Making Mickey Mouse "More Relevant"
First Tinker Bell, now Mickey. Disney is on a makeover mission.
But making over the Big Guy, Mickey Mouse, is also taking him back to his roots in the 1920s and 1930s:
"In many ways, it is a return to Mickey at his creation. When the character made its debut in “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, he was the Bart Simpson of his time: an uninhibited rabble-rouser who got into fistfights, played tricks on his friends (pity Clarabelle Cow) and, later, was amorously aggressive with Minnie.
"Epic Mickey, designed for Nintendo’s Wii console, is set in a “cartoon wasteland” where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations live. The chief inhabitant is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character Walt Disney created in 1927 as a precursor to Mickey but ultimately abandoned in a dispute with Universal Studios. In the game, Oswald has become bitter and envious of Mickey’s popularity. The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.” Using paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush, Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot overlord, gain the trust of Oswald and save the day.
"Consumers will not be able to buy the game before fall of next year. Anticipation is intense. “Wow! This is amazing,” said Eli Gee on GameInformer.com. “I’m really... REALLY excited.”
(New York Times)
The Tinker Bell Makeover
She is Disney property, and I'm sure they have focus-grouped it all to death. They can - and will - do whatever they want to keep her "relevant."
But for this forever-Tink fan, she's a pixie, not a fairy, a girl, not a tomboy - and a timeless icon for all of Disney's magic, and she doesn't need to change.
10 Things You Don’t Know About Women By Jennifer Love Hewitt
10 Things You Don’t Know About Women By Jennifer Love Hewitt
1. PMS is not a lame excuse to be able to yell at you. It’s a great excuse.
2. We really can pump our own gas. It’s just that we’ve got this fantasy of you as a ’30s-era full-service station attendant. You’d look so cute in the hat.
3. We’re not complimented when you call your ex a slut. She dated you, too. So what are we?
4. We’re smart enough to know that smell is always the dog.
5. Yes, we can dish it out.
6. No, we can’t take it.
7. We want to raise children. We just don’t want you to be one of them.
8. Women are meant to talk and men to listen. We don’t want to be fixed; we want to be heard.
9. When we ask if you’ve had any work done, it’s because we want to know what our kids will really look like.
10. When we ask you how we look, it’s okay to lie; when we ask you how she looks, you better lie.
Survivor
Love him or hate him, Hugh Hefner was instrumental in inciting a revolution in American culture and sexuality in the last half of the 20th century.
I only bought Playboy for the articles, humor and fiction. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
I only bought Playboy for the articles, humor and fiction. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Runnin' Down A Dream
Sorry for the spotty posting - I've been busy running down a new (ad)venture.
Betty Or Veronica?
I've always wondered what it was that Archie had that kept Betty and Veronica is such constant competition for his affections.
As I've gotten older, I've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities:
1. Money
2. Knowing what women want
But I guess the speculation is all over now - Archie has apparently made his choice, and it's Veronica.
As I've gotten older, I've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities:
1. Money
2. Knowing what women want
But I guess the speculation is all over now - Archie has apparently made his choice, and it's Veronica.
Bill Safire
Bill Safire died last week.
Although we rarely agreed on politics, I always read him, because he was smart, principled and, more often than not, right.
Maureen Dowd remembers her friendship with Bill Safire as a colleague at The New York Times.
He will be missed.
Only In Boston
Scott Zolak, a Boston radio sports host, was on an elevator at Gillette Stadium last Sunday , talking with a bunch of Patriots fans before the game.
I'll let Scott tell the rest of the story:
“Gisele Bundchen gets on, and her hair’s a little damp, because it’s raining out. The guys in the elevator don’t even give her a second look, they just kept talking to me,” Zolak laughed. “And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Only in Boston could a $34 million-a-year supermodel get on an elevator full of sports fans and they don’t give her the time of day!’”