Spirited Spring Break News, Observations & Thoughts ...

[ttalovebug]

And the folks at Disney aren't that smart, but they are smart enough to realize that all your crowing about how MAGICal exploring the Fortress at TDS is that more of your readers (like 98%) will visit Tom Sawyer Island (and does anyone actually go there anymore? I think it's been 9-10 years for me now) still.

Just wanted to add my two cents to the other poster that replied that yes, people do. I was there pre-spring break season and there were plenty of people there. The great thing was seeing so many kids running around the fort and tunnels engaged in some seriously intense role-playing. Great to have a place where kids can really have some old-fashioned, imaginative fun.

That being said, I'm shocked it's still open, just because it wouldn't be beyond their normal practices just to leave it there to rot and stop operating the rafts. But I'm very glad it's still open and I, along with many others, enjoy it on a regular basis.

 

[stevehousse]

This Social Media Moms event at Disneyland this weekend is fascinating to watch, at least from the safety of my hillside home office 7 miles east of Anaheim. I had no idea this thing existed, but it does. And the comments these women are making on their daily blogs and YouTube videos are hilarious and baffling. Why are they there???

Last year the Disney Social Media Moms kick-off reception featured shirtless male gymnasts performing for the ladies. I guess the Thunder From Down Under was already booked?

http://www.disneyeveryday.com/2013-disney-social-media-moms-celebration-in-pictures-day-1/

I just don't get what Disney gets out of this. They appear to have invited a few hundred mommy bloggers from around the country, some of whom have an affinity for the Disney brand and some who have little experience with it. The East Coast bloggers are excited to be in California yet don't get the Disneyland culture or scene, and are like fishes out of water thus far. The West Coast bloggers are thrilled with a free trip for the hubby and kids to Disneyland and are lapping up the special attention. Tom Staggs is there addressing the group in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel and they are rolling out the red carpet for them with Disney celebs and Imagineers, and unlimited Fastpasses and special viewing areas for World of Color and parades and Fantasmic! and fireworks, cocktail receptions, etc., etc.

Sunday morning they get Cars Land reserved all to themselves for gourmet breakfast and Mimosas and Lightning McQueen photos and walk-on rides on everything in Cars Land. Baffling!

And then you go look at these blogs the women have and watch their YouTube channels. And these women are blogging about the best jogger strollers and non-toxic lavender laundry detergent and their comments section is lucky to have the four or five comments, most of which are made by the same two or three gal-pals posting daily. Their YouTube channels have views of about 12 to 150. That's 12, as in one dozen people clicked on the video. I wonder how many watched the whole thing?

These are just bored housewives, er... stay-at-home-moms is what I meant to say, filling their days with blogs after they turn off The View. And their online presence and readership numbers are very, very small. And they're mainly just communicating with other bored housewi... stay-at-home-moms who think and act exactly the same. And who wouldn't want a free trip to Disneyland with a lanyard that gets you unlimited Fastpass access to everything?!?

And Disney corporate pours all this money and resources and energy into hosting these women and their families? Why?!? I'm just baffled.

This Social Media nonsense seems like the ultimate case of the Emperor Has No Clothes. Maybe that's the secret message of the shirtless gymnasts last year?

I have said for years now that Disney Social Media exists to exist. For folks like Leanne and Tom and Gary and Blondie to earn paychecks while sending corporate dollars to social media 'experts' like Ragan and Holtz and many others (that you can likely figure out by following folks like Gary Buchanan on Twitter).

There is absolutely NO value to the company in a Mommy Blogger with a youTube channel that has 23 regular viewers. There is absolutely NO value to the company in a Mommy Blogger that has 36 clicks in a month, 32 of them from immediate family.

Yet, Disney is spending millions of dollars this weekend. And it is just one example because Disney is wining and dining smaller groups on almost year round basis.

So your tellin me all it takes to get free vacations to DL is to have 20 followers on YouTube! WTH?!?

I can't believe they really waste their money on this! I just hope their gatherings aren't as bad and low class as that California Grill Blogger Event was for the reopen. That video still gives me the heeby jebbies!!!

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Spirit of Walt Disney?

I believe its some sort of cryogenically frozen Vodka, made by Dan Akroyd

 

[EpcoTim]

I believe its some sort of cryogenically frozen Vodka, made by Dan Akroyd

I believe it was a whiskey, made before he got fat and unfunny. Right around the 'Spies Like Us' Era.

Rumor has it it also contains some Belushi blood. The funny Belushi, not the one living of the name.

 

[JimboJones123]

This. Segel was a Muppet fanboy that made a big-budget Muppet self-insert fanfic to get the Muppets back in the public eye again.

As far as what happened with the marketing on Most Wanted, Toughpigs.com observed that most of the ad campaign was focused on Social Media and such versus regular platforms (which were pretty saturated with Sherman and Peabody) and that the advertising might have been more compelling if they had more emphasis on the wedding climax as the whole Kermit/Piggy "Will they/Won't they" thing has been ingrained in the felt for years.

In before Magenta Panther makes the same obnoxious comment along the lines of "No, Muppets Most Wanted failed entirely because the Muppets are loser poopy-heads that nobody likes anymore"

Um... a huge amount of Muppets fans HATE anything based on a Kermit/Piggy relationship. This is addressed in the movie yet again by everybody being surprised at how much Constantine was into Piggy. It was the climax and one of the very few things that worked in the movie.

The fact is, the movie wasn't any good. Social media cannot be blamed for a bad product. Same thing with John Carter. I would put Muppets Most Wanted right there with Muppets from Space, just the smallest pinch above Muppets Treasure Island.

The movie wasn't fun. It wasn't funny. The Muppets were not able to develop into characters at all. Fry's character was the most developed in the movie. Ricky's was second.

 

[JimboJones123]

Muppets Most Wanted also did a horrid job of going out of its way to make the Muppets look like a tarnished brand. The purpose of the previous movie was to say that the Muppets have been out of the public eye and forgotten, but they still have a core fan base that loves and appreciates them.

Why then is the major plot device of the new movie to showcase how much disinterest there is in the Muppets brand? The Badguy had to pay people to see the shows and pay writers for good reviews? The shows they put on were still a disorganized mess that audiences slept through? Kermit rejected acts that were actually on The Muppet Show?

The whole movie has an underlying feeling polar opposite of the last. Instead of being a work of passion towards rebuilding the brand, it feels almost as if the efforts are to kill the Muppets brand and make it feel boring and unimportant.


I really hated that part of the movie the most.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Gotta be honest with you @WDW1974 that Seven Dwarfs mine train attraction is shaping up really well. It's certainly not an e-ticket or anything but for a mid-level attraction its a huge step up from attractions like Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger spin, Superstar Limo, pooh, etc. The mine train will at least have some thrills, great theming, and real audio animatronic robots (not cardboard cutouts, static figures, or video screens). First time in a long time i'm seeing an original attraction @
Walt Disney World that is in keeping with the spirit of the attractions designed by Walt Disney himself.

I can agree with this sentiment.

As I wrote here, here, and here, I've been optimistic about SDMT. It's shaping up to be exactly what Disney wanted to achieve with a 38" roller coaster plopped right in the middle of Fantasyland: an attraction with multi-generational appeal to both sexes. And it's based on a classic Disney IP!

It's probably going to be WDW's best attraction since Expedition Everest was completed in 2006. Considering the EE project was launched and developed under Eisner, SDMT is probably going to be WDW's best attraction yet developed under Iger.

Maybe Iger and Staggs aren't always the theme park devils you paint them to be...

I cannot agree with this sentiment.

A couple of good attractions at WDW in 9 years, continued declining quality, and prices that have increased at triple the rate of inflation is pretty much all I need to know to realize that Iger, Rasulo, and Staggs have been the worst leadership ever when it comes to WDW.

 

[jlsHouston]

So...the last Spirit thread really had me wanting to go see the Captain America movie...apparently the grandkids had seen it last weekend when they were at their dads, so I had to go see Rio2. Which was cute. All the way up to the box office to purchase the tickets, I did keep asking if they were sure they didn't want to see Captain America again, which led to them discussing they liked Tony Sparks because he is cool. And funny. I gather this the Thor guy.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I'm a muppets fan and still have not seen it. The plot of the movie looked cheesy (well, it is the muppets after all...), but what really made me just not put the effort into going was how bad the marketing was for it. The marketing didn't make me WANT to go see the movie. It made it look like an ok muppet showcase, but nothing special like the last movie.

Muppets Most Wanted made me think to much of Great Muppet Caper, as if no thought went into Muppets Most Wanted at all... Like the decision makers sat around, couldn't come up with any ideas, and figured they would just reboot Muppet Caper but make it in 2014...

 

[FigmentJedi]

Muppets Most Wanted also did a horrid job of going out of its way to make the Muppets look like a tarnished brand. The purpose of the previous movie was to say that the Muppets have been out of the public eye and forgotten, but they still have a core fan base that loves and appreciates them.

Why then is the major plot device of the new movie to showcase how much disinterest there is in the Muppets brand? The Badguy had to pay people to see the shows and pay writers for good reviews? The shows they put on were still a disorganized mess that audiences slept through? Kermit rejected acts that were actually on The Muppet Show?

The whole movie has an underlying feeling polar opposite of the last. Instead of being a work of passion towards rebuilding the brand, it feels almost as if the efforts are to kill the Muppets brand and make it feel boring and unimportant.


I really hated that part of the movie the most.

The Muppets as struggling underdogs has been a recurring theme throughout the entire franchise and the bribery and ramshackle train goes pretty well with stuff like the Happiness Hotel or living in lockers and even the Muppet Show itself had various gags about the questionable quality of the show. Also "The Muppets" was just a movie, a really meta movie about the Muppets's place in the pop-culture spectrum, but just another movie the characters made just like pretty much every other Muppet movie has been. There isn't much of an actual canon, the Muppets are actors playing themselves pretty much.

I'd say the problem with the two reboot movies is that they're much too focused on The Muppet Show and are functionally movies based on the show rather then the characters out doing something bigger for the screen. That's why people still love the original Henson-era trio of movies and 90s kids love Christmas Carol and Treasure Island.

If Disney wants to relive the Muppet Show, then they should actually make a new Muppet Show and finish the DVD releases of the original Muppet Show. I'd much prefer that then these movies about the Muppet Show.

 

[lazyboy97o]

So...the last Spirit thread really had me wanting to go see the Captain America movie...apparently the grandkids had seen it last weekend when they were at their dads, so I had to go see Rio2. Which was cute. All the way up to the box office to purchase the tickets, I did keep asking if they were sure they didn't want to see Captain America again, which led to them discussing they liked Tony Sparks because he is cool. And funny. I gather this the Thor guy.

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

 

[asianway]

On the topic of mommy "look what I got for free" outreach, I scrolled down the hashtag and nothing they are spewing is getting retweets. Even the ones that have 20,000 alleged followers

Kind of defeats the point.

 

[bhg469]

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

On a side note, my wife's cousin is about to have a baby and they're naming him Anthony, after her father. Her last name? Stark!!

 

[jlsHouston]

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

oops..I'll shut up now...

 

[lazyboy97o]

oops..I'll shut up now...

You should be excited for the nine film cinematic adventure on which you are about to embark.

 

[JimboJones123]

The Muppets as struggling underdogs has been a recurring theme throughout the entire franchise and the bribery and ramshackle train goes pretty well with stuff like the Happiness Hotel or living in lockers and even the Muppet Show itself had various gags about the questionable quality of the show. Also "The Muppets" was just a movie, a really meta movie about the Muppets's place in the pop-culture spectrum, but just another movie the characters made just like pretty much every other Muppet movie has been. There isn't much of an actual canon, the Muppets are actors playing themselves pretty much.

I'd say the problem with the two reboot movies is that they're much too focused on The Muppet Show and are functionally movies based on the show rather then the characters out doing something bigger for the screen. That's why people still love the original Henson-era trio of movies and 90s kids love Christmas Carol and Treasure Island.

If Disney wants to relive the Muppet Show, then they should actually make a new Muppet Show and finish the DVD releases of the original Muppet Show. I'd much prefer that then these movies about the Muppet Show.

This movie treated the Muppets nothing like The Happiness Hotel. They were playing characters in that movie and never self referenced themselves as The Muppets. The times they actually did in Caper, the Piggy breaking down with Kermit, was one of the better gags of the movie. Caper is my favorite because it creates entire new characters based on the personas of the Muppets. Most Wanted just plodded along and it wasn't entertaining.

Um..... People don't like Treasure Island. Most contend that it is the absolute worst of the batch, and when Rizzo is the only shining star, you have major problems. The movie was neither entertaining (except for the rats on the cruise line) nor funny in any way. The human characters were atrocious as well.

 

[JimboJones123]

You should be excited for the nine film cinematic adventure on which you are about to embark.

Agree. Spend a weekend enjoying the greatness.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Um..... People don't like Treasure Island. Most contend that it is the absolute worst of the batch, and when Rizzo is the only shining star, you have major problems. The movie was neither entertaining (except for the rats on the cruise line) nor funny in any way. The human characters were atrocious as well.

No, Muppets from Space is widely considered to be the terrible one. And what are you talking about, Tim Curry was amazing in Treasure Island

 

[whylightbulb]

74 speaks the truth. There are those within the ranks of Creative, and many of those that are no longer working for Creative, that are a little tired of the reliance on video screens as the center of Universal’s attraction roster. Just like the original FJ concept, Gringotts started out as a nicely balanced ride that included a judicious mix of video and practical sets/show action and effects. Due to the very same reasons FJ suffered the loss of multiple practical, illusion/effect-based scenes Gringotts has become about 85% screen-based. Once again I need to qualify this with a great big – THIS RIDE WILL STILL BE A LOT OF FUN AND MANY WILL FIND IT TO BE SPECTACULAR. Please remember the following comes from someone who has been working on the project for several years now and therefore may see this from a very different perspective than many of you.

The screen-based argument is not a simple issue. The first thing to consider is that show action, AAs, and other types of practical effects can be extremely costly to maintain. When the consumables estimates are done during the design phases for example this is all taken into account. There are currently four LN2 based effects in Gringotts that fire off about every 30 seconds and that adds up to a pretty penny. Another example would be the Goblin AAs that include multiple functions and controls and require an expensive stock of spare parts and tech. services man-hours to perform PMs and maintenance. Not to mention the figure finish and QA. Now multiply the number of AAs and other mechanical show systems and we are talking a massive annual budget just to maintain these components. This is a factor in the decision to rely more upon Video for sure and it gives those in the current upper echelons of the Creative offices ammunition to make their case to the financial decision makers.

I understand all the foregoing but my main issue here is that Creative is not fighting for more “magic” and practical show elements but would rather maintain the status quo. Movie/Video is what certain upper level Creative executive are comfortable with and they really don’t have a full understanding of the theme park medium (at least what some of us would call the “old school” version of theme parks). I know that sounds crazy..that those in charge with conceptualizing the main attractions for a mega theme park company like Universal don’t understand theme park dark rides and attractions but just look at some of their backgrounds and how they talk in the meetings. An argument could be made that they are reinventing the theme park attraction experience and if that is a valid argument I guess I could say I much prefer “old school.” I’m not going to go into the reasons why here because I’ve done it In other posts and certainly many others have also. I would love to see a much more even balance of video and practical but so far we are losing that battle mainly due to the two reasons I’ve outlined in this post: Cost and a design philosophy/laziness.

Yes a budget needs to be worked up and adhered to in order to ensure the financial success of any project. What is wrong in this case is that they barely even care to work with the existing budget and adjust the concept because of ignorance. They feel the attraction will be successful (which it will be of course) using the tried and true formula (Spiderman, Transformers, Simpsons). I hate to bring it up and I can hear the groans virtually as I type but…Tokyo Disney somehow manages to budget full-fledged AA shows and rides and keep them in 100 percent working order. Please don’t tell me it’s just because they are in Japan because supposedly Florida’s Magic Kingdom gate revenue is larger than TDL. I have seen similar quality at Hong Kong Disney. Mystic Manor is a fantastic recent example of a balanced use of video and practical that is elaborate, impressive and very well maintained. So the examples are out there if anyone at Universal would like to see.

I’ve also pointed out many times how much visitors will be amazed when they tour Diagon Alley and ride the Hogwarts Express and Gringotts. It is a fantastic land and perhaps these, what some would call, minor criticisms will be forgotten once it opens and people see it for themselves. There are some jaw-dropping sets and details that will satisfy theme park fans and tourists. Gringotts is really BIG and the scene 7 finale will be exciting. Hogwarts Express to me will become one of the “classics” which should prove to anyone that I’m not completely against video. In the HE case the video is balanced with some practical sets, effects, and not to mention the way the video is being utilized is innovative. So I'm not saying Diagon will be bad obviously. My purpose in writing this is to echo what 74 is saying as well as educate some on what could be an even more exciting Universal future if the right people wake up and start questioning Creative’s design strategy and philosophy.

In summary I can't wait for you guys to see Diagon and the many wonders it has to offer but I’m also disappointed that we are only seeing a percentage of the potential it could have been. It’s true that every project team has criticisms and most visitors will never know or even care about what they might be missing when experiencing these new attractions. But that is the beauty of the internet. In this case it’s allowing me to express my concerns anomalously in the hopes that the message will reach the right ear and make someone think before the next project concept is locked down. At the very least maybe a few Universal visitors will mention it in one of those surveys they take.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Um..... People don't like Treasure Island. Most contend that it is the absolute worst of the batch...

Then why does it have a higher IMDB rating than Muppets From Space (6.9/10 vs. 6.2/10)? To say nothing of Muppets Wizard of Oz, though that was a made-for-TV movie.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Treasure Island has a 70% approval rating with 77% of audiences saying they liked it based thousands of reviews. I think it's fair to say that most do not think it's the worst.