Typical Disney.
They have re-introduced their version of Poutine available only in the parks. Of course they’ve “plussed” it up with lettuce.
Lettuce.
Really.
I love Disney. But sometimes they make me wonder if the marketing department is run by four blind guys with darts and a big wall with random words on it.
He’s Driving… Disneyland 2008
“The Cat Flu!”
Let’s address the elephant in the room, even if Disney won’t. Escape from Tomorrow is filmed almost entirely on Disney Parks property, without Disney’s knowledge or consent. Tales of how the director cued his actors with cell phones and filmed scenes with regular “vacation” sized cameras while filming guerrilla-style in Magic Kingdom came out when EfT debut at Sundance. It gained a lot of buzz and everyone held their breath to see what The Mouse would do.
The Mouse said nothing.
Probably the best thing it has done with regards to protecting their brand. Especially since Disney has a policy/habit of suing people out of existence for breaching their walls. Any action on their part would generate more buzz for the movie, but their silence was win/win for everyone involved: Disney didn’t come off as assholes and the director got to keep his movie.
Escape from Tomorrow tries really hard to be an updated Eraserhead with a lot of nods to David Lynch’s unforgettable film. Mirroring themes of hidden worlds, there is hommage to The Girl Behind the Radiator in the form of Siemens scientists living under Spaceship Earth without DisBEEEP’s knowledge of them being there. Or blood as black as pitch being used as symbols of deconstruction, degradation. EfT has a lot to thank Mr Lynch for.
It’s not a stellar film. It suffers from pacing issues and what I regard to be serious character flaws. I found the film distracting for me: I was getting pulled away from “why things are happening” within the story to “how things are happening”. For the first part of the film I was reverse-engineering the scenes instead of taking them in. I attribute that to being a total Disneyphile. Not too many people will notice that a couple chunks of the movie is actually filmed in Disneyland, CA but we did. SharkBoy speculated that the production might have come under suspicion by The Mouse and moved their operation to Florida to complete the movie, hence why the jump between parks.
I would agree to that. The film suffers from too many establishing shots. Most of the movie seems like it’s filled with a lot of WE’RE IN DISNEYWORLD! LOOK!! LOOK!! kind of punches in the face. A lot of short script exchanges happen within somewhat secluded areas of the parks, away from suspecting security guards, I suppose. Like one scene near Tomorrowland Terrace where not a lot of people go (except for smokers) which has a great view of the Castle is possibly the longest scripted moment within the movie, on property. Little actual plot points are filmed within these park shots. Long expositional moments take place in hotel rooms or with actors in front of green screens.
One thing that did bother me was the way the lead character, Jim, seemed not to react to his initial descent into insanity. While on “it’s a Small World” ride he turns to see his wife lean into the frame and slo-mo the line “I HATE YOU…” complete with the atypical fisheye lens used from Jim’s perspective, which we all know in movie symbolism is “We’re party to someone’s hallucinations!” Jim’s reaction is to blink. Next, his son’s eyes become complete black orbs inside his head. His only comment is to say “There’s something wrong with Elliot.” and then… nothing. He rubs his eyes, grunts and shrugs it off. His non-reaction to these moments doesn’t lead us to believe that he’s sinking into madness, but actually make us think these are everyday occurrences. There are a few switch-back moments where we gladly play along with Jim’s delusions but the entire movie, he seems rather unfazed that he’s losing his grip with reality. It’s frustrating for us not to see some sort of balance here.
SharkBoy mentions that to actually have Jim react like we’d expect him to while on It’s a Small World (or anywhere else in the park, publicly) would have attracted a lot of attention. Which again, I agree to. Nitpicky points. But kind of essential to take us out of ourselves and have him acknowledge that something is frightfully wrong.
In all I really enjoyed EfT, technically and story-wise. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Randy Moore in the future. I give it 3 Spaceship Earth Scanner helmets out of 5.
Apologies, last post should have been titled “California Adventure”… THIS is the day we did Disneyland!
Again, we wake well before the dawn. After some iPadding (is that a verb now? Can it be?) and an early morning swim (nobody swims at 7am in LA) we cleaned up and hoofed it over to Ted’s Burgers, just outside the gates. Delicious! the Breakfast Burritos were the size of a rogue South American country and dictated my colon the same way. Boom!
Ah Disneyland. The start of it all. Every time we visit we always wander around slack jawed and oogly eyed because it’s so familiar yet… not. Small and just as comforting like Magic Kingdom in Florida, but on Jenny Craig.
Pretty much all the rides were ridden except a few that had crazy wicked long lines. We re-rode the Haunted Mansion and got slightly wet on Splash Mountain while we sang along to the vaguely racist songs – you know… traditional fun rides.
I forced SharkBoy into the ASIMO robot demo inside the World of Tomorrow pavilion. I nearly wept with joy seeing that little guy run across the stage. Seriously. I’ve been watching Honda create prototypes since the birth of the internet and to finally see him in “person” was kind of emotional for me. Expect video!
The park closed early with no fireworks but that was ok, we had seen them the day we arrived.
Back at the hotel we collapsed again. Another long day. The next day would lead us into parts… unknown!
We’re awake at 4am. We’re East Coasters in a West Coast world. Our time shifting bodies gave us a slight advantage over most of the crowds at California Adventure (also we had no kids in tow so there’s that) and we were one of the first people in line.
Rope drop, gates open and we run to Carsland, which we have not seen since it was opened a year and a half ago (give or take a few weeks). I have to say Carsland was amazing. We had been hearing hype since it was opened (and jealously watched digital friends on Instagram and Twiiter go experience it) and I can say it doesn’t disappoint. People say it’s like walking into the set of Cars and they’re right. The colours, the sight lines, the layout are all incredible. Favourite ride? The re-mixing and return of the UFO ride into “Luigi’s Flying Tires” was a blast (and could have been 3 min longer, but hey).
I was surprised at how… unfast? …Radiator Springs Racers was, compared to it’s sister ride, Test Track, in Florida. But fun, nonetheless!
We wandered, we took hundreds of pictures, we ate at Carthay Circle restaurant so we could get a FastPass ticket to good seats for World of Colour. Probably not the best move since you’re only allowed a set menu and not any of the “good stuff”. Still, we did get good seats for the show.
We packed in as many rides as we could: Tower of Terror, Soarin’ (SharkBoy beat me to my “open Soarin'” joke… bastard), Grizzly River Run, Toy Story Mania, Monsters Inc. and around 5 our batteries died. We went back to the hotel for a disco nap, swim and a quick nosh before heading back into California Adventure for the World of Colour show. Still awesome after all these years!
After the show, we hit Ariel’s Undersea Ride to wait for the crowds to thin out. Midway through the ride, right around where Ariel and the Prince nearly kiss (“KISS HER!!”) I can see SharkBoy’s eyes closing. I grab his hand and say “Time to go home…” We stumble back to our room.
Stick with it. You can turn the sound down…
Our flight into LAX was uneventful, so was the car collection. All good and nothing to complain about, except for the quiet talker at the car rental agency, who, in an inaudible whisper, told me I could takethatgreyvehiclethankyou. Super quiet. I took the first one I saw. Hope it was right…
We arrive at the Disneyland Hotel. Before going in I gravely look at SharkBoy and say “Look, I need you to be super charming. Remember when you got us that great room at Riverside? You did that dance and chant until the frond desk clerk gave in?”
“All-i-gator Bay-ouuuu!” SharkBoy sings and does a little butt-dance in his car seat.
“That’s the one. I need you to be that charming if we’re to get the Adventure Tower.” He was the “good cop” I was the “bad agent”. In the end we got the Adventure Tower, King size bed. I love my husband.
We drop our luggage (after squealing like Japanese school girls when we opened the door to the ample room) and run out to Disneyland. We cram in as much as we can before we meet up with the InstaGram friends we invited along. We hit the train around the park, Haunted Mansion (with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay), and the Monorail.
We hit Trader Sams and meet up with Smithersocal (Aaron), MrStevers (David) and Taric (Christian) who had us laughing. Especially after a few Mai Tais. Free poured Mai Tais. Super STRONG Mai Tais.
As it got dark, we said goodbye to our new IRL friends and hit Disneyland again for the fireworks. Wiiiishes!
Back to the hotel room to pass out. We had been going for 16+ hours and the MAI TAIS didn’t help. We pass out with the “Kiss Goodnight” playing over our heads. ZZZZzzzzz
Escape Velocity