TSA Agents Confiscated Boy's Disney Souvenirs

Er.... I'm just going to link to this story and let you decide for yourself.

But on the way back to North Carolina two TSA agents at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport took his toys, among them, a Pirates of the Caribbean sword, a light saber and a wooden gun.

So we then read this part of the report:

The TSA said the items were prohibited.

"Passengers who bring a prohibited item such as a replica weapon to the checkpoint have a number of options, including putting the item in their checked baggage, returning it to their vehicle or mailing it to themselves," a TSA statement read. "There are mail stations at each of the checkpoints at Fort Lauderdale."

Sorry, but a "light saber" is a replica of what real weapon?

Zz.

Blue Sky Cellar Version 1.0

This video is a look at Disney Imagineering's Blue Sky Cellar for the reimagineering of Disney's California Adventure.



There are definitely plenty of things to look forward to at DCA after all of this is done.

Zz.

Tim Burton's Next Movie Will Be "Dark Shadows"

Tim Burton confirmed at Comic-Con this week that his next movie after "Alice" will be "Dark Shadows", with Johnny Depp starring at the vampire Barnabas Collins.

Apparently, we'll find out when Burton and Depp team up for the big-screen adaptation of "Dark Shadows," the Gothic soap opera about vampires, ghosts, and monsters that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Burton confirmed this last Thursday when he presented footage from "Alice in Wonderland" to a capacity crowd at Comic-Con's cavernous Hall H. He said "Dark Shadows" would be his next project, "if I ever finish this one here."

Disney had also release a trailer for "Alice in Wonderland". Whoa! Johnny Depp's "Mad Hatter" looks rather scary!



Zz.

Random WDW Picture

The China Pavilion at World Showcase, Epcot.



Zz.

Disney Plans New Marketing for Richard Petty Driving Experience

Show of hands - how many reading this have the Richard Petty Driving Experience?

Me neither! :)

That doesn't say much since I'm not a "car guy", and don't watch car racing. So I have little to no desire to do this. But apparently, a lot of people do. So Disney is trying to market the Richard Petty Driving Experience located on its property just in front of the TTC into a new direction.

"We were in the board meeting, and he was sitting there with his dark glasses on, and that big trademark hat with the feathers on it, and I told him that I thought it was time that we de-emphasize the biggest asset we have — which is him — in favor of something else."

That "something else" was Walt Disney World, the busiest of the more than 20 locations where the Driving Experience operates its race cars. Bartelli thought that not enough was being made of the fact that the Orlando location was on Disney property — at the Walt Disney World Speedway.

Still, I'm hoping someone in my party one day will want to do this, so that I will have an excuse to be at the WDW Speedway to watch the whole thing, just for the experience of being there.

Zz.

Tron Legacy - Trailer

Holy Cow!!!!

This is the teaser trailer of Tron Legacy shown at Comic-Con. All I can say is "Holy CRAP!!!!!" I want to go see it now!

If no one messes this up, this is going to be a good one. And it is in 3D!

Zz.

Epcot 25th Anniversary Memorabilia

Back in Oct. 1st, 2007, we attended Epcot's 25th Anniversary celebration. Out of that day, we collected many memorabilia, and this includes the limited edition Figment plush. The event was made even more memorable by our involvement in the fan-organized Celebration 25 to commemorate Epcot's historic occasion.

I've always wanted to frame many of the memorabilia that I collected - pins, programs, t-shirt, tickets, etc. Finally, after receiving the "final piece" of the puzzle last Christmas (the cast exclusive pin given out to cast members on that day), I've finally gotten my act together and had all of them framed. This is the result.


I included the group picture of our Celebration 25 participants, which also include Epcot's Vice President at that time, Mr. Jim MacPhee.

This frame is now hanging prominently in my home. It reminds me of such pleasant memories that will last a lifetime.

Zz.

"A Christmas Carol" Train

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" train is in Chicago this weekend at the Union Station. We visited the train and the preview yesterday. I must say that Disney must be spending a lot of money to do this kind of promotion. It certainly was impressive enough to make the trip to downtown Chicago on a Saturday morning worthwhile.

The signs for the train were all over Union station.



The train was located on Track 1 of Union Station. There was already a long line waiting to get onto the train. They were loading people a few at a time, for obvious reason so as to not over crowd the train beyond capacity.



In the summer months of July, we had Christmas carolers entertaining the folks while they stand in line.




More pictures as we get close to entering the train. Look at the skin of the train, this thing must attract quite an attention when it is traveling the country.




And we're in! The first thing we see right at the entrance is this giant movie poster.


The first car has all the costumes and the characters head shot. There were also a few Dickens memorabilia in various glass cases throughout the first 2 cars.












The next car has the concept art. They were all displayed on high-def monitors and show various artistic rendition of scenes from the movie. As with the previous car, this one also has several Dickens items on display.










The next car had sculptures of a couple of the characters' heads, and also miniatures of various buildings used in the movie.





Following that, the next car had a display on the stop-motion technique used in the movie. They had the suit that was similarly used in the movie to track the motion of the actors. These were then rendered by a computer and put into the scene in the movie.



The car after that contained many TV monitors showing various rendering of the movie. We didn't stay too long in this one.


The next car was a hoot! Here, get you to morph your face into one of the characters in the movie. You get assigned to one of the computer terminals. It then took a snap shot of your eyes and nose, and morphed it into one of the 4 characters from the movie. You can indicate your e-mail before doing this, and supposedly, these morphed photos will be sent to you. I'm still waiting for mine to be e-mailed.



After that came the last car. It was more of scene in a victorian parlor, with a "fireplace", and a dinner table. The scene "outside" looked like in the middle of winter. The only "inconsistency" here is that turkey is being served. I don't think they served turkey at christmas during the Dickens period, do they?



We got cut-out Christmas ornaments when we left the train. We then walked to the great hall area of Union Station where they built a structure to give a preview of the movie. Surrounding the area were carolers and jugglers, adding to a festive "holiday" feel to the whole experience.







We then went in for the preview. I only took a picture of this before the preview started, since obviously, no kind of audio and video taping is allowed during the movie, which was shown in 3D. It was VISUALLY SPECTACULAR! They only showed two short clips from 2 scenes, but they were enough to give you the idea of how the movie will look.


This is definitely a movie we will see when it is released this November. The next stop after Chicago for the Christmas Carol train will be St. Louis, MO.

Zz.