Pictures and comments by Brad Chowen from the parks.
Cartoon Reviews, Attraction and Restaurant Reviews from Disneyland, Disneyworld and just generally everything Disney
My Disney Facebook page is here
https://www.facebook.com/braddisneylandblog
I’m a huge Star Wars fan.I’ve seen all the movies.I’ve
watched the Ewok specials.I’ve seen
every episode of the Clone Wars and Rebels and read about 100 Star Wars books.I waited all week for the Rogue One Trailer
and watched it at least 7 times the night it came out.I personally can’t wait for the movie so as
far as Disney is concerned they have this Star Wars fan wrapped around their
finger.
The problem Disney faces with Rogue One is the casual
Star Wars fan.The marketing for a Rogue
One is a challenge for Disney.This
movie has no recognizable characters from previous Star Wars films with the
exception of Vader.As I sat mouth a
gape in front of my big screen TV during the Olympic coverage as the Rogue One trailer
rolled across the screen my wife turned to me about one minute in and said “Are
there any characters we know in this movie?”And that is the problem.The
diehard fans like me get that this movie takes place right beforeA New Hope.The average casual fan that showed up to see Han Solo in the Force
Awakens remains confused.As much as
Disney will try to get the message out as to what this movie is about and when
it takes place in the Star Wars Timeline---there are going to be people that
show up to the theater and wonder ……”Where is Luke?”“BB-8 isn’t in the movie?”Despite the ads people are going to think
this is Episode 8.People are going to
ask “ I thought Vader died?”How is
Disney going to solve this problem?How
will they get the message out to the average fan and how will that effect the box
office for the film?Disney can’t expect this film to even come
close to what The Force Awakens did.The
Force Awakens marketed itself. It was the right movie at the right time. I assume Disney will expect Rogue One to be more like a Thor or Antman at the box office movie when compared to The Avengers, but what if they mistakenly think this will be just as big? Personally I think the are doing a good job of explaining what this movie is.....But is that enough for the average viewer to get it?
That was the case this last weekend when the my favorite Artist SHAG premiered his latest artwork at Downtown Disney.
I'm a big Disney fan, a big Tiki fan and of course a huge Star Wars fan. So when it was announced that SHAG was doing a version of the Cantina scene and that he would be a the Disney resorts.
I was all in.
The Wonderland Gallery in Downtown Disney was the location. The store would open at 8am ....They told people not to line up until 6am. When I heard that I knew the wife was not up for this adventure. She likes to sleep in on the weekend --so I headed off solo for what I thought would be a quick adventure to get some cool SHAG Star Wars stuff. I arrived at the Disneyland Resort at 6am and the entrance to the parking structure lane was open and since I have a pass with parking I headed into the parking structure. I pulled up to the booths with only a few people in front of me, but the booths themselves were not open yet. I should have parked in Downtown Disney lot.....I had unknowing made a fatal error that would cost me hours. There were cast members in the booths --but the booths didn't open until 6:30am....so by the time I got over to the line for SHAG it was all the way around the Rain Forest building. At 6:30am there were probably already 200 people in front of me.
By 9am: An hour after the store had opened I was still near Rainforest. My parking mistake had cost me dearly. My plan to hit the store early when it opened and maybe hit the park for an hour was already a failure. I guess I underestimated how many people would get up that bloody early. I was going to be stuck in a line longer than the lines would be when Star Wars Land opens.
10am: They had escorted us to where we could at least see the store. I wanted to bail--but I'd already invested 4 hours. I was pot committed as they say in poker. There were SHAG fans, Harvey purse fans, Disney Merch fans and Star Wars fans all in line. All of those worlds colliding made for a slow moving line.
11:30-12:00: At this point I had lost track of time. I finally made it into the store. The made rush for product lasted a few minutes as people stocked up on items. I was only going to pick up glasses and postcards originally --but after waiting so long I knew that my wife would think I was an idiot if I didn't pick up a shirt as well.
So I forked over more money than I had planned just to make my wait worthwile.
Besides this shirt will be perfect for Tiki Oasis in August which has a Monster Island theme this year. The check out line which moved very , very slowly and was the obvious reason for the length of the line as a whole.
Here was the haul I brought home.
The line was insane and I will never do that again.
I waited so long I should have received a Fastpass for Star Wars Land. After over 6 hours --I choose not to return for the Signing that was between 3-5pm since I was number 106 for the signing. I get to see SHAG every year at Tiki Oasis in San Diego without massive lines --so I headed home.
Like every other hardcore Star Wars fan I got super excited when I heard yesterday that the first teaser for Rogue One would premiere today.I got to work a few minutes earlier and logged onto Facebook and the barrage of links for the trailer were plastered all over Facebook.
Of course I watched it immediately several times. To be honest I wasn’t blown away with it.
I wasn’t excited about the trailer which is unusal because I was super excited by the Force Awakens Trailer.Don’t get me wrong I’m sure I will see the movie the first couple of days it is in the theater and I will listen to podcasts about every rumor concerning the film until it comes out.But with the exception of the really cool scene with the walkers at the end it felt more like a TV show than a movie.
It felt like a Battlestar Gallactica promo to me. It was dumb of me to watch it for the first time on my phone instead of at home (Like I could wait that long)
Star Wars fans got all excited to see Mon Mothma featured in the Rogue One Trailer…….
The average person –will be like …..”Who the hell is Mon Mothma and why I’m I supposed to be excited about her being in the movie?”
I guess it just didn’t show us enough for me.I actually liked the teaser trailer from the Star Wars Convention for Rogue One better…..which was basically just a slow panning shot through a forest with the Death Star in the background.
What did you think of the trailer?
What has you excited or not excited about this risky first non-Saga film?
Will Mon Mothma and a bunch of other characters you have never heard of before –get the masses to the theaters?
When will we see more of Vader? (He better not just be in the last 30 seconds of the movie like Luke was)
What about Tarkin?
Time will tell…….I hope the next trailer gives us something more to be excited about.Especially considering that we already know how this movie will end.
"Who are you?" Asks the trailer......Well we really don't ever find out the answer to that question. We find out who the villain is and it is devastating.
I put off writing my thoughts on the Force Awakens until I saw it a second time. I guess I needed it to sink in a little bit. I'm sure there are already a million reviews about the movie so maybe I'll take a slightly different approach and maybe just ask questions. The movie brought up as many questions as it answered. So below are 6 questions I was asking myself and didn't post about before the movie came out and whether the movie answered them or not.
What I thought about the movie: I loved the movie.....I'm a huge Star Wars fan and I've read a ton of Star Wars books and I listen to Star Wars Podcasts and have even discussed it on my own Movie Podcast . The movie captured the spirit of the originals and brought a new generation of Star Wars characters to the forefront. Harrison Ford was awesome!!! The new cast was great.....I can't wait for the next film.
I'll discuss the film itself in more detail when we do our next Podcast.
1. Where is Luke? and has he turned to the Darkside?
What I thought before the film came out:
I really don’t think they will go the direction of Dark Empire comics and have Luke go to the darkside.Luke will probably show up towards the end of the film which means it will probably be a couple of years before we really get to see Luke in action again. Answers we got from the Movie:
Well I was definitely right about Luke. Now we know why he wasn't in the trailer and the posters... After all he was only in the film for the last minute and didn't even speak a line. I think it was a great ending and only makes us want to know more about what Luke has been up to and what we will see from him in Episode 8.
2. What are Rey and Finn’s last names?
What I thought before the film came out: Skywalker or Solo –the jury is still out.I’m sure Rey is related to one of our former heroes. The trailer where she talks about waiting for her family and the narration about the same eyes in different people makes you wonder. Answers we got from the Movie: Okay ---so we didn't find out the answer to either question. Finn may not be related to anyone and Rey doesn't seem to be a Solo. The movie makes you think that she may be Luke's child. Again the movie created more questions than it answered. My guess is that she is Luke's daughter and that maybe the mom dropped her off on Jakku to hide her when Kylo Ren had turned on Luke and the Jedi. I think the mom planned on coming back for her, but never made it back. Rey's visions when she touched Luke's Lightsaber show a memory of her being left on Jakku--but she also had visions of Kylo killing Jedi. Hopefully we will find out in a year and a half from now.
3. Is Snoke actually Plagueis?
What I thought before the film came out: This is highly unlikely –but Abrams did bring back Khan in Star Trek reboot….and the fact that they haven’t shown us what the character looks like makes the rumors persist.
Is the expanded universe really dead or is that just a setup like Khan? Before the movie went into production on the movie Disney and Lucasfilm announced that the expanded universe was pretty much dead.But aside from new post Return of the Jedi comics Rebels has basically just re -enforced older stories from the EU.When the EU was reset I thought that it made since for them to reset things post Return of the Jedi –but there really was no reason to retell things prior to that.They continue to bring elements of the Pre Jedi era into canon—which can be confusing for die hard fans.This makes me wonder if the movie is actually going to be giving us something more from the EU then we have been lead to believe.I hope that someday they bring Thrawn back into the new canon.
Answers we got from the Movie: Again we really didn't get an answer to this.... The book adaptation of the movie does say that Snoke has been around for a long time which only fuels the Plagueis fires....Of course they seem to be borrowing elements from the EU and changing them so he could be a Plagueis like character, but not Plagueis himself.
4. Rey and Kylo could actually be a version of Jacen and Jaina?
What I thought before the film came out: This goes back into dragging ideas back in from the EU.Rey and Kylo could just be new versions of the the Solo Twins from the EU. Answers we got from the Movie: They basically used the spirit of the EU without having the same characters. Rey is very much like Jaina Solo (Although she may be a Skywalker) and Kylo is like Jacen (except his name is Ben Solo). So we basically got very similar characters to Jacen and Jaina Solo in new characters.
5.Let the Wookie Live?Was the death of Chewie in the expanded universe one of the biggest reasons it was abandoned?
What I thought before the film came out: One of the main reasons I think they rebooted the beside being able to tell stories without being tied to details the general public don't know about was to reverse the loss of Chewie.They killed Chewie off in the books during the 19 book series about the Vong.Once they decided to do new movies and bring Han Solo back –not having Chewie would have been a crime. Answers we got from the Movie: So they let the Wookie Live!!! and they Killed Han Solo. I recall the reason that they killed Chewie in the books. I agreed that after so many books --when all the main characters always survived it took away the danger in the books. I hated that they had killed Chewie, but I understood it. The same goes for Han's death in the movie. It had an impact that will totally effect many of the characters and makes things interesting --because no one is safe. Like on the Walking Dead --the fact that they are willing to kill off main characters makes the show more interesting. Han will be missed. At least I still have all of Han's EU stories --still in my head...
6. When will the first Rogue One Trailer hit?
What I thought before the film came out: The first trailer for The Force Awakens broke on Thanksgiving over a year before the movie.In my opinion we won’t see a Rouge One Trailer until sometime after the Force Awakens comes out…Maybe not until Captain America hits theaters……Just to not create confusion for non diehard fans.
Answers we got from the Movie: I think I was right on this one.....We probably won't see a Rogue One Trailer until the Star Wars movie has run it's Trench Run assault on Box Office Records. The movie has already passed a billion dollars Worldwide in slightly over a week at the Box Office. It's daily numbers are insane and I'm sure we will not see a trailer for Rogue One until it's theater run is over.
One of the Features in the Star Wars Launch Bay is the D-Tech on demand Star Wars Phone Cases. This is located at the back of the Launch Bay near the exit that also features expensive collectibles and some Star Wars Art.
You can make custom cases for a little over $36 dollars and you can personalize them for about $45. Here are some examples
Here is a video I found online posted by Eric Caiiuat on You Tube....showing some of the options.
I was just recently at the big Star Wars
celebration in Anaheim –literally right across the street from Disneyland.
I found the lack of a big announcement regarding
anything new coming to the theme parks disturbing.
When you go to a big convention like Star Wars Celebration excitement is in the air. I joked and said "How do you make 40,000 nerds cry.....show them a Star Wars trailer in an arena" With at least 6 new films on the way you could feel the joy for Star Wars at the convention. After the convention a natural depression sets in. Kind of a post convention dulldroms. All the anticipation for
the convention is over and the wait begins for the next big thing.
Then the jealously sets in….. You
see Disney’s Hollywood Studios gets 4 weeks of Star Wars every year already.
It is sort of like a 4 week convention with
panels and celebrities and cool things like a make shift Star Wars lounge and
the Sci-Fi Dine in getting a Star Wars themed breakfast –with the trailer and
clips from the films in the background. (I’m not sure
why they don’t just have this there all the time). Being
on the West Coast I sat here wishing we had a Sci Fi dine in…..Wishing we got a
Star Wars weekend with special Star Wars themed drinks and light up Millennium
Falcon ice cubes.
Well when we went out to the parks this weekend
to check out some of the new 60th Anniversary stuff. We
first saw this.
A Lemonade stand with a Boba Fett cup?
A Han Solo in Carbonite Popcorn –bucket….I
thought these were only in Orlando.
And the light up ice cubes. (The glass is from Target)
Star Wars is coming……The news that Indy is getting a bar in Disney Springs only makes me more confident that something big for Star Wars is coming soon. Star Wars is Disney's Harry Potterso it is just a matter of time before the big plans they are working one come to light. If you follow Disney as closely as I do you will remember those crates at the last D23 teasing that they were Blue Skying something Star Wars related. Well the movie is now around 200 days away so I bet something big is coming soon. I'm shocked that they didn't move the Force Awakens Props exhibit across the street once the Convention was over. I could see that exhibit that had 2 plus hour lines at the convention where the Tomorrowland props are now---or in Innoventions.
Check out Part 2 of our Disney Discussion on our Podcast
Disney meets Star Wars at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim. This quick little photo blog features a few pictures from my weekend trip to Star Wars Celebration. It looks like Disneyland has made its way across the street and invaded the Star Wars Convention. Frozen Slave Leai has Hans Solo in Carbonite
Things are about to get a little Goofy at the Star Wars Convention now that Disney owns Star Wars. This Goofy is from the booth Disney was promoting the upcoming Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Of course Disney XD's amazing animated Star Wars Rebels show had a big presence at Celebration this year. One of the highlights of the weekend was a Premiere screening of the first episode of Season 2 that filled up 3 hours early.
I was lucky enough to caught the Trailer on the big screen during the closing ceremonies seen below
Tangled Leia
The rest of my Star Wars Convention photos will be over on my Movie page.
Part one can be found here....with more to come over the next few days
