Edible Artistry

Recently we vacationed for a week in Walt Disney World. For those that know me and The Bride, you know this isn't unusual, but this was a special trip, one to celebrate a landmark birthday for The Bride. One of the things she had planned was dinner at Teppan Edo. This is the rather expensive and fancy Japanese restaurant located in the Japan section of the World Showcase in EPCOT. We had been before, and always had a great time and great food.

We love Benihana, but to be clear, Teppan Edo is Benihana amped up to a thousand. The food, the show, the service, all make Benihana, a place we love, look like amateurs. All that and a bag of chips, plus that wonderful Disney touch - that's why we love Teppan Edo.

Now a trick for visitors to Walt Disney World (and if you want more tips, why aren’t you listening to The Make Mine Magic Podcast?) is when it's your birthday, your anniversary, or any special occasion, ask customer service if you can have a button that says so. Everyone will know if you're wearing it, and wish you good tidings. And if you're at the restaurants, sometimes you get bonuses, like a treat, a dessert, or what The Bride got on this adventure.

Our chef, using the makings on the hot grill for our appetizer, created art. Over the course of several minutes, he painstakingly sculpted this Minnie Mouse for her out of onions, carrots, and noodles - and then we all ate it. The chef even let The Bride get up and cook a little as well, and she even got a chef's hat. It was a wonderful time for all.

You can hear more about the dinner on this episode of The Make Mine Magic Podcast, and more on the trip as a whole in later episodes.

Escape from Tomorrow

Escape from Tomorrow ~ Beyond all the controversy of it being the ultimate example of guerrilla filmmaking, all about how it was secretly filmed in Walt Disney World and Disneyland without permission, it's actually not a bad idea. A story set in the theme parks is great atmosphere without even trying. The black and white is an intriguing thought, perhaps more so to get away with filming without permission than any real artistic choice.

The story itself is dark and surreal. A man on vacation in WDW gets a phone call from his boss that he's been laid off. Perhaps from worry and perhaps from drinking or 'cat flu,' he begins to hallucinate. As he crosses paths with other tourists he begins to think they know him or are in on some kind of conspiracy. As he begins to act on his paranoia, the hallucinations get progressively worse.

The film is so surreal, and so potentially anti-Disney both in concept and execution, I had to wonder if the third act was meant to be real or more delusion. If the latter, I would definitely say that writer/director Randy Moore has an axe to grind with Disney.

Escape from Tomorrow isn't all that bad, but it's not that good either. There are as many flaws as there are flashes of brilliance. It might have made a good half-hour "Twilight Zone" episode back in the day, or maybe a better "Outer Limits." For Disney fans however, it might be considered an attack or at best a conversation piece.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort

Our recent vacation included a short stay at the newest resort in Walt Disney World - Art of Animation. Originally it was to be called Legendary Years, a sister resort to Pop Century. As Pop Century was a tribute to the decades of the last half of the twentieth century, Legendary Years would cover the first half, 1900-1950. After 9-11 however, for whatever reason, construction halted for several years.

If you like to see a video of what it looked like during those non-construction years, my friend John Corigliano, of the Your Ear to the World podcast, did a walk-through with his camera. You can see that here. Thankfully construction started again, but with a new objective and name, Art of Animation, with each building dedicated to a different recent animated feature.

The family suites are in the Lion King, Cars, and Finding Nemo buildings, with the single suites in the Little Mermaid buildings. For our time at Art of Animation, we stayed in the Lion King suites, the buildings being surrounded by giant statues of the various characters and scenes from the movie. Outside of our building was Pride Rock, the Elephant Graveyard, the "Hakuna Matata" log, and Rafiki's home, with giant statues of all the favorites in and around. It was something.

Our suite rocked. Not only was it fairly big, almost colossal compared to our cabin on board the Disney Fantasy, the room was literally bursting with iconic Lion King jungle décor. The carpeting, the bedspreads, the furniture - it was all jungle themed. The TVs were large flat screens with an electronics deck under them to both recharge your phones and other devices, but you could also hook up your video equipment to watch on the big screen.

Our dining room table collapsed into the extra Murphy bed for a fun twist, and came with stackable chairs. The suite even had a small, but almost complete kitchen. The bathroom even got into the act, with a cavernous shower stall in a beautiful orange sunset as shown in the movie. This came complete with orange smelling soap and shampoo. What a terrific extra accent! This was a great suite, right down to the bathroom. And in the hotel itself, even the elevators were jungle-like in motif and temperature, almost lush.

The doors were unlocked by our Magic Bands, which also allowed us access to the parks, and we could purchase items in the hotel and in the parks as well with them, including FastPasses. The lobby, staffed by the usual wonderful customer service folks, is decorated by animation sketches from the films featured there, from original ideas to final products, almost like evolutionary stages.

The food court, Landscape of Flavors, is reputed so good that folks from Pop Century will walk over to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. Some of it was okay, and some really good. I'll be talking about some of their offerings over at French Fry Diary in the near future, so keep an eye out.

Also, if you'd like a more personal look at Disney's Art of Animation Resort, The Bride and I talk about it on the newest episode of our new Make Mine Magic Podcast. You can hear it here. Check it out.

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for the Week of 4-4-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live every week at All Things Fun! - the area's best comics and gaming store, located in West Berlin, NJ.

Co-hosts Ed (Supreme) Evans, Allison (Fairest) Eckel, and Glenn (Via Skype) Walker discuss the new comics out this week in two fun video segments, in wicked high definition, and available on the YouTube. See it here!

Discussion featured in this brand new extended episode includes: AvsX hangover, Animal Man and Swamp Thing, Red Lanterns, Action Comics #8, Stormwatch #8, Night Force #2, Batwing two ways, Frankenstein in Men of War #8, Checkmate, Fairest #2, Amazing Spider-Man #683, Daredevil #10.1, Venom and the Secret Avengers, "Is that Red Hulk or Green Hulk?", the X-titles, don't talk about X-Club, alphabetized Avengers, Fanboys Vs. Zombies #1, Voltron Year One, Brilliant #3 and long letters columns, the return of Supreme, Ed's indies, and Allison's kids comics.



Be sure to check out the thrilling new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

Special thanks go to Dina Evans who keeps us all in line, and on the straight and narrow, and runs the show from behind the scenes. And be back here every Wednesday (or Tuesdays at midnight) to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!

Streamlining the Disney Cruise

The Bride and I are big Disney fans. Well, that's not quite accurate. Like Samuel L. Jackson being a vegetarian in Pulp Fiction because his lady is, that's the way I started to be a Disney fan. The Bride is the real Disney maniac, but I have learned a real affection for the mania myself. The fact is Disney, more often than not, does it right when it comes to customer service and entertainment. In my household, usually around vacation time, there is an annual pilgrimage to Florida to worship at the altar of The Mouse. The parks have gotten kinda old for me after more than a dozen trips (although there is always something new), but my heart has found a home away from home on the Disney Cruise Line.

This is my happy place. I love the Disney boat, as I call it, no matter what ship of their fleet I'm on. And it's not just the idea of a cruise. I've done other cruises, but as I said, Disney does it right. And yes, I'm aware they are much more expensive than other cruise lines but in my opinion it's worth it. The care alone taken with the waitstaff that follows you from restaurant to restaurant on board filling your needs easily because they know you so well is a major plus.

We've just taken our seventh cruise with Disney and I was pleasantly surprised that the best had gotten better. With the newest and biggest ship, the Dream, they seem to have made strides to improve their already excellent service. Waiting for the buses at the airport to take you to the cruise ship has now become the place where IDs are checked and keys, etc. given out. When you arrive at Port Canaveral now, you get right on the ship whereas in the past, it could be an all-afternoon wait.

Another place where the streamlining has taken place is at Cabanas, the equivalent of what is a buffet on the other ships. On board the Dream, this restaurant is sooo big that lines are no longer needed. You just go up to any service area, get what you want and sit down. It's amazing to watch folks not used to this hit and run system stand and wait for someone to finish getting their food, not realizing the same item is also a few feet away.

It's not all good. The Disney Dream (and the Fantasy following it) can house almost twice as many passengers as the original two ships, the Wonder and the Magic. The crowds are evident. I couldn't read in the Atrium as I had on previous trips because of the constant echoing din of people talking. And never on the Wonder or the Magic was there ever the experience of people in your way when you were trying to get somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Dream, but from now forward I think I will prefer the smaller ships.

Those described above are just a few ways the Disney Cruise Line is getting better and making a great experience better. Yeah, in hindsight, the above might sound like a commercial, but just as with a review of a movie or TV series I love, I'm just spreading the word. Next time you're thinking cruise, think Disney, you might be talking just like me.

Roy E. Disney Passes Away

Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, and family figurehead of The Walt Disney Company, passed away earlier today from complications of stomach cancer after a year long battle with the illness. He was 79.

Roy was a major influence on the company's renaissance in animation during the 1980s that continues to this day. His commitment to the artform brought it to new heights not only for Disney, but for the film industry as well. he began in the family business in the 1950s and continued his passion and influence to this day. He will be much missed and remembered.

Pleasure Island Dead

Pleasure Island, the nightlife portion of Walt Disney World, an island strip mall of nightclubs, restaurants and stores, closed last year. With it, many of the resort’s best entertainments vanished. Among them an audience participation comedy club, a country and western club, the BET club, an upscale dance club, a 70s disco, a rock bar and first and foremost – The Adventurers Club – which was as far as I (and I’m not alone) am concerned, was one of the reasons to go to Disney World in the first place.

It’s really kinda sad. With Pleasure Island closed, you can still walk through what to those who remember what was is now a ghost town. No gates at the bridges, no lights, closed doors of the clubs, and high above what used to a DJ booth for the whole strip – a sign still lit that says “LIVE” over the darkened “PLEASURE ISLAND” sign.

There are still some stores here so there are still shoppers. They walk through, sometimes curiously looking at the closed doors of clubs like archeologists looking at the statues of Easter Island. They wish they knew their secrets and could live their lives.

There are rumors that one or two of the clubs (hopefully the Adventurers Club) may reopen either here or at another location. Let’s hope so. WDW just isn’t the same without this place.

StormStruck

Last year we made the mistake of visiting Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. Their Twister ride was a disappointing walk-through with some sorta educational, mostly exploitation footage of tornadoes, followed by them putting a fan on you and getting you wet while watching some amateur special effects fake a tornado on a soundstage. What a waste of time.

On my most recent trip to Walt Disney World’s Epcot we went to a small hidden corner of Innoventions for something called StormStruck. It was about a quarter the size, maybe even less, of Twister and literally blew it away.

Now it’s sponsored by several window and roofing companies as well as The Weather Channel, so at times it does seem like an infomercial but for the most part it’s all excitement. You’re wearing 3-D glasses on a deck overlooking a virtual reality neighborhood as a terrible storm approaches, and when it does, it feels real. Great stuff! Don’t miss this hidden gem.

Pop Half-Century

Most of the time when one thinks of Walt Disney World and where to stay – places like the Grand Floridian, the Contemporary and the Polynesian come to mind, but those aren’t you’re only choices, and certainly not your only price range. Economy, low rent, even called white trash by some folks, Disney offers several less expensive places to stay while visiting.

Pop Century is one of the economy resorts along with the All-Stars and a few others. My most recent stay was there, mostly because we were only crashing for a long weekend. It’s a place with a theme right up my alley, pop culture. The place is consumed and decorated by all manner of trivia and nostalgia. And like the All-Star resorts, the buildings are adorned with gigantic knick-knacks. The building we stayed in, the “70s,” was surrounded by giant 8-tracks, a huge foozball table and a really big Big Wheel, among other things. Fun.

My problem with the resort, other than the other patrons, which I suppose just can’t be helped, is the name of it – Pop Century. It’s all set up by decade – the 1970s, the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1980s. Isn’t there like half a century missing there? Did the 20th century start in 1950? No, but pop culture kinda did. Still, it’s a bit misleading, and not to mention disinformative to kids learning about the passage of time. Not sure if we’ll be staying here again, but still, fun.

A Final Adventure

On September 27th, the Adventurers Club on Pleasure Island (along with the rest of the island) at Walt Disney World, Orlando, closed. It was truly the end of an era. In my humble opinion, the Adventurers Club, an interactive theatre experience for Disney’s adult guests, was one of the best attractions and the highlight of any visit to the resort. That unfortunately ended a week ago.


The Bride and I got the opportunity for a final visit to the Club on our last trip to Disney. We got to the Club on Saturday the 13th, and it was packed, wall-to-wall people also there for a last chance to visit and interact with the Adventurers. It should be noted, both here and by the powers that be at Disney that have closed this club, that there was standing room only, and that every one of those people paid a highly unreasonable price (about thirty bucks) just to get in the door. If anything, that should tell them how much the AC is loved and cherished by those who were hip to its existence.


We managed to see three of the library shows that night. I’m so glad we got one last chance to join in on the fun. It was so worth it. And the attitude of the actors was upbeat. To quote Club President Pamilia Perkins, “We’re not sad it’s over, we’re happy it happened.”


Please, Disney, rethink this decision, and please reopen the Adventurers Club at another location. It’s one of the best things about any trip to your parks.

Disney Does It Better

I recently had a chance to visit Universal Studios in Orlando. It was my first time there after visiting Disney World almost a dozen times in the last two decades. I gotta say, I was unimpressed. Universal tries hard, but in most cases not nearly hard enough. It’s all in the attitude.

The rides are fun, but have to stand on their own because the staff just doesn’t support them. Disney characters stay in character and aid to the ‘enchantment.’ I saw a Cyberdyne employee at the Terminator 2 ride chatting with guests about the weather and agreeing with them about how the park’s hours suck. Would an evil corporate employee of an evil mega-corporation about to eradicate mankind really do that?

I personally engaged Doctor Emmett Brown from Back to the Future in a conversation about Kanye West’s new single and how upset he was about the closing of the Adventurers Club, and how he wished he could have “gotten that gig.” Way to break character, Doc. Doc Brown, it should be noted, now that his ride has vanished from Universal, had been exiled to a nuclear-powered tricycle in the vicinity of Mel’s Drive-In from American Graffiti. The fifties, get it? Yep, that’s about the extent of Universal’s originality.

Have you ever tried to get the guides at Disney’s Haunted Mansion to break character? Ain’t gonna happen. You’d have better luck trying to make guards at Buckingham Palace crack a smile. Disney definitely does it better.

NBC’s Kath and Kim – A Sneak Peek

One of the things that differentiates Universal Studios in Orlando from Walt Disney World is the extraordinary number of folks wanting “just a moment” of one’s time to take a survey, watch a timeshare demonstration or just generally waste one’s time. Sometimes, just sometimes, these things are worth it.

I was grabbed on this most recent trip to Universal to watch a new television program and give my opinion on it. Heh, heh, they don’t know me very well. I had to assure them that I did not work for the media – you know, television, movies, newspapers, etc. I took note that they did not mention any form of online media, especially blogging. Like I said, they don’t know me very well.

It was the kind of thing where, just like on “The Simpsons,” you push a green button when you like what you’re seeing and a red button when you don’t like it. There was also a ‘tune out button’ to push when you reach the point where you would normally change the channel as if you’d had enough or became too bored. The program I watched was the yet-to-be-aired second episode of “Kath and Kim,” the new Molly Shannon sitcom vehicle on NBC. I hit that ‘tune out button’ before the title sequence (which I might add, at only a few seconds was one of the few things about the shows I liked).

Surprisingly this is an American version of one of Australia’s most popular sitcoms. Now, either Australian television viewers have shockingly lower IQs than Americans, or NBC butchered this adaptation. Judging from the few Aussies I know, I would have to go for the second option. Way to go, NBC, now when are you bringing back “Manimal” and “Supertrain?”

The three leads – Shannon, Selma Blair (who is shockingly bad), and John Michael Higgins (do not watch him jog…) – are at best uninteresting and at worst annoying and nerve-grating. I hated this. Shannon has a daughter and is about to marry again. The whole episode virtually revolves around two premises. One is the constant repetitive joke that Shannon’s character is old, and every bad joke and cliché you can think of is thrown into the mix, and none of it is funny. The second plot (and I shudder to even use the word in this circumstance) involves the concept of misunderstanding, a simple-minded one that is as old as sitcom television itself. Woman sees man with other woman and assumes the worst. Come on, this was ancient when “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners” did it.

There are elements that are fun, but the problem is they are only background details. I liked some of the hip hop music inserted in places and the drag queens at the end were interesting characters – why not make the show about them? I hated her character, but there was no denying the charisma and presence of the unnamed actress who played Angel. She showed promise. Where’s her sitcom? Unfortunately she was barely in the thing, and the rest of the show was unfixable in my opinion.



I guess I picked the wrong day to do this survey. The next one was on the new “Knight Rider” which was being thoroughly hyped by the survey folks and had changes noted that, to me at least, did not sound promising. Val Kilmer as KITT? I had heard that a previous survey was about “My Own Worst Enemy,” Christian Slater’s take on the Jekyll/Hyde concept had received high marks. I would have liked to have seen that. As for “Kath and Kim,” avoid it at all costs when it premieres October 9th.

Save the Adventurers Club!

One of the major reasons to go to the Walt Disney World Resort, and perhaps the only reason to go to Pleasure Island is... The Adventurers Club.



Many people are unaware of this wonderful themed nightclub at Pleasure Island but those hip to it know it's the place to be every night of their WDW visit. Outfitted like a 1930s club for adventurers this is an interactive experience with various shows throughout the night. In between shows the action never stops as visitors can interact with actors for a different experience every time you visit. The walls are alive and the objects d'art speak to you, and the exploration never stops as you notice something different every time you're there.

We have a visit to WDW planned for September, and of course on the agenda were nightly trips to the Adventurers Club. And then a friend hipped me to this: On September 28, 2008, they will be closing down the clubs at Pleasure Island and will be replacing them with shops and restaurants. Some sources say this is due to lack of attendance at Pleasure Island. If this is in fact true, perhaps Disney could have instead invested some advertising for such wonderful and largely unknown treasures like the Adventurers Club.

There is an online petition going around to save the Adventurers Club. You can see it and sign it here.

Kungaloosh!

Summer Three-Quels II

In essence, the original Shrek was the new DreamWorks studio taking a slam at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s old employer Disney. It was full of bathroom humor, farts and belches, language and injokes the likes of which Disney would never dare touch. That unique almost offensive flavor in the face of what animation is usually thought of these days was refreshing.

The second film amped up the injokes and took a direct attack on Disney with their parody of a land called Far, Far Away, a place hauntingly similar to Disneyland. This time out there are new characters, more story, more injokes and an unfortunate reliance on cover songs rather than the original music that gave the first film charm.

The third time was unfortunately not a charm for the Shrek folks. This one has the odd feel of being in production before there was a script. What script there is has that weird feel of a guy standing up in a meeting going, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

A lot of this movie doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and what ideas there are aren’t completed. The legend of Arthur, which I still have no idea why it’s here or what purpose it serves, does nothing for the story, and wastes the talents of Eric Idle and Justin Timberlake. Even the animation is sloppy in parts. All in all a disappointment.