Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres

[Cody5242]

Here's the first clips for Saving Mr. Banks (Skip ahead to 6:31) http://www.etonline.com/full_episode/111836_Daily_Full_Episode/index.html

 

[Wilt Dasney]

My main question is why espn is talking about movies? The Lone Ranger isn't exactly a sport...

It's Bill Simmons. He's just as likely to break into a discussion of whether Shelley Long or Kirstie Alley was better on "Cheers" as he is to talk about NBA trades.

 

[flynnibus]

eh i'm not seeing the issue

Because one ignores the context of what brought the show back... you know.. 16 YEARS after it was closed and replaced.

 

[truecoat]

Here's the first clips for Saving Mr. Banks (Skip ahead to 6:31) http://www.etonline.com/full_episode/111836_Daily_Full_Episode/index.html

Looks good to me. Responstible is not a word (quickly hides other song with made up word).

 

[PhotoDave219]

What about guest attire?

I can think of many suitable lines from "Silence of the Lambs" to quote here....

 

[choco choco]

Here's the first clips for Saving Mr. Banks (Skip ahead to 6:31) http://www.etonline.com/full_episode/111836_Daily_Full_Episode/index.html

This is going to be a strange movie. P.L. Travers hated, hated, hated, hated, HATED Disney's Mary Poppins. Her notes for it during the production were essentially "Make it less cute and not a musical" and were deliberately ignored. Disney gave her the runaround and then lapped her three times over just to make sure.

She wept openly at the film's finish when she attended the premiere.

For the sharp eyed, the trailer shows scenes inside Fantasyland...and they are the present day European village facades that went up in the 80's.

This movie is gonna be as fairytale-ish as any of Disney's animated fare.

 

[OFTeric]

This movie is gonna be as fairytale-ish as any of Disney's animated fare.

I think people want to love Walt, and they want to love the idea, the fantasy of who Walt is.

 

[Cody5242]

This is going to be a strange movie. P.L. Travers hated, hated, hated, hated, HATED Disney's Mary Poppins. Her notes for it during the production were essentially "Make it less cute and not a musical" and were deliberately ignored. Disney gave her the runaround and then lapped her three times over just to make sure.

She wept openly at the film's finish when she attended the premiere.

For the sharp eyed, the trailer shows scenes inside Fantasyland...and they are the present day European village facades that went up in the 80's.

This movie is gonna be as fairytale-ish as any of Disney's animated fare.

I bet the movie is going to make it seem like she loved it to make a happy ending

 

[Magenta Panther]

This is going to be a strange movie. P.L. Travers hated, hated, hated, hated, HATED Disney's Mary Poppins. Her notes for it during the production were essentially "Make it less cute and not a musical" and were deliberately ignored. Disney gave her the runaround and then lapped her three times over just to make sure.

She wept openly at the film's finish when she attended the premiere.

For the sharp eyed, the trailer shows scenes inside Fantasyland...and they are the present day European village facades that went up in the 80's.

This movie is gonna be as fairytale-ish as any of Disney's animated fare.

I don't feel sorry for Ms. Travers one bit. I've read two of the Poppins books, and they're quite charming, but a direct translation to film would have been disastrous. Travers had no idea how to make a successful film of her stories, and that shows in the audio transcriptions of the story sessions available in the Disney archives. She hated animation. She hated the Sherman Brothers songs - she wanted period music in the film, such as the ever-popular "Ta-Ra-Ra-BOOM-De-Ay". She hated Dick Van and could barely tolerate Julie Andrews. She would make bizarre demands, such as insisting that Mary Poppins' dresses be made by a particular tailor in London and no one else. Walt was gentlemanly to her, but wisely ignored her ridiculousness. Thanks to him, her basic characters and story have been immortalized in one of the best musicals ever made. Kids know "Mary Poppins" not because of her books but because of the film, and I bet that after seeing the movie, they search out her books (I know I did). She was not a victim. She was an oblivious eccentric, and Walt dealt with her as best he could. When "Poppins" premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater, it got a five-minute standing ovation. Travers was furious, and demanded that changes be made. Here are some of the changes she wanted done:

She loathed the animation. She disapproved of children sliding up banisters and jumping in puddles. She hated the songs and Mr Banks’ pyjamas, and she wanted tapioca to be removed from Mary Poppins’ shopping list.

Yeah, poor poor Ms. Travers. Nuts to her, frankly.

 

[Magenta Panther]

I bet the movie is going to make it seem like she loved it to make a happy ending

I hope it exposes her as the vile-tempered witch she often was. We'll see.

 

[GoofGoof]

And I disagree as far as CMs are concerned, which is what I have been addressing. I doubt it's as guarded as you think it is from the employees running the park.

I'm not a CM so I don't know for sure, but if the front line CMs all had this info it would be leaked by now. There would be no waiting for TEA reports or debate on attendance. There are way too many CMs for the info not to get out. I am sure management has that info but its a much smaller group so much more of a chance of getting caught if you leak the info.

Any current or former WDW CMs out there? Do you have access to daily attendance numbers?

 

[Magenta Panther]

I think people want to love Walt, and they want to love the idea, the fantasy of who Walt is.

Oh, and who is he in YOUR opinion?

Read some honest books about him, such as Bob Thomas' "Walt Disney, An American Original". Bob Thomas, unlike nearly every other Walt Disney biographer, actually met and interviewed Walt. You might be surprised to find that Walt wasn't perfect, but he was a good man, a creative genius, a faithful husband and a doting father. And none of that is a fantasy.

You might also be interested to know that Dodie Smith, author of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, had a very different experience with the Disney company. She loved the Disney version of her story - and it took quite a few liberties with HER book (which I've read), but she felt it actually improved on her story. She enjoyed a warm correspondence with Walt until his death. She had a rather healthier and more realistic view of the world than Travers did. Don't make assumptions based on Travers' behaviors. Walt did her story justice. She was just too weird and close-minded to understand that. Her loss.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

I'm not a CM so I don't know for sure, but if the front line CMs all had this info it would be leaked by now. There would be no waiting for TEA reports or debate on attendance. There are way too many CMs for the info not to get out. I am sure management has that info but its a much smaller group so much more of a chance of getting caught if you leak the info.

Any current or former WDW CMs out there? Do you have access to daily attendance numbers?

Low level management at DLR is provided with daily "estimates" that can be revised as the days goes on.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Oh, and who is he in YOUR opinion?

Read some honest books about him, such as Bob Thomas' "Walt Disney, An American Original". Bob Thomas, unlike nearly every other Walt Disney biographer, actually met and interviewed Walt. You might be surprised to find that Walt wasn't perfect, but he was a good man, a creative genius, a faithful husband and a doting father. And none of that is a fantasy.

You might also be interested to know that Dodie Smith, author of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, had a very different experience with the Disney company. She loved the Disney version of her story - and it took quite a few liberties with HER book (which I've read), but she felt it actually improved on her story. She enjoyed a warm correspondence with Walt until his death. She had a rather healthier and more realistic view of the world than Travers did. Don't make assumptions based on Travers' behaviors. Walt did her story justice. She was just too weird and close-minded to understand that. Her loss.

Also, Neil Gabler's biography "Walt Disney and the Triump of the American Imagination" is garbage. Gotta love it when the author who gets all this special access turns in a libelous dud!

 

[SirLink]

I think people want to love Walt, and they want to love the idea, the fantasy of who Walt is.

Agreed.

 

[bubbles1812]

I don't feel sorry for Ms. Travers one bit. I've read two of the Poppins books, and they're quite charming, but a direct translation to film would have been disastrous. Travers had no idea how to make a successful film of her stories, and that shows in the audio transcriptions of the story sessions available in the Disney archives. She hated animation. She hated the Sherman Brothers songs - she wanted period music in the film, such as the ever-popular "Ta-Ra-Ra-BOOM-De-Ay". She hated Dick Van and could barely tolerate Julie Andrews. She would make bizarre demands, such as insisting that Mary Poppins' dresses by made by a particular tailor in London and no one else. Walt was gentlemanly to her, but wisely ignored her ridiculousness. Thanks to him, her basic characters and story have been immortalized in one of the best musicals ever made. Kids know "Mary Poppins" not because of her books but because of the film, and I bet that after seeing the movie, they search out her books (I know I did). She was not a victim. She was an oblivious eccentric, and Walt dealt with her as best he could. When "Poppins" premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater, it got a five-minute standing ovation. Travers was furious, and demanded that changes be made. Here are some of the changes she wanted done:

She loathed the animation. She disapproved of children sliding up banisters and jumping in puddles. She hated the songs and Mr Banks’ pyjamas, and she wanted tapioca to be removed from Mary Poppins’ shopping list.

Yeah, poor poor Ms. Travers. Nuts to her, frankly.

Well, I'm not denying that she had a reputation for being... Less than pleasant, or that her demands were often silly. BUT, I can't exactly blame the women for not wanting a more faithful adaption of her material. I love Mary Poppins, the music, the animation, the story, the lady herself, but even the characterization of Mary from the books was quite different from the movie. When it's your own book that had been trashed from your perspective, then I think we could talk more about how Walt was apparently practically perfect in every way in regards to movie, and Travers was apparently horrid beyond imagination. In your mind. I'd guess the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Again, this is from someone who does love the movie. But I think some of the things you wrote were a bit harsh on Travers. I would say the same thing if it were someone trashing Walt and saying only good about Travers.

And I can't blame her for wanting tapioca struck from the shopping list... Tapioca pudding is naaaaaaasty

 

[truecoat]

For myself, I'm just looking for a good movie not historical accuracy. If I'm not mistaken, this script was on the black list for a while. The list of really good scripts not produced yet. Some are never made. Here is a youtube of the trailer for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-bruckheimers-disney-future-question-582560
Jerry Bruckheimer's Disney Future in Question As Moguls Defend His 'Lone Ranger'
9:00 AM PDT 7/10/2013 by Kim Masters
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The producer's rich "Pirates 5" deal will almost certainly be renegotiated while Les Moonves, Ron Meyer and Jeffrey Katzenberg praise the "Rock of Gibraltar of Hollywood" after a pricey flop.

Amid continuing reverberations from the mega-failure of The Lone Ranger, it appears clear that the movie has damaged producer Jerry Bruckheimer's long and often highly successful relationship with Disney and will lead at minimum to a renegotiation of his rich deal for a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean, if not his eventual exit from the studio.
But in a testament to Bruckheimer's long and extraordinary career -- which has included hits from Flashdance to Beverly Hills Cop to the National Treasure series, not to mention television shows such as The Amazing Race and the CSI franchise -- some of the industry’s leading figures, including CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves and director Michael Bay, are coming to the producer’s defense.
PHOTOS: 26 of Summer's Most Anticipated Movies
At the heart of the discussion is the question of how much responsibility a producer bears when a film like Lone Ranger -- which cost more than $250 million to make and opened to a grim $48.9 million domestic during the long holiday weekend -- goes over budget and all but out of control. Disney sources say Bruckheimer had committed to hold the line on director Gore Verbinski’s spending despite the filmmaker’s reputation for profligacy. But other industry observers say the studio should never have expected Bruckheimer to rein in the director, who had collaborated with him and star Johnny Depp on four Pirates of the Caribbean movies that grossed a combined $3.7 billion at the box office.
“Film directors are very headstrong, and it’s hard,” says Bay, who collaborated with Bruckheimer on two Bad Boys movies and Pearl Harbor, among many others. “Trust me, as a producer, there are things [you] just can’t control. A director will take it and you’ve kind of got to let ‘em go. It’s their movie.”
One of Bruckheimer's reps concurs.
“I don’t know that Jerry Bruckheimer ever promised, per se, to 'control’ Gore Verbinski,” says David O’Connor of CAA. “I don’t know how anybody could promise to control a movie. … Part of the whole visual pitch [of Lone Ranger] was the scope and vistas and incredible beauty of the West. There’s a lot -- when you’re using real locations like that -- that is out of control.”
Bruckheimer and Verbinski declined to comment, as did Disney.
A number of top industry executives who praised Bruckheimer to The Hollywood Reporter were responding in part to recent slams elsewhere, such as one in The New York Times on July 7 that read: “Mr. Bruckheimer’s track record of late has been dismal, with duds including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” The former film grossed $335 million worldwide, while the latter pulled in $215 million. Given their sizable budgets, both films were disappointments.
Moonves, just departing for the Allen & Co. gathering in Sun Valley, Idaho, says Bruckheimer “has clearly been one of the most successful producers in the history of television.” Referring to Bruckheimer-produced hit series, he adds, “A few years back he had seven shows on our air. He’s one of my go-to guys. He always will be.” Moonves notes that Bruckheimer is producing Hostages for CBS, one of the network’s big bets for the fall. “Some of the shows he produced were expensive ones, but there was never an issue creatively or financially,” Moonves says.
“Jerry Bruckheimer is the Rock of Gibraltar of Hollywood,” says DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has known Bruckheimer for more than 30 years. “To suggest that one movie, no matter how big a miss it might be, in any way undermines his value or his career is insane. This is a guy who bats .850 in a world where .350 makes you an All-Star.” Universal's Ron Meyer, too, praises Bruckheimer’s track record, adding, “They took a big swing and they missed. I don’t know any one of us that hasn’t.”
In an important way, the outsized failure of Lone Ranger is having minimal impact as Wall Street analysts have shrugged off the loss despite predictions that a write-off of up to $190 million is coming. Nonetheless, Disney executives are deeply unhappy with the loss and the embarrassment. Sources say the studio battled with Verbinski over length and content and the director lost his final-cut privileges early on due to budget overages. But in practical terms, Disney was not in a position to take control of the picture, potentially alienating a star as important as Depp.
Disney film studio chief Alan Horn, who joined the studio when the film was already underway, is known for his distaste for graphic violence and potentially offensive language -- an inclination perfectly suited to Disney’s culture. Anticipating that the studio would seek cuts, an insider says Verbinski put some dark and violent material in the film -- such as a scene depicting a character eating a human heart -- fully expecting to cut them back to placate executives. Though the heart-devouring scene was trimmed, Disney pushed further.
The studio had contractual power to effect some changes through language in the filmmaker’s contract giving the studio the right to eliminate material inconsistent with the company’s image. As the film moved closer to release, however, Verbinski is said to have threatened to walk off the project if additional changes were made.
Nonetheless, a source involved in the project says Verbinski was more collaborative than usual. From the start, this person says, the director assured the studio that he wanted to control the budget to rebut his reputation for spending. But with challenges such as poor weather -- as well as Verbinski’s insistence on realizing his vision -- he obviously failed.
In the aftermath, Verbinski seems likely to suffer the most fallout of all the key players. But still, it appears that Bruckheimer faces a budget renegotiation on the planned Pirates of the Caribbean 5. There is still no approved script for the film, tentatively set for 2015, though Depp and Bruckheimer are set to return for directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg.
Bruckheimer’s deal at Disney expires in spring 2014. It seems probable that the producer will test the waters at other studios, especially with Disney’s pipeline packed with tentpole movies from Marvel, Lucasfilm and other suppliers. Meanwhile, Bruckheimer is working on Pirates and a found-footage genre film, Beware the Night, for Screen Gems; the latter film is set for release in January 2015. Another potential project is a second Bad Boys sequel at Sony Pictures. Bruckheimer also has a reality series, Marshall Law, in production for TNT.
In an interview with THR just before Lone Ranger opened, Horn declined to comment on Bruckheimer's future at the studio, adding, “He’s a very talented fellow, but every picture needs to justify its green light in this marketplace on its merits. We’ll pick 'em one at a time."

 

[OFTeric]

Oh, and who is he in YOUR opinion?

Read some honest books about him, such as Bob Thomas' "Walt Disney, An American Original". Bob Thomas, unlike nearly every other Walt Disney biographer, actually met and interviewed Walt. You might be surprised to find that Walt wasn't perfect, but he was a good man, a creative genius, a faithful husband and a doting father. And none of that is a fantasy.

You might also be interested to know that Dodie Smith, author of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, had a very different experience with the Disney company. She loved the Disney version of her story - and it took quite a few liberties with HER book (which I've read), but she felt it actually improved on her story. She enjoyed a warm correspondence with Walt until his death. She had a rather healthier and more realistic view of the world than Travers did. Don't make assumptions based on Travers' behaviors. Walt did her story justice. She was just too weird and close-minded to understand that. Her loss.

Thank you Magenta Panther, I do own that book along with a number of other books. I think most people on here, embrace how fallible, and how he was a man of his times. Even though he was a visionary.

But people want to "believe in Walt" they want to believe in someone who just wants to bring happiness to the world. That is the thesis of who Walt is to the general population, that is what people want to believe in.

 

[asianway]

I can think of many suitable lines from "Silence of the Lambs" to quote here....

Fredrica Bimmel