Podcast: The Ride - Cat in the Hat with Jenny Nicholson

Episode Date: April 13, 2018

On today's show: a whimsical discussion about a ride featuring a cat that breaks and enters: Islands of Adventure's Cat in the Hat! With Jenny Nicholson (Jenny Nicholson's Youtube Channel)! Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/ FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning, today's podcast may include forged Make-A-Wish Foundation documents, goat parades, and the judgmental, omnipresent eyes of the Lorax. You must be spayed and neutered to listen to our discussion of the Cat in the Hat with Jenny Nicholson on Podcast The Ride, a theme park podcast hosted by three men who, if they do decide to have children, will name their kids after country bears. I will name my first born son Tennessee Bear. So I guess Tennessee Bear Carlson. Joining me as always Scott Gairdner. Are you

at a panicked face of like can you name another country bear? Is Trixie one of them? Yes. Trixie is one of them. Because I thought of it then that's if it's a boy or a girl you're stuck with Trixie. Yes. Jason Sheridan also here. Can you name?

This has now turned into like a trivia contest. Yeah, I will be cursing my child with the name Big Al right out the gate. Because, I mean, statistically, they're also likely to be very short. Uh-huh. Sure. So Big Al will also be a shorter gentleman. Yeah, it's like when you call a really tall guy tiny as a nickname. It's like an ironic nickname. Yeah, it's fun.

They'll have a conversation. But it's gonna say big on the birth certificate? It's not even a nickname you just establish as a baby? Yeah, I guess I'll have to figure that out. Or it will just be Al and then big in quote. Will a birth certificate put quotes in the

middle of a name? Parentheticals or notes that tell you, maybe, if you want, use this. It's a suggestion, really. They've got to be more efficient than that. So let me introduce our guest, who I'm pretty sure can name all of the country bears. I'm not going to put her on the spot, but I'm pretty sure you know her from her pop culture-centric YouTube channel. It's probably our most off requested guest. It's Jenny Nicholson, ladies and gentlemen.

How is your, you know all of them, right? Oh, I know a lot of them. I mean, nobody went for Henry, the host. Right. The Sun Bonnet Trio. Of course. Swinging Teddy Bear. Of course.

Let's see, Liver Lips McGraw. Of course. And I think that that's exhausted my knowledge. I think Zeke and Zeb are some. Yeah. I can't. What are the names of the ones? What's the one with the one stringed guitar?

Yeah. Who is that guy? Or the washboard. Yeah. I think Tennessee Bear. Or the sad kid bear who doesn't sing or contribute much. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

People are mad now that we don't know. I know him mostly from the Vacation Hoedown. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He factors more into that one. He was a bigger character in. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He factors more into that one. He was a bigger character in that canon. Okay, okay.

Still very popular in Japan, Vacation Hoedown. Oh, I know. They get merch of it and everything. Yeah, and I think they get the Christmas layover. Yeah, they get everything.

Japan loves the country bears. Yeah. It's sad how much America doesn't like the country bears as much as Japan because the country bears is like the greatest show on earth.

Although, whenever I go because it's still in Florida and it's always full when I go and people clap along and stuff. I was there two weeks ago but there was not clapping and I was upset about it. Yeah.

You didn't get an old enough crowd. That's true. They were young and they didn't know what these hillbilly bears. Not southern or old enough to. You should have stood up and started ranting about that

like that Hall of Presidents guy. Yeah. Wait, did that happen? The guy who's like started booing Trump that like that hall of presidents guy wait did that happen the guy who's like started booing Trump and like treason sir you are destroying the fabric of but if yeah if you'd done that for is this a ho down

or not incorporates claps the robot was like real and gonna respond I don't know people were literally yelling at him it's not real come on man we paid a lot of money and it's hot we're tired stop doing this yeah there's a lot of midwesterners in disney world i don't know if you want to go there to air your grievances maybe not the place yeah you might get um ganged up on they should make a trump for california

just for people to yell at like like know know that that's where it can happen. Just put him behind the counter at City Hall. He takes complaints, yes. And is very curt, doesn't accept them. It's a durable robot, too, so you can touch, you can hit it, you can throw things at it. Oh, then put it in an arcade. Bring back the arcade in Tomorrowland.

Well, they need that for storage, I guess. The most expensive storage space in the country a lot of crates yeah a lot of unsold um uh who's the evil bb8 what's his name what you unsold excuse me i think you're gonna beat us at character names which i think like you're yeah most people that come to the on the podcast are like, God, these nerds. These nerds know all these characters.

But I think you might beat us in a trivia contest. I might. It might happen. Like, you know all the, you're Big Captain EO, you know. Oh, yeah. Of course. Got Fuzzball and Hooter. I don't know the two-headed one, though.

Oh, it's Major and Minor Domo. Major and Minor Domo. Oh. Yeah. Wait, no, no, no. Isn't ID and Odie are the two? ID and Odie. Oh, excuse me. And Major Domo is the robot that turns and Minor Domo. Yeah. Wait, no, no, no. Isn't I.D. and O.D. are the two? I.D. and O.D. And Major Domo is the robot

that turns into the drum set. Yes. And did you know who the villain is called? Major Domo. The villain? The villain. She just, the evil.

She is a George Lucas character named the Supreme Leader. So that's Snoke's backstory in Captain Neo. Oh, wow, you're right. Hiding in plain sight. Supreme Leader. Do you think that they're connected?

Is it a universe connect? It's the same person. Sameiding in plain sight. Supreme leader. Do you think that they're connected? Is it a universe connect? Same person. It's the supreme leader. That shimmery gold robe is from the end when she turned good. But then she became ugly and lost her faith again.

Oh, okay. This is just a J.J. Abrams mystery box thing. He just like set up and then he's like, fuck you, I'm out of here. Even after 30 years, the supreme leader

would never turn evil again. Yeah after that wow dance no no she's still got the rhythm in her bones so jenny uh you yeah you do you talk about all this stuff on your channel uh whenever i can find an excuse yes you just recently, you reviewed Escape from Tomorrow. Yes. The bane of my existence. Yeah, it's dog shit. Oh, yeah. It's real bad.

It's rough. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, it's the movie that was touted like, shot inside Disney World and Disneyland. And it's like a gorilla movie. And then you see it and it's like, not many shots, that many shots are actually inside. And they sort of make things look like they're there but it's clearly just a bench and like a green screen they do a bit of green

screen but i'd say like 70 is in the park really it's that much but it's i mean that doesn't some of it's california because i got kicked out of florida that bothered me they didn't get kicked out they ran out of money oh they ran out of money okay so kicked out by a budget yeah so then they had to come back and film where it's cheaper in their home park but then don't they have to know that some of the only people who are going to see this curiosity gimmick movie are super disney nerds who will either wonder how they do it or get mad at it and so like there's shots that cut from disneyland stuff to disney world stuff and back and forth yeah i almost felt like that served it in a way because it is a horror movie so you're like oh

what toontown is right in front of the submarine lagoon what is this it's like a horrible dream where things rearrange in your brain makes sense it's a weird like supernatural park but i know that wasn't on purpose it was just for budget reasons so he doesn't get any cookies for that no benefit of the doubt I watched your video as well and I was glad you threw the guy under the the director and you just

referred to him as some guy I appreciated that because I got this one came out what in 2013 something like that and it seemed to be riding this wave of festival Because I got, this one came out, what, in 2013, something like that? I think so. And it seemed to be riding this wave of festival, Fangoria, like people were, like it was buzzed about because, oh my God, how did they get away with it?

And is this guy like the new David Lynch or the new Aronofsky? And you watch it and it is the flattest Vimeo you've ever seen. And like cat flu flu cat flu is jaw-droppingly stupid it is it a lot of that movie reminds me like there's some very easy like the the easiest like low bar jokes like about Disney stuff is like oh yeah what is it a coke cost 20 dollars like it's like yeah come on man that's like the laziest shit like you can do a little better than that there's definitely things worth critique i think most most like theme park blogs and news sites are like pretty open about like yeah disney should be paying their employees a lot more like you just give out your dumb stunt

bonus these dumb like tax cut bonuses stop holding them oh i know and they're holding their union negotiations hostage before they get the bonuses it's horrible yeah everyone everyone's like yeah this this is like worth criticizing but when people are like oh yeah uh uh uh what the princesses are prostitutes the lines are so long. Four hours for Space Mountain. And it's like, come on. It takes a second to look up this.

Like, have you ever been anywhere? Like, baseball games, movie theaters, airport. This is what it's like. This is everywhere. So it's an odd criticism specifically. Yeah, over $11 for a glass of wine? Yeah, that's almost everywhere

that is the case. Have you gone to a baseball game in the last 15 years? Well, and he thinks it's like an expose like, well, they're selling you dreams but they just want your money. And you're like, it's a theme park. Yeah, I know.

Kind of always been the point. It's inherently exploitative but that doesn't mean they're trying to pull one over on you. Yeah. I have a very, I don't know if I've ever shared this story about Escape from Tomorrow from my own life.

When it came out, they did a free screening at Cinefamily, which was a popular destination for people to see indie movies. Oh, the Bye Bye Theater. Yeah, I was going to say. And also a popular place for sexual harassers and abusers to work at. Yeah, so they would do free screenings of smaller movies.

But you either had to, like, members got in first, and whatever was left over, you had to wait in line. And I got down there, there like pretty early before and i did i don't live that close to it and i waited for about 20 minutes they're like all right we're full up oh my god it was popular yeah it was it was packed because i mean partially because that screening was free but like it's like all right i guess i'll well and also all the buzz was that if you don't see it now, you'll never see it. It's gonna get shut down by Disney. It's gonna get shut down.

You have to see it today. The Disney man. Yeah, those Disney lawyers, they're gonna rappel in from the ceiling. Yeah. They're gonna grind up all the copies and put it into the churros, man. Yeah, they're gonna somehow stop it

from hitting the internet, you know, a full film. They really, maybe the best move Disney has made, like the smartest, most savvy thing they've done in the last decade is just decide to ignore it. It's so smart. Honestly, I think if it was better, they wouldn't have been able to resist trying to shut it down. But I think they watched it and they were like, it's fine.

Yeah, this is worth anyone's time. And it's interesting to compare to now after the Florida Project came out, which I don't want to spoil for anyone, but the parks do play a role in the movie and it's very moving and I thought well done. Like comparatively in a similar fashion. Anything versus Escape to the Moon.

Well, but yes, anything. But it's just like, well, this is how more. Yeah, this is how you do that. The only time I, this is a side note, the only time I've been at CineFamily was to see a Rip Taylor documentary, and Mr. Taylor was there. And I'll tie it into Disney because he did the genie's voice in DuckTales,

Legend of the Last Lamp, or whatever that lamp movie. I loved that movie. It was great. Was that in theaters, or was that? Yes, it was. Did it launch the series or come after? that movie it was great i was that in theaters or was that yes it was okay did it launch the series or come after it launched it right or it was after maybe it was after or in the middle i think i think it was i think this show started in the 86 87 it was like that animation where like it was slightly better like that jet sea movie where you're like it looks better it's still like like 70 minutes it's still like too short but it's good it's like it's a

great movie and then it ends with like just hearing the theme song coming out of like movie speakers is so good because it's such a good you can hear like a nice mix of this yeah i'm not in the shitty shitty 80s or 90s television yeah it's big and grand yes that is it's a perfect song for theater theater speakers. Like a horn line as powerful as Indiana Jones, perhaps. That's high praise. I love the DuckTales theme. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know when it came out in theaters,

but I didn't see it in theaters, but my dad had a home theater setup that we always watched it on, and we had it on Laserdisc. And then he wanted to get rid of our laser disc player and i was like you have to keep the player and the ducktales laser disc you can get rid of everything else and he's like well no i'm not going to keep the machine for this one and i was like we need ducktales it's the best one we have so so we kept it yeah okay go let's go of course thank god or

at least he may have gotten rid of it and not told me that That can happen too. That happens a lot when we're kids. Parents just disappear things and you don't even remember. That was one I don't think I saw in theaters either, but I did watch that VHS a lot. And another movie with a very similar, like the show was out for a while, and then they made a movie that looked a little better, was the Batman Mask of the Phantasm.

Sure. Which is, I don't, is that the best Batman movie? I'll say yes. Yeah. I don't know. Of any? Better than Burton? It's kind of better, I think.

But that's a whole nother week. Better than The Dark Knight? The cartoon? It's probably not better than The Dark Knight. I haven't seen it, but. It is a, Scott, it's a very good cartoon. It is good. I'm very dismissive of calling it a cartoon.

It's very good. It's certainly in the top three. I will say top three. I'd give you that. I might say it's like there's Returns, Dark Knight, Phantasm. But this isn't Justin Michael's Batman the Animated Podcast. No, it's not. It's Podcast the Ride.

Podcast the Ride. So, Jenny, you were a former cast member. Yes. At Disneyland. Our first former cast member. Really? How is that possible? I don't know. There's cast members everywhere in SoCal. Well, former cast member. Really? How is that possible? There's cast members

everywhere in SoCal. Well, that's true. Everyone's gone through that. Scott was a tour guide at Universal Studios. Oh, nice. So that's the closest, but not the Disney magic, though.

Okay. I was, I'm a friend of Woody Woodpecker, I guess, but not. Not the mouse. Daisy. guess, but not Daisy. No, no, no.

I never met the mouse. So I've written some questions down. These are the first things that popped into my head. So as a cast member, my first question would be like, does it make you appreciate the magic more or a little less? Obviously, you still love Disney and you love the parks and everything, but is there a factor into that? Or does it make you like it more

because you're sort of part of the magic then? I think it made me like it the same amount. I think I was a huge Disney nerd when I went in. I have seen it go both ways. I've seen a lot of people go and work there and then get burnt out. And I think that's part of it is like you have to kind of leave

before you get burnt out on it. But then again, I'd have people where they'd be like, oh, you're still so into Disney, like it. But then again, I'd have people where they'd be like, you know, oh, you're still so into Disney, like that'll go away. And I'd be like, how long have you been working here? And they'd be like two months. And I'd be like, I've been here for a year. So I don't think I don't think it's just that I'm waiting to get jaded at this point. But the one thing I did notice was a difference is that after I stopped working there, I literally bought my annual pass the day after I quit because my family was visiting across that time.

So I was like, well, I'm getting it right now. I quit yesterday and now I have my annual pass. But it was like, it's so different visiting only as a guest than visiting as a cast member on your day off. Because I think you do kind of feel, even though no one's really gonna know, you feel like you have to be on your best behavior and you feel like you might run into people

that you know still. Now that I haven't been working there for a little while, I feel more like I'm just a normal guest and maybe I'm getting that pass holder entitledness back where you feel like you're going to get better service. We have that. We all have that. And you feel more at ease.

Oh, do you go like, I've been waiting for 30 minutes and they're like, but you can come tomorrow. You can just come back. And you're you go like, I've been waiting for 30 minutes. And they're like, but you can come tomorrow. You can just come back. And you're like, well, I have a pass. And they're like, yeah, a million people have a pass. I'm a premium annual pass holder. Yes. And I need respect.

There must only be 70 of us or so, right? Yeah, we're on the top tier. It's like, no. It is interesting. I feel like that's with the jobs. When I was younger, I worked at the container store in Schaumburg,inois and i do recall after working there for a while i had an ownership over the place and you sort of feel like well this is my place and i belong you walk in there on your day off and you'd be like hell yeah i know where everything goes and then after you're done

yeah if you're done working there you're like what was wrong with me i do feel like i still get that sometimes where you'll go in like not being a cast member and still want to like yell at people who are breaking the rules oh we have that too though like you see like a walkway gets stopped and you'll be like where's the gso lead who's letting this happen but you know you just have to be like okay whatever there are people that mistreat the parks and i think we'll be like in line and be like have you seen this yeah a load of this you'd be like why isn't that need stepping in i was just at Florida, and I saw The Little Mermaid show. Have you guys seen that?

It's delightful. And I just saw it again two weeks ago. It was my first time seeing it. I didn't know it was so puppet-centric. It was the best thing I did all day in Hollywood Studios, which is a low bar to clear. At the moment, yeah. Yeah, right now. One of the two attractions currently, yeah.

But yeah, you need to walk all the way in and go all the way down the row, even if you're not sitting in the middle. And this gentleman behind us and his child had stopped in the middle and the cast member was like move all the way down sir and he didn't because he was just being a typical guest and she started like absolutely losing her mind she was like sir please please sir and she's like when someone asks you to do something you do it and she like seemed like she was gonna start crying and i was just looking around like where's her lead who's allowing this to happen it was awkward he was the problem and then she immediately became the problem on his

level where she she raised the stakes and everyone in the whole theater was just silent and watching this drama play out and like we were all looking around like, where are the other cast members? And I was just like, this is not appropriate. We went into the first musical number with a very odd mood in the theater. We watched this cast member storm out of the room crying in anger.

And then Sebastian pops up like under the sun with the little snail puppets. It was a weird vibe. That's very strange I gotta work a little harder At the top man Yeah Get the crowd back

Tough thing to follow They sent me back To warm it up Yeah Were we Were you with me The opening of Cars Land And Cars Land was a mess

The Radiator Springs Racer The big ride We were there Opening weekend And the following weekend So yeah So there was a whole mess And there might have been Like it might have weekend and the following weekend. So yeah, so there was a whole mess and there might have been like,

it might have been down or fast passes where there was some problem and there was a cast member screaming at everyone and we went up to another cast member and they were like, they're from Florida.

And it was like a whole thing of like, I think it is a different training protocol there. Well, I think that weather, that Florida weather can just drive anyone to madness. And it's such a big park. I think people slip through different training protocol there. Well, I think that weather, that Florida weather can just drive anyone to madness. And it's such a big park. I think people slip through the cracks in training. Oh, yeah.

Higher turnover with the college program being a bigger presence out there. So I think Florida is really different, sometimes for the worse. But it makes it more exciting. It's like the Wild West. I also got yelled at in Pandora because I stopped to take a picture in the queue of Flight of Passage, which is beautiful. This guy was like, it's not a photo shoot. And I was like, can you imagine an Imagineer

who sculpted all this by hand? They're going to feel like they're there. They're going to think it's amazing. And it's like, stop being dazzled by our alien geography. Also, it is a photo shoot in this day and age. The whole park is a photo shoot. That was a cast member? Yeah. Wow. That's very odd. I mean, he was

working the line of flight of passage. I mean, the nice way is like, oh, can you step to the side? If you want to take a picture. Yeah, because the company's not going to like to hear that because the pictures on Instagram and Twitter and stuff are free marketing. Yeah, and that's part of the experience is to be so impressed by

what you're seeing that you want to keep a memory of it. But I don't know, it kind of became like an in joke with my friend and I, like whenever one of our phones came out, we'd be like, ma'am, it's not a photo shoot, ma'am, please. If, if imagine head imagineer of Pandora, Joe Rode, he's listening to this, He's crushed his can of whatever he's drinking, and he's just like, I have to make a call. Yeah. That guy's getting fired. They'll find his son out. He's going to have to come undercover boss

and just pose as a regular cast member. And the earring's so subtle, it'll be really easy. It's very Disney look. He'll have to disguise it, like he'll put prosthetics over it or something. He'll tape it to the back of his ear and wear like a mullet wig oh that's a good idea yeah you're gonna need a wig there's gonna need some wig

wear yeah this is just a this is just a dreadlock exactly uh so jenny what did you do what was your i had two different roles i was there for about three years total i think so for like the first half of my time i I was Circle D, which is the horses primarily, but it's also, it was the petting farm animals when we still had that. It's also the dogs at the kennel. So it's literally anything alive that works at the resort. This was before my time, but they used to handle the birds

that would open the jungle crews in the morning and then live in the cages there. They would be the ones that brought them out and back. I also, I guess for a time, there were spiders somewhere. I want to say it was in a bug's land. They had like display spiders. Or maybe it was at the end of Tarzan's tree house or something, but they took care of the spiders too.

I don't think I knew about the birds, real birds in the jungle. Yeah, they used to have in the cages hanging in the queue, like in the office area, they would leave birds in there there and then every morning when the jungle opened they would bring out a bird on their arm and be like let's open the jungle for the day but all before my time but um i did know the cast members that owned the birds that had taken them home um and then after that i transferred because i was upset that the petting farm was closing it was my favorite location did you do the running of the goats?

Oh, yeah. Did you run that? That was my jam. That was like my favorite thing. Yeah. So, yeah, in the back of Disneyland, basically there were goats and during the daytime they would be out

and you could pet them. And would you feed them? That's not allowed. We wouldn't feed them there. Goats have like very, they have multiple stomachs so they digest for a long time. So they would get a large breakfast in the morning,

and then at the end of the day, they would go home for their dinner. That's why they ran. Their motivation was they knew that dinner was waiting. Oh, that's about how I live my life. That's how you train a goat. That's how you train Jason, too. Sorry, set the scene here. You never saw the running of the goats?

No, I never have. A lot of people didn't. And so for anyone else who hasn't, this is Jason's second favorite thing to do at Disneyland. It's so good. I would, every time I was in the park, would go and pet the goats. The goats are amazing. Who's your favorite goat?

All of them. Okay, you don't know any of their names. No, I didn't learn the names. You won round three of the trivia contest, Jenny. I know. I bet I could still name all the goats. I had my favorite. Oh, yeah.

Wait. Name some goats. Go for it. Oh, we had a Medusa and a Leota. They were our spooky goat sisters. We had Penny and Jane. They were the white goats. Pongo.

We had Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the triplets. They were my favorite. They were very cuddly. What are Lock, Shock, and Barrel from? From Nightmare? Yeah, Nightmare Before Christmas. And Lock was the sweetest goat. I forgot about Madame Leota, I was like there's a goat

named after Ray Leota that's an interesting one of Disney's legends Ray Leota Penny and Jane we had Lilo and Stitch and Mulan was the mother of Lilo and Stitch

did they all actively were they in pairs or is it siblings when they're all? It's a lot of sibling groups. Goats have really strong family bonds. We also got Bernard and Bianca. They were babies the last year the farm was open. Wow. And our two sheep were Thunder and Bolt.

Oh. Yeah. Very cool. That's nice. So the running, can you explain this then? Yeah. So every running, can you explain this then? So every night at closing, we would close the main gate where people enter the petting farm that closes it off from the park.

And then we would move all of the guests that wanted to stay to watch the running of the goats over toward the cabin so they were clear of the path. And then we would just open the gate and all the goats would know to run in a straight line all the way backstage and all the way over the berm and back to their farm so they would go like a distance too you would think like when i would see it way backstage too so it was a while right like i would i would see it and i would be like why doesn't one just peel off and head to fantasy land like it's weird that they know such like social creatures is they always prefer to follow the group so you would usually have the one dominant goat on a lead and then the cast member leading the run um and that one would be usually lock or barrel and when pongo before he retired it was always pongo he was like our patriarch um so you would put the biggest one on a lead and then all the goats would follow the leader goat pongo was the glue like phil

hartman on this yeah pongo was a great cast pongoongo would always get on the high barrels, so usually when you see someone has a picture with a goat, it would be Pongo. But he retired. He was getting really old. And what became of all of this? What happened to all these? Because this is the area that is now Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

So where are the goats today? The goats when I was there that would retire, they would just kind of go usually in sibling pairs, although Pongo got adopted off by himself. Um, but they would either go in like ones or twos, um, just to cast members who wanted them or friends of cast members, former cast members. And then we were really lucky that when the farm closed, all of the goats went to the same family who were like former cast members.

They live out in Marietta and they have like a big farm property. So they took not only all the goats, but also the two donkeys. Oh, wow. And then the cow went to a different cast member. I hated the cow. She was the meanest little cow.

Okay. She's just such a mean creature. The cow's not bothering all the goats you like. That's great. Well, and she was always in her own pen, but our miniature cloud. She's still mad about the reception of Home on the Range?

I think so. I think it was part of it. And they had a bigger cow named after one of those cows. I think Daisy or something. She was before I was there. I heard she was really sweet. But we had a miniature cow named Clarabelle. And I don't know if it's a cow thing or a miniature cow thing.

But she was so aggressive. Like, the only time she seemed happy was when she was attacking people or destroying things wow and she was like her low center of gravity made her like the perfect height to try to knock you over and then kick you in the face so the cow would try to knock you over oh yeah and then you're trying to like kind of manhandle her that's the only way to like move a cow they're not like horses they have really big skulls so you can't just put a halter on and have leverage you have to like get them in the nose you have to like grab or hit their nose to stop them from like hurting you but um guests would be watching so you'd have to be like gentle and be like oh she just wants to play and they'd be like look at the baby cow and you're like no it's like that movie the orphan this is like a middle-aged cow she's just small she's not a baby she's an adult she's like a scary

woman in a cow's body did they give you like lines to say when you were like trying to aggressively wrestle a cow and some people weren't coy about it they were just like she's being a brat and they'd like hit her in the face but i would always be like oh claribel's a silly cow you're trying to like smile as you're like trying to keep an eye on the cow so she doesn't like kill you um but and then we would also bring the horses out uh that work on main street we'd bring them for one hour sets where we would just keep them in the little pen there and people could pet them over the fence oh wow and then of course we'd get people like his home is so small this poor horse. And you're like, he's only here for an hour.

You can tell because the whole time he's here, there's a person with him holding him on a halter. Like, do you think that's his life? Like there's always a human holding his face. And then at the same time, guests would be like, when it's time for the horse to go home and get lunch or get some water,

they'd be like, I didn't, like my kid didn't get to pet him yet. And it's like, well, do you want the horse to stay here in the heat or do you want the horse to go home and get lunch or get some water they'd be like i didn't like my kid didn't get to pet him yet and it's like well do you want the horse to stay here in the heat or do you want the horse to be happy it's like you can't have both yeah it is crazy to think about disney having this is a thing like in the parks like that a discipline that you may not think about just as like an average guest it's like oh there's a massive livestock operation going on behind the scenes it's huge it was five acres backstage wow of like and that would include the the big arena where the horses would exercise and then we also had an automated hot walker we called it the panel walker because it had like large panel doors and then a full barn with all the horses and a full outside stall

accommodation so if it was cold we'd bring them in. And if not, they would stay outside and have fresh air. So it was massive. And then a smaller barn for the goats and the farm animals. It sounds nice. Like it seems like a good place for animals to live. It was. I think it was like, it was nice space.

It didn't feel as much like a barn because it was kind of surrounded by those backstage roads. So it felt a little like a lot of concrete, not a lot of like nice natural farmland you'd picture for animals so i think the new facility they have out on norco is like a lot more pleasant for a horse even though it is really inconvenient and far away they have to walk really where is it uh it's in norco so it's like where is that i don't know i don't know the area but um it's called horsetown usa it's a very horsey area. That's literally what Norco is called.

Really? It's pretty delightful. Wow. Was there ever like a, like were there problems? Was there ever like an animal that like wandered somewhere? Shouldn't it like, or is it just such a lockdown system that the animals know what to do? It's pretty locked down. I mean, with anything you'll have like accidents,

like, you know, sometimes you'd have a horse that's like pulling the street car and tries to go the wrong direction if it's like a newbie horse or like they might spook but they're such large horses that even if they spook they might trot they just don't have the energy to want to like run away with anyone um which is what i like about draft horses so i don't know i heard about stuff before i went there did you have any interaction with the cats of disneyland yeah oh yeah that was another part of the operation was um not interacting with them I don't know. I heard about stuff before I went there. Did you have any interaction with the cats of Disneyland? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

That was another part of the operation was not interacting with them so much, but we would leave out food for the Disneyland cats in like backstage cat kennels at key locations. So you'd go around in your little like golf cart and restock their food. And the purpose of that was like, firstly, so they're not begging guests for food because that can be like a safety concern for everybody um but the main function was to make sure they weren't carrying disease because to access the cat kennels they had to like crawl through this fuzzy tube that was lined with flea repellent oh wow yeah and then every couple of months they would not leave out the food and then at night they would put out traps with like more delicious food and then they would trap um vaccinate spay neuter and release so if you see the cats in the park if they have

like a notch in their ear that means they've been successfully trapped and spayed neutered vaccinated and if they don't have the notch it's like a wily cat that's been avoiding the traps that's crazy interesting this is a little hidden mickey game you call it for the for the of you who don't know, there are cats that, they call them feral cats, but they're not really feral, right? They're pretty feral. I mean, some of them are friendly and they'll come up to people, especially the old ones. Anytime I'm at the Disneyland Hotel, I see at least one or two cats walking around the property.

They're pretty friendly. The best place to see them is the Rivers of America or by Grizzly River Run. They're usually in the plants. And most of them are pretty shy, so you just kind of observe them from a distance river run they're usually like in the plants and most of them are pretty shy so you just kind of observe them from a distance but so they're pretty cool they're kept there though to keep mice away is that real is that really the purpose or they're just there i mean there's there's that urban legend that that's how they got there in the first place but as it is now the company's not intentionally trying to keep them there they're just trying

to keep them healthy and control the population so So they're not carrying disease. And I think the thinking is that the capture, spay and release is considered a better option for population control than removing them from the area, because then they'll just like have more babies to fill the void in the ecosystem, I guess. But yeah, when they are able to catch kittens when they're cat trapping, or if they catch one and notice that it's like really friendly and really adapted to humans, they'll just adopt them out to cast members. Wow. But are we sure that Disney isn't just using these cats to concoct a secret formula of cat flu? I think it is kind of like symbiotic though, because you don't see a lot of rats at Disneyland. Right. Yeah.

When you said more delicious food, do you know what brand? I don't know. Like do they go with like a normal Iams and then they go with like a real piece of meat? I think it is like real meat when it's the trapping nights or just like a more premium brand. I wasn't one of the cat trappers. That was like an optional position you could train in if you wanted to work very late shifts. Wow, really? was like an optional position you could train in if you wanted to work very late shifts wow really um i heard it was very fun because you would it would just be you and another cast member cruising around in the golf cart all night it's really chill you get to go in weird areas of the park because they trap along the rivers of america but it wasn't a knowledge that i ever bothered to pick

up while i was there could you hire right into that job because that's a job i feel like i would like to do for like a couple weeks just cat just cat trapping? Just cat trapper. It has to be part of the other livestock. All the animals are the same job. So first and foremost, it's going to be

the horse knowledge that they look for. Jason and I in like safari hats and a golf cart looking for cats. Well, yeah, all white. I know, it sounds fun, right?

All white, giant nets. Yeah, do we have nets like a dog catcher? Full on Looney Tunes dog catcher. I think they did have at least one large net, but I don't think that was usually

what was helping them catch the cat. I think it was a backup plan. That's a great idea. You can put on the table. Revolutionize the system. I can bring up a whole, yeah. We'll show up at City Hall one day with giant nets and like, hello. It was funny because you would get people asking if they could leave their cats there.

Like if you worked a kennel shift, like you would get calls like, I found a stray cat. Can I like drop it off there? Because I know you guys have a cat program. And it's like, no, we're not taking your cats and turning them loose. Yeah, this is not a shelter. This is not a rescue.

You hear rumors like, oh, Disneyland trains the cats. And then every night they play a bell and the cats all run to their kennels. Like we're like a pied piper of cats or something i think i've heard that yeah what do you think they are goats or something i know yeah they're not trained they're super feral wow and then the ones that are less feral like i said tend to get adopted out so a lot of cast members take home cats a lot of cast members will just grab a cat if they find a kitten and keep it which they're not supposed to do they're supposed to go through the official channels but you do hear about cast members like yeah i found a kitten and

i took it home it's like you're gonna get ringworm because you should have waited for them to vaccinate if we worked there we would have told on that those employees because we are good boys who follow the rules there you go good boys who follow the rules um jenna you were saying that there was another place you were where was the other place yes um i transferred to guest relations which is like it's a couple different things it's the department that handles vips it's the tours and it's complaints and information a lot of complaints well how'd that go that one better oh really um yeah i mean i already knew that i didn't mind angry guests i kind of liked handling the people who are really angry and you would get that at the kennel a lot because I was like a lead at the kennel too.

So if somebody gets turned away and they're like, well, I want to talk to your lead. You're the one that gets to like drive over there and be like, okay, here's why we're not letting your dog into the kennel. And it would always be because they weren't vaccinated or they didn't bring their proof of vaccination.

But if people's vacations are at stake and they get there and find out they can't leave their dog in the kennel, there can be a lot of emotions attached to that. But yeah, it never bothered me. So I was like, I could just do this all the time and listen to angry people. Did you like find it to be sort of like a test? Like, could you have enough of a like sunny Disney

disposition enough to counter any anger you faced. Yeah, it is kind of like a test. And also I think it's a good test of like social anxiety, which I think I have sometimes to just be like, I'll talk to strangers and not just any strangers, angry strangers. Furious people with potentially furious dogs. Yeah, exactly. um so yeah i liked dealing with difficult guests and in fact when i was like at circle d if they were ever like

yeah someone's really angry down at the kennel we need to send a lead i'd be like i'm free i can go down there that one is interesting because like yeah you are leaving a dog in a facility with people i mean people one of the issues i think that people have with the disney parks is guests if you're if you're going maybe spend five ten minutes on the computer googling good things to do people don't do any research like i said and it's like you'd think you'd go on the website and find out exactly what you need yeah we would work with people like if their dog was in fact vaccinated we would offer to call their vet's office on their behalf. We had a fax machine there.

We were like, they can fax or email us the papers. We'll print them here. We do have to wait until we get them to check you in, though. Right. And some people, it would become clear that they just didn't have the shots, in which case we'd give them a list of, like, here are local vets that'll do it today. You can just come back. Oh, yeah.

So we tried to work with them, but it's like, you know if they came on a sunday and their vet's office wasn't open or if they didn't want to drive out and find a vet it's like you know people if there's any wrench thrown in their plans i think disney vacations they cost so much and people plan for so yeah yeah time that like i said there's a lot of emotion in it and i think that even if there's a solution that you're presenting to them the fact that they're gonna have to delay going in for three hours and they didn't plan for that it can just get them in a tizzy really fast yeah but i mean i mean i get when people or sorry i i don't get when people are like i showed up at noon what do you mean i can't just walk on every ride or get a table at like a restaurant immediately dog stuff is like i guess in california i just feel

like people take better care of their dogs but it's like that's because you can't like if something's wrong with the hotel room yeah you can move into another room or like hit a button and it's like okay you got a dining credit or whatever but like it's a dog yeah and with dog stuff it's like even if you're okay with your dog catching something and getting sick the kennel can get audited it's like there are state regulations for what they have to have so it's like we straight up can't take the dog if it doesn't have the shots and the proof of the shots like is my dog cute enough for you to override all of that and we would have people begging and yelling and then there was one time i i had to go down and talk to the angry you know wife and then she called her husband and i had to go down and talk to the angry you know wife and

then she called her husband and i had to talk to him too and it was just like i'll talk to all i'll talk to your whole family but we're not taking the dog into the kennel give me your whole family and your disgusting disease-ridden animal i'll talk to the dog if it helps but is that though do you have a in your head like the top three three worst ones, craziest people to deal with? Or do you have any memories of the worst or most intense situations? I had a woman who called my lead at City Hall a retard. Oh, gosh. Jesus.

I know. And the reason, she was trying to con us into getting a park hopper. And she was in Disneyland. And she said she needed to go to California Adventure because they had those chili cones at Cars Land. And she said that she was pregnant and that was all she wanted. And I was like, well, we have chili here. You can get gumbo. You can get chili.

I will write you a voucher for a chili if it'll cheer you up. But she's like, no, I need to go into that park. And I was like, ma'am, it's 2 p.m. If you park hop now, you will have gotten the value of a park hopper ticket. You can upgrade to it. But, you know, maybe if you'd only been in the park for an hour, I could send you over there and give you a one park ticket where you're just in that park. But if you've already had half the day in one park and then you go to the other, you

have park hopped. That is the value of a park hopper ticket. So you have to upgrade at that point. But she started off dealing with my manager and she was like yelling at him and I could see him getting really mad back where he was like, ma'am, if you're not gonna like respect me

and listen to me. And whenever you see people getting emotional, you're like, okay, I need to step in. So I was like, oh, what's going on over here? I can assist your guests. And he was like, okay. And she's like, yeah, I'm trying to get into California Adventure

and this retard over here. And I was just like, like ma'am if you're not going to be respectful i'm not going to help you and she was like okay i'm sorry i'm sorry it's like you can get mad at people a little bit if they're not using respectful language you can be like you can't say that in disneyland but um then she just said it soft-spoken and and that was fun. Yeah, I know. And she didn't get her park harper. I think I gave her a fast pass to a ride or something. She still came out on top after all this. Usually people leave with something, and you at least want to make them feel that they've been listened to

and make them feel like they won, and then they're not angry, and it costs us nothing to give them a fast pass. So that's kind of fun about it too is it city hall like you do have the power to pretty much do anything for them you can give them park hopper tickets if it's an appropriate situation for it or you can give them comp tickets to come back you can get them seating sometimes if you pair up with the people arranging the seating that night for like parades and shows um Fast passes obviously, you could probably give out like 100 fast passes a day without people being like,

you're giving out too many fast passes. So here's a hack for anyone listening, go to gift services and be difficult. Act like a maniac. But people there, they know they've seen everything at that point, so it just does come down to like what the situation is and what feels appropriate and that was what they really hammered in in training is they're like is it possible is it appropriate um and then you kind

of work from there and it's so case by case that that's what i liked about it is like if you were stuck on something you could excuse yourself and talk to your lead and be like here's what's going on what do you think i should do but usually like no one would question your choices and you would just document everything if you did give them free things but um yeah you did feel like you had a lot of power to fix people's trips so if it is like a person who's not scamming you who's in there because they're having a frustrating time it did feel really good to like help them turn it around so i liked that one i liked it better than circle d i think i like the idea that someone was yelling wildly about chili in city hall which is a thing well walt would have felt like chili is very important yeah

uh speaking of city hall um on the podcast we've we've started a little campaign to try to make our very own jason sheridan the mayor of disneyland which is a position we were made aware of did you ever have any interaction with the mayor of Disneyland? I didn't even know that was a thing. Really? What is the mayor of Disneyland? It's a cast member. The one in Florida recently passed away.

I'm just trying to find more information. Is there even actually a current mayor? That's what I'm wondering, too. What is it? What does it entail? So what happened was in 2014, we were at the anniversary, like whatever, 59th anniversary, and they said, ladies and and gentlemen the mayor of Disneyland and a man in a top hat

and so this is crazy that you've never met the mayor so he comes out he does a big ceremony and I was like oh my god there's a mayor and Jason should be the mayor

in 20 years so what did he do? he just said like oh welcome did he carry a key to Disneyland? he just

are you sure it wasn't just an eccentric man? Somebody announced him. So that's how I knew it was official. Was it the voice of Disneyland? Like a recorded announcement? It was a whole thing.

And it was all ceremony with all the characters. And they said mayor of Disney. Yes. Maybe it was, was he an old man? He seemed a bit old. It wasn't like a make a wish? If he's like 18, I'd be like, maybe it's make a wish foundation. So the reason I know I'm not crazy

Like a 40 year old man You're like Guess not Well if we need to go Make-A-Wish for you Then we can lie our way Into getting you that position Oh yeah

Oh that's another bad guest I have had people lie And say they're on Make-A-Wish trips that aren't Because our department Would handle that too But you would get The heads up about that

You would Because we already have The list of all the guests That are coming But I had a man come To one of our viewing sections With a forged Make-a-wish email that had the letterhead and everything yeah and i called back the chamber of commerce like you know is this family on the list and they were like no um and that man started like yelling at my co-worker he had a girl there that was

actually in like a motorized wheelchair and it was like a legit one it wasn't an ecv it was an actual joystick operated wheelchair so i was like so she's got some medical condition she's not on a make-a-wish trip but i did give them viewing um we had like an extra standing room only section and i was like well the child that's sick is already in a chair so i can put the family in the standing room section the girl can go in the front it's fine um but then he was angry about that he's like those guests get benches and and you want us to stand like we're garbage in the back and i was like it's an unobstructed view um and then there again that was one situation where i had this co-worker uh she wasn't there long she started like yelling back to him and she's like i felt threatened he

had tattoos and i was just like i guess i shouldn't say her name but i was just like you know her name and i was like go stand in the corner. Like, I will take care of this guest. Wow. Because it's like, you don't yell back to guests. It looks bad. It's not a good look. It's not a good way to handle it.

You don't get emotional. Even in this, the darkest Disneyland story I've ever heard. It was horrible. Forging Make-A-Wish documents. And he was mad. And it was sad. They missed the show. He ended up pulling his whole family out of the section.

And he was like, I'm going to go complain. And I was like, okay, you can tell them my name's Jenny. You can tell them what happened. It's fine. Cause I knew I was in the right. I'd already called all my management and everything. But it's like, you know, sometimes if you get a guest like that, you're just like, okay, he's going to yell at me for two minutes and see he's not going anywhere and just leave.

So that's sometimes what it takes when you get people that are at that level. He'll lose his voice eventually. Yeah, he'll get frustrated yelling in circles with somebody that's not getting upset they're being yelled at, and it'll stop being satisfying, and he'll leave. She didn't break at all.

Her posture didn't change. She didn't melt to the puddle. Because you're just like, I understand, sir. Yes, this must be very frustrating. You're welcome to go to Chamber of Commerce. I wanted this person in full plaid to have a breakdown from me yelling at them.

Tears on plaid. That's what I wanted. To bring this back to the mayoral campaign, I think this should be, now that you're aware of this issue, Jason, I think that you should have a zero tolerance policy towards make a wish forgery. I think punishable by death.

What method? By death? What method? By death? What method of execution? Yeah, we gotta figure that out. Drowning in the rivers of America? Walking the plank off the Columbia? Yeah. Wearing like lots of

Disney mugs and piggy banks. Some oversized goofy shoes. Sure, yeah, yeah. Full of sand, yes. You could add a plank to the Mark Twain oh because Jason's favorite ride is the Mark Twain riverboat

that would be classy wouldn't it so yeah it would be a nice painted white plank and then you can make the march right off but everybody's in black

yes the contrast is striking because you need a visual like why Trump wants the wall sir you have sinned and justice must be done. What if you're watching the finale of Fantasmic and then the boat hits the center in front of the audience

and then they go, ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of Disneyland. We've got a real scumbag here. It's time to mete out some justice. Frontier justice. What do you think? They would love that. Can you imagine the hush that would fall over the crowd?

And then, yeah, you have to repeat like, you know, 20 meters, 40 meters, Mark Twain, and then you push them off. It would be beautiful, a beautiful ceremony. And then the music picks back up. Yeah, the music, yeah, the dreams. And you know that as Mickey has defeated hypothetical made-up evil, so has evil been defeated in our real world.

Absolutely. By a real-life Mickey-esque hero, Mayor Jason. That said, I will be very lenient on old-time bindle-carrying hobos. If they can get in the park, they're allowed to swipe whatever pie cooling. Yeah. If they can get in the park, they're allowed to swipe whatever pie cooling. They can, you know, if they're not allowed to carve their symbols saying like free pie or like they're not allowed to carve their hobo code in the park. But if they have chalk, they can use chalk because that washes away. But what if they steal that premium cat food?

If they can fight for it, they can have it. Them's the rules of the road. All right. Yeah, I think that's fair. Turn it into a soup. I think this billion, multi-billion dollar company can afford a little

extra premium cat food. Give them a, let them dig, let them put their bindle into the chili tank where the cones are filled and whatever you can fit in there and you can get home.

Just fish it on out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go chili fishing. Is there a chili tank? Was there a job at Disney where you have to supervise a chili tank? I mean, even backstage they had chili and it was Walt's chili because Walt loved his chili. Oh, really?

He did. He loved chili. He loved grilled cheese sandwiches. If you ever go up to his apartment, he has like a panini press for grilled cheese sandwiches. Yeah. He loved that. He was a simple man because he didn't grow up wealthy so his family it was a lot of like depression food right so they ate a lot of chili he loved grilled

cheeses and he also loved uh tom and jerry's in a departure from the studio that was like his favorite alcoholic drink really tom and jerry what's the time what is it i think it's some kind of hot beverage like it's a hot alcoholic beverage i want to say it's like gin i think you just delicious hot or like i don't know but it sounded gross when i heard the recipe at carthay on the menu there's a waltz favorite drink scotch mist and it's just scotch with an scotch and ice and a lemon twist it's really good um at um good, yeah. At the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, there is like an exhibit. It's really incredible.

And there is, do you remember like the display case of like, here's the stuff Walt liked to have in the house? And it was like Jell-O diet custards. Oh my gosh, yeah. And like chili. And there's debate about what his favorite kind of chili was, whether it was H harmel or a different brand of chili experts on to debate that one recipe of waltz chili yes there is a class i

have to assume that's like to his taste and it's not very good i got it once it's not very good we have to settle this debate i'm tired of signing on to twitter and what a divided yeah these it's we have to if we don't learn how to speak to each other on this Walt Chilly issue then how do we move forward I mean they have all these other canned goods

and replica goods at the museum like here's what he would send the housekeeper on shopping trips for of like whipped miracle miracle whip

miracle whip just spoon it right onto the chili just spoon it right hot gin wash it down with a scotch hot gin miracle whip

Jason is such a Walt Disney fan he just eats exclusively from Walt's diet yeah he's gonna die very young but happy but happy

and mayor and mayor of Disneyland yeah the only the last thing I had written down here so when you're around the park

do you see like do you have interactions with the coolest most famous people and by that I mean Walt Disney Imagineers not that much really When you're around the park, do you see, like, do you have interactions with the coolest, most famous people? And by that, I mean Walt Disney Imagineers. Not that much.

Really? I mean, they go on VIP tours, but they're not the ones that we would see the most often. But, yeah, I mean, it seems like the people who tell you they're Imagineers are, like, the ones that aren't really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People who are eager to name drop. More lies. I didn't know Disneyland was such a perk of lies ronald crump shows up a lot though he'll just ride the main street vehicles i actually saw him more as a circle d cast member than a vip guide because our tour guide i should say vip was

a different um distinction but same at universal yeah yeah extra set of training you decided which one you wanted to do if you wanted to do the scripted tours or the one-on-one tours. Oh, okay. And then everyone would handle the guests in like a concierge degree or like for the VIP seating. But you would decide if you wanted to train into doing the one-on-one tours. And I always found those really awkward.

Yeah. The idea of following around a stranger's family all day. I just, I didn't have the spoons for that so i preferred the scripted ones but um but yeah i would see a lot more as circle d i would see roly crump because he loves to just ride the main street vehicles and then tell you that he made them it's really cute it's really cute it's awesome that's great uh wow um those dorkish delight so if you're ever looking for him in the park, just stare at the horse-drawn streetcar.

You might see it rolling by. He might show up at some point. That is like the high school student going back at the football game. Yeah, a little bit. I feel like I used to play here, by the way. I don't know. Sorry, not really Crump. Bob Gurr.

Look, I'm losing all my Disney knowledge. Bob Gurr. He was the one that fathered all those famous vehicles. That round counted for all the points. I know. Joke's on you. We're up again. Or we're tied.

I don't know. Yeah. You guys are like, we all knew that. We were just waiting for you to catch up. There's some Raleigh Crump exhibit happening. Right. The Van Eaton Gallery is selling all his stuff right now. Oh, neat.

All right. They're both great. I hope he wants that. A lot of sketches and stuff. It's pretty cool. Both of them are pretty public in the Southern California area of doing talks and exhibits. Bob Gurr.

Wait, contextualize Bob Gurr for people who don't know. Oh, yeah. Well, Main Street Vehicles. Main Street Vehicles. What else does he know? Later worked on- He also designed the Omnimover system. Oh, is that right?

That was in my tour. That's why it suddenly jogged my memory. Oh, okay. Worked on Kingong later for universal i believe yeah yeah i think they hired a special for what a segue scott now that we're so yeah over we could talk to you about like cat traps and chili for more many more hours that should be the title of this episode cat traps and chili that's true well i was my the my my ideal segue here was that we're all about to catch a giant case of cat flu.

Oh, that's even better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we're talking about Islands of Adventures, Cat in the Hat. Cat in the Hat. So you were just there. I was just there. Oh, okay. And was this your first time on this Cat in the Hat ride?

Yeah, I've been to Islands of Adventure two times before that, and I did not even know that ride existed. Oh, really? Yeah. In fact, I didn't know there were really that many dark rides there. I love E.T. But we were walking through Seuss Land and my friend that I was with said she wanted to find characters. And I saw like a sign saying like Cat in the Hat.

And my hopes were immediately up because it looked like a building. But I was like, no, we'll probably walk in and it'll be like a meet and greet of Cat in the Hat. So I even asked at the front and they were like, no, it's like a ride. And I was like, oh, my God. Like a ride. So I was immediately very excited. Oh, it felt like a weird, like a hidden thing almost. I know what you mean.

It's just down a dark hallway. There's no showmanship on the building. Well, because the giant sign does say Cat in the Hat. Yeah. But it doesn't say Cole in the Ride. Could be a meet and greet. does say cat in the hat but it doesn't say coal in the ride yeah i was gonna say the fit for our like official nomenclature purposes this ride is just called the cat in the hat not cat in the hat the ride just the cat in the hat yeah yeah i believe so yeah which may have been like uh this

this is the i'll say in the original land of uh based on hyper successful children's books where the estate or persons involved in them were involved like before the Harry Potter stuff at Universal the Geisel estate his wife's still alive right? yeah his wife is still alive and she was like very hands on

and like selling the rights and stuff in fact there is a plaque somewhere in Seuss Landing, the general area in which this ride is set, that pays homage to Theodore, to Dr. Seuss, but also to Mrs. Geisel. We want to just commit to Geisel, and either we're wrong the whole time or right the whole time.

I'll say Geisel. I think it might be Geisel. Seuss. Yeah, Seuss. Seuss. Lady Seuss. Lord and Lady Seuss, we shall refer to them as. But yeah, Seuss Land.

Is it Seuss Landing? Seuss Landing. I think it's a good land. Like they did, they put effort in. I'm so used to California Universal where nothing seems to have involved effort in any step in the process. Yeah. It's finally turning around.

Yeah, a little bit. With Harry Potter. They're like, we're better now, we promise. Yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah and Super Mario will be a step in that direction I think

oh I'm so excited for that do we have a date yet I don't think so five years from now yeah a whole nother problem is they they were like yeah we're gonna be

building this stuff every year and then nothing's open really since Harry Potter like three years ago well they did close Waterworld right no it's still open

what okay so they're not even clearing the land yet. No, that's not even necessarily going away. I don't think that's where it's going. I think Super Nintendo

is probably going downstairs. I think it's near Transformers. They can just close a production building or something. They have already

removed sound stages. Oh. 25 through 22, which used to house CSI, the number one show at the time I was doing oh wow Marg Helgenberger

yeah if you could keep doing a little do a little more Scott going right into the thing what happened what was the rest of that so you were a tram tour guy yeah I did the tram tour

that's cool yeah yeah Marg Helgenberger who was the other one who was do anyone know which CSI that was yeah it's

Jason's favorite show come on oh yeah william something william h macy sure look at me i would just i'd make up stuff i'd lie i could say from like to live and die in la yeah i think you're right yes it's that guy um thrilling william peterson yes william later on, Ted Danson. Oh, the Ted Danson. On my audition, I had to read a little blurb where I said all of the, I had to say all five of the Desperate Housewives, which is Desperate Housewives mania for that month that I did that job. Were you allowed to read it or did you have to memorize it? Yeah, you had notes in front of me before my for this audition purpose i was handed a little blurb yeah and i had to say all

of the character names and the actress and and then when and i like i got through that because i like i have to get through this paragraph this is my entry point to this dumb job i want to do and uh but then whenever i it was this this cul-de-sac where all of the houses were almost the same it was like such a deal you're talking about wisteria wisteria lane yeah they still do it i don't know if it's not a thing they can't they can't still be talking about desperate house up until a couple two years ago they were yeah like my mom when i took her she was like oh wisteria i would always bail i would focus on another thing that filmed there, which is the music video for Nelly

and Kelly Rowland's song, Dilemma. And I would sing over the song, which always, like I've established myself as a stiff white guy by that point. So to then sing the Nelly song was always a big hit. And I did like doing it. And when I'm with my boo but uh yeah i but i my brain could not retain that desperate housewives well i think information

the names are two is edie and laura and i don't know sally and stephanie god i just my brain left my body every time i did the thing. Make up women names. Yeah, yeah. Nobody wouldn't. What are women called? Carol, Rebecca, Erica. Megan. There's always a Megan.

There's always a Megan. Megan's a backstabber. Watch out for Megan. Anyway, Wisteria Lane. Yeah, so universal. Why no Wisteria Lane at Islands of Adventure? There should be a whole land. Yeah, but just put it on a truck. Put it on a flatbed. Drive it out there. It should be a whole land. Yeah, but just put it on a truck. Put it on a flatbed.

Drive it out there. It's a crowd pleaser. And then stop at malls along the way. The Wisteria Lane tour. Wisteria Lane would have been good to move to the former backlot at Hollywood Studios. They had the Golden Girls house at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I never got to ride that when it was open, but it was rough, right? Oh, yeah, but they would have-

They didn't have anything. They made up basically those, whatever you call those, not the real houses, facades or whatever. False fronts and sides. Thank you. I think they had, the Golden Girls house was the real one, right? But then the rest was like a fake recording studio where they're like, we could record things in here.

It looks just like one that you would record things in. They did it. I think they did. Both Universal and Disney made an effort to have actual stuff produced mainly the kids shows and MC at Disney and then all the Nickelodeon stuff at

Universal Florida I feel like there was a window from 89 to 95 I wish I had gotten to see the Nick Studios there but by the time I went for the first time it was gone I never got to go I didn't see anything that cool they had the couch but by the time I went for the first time it was gone. I never got to go. I did it. I didn't see anything that cool. The Snick couch?

They had the couch from Snick behind a glass with dramatic lighting. Oh my God, where? Like on the tour, like behind a glass wall and stuff. I think I was there when all that was being explained. It wasn't on yet and it was like in this stage it was being used for kind of a kid's SNL called All That.

Wow. With the man who will never not be on SNL, Kenan Thompson. 15 seasons going strong. I saw Kenan Thompson's office when I went. His child office? Yeah, I guess so. Full of like blocks and stuff. And yeah, just candy bar shelves empty he was raised or was he into weed already was he a weed guy at 14 yeah maybe um the craziest tour the really

barren tour um is the one in in paris which i never missed an opportunity to- Oh, I didn't even know they had a Paris park. There is a, yeah, there's a studios there and with a tram tour. And that one, for sure, nothing has ever been filmed in. That is the least tram credibility of all of them. But it's like a fake Hollywood. You're like, it's like I'm on a movie set. How sad is that? It's a recreation of a place that recreates things.

It's already fake. It's like I'm on a real fake New York street. Just like in the pictures. This is what an unfinished building would look like. Le film tech. Le film tech. That one is. Like all movie theaters.

Sure. Cinema tech? Yes. Le cinema tech. I had to look at that voice. Why did you do like a Russian? Why what? It's like a Borat voice.

That's like France. Le cinema tech. You're a Borat voice. That's like France. Listen in the day. That park has a, that has all of the sets from a 2002 Christian Bale movie called The Reign of Fire. I don't even remember that. That is all. They just like, they took like four statues from Reign of Fire. How much do you think they spent on that? $30,000.

I think so. Yeah. On the film or on the moving? On the on the stuff they acquired yeah yeah thirty thousand dollars but you gotta move it yourself we can do that we got disney money they got they got french like uh field laborers yeah exactly like they usually pick grapes out in out in the french fields i mean that that movie they were thinking or hoping was going to be a huge hit this summer that came out and they should have waited shit immediately they should have waited to see how it did yeah before they got really should see if people were interested in

the tale of quinn abercrombie oh my god boy uh action star um no that's the character another character is Denton Van Zand oh my god played by Matthew McConaughey ooh maybe it's like

you fed AI like computer come up with action movie characters please computer it's sci-fi though so you might want to

throw a Z or two into those names yeah some European names we're gonna sell this in Paris oh and it takes place in England,

so England it up a bit. Make them a little British. Yeah. It should have been a success by all rights. By all the... According to the algorithm, the computer should have had

this one right, but they didn't. Yeah, we really thought we nailed it. But anyway, and also no reign of fire island at Islands of Adventure oh yeah

they missed a lot of properties but they did get Seuss Landing they have that weird Popeye land with all those horrible water rides well we love

Toon Lagoon's our favorite land it's wild I mean that did you ride the Dudley Do-Right ride yes one of my least favorite rides of all time

we did a whole thing on it Jason wants it preserved as it is forever I love it. No, no, no. Yes, he loves it. I mean, that park... It's one of my least favorites.

I mean, the park is fascinating. Like, the story of Islands of Adventure is like, you know, they always plan to have a second park and, you know, there was, of course,

I mean, we could probably do a whole episode on the unbuilt, like, Warner Brothers Universal Cartoon World that was gonna be like Looney Tunes rides and a to be like looney tunes rides and a gotham like batman rides and a superman ride and that just didn't happen so they're like all

right well what can we all right we're gonna do jurassic park anyway uh myth characters their public domain okay that takes care of lost continent it looks nice yeah uh marvel was dealing with bankruptcy at the time so they were just signing anything and that has come back to haunt disney now yeah it's a bad land yeah it preserves that character dining did you guys know that's an option they just started doing character with rogue and cyclops i was like what's that like face character of cyclops what would you even say to him? I have a lot of things to say to Cyclops. We both have pictures with Cyclops.

Yes, I have multiple photos with Cyclops. He, yeah. I feel like I would do the real dickish thing of being like, so, like, like I would start to be like, how about that whole onslaught conflict, huh? You remember that in the 90s when Professor X and Magneto's brains merged and created an evil being known as Onslaught? And like, that in the 90s when professor x and magneto's brains merged

and created an evil being known as onslaught and like i'd see if i could get him and he'd be like come on man do you think they have a training thing where they have to know the canon because i know disney is very on it like they quiz their face characters on movie details and stuff oh really they do it's part of like the callback audition is they like they tell you what character you're being considered for they They tell you to go home and watch the movie a bunch of times. And then when you come back, they might be like,

you know, it's basic stuff. But if you're Ariel, you should at least know the names of all of her friends and her kingdom and her dad. Is it for just the princesses or like the princes or whoever has a face?

Like is, does Mickey, whoever's playing Mickey have to know like the shorts? No, those are more like miming based. Right. But like say. Like improv. But like Star-Lord would have to know like no those are more like miming based right but like say improv but like Star-Lord would have to know yeah anyone who speaks they're called face characters

if they speak and are in like a mask or uncovered face but if they're in a full character head it's a fur character so with those it's more physicality and it is though like it is goofy physicality they'll be like move like you're goofy and you have to have it down to move the way goofy consistently moves.

But you can't just like, it's not an arbitrary flailing around. Yeah, no, they all have their own mannerisms they're supposed to have. Let me ask you this question. Why every time I take a photo with Minnie Mouse, is she so aggressive with me? Is she flirtatious? She's flirtatious. She kisses me and makes the noise from inside this is this is in florida that popping noise where they kiss you i don't know

how to do that her nose hits me in the side of the face uh and then she like really kind of like gets right on my arm like what is going i mean i'm saying is she's like a like me is minnie's a flirtatious lady she's but in like a coy way i feel like daisy's more like out to get a man but minnie is like she's just playful. She's okay. She likes to flatter her guests. I see. So on the other hand,

like whenever I meet Chewbacca, he like manhandles me a lot. I don't like meeting Chewbacca. Chewbacca likes hugs. He hugs too hard. Chewbacca likes big hugs. He'll usually try to like playfully take my stuff and I'll be like, hey, my stuff.

I don't know. I just don't like Chewbacca that much. My wife was legit scared of you were there for that. She was so freaked. Of which one? Kylo Ren? Of Chewbacca. Just him coming around the corner and that he is Chewbacca of size. He's got those human eyes. Yeah. I don't like that. Did you end up, so in

Suess Landing, did you find characters? Did you find fur characters? Because the Lorax walks around. I'd love to meet the Lorax. We met the Lorax. We thought Grinch was going to be coming out at a certain point but we didn't like linger to wait for it to happen because they said it was like a little

story time and then at the end you can get pictures and we were like we're not going to wait here an hour to meet the Grinch because for all I know it was Jim Carrey Grinch like a Grinch miss out here. I was like I don't want to meet that guy. It's fascinating to me. So that is a thing about Seuss Land that fascinates me because I think the

Jim Carrey Grinch looks like a damn nightmare. He's scary. Is he the one at Seuss Landing or is it a suit? I think at Grinchmas it's him and I think the rest of the year it's like the drawn. And he looks like a hobo.

You know what, though, with plush grinch movie i think they might finally phase out carrie grinch as a face character i think you're right on that rest in pieces carrie grinch so i love i'm with you on throw and shade on yeah i think it's so weird almost 20 years after the fact he's a scary looking man i don't need any children it is it is more perplexing like i get why water world, bombed as a movie, a hit as a stunt show. Perfect in 20 minutes. It's basically already a stunt show. The Cary Grinch, I think it did fine

as a movie. Some people, it's like their childhood. For some people, it's like the Christmas movie they always watched. I never really got that. My mom also thought he was scary looking, so we never had the DVD bought for us or anything like that. But some kids, it's like quintessentialmas entertainment yeah you know what's really unacceptable is the child grinch when was the last time you looked at the child scary animatronic thing oh and it was a real baby animatronic and then a real child was there a baby like a fully

fake like robotic baby yeah but the nanny's fine. That's a popular meme is baby Grinch. Oh, yeah, there it is. They do have like an eight-year-old Grinch that's like a kid in makeup. Oh, God. Yeah, it's rough. It reminds me of the baby from Dinosaur, which is a show that I hate for looking scary. But we love the baby from Dinosaur.

I hate Dinosaur. Maybe I don't. I don't know if I like Dinosaur. That show scared me as a kid. Yeah, you don't like dinosaurs i'm not sure if i do i i think i find them a little unpleasant and legit scary at times jesus christ because i'm showing another photo of baby this is i know what the most upset i've been in the moment on the show is looking at this goddamn baby i like baby grinch. Why in the world? Why are you trying to be cute? This is like something

Bugmane would think. You like this guy? I kind of like baby Grinch. Do you think they thought they were going to sell a lot of toys in that? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

Well, he's a freak. There are so many creepy, look at him, look at little baby, look at this. Yeah, I feel really bad for the kid in the makeup. Yeah.

What was it? Is that a child or a sensei person no it's a kid yeah kid yeah it's kind of sad to think of some kid having to sit still for that long to look that horrible yeah geez ta-da some poor little six-year-old jim carrey didn't bring his old pal simon birch into the uh that project just in case people have not seen the uh teaser there is like an illumination. The people who made the Minions movies are making a How the Grinch Stole Christmas

like CGI animated movie voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, right? Yeah. It's a good choice for the voice. The movie looks lame, but I think that's good casting at least. I think it's good casting. And the rumor about this part of the park,

because this island in Islands of Adventure has not had a lot of updates since it opened in 1999, but there's been a rumor for years that there's blueprints somewhere for a Mount Crumpet-based roller coaster. Ooh, that would be cool. Like you would ride the slide down the hill. Like through a level of Snow White Mine Train

where kids can go on it too. That seems right. Yeah. I think, yeah. Maybe some dark ride elements when you go inside. There's a level of snow white mine train where kids can go on it too. That seems right. Yeah. I think, yeah. Maybe some dark ride elements when you go inside. Yeah. The dog and his little contraptions and stuff.

A couple minimal little scenes. Yeah. That sounds great. That would be super fun. There is room behind it, behind the island, the land, to build that. And it supposedly gotten close to happening in the past and then the money has never shown up.

So if the movie's a hit, I feel like it'll happen. So if the movie's a hit, it may happen. But it's gotta be like a Minions-level hit. Right. The bar might be pretty high. It still seems unclear to me if Secret Life of Pets is happening. That's been a rumor for a long time.

I don't know how well that... Oh, are they gonna do a ride? Yeah. How did that movie do financially? I didn't see that one. Kind of well. It did well. It for a long time. I don't know how well that... Oh, are they going to do a ride? Yeah. How did that really do financially? I didn't see that one. Kind of well. It did well? I think there's a sequel planned.

It has a parade float. By the way, have you guys seen the parade in Universal Florida? I saw a little... I have seen video of it, yeah. It's the saddest parade I've ever seen. Like, honestly. And they have people come out on bicycles, and you're like, what's that? They're New Yorkers.

They're there for Secret Life of Pets. I mean, some of the floats, like the Secret Life of Pets, they did have a clever float and it had like little puppets of all the little animals. That's what I thought. I think I thought that the puppets

were pretty well done. That sounds very lame that there's just like bike deliverer people running around. Well, the energy was so low and sad on the ground dancers. It was people kind of lethargically clapping. It was really hot.

The floats were pretty cute, but there were only like four of them. And then all the ground dancers in between appeared to not have choreography. It wasn't like a Disney parade. They were just kind of wearing brightly colored shirts. They weren't really costumes. And they're just awkwardly clapping. I will tell you, I think one of the reasons why that parade looks a little cheap, because there's also, I was down there last summer,

there's like a mini Despicable Me parade with like a massive float. A massive float. They did have a float in it. So did they just stick it in a slightly larger parade and that was the idea? Maybe that. I just saw it like come like out of nowhere came from the backstage area like tons of dancers and minions and the girls and grew and and then they did a number is like a dance party and then they added like three floats and they're

like no it's a parade i i don't quite know what it was because it just came out it happened and then it backed up and went backstage. Okay, so it's like, I mean, Disney World has one like that too that's like the dance party parade. Yes. And they just kind of roll out, linger, and then roll back in. Well, there was also a flash mob that happened when I was there. You know, like just people in street clothes like hanging around like they were guests.

That's cool. And then they all stared at doing a choreographed dance, and then they dispersed and went away with no explanation and did they do that multiple times or was it like a film it and put it online thing i only saw i think it happens a few times a day but it wasn't really explained yeah i mean i guess that's cheaper than a parade and also more unique because then people feel like they've seen a flash mob in real life but you also don't have to build floats and it's like the same number of dancers so it's kind of a clever idea kind of it was like a different version of like the citizens of hollywood is that what they call them at mgm

the people who wander around mgm oh right is that what they're called like the world i don't know yeah or like the citizens of buena vista street similar this was just like an average this is like a different take on that, where it's like a little thing happens, and then they wander off. It's a cool idea. Yeah. For Seuss Landing, like they have, yeah,

some of those walk-around characters. I was just going to quickly say like, Disney is such a better job of like, all the characters are in one universe. It's like, it makes total sense. But then all of a sudden, like in Universal, it's like, well, there's Vin Diesel, and there's the Lorax.

And you're like like wait a minute that they don't exist in the same space I think they were only friends I think there's a Curious George float oh that makes sense it's a Dora the Explorer float

yeah and it shows on there too yeah stuff you don't know they own until it shows up in one of the four parade units but

so Zeus Landing done pretty well like kind of its own little island. Like the estate was very much like the big thing I know is that they are not allowed to do anything near Seuss landing for Halloween Horror Nights. That's a good idea. Yeah.

So like that's like off limits. I think how cool that would be if they were allowed to. Yeah. It would be kind of awesome to like. But I can get why seuss's widow wouldn't be down for that wait they do though in uh in hollywood like in the terror tram there's like a little bit of the grid the actual grinch set left yeah but the grinch set's already a nightmare yeah yeah yeah it's like dilapidated it's all faded by the sun and stuff yeah that's a very

sad little zone yeah and also a point, and that came right after I did my Wisteria Lane thing. That was like my, that was always kind of my. And you go in here and it's sad, sun bleached remains of Whoville. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was where I always checked out

in the tour. Like 50 minutes in, I'm getting ready to go to the bathroom. That's where you became exhausted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Seuss landing is very uh short not a lot of tall things i feel like maybe this is my perception of it trees and the moose juice goose yeah but they're not like there's a little ride that goes up in the top what is that right i have it scared

the shit really sneaches scared the shit out of me because the seuss trolley train ride there you go well here's here's what scares me now. And if you listen to the podcast, you know maybe there's a lot of things that scare me. But what scares me is slow moving rides that are elevated. So Goofy's Sky School scares me. I can go on roller coasters. It's kind of slow though.

It's not that slow. And if it rounds a bend, I feel like I'm going to fall out of the cart. That is by design. You're supposed to feel that way. I know and I hate it. It scares me. Have you guys been on Goofy's Sky School? I've been on Goofy's Sky

School. I've also ridden the High in the Sky Sue's Trolley Train Ride which is the full official name. It features the sneetches. There's some sweaters being made inside. Yeah. It goes through the restaurant. It goes through Circus McGurkis Cafe Stupendous.

So this ride holds a special place for me because for years, I'm a big Islands of Adventure fan. And for years, like this ride was supposed to be open like with the park or like shortly thereafter. And it functions kind of like a people mover. I was gonna say it's like their people mover.

So was the track sitting empty, all of the people mover? Well, that's the thing. There was a single car with like a a statue of like a seuss looking guy who would come out every now and then yeah so it would come out every now and then and like when i was like 12 or 13 i would be like where do i get on that thing because it also like it does have cool views you see cool views of the rest of the park and you go my eyes were closed for most of it so we're closed but um watch a video i'll be honest you were high in the sky yeah it was too high up i didn't like it he was too high

in the sky i did always think they should do that with the people mover because i understand it's not safe anymore to put humans on but i always thought they should just build a small little automated robot that looks like a little trash can guy. Yeah, it comes out and just wheels around. Wait, all the old characters do a pass. You get a Rex up there. You get ID and OD.

Put Rex on wheels and we get ID and OD. That'd be great. Like a daily robot parade. Because it's not OSHA anymore. So they're literally not allowed to have people up there without fall protection anymore. And the foundations were kind of wrecked by the rocket rods, so they would have to basically

rebuild the entire thing. Because it has cracks and it's falling apart and stuff. Why do they do this? It's not officially supposed to be walked upon by humans in its current state. But they could put some little robots and then they could just call them back to the maintenance bay

or come and retrieve them if they stopped. You know, after hours, go up there with a cherry picker and pull the bot down. Sure. It wouldn't be a safety concern at that point.

And couldn't we introduce more robots and characters like in Florida's Tomorrowland? Like, let's have Sunny Eclipse's brother. Well, I think we're getting that with Star Wars Land. I know, but let's get, like,

Sunny Eclipse's brother or something. Build the space angels. Give them a physical form. Great. This was my favorite. I should contextualize that. I think they should put Skippy

on that stage. I watched that video. Oh, that's a good tie together. I think they should join the band. Oh, yeah. Skippy a little guitar that's made for multiple arms. Yeah, and then he can be

Bert Skippy if he like do the guitar wrong. Well, the Bert Skippy is now a different, they re-skinned that. So now it's like the orange alien from Lilo and Stitch. It's, do the guitar wrong. Well, the burnt Skippy is now a different, they re-skinned that. So now it's like the orange alien from Lilo and Stitch. It's still in the Stitch encounter.

So it's the skeleton of burnt Skippy. But they, so they already have a different character. Put them all up there. Yeah. Skippy, orange alien, sir. They can all just be members of the band. It's a wonderful idea.

I'm so into this idea. Any of these robot jams, these are so wonderful. I want to contextualize that too, that I watched that video that you did where you talked about Sunny Eclipse, who was the lounge singer in the Tomorrowland hamburger restaurant. And that was new facts to me that you said in the video, that his backing vocals cannot be seen. Yeah, they're the space angels. They're invisible. He was singing a gig and suddenly from nowhere

he heard voices backing him up he has a song explaining that plot in the song he explains it through song he's like there it was at the gig and then out of the blue space angels and they're singing along and he's like you're invisible but you sing along to my songs like he just informs you of this through song and you're kind of like i get it what a massive premise to contain in this he only has 25 minutes of like i get it what a massive premise to contain in this he only has 25 minutes of show town and what it's like really yeah he's from new york or unork the whole song is a tongue twister he's from scott how did you not know this you fucking and the whole song i don't know how this man performed the song because the whole song is

like phrases like that where he says like kaxi tabs and stuff like that where you're just like oh my god then what it's all pig latin what a brain twist yeah just hired an actual dyslexic singer there you go well i i did hear this fun fact the man who provided the voice of sunny eclipse has never seen him perform he's never seen the alien animatronic with his voice which makes me very sad who did the voice i don't know it's just some paid like session singer huh that sounds like a frank sinatra type well the uh guy who did the music for marvel superhero island has never been down there to see it well i just don't know how you'd resist yeah right you mean the guy who did late 90s rock music the only one i understand is that ell never rode Energy Adventure,

and I get that, because it was also filmed footage of her when she was in an awkward 90s phase. So I could imagine feeling self-conscious seeing a 10-foot high projection of yourself 10 years ago. Well, that's also hard to shut. They shut down a 100-person capacity ride. I think they can just find it empty

and just put her on there. I think that, yeah, there was some room on the ride to get her on there. Oh, just sneak her in the back. Sneak her in in the dark, sneak her out. Yeah, have her hop on in the dinosaur zone. Real quick, I have more about the High in the Sky Sue Strolley train ride. Oh, please. Okay, good.

Yeah, go for it. Okay, so when I finally did get to ride it, I did enjoy it. I was interested. So when it was supposed to open, that was supposed to be Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Unusual Driving Machines. I don't even know that book,

so I'm glad they didn't go with that. You did not read that book? I've never read that book. I don't think I read that one either. Is High in the Sky from anything in particular or is that just a General Seuss? I think it was a General Seuss thing and I think it was another thing done in by like budgetary stuff.

Like they just couldn't get the money to do this little train thing. And then I think it was also like there was weird technical issues with it. I believe I heard once. Which you think like how do you mess up a little train ride? I don't get what technical issues it would have that the new incarnation doesn't have yeah exactly how was it different i i have no idea do you think it was more ambitious like it's a train but you got a spinner wheel and you can spin around i think a lot of this part of the story of a lot of this park was we had a lot more ambitious ideas but we were on a budget and time crunch um uh then the last thing i will say i found this on the seuss wikia uh the

entry for this ride there was one comment from a user named pyro goth nerd okay uh this is a very this is a very child oriented ride and by child i mean toddler it's pretty boring actually he's like i found myself pretty disappointed yeah behind high in the sky train ride. What is his name? Pyro Gothner. Oh, okay. Why did he think this was a ride for him? Yeah, exactly. Like this is a whole land for little children. I'm gonna love that one. Yeah. I found the Seuss ride

skewed a little young for my taste. This whole land appeals only to children and I don't understand it. This famous anarchist Pyro Gothner. Where are the attractions based on Seuss's political cartoons?

90% of which are horribly racist. Oh, God. Wow, is that true? It was not the biggest fan of the Japanese Dr. Seuss.

Oh, God. Jeez. During the war. During the war. During the middle of the war. We had to pick a sign and we did. I believe he recanted that. During the war. During the middle of the war. So I believe he- We had to pick a sign. We did. I believe he recanted that.

Oh, okay. One of the books is a- I'm sorry? One of the books is essentially a metaphor for Hiroshima. Anti-racism as well. Yeah. I think he changed his ways after the war. Yeah, I think he did also have an arms race one.

Wasn't it about pie throwing or something? Yeah. Like, he's pretty progressive otherwise. But, like, I mean, he was in the services. And, like, he was, you know, for our side in the war. Oh, he was in the army? Yeah. I think he was in the, like, the culture.

I think he was in the film division, maybe. Oh, okay. Like, making film and propaganda and that sort of thing. Is the cat in the hat a metaphor for a war? Or thing one and thing two? Yeah. So you had never been on the ride before, you said. No, I didn't even know it existed until I walked in. So as soon as I saw the queue, I was like getting really hyped for it.

And in fairness, it is like a very ambitious dark ride. It's got a lot of figures that move a lot. It's got some cool effects. The spinning was clever. I heard from someone on Twitter that the spinning used to be more aggressive and that's why the vehicles have nets around them. It was because people's belongings used to fly out of the vehicles. I remember thinking it was the first ride I went on in Islands of Adventure. I must have gone there in like 2000. And I remember thinking for kind of a kid's dark ride, this is surprisingly intense.

It was a long ride. And yeah, you have a lot of cat figures that move around a lot. Good range of motion. The little thing one and thing two like run around. They simulate walking, which you don't see a lot. and thing two like run around they simulate walking which you don't see a lot run alongside your car when they're revealed it's pretty fun with their little legs swinging i compared them to chucky dolls i thought they were a little scary um that you can't see the thing holding them up you can but does that mean you don't like the

rare rabbit that hops around in the florida mountain? No, that's true. I guess it's true. I guess it's true. Yeah, fess up. A lot of this. Look, I agree. I think this is an ambitious ride. There's cool stuff in it. But there's stuff where it's like one step forward, one step back.

I like the moments early on in the ride where it's like the narrator is narrating stuff. There's a lighting cue. It highlights what he's saying. Yeah. But then there's some parts that are just empty hallways with black lights. Yeah, I gotta say that the lighting cues to me were the main factor in its nightmarishness.

Yeah. Because you have all these whirling rainbow lights that are like more disorienting. And then everywhere you look, there's just stuff moving. They have those scary contraptions with arms moving. I thought the fish was a cool effect because they have the little animatronic fish and then the bowl that he's in is like double-paned plastic that's full of water so it sloshes around like a real fish

bowl that looks cool since you brought up the fish i'll say this this is a thing i found on the universal website that made me laugh a lot lot. From the ride page on the website, cautious Mr. Crinkle Bean reminds us that any minute, mother will be home. Is that the fish? Mr. Crinkle Bean? Yes. That's the name of the fish?

Look this up. Mr. Crinkle Bean was revealed as his last name in the TV special, in the TV adaptation. In the book, he is not named Crinkle Bean. The TV special was a cartoon in the old, from a while ago?

71? Yeah. Was that the puppet era? Like when Horton, here's who had the special that was like puppets? Because I watched those when I was a kid.

Oh, no. Those were pretty recent. These are the cartoon back in the 70s. Well, but then they, I think also when they had the puppet series, they would recycle

the 70s cartoons by having them as shorts in between the puppet segments they definitely would because i mean the shorts like summarize the full books and they're the books are only 10 pages long puppet stories and a short or something like that on the cartoon did the fish have the voice uh somebody clearly imitating edwin because that is what mother and father are at home. Yeah. And also That's every cartoon character.

Yes, that's true. Well, yeah. And there's not quite in this this riot a little bit but I think the Mike Myers cat in the hat is a little in that vein too. Like we decided

all the cat in the hat characters sound like Edwin. So they yeah, they're all because this one is just mostly the fish but also a little bit. The children sound like this as well.

And then the mom sounds like that too when she comes home. What's going on? Can you imagine watching a whole movie where every character is that? What would you do? It's almost like a power play at that point. It's like, I dare you to say anything about it. There's 45 minutes left. Do you know the voice of the fish in the ride?

Who does it? Yeah. No, I don't. Corey Burton is the person's name? I would be so impressed if you really knew that. Corey Burton, that sounds familiar. Corey Burton is a ton of things. He's a lot of voices in all animation, but in Parks especially.

And he is the voice of the Mad Hatter in all. Oh, that makes a perfect sense. Because Edwin was Mad Hatter in the Else Wonderland. Somehow, I copy and pasted this from my documents, my notes document about the Mickey and Friends parking structure, and amazingly, in two and a half hours or whatever, and we didn't talk about Corey Burton, but Corey Burton is the voice of the tram.

He is the, hold on to the hand, Ray. Please watch your step. i met that guy really it's star wars celebration whoa hey it was weird i like went back to my hotel after we did the they did the galactic nights like a press night so we got to go to that um and then i went back to the hotel and i wanted a midnight quiche so i i went to the hotel restaurant that's open all hours i was like it's not too late to grab a quiche before I go back to my room. That's right. There is some 24-hour restaurant at Disney World.

Well, no, this was back at the Con Hotel. Oh, okay. So I don't remember what chain or whatever. But yeah, they had one in the lobby and you could go and grab, you know, Benedict's or quiches to take to your room. So I did that every night of the trip. Wow, great. But I went there and there were like only a handful of people in there and then i was still wearing my galactic knights lanyard and the man who was

in line in front of me was like um oh i did a voice for that fireworks show like did you see the fireworks show and i was like i did but i only really noticed like quotes from the star wars movies and he's like oh and then i said and of course like the the main disneyland announcer guy and he was like yeah that's me and i was like what and he's like yeah i did the voice for the fireworks show and i was like but that was just the guy that does all the announcements like all the park ones and like the monorail and he's like yeah i did all of that don't you see my child yeah and then he started doing like he did the the monorail spiel for me and then i had him say hello to one of my friends who's a cast member.

He was like, hello, Alicia. Welcome to Disney World. It was really cool. But he was also kind of doing a grr. He was pulling a grr by hanging around. But I was wearing the lanyard. It'd be weird if I was just a random human. And he's like, I'm the voice of Disneyland.

I would tell everyone, though. I see you're getting quiche. What about a Benedict? He does the voice waiting for people to notice. Go right ahead. But it was really cool seeing him do it in person. And his wife is the voice of California Adventure. So she's the lady

voice that does all those announcements. They're just a nice sounding couple. The opposite of nice sound oh man I was trying to make a good segue Jason you mentioned the live action cat in the hat of course that movie the movie that made the Geisel estate go

okay no more live action Dr. Seuss movies I believe that is the story that they're like no only animated from now on never again because that movie ate shit so much they only know how to make one kind of suit it's like the same as the very similar why is it

like that yeah it was a big news story to accord found an LA Times article from like 98 99 that they did Universal paid 5 million for the rights to cat in the hat which seems low and when it was going to be Tim Allen. Oh, wow.

The original thought that it was, and you know why it's Mike Myers? I think I know the answer to this, but yeah. The lawsuit? Because of Sprockets? Because of Sprockets. Yeah, so Mike Myers' famous Sprockets sketch on SNL, he was going to make a movie, and there was a script,

and supposedly the script was good. The German TV show's Dieter. Yeah, Dieteter yeah yeah i remember yeah there was some article saying that he had a black turtleneck on and he said now is the time on sprockets where we dance and then he would say like do you want to touch my monkey which now that i say it sounds real lame but i love this sketch as a child he apparently in preparation for it would do he did a an op he opened for john bryan at the largo asgo as Dieter with a little band. And he did the Beatles song, I'm Happy Just to Dance With You. I'm as happy as a little girl.

Oh, my God. Yeah, Dieter was doing live shows around that time. That's crazy. Supposedly, the script was funny, but then he just got cold feet and didn't want to do it. But then they sued him because they wanted him because he had a contract so then to get out of the like what happened? It was with Imagine Entertainment part of the settlement because it was very

bitter loss. So like as a punishment for breaking the contract was they took him off Cat in the Hat. No they took him on Cat in the Hat. No they made him do Cat in the Hat. He was made to do Cat in the Hat as a punishment essentially. Oh no. Forced into these prosthetics. Put on this snout Mike. That's what you get for pulling out. I was picturing Tim Allen as the person in question for the whole story.

I didn't know he was that much of a showman. You didn't know Tim Allen was on Saturday Night Live? No, well, I was like, maybe as a host. He used to be big. Yeah, that's true. He never did, amazingly. There was a time. Also, a casualty, I think, of this Cat in the hat movie uh the thing they paid four million

dollars the rights for uh the film rights to owe the places you'll go what how could you make a film of that i don't know but they were gonna try i mean but also how could you make a film of the lorax and they proved that you couldn't yeah i honestly though i feel like that one could have been good if they had had gotten someone good on board. Is it bad? I don't think I ever saw it. I have a distinct memory, though, of the... The Onceler craze?

Well, the what? Oh, no. Onceler had fangirls. It was insane. And there was no one to ship him with, so they would ship him with the good and evil versions of himself. It was deep. deep yeah this is deep no my my thing is uh deep in a different way do you remember the billboards that were all over

la for the lorax it was just a big orange billboard oh with just his face yeah uh every time i saw those i would think about how in the great gatsby there's that reoccurring detail of the yeah the eyes of TJ Echelberg that always like as a book fucking Scott Fitzgerald sat down was like I'm gonna write a book of metaphors for English

teachers to talk about for years just those eyes and that billboard watching the characters the eyes of God looking down so for like months I would be

that's the Lorax for you the Lorax just following me judging me did you hit someone with your car- That's the Lorax for you. The Lorax just following me, judging me. He watched you. Did you hit someone with your car as well when the Lorax was watching?

Oh, yes. My mistress. Yeah, you hit your mistress with a car. I hit my mistress with my car. And you're like, oh, this is rough. And you look in the sky and there's the Lorax billboard. He knows what you did. And then old English teachers is calling me at all hours.

Like, you see, it's a metaphor and the green light is a metaphor. You're like, the light was green. I thought I could go. It's like, it's a very compacted version of Great Gatsby. That's the green light. It's just a stoplight. Just Jason's life.

Just my life being haunted by Danny DeVito. I'm the Lorax. Is he the Lorax? He was the Lorax. They basically realized that the story of the book was hard to like stretch to movie length so they added a framing narrative about a little animated boy voiced by adult man zach efron who just sounds like himself he doesn't sound like a child it's just an adult man's voice and um his love interest played by taylor swift and the taylor swift just voice acting she was

voice acting they didn't even sing it wasn't even a music well oh it was kind of a musical but she didn't sing they had like an intro song and an outro song and that was it weird and um the taylor swift character is like gosh i love trees if only i could see a tree and then zach efron's like the way i'll date taylor swift is i'll find a tree but there are no trees anymore because this is set after the plot of the Lorax. So I have to go find the Onceler and find a tree to impress my girlfriend. And that's-

This is very- This is more convoluted than Seussical where they match up all the Dr. Seuss stuff. Oh, I hate Seussical. My high school performed that. Yeah, it's rough. Were you in it? No, I didn't audition.

Okay. I would just have stopped it out. Because it's Seussical. Yeah, it's rough. Were you in it? No, I didn't audition. Okay. I would just have stopped it out. Because it's Seussical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seussical has the one big song in that is a person is a person no matter how small. Yeah, my friend was Jojo, my best friend at the time. Oh, okay.

Was the lead character. Yeah. She was Jojo. They repeat it so much, and I remember seeing it when I was in college. I was like, is this a pro-life musical? It's not. It's not.

The musical thinks it is, but the wife is like, no. No, yeah. That's what, after a minute of Googling and looking at the Seuss Wikipedia page, it's like pro-life groups use that phrase. Yeah, they co-opted it, and then the widow sued them. Yeah, it's like, please stop doing that. Yeah. Please stop it.

Yeah. Gee whiz. I didn't know anything about this Seuss sued them. Yeah, it's like, please stop doing that. Please stop it. Gee whiz. I didn't know anything about this Seussical controversy. There's a lot of odd darkness in all these. They did use that phrase on billboards and whatever. I will just say, I found Cat in the Hat as a book very anxiety-inducing. It's not one of the better Seuss books. It kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, which I also didn't like as a kid and i guess yeah yeah it's like it's just kind of well-behaved children being tormented by yes fantasy freaks it's a good way to put it so it doesn't seem fun because

they're not along for the ride they're just stressed like alice is stressed that she's going to die and the little kids and cat in the hat are stressed that they're going to get in trouble and see their home destroyed. There's an intruder in our house and he's whimsical but chaotic. Oh and he's got two weird little friends. Oh we haven't even talked about the fucking the Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts. Oh I see what you're saying.

That has been a thing since Islands opened. Who wears those and why? Like tourists. Thing Dad or like Thing 1 and stuff yeah thing dad or like yeah thing one and thing two and now it's kind of been usurped by the minion shirts by like the bright yellow shirts with minion eyes and stuff on or the minion overalls printed yes yeah you guys just jogged a very weird memory this is the strangest story i could that is our show catchphrase i had a cat and had experience when

i was a kid and i don't know why i never made the connection until now but my dad uh used to work in video game development and he worked for the company that made the bubsy games oh are we and i have a little i know i never know and i used to play the games too and i guess for promotional purposes they had like a a Bubsy mascot suit. And my sister and I played the Bubsy games because my dad brought them home, obviously. And we had little stuffed animals of Bubsy that I think only employees of the company

could get these little Bubsy dolls, but we still have our little Bubsy dolls. And then my dad, to surprise us one night, my mom had to go to her like women's group meeting and she's like and i just don't have a sitter for you guys like they were like doing like a long con and she's like yeah i didn't find a babysitter you guys will just have to be good and then she left and we're like oh my god we're home alone we're only like three and five what do we do and then the doorbell rings and it's bubsy here to babysit us. My dad put on the mascot suit and came home early to babysit us as Bubsy.

And so we thought that Bubsy had just showed up at our house. And obviously he was like, you know, doing everything wrong because he's just a big mascot suit of Bubsy. He did the character acting. He could have been hired officially to do it. My dad was a theater major too. Okay, he could physicalize. See, if I saw that, I would look out the front windows of my child at home and saw that. It's scary now, right?

Get the cordless phone. Call 911. I'm locking the doors. And we were kind of put in the role of babysitting ourselves because it's just this big unspeaking bubsy. So we were like, well, now it's time for us to go to bed and stuff so it lasted a long time it did and then like my mom got back from her like meeting and bubsy left a little bit before that like we were changing for bed and we came out and bubsy was gone and then my mom came in like how are you guys how was the night like playing dumb

and we were like bubsy was here it was bubsy and she's like what butsy was here. It was Bubsy. And she's like, what? But there was no Mr. Crinklebean to be the voice of reason. No, it was just on us. And go like, Bubsy, just fucking cool it. It's just funny because it is a large cartoon cat and I can't believe I never drew that connection until just now. Yeah, but he's like hauntingly silent

like the Babadook. Yeah, it was like the Babadook. Yeah. It is really scary in hindsight imagining like a tall Bubsy just in your house. Yeah. It's a space you don't expect a mascot suit to be in kind of. Yeah.

Yeah. That's why you go to Disneyland or to the mall or whatever. It's a context in which you expect them. Yes. But when it showed up at your door. It's a bit scary. Yeah. It's very scary.

It's somewhere between like childhood magic and sort of frightening. Well, for us, it was just we liked it. But in hindsight, if that happened to me now, first of all us it was just we liked it but in hindsight i if that happened to me now first of all be weird if if you wanted to babysit me because i am an adult so if bubsy showed up in my apartment like i'm your babysitter i'd be like i need a weapon i'm here to tell you what to do um yeah creepy all right a little creepy but no but it was like the cat in the hat. Made real. But Bubsy.

You had a literal, yeah. A weird story I told you guys. Yeah, thank you. No, thank you. You're a person who had a cat in your house. Yeah. A giant cat. A lot of people have cats in their house. He was like a cool cat, though, Bubsy.

He was a cool cat. I wish we had pictures of that mascot suit. I'm sure they're in some photo album. That was not the only time we saw the suit. saw him at like company appearances and stuff too but um and he would haunt you there as well yeah i've never been able to find pictures of the suit like online but wow i'm imagining a darker uh scenario than probably what occurred where like you're happy bubsy is there you start playing and then you both open up to bubsy about how much like all your problems with your dad and now you're like i don't think he's i don't think he's holding down work and i think

he may maybe he's being mean to my mom i'm glad you're here instead bubsy stay forever light in his eyes and it's since been extinguished oh my god maybe the stress of us father bubsy but i think what we did with bubsy is um we also as like you know having our dad working there we had a vhs of the bubsy pilot which i think is on youtube now but we were like let's watch the bubsy movie and it's it's about like his niece and nephew bubsy and i don't really remember this sounds like the lure axe movie where it's like they're so convoluted setting up this stuff i think one of the things that works with seuss landing is they're like look here's here's one fish two fish red fish blue fish oh yeah it's like a dumbo yeah that's very cute um and there's the there's the carousel with all the fish there's the carousel yes uh or a circus mcgurkis is the restaurant okay and the carousel is just everything i think

it's a catch-all yeah it's kind of a catch-all uh there's the do you guys know about the zax bypass are you familiar with the zax bypass the zaxes were like two stubborn creature. They're a kind of creature. And two of them met. And one was going north and one was going south. And they refused to compromise. So the road was built around and above them. And so the trolley train ride does go directly above them.

Wait, let me see. And it's just two Zaxes stuck in hell. That's a deep reference. They're just stuck in limbo limbo yeah i don't know if i'd get that one the detail work in this part of the park is good uh like there is a lot of details a lot of references to the book yeah i i thought you know looking at a lot of pictures like is is the paint like kind of sun damn it like a lot of that's my thing but i went it was okay so maybe they updated i think it's like toont sun damn it like a lot of our it was good when I went it was fine I think they updated it I think it's like Toontown where it just fades really fast yeah

but then there's also like looking at the Seuss art like it is a very flat matte style of color so I think they try they replicated that pretty well but I think it still fades so my thing is that they I think they in trying to recreate especially on the ride and

trying to recreate the art of the book i feel like it looks weird and it looks like especially like the characters look they're they're melting a little bit like cat looks a little bit like he's melting the colors don't maybe pop that ride he does and yeah uh in preparation for doing this talk i watched um i re-watched a ride through of the ride. Yes. And in that ride through, the cat looked a lot better than when I saw him. So my thinking is that the skin that I saw, and this sounds as scary as it ought to, I think the skin that I saw on the cat in the hat had been on too long.

Like his blacks were not black enough. He looked like just pale. There weren't enough squiggly lines to indicate hair. It was kind of slouching off his body. His eyes looked sunken. This happens with Splash Mountain every now and then. No, I think they look good. Like you'll notice they stop moving,

but like it's a range of motion thing. I feel like their skins hold up pretty good. Oh, okay. Yeah, but Cat in the Hat, it was like his skin is like latex or something. It's not fur. Yeah, it's not fur. And I don't know why it's not fur. Yeah, that's an issue., it was like his skin is like latex or something. It's not fur. Yeah, it's not fur. And I don't know why it's not fur.

Yeah, that's an issue. Why isn't it just fur? Yes. It should be more like a cartoon. I mean, they should have probably kind of redesigned it. They'd not go full Mike Myers, but do a different cartoonish thing. A lot like Rare Rabbit or something like that. Right.

Because the way that the characters look is kind of frightening. And with fur, you don't have to change it out like that. Right. Because, yeah, because the way that the characters look is kind of frightening. And with fur, you don't have to change it out as often. Right. Because that happens with pirates and haunted, too, is like their skin will kind of slough off. Right. And I think what they do is they'll go in and kind of whittle off the excess that's coming off at the edges. Like, honestly, I saw some ex-imagineer had like a website post and in his keepsake box he had like bits of old skin from the Haunted Mansion

skin so it's like that bluish gray right I saw the skin of Mater from the Radiator Springs Racer at D23 they had his whole mouth his whole skin it's crazy because they have to replace that full Mater mouth every couple months or something yeah that must have a lot of wear and tear

yeah so Ken had his loose skin a lot of wear in there. So Cat and the Hat is loose skin a lot and they got to maybe upkeep a little bit. Well, there's also a screen with some very dated... With some CGI. 2000 CGI. Does that not look good now? At least better than the animatronic, which is not

saying a lot. This ride reminds me of Winnie the Pooh in Disneyland. It's a similar ride where there's a couple okay things. It's not as good as that ride. It's weird though because it is more ambitious than that ride because Winnie the Pooh is like stiff mannequins and they move a little bit. So there's not a lot that can go wrong there

because it's rigid plastic. That's true. And I think Cat in the Hat, they do have a much bigger range of motion. So it's a more impressive ride because there's a lot more that's moving.'s longer there's a lot of like moving elements and effects you have the little contraptions with arms running all over the room you have scenery swinging out of the way it benefits from being like there's not a lot of dark rides in islands

either yeah until i guess if you consider very surrounded by just feel very surrounded by everything. Yeah. But they also have the thing like this I complained about this on Small World and I was shouted down by my co-hosts and guests that I don't like how Small World you can see just the ceiling very visible and it looks like a building. Oh I guess it depends on like time of day like if your eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Right. I wrote

down in my notes unlike it's a small world I am not charmed by this visible lighting. Thank you very much. Oh, the lighting racks. Yeah, the lighting racks are pretty clear. So as much as you're saying, yeah, being completely trapped in the house would be horrifying, I do think it would be better.

I didn't even notice that as much just because it was such a sensory overload. Because there is a lot moving and you're looking left and right. And then on top of that, they have the soundtrack of the ride, which is like the nightmarish giggling of thing one and thing two.

And then also like the distressed cries of the children in Goldfish. So it's just like, it's really, it's overwhelming. I remember at one point in the ride, like my friend and I just the whole time, I felt bad cause there was like this couple in front of us that just got put on the vehicle with us and they were just this like adult like middle eastern couple they they appeared to not not like speak a lot of english i think they were just along for the ride and maybe they were even enjoying it but we were right

behind them going like ah wait was there a line for this ride there was a short line we waited like about we went five to seven minutes. Okay. It's never long. It was basically a walk-on. Yeah. So they should have been giving everyone their own cars. They definitely should have had their own because also they came in from the VIP line. So they had bought that pass where you see the lines all day. They should have given them their own car. Wait.

So who got to control the spinning? Oh, you don't control it anymore. You don't control the spinning. Oh, you don't anymore? I don't know if you used to. Am I confusing? Maybe you never did. I don't think you ever did. They do spin you, but I don't control you don't control the spinning oh you don't anymore i don't know if you used to but am i am i maybe you never did i don't think i don't think you ever did i'm confusing my rights and maybe you control it are you thinking of men in black where you hit something i'm not thinking of men in black that's such a good ride something else can i

can i throw out a little little bit of trivia and i'm curious if you guys know the uh the answer i i was thinking how it is uh it is a really a very rare Universal Studios dark ride. There are not a lot. In my quantification of this, I was going to ask if you could name the other two. One is E.T. E.T. probably the first Universal Studios dark ride. They had not done another one until Cat in the Hat. Well, Kongfrontation was a dark ride.

It's gone now, but it was a dark ride well let me let me qualify like a like more of a kids style little cars you know like more of family rides like can you name the other there's only one other one and you're not counting men in black I'm not counting men in black because it's a shooting ride

different genre I think I mean it's again what counts because like you could almost count the Dudley Do right because it does have scenes that move but i wouldn't really count it yeah yeah straight up dark ride it's i'll give you the hint that it's not in america i i'm hopefully you guys don't know there's a madagascar safari ride is that it that's actually what i'm saying it's called like crate adventure or something but that is a that's a something, but that's a water ride. Oh, that's a water ride. That sounds cool. But in the same park, I believe, in Singapore, there is something called Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase.

That sounds great. It's pretty fun. I recommend a watch through or a ride through of it. Singapore has really good rides, too. I've only seen ride throughs of them, but their Jurassic Park looks a lot better than ours. Does it really? Oh, is that the one that has a rapids ride rather than it is yeah and then also just the dinos are all way better maintained california's in a very sad state yeah they have a couple months ago well yeah they have loose skin but it looks a little better on a

dinosaur they're not as true that's true um and you don't really know what a real dino should look like so it's easier to fool the eye and be like, sure, that's a brontosaurus. Okay. I just always think dinosaurs look like better animatronics because we don't have a basis for comparison. Right. Oh, sure. And they're lizardy. So you expect a bit of skin. They're almost like elephants. You're just like, okay, they can have some wrinkles. They're chubby. But I think like a couple months ago someone made a ride through comparison of like opening day or opening year um jurassic park river cruise versus 2017 jurassic park river cruise and not only just the skin maintenance being worse like them needing some tlc you can see that all of them are in their b modes now like where they're just their range of

motion is a lot less so even the ones that are operating properly they they always have like with all theme parks any any key or ambitious animatronic is usually pre-programmed with an a mode where it's working at its full operating capacity and a b mode which is like what it does if the figure is having problems so it's meant to be like a last resort mode and not like something you run all the time. It's supposed to be like it needs maintenance, but it's a major part of the ride. It's a key figure. Like it'll look weird if we take it out. So in the interest of running the park for the day, we're going to put it in its B mode

so it can function and we'll fix it at night. So then there and then there's whatever the Yeti at Expedition Everest is in at this point he does have a b mode too and initially they did just run him in b mode where they minimized his movement but now he's just off he's just strobe lights and that's why when they did the singer the the song is it the singer of songs in avatar the shaman of songs but they shaman of songs, yeah. But that's built on a contraption where they can just pull it backstage immediately and get it on and off.

Yeah, she lowers either into the floor or to the side and she can be fixed right there without them having to move her out of the building. Like they purposely build stuff that are complex to fix easier than when they built the Yeti. Also like at Disneyland, all figures where the ride can't run without them have a backup figure as well.

So in case of emergency, they can be substituted out. I think the auctioneer at Pirates has one. Oh, wow. I know that the dog from Pirates has one because one time at holiday time, they pulled it out for a photo op and like we could all take pictures with it and like wear

pirate hats and stuff and i was like if it's here what's in the ride and they're like oh we have two because it's important yeah we got another one like the joke doesn't make sense if there's no dog there so i mean obviously you'll see the singing pirates where it's like a quartet and it's really common to see one of them just gone yes because with those it doesn't ruin the scene if they're gone they can just have a barrel there. Ruins it for me, though. Bad show. And same for a lot of Splash Mountain ones. You'll see them taken out and just have blank spots where they should be.

Wow. I think we now have a way to quantify if we've done a good or bad job in each episode. If we're in A mode or B mode. Yeah, A mode or B mode. Sorry, guys. I feel like I was in B mode. Or your full Yeti where you just got a strobe light on and a fan.

I was really phoning it in. Cat in the Hat, no longer spinner, I found on the website. I found it on the message board here. Oh, so you used to spin it yourself. I believe so because I have a memory of spinning it

and I'm not that crazy. Because now you hit a hallway where you spin lethargically, like a gentle spin for the duration of that hallway but the rest of it you're just going forward that hallway i think is the cheapest spot like that's like the black light hallway is that right that's when uh thing one and thing two push a piano on top of your head and then you see stars and you see sound effects it's kind of like in mr toad when you go through the dynamite right it's like yeah yeah it's just

a simulation of a cartoon effect. I mean, not everything can be a giant, huge animatronic. There's money, costs, but like... I mean, I'm surprised how many they did have in the ride. Yeah, that's true. It's just all that effort and for a result that's unnerving and unpleasant. I am really...

The spinning thing is really getting to me that it's gone because that was one of my favorite parts of the ride is how crazy you could make the ride in addition to how nightmarish it was. And maybe that makes you feel more like you have agency in it. Yes. Because I think the current version, it's more of a bombardment. Yes.

Like all these sights and sounds just coming at you. I feel like if you're spinning, you've got like a thing to focus on other than all the things coming at you. Yes. And you can try to be like a Tasmanian devil also through participant right in this chaos yeah you're just you're just being bombarded uh like the children are yeah horrible nightmare day that they have yeah and i when i read as i said i read the book i was just like mike what if this happened to me like it was just anxiety inducing yeah yeah and it wasn't fun and i we would i would

get it read to me but i i didn't love it um and the the film only compounds this i flipped through the film the film is a nightmare if the film occurred to you in reality i've seen all of it i didn't i i was starting to watch it i was well because you must have known you know it just showed up on hbo now this week and then i was like i'm gonna watch it so was well because you must have known you know it just showed up on hbo now this week and then i was like i'm gonna watch it so i have stuff to say oh yeah now i gotta track it now that it's right there give it a actually somebody did a good job on youtube of paring down just the strangest moments in cat in the hat and uh the the number one being i'll just spoil it paris hilton is in this movie what great? In an unspeaking, they end up at

some nightclub and Paris Hilton is there. What, they leave the house? Yeah, they go or it might, I think part of the house He turns it into a nightclub, I think. The house is transforming. Alec Baldwin is also a nosy neighbor, is that right? Yeah, and he has a big prosthetic gut at some point. Oh boy, that's fun.

Don't we be more offended if they didn't give you one. Yeah, yeah. There's a failed Mike Myers catchphrase in it. What is it? Somebody stop me. It's really close.

The entire character is very close to the mask in that he keeps transforming into things. Oh, they're trying to do a genie. Now he's an infomercial host. Yes. He's a genie.

He was Carmen Miranda, which I feel like other characters of that nature have been Carmen Miranda. That is locked in my mind. Really upsetting. He does a kind of odd little like shake of his like, like his coconut butt.

Like it's, it's pretty disturbing. That's what the ride was missing. The like odd sexually confused moment. There's a weird part where he just holds up a dress in front of him and says, I'm a girl. Oh, Jesus. You don't really know why.

It's that like early 2000s sensibility of like men dressed in dresses is only funny. Outrageous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How could anyone ever belittle themselves? Why would he demean himself like a woman? Only the freakiest freaks, whatever. Yeah, it definitely comes out of that.

So Mike Myers didn't do a month-long residency as the cat in the hat like he did for Guru Pin Top. Opening for John Bryan at the Largo. He showed up at the L.A. He's doing some... He's working on cats. He's doing opening sets for Friends, Ferdinand. There's a secret show at the People's Improv Theater

in New York, and let's just. There's a secret show at the People's Improv Theater in New York. And let's just say there's a very curious cat involved. Also dressed as Carmen Miranda on top of it. I like the idea that he would workshop in his go-to-kids' houses to workshop the whole thing. A la Bubsy. That's right.

A la Bubsy. A la Bubsy. Your house would have been open. I want to say one more thing about this movie is that it has a little theme park connection. There's a very bizarre section where there's a, there's a babysitter who falls asleep, who kind of cannot be trained when she,

at the end she wakes up and like, didn't know anything happened. Mrs. Kwan. And, and, and at some, and at some point the house becomes this odd multi-layered river zone and

they ride her like a log flume and there's a part where the cat the kid says oh my god this is like a ride at a theme park and cat mike myers turns to camera and says you mean like universal studios how horrible really often he holds up maps like then accurate perhaps universal escape maps i didn freeze frame, but it could have been from that era. That's a lot of overconfidence early in the project. Like the presumption that the film would make so much money that it would inevitably get a theme park ride. That it would get a ride and that even the bare mentioning of it would boost attendance five-fold at the park.

And the idea that like, well, we know this one's got it in the bag that it's going to get a ride. So we might as well make a little coy joke. I mean, we've got all the powers in the movie. So this is going to be a hit. This guy's a catchphrase machine. Oh, I didn't say he keeps saying, oh, yeah. Like Kool-Aid man? Pretty much like the Kool-Aid man.

Does he bust through any walls? A lot of walls get busted. So it's referential. That's par for the course. But he doesn't say it while doing the busting. Are Thing 1 and Thing 2 like scary little men? They are so fucking scary. Could you imagine being either the widow

or the kids watching this? The Seuss family watching like, what the fuck did you do? How did you do this? Hideous. they have snouts the only thing this movie did correctly is that at the end of the ride um they they they there's like an announcement a cory burton-esque announcement saying uh uh you like uh you please exit the kwan to your left because she's mrs kwan right they were they were riding on her

then there's another little scene and then it comes back and they're holding a souvenir photo and the photo says on the back I survived the Quan. And our podcast ends with you survived podcast the ride and I just want to say I feel great that a joke that we do in every single episode is

something worthy of the Mike Myers cat in the hat. I'm glad we're operating at that level. Do you say that every episode? You're about to find out. Is this a good time? Yeah. We should just have our final thoughts. Final thoughts, cat in the hat.

Do you like this ride more than you didn't like this ride? What's your sum total? It was pretty rough, but I guess that amount of effort, I have to respect. Yeah. So we have to respect. Yeah. So we have a scale. So would you keep the ride perfectly as is? Would you plus it up? And what are your ideas?

Or would you just burn it down for insurance money and build something new? Is an option for plus it up to re-skin everything and make it a different ride? Of course. Yeah, I would use all the figures and make them some other Seuss property. Maybe a Lorax ride. No, that has a downer ending. Not Lorax, something horton that'd be a good ride yeah i'm not versed enough in horton uh but maybe i want to be i want to learn what horton is so uh yeah take it out it's horton now yeah it's horton so i can experience horton that's good that's your plus it up as well yeah it's just horton yeah it's time i think they have to... I have this general thing about Islands of Adventure

that I've said this. I think it was if we were going to rank VIP theme parks year to year, I think in 99, 2000, Islands of Adventure is number one. It's the VIP. And now I feel like it's just not... What else can you do?

You can do little seasonal events. They string Christmas lights up around Seuss Landing. I don't know what else. What other... So many of these things need a lease on life. Superhero Island's just there. They should take that out. It's just embarrassing with Disney happening.

I love it. Mike and I love it as it is. I also love the industrial conflict it causes between two massive behemoths. Yeah, and I think honestly it's just up out of spite at this point because they fought contractually

to be allowed to keep it and I think they're going to keep it as long as they can justify. But I honestly think that especially with Disney getting a Marvel land, it's going to become even more a source of embarrassment and it should just come out.

But that Spider-Man ride is so good. It's nice. It's so good. It's the same ride as Transformers. Yes, but it was the first. Now that they have Transformers, they don't need the Spider-Man ride. The IP is better, though, with Spider-Man.

It is. Of course it is. But what an easy ride to re-theme. I'll put it that way. They have other properties at Universal. They could easily put in a Lucille Ball ride there. Oh, God. A Simulacrum.

Same tech. Woody Woodpecker. It is Woody Woodpeckercker wife or combine them on multiple smoky and the band of all time to retheme because it's so screen heavy yes so yeah lucy you go through the ricardo's kitchen i think it's a good idea uh i will say yeah my my i would say plus up this ride too i think you could plus up all of seuss landing and i think like this ride especially made me think about like you know the fantasy land dark rides get sort of a plussing up like every 10 20 years or so they had projections and all yeah they had projections they clean it up they redo the queue

i think you do that for this ride you know you make the electronics a little better you add some rear projection stuff i think you do like a full new fantasy land um for seuss landing because i love the level of detail um i i i had a great time going back and looking at all this stuff because i i passed through that island of the park pretty quickly usually but it's like oh this is cool this is cool but looking at the restaurants i mean the circus restaurant looks really cool inside. The food looks atrocious. Like the food in this part of the park, reading these menus look like such a bummer.

I mean, all the restaurants are like that though, right? It's like pizza, tacos, burgers. Yeah, and like the green eggs and ham restaurant is never open. Do they not serve green eggs and ham? They do serve green eggs. It's like green eggs with like parsley and arugula and stuff. I want like a green egg McMuffin. It is not

that level. What I saw, photos I've seen, because that sounds kind of nice. I think there's green ingredients you could put in. I think they experimented with it, but and then I think they experiment with dyeing the eggs. It is just like, it is green sponges. It looks so fucking horrible. Oh, because it's like McDonald's eggs. It's like the bad McDonald's egg. That's like you put them on a muffin or a

croissant witch. That's good. That would dress it up. That'd be something. A green egg croissant witch. And they always put ham on those anyway. Huh, that's true. Delicious. Yeah, but it should be the better egg for McDonald's.

It should be the McMuffin egg. The point of the muffin or the croissant is to disguise the poor quality of the eggs. And it works. That's true. Everybody wins. But I think you can plus up. I feel like this land, this whole land

should be a lot cooler, a lot wilder. The food should be like a kid's dream of like those crazy milkshakes now with a cake coming out of it. Yeah.

Like Goofy's kitchen status where it's like milk and cheese on a pizza. Yeah. Peanut butter and jelly pizza. It should be. Do you know that they have like a fancy cotton candy place now yeah i saw that honkers cotton candy with like toppings but it's like multi-layered and yeah and you're putting this you put marshmallows in but they

don't advertise that they should be selling that i could see that being really good with like japanese guests because they love Instagrammable desserts. Oh, and sort of bizarrely indulgent. I know that's a thing in Tokyo is a famous shop that makes massive rainbow cotton candy. So there you go. Yeah. But you think they should advertise that on your TV

like during basketball games. Or a Super Bowl ad. No, no. I mean, but like Dole Whip Whip has like oh such a following yeah there should be crazy foods at Dr. Shoe yeah it looks cool and be like I mean your dessert there is a fun fact about the land there's like no straight lines in the land everything is curved uh yeah and and uh except for like then you see a door And it's straight There's lines Alright But then they'll do

Like trapezoid doors If it's like Toontown I haven't scrutinized Seuss Landing But it's like They'll stay whimsical They have a bit of whims They did a good job

I'm not besmirching The work of the Don't stop besmirching Seuss Landing The makers of Seuss Landing Anyway So there's a lot I like about

There's a lot And you know Yeah I think the ride Is ambitious But I think it's Coming up know, yeah, I think the ride is ambitious. But I think it's coming up on 20 years. Is it? Yeah, like 1999 was opening. I'm even more impressed now.

How many years you've missed this ride existing? Better than the show? The Voyage of the Little Mermaid? No, no, the ride. Oh, are you not into the Little Mermaid ride? A little stiff. Ursula looks good. But I think everything else

that it could be better is all I'm saying. Compare it to like Pooh's Honey Hunt. If you get, I'll give a little plug to Doug Barnes over at the season pass.

They did a special episode with Tony Baxter where he talks about his original vision for that ride. I've seen the video from the DVD. And it's crazy

and it's cooler. Where you go under the sea and there's the ships. Oh, the special feature. Yeah, that does look like a better. Yeah, and you were like kind of floating in the middle of the ride.

Tony Baxter has such good ideas though. Didn't he invent that Mary Poppins idea when he was like in high school? Yeah, that's one of the things. Where it's like you're on a carousel and then they peel off and you go,

it was amazing. There's a video on YouTube. It's really great. How do we avoid, we're now three hours and 45 minutes in the first Tony Baxter reference. I was hoping there was

a Baxter anecdote from Disneyland or something, from Meteor or something. No, I've never met him. We met him at the park. If I could meet any Imagineer, I'd pick Tony Baxter. Of course.

He's so cool. Yeah. So yeah, so quickly sum up, so we don't go to the fourth hour. I just think, as I said before, I want that spinning back. I don't like the idea The spinning is gone I thought that was so much fun

I think you gotta close off the top I think you gotta make me Really feel like I'm inside This nightmare house And then my last suggestion is Add that song from Seussical Cause I want some value Some Christian values

Which one? Sing it Oh stop The pro-life song That's a horror song You can't put that in Cat in the Hat Oh okay alright well then

But I had some of the You maniac Cat in the Hat had a song okay. All right. Well, then. Cat in the Hat had a song in Seussical. I can't bring it to mind, but it existed. Oh, it did? Well, it had that song in it. Cat in the Hat. All right. Seussical is sort of like an Avengers setup where they all come together.

As long as it's a Christian song. It is. It's like the Avengers. Oh, wait. I know my plus up now, which is that I want the music to be the 1982 album Cat in the Hat by blue-eyed soul singer bobby caldwell oh wow that's that's a photorealistic animatronic that comes out of a door and pops up yeah i want a really realistic bobby caldwell his cool beard and cool sunglasses and cool hat it's not stylized it

looks exactly like him yes yeah yeah or just bring him around he does private shows uh for every single ride that uh goes by wow that's my personal plus it i don't know if anybody else is uh down with that but i'm fine with that that sounds good to me hey great all right any we're all agreed jason's especially agreed hey lobby codwell that's all we need to plus it up uh i guess so with that jenny nicholson you've survived podcast the ride see we say it we say it we do say it it's a reference

it's a real reference so we know you do a YouTube channel and we reference you do great work there you just put in your name on YouTube and it's that

Jenny Nicholson on YouTube is my channel Twitter as well Twitter as well anything else to plug no okay that's fine

great stuff great videos though and as much as much ranting as I think is deserved about topics that should be ranted about yeah as much as I think a non theme parky audience will tolerate we're trying to make sure there's much and there's like less and less

non theme parky audience out there if we all work together yeah this will be a giant subsect of all audiences. And to help that endeavor, go to follow us at Podcast The Ride on Twitter and on Instagram.

Rate and review us on iTunes. Whatever the hell. Do they call it Apple Podcasts? What the hell is it really called? It's not iTunes, right? It's Apple Podcasts? You can do it on the iTunes or you can do it on the itunes or you can do it on the podcast app we're on something called art 19 yeah it's about as boring of a thing as i could say yes but we're on it yeah so yeah look us up and listen so uh yeah thanks for listening guys uh and we'll you know see you next week sure bye bye