Inside Out meet and greet

[hopemax]

Maybe the operations challenges of dealing with popular M&Gs has scared the parks off. Maybe they told the Studio to come up with other ways of cross-promoting them, so that the park won't get in another situation where they have to "extend" read: pay for the stay of certain characters, or deal with guest service complaints due to lines for them.

This post is mostly a joke, but in an environment of lowered expectations, I'm not 100% sure...

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

That money ran out. So in order to keep BH6 & The Incredibles, DHS Entertainment (or WDW entertainment) would have had to come up with the funding to pay for it.

Perhaps a lesson from Nigel Channing shall explain a bit more

 

[FerretAfros]

Maybe the operations challenges of dealing with popular M&Gs has scared the parks off. Maybe they told the Studio to come up with other ways of cross-promoting them, so that the park won't get in another situation where they have to "extend" read: pay for the stay of certain characters, or deal with guest service complaints due to lines for them.

This post is mostly a joke, but in an environment of lowered expectations, I'm not 100% sure...

I've been surprised how long the Studio has stuck with using M&Gs to promote their films. They have incredibly low capacity, and therefore have little impact on how many people are actually driven to theaters as a result. Even if every single guest who met the characters decided to see the movie (assuming they wouldn't have otherwise), that's only around 800 guests per day. Given the operating expenses, and Disney's profit from each movie ticket, it's an incredibly poor return on investment

In the mid/late-00's, there was a long series of pre-parade units for various films (at least at DLR, not sure about WDW), and those did a great job of exposing huge groups of guests to something from the film. Given that thousands of guests line the parade route daily, while only a few hundred can attend a M&G in a day, it seems like a much easier way to get more exposure, and likely had similar operating expenses

I'm not sure exactly when they switched over to doing promotional M&Gs, but I definitely remember pre-parades as late as Up in 2009. Last year, DLR reinstated the pre-parade, as a way let more guests see Anna & Elsa. I think it would be a nice change to revive pre-parades as a general rule, and stop putting such a heavy emphasis on M&Gs, which have incredibly limited capacity by their very nature

 

[tenchikiss]

I think that it would be worth it to the parks to "eat" the cost of a daily meet and greet EVEN if it only reached 800 people a day. You could still put it on the park maps for a short time, getting others to think OH YEAH that movie is coming out. The ones who do go to the meet and greet will be more likely to see the movie and if they have already seen the movie buy merchandise. You know, since the parks are so AMAZING at having merchandise after a movie hits theaters...

I do think the parade idea is a good one, especially considering the state of the Hollywood Studios parks. Each year they could have a promotional float with the latest movie characters. That would reach a much wider audience and give more people what to do.

Even if people didn't find Big Hero 6 a good/great movie you can't argue Baymax isn't cute. XD

 

[AEfx]

Gee, the movie hasn't even been released yet and y'all are already arguing about M&G for the characters.....

Perhaps Disney is waiting to see how well the movie performs at the box office before committing to something like a M&G, consider that the last couple of Pixar releases weren't that outstanding (Cars 2, Cars, Planes, Trains, Boats, etc. )

That's not allowed!

Disney must know exactly how the public will respond to everything before it comes out and plan for parks commensurately.

LOL.

In this case, I completely agree with you - it's danged if they do, danged if they don't. If they don't do it, people complain, if they do it, people complain they are being too "tie in to latest film".

 

[WhatJaneSays]

The M&G was very nice, both Joy and Sadness were adorable. I would like to see them out and about for the public. It was very obvious that the CMs were trying to keep the M&G under wraps, which I would assume is standard procedure for character meets in unusual places with one-off (or rare) characters that they don’t want to the “public” to see.

The movie itself was cute and I would have paid to see it if I hadn’t made the event (I likely still will as I know the niblings will want to see it). Story-wise it felt more like a strictly Disney feature than a Pixar feature. It wasn’t bad, just not at entertaining as I’d hoped. It felt like the first and third act were written by a different creative team than the middle act. While not off-putting it was a bit muddled. The movie is (obviously) geared to families but could be appreciated adults on their own; perhaps not to the levels of Toy Story 3 or Monsters University. I did emote a few times during the movie, the ones that were supposed to be the sad or happy leaning emotional times felt expected, whereas the funny or “for the adults” ones seemed more genuine.

I give it a solid B.
__

As for this event and others like it I often get in via the email thing and I have zero social media presence. While I can attest that there are a large contingent of people at the events that could be called “lifestylers” there seem to be an equal number of people (at the few I’ve been to) that just happen to sign up at right time, are there that day, or people that live close enough to just go at the drop of a hat. There’s really little “winning” or “contest” involved.

Do some people get a heads up on special events? I’m sure they do, or at the very least the information gets out to them.

Do some people get invited to special events? Yes, because they are often running the “invite” or “press” based event right alongside the “open” or “public” version of the event.

Is it unfair? Yes, anything that is based on a availability, is time sensitive, or limited in scope will inherently be unfair. People with the means will always have a statistical advantage. And there will anways be cases of nepotism that go toward cheap advertising.

Should Disney stop (non-paid) event only exclusive activities like M&Gs that will not be available to the “public” at some point? Probably, but as they are not actively detrimental to the company they are unlikely to stop.

 

[Ignohippo]

I'm sorry, does it seem absolutely ludicrous to anyone else that a resort that brings in billions for TWDCo can't afford to pay 4-6 employees to wear costumes for a couple of months when thousands of families are spending their hard-earned vacation dollars specifically to see these characters?

We're not talking Chicken Little here – we're talking about characters from one of Pixar's biggest franchises (and one of the most boy-centric in Disney's entire stable of characters) and characters from what looks to be a huge success for the company and Pixar's first new characters in 3 years. My Lord, Disney Animation doesn't even have another film to promote until 2016. I think it's fairly obvious there won't be M&G characters for The Good Dinosaur. so they really don't even have any new M&G characters to worry about for another year (besides maybe SW).

As for the Incredibles, it's already reprehensible that there isn't an attraction. It's absolutely ridiculous that now they don't even have a dedicated M&G either.

While I understand M&Gs have tiny capacities, they're still a major, major draw for families to WDW. The idea that they have to be subsidized by the Studio is absolutely ridiculous. It's a complete joke.

 

[MarkTwain]

I'm sorry, does it seem absolutely ludicrous to anyone else that a resort that brings in billions for TWDCo can't afford to pay 4-6 employees to wear costumes for a couple of months when thousands of families are spending their hard-earned vacation dollars specifically to see these characters?

We're not talking Chicken Little here – we're talking about characters from one of Pixar's biggest franchises (and one of the most boy-centric in Disney's entire stable of characters) and characters from what looks to be a huge success for the company and Pixar's first new characters in 3 years. My Lord, Disney Animation doesn't even have another film to promote until 2016. I think it's fairly obvious there won't be M&G characters for The Good Dinosaur. so they really don't even have any new M&G characters to worry about for another year (besides maybe SW).

As for the Incredibles, it's already reprehensible that there isn't an attraction. It's absolutely ridiculous that now they don't even have a dedicated M&G either.

While I understand M&Gs have tiny capacities, they're still a major, major draw for families to WDW. The idea that they have to be subsidized by the Studio is absolutely ridiculous. It's a complete joke.

I'm glad someone else said it. It's as bad as Disney acting like they need a corporate sponsor to pay for running a ride.

 

[PhotoDave219]

The M&G was very nice, both Joy and Sadness were adorable. I would like to see them out and about for the public. It was very obvious that the CMs were trying to keep the M&G under wraps, which I would assume is standard procedure for character meets in unusual places with one-off (or rare) characters that they don’t want to the “public” to see.

The movie itself was cute and I would have paid to see it if I hadn’t made the event (I likely still will as I know the niblings will want to see it). Story-wise it felt more like a strictly Disney feature than a Pixar feature. It wasn’t bad, just not at entertaining as I’d hoped. It felt like the first and third act were written by a different creative team than the middle act. While not off-putting it was a bit muddled. The movie is (obviously) geared to families but could be appreciated adults on their own; perhaps not to the levels of Toy Story 3 or Monsters University. I did emote a few times during the movie, the ones that were supposed to be the sad or happy leaning emotional times felt expected, whereas the funny or “for the adults” ones seemed more genuine.

I give it a solid B.
__

As for this event and others like it I often get in via the email thing and I have zero social media presence. While I can attest that there are a large contingent of people at the events that could be called “lifestylers” there seem to be an equal number of people (at the few I’ve been to) that just happen to sign up at right time, are there that day, or people that live close enough to just go at the drop of a hat. There’s really little “winning” or “contest” involved.

Do some people get a heads up on special events? I’m sure they do, or at the very least the information gets out to them.

Do some people get invited to special events? Yes, because they are often running the “invite” or “press” based event right alongside the “open” or “public” version of the event.

Is it unfair? Yes, anything that is based on a availability, is time sensitive, or limited in scope will inherently be unfair. People with the means will always have a statistical advantage. And there will anways be cases of nepotism that go toward cheap advertising.

Should Disney stop (non-paid) event only exclusive activities like M&Gs that will not be available to the “public” at some point? Probably, but as they are not actively detrimental to the company they are unlikely to stop.

THE MOVIE ISNT EVEN OUT YET. USE THE SPOILER TAG.

 

[asianway]

I'm glad someone else said it. It's as bad as Disney acting like they need a corporate sponsor to pay for running a ride.

They need to now that they lifted the gate admission

 

[wdwgreek]

What happened to using HS as the ultimate flagpole of corporate synergy! The Cinderella carriage is still out, but the character from the next sure thing fire hit from PIXAR are no where to be seen in a park that has a mini land known as PIXAR Place! (I don't consider it a full land) makes perfect sense?

 

[NMBC1993]

What happened to using HS as the ultimate flagpole of corporate synergy! The Cinderella carriage is still out, but the character from the next sure thing fire hit from PIXAR are no where to be seen in a park that has a mini land known as PIXAR Place! (I don't consider it a full land) makes perfect sense?

Actually it does. The Cinderella Carriage is a movie prop. Unless they want to move it, it remains in one place and requires NO PAYMENT from anyone (other than the Photopass person, but again....a chance to make money. Also the Photopass person is one of their regular employees anyway).

 

[bethymouse]

 

[YodaMan]

What happened to using HS as the ultimate flagpole of corporate synergy! The Cinderella carriage is still out, but the character from the next sure thing fire hit from PIXAR are no where to be seen in a park that has a mini land known as PIXAR Place! (I don't consider it a full land) makes perfect sense?

Actually it left yesterday...

 

[FoozieBear]

I will give it a try, Not jumping out of my way to see it, Id rather see Minions.

We're not going to sit here all day and try to convince you but Inside Out is probably Pixar's most brilliant film yet. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: It's the best Pixar film ever. Yes, really. It's innovative and fun, and it's incredibly hilarious. It's a must see for peoples of all ages and both genders.

As far as Minions goes, I haven't seen it so I can't judge, but I doubt it could match the brilliance of Inside Out. Minions will likely just play for the silly fart jokes and won't have much of a story or even anything brilliant or unique about it, where Inside Out will soar. Inside Out would probably win on all accounts, but I have to wait until July to form an actual opinion.

 

[Matt_Black]

I was just on another non-Disney message board and saw an absolutely glowing review for the film. The poster said he thought it was even better than Toy Story 3.

 

[FoozieBear]

I was just on another non-Disney message board and saw an absolutely glowing review for the film. The poster said he thought it was even better than Toy Story 3.

I can't agree more. I'm telling you this movie has serious Best Picture nomination potential. If Toy Story 3 was able to do it, there's no reason Inside Out can't.

It's amazing.

Also, just curious which board this was? I'm interested in reading the poster's thoughts.

 

[Matt_Black]

Cracked.com, over on their forums in the Hollywood section.

 

[WDF]

That was from the Parks Blog "contest" that the same people always "win," and what do you know, they're all folks with a large social media presence.

Not really...it's just that you only see it mentioned by the people with a social media presence. Reading the blog and sending in an e-mail requires no social media presence. Plenty of people who make it into those events never share about them on any social media.

 

[WDF]

We're not going to sit here all day and try to convince you but Inside Out is probably Pixar's most brilliant film yet. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: It's the best Pixar film ever. Yes, really. It's innovative and fun, and it's incredibly hilarious. It's a must see for peoples of all ages and both genders.

As far as Minions goes, I haven't seen it so I can't judge, but I doubt it could match the brilliance of Inside Out. Minions will likely just play for the silly fart jokes and won't have much of a story or even anything brilliant or unique about it, where Inside Out will soar. Inside Out would probably win on all accounts, but I have to wait until July to form an actual opinion.

I have also seen Inside Out and strongly disagree with the bolded portion above. Strongly.