I Love it When They Get Things Right
Lilly On this blog, we tend to focus on the things we wish we could change with the Walt Disney Company. This is because we are so passionate about preserving the energy of the company that inspired us so much as children and we want the memories that have ignited our own creativity to exist forever. However, I would like to take just a moment to acknowledge a few things Disney has recently done really right in my eyes.
The cleansing of Pleasure Island. Thank you. Good bye seedy and unimaginative nightclubs, no one will miss you but the sleazy and disreputable.
;)
The Return of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln to Disneyland. Welcome back Mr. Lincoln. You look great. Your moments were greatly missed.
;)
The normalizing of Kermit and Piggy. It’s a small thing, but it means a lot to me. I am so happy they discontinued use of these ugly, overgrown costumes. Jim Hensen hated them and so do I. I am wishing on a star tonight that they will never be used again.
;)
And don’t forget....THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN EO. I am so happy this is back. The over 500 fans that lined up outside for its opening are happy it’s back, too.
;)
Captain E.O., Mr. Lincoln, Muppets, Pleasure Island
Reader Comments (18)
The thing I love about this post, Lilly, is that when Disney does something to honor it's rich past, the public really responds. Goes to show that people don't only want to focus on the present.
Can't we stick with honoring the past and looking optimistically into the distant future (when kids will wear jet packs to school) and let the present exist outside of the parks?
Wow! It's amazing how much better Mr. Lincoln looks these days. The stage lighting and set design really make a difference. Very cool.
It always amazed me that someone wasn't killed on that revolving Mannequins dancefloor.
I just want to say that while I agree with 99.999% of everything on this blog so far I think the closing of Pleasure Island (specifically the Adventurers Club) was a huge mistake. It was a clever back story, originally had a massive cohesive theme. It was simple but it was clever and an imagineering original. Now we have more t-shirts and plush toys.
A remodel would have been nice. Maybe even a complete overhaul with different theming but this is lazy imagineering at best and non-imagineering at worst.
The Adventurers Club was cool as was that comedy club but I think what Lilly is saying is that overall P.I. was not what Disney needed. I don't exactly believe that they need more stuffed animal gift shops but I'm glad to see the clubs gone.
Well, it has finally happened. Since I have been following this blog we have been pretty much eye to eye on everything. That has changed with your first point in this column. I think Disney needed MORE PI and not less. They need less foolish shopping and more entertainment of all kinds. I think as well a remodel was possibly in order, but not a total shutdown. Disney needed the ability to entertain all it's clientele, and now it has lost that ability. Sorry, it's a fact not an opinion. I speak to and visit a lot of the Disneysphere and this is straight up one of the most bone-headed moves by Disney in quite some time.
While I do agree that Disney doesn't need more gift shops, I feel that the night clubs were not a good fit. To the article's point, p.i. brought a less than wholesome atmosphere to an otherwise wholesome family establishment. For Universal Studios this kind of scene seems just fine. But not so much for Disney. I have had only negative experiences at p.i. and never felt that I was at a Disney property.
This is my opinion.
As for Tom's statement, "Disney needed the ability to entertain all it's clientele, and now it has lost that ability. Sorry, it's a fact not an opinion." I think this IS an opinion. Their clientele can still see a late night movie or go to dinner.
Consider this for a moment.... People come to WDW overwhelmingly for the parks. Shopping, movies, resorts, and dining are secondary reasons to visit (this does not include local residents). With that in mind, you get up in the morning, you head to the parks, you spend the day having a blast, you stay until the fireworks, you go to dinner, and you head back to the hotel. How much more do you need?... especially when you plan to repeat this process the next morning. I know this is a generality but it illustrates that you (as far as I am concerned) don't need the drunken mess that was p.i. Go to other Orlando Area night clubs if you'd like.
I think that something should have been done other than gift shops. Additional restaurants is a good thing.
I would have liked to see more entertainment along the lines of the Adventurers Club. That was cool.
Maybe a restaurants with different activities---- dancing, singing, etc. Live entertainment would be nice. Better than clubs. Dunno.
If they moved the adventures club to the space where rainforest cafe resides on the outskirts of animal kingdom
they could close PI and not lose any great imagineering
and they would get rid of rainforest cafe
and have people near animal kingdom after 3pm
Amen to the Kermit and Miss Piggy comment.
Kermit and Piggy don't belong in the Magic Kingdom at all. Seeing them there feels pretty damn weird. And frankly they don't look that good in ANY incarnation. Stick 'em in Sesame Place where their unDisneyish appearance won't clash.
As for the new Lincoln show, yes indeed, it's nice it's back.
Let me get this straight. The same person who posted that incredibly prudish and conservative piece here on "Has Disney Lost Its Family Values" is GLAD to have Captain Eo back??? How is returning that child molester to Disneyland not the very worst betrayal of "Family Values" imaginable? I deplore the return of Michael Jackson to Disneyland. That revolting little pervert should have no place in Disneyland - or anywhere else.
Dude, he's an actor/singer. Just because he did weird stuff in real life (we can debate on whether or not he's a child molester, but why bother?) doesn't mean that his character Captain EO is Molesting children on the screen, or that the ride is any less fun. Do you get offended anytime people start dancing to Thriller? Just because he happens to star in the show, doesn't mean that Disney is promoting child abuse.
The Adventurer's Club was exactly the kind of imaginative, one-of-a-kind experience I expect at Disney - so sorry it is gone. On a totally unrelated note, I enjoy this site so much except for the continual misuse of the possessive form of "it". "It's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it was"; the possessive form of "it" is "its" - no apostrophe. Thank you!
I worked at DL when Captain EO debuted in the early '80's. It wasn't great then, but was a decent distraction, I suppose.
Last month, the wife and I took our teenage daughter to see it at EPCOT. Holy cow! Talk about not aging well! It is truly awful, really. Goes to prove that you can have great talent (Coppolla, Lucas, Jackson, Angelica Houston) and still wind up with @$#*. Sorry... but the thing goes beyond bad in ways not thought possible.
You're kidding: Haha! Look, I can't deny that the movie is bad. Especially for people who didn't see it the first time, I get the criticism. However, there is undeniable nostalgia associated with Captain EO and his ragtag band among Disney nerds and that is why I was overflowing with joy upon hearing about the return of Captain EO. Yeah it's terrible, but it's also terribly awesome. It makes me want to change the world through song and dance. ;)
I agree on all this, but mostly the Muppets thing. It works for Mickey and friends who are not normally 3 dimensional things, but not on the Muppets who we are used to seeing in thier live-action form.
As someone far too young to have had an emotional connection to Captain EO, I feel I have the ability to judge it objectively. And here's my opinion: it's atrocious. I can't see how the idea to put a moonwalking pop star in a Disney attraction any less of a terrible idea than if they'd done it this year with more modern effects and substituted Lady Gaga for Michael Jackson. The ironic thing is that I know that if Lady Gaga were to appear in any shape or form in a Disney park, this site would have an aneurysm. (And rightly so, in my opinion!)
It is nice to know Disney's listening to its geeks, though. =)
The one celebrity I'm okay with being in a Disney attraction is Ellen Degeneres in that one EPCOT ride. (I'm only been to WDW once, when I was twelve, so sorry about the vagueness.) She voiced Dory, so she's quite entwined with Disney to me, considering that Finding Nemo was how I first learned about her. =D