MouseStation 28 – Featured Topic: Is Change Good?
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Run time 0:31:48
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This week’s featured topic was prompted by last week’s statement by Epcot Vice President Jim MacPhee that the arm, hand and wand looming over Spaceship Earth would be coming down.
Some people, who don’t remember seeing Spaceship Earth without the wand are sad to see it go, and others who have grown to like it would also like it to stay, while most who remember seeing the Geosphere without the wand are thrilled that it’s going away.
The Sorcerer’s Hat at the Disney-MGM Studios is similarly controversial.
Many attraction changes have raised the disappointment of small to large
numbers of people when they were replaced, from Horizons (Misson: Space) to
World of Motion (Test Track) to Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer’s Island (Pirates’
Lair) to Kitchen Kabaret/Food Rocks (Soarin’). The Pixarization of all of
the parks is another issue that garners a lot of attention.
Mark feels that some change is good and some is not, depending on how well
it fits in with its surroundings and whether or not it tells a good story.
Mike is usually for change, but some he feels should not have been removed,
including Horizons and the Tiki Room.
Mike and Mark discussed where Mission: Space might be best located if they
could start it all over and put it somewhere else.
Attractions that were better after they were replaced even if Mark &
Mike missed the previous attraction include Soarin’, Walt Disney: One Man’s
Dream. Mike would like to see Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends be replaced.
Mark talked about the recent additions to Tomorrowland that really don’t
fit thematically within the land, from Stitch’s Great Escape to Monsters,
Inc. Laugh Floor to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Mark also feels that
Stitch’s Great Escape was a very poor substitute for the ExtraTERRORestrial
Alien Encounter.
The conversion to Pirates’ Lair and the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
at Disneyland are getting lots of positive feedback because of proper theming.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot is also garnering a positive response.
Mark has mixed feelings about the Nemoization of theLiving Seas.
Mark and Mike talked about the ongoing Pixarization of the parks. Mike feels
that the high rate of attractios being converted is a problem. Mark is OK
with the changes because all of the movies that have caught on with viewers
is a big way over the last 10 years were Pixar films, with the exception of
Lilo & Stitch, which led to Disney overdoing Stitch. Mike suggested going
back to older properties and perhaps doing something like an attraction based
on The Fox and The Hound.
Mark suggested that more attractions not be based on previous works.
Discussion of today’s topic ended with a qucik response to the Sorcerer’s
Hat.
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Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.
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Thanks for listening!
