A Spirited Valentine ...

[WDW1974]

Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts really is the most egregious example of Disney filling roles without any actual experience.

It has astounded me since the days of Paul Pressler, who was quite charming in person, but had no business in the P&R biz. Considering the life cycle of that position one wonders how long Chappie will hold on to it. He may well luck out when Iger finally leaves and hold on to it.

 

[WDW1974]

Huh? They are both splitting the bill. Disney is actually splitting it 50/50 for 1% equity gain and waving all licensing and management fees. That's basically what Legco got from being initially stubborn.

They got screwed. They should have told Disney to take its offer and leave. They are worried they need Disney there when you damn well know well that Disney wasn't going anywhere. The SAR just blinked.

I don't obviously deserve to have much opinion on this as it isn't remotely my country or community, but the citizens are ****ed and would rather the site be used for housing... I'm glad they ignored their citizens personally. I think people are short sighted and don't realize what an actual built out, popular Disney park will do for their economy in the long run.

I don't think your opinion or mine matters here. The locals didn't want this (being lied to by Disney since the late 90s might have something to do with that). I love the park. It's location is breathtaking. I love the CMs, The cleanliness of the park. The quality of entertainment. And I loved it from my first visit in 2008 (they've added three E-Tickets, a night parade, smaller attractions and now a great looking new resort). ... But it wasn't built for an American (or Canadian) Faux Top One Percenter. It was built for Hong Kongers, people close by in the Mainland and tourists to HK.

The plans also look and sound great to me. I know people think the Mavel part is too far out, but you have to consider what else they've done and they will be doing before that. HKDL remains the only park that seems to have a steady consistent roadmap. I really think it will pay off, the mega bridge will certainly indirectly help.

Not to me. Although Frozen will be better than initially thought. And losing Buzz Lightyear doesn't bother me, even for an Antman ride. The Castle plans really don't excite me and the big Avengers ride is a good six years (maybe longer, despite what Disney says) away.

Oh, that bridge will help ... but will also send people to Macau and the Cotai Strip ... and the Ocean Kingdom resort is close by there too!

 

[HMF]

What about Indiana Jones?
Or Star Wars?

Star Wars and Indiana Jones are perfectly fine because Disney and Lucas have an established history together. Marvel on the other hand.... I know Marvel had a fanbase for a long time but many Disney Fans could have cared less about Marvel before December 2009 then suddenly it becomes the greatest thing ever.

 

[HMF]

It has astounded me since the days of Paul Pressler, who was quite charming in person, but had no business in the P&R biz. Considering the life cycle of that position one wonders how long Chappie will hold on to it. He may well luck out when Iger finally leaves and hold on to it.

Well considering he plans attractions based on 10 year intervals, I think he may think he will be there a while but I wouldn't be too shocked if he left with Iger but I wouldn't bet money on it.

 

[HMF]

That's WDW today.

People don't even get how nostalgia has been warped and changed over the last 20 years or so. Instead of nostalgia about others times and places, Disney nostalgia has become nostalgia for Disney experiences and, indeed, YOUR (not you, general you) nostalgia for past visits (like when Uncle Frank came and you all stayed in a two-bedroom at the BW at Christmas 2003 and the twins were 18 months old and Phil was on leave from Iraq ... and Frank died four months later of a massive coronary, one of the twins was knocked up by a basketball player at age 14 and Phil has become a pill addict). It can be a very sick nostalgia ...but it isn't about nostalgia for the Old West or traveling to strange new worlds (like Vulcania).

To be fair I don't know any people who remember the Old West and considering what happened to the Natives during that time. I am not sure I would want people looking back on that period with fondness and before anyone asks no, I am not advocating getting rid of Frontierland though a re-name to Westernland like in Tokyo would be great.

 

[HMF]

Just saw this as I posted the local media's coverage of the deal. I can't disagree with you more.

The park was built using DL and its scale originally. The copying of SBC was much like MSUSA. It fit. This is akin to what the new Hub does at the MK. It doesn't fit the scale and art direction of the area.

Taking the existing castle (which won't be bulldozed, maybe a mystic can explain the details in full to those confused spirits) and adding ... well, a large and weird addition that exists only to enlarge the look of the structure isn't a great idea. It looks bad in the art. It will look worse in the real world. It won't fit at all.

I will say that copying DL was one of the biggest mistakes of HKDL, Despite how much Jay Rasulo brags about it in the documentary Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic.

 

[Bairstow]

Star Wars and Indiana Jones are perfectly fine because Disney and Lucas have an established history together. Marvel on the other hand.... I know Marvel had a fanbase for a long time but many Disney Fans could have cared less about Marvel before December 2009 then suddenly it becomes the greatest thing ever.

Did Lucas and Disney have an established history in 1986?

 

[Rteetz]

Did Lucas and Disney have an established history in 1986?

Star tours opened in 1987 so yes.

 

[HMF]

Did Lucas and Disney have an established history in 1986?

Lucas was there on opening day and his first choice for Theme park spin-offs was always Disney. Marvel meanwhile had (and still has) a contract with Disney's largest competitor.

 

[HMF]

Star tours opened in 1987 so yes.

George also produced Captain EO which opened in 86.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Lucas was there on opening day and his first choice for Theme park spin-offs was always Disney. Marvel meanwhile had (and still has) a contract with Disney's largest competitor.

Also, the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark was based on Scrooge McDuck comics and the sounds of the mine cars in Temple of Doom came from Big Thunder Mountain.

Also, George has maintained that Star Wars always felt at home with Disney and that if Walt was still alive in the 70s, he would have tried pitching the original to Disney first.

 

[HMF]

Also, the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark was based on Scrooge McDuck comics and the sounds of the mine cars in Temple of Doom came from Big Thunder Mountain.

Also, George has maintained that Star Wars always felt at home with Disney and that if Walt was still alive in the 70s, he would have tried pitching the original to Disney first.

Did Walt usually take outside ideas without "leaving his mark" on them? I thought I read that he actually did pitch to Disney, and they passed.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The relationship argument, be it Lucasfilm or Pixar or Marvel, really is quite poor since it requires some arbitrary starting point that works for that moment and, most critically, is a metric outside of storytelling. It's no different than including Marvel because of its high box office revenues.

 

[Quinnmac000]

Also, the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark was based on Scrooge McDuck comics and the sounds of the mine cars in Temple of Doom came from Big Thunder Mountain.

Also, George has maintained that Star Wars always felt at home with Disney and that if Walt was still alive in the 70s, he would have tried pitching the original to Disney first.

That statement isn't fully true. Because Lucas after the success of American Graffitti pitched it to Universal first and they passed on it as well as Disney. Ever since then, Lucas had a grudge against Universal which lead to Spielberg vs Lucas in the theme park wars.

 

[ford91exploder]

In the ala carte programming model in a study by TIVO

Disney does very well in the ala carte channel model with ABC as the number one pick overall, However this is marred as usual by ESPN being number 19 followed by FS1 at 36,

Note in this survey ESPN DOES beat The Weather Channel which is number 20

The overall message seems to be that sports are simply not as valuable a property as they once were probably because Americans are so busy working they don't have time to watch whole games anymore and we may be returning to the time when radio play by play and box scores were the method most got their sports fix from.

http://www.fiercecable.com/broadcas...desirable-a-la-carte-channels-tivo-study-says

 

[BrianLo]

Star Wars and Indiana Jones are perfectly fine because Disney and Lucas have an established history together. Marvel on the other hand.... I know Marvel had a fanbase for a long time but many Disney Fans could have cared less about Marvel before December 2009 then suddenly it becomes the greatest thing ever.

I think you mean May 2008.

The public at large didn't suddenly start loving Marvel because of the Disney purchase. It's almost like something else happened around the same time that people misattribute...

Do pixie dusters really love and praise ESPN because Dis owns them? Outside of a small minority of brand addicts, no. Probably half the people here could care less about ESPN.

 

[BrianLo]

Just saw this as I posted the local media's coverage of the deal. I can't disagree with you more.

The park was built using DL and its scale originally. The copying of SBC was much like MSUSA. It fit. This is akin to what the new Hub does at the MK. It doesn't fit the scale and art direction of the area.

Taking the existing castle (which won't be bulldozed, maybe a mystic can explain the details in full to those confused spirits) and adding ... well, a large and weird addition that exists only to enlarge the look of the structure isn't a great idea. It looks bad in the art. It will look worse in the real world. It won't fit at all.

There are certainly other more palatable ways this could have been done. A full rebuild or a larger Matterhorn-esque weenie.

The castle never fit though. Parts of Disneyland were grafted with little thought to the surrounding landscape. While a choice Bricker shot standing in front of the castle may make it look pretty, the scale has always been wrong looking down Main Street.

This isn't us reinventing history for the sake of what's coming, I think there have been many of us that commented over the years that it just doesn't look right.

Does the new scale fit? Again, that's hard to say as we've yet to see a single piece of concept art looking down Main Street. But I agree with @RandySavage whole heartedly that something has long needed to be redone about the castle, or it's surroundings.

 

[HMF]

The overall message seems to be that sports are simply not as valuable a property as they once were probably because Americans are so busy working they don't have time to watch whole games anymore and we may be returning to the time when radio play by play and box scores were the method most got their sports fix

Personally, I think sports are just another thing that divides people, pits them against each other and distracts them from their real problems. Just the modern day equivalent of Roman Gladiator matches and probably would be best to leave in the dustbin of history.

 

[HMF]

I think you mean May 2008.
.

Disney did not own Marvel in May 2008. I specifically remember the purchase (which I still don't understand 7 years later.) happened in late 2009

 

[TrojanUSC]

That statement isn't fully true. Because Lucas after the success of American Graffitti pitched it to Universal first and they passed on it as well as Disney. Ever since then, Lucas had a grudge against Universal which lead to Spielberg vs Lucas in the theme park wars.

There's no "theme park wars." Universal owns a minority stake with Amblin, which is Spielberg's production company. Consequently they also have a first-look deal on his films and distribute most of them (ET, Jurassic Park, etc). As part of this, they also retain rights to market products based on these properties, in addition to theme park attractions. So no, no wars, just a very very lucrative deal for all involved.