Sunday, December 30, 2012

Twits in 2012

As we prepare to close out 2012 and move into 2013, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of the better tweets from 2012 that came across my feed. This is by no means a comprehensive list and exclusions should certainly not be taken personally. I can only work with what I bothered to hit the "favorite" button on at the time they were tweeted and I don't always catch every great Tweet. Without further hesitation, let's travel back to January 2012!

Here we witness the moment Kevin Yee first formulated the Rizzo Factor:


Some early thoughts on NextGen that still feel pretty accurate today:






This next tweet wasn't particularly funny but it still looks really tasty and I'm hoping by giving it a little publicity we can get the ball rolling on the idea again:




I unfortunately didn't favorite the original tweet from Erica, but I still really want to see the show described in the screenshot:







And I feel like Tippy Blue is a really good note to end 2012 on. Have a good New Year's and a great 2013! Also if anyone can figure out how to make the little tweets that pop up above other tweets when they were being replied to go away, I would really appreciate that because they're kinda distracting.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Impulse Review: 396 Pure, Unadulterated, Dyed-In-The-Wool, 100% Made-Up, Completely Fake Disneyland "Facts"

I thought I'd try out a new feature, where I review impulse buys. It'll probably mostly be books, maybe a few other things if I figure out what else makes a good impulse buy that's Disney related.

Years and years ago, I found the website Disney Lies through a message board. I probably spent a few hours browsing the site, reading all the made up stories and facts about Disneyland and other divisions of the Walt Disney Company. Then, to be honest, I forgot about the site completely. A few months back, someone mentioned the site to me on Twitter and I was surprised to find out it was still around and still regularly being updated. I added the DisneyLies blog to my RSS reader and found myself entertained regularly.

When a few posts made mention of an upcoming book, I wasn't sure what to think. Seriously, when a website devoted to lying about things announces a book, I'm not sure if it's a joke or serious or what's going on. It turned out to be real, and about a month ago 396 Pure, Unadulterated, Dyed-In-The-Wool, 100% Made-Up, Completely Fake Disneyland "Facts" was released.

The author, who goes by the name Horatio Q. Liar, allowed a sample of the book to be viewed through Amazon and after finding myself trying not to laugh like an idiot in my living room, I was sold.

It's certainly not the first book to provide facts about a Disney park in the form of short, numbered statements. It's probably not the first to contain the occasional inaccuracy either. But to my knowledge it is the first to intentionally be wrong about everything!

It's a pretty short read. 396 facts is a big number, but they can all be read in a couple of hours, definitely something that can be read in a single sitting. It does remain entertaining for the entire sitting though. Facts range from the bizarre (forgetting to plug a drain in a river) to the almost plausible (a backstory to the Little Mermaid that ties in to Pirates of the Caribbean) to a number of facts that convince me the author forgot what he was doing and began daydreaming about churros.

A number of sketches break up the facts with humorous bits of information about things like the trams and marmalade. A number of running jokes throughout the book help tie it all together, making it a cohesive piece rather than simply a collection of made up facts and while not every joke is a hit, there's a few hundred others that are and the book's presentation style means that if you don't find a particular joke very funny  odds are there's one just ahead that you will.

If you've checked out the Disney Lies site before, you've got a good idea of the type of humor you'll find in this book. Maybe it's for you, maybe not. I enjoy it personally and I enjoyed this book. The price tag is certainly reasonable and if you're like me you'd have just wasted $5 on something else anyway. If you're sold or on-the-fence or just anything but completely put-off, check out 396 Pure, Unadulterated, Dyed-In-The-Wool, 100% Made-Up, Completely Fake Disneyland "Facts" on Amazon and give the preview a look. The 22 facts provided give a great sample of what the other 374 will be like and by the time you've finished that you should be able to make up your mind. If you buy it, enjoy. If not, enjoy whatever else you decide to do. Have fun!
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Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Day at the Park: Magic Kingdom

Before moving into this post, I'll address the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Hello, Gorilla! Okay, now that we're done with that, I'll explain the name change. You may have noticed that the title of this blog has gone from "It's Another Disney Blog" to "Cheap 3D Tricks". While the generic-ness of the old title may have been fitting, I didn't think it was the best thing for the blog in the long-term and decided to find something a little better suited.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Muppetvision 3D and will understand the reference immediately. If not, in Muppetvision 3D, when Kermit is introducing guests to the Muppet Labs he assures the guests of the quality of Muppetvision 3D and informs the guests that they will not be stooping to any cheap 3D tricks. Right on cue, Fozzie appears, blowing a party favor at the audience, showering them with a flower that squirts water and opening a can of spring-loaded snakes towards the audience. All the types of stereotypical 3D effects that Kermit was hoping to avoid. Cheap, tacky, gimmicky tricks. And that's why I feel it's a fitting title for this blog!

Now that we've cleared that up, let's move on to some photos and updates from a recent adventure-filled trip to the Magic Kingdom.

New Fantasyland under construction, here's Beast's Castle. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done!

The Country Bear Jamboree continues to be entertaining, although a little less than before.



Nothing says "Made Fresh" like a Disneyland Rice Krispie Treat at Walt Disney World!

Riverboat doing its riverboat thing from Thunder Mountain

Possums are swinging

Orange Bird hanging out over the Sunshine Tree Terrace sign

Another New Fantasyland construction wall shot
The Storybook Circus portion is open, though. Maybe we can let off a little steam here. See because the train is...oh nevermind.

Duffies hangin out at Big Top Souvenirs 

The rest of Fantasyland opened, and I won't lie

It looks great!
A look at the Castle before we move over to Tomorrowland to kick off the evening
Hey Rover

I think this is called Crawford City?

Riding the Rocket Rods

Goodbye Tomorrowland. Goodbye abandoned stroller
Back in Old Fantasyland, testing for some updates to Mission: Space is being done at the Carousel.

The Haunted Mansion is looking especially spooky tonight, perhaps because it's close to Halloween.

The lighting can be a bit harsh at night, but check out these statues they add to the hub for Halloween

Okay the park's been closed for like an hour now, Mickey and Walt are keeping an eye on Main Street. Time to go.
 I hope you enjoyed part two of this series. If you did, look forward to Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom updates in the near future! If not, look forward to the next two anyway because maybe you'll like them better!


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