D23 Plus-Ups... Everything!

D23 dropped a pile of Disney Parks news, but the most interesting story is Disney's announcements that they will finally fix the stuff that’s been broken, stale, or creatively stranded for years. We dig into what that says about the company right now: the path from surprisingly strong attendance numbers to the complicated mix of discounting and operational decisions that helped park attendance explode!

Disney just went all-in with fan-service, will Kelly and Pete call their bluff?

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Transcript

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Welcome And The D23 Lens

Kelly 0:15

Hello and welcome to the Lowdown on the Plus Up, a podcast where we look at everyone's favorite theme park attractions, lands, textures, and novelties. We talk in, over, about, and through our week's topic, and then, with literally no concern for practicality, safety, or economic viability, we come up with ways to make them better. My name is Kelly McCubbin, columnist for the theme park website Boardwalk Times, and with me as always is Peter Overstreet, University Professor of Animation and Film History in Northern California.

SPEAKER_08 0:54

Hey Pete. Yeah.

Kelly 0:56

What are we talking about on this little mini short episode?

Pete 1:01

Well, this little mini short episode, which is being recorded on Friday, August 21st, uh, we've just come out of a big, big uh push for Disney fans out there uh of D23. Yeah, D23. All of the announcements that came along with it. Yeah. Last week the Disney had a whole bunch of stuff to unload upon us.

Kelly 1:26

Yeah, and and you know, the the and we're we're really only uh talking about the theme park announcements here, but um the tenor of what they were doing I liked. Sure. I I uh I mean the show was terrible, but the um the um sorry, Neil Patrick Harris is not your fault. No, um you're fine. You are fine. But um what they seem to be doing is catering to I don't want to say they're catering to fans. It seems to be that they're starting to say, we actually do need to fix some of these things that have been around for a long time. Uh-huh. And I'm glad for that. And I think that there's a couple of reasons for it. Sure. One is that they can say whatever they want to, they don't actually have to do it. Uh but I think they intend to. I do. Um The other one is that they, you know, they they put out theme park numbers recently.

Attendance Gains And What Drove Them

Kelly 2:28

Yeah. And Universal uh their numbers were not good. Universal's struggling. Yep. I mean they'll they'll be fine, but they're they're not doing well now. And sure, you know, international travel. Let's put it this way the stakeholders are not happy at the moment. That's right. Yes. And and and you know, the um international travel's not great. The Florida parks depend on international travel. Um Disney put out their theme park numbers and they had a miraculous increase. Wow. I I heard Len Testa talking about this recently, and he he said if Disney increased the numbers by one percent, their attendance numbers by one percent, yeah, that would be great. If they increased it by two percent, that would be astonishing.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Okay.

Kelly 3:14

They increased it by three percent.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Whoa.

Kelly 3:16

And there's there's a couple of reasons for this. One is that they've been just giving amazing price breaks. I mean, they've just been slashing prices. And it brings people in. Yep. The other one, and don't get mad at me, people, I'm not supporting this, but this is partially what happened. Uh they reworked the DAS rules, the disability access service rules. What they did is not good. No, but it did change some things at the park that made it easier to manage crowds. Yeah. That's a byproduct of a bad thing. So don't come at me. Sure. Um, so there was a couple of things that really helped them. And what this means is that they've got a little wiggle room.

Pete 4:05

Okay.

Kelly 4:06

You know, so their their their numbers are looking pretty good. Yeah. They've got a little wiggle room where they can, if they have the strength of will to do it, to do some things that are not big, like flashy IP-based. No galactic star cruiser. No galactic star cruiser. No, yeah. And you know, there's some stuff down the road that they're looking at. But um, they don't have to, uh not every move has to be a stock price bump right now. Sure. Because they've got a little bit of a cushion. Okay.

Fixing Classics From Yeti To Figment

Kelly 4:42

Keeping that in mind, they made some announcements that they were going to fix some long-term stuff that people have been asking them to fix.

Pete 4:50

Like an Expedition Everest. Yeah. They are going to finally fix the broken Yeti.

Kelly 4:56

Yeah, no more disco Yeti. Yeah. Um, this is interesting because uh when they when Gerodi was asked about this later, he was like, I don't know how they're gonna do that.

Pete 5:06

But I I think they're gonna put a huge amount of earrings on it. I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Kelly 5:15

So uh I don't think they're gonna fix the Yeti. I think they're gonna replace the Yeti. Um the Yeti is bolted into the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, there's a spire that he's attached onto, and that's touching the mountain. And the problem was is when they built that animatronic, those kinds of things were much, much heavier. And the torque when he moved was literally causing the metal to shear. Right. In the mountain. Right. Not him, the mountain. Right. So this was the problem. You couldn't fix it without disassembling Expedition Everest. My guess is that at this point, and I would not be surprised if they call up Garner Holt to do this, or have called up, uh, they're going to replace the Yeti. They're going to just saw him off and put a new lighter weight animatronic in there that does the same things. Because it's much later and we can do that now. That's what I think's going to happen, but I'm glad they're doing it. Me too. Me too. Yeah.

Pete 6:14

You know, I especially expect them to, you know, do a rear projection effect where he's looking at a doubloon and goes, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, oh. And he freezes while you go past him really fast. It turns into a bumble. Yeah. Bumble's bounce.

Kelly 6:32

Yeah. So I think that's great. They announced that they're bringing Dreamfinder back to Journey into Imagination. That's cool. That's great. I mean, it's it's light on details. Like, are they going to redo the whole ride? Because they need to. Oh, big time. Yeah, it's a mess. Yeah. Uh, but I but I love the idea. And you know, that's not again, that's not a stockholder head turning move. That's a we just need to fix some core stuff here.

Pete 6:59

Spaceship Earth. They're gonna have more stuff added to it. Yeah, they're gonna have to more Mesopotamians and a lot less Renaissance artists. That'll be great.

Kelly 7:07

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm all for it.

Pete 7:10

You know, it need it needs an update. Uh-huh. Monstropolis, they're gonna have some additions over there too.

Kelly 7:16

Yeah, the key thing about Monstropolis that they they discussed was the dates. Um, it's opening a great deal earlier than we thought. Now, their big door coaster ride is not included in that opening date. No. But still, it's interesting, and they're gonna open Harry Hausen's. Harry Hausen's yay! It's gonna be an actual sushi restaurant in Florida with an animatronic um monster octopus chef.

Pete 7:42

Yeah, yeah. I'm in. I'm in. Yeah, totally in for that. Love it. Yeah, I love it. Um yeah, so there's Monstropolis and the Glob Theater. The Glob Theater, yeah, which looks super fun. It looks fun. I'm in. Uh also uh Carousel of Progress.

Kelly 7:59

Yeah, I mean, we've known about this for a while that they're redoing it. They're putting animatronic Walt in, Kevin Kidney, yeah, and Jodie Daly are working on it, so that gives me a lot of hope.

Pete 8:09

Oh, absolutely. They're fantastic with that aesthetic.

Kelly 8:11

Yeah. Really good with that aesthetic. So more power to them. Yeah, Brian Cranston's gonna be the voice of the dad. Jamie Lee Curtis is gonna be the voice of the mom.

unknown 8:21

Okay.

Kelly 8:22

I am the future that knocks.

Pete 8:27

I don't know. Maybe it'll work. Orville. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Orville, get out of the bath. Jeez. That was the San Fernando Valley as we knew it back in 1974. Now let's travel back in time. 50 years.

Kelly 8:46

Anyway, I will say the same thing I said before about the new Carousel of Progress. I'm not opposed to them updating it. No, they've updated it a number of times already. Sure. Um, but setting it in 1964 and not setting it during the 1964 World's Fair where the Carousel of Progress originated seems like a lost opportunity.

Pete 9:13

I think the carousel of progress, like my plus-up for the carousel progress, is that they should actually bring back the characters from uh whistle whistle uh plink and tune blunk or whatever.

Kelly 9:24

Whistle toot plunk and boom.

Pete 9:25

Yeah, whistle, and have those four cavemen be the guy. You know, that's like Ugh, future scary.

SPEAKER_05 9:33

Yeah. Future scary, fire scary, wife scary. You know. Let's just move on to a different tie. Yeah. A different family, a different era.

Pete 9:46

And Cars Land is getting a uh addition.

Kelly 9:50

Yeah, I mean, that's the So this this is the this is Piston Peak. So this is the land that's replacing Tom Sawyer Island in Florida. Um, I don't know. It looks nice.

Pete 10:01

I at this point here Uncle Tom's carburetor. I mean, what is what are they doing over there?

Kelly 10:08

Well, and it's funny, Pete and I were talking earlier, uh, and Pete brought up Jay Audubon Woodlore, the uh the character from the old Humphrey Bear cartoons.

SPEAKER_07 10:16

First you take the stick, then you pick it up, boom, boom, then you take the patch, put it in the bag, boom, boom. God, I love that one.

Kelly 10:24

Um and so he's being reincarnated as a car in this. He is Jay Autobon Woodlore. That's brilliant. I love it.

Pete 10:36

I love that. I love it. You know, I'm I'm the the idea of It'd be great if there were like five brown pickup trucks or jeeps near him that are bigger, but they're all beat ups. Yeah. And he's literally leaving on these like these four, you know. First you take the steak, shift it into first boom, boom. Yeah. I love it. I love I see, I love that character. I do too. I love him in the Donald Duck Grand Canyonscape where Donald's being a bad tourist. Right. Don't take pictures of the mountain lion.

SPEAKER_07 11:07

Stay on the trail. Ah. You boys better dig up that canyon.

Kelly 11:15

Yeah, I think like everything I've heard about what they're doing there. I yeah, I'm not a Cars fan. I don't love that franchise. And I do keep threatening to do a um uh to do an article about lands, like theme park lands that are actually better than their source material. And I think I think Cars Land in DCA is one of them. I agree. Um I think Pandora and Animal Kingdom is one of them. Um and but anyway, so that's a journey into James Cameron's wallet. Yeah. Uh but you know, everything I've seen about Piston Peak looks neat. It's cute. Yeah. I I think I think they're going to regret not having a big water feature in the center of that park, but they'll deal with that when

New Lands Piston Peak And Villains

Kelly 12:04

they come to it.

Pete 12:04

Yeah. And then Villain's Land.

Kelly 12:08

Yeah, not much. I mean, yeah, there's a coaster and there's oh, there's gonna be some sort of magic mirror dark ride that they announced. That looks kind of cool. It does. That looks really fun. You know, I don't I don't really care about the custer that much. Maybe it's neat, fine.

Pete 12:25

I mean, if it it's Villains Land almost feels 20 to 30 years too late. Yeah, maybe so. Um I I don't mean who's I love the Disney villains. I mean, I'm a big fan. However, there was a huge push with them back in the late 1990s. Yeah, there was a book of Disney villains that came out that was really good.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah.

Pete 12:49

Um and they had the villain store over in Fantasyland that was really fun where you could go visit the old witch in the cage.

SPEAKER_07 12:56

Yeah. Come closer, my dear. I'll teach you how to make gasoline. Yeah. Maybe even cook up some meth. Um Brian Cranston?

Pete 13:06

See? See? I told you he was in the wrong attraction. Just put Walter White in a cage in Disneyland.

Kelly 13:15

Jeez. Let me talk to you for a second. Yeah, we're here.

Pete 13:18

Jesse, get in here. Jesse's like a little goblin over in Sleepy Beauty's castle. Sorry, folks, sorry, Disney. We had a total left turn there. Um, but anyway, yeah, but this but I I I do love the notion of it. I do too. But it smells so strongly, almost like a giant pumpkin spice candle of the rivalry between Universal and Disney.

Kelly 13:43

Oh, absolutely. I mean, it it it feels like their dark universe.

Pete 13:48

Oh, yeah. Well, it's the back and forth flip, right? Where like Universal, like, well, Disney, we came up with Star Wars Line. Oh, well, we have Harry Potter. Right. Oh, well, we have Villains Land. Oh, well, we have, you know, and it's like, and we have Universal Monsters, and we have the and it's like, guys, yeah, guys, yeah, calm your egos, yeah, and just make a single attraction that's fun.

Kelly 14:12

Yeah, and and I think I think Universal has done that. And um, I'm hoping that Disney will do that here. I like the idea a lot. I think it's a really good idea. Sure. It's interesting to me because the the it signals to me a few things. Disney movies have been light on villains in the last few decades. Good villains. Yeah, a really evil, like scary villain. Oh, yeah. They, you know, villains tend to be kind of misunderstood things, or sometimes it's just, you know, the It was me all along. Well, or it's the character against nature, or something like that. And that's fine. Those are those can be interesting, but um, they haven't seemed that interested in villains kind of since the Hercules.

Pete 14:59

Yeah, really. Yeah. Yeah. Disney villain, really.

Kelly 15:05

Yeah, I mean, Dr. Facilia is interesting. I like him. Yeah. But for the most part, no. And so it's interesting to me that this they might be really interested in this focus on let's get back into the bad guys. Sure. And I want to know if it's gonna be scary. Yeah, yeah.

Pete 15:26

I mean, it's hard to tell with how far they want to push things. Yeah. You we talked about this during lunch. Disney owns the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Kelly 15:35

Yeah. They're gonna show it at the sphere.

Pete 15:38

Yeah. It's like, well, if they've got that, you know, and they own Family Guy, so it's not like they're gonna have Family Guy land. No. You know, have Stewie Griffin running around in Disney Bucks.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Isn't that right, Brian? Brian, do you want a churro? I'd like to get a churro and maybe a doe whip. What's wrong with do whips?

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Yeah. Stewie, what are you what are you doing over there? What are you what are you doing? What are you doing to Tongaroa over there? So anyway. Sorry.

Pete 16:12

Anyway. So anyway. But that's with Disney World. But Disneyland, I think, actually, like Oh, let me do one more thing. Oh, yeah.

Kelly 16:20

So you know, there's a new Indiana Jones ride going in there in Animal Kingdom. Um, I I'm interested in all of the stuff they're doing in Animal Kingdom. I think that how they've themed the Encanto ride to be animal-based is really interesting. Um and, you know, they're basing the Indiana Jones ride about around serpents. Um, neat. I like it. Snakes.

Pete 16:42

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? What is it? It's it's like, was it the Myth of the Jade serpent or something like that? Yeah, it's um yeah, Myth of the Jade Serpent, exactly.

Kelly 16:50

Okay. But the most interesting thing about this-turple rose of Cairo. Yeah. The most interesting thing about this is Harrison Ford is evidently done being mad at them. Because he is going to model the the animatronic.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Oh, yeah. That'll be a lot of fun. I'll be indie on the ride again. I just I just appeared on Sesame Street eating cookies with Cookie Monster. That was pretty cute. It was great. I had the munchies. Yeah. I saw that. That was really cute.

Pete 17:21

It was really cute. I I actually teared up a little bit, going, he's singing this song and he's being cute. Yeah. Yay. Yeah. You know, I was it was it was a nerd moment. Oh, I I I love this career resurgence he's having right now. Absolutely. Let him live it up.

Kelly 17:34

Yeah. And but so, you know, the whole deal with him was that he was willing to be the model for the Disneyland Indiana Jones ride, but the company screwed him over. Yep. They tried to sneak something into the contract that he explicitly said he didn't want to do. He got mad, he refused to lend his likeness to it, or anything else. Um that was how many years ago? Uh yeah. 1990 something. Yeah, like 30-ish years ago. Yeah.

Pete 18:06

He's evidently over it. Or the fact that Disney owns every franchise he could ever possibly work in. I know. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel. He's got it all like the only thing they don't own is Mosquito Coast.

Kelly 18:19

Well, you know, he's he's the thing that he's getting nominated for awards right now, shrinking is on Apple, so they don't have anything to do with that. Okay, well, that's good. Yeah. Okay, I'll go with that. But um it leads you to wonder will they redress the Indy in California?

SPEAKER_06 18:34

That's an interesting thought. I I would love it. I would love it. Yeah, I would love it too. Yeah. It'd be great if they could get John Reese Davies to be Salah. Yes. But they can't do that, Indy. I'm pretty sure they won't have a problem. No, I mean at this point, I'll do it, I'll do it. I'm tired of dressing up as Gimli.

Kelly 18:52

So but now, yeah. So Disney Oh, one more thing before Disneyland. Yeah.

Indy Serpents Paris Moon Cannon Disneyland Plans

Kelly 18:58

In Paris, their Space Mountain is being reverted back to the original Jules Verne uh voyage to the moon Space Mountain.

Pete 19:07

I am so happy about this because I'm such a massive I I'm a Jules Verne and Georges Medias fan. And so going back to Tony Baxter's original vision of making it feel like that old steampunky style makes me so happy.

Kelly 19:24

Yep, they're putting it all back. So you're gonna get launched out of the gun again, and you're gonna visit the moon.

Pete 19:30

Oh, that's so happy making on so many levels. Isn't that great? Yeah, it's fantastic. It's fantastic, man.

Kelly 19:37

But that, and there's some other uh outside the US Disney stuff, but it's all you know.

Pete 19:43

See, here's here's my thing. D23 always goes for the big stuff. Why don't they ever make the big announcements like, so the churro stand in front of the haunted mansion is getting another little figure to churn the popcorn.

Kelly 19:59

You know, they did make a big deal out of this new um synergy thing they're doing with Heinz. Like they made a big deal out of it.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

We're bringing back Welch's grape juice at Adventureland.

Kelly 20:19

And I got I gotta admit, I saw uh uh some film of this like thing that they had there where you could go up to this Heinz machine and it would mix Heinz flavors for you. And I was like, I'd probably do that.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

It's the Heinz 57 Kid instead of the Frito Kid, like, hey Klondike, mix up some more Heinz barbecue sauce, Heinz barbecue sauce.

SPEAKER_06 20:41

Sure thing, Frito Kid, heavy on the horseradish.

Pete 20:46

Actually, you know what would really impress me is if that if that machine was blacklit, and it was the two brothers who invented blacklight paint. Uh-huh. Because they were, when they came up with the blacklight paint, they were working at the Heinz 57 factory. Uh-huh. So we we talked about this during Mr. Toad episode. Did I doze off? Probably. I talk so much everybody dozes off. People listening to this right now are dozing off. First you take the stick, then you tick the boom, boom.

Kelly 21:17

Anyway. So Disneyland. This is where Disneyland. Really interesting. Uh-huh. Um, so the their stuff's getting shuffled around. The Coco Ride's kind of being built. We know that's happening. That's gonna be very nice. Sure. Um, the Avengers stuff is being pushed to about 2028, which sounds about right.

Pete 21:38

To coincide with Doomsday or the hopes of Doomsday popularity in Secret Wars? Well, I think Doomsday is soon. It's it's this the end of this year.

Kelly 21:46

Yeah, and then and then so yeah, probably Secret Wars and stuff.

Pete 21:50

Yeah, hopeful, hopefully it actually does what they they're hoping it will do.

Kelly 21:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I wish them well. I do too. Avatar, the the Pandora piece there is Being pushed way out, except for it's not really. And I think that people misunderstood what I guess sounds so pretentious. Sorry. But people misunderstood what was going on here. Um, avatar is not being pushed out any farther than it was going to be always. The avatar design was going to extend into the entrance area in front of the esplanade. Like the the the entire theme park was going to grow that direction. Uh basically blocking the entrance to the esplanade, which is the main entrance to both of those parks. This was the plan, and the they were going to build a new entrance, which was going to be the Eastern Gateway and the bridge over Harbor Boulevard. Um, all potentially nice, I don't know. But you can't block off the entrance until you have the new entrance built, or no one can go to Disneyland.

Pete 22:58

Right. Right, right. So this was always going to take a long time. My my plus up for the Avatar attraction, and I'm sure there'll be a lot of people who disagree with me, especially the guy that has like 900 Navi tattoos on his back. Yeah. Um I'm I'm not actually very much not a fan of Avatar. I'm not either. I'm on so many levels. And when I saw the ride, I got to ride it. My first impression was, so wait, it's E.T. with blue people. Oh, you were talking about the boat ride? The actual boat ride. Yeah, yeah. The E.T. ride. Yeah. And it's like, uh okay. And I just wasn't it just didn't hit me. And that's just me. And I'm I'm not sure. It is it still to this day astonishes me that Disney put so many resources into this particular IP.

Kelly 23:46

It's it's the other ride, though. It's Flight of Passage. That's the great one. Um you know, the the dragon breathing.

Pete 23:54

No, I get it. Yeah, but but still, I I I wasn't impressed. Yeah, I love me.

Kelly 24:01

I love that one, the butt ride I could take or leave, but I think the design of the land is beautiful.

Pete 24:05

Oh, the environment. Joe Rhodey did an amazing job of heading up the environment. I will not slam into that at all. That's that's beautiful work.

Kelly 24:13

Aaron Powell That said, I think what's going on with the Disney version of this is so the last Avatar movie made about $750 um million dollars, which ain't chump change.

Pete 24:24

No.

Kelly 24:24

But it it was significantly less than the previous two. So I think that they're going to, you know, they were gonna push this out anyway, but now what they seem to be doing is saying, let's not start.

Pete 24:40

That's never a good sign.

Kelly 24:42

That's never a good sign. Do you remember last year they were gonna close the Monsters Inc. ride in California Adventure so that they could start this process? Yep. And then they said, let's leave that open because we don't have enough stuff for kids to do in this park. True, but also Can't they write Tower of Terror? Well, not in DCA. That's yeah, so so much to my chagrin. I love that ride. I think what they said, well, the one in Florida is still there, and I didn't go on to it. Heck yeah, I love that. Still great, still Twilight Zone. Still Twilight Zone. Yeah. I love it. Yep. Um, it's isn't my favorite park at Disney World? My favorite ride at Disney World? Maybe. Yeah. It's pretty great. It's pretty darn good. But I think that um they kind of went, let's not push this. Let's see where we are once the Eastern Gateway and the bridge are built. And if Cameron has put Avatar down for a few years and then started working on a new one, and maybe there's renewed excitement, we'll still do it. Sure. And if there's not, maybe we'll do something else. Okay. I suspect that's where they are. Yeah. Um, but nothing all that much has changed with the schedule for that. They just kind of are like, well, this is going to get placed after the big thing that we want to talk about.

Pete 26:03

Which we kind of predicted in one of our episodes. Yep.

Tomorrowland Reboot Built On Hope

Pete 26:07

When we were at the uh the suite of the future at Hojo. That's right. They're revitalizing Tomorrowland.

Kelly 26:14

Yeah. And they are they are very short on detail. Yep. And there is a vague timeline that suggests that it might be open by the 75th anniversary of Disneyland. That seems unlikely. Yeah. Depending on what they're doing, uh, because that's four years away.

Pete 26:38

They better shut that section down by the end of Christmas this year to get that going.

Kelly 26:44

Here's what I I think, and I saw Michelle V Valladoly, who works for MiceChat, writing about this. Yeah. I I think she's right. I think what they're going to do is they're going to piecemeal it. They're going to change one thing, change one thing, change one thing. I don't think they're going to shut the entire land down entirely, which is a shame. I I would I would kind of like to see the whole damn thing redone.

Pete 27:10

Yeah, no, it's I I would love to see them like really overhaul it. We've talked about this before, and a lot of us do. And it's not because we don't love it. Yeah. It's because that the park never really grocked what it was about.

Kelly 27:27

Yeah. And and I think part of that, and I've said this before, is um part of that is uh Walt didn't care. Um, he didn't, no. And you know, like the work he did was amazing, but he cared about Frontierland, Adventureland, Main Street.

Pete 27:46

Yeah. Um see Kelly's telling me this while he's wearing a Tomorrowland baseball jersey. Yeah. So I'm just saying, like, we're we're into Tomorrowland. We're not boo-booing it.

Kelly 27:54

Yeah, no. We love Tomorrowland. No, uh, but he didn't know what to do. Um, he he didn't have seem to have much interest in science fiction at all. Yeah. Um, the company has notoriously struggled to make science fiction.

Pete 28:08

Um, come on, I love the black hole. I well, I love the black hole too. I've got little black hole figurines around. I know, I've I've seen your Vincent running around here somewhere. Yeah.

Kelly 28:18

Um, but but Walt didn't really know what he was gonna do there, other than he just wanted something kind of futuristic, and it started off as science displays. And then, you know, they built some pretty cool stuff along the way. Yeah. Uh, but it never it it best coalesced in the late 60s when it became about transportation. And we've talked about this before.

Pete 28:45

Absolutely. The space race was the best thing to ever happen to Tomorrowland. Yeah, it really was.

Kelly 28:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

But the fact is, you know, even Neil deGrasse Tyson will tell you that it's a massive amount of particles that come together to coalesce into the imagination of Tomorrowland. But that ain't happening anymore.

Pete 29:07

Nobody cares about science. And birthday cake doesn't exist.

Kelly 29:12

Hey, Neil. Yeah. That that was the most coherent vision of Tomorrowland that we had. Oh, yeah. It was late 60s. It was about people mover and monorail and flying to the moon, and um it was, you know, uh about Autopia and everything moved. Yep. And flying cars and cars of the future. And and becoming an Adam. And I loved all those things, and that is the Tomorrowland I love. Uh, but it was it always struggled with identity, and uh certainly never had an identity when Walt was alive. Later, as stuff started to kind of get taken out and replaced, it lost its 60s, early 70s identity. Nobody knows what it is. Yeah. Um, they they I would love to see them close it and make some sort of coherent stab at this is what we think it is.

Pete 30:10

I I mean I said this during our Tomorrowland episode. Yeah. Um, where I really do believe that if were I in charge, where I had were I had to have the keys to the kingdom, the real approach would be to not focus necessarily on the technology, but on the hope of tomorrow.

Kelly 30:26

Yeah, well, and interestingly enough, uh they used that exact phrase when describing this.

Pete 30:32

Huh. Gee whiz, I wonder why they said that. Maybe somebody listens to this podcast. Maybe one can hope for the future. Yeah. Oh, so anyway, yeah. No, I but I think because that's what Brad Bird's film was really about. It wasn't necessarily about like the technology is cute, but you know, at this point, we have seen every single type of new technology you can put on the on the TV screen. So that's not gonna surprise us. What's gonna surprise us is how you get back to the human aspect. I mean, we are struggling now with AI and and its effects on society. We haven't even scratched the surface. As we're recording this, Meta is about to go in for they're they're in the middle of a trial to talk about how technology is actually ruining the future. Right. And so it cannot just be about technology, it has to be about man's integration with technology and the hope that it can provide so long as we don't forget that the most important machine is hope. Yeah. That humanity is really what's driving innovation, not the technology.

Kelly 31:45

I agree 100%. And it and the it encouraged me that they used the word hope and they used the word optimism. Yep, 100%. And so I don't know what they're gonna do, but if they stick with those two things, I think they'll be all right.

Pete 32:03

If they made it if they make it feel anything like the little eight to ten minute sequence in which the main character of Tomorrowland gets her sneak preview with the pin. Yeah. And she's wandering around. Like if they just took that whole sequence right there and go, There's our designs. That's what it's gotta feel like. Yeah, come on, we're waiting for you. That movie still makes me tear up. It's one of those, yeah, it's another one of those Brad Bird films that I think was ahead of its time and people were not ready for that people I think will start to go back to and go, you know, he was on to something there. Yeah, like they do the Iron Giant at this point. Yes, absolutely. And and Mission Impossible 3. So it's yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually pretty good. It is good. Yeah, it's a lot of Tom Cruise running, but it's good. But that's every movie. Yeah, I'm okay with that. That's okay. But anyway, he's running to the future.

Kelly 32:52

This is this is the thing that I think we're we're most excited about, is that they're finally giving Tomorrowland some love. It's like our our friend Paul Berry said why did Tomorrowland used to be the place you ran to first and now it no longer is. And um, he's right. It is.

Pete 33:10

Last time you and I went, it was the place where we knew no one would be, so we could sit down with quiet old men and a cheeseburger in peace and harmony. Literally, and where we were standing was where we sat down was right next to the platform that used to come up and rock bands would come out of nothing's going on. Like it was so dead. It was like, what's the deadest part of the park? Uh either that little D-Stimming corner over in Toontown or all of Tomorrowland. Yeah, right. It's like, oh god, it's terrible.

Kelly 33:42

Yeah, and I mean, if if it were me, I I'd take everything out except Space Mountain. And that's and that doesn't mean that I don't love star tours. I do. Um, it just it's it's working against what you're trying to do. Yes. Yeah.

Pete 33:58

Well, I mean, at that point, you could actually move it. Yeah. Like you, you could you you have the wherewithal and and and create an addition to Galaxy's Edge. Galaxy's Edge. Actually, put Star Tours in where they had an unplanned Bantha like ride or whatever.

Kelly 34:16

Right, and they've converted that area to be an original trilogy area now. Yes.

Pete 34:21

So go ahead. Make it all Star Wars, get Star Wars out of Tomorrowland. It's not that it didn't serve its purpose back then, but it's got its own land now. Now you can keep it pure and be about Tomorrowland. And cut and bring Brad Bird back. Yeah. Let him have a say or two over there for goodness' sake. Yeah. And bring the uh spaceman and space girl back. Yes. In those really hot, and I and I don't mean that it was sexually attractive. I mean they were roasting in in metal jiffy pop costumes. They were sweating so much of their body weight out because of those costumes. There's so much metallics.

Kelly 35:00

Also, we just we need the crane bathroom of the future back. Hell yeah. Yeah.

Pete 35:05

I'm I'm in.

unknown 35:06

I'm in.

Pete 35:07

You know? I want to come out shaking like a like a sheep that's just freshly been shorn. It's just like, what happened to me? I just had to use a bathroom for a minute. I thought it was a bidet. It wasn't a bidet. It wasn't. I saw the eye of God. So much for D23. This is probably why you and I will never actually be invited to be part of the press packet to go to D23. It's like Kelly and Pete. Oh God, no. That's him. No, unless I don't even need to look them up. No, unless they want to announce Big Thunder, the revitalization of Big Thunder, in which they actually need an authentic sounding Dallas McKinnon voice to open them up. Hey folks, a D23. So, you know, I'm telling you, Disney, you can hire me. I'm the best Dal McKinnon impersonator you've ever heard.

Kelly 36:04

You are the you are the best Dal McKinnon impersonator in your price range. Why, yes.

Pete 36:15

And on that note, I'm Peter Overstreet. I'm Kelly McGuffin. And you've been listening to The Lowdown on the Plus Up.

Listener Ideas And Where To Find Us

Kelly 36:35

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of The Lowdown on the Plus Up. If you have, please tell your friends where you found us. And if you haven't, we can pretend this never happened and need not speak of it again. For a lot more thoughts on theme parks and related stuff, check out my writing for Boardwalk Times at Boardwalk Times.net. Feel free to reach out to Pete and I on our Lowdown on the Plus Up Facebook group or send us a message directly at comments at lowdown-plus-up.com. We really want to hear about how you'd plus these attractions up and read some of your ideas on the show. Our theme music is Goblin Tinker Soldier Spy by Kevin McLeod at Incompitech.com. We'll have a new episode out real soon. Why? Because we like you.