Disneyland is pushing 60 years old and, like most people nearing that milestone, the park has had its fair share of cheeseball moments over the past six decades.
More specifically I'm talking about Disney's long history of promotional videos they produce when promoting a new park, attraction or event.
Check out five of Disney's cheesiest promo videos after the jump.
5. Space Mountain
Space Mountain debuted in 1977 in the park and, according to this video that announced the attraction's arrival, so did horrible hairdos and a terrible sense of fashion.
4. Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade Is this a bad acid trip or a trailer for a slasher film? Neither! But this 1986 promo for Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade sure feels like a little bit of both. "Out of the darkness it will come... and it will make your eyes melt out of their sockets before it eats your brain!"
3. A Day at Disneyland (Part 1)
Created in early nineties for people who couldn't afford camcorders, this souvenir video allows viewers to watch costumed characters ride the attractions from the comfort of their own home. And hey, buying this video is way cheaper than flying your family of four to California to go to the actual park! Below is just the first ten minutes of the half-hour long video, which begs the question: If you can blow a half hour of your day watching this crap, what in the hell is wrong with you?
2. Grad Night Promo
Created in 1996 to promote the park's annual event for graduating seniors, this promo video reeks of middle-aged adults trying to appeal to what they think high school students are "down with, dude!" They've got hip-hop! They've got alternative! They've got fucking rollerblades! And they have 30-year-old actors who last roamed the halls of a high school when Ronald Reagan was president!
1. Splash Mountain Rap
Holy. Shit. Balls. This thing was supposedly produced in the nineties, which I guess is almost accurate considering the ride debuted in the park on July 17, 1989, but if this video doesn't look like the eighties barfed all over it I don't know what does. This "music video" features actor Scott Valentine (Mallory's boyfriend Nick from Family Ties) as he raps (HE RAPS?!?) about the new attraction. Holy. Shit. Balls. Again. (High-five to my friend Shawn for bringing this one to my attention.)
The exhibit is scheduled to run from Sept. 30 through Nov. 13, and plans call for celebrity chef Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger fame to make an appearance at the cranberry bog exhibit on Oct. 11, said Ocean Spray, whose headquarters campus is located on the Lakeville-Middleborough line.
For Ocean Spray, an ongoing marketing challenge is to convince the eating public that cranberries are good for more than just slathering onto a helping of Thanksgiving turkey. The cranberry is a versatile ingredient, and one that should be top of mind for any home cook with Julia Child aspirations, Ocean Spray believes.
So to convey the notion that the Craisin should be a regularly used ingredient, Tsai will join other uber chefs at the Oct. 11 event to “whip up an array of worldly cranberry creations celebrating the versatility of the cranberry and the many cuisines and cultures celebrated in the World Showcase at Epcot.” Ocean Spray said in a press release.
The Epcot exhibit follows up on a deal that Ocean Spray struck last year that makes Craisins the official fruit snack of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.
The first themed "land" will be built at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with construction expected to start by 2013.
The blue people are coming to Disney.
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide has sealed a deal with filmmaker James Cameron and producer Jon Landau, Fox and Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment to create themed attractions at Disney parks based on the 2009 movie.
The first themed "land" will be built at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with construction expected to start by 2013.
The first Avatar attraction will be inside the Animal Kingdom park. Disney said this was chosen because "with its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, Animal Kingdom is a natural fit for the Avatar stories, which share the same philosophy."
Cameron and Landau, through Lightstorm, will be creative consultants and partner with Walt Disney Imagineering in the design and development of the Avatar attractions, which eventually will be at other Disney parks worldwide as well.
The deal is exclusive to Disney, which plans to roll out other Avatar attractions over time. Some of that will depend on discussions with joint venture partners on parks outside the U.S.
The parks will not only play off the huge hit movie which dominated the box office for months in 2010, but also benefit from the release to two more movies now in pre-production. Cameron has announced plans to release those movies at Christmas 2014 followed by the second at Christmas 2015.
Avatar was a movie that broke new ground in terms of presentation and technology, especially in the use of 3D. It is expected that the theme park attractions will also use that technology and new innovations to engage park visitors.
“James Cameron is a groundbreaking filmmaker and gifted storyteller who shares our passion for creativity, technological innovation and delivering the best experience possible,” said Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “With this agreement, we have the extraordinary opportunity to combine James’ talent and vision with the imagination and expertise of Disney.”
“Avatar created a world which audiences can discover again and again and now, through this incredible partnership with Disney, we'll be able to bring Pandora to life like never before. With two new Avatar films currently in development, we'll have even more locations, characters and stories to explore,” said James Cameron. “I'm chomping at the bit to start work with Disney's legendary Imagineers to bring our Avatar universe to life. Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of Avatar with an unprecedented sense of reality."
"This exciting new venture combines the world of Avatar with the enormous reach of Disney and the incomparable talent of Jim Cameron,” said Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman. “While Jim is bringing audiences further into Pandora with the next two chapters in the Avatar motion picture saga, the theme park attraction will likewise bring a new dimension to the amazing universe he created."
"Avatar is a uniquely powerful franchise that has global appeal with audiences of all ages. Its spectacular settings, intriguing characters, imaginative creatures, and strong themes of family and loyalty make it a perfect fit for Disney,” said Thomas O. Staggs, Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “We can’t wait to give our guests the ability to journey to Pandora and explore the incredible immersive world of Avatar in person.”
Make sure all tray tables are in the upright and locked position.
The crowds were thick on the opening weekend of Disneyland's newest offering Star Tours -- The Adventures Continue, with throngs of fans sporting prehensile Yoda backpacks plopping down 15 bucks for an R2-D2 popcorn bucket. Skinny teens in Vader shirts proclaiming "Soy Tu Padre, Mijo" queued up in four-hour lines alongside bearded fanboys stretching their "Judge Me By My Size, Do You?" shirts to their XXL breaking point.
Both Disneyland and Star Wars share not just an enviable history of crowd-pleasing entertainment, but rabid, detail-oriented fan bases quick to criticize changes and additions to their beloved canon. Many longtime fans of both properties have become resigned to the belief that the most fertile creative days of each company are in the past and that future entries might best be enjoyed by children and apologists.
The new Star Tours largely bucks that trend, the revamped version of 1987's pioneering simulator ride serving as a reminder of how much sheer fun Disney Imagineers and Lucasfilm are able to create when firing on all cylinders. Though still at heart a simulated flight through the Star Wars universe conducted by a hapless interstellar travel agency, the attraction has been refreshed from bow to stern, delivering eye-popping visuals and Imperial intrigue in a crisp Dolby digital 3-D that seems to share nothing in common with the tepid overuse of the technology showcased in every other movie blockbuster released nowadays.
With a reluctant C-3PO at the helm, the Starspeeder feels smoother and less jarring than when Paul Reubens' Captain Rex piloted guests on an ill-fated trip to Endor. There is more emphasis on swooping and evading obstacles than crashing right through them, and the large windshield is used to great effect. R2 as always seems to know more than he lets on about Rebel plans and isn't above going weapons hot if the Empire threatens his mission.
Though technically set in the time period between trilogies, the ride feels like a mash-up of Star Wars greatest hits. It plays like fan fiction of the highest order, with a storyline that recalls the pulpy fun of the original series with all the burnished visuals of the prequels.
Sometimes it feels like an attempt at franchise redemption made by people who feel the same way about Star Wars that you do: when you find yourself in a speeder bike chase through a thick forest, rest assured that the treetop villages are inhabited by Wookies, not teddy bear primitives. If narrowly avoiding mowing down the reviled Jar Jar Binks with your ship isn't cathartic enough, eagle-eyed riders may spot a glimpse of the clumsy Gungan entombed in carbonite, unlikely to ever find himself defrosted by someone who loves him very much.
Grabbing a Fastpass ride reservation from a Gonk droid reduces your wait considerably (pass the time in the gorgeous new Trader Sam's tiki bar at the Disneyland Hotel) and still allows you to enjoy a polished, frequently hilarious queue that satirizes the bleak mundanity of present day air travel. An insult comic baggage droid lets luggage stuffed with blasters and live Ewoks slip through security unnoticed as he destroy laptops he doesn't recognize and compliments guests that they look like the famous Mr. Binks ("Yousa probably get that all the time.").
The primary selling point the park is flogging is re-ridability -- with press materials boasting over 50 different story combinations. The truth is that there are only 11 unique story elements (you'll see four per ride) that can get combined in 54 different ways, and it will only take a few trips to visit most of the destinations the ride has to offer.
Still, almost every ride segment has something to recommend it, and even the prequel-phobic are likely to enjoy pod racing or a trip to Naboo when it's this smooth, thrilling and devoid of Jake Lloyd. Plus: Hoth!
Disneyland purists will welcome nods to the classic attraction -- like the flight attendant with the lopsided hairdo from the original safety video now reimagined as a regal passenger along with her mischievous son dressed as a young, black Han Solo. Just another upwardly mobile family living the Corellian dream.
While it is unlikely to ever fully satisfy every nitpicking message board denizen ("Why on earth would anyone tell a protocol droid to fix something on a spaceship? Am I missing something here?"), both Disney and Star Wars geeks can look forward to booking many return trips through Star Tours to make sure they didn't miss a thing.
Visit http://www.InsideTheMagic.net for much more from Star Wars Weekends 2011
Hyperspace Hoopla was bigger and better than ever at Star Wars Weekends 2011, taking place on a new huge stage in front of the Sorcerer Hat at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
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The newly upgraded 3D version of Star Tours officially opens tomorrow in Florida (with non-Cast Member previews beginning in California as well), and people will finally be able to experience Star Wars in 3D. What’s cool about the new Star Tours is that it uses a 3D technology, and glasses, that hasn’t yet been seen in many theaters. This isn’t the ancient two-projector film-based tech that’s used in 3D theme park movies like Captain EO. It’s also not the expensive 3D technology that most movie theaters use. Disney chose to go with Dolby’s new 3D technology that uses just one projector and unique 3D glasses.
Where current theater 3D tech requires the use of an expensive reflective silver screen and usually requires dual projectors; Dolby’s tech can be used on a normal white screen and a single digital projector that can display both 2D and 3D playback. The 3D playback uses an alternate red/blue/green color wheel in addition to the normal red/blue/green color wheel; which is why some people claim that the new Star Tours uses the old 1950′s red/blue style of 3D. It doesn’t but due to a second color wheel in the projector you may see additional colors when you view the screen without 3D glasses on. Basically the color information for each eye is projected at different wavelengths, which the glasses then are able to decode. The glasses are also new. They aren’t the flimsy cheap polarized lenses that you normally get at a theme park or even a movie theater. Word is that they actually cost about $12 a pair, and they use a curved lens. This can cause some blurring on the edges for people who wear glasses, but they do fit over prescription glasses just fine. The 3D effect with these new glasses is actually clearer and smoother than what you got with traditional flat polarized lenses.
This weekend Disney soft-opened Star Tours 2 in Florida in anticipation for its big opening this coming Friday, and they let a picture of Darth Vader leak out. The pic comes from the beginning of the ride when you’re confronted by either a squad of Stormtroopers or Vader himself. The whole thing is in 3D, which this pic obviously cannot show, and the word from the ride is that the 3D effect is the best ever done in either a theme park ride or movie. The ride even uses Dolby’s new 3D technology (and glasses). These aren’t your typical cheap theme park glasses. Dolby charges theater owners about $12 a pair for them.
Star Tours opens in Florida on Friday, and there will be special previews of the ride for non-Cast Members beginning that day in Anaheim. Expect a lot more later this week.
For a while we’ve known that Star Tours II would naturally feature C-3PO, R2D2, and Admiral Ackbar among two new Droids. Now Disney has officially confirmed that Ackbar would me making an appearance in the ride along with a couple other characters. Darth Vader and Boba Fett will be there along with Stormtroopers and a brand new type of trooper created specifically for the new ride called a “skytrooper”. For the Rebellion, aside from Ackbar; riders will see Yoda and a young Princess Leia on their trip to one of many new destinations.
Star Tours II is scheduled to open in May, and we’re planning on being there opening day and will try to bring you live coverage of all the Star Wars craziness.
Disney has released their official press release announcing the re-opening of Star Tours next month in Florida (and June in Anaheim), and it reveals some new details about the ride. In addition to it describing the new queue people will walk through, it confirms that the new pilot droid Ace will still be seen in the ride, despite C-3PO taking over the piloting duties when you enter the Starspeeder 1000. Here’s the full press release:
‘Star Tours – The Adventures Continue’ Brings Star Wars™ Thrills in 3-D to Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The power of the Force and the magic of Disney have combined to create “Star Tours – The Adventures Continue,” a new 3-D attraction set to open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park on May 20, 2011. The attraction also will open at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, Calif., on June 3, 2011.
Based on the Star Wars films, Star Tours will take Walt Disney World Resort guests to multiple Star Wars destinations where they will interact with characters from throughout the Saga. And it will all be in 3-D.
With eye-popping 3-D digital filming, a dramatic musical score and motion simulator-based technology, guests will be immersed in the Star Wars galaxy like never before on a theme park attraction. Walt Disney Imagineering worked with Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic – the groundbreaking visual effects division of Lucasfilm – to bring the out-of-this-world attraction to life.
Star Tours, which had thrilled Disney Parks guests since the 1980s, was “powered down” at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2010 so Imagineers could begin work on the new attraction.
And in a new twist, guests may be able to enjoy the attraction multiple times without ever experiencing the same adventure. More than 50 story combinations are possible for guests to experience aboard Star Tours.
Just as the Star Wars films immerse movie-goers in storylines that keep them on the edge of their seats, Star Tours will feature multiple stories and scenarios that will hurtle park guests throughout the Star Wars galaxy. And all of the storyline’s twists and turns will be random, affording guests the chance to ride the attraction multiple times.
Whether it’s a battle with Darth Vader and his legion of stormtroopers or a plea from Princess Leia to help her save the Rebellion, guests will find themselves in the middle of the action – literally – in the 3-D, multi-sensory attraction.
Entering the attraction queue area, Star Tours guests walk into a bustling spaceport. The famed Star Wars droid duo, C-3PO and R2-D2, greet them as the Starspeeder 1000 is prepped for service. Anthony Daniels, the voice of C-3PO and the only actor to appear in every theatrical chapter of the Star Wars Saga, reprises his role as the golden protocol droid. Daniels worked with Walt Disney Imagineering to record new dialogue for the attraction. Guests also are introduced to AC-38, a hotshot droid pilot known simply as “Ace,” and Aly San San (voiced by actress Allison Janney), the “spokesbot” for the spaceport.
After winding through the spaceport, guests board the Starspeeder 1000 spacecraft and prepare for Star Tours Flight #1401. Through a series of mishaps, however, C-3PO finds himself in the pilot’s seat instead of Ace, and it’s up to him and R2-D2 to navigate their passengers through the galaxy. However, the tyrannical Empire is out to stop the Starspeeder at all costs. C-3PO and R2-D2 take the controls and try to outwit and outrun the Imperial forces and a galactic bounty hunter hired to pursue the spaceship and its passengers.
Utilizing the 50+ random story combinations, the Starspeeder then embarks on a wild trip through the galaxy, visiting several planets made famous in the Star Wars films. Among the locations that might provide haven from the Empire’s pursuit are the icy planet of Hoth, the lush jungles of Kashyyyk and the underwater Gungan world of Naboo. And along the way guests may encounter Star Wars characters that offer to help (or hinder) their journey, including Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. “Skytroopers,” a legion of stormtroopers created just for the Star Tours attraction story, might even join in the chase.
In fact, with multiple ways to experience each flight, guests will never know where the Force will take them.
At Walt Disney World Resort, Star Tours opens May 20, 2011, the same day the annual Star Wars Weekends event begins at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. Star Tours and Star Wars Weekends event activities are included in regular admission to Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.
For more information and to purchase theme park tickets or book vacation packages, guests may visit disneyworld.com/startours or disneyworld.com/starwarsweekends.
Last year, the ride Star Tours in Disneyland and Walt Disney World shut down in preparation for a much-needed revamp. It was a bittersweet moment for geeks everywhere who had flocked to its hallowed halls in a chance to live some of the Star Wars magic. On one hand, the ride was nearly 25 years old and felt it. On the other, we knew we'd have to suffer through pod race footage.
Here's the brief plot, if you haven't been on the ride. You're part of a tour group going to Endor. Your pilot droid, Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens), is new, so when you zip out of hyperspace you end up in a battle between a star destroyer and some X-wings. After zipping through the trenches of the Death Star, a la A New Hope, you fly away and back to the home star port. Just watch the video so you know what I'm talking about:
But after review, there was just a lot... wrong with the original Star Tours. Things that just didn't make sense. Keep in mind, I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, but I've watched the original trilogy about as much as an average guy my age. Here are 10 tough questions Star Tours can't -- or won't -- answer.
10) Who the Hell Wants to Take a Tour to Endor?
I know why Endor was chosen to be the Star Tours destination: it's one of the few places that's mentioned by name in the original trilogy (keep in mind, of course, that this ride opened in 1987, which means plans for the ride were probably in place right after Return of the Jedi came out -- and four years before Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire was published). But who the fuck would want to vacation on Endor? It's portrayed in Jedi as a backwoods waste of a planet with little in the ways of settlement. It's so off the radar that the natives speak a language that even the hyper-fluent C-3PO doesn't immediately recognize. The Empire decided to build the Death Star there because no one cares about Endor and no one visits. So why would a tour company make that a prime vacation destination?
9) Why Don't We Ever Get to Endor?
Straight up, we never got to Endor. It's like booking a flight from Philadelphia to Dallas, except you notice halfway that you're flying over Seattle and then you land back in Philadelphia. Star Tours is the worst tour company ever. Everyone should be demanding their money back immediately after landing.
8) Why Is the Droid Pilot an Idiot?
One of the big things that sticks out to me is that Rex, the pilot droid (above), messes things up by first going out the wrong door, then overshoots Endor, and then ends up lost in a combat zone. Shouldn't he have been programmed to do things correctly? I mean, he's a robot. When we program our robots on Earth to make cars in a factory, they do nothing but make cars. They don't suddenly start making donuts or filling the room with bees. Robots are programmed for certain tasks, and even with a little autonomy, Rex should be able to do his fucking job well enough that he doesn't potentially kill his passengers.
7) Why Doesn't Rex Know How to Leave the Building? Admittedly, this is mentioned above, but I think it deserves its own question. Star Tours would seem to be a pretty well-run operation, given the size of the massive hanger you exit from. So when one of your tour ships goes down a maintenance tunnel and ends up flying around, lost in the depths of your building, you don't laugh it off. If you're a professional, you recall the vehicle immediately, get everyone off it, and replace the fucking driver. Then send the driver to robot jail. If a Greyhound bus driver accidentally made a wrong turn and drove through the shops at Port Authority for five minutes, the driver would be in prison, no matter if no one got hurt or not.
6) Actually, Why Does Rex Have Passengers on His First Day on the Job?
Apparently, even robots have a learning curve. So the first day that Rex is piloting this ship he's... got passengers? That doesn't seem right. A responsible company would send him out on his own once or twice to see how he does, given the complexities of piloting a starship. Sure, there might be a few goofs on day one, but Rex's mistakes are less like, "Ooops! Left my wipers on!" and more like, "I have no idea what I'm doing here. You may all die in a fire shortly."
5) Who Tractor Beams an Unknown Ship in the Middle of a Battle? If you're an Imperial soldier on the Star Destroyer, and you're in the middle of a firefight with rebels, and a strange ship flies out of a comet, what would you do? Keep in mind, that there are a bunch of other ships currently shooting at you with lasers -- and you're supposed to protect the Death Star. If you thought the ship was friendly, you'd send out a hailing signal saying, "What the FUCK are you doing here?" Otherwise, you'd blast it just like you're blasting the X-Wings. In the middle of combat the last thing you'd want to do is pull the mystery ship closer.
4) Why Can the X-Wing Pilots Talk to Star Tours... But Not the Imperials? I'm going to skip over the big elephant in the room of when this takes place in Star Wars continuity, because I just can't figure it out (the way they go after the Death Star is purely New Hope, but the proximity to the Endor moon suggests it's somewhere around Jedi -- a failed attack perhaps? We don't see it blow up). I'll move on to something kind of minor: Why can the X-Wing pilotz communicate with Star Tours but the Imperials can't? These guys are rebels, the equivalent to guerilla fighters with good tech, but they can reach out to a tour ship within a few seconds of spying it. Is everyone working on the same frequency?
3) Whose Side Is Star Tours On?
We're supposed to be rooting for the Rebellion, of course, but as Star Tours is a licensed business (presumably licensed by the Empire), its professional loyalties should remain with the governing body. You show your passport to the government official, not the rebel in the jeep who's been running sorties on your bases. Obviously, the Death Star didn't blow up, so this was probably just a failed attack on it by some rebel fighters. But since Star Tours helped out in the attack (they shot lasers! from the space bus!), wouldn't this make them traitors? What you don't see after Rex lands is a squadron of Stormtroopers executing the entire staff of Star Tours for treason.
2) Whose Side Are You On? Tour groups bring in a diverse group of people, so the odds that some of the passengers on Star Tours are pro-Empire are very good. Having different political views is one thing; actively taking part in an attack on the largest government battleship in the universe is another. Remember, the Rebellion is in hiding. The whole beginning of Empire is them trying not be found out while they're on Hoth, otherwise they'll be massacred by AT-ATs. If anyone on the tour to Endor wasn't allied with the Rebellion, they'd be calling the authorities ASAP once they touched down. "Those rebels you've been searching for? Would you believe it, they're running a goddam tour company."
1) What Kind of Tour Company Murders People? At timestamp 3:38 in the video in the intro, a TIE Fighter is coming at your vehicle. Lasers shoot out the front of your tour ship. The TIE Fighter blows up. Congratulations, you're now accessory to murder. Thanks to your little trip to Endor, some family is without its father. Let me reiterate how fucking insane that is: you were on a guided tour and your tour guide, on his own volition, killed a sentient being. Not like he sideswiped it into a ditch or ran him over when he darted out in front of the bus, no, your tour guide consciously murdered someone in a place he wasn't supposed to be at in the first place. Holy shit, that would get your business shut down in a heartbeat.
For every collection of heartwarming, family-friendly Disneyland photos, there’s a collection of perverted, horribly inappropriate Disneyland photos. Here are some of the best inappropriate Disneyland photos the internet has to offer:
Disney’s Star Tours is now closed in Anaheim, and closes soon in Orlando, for a massive overhaul to Star Tours II. Disney has now released one of the queue videos that play on the big jumptron screen while you wait in line. They aren’t confirming any of these destinations will be part of Star Tours II, but it’s been known that Endor isn’t the only place the Starspeeder can go in the upgrade. Check out the video below.
Disney ticket prices for parks in California and Florida are set to go up on Thursday.
(CNN) -- It's going to cost vacationers more to visit with Mickey Mouse starting Thursday, when Disney parks in California and Florida will raise ticket prices.
Disney posted an announcement about the price hikes Tuesday on its Disney Parks blog.
At Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the base price for one-day, one-park passes will rise from $79 to $82 for ages 10 and up. Tickets for children ages 3 to 9 will go from $68 to $74. The additional fee for park-hopper tickets will jump by $2 for one-day access, to $54.
One-day, one-park tickets to Southern California's Disneyland Resort will rise from $72 to $76 for ages 10 and up and from $62 to $68 for ages 3 to 9. Prices for one-day park-hopper tickets will go up by $4 for both age groups.
Increases will also apply to multi-day passes at both parks.
Prices for annual passes will rise by $10 to $18 at Disney World and by $20 for premium annual passes at Disneyland.
Prices for tickets and passes already purchased will not be affected.
Disney's blog provides links to information about the new pricing, going into effect August 5.
Disney Parks is overhauling the Star Wars-themed Star Tours rides at Disneyland and Walt Disney World later this year, and now Star Wars fans know when they can get that last ride on the original.
Star Tours will close at Disneyland on July 27 and at Walt Disney World on Sept. 8.
The original Star Tours ride puts riders in the passenger seat of a StarSpeeder 3000 spacecraft, under the pilot of a droid named Rex. The ship is supposed to be headed to the Moon of Endor, but a few wrong turns lead it into the middle of a battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Death Star.
It's a motion simulator ride that was on the cutting edge when it launched about 20 years ago. But now, it's a 20-year-old ride in need of an overhaul -- that's a "re-imagining" in Disney-speak.
The "new" Star Tours will be a 3-D affair, with riders joining in a high-speed pod race on Tatooine. It is expected to re-open at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in May 2011.
Walt Disney World and the fan convention Star Wars Celebration V are holding a "Last Tour to Endor" party on Aug. 14 at Disney's Hollywood Studios. A special event ticket is required; a regular park ticket won't get you in. The party will include Star Wars shows, a "Death Star Disco" and Star Wars-themed fireworks.
Tests inside Disney's Hollywood Studios on Tuesday and Wednesday assigned group numbers to those wanting to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
These tests appear similar to a concept for a revamped Dumbo ride in Walt Disney World's upcoming Fantasyland expansion project. Disney has said that rather than waiting in line, guests will be invited to play carnival games and enjoy entertainment in the air-conditioned circus tent in the renderings below, while awaiting their turn to ride the flying elephants.
Studios Central says that the test at the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster worked like this: Guests were assigned the group number, then led to a tented standby area where there was a DJ and video games (such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero.) There was also merchandise on sale in the standby area, which is not surprising. This is Disney, after all.The waiting system that was tested this week isn't a scheduled appointment to ride where you could leave the ride and come back later. You are expected to stay in the designated waiting area. Signs warned that if you weren't there within 5 minutes of your group being called, you would lose your place in the queue.
The test also did not replace Disney's "Fastpass" system, where you do obtain a ticket with a certain time assigned that allows you to come back and ride popular rides with less wait. Fastpass was still running at the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. But there is no Fastpass for the Dumbo ride's current incarnation.
Keep in mind, this was a test. The 'queue-less' waiting system that is installed when the Fantasyland expansion is completed in 2012 or 2013 could be totally different.
I guess the advantage is the entertainment and freedom to sit down or move around a bit when you would otherwise be standing in a line. But I don't think this system actually reduces wait times. I do think it will be a boon to parents. It's hard to corral kids in a hour-long line. What do you think?
When it comes to theme parks, Disney is positively Apple-like in its secrecy—ask a Disney employee how one of their rides or attractions works, and you're likely to be told "magic". So it's not surprising that, even though Expedition Everest (one of the tallest and fastest roller coasters Disney has ever built) has been open at its Animal Kingdom park since 2006, the company has never let a journalist see the guts inside its mountain-like structure, until now. The two stipulations given: No photography allowed inside, and we must visit before dawn to beat the morning maintenance checks.
It is 6:15 am when I meet Diego Parras, a Disney Imagineer (what the company calls the creative force behind its theme parks and rides) and my tour guide. At this pre-dawn hour, the park is empty, save for a few Disney employees. It is also eerily quiet, with none of the parades, children, music or grinding gears of machinery that characterize a theme park in operation. And for an adult such as myself, who spent his childhood making annual pilgrimages to the notoriously secretive Disney parks, it's an incredibly revealing experience: a rare glimpse behind the Mouse's curtain.
To enter the coaster's interior, we walk along its track for several paces, before hanging a right through a door and into the mountain structure itself. The interior is hollow and resembles a large loading dock or parking lot. Although this room is pitch black during the day, the lights have been turned on so we can see inside.
There are support beams of various colors, which I am told are connected to independent intertwined structures. Black beams hold the ride up—a dynamic structure that is designed to be moveable—while red beams support a rigid framework and a structure of faux rocks gives the attraction its mountain-like look. "Each piece of the three structures was built at a scheduled time so that they could come together like Lego blocks," Parras says.
We leave the mountain's guts and walk back to the tracks. I look up and see a 22-foot tall robotic Yeti—the largest animatronic robot Disney has ever made. Although most riders only see the Yeti for a few seconds, lit sparingly by strobe lights, the beast became an object of obsessive perfectionism from Disney's Imagineers.
"One guy even brought a bucket of mud which he began packing between the toes," Parras says. "And we teamed up with a primate expert, because we wanted to know what a primate that had to live in this area would look like."
Of course, the Imagineers' obsessive attention to detail is evident in the entire ride, from the prop-laden queuing area (filled with objects pulled from a number of Imagineers' trips to the Himalayas—even the nails used to hang pictures come from the region) to the sounds the coaster cars make.
Most coaster's create a "clicking" noise as they climb a ride's initial ascent. This is a byproduct of the anti-rollback system—a safety mechanism designed to catch a car if it starts to slide backwards. But to Disney's Imagineers, this noise was viewed as an unacceptable diversion from the ride's Himalayan theme.
"The sound had to go away, and so we went back to drawing board to design a new system from scratch that doesn't make the noise," Parras says. The result: a brand new anti-rollback system that allows the cars to ride slightly above the sawtooth-like brakes. If the cars begin to slow down, the ride forces them down and into the brakes.
The next day I got to actually ride Expedition Everest. Unlike most Disney rides, which focus on atmosphere more than adrenaline, the ride is a pure thrill. It’s far faster than Space Mountain, and you can feel the G’s twist your stomach into a knot. We here at Popular Mechanics live for the nitty gritty and the techy, and despite the company line that "magic" plays a greater role in propelling Disney rides than physics, seeing the coaster's guts made the trip on it that much more enjoyable.
When the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse was transformed into Tarzan's Treehouse in 1999, we bit our tongues. Then when they started throwing in waxy Johnny Depps into the Pirates of the Caribbean in 2000, we were annoyed (but not as much, because really, who doesn't want every given opportunity to stare at Captain Jack Sparrow?). In 2007, Tom Sawyer Island was "re-imagined" as Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.
And now? Now, hot on the heels of the premiere of the final season of LOST, fanboys and girls are proposing a way to let the craze live on: Transforming the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island to a LOST-themed island experience.
Which, we're not sure, but will probably involve polar bears. And giant feet. And smoke monsters. Maybe some (dead) hobbitses. And all sorts of other shit we still--five fucking seasons later--can't fully understand.
It has already been confirmed by the writers of LOST that there will indeed be no LOST film, a direction several other television series with cult followings took, like The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks and The X-Files, so the rabid ones are looking for a way to keep the dream and/or fanboy/girl wank alive.
You can go ahead and credit John Jon Stueve, a former Orange Countian and LOST fan since episode one of season one, with the proposal to transform the Frontierland attraction. As The Examiner reports, "In a random tweeted conversation between Stueve and someone he follows, photos of Disneyland led to the statement, 'Let me know when they've made Tom Sawyer Island into Dharma Island.' Having it out there, Stueve thought the idea was 1) humorous, and 2) had potential, so he made another public tweet. He was flabbergasted when Doc Jensen tweeted back, 'I TOTALLY SECOND LOST_WFTB's CALL FOR TURNING TOM SAWYER ISLAND AT DISNEYLAND INTO #LOST ISLAND! GET ON THAT, DISNEY!'"
And so the dream began. Which led to this, an online petition to the head honchos at Disney, for a LOST ride, including, but not limited to the following features:
The Frozen Donkey Wheel behind the Orchid Station testing chamber
The Swan station and Hatch ride
A submarine ride to Palu Ferry
Dharmaville Barracks
Smoke monster
Ruins
Jacob's Cabin
The Egyptian Statue and Jacob's Lair
Obviously it's all a pipe dream (they might want to spell "television" correctly on the petition first), one that would probably never happen, given that LOST isn't exactly the most family-friendly show ("Mommy, why're Sawyer and Kate having sex in a cage?"), despite the fact that Disney is the parent company of ABC. And we're not exactly for the further obliteration of what what remains of Tom Sawyer anyway.
But, hey, if there are wax figures of the foxy Matthew Fox involved, we wouldn't be totally opposed.
On December 5, 1901 Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Little did anyone know that in the next 65 years, the world of entertainment would never be the same. With his brother, Roy, Walt Disney formed Walt Disney Productions that would eventually give us some of the most famous cartoon characters of all time, from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, created in the early years of animation, to the 21st century digital stars like Woody the cowboy and Buzz Lightyear.
Since Snow White, its first animated feature released in 1937, Disney has created over 300 characters that operate over 100 brands, creating a business worth $4.4 billion a year.
A popular showman as well as a innovator in animation and feature film production, Walt Disney became the father of the cartoon genre, picking up a huge number of awards along the way, including 59 Academy Award nominations (a record) and winning a total of 26 Oscars.
What's more, his company has come a long way since Steam Boat Willie, becoming a worldwide institution in itself with theme parks and resorts in the US, Japan, France and China.
Even since his death in 1966, technological advancements in animation and numerous shifts in the movie industry have failed to impact on Walt Disney's success.
You will struggle to find a single person on earth who has never come across at least one of Disney's many characters. And the best way to sum up the impact that Walt Disney's brainchild has had is to say that it's impossible to imagine the world without it.
Disneyland may be the Happiest Place on Earth, but don’t think that means you can just waltz in and do whatever you want. In fact, Mickey Mouse’s theme parks have banned quite a few things over the years. Here are just a few of the things on which the Mouse has dropped his hammer.
1. Long Hair
Until the late 1960s, men could either have flowing locks or enjoy Adventureland, but they definitely couldn’t do both. According to Snopes, if a long-haired fellow tried to buy a ticket, a cast member would discreetly and politely inform the man that his hairdo didn’t jive with the park’s unwritten dress code before escorting him from the park.
2. Facial Hair
It’s tough to find a picture of Walt Disney without a mustache, but for decades it was even tougher to find a Disney employee who had a ‘stache of his own. Starting in 1957, workers at Disney parks were not allowed to have long hair, grow beards, or wear mustaches. (The underlying logic was that park patrons wouldn’t want to buy a $9 soda from some filthy bearded hippie or mustachioed Snidely Whiplash type.)
In 2000, Disney was having trouble drumming up enough manpower to staff its parks, so it relaxed the facial hair ban. Employees were finally allowed to grow mustaches, provided they kept them trimmed and groomed. Beards didn’t fare so well, though; they stayed on the forbidden list.
3. Blake Lively
How could anyone not like the cute-as-a-button star of Gossip Girl? Disneyland apparently wasn’t always amused with Lively’s pre-fame antics. According to Lively, when she was six, she and her older brother used the old put-hairspray-on-a-friend’s-readmission-hand-stamp-to-transfer-the-stamp-to-their-own-skin trick. It would have been the perfect crime, except security nabbed the Lively kids right as they went through the park’s turnstiles and slapped the pair with a one-year ban.
4. Florida State Football Recruits
In June 2007, four Florida State football recruits met up for a little bit of fun. Instead of engaging in any of the myriad nefarious acts a group of 18-year-old males are known to favor, the players decided to go to Disney World, which seemed like the very last place in the world they could get into any trouble. Wrong. Park officials approached the men, all of whom were African-American, while they hung out in Downtown Disney and ejected them from the park for violating its anti-loitering rules. Security also hit the players with a lifetime ban from the park in a move that many Disney critics claimed smacked of racial profiling.
5. Costumes
You may want to dress up like Jack Sparrow for a day of riding Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you’re older than nine, forget it. Disney bans any costumes and masks on anyone who’s ten or older. Also listed on Disney’s park dress code: “Makeup that could be construed as part of a costume.” So go easy on the eye shadow—the fashion police might decide you’re shooting for a 19th-century harlot look and give you the heave-ho.
Similarly, the dress code bans “clothing that accentuates or draws attention to private areas,” a well meaning, if oddly phrased, choice. Here’s hoping Disney starts handing out unisex burlap smocks at the park gates to avoid any potentially accentuated private areas. [Image courtesy of reader Christopher Schwarz.]
6. Gallows
In early 2008, upstart English punk band Gallows was all set to open for Social Distortion at a gig at the House of Blues at Disneyland. The bill seemed like a good way to get exposure for a band that was starting to catch on stateside—or it did until Disney officials actually stopped to listen to Gallows’ debut record, Orchestra of Wolves. Once Disney brass heard Gallows’ tunes, they nixed the show due to the band’s occasionally offensive lyrical content.
While it seems odd to get upset at a punk band for being abrasive, Disney’s move wasn’t unprecedented. Just a few months earlier, the company had banned the metal band Machine Head from performing at the House of Blues for similar reasons.
7. Kids
Kids banned by Disney? You bet. In January 2008, Disney announced that children under the age of 10 would no longer be allowed to dine at Victoria & Albert’s, the ritziest restaurant at Disney World’s Grand Floridian Spa and Resort. The move made news, but Disney officials claimed that the AAA five-diamond-rated restaurant didn’t attract that many children in the first place. In addition to being pricey, Victoria & Albert’s only offered a fixed-price menu with kid-unfriendly offerings like caviar, so the restaurant only catered to a handful of young diners each year.
8. Segways
GOB Bluth is going to be in quite a bind if he ever tries to ride his Segway into Disneyland. The company bans Segways from its parks, ostensibly because it’s tough to balance safety issues with the potential for having a fleet of two-wheeled vehicles rolling around the grounds.
The trouble here, though, is that a lot of disabled people use Segways in lieu of wheelchairs. These folks were understandably peeved that they couldn’t visit the parks using their preferred mode of transportation, and several of them filed lawsuits. So far it’s been tough for the Segway riders to get Disney to budge; earlier this fall, a federal judge threw out a class action lawsuit brought against Disney by Segway devotees. The ruling left an opening for further legal action, though, so this court battle may not be over yet.
Readers have brought up two other things that might not be welcome in Disney parks: Nikita Khrushchev and bubble gum. Alvin has added those stories…
Nikita Khrushchev?
Disneyland as a battleground for the Cold War? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what it became in 1959. That year, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev spent 11 days visiting the United States. He spent one day of the trip in Los Angeles, and the fierce orator wanted to see Disneyland. However, the LAPD and the rest of Khrushchev’s security detail were worried about his safety during such a trip, so they nixed the idea.
Khrushchev accepted the news with characteristic poise, which is to say he exploded. He ranted, “And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?”
Gum?
Want to chomp on some gum while you’re standing in line at a Disney park? You’ll have to bring it with you from home. In an effort to keep chewed gum from being stuck all over the parks, none of the shops in any Disney theme park sells gum. Supposedly this innovation came from Walt Disney himself, who wanted to make sure that his guests could enjoy their visits without getting gum stuck to their shoes.
See the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida from a whole new perspective. The exclusive video first featured on The Disney Parks Blog was created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. Its a sunrise-to-sunset story told without words. But the message is clear — celebrate.
NEW YORK -- Disney is offering a free day's admission to 1 million guests who complete a day of volunteer work next year.
The "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program will provide certified volunteers with a one-day ticket to any park at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., or Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., in 2010.
Disney is partnering with HandsOn Network, a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities, to connect people with projects and to certify that the work was done.
"We are trying to inspire 1 million people to volunteer in their communities and we're inspiring them to do that by giving them a free day at a Disney park," Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Rasulo called the promotion "very timely," citing the increased needs of nonprofits in the weak economy, as well as President Obama's national volunteering initiative.
"The spirit of our country is very much behind that, whether it's the first family or whether it's the average family," Rasulo said.
Duncan Dickson, who teaches theme park management at the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Management in Orlando, said the volunteer initiative is "a smart marketing move."
Dickson said Disney will get good buzz for encouraging volunteerism plus free publicity from the nonprofits that benefit. And even when theme parks let people in for free, they make their money back in other ways, Dickson said.
"You make a lot of money in popcorn and T-shirts and other things," Dickson said.
Some guests who come in for free would have bought tickets anyway, but the free offer will also bring in visitors who wouldn't otherwise have made the trip, and they'll bring paying guests with them, Dickson added. "Anything that pushes the turnstiles is good for business," Dickson said.
HandsOn Network has 70,000 affiliated agencies, from Habitat for Humanity to local food banks, churches, health care centers, and educational programs. Once their service is verified by HandsOn, volunteers print out an online certificate that can be redeemed at a Disney park.
Examples of volunteer opportunities currently listed on HandsOn's Web site range from drivers and bingo callers to a book drive organizer at a senior center in Scranton, Pa., to a docent at the Oregon Maritime Museum in Portland.
The free admission offer is part of a larger trend in the tourism industry, using everything from free hotel nights to two-for-one discounts to attract visitors in the weak economy. Disneyland this year offered two free nights with the purchase of three nights at a Disney resort, and all the U.S. Disney parks have allowed guests in free on their birthdays this year.
Rasulo said that 3.5 million people registered for the birthday promotion and about 30 percent of them have taken advantage of it so far.
Disney kicked the volunteer promotion off Tuesday by sending 1,000 volunteers, including employees from Disney and Southwest Airlines, to work on projects around the country, from a Habitat for Humanity site in Los Angeles to the Bethune School of Excellence in Chicago.
Would-be volunteers must register online with Disney and must be residents of the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico to be eligible for the free admission. The work must be performed in 2010, and the park visit must take place by Dec. 15, 2010. Participants must be 18 or older to sign up for the program, but volunteer work done by children ages 6-17 qualifies for a free ticket as long as kids are accompanied by an adult when volunteering. Unused admission certificates can be donated to a charity designated by Disney.
Volunteers who have multiday tickets or annual passes can get a special FASTPASS for up to six people in lieu of the voucher.
John William Moyer will face sentencing for groping Minnie Mouse at Disney World
John William Moyer, 60, of Cressona, Penn., left, wipes the ink from his hands after he was convicted and sentenced Tuesday of misdemeanor battery charge for groping of a woman playing Minnie Mouse at Walt Disney World. (GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL / August 11, 2009)
Bianca Prieto and Walter PachecoSentinel Staff Writer
A jury this morning found John William Moyer guilty of groping of a woman playing Minnie Mouse at Walt Disney World.
Moyer, 60, of Pennsylvania, was convicted of misdemeanor battery for the June incident this morning.
Judge Wayne Shoemaker imposed the sentence this morning.
"The verdict reinforces the fact that this type of behavior is not acceptable," said Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez. Disney officials also banned Moyer from entering any of the company's resorts, Suarez said.
According to the sentence, Moyer has to write a letter of apology to the victim, Brittney Duncan McGoldrick. He also is under supervised probation for 180 days, must complete 50 hours of community service within four months, pay $1,000 in court costs and submit to a mental evaluation with treatment, if necessary.
Before sentencing, Moyer's adult son spoke on his behalf.
"He's a good man," Emory Moyer said. "He's a nice guy."
Emory Moyer also described his father as a man who would never touch a woman inappropriately.
Later, Moyer spoke briefly to the judge.
"I am innocent, I am not guilty of the crimes that I've been charged with," Moyer said.
Moyer has no criminal history and has never received a speeding ticket, he said. This was his first offense.
McGoldrick told prosecutors at the Orange County Courthouse on Monday she had pushed Moyer away from her after the incident.
"My first reaction I just pushed him down. I was doing everything I could to get his hands off my breasts," Duncan McGoldrick said.
Jurors began their deliberations Monday afternoon.
"We're just hoping for the only fair and just verdict in this case, which is 'not guilty'," said Zahra S. Umansky, Moyer's attorney.
Moyer had been booked into Orange County Jail on June 7 and was released on $1,000 bail.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
You may want to dress up like Jack Sparrow for a day of riding Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you’re older than nine, forget it. Disney bans any costumes and masks on anyone who’s ten or older. Also listed on Disney’s park dress code: “Makeup that could be construed as part of a costume.” So go easy on the eye shadow—the fashion police might decide you’re shooting for a 19th-century harlot look and give you the heave-ho.
GOB Bluth is going to be in quite a bind if he ever tries to ride his Segway into Disneyland. The company bans Segways from its parks, ostensibly because it’s tough to balance safety issues with the potential for having a fleet of two-wheeled vehicles rolling around the grounds.
Disneyland as a battleground for the Cold War? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what it became in 1959. That year, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev spent 11 days visiting the United States. He spent one day of the trip in Los Angeles, and the fierce orator wanted to see Disneyland. However, the LAPD and the rest of Khrushchev’s security detail were worried about his safety during such a trip, so they nixed the idea.
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