Originally Posted By tcsnwhite WDI-CE is Walt Disney Imagineering - Creative Entertainment ...I would guess? Lee, do they want to go by that now, instead of Disney Creative Entertainment (DCE)? Also, as for Tales being Tales by Steven...HAHAHA...you won't hear a bit of complaining from me. Please don't stop...for the most part, Disney gives tons of attentions to attractions and parks when it comes to WDI books and the like...and entertainment gets left out of most of it. So, I love that Tales is giving them their due. I've always thought it was time to create a coffee table WDI book focused on the creative and tech side of entertainment throughout the years. Can you imagine all the concept sketches and designs. I'm tired of book after book on DL classics, and Pirates, and mansion and so on. hehe....
Originally Posted By Mr X That might make sense. I guess. I always figured the imagineers "built stuff", so are they involved with creating floats and that sort of thing too?
Originally Posted By tcsnwhite I believe anyone who works at Imagineering is basically an Imagineer...whether it be creative or technical, artisan or engineering, etc...all the different disciplines. Lee can probably explain better. Creative ent. is a division/dept. (something like that) of WDI and focuses on live ent. experiences. I believe Ann Hamburger still has to report to the heads of WDI...
Originally Posted By leemac <<I've always thought it was time to create a coffee table WDI book focused on the creative and tech side of entertainment throughout the years. >> Funny that you should say that as we have been discussing something along those lines for a long time. The History of Disney Theme Park Entertainment. Hopefully something will happen with it eventually. And DCE is WDI-CE since January to bring both units into better alignment.
Originally Posted By leemac WDI-CE is a sub-unit of WDI. Ultimately Bruce Vaughn and Craig Russell are responsible for all of the creative aspects of WDP&R but CE have a great deal of autonomy when it comes to their projects. <<I always figured the imagineers "built stuff", so are they involved with creating floats and that sort of thing too?>> X - you would probably be surprised about how little actually "building stuff" is done by WDI - mainly by contractors these days as it is more cost-effective and you can bring better quality artisans into the frame. WDI tends to be more about the Blue Sky theorizing, design and conceptualization and execution of any given project.
Originally Posted By Mr X Interesting. Anyway, I gather part of that blue sky conceptualizing stuff includes parade floats, effects, and other entertainment kinda stuff (through WDI-CE)?
Originally Posted By leemac Anything entertainment-related whether it be parades, shows or fireworks flows through WDI-CE. There are local entertainment teams at each resort too but ultimately the decision-making is made by WDI-CE in Glendale.
Originally Posted By MagicalNezumi Leemac wrote: >>> There are local entertainment teams at each resort too but ultimately the decision-making is made by WDI-CE in Glendale.<<< Yay! I was born and raised next door in Pasadena. -- MagicalNezumi
Originally Posted By leemac <<Yay! I was born and raised next door in Pasadena. -- MagicalNezumi>> Lucky you! Glendale is not the place I would choose to locate a significant chunk of the Walt Disney Company. Always make me chuckle when I'm in the office and visit the nearest Starbucks which is packed with Armenians! Love Pasadena and always stay there now when I'm in town for work. Such a great place. Hope to see you soon, MN!
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "Lucky you! Glendale is not the place I would choose to locate a significant chunk of the Walt Disney Company. Always make me chuckle when I'm in the office and visit the nearest Starbucks which is packed with Armenians!" Wait, what? Why does that make you chuckle? What's wrong with Armenians?
Originally Posted By leemac <<Wait, what? Why does that make you chuckle? What's wrong with Armenians?>> I don't believe I said anything was wrong with Armenians. I just find it amusing to be in a very ordinary 'burb of LA and see it packed with Armenians. I just wonder why or how they decided on Glendale as a home. My point is that Glendale is a pretty bland and nondescript area and it is almost ironic that two exceptionally gifted creative companies call the area home - WDI and DreamWorks Animation (both on Flower too).
Originally Posted By Malin Lee I have noticed from watching an online video that the floats and performers take on a bigger role than the characters do, and it almost apears to me from the online video I have seen that the characters were an after throught here. Would you know if this is intentional?
Originally Posted By SuperDry I saw Jubilation! last week, and wanted to add my thoughts to this thread. After seeing it in person, my reaction was along the lines of "meh" - I walked away from the parade feeling under-impressed. I didn't think it was bad per se - just not very impressive. I've since watched the video of it on jtcent.com to refresh my memory. Here are my comments: First of all, the costumes. I didn't much care for the style. They were very colorful, intricate and creative. But at times, they were of the type where there are just a lot of design elements thrown together into a big pot, with the result being a mish-mash or hodge-podge. The marionettes were actually a bit creepy, but I did like them for creativity. The music I found to be uninspiring and not catchy at all. Toward the end, there is the Disney song medley, including bits from A Whole New World and Be Our Guest. First of all, I have to say that I don't like song medleys much at all, especially Disney music, with the possible exception of a fireworks soundtrack. Second, at the end of the parade, there was no visual connection to either Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast, so the inclusion of their music didn't make much sense. Again, it was a hodge-podge of Disney "stuff" just thrown in. Others have said that the song played during the show stop was from High School Musical. I've not seen any of those movies yet, nor listened to the soundtrack, so I didn't recognize it - it all was new to me. In any event, is HSM as popular in Japan as it is in the US? Is it popular at all in Japan? If not, then the notion that music has been recycled will be as unknown to most guests as it was to me. What I'm trying to say is that recycled music in a parade in of itself doesn't bother me. In any event, the show stop music seemed to be just a Disney version of that "Celebration!" pop song that Universal likes to use. It seemed to promote a generic "jump up and down and around" type of atmosphere. I can't remember where I read it, but someone said that there were "no show stops" in J!. What I saw certainly seemed like a show stop, perhaps all but in name only. I suppose there was not the typical TDL guest participation in standing up or custom "arm dance" moves or what not, and only a general "clap along with the song" so I guess that's different from previous TDL parades. Also, the show stops referred to TDL's 25th anniversary. I had heard that J! was going to be the new daytime parade that will stick around for the next several years, as opposed to being a special event parade for the 25th. I guess that changing/replacing the show stop will be easy enough once the 25th celebrations are over. In fact, J! reminded me of the parade I saw during my visit to USJ a couple of years ago: lots of energetic movement, generic-sounding music, and choreography of people just running around. It just didn't have the Disney touch as far as I was concerned. And speaking of which, someone told me (I forget who) that they had seen J! a few times, and it was starting to grow on them, both in terms of the music and the parade itself. My observation is that a good number of guests will see a parade or show only once, so it needs to work right on the first viewing and not be something that grows on you after awhile. There were some things I liked. The large Peter Pan float with the swing apparatus was nice. The girls' attraction-themed dresses toward the end were interesting, but even though I had read about them beforehand, I don't think I would have noticed them during the parade if they had not been pointed out to me. Perhaps I had seen so many elaborate costumes with no discernible theme by that point in the parade that I had stopped trying to figure things out. And, to borrow a line from the Magic Lamp Theater, there was a "Big Mistake" in J!: no roller blade girls. What is a proper TDL parade without roller blade girls? This leads me to my overall observation: J! just seemed to be a compilation of a bunch of generic show, costume, theme, and sound elements, without an obvious overall theme. In a way, it reminds me of DCA: many of the things in that park just don't work for me, partly because I didn't "get" what was trying to be conveyed to the guest. For example, with the Back Lot area, the notion of the whole thing supposedly being kitschy with the guest in a hypothetical role as a movie star was completely lost on me as a regular guest, but once I read that this was what they were trying to accomplish, it all made a bit more sense (especially SSL ). J! seemed to be the same way - I get the vague sense that there is an overall theme that the designers were trying to convey, but it somehow got lost in the execution, and the result is just a montage of unconnected visual presentations. Without being able to readily understand the overall theme, it's not a very compelling presentation. Conclusions? I liked the previous two TDL daytime parades much better, and I'd rather that they brought either of them back than continue with J! past the 25th. Also, I think that the special event parades often surpass the permanent daytime parade fare offered at TDL. As a two-park AP holder, I have access to both parks each day. J! is scheduled at 2:30pm, and Mythica at 3pm, which means I have to choose one or the other. Given the choice, I'd choose Mythica every time. In fact, during my 6-night visit to TDR last week, I saw J! once, Mythica twice, and tried to see Mythica three more times (each of which was rained out) and had no interest in seeing J! again. But that's just one fan's opinion.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< J! is scheduled at 2:30pm, and Mythica at 3pm >>> Ooops - I think it's the other way around.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris " J! reminded me of the parade I saw during my visit to USJ a couple of years ago: lots of energetic movement, generic-sounding music, and choreography of people just running around. It just didn't have the Disney touch as far as I was concerned." Thank you. If I was ever going to be bothered spending a good portion of my precious time at TDL on a parade, you just made my mind up for me. As far as I am concerned, Dreamlights was the only parade I would ever actually line up for and it looks like it'll stay that way.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Also, the show stops referred to TDL's 25th anniversary. I had heard that J! was going to be the new daytime parade that will stick around for the next several years, as opposed to being a special event parade for the 25th. I guess that changing/replacing the show stop will be easy enough once the 25th celebrations are over.*** I think that would be easy enough to change. I seem to remember the 15th anniversary being similar, with lyrics like "Fifteen years of Disney's carnivale" or whatever that just got re-written after the anniversary was over. A big complaint on the web over this way has been that only the "main" float has all the cool Disney characters, and so the crazy fans are flocking to just one little tiny zone along the parade route to watch the "un-show mode" or whatever it is. Any truth to that?
Originally Posted By leemac <<I can't remember where I read it, but someone said that there were "no show stops" in J!. What I saw certainly seemed like a show stop, perhaps all but in name only. >> That was me - it is called a play mode. I think it runs to about 90 seconds in all and is not designed to be like a show mode which typicaly reveals new aspects on floats or is an additional part of the story. To put it diplomatically - it was a requirement of OLC. Much like the name change.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Lee I have noticed from watching an online video that the floats and performers take on a bigger role than the characters do, and it almost apears to me from the online video I have seen that the characters were an after throught here. Would you know if this is intentional?>> I call it "baby steps" - the TDR mindset is entirely character-driven and so it is the task of both WDI and WDI-Creative Entertainment to demonstrate to them it is possible to have a great show without massive character displays. Mythica is the perfect example (and originally was to have no characters at all) - the Fab Five and Chip 'n' Dale have minimal roles - it is about the story. Same with Jubilation! It is about the art direction of the floats and the stories they are telling.
