Weekend Update – Escape From Tomorrow Review, Christmas is Here(?!), etc.
Halloween is over and we’re ready to start celebrating Christmas (which you probably know if you read the October newsletter last week) in the Disney theme parks! Before we dig into the merriest time of year at the parks, we decided to watch something that’s the exact opposite. It’s been talked about for months, but we finally got a chance to watch and review Escape From Tomorrow…
Escape From Tomorrow Review
I wanted to like Escape From Tomorrow. I really wanted to like it. But it’s just not a good movie. From those unfamiliar, Escape From Tomorrow is the controversial independent film that was shot guerilla-style in Walt Disney World and Disneyland. It premiered earlier in 2013 at Sundance, and immediately received a lot of buzz, both in the mainstream media and among Disney fans. I assume most of this buzz was from people who had never actually seen the film, since only a few hundred people saw it at Sundance.
It was highly divisive, but it got people talking, probably more than any other independent film in recent memory. The discussions in online message boards largely centered around the potential intellectual property concerns posed by the film and the ethics of how it was shot. It seemed like everyone had an opinion on the legality of the film (it’s not as if the law is a complex and nuanced area of study that requires several years of schooling to grasp or anything), with most substituting their opinion of what the law should be for what it actually might be. (Never let things like a lack of knowledge get in the way of a good online debate!)
All the debate was wasted keystrokes, as The Walt Disney Company did not challenge the film’s release. This was likely a calculated decision, as this would only incite more controversy, and when the film is forced to exist on its own merits, it falls woefully short. Instead, Escape From Tomorrow was recently released with a small theatrical run and via VOD, to a steady trickle of media coverage over how it was shot, but not much talk of the substance of the film itself.
Let me preface the meat of this review by saying that I have no bias against the tone of the film or the means by which it was shot. Although I am a huge Disney fan, I have no delusions about the Company, and think much of the criticism surrounding Disney in pop-culture is well-founded. (In Disney’s defense, just as much criticism is misplaced cynicism or vitriol against an easy target based on superficial angst.) While satire and commentary on the Disney theme parks has been done to death, Escape From Tomorrow had the rare chance to present a fresh take on it, by using the actual parks as a cinematic backdrop for this commentary. Unfortunately, Escape From Tomorrow doesn’t say a whole lot and brings nothing new to the table. It stumbles around in the psyche of Jim, the father character, but it lacks any semblance of focus in any message it might have. Beyond the basic points that a Disney vacation can be a maddening and stressful experience, it says little of significance. Not exactly a profound film. I suppose you could call it the anti-fairy tale based on select parts of the film, but I think praising it for this would be very charitable.
The writing in Escape From Tomorrow, generally, leaves a lot to be desired. The lines are all very basic, which in part might be out of necessity given the shooting conditions, but it makes the characters feel very vapid and one-dimensional. This also makes the acting by the adults feel flat. The acting is not terrible, but it’s far from good, with line delivery and mannerisms both exaggerated. The acting problem is amplified, though, because at its core the movie is a character study. Tough to accomplish when there is such a dearth of…character.
The movie is very clearly a descent into madness by Jim, complete with hallucinations and some psychedelic imagery thrown in for good measure. But it just doesn’t work. The movie is otherwise very character-driven, and these parts with the psychedelic imagery are just way too over the top, and way too out there. They make the movie feel like a corny exercise in student filmmaking, where the creators felt that the only way to get across their message was to slap the audience in the face with it. Escape From Tomorrow definitely could have benefited from more subtlety in every regard.
Fortunately, it’s not all bad with Escape From Tomorrow. It feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone in a few regards. Cinematography is excellent, with great visuals and a moody, high-contrast look. There’s a lot of shadow and light play, and an engaging camera. The decision to go black and white was wise, as it adds a gritty tone to the film and contrasts the normally vibrant world of Disney. The visual style, whether intentional or unintentional, feels a lot like a Twilight Zone episode, which is high praise. It also feels like a Twilight Zone episode in that it centers on a recurring theme of the Twilight Zone: man’s isolation from the rest of the world and his inability to cope as he falls victim to his own mind. The difference between Escape From Tomorrow and those episodes of the Twilight Zone are that those episodes are less than 30 minutes in length, and yet still manage to be more insightful and better acted than this film.
The idea of Escape From Tomorrow is an interesting one. That, plus the envelope-pushing means by which it was shot definitely score it some points. This is likely why the film presently sits at 60% on RottenTomatoes. Unfortunately, what’s present in Escape From Tomorrow is not interesting enough in execution to sustain a feature film. If edited down to a 30 minute TV show, it would be an interesting concept, but here, the exploration of Jim’s descent just is not enough to carry the film for 90 minutes. There’s too much mundane, repetitive material, and there’s also too much amateur-grade cheese. Cut out all of that, and there might be a sustainable short. All of this is really too bad, as so much effort went into shooting the film (which is really quite well done), that getting the other elements right should have been easy. With the exception of the cinematography and a few bright spots in storytelling and details, Escape From Tomorrow is an awful film. The means by which it was made are just that–means to an end–and don’t compensate for the result. That 60% score on RottenTomatoes is very, very generous if judging the film by its actual merits and not degree of filmmaking difficulty. It might be worth seeing by Disney fans if only for its novelty and discussion’s sake, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Interesting eBay Finds
I have a bad eBay addiction. I’ve tamed it in recent years, but I still get about 20 daily email alerts from eBay for various Disney-related search times. Here are some of the cool listings I find in these emails that I won’t be bidding on myself…
Ice Gator Bobblehead – Back when Blizzard Beach opened, there was a ton of Ice Gator merchandise (in fact, he likely exists largely for merchandising purposes). Presumably, it didn’t sell too well, as he’s only on logo merchandise now.
Dick Tracy Disney-MGM Studios Shirt – Remember Dick Tracy? Disney had lofty expectations (including a “Crimestoppers” ride) for it, but ultimately it was a dud at the box office. If, for some reason, you want to show your support for Dick Tracy, here ya go…
EPCOT Center Rainbow Visor – Few things are as bold (as as awesome?) of a fashion statement as this.
Disney LuminAria Mug – Show your love for defunct DCA Christmas show with this mug.
If you’ve find something cool on eBay, share it in the comments!
Upcoming Posts
Last week’s post slate got thrown off due to technical difficulties, but things are back on track. Here’s the slate of posts for the upcoming week:
Monday – Luggage Review & Comparison
Tuesday – Jolly Holiday Bakery Review
Wednesday – Wild Card Wednesday! Vulcania Review, Tokyo Disney Resort 30th Anniversary Blu-ray Review, or Harbour Galley Review. This is your call, vote in the comments. Majority wins!
Thursday — How Many Disney Vacaion Club Points is Right?
Friday – TBD
Cool Linkage
We had another full week of photos on TravelCaffeine including a “selfie” of me, a photo taken while dodging a moped in France, a review of the Georgia Aquarium, and more!
Dateline Disneyland covered the Limited Time Magic event at the Diamond Horseshoe, which actually looked pretty awesome.
DisneylandLive puts together a loop of the Buena Vista Street Christmas music—can’t wait to listen to this!
Ideal Build-out drew up some plans for what its vision of a third gate at Disneyland might look like.
Disney Parks Blog reports on Tony Baxter receiving his window on Main Street. Very, very well deserved.
Passport to Dreams discusses the beauty of sunrise at Walt Disney World, along with a video of a sunrise over the Polynesian Village Resort.
If you’ve written or read a good blog post recently (or know of any meet-ups, etc.), please share a link in the comments of this article. Hopefully this will help me find great new blogs to read and feature in future “Cool Linkage” sections, and also send a bit of traffic your (or their) way!
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That’s it for this update! To follow our adventures, find us on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Flickr!
Your Thoughts…
Have you seen Escape From Tomorrow? What did you think of it? Have a vote for our Wild Card Wednesday blog post? Have any of your own blog posts to share? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Blu-ray review. 🙂 I’m heading to Tokyo Disney next week. I want to know if it’s worth picking up.
Firstly: I am glad to see both you and Disney approach the movie primarily on it’s cinematic merits rather than it’s pseudo-controversial setting and filming technique, which would only serve to give it undeserved publicity.
Secondly: I will proudly and with complete confidence vote for the TDR 30th Anniversary Blu-ray.
Threestly: Very interested in hearing about an optimal number of DVC points. We are this close to purchasing DVC (note that my fingers are really, really close together right now) and I am stalled at where the perfect yearly number would be. In true poindexter, green-billed hat statistician form I even have a spreadsheet that lists a myriad of possible lodging combinations and their associated points. It’s actually a lot of fun mixing, matching and dreaming, and as a bonus it looks work related when the boss strolls by…
Keep up the Kind and Kindred work of the Kingdom,
-JB-
Harbour Galley Review!
I’m gonna vote for the Harbour Galley review, again, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Vulcania!
I watched Escape from Tomorrow for the same reason others did… to see how it was shot. My original concern with the film was realized while on the Disney Dream last month. I was up really early photographing the pumpkin tree in the atrium and other areas around the ship. I’ve done this many times before without any problems. I was later confronted by the ship’s security asking me if I was filming a documentary. He made it clear that he had been following me by telling me everywhere I had been that morning and even asked me if I was traveling alone.
While these guys may have received a free pass from Disney (which is a logical stance in this case), the rest of us will now be scrutinized by Disney security in an attempt to prevent a future production.
I don’t know about that. Photographer interactions with security are a luck of the draw type thing. I’ve had issues as far back as 2008 (as have others), and I can say that I’ve actually had fewer (none!) problems with security since Escape From Tomorrow premiered at Sundance.
Yeah, it’s certainly possible to now be unlucky and encounter a gung-ho security guard wanting to single-handedly prevent Escape From Tomorrow 2, but it was just as likely to be unlucky and encounter a security guard in 2009 who wanted to single-handedly prevent terrorism. (Seriously–several of us have had it suggested to us that photographing transportation at WDW was “terrorist-like behavior.”)
I saw Escape from Tomorrow at Ebertfest earlier this year and I was so pleased when I heard it was getting a release because I wanted to know if it was just me or if it was really terrible. I felt like a real killjoy warning people not to get too excited. It’s so odd to me that Moore is himself a Disney fan. I was less impressed with the cinematography than you were, though it’s been some time since I saw it and I was desperately trying to note the plot, locations, etc. because at that time it was unclear if it would ever see release. I would love to watch it again to reassess–which is why this is such an odd film! “It was terrible! I’d like to see it again!”
Oh, and I vote BLU RAY!!!
TL;DR:
I’m a Disney fan/stooge/mark of long standing, but I never lose sight of the fact that the Company is running a long con on me. Also too, the house always wins. As such, I certainly wouldn’t rule out watching “Escape from Tomorrow.”
However, iconoclasm is, to put it in-artfully, a means, not an end. We get it. Disney is big and scary. Right. It’s not entertaining to have your damned elbow in my ribs every fifteen seconds, with you all bouncy in your seat saying, “see what I did there?” Truly clever people really don’t need to remind you.
I have an erstwhile Hoboken hipster as a coworker. She’s not a bad person, but she tries so damned hard at being edgy, et cetera. She was practically giddy at telling me about this film, knowing my Disney enthusiasms. I think she was kind of disappointed to learn WDW for me was mostly about sustained binge drinking.
Wednesday: Vulcania, please.
Thursday: all of them. SATSQ.
Friday: another in the series on water park wieners (not THAT kind, though)
Sorry for the double post but the embed link didn’t work. So here’s the regular linky:
http://youtu.be/2dFEHjyVKuk
Another vote for Blu-Ray review.
Not sure if this counts as “cool linkage” but I believe this should be nominated as the Disney Photography Community’s theme song:
This is a tough call, but I have to vote for the Tokyo Disney Resort 30th Anniversary Blu-ray Review.
Speaking as another attorney – your parenthetical comments in the second paragraph of the Escape from Tomorrow review were pretty darn funny.
I’m voting for the Harbour Galley Review.
I think the Harbour Galley review would be great– especially for the one reader who’s been asking for it for so long.
Oh, don’t worry. In case you haven’t picked up on it, the Harbour Galley Review will be an option in all of these votes until it wins. If it doesn’t win soon, I might have to stack the deck in its favor…
Blu-ray Review!
I love the infrared pics but the fireworks pic is incredible.
Blu Ray Review please!!!
My vote’s for the Vulcania Review!
Harbour Galley please!
The answer to the DVC points question is 200. 😉
Blu ray review!
You’d think after getting 10 Disney Park visits under my belt, there wouldn’t be a lot I hadn’t already done, but I found quite a few “firsts” available on my recent long weekend trip to WDW, and I’m currently retelling the experience at:
http://lebeauleblog.com
Harbor Galley PLEASE…