Disney Might Let Pirates Swarm Tom Sawyer Island - LA Times, 10/5/06

[Darkbeer]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...ninav-business

Are Tom and Huck being booted off the island?

That's the buzz on websites devoted to Disneyland fans, some of whom were despairing after a report that Tom Sawyer Island might get the heave-ho and be replaced with a pirates playground.

Some company officials believe the 50-year-old attraction may be too dated for video-game-playing, Harry-Potter-reading kids, said Al Lutz, who first reported the possible changes on Miceage.com, a website devoted to Disney news.

"They had Tom and Huck whitewashing the fence … and on the island interacting with the kids, but the kids were clueless," Lutz said. "I guess in the schools now they don't teach the books anymore."

Lutz quoted his sources inside Disney as saying that the company might spend more than $28 million to make over the island in time for next year's premiere of the third installment of the lucrative "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie trilogy.

Disney officials would not confirm any changes to the island.

Much more at the link.....

[Darkbeer]

And one more link....

http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/..._20_200601004/

[Darkbeer]

And if you missed the TMZ link in the Disneyland Resort section.....

http://ww.tmz.com/2006/10/03/so-long...ira-knightley/

[Darkbeer]

One more...

http://www.movieweb.com/news/64/14964.php

TOM SAWYER'S EYE IS ON THE SPARROW
The Walt Disney Co.'s Disneyland theme park, which already has altered its Pirates of the Caribbean ride to include Captain Jack Sparrow, modeled after Johnny Depp's character in the Pirates movies, may now do away with Tom Sawyer Island, one of the park's original attractions when it opened 50 years ago, and convert it into a second Pirates of the Caribbean-themed area, according to MiceAge.com, an unofficial website that focuses on the Disney theme parks. The site claims that the decision, "crafted in the corporate offices of Burbank rather than the [Walt Disney Imagineering] design studios of Glendale," is aimed at promoting the third Pirates movie due out next year. If a $28 million budget is approved, the website said, construction would begin this winter to rebuild and rebrand the attraction. Part of the transformation would involve creation of an "interactive pirate museum," replacing the current Fort Wilderness, according to MiceAge, which commented: "Of course, it's a given that diehard Disneyland fans will likely recoil in horror when they first hear about this idea. But what should be kept in mind is that this project would make a beloved old corner of Disneyland exciting and relevant again for a new generation of fans."

[thmar]

Interesting reading...thanks for the web links.