To Lift Your Spirits Up(date)

[PintoColvig]

Can we just give it a rest about who he is!

He doesn't troll here, he doesn't seem to want "praise" or "attention" nor does he get sucked into long drawn out “I’m better than you” arguments. He simply posts some very key nuggets once every couple months and then goes away.

Simply put, he is either an imagineer or a marketing person. Either way, he is not going to tell us who he "really" is. Nor will there be a meet and great, nor will you be able to find him in the park and get his autograph.

Let’s just be happy with the updates he provides. His posts are of more value than most of the other junk being posts around here these days.
:fork:

Actually, the discussion about who he is a part of the fun, if you ask me. I haven't noticed anyone else around here before who has been so specific and so bold while seeming to be authoritative. I find the OP to be almost as intriguing as his posts. What's the big deal about discussing that? :shrug:

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Thanks for the link to a guest's impressions. By the way, when the guest mentions:

"Also, a lot of the popping up heads have been changed and look more comical than frightening now which was disappointing. A few of the heads now pop out directly at you instead of just into the air, which I wasn't expecting and made me jump."

Those are the pop-ups that were meant to go in the attic scene but were deemed too frightening for children. They're now much farther away in the graveyard scene. Also, if you'll look closely you may be able to see that the comical appearing heads have a frightening face on the back of their cranium... you can check my old posts to see what that was for.

I was actually going to post this, but you beat me to it. Now that we've got a review of the HM changes from someone that was invited to testing, it seems to validate what you said about the pop-up heads... Which was going to be the "proof in the pudding" for me in deciding what I think about your posts. Either the pop up heads were going to be changed, and you'd be right... Or they'd be the same and you'd be wrong. Looks like you were right, assuming the guest review is accurate.

 

[RoboPhred]

I took a course on modern mythology last year which delt strongly with LOTR, and I remember reading an archived letter from Tolkien that revealed that he absolutely abhored Disney.

I did a quick web search to find it again:

(Letters, 13, 1937): "It might be advisable […] to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible […] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)."

Found at this site:
http://www.inklingbooks.com/inklingbooks/jrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien.html

I suspect that this is what the issues regarding the LOTR additions is about.

 

[Master Yoda]

I took a course on modern mythology last year which delt strongly with LOTR, and I remember reading an archived letter from Tolkien that revealed that he absolutely abhored Disney.

I did a quick web search to find it again:

Found at this site:
http://www.inklingbooks.com/inklingbooks/jrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien.html

I suspect that this is what the issues regarding the LOTR additions is about.

My memory might be a little fuzzy on this but wasn't Disney one of the first studios that was approached to do the LOTR movies directed by Peter Jackson? An opportunity which Disney passed on vs. the Tolkien family vetoing Disney producing the movies.

 

[bryPOD]

My memory might be a little fuzzy on this but wasn't Disney one of the first studios that was approached to do the LOTR movies directed by Peter Jackson? An opportunity which Disney passed on vs. the Tolkien family vetoing Disney producing the movies.

You're partially right... Jackson came to the presidents of Dimension/Miramax Bob and Harvey Weinstein. They absolutely wanted to work with Jackson on this project, but Eisner wanted all three movies squashed into one 3 hour movie. So Jackson went to New Line, the Weinsteins backed him as producers, and the rest is history.

(note: this is how I remember it, I could be wrong on some of the facts, but I rarely post unless I'm sure on something)

 

[Master Yoda]

You're partially right... Jackson came to the presidents of Dimension/Miramax Bob and Harvey Weinstein. They absolutely wanted to work with Jackson on this project, but Eisner wanted all three movies squashed into one 3 hour movie. So Jackson went to New Line, the Weinsteins backed him as producers, and the rest is history.

(note: this is how I remember it, I could be wrong on some of the facts, but I rarely post unless I'm sure on something)

Thank God he went to New line. A 3 hour LOTR film would have been absolute heresy. Even at a length of more than 12 hours (SE DVD) there are still a few pieces of the books that I would have loved to have seen make it into the final cut.

 

[PintoColvig]

Thank God he went to New line. A 3 hour LOTR film would have been absolute heresy. Even at a length of more than 12 hours (SE DVD) there are still a few pieces of the books that I would have loved to have seen make it into the final cut.

No doubt!

If they had tried to squeeze the three books into one movie, it would've been something altogether different than the books. Instead, Jackson produced an incredibly faithful rendition.

 

[Hakunamatata]

No doubt!

If they had tried to squeeze the three books into one movie, it would've been something altogether different than the books. Instead, Jackson produced an incredibly faithful rendition.

He produced a masterpiece that I will likely not see bettered in my lifetime.

 

[jasondiff]

I thought AK was built with sufficient lighting for nighttime operation, which was the long-term plan when the park was built-out. Did they add areas without enough lighting in the interim, or did they realize that the lighting they have is not adequate? I've been there for EMH in the evening, and it's beautiful, but quite dark.

 

[CSUFSteve]

I thought AK was built with sufficient lighting for nighttime operation, which was the long-term plan when the park was built-out. Did they add areas without enough lighting in the interim, or did they realize that the lighting they have is not adequate? I've been there for EMH in the evening, and it's beautiful, but quite dark.

I haven't seen AK at night in years (and sadly for me, the dates I'm there for Epcot's 25th do not happen to align with Evening EMH for AK), but I'm told that they put a lot of care and effort into how AK would look at night. He lamented the fact that AK did not stay open past dusk (at the time) b/c guests never saw the hard work they put into AK at night.

So at least I would say there's no issue from a design point of view. If your question was more along the lines of why hasn't Disney kept AK open later, I would guess that until Everest, Disney didn't feel AK's attendance justified the operating expenses of longer hours. But with Everest, this River of Light thing, and possible other stuff, they may now have a reason to change their thinking on that.

 

[PotteryGal]

Thank God he went to New line. A 3 hour LOTR film would have been absolute heresy. Even at a length of more than 12 hours (SE DVD) there are still a few pieces of the books that I would have loved to have seen make it into the final cut.

Like Tom Bombadil, for instance. JMO, Peter Jackson's films were as close as we could get to Tolkien's intent, I really don't want it becoming an attraction. I'd like to see a tribute to it in GMR, maybe. :shrug: Now if we could just get 'The Hobbit' on film..

 

[DisneyExplorer]

Where the pop-up ghosts are already two-sided, can't they test out the scarier side of them during the previews before the attractions opens to find out from the guests if they think it is too scary?

 

[CBOMB]

Is he, isn't he? Is he, isn't he? Is he, isn't he? Is he, isn't he?:ROFLOL:


As usual, thanks for the very informative updates.

 

[PeeplMoovr]

I may be one of the few, but I'm kind of thankful Disney didn't get LotR. It never appealed to me. I always found it slow and boering, and though I'm not a huge SW fan, I really do love Star Tours and hope the new one only improves what was there.

I'm with you. LOTR does nothing for me.

 

[jt04]

I'm with you. LOTR does nothing for me.

Yeah, but you have to admit the music is Amazing even if you don't like the movies, (which I do)

 

[Master Yoda]

Like Tom Bombadil, for instance. JMO, Peter Jackson's films were as close as we could get to Tolkien's intent, I really don't want it becoming an attraction. I'd like to see a tribute to it in GMR, maybe. :shrug: Now if we could just get 'The Hobbit' on film..

I was thinking more along the lines of the Hobbits returning to the shire to find "Sharkey" in control.

 

[DisneyDellsDude]

I, too, would like to know what happened to the day/night HM ideas. Why did they remove them?
I was looking forward to that.

 

[tirian]

I took a course on modern mythology last year which delt strongly with LOTR, and I remember reading an archived letter from Tolkien that revealed that he absolutely abhored Disney.

I did a quick web search to find it again:

Found at this site:
http://www.inklingbooks.com/inklingbooks/jrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien/biojrrtolkien.html

I suspect that this is what the issues regarding the LOTR additions is about.

Well, considering that this is before any of the animated features, I want to know why Tolkien cared about the animated shorts so much.

He also disliked C.S. Lewis' Chronicle of Narnia because Lewis freely mixed Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology. Tolkien and Lewis were best friends. I think that Tolkien simply took his universe too seriously. (That said, I love LotR and I own nearly all of Tolkien's works...Lewis', too!)

 

[kubfish]

Haha, is there a CSU in Fresno?? Actually, I meant Fullerton aka Cal State Disneyland, and yeah, I did work there during my CSUF days!

Actually, I live in San Jose now but, yeah, still a DL passholder. And yeah, I actually do average about once a month - sometimes more, sometimes less.

I think there is a CSUFresno, forgot about Fullerton...man would love to take the kids down there once a month. Hope as they get older they would work at DL and get us free tickets or some sort of perk !!

 

[scpergj]

Lord of the Rings is a very involved story. Though popular it doesn't appeal to the masses the way others may (Star Wars, Indy, etc...) in my opinion.

It is also a much darker film franchise and again, it wouldn't appeal to that many (especially younger guests).

Darker, yes...but an epic battle of Good vs. Evil, including messianic overtones. In reality, I don't see it as any darker than The Chronicles of Narnia (with a less overt messianic message, if you ask me...in LOTR, you need to study, or at least read the trillogy more than once, to really see it).

Oh...and by the way...I see the same basic story and the same message (yeah, including the messianic overtones) in the Star Wars story.

That's my opinion, of course...and probably a bit biased on this subject, since I have written a number of papers on such in Lit classes a while ago (ok...about a decade or so...) and then defended them in class. I also wrote on Baseball in literature (which I got serious laughs in class...until I made the kids in the class think...I was 25 in a sophmore lit class)

I think any of these would be good for Disney to use...but the creatures in LOTR could probably be more upsetting to children.

Kevin