Originally Posted By yamabuki I like to think of WoC as having a light storyline, even though it was never meant to have one in the first place. As I said, it's supposed to be an explosion of the colorful worlds of Disney. If you look at the lyrics in the opening scene, it gives you an idea of what the "journey" will be: >>The wonderful world of color. So wonderful, so beautiful, to see. Adventure is waiting. Let it open your eyes! Imagine and see What wonders can be. Each journey can hold a surprise.<< and you also have the quote by Walt Disney that is projected right at the beginning of the show: "Every child is blessed with a vivid imagination." This theme of a child-like, imaginative and very big world of color is carried throughout the show. I think it works.
Originally Posted By yamabuki Sure.. my review is pretty "real"! Seriously, though, I understand some would like to see a solid storyline.. but WoC is this big and fun nighttime spectacle.. when you create a huge, analytical essay and dissect every piece of the show - you kinda lose the magic of the whole thing.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones I don't think anyone is saying it is a bad show. I'm watching the videos I posted now and it looks great. I've never seen color and water synced up like this. I actually find that the animated scenes distract from the water effects themselves. The stock film footage (most of which is just stripped right out of movies, it appears), adds very little. It's the water effects that are the star of the show. "when you create a huge, analytical essay and dissect every piece of the show - you kinda lose the magic of the whole thing." Or you can discover and better understand what makes it magical. Besides, Disney releases books that are giant analytical essays of the parks. Check out John Hench's Designing Disney.
Originally Posted By yamabuki The water effects are no doubt fantastic, but I have to say the lasers steal the show during some scenes! Really, the camera doesn't capture some of the best effects in the show. When the lasers hit the water, they create a beautiful glitter effect.. and the fire sequence is just massive. <<Or you can discover and better understand what makes it magical.>> This is true.. My point is, it's a brand new show that is replacing what was once an empty lagoon. We'll have plenty of time during the upcoming years to analyze it and critique it.. I think at this point we're all just happy about the way it turned out.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones The Pixar sequences seem to have new animation, and they tend to be the standout scenes.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <>> It's quite revealing of your own prejudices << <No, it doesn't. You're so thick you don't even realize my sense of "gay" as connoting something frivolous and silly is inherent to the word, in terms of how it sounds today or it would have sounded 90 years ago.> That's simply incorrect. 90 years ago, "gay" didn't have any connotations of silly or frivolous any more than "joyful" does now. Simple fact. You have associated those things with the word because of your lifetime's association of the word with gay men, and your own painfully obvious soft bigotry regarding same. It's been that way your whole life so you simply don't recognize where it came from or that it could have been different before. Talk about thick. This has been pointed out to you before, but you obviously have a blind spot here and don't even realize it. >> That would be reserved for you << <Oh, thank you. xoxoxoxo> Well, I guess if you're going to be the king of pretentiousness here, you might as well own it. But to put it in terms you might understand: you are as blind to this as you claim Braverman was to DCA's faults, and just as unwilling to admit any mistake, defensively claiming it is other people who don't "get it."
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I don't know that anyone is looking for an intricate story arc. They'd just like the story to arc at some point.> I haven't seen it in person (which is always better), but the strongest parts of the show to me (on video anyway) are the more abstract parts - the one where they just let water and color and light and the other effects dazzle the senses. Some of those moments are astounding, even on video - in person they must be even more so. And the animated moments where there IS a transition (i.e. Nemo to Pines of Rome) also work well. The weaker moments seem to be where animation comes in for no apparent reason. I don't think the show needs a storyline per se, but if you're going to have animation that sort of has its OWN storyline, that says to the audience "storyline here!" and having a transition that makes sense is a big help. In other words, some of the transitions work better than others, but that's pretty much to be expected. And it's kind of a nitpick because it's never too long before there's another "Wow!" moment and you just get caught up in the spectacle again. It's also possible that they'll be gauging public opinion here and the show could change to reflect that eventually. Anyway, the good parts look SO good that I think this is going to be something people will want to see again and again.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Over on micechat, over 80% as of this moment give it a 4 or 5 star review. 5 stars! I loved it! A Disney Classic! 62 54.39% 4 stars! Really great - A must see! 30 26.32% 3 stars! I liked it. Above average. 13 11.40% 2 stars. Not my cup of tea. Disappointing. 9 7.89% 1 star. Terrible. 0
Originally Posted By DlandDug The public reaction has been very positive (Based on the crowd on Tuesday night). >>The stock film footage (most of which is just stripped right out of movies, it appears)...<< Most of the animation has been newly created for this show, aside from the very short segments that are used in the montages. One reason Pixar figures so prominently (aside from the fact that their movies resonate with present day audiences) is that the folks up in Emoryville have been so agreeable about producing all new animation. For longer sequences it's hard to find scenes where the characters stay on screen. The Buzz and Woody scene, for example, was mostly Buzz in the film, with a few cutaways of Woody. A whole new animated sequence was created, with John Lasseter personally directing Woody's new "performance." It always bothered me in Fantasmic that when characters are on screen for any length of time, there are jarring cuts from closeup to closeup (Ursula springs to mind). For WoC they had Disney Feature Animation create new animation of some of the most iconic moments in their films.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Seriously, though, I understand some would like to see a solid storyline.. but WoC is this big and fun nighttime spectacle.. when you create a huge, analytical essay and dissect every piece of the show - you kinda lose the magic of the whole thing." Yamabuki you should know by now that Disney isn't expected to do anything that isn't within a millimeter of absolute perfection. I haven't seen the show, so who knows maybe I'll hate it, but there is this tendency among Disney fans to over-analyze and over-critique everything. I can't help but think that if Universal were doing this show you'd hear nothing but raves and accolades about it from all the theme park bloggers.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 I am not going to watch those videos! TOMORROW IS THE DAY. I AM SO EXCITED!! This has made me want to see it a bazillion times more! <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID513200.asp" target="_blank">http://www.laughingplace.com/N...3200.asp</a>
Originally Posted By DlandDug Thanks for the kind words. I was trying to decide how much detail to put into my comments, and decided to make it a general statement, rather than a dissection. It is the nature of passionate people to weigh in at length on something they care about deeply. That there has been so much written about WoC is no surprise. It does surprise me (always) that many reviews/critiques/criticisms stop at comparison. This show really does set a new paradigm. It is just like a lot of other things, and unlike anything else. And I agree that the key is in the Walt quote at the beginning: "Every child is blessed with a vivid imagination." It's not about a story; it's about using a medium in an entirely imaginative way.
Originally Posted By xrayvision Watched the videos of the WOC cast preview...AMAZING! I could a follow the show's storyline well enough. It does evoke emotion...which totally surprised me. The technical aspects of the show were great. On a side note, we definitely don't need Mickey's Philarmagic at DLR anymore. That would be redundant and WOC is a bigger, more exciting and more extravagant production. Spolier Alert- - **The critiques are valid about the heads being cut off of the projected characters because the water screens need to be shot higher or the projections need to be aimed lower. On the video, it was hard to see Dory and Dad escaping the whale's mouth. You just saw the peril of adored characters, without seeing the escape and happy ending. *** End of Spoiler Other than those two critiques, I really liked the show as could be seen from the video of the cast preview. The music is great, the fountains and lighting are awesome, as are the fire, lasers and animation! Again...AMAZING! It's a great show!
Originally Posted By lesmisfan "World of Color is based on the TV show, and is meant to evoke a carousel of color with a really big display of water and color. Each moment has its own storyline (Colors of Earth, Sea and Sky, Colors of Fears, Colors of the Sea, etc) An intricate story arc would have slowed down the show, in my opinion. " exactly how i feel and i did get to see the show as well. Its a loose storyline yes but its there!
Originally Posted By believe Pirates, HM, SM, BTMR,Small World, the old fireworks show, all really didn't have stories either, yet they are all great attractions and shows.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 Pirates has one now. It is about Jack finding the treasure. BTMR has a story just no one knows it. One of the last miners at big thunder was going up a hill and took a wrong switch and plummeted into the ride of his lifetime. After arriving back into the town saftly he realized how to take his sleepy town and turn it back into a boom town. Thus big thunder mountain railroad was born. The entire story can be found in the Imagineering book published by Disney. You can get it at Disneyland.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 SM is a cruise around the world, and HM...... I don't know. But it is cool.
Originally Posted By believe <<<<BTMR has a story just no one knows it.>>>>> Exactly, it doesn't matter what the story is, because the journey is so well done. What I'm saying is, some attractions don't really have a story in the tradition sense. ie beginning, middle, end. It's journey that makes it so great.
Originally Posted By believe That's the beauty of Disney attractions. That's why they are attractions, and not rides. A ride ends when you get off, an attraction can last much longer. For WOC, (like just about every Disney show) every character shown has a story of it's own. If you've never watched the Disney movies that are part of WOC, it really doesn't matter, because the WOC show is so great.
