Newbies to Orlando Choose Universal

A family of four that are friends of mine (father, mother, daughter 20, son 17), departed for a first time trip to Orlando a few weeks ago. They have five days total for the parks. Their choices? We'll see. I'm guessing the Boy Wizard mixes things up.

So, it's now been a week after their return, and what did they have to say? After one day at the beach, here's a review of their time by the 17 year old:

Next day we went to Universal which was a lot of fun. We only went to the main park and all really enjoyed the transformers ride and the roller coaster in the park. Some of the stuff felt a little dated however like the Twister ride. The next day it was too cold to do anything outdoors so we went to a mall and shopped all day. Then, the last day was Disney and we started out at Epcot. From a vacation standpoint, it felt a little less enjoyable than a normal amusement park but, from an educational standpoint I think it would be an awesome place to take your kids to learn about culture. The only thing we all really enjoyed there was the Soarin' ride. Then we only had enough time to head over to magic kingdom and the only major ride we rode there was space mountain. The experience of being in the area made you feel like a little kid but, it was a bummer that the lines were so long. I think I would of enjoyed the park more if we had an extra day to explore and it was a little less crowded but, overall it was a great trip!

Interesting, isn't it? If you read between the lines, when choosing a park, Transformers at Universal Studios outranked Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey at  Islands of Adventure. Parts of the Studios park seem "dated". Over at Disney, Epcot and Magic Kingdom were half day parks. Soarin' and Space Mountain, respectively, were the only attractions popular with the family. Epcot was "less enjoyable than a normal amusement park". There was no mention of much else at Disney. What I found most interesting of all was the fact this family had scheduled 5 days for visits to the parks and only ended up going two total.

Met Mom for coffee, and her take was somewhat different: She wished they had more time to explore the Magic Kingdom and Epcot... she loved Soarin' but she was disappointed in Epcot in contrast to her visit there 25 years ago. 

All said, perhaps the battle for the dollar still rages. At least from one family's perspective.

The Avengers Lose Their Way

Robert Downey Jr. owns this film, but that is not his fault or the fault of the other actors. Compared to Tony Stark's suave and focused Iron Man, Marvel's poor superhero Captain America has little to do in a film where brotherhood should rule the day. For all the other characters, it's more of the same. Much ado about nothing. 

Captain America's heart is full of integrity, straightforwardness, and outright old fashioned patriotism. Combined with his self sacrificial attitude and military training, Steve Rogers is a true hero and a nice counterbalance to Stark's cynicism and irreverence. It's part of what made his first appearance in his own movie so compelling. Chris Evans does the best he can with a script strong on visuals but weak on dialogue, terrific one liners aside. It's a problem all the others seem to share. 

The centerpiece villain is left to inactivity for most of the film. Huge misstep. Tom Hiddleston is made to play the evil character, Loki, yet the script treats him as if he were a nuisance versus a real threat. His brother, Thor, is better here as part of the team than a solo star in his own film. Perhaps Chris Hemsworth just needed a better cast to pull it all off. The sole key female, Scarlett Johannson... just doesn't fit.

I'd give The Avengers a high mark for visual appeal and interesting main characters. However, the film also gets low marks for making poor use of the cast and an even poorer story line. Seems Jon Favreau and company cannot decide between making a Transformers film, sticking to what Marvel does best, or just spending his time setting up a series. The team, including Stan Lee, is stuck between playing tongue in cheek with it all and creating a film where the characters truly believe the world in which they live. 

The potential is huge, and the market is waiting. There's always the next film and a theme park on its way.

Cool New Ex-Imagineer Blog

Beyond the work on films like Transformers, ex-Imagineer Thom Schillinger has done some pretty incredible work that was never built for Disneyland Paris.

The legendary Tarzan Coaster? Check. Other coasters themed for the Paris park's Adventureland? Check. I won't post the concept art for you- since finding it is part of the great discovery on his blog. It's filled with art for video games, comics, films, theme parks etc. Go here for a great couple of hours of searching his blog for hidden and not so hidden gems!
(Art copyright Thom Schillinger.)