TOY STORY 3 SPOILER WARNING

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Paul

Do NOT read this post if you have not yet seen Toy Story 3. While it’s centered on my upcoming WDW vacations, it reveals a major plot point of Pixar’s latest movie.  This is your

SPOILER WARNING!

SPOILER WARNING!

SPOILER WARNING!

Okay.  So I saw Toy Story 3 yesterday.  It was, as expected, a phenomenally great movie.  A worthy successor to the first two in the franchise.  I’m absolutely positive I’ll see it again in the theatre, probably sometime very soon.  There was, however, something that kept me from enjoying the movie to its fullest extent.  For the last several months, I’ve been seeing how one of the new TS3 characters, “Lots O’ Huggin Bear” (Lotso for short) is now a meet-and-greet character at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  Apparently Disney has gone so far as to scent his meet-and-greet area like strawberries, in line with his character in the film.

Based on this knowledge, I obviously assumed Lotso was one of our new heroes.  A new friend to Woody and the gang.  If you’ve seen the movie, you know that this couldn’t be further from the truth.  Lotso is a bitter, angry, sadistic toy bent on dictatorship.  Throughout the entire movie, I kept expecting and waiting for Lotso to be redeemed.  For him to come to his senses, for Woody and Buzz to win him over and bring him back to the light side.  It never happened.  Even toward the end, when there was a golden opportunity for redemption during the conveyor belt scene, Lotso became even more despicable.

So now WDW has confused me.  Why is there a Lotso meet-and-greet?  There isn’t meet-and-greet for Syd (the human villain of the first movie).  There isn’t a meet-and-greet for Stinky Pete (the toy villain of the second movie).  Why would I want to meet Lotso, after the horrible acts I saw him commit?  I’d be more likely to want to punch him in his huggable gut than give him a hug.

There is only one way I can think of to reconcile the oddness of the situation.  In the movie, we saw that Lotso became so angry and bitter when, accidentally left behind one day, he trekked back to his owner’s home only to find he’d been replaced by another Lots O’ Huggin Bear.  I will force myself to choose to believe the Lotso I meet in the park this summer is not the bitter angry villain of our story, but rather Daisy’s second Lots O’ Huggin Bear.   For that matter, I guess one could assume that Lotso (and in fact, any of the Toys that have meet-and-greets in the parks) are generic versions of the Toys we know, as available in toy stores, rather than Andy, Daisy, or Bonnie’s originals.  After all, toys are not unique.

And before you make this comment – yes, I know I’m overthinking this situation.  Yes, I know I’m more obsessed than anyone rightly should be.  I’m okay with that.

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The Danger and Wonder of Technology

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Paul

Yesterday, I listened to Betamouse episode #19, about the new online Disney Dining reservation system. In the episode, the hosts described the changes that Disney had made recently to their online reservation system (which can be found at http://www.disneyworld.com/dining, for the curious). They revealed how it is now possible to simply select a date, approximate time, and location (optional), and Disney would show you every restaurant available at that time. I found that very cool – a vast improvement over the old system, and infinitely better than calling the 1-407-WDW-DINE number and asking a CM to check every single restaurant one at a time. I had to try it out myself. I went to the site, and plugged in the first date of my upcoming trip with Amanda – July 10th, in Epcot, for dinner. I got back a larger list of availability than I would have guessed. That list included one of the Epcot restaurants at which I’ve never eaten – Le Chefs de France. About 30-45 seconds later, I had a confirmed reservation at Le Chefs de France for 6pm. I had been planning to just have a nice simple (and cheap (comparatively)) counter-service dinner for our first night. Thanks to the Betamouse podcast and the new online reservation system, however, we’ll be enjoying fine French cuisine (and paying significantly more) our first night in WDW. Thanks and Curses to you, Betamouse and Disney Dining. 🙂

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Well That’s a Great Big “Duh”

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Paul

For my Christmas trip with Ange this November/December, we’re planning on touring some of the resorts to look at the various decorations they’ve put up.  As part of this, I thought maybe we should go over to Fort Wilderness to see how some of the campers there have decorated their campsites.  Having never been to Fort Wilderness before, I sent an email to the hosts of the WDW Today podcast, asking them for some touring advice.  I said that we were planning on leaving the Magic Kingdom around 11am or noon to do some resort touring (including Fort Wilderness).  The plan was to return to the MK a few hours later, and in the evening we have tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

My question was answered on Show #731.  The guys said that I made great choices in wanting to see the Carousel at the Beach Club and the Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian.  They did, however, point out one really obvious flaw in my plan about Fort Wilderness.  The point is to see Christmas decorations.  Christmas decorations generally mean lights.  Lights are turned on at night.  11am is not night.  If we were to go to FW at this time, we wouldn’t really be seeing any of the decorations on the campers’ campsites as they’re meant to be seen.  Well “duh”, Paul.  Why didn’t I think of that?

I think this goes to show that no matter how many trips to WDW you plan, whenever you’re doing something new, it’s a good idea to seek out advice from those who’ve been there more often.

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