Rating: A+
Pixar’s 10th film, UP, is three different films all rolled into one.
At its core, UP is a beautiful, poignant love story about a man (Carl Fredricksen) who just wants to keep a decades-old promise to his wife Ellie that they will live a life of adventure in South America. Anyone who has dreams and aspirations with a loved one, only to have to set those aside at times, will really appreciate this aspect of the film.
A few months ago, Web Watch posted a piece on IMPROVING DISNEY SHOPPING where we posted the following:
All Disney has to do is return to making merchandise special. “Plus” the shopping experience again. Cater merchandise to all customers, not just the kids. And remember to market all the characters like they used to do. Not all women want Tinkerbell or Princess merch. Not all men want Grumpy, Goofy, or Big Bad Wolf items. Not everyone wants a T-shirt, baseball cap, boxer shorts, or coffee mug. Give us variety. Give us quality. Give us something other than what you currently are doing.
We then asked an open-ended question to Disney, as to whether they would be smart enough to sell [us] the right stuff…. aside from more duck butt hats, of course.
It looks like someone may have been listening.
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PROGRESS CITY USA has posted #3 on their list of TEN WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR: OVERHAUL DISNEY TRANSPORTATION, and I couldn’t agree more.
To quote:
Basically, unless you’re just going from your hotel to a theme park and back, internal transportation is a headache. Fixing the system would require a massive investment, tackling many separate goals simultaneously. It would require an entirely different plan for the resort’s infrastructure, and it’s needed immediately. They won’t do it, but they should.
I have one suggestion that would address this current transportation problem at Walt Disney World with an idea that would dramatically increase guest satisfaction. It won’t solve the immediate issue at hand, but keeping guests happy in the short run can buy some time until a better transporation plan is developed.
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As Web Watch asked in our DISNEYLAND PARK PLANNER iPHONE APPLICATION article a few weeks ago:
“One would only hope that they’ll follow this up with appropriate apps for Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySEA, Universal Studios Hollywood, New York City subway trains, or any other amusement park, event, travel, or entertainment facility that would benefit from the social technology that the iPhones and similar devices make available.”
And now the floodgates have opened as more apps just like what we described have begun to arrive:
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PROGRESS CITY, USA‘s latest article in their “TEN WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR” series is entitled “DETOONIFICATION“. In it, PCU writes about how they would like to de-toon the Disney parks, and how the recent character overlays on various rides are a bit of overkill.
PCU does have a point: the overlay of Iago and Zazu into Walt Disney World’s Tiki Room is a perfect example of how not to add characters to an attraction. While the number crunchers may have interpreted the declining turnstyle numbers on the attraction as an indication that the Tiki Room was tired and needed to be modernized, the reality is seen across the country in Disneyland’s beautifully restored Tiki Room: that with a little bit of attraction maintenance – cleaning up the audio, blowing the dust off the electronics and lights – the crowds will once again flock to a beloved attraction.
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Details are starting to emerge about the upcoming exclusive screening for D23 members of Disney-Pixar’s latest film, UP.
All you have to do, it seems, other than have your Disney D23 membership card at the ready – is to go to the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California for the special showing on Thursday morning May 28th, at 12:01am.
Of course, further details are scarce about whether there is going to be any actual D23 preview ticket distribution or similar, in order to control the massive crowd that is sure to show up for this fantastic D23 benefit.
I know what one of the first applications any new iPhone-owning Disney fan is going to want to go out and buy from the iPhone Apps Store: the DISNEYLAND PARK PLANNER from HyTech Professionals.
Sure, the park planner has the basics down that any decent park planner would have: scrollable/zoomable map, restaurant menus, park and show hours, attraction descriptions, FastPass locations, etc.
But where the “DPP” shines is with special features that utilize two built-in features that the iPhone has: geotargeting, and interactivity with the Internet.
The geotargeting app is handy, as the DPP can pinpoint your location within the park and then direct you to the nearest restroom, restaurant, attraction, or food stand that you are looking for – the ultimate Disney tour guide in your pocket.
But even better is when you use the DPP to tell you what rides have the shortest wait times. Sure, Disney has come up with a way to do this with their Official Cell Phone Sponsor, Verizon – available for all Verizon subscribers in the parks – but the DPP opens up this information to everyone who is using the DPP.
To better describe how this works, let me explain how Disney calculates their ride wait times:
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A few days ago in talking about how Disney is handling their new D23 community with regards to how large companies deal with fan clubs, Web Watch mentioned that Coca-Cola was the #2 most popular fan page on Facebook behind Barack Obama.
Since then, some have asked what the rest of that breakdown was. So here is a LIST OF FACEBOOK PAGE STATISTICS.