is a great, breakout Disney character.
I am at heart, a parks nut, so will miss your hints n' bits about upcoming things. I am excited to have three days at Disneyland upcoming, unfortunately on the cusp of Spring Break, so I cringe at the crowds. First time I will have my family with me at Disneyland, and I'm anxious to show them a different kind of magic out there. Here's hoping we don't get suffocated--I always plan our Disney trips around low crowd levels, this one will be the necessary exception.
I don't see any reason to go to WDW until at least Avatar and Rivers of Light are complete, and I'm really hoping for something significant with Star Wars.
That said, I think at this point, what I'd really love to hear about are better conditions and service standards for CM's at WDW. That's how you'd get Disney Dream like service. One would hope.
Though, I have a faux-five percenter Hawaii cruise approaching on the NCL Pride of America, and have been told that because of American staff, to not expect anything remotely resembling good service on the ship. Our entitled society may prevent that from happening at WDW ever again.
Anyway. Probably too much to ramble on about with your limited time, but thanks anyway . . .
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
Nice to hear you liked the Fantasy. We love it. The service, activities and food quality greatly improved during their second year of sailing. I never felt like the ship was too big.The highlight of the trip, beyond the company with me, was the Disney Fantasy. Since I'm not a Lifestyler and it's hard to justify paying 4-5 times more to cruise with DCL, I hadn't been on one of the 'new' ships yet. And since the Dream only sails (for now -- yes, I know things!
The ship and the cruise in totality were flat out amazing. And, again, I wonder how anyone can experience DCL service and then visit WDW and not notice that the level of quality is truly in a different UNIverse. I am as tough a critic, although fair, as you'll find. And it is very tough to find anything worthy of complaint with the Fantasy. And with the FL Resident discount that came out late in the game, I didn't feel the price we paid was too much.
As much as I love the Magic and Wonder, this ship takes what those ships did and builds on it to FANTAStical results.
From the Aqua Duck (truly a fun ride and worth the typical 15 minute waits we had for it) to the dining rooms to the shows, it was truly a first class experience.
Remy alone is worth taking a cruise. I like food (no surprise to anyone who knows me or any fanboi who says that I am like a big teddy bear -- I have no idea what they mean!) and have had amazing meals all over the planet. Remy is easily a top 10 experience for me. We also lucked out in that in addition to chef Scott Hunnel (yep, same guy who runs V&A's at the Flo), Disney had on board a top French chef (don't have his notes handy, but we talked to him and his English is about as good as our French) who was debuting his own menu at the restaurant. He is one of only 105 Michelin 3-starred chefs on the planet (like Gordon Ramsey). Angie and I picked items from each of the chefs menus and ... well, why is it that the best food comes in places where it just ain't appropriate to lick the plates?
Food and Beverage are noticeably better than on the older ships, especially the Wonder. The salads were fresher, the entrees tastier and the desserts (still a DCL weakness) better.
The cabin, a veranda, looked like new in every area despite it being two years old, despite the typical ... well, guests. There was absolutely no sign of wear and tear or damage (at least when we boarded -- that closet design wasn't the smartest!)
The CMs were across the board (except for Captain Tom, who frankly seemed bored and disinterested in a signing event) friendly and wonderful. Like I said, to go from DCL to WDW is not something I'd advise to novices (to be fair, though, most WDW CMs and UNI TMs that we interacted with were at least good if not better with one Disney transport exception).
When booking, well, we sorta naively hoped that the ship would have fewer families since it left the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That wasn't the case, but just like all prior cruises, kids were not a problem at all.
If I had to complain about one thing (and you know I do), then I'd say that the adult pool area wasn't well thought out in location/logistics. It is sorta hidden on Deck 12 with very few chairs, especially for folks wanting to get sun. The jacuzzis have been relocated under cover on the side of the ship and noise tends to bounce off the deck above making conversations tough. And if you want to sun bathe before swimming, you really need to go up to Deck 13, which is sorta ridiculous.
You can clearly see the ship was designed in the 'We own Pixar' and 'We own the Muppets' period in Burbank as those characters are much more present in everything from artwork to the interactive game (yes, I played ... yes, I enjoyed it!) to theming.
Entertainment gains from having an atrium big enough to put on shows and DCL did for the holiday cruises, everything from a tree lighting show, to a Santa's arrival show to a Dickens carolers performance ... oh, and a gingerbread house that's pretty much the size of the one in the BW (that likely is still up as I type this!)