I decided that I have a lot to say about this entire situation that would be too much to post on Facebook or Twitter… and honestly, too much for one post so I’m going to post this in a few parts, breaking it up by topics. The first one being “Holy Crap!!!”

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a HUGE Disney Fan. Seriously. Star Wars, yes, I love it… but standing next to it is the Mouse. I love all things Disney. Mickey and the gang, The Princesses, The Parks, the TV shows… YES, I miss “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Hannah Montana” more then I miss some dead relatives. Disney is wonderful and if you hate on it, there is something wrong with you. Seriously, you’re a horrible person… but we’ll get to YOU people in my final post on the subject.

The history of Disney and Lucasfilm is a long standing one since 25 years ago, George Lucas and Disney debuted the Attraction “Star Tours” into the parks. If you’ve never been, you need to go. The original was fun, but the newly updated version is MINDBLOWING. If this is a hint as to what Disney will put into the franchise, we’re all going to be happy campers.

Not a Disney fan? You then have to at least recognize what Disney has done for the world of Entertainment for over 80 years… if you don’t, stop reading. These posts will no longer be of any interest to you… I’m about to have a “LoveFest” over Disney right now that will give you diabetes and a boner all at once. Yes, I realize what I just typed was probably hilariously creepy. It sounded better in my head and I’m debating whether or not to lose it, but I won’t. I’m in the moment. Debate it’s merits later.

Back to the ranting…

I visited Disneyland for the very first time at the age of 27. I grew up on the East Coast. Cherry Hill, NJ and I never made it to the Florida parks until 2010 (but since I’ve been back 2 times!)… my FOLKS on the other hand had been to Walt Disney World SEVERAL times. Never taking us with them. At the time, I gotta tell you, I could have gave a crap. Seriously. I was too excited about my folks heading over a 1o00 miles away and we’d be partying at my house like it was 1999 (TOTALLY appropriate reference for the time!). Now, I wish I had gone every time they went! I feel like I missed something amazing when I first walked into Disneyland. As a small child, I loved Mickey Mouse. Loved “The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday Nights on ABC6 in Philly. I think it was on at like 7pm but it may have been as early as 6pm. My folks taking us to re-releases of “Fantasia” and other classics. Loved it. But I “grew out of it” as I went through Junior High and High School.

The EXACT same thing happened with me and Star Wars not far after. After “Return of the Jedi” and George swearing up and down there would be no Episodes 7-9, I started to lose interest. And what made it worse, the toys were not going to be made anymore so why bother. I started getting older anyway and at that time, you don’t think about saving that stuff or anything so it gradually just disappeared.

Yes, FOUR Millennium Falcon’s (One painted Black, It was Vader’s… yes, you can say “NERD!” at your screen right now), THREE AT-ATs, and two of every other freakin’ vehicle and HUNDREDS of figures… VANISHED.

Fast forward to new, wonderful Disney films like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” and then the BIG boost to my return of loving Disney, PIXAR and “Toy Story”! Cap off the 90′s with the Special Editions and the start of the Prequels (which yes, I love all three of them!), and I’m back to loving Disney and Star Wars all over again like it was brand new.

Since meeting my wife, Terri, a MASSIVE Disney nerd, my love for the House of Mouse grew even stronger. Becoming Annual Passholders was HUGE for me! You mean I can go to the parks EVERY DAY is I wanted to?!? Yes, yes you can! And even when we lived in Purgatory (my nickname for San Antonio, Texas and the four years we were there) we maintained those APs and made it to Disneyland every 6 weeks or so. Terri worked for an Airline at the time, so it made it very easy to do.

We now live in Anaheim, literally 10 minutes from our front door to the Parking structure… and that’s with a bit of traffic. I have gotten to the park from the front door in the time it takes to play Pink Floyd’s studio version of “Comfortably Numb” (6 minutes and 23 seconds and that’s with my headphones on and getting on the tram). It also should be mentioned that Terri is now a Disney Cast Member. She loves her job. When she worked in property management, she would come home stressed and miserable. When she worked in the airline industry, she would come home in tears 80% of the time. Working for Disney, she goes to work with a smile and comes home with one. Even a rough day, she’s still having a better time then any job she’s previously had.

Disney is a great company to work for. I myself would love to be an Imagineer or work for Disney Animation. I’ve been tempted to get a Park job part time because I’ve heard it’s easier to get into those places by working as an employee elsewhere in the Parks first…

OK, must get back on track. I’m a ranter. I will rant on and on. Back to the topic…

Disney is going to take care of Star Wars. The property is in excellent hands and I believe this with all my heart. I believe they will bring on a great Director for the first film and see what happens from there. George has an outline, which while I realize the “haters” aren’t excited by George’s involvement at all, he NEEDS to be in the mix. He wrote the stories for all of the Original Trilogy, just not all of the scripts. You want George’s imagination there. Disney will get excellent writers to take that outline and create a good script.

The last thing Disney will do is ruin a Franchise that could make them 3-4 times what they paid for it over the course of just 3 movies. Imagine AFTER the next Trilogy what might come? An Old Republic trilogy… The Live Action Series… New Animated Series… Could Joe Johnston’s Boba Fett film series be far off?!?! Seriously. You’re not looking at the bigger picture here.

By George putting this in Disney’s hands, we get new movies and new TV for years and years. As Star Wars fans, Old and New, we should be partying in the streets like there’s no tomorrow… BUT THERE IS!!! THERE IS MORE NEW STAR WARS COMING!!!

Be happy. be optimistic. The future is bright. This is a good thing.

This is the end of of this first part of my Ranting. Tomorrow, I will Rant about what the next Trilogy May or may not be about and who may or may not be involved. ALL speculation… I have no insider info. So look for that tomorrow.

-Tom

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