Jeff Pepper at 2719 Hyperion sums up my feelings on the wand and the controversy surrounding it exactly: I am somewhat incredulous at the notion of people who, in defending the infamous Mickey hand and wand that has adorned Spaceship Earth at Epcot all these recent years, take to task those who were generally in… Read More »Why the wand must go
Walt Disney World’s fall PGA tour classic lost its sponsor last year. There was some worry that if a sponsor wasn’t found then this would be the last year of the event. It doesn’t look like that will happen as Disney just announced they have signed a new sponsor, although they won’t say who yet.… Read More »Morning Roundup – July 7
Ratatouille has been captivating audiences across the country since it debuted at the top of the box office last weekend. But now Disney and Pixar are giving audiences everywhere a reason to look even closer at the movie because there are a few hidden details and inside jokes that can only be found by the… Read More »15 Reasons to go see Ratatouille again this weekend
Although I never believe anything Disney announces until the day I see it open to the public, sometimes the day after, this removal of the wand from Spaceship Earth appears to be the real thing. I’ll be at Epcot on Sunday celebrating with a final ride on Spaceship Earth before it goes down for an extended rehab to load in the new show (I understand the exit area will remain open).
Scott Powers at The Orlando Sentinel has followed up on his lead story from yesterday with a look at how the Disney fan community is reacting.
Many of Disney’s more-critical observers have called for the arm’s removal
for several years. Independent Disney-forum Web logs such as TheDisneyBlog,
MiceAge, Re-imagineering and EpcotCentral have criticized it as tacky. John
Frost, editor of TheDisneyBlog, called it "clutter."
Indeed. Hopefully this is a trend and the new park administration has been empowered to deal with some of the mistakes made in the past. We shall see.
As is my habit. The full text of the email I sent to Scott is included in the cut below so you can see the context of my quote above.
According to Box Office Mojo, Ratatouille continies its low boil at the box office. It’s so far pulled in over $78 million in world wide gross over the first six days. Transformers is proving to be tough competition, but Ratatouille should get a firm second place this weekend as word of mouth spreads and all… Read More »Morning Roundup – July 6th
It was as though the people at Disney were throwing up their hands and saying, "The year 2000 is just around the corner! Without flying cars we’ve got nothing! Check your parent’s attic, there must be something cool up there!" Matt at Paleo-Future pins 1997 as the date Walt Disney Imagineering gave up on the… Read More »Disney turns its back on futurism…
Saying its time had come Epcot’s Vice President Jim McPhee announced that starting this Monday work would begin on dismantling the Giant Wand, Mickey Hand, and other decorations that have festooned Spaceship Earth, the geodesic sphere that serves as the symbol of the park. The roots of Epcot lay in the significance of its symbols… Read More »Epcot Wand Coming Down, no really!