Opening Ceremonies

[ChrisFL]

A couple of notes...the music being played when the countries were coming out sounded like a loop of several songs, mexican, scottish, chinese, etc. as I kept hearing them over and over it seemed like. I think that could have been done slightly better.

I'm a fan of women from everywhere and wow, there was a LOT of beautiful ladies, almost every country had at least one beautiful lady in their group

I also feel for the dancers along the side, that had to be tough to do for that long.

And Prez...wow, sure making quite an effort to look presidential

 

[wdwgirl03]

I LOVE seeing the athletes walking in with their video cameras, taping the crowd and the event. It reminds me how exciting and special it is for them to be there.

Yeah, wouldn't it be cool to actually see those videos?! I also loved how some of the athletes went up to Kobe Bryant and got their picture with him. hehe

 

[wdwgirl03]

A couple of notes...the music being played when the countries were coming out sounded like a loop of several songs, mexican, scottish, chinese, etc. as I kept hearing them over and over it seemed like. I think that could have been done slightly better.

I'm a fan of women from everywhere and wow, there was a LOT of beautiful ladies, almost every country had at least one beautiful lady in their group

I also feel for the dancers along the side, that had to be tough to do for that long.

And Prez...wow, sure making quite an effort to look presidential

I agree about the music loop.

Not only beautiful women but there were some good-looking guys too.

Yeah, dancing for nearly 2 hours! We all thought it was funny though how when the Chinese team came out they seemed to get all their energy back. LOL.

And about the President...so we weren't the only ones who thought that?!?!

 

[Geoff_M]

China did s great job with the opening ceremony!!

I thought I heard that they spent $300 million on it. Can anyone confirm this?

The rest of the countries that host the Olympics will have pretty big shoes to fill after this!

It was an amazing show... and I think we saw a pretty good chunk of our trade deficit on display last night. Effectively, that whole stadium was built for that one performance.

 

[Nancy]

I'm not sure of the amount, but $300 million wouldn't surprise me. It was amazing!

I heard that on one of the news shows this morning. They said it was equivelant to 300 million US dollars.


I was pretty impressed with the show. It was very visual and I am a visual person. One of my favorites was early on with the blocks that were moving all over to represent wind. I was sure it was all computerized, the boom..all the people that were operating the blocks pop up.

I enjoy watching the countries too and don't get why they couldn't show them all, just pause the tape during commercials for petes sake.

 

[Nancy]

I agree about the music loop.

Not only beautiful women but there were some good-looking guys too.

Yeah, dancing for nearly 2 hours! We all thought it was funny though how when the Chinese team came out they seemed to get all their energy back. LOL.

And about the President...so we weren't the only ones who thought that?!?!

I also thought the music loop was strange. I told my daughter they should be playing "It's a Small World" and got the look from her.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Wow! China has set the bar for future Olympic Opening ceremonies. Well done!

 

[bekkiz]

Yeah, wouldn't it be cool to actually see those videos?! I also loved how some of the athletes went up to Kobe Bryant and got their picture with him. hehe

The IOC put really harsh restrictions on what athletes can post from/about the Olympics. They can only post pictures of themselves (not even their own teammates), for example. It's too bad since I agree, I bet there will be some really cool pictures and videos, but the athletes are prohibited from sharing them

 

[just4today]

I was very impressed. The globe part reminded me of Illuminations at epcot.

 

[noodleknitter]

We had a church kid there working, and she sent back photos to her folks this a.m. Cool!

I will say that she had a devil of a time getting there, though on their "buddy" pass. I didn't know there was anything ower than standby!

 

[CJN]

According to our four-year-old we didn't get the opening ceremonies - instead, that was the Mickey show. As soon as they showed the Olympic rings he started jumping up and down about "Mickey's head". I guess teaching him to look for hidden Mickeys is paying off. Then when that first parade of little kids came out, he was sure it was IASW. And what really sealed the deal was seeing the fireworks. After that there was no convincing him it wasn't WDW. Pretty funny and a great show!

 

[rn2b]

I agree, it was sectacular, but I couldn't help but to think of all the money that the production cost and of all the poor Chinese. So my question is this, who paid for the production, the host country or the Olympic committees?

 

[PanamaMike]

I'm guessing we really aren't missing anything. They've just edited it tighter together.

While I did not watch all of NBC's coverage of the opening ceremonies (having watched it earlier in the day on CBC) I can tell you NBC did edit some of the show. The giant sheet of paper unrolling was preceeded by a short film on the art of paper making. NBC did not air the film.
They also cut the beginning of the Confucius bamboo dancers.

Effectively, that whole stadium was built for that one performance.

Don't tell that to the participants in the

Track & Field events

Football finals

Closing Ceremonies

 

[wendym]

A few of you mentioned the bagpipes. Very cool story - they are from 90 mins away from me and weren't allowed to tell people they had been chosen!
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/...y at Olympics ceremony/article.do?expand=true

 

[noodleknitter]

Wow! Heck, I love bagpipes! I would have sent them money! What a great story. DS9 wants to play the pipes.

 

[Planogirl]

It was a spellbinding show. I think it'll be very hard to top it in future Olympics.

 

[not_minnie]

Okay I shall be the lone dissenter.
We all thought it was a snoozefest, with a few exceptions.
The first few minutes of the drummers was cool..and then it got old.
The Olympic rings lifting from the floor was cool, the little boy walking in who survived the earthquake was adorable. I teared up when the US walked in. The guy "running" up near the rim of the stadium was cool..for the first minute and then I was like allllrighty then, move it along.
Everything else was zzzzzzzz.

I'll agree with you, just so you won't be the only one . I thought each of the segments was spectacular and imaginative, but IMO they were extremely long and repetitive. After a couple of minutes I was ready for something else. Maybe we have short attention spans?

 

[JVL1018]

I'll agree with you, just so you won't be the only one . I thought each of the segments was spectacular and imaginative, but IMO they were extremely long and repetitive. After a couple of minutes I was ready for something else. Maybe we have short attention spans?

That could be it! A touch of ADD.

 

[Diva of Dragons]

Don't tell that to the participants in the

Track & Field events

Football fina

Closing Ceremonies

It's also the home stadium for China's Soccer team.

 

[Terry36]

It was spectacular. China has definately risen the bar.