Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Dabob2 is right about the Bay Area infliences. In fact the house used in the film is based on houses found in West Oakland and Emeryville near the Pixar Studios.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Is that its more Pixar." I get the complaints about too many characters in the parks. I'm not too bothered my them, but I understand where they are coming from. What I don't get is why it's so much more offensive when it's a Pixar character. Those movies are all very popular. All have been well received critically. Many awards have been won by them. Pixar is really one of the crown jewels in Disney's empire. If they're going to add characters, why wouldn't they look to Pixar? Up, a monster hit & Best Picture nominee vs. Brother Bear, a critical and box office disappointment. Seems like a no brainer.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Yeah, the Pixar characters at DCA, I have no problem with. I could do with less of them at DL, but oh well. It would be great if DL was the "classic" Disney characters, and DCA was the more "contemporary" PIXAR, but since both parks have attractions, it's a moot point. I like UP, and I liked Brother Bear too. Maybe I'm just ambivalent about the changes. Not hating on them, just looking forward to what they will do, I guess.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>In Frontierland you could have "Theodore and Amos' Apple Dumplings"<< LOL! I like it!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt When a studio owns a film merchandising franchise that is second in sales only to Star Wars (Cars) you can't really fault them for pushing the stuff so hard in their theme parks. I don't know what the other Pixar films are worth, but I think it's safe to assume that the merchandise sales are huge. "Is that its more Pixar." It's not just Pixar. A big new Little Mermaid attraction just opened and classic characters have been introduced into existing attractions in Paradise Pier. Plus all the Disney animated character material that makes up a large chunk of the WOC show. When Disney first started converting DLR into a giant toon town it really bothered me, but I'm starting to get used it. I'd love it if Disney reverted the RRCT back to an authentic Native American experience. And I'd be shocked too.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "You realize you're only a foot or so off the ground, right? You're not so much climbing as you are working your way across." You have heard I made one basket in three years of playing, didn't you? I also don't get the dislike of specifically Pixar. I think it has something to do with people hating new things, and wanting everything to be classic like they grew up with. But you have to realize that there are new generations and new classics are emerging. Pixar characters are more popular, so of course they will use them more.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA >>In Frontierland you could have "Theodore and Amos' Apple Dumplings"<< LOL! I like it!> Thanks Kar2oonMan. It's nice to know that at least one person is reading my posts!
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Oh Jim, you know I always read your posts. I just rarely know what you're talking about.
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin Jim mostly just pops in to make small asides-indeed, how does that make you feel, I see...You know CC, just like your psychiatrist!
Originally Posted By Malin *** What I don't get is why it's so much more offensive when it's a Pixar character. Those movies are all very popular. All have been well received critically. Many awards have been won by them. Pixar is really one of the crown jewels in Disney's empire. If they're going to add characters, why wouldn't they look to Pixar? *** I don't think anyone is disputing Pixar do not deserve to be used inside the parks. The issue is how much Pixar is being used and its not like Disney hasn't recently created a couple of well recieved movies. Yet I'm still waiting for that Princess and the Frog or Tangled ride to be announced.
Originally Posted By Malin And if you look at the Little Mermaid attraction. Thats about 20 years in the making. While the entire Cars Land was announced in a much shorter time frame.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Like I said before, Cars is Disney's most lucrative movie franchise.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Like I said before, Cars is Disney's most lucrative movie franchise.> It's my least favorite Pixar movie. Weird, right?
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance ^^^ Nah, that's not weird. It's so lucrative because little boys love playing with Cars.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt it's my least favorite too Jim. I get why it's so popular, but the movie did nothing for me.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Great run down on the changes to the Trail over the past decade Doug! I love looking back at stuff like that, thanks so much for posting it. And FerretAfros, I agree that at the time the Brother Bear overlay was clever, especially contrasted against the previous couple of years as Doug showed us earlier. They did a nice job with the effects and iconagraphy they installed. But this Brother Bear thing was one of the first big cracks in the claim that DCA celebrated "California". I used to live in the Great Pacific Northwest, and still visit friends in Washington and British Columbia. And Brother Bear was all about that beautiful corner of the world 1,000 miles north of Anaheim. The Salish Indian folklore and culture, the setting, the language, even using the McKenzie brothers as the voices for the Moose (I'm a HUGE circa-1982 SCTV fan!). It was all a brilliant film setting, and the only Disney feature I can think of to ever use the Pacific Northwest as a location. And it had absolutely nothing to do with anything found in California. They can't even get a real Douglas Fir to grow in the Anaheim climate; they've got those under-developed Redwood's struggling in the OC climate there instead. Brother Bear Challenge Trail would have been cute as a summer overlay to help market the movie (that didn't do well at the theaters anyway, and has slipped into bargain-bin DVD obscurity now). But to permanently paste that Northwest movie culture over the original California State Park theme and then let it sit there for the next eight years as if nothing was wrong is the glaring error there. It just makes things messy and disjointed. And I think a lot of people notice and/or pick up on stuff like that.
Originally Posted By TP2000 DLandDug>>> "When DCA opened, the area was heavily influenced by Native American legends and tradition. The Ahwanee Camp Circle, open to the sky, featured a very well done little presentation with a costumed storyteller, relating authentic Indian tales with a minimum of Disney "magic" as an enhancement. <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/S...D=502500" target="_blank">http://www.laughingplace.com/S...D=502500</a> "<< Yikes. I just looked closer at that picture. 15 people desperate for entertainment in a flailing yet empty theme park sit through a somber one-woman show based on ancient Indian culture, set up on a fake tree stump no less. Double Yikes. At least the trees in that area of the park have grown up quite a bit. And at least those five kids in the picture are now in college and have completely forgotten they ever sat through that.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 The thing is, though, it really wasn't a bad show. Lke many things in early DCA, it got a bad rap it really didn't deserve, sometimes from people who never saw it. There was plenty to criticize in early DCA, but that little show, which recalled the old DL Indian Village for me, wasn't one of them.
