Disney Plans for 2011

Rumors at AICN have Disney planning a batch of sequels for 2011. Some suprising, some obvious and some dubious.



Tron 2 - 3D: Oh please let this be true (says the 9 year old inside of me). Disney has been flirting with a follow-up to the film Tron for years but only a videogame came out of it. Let's get Jeff Bridges and do it right.

















Cars 2: This sounds like a dream for Disney and highly unlikely for Pixar, who has so far been very much against sequels. It was a nice retelling of Doc Hollywood but the story and character arc was told. Let it go.


National Treasure 3: The duh of the group. As long as Cage will do these, Disney will pay for them. It's a fun series but a little....empty. Here's hoping something more interesting than Jim Hill's Atlantis theory proves true.


Pirates of the Caribbean 4: As mich as I love Depp and Jack, the Captain was wearing a bit thin on me the last time out. Maybe he just needs a new crew and a story all his own. At least that's what Disney hopes. That way they can tell a more intimate story and not spend as much (POTC3 was rumored to cost close to 300 mil after marketing). Look for the usual adventure story suspects....maybe atlantis, fountain of youth...yada yada. Who needs those? Keep it simple and original.

Pixar Going to 1906

Incredibles and Ratatouille director Brad Bird has yet again set his sights on "1906" according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. The story of the San Fransico earthquake was sidetracked in favor of Ratatouille but will resume as a live action film. Bird says Pixar will distribute through a new in-house division or with a partner such as Disney. CGI effects work on the disaster pic are expected to be handled primarily by Pixar.

Is "Night" upon us?

The lastest 5th gate rumor is in full swing now thanks to Jim Hill. You can read his story here on Disney's Night Kingdom. DNK is either Disney's answer to Sea World's Discovery Cove or yet another in a long line of beloved "blue sky" projects that never see the light of day.

As far as I'm concerned this is as much of a 5th gate as Typhoon Lagoon or Disney Quest. It's an interesting concept but so far seems so limited as to almost be an offshoot of Animal Kingdom. Up close visits with animals, gourmet meals and.....rock climbing? Just rumored activities sure but nothing that gets my blood racing much. Add in the lack of any real rides or traditional attractions, limited capacity (2000 guests a day) and a staggering admission price of $300 and you have to wonder what would prompt Disney to build this. With a struggling economy, an ongoing investment of nearly 3 billion dollars in DCA, the new cruise ships and the Hawaii resort, can Disney afford to gamble a half a billion for this niche park? Who knows, we may be talking about this for years.... just like Discovery Bay, Beastly Kingdome, the Villans Park, Mt Fuji, etc, etc......

Only time will tell.

Mouse-rathon (ok, that was a stretch)

Read a short blurb in the Orlando Business Journal here about the January WDW marathon. We passed it on the way to the Animal Kingdom that weekend. A big congrats to everyone involved!

Roy Scheider 1932-2008

Roy Scheider lost his battle with cancer this weekend and film lost one of it's bright spots. A likeable everyman, Scheider rose to prominence in the Jane Fonda film "Klute" after a short career in B movies.

He followed that with an Oscar nominated turn as Det. Buddy Russo in "The French Connection" and as Buddy Manuchi in "The Seven-Ups".

Scheider was said to have been ready to play a hero, a character much like he had turned down in "The Omen" when he took the role of Chief Martin Brody. The troubled production of "Jaws" is legendary, as is it's place in film history. Scheider was an audience favorite because he was us. He didn't know about bite radius marks or boats or how to tie a ship-shape knot. He was an outsider called upon to buck the system and save the day. Jaws was a phenominal success and the first film to break $100 million at the box office. It solidified careers of it's stars and director, changed the way movies are released and gave Scheider the freedom to choose his roles.

He chose well with "Marathon Man" and then again with "All That Jazz". The Bob Fosse role (called Joe Gideon) earned Scheider his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor (he lost to Dustin Hoffman). He continued his leading man roles, and returned to another police role, with "Blue Thunder". This story of an aging LA police helicopter pilot, caught up in a conspiracy involving a high tech riot control helicopter is a personal favorite and a great showcase for the types of roles Scheider played best.

He continued with "2010" and "52 Pick-Up" but seemed to fall from audiences eyes into supporting roles for most of the rest of the 1980s. In 1993 he signed on as Captain Nathan Bridger on the Steven Speilberg produced television show "SeaQuest DSV". For three seasons he commanded the ship designed by his character in this futuristic "Star Trek" of the seas.

Scheider returned to film but seldom to theatrical releases. He worked mainly in "B" pictures where he started his career, occassionaly popping up in films such as "The Rainmaker" with Matt Damon and TV movies such as HBO's "RKO 281". One of his last projects was as narrator for the "Jaws" documentary "The Shark is Still Working".

He had been fighting multiple myeloma for a couple of years and finally succumbed to a staff infection at UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

He will be greatly missed.

Disney signs deal with the devil

Yes, Disney Hollywood Studios is the place to be for the end times now. So long ABC theater, hello damnation. More about it here.

Good article here on Toy Story Mania and the future of California Adventure. Thanks to NY Times.

Predictions are for idiots....like me.

Well, as much as I would love to spend the day writing here there's 12 hours of pre-game coverage to keep up with. Really? Is there that much to talk about that we haven't touched on in the last two weeks? The Giants are a good team that suprised everyone but to no-one's suprise they will lose. The end. I may not like it, you may not like it, but that's as much as I really need to hear on the subject at this point.

(sigh)

I wish I was at MK today. Light crowds, no Pats fans....ahhhhhh.

edit 2/4/08 See, shows what I know.

Return to Earth

Well it's open (sorta) and the reviews are pouring in to every Disney site, so what's the verdict?

My sweetheart and I were pleased to see Spaceship Earth open for our visit last month. It's hard to imagine going only once a year and not getting to ride the flagship attraction of the park but refurbs happen. I know that from experience, going on vacation mainly in off-peak weeks we've missed Splash Mountain the last 2 years to refurbs.

Unfinished or not I was informed from the boards at wdwmagic what to expect and ready to keep an open mind about the whole experience. I love SE and I've been pleased in the past with most of the changes. The ride has always been a little bumpy but from what i've read it's unfixable, just a byproduct of the mechanisms that keep you from plummeting backwards. The narration has been first class since the beginning with Walter Cronkite and suprisingly even better with Jeremy Irons. It was grand and elegant, accompanied with one of the best ride scores anywhere. The music has had subtle changes over the years but recently ended with one of the most moving, uplifting ends of any ride.

In my eyes one of the best elements of SE has always been the animatronics. SE is, in a way, an aa showcase much like American Adventure, showing off some of the more innovative uses of audio animatronics. In the best dark rides you forget that you are watching AAs and think of them as actors, as characters.

Sadly, that's one of the only things I still like about this ride. Even that they haven't quite got right.

From the beginning the new Spaceship Earth seems promissing. With the crane-like Mickey Wand gone the sphere is clean and classic, befitting of a park icon. Also gone are the tacky Leave a Legacy carny booths that blocked the mirrored pillar at the base. The area is much more open and inviting (not as much as it will be if Legacy gets moved for good) and the new signs and lighting are tasteful and well done.

The ride also begins well with new computer graphics on the TVs letting everyone know that when your ride car begins to turn it isn't possesed, it's supposed to do that. Oh, and don't stand up jackass. This was previously followed by a bit of darkness as you were welcomed by Cronkite or Irons. You begin to ascend and as you enter a red lit tunnel your picture is taken (we'll come back to that later).

Now you immediately turn the corner to see a huge, long wall projection of early man, duking it out in the snow with a wooly mammoth. It's a well done visual, nicely indroducing us to the "time travel" element of the attraction. We are also now welcomed by new narrator Dame Judy Dench. This is painfuly one of the problems with this new incarnation. I love Dench but she never really has a chance here. Like any good theater you have to start with a good script and this one ain't it.

The writers of the refurbished ride apparently were concerned about children and idiots not understanding the old script because this one seems intended for grade schoolers and morons. When the invention of language is explained (one of the most significant events in human history) it is compared with kids learning their "ABCs". The invention of papyrus and therefore the ability to send messages all over an empire is turned into a joke about taxes and Rome's groundbreaking system of roads is called the original world wide web. It goes on and on....

Gone are some old favs like the Greek theater scene, the Roman chariot and the video phones. The last was expected as the refurb is directly related to the new sponsor Siemens, who took over from AT&T. The original story was focused on the evolution of communication while the new story focuses on computers and it's foundations in math and innovation.

The rides travels still take us through the radio, film and TV ages yet they are reduced a bit and talked over by Dench (who's voice can still be heard echoing from other cars much more than it should). Walt Disney is also strangely absent, with a livingroom scene now focused on the moon landing. That event is used to springboard us into one of the new scenes, an IBM-style computer room circa 1960-something. This huge set is impressive at first until you have a moment to see how under-utilized and empty it is. Is something else supposed to be in here? No? Hmmm...ok. How's about the woman on the left? Her outfit is kitchy '60s cute with the large afro, mini-skirt, yellow leggings and knee-high boots but come on....who could actualy get away with wearing that at a large electronics company in the 1960s. "The man" would not stand for that.

We then travel to a garage in the '70s where icons like Gates, Allen and Jobs helped bring computers home. The scene is a bit dark but well themed and pretty representitive of the era. A hippie computer programer sits hunched over his monocrome 6 inch screen and we're told this is the beginning of the age of the personal computer.

From there we are teleported to the top of the sphere through a "Matrix" style tunnel to the last vestige of the old SE. The revealing of the outer-space view of earth is still breathtaking in it's beauty and yes...still interupted by a voice telling us that the cars are, in fact, supposed to be turning around.

This is where the real problems start.

Spaceship Earth has always used most of it's room for the scenes on the ascent but it made good use of the limited room on the descent as well. Now, all we have are some hanging lights and the glow of the computer screen in our car as it comes to life. The screen uses the images taken of us at the beginning of the ride and superimposes the faces of you and your fellow passenger onto what amounts to a cheap flash animation of "the future". The future presented in "The Jetsons" 40 years ago that is. Also sorely missed is the sense of hope and grandeur brought on by the original soundtrack, now replaced by cute music accompioning the animation.

All of this not so gracefully ends and dumps you into the ride exit, where you walk to Project Tomorrow to get the bad taste out of your mouth. It's heartbreaking for loyal Epcot Center fans to see the ride reduced to this. To be frank I can't even give Project Tomorrow a honest review as I was just ready to leave both times I rode and not willing to wait for one of the few games and video displays to become available.

All in all it's nice to have the old girl spiffed up a bit, but I would gladly take the signs of age over the "progress" on display. Tomorrow's Child....indeed.

Brat.

I need more time! I don't have enough time!

Just a picture today, been too busy editing video and sleeping.

Ode to the Mickey Premium

Mickey Premium how I miss thee....

This was my last Mickey Premium on our vacation two weeks ago. I can still taste it. The cool, thin chocolate...the luscious vanilla ice cream. Quick, someone FedEx a case of them. It's a matter of life and death!

Seriously, why can't I get these at home? If more people tried them everyone would agree that we all need access to these. They're just that good.

Or maybe you need to be surrounded with the park for it to really work. I dunno. I'm willing to give it a shot.

While I'm wishing for park treats...someone fetch me a Pink Thing from Six Flags over Texas too.