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Once Upon a Studio

Disney News (11/5) – Is the Disney Dining Plan Worth the Cost, and Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Once Upon a Studio

11 months ago
Episode 7

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Once Upon a Studio

In this week’s episode, Kelli does a cost analysis for a family of 4 traveling to Disney on the dining plan in 2024, and Chris takes us behind the scenes of Disney’s Once Upon a Studio – arguably the best thing to come out of the 100th celebration. 

Listen to us on your favorite podcast platform or at these links:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supercalifragilistic-awesome-disney-podcast/id1519529786
IHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-supercalifragilistic-aweso-68324055/
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SCFADP on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SuperCaliFragilisticAwesomeDisneyPodcast

All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Show Notes:

Kelli and Chris discuss Disney’s legal action against DeSantis, updates on Disney offerings, and changes to the Disney Dining Plan. They also analyze the significance of Disney’s 100th anniversary and the commemoration of Walt Disney’s dream through a short film. Chris highlights the use of hand-drawn and CG-generated animation, while Kelli expresses admiration for the characters’ interactions. The conversation covers various aspects of Disney, including regulatory control, expansion efforts, and celebratory events.

Outline

Disney’s taxing district and legal battle with DeSantis.

  • Kelli and Chris discuss Disney knowledge and welcome listeners from various locations.
  • Disney disputes Florida’s claim of level playing field in new taxing district.

Disney news, including Hulu purchase and Christmas decorations.

  • Chris and Kelli discuss Disney’s purchase of Hulu and the changes to the Jingle Cruise attraction at the Magic Kingdom.
  • They also mention the music from Epcot’s Luminous event, which starts on December 5th.
  • Chris and Kelli discuss new barges arriving on the water and people’s reactions to them.
  • They mention the wine and dine half marathon weekend and people’s smiles during the event.

Disney dining plans, including changes and cost increases.

  • Kelli and Chris discuss the upcoming movie “Wish” and its villain song, as well as the launch of ASHA’s meet and greet at Epcot.
  • They also talk about the construction of the gingerbread house at Grand Floridian, and Kelli shares her experience as a gingerbread baker at Disney.
  • Kelli and Chris discuss Disney Cruise Line’s new private island, Key, and the dining plan changes for 2024.
  • Kelli provides insights on the dining plan, including the inclusion of alcoholic beverages and gratuity, and how it may not be worth it for vegetarians or those who eat chicken or pasta.
  • Kelli and Chris discuss changes to Disney dining plans, including new definitions of meal types and snacks.
  • Kelli estimates the cost of different dining options, including table service, counter service, and quick service meals, and snacks.

Disney dining plan costs and savings.

  • Kelli estimates $228 per night for Disney dining plan at Magic Kingdom.
  • Kelli provides an overview of the dining plan for a family of four at Walt Disney World, including snack and counter service credits.
  • The family’s dining plan expenses vary depending on whether they pay with cash or use the dining plan, with some meals costing more than others.
  • Kelli and Chris discuss the pros and cons of the Disney dining plan, including savings on food and drink purchases, and the potential for overspending on alcohol and snacks.
  • Even with the dining plan, the group may still spend money on food and drinks beyond the included meals and snacks.

Disney’s “Once Upon a Studio” short film and its animation techniques.

  • Kelli and Chris discuss the return of the Disney dining plan and potential alternatives for saving money on food and merchandise.
  • Kelli suggests using credit cards or debit cards that offer cashback or discounts on Disney purchases.
  • Chris praises “Once Upon a Studio” short film, enjoying its nostalgic value and attention to detail.
  • Chris and Kelli discuss animators leaving a building, including Bernie Madison, a Disney legend who animated and directed Mickey’s Christmas Carol before passing away.

Animation techniques and voice actors for 100th anniversary short film.

  • Chris and Kelli discuss the 100th anniversary of Disney animation, highlighting the short film “Lamp Life” and its use of hand-drawn and CG animation.
  • The film features 543 distinct character depictions from 85 feature-length and short films, with artists including hand-drawn animation apprentices and veterans like Andrew Feliciana.
  • Chris: Creators used original Robin Williams audio from Aladdin for Genie’s line in the short film.
  • Kelli: Hand-drawn animation and CGI were used together in the film, with collaboration between the two teams.

Disney’s “Mary Poppins” and its connection to Walt Disney’s legacy.

  • Chris and Eric share memories of Walt Disney and the classic Disney songs he loved.
  • Richard Sherman, Disney legend and composer of “Feed the Birds,” returns to Walt Disney’s office to record the song for a new project.
  • Chris and Kelli discuss the magic of Disney and the importance of kindness.

Disney Dining Plan Info: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-dining-plan-costs-info-tips/

Episode Transcript:

NOTE: This transcript was produced by AI and may have many inaccuracies. Please excuse any transcription issues.

Welcome aboard Disney fam. Welcome aboard indeed. Disney fam. My name is Chris. And I’m Kelly. Welcome to the latest episode of Supercalifragilistic. Awesome Disney podcast. We are so glad you’re here. So glad in fact that you’re wearing what are yours are

Kelli 0:46
these are my annual Passholder ears?

Chris 0:48
Oh, you’ve got more than one pair of annual pass holder years. So

Kelli 0:51
I don’t I’ve just got one pair of annual pass holder ears and one pair of DVC ears. And so I’m wearing these shocking for some reason. Yeah, no. I’m wearing these today because I am going to talk about some important knowledge that maybe Annual Pass holders are aware of that. Maybe the rest of us aren’t. Oh, that seems super vague.

Chris 1:12
very vague, little bit of elitist.

Kelli 1:15
I didn’t Yeah. I mean for it sound that way. Not actually that great.

Chris 1:22
Did anybody listen to us this week? As as always, I’m shocked to say yes. We had downloads from Canton, Michigan, that’s a western suburb of Detroit on the way out to Ann Arbor,

Kelli 1:33
Michigan, cute.

Chris 1:36
Kissimmee, Florida,

Kelli 1:37
Kissimmee welcome

Chris 1:41
me downwards before it’s like right across the eye for from Walt Disney World. Yeah, welcome. Cassini Yep. Denison, Iowa, Denison at 300 Fine, folks, just about an hour and a half northeast of Omaha.

Kelli 1:55
It was the Denison family was the family in hocus pocus right next Denison. I believe so. It moved to South. Yeah. So I know it was a deep set that is

Chris 2:07
very impressed by that. Honestly. Yeah. And then lastly, this is such a UK sounding name of a town. This is fantastic. Royal Limington spa.

Kelli 2:17
That royal there. Where’s that at

Chris 2:21
just south of Birmingham? It’s well, well north of yeah, probably Birmingham, Birmingham. Well, north of London, like on the way to Manchester, Northern England area,

Kelli 2:31
right? Yeah,

Chris 2:32
yeah. Royal Limington spa.

Kelli 2:35
That’s fantastic. I want to go there.

Chris 2:37
I think it would be a lovely place to visit. It

Kelli 2:39
sounds fantastic. And

Chris 2:41
we’re hugely nice dice. All right. I mean, that’s that’s new sign. Look at that. We just flew right through all that mess. Okay. So Disney has now officially filed paperwork with the court case against DeSantis pointing to universals new taxing district we talked about this how universal has been granted a taxing district that completely encompasses their new epic University and parts of their building, as well as some other things. And Disney published or submitted paperwork that says the following in repeated public comments, the governor declared that the laws the these these new laws that have been enacted to punish Disney do not injure Disney because they simply make the company subject to the same regulatory structure applicable to all other Florida businesses, thereby creating a quote level playing field. That contention according to Disney is an outright falsehood, let’s just call them a lie. In fact, the special district a special district was established just this month to regulate the land encompassing universals new epic universe, theme park in Orange County, with its inaugural Board of Supervisors comprising only universal employees. Wow. Further Yeah. Further, most businesses and other property owners in Florida are regulated by elected politically accountable municipal bodies. A few Florida businesses are subject as Disney now is to the governance by a special district with a governor controlled board that closely regulates the use of private property with no accountability to local property owners and taxpayers. I’m sure it was an oversight. Sure. DeSantis I’m sure he meant to install a board over that thing.

Kelli 4:34
Yeah, exact same situation. Yeah, I’m sure we just never saw it. Yep. Moving on, like the type that was

Chris 4:41
scanned and control happy now. The separate subject here with Walt Disney Company has decided to purchase the remaining stake in Hulu, from Comcast or NBC Universal for more than $8.6 billion. It’s interesting to me I don’t really I’m not savvy enough to understand what that portends in terms of Disney’s decision to make money in the future. I know that their streaming services have been the crux of a lot of their stock problems. It’s interesting to me that they decided to go fully all in on Hulu here, but we’ll see what we’ll see what it means I guess in the future if someone’s smart enough to know what importance please just email us let us know I’m sure there’s there’s some thought behind Oh, very much. Over at the Magic Kingdom the Christmas tree stuff has arrived all the Christmas decor the overnight train overnight magic. I know it really is you go one day and it’s it’s all Mickey pumpkins you go the next day. It’s all Mickey race. I love it so much. Yeah, so you know, speaking of which, jingle cruise begins. Oh, wow. Gosh, it began sorry two days ago has begun on Friday. It’s crazy. And part of the jingle crews launching they’ve they have changed a trader Sam is sort of the last character or Trader Sam’s shop. They’re sort of the last character you see. And I think in recent years when it switches to Django cruise, the monkeys have gotten a hold of the presence and whatnot. Right? Well, they are they’ve shifted things up traders Sam becomes trader Samta okay in the finale now at the jail, Sam to Trader Samta. So he’s, I guess he’s like taking on like, like, he’s he’s going to Christmas letters like he’s

Kelli 6:38
gonna interesting. I feel like maybe that was a bit of a stretch trader Santa Santa.

Chris 6:43
I think this is gonna be great. I think it’s I think it’s perfect. Perfect. Over in Epcot, did you hear the music from luminous this week?

Kelli 6:53
I did. Oh, is it on YouTube? Yeah, honey, we

Chris 6:56
haven’t watched it. No, well, luminous doesn’t actually start until the December the fifth. But they they released a part of they’ve they’ve written two original, like compositions for luminous and the heartbeat Symphony hat was was previewed this week online. So you can go out there and you can hear and see the orchestra that was behind the composition. Heartbeat Symphony that’s that was written specifically for this show. Okay,

Kelli 7:27
interesting. It’s good, better than harmonious.

Chris 7:32
This is just one portion of one symphony that was written for this thing. It’s gonna have a lot more music than that. But this was this was good. It was really good. I liked it. All right. Also, new barges have arrived on bro Chinese, these barges are not tiny. I get the idea is that they’re going to move in and out. Right? They’re gonna they’re gonna leave in the evenings after the show. They’re gonna, they’re gonna come back out in late afternoon, early evenings in preparation for the show. But I think I had like six barges out there now. They’re not tiny.

Kelli 8:10
And so they are movable. We’re certain they’re going to move. That’s

Chris 8:13
everything that has been published so far says that these are movable. There’s, there’s a platform that they connect to that is I feel permanent in the middle of the lagoon. And then the barges come out there. Late afternoon, early evening, they cook into this center platform that’s got six sides. And that’s going to that’s where the show comes from. Okay,

Kelli 8:36
well, I guess that will all be interesting. People hate barges. I do, man.

Chris 8:40
They are really have strong feelings about the barges. So I mean, I really hope that this works for everybody. We’ll see. Yes. So this weekend was the wine and dine half marathon weekend. Yes, I saw people running. I saw them all running the line. They were all having a great time. Bless them all. I was proud of all of them. I’m not doing it again. I’m not doing it. I don’t I don’t even feel an urge. I don’t either we but check and Mark eyes love all the smiles though. And the people who are doing or accomplishing things and

Kelli 9:17
I think it makes some people genuinely happy.

Chris 9:21
It definitely does make some people genuinely happy.

Kelli 9:24
Some of the Disney PhotoPass photographers take some amazing photos of people smiling, grinning from ear to ear running a happy way. And then there’s that and then there’s the PhotoPass photographers that took photos of me. I think they’re

Chris 9:39
also having a really good time with some of the pictures that they’re taking.

Kelli 9:41
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Chris 9:45
Oh, you gotta get that girl look at her. She’s dying is

Kelli 9:48
miserable. She’s about to get scooped. You gotta

Chris 9:51
get her now. She skipped

Kelli 9:55
come on the bus and taking selfies of all. They’re sitting on the bus with their Gatorade.

Chris 9:59
Huh and bananas Asha from wish the new movie that’s coming out this month I think like, like this coming week,

Kelli 10:10
like so there’s a song that they’ve been playing a lot like when you ask, you know, AI speakers in the home I don’t want to use any specific names when you ask them to play Disney music. I feel like they’re really playing the wish song. Yeah, the one that’s the thanks I get the villain

Chris 10:27
the villain has got released his song was played by Chris Pine King magnifico and that’s all that Yep. Well, ASHA has got a meet and greet has officially launched the meet and greet at Epcot. Okay, it’s in the gazebo, like, let’s say you’re I believe you’re going towards Epcot towards the World Showcase from World celebration area. And you decide to go towards Mexico. There’s a gazebo there on the left, that that that’s where you can see.

Kelli 10:55
I mean, they’re really you know, putting a lot of effort into this movie. Yeah.

Chris 10:59
pre launch. Yeah, yeah. I’m excited about it. i Yeah,

Kelli 11:03
they’re hyping it up for sure. Yep.

Chris 11:07
Construction began and it’s almost done now on the gingerbread house at Grand Floridian they do sling that thing right? I put it right up there. That’s all so many chefs. Were working on it. They’ve been making gingerbread is that the gingerbread houses are a across the resorts are a seven month operation? Yeah.

Kelli 11:27
No. I’m a gingerbread Baker. Right. Like that’s what what do you do at Disney? I make gingerbread houses for seven months of the year I make Gingerbread. Yeah.

Chris 11:39
November The eighth is when it opens. And so you know that one is one where you can actually go and buy stuff from the window to actually work inside of it. Yep. So also, did you see this week that Monroe yellow broke down on the way to have you

Kelli 11:56
know, I did because WD W NT loves to post.

Chris 12:00
They love a tragic story. They love they love the

Kelli 12:04
tragic if it bleeds, it leads for WD W NT. And so when they had to bring in the lifts to get people off of monorail yellow, I mean, that was on their feet all day. And I just thought like, you know what, people were also buying Dole Whip floats. people ate at Skipper canteen. There are people riding Tron that are happy, like, why aren’t you showing any of that stuff? Wow, we

Chris 12:26
thought this was newsworthy. But let’s you know, people are people are fine.

Kelli 12:31
They’re fine. Right? I mean, not like the dude that jumped in the lagoon at Epcot. Right, right, right. He’s dared by his friends to jump in the lagoon do jumps in the lagoon and gets ushered out of the park. Never to be seen again, you get a lifelong ban. Congratulations.

Chris 12:51
I need to be able to look out for this. I didn’t dig into this too much. But Disney cruiselines has announced plans for lookout K. This is their new private island. For the Select. They’ll now have two private islands to handle itineraries. Wow. Yeah. So look out. Okay. That’s cool. Or look at key maybe different

Kelli 13:11
probably, or both. Who knows? Key.

Chris 13:14
It’s the Caribbean. It’s crazy. Right? It’s

Kelli 13:17
it’s the terms they use down there.

Chris 13:20
So but do you know Disney Cruise Lines not slowing down? Clearly a good business?

Kelli 13:24
They make good money? I think the cruise lines are doing well. Yeah. So what I think

Chris 13:29
would pop it out ships every year we’re buying new islands. For them. They’re doing well. You ready for Tomorrowland? I am. All right, you sure?

Kelli 13:38
So, in 2024, you’re gonna relaunch the dining plan. We’re very excited. Yeah, maybe not. And so I wanted to go through sort of what to expect and maybe like a week in our life as a dining, which we’ve been to Disney dining plan or not to Disney dining plan. That’s always the question. And you’re gonna find debates on this one way or the other online. People love to debate the dining plan. Yep. And here’s what I’m going to say going in like this is just one example. You need to do this math. But you need to do the math for your own party to see if it makes sense for the length of stay, you’re going to be there in which plans are over estimate how much you’re going to spend on food over estimate that. But so I’m going to give you sort of a quick overview of what to expect and how that might shake out for say a family of four in March, but you do your own math. This is just an example. So some key pieces of info first of all, there is no Deluxe dining plan coming. You’ve got the original one and the standard one so I’m going to break those down. So the most significant change that will still be relevant when they returned by the way all this comes a lot of this info comes from Disney tourists blog, so thank you Disney tourist blog for this info. In 2024, there will be the inclusion of alcoholic beverages on all tiers of the Disney dining plans. Sold, says if you’re going to have more than two alcoholic beverages a day, great value. Okay, great, great value. Here’s my issue with the dining plan is that if you buy it, you’d have to buy it for everyone in the hotel room. Oh, interesting. The math does not work out for vegetarians or people who eat chicken or pasta. If you’re going to order vegetarian dishes, chicken or pasta, you’re always going to lose on the dining plan, no matter what tier that is. So I sort of bring down our whole math do when I order but in any case, again, gratuity is not included to alcoholic beverages are included gratuity not included. Because of this, the adult dining plans have increased fairly significantly, the standard ones gone up $20. So this

Chris 15:44
isn’t like a cruise ship where you can add on alcohol or it comes with alcohol comes as a result, the price has gone up. So I counter

Kelli 15:53
service meal, the definition is an entree plus the side that’s gonna be a combo meal with a beverage. If there’s alcoholic beverages there, then it includes alcoholic beverages for adults, it no longer includes a dessert. Okay, as of this date, a counter service meal can also include three snack items in a single transaction. So you can use one counter service meals three snack guide. Oh, that’s interesting. A table service meal is an entree, a dessert and a beverage, including alcoholic beverages for dessert for dessert. Adults. Oh my gosh, I’m really struggling.

Chris 16:26
Alcoholic beverages for dessert. I’m down for that, too.

Kelli 16:28
In the past, the only difference was that the deluxe dining plan was that plus an appetizer. So not a huge loss that really isn’t the appetizer. A snack is now any side item. So this could be hand scooped ice cream, and then a lot of other side items that did not previously count as snack. Interesting. Okay, so you can get say, for example, a meal at Pecos bills and a side of black beans. That would be a snack. Okay. Okay. So for Disney tourists blog math, they say based on their calculations, a table service meal is worth approximately $63. Okay, for a single person. Yes, counter service meal is worth approximately 25 and a snack is worth approximately six. Okay, that feels right to me. I’m never going to spend 63 on a table service meal, we’re just not going to do it. To make it work. You really have to order the most expensive entrees regularly, vegetarian is going to lose money. But if you’re a red meat eater steaks especially, it can be a good deal for the table service. And if you’re definitely gonna drink two alcoholic beverages another good deal, you will have a huge advantage if you’re going to take advantage of the alcoholic beverages. Okay. All right. As always, everybody says this save every snap credit for Epcot don’t waste net credit. Don’t waste water. So for each person on the room reservation, a quick service dining plan includes two counter service meals, one snack and a refillable drink mug. Okay, okay. Important to note this refillable drink mugs don’t work in parks. While you’re at the resort were spin consider that like an add on not part of the math but to counter service meals per night, one snack per night. That is 5701 per adult and 2383 per child for quick service. Standard dining plan includes one counter service per night when sit down meal per night, one snack per night. And then of course the refillable mug that is 9828 9428 per adult and 2969 per child. So again, and that is a significant increase that was in the 70s.

Chris 18:33
What was the what was the was the age cutoff for the child? I don’t know like 1112. So I’m

Kelli 18:38
not sure didn’t write that down. Okay. For our math going in March, I got four people, two adults and two teens, so that’s going to count as for adults. So for five nights, this would cost us about $1,400. Total, or $228 per night for the quick service. Okay, well, that’s gonna give you 40 counter service meals and 20 snacks. Okay, that’s what that’s going to give you. So here’s what this might look like for us. On the arrival evening, we would have a counter service dinner at the hotel that’s going to do for counter service credits, which is $100 value. If you look at the math, on the menus at the Riviera, we would spend about 80 Plus tax so you’re not really getting your value there to use the counter service credits. Day one Magic Kingdom remember no alcohol at the counter service restaurant so not getting your value their breakfast for us realistically would be snacks at Star B’s. So Tea Coffee couple of drinks, Bagel, ham and cheese croissant, sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches etc. is going to be about $35 plus tax. We would get a snack at the Cheshire cat tail booth. That’s for snack credits, which is about a $24 Value. $24 snacks right there. 599. If we had lunch at cosmic rays, we’d have a set added three burgers for drinks. That’d be for counter service credits or $100. And we would spend 72 on that. Again, that’s including buying bottles of water and sodas, okay. Okay, dinner at Pecos Bill’s tacos and nachos for drinks. That’d be for counter service credits value of $100 or $66. If you paid cash interesting drinks again. So day one expense Magic Kingdom 228 for the Disney dining plan, or $197. If you’re paying in cash, if you use the dining plan, then you’re going to have 16 Snack credits and 28 counter service Credits Remaining going into day to day to Epcot snacks. Okay, so again, eight snack credits for breakfast, we would probably do lunch at law cantina, de San and Hill, which is normally where we eat. For counter service credits, that’d be $100 value or $80 Plus snacks and then again, your alcoholic beverages are going to really come into play in Epcot if you’re doing them, dinner snacks, eight snack credits, and I also threw in some drinks here for us, right $60 In drinks. So day two at Epcot, if we eat the way we normally would. The expenses on the dining plan would be to 28 Okay, if we paid in cash 210. And by the end of day two at Epcot, we are out of snacks. Interesting and we have 24 counter service meals remaining. Interesting going into day three Hollywood studios, here is one where we would normally do counter service at the hotel. For counter service credits, $100 value using count service breakfast is never good. That cost us about 66 lunch at sci fi drive in doesn’t count as counter service, we’re paying cash for that that’s 125 Interesting dinner at the commissary. If we use our counter service, again, $100 value, or 72 if we paid in cash, but day three expenses because we bought lunch with cash, that’s the first time that we would spend 263. Or if we had used the counter service, it would have been 228. If we stick with our plan, we still have no snacks left and now we’ve got 16 counter service remaining. Okay, Animal Kingdom breakfast counter service at Hotel, lunch counter service Yak and Yeti, dinner counter service. So to the canteen. Doing that we would come out with 228 on the dining plan, or 226. If we had paid in cash, right wash, and you still got for counter service remaining. So day five, we leave for the airport, we’ll do counter service breakfast at the hotel. Again, horrible value to use counter service for breakfast. So our total spent on the dining plan would be 1001 40. Total spent out of pocket would be just slightly over $1,000 Sweet actually say $100 to pay out of pocket now. We you and I are going to purchase alcohol. We’re going to want to go to other restaurants like Skipper canteen, Teppan, Edo, and all of that, right. So the dining plan doesn’t work out for us. Yep, we don’t want to table service every day, because that waste time in some parks. Sure. And we don’t want to counter service every day.

Chris 23:19
Because on days we’re gonna want right type of services. So

Kelli 23:22
here is the prevailing thought, Disney gift cards. You can purchase Disney gift cards at a discount at places like Target, Costco, BJs, Sam’s average savings of five to 10%. So if we bought $1,000 worth of gift cards for $900, we would save $240 on that. And so if we ended up if we overestimated and ended up purchasing 1500 sorts of gift cards for about 1350 We’re gonna save closer to $500 Okay, all right, us it’s going to end up being better to do discounted gift cards or to just pay in cash right? Then it would be to do the dining plan. Now if you’ve got four adults, and you’re going to have the sit down meals and drink alcohol at every meal, or you’ve got teenagers that eat like garbage cans, then you may save a lot of money. Yeah, if you’ve got one vegetarian in your in your group, they ruin it all for you. If and by the way, I just financially I overestimated what I would be spending on Alright,

Chris 24:35
so probably end up spending less than what we Yes. Well, here’s the other thing that I don’t know if people factor in is you’re still going to spend your own cash money on food even if you’re on the Disney dining plan. I don’t care who you are. Yes, you’re going to you’re going to want to buy a bottle of water if you don’t take your water bottle with you. Don’t use a snack for a bottle of water because you can but you but you won’t but don’t there’s gonna be times when you end up buying you don’t you decided you’ve used all your snacks at Epcot, you don’t have a snack for the day. But you don’t want to convert one of those counter service items to for snacks. So you end up buying a pretzel. You’re you’re going to still spend money on food? Yeah. Even if you’re on the dining plan. Absolutely.

Kelli 25:19
So you know, for some people, again, alcohol and red meat, and a lot of adults in the party may be a good value. But the realistic you know, numbers make it look like you’re probably going to break even. Yeah, so is it easier for you to sort of prepay for all of your meals. And that may be from a budgetary perspective, that’s great. And if that’s what you’d like to do, I mean, we have a good friend who buys Disney gift cards every month at Target and uses those to pay for her trips. You can use Disney gift cards to settle your hotel bill at the end of your stay. You can use them at Disney Springs, you could use Disney gift cards at art Smith’s Right, right. So I would just say think outside

Chris 26:04
the box. I liked that idea.

Kelli 26:08
sided presents are gonna be about Disney gift plans coming back because they’ve been gone for so long. But we still get the little snack icons on all of them in the dining plan. They’re not yet the dining plans. But just sort of think outside the box. There could be other ways you could save. There are other credit card and debit card options where you earn two to 5%. cashback. Right, right on food and stuff like that. Think

Chris 26:31
outside the box Chase Chase offers a credit card that allows you to earn Disney points, while while you know, receiving 10 to 15% discounts on food and merchandise. It says the Disney

Kelli 26:44
credit card Yeah, yeah, it’s great. The target red card is actually a debit card, not a credit card, and you save two to 5% on everything you buy. So there’s just so many more options than the Disney dining plan. I think we’re all excited that it’s coming back. Some people are huge fans of it, and they really love it. For us. I think we’re gonna go outside the box a lot. Yep. On our next trip. Awesome. Yes, that’s

Chris 27:07
good. I’m glad you did all that math, because it’s what we needed to do before our next trip in March. Because we were only about a month away from looking are starting to book some stuff. Some stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Thank you for doing that. I’m down for the gift cards. Yeah. 100%. Okay, so we’re warning ahead. Spoilers, spoilers, potentially spoilers coming up. We have recently watched once upon a studio, which came to Disney plus, recently, it’s part of the 100 years of Wonder celebration that this was done. And if you have not had a chance to see it, it’s nine minutes long. It’s pure joy from start to finish. And press pause now. Go watch once upon a studio, and then come back. And let’s enjoy talking about it together. For me. This is just sort of the coolest things for me about this show. This is multiple times and I’ll watch it again. I’ll watch it again tonight or anytime I’m feeling down or just want to get a Disney fix. This is a great way to do that in nine minutes. Absolutely. It’s great. So want to thank the Disney company.com Walt Disney company.com For a lot of information, AVS variety.com and entertainment weekly.com For some of the information here. But first, let’s just sort of a real quick plot description again. Pause now go watch then come back. As soon as nine minutes is written and directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Cory. Eric Goldberg, sir does the hand drawn animation director and Andrew Feliciano served as the head of CG animation, because we’ll talk about the characters interact. And so you have some that were that were originally drawn as CG and some were hand drawn, and they had to interact with each other, right. So the story takes a little bit of inspiration from Toy Story where the toys come to life when people aren’t around. Once all the animators have left Walt Disney Studios for the day the drawings come to life. That’s the idea here, right. So as the animators and technologists and everyone else are leaving, our focus is on the last two to leave a young artists and a more seasoned artists who states as they leave the building, if these walls could talk, okay, now, just a little note on these animators. The older character is actually Disney legend, Bernie Madison. I

Kelli 29:49
wondered who he was. I knew somebody, somebody and I just didn’t know who Bernie

Chris 29:53
Madison is the longest serving employee of the Walt Disney Company. Wow. Yeah, sadly he passed earlier this year. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I know. Bernie animated and directed Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

Kelli 30:08
Is that really his? That’s really so they had already filmed it before he passed. Yes.

Chris 30:12
Yes. Yes, he animated and directed Mickey’s Christmas Carol. He passed away earlier this year, bringing his 70 year stint at Walt Disney Company doing so he

Kelli 30:25
worked there until he passed. Yes. Wow. Now I want to watch it again.

Chris 30:30
I know you do. I know you do. So they leave the building the young woman sometimes I couldn’t find anything, right. Yeah, I’m sure though, right. Mickey and Minnie come to life in a painting in the lobby of the building there. And they call on Tink Tinkerbell to ensure that the building is indeed empty of all the workers. Okay. Once Tink confirms, it’s then on to the task of jumping out of our paintings and gathering all the characters together for a massive family photo in front of the building. And it’s just fun to watch these characters interact, as they’re all sort of trying to collect themselves out front for a photo that goofy is going to take, which seems like a bad decision to let give the take the picture anyway. But nevertheless, that’s where we are. So one of my first points here is this was such an elegant, simple idea to celebrate 100 years of joy giving animation. It’s such a simple idea executed to perfection, when they storyboarded it for some of the executives, multiple executives were were crying just just from the storyboarding. Really, right. And they I think they premiered this at the D 23. Expo this year. Yep. And got a standing ovation. Yeah, as it should. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So it includes, as I said earlier, well, I didn’t say this. This thing includes 543 distinct character depictions from 85 feature length and short films. Wow.

Kelli 32:07
Five, we’ve watched it and that still feels like a lot. I know.

Chris 32:12
I know. We sort of know Pixar characters, Pixar character, right. And I thought WreckIt Ralph was a Pixar character. But it’s not it’s

Kelli 32:19
Disney. It’s interesting. Yeah, I would have guessed Pixar. Yep.

Chris 32:24
So yeah, in a mixture of hand drawn and CG generated animation. For the first time in decades, Walt Disney Animation hired five hand drawn animation apprentices from over 2000 applicants to help with this short Wow, can you imagine that’s fun? Oh my god. Two of those five are on full time at Disney today. They also had artists with the ability to animate both hand drawn and CG, like tenure Disney veteran Andrew Feliciana, who was leading the CG effort here. He recounted the following quote, we had the benefit of having people who were able to do both CG and hand drawn animation. In the scene with marijuana and flounder, for example, Mario Furman chick animated both characters he started by animating marijuana, so he had a very clear place to put flounder. In relation to her right, our shot Planning Team printed out every single frame for him to put it on paper. Then he put paper over the top of that, and would drop flounder in where he needed him. Oh, my goodness. And then Eric Goldberg said, it was especially important to pay attention to the eye lines. In scenes like that, quote, you had to make sure that malanez eyeline is looking where it’s supposed to be, so that she’s looking at flounder. Another example, was that the Trent remembers that Corey, one of the directors here, animated a penguin with a plate of spaghetti walking past the Mad Hatter. You need him to say, oh, waiter. And so you really have to make sure that all the timing and eye direction is correct to make that appear believable. So if you’ve got one person drawing CG penguin with spaghetti, you got another person drawing hand drawn Mad Hatter, there has to be huge collaboration between those two to make that work, right.

Kelli 34:08
Just 30 seconds of not even 10 Right,

Chris 34:11
not even just mere seconds as to be right. Another challenge they had was that they have over 40 voice actors who are the original voices for their various characters. Quote, we had over 40 of the original voices come back we did everything from recording in person to recording a resume when people were out of the state or out of country. It was such a testament to their experience with Disney Animation, because the pitch was literally Hey, we’re doing a short to celebrate 100 years we’ve got a line for you. Would you like to be involved? Everyone reached out to said yes. And they didn’t even know that what they were what what the story was about, right? They just said yep, I’m Yeah, yeah. Right. And so the next really, really cool thing for me, was the return of what Robin Williams is the genie Yeah. Um, The piece of audio used because it was actually Robin Williams, who speaks the line. The piece of audio use for Williams came from one of the actors, many many unused outtakes they recorded years ago for Aladdin. They sifted through 16 hours of archived recordings to pick the perfect soundbite. And, quote, we got the approval of the Robin Williams estate very, very early on. We told them what we wanted to do. And they were like, Yep, this is great. It’s awesome. Using original dialogue. Like that was really, really important to the creators, Eric Goldberg, who was leading the hand drawn animation side of the project. His first job at Disney was to animate Genie for Aladdin.

Kelli 35:48
Oh my god.

Chris 35:51
I know. So he returned to do the hand drawn animation this time to it’s such a special moment in the film, because Josh Gad says that Robin Williams as the genie provided the inspiration for himself to one day voice a Disney character. And in the scene, Olaf, played by Josh Gad is hand drawing the genie while humming friend like me. Oh my god. So good. That’s when Genie bursts forth from the page and delivers the line directly from Robin Williams on now, right? also loved the interplay between the characters that might have otherwise had nothing to do with each other. Just like a big family sharing living space together. Right, Eric? Let’s see Prince Charming, charming, charming I guess. He his slipper falls off as he’s walking down the steps with Cinderella. They laugh about it right. But then max Eric’s dog comes and grabs issue runs off and print says Eric come and get your dog you know. Love that. Milan and Flounder like we talked about? Rapunzel smacks cow with a frying pan because he’s got Clarabelle cow in a trance, right? And ferryboat cow, by the way first appeared in trolley trouble in 1929 is her last name cow Clarabelle cow. Well, I think we just noticed Clara bell right. Way to me, there’s moments really to count. I mean, there’s just throughout. Absolutely. My favorite moment. And who and probably a lot of people’s favorite moment is Mickey’s moment with Walt. So Mickey is he’s trying to get everybody outside and he stops on a stair landing and there’s Walt’s portrait. Yeah. And he just stops to say thanks. Yeah, just really cool. Precious. It is precious. But what gets me right in the fields is in the background is distinctly heard. feed the birds from Mary Poppins. Right. So this is crazy. And so in 2022 you’re gonna you’re gonna die. Okay. 2222 just last year, at age 94. Disney legend Richard Sherman, one of the Sherman Brothers. Yeah. returned to Walt Disney’s very office in Burbank, California. to rerecord feed the birds for this, my guess is the same place that he and his brother Disney legend Robert Sherman would regularly perform the song for Walt on Friday afternoons. Abraham and Cory Marino and Simon sent all these executives that were leading this effort, shared the whole whole thing they didn’t even know that they could. They were like we want to have we think we want to have feed the birds here because we know it was one of Walt’s favorites. And someone said, Hey, we should get we should get Richard Sherman. And they’re like, Is that even possible? Can we do that? They call him up? He’s like, yes, I would love this. They open up waltz office, which is still looks exactly the way it did back in the day. It still has a piano in there, the same piano that the Sherman’s would play. And I guess he walks into the office goes it sits by the piano and just starts playing spoonful of sugar. He plays Supercalifragilistic expialidocious my kid and then they started he starts playing feed the birds and they just all of them are losing it like I am right now. They’re it’s just such a such a moment. They’re like, never forget this for as long as I live right. And so, for Richard Sherman getting involved with what’s fun is to represent a chance to celebrate 100 years of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt’s dream of touching in a magical way. This is phenomenal. He said I think Walt had a very deep rooted feeling about this song. He could understand what we the Sherman Brothers were saying, quote, it doesn’t take much to give love to give kindness to give thought to people give a little something it doesn’t take that much to do that.

Kelli 39:51
Wow.

Chris 39:52
So good. So good. Go watch. Yes show.

Kelli 39:57
Over and over have clean yeah available.

Chris 39:59
You can You can it’s okay to even just like stream a waterfall of tears when you hear feed the birds playing softly in the background as Mickey talks to Walt it’s so good just go watch it you will not be disappointed in fact you’ll watch it over and

Kelli 40:13
over and over again. Absolutely. Yep.

Chris 40:15
So hope everybody enjoyed that we got amazing direction on how to properly analyze if we’re going to do the dining plan and then I made it through this once upon a studio segment without completely bursting into tears myself. Yes, just very hard. Absolute so go out and do what you do best. Leave us a five star rating and leave us a review if your service allows for that. Definitely.

Kelli 40:38
And if you’re looking for more things Disney visit SCF adp.com. That’s s for Super C for Callie at fresh lipstick a for awesome D for Disney P for podcast.

Chris 40:48
Don’t forget to go out there and check out our merch site if you want to give away any awesome gifts for the holiday season is upon us. I just told you the magic kingdom’s got all the stuff up? Join us on all the socials. But actually just join us on Instagram at SCFA TV. The Morgan the conversation there the merrier. We love to do that. And with that we will see you real soon.

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Episode 7
Disney News (11/5) – Is the Disney Dining Plan Worth the Cost, and Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Once Upon a Studio