Originally Posted By skinnerbox "either Tom Fitzgerald or Eric Jacobson wrote that" nope "Fitzgerald only got his job at imagineering because of his uncle (Marty Sklar)" Barry Braverman is related not Fitzgerald
Originally Posted By dshyates OK, "Braverman only got his job at imagineering because of his uncle (Marty Sklar)" Wasn't BB instrumental in the execution of DCA?
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys >'m gonna have to side with leobloom here and say that HISTA, while dated, is very easily understood.< I'm gonna have to side with danyoung and leobloom here, as well. You don't even have to be as smart as Wayne Zalinski to understand the storyline. It's quite simple. The audience gets shrunk. What's so difficult to comprehend ?
Originally Posted By mousermerf Well, i never contended that the plot or exposition of HISTA was hard to understand. Rather, it features extensive character references to the film series. The interactions and motives for the way people do things is based on the film series. There is no character developement in HISTA itself, so if one is unfamiliar with the film series then the characters begin to not make any sense. Why does the mother faint? What's up with the mischevious little kid? Why is the dog even there? All of those sorts of things developed in the movie are on display and if you don't know the movie, you don't really know why they're relevent. It starts to fall apart. HISTA cannot stand on its own without the movies. It was never meant to, but we're reaching the point where people are starting to completely forget the movies.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ You are stretching there mousermerf. You could make exactly the same criticisms of both It's Tough To Be A Bug and Muppetvision 3D. Arguably you need to know a little bit about Flik to get his odd concoction of friendliness and nervousness. Same with any of the Muppet characters - why are there two old men sitting in a box hurling insults. The point is that if you know the source material it is just a bonus to find all of that hidden stuff that is built in - both HISTA and MuppetVision have a lot of in-jokes and fun objects that are relevant - but if you miss them or don't know what to look for you can still enjoy the show. Same can be said of any of the other movie-based attractions like Star Tours. A significant number of people have said to me that they never remembered the star (the droid we know as Rex). It distracted them from the experience at hand trying to recall where the character came from. Do you need to know who any of the other characters are to enjoy the attraction? No. I can't believe anyone would sit through HISTA and have no idea what is going on. You don't need to know anything about the Szalinski. It is all about making your product as accessible as possible by layering on something for everyone.
Originally Posted By leobloom Besides, if you're too familiar with the series you'll wonder where the hell the daughter is! And then you'll be distracted trying to figure out whether or not the Szalinskis sold her into slavery in Asia and you won't enjoy the mice running around your feet.
Originally Posted By Members Only The comments by the quoted Imagineer are pretty pathetic, for a variety of reasons all ready stated. I think TSMM seems like a decent D-Ticket to be honest, I am going from the You Tube videos here. I did not think it was ever going to be earth shattering, however it seems a nice solid 8/10 experince, about right for a D-Ticket. Pixar Place seems like a detailed area, as does the queue line for TSMM. I think a lot of people’s problems with TSMM (Me included) stem from the worry that a trend is prevailing: specifically the implementation of character, video screen based, and ‘interactive’ attractions, TSMM has the misfortune of being all three in one. I think there is a place for character based, video screen based, and interactive attractions in the parks, however I do not want to seem them become the dominant force in the parks. Hopefully WDI has something up their sleeves a bit more inventive for the old Florida project in the upcoming years, which I am sure, will help to restore the faith somewhat.
Originally Posted By dshyates "Hopefully WDI has something up their sleeves a bit more inventive for the old Florida project in the upcoming years, which I am sure, will help to restore the faith somewhat." Well, they have "American Idol: Play It!" and "HSM2: Live" for next year. Oh, and "Storm House: The Display". And over at MK they have.....um.....a new DVC kiosk in Fantasyland. OK people help me out here. What else is coming to the parks, confirmed and rumor. DNK would count as rumor, along with Character Kingdom@DAK.
Originally Posted By Members Only A few fleeting hopes, yes, lol. Possible avenues: MK: New E-Ticket in 20K spot, extensive refurbs of Space Mountain/Jungle Cruise, new daytime parade from DL. EPCOT: Extensive refurb of Imagination, new E-Ticket project in Japan/World Showcase. DHS: Extensive refurb of Star Tours, new D/E-Ticket for Pixar Place. DAK: Beastly Kingdom rumor's never die in one form or another, new nighttime parade, all though the Rivers Of Light concept appears to be dying a death.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 "Hopefully WDI has something up their sleeves a bit more inventive for the old Florida project in the upcoming years, which I am sure, will help to restore the faith somewhat." <<Well, they have "American Idol: Play It!" and "HSM2: Live" for next year. Oh, and "Storm House: The Display". And over at MK they have.....um.....a new DVC kiosk in Fantasyland. >> Yeah ... sadly this -- along with another lame-ass marketing campaign -- is what WDW will be 'selling ' in 2009. It would just kill them to invest a couple hundred million in each of their existing parks when they can keep on selling 'magic' and 'dreams' and 'wishes' instead. I just watched Disney PR hack Gary Buchanan get himself into a lather on my local FOX affiliate talking about the new Idol 'attraction' at the Studios and all I could think of is just when you think they can't dumb the product down any lower, they find a way. I really want Disney to knock my socks off, but I think at this rate I might as well just peel 'em off myself.
Originally Posted By Skellington88 >And I seem to remember, Skellington88, a while back that you were going to propose to your girlfriend on a cruise? How did that go?< lol that wasnt me. Must be thinking about another skellington
Originally Posted By Skellington88 hey Spirit is Disney going to announce a new Star Tours soon? This will determine wether I renew my AP pass or not
Originally Posted By bayrr326 We know nothing will fully stop the WDW juggernaut but am I the only who thinks that if Disney doesn't up the ante the next few years with Busch and Universal opening multiple new attractions they might just make a dent in their attendance(which Aquatica may have done to their waterparks already).I give the American Idol attraction a few years and it will be DOA. It may still be the top rated show but it has lost its luster. Disney really needs to get on the ball or at least reveal some plans because most people I know are coming down here for Harry Potter in the next few years not anything Disney is doing.
Originally Posted By mickeyboy43 "We know nothing will fully stop the WDW juggernaut but am I the only who thinks that if Disney doesn't up the ante the next few years with Busch and Universal opening multiple new attractions they might just make a dent in their attendance(which Aquatica may have done to their waterparks already).I give the American Idol attraction a few years and it will be DOA. It may still be the top rated show but it has lost its luster. Disney really needs to get on the ball or at least reveal some plans because most people I know are coming down here for Harry Potter in the next few years not anything Disney is doing. " Disney a juggernaut? Have you seen the new Dubailand project? WDW is 2X the size of manhattan. DUbailand is 5X the size of Manhattan. Purely massive. I mean, wont they pretty much destroy their audience numbers by building so much?
Originally Posted By HMButler79 ""Yeah ... sadly this -- along with another lame-ass marketing campaign -- is what WDW will be 'selling ' in 2009."" Thier fault and they deserve it. Because when the kiddies start playing Quidditch w/ the Boy Who Lived... oh my.... Mickey better get his heart checked....
Originally Posted By DlandDug And here I was given to understand that the Mummy attraction was going to ring down the curtain on WDW... TSMM is not the new paradigm. It's just part of the continuum. Let's see-- is "everything" character/video/interactive based these days? No. We recently had Expedition Everest. And we have a big old immersive dark ride announced (Voyage of the Little Mermaid). There's a lot we haven't been told about, of course. But saying that TSMM is "too many" interactive/video attractions is like saying Haunted Mansion and Pirates are "too many" long involved AA attractions. (P.S. Dubailand? How much effect will that have on domestic theme parks?)
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<hey Spirit is Disney going to announce a new Star Tours soon? This will determine wether I renew my AP pass or not >> A great question. You'd think they'd have already done so ... or perhaps stage a mini-media event in June to open TSM and kickoff off Star Wars Weekends and do it then but Disney doesn't think (or act) logically. My feeling is they won't announce it until 2009, but that it will open very quickly thereafter. Anyway, I wouldn't make any AP buying decisions based upon any Disney announcements.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<We know nothing will fully stop the WDW juggernaut but am I the only who thinks that if Disney doesn't up the ante the next few years with Busch and Universal opening multiple new attractions they might just make a dent in their attendance(which Aquatica may have done to their waterparks already).>> Disney appears to be playing things conservatively. Wait and see. Much like they did when IOA opened. They'd rather play catch-up then lead. It's more cost effective that way, at least that's what the MBAs will say. I really wish I could be a fly on the wall when Iger, Rasulo, Weiss and, if she's a good girl and promises not to say anything, Crofton, sit in a room and talk about WDW's future. Why do I get the feeling the only things that are discussed are the next marketing campaign and DVC expansion? (probably because I'm right) <<I give the American Idol attraction a few years and it will be DOA. It may still be the top rated show but it has lost its luster.>> True enough. It may still be a huge phenomenon (albeit one I don't 'get') --I say the gay teen is taking it all -- but I read its Tuesday ratings were the lowest numbers in five years. So, once again, Disney is getting in after the game has peaked. <<Disney really needs to get on the ball or at least reveal some plans because most people I know are coming down here for Harry Potter in the next few years not anything Disney is doing.>> Not surprising. Besides, what exactly is Disney doing the next few years. We all know Space Mountain will be down for all of 2009 for a redo, but we have no idea what extent 2.0 will take. We all know DL's 50th parade is going to be recycled and passed off as something new. We all know Star Tours will be updated. We all know Pixar will get another attraction at the Studios. What else? Maybe Imagination 4.0? Maybe a new Illuminations? Oh yeah, a boutique animal park that drew some of the most negative results of any internal WDW surveying in years. Well, at least we can celebrate birthdays at WDW thru MAGICAL CELEBRATIONS!
