According to a Gallup poll released recently, Avatarland has an approval rating that’s actually worse than the French head of the IMF. Blue Man Group has seen its ticket sales plummet since the announcement. It’s gotten so bad that the church of Scientology released a statement calling it a “patently crazy idea.” I cannot disagree […]
The Problem With Avatar…
See, Disney can keep a secret after all. A bunch of rich white guys announce a way to make money off a bunch of poor blue people. I would guess that they have been scrambling to put this big Avatar deal together for some time, hoping perhaps to have it wrapped up for a big […]
The Costume Store Revisited
Just a quick update to settle the debate about what The Costume Shop actually was. I got a note the other day from Ryan, who runs the fantastic Main Street Gazette site. Here’s some scans he provided of the MGM guidebook for this time period: As you can see, the Costume Shop was essentially Villains […]
Imagine the Possibilities
Everyone has a favorite scene in Pirates of the Caribbean. For 95% of the theme park public, this scene is either Johnny Depp hiding in a barrel or Johnny Depp fondling a dressmaker mannequin. The remaining 5% have a modicum of good taste. We know the classic iconography. The dog with the keys, the wench […]
Echoes of Aulani
I recently got back from a week on Oahu. For those of you that don’t speak Hawaiian, Oahu is an island whose most famous feature is Pearl Harbor, the site of some obscure bit of American history. If you’ve heard of Pearl Harbor at all, it’s only because Ben Affleck made a movie about it. […]
The Top 10 Disney Elevators
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a great movie. Well, to be more accurate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a great book that was made into a great movie (re-titled Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory in an early attempt at product placement) that was then remade into a kind of mediocre movie. Sadly author […]
Disney World is for Addicts
If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about something serious that is affecting the parkeology community. It’s the sad dark side to being a Disney park fan: Addiction. This social disease has claimed more than its fair share of Disney bloggers. It’s not something we like to talk about, but I’m afraid it must […]
Another MGM Building
Sorry we’ve been kind of quiet lately. As the dedicated parkeologists that we are, we have been jetting all over the world to bring you hard-hitting articles about Paris, Disneyland, and Hawaii. In other words, we have been vacationing, and trying to figure out if there’s any way we can claim a tax deduction on […]
Stage One Company Store
There’s an old argument among parkeologists about what passes for theming. You can have a themed birthday party, in which kids wear cowboy hats and eat boot-shaped cake and try to lasso the cat. That fits the definition of “theme.” What Disney does is something else, something more story-based (though Imagineering heroes like Marc Davis […]