December 5, 1901

Today would be the 111th birthday of Walter Elias Disney, so let's wish him a Happy Birthday, wherever he is!

Happy Eleventy-First birthday!  Same age as Bilbo Baggins when he left the Shire to live out his days in Rivendell!

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Disney Files Magazine

The DVC-published Disney Files came yesterday, and in addition to neat features by Disney historian Jim Korkis and others, it contains a nice overview of the new Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom.

As I don't have it in front of me, I can't say too much about it.  But the photos and artwork look pretty interesting.  The "Be Our Guest" restaurant looks pretty interesting, and Maurice's cottage looks to be a fun little place to visit.

We all know what sorts of things are going to be there.  It seems to me that it will make Fantasyland out to be a really fun and much more ride-intensive area to visit. 

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Disney Books

It seems that there are a lot of books out there about Disney lately.  I think with the advent of self-publishing, there has been a rush by Disney fans who can write and have something to say to get their thoughts on paper.

One such project is Leonard Kinsey's company, Bamboo Forest Publishing.  Kinsey is best known as the author of The Dark Side of Disney and the fictional work, Our Kingdom of Dust.  (I haven't gotten around to reading the second yet, but it's coming up...)  His publishing company has released books by Disney Legend/Imagineer Rolly Crump and by former castmember Ron Schneider, aka Dreamfinder.  Kinsey's Dark Side of Disney blog is as entertaining as his books, often, but it is for those more, shall we say, "irreverent" Disney fans...not necessarily for family vacationers looking for Disney tips...

Bob McLain of Disney Book Beat  review site is launching his own venture, called Theme Park Press.  His blog is going to go dark for a while, but there are a ton of interesting posts there to review.  More on his publishing venture when it comes available.

Of course we all know Kevin Yee, the MiceChat columnist and blogger at Ultimate Orlando.  Kevin has published many books on Disney, which are published by Ultimate Orlando Publishing.  Then there is Ayefour Publishing, which has published Chad Emerson's Project Future and Sam Gennawey's Walt and the Promise of Progress City.  

You get the idea.  There are a lot of small presses/publishers, mostly run by authors themselves, doing Disney books these days.  We have a wealth of information out there, available for our perusal.  I hope they are all successful!

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Puss'n'Boots by Dreamworks

My kids chose this film to watch Saturday morning, picking it over John Carter, and they both enjoyed it.  Me, I was a bit less impressed.  It took a lot of the tropes from the Shrek films and used them to tell the story of the dashing swordsman, Puss In Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas.  We were treated to the cat's backstory, where it was revealed that he grew up as "brothers" with Humpty Dumpty.  He left Humpty crashed into a bunch of pieces, after the Egg betrayed his trust.  And when Humpty sends his feline thief to attract Puss to his lair, he's all about begging for forgiveness. 

But from there, it's one plot twist after another, as the trio unites to kidnap the goose that lays the golden eggs from that kingdom at the top of that famous beanstalk.  And for me, it was one or two plot twists too many.  I've read reviews that suggest that this is one of Dreamworks' best efforts, but I sort of felt it was little more than an attempt to capitalize on the Shrek franchise a bit more. 

I didn't hate it.  It was good and entertaining, but I think I've come to expect more from Dreamworks.  Like Pixar, they rarely lay an egg (no pun intended).  And recently, I think they've hit some real home runs.

This one was more like a double.  Doubles are good, but they don't score a run on their own, necessarily.  Just my opinion. 

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Disney Film: Wreck-It Ralph

Finally, I have something to post about, something that comes from me, instead of just being my take on some news or something pointed out on another blog.

I took my boys to see Wreck-It Ralph yesterday.  I can't say I had any burning desire to see it.  It just didn't excite me that much - a big video game bad guy who gets tired of being a bad guy and makes friends with a little girl.  Sounds forced.  Like they looked at the success of the Toy Story franchise, and thought, what can we do that's like THAT?  And came up with lovable video game characters - but then thought they'd give it a little twist and go the other way with the unlovable video game character instead.

And for the first part of the movie, that's exactly what I was thinking.  But, like a lot of stuff seems to go with me, at some point, maybe around the 1/3 finished point, it went from being mild entertainment to actually becoming engaging.  Sucking me in.  I started to like the way Ralph was thinking.  I started to feel sorry for him.  I was rooting for him.  It had me guessing as to what was the truth of the situation he found himself in when he sort of crashed into a racing game called Sugar Rush.  The little girl, Vanillope, voiced by Sarah Silverman, was funny and likable after a rough start, and I found myself laughing and caring about the character.  Ralph's game nemesis, Fix-it Felix, was also funny, and it was interesting to see him come to understanding about Ralph's existence. 

So I ended up liking the movie quite a bit.  No, it didn't quite have the heart of most Pixar releases, but I think it stacked up favorably to their latest, Brave.  But it was a fun, entertaining animated feature and I was glad I saw it.  And for the 10-12 year old set, my boys liked it from the beginning.

The short that preceded it, called Paperman, was also fun, and well done.  It involved a young man and a young woman's encounter over a piece of paper, and then he sees her again, and tries to get her attention by using paper airplanes.  Cute.  Maybe not Pixar-cute, but entertaining.

On another note, we did see a preview for the first of The Hobbit films, to be released in December.  Looks good.  I wanted to see a preview for Les Miserables, but that one was not among these coming attractions.  Both of those are MUST-SEE's for me.

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Halloween treats for Disney!

Disney got a nice little treat in their Halloween bag yesterday after going trick-or-treating at George Lucas' place!

I heard on the news last night that George Lucas has sold LucasFilms to Disney, along with the rights to all their movie properties. 

Is this a good thing, a great thing, or just tossing money away?

Seems to me that it's a great thing for Disney.  More Star Wars movies WILL apparently be made.  Lucas will be a "creative consultant" on future projects.  I'm assuming that this purchase also includes the Indiana Jones franchise as well, though the news focused on Star Wars.  Is American Graffiti part of the package?  (I'm thinking of the 50's Prime Time Cafe...) 

Anyway, besides the film possibilities, there is the theme park possibilities.  Might that long-desired Star Wars Land be coming to Florida in the however-distant future?  With the rumors of Avatar Land fading out at Animal Kingdom, perhaps the money will go toward something like this, a property that Disney now owns and doesn't have to share with Universal (like the Marvel properties)?  Not right away, of course, but maybe down the road?

Lessee...Tattoine, the Death Star, Endor, Hoth...the list of worlds and places to draw from in designing a new land at DHS seems to be full of possibilities. 

And I haven't even mentioned the film possibilities.  Mostly because I don't know whether they'll be as great as those first three (the second three weren't quite up to that standard, by the accounts of most Star Wars true fans, at least).  But the money they could bring in...

Well, that's probably why I didn't really focus on them.  I don't care so much about the money they bring in for Disney.  I'm not a Disney shareholder.  I do care about the entertainment possibilities, and that seems like it would center on the theme parks, for my own interests.

Let's see what happens next...

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Science Centers...

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry yesterday, and it made me think of my last post (which was inspired by the Passport to Dreams blog entry) about Epcot and inspiration. 

I remember a similar discussion, a few years back, on the Reimagineering blog (now gone quiet, unfortunately), where some of the comments got to discussing whether regional science centers like the Museum of Science and Industry did a better job of educating and inspiring people than Epcot could do.  Those centers have the ability to change rapidly.  Exhibits come and go.  For example, yesterday the MSI had a special exhibit for the life of Charles Schultz, the creator of Peanuts.  I learned a ton about the cartoonist.  It isn't really science, perhaps, but it was fun and educational. 

There are larger scale permanent exhibits, too - like Science Storms and YOU! the Experience.  Every so often these exhibits undergo wholesale upgrades or changes - recently YOU! The Experience was closed for renovation and updating, and they made it much more pertinent to today's kids (and adults).  Science Storms is a relatively new exhibit where kids (and adults, again) can control a tornado and can learn about waves and air currents and a lot of other stuff.  Fast Forward also is relatively new and showcases some scientists' and inventors' work on cutting edge technologies and ideas.  Not everything is new every time we visit, but there have been modifications to the content of the exhibit. 

Science centers like MSI  do an excellent job of entertaining, educating, and inspiring visitors.  But the problem is that they can only do so one or two (or at the most a small group) at a time.  You can't have a thousand people working the controls to the tornado exhibit all at once.  And you can't rush a kid who is doing it.  There's a lot to do, and kids generally wait their turns and do things in an orderly fashion.  But can you imagine something similar at Epcot? 

It reminds me of Innoventions (the one on the Land and Seas side - I can never keep it straight if that's East or West).  It's the same sort of stuff.  It's fun if you're the one doing something.  But I for one find Innoventions to be perhaps the most boring part of Epcot.  Not because there isn't anything interesting there...more because you just can't really do too much when it's super crowded, like it always seems to be when we're there.  And then of course, you're always rushing to get in line for Soarin' or make a dinner reservation or whatever. 

I wish I would have gotten a chance to see Horizons.  The way people talk about it, it must have been something special.  It seems to have really inspired a lot of bloggers.  But I wonder if it was as impressive as they make it sound.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.  Epcot as a science center plus theme park was a difficult proposition.  It's still pretty unique today.  Just not nearly as inspiring, or so I'm led to believe...

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