News Round Up 2016

[jade1]

[QUOTE="rteetz, post: 55426083, Their new positions may have less hours.[/QUOTE]

Have heard many will have more hours.

 

[skier_pete]

Wish I had enjoyed this documentary more than I actually did. To me it kind of felt unfair and unbalanced in some aspects. Though I appreciate they didn't go for the ''Walt sprinkled fairy dust over everything he touched'' approach, at times the documentary felt biased, especially during the animation department strike portion.

It was definitely not always kind to Walt - but remember how workers were paid/treated during the 30s/40s. Even during the great depression much of the rich stayed rich while the working class paid with bread lines. People like Walt believed employees should just be happy to work no matter how bad the pay was. This led directly to the rise of socialism and the unions. Walt was probably a much better employee than most, but the fight of the worker was in the air.

I'm going to try to not get too political here because I am really not favoring a side in this, but its going to sound like it: we are seeing a similar situation today - where big corporations are cutting benefits and healthcare, freezing wages, ending pensions and even pushing around the unions. Not as bad as back then - but enough that leads to seeing another surge in the popularity of socialist ideas - i.e. the popularity of Bernie Sanders. IMO Even Donald Trump's popularity as a candidate is a symptom of this, since while conservatives tend to hate socialism, the general population (working class) of conservatives sees the government in the pockets of big business, and sees Trump as an outsider to the political machine.

Turning it back to OT Disney and the recent discussions of having more up-charge events and employee cuts - my point is everything they do is like any other corporation, prioritizes the shareholders first, the customers second, and the employees last.

 

[Indybill]

There's something to every project that's not good.

I have no doubt Shanghai is causing some short-term spending issues we are feeling the brunt of here. However, according to an Iger speech recently, there are over 300 million "income qualified" Chinese within 3 1/2 hours of the park. We forget the size of their population in that they have a larger middle-class than the US has population. Sure their economy is going through a rough patch, but when you think in terms of how many people a day could even go to the park versus the population I don't think it will be a disaster a year from now.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I have no doubt Shanghai is causing some short-term spending issues we are feeling the brunt of here. However, according to an Iger speech recently, there are over 300 million "income qualified" Chinese within 3 1/2 hours of the park. We forget the size of their population in that they have a larger middle-class than the US has population. Sure their economy is going through a rough patch, but when you think in terms of how many people a day could even go to the park versus the population I don't think it will be a disaster a year from now.

But then you also forget the Chinese workforce schedule...it is incredibly common that most of those "income qualified" work 6 days (5 long, 1 shorter) a week and have (at most) 2 weeks of vacation a year, which they usually spend going home to see family. When will they have time to visit and will Disney make any money in a park where they can only routinely fill it one day a week?

 

[Indybill]

But then you also forget the Chinese workforce schedule...it is incredibly common that most of those "income qualified" work 6 days (5 long, 1 shorter) a week and have (at most) 2 weeks of vacation a year, which they usually spend going home to see family. When will they have time to visit and will Disney make any money in a park where they can only routinely fill it one day a week?

China will want this park to succeed as its another step to making them look better than the US on the world stage. If they need to change something to make this happen to fill it, they will. They will do whatever they can for it to be the most visited theme park in the world for another feather in their cap to world leaders. My one real fear is that they will do things that will cut into the profitability for Disney so that our parks continue to be impacted.

 

[EricInPA]

Think. What do we know?

Second hand information and rumors. That's what we (here on message boards) know, mostly filtered through folks that don't hold the current disney management in the highest light (for better or worse).

Some have more inside information than others, but it's still limited even from them (since the corp. is so large).

 

[rteetz]

[QUOTE="rteetz, post: 55426083, Their new positions may have less hours.

Have heard many will have more hours.[/QUOTE]
Sources?

 

[rteetz]

I have no doubt Shanghai is causing some short-term spending issues we are feeling the brunt of here. However, according to an Iger speech recently, there are over 300 million "income qualified" Chinese within 3 1/2 hours of the park. We forget the size of their population in that they have a larger middle-class than the US has population. Sure their economy is going through a rough patch, but when you think in terms of how many people a day could even go to the park versus the population I don't think it will be a disaster a year from now.

I agree but income qualified doesn't necessarily mean they will come. Even if it is a success it's not going to make money until late 2017.

 

[rteetz]

China will want this park to succeed as its another step to making them look better than the US on the world stage. If they need to change something to make this happen to fill it, they will. They will do whatever they can for it to be the most visited theme park in the world for another feather in their cap to world leaders. My one real fear is that they will do things that will cut into the profitability for Disney so that our parks continue to be impacted.

The bold is very correct.

 

[luisov]

It was definitely not always kind to Walt - but remember how workers were paid/treated during the 30s/40s. Even during the great depression much of the rich stayed rich while the working class paid with bread lines. People like Walt believed employees should just be happy to work no matter how bad the pay was. This led directly to the rise of socialism and the unions. Walt was probably a much better employee than most, but the fight of the worker was in the air.

I'm going to try to not get too political here because I am really not favoring a side in this, but its going to sound like it: we are seeing a similar situation today - where big corporations are cutting benefits and healthcare, freezing wages, ending pensions and even pushing around the unions. Not as bad as back then - but enough that leads to seeing another surge in the popularity of socialist ideas - i.e. the popularity of Bernie Sanders. IMO Even Donald Trump's popularity as a candidate is a symptom of this, since while conservatives tend to hate socialism, the general population (working class) of conservatives sees the government in the pockets of big business, and sees Trump as an outsider to the political machine.

Turning it back to OT Disney and the recent discussions of having more up-charge events and employee cuts - my point is everything they do is like any other corporation, prioritizes the shareholders first, the customers second, and the employees last.

That's true. And I think it's fair to say that Walt did give preference to some of his most loyal artists and that he was going through some bad times. There's no denial of the animator's strike happening (which was an industry-level issue, anyways) in part thanks to some of Walt's poor decisions and favoritisms. But was anything mentioned on the fact that Disney animators were still the best paid and were worked under the best conditions in the industry?

I don't think the documentary portrayed the other side of the story. For instance, they relied on what a group of historians had to say about the issue rather than showing interviews of anyone who actually worked for Walt, and that felt a bit biased to me. The fact that Floyd Norman reacted so negatively towards the documentary even when he was part of it (for just a few seconds, anyway) makes me think that they chose to show only the interviews that matched with the story they were trying to sell.

I do appreciate that it was an honest documentary though. It shows that Walt was nowhere near perfect and that he also made mistakes. My biggest issue with this show is that it barely features any people who actually knew Walt.

 

[luisov]

Speaking of documentaries, what on Earth happened to that Leslie Iwerks documentary on Imagineering? Isn't it coming this year? I was actually really excited about that one.

 

[rteetz]

Speaking of documentaries, what on Earth happened to that Leslie Iwerks documentary on Imagineering? Isn't it coming this year? I was actually really excited about that one.

It's supposed to be coming out this year that is one I'm looking forward too.

 

[Eoghann]

I don't think the documentary portrayed the other side of the story. For instance, they relied on what a group of historians had to say about the issue rather than showing interviews of anyone who actually worked for Walt, and that felt a bit biased to me. The fact that Floyd Norman reacted so negatively towards the documentary even when he was part of it (for just a few seconds, anyway) makes me think that they chose to show only the interviews that matched with the story they were trying to sell.

That's entirely possible but keep in mind that "first hand accounts" are if anything even more biased than historian's summations.

First hand accounts are usually used in documentaries because they give an air of authenticity. It feels more real to people. But they are empirical evidence, and in order to get to the heart of the matter you need to somehow distill many such accounts to see where the common ground is.

People are extremely bad at assessing things they experienced in an unbiased way, and that's on top of our selective memories. History is particularly tricky in this regard.

 

[luisov]

That's entirely possible but keep in mind that "first hand accounts" are if anything even more biased than historian's summations.

First hand accounts are usually used in documentaries because they give an air of authenticity. It feels more real to people. But they are empirical evidence, and in order to get to the heart of the matter you need to somehow distill many such accounts to see where the common ground is.

People are extremely bad at assessing things they experienced in an unbiased way, and that's on top of our selective memories. History is particularly tricky in this regard.

Fair enough. You don't want Richard Sherman, Alice Davis and Rolly Crump telling over and over how awesome Walt was throughout the whole thing. I still believe the documentary needed people who were actually there. It somehow was trying to sell the idea of this self-interested man with a fake TV personality at times, but then in the next segment it tried to sell the idea of a man arriving to Hollywood with a suitcase full of dreams. It was a really black and white portrayal of Walt in my opinion. I would've liked to see another point of view of the strike, rather than listening to a one hour long segment of how terrible Walt actually was.

That's just an opinion though. I can definitely understand why some people could've enjoyed it more than I did.

 

[EricInPA]

I think the PBS documentary combined with this one provides a balanced take on Disney the man, boss, and creative.

 

[rteetz]

News

Nick Wilde and Judy hopps have debuted at MK

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...otopia-now-appearing-at-the-magic-kingdom.htm

 

[rteetz]

Avatar photos from Mako Madness

 

[MommaBerd]

So the 6th picture down - all the scaffolding is gone? I wonder the angle / side this was taken on... It looks amazing!

 

[rteetz]

So the 6th picture down - all the scaffolding is gone? I wonder the angle / side this was taken on... It looks amazing!

I believe that is the side closest to the rainforest cafe.

 

[rteetz]

A cool look at the fireworks crews at DHS

http://blogmickey.com/2016/03/fireworks-prep-hollywood-studios/