Marvel at the Avengers

Time to get back at it for another summer.  Every year when summer blockbuster season comes around, I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas.  I just love heading to the theater eating popcorn, and just taking in the magic of blockbuster fun.  As with past posts, my summer reviews will be a bit shorter, and I don’t plan on doing that typical movie review stuff.  I hope to make some connections to improv and then write a summary paragraph with a little rating on a scale of 1-5 stars.  Enjoy my reviews, and I would love to hear if you agree and disagree with my thoughts!

There was no better way to start off this summer then with The Avengers. The build up for this movie has been a long time coming, and I have been exceedingly impressed with what Marvel, now thorough Disney has done in building this franchise.  I actually went to a movie marathon of all the previous films leading up to the midnight premier, and it was really great to see how all of these movies were intertwined and building into one film.  When improvisers perform a harold the ultimate goal is to create a complete piece where the characters intertwine at the end in unexpected ways.  I felt like that is what this movie was, the last beats of a harold, the place where we get to see what happens when all of these characters happening in well-defined separate worlds collide and need to interact.

This film was also hilarious.  You can imagine Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man just making fun of other super heroes and how funny that would be, but that was only part of it.  I found this movie to be very funny through out, even when we get to the action orientated all out war climax scene.  This movie also presented several moments to clap in happiness at the action occurring on screen, this could have been exacerbated by the fact I was with about 100 people who spent fifteen hours in one theater together, and I like to clap!  Either way I feel like I need to go back and watch this film again to catch some of the lines stated after those break out moments.

If there was any lacking issue in this film it was the character development.  You can imagine we didn’t see much of it, because there were only 10 different main characters to deal with.  To me this wasn’t an issue, because in improv land we don’t necessarily focus on the plot heavy development of scenes, but more about pushing the action forward, and if this film had anything it was a crazy build up of momentum constantly pushing forward.  I would also like to confess, I am definitely not a Hulk fan, especially with the two films produced in the build up to The Avengers.  Alas, I think the Hulk got the most character development in this film, and I enjoyed him the most.  Maybe it was because there was a limit on the amount of time he was on camera snarling, but it was also because this is the first time we really saw Bruce Banner able to control “the other guy” on screen, and I think that is a crucial development point to make his character more enjoyable.

Overall, this film was awesome.  For me it lived up to all the hype and the year’s long development.  It seemed like everyone else loved it also, as it made the most money all time for an opening weekend.  Now my secret hope is The Dark Knight Rises can over take that as my most anticipated movie this summer.  The Avengers was fun, fast paced, funny, and action packed, everything you could want in a super, super hero movie.  Make sure you wait until after the credits for the second secret scene, it was amazing, and something I feel like had to come out of improvisation!  I also can’t wait to see the future of this franchise, I want more single hero films developed and then Avengers 2. Disney the fall is in your court not to mess this up!  (4 ½ out of 5 stars!)

Disney Leap Day

Each year Disney puts on special events and promotions to draw people into their parks.  Disney has certainly knocked it out of the park the past couples years with the huge Happiest Celebration on Earth campaign for Disneyland’s 50^th Anniversary, their Magical Gatherings campaign, and recently the create your memories campaign.

This year is no different as Disney is taking advantage of the leap year in promoting One Extra Day.  For the first time ever both Disneyland Park in Anaheim and Magic Kingdom Park in Orlando will be open for 24 straight hours.  I love Disney’s campaigns; they are always innovative and exciting.  Which this one definitely is!  I know several Disney aficionados making the trip to a Disney Parker today to be apart of the action.  Everyone should take some time to enjoy their Leap Day!

Not Contemporary

Photo of the construction of the Contemporary from the Disney Blog.

When I was a kid my favorite rides at amusement parks were skyrides and monorails.  I do not know what I was so obsessed with things there were basically glorified trains.  I think it was the mystique of a bright fancy new way to move people around.  In turn my favorite hotel at Disney was the Contemporary.  The hotel featured a large central concourse where the monorail whisked right through the center.  It just felt so futuristic and unrealistic to have a monorail go right through a building.

This past week the Disney blog released a bunch of pictures of the Contemporary during construction.  The Contemporary was one of two hotels, the Polynesian was the other, that opened with the parkin 1971.  These hotels were apart of five hotels that were scheduled for the first phase of construction.  Other resorts, were to be inspired by Asian, Venetian and Persian themes, but were never built, leaving only four properties on the coveted Seven Seas Lagoon outside of Magic Kingdom park.

The Contemporary was built in a really unique way.  The middle elevator shaft was created, then a skeleton of steel beams were erected around them.  Then hotel rooms were built fully completed and outfitted off site at the rate of 40 per day, afterwards the hotel rooms were transported to the resort and lifted into place.  Learning this process makes me love the resort even more. 

The Contemporary has a monorail go through it, it looks so futuristic, and it was built in a cool way.  What more can you ask for?  Nothing about this place is Contemporary, and that is why I love it.  It should be our goal to take everything we do to the next level.  Doing the extra work to make our ideas and projects more futuristic and exciting, make the more successful, so think about how to make them not contemporary!

Close up photo of the construction of the Contemporary from the Disney Blog.

How to Commemorate

Disney certainly knows how to throw a celebration, and they do that on a regular basis to commemorate milestones in the park’s history.  As an organization I think it is important to celebrate the past, and recognize the hard work of all the individuals that put time into making the place a success.  Disney works hard to make these celebrations a reality.  This week Disney is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World in Florida, and on October 1st, the actual opening day, Disney gave the above map to every guest who entered the park.  The handout featured an old school map of the park, listings of the special events happening that day, and a historic quote by Walt.  You can download the full version here from the Disney Blog website.

While I love this year’s anniversary celebration in a more demure way, Disney does know how to throw a party on special year celebrations.  During the 25th anniversary of Disney World imagineers turned Cinderella’s Castle in the middle of the park into a cake.  On the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in California, Disney celebrated with “the Happiest Homecoming on Earth,” and literally held magical events and special ride openings at the Disney Parks across the world.  When Disney goes into a commemorative celebration is usually lasts a whole year.  During the 25th anniversary the celebration lasted 15 months, and for the Disneyland 50th anniversary the celebration lasted 18 months.

In our organizations we need to find ways to celebrate and commemorate the important events in the history of our companies.  These symbols and celebrations are what bond the stakeholders together and create the institutional culture and story which help people to further buy into the mission.  While we might not all be able to turn a castle into a pink and purple birthday cake, there are always ways to improve the experiences we all have within our organizations.

Magic Kingdom Construction

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World the Disney blog posted this rare video of the construction of the Magic Kingdom.  One of my favorite things about the park is the vision which led to a #BoldChoice to buy 30,080-acre in the swamps of central Florida.  When the true reason behind the acquisition was leaked, most people thought Walt was making a terrible decision buying a huge parcel of land in what was such a remote area?  Most people were also confused as to why Walt would create another park when he already had Disneyland in California, but Walt proved them all wrong and provided the leadership to initiate the construction of the world’s ultimate vacation destination.  Walt said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”  This push to continually try new things and get better is one of the best qualities of the Disney corporation.  The Disney parks are never complete and it all started with this original construction. I love looking at this film and just thinking about all the magic that would be created at Walt Disney World!

Happy Birthday Walt Disney World

Today Walt Disney World celebrated its 40th Anniversary!  On this day in 1971 the Magic Kingdom park opened with just the Contemporary and Polynesian resort hotels.  This was the start of Walt’s dream to build a brand new world of amusement parks in central Florida.  The vision was to create a bigger and better destination resort then what could be accomplished in Southern California.  To celebrate this occasion, I plan to make the next week Disney week on my blog.  I will post some thoughts on upcoming Disney magic, reflections on things I love about Disney, discussion on Disney’s creativity as a company, and a reflection on the past.  As Walt said, “it’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” and that is something that started happening when this park opened in Orlando!

Can You Feel the Love Tonight…Again?

The Lion King 3D Movie Poster

3D films really took a hit this summer, while highly regarded as the next generation of movie theater technology; the novelty seemed to wear off this summer.  Most people going to the theater were choosing to watch films in traditional 2D, and skip the extra fees of an already expensive trip to the movies.  In an interesting move Disney choose to take one of its most popular animated classics, The Lion King, and release it for a limited time in the new 3D format.  Disney did not need to wait to be king, as the film took the top spot in the box office this weekend.

The Lion Kind 3D racked up over 29.3 million dollars this weekend putting it into the top five of September releases.  Several Hollywood studios have a large number of great films just sitting in their archives.  All films make the most money in their original run, but there seems to be a market for a second release in the 3D format.  One thing I don’t want is a rerelease of every great film of the past decade, but we do have a place for these films.  Disney selected The Lion King, one of those films that really captured a generation.  Everyone alive today can remember going to see that film when it was first released, The Lion King really transcended age groups.  While Disney was really cranking out the hits in its animated resurgence of the early 1990’s, The Lion King certainly topped that list.

One of the greatest things about this rerelease was the ability for parents to share this awesome film with their children.  I saw numerous tweets and heard several stories highlighting how magical it was to share this film with their kids.  I work on a college campus, and also heard a large number of college students commenting on how they needed to go see this film this weekend.  There was this strong desire to take an animated classic, and see it again in an updated format.

Bravo Disney for making an excellent #BoldChoice is bringing The Lion King back to the big screen in a whole new way.  While I don’t want to see every Disney film trolled out through this new format, I do think there are a few other animated classics that should make a swing through the movie theaters.  Beauty and the Beast was always my favorite childhood film, and I would love to see Be Our Guest in all of its 3D grandeur.  While the nostalgia train is really running rampant these days, I think we need to be careful on how far we dig back into the past and roll it out in the present.  This rerelease just hit the heartstrings of what we wanted, nothing too much, but a way to relive the past. With this resurgence of bringing back the past, my rules are do not destroy the original world that was created, ahem Charlie’s Angels, or over saturate the market, AKA the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire  issue.  Awesome idea Disney, now let’s not kill it!

Aunty’s Beach House

As we all know I love Disney.  The thing I love the most about them is how they take all of their details to the next level.  It’s not just creating a place for children to go and be taken care of while the parents are doing other things, it’s a private beach house where they learn new things and have their own activities.  At the new Disney Vacation Club Resort in Hawaii called Aulani, this vision becomes a reality.  Most other resorts would have a play room, a day care center, or a kids club, but not Disney it’s a whole themed area.  This is the thing that continually amazes me about Disney, the way they pay attention to the finer details, and how everything has a story and is taken to the next level!

The Art of Disney Social Media

I am a Disney freak, that is not a new announcement, and I also love marketing and social media, again not a surprise.  A friend recently sent me this article about the Disney marketing strategy for social media.  I believe that Disney is a company that works hard on fostering a creative environment, and pushing their employees to take ideas to the next level.  You never get just a cake; you have a three story cake shaped like a castle.  It is those extra finishing touches that put Disney ahead of the rest, and it looks like they are keeping that philosophy going as they move into the new frontier of social media.

In creating a philosophy or brand it is important to create stories for people to believe in, and to make it apart of their everyday lived experience.  Disney is particularly skilled in that area, and it is definitely happening in the social media department.  The department is nicknamed “Disney Living,” which embodies their social media philosophy.  They are not about selling products or trying to get people to buy things, and that is where I think most people go wrong with social media.  The rest of their marketing department takes care of product launches and other product marketing, Disney Living’s job is to develop a culture of following and learning more about the brands people already love, which surprise leads to higher sales!  Their posts are more informational and “behind the scenes” projects.  This allows the strong Disney fan to develop a further affinity for the brand by learning more about it, while also bringing in more casual viewers to be drawn in to a new side they might not have been aware of before. Case in point this YouTube video released by Disney Living which shows how their large Lego creatures are created.

Another important point this article looks at is the proliferation of online books.  Obviously this is the new frontier of reading and digital media.  It is interesting to learn the Disney strategy in moving forward with this area.  Even more interesting to learn how they are working on digital comic books, since the company recently purchased the rights to the Marvel Comics’ catalogue!

One of my life philosophies is to give, and give generously; this is one of the hallmarks of building communities.  Disney is definitely doing this with their social media, as @DisneyParks is one of my favorite things I follow on Twitter.  With social media, we want to build groups of people, and create stronger emotional ties to the organizations we are promoting.  People do not get on Twitter for ads and people trying to sell things.  They get on Twitter to learn more about their favorite brands, and to develop stronger bonds with people they care about.  When an organization’s social media feels like a person who is sharing a glimpse into their world, that is when we pay attention!

New Fantasyland Renderings

My love of Disney, and their #BoldChoices and continual change was highlighted in my blog about the New Fantasyland back in January.  Fantasyland hasn’t gotten an upgrade in years, and Disney is working to double the size of the land in the Magic Kingdom park in Florida.  One of my favorite portions of this part of the park is how they are building another castle in the park, the Beast’s castle from Beauty and the Beast.  I think it is amazing the imagineers could put another castle into the park and not let it take away from Cinderella’s Castle, and not let each be seen in the park.  If your interested in how that happens check out this Disney Blog on Forced Perspective!

Anyway, take a look at these new renderings of some of the new attractions in coming to the New Fantasyland!  New attractions start with fresh renderings, and I love these first looks at some of these new attractions, thanks to the Disney Blog!

Be Our Guest, a new restaurant in the New Beast's Castle.

 

Enchanted Tales with Belle, where guests will get the Beauty and the Beast story told by Belle!

The Great Goofini make over of the old Barnstormer attraction