Talk like a pirate day

[Amy Z]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "David" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> Amy wrote:
> 
> >  The movie might even be good--
> > hell, I loved Snow White, didn't I?  I just don't like being 
> > exploited for an advertising campaign, and I really don't like 
the 
> > under-8 crowd being exploited for an advertising campaign.
> 
> I'm not sure how PotC is more exploitative than any movie 
which has 
> merchandise.

It isn't.  I gripe about *all* of them.  But I do go to some of them 
anyway--try keeping me from an HP movie.  

It' s not just that there's an actual merchandising effort going 
on--it's the whole idea that one could actually create a movie out 
of something as thin as a video game or a theme-park ride.  If 
there are plots enough to fill a movie about pirates, as surely 
there are, why not just make a movie about pirates?  If there is 
enough to say about a janitor (is that what Mario is?  I've never 
been sure) to make a movie about him, why not just make a 
movie about the adventures of a janitor?  It's not as if there's 
enough plot in an actual Mario game to make it into a movie--so 
why name the movie after Mario at all?

I need some help from an articulate, curmudgeonly social critic, 
here.  Elkins, where are you?  Don't leave me hanging out to dry!

In the meantime, in order to prove that I am not entirely averse to 
American pop culture, even those elements that don't have 
Johnny Depp in them, I will say that I *loved* PotC, the ride.  Like 
90% of the people who have gone to Disneyworld, at least back 
in the pre-Epcot days when I went, I thought it was the best thing 
in the park, hands down.

Actually, my *very* best Disney experience was having the power 
go out when we were halfway down the Matterhorn and having to 
walk down.  It was cool--we got to see the inside of it, which 
included a half-court basketball court for the workers.  Definitely 
preferable to *riding* down; I still can't remember what 
possessed me to do that, because rollercoasters (however 
tame) are Not My Thing.

I'd like to note, though, in order to keep up my 
Curmudgeon-in-Training license, that the power stayed out in 
most of the park for the rest of the night, so that very few rides 
were available--you should've seen the grownups shoving in line 
to get onto the teacups, it was hilarious--and the cheapos didn't 
even give us rain checks on our way out.

Amy Z