Dreamworks spy??

[Mr. Bildo]

I just took the Backstage Magic tour and our tourguide, Anthony, mentioned that they don't do the tour of the Animation area anymore because of some kind of Dreamworks scam where they sent spys on the tours or something. I've never heard about that before. Anyone know anything more about this? I really wish I would have asked more about this on the tour.

-Bill

[johare]

Why would Dreamworks send spys to Disney? So they can learn how to make crappy movies like Atlantis?

I think your tourguide was misinformed. Many of the people over at Dreamworks are previous employees of Disney...they don't need to send spys on an public tour.

[daber]

We went thru the Animation tour about two weeks ago. Yes, it's not like it used to be, but it's still open. They had some guy dressed up like Milo asking all the kids if they had seen Atlantis and if they hadn't he made them promise to ask their parents to go see it. Also, they were pitching their next animation movie, which like the recent batch didn't sound appealing.

[Josiah Harper]

Bill was apparently talking about the Backstage Magic Tour--the seven-hour backstage deal which includes lunch--which historically has provided more access to the Animation Studios than the "regular" Animation Tour does with just the theme park admission. In fact, you even get to take a drawing lesson with one of the Disney animators--at least, the last time I took the tour, you did.

[Mr. Bildo]

That's exactly what I'm refering to. We saw the Animation building and that was it. They stopped doing the "paint the cel part" part of the tour. I'm not talking about the MGM attraction.

-Bill

[DisneyFanGuy]

I have friends who have taken it and enjoyed that part very much. I would guess that there is another agenda.

Maybe with all of the cuts, they have decided not to take folks "behind the scenes" because nothing is going on.

I am learning not to trust Disney "Spin" so it could be anything.

[JeffJewell]

...the "paint a cel" portion from the Backstage Magic tour some time ago (more than a year, at least). The substitute was the costume making area; instead of taking home a cel, you take home some swatches from Mickey's, Minnie's, or a couple other characters' costume fabric.

At the time, they told us the "real reason" was because the cel portion was time-consuming and most people could not finish painting the cel, anyway (the "official" line was that they re-did the tour materials and the costuming offices fit the new focus of the tour better than did the cel painting).

Jeff

[Mr. Bildo]

Hmm.. we didn't get any swatches. That would have been pretty cool though. We got a nifty Mickey stand with "Backstage Magic" etched into it.

-Bill

[Sarangel]

They were still allowing you to paint cels as recently as February 2001. I went on this tour with some friends & we all got to paint a cel (and, no none of us finished it).

Sarangel

[JeffJewell]

...our Backstage Magic tour in November 2000 did not include the cel painting, but rather the costuming.

We didn't even expect the cel painting in November, we had already read in internet reviews that it wasn't happening anymore.

Could they have put it back?

Jeff