Matt Damon Smears Disney

Long time readers probably realize I’m a big Disney fan. That brainwashing comes from having taken more trips to Walt Disney World than I have time to count right now, and spending them in total Disney immersion at their resorts.  You cannot spend weeks at The Grand Floridian, Boardwalk, Yacht, and Beach Club without becoming a die hard Disney fan.

In talking about the choice of Sarah Palin, Matt Damon saysIt’s like a really bad Disney movie.” That is an unfair smear against Disney. Nothing this terrible happens in a Disney movie. Even Lindsay Lohan is good (and keeps her clothes on) when in a Disney movie.

Beyond this point, I agree with everything else Damon days about Palin:

“It’s like a really bad Disney movie. The hockey mom… and she’s president and facing down [Russian president] Vladimir Putin,” Damon said. “It’s absurd. It’s totally absurd and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about it.”

Damon also suggested McCain’s selection of Palin wasn’t based on her political qualifications.

“I know she was the mayor of a really small town. She’s the Governor of Alaska for less than two years. I just don’t understand it. I think the pick was made for political purposes, but in terms of governance, it’s a disaster,” he added. “I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were really here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that. Because she’s going to have the nuclear codes. I want to know that and I want to know if she tried to ban books. We can’t have that.”

SciFi Friday Rebooted Characters: Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Superman, and Disney Princesses

We have a long way to go until there are more new episodes of Doctor Who beyond an occasional special, but fans are hoping for more. In the past there have been some Doctor Who movies and, although none were particularly memorable, fans have been hoping for another movie since the series returned. Steven Moffat responded to questions on a possible movie by saying, “A movie is one 90 minutes a year. So yes, so long as it never gets in the way of the show. If it gets in the way of the show, that’s appalling. It’s been in the cinema, with Peter Cushing. It would be good to see it in the cinema so long as it’s great and fantastic.”

Moffat has also responded to questions about an older character playing The Doctor after David Tennant leaves but he suggested that the rigors of the role would be too great for an older actor. An older Doctor might also not appeal as much to the younger audiences the show is technically aimed at.

There have been rumors that one of the specials next year might include the return of Donna Noble. Digital Spy reports that Catherine Tate is eager to reprise the role. While the ending of Journey’s End would present complications, Tate notes that “in science fiction, anything is possible.”

Journey’s End also ended with a second version of The Doctor with Rose on an alternative Earth. While the series will continue to show what happens to the original Doctor, we are left to wonder what will happen between Rose and the other Doctor. Via I09 it turns out that the other Doctor has been posting a journal of his new life.

AMC appears well on its way to bringing back another classic British SciFi show, The Prisoner in a six hour miniseries. The remake will reprise many of the issues of the original series while also being influenced by the post-9/11 climate. AMC has a blog which chronicles the development of the miniseries.

Besides seeing reboots of Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and Star Trek, such reboots have become very common with comic characters, including with movie versions. With the success of rebooting Batman in the last two movies, Warner is planning to attempt the same with Superman according to this report in The Wall Street Journal:

Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

Another project is being complicated by legal issues:

One of the studio’s other big releases planned for 2009, “Watchmen,” is the subject of a high-profile copyright lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox.

Based on the premise that superheroes are real people grappling with their own problems, “Watchmen” is an apocalyptic vision of their world. Fox says it is seeking an injunction to enforce its copyright interest in the film. Last week, a federal judge ruled that it may have rights to the property. News Corp. is the parent of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co.

I doubt Disney will really go for rebooting their princesses in the manner presented at IO9:

Forget Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, I want to go for a spin in the Sin City Disney world. Artist Curt Rapala substituted Frank Miller’s Sin City vixens with our favorite Disney princesses. You’ve got Belle and Becky, Ariel as Nancy, Snow White as leader of the Old Town hookers Gail.

The pictures above are just two of several examples of Disney princesses as Sin City characters. There have been rumors of a fifth theme park for Walt Disney World for years. Maybe such a Sin City wouldn’t be a bad idea as a contrast to the Magic Kingdom.

The Osborn Family Lights

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Besides the lighting at Cinderella’s Castle and the Christmas Parade, one of the most memorable scenes around the holidays at Walt Disney World is the Osborn Family Lights at Disney MGM Studios.

Cinderella’s Castle Christmas Lighting

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In related news, there was a pleasant surprise when I got to the recording of this morning’s Disney Christmas Parade. For the first time it was broadcast in HD, giving more of a feeling of actually attending the parade at Walt Disney World. It also makes me wonder why I’m not there for the holidays this year as I was last year and some previous years.

Huckabee Criticizes Bunker Mentality of Bush Administration

Huckabee has no experience in foreign policy, and certainly did not look very good when he was caught unaware of the report on Iran’s nuclear program, but he got one thing right. In an article in the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs he criticizes the White House’s “bunker mentality.”

“American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out,” Huckabee said. “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States’ main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists.”

He got that part right, but otherwise does not show any signs that he recognizes where the Bush administration went wrong. He criticizes them for not sending in enough troops but misses the point that the whole idea of the war was fundamentally wrong and that this is not a problem which can be resolved with a purely military solution:

In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops to invade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. “I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighed his advice,” Huckabee said.

He said this year’s troop increase under Bush has resulted in significant but tenuous gains, and he said – much as Bush has – that he would not withdraw troops from Iraq any faster than Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there, recommends. The military has now slowly begun to reverse the troop increase.

I doubt that this article will be enough to end doubts about Huckabee’s lack of foreign policy experience. Huckabee is quoted as saying, “I may not be the expert as some people on foreign policy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night” earlier in the month. I’ve taken over ten trips to Walt Disney World and spent quite a bit of time at Epcot each time. That makes me a far greater expert than Huckabee on foreign policy.

Pin Exchange


Via the Science Blogs feed I found this report on last night’s Student Pin Exchange. I’m not used to seeing such a variety. While I have tons of pins, most are either Disney Pins or John Kerry pins. Since 2003 I’ve even included a Kerry pin in the midst of my Disney pins which I typically wear on a camera bag strap when at Walt Disney World. The Kerry pin has received some attention.

Terrorist Mickey Dropped by Hamas

Traveling to Walt Disney World over the years, ones sees many incarnations of Mickey Mouse. Magic Kingdom has a formal Mickey greeting and saying farewell to guests, and Conductor Mickey at Mickey’s PhilharMagic. Animal Kingdom has Safari Mickey. Disney-MGM Studios has Movie Star Mickey and Sorcerer Mickey. Sometimes Mickeys with an international flair can be seen at Epcot. The Contemporary features dinner with Chef Mickey, and the Poly has had Island Mickey. The one Mickey I couldn’t accept, as dicsussed yesterday, was Terrorist Mickey.

This one just didn’t fit into Walt’s vision. Neither Jasmine or the belly dancers at Epcot’s Moracco have ever advocated violence against the United States. After the story received international attention yesterday, Hamas has dropped the use of a Mickey look-alike to indoctrinate children:

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas’s television station for “review,” Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a “mistaken approach” to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Update: Hamas now plans to continue to air Terrorist Mickey 

Warning Will Robinson: Gay Monstrosties at Disney World!!!


The Walt Disney Company recently announced that they would allow gay wedding ceremonies at its parks (as opposed to hidden away in resort conference rooms). It didn’t take long for the right wingers to go ballistic:

Christian families could be exposed to more than they bargained for if they take a vacation to Walt Disney World or Disneyland, according to the president of the American Family Association.

The Walt Disney Company recently announced it was making wedding ceremonies at its parks and on its cruise lines available to homosexual couples. For years, The Walt Disney Company had limited its “Fairy Tale Wedding” program to couples with valid marriage licenses. But a Disney spokesman says that policy was changed after a homosexual couple contacted the company, wanting to use its wedding service.

One pro-homosexual website quotes a Disney representative as saying the company’s decision to update its program guidelines to include “commitment ceremonies” is consistent with Disney’s overall policy of “creating a welcoming, respectful, and inclusive environment” for its guests. “We are not in the business of making judgments about the lifestyles of our guests,” said the Disney spokesman. “We are in the hospitality business and our parks and resorts are open to everyone.”

Such inclusiveness, says AFA president Tim Wildmon, is why families must be warned. “You could be innocently taking your family to Disney World or Disneyland, and you’re walking down the middle of the park and here’s comes this parade of wedding attendees [that includes] two men who’ve just gotten ‘married’ at Disney World,” he says. “That’s something to take into consideration before you go and patronize the Walt Disney Company this summer.”

Wildmon believes a ten-year boycott of The Walt Disney Company by pro-family organizations made a lasting impact and impression. But the family advocate contends Disney’s recent move is another example of the influence homosexual activists have with secular businesses.

“Secular corporations continue to have pressure applied to them by secular forces. The homosexual agenda — those who promote that movement — want to use Disney as much as they possibly can to legitimize their particular lifestyle, and the Disney Corporation in this case has gone along with them.”

The wedding service offers ceremonies at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California (homosexual “marriage” is legal in neither state) and on Disney’s cruise ships. According to Reuters, the packages can cost upwards of $8,000.

The story linked above even has a typical tourist picture with Mickey with the ominous caption: Unsuspecting Family With Mickey. There, you’ve all been warned that you might run into gay people at Disney World. The good news is that this might scare away some of the kooks, reducing the need to issue a warning about running into homophobes at Walt Disney World.

Update: More Subversive Ideas At Disney: Bill Nye the Evolution Huckster

Bush/Nixon Secret Meeting Revealed

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While on special assignment doing investigative reporting in Florida, the state where democracy was stolen in 2000, I found evidence of a White House conspiracy. George Bush was found to be meeting with Richard Nixon. No doubt they were discussing techniques to stonewall the press and avoid the appearance of flip-flopping by rendering previous statements “inoperative.” Perhaps Nixon gave Bush a secret plan to get out of Iraq, or even revealed his plan to get out of Vietnam which, to this day, remains a secret.

Ok, this wasn’t really an investigative report but a visit to the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World. (Actually I first filed this report after my previous visit in April, but things stay pretty constant at the Hall of Presidents.) I noted that the Bush animatronic was right next to the Richard Nixon animatronic. This does raise a couple of questions:

In placing Bush next to Nixon, are the Disney imagineers trying to tell us something?

If an animatronic can be made of George Bush which sounds more intelligent than the original, is it possible others have substituted an animatronic for the real George Bush? Could it be that the real George Bush is really a “compassionate conservative” and neocons or the religious right replaced him with an animatronic to pursue their agenda?

We report, you decide.

SciFi Friday: Science Fiction at Walt Disney World (With Tips for Getting a High Score on Buzz Lightyear)

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When you are staying at Walt Disney World resorts and spending all your times at Disney theme parks, there doesn’t seem to be much else going on in the world. As its otherwise been a slow week, my thoughts on science fiction this week are limited to the sci-fi themed areas of Walt Disney World.at-at.jpgThere’s plenty of science fiction at WDW, often with rides where something “goes wrong.” Even Animal Kingdom, the last theme park where you might expect to find SF, there’s the Dinosaur ride where a rogue scientist at the Dino Institute reprograms a trip to the past to send you to the end of the Cretaceous period, moments before an asteroid kills off the dinosaurs, to bring back an Iguanodon.

At the Disney MGM-Studios a routine trip to Endor goes off track when the shuttle is piloted by an inexperience droid on Star Tours. The ride is easy to find. It’s the one with the giant AT-AT walker outside the entrance. Inside you’ll see R2-D2 and C3PO before taking off. If you need a snack before your trip (or perhaps after if the jolting ride might make your meal come up) you can always eat at the Sci-Fi Dine-In and watch sci-fi clips.

Epcot’s Journey into Imagination Pavilion also has an exhibit where the entertainment comes when things “go wrong” as Professor Wayne Szalinski wins the Inventor if the Year Award in Honey I Shrunk the Audience. You can guess from the name what happens. Epcot has many science themed exhibits, including Spaceship Earth and Mission Space. Innoventions displays tons of gadgets, both currently available and those being developed. I’ve seen many of my “toys” on display there.

The heart of science fiction at Walt Disney World is Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. This includes Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter. Tomorrowland Transit Authority is a great way to rest your feet and get a tour of the area. The ride even goes into Space Mountain, and one year while they were refurbishing Space Mountain I got to see how it looks inside all lit up. Carousel of Progress and The Timekeeper aren’t open very often any more, but shouldn’t be missed if you have a chance to see them. I suspect Timekeeper may be gone for good as the site is being used to build a new comedy club hosted by the monsters from Monsters, Inc. The most complex themed exhibit at Tomorrowland is Stitch’s Great Escape, but all in it is a dud which isn’t worth the time.

My favorite ride of all at Tomorrowland is Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. The ride is also a giant arcade game as you help Buzz fight Emperor Zurg. To roll up a high score, aim for the top of the volcano, the Z on the robot’s left wrist, the bottom of the batteries in the battery room, the worm-like creature, and the spider. A cast member also told me that if you hit one of the targets spinning high up along the route it will jump your score up to the maximum possible.