Weekend 558.0

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Screen capture is from Johnny Appleseed in Melody Time (1948) produced by Walt Disney.

Related
Beyond the Lines: Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (Imaginative Conservative)

Ansem Report Podcast

The hosts have guests sit on the hot seat and answer thirteen KH related questions. Here’s my pass at answering those questions. Questions 12 and 13 aren’t really applicable so I have a couple of substitutes.

(Q1) Favorite KH game?
(A1) Birth By Sleep
(Q2) Favorite non-KH game?
(A2) 2400 AD
(Q3) Favorite KH character?
(A3) Aqua
(Q4) Favorite Disney movie¹?
(A4) Meet the Robinsons
(Q5) Favorite KH villain?
(A5) Luxord
(Q6) Favorite Keyblade?
(A7) Starlight
(Q7) What world do you want to see in KH4?
(A8) Silly Symphonies: Music Land, Lullaby Land, and/or King Neptune²
(Q8) Favorite KH song?
(A8) Heroes and Heroines: Characters’ Medley by Yoko Shimomura
(Q9) What does the KH community mean to you?
(A9) Incredible fan art
(Q10) Favorite song in Melody of Memory?
(A10) I didn’t play this title!
(Q11) Best Nort?
(A11) Master Xehanort
(Q12) What are your goals next year for content creation?
(A12) See Below
(Q13) Shamelessly plug your stuff
(A13) See Below

My alternatives for Q12 and Q13:

(Q12_A) Favorite Mini-Game?
(A12_A) Rumble Racing (Birth By Sleep)
(Q13_A) Favorite World?
(A13_A) Neverland, La Cité des Cloches, and Prankster’s Paradise

¹Unclear whether or not they mean full length feature animation and/or live action film. If it’s live action, it’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Love Bug, The Black Hole, Tron, The Rocketeer, and Tron: Legacy

²This could rival Cuphead stylistically.

Disney Theme Parks

There is the woke and grooming element of the Walt Disney Company but this post is more about the decline of the theme parks. My own personal boycott of the Walt Disney Company remains in effect¹ too.

Before the pandemic and the Biden Price Hike (via inflation) the parks were on the decline from a quality/value versus price perspective. I can speak with authority on this topic because prior to the pandemic I was at WDW every other year and recorded a precipitous drop in the quality of the parks. The magic (quality) was always a differentiator for Disney but how many articles have been published the last two years with a headline about the magic being gone? They have ruthlessly cut the entertainment and entertainers and new offerings are done cheaply and without any substantial storytelling/theming. When we were last there in September 2019 the transportation system was pathetic (dirty monorails, fewer buses, etc.). Disney has also retired the very popular Magical Express. It feels like the cost cutting and price increases have only accelerated as the company recovers from the pandemic.

Day Planning
On one hand their ads talk about removing the stress and complexity of planning but the experience and reality are completely different. YOU will spend a considerable amount of your “vacation” engaged in queue management which requires your face to be stitched to a screen. It’s also more expensive than the older more democratized version of FASTPASS which has been superseded by pay-to-play schemes. Disney has an experience for every income level but the model has been supercharged with a labyrinth of options designed to vacuum every penny from your wallet. Unfortunately they have achieved this sorcery without materially boosting the experience. They also seem to be targeting guests with much, much, much higher incomes. The irony is the super “woke” and affluent crowd they covet has traditionally considered the product uncultured and boorish.

Hide the Decline
After Jack Welch (Neutron Jack) retired from GE the new CEO Jeffrey Immelt cozied up to the Obama Administration. I think Immelt did this, in part, so he wouldn’t have the pressure of outperforming Neutron Jack. This is similar to Bob Chapek hiding the decline at the Walt Disney Company behind social justice causes. Does the “woke” get worse now that inflation is going to squeeze theme park attendance or are there enough childless blue haired weirdos to fill the parks? How do they retcon attractions that have typically celebrated the American spirit without alienating more than half the country? The SJWs who have infiltrated the ranks of management at Disney have convinced the C-suite execs that twitter is represents majority opinion. This is a fever that needs to break to stop guests from running for the exit turnstiles.

¹Excludes Kingdom Hearts since this is more Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura than Disney.

Related
Guess Which Theme Parks Are Conspicuously Missing From USA Today’s Top 10 List? (PJ Media)
Here’s How Americans Are Downgrading Their Summer Vacations Due To Inflation (Forbes)
Nolte: Pro-Grooming Disney’s Favorability Rating Plummets 53 Points In One Year (Breitbart)
Disney World Now Charges for Parking at Hotels, Decreasing Their Value (Frommer’s)

Disney Hires Former Clinton Hack

Disney (NYSE: GROMR) has hired former Clinton (and Obama) propagandist Kristina Schake as executive vice president of global communications.

Disney CEOs have a long history of being cozy with the Clintons. Here’s Michael Eisner waxing poetically about Hillary in the Hollywood Reporter.

Related
The Real Disney Madness: Turns out the Woketeers aren’t very business-savvy. (The American Spectator)

“The queer agenda Rufo exposed made top Disney executives seem more like child abusers. In the videos, executive producer Latoya Raveneau (The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder) says, ‘Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda.'”

It looks like SJWs have set their sights on Kingdom Hearts. There isn’t a slice of pop culture they haven’t appropriated for their cause (sports, entertainment, and education). It’s just a matter of time before this wonderful franchise is upended by a retcon (or some similar device) like Star Wars (Disney), Ghostbusters (Sony), and Lord of the Rings (Amazon).

Kingdom Hearts Referenced in ‘The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder’ on Disney+; Sora’s Dive to the Heart & Destiny Islands (Noisy Pixel)

Critics Of The New York Times’ Ben Rhodes Profile Miss The Point (The Heritage Foundation)

The relationship between the media and the democratic party is incestuous (as evidenced by Ben Rhodes and Psaki).

Panetta is also mentioned in this article and he’s one of the experts who dismissed the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop. The swamp is deep and includes groomers and deviants of all sorts working for the same cause.

GOP demands ‘experts’ who dismissed Hunter Biden laptop fess up — or face subpoenas (NY Post)

Michael Sussmann is a Clinton hack caught lying to the FBI.

Boycott Woke Disney

“I don’t believe [the Communist Party] is a political party. I believe it is an un-American thing…And I feel that they really ought to be smoked out and shown up for what they are, so that all of the good, free causes in this country, all the liberalisms that really are American, can operate freely without the taint of Communism.” — Walt Disney

(1) The Regressive Corruption of Disney is So Much Worse Than We Thought (Townhall)

(2) Defund this filthy company and address your addiction (YoungRippa59)

(3) ‘Disgusting’: World Cup Player Shares Proof He’s Deleting Disney+ Over Company’s ‘Not-At-All-Secret’ Gay Agenda (Daily Wire)

Weekend 521.3

“It’s been remarked many times that Walt was Mickey, Mickey was Walt—and nowhere is that more evident than in the iconic scenes of Mickey eagerly improvising an airplane and taking to the skies; scaling a beanstalk and challenging a giant; donning a Sorcerer’s hat and “conducting” the courses of the stars and planets. That joyous, wholehearted celebration of life was at the core of Walt’s spirit—and the same spirit was, and still is, embodied in his most personal creation: Mickey Mouse. As long as Mickey lives, that carefree spirit will continue to venture forward, with boundless enthusiasm and great good humor, toward distant horizons we cannot even yet imagine.”

Taschen was highlighted in “The Art of _______________________” in Weekend 461.0. They publish beautiful books and the recently released Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History is no exception. It’s a must for any Walt Disney / Mickey Mouse fan.

Second Star to the Right

I haven’t beaten the Mysterious Figure in BBS on the PSP 3000. I still have my PSP but the UMD often fails. My favorite boss in this list is the Clocktower Phantom from KH1. The setting for this boss is Big Ben in London and it reminds me of Mickey’s PhilharMagic and Peter Pan’s Flight in WDW.

(1) 10 Hardest Kingdom Hearts Bosses, Ranked (CBR.com)

(2) Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Limited Edition Pack (PSP-3000 Bundle) (Playasia)