Blogs and Ends: The Powell Group Update
I’ll just be updating this post over the next couple of days as I suspect there is going to be minimal interest in a comics and pop culture blog before Wednesday.
Just check in now and then.
FIRST
Oh, dear. It appears that as friends go the Powell Group is definitely of the fair-weather variety.
Powell has deleted any and all references to Sweet Baby Inc. from their website and social media presence.
I wonder what ever could have happened?
NEXT
I’ve covered at length the disaster that Tiana’s Outdoor Sewer Adventure has been.
Here are the basics. A problem is a problem you can do something about. A condition is a problem you can NOT do anything about. The conditions inside of the Splash Mountain attraction are and have always been, extremely hot and exceptionally humid. The mold will get everywhere it can. While the black slime can be scrubbed off of visible surfaces, it’s going to get everywhere else. Disney World was built on a swamp.
1980s Imagineers accounted for this in their designs. Animatronics that were built around hydraulics could function in that environment, which is what they used. Now Brer Rabbit and company did have to run pretty much continuously and moving parts that are always in motion are going to experience wear and eventual failure but they held out for decades.
However, the new Tiana-era animatronics have called it a day after four weeks.
The condition in this case is that this new generation of animatronics are electro-mechanical. That’s right, Tiana and Louis are animated by electrical servo motors, in that humid, perpetually damp, and eternally wet environment. Given the number of emergency evacuations they are having, they must have equipment that is overheating enough to set off smoke detectors. Louis is only ever partially animate and Tiana is constantly in “T-mode.”
Universal Orlando is getting ready to rub salt, vinegar, and lemon juice in Iger’s open sores when they launch Dark Universe.
The overall story is that Doctor Victor Frankenstein’s great-granddaughter Victoria has vowed to finish her ancestor’s work (I like the torn image of Colin Clive). She is going to use Frankie to help make Transylvania a refuge for all Monsterkind. Opposing her in this is Count Dracula who wants to make it a base from which monsters will take over the world.
I think.
Anyway, the animatronics assuming they work as advertised (and I see no reason they won’t) will be about two generations ahead of what Disney fielded at Tiana’s Place.
NEXT
Oh shit! This is the 5th of November.
UPDATE: The Worst Character in Veilgaurd
Taash is the adventuring party member most likely to report everyone to HR.
I’ll grant Bioware this much, they came up with a character that feels authentically horrible in every way available to her. She’ll constantly correct everyone around her. Taash is emotionally stunted and incapable of even trying to consider someone else feelings because Taash’s is the only feeling that can possibly matter.
Veilgaurd was always going to be the worst game in the Dragon Age series because the people who made it a household name have long since left Bioware. But every moment Taash is on screen the rest of the party is feeling terribly uncomfortable. It’s like Dustborn in that regard.
Then there is Taash’s codex journal. I found a dramatic reading of it for you.
NEXT
Constantine 2 has started shooting.
