Disney Headlines for March 24th, 2022
You may not know it due to everything else going on, but The Walt Disney Company has done some other stuff over the past week.
We’ve seen Disney characters assume new forms, a theme park closed, and Disney’s dress code came under fire again.
I’ll explain all the stuff you missed in the latest Disney Headlines.
What’s the Mirrorverse?
A couple of years ago, Disney quietly exited the video game development business.
Management decided that Disney would do better by licensing its content to others.
At the time, people rushed to the conclusion that Disney characters would disappear from games.
That’s simply not the case. In fact, the Disney Mirrorverse trailer just dropped. Here it is:
Before you ask, the answer is no. This project has nothing to do with Disney’s upcoming Multiverse project, which I’m calling Disney One for now.
Multiverse is more of a Web3 immersive project that will shape the way you avail yourself of digital content over the next 20 years.
Instead, Mirrorverse is an RPG from Kabam, one with a killer premise. What if beloved Disney characters dream about becoming video game heroes, just like you?
What would characters like Sully from Monsters, Inc. or Belle from Beauty and the Beast look like as 3-D rendered, highly detailed fighters in an RPG?
That’s not even the best part! The video shows Maleficent fighting in her dragon form…alongside Belle and Sully!
Yes, Disney heroes and villains alike unite to save the various realities from an ominous threat.
The Mirrorverse game concept combines elements of Marvel’s multiverse with DC Comics’ recent conversion of Harley Quinn into a superheroine.
For many years, fans have wanted to root for the bad guys. Maleficent as a playable hero in combat is an idea whose time has come!
Gameplay hints at something between Injustice and Overwatch, albeit on smartphones and other devices.
The official Disney Mirrorverse site has launched. You can go here to sign up for news about the project.
You can safely expect this game to be huge, especially because each character comes with an exclusive backstory for the Mirrorverse.
Theme Park Headlines for the Week
Let’s start with grim news out of China. For the first time in a while, the country has experienced a significant COVID-19 outbreak.
The catalyst here is the highly contagious Omicron variant, the one North America experienced at the start of 2022.
China has adopted a zero-tolerance policy to stop the spread of COVID-19, something more possible in a country with (sadly) fewer civil liberties.
Alas, COVID-19 has proven impossible to stop completely, no matter the circumstance.
You may recall that Hong Kong Disneyland closed on January 7th for what park officials announced as a two-week period. It has yet to reopen, though.
In fact, Hong Kong has suffered mightily during the current wave. Nobody expects its Disneyland to open before late April, and even that’s optimistic.
Not coincidentally, the park is losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
A recent Yahoo! headline suggests that Hong Kong Disneyland has reduced its losses to $308 million. Hooray?
Seriously, there’s a reason why Disney has been so broke lately. It just cannot catch a break with its international theme parks.
Disneyland Paris has finally gotten back up and running again. But, now, China is going through an outbreak that has destroyed all hope of Hong Kong Disneyland’s reopening soon.
Now, there’s this. Shanghai Disneyland has also closed. So, one-third of Disney’s global theme park empire has shut down due to COVID-19. Again.
This time, park officials didn’t bother to list a target date, which is for the best. Unfortunately, those often prove wildly optimistic.
Instead, here’s the official word on the closure:
“We will continue to monitor the pandemic situation and consult local authorities, and will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations.”
What to Wear?
I grew up in the south, a place that’s extremely demanding of women, even at a young age.
I could tell some stories about classroom disruptions involving clothing and behavior that frankly seem caveperson-ish in hindsight.
So, I often think of those moments when I discuss stories about Disney dress codes.
Yes, we’ve had another incident involving a park official’s request for a woman to cover up her bare flesh.
I won’t link to the TikTok this time, as the accompanying music uses foul language.
You can find it on the channel of a user named @toragrams if you’re interested.
One of her clips has 3,500 likes, while the one on the other side has roughly 15,000. You’re looking for the one with…6.6 million views. So, yeah. It’s a thing.
The gist is that a woman wore a shirt that partially showed her belly and a middle circle between her cleavage.
A cast member came up to her and asked that she follow them to get a free shirt, one that Disney expected her to wear the rest of the day.
The individual in question seems to have a good sense of humor about it.
Here’s the quote from the post: “i mean, I kinda agree w them looking back at this video.”
Truthfully, many of us wear stuff that we don’t give a second thought. In the wrong setting, it might seem ill-considered, though.
You wouldn’t wear a Hawaiian shirt to a funeral, right? Like, you could hate the person, but you still wouldn’t want to give off that relaxed party vibe.
Even so, a Washington Post opinion piece raises some excellent points about the mixed message of Disney animation relative to acceptable park apparel.
You can understand the author’s point, right?