Eddie Sotto's take on the current state of the parks

[Master Yoda]

Here's to successful marketing in "the final part of the days" where the Villains are the seen as the heroes. It does work. what used to be seen as good and evil, has become a larger gray area, with little outrage for what is unjust and if so it is meted out, it's often on vigilante terms. A happy exception to this is Pixar, where they mine our hearts in an uplifting in a very sincere way. I have found their films to really entertain and still have a heart. Maybe that's in part why so many of the artists there are fans of Disney past. As a designer it's good to make things that build people up and leave them better than when they came in.

I agree completely but it seems like a risk few are willing to take Pixar being a notable exception.

I was just reading a headline about an hour ago "Navy says 13 die during rescue of boat off Somalia". The headline flirts with the notion that the Navy messed up during a rescue and killed 13 people. The reality was that the Navy rescued 72 people but 13 dead generates more web hits than 72 saved. I wish I knew what would take to make people instinctively gravitate to the positive instead of the negative.

 

[HMF]

So I was sitting with a boatload of families on the upramp of the Disneyland POTC last week listening to Capt. Sparrow wax on about how great a life of piracy was and that his amassed treasure was well deserved and a tribute to a life of skullduggery, larceny, and other piratical qualities. This is what I was leaving with. Dead Men do tell tales. A pirates life for me. If they only knew that there is a battery of Disney lawyers ready to prosecute anyone who "pirates" videos or music, it's ironic that the same people by means of content and no apology or suggestion of consequence, glamorize and condone larceny to a very young audience and sell them souvenirs to practice with. I had to laugh to myself.
.

Did you also have the pleasure of hearing Davy Jones repeat his name several dozen times?

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Did you also have the pleasure of hearing Davy Jones repeat his name several dozen times?

Yes I did! How did you know?

(I was hoping I would hear Jean Lafitte!)

 

[Eddie Sotto]

I agree completely but it seems like a risk few are willing to take Pixar being a notable exception.

I was just reading a headline about an hour ago "Navy says 13 die during rescue of boat off Somalia". The headline flirts with the notion that the Navy messed up during a rescue and killed 13 people. The reality was that the Navy rescued 72 people but 13 dead generates more web hits than 72 saved. I wish I knew what would take to make people instinctively gravitate to the positive instead of the negative.

There seems to have been an agenda in the presentation of that story. I'm not sure "rescue" operations assume that success is only measured if all get saved.

 

[HMF]

Yes I did! How did you know?

(I was hoping I would hear Jean Lafitte!)

Seriously' the most effective way to torture your guests is to play that loop over and over again.:shrug:

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Seriously' the most effective way to torture your guests is to play that loop over and over again.:shrug:

True...It works pretty good with IASW.

 

[ChrisFL]

Here's to successful marketing in "the final part of the days" where the Villains are the seen as the heroes. It seems to resonate with people and we have the world we have to show for it. To me, what used to be seen in entertainment as simply "good and evil", has become a larger gray area in people's minds, with little outrage for what is unjust and if justice is meted out, it's often on vigilante terms which can be even more violent and bloody than the bad guys. A happy exception to this trend is the most successful studio of them all, Pixar, where they mine our hearts in an uplifting in a very sincere way and manage to make a fortune on those who like what they have to say. I have found their films to really entertain and still have a heart. Maybe that's in part why so many of the artists there are fans of Disney past. As a designer it's good to make things that build people up and leave them better than when they came in.

Interesting thoughts and I agree...although I think Disney is merely following the hollywood trend of anti-heroes, or heroes with major questions about morality....it creates more "drama" that way. I suppose it comes from the idea that things were too predictable with good vs. evil and having different moral questions being asked could be made.

Even the POTC movies had Captain Jack choosing sides and you never really quite knew where he stood, however it's not something that the younger kids would be able to grasp.

I'll add another Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons which shows a very rare positive vision of the future the way I used to expect from Disney.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Interesting thoughts and I agree...although I think Disney is merely following the hollywood trend of anti-heroes, or heroes with major questions about morality....it creates more "drama" that way. I suppose it comes from the idea that things were too predictable with good vs. evil and having different moral questions being asked could be made.

Even the POTC movies had Captain Jack choosing sides and you never really quite knew where he stood, however it's not something that the younger kids would be able to grasp.

Having complexity in the heroes is good (Batman and Spiderman are complex) but I guess it where you end up in the morality play that's important. POTC was kind of void of that IMHO. It is funny how Jack was stealing from the East India Company, an "evil" corporation versus a government.

 

[Omnimover]

... listening to Capt. Sparrow wax on about how great a life of piracy was and that his amassed treasure was well deserved and a tribute to a life of skullduggery, larceny, and other piratical qualities.

I always found it ironic that, despite their claims that they were in fact pirates, not once in any of the films do we see Sparrow and his crew actually attack another ship, steal, or murder for profit, etc. Any crime is safely tucked away off screen. The closest anyone comes is Barbossa's attack on Port Royal at the beginning of the first film; and he is firmly established as a villain.

The film did an excellent job of whitewashing that period's piracy and repainting it as the 1700's version of being a free spirit. Piracy was championed as the essence of "freedom" vs a controlling society much more than as a criminal endeavor. Sparrow is amoral, surely, but in the endgame of every encounter he chooses the hero's way. The lesson to a young person today rings true with a lot of pop culture targeted at youth: talk a big game. It doesn't matter if you back it up or not, you just need to pose as someone who bucks the system.

 

[lazyboy97o]

So I was sitting with a boatload of families on the upramp of the Disneyland POTC last week listening to Capt. Sparrow wax on about how great a life of piracy was and that his amassed treasure was well deserved and a tribute to a life of skullduggery, larceny, and other piratical qualities. This is what I was leaving with. Dead Men do tell tales. A pirates life for me. If they only knew that there is a battery of Disney lawyers ready to prosecute anyone who "pirates" videos or music, it's ironic that the same people by means of content and no apology or suggestion of consequence, glamorize and condone larceny to a very young audience and sell them souvenirs to practice with. I had to laugh to myself.

All from a company that must have a small army's worth copyright lawyers ready and waiting to attack like a swarm of angry hornets.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

I always found it ironic that, despite their claims that they were in fact pirates, not once in any of the films do we see Sparrow and his crew actually attack another ship, steal, or murder for profit, etc. Any crime is safely tucked away off screen. The closest anyone comes is Barbossa's attack on Port Royal at the beginning of the first film; and he is firmly established as a villain.

The film did an excellent job of whitewashing that period's piracy and repainting it as the 1700's version of being a free spirit. Piracy was championed as the essence of "freedom" vs a controlling society much more than as a criminal endeavor. Sparrow is amoral, surely, but in the endgame of every encounter he chooses the hero's way. The lesson to a young person today rings true with a lot of pop culture targeted at youth: talk a big game. It doesn't matter if you back it up or not, you just need to pose as someone who bucks the system.

Certainly a contrast to what he says in the ride. Very good insights.

 

[imagineer boy]

I always found it ironic that, despite their claims that they were in fact pirates, not once in any of the films do we see Sparrow and his crew actually attack another ship, steal, or murder for profit, etc. Any crime is safely tucked away off screen. The closest anyone comes is Barbossa's attack on Port Royal at the beginning of the first film; and he is firmly established as a villain.

The film did an excellent job of whitewashing that period's piracy and repainting it as the 1700's version of being a free spirit. Piracy was championed as the essence of "freedom" vs a controlling society much more than as a criminal endeavor. Sparrow is amoral, surely, but in the endgame of every encounter he chooses the hero's way. The lesson to a young person today rings true with a lot of pop culture targeted at youth: talk a big game. It doesn't matter if you back it up or not, you just need to pose as someone who bucks the system.

Very true. Various times in the movies they state that one can be a pirate yet still be a good man.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Very true. Various times in the movies they state that one can be a pirate yet still be a good man.

True enough. I have spent considerable time reading early accounts of the Pirates and in their reality (and like those in Somalia) they are nothing to emulate on any level. Most of what we know today comes out of the fiction, like "walking the plank" is a Stevenson invention. The great work of Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood and the Sea Hawk) depicts piracy based on historical situations, but romanticizes the high seas adventure and cunning escapes, recoiling from the torture, carnage and rape. It's suggested but not explained. Peter Blood is this kind of character that has a sense of honor among thieves, punishes other pirates, and does not relish war.

 

[mgf]

True enough. I have spent considerable time reading early accounts of the Pirates and in their reality (and like those in Somalia) they are nothing to emulate on any level. Most of what we know today comes out of the fiction, like "walking the plank" is a Stevenson invention. The great work of Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood and the Sea Hawk) depicts piracy based on historical situations, but romanticizes the high seas adventure and cunning escapes, recoiling from the torture, carnage and rape. It's suggested but not explained. Peter Blood is this kind of character that has a sense of honor among thieves, punishes other pirates, and does not relish war.

You might enjoy this podcast, Eddie. I am in grad school working on an MPA. Naturally, I was required to take an econ class. To my surprise, the professor was very engaging and made class really entertaining. One of the case studies we did was on pirates. Basically, property interests and legal institutions differentiated pirates from merchants (e.g. East India Trading Company). The impact of these on behavior, however, was almost the reverse of what we expect. Pirate crews were largely democratic while merchant crews were totalitarian.

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/05/leeson_on_pirat.html

 

[sublimesting]

True enough. I have spent considerable time reading early accounts of the Pirates and in their reality (and like those in Somalia) they are nothing to emulate on any level. Most of what we know today comes out of the fiction, like "walking the plank" is a Stevenson invention. The great work of Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood and the Sea Hawk) depicts piracy based on historical situations, but romanticizes the high seas adventure and cunning escapes, recoiling from the torture, carnage and rape. It's suggested but not explained. Peter Blood is this kind of character that has a sense of honor among thieves, punishes other pirates, and does not relish war.

I just spent a week at the beach and decided to read a few books on pirates. Fascinating subject. I was especially surprised to learn that a pirate captain is only in charge during times of chase and battle and could be voted out as captain at any time. Also, to me pirates always seem to be guys in their late 30's or early 40's but most pirates were in their early 20's - college aged! They are glamourized though and even though I know full well what a pirate is and what a pirate does it still has that romanticized aura about it. In reality they were basically common rapists/robbers/murderers on the high seas. Put those same characters on land and they become highwaymen. Nobody romanticizes that. There's just something about the ocean.....

 

[Eddie Sotto]

I just spent a week at the beach and decided to read a few books on pirates. Fascinating subject. I was especially surprised to learn that a pirate captain is only in charge during times of chase and battle and could be voted out as captain at any time. Also, to me pirates always seem to be guys in their late 30's or early 40's but most pirates were in their early 20's - college aged! They are glamourized though and even though I know full well what a pirate is and what a pirate does it still has that romanticized aura about it. In reality they were basically common rapists/robbers/murderers on the high seas. Put those same characters on land and they become highwaymen. Nobody romanticizes that. There's just something about the ocean.....

I just returned from Hawaii and did the same thing! I did not know about the age aspect, very interesting. The romance of the high seas still grabs me. While on the beach reading, I was listening to this Album, the same tracks played on the SS Columbia at DL.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-of-the-sea/id330875002


If you are a Tall Ships/Pirate nut like me you may enjoy playing "Sid Meier's "Pirates!" PC and now Wii Game.

http://www.2kgames.com/pirates/wii/us/

 

[KevinYee]

Speaking of totalitarian: Perhaps the NextGen technology will allow PotC to "impress" us as young sailors (ie, fight the pirates)...

 

[Eddie Sotto]

You might enjoy this podcast, Eddie. I am in grad school working on an MPA. Naturally, I was required to take an econ class. To my surprise, the professor was very engaging and made class really entertaining. One of the case studies we did was on pirates. Basically, property interests and legal institutions differentiated pirates from merchants (e.g. East India Trading Company). The impact of these on behavior, however, was almost the reverse of what we expect. Pirate crews were largely democratic while merchant crews were totalitarian.

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/05/leeson_on_pirat.html

I just listened to it, excellent and interesting. Thank you so much for sharing that.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Speaking of totalitarian: Perhaps the NextGen technology will allow PotC to "impress" us as young sailors (ie, fight the pirates)...

Not a bad idea! I just learned that the British (circa 1812) would board American merchant ships and "impress" British seamen that had since become Americans back into service on their ships to sail, as they were thought of as "once British always British" and seen as deserters. This contributed to the Declaration of the War of 1812. Maybe the Rose and Crown Pub at the UK Pavilion could be the launch point to hijack guests!

 

[StageFrenzy]

Not a bad idea! I just learned that the British (circa 1812) would board American merchant ships and "impress" British seamen that had since become Americans back into service on their ships to sail, as they were thought of as "once British always British" and seen as deserters. This contributed to the Declaration of the War of 1812. Maybe the Rose and Crown Pub at the UK Pavilion could be the launch point to hijack guests!

Or drop a crown in your drink, speaking of hijacking ever have any thoughts to re-purpose discovery island