A Spirited Perfect Ten

[BernardandBianca]

Interesting, because when we at at Beaches & Cream last week I stopped in the bathroom between Cape May and Ariel's. when I came out I commented that they still had the cloth towels and was kind of surprised they hadn't cut the yet.

The restroom I noticed the omission was in the hotel itself, nearby the gift shop and across the lobby from the Captain's Grill (where we had lunch).

 

[doctornick]

We had goofy in a Vader suit under MDE.

Right. And Disney didn't actually own Lucasfilm at that point.

 

[Phil12]

Putting these two together, because they fit the item I wanted to bring up, which actually relates to WDW and not to movie universes. Did anyone else notice that the Yacht Club resort has removed the cloth hand towels from the bathrooms, and replaced them with paper towels? Noticed this yesterday, and was moved enough to complain to management. The response: blank, the person in question didn't know that this had been done. Her comment (which I found to be priceless) was: Yacht Club is a deluxe resort, and we should have the cloth towels. Of course, other than the Contemporary and possible the Beach Club, all of the other deluxes use paper towels (of did last time I was there.)

I complained about the cloth towels last time I was there. Glad to hear that they switched over to paper towels.

 

[FigmentFreak]

repeat after me...

WDW GETS BATHROOMS..

THEMED BATHROOMS

WDW Guest - Are these the bathrooms or a cool themed ride?
Obi-Wan Kenobi - These are not the themed toilets you are looking for.....

 

[BrerJon]

I wonder if this is how it went down when Bob Iger met George Lucas?

http://oneleggedkiwi.com/cartoons/2013/12/saving-mr-binks/

 

[WDW1974]

Can you give historical examples?

Because outside of Touchstone, Miramax, etc. - successful live action Disney films have been few and far between since the 1960's, anomaly, at best.

I mean, I guess they could make more sequels to The Princess Diaries?

Well, we could start with the most recent one that is still making money: Cinderella.

We could look at the franchise whose fifth installment is filming as I type this in Pirates of the Caribbean.

We could look at winter's release: Into the Woods.

We could look at last summer's Maleficent.

We could look at the live action Alice in Wonderland film that has a sequel, naturally, coming up.

How many would you like?

 

[WDW1974]

I really generally enjoy your posts, and even though I can disagree with you on certain things, I think you are a good guy - and you certainly have shared some great info in the past - but lately it seems it's all about Iger-bashing (I tried, but I can't even follow the posts about his wife you make - I just don't get the fuss or what it has to do with WDW), and complaining about BRAND. It's difficult to not think they are intertwined, but again - I'll give you the benefit of the doubt if you say so.

If you have questions about Iger and what he had his wife pull, feel free to drop me a PM. I've explained the situation here quite well, but it's very possible those posts were lost in a storm of ...anything goes posts.

And if you think I complain about the term 'BRAND' a lot, then I'd invite you to listen to Roy E. Disney's impassioned speech during the 2004 'Save Disney' movement and then down a shot every time Iger uses the term ... yes, you'll die of alcohol poisoning, which I really don't want to happen, but I will be proven right!

 

[WDW1974]

In 1998 (i think) I remember sitting in on a meeting at Maingate regarding the Studios and a Halloween event that was to compete with Universal's HHN. Now it was not going to be on the same level of horror or gore but was to feature NIghtmare Before Christmas characters (if Burton decided to allow that) and something (not sure what) based on the Scream movies. There were not many details and it was not well organized and flamed out pretty quick. Did you ever hear anything like that? This was on the heels of the MYST Island idea that also flamed out shortly before.

You have a good memory. It was actually the first of three official (and one unofficial) attempts by people, good people, at Disney to come up with a more adult oriented Halloween event for Disney-MGM. They all were destroyed by TDO and folks like Al Weiss, Erin Wallace, Phil Holmes (to name three) who didn't want to take bodies away from the cash-cow kiddie event at MK and were afraid of Disney doing anything remotely edgy.

Good thing 99.9% of WDW visitors never will visit HKDKL during Halloween because I think most would drop dead at what Disney does over there. It's an amazing event that changes annually that most definitely isn't aimed at special needs 8-year-olds and their soccer moms. Oh, and it's included with regular admission.

 

[WDW1974]

If you stop mentioning it several times a day, then yes, we can move on.

I'm quite certain that I haven't even mentioned it in passing in at least a month or two or more ... it fit the discussion here, so I brought it up.

No conspiracy against it by yours truly, I'm actually happy that Disney finally produced a gaming product that the majority of gamers seem to enjoy. Even if I'm not one.

 

[WDW1974]

The point was about more adult oriented films. And I'm willing to bet there was something Miramax on that tour at some point during their brief tenure together.

You have been talking about content being presented as Disney, and specifically referenced the studios - was just giving an example.



No negativity about Bette Midler, whatsoever. I think she's wonderful.

But when folks say that things like Marvel and Star Wars are not Disney, she is a prime example of another period where Touchstone defiantly "not Disney", nor "family friendly", who was featured in the parks and who it was clear to the public was connected.

Thing is, they didn't much care. And truth is, they still don't - the things you are talking about matter only to a scant few folks at places like this. The general public doesn't give a crap who owns Marvel or Lucasfilm, they care about the content coming out.

You forgot about the long gone food court that I used to love dining at where Playhouse Disney now is that featured sets from one Touchstone film, think it was Risky Business.

But no one was blatantly saying ''Oh, they have Bette here because she's in lots of Touchstone films and I read somewhere in a real newspaper since Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet yet that Disney owns Touchstone and I think I read on the NY Post's Page 6 that Michael Eisner has been seen with her a lot lately.''

There's a fundamental difference in the two things ...

But I'm not sure I'm explaining the difference between showing movie props at a Studios park vs. having Marvel characters in Disney parks well ... so I'm going to give it up for now.

But Bette is better than Hulk! She sings nicer too!

For the record, I also wish we had more "adult" content in the parks - what I wouldn't give for a "no one under 18" hard ticket event (insert jokes here). I'm not for making everything appropriate for toddlers, in any case.

Never going to happen in the swamps. That's why they murdered Pleasure Island. That's why I almost tripped over brats at Trader Sam's Grog Grotto last week. WDW has become all about the kids.

 

[WDW1974]

So what you are saying is there WAS one Disney. Brand and Company all rolled together. But it is so diluted now that the brand that defined the company is now the pimple on the back of the bohemoth.
So is D23 the Company's pep rally or the Brand's pep rally?

D23 is where the WDC brings together everything from ESPN to Consumer Products, from Marvel to DCL, from ABC Family to Pixar, from WDI to WDFA and wants you to da mn well know that Mickey owns and controls them all. It is as simple as that.

When Disney owns you, they own you. The only way you even get a smidge of autonomy is to be like Pixar or Marvel or ESPN and print money. And even then, it isn't close to full control.

 

[WDW1974]

Spirited UNI Musing:

Spoke with a friend on the inside earlier and he was quite disheartened by some of what he sees at Creative and the company as a whole. Again, as I've stated, Potter (as well as the Springfield expansion and even Transformers) have covered for the fact that UNI management is largely as incompetent as Disney.

Said friend agrees that Tom Williams is a bad leader and in over his head, now that the parks division is a real success, but says Mark Woodbury is the real cause of UNI's issues, ''all the problems go back to Woodbury. Tom makes the ultimate decisions but Woodbury brings him the concepts.''

Often, the quality ones, the family ones, the non-thrill ones ... are left behind. Woodbury also has the Staggs/Disney problem of ''it must be IP -- no original concepts.'

While I can't go into detail, at least two unique concepts for UNI-Beijing were recently shot down for 'safe IP' (already represented in various UNI parks). The concepts were family rides that were not only unique, but played well to the local Chinese culture and likely would have been successful.

This shouldn't surprise anyone with experience in media/entertainment companies. It's still sad, though.

 

[WDW1974]

Just gonna put this here.....

Don't expect a WDW Star Wars announcement at D23.

Not what I've been told, Dave.

And, frankly, after (blanking) the fans around about a SW announcement for a few years now, Bob Iger, Tom Staggs and Chapie The Fall Guy will have a very ugly scene on their hands. They can't put it off. They can't do a tease job and talk about ''all the amazing things that we'll share with you shortly ... but now look at those LE Horizons pins for only $129.99, we only have 300 ... until we open another box ... and another ...''

They have to spill something of significance.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Not what I've been told, Dave.

And, frankly, after (blanking) the fans around about a SW announcement for a few years now, Bob Iger, Tom Staggs and Chapie The Fall Guy will have a very ugly scene on their hands. They can't put it off. They can't do a tease job and talk about ''all the amazing things that we'll share with you shortly ... but now look at those LE Horizons pins for only $129.99, we only have 300 ... until we open another box ... and another ...''

They have to spill something of significance.

I'll message you tomorrow.

 

[Mike S]

Spirited UNI Musing:

Spoke with a friend on the inside earlier and he was quite disheartened by some of what he sees at Creative and the company as a whole. Again, as I've stated, Potter (as well as the Springfield expansion and even Transformers) have covered for the fact that UNI management is largely as incompetent as Disney.

Said friend agrees that Tom Williams is a bad leader and in over his head, now that the parks division is a real success, but says Mark Woodbury is the real cause of UNI's issues, ''all the problems go back to Woodbury. Tom makes the ultimate decisions but Woodbury brings him the concepts.''

Often, the quality ones, the family ones, the non-thrill ones ... are left behind. Woodbury also has the Staggs/Disney problem of ''it must be IP -- no original concepts.'

While I can't go into detail, at least two unique concepts for UNI-Beijing were recently shot down for 'safe IP' (already represented in various UNI parks). The concepts were family rides that were not only unique, but played well to the local Chinese culture and likely would have been successful.

This shouldn't surprise anyone with experience in media/entertainment companies. It's still sad, though.

And I shook his hand during Diagon's soft opening......... It would definitely be different to see Universal use an original concept for a ride. They've pretty much been all IP since the beginning except for Lost Continent.

 

[ThemeParkTraveller]

OLC just recently announced new details of their expansion plans, with some very exciting concept art too! Basically everything @WDW1974 said was coming is shown here.

English announcement here:

http://www.olc.co.jp/en/news/olcgroup/20150428_04e.pdf

A few initial observations...

If that is not Be Our Guest, what could be inside Beast's Castle? The castle looks much bigger than the one in MK's NFL.

Is that possibly a maze like the one at DLP for the Alice section? I see guests lining up to enter the building with the White Rabbit. Not sure if that is a separate attraction.

Lastly, this quote has me quite excited.

"The overall theme for the new themed port at Tokyo DisneySea Park will be Scandinavia with a portion of the area being themed specifically to the world of the Disney film Frozen."

It's nice to know that it will not be completely Frozen-dominated and will instead take an approach similar to Arabian Coast (where Aladdin is not the only inspiration). It looks like the Arendelle castle is possibly hosting a restaurant or M&G, while the larger mountain structure with ice castle in the background is for the huge E-ticket.

Very excited to see this develop over the next few years!

 

[marni1971]

^ how refreshing to get a press release actually showing what's going where (roughly) with mention of "multiple attractions"

 

[Captain Neo]

Well, we could start with the most recent one that is still making money: Cinderella.

We could look at the franchise whose fifth installment is filming as I type this in Pirates of the Caribbean.

We could look at winter's release: Into the Woods.

We could look at last summer's Maleficent.

We could look at the live action Alice in Wonderland film that has a sequel, naturally, coming up.

How many would you like?

Few and far between my friend. Have you forgotten the 80s and 90s where every month Eisner was attempting to get a big franchise going to no avail? Everything from Rocketeer to Dick Tracy was attempted

 

[AEfx]

Well, we could start with the most recent one that is still making money: Cinderella.

We could look at the franchise whose fifth installment is filming as I type this in Pirates of the Caribbean.

We could look at winter's release: Into the Woods.

We could look at last summer's Maleficent.

We could look at the live action Alice in Wonderland film that has a sequel, naturally, coming up.

How many would you like?

As I said, few and far between.

That does not a movie studio make.

Basically, you just spelled out the problem - Disney doesn't have an original bone in their body these days and has shown very little capability of bringing a new live-action property forward. One filmed version of a non-Disney musical that did okay (50M budget/200M gross), one sole success with films based on theme park attractions (out of how many tries? Country Bears, Haunted Mansion, et al), and a bunch of one-shot live-action riffs off of animated classics.

Even when you look at the sole live-action franchise that has been a financial success (Pirates) - when you account for how much money those films cost (the last film reportedly cost almost 400 million dollars to make, the most expensive movie of all time) they aren't nearly as impressive. I'm actually shocked they are making another one because for a hit film the ROI is actually rather low, but they really have no choice as it's all they've got on their own. When you crunch the numbers, Maleficent was more profitable - the only thing that keeps the Pirates films going is the international fascination with Depp, the US grosses can't even pay for the budget.

Contrast that with Age of Ultron, which hasn't even opened in the US yet and has almost made it's budget back already after one weekend internationally.

I'll grant Tomorrowland, though you didn't list it, even though yet-another-theme-park-tie-in, could possibly have some potential, but we'll have to wait for the box office to decide that.

In any case, this is why Disney needed Lucasfilm and Marvel - Marvel has already brought a financial success that Disney has not been able to achieve on it's own, and Lucasfilm - well, we will have to talk after TFA drops - but I'm betting when the decade closes, Disney is the #1 money making studio in the world, and it won't be due to the overall paltry home grown offerings the studio offers.

 

[Darth Sidious]

OLC just recently announced new details of their expansion plans, with some very exciting concept art too! Basically everything @WDW1974 said was coming is shown here.

English announcement here:

http://www.olc.co.jp/en/news/olcgroup/20150428_04e.pdf

A few initial observations...

If that is not Be Our Guest, what could be inside Beast's Castle? The castle looks much bigger than the one in MK's NFL.

Is that possibly a maze like the one at DLP for the Alice section? I see guests lining up to enter the building with the White Rabbit. Not sure if that is a separate attraction.

Lastly, this quote has me quite excited.

"The overall theme for the new themed port at Tokyo DisneySea Park will be Scandinavia with a portion of the area being themed specifically to the world of the Disney film Frozen."

It's nice to know that it will not be completely Frozen-dominated and will instead take an approach similar to Arabian Coast (where Aladdin is not the only inspiration). It looks like the Arendelle castle is possibly hosting a restaurant or M&G, while the larger mountain structure with ice castle in the background is for the huge E-ticket.

Very excited to see this develop over the next few years!

That's a lot of money towards expansion. It looks very promising.