A Terror-rific Spirited 13th (ToT fans have lots to fear)...

[Horizons78]

THIS!

Spoiler: Ending

WOULDN'T JUST PASS THE DATA CARD THROUGH THE DOOR. VADER IS KILLING EVERYONE. PASS THE CARD THROUGH THE DOOR.

ALSO THIS!

Spoiler

I kind of expected everyone to die but watching it all happen still had me sitting with my mouth open. Then Vader just came in wrecked all those Rebels's day. The pure terror... I loved it!!!

 

[wdisney9000]

That was utterly unexpected.

My seat was moist when I get up.

 

[Mike S]

Minor spoiler...

Spoiler

Did anyone else catch the little joke about the Stormtrooper hearing rumors that the guns they use were declared obsolete?

 

[Princess Leia]

Minor spoiler...

Spoiler

Did anyone else catch the little joke about the Stormtrooper hearing rumors that the guns they use were declared obsolete?

Really, this movie cleared up some gripes that people had about the movies for almost 4 decades. And it worked!!!

 

[Kman101]

Sounds promising! I'm looking forward to seeing it, at some point. Still not sure I'll be rushing to the theater.

 

[gmajew]

I really enjoyed this. Like wow.

That one line review got me even more excited to see it today.

 

[ProjectXBlog]

Back from Rouge One.

Thoughts:

Spoiler

Back from the theater, and here's just a few points:

1. The Director's Cut will be available in Kafrene, and Kafrene Free!.....Ba-dum-tiss!

2. Was that Willem DaFoe voicing a trooper when the rebels broke Jyn free in the beginning of the film?

3. The ending! Good lord! I kept thinking of a poster here who insisted that the reshoots were to make things "toddler friendly" lol. Yeah, suuuuure. Here's a sample conversation of a child and parent watching the film:

Parent: So who's your favorite character?
Child: I like the blind Force user.

(BLAM)

Parent: Uhh well, who's your new favorite?
Child: I sure do like the shuttle pilot!

(KERSPLODE)

Parent: Geez...so um, how about now?
Child: I love the droid...

(BZZZZTHUD)

Parent: Crap. Pick someone else.
Child: The girl hero is awesome!

(VVVVLORP)

Parent: Let's get the heck out of here.
Child: Yeah...ok.

Not a kiddie movie. Sorry.

I thought the exact same thing about dafoe. i leaned over to my brother in the theater and asked him if he heard it too

 

[michmousefan]

Agree with the good reviews of RO. I saw it Thurs night with three other aging SW geeks and we all agreed it exceeded expectations. I think all of us will be seeing it again this weekend. Lots of pressure on the Han Solo movie now; I trust that Lord, Miller & Kasdan will embrace that the bar has been raised a bit higher...

 

[spacemt354]

Am liking Rogue One even more the day after seeing it. So many memorable moments. It blended in seamlessly with the Star Wars universe, yet at the same time stood as a different type of Star Wars film. Fans will not be disappointed.

Spoiler

Aside from all the OT nods...there were some references to the prequels?! Not only mentions to Clone Wars and Bail Organa, but I'm pretty sure Darth Vader's first scene was on Mustafar.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Germany's musical theatre tastes are odd, to say the least. Tarzan is a big hit there, but their big cultural institution is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, which has been running for decades in a purpose-built venue in Bochum. Starlight Express is the biggest steaming pile of garbage ever shoved onto a stage, and the Germans love it. Bless their hearts, as my Southern relatives would say.

Germany's tastes are generally quite odd. Never quite got the feel for German sensibilities if I'm honest.

It is also interesting to me that Germany isn't a bigger market for Disneyland Paris. The resort gets more visitors from The Netherlands with a population of 16.8 million than super-wealthy Germany with 80.6 million people. This is despite the fact that Germany's Rhine-Ruhr region is both the largest metropolitan region in Europe and within 3-4 hours by train from the resort. The Germans seem to like Disney and even WDW, but for some reason they don't seem interested in DLP.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

Inside the room is a bunch of anime merch not seen outside. I am going to guess they noticed that it was a top seller and they decided to expand and give a room purely dedicated to it? Though the room lacks any of the charm that the rest of the place has and almost seems abandoned. There was no one at the register until me and my brother were in there for more than 10 minutes.

Thanks for sharing (I think lol). So I'm one that will pick on imagineering for spending way too much to research a light fixture and turn it into an entire experience just to light a room but wow.... this is the polar opposite. Are those drop ceiling light panels? That room looks barren and certainly not to the standards of world showcase! Ugh.

 

[brb1006]

Germany's tastes are generally quite odd. Never quite got the feel for German sensibilities if I'm honest.

It is also interesting to me that Germany isn't a bigger market for Disneyland Paris. The resort gets more visitors from The Netherlands with a population of 16.8 million than super-wealthy Germany with 80.6 million people. This is despite the fact that Germany's Rhine-Ruhr region is both the largest metropolitan region in Europe and within 3-4 hours by train from the resort. The Germans seem to like Disney and even WDW, but for some reason they don't seem interested in DLP.

Don't forget some Belgian visitors.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Don't forget some Belgian visitors.

Indeed, more Belgians than Germans visit, too.
Belgium is my favourite European country, though, so I'm not surprised

 

[flynnibus]

I find this discussion thought provoking.

What we do know is the upgrade landed at 1.1 Billion in total. That's a number confirmed by Iger. My primary question would be where all the other money went? That leaves 840 Million for the rest of the expansion.
So supposing TSMM counts in the number (I've seen it said it's not, but that never made sense) from my memory we have:
1) 80 Million for TSMM http://www.disneylists.com/2016/03/...ry-midway-mania-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/ (it's worth noting that in the midst of the recession, when pricing would've been more favorable, Tokyo's cost of a new Midway landed at 120 Million dollars. While it's undoubtably more expensive to build in Tokyo, a 50% up charge is expensive. I wonder if the 80 Million dollar number doesn't include R&D)
2) 80-100 Million for Under the Sea, we'll split the difference and say 90 Million
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...ollywood-studios.903114/page-114#post-7058173
3) 75 Million for WoC http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...ywood-studios-yep.888644/page-60#post-6400873
4) 260 Million Cars Land

We're up to 505 Million, or less than half of the cost of this expansion and rebranding. The place making changes and Buena Vista Street couldn't have cost 595 Million dollars could they? Even with demolition that seems pretty unrealistic.

Do you have better numbers for these other projects? The math doesn't seem to add up. The most likely money pit of the DCA Rebrand seems to be Cars Land. 260 Million just seems really cheap especially knowing each Star Wars Land costs 1 Billion a piece with development cost split between two projects.

And tsmm was outside the dca reboot budget... it was done prior.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Thanks for sharing (I think lol). So I'm one that will pick on imagineering for spending way too much to research a light fixture and turn it into an entire experience just to light a room but wow.... this is the polar opposite. Are those drop ceiling light panels? That room looks barren and certainly not to the standards of world showcase! Ugh.

It does look bad but also sort of reminds me of the manga section of the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi store, which seemed similarly spartan compared to the rest of the lavish store.

 

[flynnibus]

Frozen was fun on the first couple of watches, but it has gotten worse on subsequent watches. The music was a big negative personally. The only song I kind of like is Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, (and even the lyrics are stupid). Actively dislike Let it Go. Even Pocahontas (the only 90s renaissance movie I don't care for) still had fantastic music (and animation). I also disliked Olaf and found the villain stupid and pointless.

Not a big fan of Tangled either. I actually enjoyed Princess and the Frog far more than either Tangled or Frozen, and it is far from perfect. Though I generally detest Randy Newman, I still found Almost There and Friends on the Other Side enjoyable.

I have only seen Zootopia once so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. It remains to be seen whether I will feel the same on subsequent watches, but it is probably my favorite non-Pixar Disney animated movie in a very long time.

Yet to see Moana, trailers haven't sparked my interest. And once again I dislike the songs. I've seen reviews claiming it's the best since *insert 90s Disney movie here*. Same happened with Tangled and Frozen, and they fell obscenely short of that standard.

I'm very sad we won't ever see a more traditional Disney adaptation of original Snow Queen fairy tale (Walt Disney or Eisner era style adhering more closely to the story and characters, along with some beautiful classical music and hand drawn animation). The idea of a Frozen 2 though absolutely disgusts me.

I agree with raven24 regarding Lilo & Stitch, fantastic movie and great sister story (besides the tons of other great things about it). As for "strong independent woman", Mulan is far and above Frozen as well.

Merry grinch-mas to you too

 

[flynnibus]

There's also the bad-lip reading song by Yoda (... and I definitely have been singing this).

I don't even have a clue what that song is...

 

[flynnibus]

Off topic but I'm visiting SeaWorld for the first time today and, wow, I'm having an absolute blast! Can't believe I've lived down here for almost two years and neglected this place. It's a real gem!

It may not be a place people want to visit weekly like wdw... but is still a good theme park. The people that visit Disney only trip after trip don't want to know there are other things to try.

 

[flynnibus]

Those at the top don't really like it much. And they're the ones who count.

Yeah but at this point... why not just run it and start working on your replacement. It's not like some play that requires locking up talent for a year or two. If it's done... leg the public decide.

 

[marni1971]

Yeah but at this point... why not just run it and start working on your replacement. It's not like some play that requires locking up talent for a year or two. If it's done... leg the public decide.

That's what probably will happen.