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

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Disney was legally forbidden to use a lot of their marketing tricks with the Dr. Strange M&G.

It wasn't Disney showing restraint.

Is that really the case? It seems really odd Disney can use a character who introduces himself as that character but they're legally prohibited from saying that character's name anywhere else (despite having a Doctor Strange blog preview event at Disney Springs, which is indeed the official company dropping his name at their Orlando property).

After all, the Green Army Men boot camp streetmosphere was never advertised and the times never showed up in the schedule.

The Tree of Life was advertised, but, it's existence on a map or in the printed or digital schedule is missing.

PUSH was never advertised (AFAIK).

Lack of advertising has happened before to streetmosphere. One can imagine that some events don't lend themselves to big crowds or are temporary or are likely to be easily cancelled for the day, and thus, not advertised. Like Characterpalooza.

It doesn't have to be the Universal contract as the reason.
 
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The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Maelstrom did leave me with the question: What ever happened to Norway' indigenous troll population?

Do you have the historical answer to that? Or should I check with Odin?
Trolls and Odin are major historical elements of Norwegian culture and identity. They no more need to exist objectively than for a piece of bread to be an actual body to claim that Catholicism is a part of the Vatican's history.
 

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I guess I will just never understand the attitude that continues to complain about something that is a done deal. It's not changing, it's not going away, we don't like the placement, but everyone needs to move on. Sorry, but that's the deal.

You don't get to tell people what they need to do. ... Maybe some of us want to make WDW great again!!!
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
Current Imagination fans are more of a "Better then the crap they tried in '99" and "A decent placeholder until Dreamfinder comes back" sort. Maelstrom had more of a cult following/meme worthiness then that.
Yeah, but you can say current Imagination has a cult following too. It doesn't matter that With Figment is better than Journey into Your Imagination, bad rides are still bad.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Trolls and Odin are major historical elements of Norwegian culture and identity. They no more need to exist objectively than for a piece of bread to be an actual body to claim that Catholicism is a part of the Vatican's history.
I'm currently midway through a two-week stay in a small Norwegian fishing village called Henningsvaer and I had a brief stop in Oslo on the way up. They do push the trolls pretty heavily in the tourist shops down in Oslo, I must say! Visited the Akershus fortress which was also nice.

As for the "authenticity" of the original ride, well, the little fishing village at the end looks about right. Maelstrom, I don't think, was a fantastic ride in and of itself. It's appeal lay more in the fact that it and El Rio del Tiempo were the attractions that spoke to the old World's Fair concept of EPCOT Center that helped give WDW the aura of something more than a big promotional vehicle for Disney IPs. Whether people still want attractions like that, though, is an open question.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
First, thanks for an on topic post. I'd rather discuss 'that dude' Derek Burgan's Disney outlet (he buys way too much Disney crap, btw) columns here, then what the box office of tent pole films means today.

I wouldn't jump to any conclusion about Dr. Strange. If he couldn't be used at WDW, do you think he'd be there now making appearances? I don't know the status of the character. I was told he could be used by people, but no one who I would consider to have deep knowledge of the ins and outs. There is no clearer sign that he can be used than the fact he is being used. I don't see Comcast filing suit and seeking an immediate removal, do you?

Why isn't Disney publicizing it more? (Beyond the fact that it is small scale and they don't even have a themed location to hold this.) I can't say. Might it have to do with ongoing talks between the two? (None of which will result in Marvel giving up its rights, but might allow Disney a bit more wiggle room on small things ... like thus.) I dunno. Disney can also be very slow about talking about some things. You may recall that I had the entire SDL menu for opening day in mid-2013 and out here a few months later and it wasn't until two years later that Disney confirmed what was going into the park/resort. I don't have much faith in Dr. Blondie and Co to do much of anything beyond throwing cupcake parties for bloggingwhores.

I can flat out say that Disney can use the GotG at WDW. It is absolutely only an issue to UNI fanbois (who should focus on the disaster that Beijing is starting out as ... familiar to anyone who watched SDL's development) who want to see Disney down. The reality is none of these attractions would have even been blue skied for WDW if they couldn't be used. Disney is wasteful, but not THAT wasteful.

But, believe me, if the GotG coming to WDW mean the end of ToT or UoE, then I hope I am so wrong on this. Only want them in Bob Iger's IP MAGIC park as a NEW BUILD.
Universal isn't all that happy about the paper box that is stocked with Daily Bugle newspapers (Spider-man) and clearly mentions Daredevil (ad for The Law Firm of Nelson & Murdock) on the front that is part of the new theming for the area of the M&G.
 

Pi on my Cake

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Universal isn't all that happy about the paper box that is stocked with Daily Bugle newspapers (Spider-man) and clearly mentions Daredevil (ad for The Law Firm of Nelson & Murdock) on the front that is part of the new theming for the area of the M&G.

Are you assuming this or do you have an inside source? I was wondering about this actually and didn't understand how Disney was able to use the Daily Bugle.
 

brb1006

Well-Known Member
I have to admit hearing that all the bloggers/Lifestylers who just had to be at the MK for the first performance of Once Upon a Time last night and got soaked and not great pics and video filled me with laughter. That means, they have to choose between seeing it tonight or going to the last night of HHNs (have I ripped UNI enough for this? Halloween ended Monday night!) or a Saturday of spending $134 on tiny food samples and booze on trash cans at EPCOT. What tough life decisions, right?

BTW, heard they butchered the TDL import by destroying the Alice segment to throw in Frozen because they really don't have enough of that property at WDW.
That's the only part that made me upset. I was looking forward to the entire Alice section but was only there for a few seconds.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Just curious on your thoughts on Frozenstrom just as an attraction in a vacuum ignoring placement? I think personally that it is a pretty good attraction on its own, with nice effects, sets, and a simple but fun story.
What little story there is, is a complete mess with no flow. The entire attraction is an excuse to play the biggest hits from the soundtrack, with the most focus obviously being placed in "Let it Go." To try and avoid the narrative problems of The Little Mermaid, this best hits collection is reformatted to take place after Frozen and Frozen Fever. So instead of randomly jumping between the songs of the film without the film's narrative, the songs have been rewritten and negated of their original meaning and context while still requiring the viewer to be familiar with Frozen to give the borrowed musical elements cache. The film does not present "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?," "For the First Time in Forever," and "Let it Go" as diegetic songs but somehow they are now all known to all of the characters. The context "For the First Time in Forever" and "Let it Go" also suggest soliloquy, meaning these two characters and their struggle which defines the main narrative of Frozen has been reduced catchy "Welcome" tunes.

Outside of the queue and load area, the sets are almost non-existent. There is a lot of fake snow and walls, and rather bare walls at that. Many of those bare walls are, in practice, screens on which projects are shown. To call the projections projection mapping would be a big stretch as the surface and flat and bare, whereas projection mapping requires a three dimensional surface to which the projection conforms. These projections, along with some lighting effects, all show the same snow / ice / snowflake effects and imagery over and over and over and over and over. There is no development of them, they just repeat.

Then there are the animatronic figures. Olaf is a non-human figure. His motions have no comparative basis, so they immediately look appropriate. The human characters though have sticks for limbs and their spindly arms flail about as though there marionettes. This weird flailing is made worse by the fluidity of the projected faced, which themselves create an odd glow and seams along the sides of their faces as though all of the characters have all had the same botched face lift.

Your point about theme being tied to Walt Disney is definitely true, after all, we've seen many great thematic lands and attractions in the last 50 years. FEA shouldn't be completely counted out though. It's animatronics and effects are remarkable, although the attraction as a whole is lazy. It's still an improvement over maelstrom in my opinion.
See above.

I don't see Comcast filing suit and seeking an immediate removal, do you?
Comcast cannot file suit. They can only seek arbitration in New York.
 

DinoInstitute

Well-Known Member
Outside of the queue and load area, the sets are almost non-existent. There is a lot of fake snow and walls, and rather bare walls at that. Many of those bare walls are, in practice, screens on which projects are shown. To call the projections projection mapping would be a big stretch as the surface and flat and bare, whereas projection mapping requires a three dimensional surface to which the projection conforms. These projections, along with some lighting effects, all show the same snow / ice / snowflake effects and imagery over and over and over and over and over. There is no development of them, they just repeat.
I mean, I personally think "lack of development of backgrounds" is a weird area to specifically criticize, but alright :p Projections are better than just static murals though.

But I will give you what you said about the story. One is there no matter how much people who criticize it say otherwise, but like you said it doesn't really have a great natural flow. The best way to judge an IP based attraction IMO is to see whether or not that the story would be able to make sense and be cohesive on its own as new characters if the film never existed; Frozenstrom isn't quite at that level of storytelling.
 
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LuvtheGoof

DVC Guru
Premium Member
You don't get to tell people what they need to do. ... Maybe some of us want to make WDW great again!!!
So do I, but we don't have inside top level people like you and @marni1971 do, and yet you couldn't change anything either. If y'all can't make the change, how can we lowly internet people?

And sorry, don't mean to tell anyone how to feel or what to do.
 

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