A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Cesar R M]

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!

Pretty sure Mr. Ford was the highest paid....

Reminds me of this gem on Conan

 

[Cesar R M]

Good to see you around these parts.... Happy Holidays!

We've got so much to discuss as a class. ESPN down, SDL's issues, TWDS betting the house on SW, constant up charges and maybe a drop in attendance this December and succession! Would SW success elevate KK to possible successor of Iger?

Plus the usual social media fun, fun, fun!

Edit: Plus not to mention how a family restaurant had a fistfight on Christmas in Disney Springs...

wait a sec, a fist fight in a restaurant? over what?

 

[Cesar R M]

Huh? Marvel movies aren't "coasting on nostalgia". The Phase 2 films were largely better than the earlier ones, especially the ones that added new characters (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man).

yes, but others are going downhill (iron man 3, age of ultron)

 

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

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.

Is this from the regional air pollution? Or from the toxic building material they're forced to work with?

This one speaks volumes to a troubled project. When Glendale types start demanding to go home, given how tenuous their employment is to begin with, you've effed up. Bad.

 

[AEfx]

They still deserve the call.
If they(Disney) keep losing money thanks to the chinese building with horrible standards.

That's the difference between building endless miles of high speed rail, or cookie-cutter sky scrapers, and a theme park.

The Chinese are very good at repetitive building - fabricating the same thing over and over. Something with such unique fabrications as a theme park - buildings, structures, electrical and HVAC installations, etc. are generally non-standard as the norm. These are going to be much more difficult for a culture that values and trains for uniformity versus unique and/or critical thinking.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Yes, I heard quite the opposite about Arendelle in TDS. A higher budget.

A budget worthy of the characters and the setting of Disney Animation's highest grossing film.

 

[lazyboy97o]

That's the difference between building endless miles of high speed rail, or cookie-cutter sky scrapers, and a theme park.

The Chinese are very good at repetitive building - fabricating the same thing over and over. Something with such unique fabrications as a theme park - buildings, structures, electrical and HVAC installations, etc. are generally non-standard as the norm. These are going to be much more difficult for a culture that values and trains for uniformity versus unique and/or critical thinking.

There is also the whole quantity vs quality issue. Nobody in the Chinese building industry who is aware is under any delusions that Chinese construction standards are up to American standards. A big part of Shanghai Disney Resort's long gestation was having to document standards that here go largely unwritten. Even now Universal is facing the task of finding people around Beijing who will be willing and able to get that project built properly.

 

[ford91exploder]

They still deserve the call.
If they(Disney) keep losing money thanks to the chinese building with horrible standards. (This is a Disney Park, not your government sponsored housing complexes that are supposed to "fall down" in 3 years) the relationship will turn sour fast.

Makes me wonder.. did Disney even research about builders or subcontractors?
Did they just hire the cheapest guys just to save money?

This IS Iger's Disney what do YOU think about 'the cheapest guys'...

 

[sedati]

Read "Building a Better Mouse," and you might be terrified by how things were built stateside.

 

[doctornick]

So, on the topics of both Star Wars and China, I was intrigued to find out that the first Star Wars anthology film Rogue One has two Chinese actors among the cast members (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen). This is part of a greater Hollywood trend to use Chinese actors and settings as a way to appeal to the burgeoning Chinese market. I guess that they hope The Force Awakens can open the gates to China for Star Wars by introducing the IP to a greater audience and then Rogue One might be the film that catches on big there.

 

[kpilcher]

Back at ya!!!

Merry Post-Christmas, buddy!

 

[Smiddimizer]

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!

I feel like we should call him Mousermerf

 

[Phroobar]

There is also the whole quantity vs quality issue. Nobody in the Chinese building industry who is aware is under any delusions that Chinese construction standards are up to American standards. A big part of Shanghai Disney Resort's long gestation was having to document standards that here go largely unwritten. Even now Universal is facing the task of finding people around Beijing who will be willing and able to get that project built properly.

Hopefully the Chinese working for Disney build things better than the Russians did for the Olympics.

 

[AEfx]

You know, that's actually a rather interesting design...technically, as a guy I'd be OK with that in a pinch, LOL.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Hopefully the Chinese working for Disney build things better than the Russians did for the Olympics.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Relieve and Wash your hands all at once. Multi-tasking at it's most handy!

 

[fillerup]

Hopefully the Chinese working for Disney build things better than the Russians did for the Olympics.

Only a man can understand that this is pure genius.

 

[AEfx]

The Hateful 8 - after everything (the leaked script, the drama getting it made, and the whole 70MM release thing) - I really wish I could say I loved it or hated it but "indifferent" really is what I walked away with. Though the whole 70mm thing we had been discussing here (which is why I'm posting) is a complete and utter joke.

First, for as digested as it was, and as storied the history is of the script, it's incredible that it was still made and no one pointed out the inherent flaw - it forgot to be about anything. They can't fall on the "character study" thing because simply giving a character a false identify or motive that is revealed later is not really "character development", particularly in the structured way it is done here. That was really the thing, though - nothing that was revealed was that entirely interesting.

It's easily the simplest to follow Tarantino film ever because absolutely nothing about the resolution is shocking, surprising, or even really noteworthy. On a suspense level - the one and only "where did that come from?" bit earlier in the film was really, really the cheapest type of so out of nowhere Scooby-Doo I can recall seeing in a major motion picture in a long time.

That all out of the way - the movie isn't boring. I had a good time watching it. The acting was rather top notch. There were some clever, interesting script bits (including the highlight of the film, a monologue by Sam Jackson about half-way through), but it was like 2/3 of a film to me - Tarantino doesn't just generally tell flat stories of "this is what happened". When it was over, I felt like I had just eaten a whole bag of greasy potato chips - I enjoyed it while I was doing it, but was hungry after because of how nutritionally bankrupt what I just gorged on was.

70MM - just, seriously, that's where he went off the deep end. There is simply no purpose to it. All but about 15 minutes of the movie takes place inside a cabin. Tarantino states that 70MM is incredible for interiors as well, which may be the case - but it just is impossible to see why this picture needed it other than to overcompensate for the fact that it largely is a talking heads picture. 1.85 would have been boring visually, but 2.35 would have been entirely sufficient. And it's certainly not worth the huge drama over it that has recently happened.

Finally, I have to say I am laughing so hard at how some of the ultra-sensitive "herstory" folks are going after this film, because as far as those ideals are concerned - as odd as it's going to sound - for a picture who's main female character is handcuffed and smacked around for much of the duration, he really could not have done it any better. They treated her exactly like a male character who would have been in similar circumstances. Not only was their no sexual violence, there also was none threatened - she was effectively treated just like a male prisoner. (And, in that vein - the only sexual exploitation the film could be accused of is against men, LOL.)

But, of course, this is the same group that can't decide if they get mad when villains who are female are "pretty" or "ugly" - because they'll argue against both depending on what side the femi-bread is buttered that day.

I can't say I'd tell anyone to run out and see it - but I wouldn't say it wasn't a total waste of time, either. I think that's it's only crime - it's the first Tarantino film that didn't make me really feel one way or another, or make me think much after I watched it to further develop my opinion.

 

[AEfx]

Only a man can understand that this is pure genius.

It actually solves a key public health issue, too - not flushing urinals after use. This way, the washing your hands is going to cause the flushing. You are right - genius LOL.

 

[Cesar R M]

That's the difference between building endless miles of high speed rail, or cookie-cutter sky scrapers, and a theme park.

The Chinese are very good at repetitive building - fabricating the same thing over and over. Something with such unique fabrications as a theme park - buildings, structures, electrical and HVAC installations, etc. are generally non-standard as the norm. These are going to be much more difficult for a culture that values and trains for uniformity versus unique and/or critical thinking.

eeeh, not at all.
Have you seen the news of the constant building failures?
like recently built 20+ story apartments that end sinking, cracking or leaning and then evacuated?

 

[Cesar R M]

So, on the topics of both Star Wars and China, I was intrigued to find out that the first Star Wars anthology film Rogue One has two Chinese actors among the cast members (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen). This is part of a greater Hollywood trend to use Chinese actors and settings as a way to appeal to the burgeoning Chinese market. I guess that they hope The Force Awakens can open the gates to China for Star Wars by introducing the IP to a greater audience and then Rogue One might be the film that catches on big there.

I am ok with Donnie Yen. I love his IP man movies.