MickeyBlog News for November 5th, 2019
The Walt Disney Company reconsiders its options on FuelRod stations, Mickey Mouse heads to Epcot, and Disney theme parks switch holidays virtually overnight. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the latest edition of MickeyBlog News.
The Changing of the Seasons
On November 1st, Disney defiantly ignored the calendar by hosting its final edition of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. Those of us who stayed until closing were in for a slight surprise, though.
Unlike last year, Jungle Cruise wasn’t open until the end. Disney had already shut it down for the evening in order to perform the seasonal change. On November 2nd, Jingle Cruise had already swapped in an entirely new set of seasonal puns. Amazon jungle jokes are out, and yuletide puns are in for the next couple of months.
This change reflects the tip of the iceberg at Disney theme parks. At places like Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Gingerbread houses have returned. MickeyBlog has also published video of the holiday changes at Magic Kingdom thus far. By the end of the week, Disneyland and Walt Disney World will have finished the full exchange of seasonal decorations.
Coming to you LIVE from Magic Kingdom! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Posted by MickeyBlog.com on Saturday, 2 November 2019
Until then, anyone lucky enough to visit the Contemporary should head up to the fourth floor. The holiday decoration area smells AMAZING.
The Scooby Gang Has Discovered That the Real Buzzy Thief Is…
Oh, Buzzy. You have suffered so much in recent months. First, we learned that you, the beloved Audio-Animatronic at Cranium Command, had gone missing. Nobody had noticed at first since Cranium Command is no longer in operation. You were a kidnapping victim, yet the world didn’t even know.
Then, we learned that some sadist had ripped you asunder and sold you on the black market. We certainly couldn’t have guessed the next shocking reveal, though. Months after someone confessed to the Buzzy burglary, we just realized that the culprit is someone you probably trusted.
Yes, the man who purchased Buzzy illegally on eBay is none other than Disney superfan and NBA star Robin Lopez. Yes, one of basketball’s famous twins has been revealed as the temporary owner of the stolen Buzzy. The story is a bit more nuanced than that.
To Lopez’s credit, he asked whether Buzzy was stolen, only to have the seller lie to him about it. Lopez dutifully worked with law enforcement officials once he learned what had happened. Obviously, Disney doesn’t have any ill feelings about the matter, as the Lopez twins recently headlined a Halloween event at NBA Experience.
PS: If you’re wondering, Robin isn’t the Lopez twin that lives at Golden Oak. It’s his brother, Brook, whose primary residence is at Walt Disney World. The Buzzy call was coming from inside the house!
The Best Possible Character Meeting Coming to Epcot
While Disney has hosted many current and former character greeting spots at Epcot, the company’s most famous face hasn’t had an official home lately. Due to the sweeping changes taking place at the park, Mickey Mouse found himself displaced. He and his friends are currently hosting guests at a temporary spot in Innoventions.
Disney just revealed that they will create a more permanent spot for the mouse that started it all. Mickey Mouse will move inside the Imagination! pavilion in early 2020. He will presumably find a home at the Play! pavilion in a couple of years, of course, but he’ll live near Figment for the next year or two.
FuelRod Swaps Are Free Again
Do you ever feel like the world is pulling a huge prank on you? Last week, when my Disney countdown was in single digits, my wife and I planned to use Walt Disney World’s FuelRod kiosks to charge our devices. Then, Disney announced that they would add a new fee of $3 per swap starting on November 1st, the day after we arrived at the parks.
So, we purchased a couple of new charging devices and batteries, figuring that we’d likely save money this way. Now that we’re at Walt Disney World, Disney has just reversed their position. In the wake of a class action suit filed against FuelRod, Disney has announced that FuelRod swaps will remain free for the foreseeable future.
Speculation centers on the fact that the FuelRod terms of service were vague enough that class action suits have some merit. In the face of extensive legal fees and a possible eventual payout, FuelRod liaised with Disney. Everyone agreed that there’s not enough profit at $3 a pop to make a profit here. It’s a smart decision in the wake of an ill-considered, somewhat greedy one. I admire Disney for admitting that they were wrong here.
Star Wars Franchise Loses Its High-Powered Production Team
Friends, I’m not exaggerating when I say that Disney and Netflix have just entered into a digital Cold War. The two media giants are battling for supremacy in a limited space, the streaming video market.
Netflix has dominated subscription media consumption for years now, but everyone recognizes that Disney represents a systemic threat. Something unexpected just happened that plays into this hidden war that’s taking place in Hollywood right now.
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, self-professed Star Wars fanatics, had signed on to direct a new trilogy. The presumption at the time was that they would spearhead the three films that follow the current batch. The announcement for this project occurred during February of 2018.
This past week, Benioff and Weiss confirmed that they were dropping out of Star Wars. It wasn’t that they wanted to do this. It’s just that they wanted to be rich beyond all reason, and Netflix helped them with that.
In August of 2019, the producer tandem signed a $200 million contract with Disney’s competitor. Understandably, Netflix wanted Benioff and Weiss focused on providing a return on that staggering investment. So, they leaned on the duo to drop out of Star Wars, which means that Disney’s film unit has a clean slate right now. That will probably change in the wake of The Mandalorian’s release in a few days.
From Disney’s perspective, I doubt that they’re torn up about this turn of events anyway. When the company signed the deal with Benioff and Weiss, Game of Thrones was at a creative high point. Then, the final season happened, and virtually the entire internet turned on the duo.
This way, Disney gets a clean slate and doesn’t get dragged down by association. Meanwhile, Netflix is on the hook for $200 million with a couple of guys who fumbled the ball in the red zone with Game of Thrones.