Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres

[englanddg]

People tend to use the terms racist and racially insensitive interchangeably mostly because they usually go hand in hand. In this particular case though, Mulan having a cutesy pet panda is racially insensitive though I don't necessarily think the designer or the various others in the product approval hierarchy are racist.

Yeah. She would have been much better off with a Poodle.

I don't see how it's "insensitive"...or racist...

I do see how it's silly though.

 

[TP2000]

Yeah. She would have been much better off with a Poodle.

Yes, heaven forbid they use an iconic animal indigenous to the country the character is from.

Like pairing a perky Kangaroo with an Australian princess would be "racist". Or a loveable Llama with a Peruvian princess, etc., etc.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I have noticed though that more famies are starting to go to drive ins, mainly because they don't have to worry about the kids pestering other people and if they get grouchy they can still watch the movie and not have to take them outside .

We all had a good time watching Monsters U, then the kids fell asleep and Daddy got to watch Iron Man 3 by himself.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Why a Lone Ranger flop still won't hurt The Teflon Weatherman:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-08/how-disneys-grave-diggers-will-bury-the-lone-ranger

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100871070

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/mich...s-gallop-past-lone-ranger-flop-162816501.html

Isn't this why Speilberg thinks Hollywood is dying? Thanks for the articles though, they were good morning reads.

 

[Darth Sidious]

SW is clearly having financial issues, largely a debt burden. Part of those cutbacks looks like an almost definite sale of BGW and, possibly, BGT.

It is a situation where Blackstone paid $2.7B for the properties in 2009 and current estimates value the properties at approximately $2B. They seem to be having a hard time recouping that $700M and they can either go long and invest heavily or sell some assets. I'm interested to see what they do since the IPO was used to pay off some of their debt.

 

[culturenthrills]

SW is clearly having financial issues, largely a debt burden. Part of those cutbacks looks like an almost definite sale of BGW and, possibly, BGT.

Who would by them? There is only a few companies that could do it. Would Cedar Fair buy them? God forbid Six Flags. I still can't believe all this that has happened to these parks all thanks to $#@%ing InBev's takeover. There are people I know who still refuse to ever drink any AB Beers ever again because of them. But you know I am sure there sales haven't been hurt since most people in the US don't give a crap where there stuff comes from.

All I know is whoever buys them better not ruin those parks esp BGW. I would hate for these parks to lose their world class status(and I bet the tourist industry in Tampa and Williamsburg wouldn't be happy) if they are sold to the wrong company.

 

[FrankLapidus]

And the reason they've struggled is because they believe that female royalty is box-office poison. I hate what they settled on for The Snow Queen. Yes, I know that I haven't seen it yet and that "hate" is a strong word. But I loved the Snow Queen story as a kid, I loved that old animated version I used to see on TV (foreign-made, I believe), and I loved the story about the brave little girl who went on a perilous quest to rescue a frozen-hearted little boy. Now Disney has gutted everything awesome about that fairy tale because of marketing concerns, once again proving that it's artistic vision - if it even has any - is about as far removed from Walt's as it can get. Nuts to "Frozen". I will not be seeing it.

That's your prerogative. The fairy tales that Walt was involved in were not exactly faithful to the source material either, Disney have always taken liberties with the stories that they've adapted. Frozen actually sounds quite a bit more faithful to the original fairy tale than some of the other iterations of the story that Disney has developed; one under Einser was a romantic comedy where the Snow Queen froze the heart of all of her potential suitors until she inevitably meets one that she falls in love with. The name change is the only thing I would put down to marketing concerns, otherwise it has pretty much all of the conventions of a typical Disney fairy tale, including the animal sidekicks who act as comic relief.

 

[BrianLo]

New Miceage article is up this morning. Relatively positive - GAC is getting fixed, Monsters is getting rushed, makeover of the classic Fantasyland Dark Rides is still in the pipe and the Starwars bike coaster will be included in a tomorrow land makeover.

Although the way the article is written about D23, they don't seem totally sure about announcement or no-announcements. They wouldn't leave themselves so many outs in case they end up being wrong as @WDW1974 keeps suggesting.

Also I enjoy how they continually pooh-pooh WDW. Even when it is to say it IS getting something, it is downplayed.

 

[DocMcHulk]

Some folks juggle geese...

Is that some odd British-ism I am not aware of?

 

[Goofyernmost]

There are hips districts practically everywhere these days. I can't believe the little artsy fartsy community that has sprung up in Delray Beach, formerly known largely for where famous (and non) folks' grandparents go to die. It is quite nice, but the point is not every community is still gonna be hip ... it feels like a nice little enclave for artists and trust fund kids etc who can't afford truly hip locales (like say SoBe, about 70 miles to the south).

Think of it this way: if everywhere is hip, then nowhere really is.

Based on the Florida community the only time anything "hip" is referred too, it is preceded by ...Broken!

 

[Goofyernmost]

I think I know the rationale - none of the princesses have female animal companions in their films (unless you count Suzy and Perla for Cinderella, and they're never even named in the film. I think Gus and Jaq would come to mind first). But think about it - Gus, Jaq, Philippe, Flounder, Samson, Maximus, Cri-Kee, Little Brother, Meeko, Rajah - all male. I think they correctly assumed that for something like this to work the characters need to be female.

And that's how this little racist abomination came to be!

Seriously - how condescending can it get? The Asian princess has a pet panda?! What's she gonna do when the darn thing weighs 800 lbs? I can't wait for the follow up product in the princess stereotype collection - Mulan Pretty Nail Manicure Salon playset - with real awkward upsells!

Wasn't there some type of limerick once that involved Purple Panda's?

 

[MattM]

Sounds like typical Wall St.

That doesn't even make sense.

 

[ShookieJones]

I absolutely don't get the incoherent criticism at all. This isn't a film like Tron: Legacy or the last few PotC films. It is pretty damn straight forward, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much. Where the hell is @Lee with his deep hillbilly thoughts?

I have to disagree, I wish it WAS straight forward --- that whole nature out of balance thing? I'm not sure the whole reasoning for it other than to have a few strange scenes with cannibalistic bunnies and horses licking scorpions off people's faces.
Not that there is anything wrong with either of those things, but I'd like the story to explain it or at least resolve it.
I wanted to like this so bad. I'm a big fan of the Lone Ranger and the back story.

The other thing that got me was the whole kid at the carnival\Tonto narrative, it seemed completely unnecessary in this setting, and continued to jolt you out of the story.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Some of the folks on the Board of Directors have interesting backgrounds.

Sheryl Sandberg, 42, has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Inc., an online social networking company, since March 2008. From 2001 to March 2008, Ms. Sandberg was the Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations for Google Inc., an Internet search engine company. Ms. Sandberg also is a former Chief of Staff of the United States Treasury Department and previously served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and as an economist with The World Bank. Ms. Sandberg serves on a number of nonprofit boards including Women for Women International, and V-Day. She served as a director of Starbucks Corp. from 2009 until March 2012 and eHealth, Inc. from 2006 to 2008. She has been a Director of the Company since March 2010.

Judith L. Estrin, 57, is Chief Executive Officer of JLABS, LLC, (formerly Packet Design Management Company, LLC), a privately held company focused on furthering innovation in business, government and non-profit organizations. Ms. Estrin served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems Inc., a developer of networking products, from 1998 until April 2000, and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Precept Software, Inc., a developer of networking software of which she was co-founder, from 1995 until its acquisition by Cisco in 1998. She was also a director of FedEx Corporation, an international provider of transportation and delivery services, from 1989 to September 2010. Ms. Estrin has been a Director of the Company since 1998.

John S. Chen, 56, is Senior Advisor of Silver Lake, a private investment firm. Previously, Mr. Chen was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sybase Inc., a software developer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAP AG. Prior to SAP's acquisition of Sybase in July 2010, Mr. Chen had been Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Sybase, Inc., since November 1998. From February 1998 through November 1998, he served as co-Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Chen joined Sybase in August 1997 as Chief Operating Officer and served in that capacity until February 1998. From March 1995 to July 1997, Mr. Chen was President of the Open Enterprise Computing Division, Siemens Nixdorf, a computer and electronics company, and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Siemens Pyramid, a subsidiary of Siemens Nixdorf. He has been a director of Wells Fargo & Company since 2006. Mr. Chen has been a Director of the Company since 2004.

 

[Kuhio]

That's your prerogative [to not see Frozen]. ... Frozen actually sounds quite a bit more faithful to the original fairy tale than some of the other iterations of the story that Disney has developed; one under Einser was a romantic comedy where the Snow Queen froze the heart of all of her potential suitors until she inevitably meets one that she falls in love with. The name change is the only thing I would put down to marketing concerns, otherwise it has pretty much all of the conventions of a typical Disney fairy tale, including the animal sidekicks who act as comic relief.

Agreed. Although I feel the American trailer for Frozen does an awful job of creating interest in the movie or even telling the audience what the movie is really about, I'm still cautiously optimistic to see the final product for one primary reason: Tangled.

Tangled looked like it could be a flop: an adaptation of a relatively lesser-known fairy tale that has a number of genuinely dark elements; early trailers that focused on physical humor; and the blatant lack of conviction exhibited by the company in choosing to give the movie a completely generic and bland title, ostensibly in an effort to appeal to boys and downplay the supposed "princess" elements.

But Tangled ended up being far better, and far more entertaining, than early indications might have suggested: it had two strong and compelling protagonists; it was considerably faithful to the original story while introducing unique elements that arguably made it even stronger; and it skillfully balanced elements of humor, action, and emotion.

It's possible that Frozen might be a disappointment, but I'm not willing to give up on the movie sight unseen, because WDAS has shown that it can still create a solid product out of seemingly weak pieces. (If anything, I think Disney's marketing department really needs to be re-thought and re-vamped, because they've had a pretty poor track record in recent years of creating and sustaining interest in the company's releases. Almost every Disney movie I've seen in the last several years has been substantially better than I had expected going into the theater.)

 

[fosse76]

I can't see them doing that. It's absurd that they've gone out and branded everything as simply Disney though. I don't actually see the reasoning for it. I would love to pick an executive brain on that one because the reasoning can't be a good one. The name of the company has a good ring to it though.

Personally, I feel like they are treating Walt Disney as character (like Mickey Mouse), as opposed to the founder of the company. He's only mentioned whenever they want to use a quote from him regarding progress or imagination, which really doesn't apply to anything they've done in the past decade.

 

[fosse76]

Yeah I'd be willing to bet Iger doesn't want to have earnings calls in which he has to discuss a major blockbuster flop. When you run the tent pole strategy, Wall Street won't love hearing how one of your five movies tanked, let alone 2 in a year span (though different fiscal years).

Film is a very small percentage of their business. TV and Parks & Resorts are larger. A $250 million loss won't be noticed...the only reason it's even being discussed is because it's a high-profile film. As for the loss itself, it really isn't a big deal in the long run.

 

[fosse76]

I'll pick on the weak summer.

Spent a good chunk of yesterday riding the Monorail (we have some WDW newbies with us this trip) and today at Universal. All seemed crowded but, and I think this is a big but, I have no way of telling whether it's 10% more or 10% less crowded than a typical summer day. 10% more crowded at WDW or Uni would have the execs dancing in the streets. 10% less crowded would have them looking for new jobs.

So ...

Unless someone has access to the numbers or a sense of how execs are reacting, I can't for the life of me understand how anyone can claim they know what's going on by just first-hand exposure. Even if you work at the parks, the ebb and flow of the crowd varies so much that it's extremely difficult for one person in one place to get an accurate count of attendance.

Ummm...it's pretty easy to track the number of guests in the park. Tickets are scanned. When I worked at Six Flags, we'd receive hourly updates on attendance. It's not rocket science. CMs at attractions, I'm sure, keep a rounded count of the number of guests per hour, pretty easily (if less accurately).

 

[fosse76]

No Shakeshack around ... Burgerfi just opened a few miles from here ... why should I try them?

They are overrated (and overpriced, but not nearly as much as Five Guys). All of their locations in Manhattan have extremely long lines (and long waits AFTER your order)...except for the location on the upper east side (which only gets moderate lines at most). Personally, I think it's because in New York, at least, there are thousands of delis and diners, but no real non-McDonald's-type hamburger places. And they are decent, but I wouldn't wait 40 minutes for it.

 

[flynnibus]

Some of the folks on the Board of Directors have interesting backgrounds.

*yawn*

When companies are that big - it's virtually impossible to avoid overlap/use of products.

Would you throw one out there when companies have Microsoft employees or alumni on their board too?