8/25: The Reluctant Dragon

[BassBone]

Originally Posted by cellarhound

1. Volunteerism is not a Marketing Campaign.

2. D23 is doomed. It was doomed before it started. There is no way on earth it is going to get any better.

3. There is a new dragon? Is it riding the new Monorail? Both these things are what happens when you throw money around and forgot to hire people who dot i's and cross t's. I wouldn't be surprised if WoC has simular unforseen problems...

4. DCA DCA DCA DCA! Where to I mail the buck to?

1. If it gets people to volunteer, I don't really care what happens.

2. If D23 is doomed we might as well reap its benefits while it exists.

3. Both problems have been fixed. Well, the monorail has been and the dragon likely will be soon.

4. If you say it three times does that summon Beetlejuice?

[Circarama]

Originally Posted by cellarhound

1. Volunteerism is not a Marketing Campaign.

2. D23 is doomed. It was doomed before it started. There is no way on earth it is going to get any better.

I think volunteerism can be a marketing campaign if Disney promotes it as such. Given the current political climate, I would think that lots of environmental and socially aware people would jump at the opportunity to get a free ticket to Disneyland while helping the community at the same time. What's wrong with that anyways?

And what makes you say that D23 is doomed? What's your point of reference for making a statement like that?

I was skeptical of D23 at first, but my minds been changed by all the cool events/giveaways that they've done so far. Too bad you've already got your mind made up... I hope they prove you wrong!

[Orcatime]

I'll be very excited to see Murphy on YouTube since I don't know if he'll be ready by the time the expo will be going on.

Speaking of the Expo, I'm wondering how many tickets have been sold now.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Hatbox Ghost!?! Rivers of America plussing!?! Murphy awakens!?! Pixie dark ride - okay, maybe not so much on the pixie dark ride, but, thanks for the great update, Al!

And happy birthday, hope you had a great day. The Commodore salutes you! *toot!*

[bayouguy]

In my lifetime, I would never have been so curious about the referb of the Casey Jr. Railroad and Storybook Canal attractions, but since these have become my daughter's favorites, I would like more information as to what sort of improvements or changes, if any, are planned. And my daughter will be sort of upset that she would not be able to ride on those attractions. Maybe now we can suggest to her the Disneyland Railroad and Mark Twain attractions as substitutes.

[Voice Man Mike]

The problem with the Dragon has been mostly the venders attitude about the entire problem. They build mechanicals for movies, that only need to last a few week, but not for the riggers of daily Disney shows. They've also treaded some of Disney engineers with -let's say- some rather unprofessional behavior -but things have smoothed out. The "who the heck are you attitude," slowed down the process when it came time to solving the problem.

So what happened to begin with? This form the horses mouth:
"It was a mechanical failure in the design of the dragon that caused the dragons neck to fall. I was there when it happened, and there were no imagineers there, so it wasn't slayed by imagineers.

It's the equivalent to a car that was designed to go into full speed reverse when you started it. But this is safe because the brakes are on, however if this happens and the drive shaft breaks you're in trouble. So naturally you turn off the engine. But when you turn off the engine there is no more power to hold on the brakes and the transmission can't keep the car from rolling with a broken drive shaft. Oh and this car, is parked on a steep hill. So once you start the car and hear the driveshaft snap, you know that the only thing you can do is jump from the car and let it roll down the hill to crash."


So far there have only been minor setbacks, versus the major setbacks in the past. The structure has been beefed up quite a bit to withstand the weight of the dragon.

As it stand now, yes they are waiting for a valve -no time line on that.

This weekend looks unrealistic.

[Voice Man Mike]

As for the hatbox ghost this is cool:
Kevin Kidney

[3rdshiftCM]

"The new campaign for 2010 will allow anyone a free ticket to Disneyland, but only after they complete a certain number of volunteer hours in their community with a Disney approved charity or nonprofit organization. It's looking like a much classier angle to take to free admission, and it should eliminate much of the hassles the front line Cast Members had to deal with during 2009."

As much as I like the idea, I can also see the giant holes that be created by it.

"Oh so what your saying is, my Charity isn't good enough for Disney!"

Our world is full of people waiting to take advantage of anyone at anytime and Disney makes a great target.

Hopefully the suits plan accordingly, I would hate to see a good idea get misused.

[pineapplewhipaddict]

I'm not quite sure why Tink and her pals should get another location. Selling merchandise shouldn't be the main driving force in these sorts of decisions...

A Beauty and the Beast dark ride would be awesome over there.

[BassBone]

Hopefully this Tinker Bell attraction won't make it out of development. The cost of a new attraction is immense and banking it on a property that 1) already has an effective presence in the park and 2) has (imo) a limited shelf life is shortsighted and will harm the Disney brand. Oversaturation is a danger. Look at pirates for an example of this.

[MTdizzle94]

Originally Posted by airick75

So, there's a new campaign coming up, but is there still a planned 55th anniversary campaign on the way too? When will this begin?

Same question here! And how does this tie on with the Muppets?

[Mr Wiggins]

Originally Posted by BassBone

Hopefully this Tinker Bell attraction won't make it out of development. The cost of a new attraction is immense and banking it on a property that 1) already has an effective presence in the park and 2) has (imo) a limited shelf life is shortsighted and will harm the Disney brand. Oversaturation is a danger. Look at pirates for an example of this.

Bingo. Unfortunately, Disney Consumer Products is driving the New Tinker Bell franchise, and are in a position to call the shots -- they have the sales forecasts that, as the line from Snow White goes, "makes the men's mouths water."

Look for minimal construction time and very minimal investment. I don't think that necessarily means plywood cutouts a la Gummi Glen, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was considerably sub-Pooh.

Hint: in a recent interview, the top Imagineer in charge of Disneyland praised the Tarzan and Johnny Depp overlays, and called FNSV a "major E-Ticket attraction." On that scale of creative quality, what do you suppose WDI would call a C or even B-Ticket attraction?

[BassBone]

FNSV is a major E-ticket. It's a completely immersive environment.

[Mr Wiggins]

Uh-huh. Well, then you've got nothing to worry about with Tink. Tony's gotcha covered.

[Circarama]

The difference is that most of FNSV was already in place when WDI came along and put in a video overlay and some pretty glass. It wasn't as if todays WDI came along and said, "Hey, I got it, let's create a Submarine Attraction with real submarines and we'll bury the whole thing under the Autopia in a giant concrete building. That concept would NEVER get past todays bean-counters.

Maybe for todays WDI crew it's major, but for the old school WED group, today's overlay would be a "chicken wing". The last time they did a "major" was Indiana Jones in 1993-1995.

Yep, they don't build 'em like they used to...