Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Mouse Traps...


There's an interesting article by Kevin Yee over on Miceage. He speculates about the Location Based Entertainment(LBE), not to be confused with Urban Entertainment Centers(UEC). The UEC are an example of what's currently planned in Japan with it's third gate. This will more closely resemble a theme park combined with a mall and theater setting. The LBE, from what I've been told is more of a hotel with value added entertainment added on. Basically this is Disney's attempt to get some of the vacation money people spend when travelling around the country where there aren't any Disney parks... essentially this is a "Mouse Trap". Jay Rasulo tends to think that if you're not going to go to a Disney resort then they can hopefully get you to stay at one of their hotels with Disney's added benefits. Exactly which cities he's planning for this was up in the air when I last heard... although the obvious candidates were New York, Chicago and a couple properties in other tourist hot spots. The whole thing boils down to money. How much will it cost the Mouse and how much the Mouse is willing to pay...

The article also talks about the MGM name changing drama that is still going on. Unless MGM has done an about face then trust me on this... A NAME CHANGE IS COMING. Now, it may not be Disney-Pixar... but it will be changing. There are contractual obligations here that simply can't be overlooked. Nothing is set in stone, but some of my contacts hinted about a fall announcement(read: October/November). What it would take for MGM to give it's blessing to keeping the name would be more than Disney is willing to give in my opinion. Things are really fluid at the lot in Burbank right now. It's a strange time... but one with positive signs. The "Creatives" actually have more say at Team Disney than they've had in a long time. There are still too many Suits that want their fingers in the pie, but for a change the Creatives are being treated with a little respect.

Time will tell...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link to Kevin's post.

My borhter and I talked about this on our site (disneygeeks.blogspot.com) when we first started posting. There have been rumors flying around that Disney was looking at Greensboro (NC--very close to where the Disney Geeks live) for just such a prospect.

Rumors of a tie-in with the ACC Hall of Fame and a major hotel complex left people in one camp or the other.

Of course, the Disney Geeks are all for it!

Anonymous said...

Urban Sprawl! Urban Sprawl! Run for the hills! How dare there be progress in society. Let's just leave eveything as it is.

Anonymous said...

ugh, kevin yee,what a hack,I try and avoid his poorly written drivel as much as possible. I popped over for todays article and it's 2.5 pages of him fantasizing about what 'he' would like to happen, nothing based even remotely in fact or rumor.

Of course I suppose this still beats his 'declining by inches' columns where he points out a chipped paint corner or popcorn on the floor.