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Episode 339: Josh D’Amaro, RIP DinoLand & Haunted Mansion Weddings
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On This Episode
The guys discuss the major news of Josh D’Amaro being named the next CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Former Imagineer Joe Rohde recently commented about his 15-year battle to bring Tropical Americas to Animal Kingdom and the creation of DinoLand USA. Disneyland will allow guests to get married in front of the Haunted Mansion starting this summer. After a brief refurbishment, Frozen Ever After at EPCOT will be re-opening soon with more than just new animatronics.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 339 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club
Meet the Hosts
00:00:38
Speaker
podcast. I'm Tom here with ah ah a a Trevor who can't talk. yeah You're here with most of a Trevor. Yeah. so so Listen, if if you're if you if you don't like listening to me talk, this is not going to be the episode for you because we're going to have a lot of time with a sprinkling of Trevor. it Okay. No, I'm going to try my best here. it's just, unfortunately, i've been I've been sick all week. I don't know if it you can hear it in my voice. i can hear can hear it. Yeah, it's not great, but I'm getting better. So I figured we should be able to get this done. But yeah, I don't know how much I'm going be able to actually talk through this. That's okay. That's okay. I can talk i could talk a lot.
Website and Store Launch
00:01:18
Speaker
So i i wanted to I wanted to start off this week. we we ah Last week, I kind of teased a little bit and talked about a a new website for the show um and also a new store. And I just...
00:01:33
Speaker
After the show last week, I just decided to go ham. Tom did it. Tom had a flash of brilliance and went crazy. and Yes. just Just so we're clear that this is you know this was all Tom. He he ran it by he ran it by me, but I didn't really have a lot of input. Part of it, too, is you know being sick. I have not been...
00:01:53
Speaker
yeah i know you showed me some that stuff, and like I was already like not feeling well. and I was like, it looks great, it looks great but I just didn't have the energy to like contribute. That's okay though. That's fine. I honestly, I had a lot of fun building the new website, which if you haven't checked it out yet, it's welcome home podcast.co. Just, just know that it's welcome home podcast.co not C O M. So just look out for that.
00:02:20
Speaker
Um, but so that's launched and, and mostly pretty filled with content at this point, um, with a few exceptions here and there, but for the most part, the site is up and running. It's good to go. You can go check it out.
00:02:31
Speaker
Um, But i also we also launched our new store. So our new store is now ah available. It's out there. You can actually go ah you can go to store.welcomehomepodcast.com to get to the store. Or you can just go to to our main website and click on the store link.
00:02:47
Speaker
um Because we launched a new website and because we launched a new store, we decided we were going to do a special deal for everybody where everybody gets 10% off the store. So every item in the store is 10% off.
00:02:59
Speaker
We got hats. We got, ah we got fanny packs. We've got ah water bottles. We've got shirts. We've even got food time merch. So now we got some food time merch out there, which I'm very excited about. I've already gotten a shirt of the food time shirt that I will wear the next time we do food but food time. That came out great. We, I even, we made a new logo for food time to to go on the shirts that, I mean, it's this essentially the same as our regular logo, but it's very, um,
00:03:26
Speaker
It's got that retro feel to it, and it's it's just it's very cool. It reminds me of an 80s arcade. It's very very retro, and I really like how it came out. and so yeah It kind of goes in line with the 90s vibe that Disney has been doing lately, I feel.
00:03:43
Speaker
does. That's kind of what I get from it. Also, sorry, I should really um i didn't want to interrupt your whole thing there, but um you you mentioned it's a story about Welcome Home Podcast dot, you said dot com, but it's dot co.
00:03:56
Speaker
Sorry..co. I apologize..co. We don't own the.com domain, so don't go there. Store.walkinghomepodcast.co is the new store. yeah Yes. So please check that out. The other thing about this store, besides it being 10% off, our old store, I'm not going to lie, wasn't very good.
00:04:13
Speaker
I didn't like it. It didn't. know It was not good. Things were expensive. They took a long time to ship. There was a limited amount of stuff in there. This new store, total opposite. Right. So I ordered a new shirt from there on like Monday. I got it on Friday. Now it was only delay. It was delayed by two days because of ah bad weather here in Charlotte. So um I would have gotten it probably sooner than that. The great thing about this new one, they have, they have printers all over the world. So, you know, you can get them shipped pretty fast and the shirts are like, the The stuff is so much cheaper. It's like so much. I got no joke for the food time shirt out the door. it was like 19 bucks for and and I don't even think you get with it with shipping with shipping. So like our stuff is way cheaper now and you can get it much easier, much faster. So go check it out. And listen, if there's something that's not in there that you want, you know, and I i' put this out on the on the discord and immediately I think it was Katie was like, where's the bucket hats at? Within 10 minutes, I had a bucket hat out there for, you know, for anybody that wanted to to get it. So email us if there's something you want to see. You know, do you want welcome home socks? Sure. I'll make you welcome home socks like you want. Welcome. Do you want a food time socks? Yeah, I'll do food time socks.
00:05:24
Speaker
Well, you know, whatever. We'll we'll do it. um You know, we want to just kind of put it out there. Everything that you buy from the store goes to support the show. Trevor and I are not like lining our pockets here and buying boats and and houses and golden oats. Like that's not how that's working. I might be able to buy a small boat for like the bathtub.
00:05:42
Speaker
yeah You could buy like one of those little plastic boats. The the the little people boats. though yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. You could buy one of those for sure. ah Yeah. But so listen, we're not like trying to make money off of this. This is literally whatever you purchase there goes for supporting the podcast. And honestly, we keep...
00:05:58
Speaker
the the the price is even lower than we probably should in there. And, you know, so like we don't even make that much on the merch. We we just want people, if they want to wear stuff with our logo on it or, look you know, with food time on it, whatever,
Disney CEO Transition Discussion
00:06:10
Speaker
like we we are flattered by that in general. So the fact that you would want to do that, you know, we don't want to charge you a lot for it. But check out the new store.
00:06:18
Speaker
cool stuff in there. And we are finally selling hats. So you can get some hats. I know a lot of people have been asking us for hats over the years. and and And good news. You can get a hat if you want one. We got trucker hats in there. We got some ah some dad caps. If you're you know like me and you you're boring and you wear the.
00:06:34
Speaker
Sorry. Sorry. if it's Just a regular baseball cap. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just dad cat. Yeah, dad cat. Exactly. um But yeah, anyway, so so please check that out. I think that's been, um you know, I'm excited to get these things out. It's been a, i think everybody knows it's been a tumultuous kind of since, you know, August of last year. as We've been trying to get our footing again and and and hopefully no you guys haven't noticed as much, but, you know, the website and the store are two places that we really wanted to improve. And so I'm i'm glad to say that those things are are out there and, you know, they're only going to get better over time. So,
00:07:09
Speaker
that's That's all I can say about that. yeah So, yeah. Please go check it out. And in the meantime, let's talk about some Disney news. Yeah, we got to talk about this. This isn't even DVC. This is like just flat out Disney news. Yeah. Yeah. So like we have to talk about this, obviously, like we can't just like I know we don't usually cover like the business of the Walt Disney Company, but we can't not cover this. Right. So I think everybody knows what we're talking about without us even talking about it. So, you know, I think the talk of Disney for the past, don't know, a couple of years now is who's going to replace Iger. Iger's getting getting a little old and, you know, he's already tried to retire once and.
00:07:47
Speaker
failed at that. And so who's going to replace, ah you know, Bob Iger? And that's a very difficult question to answer because Disney is one of the largest and most complicated countries, I mean, countries, ah ah companies in the country. It's very difficult to manage. it's It's a lot. You know, you have to have, they have their hands in everything.
00:08:04
Speaker
You know, entertainment, boat, you know, ships, ah you know, parks, so publishing, music, like you name it, Disney does it, you know, and it's it's a lot. Right. And so, you know, it's it's a big job. And so i think this was pretty expected. I think most people, including myself, and I think we talked about this. struggle Yeah, it it was it was the obvious choice, I think, from a lot of people's point of view. Or there wasn't there wasn't anyone else I can think of that was yeah as much of a front runner as as.
00:08:35
Speaker
Josh DiMauro. Yeah. Yeah. Josh DiMauro. So, yeah. and And it almost follows. i mean, it makes a lot of sense for a lot of things. Right. So and i I think I don't I mean, I don't know about you, Trevor. I haven't really seen anybody out there being like this was a bad pick. Right. Like when JPEC was announced, it was like, but ah people seem to like Josh DiMauro.
00:08:53
Speaker
so So the interesting thing about that, I've seen a, I do browse Reddit and Reddit's probably the most negative place that I do go. And some people actually were like, you know, Josh is the one who's been running the parks for the last, you know, five,
00:09:10
Speaker
five, six years, you know, and, you know, that's when the most amount of perceived negative change has come. So a lot of people put it on that, you know, well, because Josh was running the parks and all the things that you've seen change in the parks were Josh's fault, which,
00:09:28
Speaker
I mean, i that's the most negative I've seen about it. Yeah, I don't know where the negative change thing comes in. Like fees and stuff, is that is that where the... Well, yeah like, you know, the taking away... Basically, a lot of the stuff that happened due to COVID, right? The yeah yeah you know the the taking away of, you know, Magical Express and, you know, removing or changing how FastPass has worked. Like, as if all those things weren't, like... Already in the works when he came when he took it over, yeah. Yeah, exactly. yeah and And, you know, it's not to say that, you know, you know Josh...
00:09:58
Speaker
Josh definitely, you know, has a hand in these things and it's not that, you know, it's like, well, he didn't know and these things just magically happened without him. I think it's, you know, a lot of people complaining about those things is there there is a lot of negativity around like, yes, the parks are changing, but...
00:10:15
Speaker
A lot of that does come from, you know, the larger business and, the and you know you know, it's not, you know, the person managing the parks do have to take direction from the CEO, out obviously. yeah. And as we saw with, you know, the previous CEO, when those changes came in, you know, even against their best judgment, you know, the person managing it still has to execute on things, right? Of course, yeah. So... I mean, but yeah on the other side of the coin, though, Trevor, he's also been, i mean, this whole $60 billion dollars that they're investing in the parks is is also him, right? like exactly you know like like Yeah, It's not like he hasn't been doing things to improve the parks, right? It's just people you know people love cherry-picking the stuff that they want to see improved or the changed or whatever. And because it's not the stuff that they want to see changed, thereby, you know, at all his decisions are...
00:11:06
Speaker
negative right like that that's kind of some of the feedback that i've seen around it so so it's not that everybody is like oh yeah this is great i have seen negative feedback around it i don't necessarily agree with it i'm i'm not and i'm not saying that you know josh is going to be perfect and amazing or anything but you know you know he does the one piece that i i saw argued that you know when i look at it i i go you know hey he does have a good perspective on running the parks because yeah like, you know, yeah so even going like looking at Iger and whatnot, like the other CEOs, you don't see them in the parks with their families. Right.
00:11:45
Speaker
yeah Josh, you have seen him over the years. like He has worked in the parks. He has you know yeah he he has been there as you know a visitor. right like like He goes there with his families and stuff. so it's like It kind of reminds me of like how Walt Disney was with yeah Disneyland back in the day. where you know It wasn't just like he made it and was kind of sitting back and watching everybody do it. He was like...
00:12:10
Speaker
they're in it and, you know, you know, trying to, um, trying to understand, you know, what people wanted and what made sense and all that. I feel like Josh will probably take a position similar to that with like the company overall is that, you know,
00:12:28
Speaker
He's, I don't see him as like, this isn't going to be like Chapek, right? Like he's not going to, he's not going to like just start cutting stuff. I think he's going to be much more receptive to like, hey, there is a creative aspect to this and you can't just like discount things because it has a budget bigger than you want it to be. Right? Like, yeah like he's not a penny pincher. soly But like, I mean, read an article article about this. The whole $60 billion dollars investment in the parks and the ships and all that stuff was was basically him. I mean, he he brought this to Iger and and and they together came up with this. So, I mean, listen, you can't we can't say, I mean, this is a a decade of a ton of investment coming up. there's They're building tons of new ships. They're building on tons of new things in the parks. Like,
00:13:13
Speaker
I don't know. I just I feel like that's a positive to me. I i think this also just makes sense from the perspective of, ah you know, the the Disney company at this point, the most the the biggest driver of their revenue is the parks and the cruise ships. Like even I mean, it's not to say that movies are not still a big thing or but, you know, traditional TV is kind of declining and movies have never recovered from from the pandemic. I mean, even though Disney led the box office this year, it still wasn't.
00:13:43
Speaker
their leading you know driver of revenue. It's it's the parks. and and so And he understands that. But I think, you know to your point, Trevor, and you were kind of saying this, and this is this is a lot of the comments I've seen, is... and And even Iger wasn't necessarily this kind of guy, right? Like, Iger...
00:13:58
Speaker
was personable, but also kind of had like that very like business-y kind of sto stoicism, right? Yeah, he kept distance, right? He did, but Josh feels like us he feels like a fan first. You know what i mean? it's It almost feels like he's a... he's like And this is what I never really liked about Chapek, because Chapek just never felt like he was...
00:14:18
Speaker
particularly into the Disney brand, right? Like he was into it in much in so much as that he was, you know, running the company and, you know, wanted it to make money and all that stuff. But like, like Josh feels like he like legit understands it. He, he lives it. He breathes it. He gets it. You know what i mean? He, he reminds me a lot of Eisner in a lot of ways. Right. Cause like in in a different way, because Eisner came in with like,
00:14:44
Speaker
everything I've ever watched a bit with Eisner when he came in was that he kind of had this like childlike enthusiasm about it, you know, about like the parks and everything, but especially since he didn't really know anything about them. but You know, he was very much on the movie side of things and, and very, you know, well respected in that regard. And, And ah so he came in and he kind of had this like childlike, you know, view of the parks and everything and, and we just would get excited about everything. And I think that's what Josh brings. He brings this excitement, this energy, this love for the brand, this understanding of the brand and understanding that it's a business, but also that it's driven by creativity and it's driven by storytelling. And that's the stuff that really, really matters. So, I think this is a great pick. Honestly, i I think we expected it. You know, it made sense to me. I mean, and, and you know, I saw too. And, you know, the other part of this too is they, the other person that was really in the running for this was ah Dana Walden, who is the the head of, um you know, kind of on the movie side of things on the on the entertainment side of things. And they ah Disney created the first chief creative officer role in the history of the company and placed her into that. And so a lot of people were speculating, is Disney going to do like a co-CEO kind of thing? And they didn't, but they did just about as close to it as they could where, you know, Dana had no experience in the parks and Josh has no experience on the movies and movies and TV and stuff like that. So they're both kind of bringing their their deep expertise into two different things that are very important to the company. And I think they made a really smart move by elevating her to that role as well. But I know you saw this, Trevor, but they were they were they were doing, ah it was like an interview or a town hall or something that. And Dana Walden was talking about how they were walking around the parks at one point.
00:16:26
Speaker
And um there was ah a kid that had like lost it was like raining and there was a kid that had lost their parents and and Josh saw it and just like ran up and started helping the kid just like instinctively.
00:16:37
Speaker
and its oh wow. Yeah. And it was. But I mean, we've seen that kind of stuff. Like you just see this stuff all over the Internet of of the interactions he's had with guests. you know I mean, yeah, I've seen like regular interactions. I've never heard of like like him immediately like yeah like running to a kid that's lost. Like, I mean, i don't, I'm not like, that's the thing is like, I don't, ah you know, so seeing what I've seen of Josh, I don't put it past him. It's like, yeah, he would do that, obviously. might Exactly. Like it just is on brand for him, you know? but Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah. So i I've listened. I mean, like you said, i don't know if he's going to be, you know, the greatest CEO ever. I don't know. We're going to find out. He certainly seemed a little terrified to the interview that they had with him and Bob Iger. But I mean, I don't blame him. I mean, if I had just been told a day or two earlier that I was going to be the CEO of Disney, like I'm sure it's a little bit disorienting, um especially when, like I said, you're like him, who I i believe that he's a fan first. He is he he truly loves the company. and And I think that's what you need. kind of you know Kind of like you were talking about. No one's saying he's Walt Disney. And by the way, Walt Disney was never the CEO of the d of the the Disney company. No. Yeah. It was different because, yeah, he was running it privately at the time. So, you know, very very different vibe on things. Absolutely. But there is still an element of that. Like I said, it's not just a matter of like saying, like oh, he's like Walt Disney. It's that he has that element of, like you know like you said, that that childlike wonder, that ability to like put himself in the shoes
00:18:08
Speaker
of the people who are going to, you know, be consuming the brand. Like it's, it's not just about the parks at this point. It's, you know, he's going to be looking at the movies. He's going to be looking at, you know, cruise lines, parks, you know, everything all as one, as one um ecosystem. Yeah. And I think having somebody at the helm who, you know, doesn't discount the fact that, you know, you know, people go to Disney for a particular reason, not because it's just another,
00:18:36
Speaker
like label so to speak like like yeah I think that was the biggest problem with with JPEC was that he treated like it was just another like it was like a bank or you know yeah like selling running shoes or something like like he didn't yeah he didn't treat it like you know Disney has an element of like imagination to it that a lot of people do overlook so i I always just imagine that like that JPEG would rock walk around the parks and in his head the people would be just like replaced by like dollar signs or like money bags as they were walking by. You know, like that's kind of how I. You mean that scene from Gravity Falls where Stan's looking at the family and they all just like wallets?
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly that's how I always kind of felt like JPEG treated like, you know, the fans and listen, maybe I don't think that that Josh is going to deviate all that far from what Iger was doing, right? Like JPEG came in and like blew up the whole organization. i don't think Josh is going to do that.
00:19:30
Speaker
i I think he's going to do some stuff to make it his own, but he's he's Iger's guy, right? Like he's probably going to keep it keep it fairly similar, you know? And, you know, it's it's not that the ship needs to turn 90 degrees at this point either. like like that's I think a lot of people are thinking, like, oh, you know, they get the right person, you know, they're going to, like, change Disney. It's like, Disney does not turn on a dime. Like, no you know, if you're expecting changes to happen, yeah, like, that you know, things do take, you know, even with with Josh coming into this role, you're not going to see you're you're not goingnna see changes, like,
00:20:07
Speaker
fur you know, years at this point, like like things will gradually start to change. But I think, you know, maybe part of the fact that he's already started doing some planning on the long-term stuff with Iger, um you know, that that's kind of lining him up for like, he already has a to-do list going into this role of things that, you know, you know, it's, it was park centric stuff, but I think it's part of a larger portfolio of things that, you know, he's going to do over the next 10 years or, or however long he's, he's in this role.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah. But, uh... I mean, listen, as a Parks person, I'm thrilled by this, because i I do think he loves the Parks, and I think he's going to do a lot of things there. But I also hope that he he, like, not just for the Parks, but, you know you know, the fact that, you know, he has Dana there for from the movie side. you know You know, the movie side, you know, like you were saying, you know, it hasn't done well.
00:20:55
Speaker
And it's been, you know, you know, we, we say, well, COVID and it's like, yeah, but well nobody's doing well. That's, that's what my point is. We're were rape past COVID. I think it's becoming a matter of people finding their footing in what the new world looks like after COVID.
00:21:10
Speaker
And I'm hoping that, you know, having somebody in there that, you know, can help, yeah you know you know, two people looking at it to try and get something new and different out the door instead of them just, you know, sorry, I've said this before. It felt like for a little for a little while there that, you know you know, Disney locked in on it on Star Wars and Marvel and they were just cycling stuff.
00:21:35
Speaker
And it feels like they're breaking away from that, but that's still going to take some time to get them back to a place where like, but like it's hard because, you know, we, we look at like golden age, like cartoons and stuff like that, where it's like, you know, there, there was a point where they were doing like so much amazing stuff, but, and and a lot of it was under Eisner too, but that took time as well. Like, like that, did that stuff didn't happen overnight either. Like, like it's, it's hard to explain. Like, like there, like everyone,
00:22:09
Speaker
Everyone likes thinking that you know, when they announce these things, it's like all of a sudden, like, you know, there's going to be an announcement next month and, you know, Disney is going to change the world. and it's like, no, it's coming back tomorrow. no it's not going to have i'm I'm curious to see how the next year or so is going to play out. And then beyond that, because, know,
00:22:26
Speaker
This kind of change is going to take some time for everybody to get acclimated to. Well, my assumption is it's not even going to change that much. that i mean, because he's it's not like he was nobody that is coming in from outside the company. Right. I mean, he's been implementing his strategy in the parks and ships and DVC, all that for a while now. It's not. He's he's not coming out of this, you know, coming coming from this from nowhere. Right. It's it's like his I assume that what they're doing in the parks is going to continue as I mean, they have a 10 year plan there and it's going to continue on. I mean, will there be other things that come up? Sure.
00:22:56
Speaker
um But, you know, I do think. ah and like I said, the Dana Walden thing, and she's you know supposedly very well respected in in Hollywood and everybody knows her. And so, you know, the probably is going to be kind of a situation where he's teaching her park stuff and she's teaching him, you know, introducing him to all the Hollywood folks. You know, it's going to be that kind of thing. And it's it's good to to do it that way. But I don't think that this is Like, I don't think Josh is like Chapek in that he ah doesn't and have like the creativity piece of it, right? Where he's just like completely business minded. and I do think Josh kind of tends more towards the creativity side than like Chapek did. And then, you know, Iger was very much, I felt like in the middle, like he got the creativity part, but also was very much on the business part too. yeah He did both, you know. so And you actually touched on something that I didn't even and consider either is, you know, you said Josh... is, you know, he's already enacting stuff.
00:23:43
Speaker
The fact that he already has rapport inside of the company. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Actually makes a big difference to like, because I, I don't recall, like before Chapek got announced as a CEO, it was like, i I have no idea.
00:23:58
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. For Disney. Like, it was, you had no idea who he was. Whereas Josh, it's like, yeah, he he comes with a certain amount of like, oh, you know a you know, people, you know, even dealing with his own people with inside of Disney, that's got to be a lot easier when it's like everybody knows who he is already versus yeah some stranger coming in and trying to give direction, right?
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. it's i wanted to read, by the way, Trevor, I put something in here because Michael Eisner actually chimed in about this. And I thought this was actually really very interesting. And Eisner is, um you know, you can argue over who the best Disney CEO was over the years.
00:24:41
Speaker
30 years or so, right? I mean, mean, since we've been alive, yeah, i mean, listen, I, sir, was great for a long time. I mean, he was the engineer of the Disney decade and, you know, Disney, you know, exponentially expanded during his time, but he also, you know, had some, had some rough times too. I mean, you know, the whole Disneyland Paris thing and, and, uh, you know, animal kingdom cutting that budget to nothing. And, and, and, you know, so he had his own stuff too, but I mean, he was great. And Iger, you know, again, huge amount of expansion and, and, And, you know, a lot of – so, I mean, he's got big shoes to fill for sure. I mean, at least he's not Chapek. I mean, Chapek is – I mean, like, when you have Iger out here just saying it was the biggest mistake of his career to to hire Chapek, I can't imagine how Chapek feels. I mean, but you know, whatever.
00:25:25
Speaker
But anyway, so Izer said – Congratulations to Josh DeMauro for becoming the CEO of the Walt Disney Company. And congratulations to Chairman James Gorman for making such a wise pick, as well as promoting Dana Walden to President chief Creative Officer. My advice to Josh is to continue Bob Iger's strategy that creativity will handle profits.
00:25:43
Speaker
Always protect the brand and keep close to the words of Walt Disney. Quote, we love to entertain kings and queens, but the vital thing to remember is this. Every guest receives the VIP treatment. Good luck.
00:25:54
Speaker
I just really liked that. I thought that was really cool of him, first of all. And he's probably still a stockholder, right? I mean, I'm sure yeah he got a ton of stock when he got, ah you know, when he got let go. So he, I mean, but it's just a very classy thing from Eisner. But also just, you know, if you liked Eisner as a CEO and you liked Iger as a CEO, then, I mean, you've got two two of the the the last great Disney CEOs endorsing the guy. So, you know.
00:26:20
Speaker
I think that's that's ah that says what it says. yeah Yeah. I don't think there's much else we can yeah add to it. But um let's... ah you know Speaking of things changing around the parks, ah the this next one we should talk about.
Imagineering Insights with Joe Rohde
00:26:36
Speaker
um i i know you you very much love um finding news about Joe Rohde, which okay you know so so as well I do as well, but you always find it way before I do. like like Let me just say the guys that. like I'm aware of it, but you always like, like i had no idea that this was...
00:26:55
Speaker
a thing that he had been talking about. I'm not going to take, I'm not going to take the credit for this because this was a listener in the discord that, that posted this. And I, I apologize. i don't remember who I will have to look it up, but I, somebody posted this in the discord and Turned me on. my If it was in the discord, I probably missed it.
00:27:16
Speaker
Actually, here, let me, let me find it. Okay. yeah i'll who find for you Jason G. thank you for yeah jason Jason turned me on to this. So it wasn't me. Okay. Um, but all right, fair enough. Sorry. I've been sick. I, I, I claim the meds and making me not think straight. Um, so, so the reason why this is coming about is because Dinoland is, is, is officially dead now with at this point, right? So Dinoland is gone, uh, because we have, you know, now, ah dinosaurs closed, right? Dinosaurs has had its final day.
00:27:46
Speaker
ah the other day it had the highest wait time of all Disney worlds and people sending off dinosaur into, you know, the great, uh, great extinction, ah but I saw ah the guy who played the ah the scientist scientist. Yeah, was he was there as well. Yeah. um Yeah, no. So he was there taking pictures with ah with cast members. But because of this, ah Joe Rohde just decided to kind of go on like a tear of sharing like behind the scenes stuff about ah Dinoland and about and about Animal Kingdom in general. And so one of the things he posted
00:28:22
Speaker
was that he said, until up until the day of my retirement, my team and I tried for 15 years to get a tropical America land into this park. And many such design attempts involved gutting Dinoland to do it.
00:28:33
Speaker
So basically, Joe Rohde is saying, i was trying to do this for a long time, and then someone finally greenlit it. ah You know? It's like, I mean, to be fair, though, he's not taking credit for it or anything like that. He's saying, like, you know, he He said, ah this particular version continues continues certain ah certain of those. Wait, wait, wait. I missed the part here.
00:28:53
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah. This particular version continues certain of these motivations, but postdates my career. And I've only been able to see it as a consultant now and again, but I congratulate the team on finally being being able to lock a deal, which I was not.
00:29:06
Speaker
So, I mean, Joe Rohde famously is what is one of those Imagineers that had that would always, you know, he seemed like he had a lot of great ideas, but had a hard time selling them. And, ah you know, the whole Animal Kingdom thing was his thing. And ah famously, what was it? He brought like a tiger or a lion into the into the ah board meeting or whatever to to sell Animal Kingdom. And that's how he finally got them to do Animal Kingdom.
00:29:28
Speaker
yeah I think that's what it was. yeah Yeah. I thought it was a tiger. It was, yeah, I couldn't remember if it was a tiger or a lion, but like people were not convinced by it. And so he did, cause they were saying that it wasn't exciting. And so he he, he was like, excited now? I brought, you know, I brought this in, but anyway, but he, he, it's interesting. Some of the things he's saying here, right? Because it's not just this. And, and he, ah you know, he's talking a little bit about just the, back the behind the scenes kind of of Dinoland and how it came about.
00:29:58
Speaker
um But he said, you know, parks exist to create memories. Dinoland created memories. These memories still exist and are are the true product, not the property itself. The new land continue will continue to create more memories and they too will be treasured.
00:30:11
Speaker
i just I like that that's his viewpoint on it. He understands that even if not everybody loved Dinoland, people had memories from it. And it's still a sad thing that it's going even if everybody didn't love it.
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and sorry, i'll I'll keep saying this is, you know, there are so many things that existed in Disneyland and Disney World before it we even got there.
00:30:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. That you don't, like, know or remember that, you know, somebody has memories of, which, again, is totally fair. But to say, like, you know, oh, they shouldn't have torn it down because I liked it is, like, yeah. it does Like, yeah you know, I get, ah you know, i I understand the appeal of Dinoland. I enjoyed Dinoland as well.
00:30:54
Speaker
I'm, you know, I'm a little sad to see it go, but I'm also excited, you know, kind of like what Joe's saying here is, you know, I'm excited to see what comes next out of its ashes because, you know, if that this sounds like something that he wanted to, you know, build upon years and years ago that, yeah you know, ah honestly, if you look at it from from the larger scope of things in in Animal Kingdom, Dinoland was kind of a sore thumb.
00:31:21
Speaker
Yeah. Like, it it didn't really quite fit with the rest of it because, you know, everything else was very, like, tuned to the, you know, the area of the world it was from. Like, you know, there the there was, you know you know, Africa and Asia and all that. And then all of a sudden it's like Dinoland is like, like, it just, it it it didn't feel right. And I get why he he wanted it to change, right? So...
00:31:46
Speaker
Well, the other interesting thing he brought up about this, and this is, I think, something everybody knew, right? it's it's This is not a secret, right? But he talks a little bit about the how the tough the budget was for Animal Kingdom. and so But i've I've never actually heard anyone, like any Imagineer, like come out and say this. It's just kind of been like, well, the budget, you know like they had to cheap out in some places. But he here he says, you can't underestimate how tight the budget for this park was.
00:32:12
Speaker
ah This is one of the reasons we had to be so clever with our storytelling design concepts. We couldn't solve our problems with a giant atomic money bomb. ah The concept was so ambitious to begin with, and it was foolish to make it more ambitious by making it less affordable. Size matters. You can't just charge more because your park is big.
00:32:30
Speaker
And so he said the job site was over 500 acres and the safari was over a hundred alone. Plus we had to pay for roads. ah He said, you know, the number of the budget was not significantly higher than other parks and during the same era, but those parks were like a hundred acres and this was 500.
00:32:46
Speaker
fuck fun trick So he's like, that's where part of the problem was. But he said, that's why one of the, one of the attractions that opened the park was a tent full of reconstructed dino fossils, which I forgot about this by the way. And I was there,
00:32:58
Speaker
I was there the first year that that animal kingdom was open. We actually were there that year, the opening year. um And I don't, I didn't remember this, but he, so one of the first day attractions was a tent full of reconstructed dino fossils bought from suppliers.
00:33:12
Speaker
It, so he goes bought from suppliers who serve the museum world cheap, but also very interesting and very real, which is on brand for Disney's animal kingdom. Together with the real lab facility where we prepared the skeleton of C. the Tyrannosaurus together in the Field Museum. This was at the time actually one of the more extensive and impressive paleontological.
00:33:32
Speaker
I can't even say that word. Paleontological. Yeah. Tological. That's a hard word. Exhibits and stuff. the The tent came down to make way for Chester and Hester's dinorama, which is another story altogether, although the underlying theme of economics was the same. So if if you you can read between the lines there, i mean, it's you don't really need to. He's saying that Chester and Hester's dinorama was done cheaply.
00:34:00
Speaker
And I mean, it's not that doesn't surprise, I don't think, anybody, right, that that was done cheaply. um But yeah, I just thought it was interesting, the kind of details he was getting in there. And he also talked about, too, if you ever went into Restaurantosaurus, there was ah a giant painting that was in there of a bunch of dinosaurs.
00:34:17
Speaker
And he revealed that he actually hand-painted this himself because they ran out of money. They ran out of money to buy props. And he said he goes, basically, we were running out of money to buy props, and my time was already paid for. So I got a space in the sculpture shop at Imagineering. I just painted it.
00:34:33
Speaker
Like, this is why I love Joe Rohde, though, because he's, like, belongs to that old school, like, Imagineer thing where it's just like, well, it' just I'll just do it. yeah Yeah, that's such that's such an Imagineer thing to do. Like, just in the moment be like, well, we're inventing this. Like, it's it's not even like a, you know, he had to do it because of a deadline or anything. It was, i think, honestly, I think he would have done something like that even if Yeah.
00:35:03
Speaker
Even if he wasn't under pressure, like it just feels like something that Imagineers do. Right. Like, yeah. If you watch the imaginary story and I know I quote it all the time here, but it is a really fascinating thing where they would talk about that. Like some of the people that would come in as like interns, they would be like, ah why don't you go start working on the model of, you know, this building. Right.
00:35:23
Speaker
You know, like go do that. and And the person was like, well, I don't know how to build models. and they're like, well, go figure it out. Like that was kind of how imaginary it was. It's like, you don't know how to do it. Go figure it out. Like that's, you're you're going to go learn how to do it. And that's, that's the kind of stuff that you, you know, you really, and I feel like that's still there. That culture is still there of like, you know, if you just figure it out, you know, just make it, make it happen.
00:35:46
Speaker
so Yeah, creativity is part of the job description, so get creative. And and and my my last thing from from Mr. Joe Rohde here was, ah just talking about Missing Dino Land, but also he said, ah the land always had some conceptual weaknesses born of the struggle just to get a park open with what as... with what was at the time a relatively low cost per square foot. For example, while the dinosaur attraction is a thrilling, zany, zigzagging adventure, it's not exactly calculated to appeal to the core market for dinosaurs, which is little kids.
00:36:21
Speaker
But if you look at the opening day menu for the park, you'll see that it was the only thing approaching a thrill ride, and therefore we were obligated to increase the thrill component to balance the park menu. really Which is really interesting to me. I hadn't really thought about the fact that, like yeah, i mean there really weren't any thrill rides at at Animal Kingdom when it opened. And and so you know this was the closest they could really get.
00:36:43
Speaker
um mean, I guess they didn't want it to be called a zoo because you know that's That's where it was going, right? Yeah. i just I just thought this was this was ah kind of some interesting stuff. He giving this background and i just the fact that he just painted that that picture. i mean, i don't even I'm try i trying to remember where that picture was, but it's just that little stuff that you you'll you never knew that he painted that, but now you do.
00:37:09
Speaker
You know? so I'm sure that that painting is going to be put somewhere. I would think so. yeah You'll see it pop up somewhere, guaranteed. Yeah. But anyway, RIP Dinoland, you know, we... I'll put it out there. If you're if you're really into dinosaurs, go to Drumheller, Alberta.
00:37:28
Speaker
Just saying. All right. They have an actual, like, ah the the Tyrell Museum is an actual functioning... um but paleontology, um science.
00:37:42
Speaker
why am i Why am I losing the words? I know why. yeah Thank you. yeah but yeah yeah They do actual like like um like like excavation and stuff. and They discover new dinosaurs and stuff there. so so If you miss DinoLand because of the dinosaur aspect of it, like you know there are other places you can get your dino fix. Exactly.
00:38:06
Speaker
right, we're going to do our ad here, and then we will talk about a couple other things, and we'll get out of here before Trevor's voice completely goes out. Yeah, i'm i'm I'm good for a little while longer. I'm trying. Yeah, yeah. That's why we have we have a shorter we have a shorter ah rundown today. So, okay.
00:38:22
Speaker
This week's episode is sponsored by DVC Rental Store. DVC Rental Store, a key holder vacations company, offers magical vacations at incredible value. Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:38:56
Speaker
So I feel like there's a theme going on here, Trevor, of Disney weddings starting to show up and play in the Haunted Mansion. I feel like Disney, because remember we talked about on the cruise ship now, you can get married in the Haunted Mansion bar that's there, right? Which thought was an interesting choice. You know what, though? You say that, Trevor. I guarantee that this is going to be popular because lots of people have weddings like this. yeah. For sure. Oh, yeah.
00:39:25
Speaker
Disney weddings, or I forget what the exact, what do they call it? Disney fairytale weddings. That's it. And honeymoons is adding the haunted mansion courtyard at Disneyland resort to their lineup of wedding venues starting in July, 2026.
00:39:38
Speaker
Honestly, the I'll say this is, you know, if I didn't know that was the haunted mansion, it just looks like a very just like beautiful house that you're getting photos in front of. You're not wrong. Yeah. You're not wrong. It does. um It does look like a really just cool old house. Yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
Yeah, there there will definitely be some more, like, themed weddings probably going on for this kind of thing. But I can see people just doing it as, like, ah you know, they still want to have a normal-ish wedding. But, you know, the backdrop just happens to be the Haunted Mansion.
00:40:07
Speaker
It's Yeah. It's fair. yeah so Yeah, I mean, that's's ah it's it's an interesting ah you know idea here. but So, by the way, you can you can do it early morning. So you do it before the park is open. you can It only accommodates 25 guests, and it's right in front of the Haunted Mansion. It's in the courtyard right there. They've got like they got like a bunch of candles all around.
00:40:25
Speaker
ah And obviously, you know it's still dark while you're while you're doing this. I'm just trying to think of how early in the morning you'd actually have to show up to do this. ah Probably like 6 Who's wanting to go to it ah more it's a morning wedding? That's an interesting thought. but I mean, that that sounds like you start the night before and like run it up until 6 a.m. and then go back to the room and you're done. Yeah. um Well, and by the way, so this ah the package that you can get there...
00:40:54
Speaker
And ah by the way, I'm trying to find how much this costs as we're talking about this, but it includes a dedicated, efficient ah light lights, ah photography and transportation to and from the Disneyland Resort Hotel. So there you go. but I wonder what that transportation looks like because. and A van? i don't know. Okay, but so so here's the thing is that going from the Disneyland Hotel, you're going through downtown Disney, then you're having to go into Disneyland, which I'm assuming like it's one of the...
Disneyland Experiences and Attractions Update
00:41:26
Speaker
Like one of the small um automobiles that they have on Main Street is what I'm guessing. ah that'd be cool. Because, yeah, like you're not you're not driving like a full-sized van through.
00:41:37
Speaker
Or, well, I guess maybe. Yeah, I guess you could. but Yeah, you could. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's interesting, though, they specify the transportation because it's like it's really it is all technically in walking distance, but it's still quite a lot like that. I wouldn't want to walk that far my wedding day. no, no, Yeah, not just like that.
00:41:57
Speaker
Definitely not. Yeah. Does that mean you have to stay at the disney the Disneyland Hotel then? I mean, do you have to do that? I mean, I'm guessing that's part of the package. Sounds like. Yeah. Okay. Okay. i I did try to look up the cost of this. It is not listed on the Fairytale Weddings website, which is, you know, disappointing. and I mean, I want to know. like yeah want do you think Do you think it would be – feel like it would be on par with getting married in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. You think i don't think that the price would be much different because they're just different locations within the park, right?
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's true. That's true. And I'll be honest, you know, given the choice between, like, if if I was to, you know, renew my vows and if it was like...
00:42:41
Speaker
Am I going to do it in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle or the Haunted Mansion? I would take the Haunted Mansion 100%. Like, and it doesn't even have to be, like I said, i would be one of those people not doing a themed thing. I would just be like, yeah, this is cool. You know, we're in front of the Haunted Mansion doing this. like Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Oh, so, all right. I did find a price, actually. So, ah weddings at Disneyland Resort start at $15,000.
00:43:03
Speaker
And are held to an event minimum. So that that's the $15,000. You just have to spend at least that. So like if you do food and beverage, a brunch is $165 a person. And so that can go towards the $15,000. So, you know, that's, you're right. It's not that terrible. you know That's not bad, honestly. Like I, and I would get up at 6am for that.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah. In front of the, I mean, listen, getting married in front of the hot dimension. For like either that' be getting up at like 3 a.m. though because you're like three hours behind you. I need ah i need like ah ah like some time to acclimate to the ah to the the time change first, right? Yeah. so Yeah. yeah i would I would not recommend like flying in from, you know, the East Coast and doing this the same day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I i yeah i would not.
00:43:49
Speaker
i Yeah. i don't It doesn't say how much the venue fee is, but it just says that you have to it's a $15,000 minimum. So, ah yeah. but I don't know. it's Oh, wait. Actually, i take that back. So, i did I did find more now. It takes time to find these things. twenty five It starts at $25,000 for the Haunted Mansion.
00:44:07
Speaker
Oh, this okay. Yeah. The $15,000 minimum, but that's only for a couple places. So, yeah. All right. Still, I $25,000 is still not... lot, but it's, you know... Totally outrageous. I mean, when you're when you're talking like...
00:44:23
Speaker
like wedding stuff. Like I've, I know people have spent a lot more on their weddings than that. Well, so the, to your question earlier, the sleeping, doing it in a front of sleeping beauty, that starts at a hundred thousand. So, uh, yeah. Okay.
00:44:37
Speaker
okay All right, fine. I'm, I'm not going to say anything then, you know, if they, they don't want to charge me the same amount for, uh, I mean, okay. know, Well, if you were going to get married anywhere at Disneyland, are you doing Haunted Mansion? Is that your yeah is that your choice? like No, totally.
00:44:53
Speaker
i I know my wife would be 100% on board with that, too. Yeah. like I think my wife would, too, actually. I think she'd be all about doing it in front of the – I mean, we – I talked about this before. When Great Movie Ride was still open, you could do a wedding reception in the Great great Movie Ride. Like, you – they actually had a thing where you could rent – like, it was literally the chairs and tables were in the ride path. Yeah. like yeah I remember seeing that where they were, like – they were down in the in the set area. And I was like, how cool would that be? Like, I would do that in a heartbeat if I if it wasn't absurdly expensive, you know, which it probably was. But of course, they don't they don't do that anymore for that one because it's not around anymore. I'm sure i think there's some others that you can do it inside the ride. But I don't I'm not thinking of any off the top of my head here. But ah I don't know I just think that would be kind of neat to do it inside the ride like that. It's just kind of a cool idea.
00:45:45
Speaker
I think for this one, they should give you, like, you do your photos and then you can walk up into Haunted Mansion and you get one ride. that that That should be part of the package. Yeah, there should be a ride included in that. Like, there's... How much would that stink to do it and not, you know, get to take a ride?
00:46:04
Speaker
Or, like, also, like, getting your photos, like, in the stretching room and stuff. Like... Oh, yeah. Like, you should be able to take photos in there for sure. Yeah. Because, yeah, it looks like it's just, like, in front of it, but it's, like, you should get, like, yeah, like, photos through the attraction would be cool. Yeah.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just, i' as we're talking here, I'm just looking at some of the other places, and I i have to say a nighttime wedding in ah in Pandora was, Even though I'm not an Avatar fan, would be really cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that would that would be a great photo opportunity place. I mean, it's gorgeous at night. Like, even it if you don't like those movies, it's a beautiful place at night. I mean, gosh, that would be some really cool. Yeah, see, I'm not i'm not seeing any venues where you can do rides anymore.
00:46:47
Speaker
That's unfortunate. You do it in the train station. That's kind of close, but not really. I want to i want to be eating at a ride path, Trevor. I want to i want to like imagine somebody's riding by me. um But anyway, okay. I mean, I think the closest thing is you can go and get the Blue Bayou.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Disappointing. No, but this is cool. I like this. I don't know if I $25,000 like it, you know.
00:47:15
Speaker
Well, let's end on this note, Trevor. So ah Frozen Ever After has been closed for a bit now. ah And some of the Imagineers now are talking about how this, is well, it's reopening soon.
00:47:27
Speaker
It's supposed to be opening reopening this week, in fact. But um not only, you know, previously they just kind of talked about how they're and, you know, apologies for my crassness of saying this, but they're replacing the heads of the animatronics, which they actually i thought they were going to replace the whole thing. Trevor, they're not. They're just replacing the heads.
00:47:46
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, they they don't need to replace the whole animatronic. No, the rest them were fine. It was just the faces that were like yeah flashlights. Flashlights. Yeah. But it's not the only thing they're doing. They're also doing, you know, so it's new animatronic heads with silicone skin, a updated show control system, which, you know, can help with like breakdowns and stuff like that. You know, one of the problems that like ah Test Track always had was that, It had a super old ah control system, and that caused a lot ah lot of ah stoppages. Not breakdowns, just, you know, like the system would get all screwed up and stuff. But, you know, that's always good. And then ah better show lighting. And then they're just going to do some, like, touch-ups and stuff like that. So it's not just the the the animatronics. But ah there's a quote here from from one of the Imagineers saying... ah
00:48:32
Speaker
that ah That they have ah a more lifelike articulated head that has silicone skin. ah And so they had to modify the neck of the existing figures to coordinate with the new heads. And then they and this is where this quote starts. Then we literally had to modify the figures next to accept the change in the heads. And that took a few days. Yeah.
00:48:51
Speaker
but we a lot of pre-planning with technology and software to make sure we were ready for it. So, I mean, it's actually pretty impressive how quickly they they were are able to accomplish this because it has not been closed for that long.
00:49:05
Speaker
I mean, it's was closed January 26th and going to reopen on the 12th. Considering they're... you know, they're modifying robots, you know, that's pretty quick turnover. Yeah. I guess it's funny how, you know, not, you know, you don't think about this stuff in terms of like,
00:49:22
Speaker
You know, replacing the head on a robot feels like, or you know, it's always pretty ah portrayed in movies as, like, a very modular thing. Like, you know you just pop it off put the new one on kind of thing. But, yeah, it makes sense that, you know, it does take a little bit more work to, you know, get these things. Because I'm sure that there's, like, how it connects into...
00:49:43
Speaker
the rest of it needs to make sense so you don't have like, you know, the the whole body doing movement and the face is like, you know, out of sync or whatever, right? Like it's, yeah, yeah it's it's funny to think about that, you know, it's, we oversimplify it, but yeah, you know, you know, considering how complicated these things are, it is actually very impressive how quickly they're turning this one around.
00:50:06
Speaker
ah Agreed. Agreed. So, yeah, so i we'll have to, i' I'm going to, I'm looking forward to seeing the videos of this when ah when once it reopens ah this week and just to see how, I mean, listen, if it's anything like the the the Frozen rides they've done recently with the animatronics they've done recently, it's going to look fantastic because, I mean, that one that they they built, I mean, it looks incredible. I'm expecting what they did in Hong Kong because that's what they said. That's what I'm expecting. Yeah. Yeah, it should look like Hong Kong after it's And the Hong Kong ones are incredibly impressive. mean, they look fantastic. I mean, they're're they're excellent. So, yeah, i expect that too, Trevor. So...
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah, the the only other thing, and I didn't put this on the rundown, Trevor. did you Did you watch the Muppets thing? Did you get a chance to do that? I've not had a chance to yet. don't want it to wait until I wasn't having a fever. I feel like it was a good six thing, though. You know, you're just laying bed, like, know. Yeah, but watching shows when you have a fever, they don't always hit right. That's fair. And I didn't want it to be, like, me questioning if I was having a fever dream or if I was watching the show.
00:51:10
Speaker
But that's – I mean, to be fair, watching to watching ah Muppets, especially in their old school form, could feel like a fever dream. Yeah, exactly. So I wanted to actually be like – I wanted to be well enough to enjoy it. So, no, I haven't watched yet. I've been hearing lots about it. I've been hearing that it was very well received, and I'm looking forward to to watching it when I get a chance here. so Based on the the bubble of our Discord, it seemed to be extremely well received. i Not just in the Discord. i've I've been seeing lots on Facebook, Reddit, like YouTube. People have been generally praising it. So... I feel like they nailed it. I watched it. So the nice thing about it, Trevor, is it's not a nice thing, but because this is actually the only thing I didn't like about it was that it was short. It was like really short. In fact, I was watching it and I was like, they said, oh, it's time for our last our last thing. And I'm like, wait, what?
00:52:08
Speaker
I was like, it's like just started, like you know, but given it was like, I don't know if it was 20, 22 minutes long, like, ah you know, like a regular TV episode or I don't remember actually how long it was, but it was it was quick.
00:52:20
Speaker
I mean, the funny thing is, is that those old episodes were only like 22 minutes long. It's just you had commercial breaks. That's exactly right. and But it's it's just funny because like in the in the format of Disney+, plus there you can do whatever you want. right like you don't You don't have to be held to that half-hour block, but they still kind of seemingly kept themselves to it.
00:52:42
Speaker
to it And you know listen, i it actually was 33 minutes long, so I just looked it up really quick. It's 33 minutes. But it was great, Trevor. i It was... old school Muppet show. Like it was exactly what you kind of hoped it would be. hit all the right beats.
00:52:58
Speaker
It did. hit all the right beats. it It had that, that like zany ridiculousness of the Muppets, you know, all like the behind the, you know, the behind stage shenanigans. Yeah. We talked about the, yeah, like how everything's kind of like, there's like the main show and then the, the,
00:53:14
Speaker
talking in the wings and all that kind of stuff. So it was like, there's a little low key, you know, little low key adults, uh, jokes in there. Seth Rogen was great. Uh, you know, and I think, I think Seth Rogen actually was the right person to produce this. Cause I, it seems like he's genuinely a fan of the Muppets and,
00:53:31
Speaker
ah You know, if this is like a test run for like a, like a, they're calling it like a backdoor pilot, you know, to see if it does well to reboot it. I really think they should bring it back because I, they did it an amazing job with it.
00:53:43
Speaker
It was super funny. It was, I mean, it hit everything you wanted it to hit. It had all the, listen, there's a whole, there's a whole Pepe the Prawn thing, which he's my favorite. So I, I just said he was great in it. um And, and I also said this in the discord too. One of my big, big,
00:53:58
Speaker
you know, things with the Muppets lately has been Kermit and good Kermit has not sounded. i said, I've been saying that it sounded like Kermit, but if Kermit had a cold, if so if Kermit sounded like you right now, Trevor, that's what it sounded like for the past, you know ever since I got rid of the previous, the the previous ah Kermit. But this time, this episode, you know, this new show, he sounded pretty good. He sounded pretty close to what he used to be.
00:54:25
Speaker
Although it's funny because I saw the internet was complaining about it, which I it was like, where y'all been? You know, like this has been he's been the Kermit now for a while. And, ah you know, it's it's actually getting better, not worse. So, ah you know, let's let's let's not complain about this. But.
00:54:41
Speaker
it's It's all about perception, too. You know, people don't people don't realize that, you know, like you said, you know, we've we've seen a lot of the additional stuff with Kermit. Anybody coming in just watching The Muppet Show, you know, goes, hey, that doesn't sound right. It's like, yeah, but, you know, yeah you're a little late on this one. but Yeah. yeah I thought he sounded much better. He sounded much closer to to original Kermit. Not even like the last Kermit, to um to Jim Henson Kermit. like He sounded more closely to that. and i It was great. i did Honestly, it was classic Muppets. It was fun. i just I really liked it, and I think it was really well done. and said I don't know much about, what is his name, Sabrina Carpenter. I don't really know any of her stuff, but she was good in it too. I mean, it was it was just good overall. I would definitely recommend it checking it out if you haven't done so already.
00:55:34
Speaker
ah it's It's very good. So I'm i'm hoping it means more Muppet show, especially with, you know, the ride and everything. Hopefully this is a new renaissance for the of the Muppets. You said if it was if it was this well received, hopefully that, yeah, that means that there's a proper series in the works after that. but yes you know There was also a subtle reference to Muppet Vision 3D in there too. so Which you know you really got to pay attention to. But it was it was there. It was there.
00:56:01
Speaker
ah But yeah, like let's let's hope this is this is just the beginning. I don't know about you. I don't know. Maybe it's just nostalgia. But whenever they do that the opening, you know when they they start the music and they just do the the whole the whole song, and like it just hits a ah certain note for me. you know it just like it It hits me in a certain spot where it's just like, oh man.
00:56:20
Speaker
This makes me happy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean. I have memories of like being at like my grandparents' house watching it and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. It takes you back. It does. It does.
00:56:35
Speaker
all right. Anything else ah you want to talk about? sure I'm going to wrap the show up today to to because it's a same Trevor's voice here. sure Yeah, if you could, i I'm trying here, guys. I really am. but Trevor, you made it all the way through. ah you know So applause for that. I wish I had an applause sound. I don't. I just have i just have a right and wrong buzzer. and We'll just do a right sound for you. Yay, I made it. I don't have applause. yeah you did You did a good job. Congratulations. All right. anyway, so I'll do this wrap up. But, ah you know, if you want to reach out to us, you can contact us at welcomehomepodcasts at gmail.com. Our new website, welcomehomepodcasts.co, not C-O-M-C-O, welcomehomepodcasts.co. Check that out, please. I would love to hear your feedback on it. And, you know, just check that, that out. It's good for us to, to go to that website and and go. And also the store, please go to the store.
00:57:29
Speaker
um But listen, if you have questions, if you have things you want to talk to us about ah anything, just send us an email. You know, we, we like getting emails, so send them to us and we'll answer your questions. We'll, you know, talk back and forth. Sometimes I don't always respond right away, but you know, or Trevor doesn't respond all right away, but,
00:57:45
Speaker
You know, just reach out to us. We we love hearing. I believe it on the sickness right now. yeah yeah we We usually try to get on it when we can. Yeah. No, just just trust me. I'm 99.9% right about everything. So um ah that's that's that's an inside joke for the ah for for the discord. Anyway, that one alone. Yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
that's That's for the Discord. Anyway, ah so check us out on Facebook, Welcome Home Podcast. YouTube, Welcome Podcast. Instagram, Welcome Home Picks. Store, I mentioned brand new store, store.welcomehomepodcast.co. Go check that out. ah Get some stuff. And again, let us know if there's something you want. You can also support us by going to Patreon and ah and you know joining the Patreon. you don't There are free tiers. Now, the free tier is, you don't get a lot with the free tier, but you can join us just to follow us.
00:58:34
Speaker
there and uh you know you can get in for as little as five bucks and you do get uh you know some free gifts too when you subscribe to us uh that have the special logo on them of the patreon so go check that out uh huge thing uh you know for us really important if you do do support the show please go review us on itunes or any other service that you can review us and rate us give us five stars uh you know tell us how much you love us or how much you hate us regardless give us five stars and talk about how great we are and how awesome we are or how terrible we are. I don't care. Either way, as long as five stars, just do it.
00:59:09
Speaker
ah And then, you know of course, the other thing you could do is subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release new episodes. You can find our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app that's out there. You can find us. So go, you know, search for us and look for DVC and Disney. you can even just go on our new website too and and listen to us and find all the places that you can subscribe to us.
00:59:32
Speaker
A huge thank you to DVC Rental Store for sponsoring this episode and Keyholder Vacations for being ah great partners over the years and continuing to be our partners. We love them. So please check them out for all your DVC needs. ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk.
00:59:48
Speaker
We hope to see you all real soon.