Podcast: The Ride - Splash Mountain Reimagined and P:TR Post Office

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

We take a look at recent park news! Splash Mountain to be rethemed! Trouble in The Void! Large walls! And we answer YOUR questions.  Disney Cruise Morning Show with Kevin Perjurer up at The Second Gate: Patreon.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

Forever. Dog. drive his significant other away forever. Kick your socks off. We're discussing the Splash Mountain reimagining and answering your questions on Podcast The Ride, your virtual theme park fix during quarantine. Think of us as your little audio Disney quest. My name is Mike Carlson. Joining me as always, Jason Sheridan. You know, I hope whoever makes like the Oculus stuff is making a virtual podcasting simulator. You hope that? I hope that.

I hope like you put on the helmet and then you see like a cluttered coffee table and then you have to record, like you got to do ads, you got to say everything, you got to make sure to plug your social media accounts yeah and they have like a little like haptic feedback thing you wear on your like ankle and edwin the dog can hump you because he's so stressed out that you're podcasting that would be very realistic let's bring scott garner and also here to pitch on this idea of a

vr podcast well this is all assuming that there is anyone who would buy such equipment who doesn't already have a podcast. Assuming that there is anyone at all who doesn't already have a podcast. That's a good point. I think at this point, podcast penetration is about 90%.

Is that right? Is that a right statistic? Yeah, and I think if you lined it up with the coronavirus curve, I think it shoots up at all the same moments that the virus does. We're trying to hit 99% podcast penetration. I know that's a weird way to put it, but I... Yeah, you seemed uncomfortable just saying the word.

Yeah, I mean, look, you know, this is not a bawdy podcast. I don't think I've... Have I ever said the word penetration on Podcast The Ride before? You're up to two now. I don't think so. I think this is a first. I think whoever keeps our wiki, please tell me if I've ever used it before. I think podcasting is in general a medium for

people who are or at some point have been uncomfortable with penetration I think that is an overlap for sure yeah but I'm not using it in a in a sexual connotation I'm using it in a sure you know penetrate penetrating no this was all about like vr stuff and you know what's one of the main applications of that or will be at some point so yeah you're describing a you want to create a vr scenario where people have sex with their favorite podcasters that's not what i said and it's not what i was going for it's not what you said it's what you meant so it was in your heart that would be, that would be scarier than Nicodemus. Scarier than a horror,

any horror VR. That would be the, yes, that's the horror character in the void, which we'll talk about, which is having some, some difficulties lately. But yeah,

if you, if then it was like, now you have to kiss Nicodemus. And then, yeah, you had like what I was saying, haptic feedback like like face mask where like your lips would tingle when you had to kiss nicodemus the demon the void

created original ip demon well that's just the first jump scare the ultimate jump scare that the climax of it is uh you have to be emotionally intimate with nicodemus oh my god you have to like share with him about your like deepest childhood trauma well you had no you yeah you just have to be vulnerable you have to open up to nicodemus i don't like that like do you really love your parents though have you really gotten over what happened to you as a child why can't you just tell me what you're feeling why is this such a rigamarole your eyes are darting all over the place look at me you're always deflecting why are you always deflecting stop by the way that's what nicodemus sounds like i think so we haven't yet we're too scared

to have done this virtual reality demon thing that we're describing and now creating a scenario where you go to him as your therapist but i look they hopefully the void survives what we'll eventually start talking about but i think multiple updates to nicodemus are possible so we just we could we're there's a main topic we're going to talk about, but we could just jump around and say that that's, we're, we're, we're catching up on a little bit of topical news.

We're posted the 4th of July holiday. And one of the weird things we found is, you know, we've talked about this thing several times in the podcast, the void, this VR experience, and they are, uh,

it was even part of our downtown Disney ordeal. That was, uh, one of the topics. And, uh, they're out of Disneyland gone out gone out yeah evicted it's evicted it was like such a harsh way to put it too it seems like yeah it felt very uh landlord-y felt like felt like they fucked like the void

fucked up somehow and when was the last time downtown disney evicted like won't like sanuk didn't get evicted basin didn't get an uh evicted i don't think they were chased out with torches no um i yeah i don't know yeah and it was just like a it just seems like the disney relationship is severed because this is the the the place that does vr experiences of uh we've talked about them star wars and wreck it ralph uh yeah we did marvel with paul a few months ago now before quarantine yeah right yeah right before that is one of the worst things you could have done you know the day before um yeah yeah because yeah it's you're putting on a lot of equipment you don't know where it's been they weren't cleaning things at the time because nobody knew we uh we had to um yeah but they're it's like

yeah drop all the disney stuff you're done i so harsh just just a kick to the curb well yeah it said it was a violation of the licensing agreement which i i guess the licensing agreement entails paying your rent on time, but I can't say I've heard about any other downtown Disney businesses that have been essentially served. There's papers taped to the window. You have to publicly display this stuff, I think, for businesses. It's very strange. it's just a creepy thing to see at downtown disney like the you know as if like this place has lost their liquor license

it feels such like i didn't know they did that kind of thing like the health board shut them down it's like if you build a bear had like a big condemned sign or something like you don't expect to see sort of real world things like that in downtown disney no bears will be built here anymore yes no don't don't come and steal the stuffing i'm trying to find the forbes talked about it uh are they are they going to be out of orlando too just uh says disney evicts the void, withdraws Star Wars and Wreck-It Ralph licenses. And they, as Forbes supposes, without its own IP, Nicodemus, hello. We just did a lot of great Nicodemus material. Without its own IP, saddled with expensive leases and no path to revenue anytime soon.

It's unclear how this pioneering company will survive this. Oh, no. We've really liked some of these these things so this is a bummer Yeah and that's the Those are the people behind Evermore as well Which is that very immersive Park where is it again I always forget Utah

Far away it's in Utah Nowhere close to an airport so that They should survive Yeah So yeah I we don't have the full nowhere close to an airport so that should they should survive that shouldn't be an issue uh so yeah i i we don't have the full story here i'm very curious but it is a bummer because i like we were yeah we were very happy with a lot of the void stuff and it feels like i don't know what's gonna happen now that the actual location is a void that's true will nicodemus here i mean i don't want to

this seems like i'm already like trying to like be a vulture or something but like will nicodemus come up for sale as an ip is that something we can add to our collection of characters unwanted right like marvel mcfay or various other characters we've mentioned on the show. Yeah, yeah. There's one coming up. I don't think we discussed buying it, but you'll hear something on the second gate. You know, I mean, I want all of these. I think we mentioned that one in tandem with Leonardo Columbus, who I would like to own very much.

Yeah. Yeah. leonardo columbus who i would like to own very much yeah yeah i think you know we talked about this like disney traded al michaels for oswald the lucky rabbit cartoon sportscaster al michaels was traded for a cartoon so could we trade jason for leonardo columbus or nicodemus for these various like would disney accept jason for nick for sorry for Sorry, for Leonardo Columbus, the character we discovered that was in the and I'm forgetting the Millennium Celebration. Caught Millennium Celebration in 2000. Wait, so we're selling Jason. I'm just this is hypothetical.

I live to serve. It's a trade. It's a trade. Al Michaels was trade. I mean, I guess, Jason, in this scenario, you don't get to be on this theme park podcast, but you do, like, you are a Disney character. So that's better, right? Sure. If it comes with three hots and a cot, you know.

Three hots? That's what they say about the army, right? Three hots and a cot? Three hot meals, yeah. I thought maybe you meant dogs, which could be the meals. Oh, there are a number of dogs yeah i'd get i'd have any number of dogs to hang out with huh i i yeah i guess i meant hot dogs but uh right i don't think it was hot dogs yes uh lots of those do so i guess seems like you're open to

the idea that we could maybe trade you to some sort of giant company for one of their IPs. I mean, you know, we can see it's not like filming TV is rushing to get back to shooting. Animation's the only viable industry. So if I want to be, you know, put into some sort of tune world at Disney's behest. You're going to be tune-ified? You know, I'm just keeping all my options. It's up to them to decide what to do. Yeah, I guess maybe they might want to run you through the cartoon machine.

Plusified. Wow. Which makes you immortal, maybe. Maybe you get to live forever once you do this. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, look, we'll see see i'll see if i can get in touch with some sort of a lawyer and see what we can do as far as drafting up some some proposals for

these companies uh and it's no offense jason it's just that we would love to have nicodemus host the show with scott and i so now our the third co-host is the voids's Nicodemus Demon of Avanishment. Avanishment? Of Vanishment, yes. The Demon of Avanishment. A demon who, you know, we haven't talked, maybe we haven't said a lot of the context, and I didn't even know the story.

It's about a, he comes from a demonstration at the World's Columbian Exposition, like a World's Fair thing. He's from 1893. So he's like an electricity experiment gone awry that brought a demon to this earth from the, he's a steampunk demon, I think is what he is. So hosted by a childish man in his childless man in his thirties,

one child full man in his thirts and a steampunk spirit evil demon steampunk demon of a vanishment who of a vanishment a demon of an vanishment who's like the second darren right there were two darrens on bewitched mike yeah that's correct yeah yeah and look you know we're hitting year we're gonna hit year three or four i guess soon so this might be a kind of a cousin oliver situation where we need to do this to to bump up the ratings would he though give us uh nicodemus and i'm also still here he is just like cousin oliver oh just a totally new yeah yeah honestly i think that's gonna be too many hosts yeah i think so i gotta agree with you there so sorry jason it's k i have four hosts i don't think that's going to be too many hosts. Yeah, I think so. I got to agree with you there.

So sorry, Jason. It's KIF4 hosts. I don't know. That's a ton. It just feels like a three host kind of thing. Can we have guests? Yeah. I kind of like, though, that maybe he, because it, you know, as with Darren on Bewitched, just keeping the name just for

consistency, I think it would make the audience more comfortable. So it is Nicodemus, but playing Jason. I think it would make the audience more comfortable. So it is Nicodemus, but playing Jason. I'm Jason Sherwood. Okay. Well, you're starting to lose me now. But what if we have an affinity for ice cream?

I love naps in the Orlando sun and humidity. Yeah. So people won't maybe even some people won't notice. I engage in marijuana use slightly more than you, Scott and Mike. If I am made the subject of fun, your souls will be sent to the combine.

The electricity combine that brought me to this earth, me, Jason. I know youth slang more than you do. Accept it or die. i look i a lot of big changes coming to the show i think so any of this stuff is on the table gotta keep it fresh folks yeah so big big things coming up. Something else is undergoing some changes. Now we went from the fairly sensitive topic that we came here to discuss

after having talked about changing out one of the hosts for a steampunk demon. Well, isn't that the fun of this show? The whiplash it did get. Now on to Disney correcting a 30-year oopsie and easily correct it they really have to be adding that up at this point like why did why did a log flume need to be about our most problematic film yes of course we're talking about splash mountain and the internet has been

very normal about it changing uh as expected although you know what i will say this not as bad as i thought it could be no i don't think it has been uh yeah yeah i don't think it has been but i have not been clicking see more replies under any tweets about it i have been actively avoiding it but i for whatever reason reading through people's remarks i feel like maybe it's like five to ten percent better than it would have been five years ago i think think that's, yes. Yeah. I think that's very true. Yeah. As are a number of these kinds of,

you know, I feel like this has been a, such an era of changes that were talked about four or five years ago. And now they're just happening. Changes like shoving a bunch of statues into the lake, which has been fun to watch. We, of course there's,

there's no way someone listening to this doesn't know this, but Splash Mountain, which is a ride that is based, as it currently stands, is a ride based on Disney's extremely problematic 1940s film Song of the South. They have announced a refresh, a plus-up, as they called it, in the actual press release. They're going to retheme it to the 2009 film Princess and the Frog. So which way?

And I guess maybe the bigger story here is that there was a Twitter discussion about doing this very thing there were um petitions going around suggesting this uh a gentleman had posted a twitter thread proposing how this could be done and how it might play out so somebody we know we've met uh wait for freddie chambers is that correct got a lot of freddie yeah yeah got a lot of traction uh off of that and so this was like the momentum was building uh on this throughout a couple weeks and then suddenly one morning out of nowhere seemingly disney comes in and says uh yeah that's exactly what we're thinking uh yeah so we're actually good totally thinking the same thing uh jinx and uh here we go we're doing it totally we've been thinking about it for a year, they said. It's honestly for like a year over year.

Really like five years. We were totally. Do you want to see? Do you want to see what we were working on? Because we have it all in behind us. It's all there. That's kind of the. I think we probably all agree that this that the refresh is going to be good and we're excited about it.

And we'll talk a little about what we think it could be and i think the thing that's a little funny is this the disney like okay well so look uh we're way ahead of you and i'm the newest jason sorry go ahead oh mike i was gonna say and mike you pretty early on called like they must have had these plans in a drawer for a while like you don't just have concept art overnight you know i think that the probably the reality of it is that and i think jim hill and there was a recent disney dish podcast and jim hill talked about i think especially after they changed red they did the they changed the bride auction on pirates he says that they had a list of things really through yeah there's a list and you know

there's plenty of stuff we all Peter Pan it's time to change the native depiction Peter Pan and get rid of the ride entirely in the character entirely no there's a movie coming there's a movie coming and the good news is that

on this podcast alone we've got casting for a pan a smee and a very tall lost boy so sure i think we're all set and i i don't want to sell myself short but some of us will work for scale uh we know scott is pan yeah so let's make that cast me in it i have to do it i have to wear the thing and i've got a number of tweets saying jason is me right uh which we talked about that yeah we talked about it and i think you've been trying to will that into existence for nearly a decade michael uh so can i be a pan who says why in fact I did grow up and I'm happy I did. I still now I haven't turned my back on childish things.

I enjoy them very much. However, I refuse to run around and mock little girls and say I'll be a little boy forever because that's weird. Unfortunately, the great Robin Williams already gave that performance. No, no, no. No, because he turned his back on it. We need to find a new angle. No, because he moved on. He's like, I'm a lawyer and I'm on my cell phone and I miss my kids' baseball game.

This is a well-rounded pan who is a well-adjusted adult, but also flies around as well, too. I hear what you're saying, and that's a good idea, but could you just do the lines from the Disney cartoon just for us right now that you did on the Peter Pan episode? Just one or two of them. What were they? I don't know. You just did a Pan impression.

Here, I have my notes in front of me, so you like my take, but I have to do the same lines. Well, just to see. We want both versions to see you know um okay uh all right um uh i thought the only one i have written down is girls talk too much well get on with it girl tink says you're a big ugly girl this is see this is what i view anyone who wants to make fun of me for saying pan is canceled now how do you like hearing these lines again huh there's a reason i have an issue here

right well look uh thanks for doing that we're still going to take it under uh consideration at the pan committee at the peter pan movie committee over here. So, yeah, so there's a list. I will say Country Bears is on the list. But Country Bears is on the list because some of those songs are, like, bawdy by, like, modern children's standards. Well, the one that Jim says is... It's for bawdiness?

I don't know. Jim didn't say bawdy. Jim says Mama Don't Whoop Little Buford, which is a joke song about like hitting a kid so like stuff like that is gonna go and like on the saddle

on the saddle might stay but but so I'm just saying all my point is is that there is a list of this stuff yeah that Disney knows I think though that what it seems like is Splash Mountain might have been at the end of the list and is now at the front of the list. Why would it have been at the

end? Because it's expensive. Yeah. That's true. And that's some of what, you know, there's things that we're out of our depths to talk about a little bit. But one thing we can talk about is logistics. And that's one thing that i

flashed you i think this thing will be really cool when they do it but i'm also like this is gonna be the most expensive thing ever because it is such it's a very long ride and it is a ride with hundreds of animatronics and assuming that they were going to keep it that way and not reuse animatronics although maybe they would if it was going to be entirely new like oh my god that is so much space to uh to populate um which i you know a year ago i would have felt like they'll do this no problem now it's i don't know if you've heard it's been a probably a rough time financially for the parks i'm just curious how it'll how it'll play i just i want this to be like the full tilt version of what it could be and not like full of screens and uh you know yeah i have

asked because it has to be i think of what well so jim has a full rundown of at least one of the plans kind of for it so i think it is sort of taking some of the scenes and just changing them around and putting the alligator in where the bear was. Like there's certain things I think that they're going to keep the bones of the actual ride. Are you perhaps the like, like literally the bones because the bear is kind of rotund and then the alligator is kind of rotund. So will it? Yeah, maybe they can just do some reuse there.

So I think that's probably part of it. But I would assume Disney would put a lot of money into this because that's not a good idea if they cheap out on this ride. Well, I mean, clearly they can't cheap out on this. It clearly reached the point where it's no longer a financial plus. It's a liability. It's weird that they did this in the 80s. I think the idea was maybe we can separate some elements from a problematic thing. And I assume it's also pre-internet.

And they're thinking, well, we're not going to put this out. And at a certain point, people will come to know it just as this ride. Oh, again, as I said, the mind-blowing stat, I said the first time around, that this movie was re-released in the 80s. Well, that's crazy. That was a test. It was a test to see if people would be agog at it.

And they went and saw the re-release, and they're like, I guess we can make a ride out of it. Let's just make the TGIF stars ride it a lot so everyone associates it with our friday night lineup and not the um weird historical artifact that uh makes people think that everyone was a wacky character in reconstruction rsl well and like yearning for the days before that the movie was so controversial at the time it was made it's not like in hindsight yeah big n-dendo scp protests on its release yeah it's bizarre so my assumption about the 80s is they were like well you know we could it's the mark davis characters and it's nice and we can sort

of take these things out of context and maybe people won't know because we're not going to put the movie out on home video which is still crazy i'm not making excuses for people but i'm assuming that's the logic but when you get to an internet era the internet never forgets yeah this is the thing and if anybody's on the fence about this i think it's fine to feel nostalgic for this because we just grew up with this ride but like this is what i was imagining you imagine a kid who's like us a weird nerd kid who's black who loves disneyland goes on splash mountain loves it and then goes home and googles it like that sucks yeah that's i what i've been flashing to is anybody like going on the ride having a good time so what's that right about who are those characters about

and the conversation that ensues and uh that that conversation could lead you to a very like a grim film and some bad stuff. And with this remodel, you will go on the ride, have the same thrills, the drops in the same places, a bunch of happy songs. And then you'll say,

what were those characters from? Oh, this like this nice movie. That's very charming with a lot of great black artists in it. And that's a better conversation to have after. And I think that's why you do it. It'll make people feel good. Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. I think if you feel like the ride was in a gray area, it is based on a film that is not in a gray area. And I think that's ultimately the reason to not. Right. And the parks are different than movies, too, I think. Like, there's a lot of debate, of course, about movies and censorship. And movies, they are like a document. And you should put a thing at the front of them explaining the context of the time.

But the parks are living things. So I see a lot of arguments of like, well, it's been here for 30 years. And it's like, things change in the parks all the time. That's what's going to happen. And you should get used to it happening more because it's going to happen. Absolutely. And in fact, if you think about it, Splash Mountain 1.0 will have ended up having a longer run by far than Jurassic Park. The ride way before it switched to jurassic world the ride so uh you

know that it's like a that's that's a gigantic ride that's that's longer than a ton of things get and i think it's fine to feel sad i mean i when you're 10 years old and going on this and have no idea you just get nostalgic for a thing that's a fun experience. But as an adult, you go, yeah, it's time. It's time for this to go. So you could be sad, I think, if they were going to take this ride down and replace it with a lecture or like, you know, like remember when there was some dumbass senator who people chose to elect said something about what if they are they're going to rename the Washington Monument Monument, the obelisk of wokeness, which a lot of people said is actually cool. That's kind of a neat, neat, cooler name. But also like, no, it's not. if you were taking out a fun ride and replacing it with a bummer perhaps this is going to be the same ride

and it's going to be a happy celebration that is I think according to the official literature like a Mardi Gras it's going to be like a happy party it's still going to make you there's no reason to be sad I watched the movie last night

Princess and the Frog i hadn't seen it in a long time very catchy songs there's a giant swamp gator playing a trumpet i mean what else he's what else do you want i mean that's great i'll say sorry mike i will say i'm very curious for a movie uh a lot of voodoo in that movie and i'm curious to see how that is like i'm curious how much they put of that in because they just kind of use voodoo as like a catch-all sure i mean i don't know i think that the movie is taking uh excuse me the ride is taking place after the movie yeah so they can sort of create a fully new narrative and and even put characters in different context as well so that which makes honestly it seems cooler i mean because it's being headed up by the woman who did runaway railway i believe i looked up some stuff about her uh charita carter uh the senior creative

producer on this she uh worked at imaginary for a long time worked her way up from accountant she was an accountant for a long time uh then moved over to the creative world managed a a concept lab that was like testing out different technology and the thing that came out of that was uh projection mapping and uh starting to deploy that in the parks which is all over the parks and if you watch episode five of the imagineering story on disney plus she talks about all that uh and implementing it on mara in the indiana jones adventure i think she kind of spearheaded that project that now when you go up that ramp that uh uh you know mara looks uh mad and

the lightning flashes and all those cool effects they do and then it seems so that was a i mean imagineers do all this stuff you don't even know what it you know they aren't credited usually but she's associated with that and then mickey and minnie's runaway railway which i haven't i've purposefully not watched yet because i don't want to spoil it but um either it seems people seem to love it so i think this this uh plus up is in very good hands so yeah i think you're doing you're using like the characters and they're gonna get to do a new story with them which is cool and exciting and it's also like good that it's not the book report oh yes so there i i because i saw i maybe didn't read that initial press release that carefully and i I saw people saying, I just hope it's not one of those

that just steps through all the events of the movie. But, quote, the official press release, we pick this story up after the final kiss, which implies that the main characters are not frogs, at least when we meet them. Perhaps they would be frogs again, but we don't know. And we join Princess Tiana and Louis, who's the alligator, on a musical adventure as they prepare for their first ever Mardi Gras performance.

So it is a it is a new story, which I think will make this thing more fun. And yeah, that'll, I think, determine is is the villain Dr. Facilier in there. He died, but he's like a magic guy. So maybe he could come back like far quad like the ghost of far quad a great performance from keith david i mean he's great oh yeah yeah i think he'll probably i think i think jim had a real a rundown of at least a version of of it in their head and i believe he was in it i think he's in the in the in the lift hill that's what you'd have to think and that was in that was in freddy's notion of it and that sounds really cool especially i uh i jason you rewatched it i had

never watched this movie and i thought i should before we talked about it and it made me more excited about this whole thing because i found it very charming i thought it was great and uh there's there's a lot of like uh crazy business with his shadow and big scary shadows getting projected. And that's sort of what happens already on the Hill a little bit with Br'er Fox. So you could do things in that spirit. So, yeah, the lift over and the drop being, you know, like the villains rise before the sheer pleasure, asony baxter described it that that follows after the drop yeah i mean i and then you go out of mama od's house i believe that's what the sort of the piece set piece of the ride is or i guess what do you call it i guess the that's what the that's

what you're leaving the log and the big drop yes so that means so that because in the movie uh they go to visit her in this big tree house that has a boat sticking out of it and in the concept art they released that's what it is so it is it is crazy how much overlap there is and how much they already had the bones to do this because that was a lot of the question like if you were ever going to replace it with what because are you going to find a thing with a big tree oh this oh my god um so that's cool it um it begs this question though um the in in current splash mountain uh it is a big like tree stump essentially uh and and that that it is also you know the ride is called splash mountain that thing is called Chickapin Hill.

In the movie, this is in no way a mountain. That is purely a tree. It's not on top of a hill or a mountain. It's a tree. So can you still call this ride Splash Mountain? That is a question because Splash Mountain has nothing to do with Song of the South. No, we can say definitely. It's an Eisner name.

Yes. Because of the mountains. It's a good question. Well, and after Daryl Hannah, Daryl Hannah, that's really why it's called that, which as I texted to you, Mike, the only sin of Splash with Daryl Hannah in Disney's eyes is its depiction of the dirty, dirty female form. Well, of course, there I have to agree.

Disney Plus, of course, censored Splat. They like put more mermaid hair and blurred her body. This is one thing I don't understand about Disney Plus is the puritanical nature of it. And the creepy like getting rid of things and it feels a lot like when blockbuster would scrub movies because like southern morality groups would make them i'm not keying on all that stuff there's such a tight leash on everything in disney where it's like it's just a i mean it's a struggle. Like we obviously like all this Disney stuff, but we also talk about how crazy and fucked up things are.

It's like, it's just a struggle to get a gay character in a major movie. Like it was like Black Panther at Marvel when Ike Perlmutter was in charge, was like, that was going to be hard. Like that's not going to work. We're not going to do that. That was a struggle for years to get made cut to it making so much money being a massive cultural phenomenon uh so it's it's very similar i feel like where they're just like it's the most conservative we don't want to make anyone mad and we need to preserve and it's like is real are

people really gonna be mad about a little nudity and Splash? Like a side boob a little bit? Is that really? Well, that's why Splash Mountain was so odd for so long. It's a company that always has all its ducks in a row. And then there is one very odd, like this hugely popular ride, largely popular because it's a water ride, and the parks are in very warm climates for the most part um at least in america and yeah and if you say so that's based on this and that

the haunted mansion's original what's this based on oh don't worry about it uh it's really it's based on the t-shirts you can buy at the gift shop which they are trying they are simultaneously like we're redoing splash mountain we also have a lot of back stock to sell off we have a lot of stuffed animals and little guys that sit on your shoulder and oh yeah i mean look yeah it's not like completely virtuous or anything yeah and it's also it's gonna be weird for a while because the you know the magic kingdom is opening as you, you know, the magic kingdom is opening. As you're listening to this, the magic kingdom is opening back up tomorrow and it will be open with Splash Mountain as is.

And that's kind of one of the weirdest things about all that. I mean, Splash Mountain as is could be open for a really long time. So, so this making this press release is kind of just, it's like getting their foot in the door. It's like, okay, so even if you go on the ride and it makes you mad in any way eventually some time from now but it's just gonna be odd and i and you feel like you know what's the worst thing that's gonna happen is that the park's gonna open back up in florida and the worst people on earth will proudly go on splash mountain and film it in a way it's like see it's fine and also not wearing a

mask like see it's fine i'm breathing in the splash air to make a point the sweetest smell tried to stop me pc please and you know what that we'll come back to the idea the name of it real quick i will say that water smell ain't going away. Don't worry. I saw people saying like, it's just, I'm going to miss the stuff, you know, the, you know, the, the, the, you know, the drop and the smell and like, well, that's all not gonna, this is, I'm convinced it will have the bones of what we like a lot. Uh, I like, I, I swear there's going to be so much of the,

of the vibe. I think like, I really believe like 70 to 80% or more about what, like what you dig about this ride is still going to be intact mixed with up to date, like better technology and you know, been very good songs and all that. Right.

And it's like everybody, there's a lot of people throw fits when stuff changes, but like, I want cool new stuff on the Haunted Mansion, too. I want cool, like, everywhere. And, like, I'm sure they're going to throw a lot of money at this, and it's going to be very cool. I'm sure of it. I am just, I'm all for this. I'm excited to see what they're going to do i think they give it six months to a year of the uh old version of

splash mountain staying open because people have not been able to ride it i don't know about that i'm curious i'm kidding i wonder if because people aren't like people are going to trickle back to the park i don't i don't know jim hill was saying like, oh, there'll be like farewell events, but I don't think that sits right right now. I don't think they will do farewell events. No, granted, I was wrong. I said this, I was guessing in our text, I was like, they will probably, when people started talking about Splash Mountain

going away online of like, they should maybe do that. Like I said, I think Disney thinks they can probably get five to 10 more years out of that. Like I said, I think Disney thinks they can probably get five to 10 more years out of it. And I was wrong. And I was happy I was wrong. Yeah, I mean, I didn't think,

and it's partly because we've just lived with it so long and it's just like, oh yeah, that's weird. Okay. You know, like as opposed to like really sitting down and thinking about it and going, yeah, of course this has to go. i i am i was surprised too but yeah i don't think it doesn't feel right to be like and say goodbye to all your good friends oh yeah if any official art with that i i think the thing that surprised me about it was uh yeah i yeah i felt like this won't happen

just because you know less because they they aren't sensitive to the issues and more just like they're not going to do it because of Twitter. I really didn't think that was the case. And now, did they do it because of Twitter? I don't think so. Did they get this announcement out of what they were doing anyway because of Twitter? Absolutely. So you do have to credit the discussion with shaping it and forcing their hand, getting them to just come out and say, all right, it's coming. Don't worry about it.

Right. And look, major media companies and politicians, by and large, do things when there's pressure, not because they're like looking to make the absolute right move before the pressure comes. So, yes, absolutely. It's like it's a storm, a perfect storm of things. And I'm going, yeah, oh, it's like uh it's a store a perfect storm of things and i'm going yeah oh it's out it's done we're doing we're good yeah yeah we were we're we swear we're doing it i i'll say this and this is just speculation right now this is just rumor unrelated splash mountain all for splash mountain can't wait to see it if after the the job they did flipping guardians i'm just so excited to see what. After the job they did flipping Guardians, I'm just so excited to see what they could do with this.

I am begging them. Please. Imagineering. I do not think Weird Al Yankovic and Lin-Manuel Miranda can save the Hall of Presidents. Please just demolish it and build a Sleepy Hollow thrill ride. Build a Headless Horseman indoor thrill ride.

I am begging you. please do not try to make a fun and funky hall of presidents wait where did weird al enter into the picture weird al i get the hamilton reference but why is weird al in there i that is just the rumor i saw going around weird al and lindby weller and uh possibly uh fixing hall of Presidents. I don't know that it's sourced. I think that sounds like fan service ideas. I mean, American Adventure is going to change. I don't know if Weird Al is going to go in there either. I would like to see the Hall of Lin-Manuel Miranda talk show host

friendship. I, um, I'm not convinced enough that Lin-Manuel is friends with each and every person who hosts a talk show and that you'd consider any of them, those real bromances. So I would like to see just a 20 minute show telling me all about his individual relationships with, uh,

Jimmy Fallon and James Corden. Um, and you know, do they hang out for real? Do they text each other? We need to know these ants and we can tell, uh, we can,

we can reveal these answers via animatronics. Uh, Scott, I like the idea, but I think I'm gonna have to poke holes. It's going to have to just be Jimmy Kimmel because of the synergy. Oh, that's the only one that they would.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah yeah you know now that I think about it I don't I associate Lin-Manuel less with Jimmy Kimmel which is a shame because I think he's he should have equal bromances with every single person look I couldn't agree more I want to see

them wrestling and play fighting and musing each other's hair yeah can't get enough of that content right uh i will getting back to your first question though i do probably think splash mountain as a name is gone i think it doesn't really make sense but i if it's a tree yeah i don't know that it's there is no yeah it isn't a mountain there's not the no the no way is what happens in the movie a mountain but if i were on a board of directors i would cast my vote for keeping the name why for stupidity it's so silly of a name uh and i and as has been discussed on on twitter and and you know jenny nicholson was

funnier about this probably than i will be but the disney's names are so fucking complicated these days so if you're gonna rename make it something simple do not make this a paragraph of a title of a ride that's the problem too i think with calling it splash mountain because they can't just call it splash mountain it will absolutely have 10 different words after that i'm okay with that even an amended splash mountain the the thing in the headline uh uh and i think this is wrong but i think um in that the headline of what disney released and a lot of uh scuttle button blogs and stuff seem to believe that what the this phrase that they put out is the name or as a code name they're calling it right now which is new adventures

with princess tiana and they they cannot call it that that is the dullest that is not fun no not um yeah i i i wonder i mean it's like is it's a splash mountain um but it's a parentheses it's but it's a tree really and it's adventures of tiana then the adventures are new something like that is i not quite that but something like that tiana's ultimate swamp. Fantastic adventure celebration. Magic. Parentheses magic wish. Like tree mountain?

Yeah. Still mountain. House mountain? Bayou? Bayou mountain? That's a funny definition. What about Splash Bayou? Ooh, Splash Bayou.

I think that has the simplicity. I like that. Yeah. And isn't the song on the bayou, there's a song on the bayou, right, in the movie? Yeah. No, it's not on the bayou. It's like, or is it just here down in New Orleans?

Down in New Orleans, they play a snippet of on the Mark Twain. I think the big ending number will probably be Dig a Little Deeper. That's so catchy. Going Down the Bayou is the song. Going Down the Bayou, yeah. Jim Hill does say, I believe, Dig a Little Deeper is the end, is the big finale. Makes sense to me.

That sounds great. Well, that's the thing we talked about. The finale feels like it could be a lot you know a lot of what it currently had and probably you could still reuse the riverboat there's riverboats uh in the movie i think that's right i think they're going to reuse some of the animatronics uh for sure i'm not sure the jim the jim jim seemed to have a lot of details i don't know where jim gets the entire proposal also we got to have jim on i don't know he's not gonna give up his sources because he's a professional longtime journalist but i'm very curious because he has this whole proposal that he read off so i'm very curious um but if you want to get glisten to disney dish with jim and len if you want to hear more about

specifics of what's being proposed um is it now is it weird you think to reuse the animatronics to you know the listeners probably know this but the the history lesson is all you know besides the brayer characters most of the animatronics in splash mountain are from a defunct attraction called america sings that was in tomorrowland for a long time, more of a country bears style, like a little review with all these singing critters. And so they were from another ride already. They moved into a ride. They, they, they, all those animatronics have to feel like they just,

they got their photo taken in the wrong place. Like they didn't like, we didn't know we didn't like, they have a photo with a guy who you find out had racist tweets later. We didn't know any of that at the time. We just were in the wrong place. They shouldn't be held accountable, but are they too... Will they just not match? Do they feel too old of animatronics or too unrelated? I wonder.

Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question yeah i don't know that's a good question i don't know i mean like though i know the vultures that are on their lift hill are not from the movie those are from america sings i assume yeah it's interesting i i just i've read a lot about this and there's a lot of you know very interesting pieces uh that maybe we could find their link to about like the different, what's from the movie. What is like, what's directly from the movie, what they like, just like completely whitewashed from the movie,

which also is horrifying too. But then what characters and stuff is not, and it's just from America sings. So I think maybe all this stuff that has nothing to do with the movie might still be on the table, but I bet they're still figuring that out i i bet this is still early any of this yeah yeah and like will you still see the what are the pigs dancing in a style like with like a petticoat or something will we see them will they come back maybe they redress i mean they had to re-record all the audio they have to do new audio um yeah maybe more more fun like mardi gras outfits for the animals you sure we could update the looks yeah if you

look in the concept art tiana's in a boat with a bunch of mardi gras masks and costumes and decoration that's kind of the only hint you get of what's coming so that might make sense yeah maybe you you throw a bunch of marty guy stuff on them um and i if you if you guys have any more thoughts about this i do have a proposal as well and i shouldn't give this away for free because i don't work for imagineering but now the now the situation is such that critter country has lost a large piece of real estate in Disneyland. It's going to be New Orleans is going to extend out. And now Pooh is sort of in his own little spot back there.

Thoughtful spot. Yes, exactly. And that's technically Critter Country. And that Pooh ride is fine. It is not as good as the Tokyo one. I think, here's my proposal. You get rid of Pooh, and you put in a bear show, but it's a jazz band bear show.

Ooh. Huh. And that extends New Orleans squares all the way back to the Pooh area. They're never going to do that, because I'm sure Pooh makes them a lot of money. But then you bring bears back into that spot and you make it thematically all new orleans sure with with louis louis the gator in there playing with the bears and flip the restaurant to tiana's place i feel like i've seen people speculating on of like well the movie ends with a character getting a giant restaurant so

feel like that's a missed opportunity if you don't use that now i've thought about this too but but i think the maybe the issue is like isn't that like sort of a it's like a quick service restaurant as opposed to tiana's restaurant which is like nice and good and also not like country fried. Like it's more New Orleans City vibe. So I feel like maybe the only issue there might be like it might do a disservice to Tiana's place. If it's like a place where you get shitty chicken fingers, you could retheme one of the what's that one restaurant? That's not it's pretty close to haunted mansion i can never remember the riverbell terrace or no that's uh sorry uh

cafe orleans is next to haunted mansion okay can you re-theme that i mean that's still kind of quick service but it's a little bit more dressed up it can be a little bit more oh wait no cafe orleans is table service french Market is like buffeteria. So you can easily flip one of them. They're pretty generic. Maybe that's the answer. Because there's just not a lot of real estate around there. Or you just demolish poo and put the restaurant back there.

Sure. I mean, that would be a big hit if you made a fully cool themed restaurant, almost like be our guest style with just like elaborate theming. I mean, people love that stuff. We love that stuff. There's one candy store shop back there. Sure.

That you could easily, you know, rebuild. You, well, you mean the poo, the poo gift shop, essentially.

The poo gift shop. Right. Sure. I don't know. I don't, yeah, there's not, you're not losing too much getting rid of the poo gift shop yeah no offense to poo he can find a new

home somewhere yeah um i just wonder if they will do because i think it's good i think the pure ride is going to be so expensive so will they do probably i mean i don't think you know i'm sure they because all the imagineers are nerds like us and think about something like that well you know critter country is only this small it's really not a full land anymore but is that that probably goes way down the list of changes i'm assuming maybe they all probably have it in their mind of like yeah we got to make sure this is all one stretch of new orleans or whatever other ideas they have but i would imagine that yes that's

going to go down the list especially when they're like getting bankrolled by saudi arabia to keep them out of debt right now i assume a minor 500 million dollar infusion oh yeah so i mean is that a place to start transitioning to, you know, what the hell else is going on? I because it's a crazy time. I mean, I, you know, I maybe found it sort of like a nice hearkening back to a simpler time to get just a story about a new ride that's coming instead of all the parks news being like, OK we are putting up uh partitions uh in the like the train will have plexiglass dividers every everything's been such a bummer so it's nice to see a piece of art it's like look at that smiling alligator well i'm sorry i told you guys i had this beforehand uh unfortunately you've set me up for the very dumb news story i

have um this is from the disney food blog uh a very uh thorough theme park website um do you guys know about the blue wall the grand floridians brand new blue wall i thought you meant politically well no that's a blue firewall okay so i saw the headline about this and i truly thought it was another instagram thing and it is not i'm going to send you guys a picture right now um this is so what this is... So what this is, the Grand Floridian has been cut in half by a giant, looks to be about eight foot blue wall.

Bright, bright blue. Royal blue. Bright, bright blue. Not in keeping with the theme of this like churning Victorian hotel whatsoever. Not at all. So this, the hotel has essentially

been bisected the reason being half of it is for nba teams and half of it is for guests who are staying there and uh i don't know why these pictures of the like one of the most expensive and if not the most expensive hotel, the Orlando property, I just could not get over this massive wall that will probably be here for a while. And the blog pointed out the wall completely wipes out the view of the Magic Kingdom

from the main building. Shh. We were able to just spot the tippy top of the highest spire of cinderella casper uh castle from gasperia island grill normally you have a nice clear view of the castle when leaving this spot so the most expensive hotel now doesn't offer one of the main things you spend money for. No. And they were already, there was already construction in back of this hotel because finally, after decades,

they were completing a path where you could walk from this hotel to the Magic Kingdom. You have not been able to do that due to waterways. A whole time? You've never, it's that close and you've never been able to take a walk only the only the contemporary can you walk directly to the magic kingdom you have to go the other way so this will finally complete the loop uh only 50 years later only so yeah the big blue wall look at this guy yeah there's a lot of bummer stuff uh about the situation with the covid uh and there you sent us a clip of a loudspeaker

announcement uh of a cheerful person just telling you to wear a mask uh and that's that's verhoeven-esque that's a very hooray fun loudspeaker and remember wear your mask and keep away from each other oh and have a nice day and have a nice day your magic band guarantees citizenship of the Magic Kingdom. If you're hearing this the day this episode's coming out, then tomorrow the Magic Kingdom is reopening, which they're heading for, and they've been doing cast member tests of. And they're also heading for reopenings of Disney parks in Japan and in France.

These are all the japan plans japan is open japan is open okay yeah uh well i was just curious about a couple uh some some numbers uh uh you know with if these are the places that they're trying to get back open how is the uh disease going there uh in the country of japan uh they're they're hovering around 150 new cases a day which they're they're very alarmed about france has been spiking recently at uh about 1500 a day it sort of shot a little back up and they're trying to get it under control um the state as opposed to the country of of florida the state of florida 10 000 new cases the country of Florida, the state of Florida, 10,000 new cases. The country of Japan, 150 new cases.

The state of Florida, 10,000. Anyway, have fun. Happiest place on Earth. Yeah, born down in a dead man's town. The first step I took is when I hit the ground. Yeah, it's very i'm i'm depressed let's just put it that way i am depressed uh i'm still scared um yeah it's crazy what's going on it is crazy like like china shut down i, like the city when there was like 50 more. And yeah, if you're going to do this in Florida, please mask.

I don't want to. I don't think that's political. Just please mask. Is there anyone listening to this theme park nerd podcast where we call ourselves good boys. Is there any is any listener an anti mask person? And if so, I'm not too worried about offending you. I think I might be only one right now. So if you the one person put it on, dude, I think you're opening up or man.

I think you're i think you're uh calling it out please are you concerned about this no no i'm just don't listen to the show please tell us about the other doctors you folks are always on about i want to hear more about the other doctors that's always so fun tokyo to mask-wise, it's like they wear masks. That seems to be the difference is the masks. So I'm begging you. I'm begging you with peace and love, as Mr. Ringo Starr would say. Please.

Please wear a mask. Boy, because, you know, shit's going awry. And it's not just in theme park world. It's also in themed entertainment world in general we discussed the voids issues and and one thing that we haven't talked about is the are the recent bankruptcy declarations of two themed adjacent uh organizations related to uh the pandemic uh the the first one being cirque du Soleil has declared bankruptcy. And they are claiming that they're going to get things back open. And they claim actually that the Florida one,

because they've been working on a new show for Disney Springs, and they're claiming that that's not down for the count and that'll be back open. And claiming bankruptcy is a thing that helps. But who knows knows it doesn't sound good and this was apparently broken um to the uh the employees via let me just share my screen really fast this is a this is just a still from a video this is this this guy you're looking at is the ceo of uh cirque du soleil I forget his name, but he delivered sort of a grave little address about how we're, this is,

imagine you are fired via a video that's emailed to you where a guy in like a cravat and a lavender tinted Bono glasses talks to you in front of a fancy abstract painting, which has even like a tag, like telling you the artist, which implies it's like an expensive, nice painting. Anyway,

this is Cirque du Soleil. This is who I'm very sorry. Your shit. Yeah, I, I am interested what, cause how many shows does Cirque du Soleil have around the world? Like 30 or something? Yeah, it's crazy crazy i mean vegas alone has like six something like that so um and it's and

they involve a lot of uh performers a lot of talented uh human performers which makes it a more heartbreaking firing in some ways although whether whether that may, that, um, you guys can tell me how you think it compares and contrasts to the other place that has had to declare a bankruptcy, that being Chuckie cheese, which is affecting, I mean, certainly human employees as well, but on the entertainment and, uh, animatronic entertainers who have already had a very rough decade. Yes, that's true.

I don't know where things stand for them. I was looking at a list. Actually, somebody posted this on our Facebook group. There was a list of which stores are closing. And I didn't have time to go through the whole thing, but there are five in California. And I thought this was important important work to do and i got that i crunched the numbers two of the five full munch two of the five are stores with the full set original animatronics um now the other three that's i say that's what you get you switch to studio c where it's only chuck and uh you know that's what

happens uh but but these ones are the full that still have munch and pasquale um rip i'm sorry to see them go yeah i mean they were on the way out and this obviously sped up what was going to happen uh i really think i don't know what's happening to the Chuck E. Cheese right over here, but that one already got rid of the full munch, I believe, which is a tragedy. But if it was going away, would I be hanging out in the dumpster? Yes, I would absolutely be hanging out seeing if they just dumped Munch's body in a dumpster. Yes. Now, would you attempt to go in there because is it the safest thing to go near a closed chucky cheese dumpster because it would be maybe your or all of our chance to have one of the robots and you mean as far as covet is concerned yes yeah well i am not as concerned about touching

because i i would of course be masked up i would probably especially if it's a dumpster i'm gonna have gloves on and i don't i don't from what i've been reading which is uh reddit every night for two hours about covid before bed you know mike i have an idea about that depression no no no no i think it's fine i think it's normal uh i think that there's no way that covid is going to jump off of munch onto me i would take munch i would rescue his robot body i would put it in the car i of course would not be touching my face the whole time i would dump him in the little storage unit we have by the parking spaces in our apartment and i'd let him sit there for maybe you know a couple days to let the virus die and then of course i would bring him in my house and treat him as my son and then edwin would stress hump for uh you know 10 months to a

year right that's true no well edwin i think he would edwin would eventually see him as an equal i think edwin eventually would sort of earn uh yeah Munch would earn Edwin's respect is what I'm saying. Sure. Sure. They'd learn to coexist. They're fuzzy things and they should get along. My two sons. I guess Edwin and Munch.

You know, really, this list, this is in USA Today. Chuck E. Cheese. I don't know. I don't need to read the headline. Look up the article and if you're interested in getting one of these robots, see if one of the stores is near you. If you live in Vernon Hills,

Illinois, if you live in Natick, Massachusetts, or Danvers, or Lima, Ohio. There's many. This is your shot. Lima, it's your time. You might end up with a Helen

or even just a skee-ball. Right. You could take a whole skee-ball home. A very difficult task. Ten skee-ball lanes home. Someone did send us a photo of the back area, outside dumpster area of a chucky cheese and there was rotting games like i didn't see i don't know that games that there

were any animatronics but there was definitely like a small carousel you know a quarter operated carousel and like a yeah you know whack-a-mole kind of thing i bet the company is savvy enough to know they could like sell all those robots on ebay and make a lot of money i would assume well i think now is the time for a hero to swoop in go ahead and the hero is the man from showbiz pizza who has a massive warehouse in orlando oh that guy yes what's his name again erin right yeah uh uh that that's that's an interesting idea you have jason vector and uh you know a a group a group of uh local business men i thought you were gonna say us and i was gonna be fully on board to reimagine Chuck E. Cheese for a new generation.

No, it will be a reimagining of Shobie's Pizza for a new generation. Both good ideas. Yes, both good ideas. I don't want to discount yours. You guys check your phones. Maybe we could do a little sudden flash version of Souvenir

Smackdown. You're about to get a photo of, I went to eBay, I haven't done this in a long time, went to eBay, searched for Chuck E. Cheese and went to most expensive. This is not the most expensive,

but it is in the, you know, there's a little hint. It's in the top, let's say 20. And what you are looking at is Helen, the bird character's clothes. These are clothes that were removed from an animatronic. Uh, it is, uh, you know, kind of like some feather fuzz. It, there's like a hair scrunchie.

It's a very like, uh, you know, what a seven year old girl would wear to be fancy in 1988, like a fuchsia sparkly skirts. I mean, it's, you know, one of the main Helen, uh wardrobes um so how much you think you're paying for helen's clothes well how much would i pay or how much do i think they're offering because honestly money is no object for me but what i think the ebay what they're asking i think is 7500 7500 jason i'm gonna go lower i'm gonna go one thousand dollars um much closer is jason it is six hundred dollars wow oh my god send me the link

send me the link. Send me the link. I got to get these clothes. I hope they fit, Lindsay. I hope they fit her. Mike, not only do you win this auction, you win a spot on a list on a government watch list. Congratulations to Michael Carlson. Lindsay, I brought you a summer gift i brought you some clothes for summer now go ahead and get yourself ready i'll read reddit theories for two

hours and in two hours time i won't call you lindsey anymore you'll be helen you will be helen from now on lindsey pack a raincoat according to reddit some sort of storm is coming i don't know what that's about but i'm starting to dig lindsey here's our helen as you are from now on here's a song i'll just watch this video i'll teach it to you uh there's a little bit of it how could he say that i'm just one of the guys listen to our chuck e cheese episode if you want to know what that's all about i've used this joke i think before on the show but it's the scene in vertigo where jimmy stewart is remaking uh was it kim novak uh yeah yeah it's remaking her to look like the original woman he fell in love with no it's a you gotta gotta wear the Helen hair the right way.

The dress is fitting all wrong. We have to go get it hemmed. Oh, there you are. There's the Helen I know. I fashioned a beak out of some old cups. No, it's not right. It's not right. I want to hear you say,

Buk-Buk-Ah! God. I'm like a week or two away from this actually happening. The way that quarantine's going. Lindsay, get out! Get out! Get out now! I text her,

you guys keep riffing about something. I'm like, there is some very distressing information It's not coming out until Friday But I'm giving you a head start He's joking but we're not sure he's joking We saw how his eyes looked on the zoom She leaves and then you drive by In like a couple months and it's just like

Helen's in the window and it's me Dressed as Helen Coming mother Hi Scott like helen's in the window and it's me dressed as helen coming mother hi scott hello scott it's helen you're making edwin wear the little bowler hat chug's yeah red bowler hat introduce me chuck my song. What are the guys? What are the guys? Wow. Here, you want to do a little fake break that might even have nothing in between it, but when we come back, we'll

answer some of your questions, which hopefully won't lead us to some of the creepy areas like replacing your girlfriend with an animatronic with an animatronic chicken and replacing Jason with a VR demon. It's alright. We all have a little

shucky day sometimes. Okay, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. Once again, it's time to open up the PTR mailbag. Post office is our branding that we always remember our branding we always remember just like souvenirs i had to think about what

souvenir smackdown was like every time um anytime i go like yeah i got this i'll roll us back in i always uh stub my toe very hard and we always don't let it go. We always attack. The blood is in the water. Oh, and we love it. It's usually fine. It's usually all in good fun, but now I'm scared Nicodemus will crave, will smell that blood, his favorite

beverage. It's your last chance. I can bump back in no problem. All right. I know the names of all the segments like jay leno hiding in the closet okay uh this email comes to us from taylor i'm gonna uh mangle your last name basabe uh basbe uh what's the one thing you want to get the most from Downtown Disney when it opens and Disney or DCA? Merch, feud,

merch, food, etc. What do you guys think? That covers Downtown Disney or the parks just in general? Yeah, I think it's an and or the parks. Anything come quickly to mind? We talked about with Mitch, Ronto Rap

pops right into my head. Yeah. I just want to walk around with that plastic glass of wine so bad. I want that more than Carthay because Carthay's inside. And you actually can't, you know, I've been making Carthay Manhattans

once in a while. You know, not the same atmosphere, but I just want to like walk that plastic cup of wine over the the ferris wheel and look at it uh that will be the first thing that i do and maybe just that and then go home uh i do like i i of course talked about my uh my sprinkles cone my sprinkle waffle cone with two scoops of ice cream i think uh they'll hand it to me and i will just burst into tears when it happens i'm pretty sure just like oh my god thank god i didn't know if it would happen again so i think probably the old standard stuff i really like to begin with i

don't think there's unless there's this you know whenever i decide to go back uh unless there's some sort of uh new merch thing that i'm excited about i think it's probably treats jason imagining i think i'm gonna go a little out of left field and like say like trying something i had never gotten around to like and and i maybe something that i can't easily make at home like go to catal and finally get some suckling pig paella um whoa that's out of nowhere well i mean because i'm not really doing fine dining right now i mean lots of nice restaurants doing takeout, but it is a little warm or wilted when you get home. I'm also very excited to see Disney Springs in Florida is getting this place Gideon's Bakehouse, which apparently makes amazing cookies. I've never had them.

But a cookie-based establishment in Disney Springs only just adds to the appeal. Interesting. So Scott's answer, wine. My answer, a big ice cream. And yours is suckling pig. Okay, got it. Those staples of theme parks. Sure.

A nice glass of wine, an ice cream cone, and suckling pig. Suckling pig. Okay. Well, hey, we have to look forward to something to each their own um yeah mike you got one i have one uh hold on i've lost it all right uh ruben at cubix rube 3 on twitter asks do you think we will ever get an original ip disney ride again i think the answer is no it's over baby yeah especially with sort of like risk assessment and uh in full swing right after a financial blow um yeah i know i'll take it back i will say if and when there's ever a new park built i think we'll get maybe one original ip

run but i think that's truly what's going to have to happen i think we'll get maybe one original ip run but i think that's truly what's going to have to happen i think we'll have to get a full new park which i don't think there's a new park being built for a decade at this point as far as disney's concerned so the answer is no for a decade at least does that like fucking spirit or whatever that's going to be in uh spaceship earth count as original ip oh they've already cut that from the schedule oh that's going to be in uh spaceship earth count as original ip oh they've already caught that from the schedule oh that's gone yeah yeah i mean yeah that one's not too necessary yeah just keep uh spaceship earth and its claustrophobic bumpy clunky glory uh weird uh video screens um yeah yeah oh out-of-date animation with your head.

With your, like, what was the flash animation thing where you would, like, put your head on it and send it as a greeting card that people used to jib jab? Yes, so extremely jib jabby. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, Spaceship Earth, it's jib jab technology. They're still going strong, baby. Jib jab's still around.

In parent worlds, yeah. They're still going strong, baby. Jib jab's still around. In parent worlds, yeah. They're probably thriving right now. Wow. Patreon about jib jab, I guess. Yeah. Can I ask the question that if anyone just feel free to email or will I? Because I've added up how little original Epcot that we've done. And Spaceship Earth would be a fun one.

But I'm just curious what the listener wants to hear? What are you like? What can you not wait for us to do in terms of like big Epcot? Cause I'm like taking stock of everything. I'm shocked at how little, we never done living seas, never done journey into imagination. I've done horizons of it in world emotion. Um, so a spaceship birth. So, uh, I don't know, let us, us let us know that one i'm turning the post office back on you oh wow reverse post office but now you're gonna have to comb through all the people

going like i don't wear a mascot to find like the nice things going like do world of motion please i like the overturned cart well they don't get a vote uh that's what you rescind the vote with your with your mask thing um i have a question that this this won't take long because i don't have much to say and in fact the user uh the the the twitterer uh really says it all themselves from theme park asmr have any of you seen the film characters with a Z by hard rock park creator, John Binkowski. Uh,

if you think back to our, if you, if you heard our failed parks episode with Jason Wallner, John Binkowski, one of the true tours of theme park world that you can credit him with this hard rock cafe theme park. Uh, and he,

yeah, we discovered a little while ago that he also, uh, made a, made a film, made a feature film. You can watch the trailer on YouTube. Let me let theme park ASMR continue. Um, if so, can we have your thoughts on it about, it's about a guy who wants to be a ride designer working in a theme park and features an appearance by a member of the

Moody Blues and it's filmed in Kissimmee. I have no more to say to that. I haven't seen the movie. You said it all, and I don't know, I have no good answer for why we haven't seen it because amazing details, huh?

It has to be. I mean, there's still stuff we've been teasing forever. We've been teasing Lance Burton's movie Billy Top It forever. We haven't done it, but characters we are aware of

and we have not seen it yet, and of course, it's a must watch. We've got to watch it. Great reason to have our friend Jason Wollner back. You know. Oh, yes. Well, himself a great director.

So he can sort of come at it from the directorial standpoint. Maybe no jokes on that episode. And it's just sort of a critical analysis of film. Sounds good to me. Like a French Cahiers du Cinema. I like that pronunciation. How is it pronounced? I haven't...

It's Cahiers du Cinema. Cahiers du Cinema. I only ever have seen it written. I've never heard it spoken. Wait, I'm sorry. It would be like that. I'm sorry. This film was filmed

and I'm seeing it being filmed in Celebration, Florida, even better. Disney, which was once owned by the Disney Corporation. It also says filmed and i'm seeing it being filmed in celebration florida even better disney which was once owned by the disney corporation it also says the main character in the movie is a big fan of the moody blues and as such the films uses several of their songs if you don't recall there this is the hard rock park that this guy built had a moody blues ride. So his partnership with the moody blues extended. Oh wait.

And we didn't talk, we texted about this and never said it on the show. Uh, there's a bunch of different mascot characters with Z in this movie. And one of them is a punk bulldog. He's a, a holdover from hard rock park. But do you,

and is, is it the, is it Winston, the punk rock dog? Um, this guy's described as just the punk bulldog i think i bet it's the same i bet it's winston i think it's probably exactly the same yeah so we're sorry to let you down thank you for jogging our memory and we will fix this error of not having seen this film uh uh, forthwith. Mm-hmm. We will,

we will get right to it. Um, Jason, you have anything? Uh, no, not yet. Okay.

I have one. Uh, it's from Ben Stryker at Stryker. No strike it. I don't know. I have to name that, but it's Ben Stryker. Hey,

thanks for the question on Twitter. Uh, he says, if you could do a mashup of two different rides what ride would you make an example is haunted mansion and space mountain into haunted mountain which i think is a fun idea i think we've talked before about just putting different ride cars on the different tracks yeah another ride um but a true mashup is an interesting uh question um if you if teacups spun around the deck of the mark twain that'd be pretty cool the mad that's t twain the mad t twain

is good um i would like uh let's see here uh like aesthetically, vibe wise, Space Mountain is so great and such a cool ride. But you know, maybe the cars don't move as much as we'd want them to. So maybe you attach, and this is kind of technology

I think is coming. Maybe you attach the Harry Potter kooka arm to the Space Mountain track and then put a bunch of like space Death Eaters. I'm realizing I'm bringing up Harry Potter now. As Harry Potter, as far as I'm concerned, was created out of thin air. It's just a thing that existed.

It's been down by generations. Not sure who did it. It's like how Shakespeare was shakespeare a bunch of people it's yeah who remembers even just don't even know um but yeah you put the kook arm and then you put like death eaters uh hanging from uh you know around the space mountain track and you should see them pop up and then you can sort of like the creepier aspects you and i guess you could put the weeping willow also on space mountain and now you have a ride that's like completely crazy the arm is flipping around and now you get to see little show scenes as you whiz by and of course this is called uh uh forbidden mountain uh space uh space journey isn't doesn't get you anywhere uh forbidden space

um space okay we'll get this forbidden mountain i guess is kind of cool yeah that's pretty good that's cool yeah i dig that one um so i think that's fun jason what do you got uh okay uh i think i'm gonna go real in my wheelhouse i'm gonna combine the uh train and the sourdough bakery bread tour and it's a bread train it's a red it's a train you get on and it takes you through the bakery and the bakers wave at you and you're handed little pieces of bread to enjoy on the train. Wow. Delightful. Pretty cut and dry.

There's a clip that's been going around, Scott. I don't know if you've seen, um, of a movie called money plane. Uh, with Kelsey grammar. Yeah. Kelsey grammar and WWE superstar edge.

Uh, and it's the bread train reminds me Superstar Edge. Wow. And it's... Bread Train reminds me of Money Plane. Yeah. Jason would be the Kelsey Grammer in that movie. That's the Bread Train. Now we're on the Bread Train, baby. Yeah.

Sourdough Loaves, Sourdough Croissants, Sourdough Puddings. Any kind of bread you want, you can get it on the bread train. But at a price. That's a whole IP. That's a whole franchise for Disney. This isn't, I don't have the answer,

but this makes me think we should have an answer. Melissa, at LemonHoneyXS, where can we send you physical treats? Not food, of course. Now you're this awful. I stitched this for you guys and would love to have a P.O. Box or Forever Dog office I could send it to. And this person stitched us a little stitching.

I don't know what you call it, what you stitch. But it's us in shirts that I very much recognize. It's so clearly a shirt that I have and that you guys have and then a little ghost they make the sector keeper green which is an adorable color and a little purple hat um and it says boys boys and it's uh it's just great uh we all got nice cute smiles this is one of the most adorable things i've ever seen so that's a good idea we should figure that out we've done this before there there is i don't have it close by but i'll make a note to send it to this person there is a

forever dog office and i'm assuming someone's getting the mail uh very nice face very nice face only i have been to because two weeks later everything shut down that's right i i i'm also going to put out a call someone made a replica of the hormel sign the hormel glass side from a very very early episode that i found on ebay it was a thing for main street is it a stained glass thing yes it's one of our listeners who has made stained glass uh as a stained glass enthusiast i believe believe has made some, uh, stained glass based items based on show stuff that he sold for charity. Um, can you email the show account and I will give you the address.

Cause I do want that stained glass. Wow. All right. Well, we'll figure that out and, uh, respond. Um,

but thank you for doing that. Anybody who draws a thing. I think I get a little greedy sometimes by just calling out like I'm a king for fan art. Create for me. Create for us. But thanks, Danny. That is very nice. Yeah, boy.

Very sweet and we very much appreciate it. We can round robin it certainly, but I want to call out one while I have in front of me, because like the stitching, it has a picture. This is from Nick Hoffman, Hoff Beast. Efteling recently added a mechanism where fries are delivered to customers by a slide to allow social distancing.

What whimsical additions to theme parks can you think of to brighten a pandemic day at the park and i don't know if you guys have this uh photo in front of you um let's talk about this first so it's a nice little wagon and then yeah it's this wooden ramp that's kind of charmingly just what a really handy dad would do um and fries slide down it and then it's there's plenty of plexiglass. And I mean, this is wonderful. I'm like distracted enough by this where I don't have my own idea at the moment. This is great, though. Good for you, Efteling.

Okay, here's my pitch. Every single cast member is in those Avatar mech suits. Yeah. And that goes, if it's Haunted Mansion, they're in a big mech suits yeah and that that goes oh if it's haunted mansion they're in a big mech suit but then they have like the outfit the haunted mansion outfit like stretched over the big mech suit massive massive size xxxxxxl right it's that great retro space mountain uniform stretched over a mech suit. Wow.

And that keeps the distance, they're a little higher up, that keeps them distanced, and then they can also, if they have to take something from a guest or whatever, they have their robot arms to do it. Jeez. Um, huh. What could you, I'm trying to think of, like, I mean, a character still can't hug

you, even with giant arms arms but i'm certainly flashing to well if you could if they prove that it was um uh they were disposable each and every time what i'm getting at is uh many gloved characters and a lot of them are mickey and minnie um you know since character you know they still come out and wave to us and that's nice, but a kid wants a hug from Mickey Mouse or an adult wants a hug from Mickey Mouse. So, uh, I think big six foot long pipe cleaner arms on the characters and mixed with that. They have sort of a, an endless stock of disposable Mickey hands that they kind of with

their big, with their long arms, like pop those hands on in sort of a Lego change out manner. You line up and get a hug from like a bit, which this already, you know, kind of a freak of nature, giant arms,

Mickey mouse is cool in and of itself. But this sounds safe and also bizarre and surreal. So I want to see some extremely long Mickey arms. I am picturing how they would do arms for the sketch on Saturday Night Live, Toonsis the Cat, where the cat would be there and then the arms would just be these long things. Similar to how Triumph holds a microphone on Conan O'Brien. Yes. Very much so.

Long, odd looking straight things. And you would tape whatever you're holding to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Autographs might get tough in this world. Now, autographs might have to go away. We can't have it all.

But I think you could get some hugs, you know, albeit kind of sloppily achieved ones. Did you say, maybe I dismissed this, maybe the person who gets the hug gets to keep the arms. Oh, sure. Or just hands, you know, because the

arms are tough to sort of slide in now, but if you're just popping those little white hands on, so you get a hug and then you, and then you keep those and you can fill them up with popcorn hug. Okay. Okay. Hugs change. Here's,

here's my pitch. Hugs change from like a full hug where, you know, you wrap your arms around the person to what, uh, the Joe, what Jack Nicholson Joker does to Bob in Batman, where he just kind of grabs his shoulders.

You know what I'm saying? Where he goes, you know, my number one guy, he just kind of grabs his shoulders. You know what I'm saying? Where he goes, you're my number one guy. He just kind of grabs you by the shoulders. And it turns into that. So all the characters grab you sort of by the shoulders to show affection. And then the hands leave their body and get stuck to your arms. So you take the hands with you. And that's now a souvenir is that you have, mickey's hands or poo's hands and then yes you

won't have to share a touch with another person because the hands leave with the guest wow wow it's cool safe get a souvenir there's something more meaningful than an autograph i really love it did everyone know exactly what i meant when i said what jack nicholson does to bob i didn't know but uh it's a nice scene to hear about yeah it looms large i made a joke that anytime especially i'm feeling depressed during quarantine i basically just come downstairs and want to watch one of the four batman movies the original four yeah so i'm just like i'm like bat batman forever again okay like i would watch it like three times a week if I wasn't living with someone. So what you're saying is that HBO Max

is essentially the bartender from The Shining and you are Jack Nicholson playing Jack Torrance from The Shining. Yes, completely. Another, yeah, let's see if the barkeep is like, are you going to watchman and robin again or the usual no you would just say the usual usual slides batman and robin across the bar to me allow me to break the ice oh it's just the greatest movies of all time all four equally good

what else we got maybe we start winding down. I just have a silly one. What's the most obscure? This is from Brendan Wadlow. Where's Wadlow 21? What's the most obscure Marvel character you want to ride based on? Not a realistic one, just your dream ride. I immediately think of Dazzler. Scott, are you familiar with Dazzler?

No. Dazzler was sort of like and they've changed sort of what she does but she's like sort of a disco roller skating pop star from another dimension or another planet and it's very zan it's zan to do all the way oh here we go all right and yeah i assume you're seeing classic classic dazzler i think we've talked a little bit about this before there was like a pitch was it jim's shooter jason who who had a pitch for a movie yeah i believe so like kiss was in it and it was an insane like 70s i think cocaine or acid trip type situation and i would love some sort of a disco dazzler ride or at least even like rollers like just a just a skating rink obviously honestly

where people could go roller skating and listen to like disco and then they would have you could have like a monster attack once in a while i i think that's good i i want to piggyback off that and go for another even more obscure marvel comics entertainer, Lila Chaney, the teleporting intergalactic rock star. Cause she, she is a rock star. She is a very popular musician in, in the Marvel continuity in the comics.

Isn't, doesn't show up that often, but her whole thing is that like she can teleport like large numbers of people so i think that would be a good a some sort of show where they use that sort of scrim technology like at knott's berry farm where you're going down a hospital hallway and lightning flashes and then you're in hell like you could transport like so you're at a concert venue and then she teleports everyone onto a space station and continues the show great that'd be great uh you could do a double bill with zazzler and oh sure cheney yeah i'm making kind of a music

zone i'm no marvel expert but i would if you're talking obscure i would love to see um a live uh rocktacular uh based on specifically the david hasselhoff portrayal of nick fury agent of shields he of course we we all remember that you know he was this role was originally played by Hasselhoff in 1998 in a TV movie, him in an eye patch. And, you know, popular portrayals with Hasselhoff and Samuel L. Jackson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they they land about even. So it's time to give Hasselhoff Fury his his due. The only one only thing that pops into my head is uh because i'm furious and uh you know just the super enunciated hasselhoff style of singing i think would be a blast obviously he

wouldn't do it but he'd supervise and pick you know a cast of six foot six men to um sing in the most enunciative manner ever. He should have his own, not his own X-Men, but his own six foot six men. His own super team of tall men. All right, fellas. We could do like a rock and roller coaster where you're trying to get to a triple bill concert of these three characters.

I've listed them off again. Nick Fury. Not Fury. Aslaw Fury. Lila Chaney. And Dazzler. Dazzler, yeah. you know i've listed them off again nick nick fury uh not fury as a lot fury and dazzler yeah so it sounds good that's a dream honestly yeah and then yeah like have it have the actual one of the big complaints we have with rock and roller coaster is that you don't actually see aerosmith you don't see robots at the end of the ride you see a little screen at the end of the ride let's have robots doing the concert. Oh, sure.

And then you kind of round a corner and see the audience, and they all boo. They hate it. They don't care for it. Wow, we really shouldn't have rushed to get here. This show sucks. And, yeah, you leave feeling sad. Anything else you want to wrap it up? I think, yeah, I leave feeling sad. Anything else to wrap it up? I think, yeah, I don't know.

I don't have, that was the last one I had noticed. Well, on a hard rocking note, you survived Podcasts Aride, part post office edition. Thanks for your questions. You can always send us stuff at the email at podcastaride at gmail.com. You can interact with us at uh facebook instagram and and twitter uh to address one that got a lot of likes how big did scott's head when he went viral uh obviously

extremely extremely big i had a very important uh crucial moment in my life i think the biggest thing that happened to me in 2020 was that I had a viral tweet. Um, I can think of no other, no bigger changes in my life. Um, coming up empty too. I can't think of anything. Um, it's my pride and joy. And sometimes I, I late at night, just, you know, stare at that tweet and the amount of likes and just think how lucky I am. Um, I did a tweet about a shape for the July thing and a bunch of weird, you know, stare at that tweet and the amount of likes and just think how lucky I am. I did a tweet about a Shady Fourth of July thing and a bunch of weird, you know, Chrissy Teigen retweeted it and stuff. It was very bizarre. And obviously, I'm in I've ascended to another plane of humanity. And you can look at that on on Twitter. But but also I just in the plugs list.

I also just want to say I got to be part of a very wonderful story this week it's a it's a story called is anyone watching quibi um and that was on in new york uh magazine by uh benjamin wallace who wrote it's i i i'm i legitimately feel very very lucky because i'm i'm the first thing in the article which an article that then contains the best quibi anecdotes of any quibi hit pieces which is saying a lot because there's been like 50 of these and i and while i'm proud of my own participation i'm really just a i'm just a pre-show to the wild roller coaster that is the rest of the squiby article please please go let me just put that in the plugs list please read is anyone watching quibi

oh yeah if you love the old eisner anecdotes you'll love some of the anecdotes about what one of a person on his what i'm assuming is a mutual enemies list is up to today it's i guess i hadn't put together really that i am i am i have this outlet where i'm so actively pro eisner and then i've gone out of my way to be anti katzenberg i mean if that doesn't help butter up eisner to be on the show i don't know what else will well please like i we may need to do a big groundswell at a certain point now is not the time but but if yeah if now if he reads that article maybe maybe who's this young buck getting into the getting into the game of slinging mud at katzenberg reminds me of a young me i wonder if he has a podcast um and you know with no questions asked i will just go on it

without listening to anything else that's how i think it'll play out how long is an average episode two and a two and a half hours whatever they need i like this i got a feeling about this scott gardner um hey and speaking of long episodes you know we let me just also as always plug the second gate patreon.com slash podcast the ride uh and we've we let's just say we have three of these in the can that i think fucking rule i think we've got really good ones and that's always true but just especially you guys knowing what we've done recently uh i'll extra implore people go check out the second gate fun stuff yeah we could tease we could do a little

quick tease there's a episode coming up about a villain that we really enjoy let's say that not Jeffrey Katzenberg not Mr. Katzenberg so yeah that's on soon so get ready for it awesome well that'll do it uh fun stuff and

look at the calendar of what day it is next next friday and that might give you a hint what we're doing next week a very special episode that should be fun um so stay tuned and uh thanks for listening everybody bye-bye. And subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram, at Forever Dog Team, and liking our page on Facebook.