Podcast: The Ride - Frozen Ever After with Carlye Wisel
Episode Date: January 22, 2021Carlye Wisel (Very Amusing, SYFY Wire) returns for a knock-down, drag-out discussion of Epcot's Frozen Ever After. Gripes Form: https://bit.ly/2L1t4ZH Ear Force One episode up at The Second Gate: Pa...treon.com/PodcastTheRide Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Forever!
Dog!
Oh, we're going up to Elsa's Ice Palace to argue about a slow-moving boat ride.
With you, and you, and you, and Carly Weisel!
Strap in! It's Frozen Ever After!
On Podcast The Ride! welcome to podcast the ride the theme park podcast hosted by three guys who used to ride the Frozen ride, but now pray the Zoom screen doesn't get frozen.
My name is Mike Carlson.
Joining me as always, Scott Gairdner.
You said make funny if we didn't like it, but I liked it.
All right.
Well, thank you.
Thumbs up from me.
Jason Sheridan here.
Do you like it?
I feel like I'd be getting twice as much grief as you are going to get.
If I came out with that shit.
Well, give it to me.
Come on.
You want it?
It's going to forever.
Let me have it.
It does sound a little like a youth pastor or something.
Yeah.
Come on.
Let me have it. Call me a youth pastor or something. Yeah. Like, come on, let me have, let me have it.
Like,
yeah.
Call me a youth pastor.
Millennials are always on their iPhones,
but what they should be saying is I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
That sort of.
You're right.
Cumbersome.
You're right.
That is okay.
I have been,
I have been owned.
I think,
I think Jason just owned me.
Just saying you're bringing that youth pastor energy to a podcast, and I think that's a
compliment because he's saying that you're youthful.
You have a youthful appeal.
Anything with youth in the word to describe me, I don't care.
It could be like youthful killer, I guess.
And I'd be like, well, thank you for calling me young.
Convicted youth counselor, Mike Carlson.
Oh, well, thank you very much.
I very much appreciate it. I've ignored
the rest of the sentence.
The youth center strangler.
Oh, thank you for the nickname. I appreciate it.
You did work at the youth center. I do.
I do look young, right?
So that's how I'm doing.
Let's bring our guest in, right?
She wants to get in on the fun,
and I want to know if she liked that joke.
I loved the joke.
I'm just going to usurp any introduction
just to let everyone know before they knew who I am
that I love the joke.
Well, thank you.
That is, of course, the voice of podcast host,
theme park journalist, foam fluencer, Carly Weisel.
She's here. She's here.
She's back.
Thank you for being here.
Yeah, those titles are maybe why
my college has never invited me back to speak,
but either way, I stand behind it.
Hello.
Thank you for having me on.
Doesn't look impressive on a poster.
Yeah.
I want to be invited back to my college,
but I want the red carpet rolled out, So I'm holding out, I think.
I think I got a crumb. I think the trail has begun because they had me write a welcome letter for freshmen.
So I'm just putting it out there. Fly me in once that's a normal thing to do, i'll go to southern illinois and stand outside an
experimental crop field and be like i went here that's all i want that's yeah no i i hear that i
never went to southern i went to illinois state which is like midway and i went to western to
visit and i went to u of i to visit that's my way but well because it's you know i'm speaking for
those of us who don't know. Oh, I see.
I see.
So you went to U of I.
Okay.
I saw Wilco at U of I.
I put that show on.
Is that true?
Yes.
Produced?
Really?
Yes.
Wow.
Really?
I went backstage at the Wilco show at U of I.
I probably was the person telling you you couldn't because I was in charge of security.
Well, the drummer, glenn has one of his
students i knew when i was playing in a band with him at the time we got to go backstage and i met
jeff tweedy and glenn coachy i was like it was either me or my best friend who like escorted
you backstage wow this is wild wow this is great yeah they i remember that four minutes and then
you're out yeah wow it was a good show
yeah it's great i have a photo i have photos of i have photos of it too so we'll see if you're
in the background i might have been in there i mean green room is really a stretch when you're
playing a campus show but uh i would have been i would have been there wow i know what if we have
some like weird foreign old version of us being friends
Well that
Yes very possible obviously also we have
We said it on the show our mothers were friends in high school
Yes
So there's that one
Yeah it's a fair like once you hit a certain age
You're like oh god
Like everyone knows everyone
You can't just fuck around
And like make fun of people publicly
Like everything comes back to you.
Yeah, no.
Everyone just should scrub their history every couple weeks,
just in case you said something mildly insulting about someone.
Just in case.
Oh, God.
Anyway, we'll catch up about U of I, I guess, later.
On the Chicago podcast.
I could talk about the Wilco show.
I remember they covered Thunderclap Newman in the encore,
but we don't need to talk about that on Podcast to Ride.
Save that for a different podcast.
We're talking Frozen ever after today.
And we're going to get there because I think this is part of the continuity from the podcast.
Because last time you were on, we talked a little bit about Frozen in the middle of living with the land, which is very controversial in general.
So I felt like we needed to keep the land, which is very controversial in general. Yes. We needed to keep the controversy going
with another very controversial episode.
But I think we should probably discuss
a controversial news story
that just emerged from a few days ago.
Does anyone want to state what this is?
We don't get to go to Disneyland anymore.
That's what's happening.
There, I said it.
Sure we do. We just have to it. I'm drunk, damn it.
We just have to set aside
a portion of our Patreon money.
Actually, all of our Patreon money
to go
at the rate we were going.
So the annual pass holder program
is no more.
It's going to be gone
for, what, at least a year
before they replace it with something?
Oh, I'm just going to let you know straight out of the gate.
I'm not making any assumptions.
Yeah.
The point of view that I have is that looking at the language of the statement
that Ken Potrock put out, who I believe he's the president of Disneyland Resort,
they keep saying the word membership, which scares me.
That's not a word that we've included in the bizarro Disney lexicon.
So I'm just going to sit this one out and wait to see what happens, because I get the
feeling I'm not even going to be able to guess what happens.
Interesting.
So you're thinking that some type of program emerges that is so mind-boggling or perhaps like vacation club-esque
i mean i don't want to be real galaxy brain about it i haven't been out of my house in a long long
time so i'm starting to lose it like a weird old recluse celebrity but regardless like it the the
wording sun setting membership like it all felt like red flags to me and so i know the general
consensus online is like it's gonna be a flex pass for everybody but i i don't know that word
membership just sticks out to me so strongly that i don't know what it could mean that's what they
use that word country clubs which are expensive bingo yeah or operas symphonies the membership of the symphony or
a place that's going to do like a four-hour production of august osage county like that's
where you get memberships too i also is sun setting is kind of not in the vibe of their
usual lexicon of like wishes dreams enchantment i kept saying sundowning god which i think he has
more negative connotations but sunsetting i was like i have heard that used as a term of like
we're retiring something but that that felt very targeted it felt like every news story made sure
to use the term yeah it felt like the least upsetting phrase for your whole life as you visited Disneyland has ended for now.
Yeah.
Well, I was thinking like, it's going to come back.
Yeah, but what monster will it emerge as?
Because we started, when I moved to Los Angeleseles over 10 years ago i'm still young but i
moved here 10 years ago uh it was cheap as hell to go get an annual pass to disneyland so they
sort of got an adjacent had it then i'm sure scott had it then like they got us used to a lifestyle
with their cheap ticket and then slowly they've increased the price increased
the price and because we're suckers uh we've been paying it we've been we've been like foregoing
other necessities probably in our lives to make sure we allocate enough for a disneyland annual
pass when it used to be like 200 bucks and you could go 200 days a year and it did feel like it
was breaking because i think they really they long gamed i mean
i know they've had it for a long but they long gamed like a million people in southern california
and around the area so it was something that was going to break because so many people had gotten
used to popping into disneyland for five hours here and there but it's like testing us like how
much will you pay will you do this will you do this and the answer is always yes and so what are they going to do how do they clear out these parks
that are getting too full and too full and now that there is a uh like state government mandated
reason to make them less full now is the time to pull the carpet out yeah so it is it it does feel
like we should brace ourselves if we want to ever have the lifestyle of 250 days a year going into Disneyland to get a glass of wine and ride Big Thunder and leave, we probably will have to pay about $15,000 a year. That's a guess that I don't know if it's unreasonable. really don't and well i think the the other thing that you know i considered
in the past and i don't think this has been option for a while now but sometimes if my family went
down just for like a long weekend and we knew we would come back the next summer my dad would get
like a seven-day park hopper and just keep it in his wallet for a year? Because for a time,
those days never
expired. And I think they've
stopped selling those kinds of park hoppers
on both coasts at this point.
But that was an option, too, because once you
start adding on
days, the price per day
starts to drop. You buy anything
in quantity, the price starts to drop.
So, it's, I don't know, prepare for
the worst, I think, is really
what I'm trying to say.
I understand the
reasons that they're doing it,
and it'll probably make it a more pleasant
experience to be around there
when you get to go there.
The rationale all totally makes sense to me,
but then on the flip side, I'm like, but I want to go! I used to be able to go there like the rationale all totally makes sense to me but then on the flip side i'm like but i want to go i used to be able to go and this thing has sucked and it's never
ending and now when it's over i don't get to go to disneyland all the time or i have to or it'll
be insanely cost prohibitive yeah i i am feeling that way too um i was thinking could it be could it be something crazy or like you
you know how the vacation club is some sort of very large amount of money and you like technically
own a room in a hotel could they be like annexing like pieces of the park now and i technically own
like a room on the haunted mansion if i pay fifty thousand dollars and then I get to go into the park fairly regularly? Is that possible?
I think it is.
One way to do it. I'm definitely
in denial of this.
Yeah.
And you had, you were
posting about, because you have a premiere pass.
Yeah, I'm gonna get big time screwed.
That's even more complicated.
And I'm like just waiting to see what money
they gave me back because I got a premiere pass like a genius two weeks before a pandemic sorry premiere is the one
that gets you into disneyland and disney yeah this is gonna sound like like i'm a living fossil but
uh it gets you into any disney park in america any day of the week, all year round. Which, like, that's not a thing anymore.
No blackouts at either resort any day of the year.
Okay, okay.
So that's gone.
Oh, I'm seeing here they've just announced that pass now costs $500,000 a year.
Oh.
Yeah, look, I am happy because,
I'm not really happy, but I, like, for the person who comes in for their once a year trip, is it going to be less filled with people like us who are just like roaming and mulling about and like commenting on like, oh, there's some chipped paint up here in New Orleans Square.
Like they won't have to see that horribleness.
But yes, I still am going to miss commenting on that chipped paint this is where i
feel maybe unselfaware i'm like you know i see all this stuff grumbling about annual pass holders and
how yeah exactly what you're saying like they're never happy and they come in and don't even spend
any money and uh just clog the place up but now but then but then I'm going like, yeah, but that's not me though. Right. No,
I'm not part of the problem.
I,
that was even saying to Aaron the night that it happened.
Like,
but that's like,
not like,
I think I help the vibe at Disney.
I'm like,
I'm like the guy who starts the wave at the,
at the baseball game.
I'm helping with the spirit and the morale.
I'm not a drag.
I'm not,
not walking around complaining. Right. I'm one of the good ones. Right. I'm not a drag. I'm not walking around complaining, right?
I'm one of the good ones, right?
Oh, I can't confidently say that.
I'm the one.
I bring a backpack, my own reusable water bottle,
a bag of Clif Bars, my own sunscreen.
I have gone down and not spent any money besides parking.
You don't have your wagons.
You don't have your wagons of ice.
They are playing with fire.
They already banned the wagons and the massive coolers.
I mean, the locals are going to want to go when Disneyland opens back up.
They're going to have to figure something out. I have to say, it's a shame though,
where it's probably helpful
that Flex Pass reservations worked pretty well
the year or so I had it.
And so I'm assuming whatever comes back
would probably be something along those lines.
Yeah, I would guess.
But yeah, membership is,
it's a good point that Carly makes
that membership is an interesting word
and we'll see what that means mike you should do a deep dive you should research the vacation club
point system because that that would be right up your alley i do know a little bit about it bank
bank a certain amount of points for the size of the room or the number of days you go.
And there's equations.
And it's incredibly complicated. What makes you say that's Mike's alley and not Scott's alley?
Huh?
Well, Mike famously loves points.
I mean, he's got a whole system with the points.
You're saying that I don't want to solve math equations to go to a theme park?
I think I explained like five minutes of the
Vacation Club to Scott like a year ago
and I think he shouted at me to stop.
I don't mind you doing this.
If you ever want to do a
Scott-free episode,
getting off Scott-free,
you could call it,
feel free to just do the dry
Vacation Club Point
rundown episode.
And I will step away from it
so that I will bear no responsibility
for the dullness
of the content.
When our numbers explode and the podcast
takes over My Favorite Murder
as the top podcast in the world.
That's what will happen.
We always wanted.
That's what we've always wanted.
All right.
So, Carly, any last thoughts about this?
Any other?
I mean, the thing that I'm thinking about now is just that it's even if things do go slightly back to normal,
where you have some sort of pass membership, whatever, where you can visit the parks,
it's going to be really hard to coordinate with your friends the way we used to.
Because I had friends who had every type of pass.
And we were still able to find those pockets where we would all line up and be able to go.
And depending on what happens, that's probably not going to be as easy.
Right.
That's something I thought about.
Are Scott, Mike, and Jason going to be able to go to the park again?
The thing that we did all the time that spurred this show,
can we not do it anymore?
I don't know.
It's possible.
Yeah, it's possible that like one of us will have to win the lottery
to get the actual good pass.
And then somebody else, like I'll have a pass that just gets me
into California Adventure from like noon to four on Wednesdays.
And I can only go on the like I can only go on Soarin' and Grizzly River Rapids.
And that's it.
And that pass costs $10,000 a year.
There's always Costco tickets.
Costco tickets.
Yeah.
And we look, we could also just go hard at Knott's.
You know, we could just go hard and say, you know what?
F Disneyland.
Knott's is the place we like now.
I mean, even Universal was sending some shady tweets.
So, I mean, they're ready for pass holders.
Were they saying, like, we're considering how our annual pass program is going to work?
What was their vibe?
Oh, they tweeted something that was just like, LOL, love you, our annual pass
holders.
Just very sassy towards Disney.
Okay.
They can win me over, and certainly
I've heard a rumor that
next year is when Nintendo Land might
open, and I certainly will want to spend a lot of
time in Nintendo Land, so they can
certainly win me over. They can get me.
I'm gettable by universal
at this point so we'll see we'll see what happens uh there's a lot of things that still have to play
out in our real world logistically to even get to the point where uh we're talking about what the
past system looks like so yeah it is it is a bit hard to mourn like, oh, I can't hang out with my friends at Disneyland
when I haven't truly seen a living soul
in like many, many weeks.
I just hope that Six Flags doesn't follow suit
and they get rid of their buy a churro,
get an annual pass for free deal.
That they don't,
they need to keep incentives like that
going for me to want to go back to Six Flags.
I'm just going to go all in on the Santa Monica Pier.
That's my move.
I've bought a pass there before.
It was like $100.
They have a decent coaster.
It does the trick.
But they're never going to have a membership situation.
So why not?
Yeah, we should just all scatter.
P.O.P., baby.
We're hopping off at P.O.P.
This podcast is all about
the Santa Monica Pier
from now on
in protest we're going to get rid of the old
Disneyland episodes on our feed
and replace them retroactively with Santa Monica
Pier episodes
just out of anger
alright we're covering the rotating school bus
again
alright the coffee bean
the coffee bean.
The coffee bean four.
Taco Bell booth.
Taco Bell slash KFC.
Yeah.
Episode five.
I do.
I don't know if this is in your lineup for notes, but I think we do need to discuss that like quiet Disneyland announcement today that they're kind of turning the Rainforest Cafe into a Star Wars store.
What?
I missed this.
No, this is breaking to me.
Yeah.
It was very subdued.
It was kind of like, ooh, we're going to open a spaceport in a former jungle.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, that's right up your alley.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. Thank God they're using the building
For something
It's been so creepy
Every time you walk by it
Because it's just a husk of something
Somebody pointed out
It might have been Freddy
It might have been Freddy from Batuu
That it looks
The building kind of looks like you know
a base like a rebel base or a resistance base already so it may be if they could actually do
something cool with the theming i don't know if they're going to but i hope so yeah well there's
still dusty vines there's still dusty rainforest vines, I guess, in there. Seem to be the implication.
So you think it's all still, everything inside has not been taken out?
I think, well, I would have thought it was taken out, but when they were like, it's a reclaimed jungle base, I was like, oh, I guess there's maybe some of it still in there, or
maybe some of the walls were painted that they could just continue to use or just do
a fresh coat of paint or something.
They have to sweep out a knee- deep amount of old chicken tender breading it's been sitting
there for four years they got a fumigate yeah that's there what if there's like animatronic
animals still there they can't use those right because those are owned by tillman for tita i don't i have to
think those are i would pray i would love i would love for there to be like barely concealed
rainforest cafe stuff to me that would add to the story so much more yes i agree i mean it would be
in keeping with what they've done lately like the old what was that's the thing called the premier
store what is the the store
that they opened that's like a spirit halloween the warehouse the store in the like inside who
wants to be a millionaire play it where it's where they're the play it sign is still there yeah
stage 17 i believe okay yes scott's got to tour that um yeah that was that was something yeah i
described it on the podcast as the single
Most depressing thing Disney has ever
Put together
It's the saddest story
After this episode I might have to disagree with you
On that
Oh boy
Well that's a preview
I'd be on this up
They had moved
Correct me if I'm wrong
They got rid of the wonder
ground gallery right and they put like star wars stuff in there for now yeah and i think this is
a move to be able to bring artwork back okay that's good that's basically what's my question
because like i like that gallery that was always a nice fun little browse yeah i have i bought a
ton of small things there yeah you could get could get postcards, coasters, or like $10,000 paintings of like sexy Cinderella
by comic book artist J. Scott Campbell, which is a comic book artist that Jason and I read
or looked at as-
Huge.
Hugely popular in the 90s.
Still very popular.
And he does princess artwork.
Anyway. So that's good that that's coming back, is what I'm saying.
I believe so.
I truly glanced at this as I was getting into the car.
Yeah.
I kind of did the same, but I also saw footage from Downtown Disney today
and was a little surprised to see, I guess it is Sunday afternoon as we record,
it was crowded.
It was packed. Why? There's nothing to do.
I'm not like,
I don't know.
I guess I went in
somewhere, went to a window and got coffee
the other day, but
I couldn't, I don't think
I could handle that right now.
Well, there was a seven-hour line
for Gideon's bakery
yesterday at disney springs am i right yeah i mean now this is carly news if i had a beat it
was the chocolate chip cookie beat um i am i mean i've been obsessed with gideon's for years since
they so for anyone who doesn't know um gideon's Bakehouse is this very, very small local Orlando bakery that basically
went from, I think it's like a 280 square foot stall at a food hall, like a small, not like a
New York City food hall, like a small market food hall. And then now has a flagship at Disney
Springs that had full day long waits on opening day. So it's like a wonderful small business
story. But this cookie was sold at
the Polite Pig at Disney Springs for eight bucks, which is like a huge upsell. And so people like me
who were like, I got to get this cookie would drive to the bakery and then drive back. Like I
fully drove away from everyone's vacation destination to go buy a cookie. And I'm
completely obsessed with it. I usually have at least one in my freezer
because i i need it it's like my my life source but it's so good it's like it's a wonderful story
i'm so for it because it's like a small business and a quality product and it's run by one guy who
never took any investment which is the opposite of tillman so it's just it's real nice that he's
just there in the middle of this cluster of all these big brands. Well, that's good.
The Disney Springs one is themed like an occult bookstore, which I think is so wild.
I'm so into that.
Yeah, I am excited by these long lines.
This is my number one list.
When I get back to Florida, this might be my most anticipated attraction is
the new gideon's it should be uh cookies yeah and they have cake too and crazy iced coffees on tap
and bookshelves that turn in they spent a year sourcing the antiques for the store
it's just great wow what's the foam situation there they have no foam but i'm not gonna hold
it against them because there's Starbucks
like a few steps away.
And that Starbucks has fantastic foam.
Sure.
So what would be the amount of time, this is for everybody, that you would spend?
Because I want to go to this place that looks cool.
The food looks, the treats look good.
What is the amount of time you would feel comfortable waiting in line to get there?
Okay.
So to clarify the disney springs
location had a virtual queue so it's kind of just like your your tap you're tied into it so i would
wait probably either four hours or 11 like i would put my name in and come back at the end of the day
but i've waited in the line at the because the actual place used to have a line before covid
i think i waited 45 minutes. Okay, that's reasonable.
That's fun.
Yeah.
That's fun.
I mean, Mike and I have waited like two hours
for Helen Ray's hot chicken.
I love waiting in a long line to eat.
I don't know why.
Dude, what do you think our line waiting tolerance
is going to be like after this?
You think it'll be higher or lower?
I think mine will be at the ground.
Really?
Just standing around waiting to do something?
Hmm.
I already had...
Scott, go ahead.
Oh, just we've all had to do it for the grocery store.
Yeah, now we've all had like a lot of...
Does that make us more like ready for lines or um i don't know i
mean you know i'm i'm in line for the uh the the pop figurines on hollywood boulevard um
you paid like um you paid a fiverr uh uh user you're technically in line right now you have to
when this is done you have to go back.
Yeah, yeah.
So we're going to have to, are we okay with this episode being about 35 minutes?
It's going to have to be a little shorter than they usually are.
Scott's got to get that Khaleesi pop that has different shoes than the normal pop.
I got to get the double pop of the Duffer Brothers.
I need both Duffer brothers as pop figures.
I won't be happy until I have it.
The two pack of David Duchovny and Sean William Scott from Evolution.
You know, that's a big deal.
You can only get them together.
You can't get them single.
I have them both from separate, from Dude, Where's My Car?
and from X-Files, but I need them, yeah, from the same film and franchise.
That makes a lot of sense.
I can't really gauge what i think people's tolerance overall because i have a very high
tolerance for waiting in line and jason i think also has a similar tolerance we jason i waited
no problem like five hours for guardians of the galaxy the first time something like that kind of
a precursor kind of a prologue to this podcast we had just started
like rough like sketching it out at the time they just started talking about it i think we knew we
we knew it was taking forever but we like split a hulk donut and it was fine you know like one of
those giant yeah donuts um so i i think people will just be happy to be out of the house honestly
i think people will just be thrilled to be standing somewhere else close by other humans.
I think there'll be like a six-month honeymoon period with lines for people.
You'll allow it.
I thought I'd be like dancing through the streets.
And now the more I think about it and the longer I sit inside, I feel like I'm just going to be permanently panicked about where to pee.
Because I've had toilet access right by me for a whole year.
And now, like, if I wait in line for 90 minutes, what am I going to do?
Yeah, that's a good point.
I have thought about that because when we drove down to, like, Anaheim and went to, like grab portillo's and stuff i was like all right i can't drink any water before i have to make sure yeah i
don't want to stop in we all read the article about covid coming up through the toilet i don't
want to get toilet covid the worst kind uh so there's certainly those things are going to remain
i think even if you kind of like
logistically know okay it seems like the it's this isn't around like you will still feel an
anxiety about a lot of things I assume but just feel like I mean a real out-of-body moment the
first time I see a family playing that heads-up game thaten iphone game i'm just gonna be like what are the last two
years real yeah well that's yeah i was imagining honestly we were doing the episode i went back
and listened to our last episode just to make sure i remembered what everyone said and i was
remembering people just being in this apartment and i was like this does it feels like it happened two weeks ago so
our brains are going to block out it's really going to be bizarre when we come on the other
side of it because it'll feel like I did like your brain or just be like nope didn't happen
go on and you'd be like I thought like it'll be a movie like where somebody has like thoughts that
they don't know what they mean and you'll'll be like, but I swear we were inside
for 18 months. And you'll be like, I don't know what you're
talking about. Brian, get a hold of yourself.
Forcibly eternal sunshine
ourselves. We'll do
the best we can to just...
It helps that it's all been incredibly
forgettable. So there'll be some
natural forgetfulness
about all of this.
But yeah,
simultaneously,
it felt like a week and
a year and a half or whatever the hell.
There's no...
Yeah, my memory is
just totally shot.
Jane and I re-watched
the last two, because Riverdale
comes back this week, and
Jane and I watched the last two episodes of season
four and I was like oh my god I forgot all of this I forgot all of this stuff happened like we spent
the first two weeks of quarantining just binging Riverdale and I was like do you remember that do
you remember when we did that I forgot I mean it's also a show where it's like oh I forgot about the
tickle club I forgot about the tickle where Club. I forgot about the Tickle where they got their rival Tickle video sites.
What?
Yeah, it's that.
I mean, this is after the cult and after the inset.
Like, it's, you know, it goes a lot of places.
Because we got to start on the actual ride.
But what is a Tickle Club?
Well, like that movie, that documentary Tickled about the guy who would make the Tickle websites.
And he was a real, like that movie, that documentary Tickled about the guy who would make the tickle websites. And he was a real nut job.
They incorporated that into a season of Riverdale.
Oh, I didn't.
Okay.
I didn't know this was a Riverdale.
I thought you were saying you shifted focus to an entirely other world.
I didn't know there was tickling in Riverdale world.
Scott, you thought he was talking about his own life?
And he said, yeah, after the incest.
Oh, yeah.
After the incest.
After the.
Well, the Tickle Club.
Yeah, obviously the Tickle Club.
You know, live comedy shut down pretty quickly.
Theme parks, Tickle Clubs.
Now they were number three.
Newsome keeps issuing new.
Tickle Clubs must be at 40% capacity.
Comedon Oldsome canceled the Tickle Club. We found out he was at a tickle club
last week.
The fanciest tickle club.
That's son of a bitch.
Getting tickled when we can't.
Unbelievable.
You're just describing the
Bohemian Grove. How is the
Bohemian Grove complex fair
during all of this?
Good question.
We gotta get into it. Mike, you just relistened the Bohemian Grove complex fair during all of this? Good question.
We gotta get into it.
Mike, you just re-listened to Living with the Land
and I'm glad that you did because I'm
not going to. I don't want to go back to
the scene of the crime.
I have
never felt
so audience despised
when I said my thoughts about living with the land.
I was I was worried that there would be some kind of podcast 25th Amendment invoked by the audience and that encouraging Mike and Jason to replace me with Carly.
That was my fear in the days following that.
I feel like the energy would quickly shift very negative if i was just
given a platform to yell along with people oh boy i will say nancy pelosi urged jason and i to
replace scott but right now we don't feel it's the appropriate thing because we don't we want to
so unity we need to unite and we don't want to get and what else is scott gonna do we don't want to get... And what else is Scott going to do? We don't want to get Scott's followers
riled up is what we're saying.
Scott has a certain core
audience that we just don't want to upset
right now.
Essanon.
They love going to
a Catal restaurant.
That's their icon. Well, that's where Scott does his S drops from. They love going to Catal restaurants.
That's their Ike.
Well, that's where Scott does his S-drops from.
New S-drop.
New S-drop. Yeah, I kind of give the messages to the S-shaman who will storm various places with a giant wine glass on a staff.
They were all no-launch queens,
but then they were a little confused, though,
when you actually went on a launch coaster.
What does it mean?
The message changed.
What's the mission now?
He's betrayed us.
Clone, he's clone.
They had to do some retconning to explain
some of your character development and your choices.
They'll work it out.
Yeah.
But so, yes, when we discussed living with the land, the slow-moving, one slow-moving Epcot boat ride, as opposed to the one we're talking about today,
there was a little bit of compare-contrast going on with Frozen Ever After.
And I remember some of the points but maybe
not all but well i i was surprised to hear the the the negative feelings about frozen ever after
and to see it like painted as sort of the somehow like an antithesis to living with the land i'm not
sure if that's exactly how you feel if if one is the opposite of the other.
I don't want to go putting your opinions in your mouth.
I'm just trying to remember some of what happened long ago in January.
But Frozen Ever After, Carly, thoughts?
Feel free to take it away.
I mean, I'm not going to lie.
My brain is so mush now that I didn't realize
they were both boat rides until a minute ago.
And you said it.
And I was like, oh, they are both boat rides so i have
not i've not thought of them in any like linear way i suppose but frozen i have i have some issues
with it i have some praise for it i will say from the get-go you're not gonna hear any maelstrom
discussion from me because i have no attachment to it i came in fresh
just all frozen so a lot of times people's maelstrom love colors their perception of
frozen ever after but not me this is true and i was wondering that with myself because i i will
say i'm a person with very strong maelstrom love uh uh much. I tell that to Essanon.
Be sure to pay proper homage to the Maelstrom.
The three-headed troll will return.
But yeah, loved Maelstrom.
And you could tell when the announcement was made
that they were going to shift it to Frozen,
that there was going to be...
That was big trouble for uh uh disney theme park nerds they were they were
messing with it with a big way i i feel like that's uh people are fond of it for sure yeah
i'm gonna put my marker down on this this is my like you motherfuckers i can't believe you took
that like and i know it was yeah i know it's weird and i know it was you took that. And I know it was, yeah, I know it's weird.
And I know it was odd.
And that's why I loved it.
Yeah.
That's why I loved Maelstrom.
Me too.
My whole family loved it.
I don't say this a lot, that I'm putting my marker down on, like, I was not happy.
I thought they did it in a really, like, they announced it in september i think of 2014
yeah and then by october 2014 maelstrom was closed jeez nobody had to say goodbye i mean i think
i think the the mr toad to poo was probably worse in the 90s but at least you can find mr toad
other places maelstrom was one of a kind.
Yeah, I can't pretend.
Here we are. Carly, what you just said. Now we're
letting it color the discussion, but I think
it is important
context. Oh, I'm
all for it coloring the discussion. I just
personally, I won't be bringing that energy, but
we got one already, so we're good.
Yeah. No, it's
me. I, you know know i think it the um uh uh it
obviously like i'll come out and it's like it it go it goes against the original epcot
theory of like all right no characters in this part we're gonna do different stuff
and then like okay we cut we cut the different thing.
We cut the interesting, unique ride,
and we're shoving in some characters in here.
And then also, I was surprised this was addressed so directly
because I was like, that's kind of weird.
You switch from like a country's history and heritage
to like this fictional world.
And at the time, Tom Staggs, who was the,
uh,
I believe the chief operating officer,
uh,
and then the,
yeah,
chief operator.
Yeah.
COO.
Um,
he was asked,
is that appropriate for world showcase? And said,
if the goal is to give people a taste of something like Scandinavia with the
Norway pavilion,
then frozen would only increase the extent to which
people would be drawn to it.
To me, it doesn't seem out of character at all.
And I'm like, I don't know if that's right.
Like if you were like, Morocco is now Agrabah.
I think everyone would be like, whoa, what the hell, man?
Maybe, maybe.
Here's just the very Cliff Notes thing is that this is an attraction in World Showcase in Epcot.
Every pavilion in that area represents a different country.
This is the Norway pavilion that we're talking about.
There is a boat ride that I'm very fond of.
And yes, they switched it out to be about Frozen.
Frozen is not set in Norway.
If you haven't seen Frozen, Frozen is set in Arendelle, correct?
Arendelle, yes.
So yeah, it's a straight. There is a vibe to the film that is like it can hold hands with Norway and with the vibe of the pavilion that was there already and with the exterior.
But it's yeah, it's it's a little odd.
It is definitely not a movie set in Norway.
Yeah, it's they're both snowy places, which I guess is maybe the justification I mean obviously the justification is
Put the movie stuff in because people are gonna
Come and want to go on a movie ride
And they loosely
I guess Ratatouille works better
Because that actually happened in France
But still yes
Jason was saying it's away from the
Original Epcot but this is
Are we sure that Arendelle's not in Norway
isn't Arendelle
made up cause
I think it's made up
I mean cause all I'm thinking of is
like all the stuff I've written about when they reopened
that and they reopened like the Royal Summer
Hoose which I think is what they call the meet and
greet they like they they went on like
trips to Norway to
source inspiration and I'm kind of like
if they sourced it directly from norway and it inspires also and matches what the film is then
is arendelle well it says i'm seeing it says it's norwegian inspired okay dale so and there's a town
called arendelle apparently okay okay so yeah it's close to... That's interesting. It's close. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.
That justifies it a little better, I would say.
This is...
So, yeah, I think so.
But, yes, it's going to be hard for Maelstrom not to come into this conversation, but we've
been doing a few Epcot things recently, classic Epcot stuff.
And Epcot is not this anymore.
We have to let it go.
I didn't mean to say it.
I swear to God. I'm so sorry i swear to god i'm so sorry fuck off i'm so sorry let me have it jason come on uh no i youth pastor
i'm a cool youthful youth pastor uh but like that's like the deal is like it's just gonna
be movies and tv now at epcot. And I don't love it.
It's not my choice.
I wish all these rides were like original life.
I wish they,
they can replace universe of energy with a rollercoaster.
I just wish it was some original nonsense,
scary IP that children would be terrified of.
And it would confuse people.
That's what I would prefer than guardians of the galaxy,
but that's not the world we're living in.
So I'm going to try, I'm trying to just judge frozen based on like, this is the reality. would prefer than guardians of the galaxy but that's not the world we're living in so i'm gonna
try i'm trying to just judge frozen based on like this is the reality how good of a job did they do
and i think they did a great job i i honestly this is one of my favorite there we have it
favorite new rides i love guardians i love this and that's i don't love every new thing
i even think there's some aspects of this i like more than Rise of the Resistance, I'll be honest with everyone here.
I'll lay it out real hard there.
That's pretty nuts.
How about that as a take?
Why is my name being associated with this episode?
Because we
think you don't think that because
this came up before.
Before we get into it, I'm
on Team Mike and I'm so glad I'm not
going it alone here.
Yeah, I really like it, I'm on Team Mike, and I'm so glad I'm not going it alone here. Yeah, I really like
it. I think we were surprised
to hear the
counterpoint when it came up
within Living with the Land.
But I think you got some support in
Jason, seemingly. I'm not sure.
I think it's two and two today.
I think that's the Jason are you
gonna get ready one of your famous catchphrases about disagreeing with me any different points
that are counter to other points I you know I just you're not I think I just riled up enough
to yell at me today? Come on.
I'm a little asleep.
I've been drinking strong black tea to try and- Get angrier?
Yes, myself up a little.
Get angrier.
Counterpointier?
No.
I just think it continues the tradition of inserting characters into Epcot in a way that
is kind of cheap.
Like the seas with Nemo and friends, like that little Lion King environmental movie.
Oh, but that's a movie.
That's like a,
let's have the TV studio crank out a thing.
I think this is a more successful,
grander thing than that.
Right, but that was the first,
that was the first,
yeah, it's more successful than that,
but that was the very first,
like, all right,
let's get the movie characters into Epcot. Like that's cited as the first app yeah it was it's more successful than that but that was the very first like all right let's get the movie characters into epcot like that's cited as the first so i think i it
doesn't i think a lot of stuff in this ride doesn't make sense with their own concept
of the storyline of the ride doesn't make sense of like it's it hey everyone it's a festival
celebrating the anniversary of like the events of the movie summer festival and when we say
yes it's a summer festival that takes place uh at the dark of night three o'clock in the morning
uh it's pitch black out um when we say festival there's no one seller you there's two princesses there's
a hunky dumb guy and there's this nasty little creep snowman hanging out uh and and that's kind
of it there's not really any villagers around um and they just kind of stand around um there's
something called snow geese uh i don't want i don't know. I'm not going to touch that one. That sounds weird to me.
It's just strange.
It's very much, you can tell, it's just crammed into the track of Maelstrom.
It's very short, and it's just like we're just trying to shove the movie.
It feels short to me.
I don't think it feels short to me.
Yeah.
And that would be, then you could just say, then Maelstrom's even
shorter, if that's the argument.
Yes, and five minutes saying, if you think it's
short and it's five minutes, which I think is a decent amount
of time for a dark ride, I think that speaks
to how nicely it moves through.
Quite frankly. Okay, the
one thing this ride does not do is
move nicely. I think that's
pretty proven.
I have never not hurt my back at the switch track
so i mean i'm just gonna start there that is not a comfortable ride but that's isn't that a maelstrom
problem too although you're so you're so you yeah i think you do have to pin that one on the the
bones that are there no no because if you're taking the time and the money to redo a ride and if you don't fix that,
that's on you.
That's interesting.
That came up last year as well and I had never really found that.
It's obviously very jerky.
It's not like,
you can tell it's not a new system
they installed.
Oh my God.
But it had never,
I mean like,
I get much more rattled
on Space Mountain in Florida
than I do on that boat
for whatever reason.
So I had actually never noticed.
It's like a bumper car.
You're like hitting a wall and then moving and then backing up.
And it's like, like it just never stops.
It's so uncomfortable.
It's interesting.
I mean, that's one of those like accidental thrills that happen on older rides.
Like Space Mountain, Florida is rattling you around like you're in the middle of an earthquake.
And pirates now have bumpers on each side of the boats,
at least here, I can't remember in Florida, where you just smash into other
boats, which is not part of the ride, but now has become a part
of the ride where you're having bumper cars on the way.
So these are like accidental
thrills i guess that is that a good what is there a better way we can phrase
thrills is a little strong i don't know if i'm thrilled which i think is i think that's
so optimistic because for me i'm like this is where in 10 years i will injure myself
huh yeah like uh surprise surprise bump surprise accidental trauma i don't know we'll
have to work on we'll have to workshop this um carly let me get your uh philosophy do you care
that epcot is moving away from its complicated bizarreness to just being characters from okay so i might be on a team of my own but i feel like for the thing i
love to continue to exist this must happen yeah because i love epcot but like you can't run on
this stuff for this long when disney is the company it is like it's just inevitable and it
breaks my heart every single time that it's like everything
you know is now changed and gone but i think it's necessary and i think that there are good ways of
introducing ip and i think there are bad ways and with frozen i actually think that they deserved
their own ride i don't think it should have been overlaid on this boat ride i think they should
have built an entirely Newly constructed attraction
And I'm frankly shocked they did it
Because like
There was so much time between the first and second movie anyway
But I just think there should have been
More for them
At Epcot
Very pro IP
Okay good okay
Yeah I think we probably all agree
Our preference would have been different
like fresh new ride
not a resale
and I do I will say though I like
Frozen Ever After a lot I think it is strange
the idea that they would clone
this because the plan
I think this is going into
kind of everywhere Hong Kong
not Hong Kong
so Hong Kong
if they have two attractions it is i can't
remember but they have a matterhorn style bobsled coaster oh geez yeah and i saw a model of it when
i was on an adventures by disney trip as like a regular citizen like i was reporting on it but it
was in a group of regular people and so they showed us this model because people on vacation wouldn't be like trying to memorize every detail and it's like a full-blown mountain
coaster it looks incredible and so like we we could have in some world had that which would
have been amazing yeah yeah does does sound better uh definitely sounds better i i would say
so where is getting a paris tokyo i believe
um which i feel like yeah well now that you've done the one with the blueprint of the old
attraction now you got some time to actually get it right i though i like what they did here i would
not say do frozen ever after again yeah people can will be able to get their backs destroyed by the uh bobsled-esque matterhorn track
as opposed to the uh aging frozen every after did you feel the back thing too or are you applying
that now that carly has said it were you on that ride last year and like ow my back
the matter the frozen Did Frozen hurt your back?
I don't remember.
I do remember the Switch feeling rougher than it used to,
which might have been because it feels like they walled off.
I believe they... Did they wall off?
Am I misremembering this?
Because you used to be able to see the boat from outside of
Maelstrom. That's correct. Yeah, it is
fully indoors now. Yeah.
It's fully indoors, so that
was likely maybe some adjustments
there to shorten the backing
up and the switching.
I remember that part being very jarring.
Okay. Matterhorn
is on that list, too, of accidental trauma
or surprise trauma
Yeah I mean that one hurts me but at least it's
Worth it
You're like on a thrill ride
It fits the theme
This is like I'm pulling up to a poorly contoured
Princess singing to me
I shouldn't be in pain right now
I feel like you were already
Upset and then just that was like
Insult to injury on the Switch.
Yes.
That's sort of what it's more about.
Because I've been wrecked on the Matterhorn, depending on what seat and which track.
One track is rougher than the other, and I forget which one it is.
You know what's a rough one also?
I don't know if we talked about the very end of the Incredicoaster.
That, like, when you skid into the
station. I'm not sure why that's
so. I wouldn't say that it hurts me but every
time I really have to
brace for it. Like that's like more of
a thing now to brace for than
anything that happens on the ride proper. I can't believe college
age people are going to listen to this and be like
how old are these old people?
There's no college age people listening don't worry
the well the worst i got when we were in florida was i went on test track and they started to uh
move the car about like three feet forward and they realized someone's seatbelt wasn't done all the way
and they slammed the brake
and I just got like,
it felt like I hit a wall
and I was still like a whole ride
going like, oh my God.
Yeah.
We weren't gonna start going full speed.
Why did they stop that so suddenly?
But then again.
And then that ride has not gotten smoother
with time.
That does fit the theme.
That does fit the theme. That does fit the theme.
Yeah.
But it was startling to break that hard in the span of like five weeks.
So we have some upkeep concerns.
Yes.
I think it is fair.
How did you feel going into this? How do you were you like, were you was your was your mind?
Were you open to Frozen before going on at the first time?
Well, I think that the best place to start is at the queue because I'm actually a huge fan of the queue.
I think they did a fantastic job.
I think that they made a very pleasant indoor space.
And unlike some other queues, I it doesn't feel long like they constructed it
with the switchbacks so you don't feel like you're waiting as long as you actually are
which i'm a fan of i love the wandering oak and sauna part i think that's adorable
i think they they killed it in that respect i it's a line that i would maybe not hate to wait in
yeah i like that.
Especially, I don't know what you call it.
The big area right before you get on the ride
where it's like,
is that the switch where there's like eight different rows
and you keep going back in and out
and then you go in the little cabin?
Yeah.
What's it called?
The meeting point?
I should really know this.
I apologize to any meeting point fans out there.
Are any of us into Frozen?
Are any of us particular fans of the franchise?
Mm-mm.
Yeah.
No, really.
Doesn't seem like it.
I think I saw it around when it came out.
Maybe like, you just go to movies,
like the last screening at the Arclight on Black Fridays,
and I think that was that year's Thanksgiving release.
And I saw it and thought about it for like a week
and then didn't really think about it again for a while.
It certainly became ubiquitous very quickly,
but it was kind of, like I said in the previous episode,
like finding Nemo, like, okay, yep, got it.
Nemo, much more visually beautiful.
Yeah, I mean, I saw Frozen and I liked it fine, okay uh yep got it yeah the nemo much more visually beautiful yeah i mean i saw frozen i
liked it fine which is why i think i really like when i got off this ride i was like oh that was
really good i really really liked that uh why i felt like it was really because it i had no
strong affection for the actual movie it felt like did so it felt like earned to you because
it wasn't just inherently i'm gonna see these characters and then I'm going to feel something like it was the ride doing
it.
The ride did it.
Yes, exactly.
Because like Little Mermaid, I think we talked about this on the last episode, Little Mermaid,
which I think we all have some problems with.
It's a movie I like a lot better.
I like the songs better, obviously, and it's also been with me for like 30 years or so.
And I don't know.
I don't necessarily need to go on that ride a lot.
But I'd love if I was I would go on this ride like every time I would tell anybody you got to go on this.
And I would not say like, oh, my God, you missed Little Mermaid.
Oh, like a big I would not be upset for them missing Little Mermaid ride.
I'd agree with that.
Little Mermaid.
We didn't mention.
I think just uses the clamshells
from the Nemo
and Friends
is it just the same clamshell vehicle
probably if you got a clamshape
for an army mover might as well
you know
we're going orderly here
and I don't want to jump around
but just on the topic of the ride
and this might tell you where I'm at with the whole
thing yeah I don't know
whatever characters Jason mentioned I don't
know what they are the
the Spoogees I don't know
what I don't know what you said
that was not what he said I don't think it was the Spoogees
but I don't know
anybody I'm passing by characters on
this like whatever who the like tell me the
story again I don't know who those are I literally have not seen frozen at all so let me uh have not have not
seen i don't know anything about it uh so there's nothing inherently in the ip going for me uh then
and i'm enjoying the ride and then you get to elsa and you do the first of the switchbacks you're going forward and then you kind
of rotate
while watching her and then right at the
chorus of let it go you're released backwards
the backwards drop that
is retained from the maelstrom
guys I teared up
I teared up at this
point in the ride I think it is so
beautiful soaring
backwards while these
like, while like magic dust flies
over your head. It's beautiful screens
that I don't, I've never even
thought to myself, I like the song. I've probably
been annoyed by the song. And yet
just in this context, I think
this is a triumph of
a room. I think it's a fantastic
sequence in a ride. Thank you, Mike.
Yes. I could not agree more i that's
all i like do you want to build a snowman that might not even be the name of it i like that i
like in the for the first time in forever froze let it go i get the people like it and i like
hearing people sing it if they're excited about it but that's why i was always like that's kind
of like stay like boring very easy chord progression not nothing that happens and i go this is a magical this is a
magical moment i totally agree yeah i i was really swept up in it can you guys not relate
to this in any regard do you feel nothing at that sequence of the of the ride there's silence
there's sun yeah i know they're like glaring us, Mike. Yeah, they're upset.
It's like getting pushed backwards in a closed Best Buy
where all the TVs are on.
What are you talking about?
This is insane.
Food is in.
You grinch.
You grouch.
It's just screens.
It's just screens with like snowflakes.
Just screens?
It's just screens with this like
snowflake and half of them
have the walls are not
decorated like things
with screens and you wouldn't you wouldn't say just
screens about rise of resistance you wouldn't say just
screens about guardians that's the
faces are these that's not what we're talking about
we'll deal with the faces
later we're talking about the backwards
drop room,
which you've compared to a Black Friday trip to Best Buy.
No, I said it closed.
Like, it's closed.
Like, the lights are mostly off in the Best Buy,
but the TVs are on their sampling loop.
So you can see the circa 2015, 2016.
Jason, we were all there together in October.
I don't remember any of this
energy I feel like you
I mean I don't know that you were
jumping for joy but I don't recall
you being like her rump this
right is the worst
I think I wrote it and then
I went and ate dinner I don't think I
thought about it a lot
like right after it like
you sit with this stuff for a little while and
like i've watched the ride throughs a couple times carly what are you what is your opinion i mean
i said before i came on this episode that i didn't want it to turn into
um me versus scott situation i know we're back there again. It's reversed now.
The dynamic is reversed.
I'm wondering if the audience will be on my side or will they just inherently not be on my side
because of me somehow.
I would go as far as to say
that there are some portions of the ride
that I think are fabulous.
I think they rendered Olaf so well.
They couldn't have done a better job.
Olaf looks so real.
I think that the opening and closing scene of the attraction is very nice.
But the exact scene you're describing, I would say, is the worst scene of any Disney ride in existence.
No.
What are you talking about?
I have said this before.
I have never yelled.
That is impossible.
That is the worst sequence in Disney ride history ever.
Yes.
Let me explain.
What do you mean?
Have you been on Armageddon in Paris?
I have been.
I would rather be on Armageddon than in that one scene.
What do you mean?
A scene that I tear.
Boy, we just view the world differently, apparently.
The problem is, is not once you no longer see Elsa, then just shit is over.
You can see the lack of budget around you.
And like, even if you painted cardboard, I'd be happy, truly.
But once you're passing through that scene, it is like, it is nothingness.
And then there's like a bloop of fog.
And then there is a black hallway.
And a black hallway is-
Now, this came up.
We discussed this.
It is literally no theming.
There's no theming.
It's not like it's themed poorly.
There is no theming.
They didn't even put anything there.
They didn't put a snowflake. They didn't put a little icicle there's nothing and so it is so egregious to me to be like
here is the most advanced at the time audio animatronic we've ever made as you pull away
to nothingness now you yeah you mentioned this in the living of the Land episode. I didn't even clock that there was this unthemed room. Now I watch the ride-throughs and I can't unsee it. And yeah, you're in black first, but I swear to God you're in there for three seconds. I'm not excusing it. motion of what came before enough that it did not occur to me it just i did not even register
this room which i guess just indicates that it didn't sweep you up the same way i think it's
like a cave it's like pirates on the way down you're in some sort of a cave it's spooky there's
mist i don't it doesn't need to have like something there that's my feeling about it i don't think it is the only undressed it's not the only
like room of blackness like indiana jones has you know and that's not to say that you know
like they should probably fill in the indiana jones blacknesses um so indiana jones has like
the dull light bulb problem that a lot of movie theaters do too. Some of those projection things would be served by switching out the bulbs a little more in Indiana Jones.
But I just, this doesn't, I'm just now I'm just trying to think of counter examples.
There's not one part of Ellen's energy adventure that is worse to you than the backwards drop on Frozen Ever After.
I just, to me, like when you really look at it,
it's like, this is a proven franchise.
This is a movie that everyone
who's like the target age of children and families
when it came out, like this is the Disney audience.
This is who they need to sell this ride to.
And the fact that there is a scene
where there is nothing,
like notably nothing to me, infuriatesates me i can't even enjoy it it just
upsets me so much that there's just nothing there's there's just nothing but it erases what
comes before it erases if we're taking just the drop like like let's let's let's just and maybe
you can't because it's one big sequence but like the drop is null and void to you because
there's a darkness for four or five seconds okay i think i will add this i realized in
thinking about this ride today i think i don't like to go backwards on a non-coaster
okay i think that part of it is that like you you want your eyes to be leading you, and when you move backwards, it's not the same experience, and you can't take it in the same way.
I mean, yeah.
I mean, yeah.
If you have an issue with just backwards moments, then yeah, this isn't going to score for you.
I think it's cool. I hear what you're saying that once you're past, once you can't see the Elsa animatronic,
then you're kind of looking at screens playing animation.
But I really like just the way she trails up into the background for a while.
I like having like, I can't picture a sequence like that where you are focused on something
and it gets smaller and smaller.
And I feel like most drop rides,
there isn't really a thing to focus on.
I think that's just an interesting POV and perspective,
like kind of a cool like camera angle.
It's like a big like, you know, jib out or something.
I mean, I'll clarify that part I think is fine.
It's the second she's gone, game over.
Sure.
Okay.
Okay. Okay.
I still, I feel like I got to get you on what is the, there's got to be a worse sequence
in an attraction.
Finding Nemo subs.
Like this is a, I'm not a big fan.
The whole thing is like sort of boring to me.
You have to say something on that is worse than this.
I mean, I'm just, you know know choking on my fear when i'm on that
because i'm like what is the fire escape situation but it's just like the the reason i say that it's
the worst is because it's a new build like they did this a few years ago just a few years ago
like they're they could have done anything sure yeah this is the same line of logic as fast and the furious supercharged i'm
not saying these equivalents i'm saying these were their big both respective studios biggest
biggest properties and they both just like slam their foot in a door like on the guest is not
that's not to the same extent but extent. But this ride is very popular.
And that ride is not popular.
Yeah, Fast and Furious is very disliked.
Frozen Ever After is not.
I think that's just pure numbers-wise.
And we won't always point to that as something being successful.
But do you guys feel general guest dissatisfaction with this attraction?
Or do you think that it's your guys' in particular tastes?
I think it's just me in particular.
It's, from what I understand, people really enjoy it.
I went on it with my friend's kids, and I feel like the older one was like, their faces are weird.
But that, like, otherwise they really enjoyed it.
And I will go on it mostly just to try to understand um because i have like i've been arguing about this ride with my friend todd martins who reports on disney for the la
times he loves frozen he loves this ride we have gotten into very public fights about this attraction
and i go on it specifically to text him and be like, I'm trying. Like, I am trying to understand.
And I think parts of it are great, but I can't lose my critical eye, I suppose, when I'm on this one.
Because just that hallway is so egregious to me.
It feels like an elementary school when people would, like, put on a haunted house.
Like, that's what that is to me.
And I can't,
I can't get over it.
No beautiful Olaf audio animatronic can outdo that for me.
When you,
when you brought this,
cause I was recalling this black room discussion.
I knew this would come up and I was,
I think I had the,
the,
the inverse of this.
I was watching right there.
And I was trying to dislike it.
I was like,
okay,
will I be as mad as Carly about this room? And I swear I'm watching the right there. and i was trying to dislike it i was like okay will i be as mad as
carly about this room and i swear i'm watching the ride throughs and like yeah but you're out
of there you're out of there and like what i'd have to time it out i don't want to like exaggerate
that it's four seconds but in my head it's four it is no more than eight seconds i believe maybe
we can do the actual count. But is this so crazy?
It takes you eight seconds to go and get like a Kleenex to wipe the tears away, for God's sake.
You know, I didn't notice it either.
I'm coming down.
I'm coming down from the emotion of the drop. Only this and Sinbad in Tokyo in my adult years have made me a little emotional.
Wow.
I'm so surprised that you're like full ass crying at this ride when you don't even know the movie.
Like, what is it?
What is it about it?
I, well, I think it is how well they pulled up.
You know, I get, I think it's the theme park love coming through. And I think I will, I think I will tear up at amazing work by Imagineers, which I believe that this is.
I think when there is like, I think when, when technology comes together, um, I think,
you know, what else is another aspect of it is that I, as I said, love Maelstrom, really
love Maelstrom.
I would have been mad if I didn't like what replaced the Maelstrom.
And I feel like they used the maelstrom and i feel
like they used the bones of a great ride and they did they they plussed it up and did something
really wonderful with it i feel like am i passionate about the trolls and into the bog
of course i am but i think i'm also passionate about the type of right i think it is a really
inventive into the bog uh what's that over the falls not isn't it i thought they say into the
bog into the what is it mike that's a good question i thought it was back back over the
falls yeah well i guess how passionate i'll get it wrong um i but i you know, yeah, look, I love the trolls, whatever they're saying. I love. But what was I saying?
Oh, I just think that I like that.
It's a ride that still has the things that I like about the maelstrom.
I think that the switchbacks are really innovative.
I think it's it's very unexpected.
I love like rotating around a figure, whether it's a three headed troll or Elsa.
I think it's really innovative-headed troll uh or elsa uh um i think it's really
innovative and neat that they did they took a drop which should be scary but they made it um
this emotional i don't know what other word to use um yeah uplifting despite going down. What's that? Triumphant. Yeah, yeah. Similar to Guardians becoming a fun laughing ride
from what was a scary drop ride.
I think it's a similar cool Imagineering feat
to give this a different mood
that this type of ride shouldn't have.
I agree with that.
Yeah, I see where you're coming from.
And I do like parts of the ride. I don't want
anyone to think that, because if they
catch me on this, I don't want them to think
they're like, I hate it. But I
think that there are certain portions
that I think are fabulous, certain portions
that I think are a sad excuse for a theme park
ride, and then some areas live in the middle.
Right.
If we want to flip to, since I was
just passionately monologuing about what i
what i like about that sequence um i'll give everybody this the the figures are odd uh uh
i think there might be some general agreement that the the way the animatronics faces look
is a little uh strange it wasn't enough of a strike for me, but I don't disagree with that point. They have Buzz Lightyear astro blaster face.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Odd light faces.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but these were the first fully electronic animatronics.
And the other thing to note is the facial, the face projections are coming from inside the head.
I think that is right.
And as opposed to,
let's say the,
the bell from beauty and the beast,
the new beauty and the beast attraction in Disney sea,
which is all just like practical.
Right.
Yeah.
This is the same sort of face projection.
That's in seven dwarfs.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
And another,
a ride.
I think I like more, but I but i'm like oh i'm not waiting
you like seven dwarves like more than this
i think so because it's a roller coaster i like that right a lot i don't know it's sort of lacking
in my mind i find the animatronics in both unnerving, this sort of face projection.
That's true.
I find it both kind of unnerving.
This generation of animatronic, I think they were trying this out,
and it doesn't... Obviously now if we're seeing what they're doing in Tokyo,
and I guess on Rise of the Resistance,
I think they're backing away fully from just fully digital face,
because it's a little odd,
and it also doesn't seem to match the
color of their skin it does look
like they all have I'm trying
to think five o'clock shadow like everybody's
got like a weird they're very light
and then very dark around the
side like they all have Lincoln beards
like light Lincoln beards and then
back to a bright neck yes
so that's
really yeah that's the only major thing I would complain about, I think, is that those faces are odd.
And depending on how you look at them, you feel like maybe the robot is going to come to life and kill you.
There is a very funny video online of an Elsa male.
I have it, I have it, I have it.
You want to see it?
I haven't seen it yet.
Okay, hold on.
Is this the one where the people are laughing and
screaming? I'm not sure. Here, I'll show you
if this is what you're talking about.
Does the ring girl come out of her face?
So she is just
waving her hand
a little bit
and no music's playing
she's doing the trump hand she's doing the trump
animatronic hands
the accordion
the song does not
like play triumphantly
yeah the screens aren't really
going are they what happened here
something happened
we'll post we'll retweet that and
you can see it yes so
maybe I haven't been in a theme park in a very long time
because I watched that and was like
that's not that bad
we would be thrilled to get like lazy
Elsa on a ride
at that point you'd be like oh my god it's like a walk
off at that point to get like a
lazy Elsa
Disney can turn off half their
animatronics when we come back i won't care i whatever whatever you gotta do honestly more
plants wearing sombreros like brought me so much joy i'll take it anywhere oh yeah this is bizon
we haven't talked about this on the show how on the three caballeros boat ride that donald broke
and now there seems to be an in memoriam for like you know that it's the three caballeros boat ride that Donald broke. And now there seems to be an in memoriam for,
like,
you know that it's the three caballeros.
So there's no way around it.
You,
you like there's three,
we know the count.
And then when only two characters show up next to a,
wait,
it is a cactus with a sombrero.
It was,
I believe it was first a plant and then it was a plant with a sombrero.
And I wouldn't even call it like, it was like a wooden stake with vines.
So, like, not even a full-blown plant.
And then it was gone.
And I have to assume it was gone because they just got their asses handed to them for putting a sombrero on leaves, which, like, how could you not?
They fired, like, 90% of the imagineers at this point so like the one
imagineer that's still around was like i don't know just put a sombrero on a cat i don't know
what are we gonna do we don't have any budget they fired everyone else there we we got a we
got a fern backstage and we got a bunch of uh scrap metal for the the uh water show monoliths
um well it's either a piece of scrap metal or it's a bird.
It just, to me, seemed like a black bag situation.
Like, Donald's not working.
You can't pretend he wasn't here because of the name.
Just toss a black bag over it and we'll all just move on.
And instead, they were like, let's get creative.
And, like, erected some non-plant.
And then we're like, no one will notice.
Let's put a sombrero on it.
It's actually kind of cute.
You know what?
Maybe it's better than what was there.
Do we know like today?
What is it right now?
Now there's nothing.
As far as I know.
Okay, just got rid of it.
Got it.
Do you hear Donald's voice doing nothing?
Like his ghostly voice? In that scene, I'm not sure.
They should have like badly
dubbed somebody's voice
over being like,
we can't do Donald's voice.
We've tried a million times on the show. So I don't know
if I should even try again, but it should be like a guy
going, oh, I was turned into a cactus.
Like there could be a little bit of explanation.
Like somebody's wish turned me into a cactus. Like, there could be a little bit of explanation. Like, oh, somebody's wish turned me into a cactus.
Oh, that was good.
Now that you've done the subtitle, how do you say,
now say I was turned into a cactus?
Sounds like you're dying.
You guys want to try?
No, I'm currently
what's the opposite of viral
when people just attack you
because that's what I am on TikTok
right now because I said that Donald Duck
was mean
oh that's right oh you're in the middle of a thing
I've sort of caught this
I can't even open TikTok
because my entire feed
is teenagers screaming at me
for a full week now
you're having a real living with the land situation
yes I am
and I didn't even get any cereal out of it
is this
you were
like you were
I don't remember what
I don't know if I even know what you said
but you were like you're joking it was one of those situations where people don't remember what I don't know if I even know what you said but you were joking
it was one of those situations where people don't
comprehend jokes on social media
sometimes they just view things as factual
or not so
they're just mad at your statement
he is mean and then so the first
wave of I did like
I didn't do anything over Christmas
I sat in my house I did nothing
and I was like I guess it's time for TikTok.
I'm bored.
And then made one that's like, what's your most unpopular opinion?
Because it's my opinion that he's mean.
And then I got a wave of people yelling at me that he's mean because he's like a war vet and because of PTSD.
And then like, I don't support our troops.
What?
Yeah, that was the first wave of it.
Then I happened to be friendly with the guy who voices Donald Duck in the newer cartoons.
I met him at a party last year.
And so he's big on TikTok.
And he was like, I'm going to make one.
Is it OK?
And I'm like, do whatever you want.
And so he made one like in good fun.
And even in the comments was like, please don't bully her.
And that didn't stop anyone.
So it's his is like him crying and reaction and then there's this other tiktok account called donald duck with two c's and i feel very old because i don't know who this is it is a donald
duck stuffed animal that just screams i i don't know he has like nine million followers or something and he found it and he reposted it and since then it has just
been hell hell hell look donald has ptsd and depression from dropping both fat man and little
boy okay he pressed the button both times he firebombed dresden you know he's still he's doing
his best using like the war cartoons as canon to prove that Donald Duck is, Donald Duck
was mean before he went to war.
I don't know.
I mean, I've been sweating since I said this one scene was bad because now I'm like, if
the teens find out, what are they going to do to me this time?
Oh my God.
God, we brought up Donald without even realizing we were walking right into it.
But they didn't deny that Donald is mean.
They're just justifying that his meanness is for a reason.
Well, now they're like, they're mad.
Huh.
Do they think that he's a veteran because he always wears a sailor suit?
Do they think he was in the Navy before he met Mickey?
I don't know.
I don't know much about him
except that he always feels like a very negative
presence in the cartoon and he takes away from
Goofy's time. So that's where I am.
Yes. Boy, huh. Donald
is mean and negative. You mean the point of
Donald? You mean why Donald
is funny?
This is like, Goofy's
kind of dumb. Oh, how dare
you? He wasn't educated properly.
He's like frustrated.
And that's why it's funny to watch them like mess with him.
Like Mr. Duck steps out, which is my favorite Donald short.
He's trying to hook up with Daisy and the nephews just keep screwing with him.
And he gets furious.
And it's so funny.
That's his whole point he does not he's not helpful when
mickey and goofy are trying to get the ghost or rescue mickey's trailer when it's wildly out of
control you know he's not not the best is this the certain subsect of the internet that it's like
book should have a sticker on the front that tells you if there's a happy ending or not like okay
i don't know how to i don't understand the Zoomer experience.
I don't know.
But that's like YA.
That sounds like a Tucker Carlson segment.
That's a dark place.
That Tucker Carlson segment
that you're already writing there.
Oh, Ariel Pink's new manager, right?
Yeah.
I feel like I praised Ariel Pink before on this show.
Oh, no.
It's just because I liked the music before.
I knew he was a conservative maniac. I't know we didn't know he made good keyboard sounds it was like retro
sounding and lo-fi uh do the kids do the teens have any like are we we on this podcast as far
as donald discourse like we accidentally ended up talking about donald's seat on one episode a few years
ago do they are they do they know about us do the teens know about us and what we say i don't think
that the seat discourse has made it to them but if you made a tiktok about it i think that the two
would meld most likely no this we should occur no no no i'm gonna sign up a
podcast right tiktok and we should probably start seat posting yeah oh god i you know this is
perfect friend of the show regular guest marissa strickland sent me for christmas a an iphone case
that has a big donald Donald seat on the bottom.
Oh, let's take a look.
You want me to go get it?
It's in the other room.
Yeah, go get it.
Yeah, go get it.
Talk amongst yourselves.
It is like, it's so interesting.
You've really cornered the market on something.
And it's butts, I guess.
I don't, I mean, anytime I see Donald stuff,
I'm like, that's a Donald seat. Like, it's just stuck with me. I don't. I mean, anytime I see Donald stuff, I'm like, that's a Donald seat.
Like, it's just stuck with me.
I don't like this.
If this is one of these.
All right.
Just like the Vacation Club Points episode.
If there is this TikTok that happens and there is something called seat posting.
This is scot-free.
This is a new brand within Podcast The Ride.
What was that?
I said not shit posting.
It's seat posting. Seat posting. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. said not shit posting it's seat posting yes yeah
yeah yeah i'm not part of the seat posting i'm not on this tiktok it's all because i accidentally
called like called donald's butt his ass once and then i would like immediately was ashamed of
myself and then tried to knock it back down to a cute harmless version of it we should be more
ashamed of seat this is where the shame should come in. And then we all waited for Jason to bring this,
this phone case.
It's great.
Yeah,
it's very good.
And it's huge.
It is huge.
No,
it's not at all practical.
It's very cute though.
Uh,
and Donald Duck also has a great John Hancock.
Great,
uh,
signature.
If you can see.
Yeah.
Very dignified.
In addition to his. seat. That is weird.
All right, enjoy your TikTok.
Enjoy knowing,
enjoy chasing your teen audience.
Have fun, fellas.
We need the teens need to listen.
We need to get youthful audience.
I just said we have no college audience
and we should have no teen audience. We're going to keep it that way. You don't have youngful audience I just said we have no college audience and we should have no teen audience
we're gonna keep it that way
you don't have young listeners? I just assumed
with those jokes out of Carlson
please
these jokes about William Frawley
from I Love Lucy
they're going wild for this discussion
about both Jack Benny
and I don't know what have I talked about
I don't know. What have I talked about? I don't know.
Frank Nelson.
Frank Nelson.
His bit being stolen by Gail Gordon.
Teens are doing the whip and the nay-nay while they read Lee Child's Jack Reacher series.
This guy told this story on TikTok about how people used to bring citrus fruits back from vacation.
It's so viral.
Bring it back.
It's called Nelsoning.
It's when you imitate classic character actor Frank Nelson on TikTok.
Yes.
These guys are great.
They talk, they do seat posting, they talk, they do Nelsoning, and then every third TikTok
is like, so like I'm youthful, right?
Like, I'm youthful enough, aren't I?
I mean, like, I'll wear, like, a hat.
Like, I'm youthful, right?
I'm wearing Fruity Pebbles, and look how I'm dressed.
That's going to be my TikTok.
Fruity Pebbles is what kicks you down to,
how old does Fruity Pebbles make you?
Well, Fruity Pebbles is celebrating an anniversary,
I just saw. And i can't remember if
it's 30 years or 40 or paper paper gold silver i gotta look it up fruity pebbles i just saw this
is it's a big anniversary and i really want to celebrate they do they do seat posting they do
nelsoning they make each other wait for fruity pe Pebbles facts on their podcast. Wow. Pebbles 50th birthday.
Wow.
Wow.
So happy birthday to Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles.
How about that?
So the first TikTok will be happy birthday, Fruity Pebbles, and then just lots of zooming
into Donald's seat.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Well, Jason, you name the new song.
Name the current song that plays.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
What's the big...
Dua Lipa?
Doja Cat?
Doja Cat?
Yeah, Doja Cat.
Yeah, Dua Lipa was just on SNL, and she had a new song out.
There's an Ariana Grande remix.
Very out of date, though, already.
I think we're talking...
No, I'm just like...
Five-year-old things.
I just like to think that we're somewhat young,
but then referencing music as what played on SNL is uh-oh.
Yeah, that's true.
Wait, yeah, that's maybe not the good litmus, is it?
Yes.
Maybe the cool music is not at that point.
I thought I was cool for saying I liked Ariel Pink.
You were cool in 2008, and now you're a right wing yeah
apologist big mistake all right here's what i will say uh again a frozen movie fine whatever
i like a few of the songs as soon as i start on this ride i feel very uh comfortable i feel
comforted and i feel like all these characters are my friends.
I've talked a lot about this.
What I like on rides is to feel the presence of the characters.
I like Optimus Prime telling me he's proud of me.
My favorite part of Rise of the Resistance is the Lieutenant Beck part.
I want to go up to that animatronic
while he's shouting out commands at Nigh and Numb.
That's my favorite part of Rise of the Resistance.
And I like Rise of the Resistance fine,
but there's not a lot of good face time with characters,
and especially characters that I find warm
and friendly and familiar.
Like Finn is way far away.
Rey isn't even on the ride.
There's just not a lot of human
characters so i'm immediately unfrozen the music is blasting which i love i feel like some rides
don't blast music they're blasting this music it feels very magical and i'm so close to all of
these robots on like in the same way you are on like a classic disneyland dark ride that i
immediately feel good i immediately have a good feeling that i'm in the presence way you are on a classic Disneyland dark ride, that I immediately feel good. I
immediately have a good feeling that I'm in the presence of all my friends. Now, I wish they said
they were proud of me, but this is almost just as good. And I think that kind of leads up to it,
what Scott is describing as that magical moment with the Let It Go Room, to lead me into feeling
really good when I'm on this ride. It feels good.
And I think it's partly also because Malstrom,
they had to work within a certain limitation.
And Malstrom is narrow.
It's a very small ride.
It's got narrow corridors.
And I think that helps because even if the scenes are a little spare,
I'm still making eye contact with Olaf.
And he's talking to me
and I don't even have that much affection for him
outside and we haven't even done the Olaf voice
yet on this episode.
That can change.
We can keep doing it, can't we?
There might,
you know, I think we've only danced around
it, but I might as well, again, to say
what I think is successful about this.
I like the ride despite not really knowing Frozen. round it but i might as well again to say what i think is successful about this it got it i i like
the ride despite not really knowing frozen um some of the things that i've said over the many episodes
might imply that i'm not the biggest fan of the work of josh get i will stop it there um i'm glad
he's reuniting all the casts it's uplifted my spirits throughout this trying time. But so I think it should say something that yet, despite me kind of feeling that way,
when Olaf kind of leans around the corner, like that look he has, like, you're here.
I don't know.
It still gets to me.
There is a lot of character in that robot.
It's fantastic.
He skates.
He's looking at you.
It's like, I like Olaf. i like ola i like olaf
i like mater i like olaf and those are movies that i don't love but i get it and i understand
and i think as a kid i would have really liked those characters um but olaf is is really good
i mean he's the first one i think you it talks to you right so that's he immediately is what
i'm describing is like feeling comfortable and feeling like i'm among my friends so he covers a lot of ground he um he's sort of of this school with the
the rocket animatronic we're like boy this is just a long sequence that this uh animatronic has to do
and like you really follow him for a while i think it's impressive it feels like they've perfected
short non-human robots like they're like there there any more of these what's that are there any more of these what
else is short and non-human bb8 but he's kind of what's the reindeer what's sven sven is the
reindeer i believe he's that was real good he's really good i mean those those animatronics i'm
right there with you i I agree with this side.
Those are fantastic, because it feels like the movie came to life, which is all you want.
As much as they have to make some cockamamie story that isn't the exact plot of the movie,
but still hits all the same movie points, you get what you want out of it.
You get to see Olaf in real life, and that's magical.
And I think that part is so good. That's why I get so mad about the other parts yeah it's um he's obviously
like he's on another level from the human characters uh but i think he does so much heavy
lifting that i don't even especially the first time i wrote it like i didn't even i didn't even
really clock that i had a problem with the faces the first time I was just like holy shit when am I gonna get to see Olaf again my favorite character in fictional
Olaf like that immediately he seduced Olaf seduces me on the ride in a way he does not
in real life and I like him fine in real life Olaf seduces me on the ride quote
Mike Carlson what's weird about that Quote Mike Carlson. Quote youth pastor Mike Carlson.
I think
it sounds normal, honestly.
Did I not realize?
Is this an anti-Josh Gad podcast?
I don't know. I don't want to go
putting that in anyone's mouth.
I feel like I missed
an episode where this was discussed.
We've just done a voice.
You know, it's not to my benefit to go on and on about this.
I've never really, truly enjoyed a film.
Maybe it's the writing.
Oh, please, great.
Book of Mormon, great.
Olaf, great.
I never saw him do Book of Mormon, which I'm sure was fantastic.
Did nobody watch The Comedians?
I did not see The Comedians.
Fabulous.
Cricket, cricket.
Okay, all right, okay.
Loved it.
It also blends into my Pillsbury Doughboy impression.
They're both very cloying.
Kind of voices, like nothing says loving.
It's sort of the same, like needy.
They're both needy, honestly.
They could redress this olaf as
the pillsbury doughboy and then jason would love if there was a pillsbury doughboy overlay
if there was a pillsbury doughboy animatron i would lose my shit if you got to make one yeah
you can't touch him there's no way they would never let us touch him. He couldn't be on a moving ride.
Augmented reality.
I think Mario Kart is really going to take augmented reality to another level.
I hate to derail.
We've had a lot of asides here.
I heard a rumor that Mario Kart actually is a slow-moving kids' dark ride,
but it'll feel faster because of just the screens and
the AR and stuff. I was under the impression
it would actually move fairly fast, but I've heard
it's a slow-moving children's dark ride.
I just thought I'd let everyone know.
I think they could
pull that trick off. I agree. I think they'd be
able to trick us. They didn't
trick us with Fast and Furious. No.
Yeah. No.
But I just had to recalibrate my expectations that it wouldn't be like a
Cars Land
type of a situation. Maybe it just whips
and maybe it hits corners in a way
that feels like drifting or something.
That's kind of the excitement.
But slow moving means more room
for scenes, which is good.
Yeah, I'd take, because if you're just plowing through that thing, then yeah, how many can they fit in?
So yeah, so that's good.
But anyway, back to Olaf skating.
I think that the combination of the music, which like the pre-part, like the pre-build
it.
Is the song called Do You Want to Build a Stone?
I don't even know the name of the song. that's right twinkly part of it which again
i have no affection prior but you go up you start the ride and there's like the like the sparkly
like icicle kind of lights hanging that part's fabulous it's fabulous yeah so yeah love that
scene and then you think it's only going to be olaf and then there's like a whole other second scene within the scene it's fabulous yeah so i don't know i i i just like i don't think
there's a other than maybe the unthemed little eight seconds i don't think there's a bad scene
in this because i like those trolls and i forget the trolls are there and the trolls are like as
far as my memory of the movie, like nothing.
Like, I don't remember those trolls in the movie.
I was like, oh, yeah, there were trolls, I guess.
Oh, you mean the gaslighting prince and the coup d'etat attempt?
If you list out everything that happens in Frozen, the movie, it's a mess.
I'll tell you what I like.
I like that chant that Nordic, I think it's called Vuli or Vuli.
I like that.
I think plays on the lift hill going up.
That might have been the song I remembered the most from the movie.
I feel like every time Mike says something he likes, I like this ride 20% more.
Well, I'm very persuasive.
Because now I'm here, I'm like, I do like the icicle lights.
Why am I not doing it?
I said some very impassioned things.
Yes, Scott.
I don't know, because he's right.
You aren't always like an inappropriate touch away from a character.
You know what I mean?
Like, you're right there.
Like, you're not supposed to reach your arm out of the boat, but you could, and you could touch them.
They're right there.
The proximity's interesting, yeah.
It's really, I feel like, because if they there's almost there's a
chance especially in the era of building little mermaid like if they built this like little
mermaid you wouldn't have the intimacy of this ride you would have a bigger show building and
perhaps it wouldn't feel so close quartered to the point where you would feel like like you get
right by that snow monster at the end i don't even know is that is an abominable snowman i don't know the names of that character but i love that giant
ice man at the end and he i forget he blows steam at you that part's awesome the steam also the
steam is perfectly timed when like the snow never bothered me anyway and that the fog goes up i
think that's perfect like i that kind of surprised me every time too the amount of things they pack into five minutes i mean i think this is on par with like the class like peter pan honestly okay they're okay i think it's that good
i don't know and i don't again no not that much affection for the movie what is the audience that
i'm so curious are we gonna like unearth that people have been quietly despising this ride for a while?
I think a lot of people like it.
I think.
We'll see.
I'm not sure.
I do think people like it.
I don't get the sense that people hate it, but I am interested to see.
I'm trying to think of the things that I was right.
I guess right that most people thought Baby Aladar was cute.
I was wrong that I thought it would be 50-50 on people liking Mr the old man six flags mascot people love mr six i was totally wrong about that uh so i'm interested now i bet
it would okay here's my official guess i bet like 75 of the audience likes this i'm going down you think it's lower yeah no i mean yeah i'm out i mean i'm
out here hating the hallway and just like bypassing the beautiful olaf and people are just gonna be
like shut her up well people will feel heard i think in what you're saying too there will
definitely be people who what you're saying resonates um i which is not a feeling i felt
after living with the land where i think if we apparently
if we did living with the land that poll would be uh 99.4 percent well i truly didn't know that i
i honestly did not know the the like strong strong affection for like did you before that argument
ever came up what would what would you have guessed on that, Mike? Like, would you like living with land?
Yeah, that's a good question.
Cause I, I, I would have thought that people that really like living with the land would
be like 55 or 60% that liked it.
And 40 would say like, ah, it's fine, but I don't, there's better stuff in Epcot, better
classic Epcot.
So I was a little surprised by the amount of people that
had such a strong affection for it, because I
don't have such a strong affection for it.
I was a theme park moderate on that episode.
No, that's right, yes.
And liked going on, and I would
like it to continue, but
I'm not so thrilled. Looking back,
moderation won
at the end of
the year. That's true.
Everyone just wants a nice moderate.
Congratulations.
I want those $1,400 checks.
I don't want it to be more.
I never wanted more.
I don't want to ask for more.
I don't want to bother.
Whatever you can spare is fine.
I've just been unemployed for 10 months.
I'll take the $1, we're doing Olaf aren't we
I think
with living with the land my
perspective on it would be that as you see
these classic attractions
disappear it's like we all
have to double down to be very
loud about them like you have to be
like spaceship earth is the best
so that they don't just make it like
a whole Moana ride,
whatever that's going to be.
So like you got to be loud and proud
about the old stuff
because they'll just pull it out of there.
They'll just like bulldoze it.
So, you know,
we got to concentrate our efforts.
Right.
That's a good point.
Let them hear you in the rafters.
Yeah.
From the rafters.
I am optimistic about some of the character stuff
coming to Epcot,
because with Ratatouille,
and, I mean, Ratatouille,
they built a whole new area
and a whole new building.
Beautiful.
Guardians.
Yeah, it looks, the French street,
the France pavilion already very nice.
They expanded that.
Guardians, they just gut it,
kept the exterior, gutted the inside.
Kind of not dissimilar to
what they
did with Guardians and California Adventure
and starting fresh.
And I do like those
and, but I
I'm optimistic about
that and then I'm conflicted
about like, you know, we talked about on the Living Seas
they put in a lot of the signs
back in about Seabase
about the modules and like the
Epcot font and I kind of like
I like it but I'm conflicted
because I think the phrase
lack of imagination comes up
it's like okay it's kind of
it's a little sad that our version
of the future we don't sad that our version of the future
we don't have an optimistic version of the future presented in epcot we have the future of like
40 years ago coming back around that's your option for the future park is is future from
40 years ago or uh the characters which you can uh pull up on on Disney Plus on your phone and see the characters.
Yeah.
The optimistic future
all being from 40 years ago is why we're getting
29
new Star Wars shows.
Yeah.
I mean, look, I wish
there was no...
I wish there was a world where like Epcot, when they were designing Epcot, they could have figured out a way.
And I think I've said this before.
Maybe it's like putting original characters on each us being able to keep some of these original things
that i think they they didn't want to do what they were doing over in disneyland and disney world
for a reason but i think it's cost them in the long run because of that like they like figment
and the dream finder were the closest thing they got to it but even they didn't make it out unscathed and still might not but i wish i wish they could have still done their weirdo fun
interesting or not fun scary uh interesting rides and and done it in such a way that would
have made a lot more of these untouchable so give it gotcot more history. Sorry, keep going. Yeah, Epcot's more about cool
environments and vibes and not so much characters.
And you might say the same thing in a way about Pirates and Haunted Mansion, except that you
remember, oh yeah, the foot pirate, or the
three guys locked in the jail, or these particular ghosts.
And that is maybe, am i crazy that epcot is not
full of that like we you know think about like world of motion i was a big fan of world of motion
but like what are the characters that you need to save right horse car really any of them i mean i
like all these rides but like horse car crash oh Jason? Horse car crash. Remember the big horse car crash?
Didn't that end up in Pirates? Didn't they move
that?
Or some of the characters?
They might have reused it.
At FigmentJedi on Twitter
sent us the concept art of
Captain Salty
Hinder
and his mackerel that were
characters originally considered for the living seas
at some point. Yes.
This is something.
Now this is what Mike's talking about.
More grandfathered in good characters.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know if
Captain Salty would have completely
saved the seas from becoming Nemo
and friends, but
there's something to it.
There's no way you could have known, I guess, when you were trying to do something
interesting and cool that like this stuff is going to have to go away at a certain point
because people aren't quite as attached to it.
The general population isn't quite as attached to it.
But I do think some of that would have helped at least preserve it.
And maybe that's, maybe this is just just maybe it doesn't need to be preserved i think joe rody was saying like he thinks of things and rides and attractions and
his uh uh adventurous club more like a broadway show well it had a 20 it had 15 year run a 20
year run so maybe that's fine maybe everything doesn't need to be forever i guess you could
also say that about why we might not need 26 Star Wars shows. Maybe Star Wars could be over.
It's possible we don't need it forever.
A new thing will come that we'll like.
Or is it possible that because the first Star Wars show everyone loves,
that that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do all of the rest of them?
I'm not discounting.
What I'm saying is Mandalorian is worth doing, clearly.
People are apeshit for Mandalorian.
Does that mean we're going to call the rest of them?
See, I'm kind of like, let's be quiet because then maybe they'll apply that to the Muppets.
You know what I'm saying?
Where it's like, maybe we'll get 26 Muppet shows if we show enough interest.
There will be a pattern for this.
How do we let anyone know we want that?
What's the move as an audience?
Of course we want that.
But how do we make Disney aware?
What's the best way?
Just gotta keep talking about it.
I guess so.
I don't know.
The Muppets is trickier, I feel like.
I feel like we'll get a little bone thrown every few years.
That's how it's been, pretty much.
Until they sell them off to someone else.
Oh, God.
The Muppets is a whole other episode, though.
That's a whole other discussion.
Where was I going?
Oh, before we stop, I know the name of the guy who was the lead, the lead Imagineer.
His name was Michelle, and I can't pronounce his last name, Den Dulk.
And he is a mentee of a Mr. Tony Baxter.
And his first project, because he worked at Efteling, and he worked overseas for a while.
And his first project was, where he was, think lead on was fantasy fair in disneyland
which is that area over by that like stage where people swing dance and where figaro the cat has a
little animatronic outside which i think that was a big hit that was immediately a big hit a little
and uh tony backstabbed i was also because i remembered an old season pass where they asked
tony about the ride and he goes oh i have faith in my mentee, essentially, because I know he knows what he's doing.
Yeah.
And I'm not sure what he's...
I don't know if he still works for the company.
I'm not sure what he's done or has been a lead on lately, but I like both of his things
that I know he was in charge of.
So, Michelle, thank you.
Similar placemaking for the fantasy fair and the queue.
Yeah.
Yes.
What a great queue.
Yeah.
Great queue.
Great queue.
Obviously, you know, Efteling, that's a place I've not been,
but I hear the theming is out of control, so in a good way.
So kudos to this gentleman.
Maybe this is a good attraction to do the not always done, plus it up, keep it, or whatever it's called.
Plus it up, keep it, or burn it to the ground for insurance money.
Maybe this is a thing to pose to Carly.
How do we, what happens to this ride to make you more satisfied with it?
Oh, um, it's hard because when you look at it realistically, I wish they would have gotten a Guardian-style attraction.
Like, I wish they would have gotten the brand new, groundbreaking whatever-whatever instead of being shoehorned into a former track and ride.
I think that they did a really good job with what
they were given because what they were given was not normal it was not like a normal just like
oh you're just gonna take over like a random fantasyland ride like it truly there's like
boat switchbacks so i think they did a great job with it but i would say keep it but give them
another one so like keep keep it but like give them a new one because
this ride there's i really don't know how you would plus it because you would never spend the
money to just put in new princess animatronics like that's just not worth it and you can't put
more olaf like there's i mean you could fix that hallway but beyond that like there's not much you
can do to plus it beyond what it is so like just give them a second plot of land and put in that thing you designed for Hong Kong.
That's a good call.
That's a very good call.
Make this the Navi River journey to a TBD flight of passage.
Yes.
To me, Frozen has proven itself at this point it's a huge
franchise people love it and i assume the kids who grew up on it so strongly still like it and
still identify with it so at this point like if there's any new animated film that deserves
another ride i think they do sure yeah big time what do we do with the hallway how do you fix
the hallway that's
now i want to crack it just christmas lights like honestly if you just put in christmas lights i'd
be thrilled thrilled a couple candles i mean the the icicle things at the beginning of the ride
are so good even if you just ordered another shipment of those and just like shoved them in
the ceiling like i think truly like any or anything that would make you feel like you're entering more of a mossy
space, just a transition.
Anything.
You know what?
Also, in thinking about this room
before this episode, one thing that I was
like, I bet I'll have the upper hand
here. I was going to go back into the maelstrom
and see, well, what was
that room before? I bet it was kind of nothing
before, too, so it's almost just exactly what the maelstrom was. And then I watched the ride through the maelstrom and then see well what was that room before i bet it was kind of nothing before too
so it's almost just exactly what the maelstrom was and then i watched the ride through the
maelstrom and you know what was in that space was the weird tall upright polar bear which is one of
my now you talk about our ip great i've got ip the very stiff like like, perfect posture, bizarrely upright,
begging for a treat polar bear.
I don't know if other people are as fond of the weird tall polar bear as me,
but it was, oh, it was, like, mocking me in the ride through.
Like, oh, my God, this bizarre polar bear used to be in that spot
where there's nothing.
Well, I guess Carly's got me there.
Put him back.
Yeah, put him back.
It's got to be, it's back there somewhere, right?
Yeah.
It stresses me out in such an existential way because I feel like I can't praise the ride
knowing that there's this one segment where they showed their hand.
You know what I mean?
It's like they shoved all of the time and effort on the cool new robot.
But then even something where you can immerse. like it just takes you out of the whole story.
And you could just immerse me just truly by stringing lights.
Stringing lights.
Also, for me, like animate some crowd scenes.
Like the whole premise is that the whole kingdom is celebrating this event.
And I think by the end, there's like eight people around, you know?
So it's a little, I guess you are the kingdom in theory
but how many people are in your boat
you know I think I missed the summer
fest thing entirely I think I
that one went over my head when I went
on it I didn't realize that was the
idea until
recapping it it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter it's just a nice trip
with your friends you know That's really all.
If I'm my pleasant, I would just be like,
let the boat stop for 30 seconds
and have Olaf, as I said on the episode about
Fast and Furious, Olaf comes up to the boat
and talks to me for a couple seconds
and addresses me.
Hey, Michael.
I'd love that.
Thanks for coming on my ride.
I'd love that. I would say fix the faces fix the faces maybe put the
new heads on put the more advanced heads on the robots uh and then crank the music up even louder
like let's get it let's get it vegas douchey vegas pool party club level bass going because i want to really enjoy uh on a ride i feel like on rock
and roller coaster i want aerosmith cranked up five more like times five decibels i feel like
it used to be that when i went on first when i was younger in the 90s i feel like they really
had cranked up aerosmith and i feel like now it's not is not loud enough how do you think the tiktok teens are going to feel about
your love of aerosmith well we'll see the aerosmith yeah i guess well this steven tyler
didn't know lift tyler was his daughter for years that's kind of sus canceled mike
uh i yeah the teens i'm sure will be interested in any aerosmith content we put out uh as i've
said before i think i've said at least on twitter uh one of the first things i want to do post
vaccine is get in the pit at aerosmith's deuces are wild las vegas residency so i am really
counting on this vaccine i will promise i will spend the money it's too much money
my one my one concern is that they have not been putting jaded in the set lists that i've seen
online which is the best aerosmith song by far another scott and i we have a lot of agreement
and i feel like jaded and the frozen ride are it are both like two of the biggest uh agreements we
have this is what uh unites us as friends yes mainly it's all built on the back of the biggest agreements we have. This is what unites us as friends, yes.
Mainly, it's all built on the back of the song Jaded.
So yeah, get it in the set list and let's get, yeah.
You know what?
I'm in there with you.
I'm jumping in the Deuces Wild pit and I want Steven Tyler to cough on me.
That's when I'll know everything's better.
Yeah, that is when we'll know.
So yeah, so better robot heads, heads crank it dj crank up this
frozen music and i don't know i'm good i think that's all it really needs all right well um
did we do it do i guess i guess carly weisel you survived podcast the ride uh we survived another
uh we we we had another another boat beef we we had another boat beef.
We had a boat beef.
We worked our way through it.
And it's always fun.
Do we have this diversion of opinions about any other boats? Oh, yeah.
We had to set up the next episode somehow.
Oh, goodness.
I'm not sure.
Just like general yay or nay on Mexico boat ride?
I mean, it depends on if Donald's back or not, because I'm really starting to appreciate plant with sombrero.
You might be.
That's maybe a fix for the hallways.
I mean, there's already fan art.
Like, I'm kind of in on this new unexpected ip there's your epcot this is the
hope for the future this is an innovative epcot ip for the 2020s carly here's how you get back
in the good graces on tiktok you you you post a video uh of you pointing at that meme where the
guy's holding hands with his girlfriend
and she looks unhappy because he's looking at
another lady
and the angry girlfriend
is Donald's head
and then the other lady is the
plant with a hat on it.
And everyone will laugh.
They'll all like that. They'll all enjoy that
two-year-old meme.
That is exactly how i feel yeah yeah
yeah i can't think of any other i mean i have we've really exploited my extremely strong opinions
on the previous the previous episodes i've been on with starbucks with living with the land things
like that but i mean no everything else I'm just pretty chill with.
What about River Journey, Navi River Journey?
I think it's fine.
I mean, I enjoy it when I go on it.
I like some of the smaller detailed work they've done
with like the shadowing on the like lily pads
or leaves of character footprints.
I think that's nice.
I'm fine with it.
I don't know what's going on,
but I don't like, I don't't hate it the way some people do.
I don't know if any of us do either. I love it.
I like it. Maybe somebody's got a cramp. Maybe I have to say I hate it.
I have to be the, what's his name, Stephen Lang? I have to be the
Stephen Lang of, I hate the Navi River journey. We're going to
blow it up from the base.
I'm going to chase those blue bastards out of there.
Well, you know, maybe we should.
I would hope we could get a next episode.
When you're on, we could do like Gideon's Bakery or something.
Oh, my God.
That's a dream.
Maybe that's too big.
Oh, the dream.
Too ambitious.
That's too ambitious, perhaps.
We'll find something.
With all the Disneyland funny business,
it could very well play out that I get the vaccine
and end up at Florida in the Gideon's line
before I am able to get into Disneyland.
Absolutely.
It's absolutely possible.
Yeah, sure.
Can we demand that you do it at this point?
I think you have to.
For content.
Oh, me?
Yeah.
You know, I tentatively already have a trip
planned because my family was supposed to go in uh november of uh 2020 and we just called that i
think in april or may and just pushed it a year so we'll see okay well you'll be in florida i'll be
in the pit i'll be in the pit in Vegas. Also, Jason, don't miss out.
There's a hot cookie hour where
for one hour a day, they serve you a hot-ass
cookie with local ice cream.
Carly, I know all about
the hot cookie hour.
Which hour is it?
I think it's 7 p.m.
It's late.
It's late.
Even though one of their vibes is that when we run out, we only make so much.
When we're out, we're out.
Well, boy.
But look, it was a lot of fun that we had when we're all vaccinated.
Yeah, boy.
Jason just tucks into bed, just rent the literal closest hotel room you can to the ice cream
and the cookie cookie and then just
covers up and that's that i i read uh i read the disney tourist blog review of the disney
springs gideons and i think they spent 70 to sample a bunch of stuff and i was like okay yeah
i'm prepared for that yeah that sounds right for like a few cookies a few things a cake and two coffees i'm like okay yeah all right let's do that
jason's throwing well you're also gonna have to pay for the flight i guess too so it's gonna it's
gonna climb but it'll all be worth it that's true but i these these frequent flyer miles aren't doing
anything right now i know i'm a mess yeah i'm messing a lot of points because I'm not using them on anything. And then you're going to Japan.
Yeah, yeah, please.
So this, hey, we have to exit through the gift shop
and ask if there's anything you'd like to play
because last time you were on,
you did not have your own podcast
and now you have your own podcast.
Tell our listeners about it.
Yes, surprise.
I now do this, I hope, with more eloquence than me screaming about a hallway
um in a work setting uh it's called very amusing with carla ozell who is me if you made it this
far without knowing that um that's cool uh it is reported theme park stories for the most part so
it's really like diving into the type of things that fans are very interested in that usually
like we laugh about on twitter for two days and then it goes away things like when all
those weird star wars sodas wound up in a random grocery store uh i tried to track them all the
way back just like random fun things that are very fan focused so we wrapped season one at the end of
the year and now i'm taking a cool few weeks off and then I'm back at it
fantastic yes well
yeah yeah check it out I've checked it out it's
great and as for us
you can find us on
Twitter Facebook and Instagram
if you ever end up finding
us on TikTok
let me reiterate that that content
will be scot-free
that is the new luxury brand within podcast,
the ride,
or,
you know,
I had nothing to do with it.
So if you see some seat posting,
that's the deal.
Um,
and,
and as for,
uh,
as a,
Hey,
if you want three bonus episodes every month,
uh,
you can check out podcast,
the ride,
the second gate at patrion.com slash,
uh,
podcast,
the ride, uh, which is, um, which is Scott's there for as of now.
Anything could change.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, so I guess what's a frozen way to end it as you walk through that unthemed black hallway of life
backwards
it's like a Twin Peaks ending
yeah
so frozen-y
just Scott maybe just say
something to your followers
just say to the Essanans
just say goodbye to them
maybe in your special way
maybe
the
the storm is coming
to Arendelle and it's gonna
be fun it's gonna be very emotional you're gonna
be singing let it go it's gonna be the
most fun storm you've ever had
that's my s-drop
and in general there's been a PTR drop
thanks for listening, everybody.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Forever Dog.
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