Jentasmic!: Disney’s Influence on Florida 2012 Elections

In this week’s Jentasmic!, I muse about Disney’s involvement in Florida’s electoral politics. A snippet:

Based on recent political contributions by Walt Disney World, we should probably be singing “It’s a Republican world after all” as we glide along through a classic indoor boatride. According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Walt Disney World has spent nearly $2.5 million on political candidates and causes in Florida so far this election cycle” (as of September 27, 2012), with approximately 90% of that money going to Republican candidates or Republican-leaning interest groups.

And I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface; Disney has a long and complex relationship with politics in Florida (and nationwide — let’s not forget Sonny Bono’s Mickey Mouse Protection Act). Vance at StudiosCentral points out that Disney’s also recently been involved with preventing a paid sick-leave question from appearing on the Florida ballot. From HuffPo:

Thanks largely to the pressure brought by the business lobby in Orange County, Fla., it appears the most magical place on earth won’t include mandated sick leave for workers anytime soon.

Last month, Orange’s Board of County Commissioners voted to put off a ballot vote on a hotly contested measure that would require employers to provide workers with one hour of sick leave for every 37 hours worked, capped at 56 per year. By delaying the vote until after the printing deadline for the Nov. 6 ballot, the board’s move at least temporarily scuttled an initiative that 50,000 voters had petitioned to put to a public vote.

I took a quick look at the current union contract for full-time WDW Cast Members, and full-time Cast Members can earn up to 48 hours of sick leave per year (assuming one works 8-hour days, that’s 6 days worth). That’s below the average for full-time workers in the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And I’m well-aware that many Cast Members are neither full-time nor covered by the union. Any Cast Members have stories they’d like to tell? Plenty of room here in the comment section below.

Should Disney Celebrate Oswald’s 85th?

As an Oswald fan, I’m glad to see his merchandise showing up in more places. I’m even willing to accept that his image is being updated with the times, much as Mickey doesn’t look like he did in the 1920′s anymore.

But I’ve gotta stop a moment and take note of the fact that Disney’s spinning some of this new merchandise not with the Epic Mickey 2 release, which makes sense, but rather with Oswald’s 85th birthday. Oswald was at Universal for 78 of those 85 years, and for most of that time he just sat in a vault alone.

Should we think of this 85th birthday celebration as a make-up party for all those milestones missed? Or is this a little bit like celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, despite having been legally separated and living apart for 47 of those years?

All I’m sure of is this: There’s no such thing as a bad reason to watch an Oswald cartoon. So here’s one of my favorites: The Mechanical Cow. I’m especially enamored of the scene with the baby, which starts around 3:20.

Walt Disnizzle Mixtape!

Attention Disney hipsters: You’re already at least 20 seconds late for downloading Walt Disnizzle Mixtape. Here’s how to fix that.

Hat tip: BoingBoing.

Disney Store Selling Bust Enhancement Cream

Yeah, I know that title might land this straight in your spam filter. But it’s true! The new Disney Baby collection that many of us Disney fans got email about this morning includes skin care products for new moms, including Bounce Back Bust Butter. And I find this hilarious.

Jentasmic! Have You Thanked a Cast Member Lately?

Towel animals don’t just make themselves, y’know. And yeah I have no idea what animal this is. Sloth? Puppy? Reindeer?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Cast Members need love too. This week I’m saying it at Studios Central in my Jentasmic! column.

If you’ve ever had a great, magical time at Walt Disney World, there have been Cast Members to thank for it. Perhaps it was a cheerful face as you boarded an attraction, or a Princess lavishing attention on your child, or a friendly bus driver welcoming you aboard. Or maybe it was something truly exceptional, such as the time a kind Guest Services Cast Member gave my son a new Buzz Lightyear mug to replace one he’d lost in the mens’ room, or the manager at Le Cellier who replaced my entire outfit after an unfortunate experience with a tray of drinks. Or maybe it was people you never saw: The Imagineers who designed an attraction, the housekeepers who left towel animals on your bed, or the people who prepared your meals.

Head on over to StudiosCentral for the full article.

Jentasmic on Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

I was instantly hooked on Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. So how’s about Disney bringing that technology to Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Here’s a snippet from this week’s Jentasmic! column, over on StudiosCentral:

SOTMK is more complex (both in technology and game mechanic) and has greater potential for expansion and re-themeing than its Epcot equivalent, Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure (which recently replaced an almost-identical game themed to Kim Possible). Aaron DelPrince recently reviewed this game here on StudiosCentral. I agree with Aaron that the Agent P experience is a step up from the Kim Possible version. But SOTMK is in another league entirely, using full-movement animation and a wider variety of variables which will affect each specific interaction in the game.

Disneyana at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum

You have got to be kidding me. Does it include its own spindle?

Baltimore’s an odd little city in some ways. For one thing, who thought it was a good idea to put a large convention center across the street from the baseball stadium? Throughout Otakon, cosplaying anime fans and befuddled Orioles fans competed for space on the sidewalks.

My family flew into town the day before Otakon, knowing that we’d be able to pick up our pre-registered badges that evening. (We didn’t get into the crazy long line that snaked around the convention center all afternoon; we just waited until we saw someone tweet that there was only a 10-minute wait. Shazam, done.)

But maybe it’s not so bad that the stadium is so close to the convention center, because the Sports Legends museum shares a building with a great find for any fan of vintage Disney comics and merchandise: Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, which a friend was kind enough to suggest we visit that afternoon.

The Geppi’s web site explains their mission:

Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is dedicated to presenting the story of popular culture since the nation’s earliest days in an entertaining and educational fashion so that our guests have the unique opportunity to walk through a timeline that parallels and is entwined with history as a whole.

I’m not sure how well they accomplish the entwinement of history; I didn’t notice any references to historical events other than those specifically referenced in the pop culture materials they’ve archived. But they’ve done a great job of collecting and displaying nostalgic ephemera, from comic books to underpants. We spent an hour or so working our way through the collections, constantly tugging at each others’ sleeves and exclaiming, “You’ve got to see this one!”

My only disappointment in the museum is that their Local Heroes collection only has a small John Waters section. Museum staff explained that this is because they’d like to keep the museum family-friendly, which means they really can’t reference most of his films (they did have a couple of pink flamingos, referencing his least family-friendly movie).

Below is a photo gallery of just a few of the Disney items I saw at the Geppi Museum on July 26, 2012. If you’re in Baltimore, with or without tens of thousands of anime fans, I’d encourage you to drop in and visit the collections.

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I’ve also got to include one non-Disney image, because it makes me giggle.

If Foxy Grandpa Hat Party isn’t already a euphemism, it should be.