It had to happen sooner or later. Al Lutz suddenly leaves MousePlanet and never tells us why. But Al, who many think is far too mean, has never been more than courteous in mentioning his former site - well, he never mentions it by name, but you know what I mean. So it wasn't Al going off on old acquaintances. No, it was Jim Hill going off on Al in his latest article.
What happened? Anyone who has ever emailed with Al most likely knows that Al has opinions that a lobotomy couldn't change. One of those opinions is that Michael Eisner is wretched. And that opinion came to light, once again, in Lutz's article on the Big Thunder accident, which I mentioned here.
Well, Jim Hill didn't like it and called Lutz on it. So in commenting on the swipe, Hill did a little swiping of his own. As biased as Lutz can be, Hill is little better, but his bias tends to wear Pollyanna glasses when it comes to the Disney company. Which is neither better or worse. Just different. But Hill's complaints, which questioned Lutz's journalistic instincts, rang more of Disney Dorkitude than anything else.
Personally, I wasn't thrilled with Lutz's article either. Not because I saw it as another attempt to discredit Eisner, but because I don't think it was written well enough to get his point across. Lutz seemed to be claiming that Eisner was using the tragedy to improve his public image. Hill seems to think Lutz was climbing all over Eisner for speaking at all. Read it and give me your thoughts.
LEARNING FRACTIONS
LA Times - Sep 8
Finally, an article on the GE/NBC/Universal merger! It's about time! Anyhow, this one says that this merger may remind GE of its earlier acquisition of NBC, since the network dropped soon after being bought.
Problem is, it probably won't be the new company causing the problems this time. NBC appears to be on a decline again, and entertainment in general is in a slump. But, there is one scary statistic about all this. GE, without the new assets, makes more money in 17 days than Universal Entertainment makes in a year! So why sell the theme parks if they are such a small portion of your company?
LE BLOG FLUME by Ben Mills
Disneyland Paris Guidebook – Multiple articles
The current season of Fantillusion came to an end on September 1st. The show was apparently a big hit with the guests, according to Disney surveys, and will be back in the park as soon as November 8th to coincide with the park’s Christmas celebrations. A new float has also been revealed to have been held back from the current parade, depicting Snow White’s Wicked Queen, and will appear some time in the next few years as an “improved extra”.
The resort will host its 7th annual Line Dance Festival, which brings in line dancing enthusiasts from all over the continent every year without fail, and is a big hit. The event will be held in Billy Bob's Country & Western Saloon and in the Disney Village Dome, as well as various “surprise” locations around the resort. (Which just further proves how slow Europeans are on adapting - and especially dropping - horrendous American fads - Kevin)
Halloween theming will be stepped up a notch in the resort this year, with two giant features currently in construction. The first will be a walk-in pumpkin that will house the park’s staple “Halloween Hair Workshop”. The second will be a gigantic ghost carriage that will run on the tracks of the riverboats in Frontierland, and will appear to be leading the way for the seasonal “Mummy Cruise Line”.
Once again, Disney proves that theme doesn’t really matter when it comes to parades. The new Princess Parade, that took its inspiration from the Californian Disneyland’s similar procession, was well liked by guests, save for the fact that they were disappointed that the Mouse didn’t make an appearance. So to correct this “error”, Disney have started using a Steamboat Willy float, despite the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Princess theme. (So why not put Mickey in a tiara? - Kevin)
But that isn't the part I am interested in. I want to know if people think Hill was a little over the top in his article about Lutz's article. He seems to have gone off in a whole other direction from the direction Lutz was pointing. I'm not just imagining that, am I?
Be afraid of MouseInfo. Be VERY afraid.
