Well, this week brought an interesting piece of news. http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/disney-plans-five-year-1-billion-revamp/n20071017124509990022 Now, I have to give a little bit of a disclaimer. I do own some shares of Disney stock, and have for several years. But really I can’t be more excited about this news. Basically, what Disney is doing is they are going to completely remodel Disney’s California Adventure and spending $1.1 billion to do it.
That figure is significant because that is about equal or greater than the amount taken to build the theme park. The park was built for about $1 billion and since then the company has spent approximately $100 million in improvements.
Many have felt, myself included, that Disney’s California Adventure was lacking the “Disney magic” or spark that the original Disneyland has. And the attendance records seem to confirm that observation, with 6 million visitors to California Adventure compared to nearly 15 million visitors to Disneyland. And that’s a problem.
Since the park has opened it has been criticized for its lack of magic and that “guests have no emotional attachment to it,” said Jay Rasulo, president of the Disney theme park division. Some people have commented that California Adventure is just like a theme park that you can get anywhere.
And I agree. California Adventure is plagued by many problems. It has no transportation system like Disneyland. It has also does not have the same amount of stimulating rides as Disneyland. I actually consider most of the park boring. The best part is the Hollywood section and the California Wilderness section, both of which are towards the entrance of the park. There are only a few rides that make it worth it to go down to the other sections of the park.
The goal for the redesign is to reclaim that missing spark. The plans are to redesign the entrance to be more comparable to Main Street USA in Disneyland, and expanding it to include attractions based off of the latest Pixar movies. But Disney isn’t going to suddenly stop making money off of California Adventure. They plan on keeping the park open during the reconstruction, with temporary entrances and closing some section of the park.
All I can say is way to go Disney. This is actually some very good news. Actually probably some of the best news I’ve heard since Disney acquired Pixar and John Lassiter became the head of Walt Disney Animation. I am coming to like the new CEO of Disney, Bob Iger. He seems to be stepping to the plate and really trying to turn the company around.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Their tiny, their toony, their all a little looney!
Truthfully, I had a hard time thinking about what to post to my blog this week. For me this has been a really hectic week, so I didn’t get to do all the things that I wanted to or do all the research that I wanted to do for this blog. However, there was a very interesting news story for me. I am a very big fan of cartoons and I plan on doing voices for cartoons as a career. So those type of news tend to attract my attention. The news was that the long time cartoon block of KidsWB will be ending it’s run as of September 2008.
Now, this wasn’t the first time, that the block was in danger. When the WB network merged with UPN in the beginning of 2006, the KidsWB was one of the only blocks to completely survive the merger. At first I was really worried that the block would be cancelled. Just as a side note, the KidsWB block has been one of my favorite blocks in years past, and has recently has had some of the better programming at least on over the air television.
Another danger sign was several years ago, with the AOL Time Warner Merger, Cartoon Network and KidsWB began to share programming. Luckily, this did not last for very long, and they both went back to original programming.
But now comes the big clincher. When the 2008-2009 rolls around, the new programming block with be taken over by 4Kids Entertainment. I don’t have anything against 4Kids, in fact I do like some of their programming. But not everything is gold, so to speak.
The main problem comes from the fact that currently 4Kids also has their own programming block called the 4Kids TV on Fox stations. They took over the programming block that Fox had previously called FOX Kids. I really liked that block and 4Kids has filled its place with some interesting programming. However their contract for this block was just renewed until 2009. That means for at least 1 year at this point, that 4Kids will be programming TWO different programming blocks. Unfortunately, I don’t think that they have enough licensed programs to be able to put new programs on both networks.
But at this time, we will just have to see if any of the shows currently airing now will survive until next season. And what kind of programming 4Kids will be able to offer.
If you would like more information you can visit this link. http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=19175
Now, this wasn’t the first time, that the block was in danger. When the WB network merged with UPN in the beginning of 2006, the KidsWB was one of the only blocks to completely survive the merger. At first I was really worried that the block would be cancelled. Just as a side note, the KidsWB block has been one of my favorite blocks in years past, and has recently has had some of the better programming at least on over the air television.
Another danger sign was several years ago, with the AOL Time Warner Merger, Cartoon Network and KidsWB began to share programming. Luckily, this did not last for very long, and they both went back to original programming.
But now comes the big clincher. When the 2008-2009 rolls around, the new programming block with be taken over by 4Kids Entertainment. I don’t have anything against 4Kids, in fact I do like some of their programming. But not everything is gold, so to speak.
The main problem comes from the fact that currently 4Kids also has their own programming block called the 4Kids TV on Fox stations. They took over the programming block that Fox had previously called FOX Kids. I really liked that block and 4Kids has filled its place with some interesting programming. However their contract for this block was just renewed until 2009. That means for at least 1 year at this point, that 4Kids will be programming TWO different programming blocks. Unfortunately, I don’t think that they have enough licensed programs to be able to put new programs on both networks.
But at this time, we will just have to see if any of the shows currently airing now will survive until next season. And what kind of programming 4Kids will be able to offer.
If you would like more information you can visit this link. http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=19175
Monday, October 8, 2007
Welcome to the World of Stuff!
Hello, and welcome to my new blog “The Wonderful World of Stuff”!
This is a fairly new thing for me. This will for now reside as a place for my assignments in my media writing class at Weber State University. In the future, who knows? Depending on my interest in this blog and in different stories, it may become something much more. In the foreseeable future it will be a storage place for all my different stories and things of interest. I plan on including links and reporting on things that I feel are interesting. You may feel free to comment on the different things that I report on. You can criticize me, compliment me, or you can give me your opinion. I would like this to be as interactive as possible to all the people that happen to find this website.
But first a little bit about me. My name is Zach Jenkins. I am 22 years old and I am currently a student at Weber State University. I am a recently returned missionary for the LDS church, having served in the Washington D.C. North mission. I am currently the sponsorship director for KWCR 88.1 Weber FM, “The sound of Weber State.” I am currently a communications major with a planned emphasis in entertainment. My interests include almost everything, including, media, cartoons, anime, voice-overs, acting, music, movies, television, singing, and playing sports. You could say that I am a media nut. I love all sorts of things about the entertainment industry both as the casual observer and knowing about the insiders view. I am trying to become more involved in the entertainment industry by becoming an actor, but I also enjoy the business side of the entertainment industry, on the different deals that different companies make. I also enjoy the nerd side of me, enjoying working on computers and technology as well. I am my family techie and many times, I am in charge of fixing all things technological in my house.
Well, thank you for your time and I hope that you will continue to stop by and learn more about things along with me. I hope that you will enjoy my wonderful world of stuff!
This is a fairly new thing for me. This will for now reside as a place for my assignments in my media writing class at Weber State University. In the future, who knows? Depending on my interest in this blog and in different stories, it may become something much more. In the foreseeable future it will be a storage place for all my different stories and things of interest. I plan on including links and reporting on things that I feel are interesting. You may feel free to comment on the different things that I report on. You can criticize me, compliment me, or you can give me your opinion. I would like this to be as interactive as possible to all the people that happen to find this website.
But first a little bit about me. My name is Zach Jenkins. I am 22 years old and I am currently a student at Weber State University. I am a recently returned missionary for the LDS church, having served in the Washington D.C. North mission. I am currently the sponsorship director for KWCR 88.1 Weber FM, “The sound of Weber State.” I am currently a communications major with a planned emphasis in entertainment. My interests include almost everything, including, media, cartoons, anime, voice-overs, acting, music, movies, television, singing, and playing sports. You could say that I am a media nut. I love all sorts of things about the entertainment industry both as the casual observer and knowing about the insiders view. I am trying to become more involved in the entertainment industry by becoming an actor, but I also enjoy the business side of the entertainment industry, on the different deals that different companies make. I also enjoy the nerd side of me, enjoying working on computers and technology as well. I am my family techie and many times, I am in charge of fixing all things technological in my house.
Well, thank you for your time and I hope that you will continue to stop by and learn more about things along with me. I hope that you will enjoy my wonderful world of stuff!
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