In this episode of “Guest Room” on ENN, the Ears News Network, we talk about the big break up in the Muppet world and the big plans Disneyland has for its new land purchases. We also report on Disney’s record financial quarter and its benefits to resort guests, and some “Frozen” changes coming to the Animal Kingdom.
Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/earsnewsnet/gr-episode7.mp3
Cast:
Parker Byrd – Chris Laning
Erin Dole – Paige Laning
Woman on Street – Daphne Kuzminsky
Man on Street – David Crosby
Teen on Street – Julianna Kuzminsky
Intro Music:
“The Whip” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Fauxmercial Music:
“Malt Shop Bop” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Googlies:
Transcript:
| PARKER: Splitsville for PigMit, New Land, New Plan for Disneyland, Disney Profits a Real Credit to Park Guests, and it may soon finally be Frozen in the Animal Kingdom |
Hello and welcome to the August 15th edition of “Guest Room” on ENN, the Ears News Network, bringing you Disney news you won’t believe…..and probably shouldn’t. I’m your host, Parker Byrd with this Muppet News Flash….Muppets fans everywhere were rocked earlier this month by the news of the break up of the franchise’s most favorite couple, Kermit and Miss Piggy. The pairing which fans like to refer to as KerPig, or PigKer, or Kergy….or is it Pigmit…whatever, was announced in an official press statement posted on Twitter by Kermit himself. The statement read in part….
“After careful thought, thoughtful consideration and considerable squabbling, we have made the difficult decision to terminate our romantic relationship. We will continue to work together on Television”
(and in parentheses it promoted their upcoming show),
“and in all media now known or hereafter devised in perpetuity, throughout the universe.”
It went to say that their personal lives were now “distinct and separate”, that they would see others, and asked that we respect their privacy in this matter.
Now, it should not have really come as a shock to die hard Muppet fans, as the pitch video for the upcoming TV series was released a week prior to this announcement, and in it, Kermit is showing dating another….well…pig. And their break up was addressed.
But we still sent our field reporter Erin Dole, out to see what the everyday person on the street thought of the break up.
Erin?
ERIN: Thanks Parker. I’m out here at the corner of Elstree and Clarendon Road to ask passersby what they think. Excuse me, what do you think of the Pigmit break up?
WOMAN 1: The what?
ERIN: The break up of Miss Piggy and Kermit.
WOMAN: Oh! I hadn’t heard! What a shame! I wonder what broke them up…even though I knew it wouldn’t last long.
ERIN: Well, they were together for over 40 years.
WOMAN: Forty years? That’ll do it!
ERIN: OooooKay…Um, you sir, what do you think about Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog breaking up?
MAN: Its a tragedy! Its horrible! Its devastating! I just don’t know what I am going to do.
ERIN: Wow sir! I can’t believe that you are taking this so hard.
MAN: Wouldn’t you! Look!
ERIN: You have a tattoo of a heart with Kermit and Miss Piggy that says ” ham and legs forever!”???
MAN: And I JUST had it put on last week!!!!
ERIN: You probably should have watched the pitch reel then….Ok…..um…you miss….what do you think of Kermit and Miss Piggy breaking up?
GIRL: Oh no they didn’t! What? Hold on. What’s going on here? They broke up? uh uh.
ERIN: No, they definitely did.
GIRL: Ain’t nobody got time for that.
ERIN: Well apparently THEY did….. So, as usual Parker….mixed reactions out here…. Personally, I think the real winner in all of this is Miss Piggy. Now she is free to date a much bigger Hollywood star…one befitting who she is…..you know…like Kevin Bacon. Back to you Parker.
PARKER: Thanks Erin. Kevin Bacon…..hmmmm…..The Orange County Register and several other news sources reported earlier this month that property records show that Disney has been making some real estate purchases around Anaheim. Last year, they bought two office building on Manchester Drive. Back in March they bought the Carousel Inn and Suites, which sits on Harbor Blvd, directly across the street from the entrance to the Esplanade that sits between Disneyland and California Adventure. The hotel also, coincidentally enough backs up on to one of the Manchester Ave properties, which in turn is adjacent to the second Manchester Ave property.
Needless to say this has sparked great speculation throughout the Disney community. Some believe that backstage functions currently being managed from buildings just outside the parks will be relocated to these new properties freeing up the area on which those current backstage buildings sit to be annexed into the park.
Others have speculated that this will be the location of the new parking garage Disney promised the City of Anaheim it would build in the near future.
Still others, more hopefully, are speculating that this could fit, albeit rather tightly, a long awaited third park at the Disneyland resort.
While no concrete evidence exists, it appears that the latter group may just get their way…sort of. Inside sources are telling ENN that there has been ongoing difficulty in trying to fit all the new things guests want into the existing parks. With demand for Star Wars and Marvel Attractions, copies of the Orlando New Fantasyland attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Storytime with Belle, expanded Soarin’ capacity, as well as a Disneyland version of the Frozen ride, there simply is not enough room to accommodate everything.
But by the same token, they are wanting to preserve Disneyland’s history and intimacy of having all the parks right off the Esplanade. So a new innovative solution was devised.
The new properties off of Manchester Ave will house all the show buildings for the new Star Wars, Marvel, Fantasyland, and Frozen attractions. The new area is being referred to internally as “Star Marvs Fantandell”.
So how will this work? Well, the facades for the new attractions will be built inside of the existing Disneyland park. The queues will also be there. But the attraction vehicles will actually transport guests to the new show buildings via a series of appropriately themed tunnels that will be built under Harbor blvd and the existing Carousel Inn and Suites. The vehicles will of course return back through the tunnels, so that passengers will be discharged back in Disneyland. So they won’t realize that they actually had left.
The hotel for its part will remain but be rethemed oddly enough to a mixture of properties, with the bottom two floors Marvel themed, and the top three floors themed to Star Wars. What will they call this new schizophrenic resort? The Fantastic Yavin 4.
Back after this. Fauxmercial:
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(celebrity impersonation and not an official endorsement from Elvis Pressley or his estate. Reaction can be reasonably expected but not guaranteed. All performances are by celebrity impersonators as well and do not contain any recordings of Elvis Presley or Walt Disney. )PARKER:
Welcome back to ENN, the Ears News Network. Turning to financial news, Disney recently reported record third quarter earnings for fiscal year 2015 to be $2.5 billion. Included in this number is $4.1 billion in revenues for the Parks and Resorts division, which represented a 4% increase over the same period last year with a 9% increase in operating income. This was attributed to growth in volume of guests (i.e. attendance) and guest spending.
We should note that much of this volume can be attributed to park tie-ins from Disney’s recent successful films. And this has caused quite an uproar in the fiscal circles. As one noted economist put it “This has got to be the first time in my career that I have seen a company generate income with Frozen assets.
Now Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said of this record breaking earnings report, “The strong results across our many diverse lines of business demonstrate the power of our unparalleled brands, franchises and creative content.”
He went on to announce that in celebration of the record earnings, Disney increased the credit limits for the amounts park resort guests could charge to their room, either through their magic bands or room key. The limit at the Value and Moderate resorts was increased to $1500, and the limit at the Deluxe resorts to a full $2,000. Said Iger of the increase,
“We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our record earnings than allowing our guests to spend more!”Turning to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Disney quietly announced that on August 17th Primeval Whirl, a steel mouse-style coaster with spinning cars, located in the Dinoland USA section of the park, will be closing for a three month refurbishment. Currently the attraction is themed to be a hokey, roadside attraction style time traveling to the dinosaur era kind of thing. But our ENN sources tell us there is a retheming taking place. When the attraction reopens on November 13th, it will have been renamed Marshmallow’s Swirl. The storyline is that you are in a car with Anna, Kristoff and Olaf heading up the hill to the ice palace. At the top, you see Marshmallow, Elsa’s giant snowman bodyguard. As the coaster goes down the track you are greeted with signs and cutouts recreating Marshmallow’s chase of the trio. The track will be slightly reconfigured to allow a seemingly deep drop as you near the bottom to recreate the Anna and Kristoff’s drop from the cliff.
Attraction spokesperson, Wes Elton said that they are excited about the new attraction for three very important reasons.
- Dinoland, USA has been in need for some fresh creativity for a really long time.
- The theme is more relatable to kids and should increase interest in the attraction.
- Third, and most importantly, it meets Disney’s resort operations strategic goal #111913F, which states that, “By beginning of fiscal year 2017, no Disney park will remain unFrozen”
And that’s all for this edition of ENN’s “Guest Room”. If you would like to comment on this episode or would like to send along a news story for us to look into drop us an email at guestroom@earsnews.net.
You can listen to this and future episodes by finding us in the iTunes store, just search on Ears News Network. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed. Details can be found on the “How to Listen” page at EarsNews.net. There you can find links to our Facebook page and Twitter account as well.
Until next time, I’m your host, Parker Byrd, saying thanks for listening to the Ears News Network, the mistrusted name in Disney news. Goodbye everybody.
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