Mouse Extra

One of those rumors that just does not seem to want to go away is happening again.  Tom at the great site WDW News Today is talking about what the future holds for the Imagination pavilion at Epcot’s Future World.

A couple of days ago, everyone went crazy over a permit filed that was called “Imagination Demolition”.  The internet billowed with speculation, but don’t get too excited.  This is yet another “routine maintenance” permit.  (We didn’t report this because I just couldn’t confirm the nature of the plans.)

According to some of our sources here at WDW News Today, the permit filed for “Imagination Demolition” is only part of the routine refurbishment now going on inside Epcot’s Imagination pavilion. However, we are still hearing that some of the folks from Walt Disney Imagineering are using this opportunity to survey and plan future attraction development inside the building. While a new attraction may or may not be on the near horizon, there will certainly be something new to see in the Imagination pavilion within the next 3-4 years.

While Disney officials sit and laugh at all of us for going crazy over rumors like this, I would hope they pay particularly close attention to this one.  There is a good reason why speculation over a change at the Imagination pavilion never seems to end.  It is because fans of Epcot are desperate to get something they can be excited about in that building like we all used to be.  Chalk this one up to “hope” rather than “rumor”.

Everyday we seem to get more and more information regarding the proposed “Disney Magic Connection” which is currently being tested at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.  Will this new wireless information system truly reinvent the way guests tour Disney’s theme parks?

According to Jim Hill this morning, Disney World Cast Members are actually having trouble convincing people to take part in the testing.  Besides the fact that people generally do not like to be approached and stopped on their mission, it seems there is something more substantial that turns people off.

Another aspect of the “Disney Magic Connection” field test that allegedly turned off a lot of would-be participants was the security deposit. You see, before these folks could actually get their hands on that DS, they first had to hand over a major credit card. Which (strictly as a precaution) Mickey would take an imprint of. So that — in the event that these Magic Kingdom visitors accidentally left that theme park without returning their test unit — Mouse House officials could then charge them $300.

What happens if the 7 year old, while scrambling to get Goofy’s autograph, drops it and breaks it?  What happens if the soda spills on it during lunch and damages it?  Will that also cause a similar charge?  And how much does this $300 tell us about what the cost of this might be?

But Mr. Hill also gives us an insight into how cool this device might be. 

Well picture this : You’re sitting down to lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern with your family. And as your waitress goes off to get your drinks, you ask the family what attraction they’d like to ride next after they’re done eating. And the kids immediately say “Space Mountain.”

So you pull out your handy dandy “Disney Magic Connnection.” And you then check to see if there are any FastPasses left for that Tomorrowland attraction. And as it turns out, they are. So from your table right there in Liberty Square, you reserve FastPasses for your entire family to ride Space Mountain later that same afternoon.

And the beauty part of this proposed “Disney Magic Connection” feature is that you won’t need any paper FastPass ticket. Once you arrive at the attraction that you’ve reserved FastPasses for, you just show your handheld unit to the cast member who’s standing watch over the FastPass portion of the queue. Once he sees the virtual FastPass that’s displayed on the screen of your Nintendo DS, he’ll wave you and your family on through … And then you’re good to go.

That does sound pretty darn cool, don’t you think?  But once again, it all comes down to how much this will cost.  Will this be something only those with lots of money can afford?  We’ll wait and see.  So far there is no concrete information to what the cost might be when the system is launched.

Thanks to the great folks at Broke Hoedown for giving us this story from Nintendo World Report that offers some details into the “Disney Magic Connection”.  This is the handheld device, used on a Nintendo DS, which we talked about late last week.  It gives real-time information about the parks, and is apparently under testing right now at the Magic Kingdom.

Thanks to this report, we now have some confirmation about what is on the current system under testing…

The foremost feature of Disney’s Magic Connection is a fully interactive park map. The system can tell precisely where you are in the park and offer routes to various attractions, restaurants, character greeting areas, and other facilities. The park is constantly communicating with the DS, and can relay attraction wait times to the DS. It can also alert guests when they are nearby attractions they have placed on their “wish list”. Selecting a specific attraction will bring up a short description of it, including height restrictions (if applicable), operating status, and the current Fast Pass distribution time (for rides using Disney’s Fast Pass system).

We also discussed the possibility of this system being used to pass the time while waiting on line for attractions by offering games to play.  It seems that is exactly the case.  Check out this fascinating concept…

These games, which are connected to various attractions and areas of the park, are locked initially. Guests can unlock the games by visiting the specific attractions. When first setting the system up, the DS asks for the names and approximate ages of everybody in your party. This information is used to tailor the games to the specific person playing them, hopefully making sure they are easy enough for children and challenging enough for adults. Currently there are five games for Fantasyland, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

This certainly does seem to be an interesting possibility.  But I just can’t say for sure that this would interest me.  For one thing, I can’t imagine wanting to carry around the system when I am someone always looking to lug the least amount of stuff possible.  I also tend to avoid big lines as often as I can, so the game function would mean very little to me.  However, I do understand that folks touring during the peak times may truly benefit from this.

But as I have said before, this is all about the money.  It is a great idea, but it is going to come at a cost.  What that cost is will define whether or not this will be in wide use when made available.  Until that price is released, I just can not get excited about it.

I don’t care what any Hollywood elitist tells me.  I will harp on this forever.  Ratatouille deserved to be nominated for Best Picture.  But the Academy Award nominations just came out and the Disney-Pixar film was not on the list.

However all was not lost.  Amazingly the Academy members, who obviously feel that animated films are beneath them, managed to nominate Ratatouille for Best Original Screenplay.  All of the experts are calling this nomination a “big surprise”.  I wonder, is it surprise because they felt something else should be nominated?  No, they feel it is a surprise because even though they feel this great film should be awarded, no one expected the snobbery to give any plaudits to a “kid’s film”.

In 2001 the Oscars added a category for “Best Animated Feature Film”.  Since that time, we can pretty much guarantee that “Beauty and the Beast” will be the last animated film nominated in the Best Picture category.  One would have thought that Ratatouille might have busted through that firewall.  Apparently that is not the case.

So, congratulations to the folks at Pixar for this surprising nomination.  The “best reviewed film of the year” gets a little love after all.  But wouldn’t you think being so positively reviewed would help get it a “Best Picture” nomination?

For those of you who have been waiting to hear official confirmation on when Star Wars Weekends will be, Disney has finally at least confirmed the month.  This is from WDWNews.com Disney World’s website dedicated to people in the press looking for news and information…

Star Wars Weekends return to Walt Disney World Resort in June 2008, as Disney’s Hollywood Studios becomes Star Wars Central for sci-fi fans of all ages. (Exact event dates will be announced at a later date.)

Now, almost none of the average Disney World guest trying to plan a trip would know to look at this site.  And even if they did, finding this release is also not that simple.  If you go to the Star War Weekends page of the official Disney World website you will find that it all says is “2008 - check back for confirmed dates”.

Now I have ranted about this before, but I can’t see any reason not to do it again.  Earlier we heard that Disney’s employees were informed of the dates.  Now we know the press was at least told which month it will take place.  But once again, you the guests are the absolute last people to find this out.  Can anyone give me one good reason why this would be?  Why does Disney feel the need to put the paying customer at the absolute bottom of this totem pole?

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting this morning about the ongoing changes happening at Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney.  The site that revolutionized Walt Disney World by being the first major project geared only to adults has since been in a transformation to redefine itself.  What exactly it will become is hard to say.

The slow evolution of Downtown Disney’s Pleasure Island continues with the recent opening of a second specialty apparel shop, the impending shutdown of a live-music nightclub, and the anticipated reuse of a long-closed building.

The live music nightclub is the Rock n’ Roll Beach Club, which has been a mainstay at the Island for years.  Officials have not said yet what exactly will go in that spot, though rumors have been swirling for a while now.

Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez declined to elaborate on plans for the Beach Club building, which features a panoramic view of Village Lake, though she dispelled rumors that the building would be torn down.

Most of what I have heard is that this will be another third party restaurant.  Considering the water view the building has, that is not at all surprising.  I have yet to hear anything regarding what exactly it might be, but this will sort itself out sooner rather than later.  It seems as though Pleasure Island is getting more and more “family” oriented as time goes by.  Putting in a big restaurant on a prime piece of real estate would make all the sense in the world.