A short post this one. Disney Parks released this video about from the imagineers a few weeks ago. It gives a good insight into upcoming items. Pay attention to some of the footage in the video – there are some good insights in there you don’t want to miss!

Hollywood Tower Hotel

This is one of my favourite things to take photos of at The Studios, mainly because it is fairly easy to get an awesome looking shot of the tower coming out of the nearby foliage.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t master a photo of it at night – I was generally let down by my camera. I’m hoping to be able to return at some point when I will hopefully have a better camera!

The video/song tells the story of Dan who doesn’t quite make it into show business as he thought he would, but instead ends up working on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland (something that has probably happened fairly often).

Apart from being a pretty good song, if you’re a disney fan it’s worth a listen, even if it’s just to pick up on those well known lines such as ‘The back side of water’.

Skipper Dan

I was listening to Inside The Magic on my walk to University this morning and listened to a huge list of films that Disney are thinking about bringing out in 3D. Most of these are altered version of older films, that they want to re-release in cinemas (for example, they’re talking about releasing Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D in sinema to help promote Toy Story 3, which is also in 3D).

I don’t really know where this interest in 3D technology has come from. If you’d have asked me about 3D films a year or so ago, I’d have said it was something that used the ‘classic’ blue and red glassess which had gone out of fashion. But it seems to have come back. Fortunately, most of the films seem to have moved away for using the technology for ‘Cheap 3D Tricks’ (think, things flying at you, floating in the air etc.)

Another 3D film has been released recently called Monsters Vs Aliens, from Dreamworks and is probably the reason why the BBC has recently released this article on 3D Technology.

One of the useful things on this page was an animated version of this slideshow explaining how 3D technology works:

It discusses quite a bit the advantages and disadvantages of the 3D technology, including it results in less vibrant colours, often resulting in more expensive cinema ticket prices due to filming costs being more expensive etc. One of the interesting comments that is made though is:

What’s more, 3D films pose a challenge to the black market.

“Ninety per cent [of piracy] is due to someone taking a camera into a movie theatre,” Jeffery Katzenberg, president of DreamWorks Animation told CNN.

“You can’t camcorder 3D. So the by-product of this is that it will have some serious implications about that.”

And I wonder if this is the real reason we’re seeing an increase in the number of films coming out in 3D, including the re-release of older films. If they’re harder to pirate, it’s going to either result in more DVD sales or people going to the cinema to get the full experience.

No, it still allows for when actual copies of the film are stolen (see the recent Wolverine problem), however, this happens a lot less, is often easier for the companies affected to take action against and wouldn’t match the current piracy market that exists.

I personally haven’t had an opportunity to head to the cinema yet to see a 3D film in action, so I can’t really comment if it is enhancing the experience. I’ve heard off friends that it isn’t resulting in too much of the dizziness etc. that they were expecting, but those who wore glasses struggled a little more with the 3D glasses and found the films slightly harder to watch.

So is 3D there for gimmicks? There to enhance the cinema experience? Or there to reduce copyright? My thought is the latter.

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Spaceship Earth, Epcot

I haveen’t got much to say on this weeks photo apart from – I’m so pleased the wand has gone!

This week’s photo was taken on my holiday in Florida during October 2006. The photo is of Expedition Everst in Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately, I’m unable to remember the exact location from which I took the photo.

Expedition Everest

If you look at the photo you can see the train going up the lift hill. I think this photo shows how fantastic the mountain looks and how it stands out from the sky, drawing people over to it.

It has become one of my favourite rides in Disney World, I just wish I would get a chance to see the yeti operating in a full animation mode, rather than the current mode it seems to live in.

About 12 months ago, news went round that It’s a Small World, would be going down for renovation. Part of this would be to upgrade the channel which the boats travelled a longer (rumoured to be to allow for slightly larger guests to ride in the boats without them ‘bottoming out’). It would also be to to clean up and fix any problems with existing dolls to ensure the experience remains at the highest quality.

What got some people up in arms though was the possibility of Disney characters being introduced into the attraction. Although some people were in favour of these changes, others felt it would be taking away from what the attraction was meant to be like.

There have been 29 Disney and Pixar characters added to the attraction in total, with some being dolls and others ‘toys’ (accompanying the dolls). Characters added include Aladdin, The Three Caballeros, Alice and Stitch amongst many others. Each of the characters has been included in a suitable section to represent it. For example, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell are flying over one tower of the London Bridge and The Three Caballeros represent Latin America.

During the renovation, a new ‘Spirt of America’ section was also added, which is home to Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. This scene is based on original concept art by Disney Legend Mary Blair.

Disney has also recently published a new video podcast which features It’s a Small World and looks at its history and the changes made for this renovation.

[See post to watch Flash video]

As people get an opportunity to ride on the new It’s a Small World after the reopening, I’m sure we’ll start seeing more blog posts on whether or not they think adding Disney characters was a good idea.

From what I’ve seen from photos on the internet, Disney has done a good job at trying to fit the character dolls (or toys accompanying the dolls) into the same style as the other dolls within the attraction. This I think, helps them fit in and make them a bit more acceptable. There are, however, very few general shots about yet, so it is hard to get an impression of how well they fit into the respective areas. I hold out hope though that they haven’t been made too obvious to the point of detracting from the general experience and message behing this attraction.

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]]> http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/02/theme-parks-its-a-small-world-reopens/feed/ 0 http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/01/photo-cinderellas-castle/ http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/01/photo-cinderellas-castle/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:53:08 +0000 Lee http://leestone.co.uk/daily/?p=71 This post is for Tuesday, 13th January

This week’s photo is of Cinderella’s Castle and was taken at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World during my holiday in October 2006

Cinderella's Castle

I quite like this photo as because the castle had been closed off ready for the show, there aren’t that many people about, which is quite unusual. The fairly clear sky also helps the castle stand out in my opinion.

It was also one of the few photos I managed to take this holiday where a crane didn’t feature in the background (I believe they were starting to put the lights up ready for Christmas and may have also been removing some of the previous theming that had been applied to the Castle).

I have another photo of Cinderella’s castle which I love which was taken at a slightly weird angle. I’ll probably make that a post in a couple of weeks time.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The Walt Disney Co. offered buyouts Wednesday to more than 600 executives at its U.S. resorts — including 313 in Orlando — as the company struggles to cut costs amid a worsening recession.

The company planned to hand-deliver buyout packages to 619 executives, each of whom will have until Feb. 6 to decide whether to accept the offer.

Disney warned it will resort to lay offs if too few employees voluntarily walk away.

Disney seems to be trying its hardest to take as minimal impact as possible by targeting its cost saving measures (at least they haven’t gone directly into letting people go), along with trying to keep attendance up such as by cutting hotel rates.

Whilst the cuts are at the higher level, I don’t think it will impact the guest experience we have all come to love at Disney. However, if they have to start laying off staff lower down the chain, it is at that stage I think we risk seeing it influencing the experience we have at the Disney parks.

Disney isn’t the only one look at lay offs though as Universal Orlando laid off about 70 people earlier this week as well. It’s interesting to see a reasonable number difference between the two groups here, although i’d imagine percentage wise they’re a bit more similar. I have a feeling though that this may just be the first round of lay offs, especially if attendance continues to take a downwards turn.

I think it will also continue to have a knock on effect once the economy starts recovering. I can see theme park management deciding against new developments, or keeping them smaller which will probably remain stalled until the economy is well into it’s recovery transition, giving us a phase of slow developments at the end of it all.