November 2, 2025 • 39 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly delve into the business end of showbiz. This week:OC Register reporter Brady McDonald talks about the latest news from the SoCal Amusement Park scene. All the latest news from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Universal Studios, including pregnant women trying to induce birth by getting on roller coasters!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street promo
meaners Nitzel. Let's serve here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, we are here today with a special guest. We
have Brady McDonald from the Orange County Register in the
Southern California News Group, where he is the theme park
reporter on all the Southern California theme parks. And we
usually end up talking about Disneyland, but I'll maybe coach
some Magic Mountain gossip out of him, maybe some nuts
(00:48):
Berry Farm. But let's start with Disneyland. Brady, thanks for
joining me again, Thanks for having me. Let's let's I mean,
this is what's on everybody's mind. You know what I'm
going to talk about. We had at either at the
haunted Mansion or caused by hanted mansion. No nobody knows
what it was. But is this any different than any
(01:10):
other like deaths that are like gets where they pronounce
them dead somewhere else. There's always that big rumor that
nobody dies of Disneyland. They have a deal or they yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
This person didn't die, doesney Land anither? They died at
a hospital. But That's pretty common with any sort of
death is you're not pronounced dead at the scene. You're
usually pronounced dead at the hospital. The only reason you'd
be pronounced dead at the scene is if the paramedics
are all up and you're dead, like I mean, you've
been there for a couple of hours and so you know,
usually they try to transport you to the hospital. That's
pretty typical.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Do you have any information what happened?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well? A woman in her sixties had a medical issue
while she was riding the Haunted Mansion, and both Disneyland
Fire and Rescue and Anaheim Fire and Rescue responded. You
could there's a video out there of her being transported
(02:07):
through the park and they're using one of those chest
compression machines on her as she's being taken through the
park on a stretcher. And she died at the hospital.
We don't know her cause of death, and the reason
we don't know her cause of death is because it's
considered to be natural and not not a crime, if
(02:28):
you will, right, so they're not the police are not
investigating it as any sort of incident. She just had
a health issue on a ride at Disneyland and died,
and so I reached out to the corner and they said,
we're not investigating this. It's not it's not something we're
going to handle. And so the only way to find
out what happened to her would be either through the
(02:49):
hospital or through the family, and then maybe through some
sort of you know, like a GoFundMe or something like
that at the family post something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Now, when you were camping out in front of her
house to get the scoop, were they mad at you?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, I didn't camp out in front of their house.
We don't know who she is yet, we probably never will.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We don't have a name.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
We don't have a name, We probably won't. The way
that these names usually come out is through the coroner's office,
and so since the corner's office didn't have anything to
do with the case, they won't be. They don't have
any information to release. So the other way we're probably
going to find out her name is if the family
does like a GoFundMe or something like that and tries
to raise some money for her funeral. But it sounds
(03:33):
like it was more or less just an unfortunate health
incident that happened at the park and what I would
say about that is there's seventy five thousand people that
come to Disneyland or California Venture every single day. It's
a small city, and not unlike any other small city.
You know, you're going to have heart attacks and strokes,
(03:54):
and people give birth to babies at Disneyland, and all
sorts of stuff happen at Disneyland. There's crimes committed, the
cops come and arrest people. It's a small city, so
things happen every single day that we don't hear about.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now. Did Ace freely diet at Disneyland?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
He was on the incredit coaster.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Okay, I don't want to make light of his death,
because you know I.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Don't want to make light of his death either, But
I'm happy to join you on that one. I was
a big Kiss fan, and they're very sad to hear
Ace's passing. It sounds like I don't know anybody that
trips and falls in their studio and dies, so I'm
guessing something else is probably at work there. But it
seemed like he was a little young to go, but
(04:43):
you know, seventy in his mid seventies, it's not crazy.
And of all the guys and Kiss. I don't think
people would have. He probably would have on most people's
lists to be the first one to go. I would
say somewhere between him and Peter Criss.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And if he died at a park, it would be
Magic Mountain obviously.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, because Kiss filmed The Phantom of the Park there.
I think they filmed one of their early seventies movies there.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, they will be forever associated with Magic Mountain.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And what is a Revolution? I think that they were on. Yeah,
it was back when they were making movies like I
think there's a movie called roller Coaster where there was
like a bomb on the roller coaster or something like that.
So it's back in the seventies when they were making
really bad movies.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And the people don't make roller coaster movies anymore. I
guess maybe I would like to see one.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Well, I think I think back in back when they
made that movie. I think Revolution came out in nineteen
seventy six because of the American Revolution, and so it
was new and it was cutting edge, and so it
was a tubular steel roller coaster that goes upside down
blew people's minds. So it was kind of news if
you will, I.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Mean, I was waiting order to eat finished, and as
soon as I could, got you know, some someone you know,
to drive me up there. I don't know who it
was or what happened, but I got there and I
went upside down, and I was, you know, thrilled. It
wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I thought
it'd be a you know it it's so routine now
(06:20):
that yeah, it didn't. It didn't blow my mind that much.
But do you know, I think I've told you this.
I was at Magic Mountain on the day it opened,
was on the the I think it was the press
and friends and family preview day. When I hear the
like when I read up on it. When I say
read up on it, meaning when I watch a YouTube
(06:41):
video about it. They had they had like a preview
and my dad had made some of the signs in
the park. And then I got to go. It's like
that was that was one of the most thrilling things
that ever happened to me in my youth.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Do you remember anything about what you might have written
that day?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
A A A. I kind of a like. All I
remember is kind of like maybe a cable car that
went up a hill, and there was some Japanese pagoda
stuff there, yep, and a lot of landscaping that was
not exactly finished, but it was good enough. And I
was thrilled. And because I had, you know, read so
(07:22):
much about the opening day of Disneyland and how I
just wondered, like, how, you know, nineteen fifty five, how
lucky would you have to be to be there that day?
And then I was at Magic Mountain. So I was thrilled.
You know, that was pretty fair.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It sounds fun. Was your dad professional sign acurity do
sort of theatrical arts or something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It was like, it's company that's still around today called
Superior Signs International, and they make anything from in the sixties.
They started with a flashing arrow and bolted to any
other sign. My dad would just go around door to
door like saying, you know what, I can't afford that,
And he said, you can't afford not to have it.
(08:04):
This triple your business?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Uh was it true? Your business?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah? Well, well I don't know if he used those
that exactly hyperblegue, but he would. He had some stats,
and a flashing arrow in front of your business is
going to attract more people, that's for sure, that's how
he built his fortune. And then he you know, he
built it into a company that made signs for skyscrapers, McDonald's,
(08:32):
you know, Taco Bell and most of the signs, like
almost all the signs of opening day on at City Walk. Uh,
we have the the gorilla hanging over the the walk
need that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
That's essentially a flashing arrow that says come here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yes it is so yeah, so we got to go.
That was that was amazing. Yeah, but I just I
don't remember a lot. I mean I was, yeah, how
old are you? Eleven or eight? You know, maybe nine?
Maybe nine?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So it was quite just exciting to be there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Now, is there any truth to the rumor that the
Disneyland security team over there instituted Operation Parachute when this
person died at the part?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
What's operation parachute?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
My listeners know about it because I talked about it
last week. But Option parachute is when they if someone
dies of Disneyland, you know, they don't want them to
die there, so they take the body, they whisk them
out like a tunnel, and then they get them out
and they drive them to knots Berry Farm and they
they lay them down peacefully below the parachute ride and
they put a chalk line around them and then they
(09:46):
run away.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I think that's real, But they did not execute that mission.
They you could. There's there's a YouTube video, of course,
of the woman, both the paramedics going into the on
a mansion with the stretcher empty, and then coming out
of the haunt a mansion and going right along the
rivers of America, whether or not taking her backstage at all,
(10:11):
taking her right to the park, which sort of tells
you the seriousness of the incident. And yeah, more than
one person videotaped being transported. I think it was on
TMZ and so yeah, she was taken through the middle
of the park. Now, whether they took her to the
knots and did the chalk outline and parachute, I can't
(10:34):
confirm that, but I think they took her to a hospital.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Well. I think those crisis actors did a great job
of pooling the media once again. But that's the last
I'm going to talk about this, Brady. I know, I
know that it's not funny and it's not fun, but
I can't help myself, but I will. I will say
prayer for this patron who I don't know. I mean
(10:59):
being born at Disneyland and by dying at Disneyland. These
are there's something kind of cool about it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's what I did too. I said a prayer for
her and her family. You know, it's it's pretty easy
set up to make jokes about it, but you know,
I mean a family lost a loved one and and
someone passed away, so it's always it was on the
edge of newsworthy. I think if she had had a
heart attack, say, you know, while eating lunch at Disneyland,
(11:30):
not sure that's news. I think what made it poly
news was the fact that she was on the on image.
But outside of that, people people go into cardiac arrest
or have a stroke or have some sort of medical
issue at Disneyland often and they get and or even
more minor incidents, and they're transported all the time to
(11:50):
local hospitals. People do dumb things and get arrested at Disneyland,
and people I think it's a good idea when they're
nine months and four days pregnant, to around Disneyland to
try to kickstart the berth. And they do, and they
go into labor at Disneyland, and so that happens all
the time, not like every day, but like at least
once a month, a couple times a month, something like
(12:11):
that happens.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
It is intentional that people are doing this, you believe.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, you know, I think it's sort of an old
wives tale or tradition that women when they're like, come on,
when's this baby gonna come, Let's go for a walk.
And then they're like, well, it's not coming. Let's just
go to Disneyland can get a lot of steps in there,
and you're like, oh, wait a second, we're now twenty
minutes away from the hospital we need to be at,
and we're also fifteen minutes away from the front gate,
you know, so like it takes a little longer than
(12:37):
you might expect.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And then you got an anchor baby.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You got an anchor baby.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, that's that's crazy. But I mean, you know, these
these Disney weirdos. No, I mean, you and I are
not Disney wordos, but these people are Disney ridos.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
We're not anywhere near Disney weirdo, are you?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And I thank you? Okay, So other than that we
have at Disneyland right now, what's going on is we
have the the tail end of Halloween is happening, and
then what happens well.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Tailor and Halloween's happening Ogi Boogie Bash, which is the
big after hours party that seems to be the bigger
of the two things. Halloween is a busy time at
the park, but it's not the busiest time at the park.
The busiest time at the park is, for sure, Christmas.
I would say Christmas is the busiest time of the
year at the parks. Now it's not summer anymore, it's Christmas,
(13:27):
and it pretty much they've already got snow in the castle.
They've had snow in the castle for almost a week now.
Part of the reason they put snow in the castle
this early is they want to film a couple of
TV shows, Christmas TV shows, and they film them generally
after hours, sometimes later in the day, and they want
to make it look Christmas. He around the castle while
(13:48):
they're filming the show. So rather than photoshop that in
or cgi that in, they you know, they put it
out there a little earlier than normal. So the last
two weeks of Halloween season usually has quite a bit
of Christmas stuff mixed in.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Now the okay, so the things that since the last
I've talked to you. There's been some new things at Disneyland,
like the Walt Disney animatronic thing of the Walt Disney Story.
What do they call that over there at the Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, that's pretty close. It's a mouthful. I think it
is something like that, The Walt Disney Story. Yeah, basically,
they have a new animatronic show starring Walt. Walt Disney
Animatronic where they tell the story of Walt and take
you up to They kind of take you up through
his death and the birth of disney World, but mostly
(14:42):
focused on sort of the birth of Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
He didn't have more jokes.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Well, there's definitely more jokes here. The thing I just
found out was the Walt Disney animatronic weighs two thousand pounds.
That's a ton that is just incredibly heavy, and it
tells you why it took them so long to build
this thing. It has got to be complex.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I heard the one that coming out next year is
a lot lighter and smaller.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Is there a joke that's coming after that?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's such an Apple iPhone joke. Okay, the next version
is gonna be a smaller and later it'll be something
you could he could hold in your hand.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, that was sort of one of the critiques of
the Walt was that he didn't look enough like Walt
and his face was a little too broad. What I
would say about that is, if you make him look
too much like Walt, there's this problem of falling into
what they call the uncanny valley where he looks too
(15:45):
like Walt and it freaks people out. So there's probably
a little bit of that where they don't want to
make him look exactly like Walt. But I'd say the
other big problem is there is just a ton of
electronics and pneumatics and everything that need to go into
his head to get all of his facial features to move,
and you need a wide enough neck and a wide
(16:06):
enough head to hold all that stuff to make it
look real. He's probably a little bit taller and bigger,
much like when you make a statue, they tend to
be a little bit bigger than in real life. So
he's probably a little bit bigger than real life so
that he will read to the audience well. But even
with that said, his whole body needs enough room to
(16:26):
run all those wires and pneumatics up there, and so
that's probably why he looks a little bigger than most
people wanted them to.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah, when I saw him, my feeling was if you
put Abraham Lincoln up there, we all look at it
and go, man, that looks just like Abraham Lincoln. But
it's like, really, when did you see Abraham Lincoln and
you got any video of him? But we have so
much film and video and photographic records of Walt Disney
(16:58):
that we're very used to him and how he really looked.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But we even fifty sixty, seventy years later.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, because there's just so much footage, but we don't
have any footage of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, uh, Socrates,
all these people their statues around. We don't know what
they really look like. But we really do know what
Walt Disney looked like. And evidently he looked like the
Mypello guy, which which I thought was hilarious. That that's like,
(17:29):
you know, you always have your haters and your trollers
or whatever, and that's what they came out with. He
looks like the Mypellow guy. It's like, it's so unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I think the hard part for them is that they
run a fifteen minute film full of pictures of Walt
before they show the animatronics. So not only have people
seen pictures of him before, they've seen him pictures of
him before ten seconds before. So like, you're a pretty
good person and we're gonna win. Yeah, you're not gonna
win that game. I don't think the film that there's
(18:00):
showing is like twenty or twenty five years old. It's
been playing over in Disney World for for a couple
of decades, so it's a relatively old film that's been
lightly edited to sort of make it a little bit
more Disneyland focused. But you know, it's not a new movie.
And and so we're going to get a new We
believe we're going to got a new Abraham Lincoln too,
(18:20):
because this is this Walt Disney that's in there is
probably one of the most sophisticated animatronics in existence. And
then now they're going to need the Abraham Lincoln to
look as good because they're going to play side by
side on some days.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, are we going to get a new John Stamos
or are we going to Are they just going to
keep running with the same the other one that just
keeps walk around the park.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I don't think he's an animatronic as far as I
can tell.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I see they've got to you, Brady.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, I know. I don't think that they might put
him in the Hall of President's over in Florida. But
I don't think he's won on the election yet, so
now we're probably not What was the name of the
rye that theis I've ever had a California adventure? Uh,
Superstar Limo was he.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Gosh, you had Drew carrying it.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Drew carrying it? They WHOOPI Goldberg in it. They had
Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan is still well, yes, I
guess we still have monsters over there. Jackie Chan animatronic
is still in the attraction. If you look, there's a
one of those guys that cleans up after the monsters
when they the monsters, when the Newman escape into the
(19:31):
Monster world, they had the vacuums and there's a guy
doing a karate chop. Like, why on Earth is this
guy doing a karate chop? It's like, Oh, they just
used the Jackie Chan animatronic and didn't change anything. We
just put him in a like a hazmat suit. And
so a lot of those animatronics from Superstar Limo are
still in that ride. They just kind of redressed them
and they had to come up with some reason. They
(19:53):
have a guy doing a karate chop. It doesn't make
any sense, but.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Of that, Brady, we are breaking news here. Now the
that's in the Monsters Inc. Ride or what is it?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, Monsters Incrowd over in Hollywood Land.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, what goes on in that ride? I forgot because
I remember they used to have a drying thing over there,
and that's not a shooting game. But so what is
the Monster's Inc. Ride goes on?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
It's a dark ride, but you just go through the
story of the Monsters Inc. Original movie. They're making a
really cool Monsters In coaster out in Florida, which i'd
prefer to have here, but to what we do have.
But the Monster's Inc. Ride that is there is short lived.
It's going to be replaced by the new Avatar Land.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Oh okay, so let's get to that. The new what
do we know now about the new Avatar Land that
is being built in the Disney California Adventure going.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
To go on Hollywood Land, or at least part of
Hollywood Land sort of across from the Marble Land, and
it'll have at least one of attraction. It'll be a
boat ride. It looks like it'll be I don't know
if you can use the word thrilling right, but it
won't be like it won't be like The Small World
or something like that. They'll have a little bit of
excitement and thrill an adventure to it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And they have in Florida at the at the the Avenue.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Now that's a very leisurely sort of Small World type ride.
This one is gonna well, they haven't actually said, but
we think it's going to be like The Pirates of
the Caribbean that is in it in Japan. I think
it's in Japan that is very exciting. The boat actually
pivots and moves and and so we think it's going
(21:34):
to be that. Disney hasn't said it. And then we'll
have there'll be a fully themed land to the second movie,
which was I think called The Way of Water. And
so we haven't had a date set for that, but
we have seen some concept art and it looks like
it's going to be pretty great. It'll be the West
(21:55):
Coast version of Avatar Land that they have out at
Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In Florida, just with Jackie Champ. Just with Jackie Champ,
what about that Avatar ride in Florida, which might be
the greatest ride that the Disney properties have anywhere. When
you get on that flying ride on Avatar, they're not
gonna They're not gonna throw that one in Anaheim.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Doesn't seem like it's So my take on the way
that Disney does themed lands now is you get one
ride to start with, and then they add one or
two rides in like five years or ten years so
to build it out. And so my expectation is that
they'll do something like that that they've left some room
to put another ride somewhere. It doesn't seem like we
(22:40):
would get that ride because they want to base this land.
So the land out in Florida is based off of
the first movie. They want to base this land here
in California off of the second movie. In the third movie,
and so that that ride was sort of based on
the first movie. But it is a great ride. I
didn't know you would consider it to be the greatest
ride ever.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I think it was when it first came out, it
was the greatest ride ever.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
But I think it would be in the top ten
of that category. For sure, probably a top five.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Now the other one they have there, I think it
might be a Marvel themed one where the roller coaster
your your your roller coaster seat moves around like kind
of revolves and and uh it spins you.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Oh yeah, you're talking about Guardians of the Galaxy.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That's a good one. It's it's still I think probably
considered a family ride. It does. I don't think it
has any inversions. I don't think it goes upset down.
I could be wrong about that, but it is. It's
what what Disney does really well is it has a
great deal of storytelling, which you usually don't get in
a roller coaster. And so it's a little bit like
(23:51):
Space Mountain. But if Space Mountain had the ability to
control where the coaster cars were pointing at any time
and show you a story or tell you a story
as they were, you don't really get much of a
story once you get inside Space Mountain. It's just a ride, racing,
racing ride.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Through the dark, and okay, well let's move over to
We're moving over to Tiana's whatever adventure you adventure. A
couple of times it seems to be just as fun
as the Uncle Remas themed ride they had before. And
(24:30):
the the problem I had with Uncle Remus ride was
they they they reused all those characters from America sings.
I thought that was pretty lazy. But h Splash Mountain,
that's what it was called. Very dark, you know, like
like those stories some of them are dark about dead
possums or dead whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Uh, getting caught in the briar patch.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
I mean, I really liked it. But I liked that movie.
But the Tiana movie and the Tiana thing and the
Tiana's restaurant and all this stuff. How's that going over?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Well? Are you a fan of Tiana's and and.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I haven't seen it yet?
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Oh okay, okay, well spoiler alert. It's been out for
twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So first of that is, I haven't seen The Incredibles.
And I'm building a house. And this's like that Cootino
place where they have a have a parhouse that's a
replica of the Incredibles house that they lived in. I've
been in that house. Well actually i've just been around
(25:35):
it while they're they're constructing it. But I haven't seen
the movie yet, so that's the first time I listen.
Then I'm going to see Tiana's.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
W Yeah, so do you so move into that neighborhood?
Is there a requirement that you have to watch all
Disney animated movies, watch the entire catalog before you can
move in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, if there is, then, uh, you know, I don't
want I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Okay. Yeah, there's a whole lot of Tiana right now
in Disneyland, and we're got a restaurant, we're gonna we
got a ride, and we got it one or two shops,
two shops. I would say that the land is almost
she was almost a land entirely themed her. I hate
water rides. I think water just belongs at a water park.
(26:20):
I don't want to get wet when I'm a theme park,
and so I've ridden this the minimum amount that I'm
required to ride it for my job. I usually go
on it with like two ponchos, one over my body,
one over my legs. I just don't want to be
walking around a theme barg wet. So this ride was
never going to be a winner for me. I rode
(26:40):
Splash Mountain once before closed, just so I could say
I've been on Splash Mountain to be able to compare it.
But that said, this is they did a very good
job on this ride, and I liked it if I
could have ridden it without getting wet, which is the
stupidest thing you can say about a splash mountain type
but the actual story in there, the work that the
(27:04):
imagineering did in there, I thought they did a great
job for folks who liked that water ride. It's a
fun ride to ride. I think it's There's been some
debate as to whether it's more splash here or less
splash here, whether they can control the splash. I think
it's about the same. It's pretty much the same ride
with a new skin over it. And I liked it
for for for what it was. If I was trying
(27:25):
to review it for people to like water.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Rice, yeah, and evidently they you know, they had to
make some changes over there. My suggestion was to make
a Deliverance ride, but then I was told that it's
not a Disney movie. So a fine Tiana is a
Disney movie. Great, But you know, when I have my
own theme park, you know, I get to do my
own right. Speaking of people with their own theme parks.
(27:49):
When I worked at CBS Television, the Jet Row Max
Bear Junior came came in one day because we were
making a Beverly Hill Billy special and he had the
plans and he was running around for the Beverly Hill
Billies theme park that he was trying to sell, and
he brought him in my office with all these Beverly
(28:10):
Hillbillies themed rides and you know, Granny's kitchen and shooting galleries.
Uh so that was pretty thrilling. Didn't ever get off
the ground. They could have put in over by Japanese
village maybe when that went under, But I'm still a
little bit sad about that. You didn't that didn't come
(28:31):
across your radar.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So there have been so many. It's very very easy
to draw a picture and sound I'm going to make
a theme park, right, so that's a whole other thing
to actually put the shovel on the ground and the
build these rides, and usually people don't get that far.
They get to the drawn pictures part. The two people
I can think of right now that are in they
I want to build a theme park phase are the
comedian Nate Bergazi and mister Beast, which I think is
(28:55):
some sort of uh you know, influencer instagrammar or YouTuber
type tune that has one hundred million followers, and so
they both want to build theme parks. What they would
be about. I'd be great if they could resurrect, you know,
the Beverly Hills abilities as a themed land in their park.
(29:16):
But guessing that's probably not going to happen. But I'm
anxious to see what the heck they think their theme
parks are going to be.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, now, so my next question for mister Brady McDonald,
whose whole job is to run around and make sure
these theme parks, make sure we have enough information so
we can make the right choices at the theme parks,
why don't you tell me what your top three rides are? Now?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Top three rides? Well, when I always say and these
may not they might be in different categories, I would
always say X two at Magic Mountain. It scares me
to death and it is the scariest coaster I've ever
going to my life. And I love having it in
my backyard because I love having the best coaster in
(30:05):
the world at a park that I go to, so
I can use it to beat other people over the
head and say mine's better than yours. And so I
would say X two's up there. As a coaster. I'd
say Rise of the Resistance is certainly one of, if
not the best ride in the world, both here in
California and out in Florida. And then what would my
(30:29):
third ride be. I don't know, that's a good question.
I would say that's my number one coaster, number one
dark ride. I would say my third one, I'll take
sort of a cheat, and my third ride is actually
an entire park in Pennsylvania called Canobles, And what they
do is they take old rides from the fifties and sixties,
(30:52):
refurbish them, and then let everybody ride them instead of
it's like a campground up in the mountains in Pennsylvania
park that a lot of people don't know about. And
it's just full of all these old, great classic rides
that literally give you bumps and brus You leave there
black and blue because you're riding these old nineteen fifties
sixties rides that are literally duct taped together so they
(31:14):
can have the padding where there was never padding. And
so I love I loves Cannobles.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
It is? Kay n O b E ls.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I think, do you know there's a there's a Disney
park just outside of Detroit. We're actually in Detroit, and
it's called Disney and the guy has a bunch of
weird rides and it's like, I know, it's a it's
just some trademark thorn in their side and they can't
get rid of the guy.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Really, I'd love to go to that.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I'll send you some info on that. I was shocked
because I never heard about it, even doing this radio show,
and my friend who actually lives in Detroit told me
about it. It's got a problem. I mean, there's intellectual
property problems, but somehow the guy's still operating some kind
of weird I can't remember exactly what it looked like
because a WHI would go the last time I took
a look. But did you know you weren't around here
(32:09):
when we had the pike in Long Beach.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
I haven't. I've written a little bit about the pike.
I would have loved to have been here during the
pike days. But that's sort of what's out at Canobyls,
and like there's old pike like rides that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Where it's where it's not was it wasn't really supposed
to be but it needed to be.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Right because it was a metal beam that you would
bang your head or your shoulder against. Yeah, but there's
the other Canobles is just a beautiful park. It's up
in the up in the It's like like a campground
up in the mountains. And they have great food and
so it's just a wonderful day. And it's very unincorporate, right,
Like they have three carousels because the guy loves to
(32:46):
collect carousels, so and so it's it's a fun part
if you're looking for something offbeat to do. It's sort
of out near Hershey Park in that general neck of
the woods. And I love it. And so when people
say what your favorite park, I always say that that's
my favorite park, more than Disneyland, more than Universal, more
than anything else.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I'm going to go to Kenoble's next time I'm in
that area. Yeah, Okay, So what's on the horizon for
Disneyland other than the We talked about the Avatar, but
what else has happened? What's buzzing over there?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
So it looks like there's four attractions that are coming
to Disneyland. Avatar the Land will probably the last one.
We get the first one we'll get will be some
sort of Marble attraction and Aventures campus, and more than
likely we'll be this Avatar ride that will put you
on the end of like a paint mixer spin you
(33:42):
around to take you up. There's also going to be
a King Panos ride, and then sometime in there there'll
be a Cocoa ride as well. So the first one
probably will be one of the Marble rides, likely the
Iron Man Ride.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Okay, I'm gonna start that part of it. Okay, So
we're going to see you at Candlelight.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Ah, yeah, I'll probably be there. I've been total four
or five times. Have you ever been?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, I usually go, and I'll go this year on
December seventh. And if you don't know what it is,
it's a celebration of the story of Christmas. They read
from the Bible, the actual Bible, and I think it's
a Gutenberg Bible maybe even it's so old. And they
have a like a Disney type celebrity, like a John Stamos,
(34:25):
maybe a Dick Van Dyke, and they read and it's
pretty amazing. In the singers from high schools and groups
all around southern California. They light up the Main Street
area with all this Christmas music, a live orchestra, and
if you don't have seats, you can just you know,
stand up and down Main Street and just try to
(34:48):
get as good as show it. You're gonna hear it,
you're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Good dating go and you get to you get to
see the like the six hundred choir members that march
along Main Street to get to get to the stage
up on the train station there. So it's it's truly
a spectacle. It's really beautiful. It's wonderful that they do
that in the park. They've been doing it almost since
the first days of the park, since the fifties.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, so okay, So one more thing. What's going on?
Anything new about not spray from other than they got
a bunch of mazes for their Halloween thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, two n's is out there for Halloween. One's called Zoo,
which was my favorite of the two. The other ones
based on the Bloody Mary sort of tale. But the
Zoo on the premise there is a secret military group
has taken over an abandoned zoo and they're trying to
make super soldiers by crossbreeding them with animals that could happen,
(35:42):
So what could go wrong there? Eric, That one's crazy
and fun.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Okay, all right, well, there you have it. Are regular
periodic update from Brady McDonald the Southern California News Group
in Orange County registered the Reporter. And if you want
to get his email beyond his email list, which I am,
what do they do?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
They go and just go to any one of my stories.
There's a place to sign up for the email. Yeah,
and uh yeah, it's it's good. It gives you a
sort of a round up of what we did for
the week, and and that way, if you haven't been
paying attention, you can click on whatever you want and
get up to date.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And he tastes a lot of food for you too,
so that's also a part of it.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Yeah, it's it's a it's a good job.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
It's it's one of the best in America. Okay, gravy,
there's nothing but gravy over at the Southern California News Group.
Theme Parkers. Okay, Brady, we'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Great. Hey, it's always so generous for Brady McDonald to
come on the show and give us his insight on
the theme parks. I really enjoy it. What else is happening, Well,
let's check out the box office. H Right now, it's
looking like Black Phone two, the horror sequel from Universal.
(37:04):
It's good done about twenty four to twenty five million
dollars and number two Tron Week two puts it in
second with a few million. Number three Good Fortune from Lionsgate.
That's Ausi's on. Sorry's R rated comedy. Yeah, doing okay,
(37:27):
six to eight million. Number four. Truth and Treason faith
historical drama, opening in low single digits for the weekend.
But those don't cost them that much to make, so
probably a success. One battle after another. This is going
to get some awards, and I think it'll have a
(37:47):
steady income until we get to awards season. Haven't seen it.
I recommend it. I recommend it. Some people say it's
kind of a woe celebration of Antifa and that all
the black and brown people are heroes and the white
people are either dumb or stupid or corrupt, and maybe,
(38:10):
but you know, I'm kind of used to that from
movies right now, so I don't, you know, I just
put that aside. Try to enjoy the movie. To me,
the theme was Antifa and people like them have you know,
wonderful dreams and wonderful hopes, but they are a fantasy
and if you waste your life on it, it will
be an unhappy and wasted life. And that's I think,
(38:31):
that's what I got out of the movie. Okay, that
does it for now. Next week, you know, I'm going
to be in London. There's a screening of the film
I produced called I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol. It's
the Glenn Mattlocke story that is premiering in London at
the Barbican Theater on Thursday. If you're around, see you there.
We premiere the Harbor surf documentary The Harbor Chronicles, that
(38:57):
I wrote and produced at the Port Film Festival this week.
You could tonight. It's probably too late to get tickets
for you, but on Monday night you could get tickets
to see that there. And other than that, I will
see you when I get back from London, and I
will leave you now with just a taste of the
greatest song You've ever done.
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street promo
meaners Nitzel. Let's serve here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, we are here today with a special guest. We
have Brady McDonald from the Orange County Register in the
Southern California News Group, where he is the theme park
reporter on all the Southern California theme parks. And we
usually end up talking about Disneyland, but I'll maybe coach
some Magic Mountain gossip out of him, maybe some nuts
(00:48):
Berry Farm. But let's start with Disneyland. Brady, thanks for
joining me again, Thanks for having me. Let's let's I mean,
this is what's on everybody's mind. You know what I'm
going to talk about. We had at either at the
haunted Mansion or caused by hanted mansion. No nobody knows
what it was. But is this any different than any
(01:10):
other like deaths that are like gets where they pronounce
them dead somewhere else. There's always that big rumor that
nobody dies of Disneyland. They have a deal or they yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
This person didn't die, doesney Land anither? They died at
a hospital. But That's pretty common with any sort of
death is you're not pronounced dead at the scene. You're
usually pronounced dead at the hospital. The only reason you'd
be pronounced dead at the scene is if the paramedics
are all up and you're dead, like I mean, you've
been there for a couple of hours and so you know,
usually they try to transport you to the hospital. That's
pretty typical.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Do you have any information what happened?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well? A woman in her sixties had a medical issue
while she was riding the Haunted Mansion, and both Disneyland
Fire and Rescue and Anaheim Fire and Rescue responded. You
could there's a video out there of her being transported
(02:07):
through the park and they're using one of those chest
compression machines on her as she's being taken through the
park on a stretcher. And she died at the hospital.
We don't know her cause of death, and the reason
we don't know her cause of death is because it's
considered to be natural and not not a crime, if
(02:28):
you will, right, so they're not the police are not
investigating it as any sort of incident. She just had
a health issue on a ride at Disneyland and died,
and so I reached out to the corner and they said,
we're not investigating this. It's not it's not something we're
going to handle. And so the only way to find
out what happened to her would be either through the
(02:49):
hospital or through the family, and then maybe through some
sort of you know, like a GoFundMe or something like
that at the family post something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Now, when you were camping out in front of her
house to get the scoop, were they mad at you?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, I didn't camp out in front of their house.
We don't know who she is yet, we probably never will.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We don't have a name.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
We don't have a name, We probably won't. The way
that these names usually come out is through the coroner's office,
and so since the corner's office didn't have anything to
do with the case, they won't be. They don't have
any information to release. So the other way we're probably
going to find out her name is if the family
does like a GoFundMe or something like that and tries
to raise some money for her funeral. But it sounds
(03:33):
like it was more or less just an unfortunate health
incident that happened at the park and what I would
say about that is there's seventy five thousand people that
come to Disneyland or California Venture every single day. It's
a small city, and not unlike any other small city.
You know, you're going to have heart attacks and strokes,
(03:54):
and people give birth to babies at Disneyland, and all
sorts of stuff happen at Disneyland. There's crimes committed, the
cops come and arrest people. It's a small city, so
things happen every single day that we don't hear about.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now. Did Ace freely diet at Disneyland?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
He was on the incredit coaster.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Okay, I don't want to make light of his death,
because you know I.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Don't want to make light of his death either, But
I'm happy to join you on that one. I was
a big Kiss fan, and they're very sad to hear
Ace's passing. It sounds like I don't know anybody that
trips and falls in their studio and dies, so I'm
guessing something else is probably at work there. But it
seemed like he was a little young to go, but
(04:43):
you know, seventy in his mid seventies, it's not crazy.
And of all the guys and Kiss. I don't think
people would have. He probably would have on most people's
lists to be the first one to go. I would
say somewhere between him and Peter Criss.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And if he died at a park, it would be
Magic Mountain obviously.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, because Kiss filmed The Phantom of the Park there.
I think they filmed one of their early seventies movies there.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, they will be forever associated with Magic Mountain.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And what is a Revolution? I think that they were on. Yeah,
it was back when they were making movies like I
think there's a movie called roller Coaster where there was
like a bomb on the roller coaster or something like that.
So it's back in the seventies when they were making
really bad movies.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And the people don't make roller coaster movies anymore. I
guess maybe I would like to see one.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Well, I think I think back in back when they
made that movie. I think Revolution came out in nineteen
seventy six because of the American Revolution, and so it
was new and it was cutting edge, and so it
was a tubular steel roller coaster that goes upside down
blew people's minds. So it was kind of news if
you will, I.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Mean, I was waiting order to eat finished, and as
soon as I could, got you know, some someone you know,
to drive me up there. I don't know who it
was or what happened, but I got there and I
went upside down, and I was, you know, thrilled. It
wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I thought
it'd be a you know it it's so routine now
(06:20):
that yeah, it didn't. It didn't blow my mind that much.
But do you know, I think I've told you this.
I was at Magic Mountain on the day it opened,
was on the the I think it was the press
and friends and family preview day. When I hear the
like when I read up on it. When I say
read up on it, meaning when I watch a YouTube
(06:41):
video about it. They had they had like a preview
and my dad had made some of the signs in
the park. And then I got to go. It's like
that was that was one of the most thrilling things
that ever happened to me in my youth.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Do you remember anything about what you might have written
that day?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
A A A. I kind of a like. All I
remember is kind of like maybe a cable car that
went up a hill, and there was some Japanese pagoda
stuff there, yep, and a lot of landscaping that was
not exactly finished, but it was good enough. And I
was thrilled. And because I had, you know, read so
(07:22):
much about the opening day of Disneyland and how I
just wondered, like, how, you know, nineteen fifty five, how
lucky would you have to be to be there that day?
And then I was at Magic Mountain. So I was thrilled.
You know, that was pretty fair.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It sounds fun. Was your dad professional sign acurity do
sort of theatrical arts or something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It was like, it's company that's still around today called
Superior Signs International, and they make anything from in the sixties.
They started with a flashing arrow and bolted to any
other sign. My dad would just go around door to
door like saying, you know what, I can't afford that,
And he said, you can't afford not to have it.
(08:04):
This triple your business?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Uh was it true? Your business?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah? Well, well I don't know if he used those
that exactly hyperblegue, but he would. He had some stats,
and a flashing arrow in front of your business is
going to attract more people, that's for sure, that's how
he built his fortune. And then he you know, he
built it into a company that made signs for skyscrapers, McDonald's,
(08:32):
you know, Taco Bell and most of the signs, like
almost all the signs of opening day on at City Walk. Uh,
we have the the gorilla hanging over the the walk
need that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
That's essentially a flashing arrow that says come here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yes it is so yeah, so we got to go.
That was that was amazing. Yeah, but I just I
don't remember a lot. I mean I was, yeah, how
old are you? Eleven or eight? You know, maybe nine?
Maybe nine?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So it was quite just exciting to be there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Now, is there any truth to the rumor that the
Disneyland security team over there instituted Operation Parachute when this
person died at the part?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
What's operation parachute?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
My listeners know about it because I talked about it
last week. But Option parachute is when they if someone
dies of Disneyland, you know, they don't want them to
die there, so they take the body, they whisk them
out like a tunnel, and then they get them out
and they drive them to knots Berry Farm and they
they lay them down peacefully below the parachute ride and
they put a chalk line around them and then they
(09:46):
run away.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I think that's real, But they did not execute that mission.
They you could. There's there's a YouTube video, of course,
of the woman, both the paramedics going into the on
a mansion with the stretcher empty, and then coming out
of the haunt a mansion and going right along the
rivers of America, whether or not taking her backstage at all,
(10:11):
taking her right to the park, which sort of tells
you the seriousness of the incident. And yeah, more than
one person videotaped being transported. I think it was on
TMZ and so yeah, she was taken through the middle
of the park. Now, whether they took her to the
knots and did the chalk outline and parachute, I can't
(10:34):
confirm that, but I think they took her to a hospital.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Well. I think those crisis actors did a great job
of pooling the media once again. But that's the last
I'm going to talk about this, Brady. I know, I
know that it's not funny and it's not fun, but
I can't help myself, but I will. I will say
prayer for this patron who I don't know. I mean
(10:59):
being born at Disneyland and by dying at Disneyland. These
are there's something kind of cool about it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's what I did too. I said a prayer for
her and her family. You know, it's it's pretty easy
set up to make jokes about it, but you know,
I mean a family lost a loved one and and
someone passed away, so it's always it was on the
edge of newsworthy. I think if she had had a
heart attack, say, you know, while eating lunch at Disneyland,
(11:30):
not sure that's news. I think what made it poly
news was the fact that she was on the on image.
But outside of that, people people go into cardiac arrest
or have a stroke or have some sort of medical
issue at Disneyland often and they get and or even
more minor incidents, and they're transported all the time to
(11:50):
local hospitals. People do dumb things and get arrested at Disneyland,
and people I think it's a good idea when they're
nine months and four days pregnant, to around Disneyland to
try to kickstart the berth. And they do, and they
go into labor at Disneyland, and so that happens all
the time, not like every day, but like at least
once a month, a couple times a month, something like
(12:11):
that happens.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
It is intentional that people are doing this, you believe.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, you know, I think it's sort of an old
wives tale or tradition that women when they're like, come on,
when's this baby gonna come, Let's go for a walk.
And then they're like, well, it's not coming. Let's just
go to Disneyland can get a lot of steps in there,
and you're like, oh, wait a second, we're now twenty
minutes away from the hospital we need to be at,
and we're also fifteen minutes away from the front gate,
you know, so like it takes a little longer than
(12:37):
you might expect.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And then you got an anchor baby.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You got an anchor baby.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, that's that's crazy. But I mean, you know, these
these Disney weirdos. No, I mean, you and I are
not Disney wordos, but these people are Disney ridos.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
We're not anywhere near Disney weirdo, are you?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And I thank you? Okay, So other than that we
have at Disneyland right now, what's going on is we
have the the tail end of Halloween is happening, and
then what happens well.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Tailor and Halloween's happening Ogi Boogie Bash, which is the
big after hours party that seems to be the bigger
of the two things. Halloween is a busy time at
the park, but it's not the busiest time at the park.
The busiest time at the park is, for sure, Christmas.
I would say Christmas is the busiest time of the
year at the parks. Now it's not summer anymore, it's Christmas,
(13:27):
and it pretty much they've already got snow in the castle.
They've had snow in the castle for almost a week now.
Part of the reason they put snow in the castle
this early is they want to film a couple of
TV shows, Christmas TV shows, and they film them generally
after hours, sometimes later in the day, and they want
to make it look Christmas. He around the castle while
(13:48):
they're filming the show. So rather than photoshop that in
or cgi that in, they you know, they put it
out there a little earlier than normal. So the last
two weeks of Halloween season usually has quite a bit
of Christmas stuff mixed in.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Now the okay, so the things that since the last
I've talked to you. There's been some new things at Disneyland,
like the Walt Disney animatronic thing of the Walt Disney Story.
What do they call that over there at the Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, that's pretty close. It's a mouthful. I think it
is something like that, The Walt Disney Story. Yeah, basically,
they have a new animatronic show starring Walt. Walt Disney
Animatronic where they tell the story of Walt and take
you up to They kind of take you up through
his death and the birth of disney World, but mostly
(14:42):
focused on sort of the birth of Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
He didn't have more jokes.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Well, there's definitely more jokes here. The thing I just
found out was the Walt Disney animatronic weighs two thousand pounds.
That's a ton that is just incredibly heavy, and it
tells you why it took them so long to build
this thing. It has got to be complex.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I heard the one that coming out next year is
a lot lighter and smaller.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Is there a joke that's coming after that?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's such an Apple iPhone joke. Okay, the next version
is gonna be a smaller and later it'll be something
you could he could hold in your hand.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, that was sort of one of the critiques of
the Walt was that he didn't look enough like Walt
and his face was a little too broad. What I
would say about that is, if you make him look
too much like Walt, there's this problem of falling into
what they call the uncanny valley where he looks too
(15:45):
like Walt and it freaks people out. So there's probably
a little bit of that where they don't want to
make him look exactly like Walt. But I'd say the
other big problem is there is just a ton of
electronics and pneumatics and everything that need to go into
his head to get all of his facial features to move,
and you need a wide enough neck and a wide
(16:06):
enough head to hold all that stuff to make it
look real. He's probably a little bit taller and bigger,
much like when you make a statue, they tend to
be a little bit bigger than in real life. So
he's probably a little bit bigger than real life so
that he will read to the audience well. But even
with that said, his whole body needs enough room to
(16:26):
run all those wires and pneumatics up there, and so
that's probably why he looks a little bigger than most
people wanted them to.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah, when I saw him, my feeling was if you
put Abraham Lincoln up there, we all look at it
and go, man, that looks just like Abraham Lincoln. But
it's like, really, when did you see Abraham Lincoln and
you got any video of him? But we have so
much film and video and photographic records of Walt Disney
(16:58):
that we're very used to him and how he really looked.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But we even fifty sixty, seventy years later.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, because there's just so much footage, but we don't
have any footage of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, uh, Socrates,
all these people their statues around. We don't know what
they really look like. But we really do know what
Walt Disney looked like. And evidently he looked like the
Mypello guy, which which I thought was hilarious. That that's like,
(17:29):
you know, you always have your haters and your trollers
or whatever, and that's what they came out with. He
looks like the Mypellow guy. It's like, it's so unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I think the hard part for them is that they
run a fifteen minute film full of pictures of Walt
before they show the animatronics. So not only have people
seen pictures of him before, they've seen him pictures of
him before ten seconds before. So like, you're a pretty
good person and we're gonna win. Yeah, you're not gonna
win that game. I don't think the film that there's
(18:00):
showing is like twenty or twenty five years old. It's
been playing over in Disney World for for a couple
of decades, so it's a relatively old film that's been
lightly edited to sort of make it a little bit
more Disneyland focused. But you know, it's not a new movie.
And and so we're going to get a new We
believe we're going to got a new Abraham Lincoln too,
(18:20):
because this is this Walt Disney that's in there is
probably one of the most sophisticated animatronics in existence. And
then now they're going to need the Abraham Lincoln to
look as good because they're going to play side by
side on some days.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, are we going to get a new John Stamos
or are we going to Are they just going to
keep running with the same the other one that just
keeps walk around the park.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I don't think he's an animatronic as far as I
can tell.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I see they've got to you, Brady.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, I know. I don't think that they might put
him in the Hall of President's over in Florida. But
I don't think he's won on the election yet, so
now we're probably not What was the name of the
rye that theis I've ever had a California adventure? Uh,
Superstar Limo was he.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Gosh, you had Drew carrying it.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Drew carrying it? They WHOOPI Goldberg in it. They had
Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan is still well, yes, I
guess we still have monsters over there. Jackie Chan animatronic
is still in the attraction. If you look, there's a
one of those guys that cleans up after the monsters
when they the monsters, when the Newman escape into the
(19:31):
Monster world, they had the vacuums and there's a guy
doing a karate chop. Like, why on Earth is this
guy doing a karate chop? It's like, Oh, they just
used the Jackie Chan animatronic and didn't change anything. We
just put him in a like a hazmat suit. And
so a lot of those animatronics from Superstar Limo are
still in that ride. They just kind of redressed them
and they had to come up with some reason. They
(19:53):
have a guy doing a karate chop. It doesn't make
any sense, but.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Of that, Brady, we are breaking news here. Now the
that's in the Monsters Inc. Ride or what is it?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, Monsters Incrowd over in Hollywood Land.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, what goes on in that ride? I forgot because
I remember they used to have a drying thing over there,
and that's not a shooting game. But so what is
the Monster's Inc. Ride goes on?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
It's a dark ride, but you just go through the
story of the Monsters Inc. Original movie. They're making a
really cool Monsters In coaster out in Florida, which i'd
prefer to have here, but to what we do have.
But the Monster's Inc. Ride that is there is short lived.
It's going to be replaced by the new Avatar Land.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Oh okay, so let's get to that. The new what
do we know now about the new Avatar Land that
is being built in the Disney California Adventure going.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
To go on Hollywood Land, or at least part of
Hollywood Land sort of across from the Marble Land, and
it'll have at least one of attraction. It'll be a
boat ride. It looks like it'll be I don't know
if you can use the word thrilling right, but it
won't be like it won't be like The Small World
or something like that. They'll have a little bit of
excitement and thrill an adventure to it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And they have in Florida at the at the the Avenue.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Now that's a very leisurely sort of Small World type ride.
This one is gonna well, they haven't actually said, but
we think it's going to be like The Pirates of
the Caribbean that is in it in Japan. I think
it's in Japan that is very exciting. The boat actually
pivots and moves and and so we think it's going
(21:34):
to be that. Disney hasn't said it. And then we'll
have there'll be a fully themed land to the second movie,
which was I think called The Way of Water. And
so we haven't had a date set for that, but
we have seen some concept art and it looks like
it's going to be pretty great. It'll be the West
(21:55):
Coast version of Avatar Land that they have out at
Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In Florida, just with Jackie Champ. Just with Jackie Champ,
what about that Avatar ride in Florida, which might be
the greatest ride that the Disney properties have anywhere. When
you get on that flying ride on Avatar, they're not
gonna They're not gonna throw that one in Anaheim.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Doesn't seem like it's So my take on the way
that Disney does themed lands now is you get one
ride to start with, and then they add one or
two rides in like five years or ten years so
to build it out. And so my expectation is that
they'll do something like that that they've left some room
to put another ride somewhere. It doesn't seem like we
(22:40):
would get that ride because they want to base this land.
So the land out in Florida is based off of
the first movie. They want to base this land here
in California off of the second movie. In the third movie,
and so that that ride was sort of based on
the first movie. But it is a great ride. I
didn't know you would consider it to be the greatest
ride ever.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I think it was when it first came out, it
was the greatest ride ever.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
But I think it would be in the top ten
of that category. For sure, probably a top five.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Now the other one they have there, I think it
might be a Marvel themed one where the roller coaster
your your your roller coaster seat moves around like kind
of revolves and and uh it spins you.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Oh yeah, you're talking about Guardians of the Galaxy.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That's a good one. It's it's still I think probably
considered a family ride. It does. I don't think it
has any inversions. I don't think it goes upset down.
I could be wrong about that, but it is. It's
what what Disney does really well is it has a
great deal of storytelling, which you usually don't get in
a roller coaster. And so it's a little bit like
(23:51):
Space Mountain. But if Space Mountain had the ability to
control where the coaster cars were pointing at any time
and show you a story or tell you a story
as they were, you don't really get much of a
story once you get inside Space Mountain. It's just a ride, racing,
racing ride.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Through the dark, and okay, well let's move over to
We're moving over to Tiana's whatever adventure you adventure. A
couple of times it seems to be just as fun
as the Uncle Remas themed ride they had before. And
(24:30):
the the problem I had with Uncle Remus ride was
they they they reused all those characters from America sings.
I thought that was pretty lazy. But h Splash Mountain,
that's what it was called. Very dark, you know, like
like those stories some of them are dark about dead
possums or dead whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Uh, getting caught in the briar patch.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
I mean, I really liked it. But I liked that movie.
But the Tiana movie and the Tiana thing and the
Tiana's restaurant and all this stuff. How's that going over?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Well? Are you a fan of Tiana's and and.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I haven't seen it yet?
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Oh okay, okay, well spoiler alert. It's been out for
twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So first of that is, I haven't seen The Incredibles.
And I'm building a house. And this's like that Cootino
place where they have a have a parhouse that's a
replica of the Incredibles house that they lived in. I've
been in that house. Well actually i've just been around
(25:35):
it while they're they're constructing it. But I haven't seen
the movie yet, so that's the first time I listen.
Then I'm going to see Tiana's.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
W Yeah, so do you so move into that neighborhood?
Is there a requirement that you have to watch all
Disney animated movies, watch the entire catalog before you can
move in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, if there is, then, uh, you know, I don't
want I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Okay. Yeah, there's a whole lot of Tiana right now
in Disneyland, and we're got a restaurant, we're gonna we
got a ride, and we got it one or two shops,
two shops. I would say that the land is almost
she was almost a land entirely themed her. I hate
water rides. I think water just belongs at a water park.
(26:20):
I don't want to get wet when I'm a theme park,
and so I've ridden this the minimum amount that I'm
required to ride it for my job. I usually go
on it with like two ponchos, one over my body,
one over my legs. I just don't want to be
walking around a theme barg wet. So this ride was
never going to be a winner for me. I rode
(26:40):
Splash Mountain once before closed, just so I could say
I've been on Splash Mountain to be able to compare it.
But that said, this is they did a very good
job on this ride, and I liked it if I
could have ridden it without getting wet, which is the
stupidest thing you can say about a splash mountain type
but the actual story in there, the work that the
(27:04):
imagineering did in there, I thought they did a great
job for folks who liked that water ride. It's a
fun ride to ride. I think it's There's been some
debate as to whether it's more splash here or less
splash here, whether they can control the splash. I think
it's about the same. It's pretty much the same ride
with a new skin over it. And I liked it
for for for what it was. If I was trying
(27:25):
to review it for people to like water.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Rice, yeah, and evidently they you know, they had to
make some changes over there. My suggestion was to make
a Deliverance ride, but then I was told that it's
not a Disney movie. So a fine Tiana is a
Disney movie. Great, But you know, when I have my
own theme park, you know, I get to do my
own right. Speaking of people with their own theme parks.
(27:49):
When I worked at CBS Television, the Jet Row Max
Bear Junior came came in one day because we were
making a Beverly Hill Billy special and he had the
plans and he was running around for the Beverly Hill
Billies theme park that he was trying to sell, and
he brought him in my office with all these Beverly
(28:10):
Hillbillies themed rides and you know, Granny's kitchen and shooting galleries.
Uh so that was pretty thrilling. Didn't ever get off
the ground. They could have put in over by Japanese
village maybe when that went under, But I'm still a
little bit sad about that. You didn't that didn't come
(28:31):
across your radar.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So there have been so many. It's very very easy
to draw a picture and sound I'm going to make
a theme park, right, so that's a whole other thing
to actually put the shovel on the ground and the
build these rides, and usually people don't get that far.
They get to the drawn pictures part. The two people
I can think of right now that are in they
I want to build a theme park phase are the
comedian Nate Bergazi and mister Beast, which I think is
(28:55):
some sort of uh you know, influencer instagrammar or YouTuber
type tune that has one hundred million followers, and so
they both want to build theme parks. What they would
be about. I'd be great if they could resurrect, you know,
the Beverly Hills abilities as a themed land in their park.
(29:16):
But guessing that's probably not going to happen. But I'm
anxious to see what the heck they think their theme
parks are going to be.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, now, so my next question for mister Brady McDonald,
whose whole job is to run around and make sure
these theme parks, make sure we have enough information so
we can make the right choices at the theme parks,
why don't you tell me what your top three rides are? Now?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Top three rides? Well, when I always say and these
may not they might be in different categories, I would
always say X two at Magic Mountain. It scares me
to death and it is the scariest coaster I've ever
going to my life. And I love having it in
my backyard because I love having the best coaster in
(30:05):
the world at a park that I go to, so
I can use it to beat other people over the
head and say mine's better than yours. And so I
would say X two's up there. As a coaster. I'd
say Rise of the Resistance is certainly one of, if
not the best ride in the world, both here in
California and out in Florida. And then what would my
(30:29):
third ride be. I don't know, that's a good question.
I would say that's my number one coaster, number one
dark ride. I would say my third one, I'll take
sort of a cheat, and my third ride is actually
an entire park in Pennsylvania called Canobles, And what they
do is they take old rides from the fifties and sixties,
(30:52):
refurbish them, and then let everybody ride them instead of
it's like a campground up in the mountains in Pennsylvania
park that a lot of people don't know about. And
it's just full of all these old, great classic rides
that literally give you bumps and brus You leave there
black and blue because you're riding these old nineteen fifties
sixties rides that are literally duct taped together so they
(31:14):
can have the padding where there was never padding. And
so I love I loves Cannobles.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
It is? Kay n O b E ls.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I think, do you know there's a there's a Disney
park just outside of Detroit. We're actually in Detroit, and
it's called Disney and the guy has a bunch of
weird rides and it's like, I know, it's a it's
just some trademark thorn in their side and they can't
get rid of the guy.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Really, I'd love to go to that.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I'll send you some info on that. I was shocked
because I never heard about it, even doing this radio show,
and my friend who actually lives in Detroit told me
about it. It's got a problem. I mean, there's intellectual
property problems, but somehow the guy's still operating some kind
of weird I can't remember exactly what it looked like
because a WHI would go the last time I took
a look. But did you know you weren't around here
(32:09):
when we had the pike in Long Beach.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
I haven't. I've written a little bit about the pike.
I would have loved to have been here during the
pike days. But that's sort of what's out at Canobyls,
and like there's old pike like rides that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Where it's where it's not was it wasn't really supposed
to be but it needed to be.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Right because it was a metal beam that you would
bang your head or your shoulder against. Yeah, but there's
the other Canobles is just a beautiful park. It's up
in the up in the It's like like a campground
up in the mountains. And they have great food and
so it's just a wonderful day. And it's very unincorporate, right,
Like they have three carousels because the guy loves to
(32:46):
collect carousels, so and so it's it's a fun part
if you're looking for something offbeat to do. It's sort
of out near Hershey Park in that general neck of
the woods. And I love it. And so when people
say what your favorite park, I always say that that's
my favorite park, more than Disneyland, more than Universal, more
than anything else.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I'm going to go to Kenoble's next time I'm in
that area. Yeah, Okay, So what's on the horizon for
Disneyland other than the We talked about the Avatar, but
what else has happened? What's buzzing over there?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
So it looks like there's four attractions that are coming
to Disneyland. Avatar the Land will probably the last one.
We get the first one we'll get will be some
sort of Marble attraction and Aventures campus, and more than
likely we'll be this Avatar ride that will put you
on the end of like a paint mixer spin you
(33:42):
around to take you up. There's also going to be
a King Panos ride, and then sometime in there there'll
be a Cocoa ride as well. So the first one
probably will be one of the Marble rides, likely the
Iron Man Ride.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Okay, I'm gonna start that part of it. Okay, So
we're going to see you at Candlelight.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Ah, yeah, I'll probably be there. I've been total four
or five times. Have you ever been?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, I usually go, and I'll go this year on
December seventh. And if you don't know what it is,
it's a celebration of the story of Christmas. They read
from the Bible, the actual Bible, and I think it's
a Gutenberg Bible maybe even it's so old. And they
have a like a Disney type celebrity, like a John Stamos,
(34:25):
maybe a Dick Van Dyke, and they read and it's
pretty amazing. In the singers from high schools and groups
all around southern California. They light up the Main Street
area with all this Christmas music, a live orchestra, and
if you don't have seats, you can just you know,
stand up and down Main Street and just try to
(34:48):
get as good as show it. You're gonna hear it,
you're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Good dating go and you get to you get to
see the like the six hundred choir members that march
along Main Street to get to get to the stage
up on the train station there. So it's it's truly
a spectacle. It's really beautiful. It's wonderful that they do
that in the park. They've been doing it almost since
the first days of the park, since the fifties.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, so okay, So one more thing. What's going on?
Anything new about not spray from other than they got
a bunch of mazes for their Halloween thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, two n's is out there for Halloween. One's called Zoo,
which was my favorite of the two. The other ones
based on the Bloody Mary sort of tale. But the
Zoo on the premise there is a secret military group
has taken over an abandoned zoo and they're trying to
make super soldiers by crossbreeding them with animals that could happen,
(35:42):
So what could go wrong there? Eric, That one's crazy
and fun.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Okay, all right, well, there you have it. Are regular
periodic update from Brady McDonald the Southern California News Group
in Orange County registered the Reporter. And if you want
to get his email beyond his email list, which I am,
what do they do?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
They go and just go to any one of my stories.
There's a place to sign up for the email. Yeah,
and uh yeah, it's it's good. It gives you a
sort of a round up of what we did for
the week, and and that way, if you haven't been
paying attention, you can click on whatever you want and
get up to date.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And he tastes a lot of food for you too,
so that's also a part of it.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Yeah, it's it's a it's a good job.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
It's it's one of the best in America. Okay, gravy,
there's nothing but gravy over at the Southern California News Group.
Theme Parkers. Okay, Brady, we'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Great. Hey, it's always so generous for Brady McDonald to
come on the show and give us his insight on
the theme parks. I really enjoy it. What else is happening, Well,
let's check out the box office. H Right now, it's
looking like Black Phone two, the horror sequel from Universal.
(37:04):
It's good done about twenty four to twenty five million
dollars and number two Tron Week two puts it in
second with a few million. Number three Good Fortune from Lionsgate.
That's Ausi's on. Sorry's R rated comedy. Yeah, doing okay,
(37:27):
six to eight million. Number four. Truth and Treason faith
historical drama, opening in low single digits for the weekend.
But those don't cost them that much to make, so
probably a success. One battle after another. This is going
to get some awards, and I think it'll have a
(37:47):
steady income until we get to awards season. Haven't seen it.
I recommend it. I recommend it. Some people say it's
kind of a woe celebration of Antifa and that all
the black and brown people are heroes and the white
people are either dumb or stupid or corrupt, and maybe,
(38:10):
but you know, I'm kind of used to that from
movies right now, so I don't, you know, I just
put that aside. Try to enjoy the movie. To me,
the theme was Antifa and people like them have you know,
wonderful dreams and wonderful hopes, but they are a fantasy
and if you waste your life on it, it will
be an unhappy and wasted life. And that's I think,
(38:31):
that's what I got out of the movie. Okay, that
does it for now. Next week, you know, I'm going
to be in London. There's a screening of the film
I produced called I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol. It's
the Glenn Mattlocke story that is premiering in London at
the Barbican Theater on Thursday. If you're around, see you there.
We premiere the Harbor surf documentary The Harbor Chronicles, that
(38:57):
I wrote and produced at the Port Film Festival this week.
You could tonight. It's probably too late to get tickets
for you, but on Monday night you could get tickets
to see that there. And other than that, I will
see you when I get back from London, and I
will leave you now with just a taste of the
greatest song You've ever done.
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