WordPress Discover: Open

Great news, I saw this evening, the WordPress Discover challenges are back.  Every day of April 2020, there will be a Discover prompt to help people keep blogging when there is so much consternation about them, and throughout the world.

The Discover prompts invites bloggers to give their handle on the idea of “open,” when something you wish open is in fact closed.  I guess that sounds obvious.

I have a persistent interest in what’s happening behind the scenes at Disney.  I was there once as a kid, in 1991, with my mom and dad and my brother and sister.  As you probably suspect, both Disneyland and Walt Disney World are closed.

I hear Disney talked about on YouTube, and actually, the channel Clownfish TV talks about Disney quite a bit.  I take it the two Clownfish TV hosts are into movies and that kind of thing.

Photographer:
Brandon Mowinkel

Actually, the other day, they reminded their audience that they have taken no interest in watching The Rise of Skywalker.  To me, that’s strange because a general interest in Disney would usually include an interest in Star Wars, but they are just so discouraged at Clownfish TV with the sequel trilogy that they have zero anticipation for at last seeing Episode IX.  They said it didn’t get the greatest reviews, but for me, it’s hard to relate to the idea that they could just never see it and live happily after.

I just like to think about how nice it must be spending a day at one of the Disney parks and that kind of thing.  I don’t believe much that I’ll ever return to Disney World, and perhaps to them at Clownfish that reality might not be a reality, that they could possibly relate to.

I was really surprised by some people afoul of the Star Wars backlash, which I presume will never end.  I thought the worst of the incalcitrant attitude to what happened with the sequel trilogy might fade away, but maybe that won’t be the case.  To be more honest, I imagined that the backlash would rear its head occasionally when new Star Wars stories were put to film and video, but it really is a pervasive phenomenon, I think now.

I am glad for the Discover challenges to have reopened, and I just wanted to say that the businesses I would have most liked to overcome the difficulties posed by the crisis are the Disney theme parks.  It just wasn’t possible, it is clear.  I hope to get in on the Discover challenges some more, while we continue this quarantine.

Summer Crowds for Disneyland’s Galaxy Edge Fail to Appear

I found a 2019 discussion of Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/star-wars-land-crowd-predictions/

Even if summer crowds at Disneyland were on the “light” side, I have a hunch they have been reinvigorated by Rise of Skywalker on Christmas Day.

Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in 2015, I’ve realized it’s very interesting to look deeper into how Star Wars is going. The people who are dismayed by what has happened, The Fandom Menace, observe all manners of affairs characteristic of the unparalelled sci-fi film franchise, and I thought I would point attention here and now to Star Wars Land.

In the summer, Disney theme park enthusiasts were only beginning to look forward to the Rise of the Resistance attraction.

“It’s a trap!” – Admiral Ackbar Erik Bauersfeld dead: Voice of Admiral Ackbar in Star Wars dies at 93

Oliver Gettell 

The Geeks + Gamers vlog showing Star Wars fans embracing the Rise of the Resistance exhibit could well be read as an admission, finding Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker suspect, referring to the likelihood that the film will be wild.

As I understand it, Disney+ includes the existing ten Star Wars films, two directed by master film director George Lucas, seven by others, and the brief series The Mandalorian. If the franchise pales, Star Wars could be more of a hindrance for Disney rather than a gold mine. Never mind Annual Passholder blackouts.

Photographer: Park Troopers

I wrote a few words about a couple of leaks for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that are kind of characteristic of what the Internet is doing in terms of how perceived discontentment with Star Wars will return to the same passion that other Star Wars have generated.

This is better than eighth grade arts classes. Thanks for reading. You’re welcome to “like,” follow, and/or comment.

Star Wars Celebration on YouTube: Where’d You Go? Chicago

It’s Good Friday, and I’m having browser issues. Microsoft put up an alpha version of its Edge browser, and I tried, like a web developer, to surf it before it was finished, and it lasted maybe three days.

Star Wars Celebration went on from April 11 to April 15 in Chicago. The celebration is an army of devotees sharing a love of Star Wars.  This year Star Wars Celebration premiered a teaser for Episode IX, a preview of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, the cinema for Jedi: Fallen Order, and a trailer for S7 of The Clone Wars. It is all interesting.

Being that this year is 2019 and Lucasfilm put The Phantom Menace, a prequel film to Star Wars, in the cinema in 1999, the twenty-year anniversary of Phantom Menace was observed.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace score

Five days is a long time to spend with Star Wars, but between Thursday and Monday, a viewer watching the events on the Star Wars YouTube channel got to see the panel discussions each day at 12:00 and 4:00 Chicago time. Celebration, which I think is nine years running, moves around the US, but this year they put it on in Chicago. Given the audience’s enthusiasm, it seems like that worked well for them.

Photographer:
donterase

Jedi: Fallen Order is the name of the EA game that is the first new Star Wars game since Battlefront II. EA is a notoriously difficult game company. The decisions EA makes are known to send gamers away.

I suspect Disney needs Episode IX in December to be a sensation if they want their investment in Disney+ to succeed. Disney+ is the streaming service available this fall, in November, when Disney is making available their animated Star Wars features, along with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, the Star Wars live-action films, and The Mandalorian. Disney+ could rival Netflix, and it is expensive for Disney in the short term, so it is reasonable to think that if Episode IX is a major success, it is an indication Disney+ will also do well.

It is hard to anticipate what Netflix is planning in response to its rival. If there is already talk about what Netflix is going to do, I haven’t caught it.

I believe that Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy is leading Lucasfilm for the next ten years, and her decisions to put a lot of roles that are empowering for girls affect her hold on the Star Wars fanbase because a large number of fans have made a backlash owing to the perception that they are “toxic.” The space opera Star Wars has a lot of fans, so the response has been loud about how Star Wars has met its “demise” in the sense that there will never again be a great trilogy. The next trilogy of Star Wars films is going to be directed by Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.

The Last Jedi was the film that divided the fanbase, perhaps deliberately. That said, there was a backlash to the Star Wars Prequels, which subsided, so the same may be true of the problems facing the Star Wars Sequels, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and now Episode IX, concluding the Skywalker Saga. Be that as it may, The Mandalorian, continuing Return of the Jedi, from 1983, looks fantastic. Some of the success of Disney+ is probably going to be affected by whether Episode IX proves to be a record-breaker.

Good luck to Lucasfilm.

You’re welcome to “like” this, follow it, and/or comment. The inspiration for Where’d You Go? is from the Medium newsletter Publishous.