Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Tinge Of Legitimacy...


It appears that Bob Iger has released a statement that, in affect, acknowledges they're building Shanghai Disneyland...

Brooks Barnes over at the New York Times has a nice article that details the process and what we can expect as the process moves forward. Nothing in depth and certainly no artwork for Disney Geeks/Fans to drool over, but that will come.

Details, details, details to follow...

UPDATE:
The official blog for Disney Parks has issued a statement about the project.

35 comments:

Dan said...

3.5 Billion is a good number. Hopefully it survives the budget cuts that did in Hong Kong.

Anonymous said...

Honor, in case you haven't seen it, the news has also been announced on Disney's official blog. Here is the link:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2009/11/disney-shanghai-theme-park-project-update/

- Tasman

Honor Hunter said...

Danke, Anonymous...

Been running around all day and out of it so I didn't see it.

Nice to know...

Anonymous said...

will this create jobs in imagineering?

Thinkerman said...

commies
Walt wouldn't do it based on principle, he was a man who believed in the American system of government rather than a manipulating one that controls the lives of it's people. China, though embracing more western economic ideals, still culturally is very Soviet style.

Dan said...

^Actually, I would like to think that Walt would do it for the sake of further opening this country to the culture that Walt not only embraced, but was an integral part in shaping. China has already embraced free market principals, and while their human rights record can by no means be ignored, Walt might have viewed exposing millions of Chinese children to his films as a way of creating a brighter and more promising future for their nation. China will continue to change over time, and it's this change that the Walt Disney Company is hoping to take advantage of by investing in China in the first place. Hopefully as Chinese culture embraces these influences, China's government will adopt more Democratic principles as well.

John Locke said...

No one knows exactly what Walt would do.

But I wouldn't call them commies, not anymore. They definitely believe in capitalism. But they are Authoritarian and that is worrisome. What is needed by China is a two party system. Competition brings out the best in everything and everyone. I think the company is hoping that their participation will help open up the society.

As to whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

Anonymous said...

^^ Not every system works for every people at every point in history. China is finally emerging from two centuries of near-colonialism, foreign invasion, and internal strife where it fell behind the rest of the world in terms of poverty and where its people struggled with their impoverished existence. The government may be authoritarian but thanks to them the next generation of Chinese will not have to worry about those things. Go anywhere in the developing world and ask if given a choice between the vote or of peace and prosperity, which option people prefer. Ideally of course we would have both options but realistically for many countries the choice is not so simple.

As for Walt I admire him on many levels but I certainly don't think of him as perfect. He was party to the shameful McCarthy witch-hunts - anti-communism taken to immoral extremes.

John Locke said...

"Those that value security over liberty deserve neither"

Benjamin Franklin

You may think the Chinese people should just sit back and be thankful to their overlords, but I disagree. And those from Tiananmen Square would likely disagree as well.

As for the McCarthy hearings, you should know your history. Although I am not a fan of the senator, his probe into the Red Scare was quite correct. When the USSR fell the files of the KGB were opened up and it appears there were quite a few communist hiding in those ranks. And they deserved to be found out. If you swear an oath to a foreign country that is bent on destroying you and taking over the world, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

Please don't give me any of this revisionist history. I can read.

And I do.

Mainland said...

Oh my gourd the secret of the magic is out!

DJ said...

Jesus Honor, you really do have crazies all up in your blag. Between working themselves into a tizzy about a parody video or attempting to legitimize McCarthey.... what is it about a Disney News blog that brings the nuts out in force?

Clarity said...

@David Jr.

It's because Honor is a hack.

Clarity said...

@Honor

Perhaps you should read this and take it to heart. It discusses how to appropriately address commenters:

http://thetravelersnotebook.com/blogging-tips/how-to-deal-with-out-of-control-comments-on-your-blog/

Anonymous said...

Just read about this in the paper this morning... should be interesting.

GreenFloorDisney said...

lol @ blueskydisney2
brilliant, should be a good read. Might make it to second best Disney blog on the net!!

Anonymous said...

@GreenFloorDisney

Are you actually implying that this is the best Disney blog on the internet?

OrangeSeaDisney said...

Nope not a million light years away.

PurpleSpaceDisney said...

Problem with this blog is interesting information wrapped in lots and lots of baggage of nothing.

No offence Honor. I;m sure you can't help it.

Anyway. The at least the comments section is worth a read.

Anonymous said...

@Green/Orange/Purple

I'm curious -- what IS the best Disney blog then?

Respect said...

Ooookay.
Honor do you actually have any information on this at all. There are a few blogs on the 'net suggesting they have details to leak soon. What about you? Are you waiting for them to get the info?

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think that Honor's blog is superb. Not only does it give me information on Disney, but also his opinions and a great read, in general.

Therefore, thank you Honor for the best Disney blog on the Internet!

Anonymous said...

Honor isn't charging anyone to read this blog. If you (and by "you" I'm not referring to anyone specifically) don't like it, go away and bother someone else. For me...as a fan of imagineering...it's a welcome stop on my daily surf. Aside from reading comments from nuts hell-bent on killing "commies", and the like...but at least it's good to know what type of people are out there.

Cheers - Tasman.

Anonymous said...

Good god people.

It's an effing blog.

GET
THE
FUCK
OVER
IT

Creating another blog just to spite the creator of this one? You've reached a low even the saddest of internet trolls laugh at.

Anonymous said...

What's funny is, you have people calling honor hunter a hack, yet their the one with the hack website that is a copy of honors.

Pathetic? I wouldn't waste the word on them.

Honor Hunter said...

It's so nice to be loved and reviled all at once...

BlackStarDisney said...

Love you Honor. At least you take all my trolling in good humour.

Any news or not?

Anonymous said...

Don't flatter yourself, Honor. You're so not worth reviling. You're just not worth reading.

Anonymous said...

@other anonymous:

"I wouldn't waste the word on them."

And yet you did. LOL

Earnie Culpepper said...

You guys that don't seem to like Honor sure do like obsessing over him. If you don't like him go find a website or blog you like. Why hang around something you don't like, unless what you like is misery?

Clarity said...

@Earnie Culpepper

It has been stated on here time and time again that Honor has interesting subject matter, but is a terrible writer. Thankfully, some anonymous person has decided to "clean up" Honor's writing and just post what matters.

However, until that person gets the posts up, we have to come over here. I wish they had some sort of automated system of just fixing Honor's posts since Atom and RSS tend to cause delays that probably prevent them from doing immediate updates...

Also, it's fun to watch the comments on this blog. Insanely awesome! (or Be-awesome, as Honor would say)

Anonymous said...

Just from reading some of the crazy comments here I see someone forgot to lock the door on the computer room at the insane asylum. Good gravy!

sansest said...

Clarity said...

“However, until that person gets the posts up, we have to come over here. I wish they had some sort of automated system of just fixing Honor's posts since Atom and RSS tend to cause delays that probably prevent them from doing immediate updates...”



No, you DON’T have to come over here. There are numerous sites that provide much the same information (and probably don’t write in a manner you dislike). If you want the kind of information provided here, you can try doing a little research on your own. Then you can get the raw information and make your own assessments.

Sorry that you (and some others) are apparently dissatisfied with this blog, and too impatient to have it translated to a simple form that you can understand. But, if you're just too lazy to do any work yourself, then you don't really have any basis for complaint.

2.0 and beyond said...

Respect said...
"Honor do you actually have any information on this at all. There are a few blogs on the 'net suggesting they have details to leak soon. What about you? Are you waiting for them to get the info?"



Actually, there probably isn't much else to report. Disney probably hadn't initiated any significant creative developments without having had any actual go-ahead from the Chinese government, I doubt that they would have done much more than putting together a basic outline of what the resort would be comprised of.

So, this announcement is basically just an OK by the Chinese to move on to the next step. The content of their park can now be developed. It will be interesting to see how much influence they exert on Disney’s Imagineers as to what is incorporated into the park, and if it will be any different than how Hong Kong Disneyland was affected.

PixarFanatic said...

Honor,

Please delete these comments! :'(

DJ said...

Honor, I suggest that you submit this post and the accompanying comments as a teachable, textbook case of troll-syndrome and internet entitlement. It's filled with vitriol, homophobic platitudes, and overall nonsense, but it almost seems advante garde from a distance! XP