Disney Podcast Updates, February 2011 - Part 1

Here we are, folks, with the first installment of the new setup on the shows.  I’m shooting to put out more weekly updates to maintain currency.  Most of these shows come from the February 1-6 timeframe.  I don’t want to limit the shows in a specific post to a specific timeframe, so you may very well see shows from Feb 1-6 in a later round of updates (thus the change in the way I titled it).  I’m back to actually writing my own updates, rather than simply posting the show descriptions – which I think will come as a welcome change to the podcasters; hopefully you’ll be able to tell that I had a little fun with some of the shows.  As mentioned in this post, I’m not going to be covering as many shows in order to keep fairly up-to-date.  Still, there are a number of shows for this 6-day period.  If I add new shows to the master list, I’ll be sure to include the first couple of episodes in the time frame so people can get a feel for what the show is about.

If you are interested in listening to any of these episodes, I have links to subscribe for most of these shows in my post HERE.  Also, if you’re willing, you can help these shows out by posting a review over on iTunes.  The more they get, the higher up they appear on searches.  If you do start listening to a podcast as a result of what you’ve seen on here, please let the podcasters know!

As always, please note that this again is not a comprehensive list of the Disney Podcasts that are out there. Mike Hamilton has created Disneypodcastdirectory.net, which he periodically updates with new podcasts and removes dead casts. He also has the automated RSS (historical) feeds of the podcasts. This is more of a cross-section of what is currently being talked about…perhaps something may sound interesting, and you'll subscribe to listen to that topic.  Also, Shawn Rees does an absolutely amazing job posting more real-time updates on Twitter.  Follow @dis_pod_review if you aren't already doing so.

Any and all comments are welcomed!  Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know, and I’ll add it to the master list in the link above.

Enjoy!!!

• Be our Guest
• 02/03/11 – Episode 304, a common theme in the recent shows is the Disney Dream (rightfully so…it sounds like an AWESOME ship).  On this show, the hosts pick Pam’s brain on her recent ride on the Christening Cruise of the Dream.  Between this show and Mongello’s newscast, I’m going to redouble my efforts to get my wife to agree to a cruise someday.  Great material and narrative of the ship!  A lot of detail was spent on the dining as well as the age-specific portions of the ship – tweens and teens are going to love those places.  Time: 54:19
• 02/06/2011 – Episode 305, During Snowpocalypse 2011, Heather from Massachusetts dodges the panicked masses running to get French toast supplies (eggs, milk, and bread) to talk with Mike about her most recent trip report, along with two other reports.  While this may not seem too exciting, the three trips were spread out over 21 years!  The first trip was a honeymoon trip in 1989 at the Disney Inn (Now Shades of Green).  Then real life set in, with careers, children, etc.  Well, the kids are now teenagers, and teenagers have a tendency to move out and go to college, so they decided to do the “once in a lifetime” family trip. That was two trips ago.  The 2010 trip included staying at Port Orleans and a GREAT experience with the teens and dining at Epcot (can you teach my kids to take a chance to eat different foods…PLEASE???).  They made the mistake of trying to do everything (remember, this was the once-in-a-lifetime trip).  Upon getting home, Heather and her husband turned into all of us and started planning for the next trip (with the lessons learned from the last trip…December instead of June, slowing down, etc).  Time: 37:00
• Betamouse
• 02/03/11 – Episode 51, I am SO glad they did this episode!  I have heard of their guest before, but I never took the time to look up who Martin Smith was and what he did.  Henry, Scott, Jeff, and Nate talk with Martin about what I have (until now) only heard to be an amazing site with tons of videos of past and present Disney attractions.  Martinsvids.net is the site.  He talks about his trials and tribulations about starting out (he vows never to release some of his first videos).  As an example of his work (as he mentions in this show), he shows the evolution of the Land Pavilion.  Video 1; Video 2; Video 3.  These videos are done in a very professional way and provide a fantastic journey through time of the attractions. (and, yes, folks, he even has videos on Horizons!).  If you haven’t listened lately, I love the banter/outtakes after the episode.  Time: 58:42   #GoGoGoGo
• The Disney, Indiana Podcast
• 02/06/11 – Episode 67, Scott and Tracey begin the show with a review of D23 – while the DFs out there may cringe when they hear the review, I applaud the hosts for how they handled it – it was a fair evaluation laid out very well.  Hopefully they’ll get everything rectified (as and FYI, my wife got me a D23 membership for Christmas, and the delay from when she ordered it to when it arrived – after Christmas – drove her crazy).  Well done on this segment!  After D23, they give us a segment on Disney and the Academy Awards – and yet again, I learned a LOT about this subject (e.g. Walt Disney is often credited with giving the statue the nickname “Oscar”; and I never knew Randy Newman was part of a storied family when it came to movie music!).  Buzzy then takes over and gives us songs to sing to in the car…well, that was my plan anyways when I heard the opening bars of “Beauty and the Beast”.   It quickly became a melody of “La Belle et La Bete” as I harkened back to my high school and college French classes!  Several songs in French are included (yes, folks, he includes Les Poisson...a must for this interlude).  I had to look up “Are you In or Out” though…never heard that one before.  The versions of Poor Unfortunate Souls, Cruella De Ville, and We Are Siamese were GREAT! Before ending the show with listener feedback, they provide some well thought-out possible suggestions for how to improve D23 for the casual Disney freak who doesn’t live in So-Cal or central Florida.  Time: 1:00:38
• Inside the Magic
• 02/06/11 – Episode 305, Ricky brings on Donald Hahn for a really good interview about the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, which chronicles the goings-on of Disney in the 80s/90s resurgence of the studios, with such classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, etc.  Included is a touching discussion about Howard Ashman, who was the songwriter for many of these movies (I tear up every time I hear “Proud of Your Boy”).  I missed the viewing of Waking Sleeping Beauty in my hometown because, ironically, we left for vacation to WDW last June.  After the interview, Ricky takes on a ride on the TTA with Skipper Ben, where they discuss the new Magic, Memories, and You castle show, the tepid reception to the audio update over at Space Mountain, and a review of Via Napoli.  Listener feedback wraps the show.  Time: 1:13:43
• Magical Definition
• 02/06/10 – Nathan and Jim talk about the newest Disney release, Gnomeo and Juliet.  Jim gives some really in-depth background on the development of the movie (is it just me, or does it seem like this movie was thrown together?  Apparently, it wasn’t, and there were a lot of writers involved in it).  He also gives a thought-provoking reason why this being released as a Touchstone picture instead of a Disney one.  Nathan gives a “meh” review, with a telling critique of the lack of humor (most of the humor in the movie was shown in the trailers).  The discussion then turns to planning and the financials, with emphasis on hotels, EuroDisney, Cirque du Soliel (with respect to licensing with Marvel, since DTD technically isn’t a theme park…FYI: Jim got skewered on his blog about this), and more.   Time: 41:18
• Mousetalgia
• 02/06/11 – Episode 119, Being a Donald Duck fan, I can honestly say that I LOVED this show as they discussed taking part in an interview at the Disney family museum with the voice of the duck himself, Tony Anselmo.  One of the most amazing things that you can gleam from this talk is Anselmo’s actual becoming of the voice – he was always a huge fan of the original voice (Clarence Nash) and worked with him a lot, all the while not trying to “become” the voice (i.e. taking the job away from Nash).  Also really interesting was Anselmo’s passion about making sure the writers know who Donald is – on several occasions he would contact the writers and ultimately get them to rewrite certain lines because “it’s not what Donald would say.”  This right here is a telling feature of why many of the Disney cartoons are so much more well-received that other studios’ productions.  I couldn’t help but laugh about the squirrel rehab center, though (towards the beginning of the show in the roundup).  Time: 57:34
• Those Darn Cats
• 02/01/11 – Episode 138, This show intrigued me because they were talking about Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo.  We’ve watched it on Netflix, and I quit watching after about 20 minutes.  My wife and 2 kids, however…they LOVE it.  You don’t know how many times my 6 year old screams “HAM!!!!” to me every day (I wish I were making this up).  I’m with Lisa a bit on this one as I couldn’t really follow what the heck was going on with all the little ponyos and the weird Liam Neeson, then Ponyo grows up and gets really big and is left at home with her 6 year old friend and a Mom and Dad who are constantly sarcastic at each other and the nursing home/Cocoon vibe.  I almost waited to listen to this one with the boys to hear their take on it.  Time: 35:14
• WaltCast
• 02/01/11 – Episode 80, this is one of the shorter shows (we’re between interviews).  Some of the interesting items talked about included the new lap bars on Splash Mountain (I fully expect Katie to kill Shawn for that pic he posted of her after the drop) and a discussion about the proposed 7 Dwarves mine train coaster and its similarities to BTMRR (I think there will be enough differences to keep the interest without being redundant –with the somewhat independently moving cars, that could possibly be more hair-raising than you think).  Shawn also talks a bit about Animal Kingdom at park opening (we hit that at opening every time and do the same thing you did…go straight to Safaris!).  Time: 29:56
• WDW Radio Show
• 02/02/11 – WDW Newscast – I didn’t even realize Lou was putting these on the podcast feed!  This is a rebroadcast from the same night where the box people (if you don’t know, just Google Mongello Box People) pepper Lou with questions about the Disney Dream as he recently sailed on it.  There is some great first-hand information here, and I might have to have my wife listen to this to see if I can FINALLY get her on a ship.  Time: 50:27
• 02/06/10 – Episode 208, Jim Korkis is on, which again means I’m going to enjoy this show!  Jim, one of the ultimate Disney Historians, brings his expertise to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, created by architect Peter Dominick (also of AKL fame).  Jim lets us in on so many unknown secrets of the Lodge, which I always consider to be a fabulous treat.  After hearing this, you can understand the story being told all the more in the resort.  After listening to this segment, I dare you to look at the flooring and the lodge poles in the Atrium and NOT think about this episode.  After Jim’s segment, Lou gives updates to Meets of the month and then provides listener feedback.  Time: 58:52
• WDW Today
• 02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day!  They start off with “Smells from California!”  Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more.  FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010.  (Phil??? Phil Conners?)  Time: 37:08
• 02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day!  They start off with “Smells from California!”  Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more.  FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010.  (Ned???)  Time: 37:08
• 02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day!  They start off with “Smells from California!”  Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more.  FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010. (Phil???  Phil Conners?  Ned?  SLUG!!!)  Time: 37:08
• 02/04/11 – Episode 834, On this show, Matt, Scopa, and Len bring on Laura Spencer (any Disney fan on Twitter knows her name) to talk about her experiences from being on the first Disney World Mom’s Panel to becoming the director of Social Media.  Good interview, though I’m a bit concerned about the “moving south or committing suicide” issue LOL!!!  Time: 23:41
• A Window to the Magic
• 02/01/11 – Episode 264, Paul is off on his honeymoon with Tairy, so he employs listener Jeremiah for another installment of “Where in the World”.  Now, I’ve only been to DL/DCA once; as a result, this one has been bugging me for a while now.  I mean, he gives us some material to chew (choo?) on, including a German accent speaking Spanish (on an English-speaking podcast), a gender-confused mobster, and some audio from a short flik that has us getting sprayed, stung, and scared. WTTM is one of the shows that I sorely missed listening to in the past – listening to park audio at 125% speed doesn’t quite work that well.  Time: 56:46