58. 13 Things We Used to Love at Disney, But Don't Anymore (And 11 We Do!)

Sisters, Sisters: A Mouselets Podcast

The hosts of Sisters, Sisters: A Mouselets Podcast reflect on Disney park experiences that have shifted in quality over time, contrasting pas

Key takeaways

• Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo the Musical were significantly shortened post-pandemic, removing beloved scenes and reducing cast sizes, which disappointed longtime fans.
• Bob Chapek's upcoming memoir is expected to reveal behind-the-scenes drama regarding his departure as Disney CEO and his relationship with Bob Iger.

Main topics

• Disney attraction evolutions and post-pandemic changes
• Bob Chapek memoir and Disney executive drama

Notable quotes

"The barrier to entry to Marvel is too high."

Conclusion

Listeners gain a balanced perspective on how Disney park experiences e

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:10) Welcome back to another episode of Sister Sisters, except that today I am joined by my brother, Mouselid3. Speaker 1 (0:19) Hello. We have a fun episode planned for you today. We are going to be talking about things at Disney that we used to like, but we don't like anymore, as well as things at Disney that we used to not like that we like now. We also have a very fun game at the end that I'm actually so excited for called Disney Dodgeball. So stay tuned for that. But first, a little bit of chit chat. Speaker 2 (0:42) Sister Speaker 1 (0:43) All right, everyone. As you're listening to this, Mouselot 2 is still on her honeymoon. I believe that as of the day this releases, she will be traveling from Olajuwon to Disneyland and going to Oogie Boogie Bash tonight. Don't quote me on that, but I think so. Mouselot 3, have you been following along with her honeymoon adventures? Speaker 3 (1:03) I have. I have not caught up on today's yet. I was trying to before this because I figured it might be relevant. And I did notice one thing, which is that I was excited for her to go to the Kahlua Ranch, K-A-H-L-U-A, because Papa Mouse loves Kahlua. He's not a big drinker, but the one thing he drinks is Kahlua. And so I'm like, ooh, Kahlua Ranch, how exciting that Masa 2 is going. I bet Papa Mouse is pretty excited. And then halfway through the stories, you chimed in. corrected it. And it's apparently actually completely unrelated to Kahlua, the alcoholic beverage. Speaker 1 (1:37) It has nothing to do with Kahlua. It is called Kualoa Ranch. And when they first kept saying Kahlua Ranch, they were like pronouncing it that way. But I was like, well, maybe they just, they're just sort of like missing a syllable or two. But then they started writing it as Kahlua and I did need to reach out to them and just have them clarify that they were not going to a ranch related to the alcoholic coffee liqueur that Papa Mel slid. I figured Speaker 3 (2:01) it was where it was manufactured or something. No, besides that, yes, I have been following along. Speaker 3 (2:09) Please go ahead. I'm looking at your notes and I don't want to steal your thunder. Go ahead. Speaker 1 (2:13) I was going to say one of my biggest notes is that they cannot get on a good time zone schedule. Like literally in their stories, it's like 6 p.m. and they're like, we're exhausted. And then they go to sleep and they wake up at 3.30 a.m. I'm like, you guys need to adjust a little. Me and Malcecy never fully adjusted. And it was nice because we would wake up like early and be able to kind of get started on the day. And then by... nighttime, like we didn't really need to do any be doing anything past like nine or something nine or 10. But there that I'm like, you guys just need to shift like two hours. They seem to maybe have finally done it this morning. But Oh, Speaker 3 (2:48) except now as of the day that we're recording this, which is Monday, they said, we're, you know what, we're just not gonna just Hawaii time instead, we're gonna adjust to LA time because we'll be in LA in four days. So I think they're being I guess a little proactive about it now. And they'll be closer to fully adjusted but not fully. Speaker 1 (3:06) No, yeah, I guess they're just completely bailing on that, which, okay. But we will have Mouselette 2 and Melsidae next week to do sort of a full deep dive into their trip and talk about everything they did. So stay tuned for that. But for now, I have a bunch of Disney media thoughts. So Disney-like books, movies, et cetera, that I wanted to share. The first is that there is a documentary. that has been making the rounds at film festivals and stuff and has been kind of hard to track down, but we did, called Stolen Kingdom. It is about, sort of it's ultimately about the fact that the Buzzy animatronic was stolen, if you know, you know. Crazy, crazy, crazy lore. If you don't, we'll do a full episode on it. But they also do a full lead up talking about Disney urban explorers and people who have stolen stuff from Disney. Very... related to our podcast episode a couple weeks ago about people who have lifetime bans. And it is absolutely insane to watch because it is the most niche lore. Yeah, I watched it. Speaker 3 (4:12) Oh, where? Speaker 1 (4:14) Someone emailed me an MP4 link. I said, thank you. And I watched it. Speaker 3 (4:20) Interesting. How was it? Speaker 1 (4:22) It was amazing. I know. It was literally amazing. Yes, because imagine like the most. like niche drama that like only you care about that you're like oh my god i have no one to talk to about this like nobody cares about this thing being made into like an hour and 15 minute documentary and you're like oh my god that random kid literal like 12 year old kid from twitter is in this documentary like random kid that like i know who he is but like he's not a famous person it's like it was insane and if you care about stuff like that at all you have to watch it Speaker 3 (4:54) well Most people don't have access to it. Did Melissa too watch it? Speaker 1 (5:00) I made her watch it. She watched it on the plane to Hawaii. What did she think? She loved it. We will have to be talking about it when she's back, but I was too excited to not mention it. Speaker 3 (5:11) Wow. Do you know if it's ever going to be available for public release? Like out of theaters once it's not making its rounds through the film festivals? Someone Speaker 1 (5:19) told me that it's available on Letterboxd, which I assume perhaps where they got this MP4 from. Is Letterboxd Speaker 3 (5:27) a movie review? Speaker 1 (5:30) Yes. I didn't really go investigate that because I felt like it was... Speaker 3 (5:33) The Speaker 1 (5:33) Yelp Speaker 3 (5:33) for movies? Speaker 1 (5:35) Yeah, well, that's where they said it was available. So check it out because if you can find it... I highly recommend. And so many of the people that we talked about in that Lifetime Ban episode are in it. Matt Sons was interviewed the whole time. Patrick Spikes, Hoot Gibson, if you remember, Mousel 2, talking about the Hoot Hive. Anyways. Speaker 3 (5:53) I do. And to the listeners who are saying, interested in the wild goose chase, go to Letterboxd and try to find this random link. Speaker 1 (6:01) You know what, guys? Best of luck. The next thing. We are recording this, as Mousel 3 said, on Monday. Tomorrow, I believe. Bob Chapek's book is coming out. So by the time this episode airs, it will be out. If you don't know, Bob Chapek worked at Disney for a very, very long time. He ultimately was like chief operating officer or something like that until he became CEO like in 2020 or right before 2020. Only lasted not very long. He was hugely unpopular and he kind of got kicked out and Bob Iger took back over as CEO. It's always been speculated that like obviously there was drama there, but nobody really knew what. Bob Chapek wrote a whole book about it and it sounds like it's going to be very juicy. And he's sort of like not speaking perhaps favorably about Bob Iger and what happened. I am at by this point, like it'll be by the time you're listening, there's probably already news about what it says because it'll be have been out for two days. But I am extremely curious. I think Disney like tried to get the book not published. ultimately, there was nothing that they could do. Speaker 3 (7:07) Are Speaker 1 (7:08) you Speaker 3 (7:08) going to read it? Speaker 1 (7:09) I would like to. Do I have time to read these days? No, but in my head, yes, I'm going to. Speaker 3 (7:16) My next piece Speaker 1 (7:17) of Disney media thoughts. Toy Story 5 is now out on Disney+. I had said that I was going to rewatch all the Toy Stories before I watched that. I watched Toy Story 1, was reminded of how much I dislike the Toy Story franchise, and I don't know if I should continue on my quest or just bail and watch Toy Story 5. Thoughts? You Speaker 3 (7:35) should continue on your quest, 100%. First of all, Toy Story 3 is, I haven't seen 4. I've seen snippets of four. I can picture a carnival and I'm jumping around on top of a bus. Okay, so I think Speaker 1 (7:46) you've seen four. Speaker 3 (7:48) No, I haven't seen the full thing. It was almost like I turned on the TV and it was on. I definitely, I know 0 % of the premise besides the fact it has to do with that little girl, Bonnie, one could say. Toy Story 3 is the best. And so just get to Toy Story 3 and then you can, you know, so do Toy Story 2, which maybe has the really creepy Sid. No, that's Toy Story 1. Speaker 1 (8:12) Toy Story 2 is like... Al's toy barn and where Woody ends up with like some collector guy and meets Jesse and Bullseye and them. Speaker 3 (8:23) No? Okay, I don't know. Just get through three, and then just barrel through four, and then you can see five. I think that it's five. Is five... Do we know that Toy Story 5 is, like, the last one? Do you Speaker 1 (8:33) know if Speaker 3 (8:33) it ended kind of in a way of... I actually Speaker 1 (8:36) don't know. But I hated the ending of four, so I'm glad they're at least, like, undoing that horrific, stupid ending. Speaker 3 (8:42) Okay, I don't know how it ended, so please don't remind me. Or please don't tell me. Because I don't know if I saw it. You should watch all of them because if Toy Story 5 is emotional in any way in terms of it being sort of the final one in the series, I think it'll pack a bigger punch if you've seen all of them recently. Speaker 1 (9:00) Okay. Maybe I will. Speaker 3 (9:03) He Speaker 1 (9:03) doesn't watch TV yet. No screen time. He's too little. Speaker 3 (9:08) But like you're never, if you want to watch a movie, is he with you? Or you're like, oh, you know, he can't look at a screen. He has to look like being in a different Speaker 1 (9:14) room. Speaker 3 (9:14) I mean, Speaker 1 (9:15) like he has screens on around him, but I would never sit him down and be like, we're watching a movie and have him be like at the screen. Oh, really? No. Speaker 3 (9:22) At what age can you begin doing that? Speaker 1 (9:25) I don't really know. I sort of know things about the Miklitz current age and maybe one month ahead. And then I don't really know anymore. Speaker 1 (9:32) Okay, my next thing. I watched Luca. I've seen it before. And I've definitely started Luca a bunch of times, but I guess never finished it in those rewatches. I was kind of in a sad mood when I watched it. I don't even remember why. It was just feeling melancholy. And I was like, Luca will make me happy. Oh my God. Have you seen Luca? Speaker 3 (9:53) No, I haven't. Don't tell me anything. Oh my God. Speaker 1 (9:56) The end was... Okay, I'll just say this. The end was so emo. I literally was like crying. I said to Mel C, I was like, I sort of wanted this to pick me up and it really kind of brought me down. Speaker 3 (10:12) Is it really that Speaker 1 (10:13) sad? No, it's like cute, but like it was much sadder than I thought it was going to be. I didn't, I don't know. I was sort of thrown off by that. Speaker 3 (10:22) I can't believe you've never seen the end of it. No, I have. You've seen it multiple times. Speaker 1 (10:25) No, I've seen it once. I've seen the ending once, definitely, like when it first came out. And I've watched it since, but I guess I've always fallen asleep or something before it ended. And I've always been like, oh, I've seen this. I don't, who cares if I don't finish it? Is Speaker 3 (10:37) the sad, clearly the sad thing is not really that plot driven because I feel like someone, came up to you a month ago and said, how does Luca end? You would be able to tell them now. Speaker 1 (10:46) Yeah, it's just sort of like the vibe, I guess. Like I know how it ends, but like the vibe was very different than I remembered. It was very sort of sad, made me emo, I would say. Speaker 3 (10:56) Okay. I'm sad about that. I kind of, I've only ever seen, there's like a whole batch of new movies. By new, I mean the last like 10 years. All Pixar. That all are in the same category to me. Here's what they are. So. Luca. Speaker 3 (11:14) Encanto. Speaker 1 (11:14) That's not a Pixar movie. Speaker 3 (11:17) Okay, Speaker 1 (11:17) Big Hero 6. Neither is Big Hero 6. Okay. That came out like 15 years Speaker 3 (11:22) ago. Animated Pixar style movies. Maybe Big Hero 6 is too old. Inside Out 2. Oh, no, not Inside Out 2. You know what I'm thinking of? What is it called? Gremlins, Minions, Emotions. You love it. Speaker 1 (11:33) What? Speaker 3 (11:34) Effervescence. What's it called? It's like your favorite Disney movie. Oh, Speaker 1 (11:37) Elemental. Speaker 3 (11:39) Elemental. Yes, Elemental, which is literally like Inside Out 3. It's like a spoof on Inside Out. You Speaker 1 (11:44) haven't even seen it. No, it's not. It Speaker 3 (11:47) gives that. It gives that. Anyway, all of those movies are in the same category of like new. Wait, Encanto isn't Pixar? Speaker 1 (11:54) No. Speaker 3 (11:57) Back when things weren't Pixar, it was like, that's because it's DreamWorks and it's Shrek. Like, why would it not be Pixar? That doesn't make any sense. Speaker 1 (12:05) It's a different studio that made it. Speaker 3 (12:08) Still Disney? Speaker 1 (12:10) I mean, Disney bought Pixar, but they're still like different. brands. Speaker 3 (12:15) No, this is super interesting. Give me another example of a well-known movie that is, I bet Elemental isn't Pixar and I bet Inside Out is. Am I right? Speaker 1 (12:25) Okay. Elemental is Pixar. But like another movie that isn't Pixar, you said? Speaker 3 (12:31) Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:34) And don't tell me a real Speaker 3 (12:35) person movie. Obviously, I know that that's Speaker 1 (12:36) not a good idea. Like all the Frozen movies? Speaker 3 (12:40) What the heck? That's not Pixar? Speaker 1 (12:43) No. So is Pixar like a Speaker 3 (12:44) magical land? Well, Frozen's a magical land, but is Pixar more like... Like, Encanto and Frozen are both about people. Speaker 1 (12:54) It's just different studios. No, it's not like that. It's just different studios. Speaker 3 (13:00) But why? Why wouldn't it all be under the same thing if it's all under Disney? I Speaker 1 (13:04) mean, different creative teams. What's the difference? Different creative teams, different vibes, different... I don't... You know what? I'm not really Speaker 3 (13:11) sure. Let's say someone was super well-versed in everything, okay? Like, everything Disney, everything Pixar, everything... Sorry, is there a name for this non-Pixar studio, or do you just call it non-Pixar? Speaker 1 (13:22) Walt Disney Animation Studios. Speaker 3 (13:27) Okay. If I showed you a movie or if I showed an expert a movie and I said, was that movie Pixar or Walt Disney Animation Studios? Would they be able to tell based on the design of the movie, do you think? Speaker 1 (13:39) I will say Disney frequently, not always, but often does musicals and Pixar typically is not going to be a musical style. I mean, yeah, I would think an expert could probably tell based on the storytelling of it. Different, again, different creative visions. Speaker 3 (13:55) Storytelling? No, I more mean like the shapes that they use. Like, I feel like Pixar has like a certain look to it. Speaker 1 (14:01) I mean, maybe, but I think less so. When was the last time like Speaker 3 (14:04) Universal or DreamWorks came out with a movie that someone might have thought was Pixar? It's like, no, everybody knows what Pixar is, except me, apparently, because apparently Gato's not Pixar. But how'd we get on this? Okay, this whole batch of, right. So going back, I wanted to watch Soul. So I haven't seen any of those movies besides Soul I watched once. at home with the family. And it surprised me. I usually have a fairly closed mind to these types of movies. I'm like, how could they possibly come out with another good story? Every story's already been told. Like, every story's already been, like, The Lion King is actually Shakespeare. Speaker 1 (14:37) No, Speaker 3 (14:38) not Grinch. I just mean, I'm like, I'm content with the movies I have. I don't need to see a live 3D retelling of it, nor do I need to just see a new story. But I'm always surprised when a new story, like, is actually good. Like is Frozen actually a good story or did it just have good music? You Speaker 1 (14:54) know what's an actual good story? Elemental. Speaker 3 (14:57) Elemental. Okay, well, Soul is amazing. I just remember it being amazing and I remember it being emotional, something about time. And so then recently I was kind of like, maybe I should start watching like movies like while I work or kind of like while I'm folding laundry, like Disney movies. Like it'd sort of be fun because Valsalche and I rarely watch movies. And if we ever watch a movie, it wouldn't really be a Disney movie. It'd be something like... New and probably a real person. And so I was like, maybe I should watch Soul. And then I thought, I'm too emo to watch Soul right now. It's going to make me too nervous and stressed about time. And it's going to be too emotional. So I could watch it. And I guess that takes Luca off my list as well. Speaker 1 (15:34) Honestly, it might. Speaker 1 (15:37) Okay, my next two points, which you're not going to care about because they're Marvel points. So I'll just fling through them. Speaker 3 (15:45) They're Speaker 1 (15:45) Marvel points, guys. I'll fling through them. I'm so excited for Vision Quest, which is the new show that's kind of following WandaVision. What are you doing? Oh my God, he's going to fix the lamp again. You're actually driving me nuts. You're driving me crazy. Anyways. I'm so, so, so excited for Vision Quest and I have really, really high hopes and I'm worried that they're not going to be met. Speaker 1 (16:09) I hope it's amazing. As for Doomsday, I'm not sure how I feel about Doomsday and everything coming up for Doomsday, but I do know that I am not going to be able to see Avengers Endgame Encore or whatever unless it comes to Disney+. So I just fully spoiled it for myself. I just have seen all of the new things that were added online. I can't see it Speaker 3 (16:32) unless it comes to Disney +, you can't go to the movies because of the miclet. Speaker 1 (16:35) Yeah. And like, I'm not, of all movies that I'm going to like make an effort to go see, it's not going to be that one. And so. Why isn't it going Speaker 3 (16:43) to be that one? For someone outside of the Marvel universe, why isn't it going to be that one? Isn't that like the next movie in the Marvel universe or something? Speaker 1 (16:49) No, they've re-released a movie from like seven years ago and added six minutes of scenes to the like two and a half hour movie. So I just kind of found the six minutes of scenes and I'm all set now. Speaker 3 (16:58) Did it change the plot? Speaker 1 (17:01) No, it's just setting up for the next movie. You know what? We can't get into it with someone who doesn't know Marvel. But the last thing about this is Disney said that Florence Pugh's character, I don't remember her name, will be anchoring kind of the whole movie, which I did not expect. Not sure how I feel about that personally. And I have not seen Black Widow because I never wanted to see Black Widow because I don't like Black Widow that much. Oh, Maslow 3 is pretending to fall asleep. Anyways, can't decide if I should watch Black Widow. Please sound off in the comments. I think you should if Speaker 3 (17:32) it's part of the universe. No, I'll answer in the comments. And I think you should if it's part of the universe. And I think that the barrier to entry to Speaker 1 (17:39) Marvel is too high. I definitely agree. I think that Disney Speaker 3 (17:43) can milk it a little bit better to people who are not in it by somehow coming out with maybe like some prequel that's called like Marvel the prequel. And it just like... It gives you just a little taste of anything that has to do with Marvel, and it doesn't fully explain it, but it's the intro. It's the trial offer, the low-risk trial offer. Because as someone outside of Marvel, including M2, I believe, it just feels... Like Star Wars, at least I have a concept of future and just... Marvel, I have absolutely no idea what's going on, and there's like a trillion different people in it. And it means nothing to me because of that. Speaker 1 (18:25) So Disney, like, knows they have that problem and I think kind of want to deal with it. But thus far, I don't think they have any good ideas for it. But Speaker 3 (18:31) I Speaker 1 (18:32) agree. I had one more note in here, but honestly, we've been talking for like 20 minutes. So we need to get into a little bit of news. Speaker 3 (18:41) And that's what you Speaker 1 (18:42) missed on Glee. The first piece of news. Speaker 3 (18:45) Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I'll start. First piece of news for those of you who are in our... Patreon sitting on the ground talking. My lamp was broken and now it's fixed. So that's the first piece of news and it better be fixed. And if not, I'll be, there we go. That's at least a little bit better. Now it's blue. The second piece of news is previews for Hurley Burley have begun. It actually opens on the day that this episode was released and I'm now going to flip it over to M1 who actually knows what Hurley Burley is and apparently is obsessed with it. Speaker 1 (19:16) Hurley Burley, we've talked about a bunch. It's the lounge replacing jelly rolls. They did previews with some media and creators and stuff. It looks amazing. Small bites, fun family activities before nine, live entertainment after nine. The entertainment looks amazing. The food looks amazing. The drinks look really good. I am so excited to experience this when we go with you, Mousel3, in November. It's going to be very fun. Yeah, I'm excited. Next piece of news, LilyPad, we talked about. The character from Toy Story 5 is officially now at Hollywood Studios, and she has new songs for Alien Swirling Saucers, including Taylor Swift's song from Toy Story 5, I Knew What I Knew You. So I'm curious to see if that actually impacts, I don't know, if I feel really any particular way about it when I see it. Speaker 3 (20:02) Is Lily Pet an animatronic on the ride, like meant to be viewed while you're on the ride or from the exterior of the Speaker 1 (20:09) ride? From the exterior. It's like out in the garden, sort of facing the... Crowd. And she's DJing the ride. Speaker 3 (20:17) What's another example of an animatronic that's just like available to walk up to outside of an attraction? Speaker 1 (20:22) It's not an animatronic. It's just a big screen. Because it's digital. Because it's like an iPad. Speaker 1 (20:30) Okay. Okay. Next, Basco the tiger. This was the cub that was born at Animal Kingdom. One of the cubs is leaving Animal Kingdom. This is part of the sort of standard like zoo practice. They move animals around in order to make sure, I don't know, that like breeding is happening the way that it should and whatever. There's like a lot of regulations with where animals are being. So sadly, Basco will not be there anymore. Speaker 3 (20:52) And is going where? A Speaker 1 (20:54) different zoo. I don't know. A different zoo. Oh, not the wild. Yeah. Speaker 2 (20:58) No, Speaker 1 (20:58) no. Okay. The new Olaf draws experience, like the new animation building, has been in B mode for like at least a few days at this point, which is very interesting. So off to the left side, there's the Olaf animatronic. He's who's teaching you how to draw. That's kind of the whole theme of the thing. But right now he's covered up with a big like drape and they have a screen in the center and a woman comes on and she's like. Oh, I'm not sure where Olaf is right now. He must be off, I don't know, doing some frozen meat pun. And then she leads the class from the screen. So I guess they had planned for a B-mode, but I am wondering how long it's going to be in B-mode. I mean, it's not even B Speaker 3 (21:40) -mode. It's just he's not working, and so they have just a human being coming on doing it? No, it's Speaker 1 (21:44) a screen. It's a pre-recorded screen of the woman being like, oh. Speaker 3 (21:49) Oh, but usually Olaf is an animatronic. Speaker 1 (21:52) Yes. Speaker 3 (21:53) Okay. Thank you. Speaker 1 (21:55) Would you like to try and say this next piece of news? Speaker 3 (21:58) Sure. Thanks for the crumb. JetBlue is now one of the airlines offering the airport luggage service available at select hotels, which I think you guys talked about with. Carly Weiss held a couple weeks ago. Speaker 1 (22:11) Yes, yes. This is Speaker 3 (22:13) where they're basically bringing back something Speaker 1 (22:16) similar to what they used to have with Magical Express where you don't have to get your luggage when you get off the plane. They'll just handle it for you. It's been kind of very quietly, slowly rolling out. I think it's at all the value resorts and one moderate now, but don't quote me on that. I know Southwest is one of the airlines, American is one of the airlines, and now JetBlue. That's fun. Speaker 1 (22:37) We don't normally talk about merch news, but I thought this was interesting, which is that for the Create Your Own Headbands at Walt Disney World, Black Panther, Iron Man, and Spider-Man are now available on them. You don't typically get a ton of Marvel representation on the East Coast, so that's fun. I'm excited to see them. Speaker 3 (22:54) Where is the Create Your Own Headbands? Speaker 1 (22:56) They're typically in the big store at each park, so the Emporium, Creations, etc. Speaker 1 (23:07) Joffreys is doing something fun. Go ahead. Speaker 3 (23:10) Joffreys did something fun on National Coffee Day, which was two days ago, if you're listening on the day this