News
 

UOR released a fly-through video and more details for its upcoming Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic land for Epic Universe.

Video link

It starts off looking like a regular Muggle park in Paris, but you end up in the 1920s Place Cachée, a hidden shopping district in wizarding Paris.

You’ll use the Métro-Floo system to travel between lands and times.

Main ride is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry

Dolores Umbridge is on trial. Things … happen. And you join Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and an elf named Higgledy to put things back to normal.

Le Cirque Arcanus

A live stage show with puppeteers, performers and acrobats

Puppets of the Fantastic Beasts.

Ringmaster Skender has stolen Newt Scamander’s suitcase to revive the now-decrepit Le Cirque Arcanus.

A wand shop called Cosme Acajor Baguettes Magique and magic windows throughout the land where you’ll be able to use those new wands.

Plenty of walk-around characters, including exchange students from various schools of wizardry, and, as always, people on the lookout for anything strange happening.

Dining

Café L’Air De La Sirène – A wonder of French architecture adorned with carved marble and details of fantastic beasts hidden in the tile and mosaic designs, Café L’air De La Sirène is a charming café where guests can find French sandwiches, plats du jour and desserts

Le Gobelet Noir – In the shadowy corners of Place Cachée is a mysterious timeworn auberge, where international Dark witches and wizards gather to escape the prying eyes of the Paris Ministry and have a hearty meal over hushed conversation. Menu offerings include starters such as soups and salads as well as a variety of entrées and desserts.

Bar Moonshine – American witches and wizards can enjoy a taste of home at Bar Moonshine, where they’ll find exclusive beers, wines and cocktails served amid U.S. Quidditch team pennants and other items of wizarding Americana.

Bièraubeurre Cart – No visit to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is complete without Butterbeer! Guests can stop by the Bièraubeurre cart during their visit to Place Cachée for a frosty, delicious mug of the fan-favorite beverage.

DCL gave us more details about its upcoming ship the Disney Destiny, setting sail next year, 2025. This sounds like it’s going to be a ship dedicated to Disney villains.

Not for nothing, Jim, but I’ve been talking up this idea for like 10 years.

Cruella de Vil piano lounge

The Cask and Cannon - a POTC-themed bar

The AquaMouse water slide, which we first saw on the Disney Wish, continues on the Destiny with a new theme around villains.

Four different ride experiences.

One of them is “Sing a Silly Song”, where Mickey and Minnie travel to Villain Mountain and must escape through the power of music.

Haunted Mansion Parlor - bar. We’ve seen this concept, and Jim, this is where I think we’ll see glow-in-the-dark drinks

Imagineering has filed construction permits for what looks to be a fairly large project on the DVC side of Wilderness Lodge.

The permits don’t seem to link to any known address over at Wilderness Lodge, and there are 19 of them.

Speaking of construction permits, Disney’s also filed a construction permit for Test Track, with a company that specializes in projection dome technology.  It’s the same vendor that worked on the dome for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Surveys

Our friends Patti and Kerri both sent in screencaps of the Epic Universe Annual Pass survey. Jim, it’s like Christmas in August.

Starts with the usual demographic questions: where do you live, income, etc.

What kind of AP do you have now?

How interested are you in visiting Epic?

Note the use of a slider in this question:

Look at this:

And then the “Which of these is the dealbreaker” question?

Then the questions resume:

Then another question on “Are there any other totally unacceptable features?” followed by:

(and note the first option is a 15-month, 4-park pass for $605)

Then another question, much more targeted, about unacceptable features:

And finally, something we can compare to Disney:

UOR’s most expensive AP right now is $1095. You’d expect that to be around $1,128 with 3% inflation next year anyway.

So starting out with a 15-month brand-new park for $110 less per year is INSANE.  It’s roughly $450 less per year than Disney’s, but doesn’t come with free parking.

Disney’s only got one AP option for people outside of Florida, the IncrediPass at $1,449, with no blackouts.

Jim, I imagine that when Disney execs see these numbers, the DoorDash requests for adult diapers will go through the roof.

More screens just for completeness:

Listener Emails

From Demetri Ravanos:

I too have a Steven Tyler encounter to share that you might enjoy.

In another life, I hosted a wacky morning zoo radio show in Raleigh, NC. Now, I hate Aerosmith (literally my least favorite band), but we were the local rock station and they are legends, so when you’re offered the chance to interview Steven and introduce the band at their concert, you take it.

Backstage before a show we were told we had 30 minutes with Steven. We can only put like 8 minutes on the radio show, so we talked about all kinds of stuff we knew probably wouldn’t make the air. My partner was FASCINATED by all the scarfs in the room that Steven was choosing from for his mic stand that night.

We started talking about what makes a good scarf and Steven told us that he sent an assistant to the local Ann Taylor Loft at each tour stop to see what was there, and if there were unique patterns or colors he did not have, the assistant would buy multiples of that design.  The interview ends. Everyone says goodbye. We don’t see them again.

Aerosmith came back the next year and we were offered an interview. I thought it would be funny to bring a gift basket with NC food goodies and a $100 gift card to Ann Taylor loft. We put it all together and head to the theater.

At the last minute, we were thrown a curve ball and instead of Steven, another member of Aerosmith did the interview. I grabbed the assistant that brought us in and gave them the basket and said “this HAS to get to Steven.”

So we do the interview with whoever and as it was ending, Steven popped his head in and said “you remembered. Hell yeah!” Then he remembered that I was a Disney fan and added “tell them I said you could skip to the front of the line next time. I'm a rock star. It's cool.”

From Michael Lee of Dublin, Ohio:

Research/Patents (use query "disney enterprises".as AND "theme park".ab)

Frontierland

Frontierland expansion at Disneyland in the 1950s
Part One of Two

SHOW PREMISE: Len – a few episodes back – took a look at “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” (That “Splash Mountain” redo which is now built around a Disney Princess) and the “Country Bear Musical Jamboree” (which – now that it’s a celebration of the Disney song catalog – feels like it would be a better fit for Fantasyland).

Anyway, Mr. Testa was looking at these two recent additions to WDW’s Magic Kingdom and wondered aloud whether Disney was still really in the Frontierland business.

Which would be understandable. Given that the Western – a once hugely popular genre when it came to film & television – is having a tough time. Witness “Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga.” This crazy ambitious project (Which Kostner began developing back in 1988. Largely because he believed that modern day audiences would be inspired by the true history of America in the Old West) was supposed to be comprised of four interlocking films that then told this epic tale. Which then toggled back & forth between the pre-Civil War & post-Civil War history of this country.

Costner – who was the guy behind the box office hit “Dances with Wolves,” which is one of only four Westerns to ever win a Best Picture Oscar – knows this genre. Which is why Kevin bet the farm on “Horizon: An American Saga.” Mortgaging his house to get the $100 million necessary to complete production of the first two installments what is eventually meant to be a four film series.

Len, you’ve seen “Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga” and really liked it, right? LEN’S REACTION.

Wish I could tell you this story had a happy ending. Chapter One of “Horizon” arrived in theaters in late June of this year (June 28, 2024. To be exact). Only sold $25 million worth of tickets in North America.

Mind you, the original plan here was that Chapter Two of “Kevin Costner’s Horizon” would be released later this month on August 16th. But based on the poor box office performance of Chapter One, New Line Cinema (That’s the arm of Warner Bros. Studio that agreed to distribute Costner’s ambitious project) stepped away from that plan back on July 10th. It effectively cancelled Chapter Two of “Horizon” ‘s theatrical release. Leaving Kevin’s dream in the lurch.

Some good news just yesterday. “Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” will now premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival. This two-hour-and-45-minute-long film will screen out-of-competition on Saturday, September 7th. So hopefully you’ll at least get to see the second part of this story.

But as for Chapter Three & Chapter Four of “Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga” … Well, I’m afraid you’re in the same spot as those folks who are waiting for Parts Four & Five of the “Fantastic Beasts” film series. Which – FYI – was also distributed by Warner Bros. This “Harry Potter” spin-off was produced by Warners too.

Len says (from Parrot Analytics):

And

Feature piece officially begins here

Anyway … I shared that story because … Well, it offers up some insight as to why The Walt Disney Company might not be making an effort to keep Frontierland at the Parks a going concern. I mean, just the fact that the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade closed back on June 23rd just so that WDW’s Magic Kingdom could then transform this space into a DVC lounge sort of tells you everything you need to know about the Company’s true priorities these days.

But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, back in 1956, Walt Disney Productions was very much in the Frontierland business. At that time, the Company couldn’t move fast enough to expand that side of Disneyland Park.

And to be honest, this was largely because of the enormous success of that trio of “Davy Crockett” episodes which aired on the “Disneyland” television show on ABC from December of 1954 – February of 1955.

We’ve talked previously on this podcast about what a pop culture phenomenon Davy Crockett was back in the day. More importantly, how the Disney Company was able to turn the public’s hunger for Davy Crockett-related merch (Pour one out for all of those raccoons who met a tragic end back in the Late Winter / Early Spring of 1955. Just so some kid could then have an authentic coonskin cap just like Davy) …

That unexpected revenue stream showed up at just the right time. Walt desperately needed additional money to complete construction of Disneyland. This is also why – in May of 1955 – Disney Studios took those three “Davy Crockett” episodes and edited them together into a single feature length film. Which it then sent out into theaters. That additional pile of cash (which – again – was unexpected, totally unplanned, but was there right when Walt needed it to complete construction of his family fun park) is the reason that Disneyland looked as good as it did on opening day.

Which is to say … Can you imagine how rough Disneyland would have looked on July 17, 1955 if Walt hadn’t been able to tap into all that “Davy Crockett” money?

Walt also leveraged the popularity of “Davy Crockett” to try & get additional publicity for Disneyland. Famous story of Walt bumping into Fess Parker & Buddy Ebsen at the Disneyland worksite in early July of 1955. Fess & Buddy are there to rehearse their bit for that live TV special that ABC will broadcasting of the park’s grand opening. These two would actually sing & dance to a tune called “Bang! Goes Old Betsy.”

Quick side note: The music for “Bang! Goes Old Betsy” was done by George Bruns, the very same man who wrote the tune for “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.” Which was No. 1 on the charts in the United States from Late March of 1955 through Mid-May of that same year. Ten million copies of that recording were sold. Yet another unexpected revenue stream that got poured straight into the construction of Disneyland.

And speaking of the Disneyland construction site … So Walt, Fess & Buddy are all down in Anaheim at the same time. And Disney decides that he now wants to get his picture taken with the two stars of “Davy Crockett.”

There’s just one problem. Fess Parker is 6 foot, 5 and Buddy Ebsen is 6 foot, 4, whereas Walt Disney is only 5 foot, 8. And Walt knows that this height differential between those three is going to make for kind of a weird photograph.

Mind you, these three are standing in front of the still-under-construction Red Wagon Inn (i.e., that turn-of-the-century themed restaurant just off the Hub at Disneyland at the end of Main Street, U.S.A. just to the right of the entrance of Tomorrowland. These days, that eatery goes by the name of the Plaza Inn). And Walt says “Hang on.” And he then goes inside of that building and scrounges up a box. Which Disney then places on the ground between Parker & Ebsen and steps up onto. Which then makes Walt almost as tall as Fess & Buddy. Disney then says “Now take the picture.”

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/m3rguq/fess_parker_walt_disney_and_buddy_ebsen_in/?rdt=64417

Love that story about Walt. Shows that he’s both a showman (wants to get the best possible picture) as well as human (Just a little vain. Wants to be perceived as being just as tall as these two movie stars).

Anyway … Fess & Buddy perform live on ABC’s “Dateline: Disneyland” TV show (If you watch the kinescope of that show today, you’ll notice that both of their costumes are wet. Someone forgot to turn off a set of automatic sprinklers that were helping all of the recently planted trees & greenery in Frontierland to take root on the day of this live broadcast. Parker & Ebsen were standing off to the side in this faux forest, waiting to make their entrance in this TV special when the sprinklers went off and just got soaked).

That was July 17th. By July 18th, Fess & Buddy were on a plane to Illinois. Where they’d then begin shooting the prequel to those “Davy Crockett” episodes that had been produced for Season One of the “Disneyland” TV show.

These last two episodes of Disney’s “Davy Crockett” limited series (I’m using that term as we use today for stuff over on Disney+) were shot out on the Ohio River and in & around what’s now known as Cave-In Rock State Park.

Walt had these episodes rushed through the production process. Which is why “Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race” and “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates” were able to air on ABC early in Season Two of the “Disneyland” TV show. In November & December of 1955, respectively.

Back at Disneyland … To be specific, in the weeks right after Walt’s family fun park first opened in July of 1955, things were getting a trifle strange. Kids dressed in their authentic “Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett” copyright protected coonskin caps would enter Disneyland. They then make a beeline for Frontierland and then ask employees there “Where’s Davy?”

Well, there was no Davy. Because this was the dawn of Disneyland. And no one had even thought about this theme park needing walk-around characters on a daily basis (Those character costumes that you see people wearing in that “Dateline Disneyland” TV special on ABC? They got packed up & sent back to the “Ice Capades” (which is where Walt borrowed those outfits from) the day after this TV show aired).

So the Disneyland management ad-libbed. They walked to Ron Dominguez and said “You’re what? 6 foot 2? Six foot 3?” And the then-19-year-old Ron said “Yeah. Something like that.” And then those Disneyland managers then said to the future executive vice president of Walt Disney Attractions then said “Put on this buckskin outfit.”

And – as Ron once recounted to me:

“We were having this ridiculous heat wave in July & August of 1955. And they hand me the outfit that Fess Parker wore during the live broadcast of Disneyland’s grand opening. The Studio must have left it behind after that broadcast because it got wet. I guess they were planning on collecting it later. Anyway, it’s now stiff and it smells really bad. And I’m now telling my area manager “ … There’s no way that I’m putting this on.”

And they were like “Little kids are asking about Davy Crockett. And you’re the only one who’s tall enough to fit into this buckskin outfit and you sort of look like Fess Parker. Now shut up & get dressed.” And that’s how I spent my first Summer at Disneyland. Sweating inside of this really smelly buckskin, posing for pictures as Davy Crockett.

Mind you, because Ron was only one guy and couldn’t work more than 5 days a week / 8 hour shifts … Disneyland slapped together a Davy Crocket exhibit-of-sorts for the Park. Which was the Davy Crockett Frontier Museum. Which was located along the Frontierland Arcade where Disneyland’s Pioneer Mercantile is located today.

https://disneylandguru.tumblr.com/post/185739724580

Weird collection of things. Because Old Betsy – Davy Crockett’s flintlock rifle – was such a big part of the mythos that had sprung up around Disney’s version of this American hero (If you wanted to look like Disney’s version of Davy Crockett as a kid in the mid-1950s, you need two things: A coonskin cap and then a toy gun version of Old Betsy) … The walls of the Davy Crockett Frontier Museum were covered – floor to ceiling – with displays of historic firearms from the American West. And these had been provided to Disneyland by the NRA. The National Rifle Association (It was a different time, Len).

And then … Because people desperately wanted something Davy Crockett-related to take home from their time at Disneyland, the Park set up this photo op where … Well, picture this. Wax figures of Davy Crockett & Georgie Russell are posed amid the wreckage of this Spanish fort. This photo op is recreating that moment from this limited series where Davy & Georgie are making their last stand at the Alamo. And you – as the Guest – are supposed to now step in between these two wax figures (wearing a coonskin cap and a copy of Old Betsy that the photographer has just handed you) and then get your souvenir picture taken.

Think about it, Len. The scene that made little kids all over America cry – Davy Crockett making his heroic last stand at the Alamo – and this is what the Park picks as the setting for its souvenir photo op. Sort of like Disneyland celebrating “The Lion King” by creating that moment right after Mufasa has been trampled to death by that herd of wildebeasts. “Can you get a little closer to the young Simba figure? I can’t see the tears in his eyes, mourning the loss of his father. Now smile.”

If it’s any consolation, the Davy Crockett Frontier Museum didn’t last all that long. It was only up & running from July – December of 1955. By that time, the two full-sized keelboats that had been used in the production of the last two installments of Disney’s “Davy Crockett” series had been shipped out to Anaheim and had been placed in the Rivers of America. Where – just 11 days after “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates” had first aired on ABC (December 14, 1956) – Disneyland Guests could then climb aboard the very same boats that Davy Crockett & Mike Fink had traveled in and then set sail around the still-under-construction Tom Sawyer Island. Launched on Christmas Day 1956.

Speaking of the construction of Tom Sawyer Island, we’ll discuss how Disneyland’s Frontierland rapidly expanded in the Summer of 1956. Which is the very same year where America’s interest in Westerns on TV exploded. But that’s it for this installment.

One final funny little story: According to those last two episodes of the “Davy Crockett” limited series on ABC, the Gullywhumper was Mike Fink’s keelboat and the Bertha Mae was Davy’s keelboat.

And it always frustrated the Cast Members who operated the Mike Fink Keelboats Ride at Disneyland Park when some diehard Davy Crockett fan would balk as they were being loaded onto the Gullywhumper, saying something to the effect of “I don’t want to go on Mike Fink’s keelboat. I want to ride on Davy’s keelboat.”

According to Ron Dominguez (who spent a good part of 1956 also dressed as Davy Crockett, walking around Frontierland in that smelly, stiff buckskin suit), that happened a lot in 1956 & 1957 but eventually faded as the Davy Crockett craze blew itself out.