Post by Gifted on Nov 29, 2006 19:52:12 GMT -5
Just though you would be interested Rach in what's happening at Disneyland. I'll just inform of the newest updates here.
Tom Sawyer's Island. A small, but exciting island island personally planned and planned for by Walt Disney himself. Opened one year after the park it self, Tom's Island was a big hit with parents and kids.
I know we went when you first got a annual pass moongazer, but as you know, it wasn't a barrel of laughs. Why? Because since Tom's Island has been handed down by Disneyland Presidents, it's fallen into disrepair. The treehouse has been in horrible condition and Fort Wilderness (the closed up fort next to the graveyard we visited) has decayed. Injun Joe's Cave and the other tunnels no longer excite and it's such a traffic jam that people can get stuck in a narrow passage because a few are going the wrong way. The only things that were fun were a rock teeter totter and merry go round, but they were given up a few years ago for a boring look out area (which is also in disapair with dirty telescopes and missing signs.)
Despite all this, something big is going to happen there.
-Al Lutz "Goodbye Sawyer, Hello Sparrow" MiceAge.com
Since this article came up, negative opinion pieces in newspapers, on websites, and even on the radio from adults who had fond memories of Tom Sawyer Island have got the Disneyland people concerned.
-Al Lutz "Tom, Huck, and Jack" MiceAge.com
So instead, we still get Tom Sawyer's Island (YAY!), but with pirates... Okay I still don't think it's a good connection (the pirates are there because Tom and Huck are playing pirates?). Oh well, I think it would make a good show to have Tom pretending to have a pirate adventure with Jack. Anyway, we also get a new attraction, "Pirate Caverns", but I'm still not sure if the Indian Village there (I told you the journeys on Mark Twain and Columbia were sight seeing trips, right? Well, you're suppose to see a Indian Village on it ) will go. Anyway, on with more details.
-Al Lutz "Tom, Huck, and Jack" MiceAge.com
Sounds entertaining though I don't see how it's still Tom in some aspects, like will Tom still walk around? But it's going to be much better anyway. I just hope the food doesn't get outta hand. The reason the Island isn't messy is because there's no food seller there.
So there's some news. I'll post more about other (hopefully much shorter) things some other times.
Tom Sawyer's Island. A small, but exciting island island personally planned and planned for by Walt Disney himself. Opened one year after the park it self, Tom's Island was a big hit with parents and kids.
I know we went when you first got a annual pass moongazer, but as you know, it wasn't a barrel of laughs. Why? Because since Tom's Island has been handed down by Disneyland Presidents, it's fallen into disrepair. The treehouse has been in horrible condition and Fort Wilderness (the closed up fort next to the graveyard we visited) has decayed. Injun Joe's Cave and the other tunnels no longer excite and it's such a traffic jam that people can get stuck in a narrow passage because a few are going the wrong way. The only things that were fun were a rock teeter totter and merry go round, but they were given up a few years ago for a boring look out area (which is also in disapair with dirty telescopes and missing signs.)
Despite all this, something big is going to happen there.
But what has Rasulo fired up in the short term for Disneyland is the same thing that has nearly everyone in Burbank bursting with excitement, and that's the Billion dollar business the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise has just pulled in this summer...
What Burbank has proposed is an ambitious plan to restructure and retheme the island into a pirate playground, where Captain Barbossa and Davy Jones would displace the less than blockbuster Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher.
Gone would be the treehouses, trails and caves referenced in the literary works of Mark Twain and originally designed for the simpler audiences of the 1950's. In their place would be snazzier pirate themed activities designed for the kids of the 21st century who have grown up with extreme sports and Super Mario Brothers instead of barrel hoops and Tom Sawyer. The current lush wooded landscaping would also presumably be substantially altered, as tropical islands don't quite match the southern American landscape.
This proposal has been moving very quickly (and up to now, quietly) through the approval process and at its core it's driven by the insane profits and audience interest the second Pirates movie generated this summer. Once Burbank made it clear they wanted this remade attraction for Disneyland to coincide with the third movie release next May, the operations folks jumped on the bandwagon and happily added in requests to upgrade the infrastructure and physical facilities on the Island.
It's no secret that the Island has needed a makeover and more modern facilities installed for quite some time, and this project is just the ticket to get those things paid for. New bathrooms and regraded trails to accommodate wheelchairs and electric carts were added to the plan, as well as a snack bar and a small shop to milk a few bucks out of the expected hordes of parents and their children. In almost a complete reversal of the normal way a new attraction is proposed, the marketers and merchandisers drafted the concept and the plans and the Imagineers are now left to struggle to come up with the actual designs and themes.
...Part of the plan calls for the old Fort Wilderness facility to be razed, and the space used as an interactive pirate museum using exhibits and interactive play spaces such as those used in the Sorcerer's Workshop in DCA's Animation pavilion, or the nifty Fortress Explorations attraction at Tokyo DisneySea. That proposal for Fort Wilderness may be pushed into a Phase Two plan, which would be just fine with Burbank if they move forward on an as yet unscripted fourth installment of the Pirates movie series. And the word is that Johnny Depp is amenable to yet another sequel.
Of course, it'a a given that die-hard 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.
A few years ago Disneyland was forced to go in and remodel some of the play areas on the Island to bring them up to code and pass muster from Disney's own safety department. During that physical rehab and freshening the Disneyland Entertainment department also added live Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn characters to the Island, young men dressed up in 1800's clothing who wandered the island telling stories and jokes as written by Mark Twain. The response from some of the older parents was of bemused interest, but the 7 to 12 year old crowd whom the entertainment was aimed at couldn't figure out who the guys were dressed in the funny clothes and why they kept talking about whitewashing a fence. Does Home Depot even sell whitewash? Is Mark Twain available on a PodCast?
While the recent appearance of Tom and Huck on the Island was a noble attempt on Disneyland's part to try and bring Tom Sawyer to life for 21st century audiences, it was obvious these were characters no one under the age of thirty knew much about. Ask a ten year old today who Huck Finn is and you'll get a blank stare, but ask him about Jack Sparrow and you'll get a high five. And that's what has most folks in Imagineering (WDI) a little more excited about the project, as they would love to make sure Disneyland stays as fresh and exciting to audiences in 2006 as it was a half century ago. Rest assured there is a bit of controversy over this plan up and down the halls of WDI, but as this is being driven directly from Burbank apparently they don't have much say in the matter.
What Burbank has proposed is an ambitious plan to restructure and retheme the island into a pirate playground, where Captain Barbossa and Davy Jones would displace the less than blockbuster Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher.
Gone would be the treehouses, trails and caves referenced in the literary works of Mark Twain and originally designed for the simpler audiences of the 1950's. In their place would be snazzier pirate themed activities designed for the kids of the 21st century who have grown up with extreme sports and Super Mario Brothers instead of barrel hoops and Tom Sawyer. The current lush wooded landscaping would also presumably be substantially altered, as tropical islands don't quite match the southern American landscape.
This proposal has been moving very quickly (and up to now, quietly) through the approval process and at its core it's driven by the insane profits and audience interest the second Pirates movie generated this summer. Once Burbank made it clear they wanted this remade attraction for Disneyland to coincide with the third movie release next May, the operations folks jumped on the bandwagon and happily added in requests to upgrade the infrastructure and physical facilities on the Island.
It's no secret that the Island has needed a makeover and more modern facilities installed for quite some time, and this project is just the ticket to get those things paid for. New bathrooms and regraded trails to accommodate wheelchairs and electric carts were added to the plan, as well as a snack bar and a small shop to milk a few bucks out of the expected hordes of parents and their children. In almost a complete reversal of the normal way a new attraction is proposed, the marketers and merchandisers drafted the concept and the plans and the Imagineers are now left to struggle to come up with the actual designs and themes.
...Part of the plan calls for the old Fort Wilderness facility to be razed, and the space used as an interactive pirate museum using exhibits and interactive play spaces such as those used in the Sorcerer's Workshop in DCA's Animation pavilion, or the nifty Fortress Explorations attraction at Tokyo DisneySea. That proposal for Fort Wilderness may be pushed into a Phase Two plan, which would be just fine with Burbank if they move forward on an as yet unscripted fourth installment of the Pirates movie series. And the word is that Johnny Depp is amenable to yet another sequel.
Of course, it'a a given that die-hard 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.
A few years ago Disneyland was forced to go in and remodel some of the play areas on the Island to bring them up to code and pass muster from Disney's own safety department. During that physical rehab and freshening the Disneyland Entertainment department also added live Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn characters to the Island, young men dressed up in 1800's clothing who wandered the island telling stories and jokes as written by Mark Twain. The response from some of the older parents was of bemused interest, but the 7 to 12 year old crowd whom the entertainment was aimed at couldn't figure out who the guys were dressed in the funny clothes and why they kept talking about whitewashing a fence. Does Home Depot even sell whitewash? Is Mark Twain available on a PodCast?
While the recent appearance of Tom and Huck on the Island was a noble attempt on Disneyland's part to try and bring Tom Sawyer to life for 21st century audiences, it was obvious these were characters no one under the age of thirty knew much about. Ask a ten year old today who Huck Finn is and you'll get a blank stare, but ask him about Jack Sparrow and you'll get a high five. And that's what has most folks in Imagineering (WDI) a little more excited about the project, as they would love to make sure Disneyland stays as fresh and exciting to audiences in 2006 as it was a half century ago. Rest assured there is a bit of controversy over this plan up and down the halls of WDI, but as this is being driven directly from Burbank apparently they don't have much say in the matter.
Since this article came up, negative opinion pieces in newspapers, on websites, and even on the radio from adults who had fond memories of Tom Sawyer Island have got the Disneyland people concerned.
It's been six weeks since we had news about pirates invading Tom Sawyer Island and there've been some new developments on this fast-tracked project. When the story first broke here both the online message boards and the local Los Angeles media jumped on the news, and it all took quite a few people in Glendale and Burbank by surprise. At Disneyland itself there was hardly anyone in the Team Disney Anaheim (TDA) building out back who had even heard a murmur of the proposal when we first mentioned it, and most of the Anaheim folks had to be belatedly told it really was a legitimate proposal coming their way and they had better get cracking on it. Although the official Disney spokespeople rather coyly won't confirm nor deny that anything is planned for Tom Sawyer Island, the project has had its final executive buyoffs and later this week the final budget will be approved by the sharp pencil boys in Burbank.
Stung by some of the public criticism the pirate island project received, particularly the surprisingly prominent editorial in the Los Angeles Times on the subject (that immediately made the rounds of executive offices in Glendale, Burbank and Anaheim), Disney has retreated a bit from its original intent to really expand the theme from the nearby Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride.
Instead, the WDI designers were relieved to remember that Mark Twain had written several chapters where Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Joe Harper all pretend to be pirates out on the Mississippi river. WDI has grabbed onto that original Twain plotline as a way to explain why Jack Sparrow will now be posing for tourist pictures on Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island. As they try to maintain continuity with the 50-year-old Disneyland icon, the projects original working title of "Pirate Island" has now evolved into the more American literature friendly "Pirates Lair at Tom Sawyer Island," and that name will most likely stick.
What has also been clearly decided in the last few weeks is that Fort Wilderness will remain effectively off limits when the new Island opens next Memorial Day weekend, and that any attempt to reopen the Fort to visitors will have to wait until the second phase of this pirate island makeover opens later this decade. As the Imagineers took extensive surveys of the island and its infrastructure, the decrepit condition of the stockade killed any hope of reopening it anytime soon.
In fact, quite a few pieces of this project have been shelved or cancelled in the last two months. But those changes have been made not because of financial constraints, but because there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do everything WDI originally wanted to do before next Memorial Day. Instead, there is now a second phase that will include the refurbishment of Fort Wilderness, if not its simple destruction and complete rebuilding. The second phase will also incorporate a new attraction in a show building about the size of Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin to be built on the back side of the island, and that part of the project is known simply as "Pirate Caverns."
Stung by some of the public criticism the pirate island project received, particularly the surprisingly prominent editorial in the Los Angeles Times on the subject (that immediately made the rounds of executive offices in Glendale, Burbank and Anaheim), Disney has retreated a bit from its original intent to really expand the theme from the nearby Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride.
Instead, the WDI designers were relieved to remember that Mark Twain had written several chapters where Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Joe Harper all pretend to be pirates out on the Mississippi river. WDI has grabbed onto that original Twain plotline as a way to explain why Jack Sparrow will now be posing for tourist pictures on Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island. As they try to maintain continuity with the 50-year-old Disneyland icon, the projects original working title of "Pirate Island" has now evolved into the more American literature friendly "Pirates Lair at Tom Sawyer Island," and that name will most likely stick.
What has also been clearly decided in the last few weeks is that Fort Wilderness will remain effectively off limits when the new Island opens next Memorial Day weekend, and that any attempt to reopen the Fort to visitors will have to wait until the second phase of this pirate island makeover opens later this decade. As the Imagineers took extensive surveys of the island and its infrastructure, the decrepit condition of the stockade killed any hope of reopening it anytime soon.
In fact, quite a few pieces of this project have been shelved or cancelled in the last two months. But those changes have been made not because of financial constraints, but because there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do everything WDI originally wanted to do before next Memorial Day. Instead, there is now a second phase that will include the refurbishment of Fort Wilderness, if not its simple destruction and complete rebuilding. The second phase will also incorporate a new attraction in a show building about the size of Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin to be built on the back side of the island, and that part of the project is known simply as "Pirate Caverns."
So instead, we still get Tom Sawyer's Island (YAY!), but with pirates... Okay I still don't think it's a good connection (the pirates are there because Tom and Huck are playing pirates?). Oh well, I think it would make a good show to have Tom pretending to have a pirate adventure with Jack. Anyway, we also get a new attraction, "Pirate Caverns", but I'm still not sure if the Indian Village there (I told you the journeys on Mark Twain and Columbia were sight seeing trips, right? Well, you're suppose to see a Indian Village on it ) will go. Anyway, on with more details.
But for next summer there will still be plenty of new toys to play with at Pirates Lair. Many of the new effects and interactive elements to be installed over the winter are concepts WDI had originally wanted to included in last years refurbishment of Pirates of the Caribbean. If you remember 18 months ago when we were the first to tell you about the new things planned to be added to the upgraded Pirates ride, you'll recall the creepy moonlight skeleton effect that was to be included in the attraction. Once your boat sailed through the mist screen where Davy Jones now appears out of thin air to warn you that dead men tell no tales, a crows nest was planned to be built from a rocky outcropping in the tall caverns with a skeleton slumped over the railing. As a shaft of moonlight filtered through the cave and illuminated the skeleton, he would seemingly come to life and reach a bony hand out at your passing boat and warn you that dead men do indeed tell tales.
That scary skeleton effect was eventually cut from both the Anaheim and Orlando versions, but a similar skeleton is now planned to make an appearance in a dark corner of a radically improved Injun Joes Cave over on the island. Injun Joes Cave is where a number of new scenes and creepy special effects are to be added, and it's definitely going to make what is now a rather boring darkened corridor into a technological showpiece and serious fright fest, especially for the 3rd graders much of Pirates Lair is aimed at.
Meanwhile up on the hill above Injun Joes Cave the current drab and rundown treehouse will be turned into a pirates "Crows Nest" as designed by Tom and Huck.
Just north of the treehouse where you currently find the lawyer-monitored barrel (currently closed) and suspension bridges there will be new interactive play pieces installed in the swampy backwater around the bridges.
Ancient treasure chests that can be winched out of the muck and sunken ships that need to be drained with hand cranked bilge pumps to expose the skeletal remains of the crew will liven up the area and allow kids to burn off some calories.
The Disney's Photopass folks will also get in on the pirate act with a convincing "bone cage" from the second film hanging nearby where you can step inside and have your picture taken as a memento of your visit to Pirates Lair.
The smaller caverns around and underneath Fort Wilderness will be touched up, and snazzy new treasure effects and spooky skeletons will inhabit what are now just empty cement spaces full of dirt and the occasional spider.
The relatively new play area in the middle of the island will also get the pirate treatment. It was rebuilt back in '03 to pacify the Disney lawyers who were losing patience with all of the scraped knees and bumped heads from the old teeter-totter rock and merry-go-round rock play pieces there. The safe and sane structure from 2003 will be redone into a beached pirate ship stuck on the rocks.
Although that part of the island is only three years old, it had already fallen into disrepair and shabby neglect. That brings up the potential problem with all of these new additions, as Disneyland's maintenance department clearly didn't have the resources or manpower available to maintain WDI's modest island additions from just a few years ago.
Let's hope all of this new pirate stuff on the island, some of which is quite expensive and involves complex animatronics and sophisticated digital technology, is able to be maintained on a consistent basis even after the initial rush of summertime crowds leave later in '07.
Up on the stage at the southern end of the island, in plain view of all of New Orleans Square, is where the Disneyland entertainment department will be moving all of its current pirate entertainment. What is now a dull, lifeless area that hides all of the Fantasmic! show equipment underneath will become a full scale pirate encampment.
The shuttered building known as the Grist Mill will be redressed into "Lafitte's Tavern", in a nod to the Lafitte's Landing that serves as the loading dock for the Pirates boat ride. The bands and singers and roving pirates that currently set up shop in and around New Orleans Square will be moved there, and they'll be joined by additional stuntmen (and a planned stuntgirl who bears a striking resemblance to Keira Knightley's character from the movie) as they all swing from yardarms, leap from rooftops, and conduct an hourly...Pirate Training Academy for young...Jack Sparrow wannabe's.
The now boring looking stage area in front will be outfitted with lots of pirate props and paraphernalia, even a couple of cannons that can be fired out into the river with big splash effects. A working blacksmith fashioning pirate swords from his forge and the (yes, obligatory) carts selling souvenirs, turkey legs and pirate grog will round out the offerings there. The lively pirate camp on this end of the island will all certainly be a huge improvement over the current offerings which consist of a couple of barrels and an old checkerboard with no play pieces.
That scary skeleton effect was eventually cut from both the Anaheim and Orlando versions, but a similar skeleton is now planned to make an appearance in a dark corner of a radically improved Injun Joes Cave over on the island. Injun Joes Cave is where a number of new scenes and creepy special effects are to be added, and it's definitely going to make what is now a rather boring darkened corridor into a technological showpiece and serious fright fest, especially for the 3rd graders much of Pirates Lair is aimed at.
Meanwhile up on the hill above Injun Joes Cave the current drab and rundown treehouse will be turned into a pirates "Crows Nest" as designed by Tom and Huck.
Just north of the treehouse where you currently find the lawyer-monitored barrel (currently closed) and suspension bridges there will be new interactive play pieces installed in the swampy backwater around the bridges.
Ancient treasure chests that can be winched out of the muck and sunken ships that need to be drained with hand cranked bilge pumps to expose the skeletal remains of the crew will liven up the area and allow kids to burn off some calories.
The Disney's Photopass folks will also get in on the pirate act with a convincing "bone cage" from the second film hanging nearby where you can step inside and have your picture taken as a memento of your visit to Pirates Lair.
The smaller caverns around and underneath Fort Wilderness will be touched up, and snazzy new treasure effects and spooky skeletons will inhabit what are now just empty cement spaces full of dirt and the occasional spider.
The relatively new play area in the middle of the island will also get the pirate treatment. It was rebuilt back in '03 to pacify the Disney lawyers who were losing patience with all of the scraped knees and bumped heads from the old teeter-totter rock and merry-go-round rock play pieces there. The safe and sane structure from 2003 will be redone into a beached pirate ship stuck on the rocks.
Although that part of the island is only three years old, it had already fallen into disrepair and shabby neglect. That brings up the potential problem with all of these new additions, as Disneyland's maintenance department clearly didn't have the resources or manpower available to maintain WDI's modest island additions from just a few years ago.
Let's hope all of this new pirate stuff on the island, some of which is quite expensive and involves complex animatronics and sophisticated digital technology, is able to be maintained on a consistent basis even after the initial rush of summertime crowds leave later in '07.
Up on the stage at the southern end of the island, in plain view of all of New Orleans Square, is where the Disneyland entertainment department will be moving all of its current pirate entertainment. What is now a dull, lifeless area that hides all of the Fantasmic! show equipment underneath will become a full scale pirate encampment.
The shuttered building known as the Grist Mill will be redressed into "Lafitte's Tavern", in a nod to the Lafitte's Landing that serves as the loading dock for the Pirates boat ride. The bands and singers and roving pirates that currently set up shop in and around New Orleans Square will be moved there, and they'll be joined by additional stuntmen (and a planned stuntgirl who bears a striking resemblance to Keira Knightley's character from the movie) as they all swing from yardarms, leap from rooftops, and conduct an hourly...Pirate Training Academy for young...Jack Sparrow wannabe's.
The now boring looking stage area in front will be outfitted with lots of pirate props and paraphernalia, even a couple of cannons that can be fired out into the river with big splash effects. A working blacksmith fashioning pirate swords from his forge and the (yes, obligatory) carts selling souvenirs, turkey legs and pirate grog will round out the offerings there. The lively pirate camp on this end of the island will all certainly be a huge improvement over the current offerings which consist of a couple of barrels and an old checkerboard with no play pieces.
Sounds entertaining though I don't see how it's still Tom in some aspects, like will Tom still walk around? But it's going to be much better anyway. I just hope the food doesn't get outta hand. The reason the Island isn't messy is because there's no food seller there.
So there's some news. I'll post more about other (hopefully much shorter) things some other times.