As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Can't say I'm not surprised. This didn't look like a good movie when I, first, saw the previews before Tangled. But in typical fashion, let's blame it on, "it wasn't geared for boys." The only female cast member was the boy's mom...how is it NOT geared toward boys. Gimme me a break. Just admit it was a bad movie.
Plus, they continue to give Tangled, which was a good movie, backhanded comments like "overachiever." Heaven forbid a movie have a good story and good characters...people, including boys, want to see that.
I thought it looked like a weird movie. We still might watch it eventually for my 6 yr old DS though. But the animation looks just like the Polar Express movie, which even though it was a good movie, looked weird. I don't know, I probably would have went back to the drawing board and made it look more appealing, visually...
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Has anyone read the book it's based on?
It's by the same guy who did Bloom County, though the target market for the book is K-3rd grade.
The premise sounds cute -- for a children's picture book. But I struggle with the idea of turning a 16 page children's book into a feature film (even for stories I love, like The Cat in the Hat and The Polar Express). You have to do a lot of story stretching.
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Last edited by Carousel96; 03-16-2011 at 09:56 PM..
What were they thinking? Probably, that Polar Express did pretty nicely, using the same motion capture technology, and that Bob Zemeckis has a pretty nice track record as a filmmaker (although not recently).
The thing is, motion capture animation is definitely going to be around for a while. It did work for Avatar and in many other projects (animating Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films is a relatively early example). They can't do "Turtle Talk with Crush" without it (lip sync and facial expressions especially).
I think the issue is solely the style of the animation, rather than the technology used to make the characters move. I thought Polar Express looked creepy, and the trailers for this one looked little different. So, the artwork was not a selling point, which is pretty unusual for an animated film.
Realistic human forms have always been a problem for animation. It took years for Pixar to feel confident about including human characters. Snow White was a similar challenge in its day. Before Snow White, "human character" meant Betty Boop - still very much of a caricature. Snow White was one of the earliest attempts to present realistic-looking human forms. Maybe they'll find the right "look" for humans in motion capture animation - possibly with faces and forms that look more like hand-drawn but that are proportioned and move very realistically. Our subconscious minds are designed to readily distinguish "friend" and "family" from "other," and I have a feeling this film pushed the "other" button a bit too hard. We may not know consciously why we don't like it, but in our guts, we know.
In Disney's case, you win a bunch, you lose a few. And considering how good Disney is at exploiting their intellectual property, it may still tip into the black sometime in the next couple of decades.
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Realistic human forms have always been a problem for animation. It took years for Pixar to feel confident about including human characters.
I think that human forms do best with motion capture if they are stylized -- like the elongated, blue bodies in Avatar, or the oddly-proportioned (or "not realistic human proportions") of Pixar characters like those in The Incredibles, or Up. But they can still falter, even in such Pixar stunners like Toy Story 3 with the humans in that.
I'm not terribly surprised it didn't do well. The first thing I said when I saw the previews was, "no way." It wasn't appealing to me in any way: style, characters, story, or theme. Just who did they think would enjoy the movie? Any boy over the age of 8, would think it was too "baby" and any boy under the age of 6 might be frightened by it. (Don't take my Mom away!) Certainly, they didn't expect adults to go see it without kids. Just a bad idea all the way around.
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In Disney's case, you win a bunch, you lose a few. And considering how good Disney is at exploiting their intellectual property, it may still tip into the black sometime in the next couple of decades.
I bet they will recoup some of their loss in the overseas markets. Any Disney film tends to do well in other countries.
I thought it looked fairly cute, but as I don't have young children it didn't appeal to anyone in my household.
We have this book, and my 2 boys (ages 9 and 7) like the story mostly because it inevitably makes me cry when we read it. It really is a sweet story, and I think it did help my 9yo understand that my primary purpose in life is not to make him miserable, but that I do and say the things I do because I love him so very much.
With that said, I have no interest in seeing the movie. I just can't see how that short little book will translate into a feature length film. Moreover, from the previews, it looks like little Milo has quite the exciting adventure during his stay on Mars. That is not at all what happens in the book, and, if my assumption based on the previews is correct, I think that ruins the story.
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