Ralph and Paperman

I picked up a blu-ray copy of Disney's Wreck-It-Ralph at the local Wal-Mart a week or so ago. I wanted to see it in the theaters when it came out last November but never got around to it (often, the story of my life). Anyway, most everyone gave the movie high marks and enjoyed it. When I saw the 3D trailers last year, it looked like a fantastic idea for a movie where various characters from some classic vintage (and modern) video games come together for laughs, fun, and adventure. And certainly Wreck-It-Ralph is entertaining enough. The problem is the movie just quite didn't live up to some lofty expectations I had for it. 

The movie is fun, told a good story, but really didn't stick me with me in any memorable way. And while Disney Animation did a fine job with rendering the film in CGI, it doesn't quite equal Disney's own Pixar Animation Studios quality. You can see that Pixar, given their pedigree, puts a little more color and polish (and money) into their animated films.

Liked Ralph, didn't love it. Should have rented it.

Disney's short animated film Paperman, which brought Disney its first Academy Award for an animated short film in decades this year, is included with the Wreck-It-Ralph blu-ray package. Paperman is worth the price of a Ralph purchase even if it is only about 5 minutes long or so. Disney as a company started with Walt animating short cartoons. It is where the company began and Paperman would make someone like Walt Disney proud. Paperman isn't a kids cartoon like Mickey, or Donald, or Goofy. Paperman is adult elegance in animation, telling its simple love story through drawing rather than words. Add a terrific music score and it is easy to see why Paperman got its Oscar. Let's just hope Disney continues to fund these efforts in animation and recaptures some its glorious past.

Pirates of the Caribbean & The Blue Bayou: An Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean and the Blue Bayou Restaurant in Disneyland's New Orleans Square. The official opening was March 18, 1967, about 4 months after the death of Walt Disney who worked tirelessly to bring this treasured attraction to life. Earlier today, the Disneyland Twitter feed posed the simple question "What's you favorite meal at the Blue Bayou?" More on that later.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite ride in the park. Heck, it's my favorite ride ever, anywhere. To this day I still remember my first ride as a young boy (and probably not too long after the ride opened), sitting next to my parents and my sister and taking that first scintillating plunge in the darkness, followed by another, then finally the rollicking world of mostly drunken pirates. Thrills.....Joy.....Pirates had it all and I was lucky enough to share it with my parents and my baby sister. Thank you Walt for a memory I will never, ever forget. I share this gratitude with many.

Fast forward to 2002. My parents by this time had long passed away. A group of family members decided to make a group trip to Disneyland. Going all out, we had four rooms booked at the recently opened Grand Californian. Leading the rag-tag brigade was my older sister. She was ten years older than I was a was so my memories of her when I was a child were fleeting. But she became the matriarch of the family after my mother's passing. This was my only trip to Disneyland with her. I still remember so much from that trip, so many memories to treasure. You see, my sister passed away in 2006 under sad and tragic circumstances. For those who take life for granted - don't - it's just that simple. 

Anyway, my sister wanted to take the gang to the Blue Bayou for a grand lunch. Grand it was because there must have been about 15 or 16 of us. A table that big could not get right by the water for the greatest view of the boats passing by but we got close enough. Lovely, memorable, enchanting, there are countless words that can be expressed about that joyful afternoon but it comes down to the love my sister had for her family. My favorite meal. I really don't know what I had that day but the crab cakes come to mind. On that day in the Blue Bayou, it was all about my wonderful sister and her love for her family and her families love for her. 

I miss her dearly and each and every trip to Disneyland I think about the memories we shared together even if they were a one time deal. You can think about your favorite meal at the Blue Bayou but the better thing to do is to think about the person or people you are sharing that table with in Disneyland's most intimate of settings. 

Disney Movie Releases for 2013

I seemed to have spent a lot of time writing in this blog about why I am not standing in line today to to see Disney's Oz The Great and Powerful. I have no interest in seeing it. When it comes to home video - maybe, and that's only a maybe. But there are Disney (or Disney owned) movies I am looking forward to seeing in 2013.

Must See Disney (or Pixar, or Marvel) Movies:

Iron Man 3 (May)

Monsters University (June)

Thor: The Dark World (November)

Saving Mr. Banks (December)

Disney Movies I Have Little or No Interest in Seeing:

Oz The Great and Powerful (March) - I'm just not an Oz fan

The Lone Ranger (July) - The trailers seem very unappealing 

Planes (August) - This was supposed to go direct to video but someone saw $$$

Undecided:

Frozen (November) - Once known as The Snow Queen

Hmmm.....Interesting...... Of the 4 movies I really want to see only 1 (Saving Mr. Banks) is made by Disney Studios; 2 are made by Disney owned Marvel Studios and 1 is from Pixar Animation Studios.

Of the the 4 movies I have no interest in seeing (or in the case of Frozen, I just don't know yet), all are made by Disney. Which kind of leads to the thought that the movies that are most highly anticipated (by me anyway) are mostly made by film studios Disney has purchases rather their own productions. That looks like  trend that needs to change.

The New Oz Movie? Disneyland's Fantasy Fair? Getting Excited?

Featured Stars of Oz: The Great and Powerful
A Disney Photo

We're just a couple of days away from Disney's first big budget release of 2013 - Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Rapunzel at Disneyland's Fantasy Faire
A Disney Parks Blog Photo

We're about 6 days away from the official public opening of Disneyland's elaborate new Princess Meet and Greet - Fantasy Faire Village. Annual Passholders will get their own first crack at taking a look at the place this weekend before the public. Disney Parks Blog (link) gave us a sneak peak at Rapunzel and Cinderella checking out their new homes this past week.

Cinderella inside her Fantasy Faire home
A Disney Parks Blog Photo

Oz? Fantasy Faire? Two big Disney events coming up within the next week. Am I getting excited? Eh.....sorry......no. Hope you have better luck generating some enthusiasm than I do. Please note that I freely admit the movie and the new Fantasy Faire area could be absolutely spectacular and huge hits. I'm usually wrong about 5 things before I ever roll out of bed in the morning.

Disneyland's Own Little "Animal Kingdom" - Disney Dose

In my latest post to the Disney Dose website, I take another look at animal life at Disneyland. Sorry, there no lions, or tigers, or zebras in Disneyland, not real ones anyway, but they do have their share of animal charmers who just give you more reasons to smile. Hope you enjoy the post and all the Disney information Dsney Dose shares.

Here is a direct link to the post -

Disneyland's Own Little Animal Kingdom - A Disney Dose Post

The Disneyland Annual Pass Conundrum - Price vs. Value

Where Dreams Come True - At a Steep Price

As I've mentioned before, Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and I have a Disneyland trip on the horizon, hopefully in the late April - early May time frame. We have been Disneyland annual passholders on and off for the last 10 years or so. Our system has worked something like this. For our next trip, we each would get park hoppers ranging from 3 to 5 days. Once we got down to Disneyland and began enjoying ourselves immensely, we'd start talking about our finances, schedules, and calendars as to how soon we could come back and maybe even how many times we could possibly come back in the next 12 months. If all looks good, we'd take our parkhopper tickets and convert them into annual passes and the sweet Disney freedom to just walk in and out of the park would be ours. The decision was an easy one a few years ago but that was when the Annual Passes were cheaper, much cheaper.

I think our first annual pass might have been somewhere around $239 each. We would always get our annual passes in the Deluxe category as the Saturday and holiday blackout dates were not big deal for us. Since we already had park hopper tickets we were converting to annual passes, the cost of the conversion usually amounted to the cost of a real nice dinner at the Blue Bayou or something. Skip the dinner, get the passes. It was a no-brainer. 

But that's all changed. That Deluxe Annual Pass that used to be in the mid-$200 range is now $469 (each!). A Premium Annual Pass runs $649. (Thank you Cars Land) You have to look long and hard at where the value line is located. We would have to absolutely make two extended multi-day stays during our pass period to justify the cost of the passes. Three trips would be better. 

Then there is the pressure factor. If we just stuck to multi-day park-hoppers, there is no pressure to get back to Disneyland. We'll get back when we are good and ready. With annual passes in hand, the pressure is already on to make the next trip whether you have the funds budgeted or not. 

But there is a huge advantage in having an annual pass, especially for Mrs. DLT and I living about 450 miles away. After 6 or 7 hours of driving, with annual passes in hand, we could go over to park for a few hours once we checked into our hotel. With park hoppers, you are always on the clock so to speak. You would never waste a park hopper admission day for a "few hours" of park time like you would with an annual pass. If you are Disney cheap like me, you would also have a tendency to never, ever, leave the park from the time it opened until the time they told you had to get out to maximize Disney day.

What to do....what to do? It really depends on if we can make those two extended trips in a 12 month period. I think we can, I hope we can. Disney used to make this decision pretty easy. Now? Not so much.

Captain EO's Limited Run Is Now 3 Years Old

Shortly after pop star Michael Jackson passed away in 2009, Disney executives began to debate among themselves whether to bring back Captain EO, the Michael Jackson 3D short film produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola for exclusive showings in Disney Parks. Disneyland's Captain EO had closed in 1997 from Tomorrowland's Magic Eye Theater after about a 10 year run. By the time EO closed in 1997, it was dated and silly and few people bothered to fill up the large theater.

When the Disney executives settled the debate (the debate was basically Disney profiting from Jackson's tragic death at age 50) it was decided to bring back a Michael Jackson Captain EO "Tribute" for a limited engagement in 2010. That "limited engagement" is now 3 years old, a forgotten fact that was brought up by the Orange Counter Register this past week. The dollar signs won out once again. For the first month or two, people once again began flock Disneyland for the chance to see the self proclaimed "king of pop" dance and sing and try to act with the return of Captain EO. Oh yes, we can't forget about the whole new line of EO merchandise that was brought out to sell. But as anticipated as the return of Captain EO was at the time, one viewing of the film had even Michael Jackson fans (my sister for one) racing for the exit by the time the 17 minute film ended. In the end, in the second decade of the the 21st century, Captain EO is dated and silly and now plays to small crowds in the large theater.

Why doesn't Disney end the "limited run"? They have now gone on record to say there are no immediate plans to do so. It comes down to, "we got nothing else to put in there right now so Captain EO serves a purpose". A couple of thousand people a day wander in to see it even if they do leave the attraction shaking their heads. Eventually, Disney will replace the film with something else but when it comes to the priority list of things to do, it just isn't really high up there right now. Unfortunately. I've seen Captain EO twice since its return. I have no intention to see it again.