Tag: Frozen

Damned if Disney Do, Damned if Disney Don’t.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

One of the side effects of people being passionate about a subject is that it tends to drive some heart-felt opinions. This is very true for the ever passionate and dedicated Disney community too.

I would guess that this set of fans has one of the largest blogging communities on the interwebs, along with endless podcasts, forums and multitudes of other social media style get togethers. Hats off to Disney for delivering a product and experience that engenders such dedication, interest, and at times venomous hatred.

It may be a little extreme to call it hatred, but they only have to change something at one of the Disney parks, or indeed not change something, and the internet catches fire with vitriolic bombardments, stating each side of the argument as if folk’s lives depended on it. This week, the announcement to fuel this fire of fury was the one about the Norway pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase, replacing the Maelstrom ride. I’m going to assume that if you are reading this you know what that is, and if you don’t then a short spell on google will tell you all you need to know. To summarise, they plan to replace a ride called Maelstrom that has been around for years with a new attraction themed around the incredibly popular Frozen movie.

Bye!

Replacing anything that has been in place for years at a Disney park is fraught with danger. The Disney company make a big deal about memories, and when you’ve got decades of them concerning a ride or attraction, when someone comes along and removes it, emotions can run high. I have similar anger issues over the fact that Stitch’s Great Escape still hasn’t been replaced by something that doesn’t suck.

So these Imagineers have a difficult balance to maintain, as well as the best job in the world. Firstly they have to do things which will keep the company profitable or else they won’t be around too long. They have to keep things fresh, without changing too much and they have to make sure they keep up with the Jones’ down the road at Universal.

Look at that queue!!

I can see both sides of the argument in this case. Sure, Frozen isn’t set in Norway, although there are obvious inspirations there. So it may seem that this new Frozen attraction is being shoe horned into Norway a little, but there is the alternative view that just next door to Norway, the Mexico ride has removed the more traditional view of Mexico in favour of the Donald Duck Three Cabaleros thing. I miss the kitsch nature of the old film, but I can see why they did it too.

Frozen is so huge now that I can see there was an urgent need to get something more than a queue to meet face characters in place. My main concern regarding the introduction of this into Norway is size. The crowds and demand for this will be enormous, and I just wonder where the queue might end up snaking too. They may be lining up past Spaceship Earth and out into the car park. I know that the pavilions around the showcase are much bigger than the facades may have you believe, but I just hope that they can build an attraction with the capacity to cope with the demand. As long as they keep those young Norwegian blondes who constantly undress me with their eyes whilst I queue, how bad can it be? The women cast members do it too.

There have been similar uproars and approval for the proposed Avatarland at Animal Kingdom. I have to say, I’m not doing cartwheels down the street over this one, but, I’m sure that when delivered it will be another high class, well executed set of attractions that we’ll thoroughly enjoy doing again and again.

In a conversation with Emily earlier, we gave the UK pavilion a make over too. I suggested that a new dark ride be built based on Robin Hood. We also then decided to put a traditional tea shop in place too, where we could charge silly amounts of money for a pot of tea, some crustless sandwiches and a Fat Rascal. We’d make it a Princess Tea Party, with Maid Marion, Wendy, Alice, The Mad Hatter and Pooh and friends in attendance.

Now, if someone can plant that as a rumour on some Disney forum we’ll have folks fighting in the streets before dawn. To the barricades!!

Till the next time…..

Hard Nipples and Silly Hats

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Every now and again no doubt due to some odd Gregorian calendar anomaly, a week lasts about sixteen days. That was last week. Perception is reality of course, so whatever you think that is what happened.

It was my last full week in work (have I mentioned that I have a good deal of time off over Christmas?) so that may explain the feeling that the week dragged a little. I didn’t do anything ridiculous like go for any more runs, but I did keep up a fairly decent regime of walking, mainly with the dog. The weather has been a delight of course and so this has been a massive joy.

Oli is sporting a decent coat these days and so he strolls around like he is on a balmy holiday beach whilst I cower under sixty-eight layers of clothes and my Int Milk Brilliant hat.

Living la vida loca
Living la Vida loca

How I miss warmth. I don’t do cold very well, and even my desk at work is situated under an air conditioning unit that could make chapel hat pegs out of anyone’s nipples at a hundred paces. I was looking back at some photos from 2013 this week and found this one from the summer. Can you feel the heat? Can you remember that far back?

play time

Our walks at the moment are dark, cold bleak affairs that end with me washing his muddy paws in a bowl at the back of the house, much to mine and Oli’s disgust.

Emily is still sling bound and hating every moment. She goes to hospital again on Wednesday to see if she can take it out of the sling and start physio. If she can’t she might need another sling for her bottom lip. Roll on her full recovery when she can start taking her turn walking the bloody dog again!

Last week I told you that we were off to see Frozen. I have to report that we absolutely loved it. It is destined (in my view) to be up there with the other classics, Beauty and the Beast, Mermaid, Lion King etc, it is that good. The songs in it are just fabulous, and the feel of the whole thing is pure Disney.

We did get a few odd looks as we entered and left the film, being two forty somethings and an eighteen year old, but little did we care. Emily of course has been back since to watch it again, taking a friend and Louise with her again (as Emily can’t drive right now) and Emily will probably be going again this week if she can find a willing volunteer to take her.

If you haven’t yet seen it and like Disney stuff (well why else would you be reading this?) then you MUST go and see it. It is pure Disney, and not only that it is Disney at its very best. Emily is already getting excited at the thought of Frozen and Saving Mr Banks coming out on DVD around the same time next year!

Speaking of future releases (my God that was a beautiful and seamless link wasn’t it?) I have made some pleasing progress this week. I am in the final stages of the first draft and just over 70,000 words. I wasn’t best pleased to be awake at six this morning throwing ideas around in my head as I tried to get back to sleep. I gave up at seven, came downstairs and made some notes. I then cracked on and spat out another couple of thousand words. I am definitely in the final stages now, with probably one or two chapters left to write.

Having never done this before I have no idea how long it will then take to read it over and over again, edit it, improve it, extend it, improve it some more and then, maybe get it proof read. I also need to get a decent cover done and decide upon a title, which is easier said then done when every bugger else has already used all the ones I keep thinking of.

Anyway, hopefully once I am free of work I can get a lot of that done. Did I tell you I finish on Wednesday?

I am out on the razz on Tuesday night for a wild night out. You may not think that a Tuesday evening in Prestwich with two other middle-aged blokes in a Chinese restaurant is technically the razz, but each to their own. I intend to eat so much egg fried rice that my internal organs may be absorbed completely.

If I survive that I shall see you back here next Sunday for my Christmas blog extravaganza. (This will be much the same as any other blog but I may mention Christmas a bit).

Right, Emily insists we watch the X Factor now as One Direction are on so I cannot be held responsible for my social media output for the next few hours.

Till the next time….