MouseStation 60 – Collected short subjects
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Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email feedback
form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278). You
can also make suggestions by replying to this post.
If you want to contribute a story for our Monday Magical Moment segment (and possible
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our email Magical Moment story form or the
toll-free feedback line. (We love it when you use the voice mail system, because
then we can play your call on the show!)
Thanks to our sponsor, and a contest
Today’s show is sponsored by Owner’s
Locker, a new service that gives you a place to leave your vacation-only
stuff until your next trip to visit the Mouse. Our Owner’s Locker contest
has ended, but we’re going to see if we can get another prize out of them.
The first winner will be announced on the October 1 show.
This week, we featured a contest entry from listener Sondra, who had a great
idea on how a locker could help to keep her Christmas decorations between
each holiday visit.
Tip of the Week
This week’s tip comes from listener Vance Cope.
Vance had a great idea on how to help an apprehensive child find a way to
feel more comfortable with going on a thrill ride. Mark may try it with his
son on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad during the next family trip.
Mike thought that you shouldn’t push an apprehensive child, but Mark believes
that if you’re certain that your child would love the attraction if they can
just get on it, then you should try to encourage them to try it. It all goes
back to the mantra of “know your kid.”
Featured attraction
This week, we look at It’s Tough to Be a Bug at both Disney’s
California Adventure and its original location at Disney’s
Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
This is another one of those attractions where you need to know your kid
in order to determine whether you want to take them in here or not. Yes, it’s
cute, but if they’re afraid of bugs then it’s not for them.
This is not one of Mark’s favorite attractions, partly due to the discomfort
of being poked by the seats. While there are some cute effects and the Hopper
Animatronic is impressive, it easily is his least favorite of the four 3-D
movies at Disney parks.
Mike likes it as a date movie, as it makes his date jump and he can comfort
them. He also brought his nephew on it, but the nephew didn’t like it.
Mike likes the queue at Disney’s California Adventure because it isn’t as
crowded. While the queue at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is much more impressive,
Mike doesn’t like how crowded it is.
Mark warned folks the the movie does use smellitzers, in case people are
sensitive to the scents.
Mark’s favorite effects are the butterfly curtain and the Hopper Animatronic,
while Mike likes the bug bomb.
Review system spotlight
This week’s spotlight focuses on the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country
at Disneyland Park. The week’s featured review was a 5-planet review by SLG
of Seattle, WA. MousePlanet readers really like the Hungry Bear, rating
it 4.2 out of five planets on the strength of 15 reviews.
The Hungry Bear is SLG’s favorite restraunt in Disneyland for both the food
and the atmosphere. SLG and their parents had a great meal and watched both
the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes and the feral cats walking around the tables.
Mike thought that the Hungry Bear was an “interesting place.” He
liked the atmosphere, and the food was OK. He likes that it’s very quiet.
He likes it about as much as Cosmic Ray’s at Walt Disney World.
Mark first ate at the Hungry Bear when the Country Bear Jamboree was still
showing, and the theming matched better than it does with Pooh. When he went
back after his son was born, the secluded lower deck provided a quiet place
to take care of baby care things, and the restroom there was handy.
While neither Mark nor Mike were there, the MousePlanet’s 5th Birthday/Disneyland’s
50th Birthday celebration took place at the Hungry Bear on July 17, 2005.
You can also find the Hungry Bear Restaurant in our Park
Guide.
Ask the Kid
In this week’s segment, Mark asked his 8-year-old son: “Which do you like
better, High School Musical or High School Musical 2?”
Mark’s son answered that he likes the sequel better than the original because
it seems more like a regular movie. He thinks that the storyline and songs
are better, and it takes place in a better location because “school is not
a good location for school, I mean movie.”
Mark isn’t sure that his son really likes High School Musical 2 better,
because he’s watching it much less often than the original, and it even takes
some convincing to watch the movie. He’ll often prefer to watch Over The
Hedge than High School Musical 2. He does play the soundtrack over
and over, though, since he’s a dancer. He mostly prefers to dance to “I
Don’t Dance,” but least likes the breakup song (which matches his feeling
from the first movie). While he thought “Fabulous” was OK, he’s
not wild about it. (And he isn’t old enough to get the “Material Girl”/”Diamonds
Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and Busby Berkeley references in the video.
Mike asked Mark if he could get a good look at which magazine Ryan showed
Sharpay during the number, to which she said “That’s insulting!”
All Mark could tell was that it was a centerfold, but he couldn’t see the
magazine name in his one viewing. Mike and Mark (in a bad joke) wondered if
it was of Vanessa Hudgens.
Mark also noted that while the “Bet On It” number was put down
by a listener after the movie first ran, it was interesting that Kenny Ortega
choreographed Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video, since so many moves
that Zac Efron did during the number were pulled straight from the “Beat
It” video. Of course, while double-checking facts for the show notes,
Mark found that it was Michael Peters that choreographed “Beat It,”
and that Ortega’s work with Jackson was in conceiving, creating, staging and
directing the “HIStory” and “Dangerous” tours. (Though
Ortega did choreograph the aforementioned “Material Girl” video.)
All apologies to Mr. Peters, and condolences on the copied … er …
flattered choreography.
Magical Moment
This week’s moment came from Neal Gabler. We realized that, while we ran
Steven Ng’s interview with Neal back on Episode 31, we never ran Neal’s Magical
Moment after we ran the show!
Neal had the enviable task of going through the Disney Archives and holding
in his hand and reading every original note that Walt ever wrote, from the
beginning to the end. Through suspension of belief, he got to experience the
ups and downs of such experiences as Walt trying to sell Mickey Mouse in New
York, writing letters to his wife Lillian and brother Roy. Holding the actual
pieces of paper and feeling the anxiety that Walt was going through was amazing.
Changing the feed, our contest and MouseFest
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new format of shorter, more
frequent MouseStation shows. Currently, MouseStation is published three times
a week, with short subjects on Mondays, featured topics on Wednesdays and
listener feedback on Fridays; the MousePlanetWatch news is published on Thursday.
We’re still currently maintaining the series of three feeds, one for MouseStation
only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both shows.
Based on listener feedback, we will be deciding whether to merge the feeds,
and return to a single feed with all shows, folding MousePlanetWatch into
the main MouseStation feed. That would still leave us with four shows per
week, but there would be only one feed. With the current listener numbers
being fairly even between MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch, it seems as if
there’s a great deal of overlap between the shows.
We’ll be making the decision in the next couple of days now, so get your
comments in now!
Please weigh in on the idea of returning to a single feed via email
or by calling our toll-free feedback line at 1-866-939-2278. Don’t forget
that we love voicemails because then we can put your voice on the show!
Don’t forget that you’ve only got until a week from today to get your entry
in for our Owner’s Locker contest!
We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet
for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m.
at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney’s Pop Century
Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We’ll make
sure that we’re in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then
return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast.
For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored
meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest
information page. If you’ve got any ideas on what might make a cool MouseStation
T-shirt for MouseFest, let Mark know!
Wrapping up
Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.
Don’t forget to go to the iTunes podcast directory and give us a good rating!
You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the MousePlanet
CafePress store and the brand-new MouseStation
CafePress store.
Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.
Thank you for listening!
