Humorist James Lileks returns to Walt Disney World and, as usual, he has some unique insights. Here he targets a subset of the typical Disney fan.
Dinner was large. The portions are huge. They might as well put the plate down and say “here’s more than you can possibly eat, and here’s nine potatoes on the side. Would you like another gallon of high fructose corn syrup? Okay, well, don’t forget to leave room for six pies.” There’s something a big sad about seeing childless adult Disney fans, lanyards spattered with pins, eating slabs of prime rib thick as a Tolstoi novel, the chairs about to splinter from their enormous fundaments. On the other hand, what gives them happiness? Food and Disney. This is the happiest place on earth after all - even though there seems to be a subset of Disney nerds who appear immune to the very thing they’ve come to experience. But that’s another story for later.
When the shoe fits. I’m guilty that food and Disney give me happiness (although I’ve given up the pin trading years ago). I certainly hope I don’t fall into the immune category.
On the second day he visited Epcot, the most fair-like of Disney’s parks. But he notices one big difference:
we moved through the security line, checking bags. We were next to a couple of look-away line nudges, the people who move in front of you and pretend they’re not. It was a tie when we got to the desk. I waved them ahead, because that robs them of their sense of victory. That’s one of the things I’ve noticed about this place: unlike the state fair, where people connect with other people in a vague communual sense, it’s every man for himself here. You’re connecting with the Central Myth, the Disney Current that runs through the whole place. It’s generally not shared, but enjoyed in private, or small groups. There are exceptions, as I’ll note.
I have to say that the ability to overcome this feeling that you have to get everything done, every man for themselves, is one of the best parts of being a local. We get the chance to reach out to other guests, sometimes offering advice (how to use fast pass, for instance) or just strike up a conversation with another family while you’re standing in queue. (Toy Story Midway Mania is great for this, btw.)
I look forward to reading the rest of James’ updates.
I was just about to log off for the night when this story came across my radar. A Fox News station in Tampa Bay is back on the old story that the Walt Disney Company is refusing to authenticate what a gentleman claims is the original drawing of Mickey Mouse. Well, duh. It’s obvious to anyone with the slightest knowledge of Mickey’s early films that this isn’t an original Mickey.
I thought we put this one to bed last year, but now I’m so riled up to see it hit the airwaves again that I had to make another attempt at setting the record straight.
Someone get the local FOX news affiliates on the horn and ask them to do the slightest bit of research on this story about this confused gentlemen Steve Stein who thinks he has an original Mickey Mouse drawing from the 1920s. A simple search for “SteamBoat Willie” (Mickey’s first released animated short film) or “Plane Crazy” (the first film to feature Mickey, but not the first released) will reveal that: Mickey didn’t develop gloves on his hands until later in his life, he didn’t get the famous pie-eyes until the 30s, and the phones in the 20s didn’t use those curly phone cords either. Best of all, Walt wouldn’t have been drawing Mickey Mouse at that point anyway, it was Ub Iwerks who did almost all the drawings of Mickey Mouse for the Disney Brother Studios.
Thing is we already debunked this story in February of 2007 when the same Fox Tampa Television station ran this story. If the current reporter had just Googled “Steve Stein Mickey” my February story is the 4th result. Lazy reporting, exactly what I expect from Fox.
A wild fire is burning near the Gene Autry Museum and the LA Zoo which are located in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park. The fire was first reported at 12:40pm PT. At one point the fire was reported burning toward Traveltown, which is adjacent to the area where the Sunday Steamers and Walt Disney’s barn are located.
So far, zoo patrons and some animals have been evacuated.
It would be horrible if the historic barn is lost. More news as I get it.
The case already has spawned at least two significant judicial setbacks for profit participants trying to collect damages from studios. And just last week, a California court of appeal sent a portion of the case back to the trial court, illustrating the uphill and often unending battle facing talent who dare challenge studio accounting.
Like many authors, Wolf signed a 1983 option agreement that gave him 5% of “gross receipts” from Disney’s exploitation of neurotic Roger, curvy Jessica Rabbit, cigar-chomping Baby Herman and the rest of his characters. The parties didn’t bother to define “gross receipts” (hey, this was the early 1980s), and Wolf later claimed that he was owed millions for his share of everything from nonmonetary promotional partnerships with McDonalds to the value of Roger Rabbit “walk arounds” at Disney theme parks.
For those of you planning on attending the San Diego Comic-Con this July, you’ll want to make a bee-line to booth 2302 and check out the latest self-published graphic novel from Disney animators and artists. “Who is Rocket Johnson?” is a 72 page graphic novel anthology — an all-age appropriate book in which every artist answers the question: “Who is Rocket Johnson?” But be quick, it’s only published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
Cover painted by: Paul Felix
Artists contributing stories: Steve Anderson - John Musker - Dean Wellins - Mike Gabriel - Kevin Deters - Paul Briggs - Tom Ellery - Sam Levine - Nathan Greno - Don Hall - Mark Kennedy - Aurian Redson - Daniel Chong - Tron Mai - Lawrence Gong - Joe Mateo - Michael LaBash - Chris Ure - Bruce Morris- Mark Walton
Featuring pin-ups by: Glen Keane - ChenYi Chang - Byron Howard - Arthur Adams
It’s been a while since I’ve done this. But every once and a while I think it’s interesting to go see what’s hot in the world of Disney. This month we’ll look at the bestselling Disney items on Amazon. Usually we learn a little something. For instance, the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is usually ranked #1, but not only is it #2 right now, it’s dropped down in overall rank as well. Could that mean less people are looking ahead with their vacation plans? I also like that They Might Be Giants scores the 4th spot in the Disney Music Category. We have it and it’s a great album for youth.
Finally, right now Amazon is having a special where if you sign up for the Amazon Prime shipping plan, Amazon will kick The Disney Blog a few extra bucks on your behalf. I’ve used Amazon Prime to save a ton of money on shipping and now, going into this holiday season, you can save money on shipping and on gas by just ordering online.
Amazon Prime members enjoy the following benefits:
1. Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of Amazon.com Items 2. Overnight Shipping upgrades for only $3.99 per item 3. Shopping with no minimum order size 4. Ability to share benefits with up to 4 household members 5. 1 Month Free Trial
Please tell me this isn’t typical of how Disney treats their injured guests. August 14th 2008 started out as a great day at Blizzard Beach for Adam, but when he got stuck on a water slide, he severely injured his leg to the point where he couldn’t put any weight on it. What was Disney’s response? First it took over 15 minutes to get to him. (15 minutes? I could walk across Blizzard Beach twice in that time. It’s small) Then they simply handed him a brochure with some nearby ‘urgent care’ health locations.
Turns out Adam had broken his Fibula and injured his ankle. This is a pretty serious injury that you would think Disney would want to know about to, at the least, ensure the safe operation of their attraction and as a responsible operator, help Adam with his health care bills not covered by insurance. But according to Adam, Disney’s response was less than helpful.
The full story is on Consumerist. Hopefully someone might read this and follow up with Adam properly.
I had a similar thing happen to my family when my son suffered an injury after falling down at EPCOT. The nurses were at least nice and did what they could to help, including providing a voucher for a new t-shirt to replace our bloody one, before handing us the brochure. The closest urgent care location is just off property and we were well taken care off once we got there.
The sad thing is, since this didn’t result in an overnight hospital stay, it probably won’t even be reported by Disney on their quarterly injury report to the state.
Daily Idea, a popular video blog, has turned its vlogger eye toward the many unsightly fashions of the typical Disney World tourist. The result is side splitting, and sometimes seem splitting, humor.
Now the AP is reporting that Paul Newman, known to Pixar fans as the voice of Doc Hudson in Cars, does have cancer and is receiving treatment. At least according to a close friend of his. KTLA may have been right after all, unfortunately.
A documentary by filmmaker Richard Linklater will be shown on ESPN this weekend, marking it’s first wide distribution. Inning by Inning is a profile of Augie Garrido, considered one of the “winningest” coaches in NCAA baseball.
So far Disney has stayed away from Social Networking, with Disney Mom’s Club being it’s first attempt, now DisneyFamily.com is planning on rolling out it’s own social network aimed at families. Seems like a bit of overlap, but more news soon apparently.
TV Squad is hopeful the new Muppet Movie can revive the franchise. I hope so too. It has a very familiar plot.
Visible signs of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure are much more evident now. I can’t wait and just might have to geta Universal AP at when it previews. Sounds like part of WWoHP could be open next year. Wow.
Btw, My regard for J.K. Rowling has been raised more than a few notches after reading her Commencement address to the 2008 class of Harvard.
