Anger, Disney and the Tower of Terror

Image: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog

Despite being full of happiness and pixie dust, Disney can bring out a lot of anger in people. Any sort of change seems to bring out angry, from price increases to any changes in the parks. I personally still love Disney and I realize that the parks need to change and evolve to stay relevant.

It's been a rumor for a while now that the Tower of Terror in Disney California Adventure was going to be changed to a Guardians of the Galaxy ride. But at SDCC this past weekend, it was officially announced that the rumors were true.

This caused the biggest uproar that I've ever seen. People were extremely upset, despite the fact that the Tower of Terror was remaining the same at Walt Disney World. I think part of it is that Disneyland and DCA has more local people who go. I saw a lot of posts from people saying that they couldn't afford to go to Florida to ride their Tower.

In the end though, it's just a ride. Lots of rides have closed or changed over the years at the Disney Parks. My husband is still sad that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is no longer at Disney World. I miss Body Wars and the original Journey into Imagination from Epcot, but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the new rides that have come out since then.

A lot of the anger seemed to be directed at the fact that it was going to be a Marvel ride. Lots of people ranted that Disney should stick with only Disney properties in their parks. Which is so silly if you think about it. The basis of the Tower of Terror is the Twilight Zone, which is not even something Disney owns. I think a lot of people are upset that Disneyland is getting changed in order to put Star Wars land in.

At the end of the day, Walt Disney said that the parks weren't ever going to be finished. Besides, the whole 'Walt wouldn't be happy' argument that people use when something happens they don't like is a moot point. Walt has been, sadly, gone for decades. And Disney is a business that needs to stay fresh and new.

Personally I think the new ride looks awesome. Of course, I'm a chicken and don't like drop rides, so I have never ridden the Tower of Terror anywhere. But it's one ride at one park. Not the end of the world.

Captain America and Hydra

Image: nypost.com

It's pretty obvious from my blog that I'm a huge geek. I've never been much of a comic books geek though. I know all the characters, but most of my familiarity with them comes cartoons and movies. I love the Batman animated series - I remember rushing home from school in order to see it every day.

I didn't know a lot about the Marvel characters until the MCU started up. I remember Todd telling me that I had to go see Iron Man because it was so good. I loved it as well. I enjoyed Thor and the 2nd Iron Man movie too, but when Captain America: The First Avenger came out I was blown away.

Since that time Cap has been my favorite super hero. He's brave, strong, has a good moral compass and tries to do what he thinks is right. He's all American and I just love him.

When the internet lost its' mind a few days ago over the last page of the new Captain America #1 where Cap is showing saying, "Hail Hydra", I was pretty annoyed. There is no way, in my mind, that Steve Rodgers would be Hydra. Let alone Hydra for 70+ years!

It wasn't until I saw a post last night that it started making me feel angry. On Tumblr, several people posted how kids were really upset over Cap being Hydra. When I talked to Emily, who is 7, and asked her if she thought Steve could ever be Hydra she looked at me like I had two heads. No way is he ever could be evil.

Yes, Marvel can do what it wants. Yes, they can retcon this like so many other storylines / characters. But it's still vastly out of the character of Captain America. I think a lot of fans would be happier to read new stories with new characters instead of comic book writers gutting favorites for shock value.

For me, I'll be clinging to MCU Steve who would never bee Hydra. I was watching The Winter Soldier and then Age of Ultron last night. Cap spent the whole of The Winter Soldier fighting against Hydra and he was so shocked and appalled that SHIELD was basically hiding Hydra that he punched a screen in anger.

If I could draw, I'd try to make my own comic. I'm positive it's not easy but I'm sure I could come up with a better story than the one within Captain America #1.

Guardians of the Galaxy & The Kindergartner

Image: en.wikipedia.org/

In my house, we have a love of the new Marvel movies. Both Todd and I have collected comics in our past but not so much anymore. But we love the superhero movies and have found the Marvel ones to be highly entertaining.

We have just about all of them on DVD and I like watching them especially when I'm not feeling bad. Even though she's just five, Emily's seen pretty much all of them. She loves the Hulk and tends to cry out, "HULK SMASH," when we watch The Avengers even when Hulk or Bruce Banner aren't on the screen.

When we saw the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, she instantly loved Rocket and wanted to see it. Even though she's only 5, we decided to take her to the theater when we saw it.

She was extremely excited - bouncing around as we waited in the long line to get tickets and then snacks. As the movie went on, she laughed a lot. She wasn't scared and honestly there wasn't of content that I thought was objectionable.

We saw it in a 2D show because while Emily will wear the 3D glasses she tends to want to take them off after a while. There were a lot of kids there - the theater was nearly full!

Marvel movies are really great family films - especially for a super hero lover like my daughter.