What Would Walt Do?

This post might be a bit odd, it's a bit sporadic for me, but I just have some thoughts I feel the need to type out real quick. People keep judging what the current Disney company should do based on what they believe Walt would do. I even find myself thinking about this a lot. But it bothers me that I or anyone else ever thinks this way. Unfortunately Walt is gone, and we have no idea where the company would have gone if he hadn't passed so early. If the company always did "What Walt would have wanted" then we probably would have had fewer theme parks in the world, specifically in Florida where EPCOT as a city may have actually become a reality in some form. Obviously, there's no possible way to tell what Walt would want with the current state of the parks in this time period.

That does not mean that we should just disregard the general guidelines and principles set by Walt. This was started just now by a post on an article about ticket increases where someone said "Walt wouldn't want this." If we're thinking in to that way, I think that's true. I don't think Walt would have wanted to price people out of the parks. To be fair, Walt probably would have done things differently if he hadn't had Roy there to bring him back to reality some of the time, so should we be thinking with the mindset of what would Roy let Walt get away with?

I find just as many faults with current operations as other people do, but we can't use our opinion of what we think Walt would do to completely guide our opinions of company operations. I respect the fact that it is a business, and they need to make money. I'm not sure if the large profit they are making off the parks is necessary to pay for employees and bills and all that other stuff, but if people like us (assuming you must be a die hard Disney fan if you somehow found this and actually bothered to read it) keep paying the prices Disney asks of us, then stupid us for putting up with it.

I'm getting off of the point that I wanted to make. There are plenty of things that Walt set as standard or general guidelines for how the parks should be run (some of the most obvious examples being about cleanliness and show). But there are plenty of things that you can't say would be different if Walt were here. Instead we should look at Walt's ideals as guidelines but not as the final say, as he is not here, the parks are most likely (don't want to be too definitive here but I'd like to say it with 100% certainty) far from what Walt would have done, and it is a completely different time than Walt lived in. In regards to the comment on an article that fueled this, I think that the money should not be money hungry. One of Walt's morals (I feel like that's not the word I'm looking for but you get the gist) was that he made movies to get money to make more movies. He didn't make films to make money to get as rich as he could. I think that that general guideline should stick today to some extent, that the company should make money to pay the bills but to also pay for new attractions and such, and I'm sure there's plenty of room for cuts somewhere, but I doubt too many people would be able to hold high Iger's position just because "they enjoyed it" and would be ok making an average-ish salary while improving the company or at least keeping it afloat. (Wanted to make a quick note that I know too little about Iger's influence on the company besides the fact that he has brought so many brands under the Disney umbrella to say whether or not I think he has been good for the company.) So while it would be nice if Walt's earlier principles could still apply here, it just isn't feasible. But, that idea should at least influence the company to not just rake in and hoard all their profits, and to put what they can towards improving the parks.

It's getting late for me and I feel like my mind is not on the same track that it was when I started but I hope people get how I generally feel about this. I guess to just summarize for those who skip my rambles in the middle: we should not judge what the company should do based on what we believe Walt would do (for the reason that we don't know what he would do and a couple other reasons listed) but we should look at the way he ran the company before and let those general principles guide current operations where applicable and adjusting for how times have changed and what not. If anyone actually read this, I'd like to hear your opinions as well and just thank you for reading it. And sorry for all the misspellings or grammar errors I probably made but don't feel like going back to read over and fix. Thanks again!

Maelstrom

This was a post long overdue. I put this on my list of things to write about months ago when the rumors first started to circulate. But I'm always bad about posting anything, and only get to a post every few months anymore it seems. But the feelings have really built up inside of me tonight living the last night of Maelstrom through those who were there to tweet about it and post as many pictures as they could. I'm extremely thankful for them sharing those last moments with us who could not be there. The replacement of Maelstrom with Frozen comes with a lot of mixed feelings that are going to be hard to organize and actually write. I'll try to start with my personal history about Maelstrom and when I began to appreciate it.

Everyone has an attachment to different rides for various reasons, and many have an attachment to Maelstrom. I don't want to be accused of joining the bandwagon of people who suddenly couldn't live without Maelstrom when it was announced, but in the defense of those people, you don't always realize how great something is until it's being taken away. Anyway, I first rode Maelstrom after many trips to Disney. I'm not sure if my parents even knew it was there before we were walking around World Showcase one year and saw it. I at least had not heard about it, and often times my parents weren't the ones to wander. When there's a family with three young kids, I'd imagine you tend to be more objective and wander less. (I had a similar experience with Rio del Tiempo, finding it when wandering and not sure how I missed it on previous trips.) My mom still does not like World Showcase to this day because she finds it to be too long of a walk with too few things to do. I have missed out on plenty of things by following my parents' vacation patterns and not exploring myself. So first ride, it was neat. Not that I had some crazy obsession with the ride, but I enjoyed it. I was always the kid who also liked only very mild thrills, so the backwards part of Maelstrom was fun for me, and it wasn't too scary for me either. I also felt like I had discovered something hidden that other people didn't know about, far from the truth, but it made me feel special. This was probably about 2004/2006 when I rode it for the first time, so I would have been about 8 or 10. Fast forward to the summer of 2013, the summer of my most recent trip, and I experienced Maelstrom all the same. Fortunately, we had a lot of extra time this trip, so I got to ride it more than once and didn't feel rushed. Unfortunately, we did not stay for the film because my parents weren't interested in that. So I never got to watch it. At this point, the only presence of Frozen in the parks was the big sign near Animation courtyard and a few pieces on concept art (that had already been released online) were in the showcases in the animation building. After that trip, I also discovered podcasts. I became obsessed with Wedway Radio, which if you don't already listen to, please start. So weeks after the trip I distinctly remember listening to the Wedway episode pertaining to Maelstrom while staining my deck. That episode was really what made me appreciate Maelstrom. Because of my inherited vacationing habits, I had never really taken time to realize things like how great the theming of the unload area is, and I still never noticed voices or anything, though I remember that being discussed in the episode. Maelstrom was one of the things I was looking forward to going back and completely re-experiencing on my next trip.

Now for the less personal reasons to be frustrated with Maelstrom closing. Most of this is probably just the same as tweets we've all read or thoughts we've all had ourselves, but it feels good to write it out yourself. First off, Frozen does not belong anywhere near World Showcase. World Showcase needs to be character free, with few exceptions. (I would prefer for the Gran Fiesta Tour to return to it's previous state, but I'm not overly upset with the Three Caballeros there, and at least their films are more cultural.) The characters of Frozen do not lend themselves to the Norwegian culture or learning at all, and a Frozen attraction will eliminate any learning or experience of Norwegian culture, even if it is the point of the pavilion. Regardless of whether Frozen fits in the pavilion or not, I honesty don't think the ride layout lends itself to it. From what I've read, the new ride will be more of an overlay, and not an overhaul. I don't see how the lift in the beginning or going over the falls will lend itself to the story of Frozen, assuming the ride will be a retelling of the story, I'm not sure what else it will be. I've also seen concern for the overlay to be done cheaply and quickly, which is obviously a problem that doesn't need to be explained. It doesnt help that Frozen is showing up all over, and I have been sick of the movie since about January/February after it was released. It's already in Magic Kingdom and MGM, it doesn't need to be in Epcot. It also shows that the company is now willing to compromise the theming and purpose of it's parks just to make quick money. Not that Disney compromising any experience of the guest for money hasn't been apparent when looking at things like MyMagic+ and MagicBands, but what has made parks like Epcot great is now being ruined. I always wish I was old enough to have experienced Epcot in it's prime. I only have faint memories of Wondercycles and Goofy About Health. I cannot recall hydrators or much of the original The Seas, I never experienced Kitchen Kabaret/Food Rocks (not sure which was the last or when it closed), and the closest thing to a memory of Horizons I have is seeing that a new attraction was coming in it's place, not even realizing what was there beforehand. After realizing I've missed out on things like World of Motion and Horizons, I would love to hang on to the remains of older Epcot. Spaceship Earth, Maelstrom, and Living with the Land are about as close to the EPCOT Center as I'll ever get, but that seems to be fading for more thrilling experiences instead of culture or learning. I wouldn't be surprised if Living with the Land closed, considering I haven't seen a line for it in years, though I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon. I realize I'm getting a little off the point, but Maelstrom was one of the few connection to EPCOT Center that I had. It was fun, it had enough thrill for me, it didn't include any characters, yet it still made me feel great, and I can't necessarily recall specific facts about Norway (I should've stayed for the show) but it gave me a little sense of culture that made me feel like I was in another part of the globe and getting a better idea for the history, sense of adventure, and fantasy (specifically the trolls) of the Norwegians. I had more thoughts right about why this is all wrong before writing, but I forgot to ride it down. Hopefully I'll remember and be able to add on to this later.

I'll try to finish off by having a slight bit of optimism and try to understand Disney's decision. Yes it does seem like a quick money grab on their part. But I'm hoping that they will use Frozen to lure more people into the pavilion, and then use the characters to actually teach the guests about Norway in an entertaining fashion. I'm not sure how it would even be possible to teach Norwegian culture with a snow queen, a dorky girl, a talking snowman, and a guy who talks to and for a reindeer, but I don't want to say it's impossible. And part of being in entertainment is giving people what they want. I feel like there's a Walt quote about that somewhere that I'm too lazy to find (or maybe there isn't). And while people will argue that there is a limit, and the consumers might not know what they want or that using a quote like that is a poor excuse for making such a bad decision (I actually mostly agree with those statements), that's business. I enjoy when people (not sure if I should mention the specific handles or not) retweet other's tweets about Epcot being boring and sucky. It's kinda funny for a second to look at those people and say wow they don't understand the park, but the sad part is that's how a lot of people feel, especially the younger people who will soon be the next generation of parents choosing where to take their kids on vacation. My personal opinion, Frozen is not the way to make the park more entertaining and get more guests to come to the park. But if Disney is having funding issues with the pavilion (no, I don't know the whole story or politics of the Norway-Disney funding situation), Frozen is an extremely popular franchise at the moment, and it does have some ties (although loose) to Norway.

I realize there's a lot left to be said about Frozen in the parks and Maelstrom in particular, (there could have been other options than killing Maelstrom, how important Maelstrom is to the pavilion cast members, Frozen's popularity may wane in the next few years) but I'll leave that for an addition to this (should I ever get to actually writing more about this). I just want to end with the fact that I haven't experienced a ride closing like this before since I'm still fairly new to the Disney online community, but I think that this was a very wrong move on Disney's part. There was backlash from fans when the rumors first started, yet they went ahead with the decision. It made me extremely sad (much sadder than I thought I'd be) to follow the people at the park as they rode Maelstrom for the last time, watched the Spirit of Norway for the last time, and watch the doors close. I never got to say goodbye or really pay attention to all of the details that I was looking forward to on my next trip, and even if I didn't run around before the Frozen announcement and tell how much I loved the ride, I still had feelings for it and hate to think it won't be there when I return. I wish Maelstrom could be saved, but I cannot see Disney backing off from such a big announcement now, and I'm just hoping they realize there errors and are able to return to bringing culture to people through World Showcase. If we're all lucky and people complain about this years from now the way they do about Horizons (that sounds like a bash but it's not), maybe Disney will be able to bring something similar to Maelstrom (and better?) in place of the Frozen attraction in years, should the Frozen ride be done cheaply and not be worth much in a few years after the popularity of the movie has died down.

Avatar in Animal Kingdom

Disney finally broke ground for Avatarland (is that the official name?) in Animal Kingdom this week, just after closing Camp Minnie Mickey. I know Disney fans are complaining a lot about Avatar being in the parks, and I am kind of with them, but you have to look on the bright side too, right? So I thought I'd just share my thoughts/opinions/feelings on the franchise invading the parks.

I do have to say there is some obvious good out of this. Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park, because I am not fond of the attractions there (granted I still haven't tried a couple of them) past Kilimanjaro, Festival of the Lion King, and the Nemo Musical. Avatar will bring at least a couple new attractions to the park that will get me to stay a couple hours more. As well as the later park hours. The addition of night life to Animal Kingdom will help it become more of a full day park than the half day park I have always treated it as. I do know the park has some very wonderful and beautifully done theming and attention to detail, but usually I'm with people who want to leave the park because it seems so dang hot anyway. And they aren't ones to wander or walk around unless on the way to a shop, restaurant, or another attraction. And if Avatar lends itself to anything, it is to a nighttime experience because of all the luminescent, glowing plants and such that were in the movie. 

On the other hand, I get where the complainers are coming from. I saw the movie once. It was beautiful, yes. But the story sucked. And the movie did not captivate me the same way franchises such as Star Wars and Harry Potter have. Who knows how popular the movie will be in a couple years? Hopefully the sequels will give rise to the fan base of Avatar but to me it doesn't seem likely. Yet, movies like Star Wars, the last one not having been released for almost 8-10 years(?) still have huge fanbases. People love the books, comics, video games, the conventions, etc. I also don't think that Avatar really fits into Animal Kingdom. I guess it kind of does because of the whole nature conservation message and the "mythical animals/beings" thing. I know the excuse has been made that Beastly Kingdom was supposed to include dragons, which aren't real animals, but I think mythical animals such as that fit in better than weird, tall, blue people. 

The thing I'm most excited for is the 'nighttime spectacular' being added. While I don't think that this is directly related to the Avatarland/brand (correct me if I'm wrong), this may have been brought on by the addition of Avatar. I think that the spectacular could have been added before without a new land needing to be added at the same time, but I guess I'll be happy to have it either way. I'm also really excited about the environment because the visuals were pretty amazing in my opinion, and I'd love to see that brought to life.

I do want to take a second to complain about the time to start it though. It's been I think 2.5 years since the announcement? I know they didn't have all the details worked out then, and I can't complain because I'm not an Imagineer, nor do I know how much time  it takes to create and develop rides and do it with an outside brand that may have it's own little caveats or ideas of how things could go. But it still seems really long to me still.

Anyway, that's my disorganized ramble opinion about Avatarland. Feel free to tell me what you guys all think, and thanks for reading!

Saving Mr. Banks

So I finally saw Saving Mr. Banks on Christmas Eve and I don't think I was as head over heels with it as everyone else was. I think it was good, it was just different than I thought it would be.

I'll start off saying that if you thought the main focus would be on Walt and P.L., you might be slightly disappointed. I definitely was going in expecting more Walt than P.L., whether that was the fault of the marketing or just because of some fault of my own. By the way, I'm trying to not to include spoilers but it may happen. So proceed with caution if you haven't seen it yet.

The movie was definitely emotional. I'm not the type that gets emotional during movies but I surely could feel the frustration of the Sherman brothers, the script writer (bad fan, I don't remember his name), and Walt. I really felt for Travers as she cried while watching the movie during it's premiere. I also liked the little touches like Walt's meeting with GE, and the "it's a small world" stuff I saw in the office when the movie moved to '64. 

I think what turned me off mainly was that I was just expecting something else. I expected the movie to be a little lighter hearted, but P.L. dealing with her alcoholic dad who she eventually lost and her mom who was unhappy and losing her marbles as well got a little heavier than I expected. (Don't get me wrong, it was still really good.) But I still would've been happier with slightly fewer and shorter flashbacks, though I did see how they were necessary. 

Another turn off of mine is a little petty but I didn't like BJ Novak. Probably because I can't see him as anything else than Ryan from The Office. I think he did well but he just didn't completely fit the role in my opinion. 

Past those couple things, some of them just small personal problems, the movie was absolutely awesome. It's great to see the development of P.L. throughout the movie. Emma Thompson did amazing job. Unfortunately, I've heard there is plenty of false information so don't completely believe everything from the movie. I've not heard exactly what is and is credible. But the film was so well made.

My favorite parts had to be P.L. dancing during Let's Go Fly A Kite and the last few seconds as it shows the winds changing and reads the same lines Bert does in the beginning of Mary Poppins (and the same as in the beginning of the movie). I also loved the tapes played during the credits from the actual recordings of P.L.'s cowriting of the script. 

Well thanks for reading this fairly short review of Saving Mr. Banks, and I definitely recommend you go see it soon. It was pretty great. I'll hopefully write soon but about the parks. The parks are my first love and I don't think I make for a very good movie critic. Although I may not be a very decent theme park critic either! But I appreciate anyone reading this and feel free to respond!

P.S. I agree with P.L. about one thing for sure. I did not like Mr. Banks mustache. I watched Mary Poppins a few days before seeing the movie and the mustache creeped me out the whole time. But that's just me. 

Also I just typed this on a mobile device so there's bound to be errors. I'm too lazy to proofread though. So please ignore them for the moment. Thanks again!

Taking Down the Hat

To celebrate "100 Years of Magic" in 2001 (specifically 100 years since Walt had been born), the big Sorcerer's hat was placed at the end of Hollywood Boulevard in Disney's MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios). One major complaint among the  Disney community is that the hat blocks the gorgeous Chinese Theater that houses the Great Movie Ride. I was only 5 in 2001, so I honestly do not remember the park before the addition of the hat. But of those who have been around longer than I have, many complain, saying it's unattractive, a bad use of space, and a terrible spot for it. The hat wasn't meant to be permanent, but it's been there for the same amount of time that it hasn't been there. The park opened in 89, the hat was added in 2001 (about 12 years without the hat) and it's now 2013 (12 years with the hat). So my opinion on that hat?

I have mixed feelings. No, I don't think this is an eyesore. This may be because it's pretty much the only way I've remembered the park. But I think the hat is kind of cool. From a child's point of view, the sight of the big hat as I enter the park is probably a better "wienie" than a theater at the end. I also think it looks kind of cool.

But I'm not saying I am in favor of keeping the hat. I do think that one of the reasons it was added was so that there could be a definite symbol to put on merchandise. If this is true, it doesn't seem to be a good reason since older merchandise and the new 2014 merchandise uses the Earful Tower to represent the park, and it looks just fine. Also, the hat doesn't use space wisely. I don't want my park symbol to be a pin trading station or a cover for the rain. The other park synbols all have something going for them. The castle (so beautiful it doesn't need any other purpose) has the restaurant inside, the Dream Suite, and a shop or two (although I don't remember seeing these shops open on my last trip...). Spaceship Earth and the Tree of Life both house attractions, Spaceship Earth is the home of a ride, and the Tree of Life shelters Tough to Be a Bug.

 I once heard that the hat was originally supposed to be built atop One Man's Dream, but for whatever reason wasn't. Whether this information was completely false or not, I think this would've been a great idea. It would draw people back to that side of the park and into the attraction without disrupting the view down Hollywood Boulevard.

So what do I think should be done with the hat? I've heard the idea of moving it out in front of the gates (where the Monsters University topiary was this past spring/summer), but I think that'd be rather odd to see that as I'm walking up to enter the park. If it couldn't have been placed on One Man's Dream originally, it probably wouldn't be a possible idea to movie it there, but if it could fit there that would be my first choice. Most call for the removal of the hat all together. Which might be happening fairly soon.

On Twitter, I've heard a number of people say they've heard from inside sources that the hat will be removed in the next year. I also heard this about 2013 though. Why am I believing it now? As I mentioned earlier, the 2014 merchandise doesn't feature the hat anymore. The merchandise has reverted back to using the Earful Tower to represent the park, along with Cinderella's Castle, Spaceship Earth, and the Tree of Life.

Honestly, I don't know if I care what happens to the hat. I'm cool with it staying since I don't have extremely strong objections to it. But I don't love it immensely, so it's free to go at any time. So I guess we'll wait for the official announcement from the company and see if this ever comes true. (Or maybe the company will start tearing down the hat without much fanfare.)

I do have to admit though, it does look pretty seeing the theater at the end of the boulevard. I don't feel like it evokes the same excitement for children as the hat might, but it does look very good. By the way, this photo is not mine. It came up in a quick search on a thread which also has some other cool older pictures from the parks, so feel free to just check it out real quick here.

Thanks for reading everyone and feel free to tell your opinions on the issue!

Frozen

I have been counting down the days to Frozen since Wreck-It Ralph's release last year. And I believe it was totally worth it. I cannot stress how much I loved Frozen.Would I say it's the best since Lion King? Mmmm, probably not. But I enjoyed the characters, how the story progressed, the animation, and the soundtrack. (Warning: I don't make for a very good movie critic. This could have easily been written by a 12 year old)

The soundtrack has got to be one of my favorite things about the movie. In my opinion, it fits perfectly alongside all of the other "classic" soundtracks. Idina Menzel's voice is beautiful, and Kristen Bell surprised me with hers. Let It Go is so powerful and great. I also enjoy For the First Time In Forever a lot, and probably the reprise even more. I'm kind of a sucker for duets, and although the reprise to For the First Time In Forever isn't the typical reprise where they're singing together, I love it. In Summer is definitely cute and funny with Olaf. When first watching the movie, I was actually wishing they hadn't included the song. I think during the movie I felt like there were too many songs and this one was unnecessary. (Usually I think there aren't enough songs, but I know others might not be as into the music as I am.) I was wrong though. The amount of songs is good, and since I've been listening to the soundtrack, I quickly realized that In Summer is pretty great. I'm still not sold on Fixer Upper though. It's kind of a good, upbeat, catchy song, but the whole "he/she's a fixer upper" metaphor kind of bothers me. Don't really know why. The only other thing I have a problem is Anna "feeling gassy" in For the First Time In Forever. In the moment, yes it got a chuckle out of other people in the audience. But I kind of thought it killed the vibe and made it a little gross. I'm not into those types of jokes in the first place, so that may be why I don't like that much. Overall, the soundtrack is amazing and I don't think you could be disappointed with it.

Unfortunately, I can't necessarily go on about the animation or the plot development of the story the way I did the soundtrack. Mostly because I don't completely understand how to pick out all the little specifics of either. But I can say overall, I thought the animation was beautiful, especially Elsa's ice castle. And I thought the story was perfect for Disney. They had their twist (which some or most people may be able to realize before it happens as I did) which added some excitement to the story, and I feel like the story didn't really lag in any places to me. Honestly, I thought near the beginning of the movie that most of it would be the journey up the mountain, with a climax at the castle. I was kind of surprised and happy that the whole movie didn't consist of making it up the mountain. This thought of mine may have just been because I didn't know much about the movie going into it. This may sound weird, but I tried to shelter myself from pretty much everything Frozen so that the movie would hold more of a surprise for me when I first saw it.

Also Get A Horse! (the Mickey short before the movie) was pretty awesome. The 3D effects were used effectively, and I honestly thought I was at a Disney Park in a show like Philharmagic. When the water poured out of the screen, I actually waited for a spritz of water until I remembered I was only in my local movie theater. Only negative thing I would say here, is that I wish the story line would have been a little different. Pete chasing Minnie, Mickey and Pete have their spat. But I think their point was that they were taking such a classic plot that many might already be familiar with (whether Mickey or other cartoons, the male must save the female from the villain) and put such an innovative twist on it. Don't get me wrong, I love it as it is and I get that it was more the switch between the two worlds that the story relied on than the Mickey/Minnie/Pete thing. But I would've liked if the story would've been something that could have been successful without the brilliant use of technology. I feel like this isn't making any sense or is still coming off wrong so please don't read too much into it, but overall the short is phenomenal.

Thanks for reading my extremely unprofessional review on Frozen and Get A Horse! Some of my complaints may have been kinda weak or not had any legitimate reasoning to them, but I wasn't really too upset over anything I complained about anyway. I really loved the movie and the short, and they were surely worth the year long wait. I'm hoping Disney keeps up this streak of great movies in the past few years. While I'm not as excited for Big Hero 6, because I'm wondering how the Marvel characters will fit into a film that fits in with the 'classic' animation studios lineup, but I do have confidence that the artists will be able to pull it off. Frozen just further proves to me that the Animation Studio is capable of putting out quality movies consistently.

Also, please note that I'm not really taking myself seriously as a critic here on anything. Yes, I have my compliments and my complaints, but I am definitely (and obviously) not qualified or knowledgeable enough to review movies or music professionally, and I realize that. I just wanted to put out my thoughts. I just know some people who take themselves seriously as being critics on many matters, when they also do not have the expertise to make any real critiques, and then they think that their opinion is the ultimate opinion. I just want everyone to know I'm not like that at all! Again, thanks for reading!


EDIT:
I went to go see Frozen again. It was just as good the second time, if not better. I forgot to mention before though that I do have a slight problem with Love Is An Open Door. It sounds very High School Musical-ish. I actually do enjoy the song (I enjoyed High School Musical soundtracks sadly) but it seems a little cheap and out of place to me. Disney features have had a past of having beautiful, romantic songs when the male and female characters have their moment. Beauty and the Beast, Whole New World, Once Upon A Dream, I See the Light, etc. But Love Is An Open Door doesn't measure up to these other songs at all. That being said, the song is decent in itself, even if not the love song others may have been hoping for.

Get A Horse! did not impress me this time though. I did see it in 2D which may be some of the reasoning for that. But I have the same complaint as before. The great thing about the short is the 2D/3D mix of animation and the use of them. But the storyline in itself still kind of lacks for me. But again, I'm not a professional critic.

Renovation of Imagination

I've been hearing a little bit about the rumored closing of the Imagination Pavilion as soon as 2014 starts. From the people I follow on Twitter, this is probably one of the most reminisced rides (next to Horizons) and a lot of people complain about the pavilion in it's current state compared to when Dreamfinder was still present. 
    
Most of the talk I've seen about it has come from social media, so none of it is really documented or completely reliable, but Tom Bricker has written an article on it. Bricker suggests that this may be a way of "quietly killing" the pavilion, which I sure hope isn't so. While the current Journey Into Imagination is definitely not my favorite ride or a "must-do" for me, I don't hate it as much as many others do. This may be because the closest I've gotten to the original ride is a YouTube video. From what I've heard, the original was the best, and the second and third versions fall far behind, with the second being absolutely terrible. Bricker points out in his article that he would not want a complete redo of the original ride, which I agree with. Disney isn't (or shouldn't be) about repeating itself. The seemingly ideal situation is the reappearance of Dreamfinder with Figment, but with a different story than the original. What I don't support is the use of Phineas and Ferb.

I'm not going to lie, I like Phineas and Ferb. I actually own Perry the Platypus pajamas. But don't stick the characters in the ride. I don't know how much longer they're even going to last. I don't see the show getting as much airtime as it used to. The whole Perry the Platypus themed merchandise fad seems to have come and gone. Whatever ride comes, I'd just prefer if it wouldn't become outdated in the next few years. Yes, the franchise may stay somewhat relavant in the parks with the Agent P World Showcase thing (sorry, I don't know it's official name). Yes, the boys definitely represent imagination and creativity well, but I just don't like the idea of them in the park. 

Moving on to the theater, I was less satisfied with Captain EO than I was the ride. I only remember seeing Honey, I Shrunk the Audience once, and I don't remember much besides the mice/air blowing trick. Captain EO is better than Honey from what I remember, and I actually do like it some, but I'm not head over heels about it. I actually skipped it on my last trip, not knowing it might close soon and because I just didn't care to see it. There is the fact that I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan in the first place, even though I do like We Are Here to Change the World. But the whole idea of dancing and singing saves the world thing isn't my cup of tea. Or maybe I'm completely missing something. I know a lot of people like EO a lot, and it isn't that I don't enjoy it, but I feel like its run it's course (twice) and it's time to move on.

Not having any innovative ideas for a ride or show myself, I'll probably be happy with whatever happens, as long as the pavilion reopens (assuming the rumors are true and it actually closes in the first place). Whatever happens, I'll try not to be too picky. (I'm usually satisfied fairly easy.) I'd just like a fresh ride, Dreamfinder would be welcome, and a great, original show to replace EO. And I'm hoping that the notion of killing the pavilion doesn't become reality.